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It was starting to rain just as they got inside. The light was low, grey and white from the fluorescent ceiling lamps. The team huddled in the narrow changing room, sweat, humidity and mud sticking to the skin.
Outside, the sound of thunder reverberated in the distance. Inside, loud rambling and the occasional shouting echoed, bouncing off the tiles in the open showers on one side and the metal lockers on the other.
Harry got shoved hard, he turned around to see that it was Hank, so he shoved him back. They laughed. His friend stood bouncing on his feet.
“Drinks later?”
“Are you on crack?” Harry croaked, the cold weather finally getting to him while he wrestled out of his clothes with sore arms.
Hank kept practically jogging in place, grinning.
“Man I wish! Gotta keep the blood flowing. Guess who’ll be at the Roadhouse tonight.”
Harry furrowed his brows and pretended to think very hard about it.
“Perhaps some ladies we happen to know?”
“Ding ding ding you win!”
Hank shot finger guns at him. He stopped jumping and put both hands on Harry’s shoulders.
“So, drinks? Don’t make me show up alone like a weirdo, man.”
“Only if Hawk is coming. I’ll want some company too after you run off to do your thing, weirdo.”
Hank looked around, not letting go of him. Harry silently noted that he didn’t mind the pressure on his achy muscles.
“Hawk!”
Their friend was walking towards the showers. He looked over his shoulder, shouted “There at nine!” over the loud chatter and kept going.
“Oh. He was listening. Great!” Hank seemed satisfied with the arrangement. He gave him an unceremonious slap on the arm and jogged back to his locker, whistling to himself.
Harry stood for a moment, dirty uniform in his hands, contemplating the tingling sensation where his friend’s hands had just squeezed and slapped him. Hank’s energy was often loud and contagious, but they weren’t quite used to being all hands-on outside of the field.
He liked it.
It felt weird to like it.
A frustrated sigh escaped him while he finished undressing and gathered his stuff. He absently answered to someone saying goodbye, waved back at Hank too, who winked; then tried to think of ways to diffuse the situation in case Ed was going to be there with Norma later.
By the time he got to the showers too, most of the team was leaving. The air was dense with steam, and he was still acutely aware of every inch of his body. Hawk was standing in a corner, patiently lathering his thick long hair with some product. It was down to the middle of his back.
Harry stood under a shower head, turning it colder in hopes to shake the weirdness off. His eyes wandered back to Hawk. He noticed how wide his shoulders had gotten over the past year. Sure, he knew his friend was strong, they had been playing football together for a while, but he had never actually looked at his muscles.
Completely mesmerised, he kept observing Hawk’s movements, his beautiful hair and thick biceps. The soapy water was a nice contrast on his dark skin. It accentuated every dip and curve of his toned back, and glided smoothly down to his glutes, into his…
Harry looked away, mentally cursing himself out.
He felt warm and tingly all over. He wanted to get on with his shower and get out quickly, but his skin was already on fire and rubbing his own hands on himself was excruciating.
He wondered if he could wait to be alone and relieve himself right there. A wave of shame killed that thought.
Get out and go home, he told himself. At least be decent.
Suddenly, Hawk was back under the shower stream, right next to him. He tried very hard not to think about it. About the warmth radiating from his body, his shiny skin, the fact he could spot in the corner of his eye every shape moving and oh god he felt like an idiot. They had been doing this their whole lives. It was never weird. It definitely didn’t need to be weird.
His friend turned slightly around, he caught a glimpse of his chest and quickly looked away.
Why, why are you such an idiot, Harry Truman.
“You like what you see?”
Hawk’s voice was flat but it made him jump out of his skin anyway.
“I wasn’t looking!” He blurted out. He started rinsing himself too, praying every existing god that his body wasn’t betraying him.
Hawk laughed.
“Yes you were.” He didn’t sound offended, but Harry felt his face go warm with embarrassment anyway.
Hawk kept tending to his hair without looking at him, and insisted:
“So?”
Underneath the layers of self-doubt Harry knew, that If there was one person in town who wasn’t going to bully him over nature, it was his best friend. Something in his calm voice was even pushing him to treat it like a perfectly normal conversation.
He sighed loudly.
“You look great.”
“Thanks. I know.”
I know. Yeah that was his Tommy.
He smiled, then shoved his face under the water so he could close his eyes one second.
Breathe.
“I’m kinda jealous.” He added, trying to sound casual.
Hawk stepped in between him and the tiled wall and leaned back, arms crossed, visibly amused by the whole ordeal. Harry took a step back. The other openly sized him up before looking back at his face.
He had the urge to hide, but forced himself to hold his gaze.
Don’t look down don’t look don’t look-
“No need to be jealous. You’re nice to look at too.”
Suddenly a warm hand was on his bicep, fingers lazily caressing his wet skin. He raised his eyebrow in …questioning? Warning? He wasn’t even sure. His stomach was swirling.
Now, that was a line crossed. Everyone knew the one simple rule: no touching in the showers. Absolutely no touching in the showers or nothing was going to save the rest of your social life.
Except this time they were alone. And Tommy-hawk Hill had certainly seen too much to give a damn anyway.
Harry refused to look down to check the extent of the damage, because he could feel his lower body betraying him big time. Hawk, still watching intently, squeezed his arm and moved to dragging his knuckles along his collarbone, then down to his nipple. He gently pinched it and Harry bit down on his tongue hard, swallowed. He wasn’t going to moan in his face, hell no. Instead, he decided to grab his friend’s hand in return.
It felt so much different than the million of other times they had touched. He let his eyes wander down his body, finally satisfying his curiosity. When he looked up again, he was relieved to see that his friend seemed at least a bit unsure too.
“This alright?” Hawk muttered, eyes darting up and down.
Harry nodded. A smile spontaneously formed on his lips. He was starting to feel a bit high.
“Just don’t be weird, man.”
Hawk smirked and pulled him against his chest. It looked a lot like a friendly hug, except they were naked and wet and he could feel all his thick muscles gripping him tight and a suffocating warmth swallowed them, blurring his thoughts. Their cocks pressed against each other. Harry shivered and held his breath.
He was rock hard. Hawk was too, and when he pushed into Harry’s groin it felt bigger than he expected. Not that he actually knew what to expect.
He slid a hand in between their bodies, grabbed both their cocks and tentatively started stroking them together. Tommy shamelessly groped his ass to keep them as close as possible, and Harry finally relaxed completely. They were in it together. Nothing to hide. He let his head drop on his friend’s shoulder with all his weight, and felt Hawk’s chin rest on top of his curls.
They stayed like that, breathing together in the heat of the moment, Hawk’s hips rocking in time with Harry’s hand. They held each other, groping everywhere they could reach, they were breathing in each other’s scent and chasing the addictive feeling the friction was giving them.
Hawk snuck his hand in too to touch him. They ended up just stroking each other, clumsily trying to keep grinding against each other’s bodies. Harry still had his face in the nook of his neck and found himself pressing his lips to the skin, though not moving further. Hawk grabbed him again with his free hand to hold him in place as he started thrusting quicker.
Harry saw white when he came. He almost stopped breathing as every single muscle in his body spasmed. He heard Hawk grunt against him, felt their spill mixing on his stomach and dripping down his hand.
They took some time to come down from their high, panting, still leaning on each other. His legs were shaky.
Eventually, he pulled away, took a step back to catch some cold water before fainting. He lightly touched Hawk’s elbow to say come here, and he joined him without a word.
They cleaned themselves and got dressed silently, never touching again but always keeping in close proximity of each other. Harry’s mind stayed blissfully empty.
When they stepped out of the building, it was dark. It had stopped raining, but the air was chilly.
That night, they showed up at the Roadhouse like nothing happened. They had a drink, followed Hank in his attempts at socialising with Norma's whole friend group, listened to the music. Harry even got to have a nice chat with one of the girls, while Hawk stood at the bar for a while with Big Ed.
It might as well have not happened, for how little they acknowledged it, but Harry knew this was exactly why they liked each other so much.
Close proximity, no questions asked.