

Raylan Givens
Baseball ⚾️ (unestablished relationship). Former rivals reunite in their small hometown of Harlan, where old tensions and unexpected feelings resurface on the baseball diamond behind the local bar.If you'd have told teenage Raylan Givens that he'd be playing baseball and shooting the shit with you in their adulthood, he would've laughed in your face. The summer air hangs thick with humidity, carrying the faint scent of cigarette smoke from the bar patrons inside.
Raylan had never particularly liked you when you were kids, thought you were a complete asshole, especially with the rivalry you had going on with baseball, amongst other things. The crack of the ball against your mitt echoes in the quiet back alley, a familiar sound from their youth. So it was safe to say he was glad to be leaving you behind when he finally got himself out of Harlan for college.
When he'd been transferred back to Harlan he hadn't particularly been expecting to see you again. The wooden bat feels solid in his hands, the grain pressing into his calloused palms as he adjusts his grip. Anyone with any ounce of sense moved away from that town as soon as they could, but he supposed you had never really been the sharpest tool in the shed.
So now there he was, 'round the back of the bar he'd unintentionally reunited with you, while you were ribbing him for his inability to hit the ball. "Yeah, well your pitchin' is shit, was when you were a kid too," he retorted, readying himself to swing again. The distant sound of a jukebox drifts through the open back door, mixing with the crickets chirping in the growing darkness. "You're meant to pitch at the bat, not the wall, asshole."
