antihero. f. tatis jr

the archer

❝ 𝒯𝐻𝐸 𝒜𝑅𝒞𝐻𝐸𝑅 ❞

𝒉𝒆𝒍𝒑 𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖.

♔ ♔ ♔

"not looking too bad, kid." manny smiled lightly. there was nothing more he wanted than for fernando to pick it up and get back on the grind. look at where they were now. pretty successful spring training for the kid.

"thanks." fernando returned, a huge grin plastered across his face.

he'd been thriving. his mindset and confidence had never been better. his hitting has been great, but his fielding in right field has been his stand-out. it's been obsolete to some of the other outfielders who've been playing the outfield their whole lives. he enjoyed poking fun at juan about this.

"hey, manny? have you heard from dr. lense?" he asked.

"nah. you?"

fernando has missed serena a lot. he hadn't heard from her in a while. he hoped she was as happy as him though.

truthfully, all of these little tweaks and improvements had stemmed from her. if it was a problem she personally couldn't have fixed, she still motivated him to do so.

he'd texted her a few times, but no response came. he understood it though. this was technically her break before this hectic season was going to start. with all the new additions, it was surely going to be tough on her.

"no."

manny shrugged, then picked up his bat to get on deck.

fernando frowned. even though he understood her absence, he missed talking to her. he may have missed her more than petco park.

throughout the spring he found his mind wandering towards her more times than once. it happened not just once a day, or week, but multiple times a day.

everytime he fielded a fly ball he got the urge to look up to his left, in hopes he'd see her silhouette through the front office window above.

of course, there were no windows or front offices in peoria. just the blinding sun.

luckily, in a span of 2 weeks he'd be back at petco. back in the dugout. back on the field. back in the batter's box. back to seeing serena.

"bebo, you're up migo!" juan exclaimed, snapping his fingers as he motioned towards the empty batters box.

"sorry." fernando shrugged, laughing off his zoned-out gaze and deep thoughts.

suddenly, juan nudged him on the way over.

"thinkin' bout' someone?" he asked, "from the office?" he winked.

fernando shook his head and looked down, a smile creeping up on his face.

"oooh... the front office?" blake snell asked from the cooler he was sitting on. "lense?"

the boy disregarded his teammates' comments, shaking his head once more as he stepped into the batter's box for BP.

looks were exchanged between blake and juan, before manny cut in.

"leave him alone. besides, serena's got macK."

fernando almost froze mid-swing as he heard that name.

macK?

macK.

fernando finished his batting practice flawlessly, but not without the thought of mackenzie gore in the back of his mind. as he walked back towards the training field, he contemplated questioning manny or juan about serena's relationship with him, but figured there was someone a lot easier around here to get info out of...

which would undoubtedly be blake, however from where he was seated on the cooler it would be tough to learn about what's happening between them with so many people around.

the boy's eyes crept towards the opposing team's training field. they were set to play the reds today... and if what he'd heard was true, wil myers might have some information.

a/n okayyy so we're back!
i changed the faceclaim + name bc it didn't seem right.
hope u enjoy! i had lots of fun writing this part of the book ;)