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“Nice hoodie.”
“…thanks.”
It wasn’t often that Eugene was showing up to practice with all the signs of being hungover, from the sunglasses still being on and the hood of a pullover drawn. Coffee in one hand, crunched up paper bag in the other with a vague grease stain to it, thick-strapped bag carefully slung over his left shoulder, he stood in the doorway of the salle and stared at the team that stared at him.
He checked his wrist, the time, and looked back to the others. “Am I late or something?”
“Not really, no,” Harvard answered before Seiji could get out a contrary statement. “Just not usually the last one here.”
“I can call out if it’s too weird,” Eugene offered. “Should I be calling out?”
“Might be weirder, actually.”
Eugene slowly pushed up his sunglasses onto the top of his head, letting the coffee linger on his forehead for an extra few moments as he did. It was iced, the condensation felt good.
“You guys are freaking me out a little,” Eugene admitted. “I’ll take five minutes to get into my kit, I swear.”
“You don’t think it’s a little weird that I’m here before you?” Aiden pointed out.
Now that he mentioned it actually, yeah. Why was Aiden both present and ready before they were even supposed to start? No room to even try and pretend that he was fashionably late.
“…sorry I’m late,” Eugene settled on. He must’ve misremembered the time, clearly, because he had no other explanation for that. “Give me five.”
He slipped off, quickly making his way into the locker room for a moment of peace. He’d finish what little remained of his coffee, get most of a croissant down, and get himself through the motions of getting ready. Slowly, steadily. He’d be fine, but an early morning plus a long drive didn’t usually go well for him. Maybe they’d just assume he was out partying or something, even if it wasn’t particularly his style.
And, for the record, he had not been partying the night before. Nor even drinking, as easy as that would have made an explanation for not coming back home until the morning. Just… got a little sidetracked, that was all. With a roommate being upstate, it made things a little too easy to suddenly get handsy and ignore the TV show that they’d put on with full intentions of actually watching it. Not that they’d gone all the way, but the little mirror in the back of Eugene’s locker reminded him that he’d gotten marked up to hell and back in spite of that tidbit.
His chest got it pretty bad actually, but that was only fair. Eugene would readily admit to the fact he did have a good chest. Really, it was his neck that he was worried about, but if he kept the hoodie on when his fencing jacket was off, he’d probably be fine.
The door squeaked open, Eugene carefully poking his head out from behind the locker door as he finished adjusting his pants. “I’m getting there, I’m getting there. Sorry.”
“You’re good, man,” Nick told him as he eased in. “You just seemed a little off. Wanted to check in.”
“Oh, yeah. I’m good.” Eugene glanced back to the bench he’d laid out his fencing gear on. At the time, he’d been grateful for an empty locker room, but less so now. He wouldn’t have spread out so much. “You good?”
“Yeah, ‘course. Early practice is kinda sucky for me, but I’ll pull through. Can’t complain when it rounds out the scholarships, right?”
“Yeah, I get it.” Eugene eased out from behind the locker door to pick up his undershirt, giving it a quick snap before he started to roll it up.
“Were you… fencing yesterday, too?”
Eugene hesitated, not daring to look down at the worst-offending spots on his chest. “Eh… I mean…”
Nick was moving closer, something that was definitely not a good thing for him to be doing. From a distance, sure, it was passably maybe fencing related, but up close? Disaster waiting to happen.
“It’s been five minutes already, ding ding. What’s the holdup?” Aiden called from the doorway. He was draped against it, leaning in deep to peer around and watch them. “You’re officially late, Labao.”
“Hey, Aiden?” Nick started. “Can you come here a second? I need your expertise specifically.”
“Nick!” Eugene hissed.
“My expertise? This better be good,” Aiden returned, sliding off the doorframe and meandering on over.
“I’ll fucking kill you, I know where you sleep,” Eugene tacked on with a glare as he dipped back behind the locker door.
“Alright, what’s going on… here?” Aiden stopped between Eugene and the bench his gear sat on, his eyebrows shooting up immediately. “Oh. Oh, I see.”
“You don’t see.”
“Oho. I do, Labao.” Aiden was grinning wildly. “Page outta my book, huh?”
“Hey, maybe I was fencing—”
“No the fuck you weren’t. You expect me to believe this is from fencing?” Aiden flicked a bruise from a hickey right on his neck, chuckling quietly as he did. “Nice try, honey.”
Eugene grimaced, rubbing gently at the spot he’d agitated. “Thanks.”
“Late night then, hm?”
“Yeah, kinda.”
“Did you sleep?”
“Well, yeah.”
Aiden raised both his eyebrows, grinning again. “Oh, do tell.”
“It was nothing, really.”
“That’s not nothing, Gene, and you know it,” Nick pointed out. He leaned against a neighboring locker, gesturing loosely. “So, you know, out with it.”
Eugene slipped his undershirt on and shook his head. “You two are gonna be the death of me.”
“So it’s drama, then? Don’t tell me you got your heart broken.” Aiden sat down on a bench with a flourish, kicking back and looking up at him expectantly.
“Didn’t you want to start practice? I feel like we don’t have time to go into this,” Eugene pointed out in a last, vain attempt to distract them.
“You know how I feel about practice. Besides, I’m doing my due diligence of making sure my team is feeling alright. I’m the morale booster, remember?”
“Really weird way of saying gossip, but alright,” Nick mumbled under his breath.
Aiden scoffed, pressing a hand to his chest. “You’re supposed to be on my side, Nicholas. Come on.”
“I am, I am.”
Eugene reached out to pluck his jacket back up, something Aiden held onto with a firm grip and a wry smile.
“You gotta talk if you want this back,” Aiden informed him simply. “Them’s the rules, babes.”
With a defeated sigh, Eugene slumped back against the lockers and ran his fingers through his hair. “It was nothing, I swear.”
“Did you have sex?”
Nick groaned. “Aiden!”
“What? It’s a fair question. Why beat around the bush?”
“…no, no I didn’t,” Eugene told him with a pointed stare. “Just an extended make out session, that’s all.”
“Mm. Mhmm. Where?” Aiden pressed. “Didn’t see you come back to the dorms last night.”
“I… it was a field trip. Kinda.” Eugene tapped on his arm, chewing on his lip as he did until he found the acceptable word. “Columbia.”
“Fucking New York?!”
“You what!”
“Jesus Christ guys, it’s fine.” Eugene held up his hands. “No big deal.”
“That’s, at minimum, a two hour drive with traffic,” Nick pointed out. “Never mind that we’re, need I remind you, rivals with them.”
Eugene sheepishly smiled. “Yeah. I was up early this morning. On time, too.”
“Well you’re late now,” Aiden pointed out. “So, nice going.”
“Wait a minute,” Nick tacked on, looking briefly between Aiden and Eugene. “Where’s that hoodie?”
“Don’t you—!”
“Grab him!”
Eugene had been braced for Nick to tackle him when he lunged. He wasn’t expecting Aiden to leap up and pin him to the lockers, gripping onto the inside of the open one with a hand while the other had a firm hold of the top. Even without being strictly held, Aiden’s chest pressing so hard into his own, legs carefully braced, there was no wriggling out as much as he tried.
Apparently, Nick had very aptly gone for a faux lunge.
“Hot, isn’t it?” Aiden inquired with a grin as Eugene squirmed.
“Fuck and you.”
Nick dug around in the locker, only needing a few moments to pull the hoodie back out and look it over and grin. “Oho, alright. Now, Eugene Labao, to whom does this belong? It’s not yours, I know that.”
“Why, what’s on it?” Aiden looked over, careful as he could without giving up his position. God damn him for being so tall and all limbs. “Also, fuck you, that’s my joke.”
“And it’s a great joke and I’m stealing it,” Nick told him bluntly. “You’re sometimes funny.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome!” Nick turned the hoodie, hanging it by the left shoulder and tapping gently on the chest emblem. “So…?”
Aiden’s eyebrows furrowed. “Columbia, yeah. We got that.”
“And what is that?”
“A… sword? Oh. Oh.”
“Guys, have you maybe considered that this is why I don’t fucking tell you anything?!” Eugene snapped.
Aiden let go of him almost immediately, backing up a few paces to sit back down on the bench without looking. Nick, though, also lowered his arm pretty quickly, scratching the back of his neck.
“Jesus Christ,” Eugene tacked on, rubbing at his shoulder.
“God forbid I care about my friend,” Aiden mumbled.
“Aiden, don’t… Shut the fuck up,” Nick told him abruptly. “Not the right word choice, there, bud.”
“It’s true!”
“Okay, my point stands.” Nick pinched the bridge of his nose, exhaling sharply. He made an effort, suddenly, to fold the sweatshirt again and place it back exactly where it had been. While he worked, he spoke. “You know, we really do care. That’s all. And you don’t tell us a lot of things about stuff like this, so we just get excited. Maybe a little too much. I’m sorry about that, genuinely. I was just playing around, didn’t realize where too far was.”
Aiden didn’t look particularly remorseful, but he added on, “Yeah. I’m sorry too, really.”
Eugene looked between them warily, then gestured for his jacket. It seemed like it took effort, but Aiden passed it over for him to hold onto. He gestured loosely for his plastron too, something that might’ve taken even more out of Aiden if it were possible.
“It’s not alright. But I do forgive you,” Eugene told them plainly, kicking his locker shut again. “Besides, I’m good to sit on the sidelines when it comes to stuff like this. It’s alright, I’m not that important.”
Aiden’s eyebrows knit together first. “...Nick, didn’t you just tell me I wasn’t allowed to guilt trip?”
“I don’t think this is guilt tripping, Aiden,” Nick told him quietly. “Hold on, so you did mean it like that.”
“Not right now, Jesus.”
“Alright. Gene.” Nick took him by the shoulders and gave him a little shake. “You’re my friend. Okay? No sitting on the sidelines, that’s now how friends work. I didn’t sign up for this to be one sided in my favor—”
“Uh, guys? Is everything good in here?” Harvard’s voice carried over from the doorway, his head just barely poking in. “We really do want to start soon.”
“Yeah! We’re coming!” Nick told him all too quickly, offering a quick thumbs-up to go with it. “Just a sec.”
Harvard’s eyebrows furrowed, but he nodded slowly. “Yeah, alright. I’m setting a timer.”
The door clicked shut again, and both Nick and Aiden were staring at Eugene again. Go figure.
“So. You and I, and honestly whoever else wants to come because we’re all friends here, are gonna get Aiden to get us some beers and we’re gonna talk about this,” Nick concluded. “I wanna hear about this mystery person because clearly they’re important to you. Even… even if we’re rivals with them.”
Eugene blinked at him. Well, if he wasn’t awake before, he was now. “You know I’m twenty one too, right?”
“Yeah, but Aiden’s gotta repent.”
“Hey! That’s not fair.”
“And he’s got daddy’s credit card.”
“...alright, yeah, that is fair.”
It did make Eugene laugh quietly. “Okay, okay. Fine, sure. We’re on.”