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"What the fuck were you thinking, Beomgyu?!”
Yeonjun comes into the locker room last, but his entrance is the loudest, the door slamming shut behind him. Some of the other players startle, the newer ones who haven't scene a scene like this before, and everyone except for Yeonjun and Beomgyu looks towards their captain, waiting to see if he'll step in.
Soobin takes off his neck-guard and doesn't say anything, but he keeps his eyes trained on the two forwards while he takes his gear off bit by bit.
Beomgyu seems content with ignoring Yeonjun, lifting his jersey to take it off instead of replying, but the other player reaches out to grab the hem of it, stopping him.
“Look at me when I'm talking to you,” he snaps.
It works, because Beomgyu does look at him, glaring right in his face. “Why? What do you want me to say? I already got chewed out by the coach for it – stop taunting them, Beomgyu, you're gonna get your team in trouble. Did I, though? I got that guy kicked from the match, and I got us an advantage, which we used to win —” he looks around the room, at the other players, his eyes lingering on Soobin, who still doesn't tell them to cut it out. “Unless you guys forgot.”
Yeonjun lets go of Beomgyu's jersey to gesture at his face. “Yeah, and you lost a freaking tooth for your trouble.”
Beomgyu grins at him, showing off the gap in his smile, then wincing when it pulls at his split lip. “And I'm gonna get it fixed with the money we'll get for putting on a good show – the sponsors are gonna love it.”
A thin stream of blood starts to run down Beomgyu's chin, and if Yeonjun was just about to calm down, the sight of it seems to wind him up all over again.
“If the guy had shoved you any harder, you could've ended up with a concussion and out of the game for the rest of the season.”
Before Beomgyu can protest, another voice joins in, from the other side of the room where Taehyun's working his skates open. “Wasn't gonna happen,” he says, calmly but loud enough to cut through the awkward stillness in the locker room. Getting the left skate off his foot, he looks up at Yeonjun, who's looking at him with wide, startled eyes. “Hyuka and I had his back. We'd both get kicked before we let him get seriously hurt.”
Next to him, Kai smiles, awkwardly but valiantly. “I'd catch him myself if it looked like he was gonna go down. Rom-com style.”
Beomgyu snorts, taking the attempt at levity for what it was, and finally getting his jersey over his head and onto the bench. Yeonjun still doesn't seem entirely calm.
“What Yeonjun's trying to say,” their captain adds, hesitating just a little when the entire team pauses in taking off their gear to look at him. “Is that winning one match is not worth losing you for the rest of the season – especially not over something stupid like a fist fight in the attacking zone when we've already got the upper hand. The coach told you – we've only got one extra forward to put up, and you're first line. Do you wanna fuck up our best forward line just to get to tell some guy you're gonna fuck his mom?”
“I actually told him to take me out to dinner later if he really likes bending me over the goal that much,” Beomgyu quips in response, casually undoing the straps of his chest guard.
Yeonjun clicks his tongue, but he's obviously relaxed a little bit.
Soobin rolls his eyes, but it's obvious he's struggling to keep a straight face. “Look, Gyu – you can rely on the backs, sure; I trust them to have it under control, too. But you never know what could happen, and sometimes it's just not worth the risk. Who's gonna fuck up my perfectly good face-off passes if you end up in the hospital?”
It makes the other guys laugh, and Beomgyu flips Soobin off with a sour look on his face. “Fuck you, if you won face-off more often, I'd actually have experience handling your passes.”
Their teammates seem just as amused by the second jab as the first, and Soobin rolls his eyes even harder. “Alright, alright — this is a locker room, not a comedy club, everybody shut up and get your gear off before the coach comes in.”
Everybody obeys, even Yeonjun, who pats Beomgyu's back before stalking off to his own spot on the bench. Beomgyu keeps poking at his sore jaw while the coach debriefs them with the familiar mix of praise and nagging, and he gets a little quiet while putting his normal clothes on for the ride to their hotel. They stream out of the locker room one by one, Yeonjun one of the first ones to go, with a swat to Beomgyu's ass and a grumbled "Good game.” as a peace offering Beomgyu takes with a smirk and a wink in response. They're all good; Yeonjun had a point, even though he was loud about delivering it, even though it was kind of soft-hearted of him to care so much about a single broken tooth and a split lip. Beomgyu takes it for what it is, once the heat has gone down – Yeonjun cares about his buddy on the other side of the ice, the other wing to his dream attack line. Yeonjun is worried about having to play without him; it's kind of sweet, really.
Kai takes a bit longer to get dressed while Taehyun sits, already ready to go, next to him, messing around on his phone. They always leave together; even though they work at a completely different pace, just like on the ice. Once Kai is ready too, they get up and go straight to Beomgyu instead of out the door, one on each side, like they're cornering him.
“Sorry about your tooth,” Kai says quietly, sheepish.
“Not your fault,” Beomgyu returns easily; he's not sure why everyone is making such a big deal out of this – he's fine. “YJ and Soobin are right. I talked the guy into punching me. You couldn't really skate over and shut me up, could you.”
Kai chews on his lip while looking at Beomgyu's bloody one. “Should've separated you two quicker.”
“You couldn't have known he was gonna go gloves off on me—” Beomgyu snorts, poking at his jaw again. “Took me by surprise, too.”
“I'll fuck him up for you, next time we play 'em,” Taehyun offers a little too enthusiastically. “I'll bodycheck him into next Sunday – he's gonna wish he took you out to wine and dine you instead.”
It makes Beomgyu laugh, which seems to have been the entire purpose of this, because Taehyun looks very satisfied with himself. “Soobin's gonna have your head if he picks up on it.”
“Soobin talks a big game, but we all know he's soft for his teammates – especially for his own forward line,” he lets that linger, deliberately, until Beomgyu looks over to where Soobin is listening to two of their other forwards, in full captain mode, open and attentive to what the others have to say. “The coach might tear my head off, though.”
“You better be careful about it, then,” Beomgyu replies innocently, careful not to smile at Taehyun too widely. He's wearing a white T-shirt, he shouldn't get blood on it.
Taehyun pats him on the shoulder before leaving, and Kai pulls him into a weirdly tight hug and makes a show of smacking his lips loudly right by his ear like he's kissing his head, then laughs way too loudly when Beomgyu pushes him away in mock disgust. They invite him to the room they're sharing at the hotel after they get back for some snacks they're not supposed to have, and then they leave.
Beomgyu stays; doesn't rush through packing his stuff and putting his jacket on like he could. The few remaining players leave, including the ones Soobin was talking to earlier, and then Beomgyu is really just pretending he's double-checking if he packed his water bottle as Soobin comes up to him, his bag slung over his shoulder, and he's never looked more like a high school crush waiting by his locker, with his hair still a little wet and messy across his forehead, in a lined jean jacket Yeonjun got him for his birthday, looking at his feet when he stops next to Beomgyu.
“Well, that was a shit show.”
Beomgyu shrugs and shoulders his own bag. “We won the match.”
“You know what I mean.”
Yes, he does. “You handled it well.”
“You shouldn't have baited him into that fight.”
Beomgyu pokes at his lip with his tongue. “I guess not.”
Soobin reaches for his face and Beomgyu lets him cup it in his palms, inspecting the damage, soothing the ache in his jaw away with his touch. “If you're gonna let them ruin your mouth, how am I gonna make it to the end of the season?” A cheeky grin grows on his face as he says it, and Beomgyu rolls his eyes hard, shoving at his chest.
“Of course you're pissed because of how much it sucks for you.”
“I have needs as the captain of this team – who am I gonna kiss silly to celebrate this win?”
“Yeonjun?” Beomgyu offers, but he reaches out to hold onto Soobin's side under his open jacket, anyway. “You've got two wings next to you for a reason.”
Soobin snorts, then bends down to kiss the corner of Beomgyu's mouth, on the uninjured side. “You should take better care of yourself.”
“Or else?”
Soobin takes his hand away from Beomgyu's face to threaten him with a fist jokingly and Beomgyu laughs, then whines when it makes his lip hurt again.
“This sucks. Maybe I did fuck up.”
With another eye roll, Soobin kisses the side of Beomgyu's mouth again, and then his chin. “You did well. You forced a foul, and it gave us the boost we needed to score." He bumps their noses together. “Don't tell the coach I said that.”
“Are you being irresponsible for me? That's so hot,” Beomgyu teases, tilts his head to press his nose into Soobin's cheek, digging into his dimple. He wants to kiss him, but this'll do. “Tell me more. Talk dirty to me – are you gonna leave your mouth guard in the dressing room for me next time?”
Soobin laughs, and wraps his arms around him. “How about I mess up the guy who punched you instead? Make sure he takes a nice flying leap onto his own bench next time.”
Beomgyu hums. “Taehyun beat you to it, he's already got a payback coming, he offered to tackle him for me in the next match.”
“I thought Taehyun was the responsible one on the team.”
“Seems like my face is just too precious; someone's gotta pay for ruining it.”
Soobin makes a thoughtful little sound that Beomgyu feels reverberate through his own face. “It's pretty precious.”
Faux startled, Beomgyu pulls away from the hug to stare at him. “You're admitting it, just like that?”
“Don't push it,” Soobin scolds, but the tug at the corners of his mouth is obvious. “We should get going before someone comes looking for us.”
It's true, but Beomgyu can admit to himself that he just doesn't want to hear it right now. He wants to keep hugging Soobin and getting gentle kisses pressed to his face until his jaw and lip stop hurting.
“It's fine,” he argues, pulling Soobin closer by the waist, nuzzling his cheek into his shirt. “They all think you're giving me a stern talking-to right now.”
“I am giving you a stern talking-to,” Soobin says while patting the back of his head instead. “You should listen to your captain and your coach, or I'm not gonna share the milk candy I snuck in in my jacket with you on the bus.”
Beomgyu gasps and pulls back again, putting his hands over his mouth as carefully as he can while still maintaining his scandalized expression. “You have candy?! You're so irresponsible, captain.”
Soobin shakes his head, pulling the bag of candies out of his inner jacket pocket. “I thought it was a turn-on for you.”
“Oh, it is – you said candy and boom, I got an instant semi.” Soobin snorts, but he also looks down to check, which Beomgyu thinks is adorable. Still, he says the next thing a bit more seriously. “Can we share some of that with Hyuka, too, though? I would've gotten it even worse if he didn't get the guy off of me.”
Soovin presses his lips together and nods. “Yeah – he deserves it.”
“And Yeonjun, for scoring the most important goal, and Taehyun, for blocking that shot, and—”
“The whole team can't have candy, Beomgyu.”
Beomgyu pouts and huffs. “Why not?”
“Because I bought it for us. And you won't tell on me to the coach, because I have blackmail on you too.”
“Wow, so I'm getting special treatment? That's so irresponsible of you, captain.”
Soobin looks a little pained at this point, and Beomgyu thinks it's a cute look on him, too. “Why are you so into this?”
Laughing, Beomgyu links their arms together, leaning heavily into Soobin while they finally start slowly walking out of the dressing room and towards the entrance.
“I'm just into you~” he singsongs, then startles when Soovin stops them in the middle of the hallway, reaching over to tilt Beomgyu's face towards himself and kissing the bridge of his nose, then the corner of his mouth again.
“I'm sorry,” he says with a smile when he pulls away again. “That was irresponsible of me.”