Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Kei
“So,” Rin says, jamming his elbow into my side. I glare in his direction as I take a sip of my beer.
“So?”
“So,” Rin says again, looking down at the court before looking back at me, a smile on his face. “Are we gonna talk about how you’re staring at your boyfriend down there?”
Rodney chuckles from the other side of Rin. I send a glare his way as well.
“He’s not my boyfriend yet,” I tell them with a frown. “We’re taking things slow.”
“Right. Sure. Of course. How could I think otherwise,” Rin says, shaking his head. “It’s not like you guys haven’t been going on dates and talking every night and texting all the time. Totally not boyfriends.”
“He’s not wrong,” Rodney says with a wince. “You guys are getting pretty cosy. Seems like maybe you’re boyfriends already even if you haven’t put a name on it yet.”
They’re not wrong, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to agree with them. I hate it when they’re right. They always gloat about it until the joke is dead.
How annoying. Why do I love these guys again?
“I’m happy for you,” Rin says seriously, poking my side. “You seem happier with him in your life. Less afraid of being left behind or whatever.”
Right. That’s why I love them. We can bullshit and tease but when it matters, they’re both my ride or die. They’ll have my back no matter what.
“I’ve been seeing you smile more,” Rodney adds in, leaning forward to look across Rin at me. “It’s adorable. No, stop growling. That alpha shit doesn’t work on me.”
“Whatever,” I say, slumping in my seat. “Things are good with Shiloh. I like him a lot. It’s not a big deal.”
“If you say so,” Rin says, giving me a knowing smile.
“No fucking way,” someone says as they sit down right behind us. I look over my shoulder, finding two guys staring at us. “Holy shit. What are the odds?”
Rin puts on that fake smile he always uses for fans. The guy on the right has long black hair that’s straight as a board as it hangs past his face and down to his chest. The other guy has black and white hair with ridiculously wide gray eyes. He reminds me of an owl.
“Wow,” the guy with white and black hair breathes out, grinning at us.
“I’m guessing you guys are fans?” Rin says with a smile.
The guy with the black hair narrows his eyes, his lips curling up into an almost mean smile. “I know you’re such a busy guy, Blue, but could you maybe spare a moment of your precious time to take a photo with some peasants like us?”
The three of us freeze, staring at the guy. Rin opens his mouth to respond but nothing comes out. Finally, the guy with the white and black hair nudges his friend.
“Winter! Don’t be mean!”
Winter bursts out laughing, reaching out and lightly smacking Rin’s shoulder. “Dude, I’m fucking with you. It’s me, SqueakyWheel.”
“No fucking way,” Rin says before bending himself in half with how hard he’s laughing. “You really had me going! Jesus Christ, Squeak! Fuck you!”
“No thanks,” Winter says back. He points at the guy next to him. “You actually know this guy as well.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” the guy says, rubbing the back of his neck. He’s all shy but still excited. “It’s me, Owl!”
“Oh my gods! No way! We have to get a picture together,” Rin says, pulling out his phone and handing it over to me. I stand up and get into the walkway in front of us. The guys lean forward, one on each side of Rin’s shoulders. I take a couple of pictures and hand the phone back.
“By the way, you can call us by our real names,” Owl says brightly. “I’m Aspen and that’s Winter.”
Just then, Nessy the Ninja wanders over to our area. Whenever we’re at a game, they try to come over and say hi to us and take a picture with us. This year, Nessy wanders around with a handler.
“Oh my gods! Hi, Nessy,” Aspen says brightly. “Can we take a picture with you? Come on, Winter, we have to. We can add it to the group chat and make Glasses super jealous.”
Winter chuckles as they both stand up and walk over to the walkway area. I hear the handler snort under her breath.
“Normally, Nessy stops and takes pictures with kids but I guess we can stop for you guys too.”
“Angela,” Nessy hisses out in warning.
Oh, something is going on with them. Maybe Angela is having some sort of weird power trip while she parades around with Nessy the mascot? I have no idea but I don’t particularly like her attitude.
Aspen and Winter get on either side of Nessy. I’ve noticed that Aspen, Winter, Kent, and Glasses have been sitting in voice chat a lot lately over on Rin’s Discord server. Are they dating? Are they just friends? Is something going on? Jesus, why the fuck do I care?
I watch as Angela takes a few blurry photos. I let out an annoyed noise as I stand back up and take the phone from her.
“I’m not sure what your deal is but your attitude sucks ass,” I tell her. “Let me take the picture since she’s purposely doing a bad job.”
I take a few pictures before handing the phone over to Aspen. I glare at Angela before putting an arm around Nessy and taking a selfie with them.
“You want me to report Angela for being a jerk to people?”
“Nah, it’s okay. I’ll talk to her after this,” Nessy says back.
Aspen makes a strangled noise, his eyes wide as he stares at Nessy. I know Nessy isn’t supposed to talk and this is probably why. I pat them on the back and go back to my seat.
Nessy gestures for Angela to clear the walkway and before I know it, they’re bounding away, doing their signature cartwheels as they go.
“Holy shit,” I hear Aspen say behind me. “Did you hear that? We know that voice.”
“I cannot believe Kent didn’t realize this sooner. What a dumbass.”
Aspen snorts. “The way you say dumbass is adorable.”
“Shut it,” Winter says back with a laugh.
I turn back to the court. Warmups wrap up and before we know it, they’re announcing the starting line up. We always cheer and whistle for Maki but I’ve come to know some of the others on the team, namely Sullivan. I’m even wearing his jersey, number thirteen with ‘Swiss’ written across the back.
“Our ref for the evening is Charz Omally. Our head ref is Shiloh Cornwell!”
My stomach warms as I watch Shiloh wave from his post. He’s on a heightened stand right next to the top of the net. He looks so good in the dark blue polo and black slacks. He’s directly across from us and I swear we make eye contact before he looks back down at the court.
The ref on the ground goes through everyone’s positions, taking a note of it on his little pad of paper and just like that, the game is starting off with our team serving.
I get engrossed in the game, cheering whenever we score and sinking in my seat when the other team does. Sullivan comes in as a pinch server and I find myself on my feet, whistling for him.
Sullivan looks up with a grin, pointing to our section before he does his famous float serve, a serve that makes the ball go all wibbly wobbly as it travels over the net. He’s got one of the meanest float serves in the league.
During the game, the other team’s captain keeps being a complete and utter donkey. He keeps going up to Shiloh and arguing random rules with him. I stare as Shiloh stands his ground, telling the guy to get back out there and play.
“Jesus,” I say under my breath, my eyes wide as Shiloh starts to raise his voice at the guy.
I can just barely make out what they’re saying.
Something about the captain needing to go through the proper protocol if he wants to challenge a play.
When he keeps yelling up at Shiloh, Shiloh pulls out a yellow card.
“That’s kinda hot,” Rin murmurs next to me. I hear a hum of agreement from Rodney, Winter, and Aspen. I feel the back of my neck heat up.
“Fuck off,” I say, making them all chuckle.
After the yellow card, the captain seems to get his shit together and calm down.
The game continues on. Kent gets to play during the third set and Rin says he’s not surprised.
They wanted to try mixing things up against his particular team.
Something about them getting used to one strategy before pulling the rug out and trying something new.
The guys behind us cheer extra loud for him. It’s kinda cute.
Sullivan also gets to come in as setter for a little bit which is exciting for him. I’m pretty sure my throat is going to be sore tomorrow from how loudly I cheer for him.
After four sets, the Nanio Ninjas come out on top. We stand up, cheering on our team when the game comes to a close.
“Let’s wait for the crowd to die down and then head to the locker room,” Rin says, finishing the last of his beer. “Maki said we’re welcome to join them for dinner again tonight.”
“I hate to ask,” Aspen says, leaning down from his seat. “But can we follow you to the locker room? Kent said we were welcome to come say hi to him after the game but we’ve never been there before and don’t know which way to go.”
“Yeah, come on,” Rin says. He looks over at Rodney and they seem to have an unspoken moment together. They’re such gossips, I’m sure they’re creaming themselves over this little piece of tea.
We make our way out of the stands and through the arena where we’ll be able to meet up with the team.
As we go, we run into Shiloh, still in his uniform.
I would like nothing more than to kiss him breathless and peel him out of his clothes, but that’ll have to wait.
I am not about to share that part of him with anyone else.
“Hey, guys! I’m so glad you were able to come together,” Shiloh says, hugging Aspen. Aspen blushes.
“Kent gave us the tickets,” Aspen says with a grin. “Hey, are you busy now? Want to come have dinner with us?”
Shiloh looks over at me. “Is that okay?”
I startle, staring at him for a long moment before replying. “What the fuck? Don’t ask me for permission.”
“I just thought, since you’re here, you’d wanna hang out.”
“Of course I want to spend time with you, but your friend just asked you first. Don’t ditch him. And don’t ever ask me for permission like that again. You’re a grown man and I’m not your babysitter.”
Shiloh looks away but his shoulders seem to relax. He gives Aspen a little smile. “Well, you heard the man. Looks like you’re stuck with me tonight.”
“Hell yeah,” Aspen says as we make our way to the locker room.
I step next to Shiloh, softly adding, “I’m sorry if that came out too strong. You’re always so independent, Shiloh. Don’t change just because we’re together.”
“No, you were right. It’s a stupid habit I picked up from Stevey,” he says under his breath. Then he looks away. “Just forget about it. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay. We’re probably all going to the same place. Wanna hang out after dinner?”
“Sure. You can come have a sleepover at my place if you want.”
I swallow around the lump in my throat, ignoring the way my heart races from that simple statement. “Yeah, okay.”
“Cool,” he says, giving me a small smile before he’s gone, running over to where Aspen and Winter are talking to Kent.
After meeting up with the team, we head to a bar where we can order food and drinks. Sully grabs my elbow, dragging me to the bar away from everyone else.
“Hey,” he says with a huge grin. “Nice jersey.”
“Thanks. It’s some asshole who serves kinda good.”
“Kinda good,” Sully says with a grumble that makes me snort in amusement. “You’re such an ass.”
“Never said I wasn’t.”
Sully turns to the bartender, ordering us each a beer.
Maki is always very strict about his diet but the other people on his team tend to let themselves cheat on their diet, including a beer from time to time.
I had a beer at the game so I’ll stick to nursing this one beer for the rest of the night so I’m fine to drive home later.
Sully turns back towards me, leaning against the bar. His cheeks are red and he bites on his bottom lip. I turn to see who he’s looking at, completely unsurprised when it’s Daniel.
“Spill.”
He lets out a deep sigh. “How are you and Shiloh?”
“Good,” I say. “We slept together. Now we’re dating.”
“What?”
“What? I’ve been wanting to tell you but you’ve been so busy lately!”
“Holy shit. You fucked and then started dating? Isn’t that kinda backwards?”
“Yeah, but it’s working out okay,” I say seriously, throwing in a little shrug.
“I slept with Daniel.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Sully says with a wince. “It just kinda happened? I went into heat while at an away game and he helped me through it.” He looks up at me. “Right. So. I’m kind of an omega but the suppressants I use keep my scent toned down so everyone just assumes I’m a beta.”
“Yeah, I already knew that,” I tell him quickly, still trying to wrap my head around the fact that Sully and Daniel slept together. Sully has been pining for a while over this guy!
“Wait, how’d you know?”
I tap my nose. “I can smell your suppressants.”
“Oh,” he says, still staring at me, waiting for my reaction.
“I cannot believe you slept together. Holy shit. How was it?”
“Pretty fucking good,” he admits, thanking the bartender for our beers and sliding mine over to me.
“And how are things now?”
“The same as usual,” he says with a pout. “Like we somehow just fucked as friends or something? I don’t know. It’s so stupid. Now that I’ve seen him naked, I am bona fide in love with him.”
“Have you thought about telling him that?”
“Yes! Give me a little credit here, Kei!”
“Then why haven’t you?”
Sully pauses, thinking for a moment before finally saying, “okay, so hear me out.”
“I’m listening,” I say slowly.
“He asked me to help him through his heat that’s coming up. You know, like a tit for tat or whatever. I can’t tell him I’m in love with him before that. He’s counting on me!”
“Oh my gods,” I say with a groan. “You’re both idiots. You don’t just go through your cycle with someone without having feelings for them!”
“Plenty of people do it!”
“This is dumb. You’re being dumb.”
Sully pinches my arm hard enough to make me yelp.
“Yeah, I know,” he says finally, sticking out his bottom lip in a pout.
“But I’m gonna do it anyway. Afterwards, I’ll tell him I’m in love with him.
Or maybe I’ll wait until the season is over, that way it doesn’t get weird.
If he hates me, I’ll have time to transfer to a new team or something. ”
“Sully,” I say seriously. “I’ve seen the way that man looks at you. I think you’re too stuck in your head. Talk to him.”
“I will, I will! And if it all goes to shit, you better make room for me in that giant house of yours.”
I snort, shaking my head. “Of course. What else are friends for?”