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dragontatt
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foreverbmTitle: Unraveling, Interlude 1
Author: dragontatt
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Neither Shelter nor Without a Trace belong to me. No profit is being made from this work of fiction, and no disrespect is intended.
Word Count: 1828
Even years later, Shaun could still remember the exact moment he noticed Martin. Not the first time he saw him, that was a little more vague. That had to have been during Rush Week. But he’d been to so many houses at USC, so many smokers that all the faces blurred together long before he got his bid for Sigma Chi. Then school started and the time sped by, with classes and the long weeks of not-quite hazing the pledges went through and the drinking - lots and lots of drinking. He did have one hazy pseudo-memory of startlingly blue eyes crinkling at him in obvious amusement for a moment before their owner threw a trashcan at him one wasted October night, but he might be wishfully rewriting history to call them Martin’s.
No – the first time for sure he noticed Martin was one lazy Sunday his first year of college. His folks had taken Gabe and a buddy of his to Mexico over Christmas break and so as a newly initiated Sigma Chi, he did the only logical thing - he hung around the chapter house the entire time, cadging beers and smokes off the brothers who’d stayed behind and counting down the days till his sophomore year. That’s when he could officially move in and leave dorm life – and his roommate who snored loudly and tended to throw up everywhere after a night on the town – far, far behind.
Sundays were usually quiet around the house and since it was technically still vacation, at least for another thirty-six hours, the place was practically deserted. He’d been stretched out one of the many sofas downstairs, snoozing with his sunglasses on to keep out all traces of light. The guys he’d partied with the night before had disappeared somewhere, leaving him to contemplate whether it was worth getting off the couch to go in search of coffee. He’d just about decided no, it wasn’t, when a rumbling noise started up outside. It was low at first, but got louder in a hurry as it moved down The Row and by the time the car screeched to a halt out front, radio blaring loud enough to shake the front porch and send dust motes flying off the ceiling fan, Shaun was up and stumbling into the kitchen. No sense trying to sleep now - that noise had rattled his brain but good. He made a cup of Sanka in the microwave and downed a couple aspirin from the huge bottle on the windowsill. He paused at the backdoor to make sure his shades were on right and then headed out with a grimace into the California sunshine.
He headed straight for one of the grimy chaise lounges that were fanned out in an arc under the limbs of a couple scrawny pine trees and sat carefully after brushing a few stray pine needles away. You could never be too sure when one of the chairs would break suddenly and throw you to the ground without warning. But this one seemed secure and so he leaned back, took another sip of coffee and closed his eyes with a contented sigh.
It was a cool, beautiful morning, the sun was streaming through the tree branches above him and the wind blew away the remnants of smoke that still clung to his clothes from the night before. He took a deep breath to clear his head – the air smelled of pine and bark and freshly mowed grass. Between the houses he could see a couple of girls jog slowly by. He could almost make out their conversation as it floated toward him on the breeze.
He blinked slowly, sight blurring from the sunshine that danced among the branches overhead, and then his eyes slipped closed. His half empty coffee cup dropped from his hand where it hung over the edge of the chair. The luke-warm contents spilled and made a puddle in the dirt. He sighed once in his sleep, a tiny contented noise quickly swallowed up by the sun and the air and the silence around him.
Ten minutes of blissful sleep later and the back door flew open and bounced off the house with a loud crash. A raucous group of guys spilled out onto the porch and down the stairs, laughing loudly and tossing a volleyball between them.
They paid no attention to Shaun, glaring at them in silence from his chair, but quickly picked three-on-three sides on the volleyball court. There was a vicious four-round game of rock-paper-scissors for first service, and then some more laughter and a few well-chosen epithets later, the game was on.
An athletic looking blonde senior Shaun thought might be named Paul served first, tossing the ball nonchalantly in the air before spiking it hard over the net. It landed inches from one of his opponent’s feet, sending up a plume of sand that the other boy angrily brushed off of his high-tops before throwing the ball back for another serve.
Shaun was more awake now, idly watching the game with one arm tucked beneath his head. He knew a couple of the players by name, the others by sight – they were all junior and senior frat brothers. The two he didn’t recognize he nicknamed persnickety, for his nearly obsessive shoe brushing and plaidboy, for his red and black flannel shirt.
Some girls from the Kappa house next door noticed the game from a back window and wandered out to watch, giggling and pointing in groups on their porch. The game went on, hard fought and sloppy, with long pauses for loud and vigorous arguments over in or out.
Shaun was certain one disputed point early on in the game would lead to an actual fist fight between Paul and the persnickety guy until plaidboy stepped in between them and talked softly a moment. Finally they parted and each went back to their own sides, a bit grudgingly perhaps, and play resumed with yet another wicked serve.
The game dragged on and Shaun lost track of both the time and the score, especially after someone at the Kappa house opened a second story window, aimed a boom box outside and started blaring the Top Gun soundtrack. He did perk up a little when all the guys stripped off their shirts when Danger Zone came on, although he was careful not to be too obvious about it. Admiring some naked chests from a safe distance was okay, getting a visible hard-on while checking out his frat brothers was not.
Shaun sat up a bit and stretched his arms over his head. The sun was shining brighter now and even though it was January the volleyball players had a fine sheen of sweat across their upper bodies. He was wondering vaguely if it was time for lunch, because he realized he was staring blatantly at plaidboy’s chest when an errant spike sent the ball flying his way. Of course, he wasn’t actually watching the game so it ricocheted off his thigh into his forehead and he sat bolt upright with a loud, “Goddammit!”
Shaun blushed when the crowd on the Kappa porch erupted into giggles and the players hooted and laughed. He swung his legs off the chaise lounge, turning his back on everyone and stood up to go chase down the ball. He grabbed it from where it had landed in a clump of bushes and turned, planning on throwing it back, hopefully hitting someone in the head in the process.
But there in front of him stood plaidboy, still naked to the waist and showing off the smooth pale skin that Shaun had been admiring from afar. He had gorgeous blue eyes and a concerned look on his face. “You okay?”
“Yeah man, I’m fine. I was asleep,” Shaun lied with an easy smile and a quick glance over plaidboy’s shoulder. The teams were getting restless.
“Hung over, huh?” Plaidboy smiled, dimples popping. “Getting hit in the head won’t help that. Maybe you should nap somewhere else as long as Paul’s playing, he doesn’t have the best control.”
Shaun blinked back a rush of disappointment as he handed the ball over before saying, “I’ll do that.”
Plaidboy smiled again before he turned and jogged off, nonchalantly tossing the ball underhanded to his teammate.
That’d been all there was – plaidboy (Shaun later found out his name was Martin) had remained tantalizingly distant for months after that first (second?) meeting. Not on purpose of course, but he was busy being a junior to Shaun’s freshman, and so they didn’t get too much of a chance to hang out.
But the next year, Shaun could finally get out of the dorm and into the frat house, and Martin’s senior roommate graduated and moved out. His roommate had been one of the few graduates who had actually still lived in the house, most having moved into any of the over-crowded, overly-priced student apartment complexes that circled the edge of the USC campus like a dotted line. There was a lottery to see which lucky person would end up sharing one of the bigger rooms instead of being crammed into one of the smaller ones, and in what Shaun decided was a lovely quirk of fate, he ended up as Martin’s roommate.
As he quickly found out, being Martin’s roommate meant he had quite a few perks – a bigger room where he wouldn’t have to sleep in a tiny bunk bed, a small fridge where he could sequester his beer from the thirsty mob and a math whiz for a roommate who never minded helping Shaun with his Advanced Calculus homework and who also happened to be on the swim team with the requisite swimmer’s body, long and lean. And fortunately for Shaun, Martin wasn’t shy about showing off parts of that body. Their first Saturday as roommates, Shaun had been awakened by a naked-to-the-waist, boxer-shorts-wearing Martin leaning over him and shaking his arm saying, “C’mon man, the guys are gonna play Frisbee. You wanna come?” It had taken an admirable amount of just woken up self control for Shaun to merely nod and not say ‘oh yeah.’
But eventually Shaun got used to Martin’s free and easy way with skin, even though it seemed completely at odds with his shy and rather repressed nature. In the locker room or their room at the frat house, Martin could strip down with the best of them, but let a pretty blonde Kappa show any interest in him and he went from bold athlete to blushing goofball in a heartbeat.
So all in all, having Martin as a roommate was pretty terrific, and if on some nights Shaun would wake up disoriented and sweaty and hard after a particularly detailed dream, and if the next day he was filled with a longing that was difficult to suppress – well, that was okay. Certainly better than being back in the dorms anyway.
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(no subject)
8/4/10 03:28 (UTC)(no subject)
13/4/10 15:04 (UTC)(no subject)
8/4/10 07:02 (UTC)(no subject)
13/4/10 15:07 (UTC)(no subject)
8/4/10 07:11 (UTC)As for the story itself, I love it so far too. It's an interesting concept for a fic, and you execute it really well. I can't wait to see where it goes.
Your fic is always awesome, but this is one I really can't wait for. More soon! :)
(no subject)
13/4/10 15:11 (UTC)Glad you're enjoying the story so far. I'll be posting the next 'set' tonight or tomorrow at the latest.
(no subject)
8/4/10 08:36 (UTC)(no subject)
13/4/10 15:11 (UTC)(no subject)
8/4/10 19:02 (UTC)(no subject)
13/4/10 15:18 (UTC)(no subject)
13/4/10 15:18 (UTC)(no subject)
8/4/10 20:14 (UTC)I've never seen "Shelter", but don't feel lost at all - and coincidentally, I'd just finished looking at photos of Eric from "McKenna" where he's wearing a black and red plaid shirt .
One complaint - and maybe it's my layout and not yours - but the test is running into the boxes of info on the right-hand side of the page.
Looking forward to the rest, and as always, thanks for sharing.
(no subject)
13/4/10 15:23 (UTC)Shelter is lovely if you just need a little push to watch it ;)
I think I fixed the layout problem, let me know if it's still messed up when you read the next set, okay? I'll be posting those tonight or tomorrow at the latest.