No Place Like Home #3
“And cheering on our friend,” Willow added.
“I just like the violence,” Tad said.
“I believe this is the first time we agree on something, Tad,” Liel said, and the Anura assessed him a moment before giving him an approving nod.
When the teams returned from the locker rooms, Cya made their way to the railing and bent over it as far as they dared as Dex passed underneath them.
He spotted them and jogged over, grinning widely.
He jumped, gripped the lowest rail, and heaved himself up with nothing but the strength of his bulging biceps.
“Keep it up, Triever,” they said as he lifted himself as high as he could.
“Kiss for good luck, Vysov?” He grunted from the effort of holding himself aloft, and they leaned down farther to kiss him, closed-mouthed and quick. “I love you in my jersey. I’m gonna fuck you so good later; you don’t even know.”
Giggling, Cya leaned back. “Then you better win so I deem you worthy.”
“Oh, I’m gonna win,” he proclaimed arrogantly as he dropped back to the pavement. “I’ve got my good luck charm.”
He shot finger-guns at them and winked, and they blew him another kiss. Like the adorable goofball he was, he “caught” the kiss and pressed it to his chest over his heart. Cya tried not to swoon too much.
Impossibly, the second half of the match was even more intense than the first. The tackles were harder, the plays dirtier. Dex took some really rough hits and even ended up on the bench for a few plays to recover.
“It’s gonna come down to this drive,” Jasmyn signed, eyes focused on the field as the timer tick, tick, ticked away the seconds. “If we lose possession, we won’t have enough time to get it back and score.”
Cya nodded, tail bouncing with anxiety. As if Jasmyn had spoken it into existence, the Lust defense managed an interception, and everyone on the Pride side of the stadium groaned in collective disappointment.
“Oh no, it’s over, isn’t it?” Cya buried their face in their hands, peeking through their fingers as Dex slammed his head gear on the ground in frustration. “We were so close.”
Subdued now, the Pride fans watched as Lust took possession and started an aggressive drive down the field to score.
Dex prowled on the sidelines, watching every play with growing aggravation.
He entered into a heated discussion with the coach, who then waved a few offensive players into a huddle.
When they broke apart, she called an official time-out.
“I cannot take this type of pressure,” Gem whined, bundling Rusty into his lap like the Pyclon was his emotional-support stuffie.
Once the time-out ended, the defensive line returned to the field, joined by Dex and Lynd.
“What are they doing?” Cya demanded of no one in particular.
The Lust players seemed just as thrown, but they were out of time-outs and with barely a minute on the clock, there was nothing for them to do but continue their offensive drive.
Lust managed two short plays before Dex and Lynd made their move. As the Lust handler pulled their arm back to throw a short pass, both Lynd and Dex abandoned the receivers they were covering and ran, instead, toward the line of scrimmage.
“What are they doing?” Cya shrieked again, but, again, no one responded.
One of Pride’s defensive linemen, a Bovyn named Tamor, stopped his forward push, angling his body so the Lust defender stumbled. Then Tamor dropped to a crouch and hunched over, spine curved toward the sky, and Dex was suddenly there.
Right as the handler released the dysc, Dex jumped and launched himself off Tamor’s back, right in front of the flying dysc.
Everyone in the stands surged to their feet as Dex plucked the dysc out of the air.
Gravity started to drag him down, but, twisting his body impossibly, he bared his teeth in a silent snarl and flung the dysc in the opposite direction.
It sailed down the field, slicing through the air. Right into Lynd’s waiting hands.
With no one there covering her, she easily caught the dysc mid-sprint, and with the roar of the crowd and her teammates behind her, the Nyko raced against the clock toward the goal line. Five seconds. Then Four. Then three. Then—
Lynd crossed the goal line and threw her head back, yowling into the sky, and the night filled with a thunderous cacophony of cheers. The entire Pride team, including the coach and the mascot, stormed the field, and both Dex and Lynd were lost amidst teeming bodies.
Cya screamed until they were hoarse, hugging Ellyn, then Jasmyn, then Hemersyn. They even let themself get pulled into a group hug with Gem, Toni, and the rest. Abi and Zef remained outside the multi-person embrace, though Zef promised they were celebrating with them all in spirit.
Since there was technically a few seconds left on the clock, the referee blew their whistle insistently until the Pride team finally vacated the field. Lust didn’t even bother executing a full play. The handler simply took a knee and let the final two seconds pass.
When the buzzer sounded, everyone celebrated anew, and the field flooded with the Pride team, along with cameras from news outlets and magazines.
Cya, Ellyn, and Jasmyn shoved their way to the railing as the championship trophy was brought out.
Lynd—perched on Dex’s shoulders—held it high for all to see as the stadium went wild.
As the celebrations on the field continued, Cya caught sight of Dex’s sweaty, blond fur moving through the crowd toward them.
With a running start, he scrabbled up the brick wall to latch onto the railing, and he heaved himself up high enough to receive a kiss from his mother and noogie from Jasmyn.
Cya anchored themself to the railing with their tail and nearly hurled themself over it completely so they could hug him. “You were brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!”
“Did you see the pass?” he asked, chest heaving with emotion and adrenaline. “Did you see? I didn’t hesitate. I just—I just threw it, Cy!”
“Incredible,” they laughed, covering his face with kisses. “Insane, but fucking incredible.”
With a grunt, Dex dropped back to the ground, then lifted his hands in invitation. Clumsily, Cya climbed over the railing and threw themself into his waiting arms, screeching in anxious elation.
He spun them around, laughing and howling, and they clung to his neck as they joined in his jubilation. Their kisses were messy and graceless, but Cya wouldn’t have traded them for all the money in the world.
“Dex Triever, how did you do it?”
“Was it your idea?”
“How did you know it would work?”
Both Cya and Dex startled as cameras and reporters converged on them. Dex put Cya down, arm anchoring them to his sweaty side as he said, “Uh, what?”
“Is this your girlfriend? I bet she’s proud of you,” one of the reporters said, and Dex shook his head.
“Oh, no, they’re not my girlfriend; they’re my partner. ’Cause they’re a nonbinary baddie, and I’m a little gay,” he said shamelessly. In front of reporters. And cameras. On live television.
A beat of awkward silence passed before Cya burst into laughter, and Dex beamed at them, tail wagging harder than ever.
“You’re a fool, Dex Triever,” they cried, cupping his face in their hands. “A brilliant fool, and I adore you.”
“Of course you do. It’s destiny, remember?” he said before he swooped in and kissed them again.
Lights flashed, and cameras clicked. Cya’s entire body was blushing at this point, but they were too elated to care. Tomorrow, they’d be mortified, but right now? Right now, they were in Dex’s arms, and they were happy, and they were home.
When they parted, Cya lifted a hand, palm-out. “Destiny high-five?”
Dex’s tail wagged gleefully as he crowed, “Destiny high-freaking-five!”
Palms meeting, fingers threading together, Cya and Dex both smiled and, like a secret between them, whispered, “Boom.”