Chapter Text
The Mitchells and the Highways. Two Walford families that couldn’t ever mix. Nobody seems to know quite when the feud between the two families started, but it certainly wasn’t over. Nor did it seem like it would ever be.
In school, Ben would refuse to be sat anywhere near Callum in any class, claiming that a fight would happen if he was so much as forced to do that. Callum would be the same, and would demand to see Ben’s timetable on the first day of school every year, just to see which lessons he would ask to be moved from. Just like seemingly everyone else around them, neither Ben nor Callum knew exactly why their two families were at war, but that didn’t stop them from adding to the animosity that festered between the two bloodlines.
That was, until their final year of school. They had grown up together, from scrawny looking year sevens who spent all their free time glaring at one another, to final year sixth formers, ready to move on in the world. But it all changed that year. The hatred somehow wilted away, and people were suddenly no longer afraid of them clashing heads. It was a strange time, everyone returning to education in September, ready for the inevitable first day arguments of who would move from which class into another, and who would be the first to sit in the area that they had both claimed. But that never came. The tension that was usually thick in the air around them, had disintegrated in the summer months, and nobody around them knew exactly when, or even how, that had happened. In retrospect, it all changed in the months leading up to Ben’s party. It was his summer party, and for a Mitchell, it was a rite of passage. Each member of the family would have one, the summer they turned eighteen. That was the age they would first get into the boxing ring without a head guard on, and show the rest of the clan what they were made of. By eighteen, Mitchell’s would usually already have a criminal record, and if they didn’t, their clean reputation wouldn’t last long at all. But first, they had to have a party. And it had become a thing for recent generations of Mitchell’s, that each party would be bigger and louder and cause more ruckus than the last.
There was one rule though.
Under no circumstances, was a Highway allowed anywhere near the party.
It was a rule that had never been broken, not at a single one of the countless parties that had happened in the past. A Highway had never been invited, nor had they ever turned up. It wasn’t just that it was a rule for the Mitchell’s, it was also something that never happened because a Highway wouldn’t be seen dead near a Mitchell party.
That was, until Callum sat on the wall, outside Ben’s party, watching as the sun fell down over the skyscrapers. He had a bottle of lager in his hand, floating between two fingers. It was nearly empty now, but still he waited. He knew Ben would appear soon. He knew him too well now, he was ashamed to say. In the summer months, they had been meeting up secretly, hiding out in spots only they knew, drinking cheap cider and throwing punches at a boxing bag. They both heralded it a rebellion against their parents, though they knew they would never speak of it. It was just theirs, shared kisses and messy hand jobs in run down buildings and back alleys.
Music burst out of the house, loud thumping noises invading Callum’s mind, surrounding him momentarily. Then it was muffled once more.
“You can’t be here.” Ben spoke out, footsteps on the gravel getting louder and louder.
Callum smirked, and looked down at the bottle in his hands. “Thought I’d come and surprise the party boy. It’s not even your birthday, lucky you.”
“My family’s here.” Ben said. “You can’t be here.”
“You’ve said that.” Callum pointed out. “I’m not going in. Just wanted to see you.” It would be romantic, if not for the fact they were supposed to be mortal enemies.
Ben huffed out a laugh, the alcohol in his veins not nearly enough to deal with his family if they saw him talking to a Highway. “Well now you’ve seen me.”
“Come for a walk.” Callum asked, nodding up the road, which leads to a secluded area that nobody ever really invades. “You don’t have to say you’re with me, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
Ben relents, looking between his house and Callum. “Five minutes.” He steps forward, overtaking Callum as he walked towards the secluded area, shrouded in trees and in the shade.
The moment they were separated from the party goers, and everyone who has spend years and years separating the two families, Ben was pushed against a large oak tree, Callum’s lips against his own. He was pliant underneath Callum’s looming figure, large hands invading his body, skin tingling under the touch. He leaned up, trying to get as close to Callum as humanly possible. Callum grinned, knowing what he was doing to Ben. They loved it. The pent up hatred of each others families, the lust for each other, knowing they could never be together. It was a risk they were willing to take, and they loved the thrill of it all.
Callum pulls back, watching as Ben instinctively chased his lips, eyes closed and lips now red raw, glossed over with spit. He runs his fingers through Ben’s hair, and laughs. “You good?”
“You do that on purpose.” Ben laughs, pushing his fists against Callum’s chest, pushing him away for just a second, before pulling him back in.
“What?” Callum laughs
Ben rolls his eyes. “Make me want to stop all of this.”
Callum leans down, his lips excruciatingly close to Ben’s ear, the heat of his breath against skin, causing goosebumps. “You can do that yourself. I don’t do have to kiss you for that to happen.”
“You know we can’t be together.” Ben states bluntly. He winces, and fails at attempting to keep a moan suppressed when Callum’s lips attaches to his neck.
“But it’s fun, isn’t it?” Callum asks, blowing old air against the wet skin of Ben’s neck, tingling the skin.
“Course.” Ben grins, fingers curling in Callum’s hair, connecting their bodies together again.
It couldn’t happen. It just couldn’t. Mitchell’s and Highway’s weren’t meant to connect, not even as associates. They certainly couldn’t date. Not for as long as the patriarch of each family were still around, and even then it would still be difficult. Which is why it was better that their feelings for each other were repressed, and they moved on to different people, forgetting about all the stolen moments they shared together.