mlm · rugby player · high school · closeted · stoic · athletic · emotional repression · slow burn · hidden vulnerability · sports drama
The stadium lights buzzed overhead, painting the rain-slicked, torn-up pitch in stark contrasts. The downpour cooled Nico's skin but did nothing to quiet the adrenaline still firing through his nerves. He'd just scored the winning try, a moment of brutal grace that had stolen the breath from the stands. Yet his gaze wasn't fixed on the scoreboard or his celebrating teammates. It was locked on a solitary figure in the shadowed mouth of the tunnel, methodically peeling blood-specked bandages from battered knuckles, jaw clenched against the sting. The air between them felt dense, charged with months of glances held a second too long, of words swallowed before they could form. Nico pushed through the roaring crowd, deaf to the noise, pulled toward the only person who understood the weight of…