The doors to the stadium creak eerily as they’re swung, and there’s something unexplainable to an otherwise credibly warm winter night; The air feels foul, rather suffocating and enough to make his throat tighten, as though someone had just torn sandpaper through his mouth. He has not spoken a word since the three grouped together, sparing small greetings and a very blatant glance but other than that they’re practically unresponsive, ethereal. It’s as though the other two are not even real.

It’s as though he’s imagining things. Imagining people that do not exist.. But they’re so very real, it’s just that neither seem to want to talk, nor address the elephant in the room.

Address how Doyoung’s bruises have gotten worse.

It isn’t a ghastly blemish any more. It’s a swollen eye and red-raw knuckles, it’s the blood leaving his bruised nose and crusting along his upper lip when he goes to greet Donghyuck in the foyer, it’s the way he promptly cleans the damage with a sleeve that then slips when Jaehyun rouses his attention and thick, finger-like bruises lined with nasty abrasions across his forearm flash in the striker’s peripheral before Doyoung snags the end of the sleeve and tugs it down again. It’s all the telltale signs of very severe aggression, like Doyoung had been attacked and promptly defended himself but the whereabouts to which these grisly wounds came from is still a mystery.

And neither Jaehyun nor Donghyuck have found the incentive to ask the almighty question: What’s going on? Because if their team were open to discussion about happenings in their personal lives.. Would they even be Panthers at all?

Only.. Jaehyun is used to shutting people out; He is not used to, however, people shutting him out. It’s an odd feeling, an isolating feeling, a grim, dull ache that rumbles through his chest when he tries to ignore that he’s growing concerned and pulses through his head when he tries to think of why someone like Doyoung, whom had always appeared so unproblematic, seems to be showing signs that something else is going on.

But Doyoung has a look in his eyes, a glimmer of want- He likely wants to tell them, more than anything, but he’s a selfless idiot and more than anything does not want to concern others with his problems no matter how blatant they are. At any rate he’s given up trying to hide that something is wrong by now, rather he just won’t give anyone an answer if they ask.

“Listen, Doyoung..” Jaehyun presses through the silence like a shovel to a snow-filled driveway; It’s tedious, but necessary, and leaves a chill crawling along the curve of his spine. “Thanks for coming out tonight, really.. But you can just the leave the keys with me and head home, I’ll lock things up and give them to you tomorrow morning. You look exhausted.”

It’s a little after ten and with those fresh blemishes littering his body he’s likely been through far too much to do the overly kind thing of sitting around and waiting for them, and Jaehyun is not thinking of himself when he asks for the leisure of renting ownership of those keys; He’s stowing Doyoung’s condition in the forefront.

Doyoung, ever the selfless hero of their little crew of misfits makes a point to sit around to upwards of four hours most nights that Donghyuck coaxes Jaehyun into some nighttime practise. He remembers telling their Captain a few weeks ago that he will win no hearts with his kindness, but it’s that same overbearingly friendly nature that makes him so utterly favoured by everyone else. Jaehyun would reiterate that not all heroes wore capes, and that Kim Doyoung was the physical embodiment of whatever it was somehow holding this deadbeat team together; The Glue.

“Funnily enough, I think that’s the first time you’ve ever thanked me for.. Anything.” Doyoung disregards his suggestion altogether - unsurprisingly - stepping in line with Donghyuck as they stride together past the stalls and unto the dimly lit field- The grass is sodden and sinks beneath Jaehyun’s feet. He relishes in a sensation he cannot feel.

Donghyuck was careful when he bumped shoulders with their battered Captain, treating him more like an ornament than a human being and gently working his methods of affection into someone that clearly needed it more than anything else.

More than Jaehyun’s apathy, that’s for sure.

“Take it while you can, Hyung.” Donghyuck presses, tone awfully rejuvenated and with the slightest twang of joy that makes the otherwise dismal arena seem a whole lot more lively. “You’re one of the select few to have gotten some decent manners from the guy.”

He spared a glance over his shoulder to Jaehyun whom promptly wagged his brows, a playful notion and tossed Donghyuck’s way simply because the striker’s mind was wandering its dark recesses and he needed to make sure Donghyuck’s spirits were lifted rather than inviting him to take a look at what was on his mind.

And in short; What was on Jaehyun’s mind was whatever the was going on with Kim Doyoung.

And the two wolves expected to turn up by eleven. It’d taken some convincing but Taeyong’s voice was both persuasive and sensual in the most delicious sort of way that Jaehyun was all but obligated to come to an agreement: Give him an hour alone with Donghyuck to at least get some legitimate practise done, and then let him enjoy Mark’s company for the rest.

Donghyuck, of course, hadn’t a clue that either were actually coming.

Jaehyun was the type to withhold information that mattered little to whomever wanted to know, and after Daegu’s allocated Cub demanded to be told what had been spoken during Yuta’s little counselling session to which Jaehyun had promptly kept his mouth sealed, the elder of the two saw it more as him doing the Cub a favour, of him willingly keeping the announcement back save he ruin the surprise.

Ideally he’d like to see Donghyuck’s cheeks swell like two rampant infernos, for his pupils to widen to like a pair of snow globes and for his lips to part though no legible sentences to spill forth. He’d like to remind himself that Donghyuck was utterly smitten, and that was likely the only reason that Jaehyun had not said anything.

Or rather, one of two. While Jaehyun had spent the longest time learning to shut all doors, to regress into a closed book and avoid any and all emotional attachment he also found himself, for the most part, awfully disinterested in gossip. If he knew something someone else didn’t, and said person held no obligation to be told then.. He wouldn’t say a thing. After all why should he? He wouldn’t find any sort of satisfaction in knowing that he’d started a train of digressed information.

And.. Yuta was not all bad. Not really.

Something oddly.. Intimate, irked Jaehyun to keep his mouth shut regarding the Osaka native and his troublesome upbringing. In hindsight it had to be his reluctance to talk to anyone about things he wasn’t totally passionate about.

Then again, how long had it been since he’d confessed to someone that he used to spend hours regularly playing the piano? Or perhaps his slight obsession with the Captain America trilogy and his useless talent to reiterate even the less iconic lines throughout? Even his likeness for everything white?

Surprisingly, Jaehyun was human too. He just didn’t communicate very well any more.

Not after he’d started running.

“Jaehyun-- You’re spacing out again.”

Within a moment his internally sentimental attitude was overthrown, conquered by a more frazzled, disdainful outlook as he blinked back whatever had wanted so very badly to come to the forefront of his mind and instead welcomed the view of Doyoung, impatiently waving a hand in front of his face.

Jaehyun’s natural instincts were to clutch his wrist and assertively insist that he stop.. Those same natural instincts also reminded him that Doyoung’s forearm was littered in nasty abrasions and likelihood was that he’d get a punch in the nose if he even did so much as try.

Once Doyoung was satisfied that Jaehyun had regressed back to their miserable reality he gestured to Donghyuck, who was already making himself comfortable in the centre of the court.

Jaehyun blinked again, “No gear?” He asked.

“Donghyuck told me it was just the usual drills tonight, nothing too extreme.” Doyoung listed his weight against one of the stall walls and Jaehyun promptly turned to face him. “And you know how he is- Too lazy to change into kit because he ‘doesn’t see the point’ since you’ll be going easy on each other, and he trusts you fully not to smack him in the gut with the ball again.”

The striker’s features twisted uncomfortably; While he very visibly cringed Doyoung grew a coy smirk - Jaehyun had not meant to swing the racquet backwards during that last match.. He was just a little frustrated with how the scoreboard had been taunting him all game.

Of course, he hadn’t been planning to smack Donghyuck with the ball either, but no one was perfect and Jaehyun would digress that he had more flaws than the Panthers had losses. But there was something comforting in those words.. Donghyuck found trust in him, while Jaehyun scarcely trusted Donghyuck at all.

Though he didn’t need to trust someone to appreciate their company.

Jaehyun thought back to Taeyong.

“I’ll go fetch you two some racquets and..”

“And a ball.” Jaehyun spoke slowly, deliberately, and earned himself perhaps the coldest look Kim Doyoung could ever muster. As cool as ice but none too much to leave a lasting impression.

“And a ball.” The Captain echoed, and while Jaehyun was doing a credible job keeping those incessant questions on Doyoung’s formidable bruises to himself, he wasted no time in joining his fellow Panther on the field the moment their capeless hero disappeared indoors.

Nor did Donghyuck find the time to waste as he drew the elder in hook, line and sinker with the most casual but blatantly exasperated. “He’s gotta be pissing off the wrong people to look like that.”

“He isn’t getting into fights.” Jaehyun dismissed coolly despite not having the slightest clue what went on in Doyoung’s little world of bruised knuckles and swollen eyes. He lowered his hood and roused his hair with his fingers, leaving it a dark tousled mess with bangs falling a little ways above his brow line. The weather was lukewarm, an inviting concoction of an occasional breeze alongside the slight humidity of warmth that should not exist in the festive season.

if he knew what it meant to be festive any more.

Donghyuck smoothed a set of pretty fingers across Jaehyun’s sternum and gave him a strong shove. Enough for him to stagger, but likely just to make sure that he’d garnered the taller boy’s attention. “Then what- You think he’s someone’s punching bag?”

Jaehyun in turn moved to splay his long, slender fingers across Donghyuck’s forehead. He gave him a harder shove, and the youngster rewarded him with a noise akin to a disapproving whine.

“What was that in aid of--”

“Don’t be insensitive, you sound like Ten.” Ironic that Jaehyun was scolding him and his lack of concern, when it had been the likes of Yuta Nakamoto that had told him that his apathy made him seem almost alien.

Almost insane.

He inhaled sharply and dipped his hands into his pockets. Donghyuck mirrored this, and for a fleeting moment they appeared not as teammates, but as siblings.

Fancy that; Lord only knew how he’d tolerate living with Donghyuck, lest he started to tolerate living with himself first.

“I tried asking him earlier.” Donghyuck told him. He scooted a little closer as the breeze picked up. Jaehyun saw no point in it, but he did not step back. Their arms would brush occasionally. “He looked at me like I’d just kicked a dog or something. He’s terrifying when he’s serious.”

“Because he isn’t some deadbeat Captain. I can respect what he does.” Jaehyun never vocally complemented anyone, and so Donghyuck’s eyes naturally grew large and wondrous and he expressed his full attention unto the late teen. “Someone told me that he can see it- That he can see that Doyoung cares for us. For all of us, like we’re family. He told me himself that all he wants is for us to get along, and maybe keeping his own problems private is a way to keep up that friendly forefront.”

“But it’s a little hypocritical for him to want us to express our worries and then for him to keep his own oppressed.” Donghyuck, in fairness, had a point, but Jaehyun could not wholly agree with it.

“You’d understand if you were in his situation.. He can’t look half as exhausted as he is, or burden his teammates with his problems because he is the person we’re all looking up to.” Jaehyun paused, “You wouldn’t want advice from someone that expressed how miserable they were all the time.”

“Yeah but--”

“But instead we’ve got the one thing that’s keeping us together, and that same thing is putting up a strong, calm forefront so that we don’t have to; Him.”

Jaehyun’s curt nod was met with that same eerily uninviting creak of a door that’d been worn with use. Maybe a little convincing and Yuta would cease to keep swinging it open like the door was an enormous lacrosse racquet.

Then again, Yuta was as stubborn as an ox likewise was he the type to take on orders off of a lacrosse field like a toddler would from someone else’s mother.

Meaning he wouldn’t.

“Are you going to be our allocated referee this evening, Mister Mother Bird?” Jaehyun mused throatily and caught the racquet tossed his way. It felt good to have something to hold, to be able to smooth his bare hands along the jarred, fraying binds of a racquet he’d gotten to learn was more like an extension of his arm than a piece of gear. Freshly delivered at the start of the season all racquets were clones of one another, but handled by an athlete for a few matches and each grew to become kit with it’s own personality, its own character and subtle representation of the body that wielded it.

Maybe Jaehyun had been the only one to notice, but it brought him solace to find that even his own equipment was a little jarred around the edges.

An extension of himself.

Doyoung’s laughter was joyous and filled the general vicinity, a somewhat aching reminder that no matter how broken he may have looked, how shattered he might have felt internally, that the promptly titled Mother Bird was in fact just as comforted to be enjoying the company of friends as Jaehyun was to be clutching onto a racquet.

Friends; The word felt foreign, threatened to teeter off of the tip of his tongue- But it also felt as though it belonged there, and after exchanging glances between the two stood before him, Jaehyun the material of the mesh and smiled to himself.

“I think you were right, Jae.” Doyoung offered softly - in fact he was the only person Jaehyun had ever let call him by such a name - and those maternal tendencies were practically oozing from him. The two met eyes for a moment and Jaehyun’s chest warmed in the strangest way. “I’m exhausted, so I’ll just sit up in the stalls or something.”

Not in the way it did whenever confronted by Taeyong but.. It brought him the oddest sense of solitude.

Jaehyun, for the first time in a very long while, returned Doyoung’s smile.

“Sure you don’t want to give us the keys so you can head back?” Donghyuck pressed. He did not seem incessant regarding wanting Doyoung to be gone, rather he looked about as concerned as Jaehyun had involuntarily felt, and pouted softly when their Captain shook his head.

“I can’t trust you two idiots to lock everything up properly- Now, why does that even matter? Get practising!” Voice assertive but tender, Kim Doyoung made his hasty retreat with a clap of the hands and several glances between both goal posts.

The tip of Donghyuck’s racquet had just about reached the Captain’s backside as he sped into a jog, and Doyoung awarded the Cub’s efforts with a noisily deliberate yelp and a wicked grin.

Donghyuck giggled cheerfully and Jaehyun laughed with him.

He’d forgotten how great that felt. To enjoy himself.

Donghyuck snagged the ball from its perch between them before Jaehyun could do so much as bat a lash. He scrambled, thundering across the field after a smaller, younger athlete that somehow felt obligated to shriek as Jaehyun came bolting at his ankles. Late night practise had never roused his interests so quickly before.

Whatever this feeling was, it reminded him that he wasn’t as shut off from the rest of the world as he thought.

---

Though Jaehyun, obstinate for over six months regarding keeping a mobile phone and thus hoping his intuitive guesses at the time of day were correct, Donghyuck was the total opposite. Every ten minutes or so he’d dish out his phone like second nature - even if they were mid-way through shoot rallies - and reminded Jaehyun just how long they’d spent working together to improve the Cub’s driving force with a racquet.

His speed was formidable, but he was lacking the strength to both aim and really pummel the ball from the net of his racquet and after seeing that match with the Wolves several days before Donghyuck had persistently worked his arms until he could no longer hold his equipment. Jaehyun marvelled at his devotion to improve, though right in the very crevice of his mind he had a pretty good idea of what Donghyuck’s new motivation was.

Mark.

Come to think of it, he’d just been told it was a little past eleven- Their two monstrously impressive competitors should be here any minute now.

They reclined onto one of the benches lining the walls with a chorus of exasperated sighs. Jaehyun’s stamina was credible - certainly thanks to his days spent running for literal miles on end - and so while his breaths were labored but not overly so, Donghyuck was left to card thick damp bangs from his forehead while panting like a dog. He let his racquet clatter against the asphalt by his feet and while one set of pretty fingers worked at creating a somewhat presentable style with his damp, dishevelled locks the other hand held the phone angled in a manner in which he could use it as a makeshift mirror.

Jaehyun looked to him; Bemused. Partly because there wasn’t any one here to impress - not yet - but also because he’d really been wanting to see the look of utter horror as Mark appeared in the Cub’s peripheral and he had to somehow make himself look as though he had not just run a mile full pelt.

He’d tried not to let it rattle his paranoia, but now Jaehyun wondered whether he looked the part himself. The thick woollen hoodie was both an extra layer of insulation and totally useless at this point- he felt as though he was stuck in a boiler room and was ten times hotter than he should have been. Sparing a second glance to Donghyuck, and then to Doyoung - who had began to doze in the stalls - Jaehyun dipped out of the hoodie, peeled it off with a throaty, satisfied hum and embraced the way the cool winter breeze met his hot, hot chest with open arms.

“Will you ever not wear long sleeves?” Donghyuck wriggled through his satisfaction as soon as it came unto him, and Jaehyun looked over blankly. The younger looked equally as unreadable, stuffing his phone into his pocket and rolling his shoulders, “I mean- Is that all your wardrobe consists of?”

“Pretty much.” He said.

Donghyuck deadpanned, “Are you serious?”

“I’m boring.”

“Well.. Fashionably, you could use a little work.” Donghyuck digressed, features twisting into a sly smile before growing rather pensive. He eyed his shoes while adding, “Actually, if your fashion sense was the only problem then you wouldn’t be part of the team.”

Jaehyun found some sort of hilarity in that, but he did not laugh. Rather he made a noise in agreement before settling back and the material of his shirt habitually. He thought back for a moment, to the days where he was regularly wearing Canali tuxedos and thousand-dollar sweaters. Back then he cared little for marks that did not exist, but progress time to the present and his choice of fashion was deliberate.

Long sleeves- Sweaters or shirts, it didn’t matter, just so long as they kept everything hidden. He smoothed his fingers across his chest self-consciously, as though for a moment he thought the thick fabric was thin and invisible.

“How is your mother?” Jaehyun needed an excuse to take his mind elsewhere, likewise did he need to satiate his own curiosity.

Donghyuck, for a moment, stiffened. His shoulders locked and his lips pursed into a thin, grim line. He was silent for a little longer than Jaehyun might have liked but it was as he’d gone to apologise for asking that the other chose to speak.

“If you were anyone else.. I’d tell you that I didn’t want to talk about it.” Donghyuck’s tone was low and disdainful, and for a second he seemed like a totally different person. An imposter, and nothing so much like the playful, mischievous little Cub that’d just been shrieking as he bolted down the field.

“Don’t feel obligated to tell me anything--”

“She’s..” Donghyuck cut him off immediately. He reached for something to hold and settled for picking up his racquet and clutching it hard. “She’s getting worse.” He admitted quietly, and as the two met eyes Jaehyun had never seen him look so sorrowful.

“I’m sorry.” Jaehyun apologised as though her illness was his fault.

Donghyuck shook his head, and though his smile was pained it was genuine. He had meant to tell someone this for a while, to get this off of his chest though Jaehyun wasn’t sure if he felt good knowing that it was him that’d been told. “Don’t be. It’s still hard for me to come to terms with but she’s doing everything she can to pull through.. I just wish I wasn’t the only one caring for her, because I can’t be there all the time and I’m terrified that every time I open that front door that she’ll be--”

“Don’t say it.” Jaehyun moved over and for a fleeting moment showed some sort of affection. He took to Donghyuck’s hair and ruffled it slightly, playfully, and offered the most genuine smile that he could. “Don’t make yourself miserable.”

It took him a second or two, but Donghyuck smiled right back. He looked ready to voice some sort of gratitude but the rumble of a stalling engine sounded a little ways past those enormous stadium walls and Jaehyun let out a breath he did not know he’d been holding in.

“Were we expecting anyone else?” The voice was Doyoung’s; Apparently he hadn’t been dozing heavily enough not to hear the slight guttural noise of a dulling ignition and the two turned to face him. He suddenly looked rather frightened, likely at the proposition of someone else seeing the battered mess he’d turned into and tentatively added, “I didn’t know anyone in the team drove..”

Jaehyun’s smile was wry, the roll of his shoulders leisurely. “What gives you the impression that they’re part of our team?” He threw the question out and Dongyuck’s elbow drilled into his side like a hammer to an anvil. He grunted noisily and turned, a dull ache rumbling across his ribcage and while he anticipated to meet the eyes of a rather disapproving Cub, he was rather pleasantly - and amusedly - met with those beet red cheeks he’d been waiting to see.

He hadn’t even told Donghyuck who it was, but the moment Jaehyun winked at him the youthful defender seemed to cave in on himself, tearing his phone from his pocket with a slight whine and turning it back into a makeshift mirror.

“You could’ve-- Oh my God.. Why didn’t you say anything?” Donghyuck spoke quickly, a little nervously, and it was honestly the most adorable thing to see him flounder about whether his bangs should settle to the left or the right when it was very clear from that initial encounter that Mark showed an immediate interest.

“Who--” Doyoung came descending down those stalls to meet the two reclined on the bench, and Jaehyun answered him promptly.

“Taeyong and Mark. You know Mark.”

Doyoung’s grin was formidable and cattish, a slight amused glimmer to his otherwise dull sleepless eyes and he spared a glance to their fretting little Cub before nodding to those creaking doors. “I’ll go and let them in.”

Disappearing without so much as a moment for Jaehyun to show any sort of gratitude, Doyoung was through those doors in a heartbeat and left the two exasperated young athletes to each other.

“Are you that set on impressing the guy?” Jaehyun pressed, a teasing twang to a voice best considered steely and casual but tonight he felt a little less miserable than usual.

Donghyuck exhaled noisily through his nose, and if looks could kill the late teen would have certainly been a goner by now. “I just.. You don’t feel like you need to impress him?” He paused, flushing heavily, “To impress Taeyong?”

Jaehyun shrugged, “I’m not a romantic like you.” That earned him a thorough smack to the arm, and so be it that it was even humanly possible Donghyuck might’ve gotten even redder. “And I told you; He doesn’t like me, we just understand each other.”

He was anticipating some sort of snide response, but the one Donghyuck was about to give left Jaehyun with a knot in his throat and a jackhammer for a heart.

“You haven’t seen the way he looks at you.”

It’d take another fifteen minutes until movement sounded bar the quiet, unnerved breaths of two individuals that were far more nervous than they should have been. Or rather, Donghyuck was left to fret and Jaehyun’s mind was muddled the more he thought on how Taeyong’s eyes had been on him in a manner he’d likely never even noticed before.

It shouldn’t have, but it felt.. Nice. Warmed his chest in the most delightful sort of way, and while he’d usually ignore any sensation that was even remotely uplifting he’d chosen to unwind tonight, and he’d chosen to accept his attraction several days earlier.

Taeyong made him feel good when he was not even there. Jaehyun was simply too stubborn to take action on it.

Relations frightened him. The way his heart swelled when Doyoung appeared with two figures behind him frightened Jaehyun even more.

Taeyong and Mark could easily be mistaken for brothers as they prowled out of the gloam; both were knit in thick hooded coats with wondrous eyes and complimentary murmurs shot back and forth as they marvelled at a stadium that was likely five times smaller than their own. The only differentiating factors as they waded through the dark was Mark’s choice of loose sweatpants and Taeyong’s choice of torn jeans- Actually, that was rather odd.. Especially if he was expecting to practise with clothes so restricting.

Jaehyun wet his lips without noticing. His mouth was dry and his throat had tightened, and he’d been indulging in how sinfully delicious Taeyong’s thighs looked in tight trousers for longer than he’d likely ever admit.

When they’d gotten a little closer and were subjected to the blaring light that kept the field as easily visible as possible, they no longer looked related at all. Jaehyun noticed Taeyong’s lazy posture, from the way he lousily ghosted his fingers along the strap of an enormous duffel bag to the way in which he lodged his tongue between his teeth and the pretty crinkle of his eyes when Doyoung made a joke Jaehyun hadn’t quite heard.

He’d almost forgotten; Taeyong was a biter.

Jaehyun really hadn’t meant to like that thought so much.

Mark, meanwhile, was a little more poised but a whole lot more distracted. He fell in line with the two older athletes but his strides were lethargic and his eyes were elsewhere: The stalls, the goalposts.. Donghyuck. The way his features lit up were near comparable to the energetic bumping of the shoulders Donghyuck had just subjected Jaehyun to before he’d waded on over to meet the Wolves’ Pup halfway. The two smiled stupidly at each other while Mark disregarded his phone and tossed it back into his pocket. They’d gotten each other’s sole attention immediately, and Jaehyun did his best not to envy how outrageously optimistic Donghyuck’s views of the world were when he so easily fit the quota for a team like the Panthers.

“Something on your mind?” Taeyong greeted coyly, reiterated a question he asked almost every night in the wake of their dreams and Jaehyun flashed him a cool look as he moved to collect his racquet.

They were here to practise; Together. The word still felt foreign, but was forever printed on the forefront of his brain as though it beckoned him to remember that he was not alone. He was in a team of tolerable idiots and had some sort of mixed signal exchange with a familiar mystery.

“There’s always something on my mind.” Considering Taeyong had reiterated his regularly repeated question, Jaehyun reiterated his regularly repeated answer. The two met eyes and he saw the chorus of colours that do not exist, and for a moment simply lost himself in the way that they shone, the way that they glistened and how the Captain of the Wolves looked almost angelic beneath the hazy glow of the stadium lights.

Nothing was perfect- Nothing at all, but for a fleeting second Lee Taeyong was the closest thing to it.

The quintet re-grouped by one of the benches and Taeyong let the duffel slip from his arm with a slight, aggravated puff of air. Jaehyun watched him carefully, interested in how the most menial of movements could look so wonderfully musical but then again he was indulging in the view of an athlete that moved like a body of water on the field.

“We brought like.. All of our kit with us.” Mark tore through the silence, and all four eyes met his own. He had this inviting boldness to him, this easy air that reminded Jaehyun of his four years in the West and there was something about Mark’s unspoken character that made him feel rather relaxed. “I guess I can’t complain that you’re not using any - Easy drills?”

Doyoung quirked a brow, “That’s exactly what he said.” He told him, curtly nodding to Donghyuck whom did his best to act coolly about it, though Jaehyun recognised the flattered glimmer in his eyes.

“I’m thinking Donghyuck was a little lazy and decided that he didn’t have the effort to change out of his kit later on.” Taeyong mused charmingly and Jaehyun rewarded him with a noisy exhale, something akin to a half-assed laugh.

The two looked at each other and it was comfortable. Taeyong flashed him those pretty canines and Jaehyun mustered some lazy half smile in return.

Doyoung must have saw the interaction, for when Jaehyun turned back and Taeyong’s hands disappeared into his duffel, the Panthers’ Captain had this big stupid grin on his face that far overshadowed those grisly blemishes and the dark, elusive narrative in which they carried.

Jaehyun wanted to ask, but he’d keep his mouth sewn shut. The two Wolves accompanying them seemed polite enough to keep even their eyes to themselves, and while Jaehyun was not the one littered in bruises he found an overwhelming amount of gratification in knowing that they were not going to get involved in business that was not theirs.

Doyoung garnered their attention by clasping his hands together loudly. Taeyong’s hands re-emerged alongside two racquets, and Mark splayed an open palm to seize the one tossed towards him. The two had this sort of connection that must’ve come from years of training together and at the very thought Jaehyun spared a glance to Donghyuck, whom actually, had been looking right back him.

Donghyuck childishly stuck out his tongue and Doyoung started to speak.

“Are you guys set for Preliminaries?” He asked. ; Preliminaries were in a week and Jaehyun had totally forgotten.

He couldn’t ignore the electrifying buzz at the thought of making the Vipers choke on their own words again. Maybe this time they’d band together and actually win something.

It was a legitimate match, after all. Not even Yuta held any incentive to beat opposing athletes with a racquet and spoil it for them. He’d learned the consequences of that once already.

“I think we’re set. Practise is pretty nuts these days though- We had to beg the coach to let us come and practise with someone else.” Mark told them, dipping his fingers through the mesh and clutching onto his racquet like no other. “I hear your coach is pretty nasty, though. Does he even show up to your matches?”

“Nah.” Jaehyun spoke, this time, but his responses were quick and assertive for the way in which Doyoung momentarily recoiled silently insisted that their lousy alcoholic for a coach was not a topic of conversation the Captain particularly enjoyed. “The guy barely shows up to practise. Maybe once in a blue moon.”

“We’re pretty sure he has some sort of personal vendetta against us.” Donghyuck mused, “He’s got no idea what he’s doing, doesn’t know the first thing about lacrosse and has this thing where he blames Doyoung for the slightest thing, like maybe he breathed in a way he didn’t like or--”

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about Preliminaries, actually.” Taeyong was now the capeless hero, come soaring on in to interrupt Donghyuck save he agitate Doyoung any further than he already was. Taeyong had seen it, and after exchanging slight glances with Jaehyun had promptly gotten permission to keep the conversation rolling.

Jaehyun couldn’t thank him enough. Donghyuck was not insensitive, just oblivious, but in that moment Taeyong was a life saver.

“Doyoung.” He called the fellow Captain by name, and Doyoung’s grim features brightened like a light bulb. Jaehyun did not know how to feel about that- Doyoung was putting up a forefront again. “We were thinking- Me and Mark.. We wanted to come cheer for your team, and our match is the night after so we figured we’d invite you to watch ours. All of you.”

Doyoung’s features had gotten impossibly brighter. His eyes were large and wondrous and his smile was formidable. He tugged at his sleeves habitually, and exchanged glances between his two teammates that only nodded by means of a response and he did just the same. “We’d love that.” He said, sounding delightfully exasperated, “I’d love that. If you’re happy to support us we’re happy to support you.”

Taeyong flashed him a wide smile, “We won’t be able to join you for celebrations when you kick their but hell, it’d be nice to see how you guys handle a legitimate match.” He paused, “And maybe it’ll do you guys some good to watch us, too.”

Strangely enough, when he had implied that the Panthers would win Jaehyun had wholeheartedly believed him. Doyoung nodded fervently, engrossed in it all, and was likely already smitten at the thought of seeing such a credible team play first hand.

“That sounds perfect.” He expressed comfortably, and looked the most relaxed he had all evening. “I’m looking forward to it.”

---

With the Wolves at their heels and the Panthers very willingly letting them bark commands and control the drills, the quartet - Doyoung had returned to the stalls -  were exhausting themselves within the first hour and a half and it felt incredible. It felt as though they were actually playing a team sport for once, with Taeyong and Jaehyun partnering together against the very visibly lovestruck puppies as they worked together to introduce an entire new world of competitive teamwork, coordinated footwork and shots to empty goals that felt wholly more satisfying than ones made in legitimate matches.

Wholly more satisfying not because of whom they were playing with, but the fact that they were enjoying it. Donghyuck’s performance was formidable, and with Mark’s constructive criticism and Taeyong’s encouragement the youth was making shots with an aim that had increased tenfold since they’d turned up almost three hours earlier.

Jaehyun, meanwhile, had only teamwork as a fatal flaw; Taeyong seemed to understand this but brought unto him this competitiveness with an underlying aggression in which he had never felt before. It were as though he were being taunted, but taunted to play well, and Taeyong was the one jeering him on, adapting to Jaehyun’s fluid playstyle like a chameleon and better suiting the closed book of a striker that found very blatant satisfaction in finally being able to accentuate his own talents.

In fact the two had been accentuating each other so well that they must have forgotten there were two other athletes on the field, and one with a very temperamental aim.

Donghyuck took one powerful swing, and unfortunately made the mistake of aiming upwards rather than between the two elder opponents. There was a noise, a clatter of the ball and something or other but it was only as a very poetic, “--” and a chorus of disdainful hisses spilled into the open that it had become clear that Donghyuck had hit someone.

Hit Taeyong- Apparently having pummelled the ball straight against the Captain’s mouth.

That musical chorus of profanities continued even as Donghyuck jolted, pelting over like an olympic runner and offering endless apologies to which just about every one had been dismissed with an, “I’m okay. No- Seriously, I’m okay.”

Jaehyun figured that he was for the most part, so long as a person was to ignore the fact that the collision had caused Taeyong’s teeth to tear straight along the centre of his bottom lip and leave a rather nasty, visible gash.

“Taeyong-ah.”

For the first time ever, it was Jaehyun that had called his name instead. The Wolf turned to him, looking rather frazzled, but still managed a toothy smile despite the very blatant discomfort.

“I’d pay to hear that again.” The very obvious flirt left Donghyuck looking a little embarrassed, and yet that did not stop him from shooting Jaehyun an, ‘I-told-you-so’ sort of look before scampering off back to Mark, whom had been finding the hilarity in all of this the entire time.

“You’re bleeding.”

“It wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Great, so you’ve got war stories to tell the grandkids.” Jaehyun said, before nodding curtly to his own dozing Captain. “Doyoung can take you to the nurse’s office. No one’s in there but you can get that cleaned up.”

Taeyong, whom had been pressing to the wound with his tongue, looked back to Jaehyun with knit brows and sunken features.

“Can’t you take me instead?”

“Do you have something against Doyoung?”

“No- I just like you more.”

Of course how on Earth could he refuse a suggestion spoken so smoothly and with a voice as thick as honey? The answer was that he could not, and after approaching Doyoung and informing him of the situation, the Captain eyed him long and hard before dishing out a set of keys and throwing them his way.

“Don’t lose them.” He spoke to Jaehyun and Taeyong’s retreating figures, “Lose them and I’ll kill you.”

Jaehyun believed him.

The five minute journey through the locker room, across the foyer and to an office in which Jaehyun promptly left the keys settled snugly in the lock was done so in silence. A comfortable one, and filled with amusement for every time Taeyong introduced his ears to a slight hiss or a pathetic little mewl.

A pathetic, attractive little mewl.

“What was the matter with you last night?” He asked, inviting himself to sift through the cupboards for a general first-aid kit while Taeyong made himself comfortable on the stark white bed beside the cluttered workspace.

He had been referring to Taeyong’s miserable attitude and his apparent yearning for physical confrontation and the Wolf seemed to catch on to this quickly.

“Nothing.” He answered casually, but when Jaehyun turned to quirk an accusing brow at him the older boy sighed, throwing his arms in the air in total exasperation. “Jaehyun- Please. If I told you, you’d think I was childish.”

He found the first aid kit and popped it open, taking out a few cotton pads and a bottle of antiseptic solution. “My fellow striker is Yuta Nakamoto.”

Taeyong blinked a little. “Then I guess I stand corrected.”

The silence resumed if only for a few minutes. Jaehyun was not the type to press people for information and Taeyong seemed a little reluctant to give it. But he gave in when they were facing each other again, and Jaehyun invaded his personal space- Expression unreadable.

Taeyong sighed. “It’s just.. My life is pretty in-check. I’m a widely credited young athlete, my father is an engineer, my mother a journalist and while I live alone I come home to a meal on the table and a good night’s sleep.”

“Right- So you aren’t ed like we are. I get it.” Jaehyun rose a cotton pad doused in antiseptic, and gave an aggravated twitch when Taeyong gave the impression that he was going to act like a child and make him clean up his injury. “Was that your problem?”

Taeyong looked a little satisfied, if only for his features to twist when Jaehyun pressed the pad against his lip hard. The Panther grinned wickedly as the Wolf winced, also feeling satisfied if only because he’d let the other know that not cleaning up his own wounds made him seem like a toddler.

The conversation continued once he had the leverage to speak again, and Jaehyun was tossing the dirtied pad into the nearby trashcan before returning to the cupboard. “That’s not what I’m saying.. It’s just that while I’m nothing like you or your teammates- I’m not problematic and I don’t fit your team’s agenda by any means, that doesn’t make me any less human.”  Taeyong shifted a little. “But I do have one problem.”

Jaehyun turned back to him. There was no reason for them to still be in here, but he was comfortable, found closure in the company of but one person and listed his weight against the counter. “And what’s that?”

“You.”  

He had nothing to say to that, but his heart did. It thundered in his chest in a palpitating fury and he prayed to a God he did not believe in that the erratic thud-thud-thud could not be heard.

“People get this feeling, this miserable sort of ache when the person that they--” Taeyong hesitated, lightly those snow-white bedsheets. “When someone keeps shutting them out, when all they want is to be let in. And then that feeling increases tenfold when that same person talks to them about someone else. About someone that wants nothing to do with what they are, but just a few days ago showed them everything he is.” Ah. Jaehyun knew what he was referring to, but his mind was ablaze and he cared so very little for what happened a few days ago when he was so caught up in the present, in Taeyong’s misleading confession. “There’s something between you and Yuta that makes me--”

“There’s nothing between us.” He intervened, but then something struck him. Jaehyun may have remained steely and indifferent outwardly, but his innards were screaming and the stomach acid had found a new way to make him feel sick. He hadn’t realised how tightly he’d been clutching the counter until his knuckles began to hurt, and promptly threw out an attentive, if a little taunting, “Were you jealous?”

Taeyong no longer had the boldness to meet his eyes, tone gruff, thick and unsurprisingly low. “..No.”

There was a moment where he debated his next words, but in the end Jaehyun chose brutal honesty. “I wanted you to be.”

Not that he had a clue where it came from, but the first word that flashed before his mind was exactly that; Want. Taeyong had always found a way to make Jaehyun feel wanted, and not in the likes that his parents used to. He was wanted this time as an individual, and the dull, pulsing ache in the back of his skull became almost unbearable when the other did not respond. Jaehyun felt foolish, felt as though he should close himself off again but then it--

Then it happened.

Like the beautiful body of water that’d adapted to the likes of a lacrosse field, Taeyong’s body wove across the room. It was sudden and unnerving, and Jaehyun did not react until their chests were pressed flush and he had been sandwiched between Taeyong’s body and the counter. The edge of the counter moulded against the curve of his spine- He would wince, but he was holding his breath.

Taeyong’s body was firm, an odd comfort, and so delightfully warm. Jaehyun might have been taller but he felt as though he could very well regress, shrink beneath those beautiful brooding eyes that gazed up into his own with the sort of passion he’d only ever fantasised about back when he was a whimsical, sentimental romantic.

This time he did not ignore the erratic beating of his heart, nor the bundled nerves that left him feeling so electric. Taeyong’s hands walled him in but he did not feel restricted at all. Yet part of him still wanted to dip out of that clutch and run.

“I might have lied.” Taeyong’s voice was sensually low, an octave that rattled Jaehyun to the core. “I’m human.. And I hate it- Hate that I’m selfish, and that the only problem I have is that you talking about someone else makes me.. God it makes me so jealous.”

Jaehyun didn’t question the way that his breath shook. For a moment he dithered, but there was something utterly electrifying in the way that Taeyong rose a hand to trail the line of Jaehyun’s jaw, to set his skin alight beneath the touch and make him wanton for physicality he’d never even dreamt of before.

“You’re twenty-one-years-old.” He whispered. Jaehyun had never submitted, not even to the likes of Nakamoto’s bold aggression but there was something swelling in those deep dark eyes that both frightened and excited him all at once.

“And I’m being childish - Treating this like a middle school crush. I know.” This time Taeyong had hesitated, for Jaehyun had somehow managed to bolster his confidence and lean into the touch, “..But I can’t help it.”

“That you’re jealous?”

Jaehyun inhaled sharply as Taeyong took his chin. His head was voluntarily lowered and they were close, so very close that Taeyong’s nose grazed his cheekbone and Jaehyun could smell the menthol in his breath from the gum he chewed earlier.

“That I think you’re incredible.”

Lee Taeyong was a strange creature; Strange, if only in Jaehyun’s eyes.

Strange, because to Jaehyun he was so wonderfully normal it was almost bizarre. Lead a normal - albeit prosperous life - alongside his heavenly outer aesthetic and the mindset of someone that simply wanted to listen.

Jaehyun was already resenting what he’d just done, but he was halfway through the foyer and nearing the entranceway by now.

Something, call it his monstrous fear of relations or his natural response to avoid anything that might bring something good into his life, but he had panicked and he’d ran. It’s all he knew how to, and all he’d ever been taught.

He’d made a huge mistake and he’d ran, shrugged away from Taeyong and bolted out of the room. He should have let him in. He should have.

He wanted to.

But he couldn’t stop.