#90: A Tale of Two Seekers
Aug. 23rd, 2015 06:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
exolliarmus“Hyung, be quiet! Do you want to get caught?” Sehun shushes Luhan, clamping a large hand over the older’s mouth. Luhan’s still doubled over in laughter, eyes crinkling at the corners as he presses a hand to his stomach, taking deep breaths to try and calm himself down. Sehun glares at him in annoyance, whipped cream still dripping off his face and onto the floor.
“You have whipped cream-” Luhan snorts, “-in your nostrils.” Sehun rolls his eyes at his boyfriend as he reaches for a nearby kitchen towel to wipe himself off.
An overly-ambitious charm had made the entire bowl of whipped cream flip up and empty its contents in Sehun’s face instead of onto the pumpkin pie he’d snuck out of the pantry, promptly reducing Luhan into a fit of very very loud giggles. Which would be fine, if they weren’t in the kitchen after hours, and awake far too late to not get at least a month’s detention if they got caught.
Sehun wrinkles his nose in disgust as he catches a whiff of lingering whipped cream. It smells like vomit, and Luhan doesn’t fail to tell him that.
“You smell like vomit.” Luhan states intelligently.
“Shut up, hyung.” Sehun groans, wishing Luhan would grow up and actually behave like a normal 18 year old.
Luhan just gives him a shit-eating grin as he leans against the back of the counter, pulling Sehun to his side. They sit in silence, enjoying each other’s company. It was nice; the silence was comfortable, not awkward or heavy. Sehun loved how Luhan made him feel like everything had stopped, pausing in its continuous cycle just to prolong the moments they spent together.
“How’s your preparation for the season?” Luhan asks, swiping a bit of whipped cream off Sehun’s brow with his finger and sticking it in his mouth.
Sehun makes a face. Luhan is so gross. “Could be better. Jongin’s kinda worried that the new Beaters haven’t improved as much as he’d wanted them to. Still kinda shaky on their brooms. And our Keeper’s just recovered from a broken arm, so he’s slowed down a bit.”
Luhan makes a noise of agreement. “Yeah, it’s the same with our new Keeper. After Yifan left we had to recruit a new one, but Yixing seems to have absolutely no idea how to whack a bludger away without falling off his broom. Our Chasers aren’t doing too well with their aim either. Minseok keeps missing the hoops by miles.”
Sehun giggles at the thought, stretching out to lie in Luhan’s lap. “Looks like neither of us are near ready for the season, huh?”
Luhan nods. “Kyungsoo’s getting really stressed. I hope he doesn’t get all angsty again. I hate it when he gets angsty, he starts whacking me whenever I do anything that vaguely annoys him.”
“Awww,” Sehun coos. “Poor baby. “Just tell me when he whacks you so I can kiss it better.”
“Well,” Luhan starts slowly. “He whacked me in the face with his Potions book today and my mouth still hurts, so…”
Sehun shakes his head, a grin spreading over his face. “Dr. Oh at your service.”
They’re leaning in for a kiss, eyes fluttering shut, when the doors to the kitchen whip open and they hear an angry voice resounding around the room.
“Alright, you troublemakers! Show yourselves! I know you’re in here!” It’s Mr Filch, the caretaker. He patrolled the school at night with his cat, Mrs Norris. He must’ve heard Luhan’s laughter or the bang or something, but it doesn’t matter because he was there, and Luhan and Sehun were going to get caught and they were going to be in so much trouble-
“Mrs Norris! Get back here!” They hear Filch yell, footsteps moving away from them and down the corridor instead. Mrs Norris must have seen a mouse or something, and Filch, as whipped for his cat as he is, was running after her instead, kitchen intruders forgotten. Sehun and Luhan waste no time in booking it the hell out of there, sprinting out from behind the kitchen counter they’d been hiding behind and back to their respective dormitories. They both get back to their beds in one piece, hearts still pounding from adrenaline highs as the blood rushes through their cheeks.
They fall asleep with thoughts of each other, and Sehun forgets that he still has whipped cream in his scalp.
Luhan and Sehun aren’t exactly the most likely couple. Luhan is a pure-blood Slytherin, from a long, long line of Slytherins, and has the cool demeanour and a mean streak to boot. Sehun is a Gryffindor, and a half blood born to a witch mother & a muggle father. While Luhan is calm, collected, and smart, the epitome of a model student, Sehun makes his cauldrons explode and transfigures his friends into mice.
Luhan and Sehun are also very much different, which is why nobody would ever imagine them as a couple, but it’s also why they are a couple. Where Sehun is reckless and messy, Luhan is sensible and organised. Where Luhan is sometimes uptight and stiff, Sehun is always relaxed and warm. They balance each other out; filling in the missing bits; like two pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly.
Sehun is the star seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and he has been since he joined the team 3 years ago as a Third Year. He’d played in all their matches since he joined the team, and he’d come through in all of them. Well, except for that one time a stray owl from the Owlery flew onto the pitch and distracted him, letting Kim Minseok from Hufflepuff grab the Snitch and win the Cup. And that time he’d eaten that candy Changmin had given him (against his better judgement) and had the worst case of diarrhea the matron had ever seen.
Luhan is the star seeker of his Quidditch team too, and has been since he joined Slytherin’s team 5 years ago as a little Second Year. He’d won all the matches he’d played in, making him one of the best seekers Hogwarts had ever seen. That is, until Oh Sehun came along and ruined his perfect streak.
The first Quidditch match Sehun ever played had been Gryffindor against Slytherin.They’d fought a close match, with some bloody noses and a broken finger, until Sehun had captured the Snitch right under Luhan’s nose. Luhan was angry and embarrassed at first, humiliated by a child with zero to none experience in playing Quidditch. Luhan hated losing, and the fact that he’d just been beat by a kid- he, Luhan! -made him want to charm spikes into the Gryffindor common room sofas.
But then Sehun had come up to him after the match, long after everyone else had left, looking sheepish and properly cute, muttering something about being sorry for smacking Luhan in the face with his sleeve. Luhan had stared at the scrawny boy before him, all soft baby features with flushed cheeks and mussed up hair. He didn’t remember getting smacked in the face at all, and for Sehun to have waited ages for him while he’d been angrily drawing out new formations in the locker room just to apologise for something so minor made his heart melt. So he’d smiled, patted Sehun on the shoulder, and decided Oh Sehun wasn’t so bad after all.
After that day, Luhan found himself running into Sehun a lot, even though they were from different years and different houses and had entirely different timetables. They’d run into each other in the toilets, or in random corridors, and basically all over the place. It bothered Luhan, how much he saw Sehun, and he hated how after some time, he found himself thinking more and more about the boy. He asked around about Sehun, and Minseok kindly informed him that Sehun was a year younger than he was and had in fact been asking around about Luhan too.
A week later, Luhan had rounded a corner when he crashed into a figure not much shorter than he was, sending the stack of books he’d just borrowed from the library flying everywhere, and the box of Quidditch uniforms the other had been carrying emptying all over the floor. Luhan had frantically muttered apologies, gathering up the uniforms while the other boy repeatedly apologised, stacking the books up one by one. Then he’d looked up, and he saw those same apologetic eyes he’d seen weeks ago, and his heart leapt. Sehun. Sehun had seemed happy to see him too, albeit still apologetic about crashing into Luhan. Luhan had brushed it off with a smile, and offered to help him with his Quidditch errands.
And so it began.
For the next 3 years, Luhan and Sehun were inseparable, but only in secret. For the first two years, they only kept their friendship secret because they were afraid of what their friends would say. A pureblood Slytherin and a half-blood Gryffindor, best friends? It made no sense. So they kept their friendship private, and let it stay their own little secret.
But then they became seniors in the team, and the reasons for keeping their friendship a secret changed. Luhan knew that Kyungsoo, his captain, would kill him if he found out he was friends with Sehun. Not only was Sehun brilliant at Quidditch and a Gryffindor, Kyungsoo also didn’t trust anyone outside of his immediate friend circle, which was made up of only the Slytherin Quidditch team and his childhood friend, Jongdae. Kyungsoo didn’t even trust some of the newbie players yet. Telling Kyungsoo about Sehun would be a disaster that Luhan didn’t even want to think about, let alone cause.
Sehun couldn’t tell Jongin, his best friend and captain, about Luhan either. Sehun and Jongin had joined the team at around the same time, and they’d been thick as thieves ever since. Jongin was fiercely competitive, with a determined streak that showed in the neck vein that popped every time Jongin got that familiar steely look in his eye. Not to mention, Jongin hated Kyungsoo with a passion, claiming that Kyungsoo wasn’t a good enough player to be captain, and it pissed him off (or so he claimed, Sehun reckoned it was because Jongin had a crush on Kyungsoo in Third Year that never developed into anything more despite Jongin’s best efforts and he was just being bitter).
So they kept their friendship (relationship?) a secret, and prayed nobody would walk in on their secret study meetings (dates?) in the library. It was tough, and more often than not one of them would have to scramble to hide behind bookshelves or duck under the table whenever someone walked by. Though it was complicated keeping their friendship a secret, neither of them wanted to give up the other’s company. Sehun wasn’t even sure if they were still just friends, but he didn’t want to risk making things awkward with Luhan, so he chose to stay silent and pretended that he didn’t feel electricity spark under his skin every time Luhan touched him.
Unfortunately, Luhan felt the exact same way, and so they danced around each other for ages, blushing whenever either of them got too close or if their hands accidentally brushed. It was a painful cycle, but they felt like their friendship was balancing on such thin ice neither wanted to do anything to risk it. Until one day a month ago, when Luhan had drunk too much butterbeer on his Thanksgiving trip out to Hogsmeade and returned to the castle with a warm belly and a courageous heart, and confessed to Sehun. Sehun had stared at Luhan with wide eyes, making Luhan think he had made a grave mistake and ruined their friendship, but then Sehun had smiled the shyest smile and pecked Luhan on the cheek. They’d spent the night listening to Sehun’s muggle music and holding hands, relishing in their new relationship.
“Why can’t you just fly faster?” Jongin shouts, making frustrated grabby hands at thin air. “If you don’t go fast enough to whack the Bludgers away, Sehun is going to get hit in the face and we’ll lose the Snitch and our Seeker! Do you want that to happen?”
Chanyeol cowers at Jongin’s harsh tone even though he’s a good 3 inches taller than the captain, making him looking quite comical. His large ears were beginning to turn red at the tip, even flattening out just a bit. Sehun couldn’t help but chuckle at how easily embarrassed Chanyeol was. He was the newest addition to the team, after Baekhyun. Baekhyun wasn’t doing too well either, but Chanyeol’s height seemed to make him even less balanced on a broom than Baekhyun’s lack of hand-eye coordination did.
Jongin had spent the entire training trying to train the Beaters’ speed, making them do drills after drills, but Chanyeol was going too slow to keep up with the fast pace of a Quidditch match. If they went into the game like that, Sehun was going to get slugged in the face with a Bludger within the first ten minutes.
After Jongin finishes yelling at Chanyeol and sends him off to the changing room, Sehun jogs over to his best friend. “Hey, Jongin. I was thinking, since Slytherin’s got a weak Keeper, we could focus on getting some goals in early on in the game so we can distract them a bit, maybe make them whack the Bludgers at the Chasers instead of me.
“Their Chasers aren’t too good either, so we’ve got to make sure that Junmyeon rests his arm properly and gets back in form. Keeping their Quaffles out shouldn’t be too hard. Zitao can’t really throw anything too hard without complaining anyway.” Sehun laughs. “Don’t be too hard on Chanyeol, he’s improved a fair bit for someone with that little hand-eye coordination.”
Jongin laughs along with him, snorting at the mention of Chanyeol. He and Sehun pack up and get ready to hit the showers so they can head to dinner, their stomachs grumbling after the long practice they’d just had. They’re almost at the changing room when Jongin stops in his tracks.
“What’s wrong?” Sehun asks, confused.
“How did you know all that? About Slytherin?” Jongin says, slowly looking up at Sehun. “You’re not friends with anyone from Slytherin. How did you know all that about their team?”
Sehun gulps. His heart’s racing as he panics. Jongin can’t find out about him and Luhan, if not he’ll run to Kyungsoo and it’ll mess everything up. “I… I overheard them talking about it in the Great Hall.”
Jongin doesn’t look completely convinced. “You’re not hanging out with any Slytherins, are you?”
“No!” Sehun says, a little too quickly. “Of course not! What makes you think that?”
“Well… You seem to know an awful lot about them. Our tables aren’t even next to each other. How did you hear all that stuff? It’s not like Kyungsoo to be that careless with his Quidditch information.” Jongin looks skeptical, eyes narrowed.
Sehun is panicking more and more by the second. He needs to come up with a lie to get Jongin off his back, at least for the time being. “It wasn’t Kyungsoo, it was Jongdae. You know how loud he is.”
Jongin’s doubtful expression clears. He does know how loud Kim Jongdae is, if the loud screeches from the back of the classroom every Potions lesson when Jongdae’s cauldron explodes is any indication. “Oh. Well, if you were friends with any Slytherins, you would tell me, right?”
“Yeah, sure,” Sehun swallows, hoping Jongin didn’t hear the waver in his voice. “Of course I would.”
Jongin looks appeased at this, walking past Sehun into the changing room. “You coming?”
“Yeah, coming,” Sehun calls out, willing his racing heart to slow down. That was close. Too close.
The next time Luhan and Sehun meet, Sehun tells him all about the scare he had with Jongin, and finds out Luhan had done the exact same. Luhan had gotten carried away with the information he’d heard from Sehun and told Kyungsoo about the Beater situation Gryffindor had. Kyungsoo had reacted faster than Jongin did, questioning Luhan’s sources right away.
“How did you find out about all this, Luhan?” Kyungsoo had asked, his voice soft. Luhan hadn’t known how to react, stunned by a question he had not expected or considered. He’d managed to come up with the pathetic excuse that he’d heard Junmyeon telling his friends about it in Charms, but Kyungsoo had been less than convinced.
He’d accepted Luhan’s stammered excuse, but Luhan knew Kyungsoo was wary of him. He was Luhan’s best friend, yes. But he was also Luhan’s captain, and to Kyungsoo, the Quidditch team came before anything else. If he found out Luhan had been fraternising with the enemy and put their team’s strategies at risk, he’d never forgive Luhan. He could only hope that Kyungsoo hadn’t caught on.
Luhan and Sehun spend the next few weeks on edge. It feels like they’re treading on glass whenever they see each other in the hallways, as if a huge neon sign will appear over their heads when they walk past each other, flashing lights screaming “THEY’RE DATING”. They’re afraid of what their captains (and best friends) would say if they found out, both about hiding their friendship and now relationship from them, and about being with someone from a rival house when they’re both key assets to their respective Quidditch teams. There’s a lot on the line for them, so they decide it would be best to keep a distance, at least for the next month or so until their match is over. It’s agony, for both of them, but they know it’s for the better.
The weeks drag on, and it’s the day of the first match of the new Quidditch season. First game is Slytherin against Hufflepuff, and Slytherin crushes them easily. Yixing had improved a lot before the season finally started, and he had blocked a lot of shots from Siwon, Hufflepuff’s star Chaser, earning him a spectacular break down from him post-game. Sehun had watched the game from the stands, silently noting little things about the Slytherin team that would help Gryffindor strategise. He catches Luhan’s eye at one point, and they have a silent exchange. Soon, Luhan promises. Sehun nods and gives him a small smile. He can wait.
There are bags under Sehun’s eyes and fatigue in his bones and a dull ache in all his muscles, but Sehun can’t stop, instead pressing forward on his broom as his alert eyes dart around and search for the Snitch. He looks around, hearing the whistle of a Bludger right behind him. Lousy aim.
A flash of green appears beside him, the person on the broom edging nearer to Sehun and jostling him a bit. Sehun resists the urge to look at Luhan; see the soft lines of his face and the gentle slope of his nose that he’d missed the past few weeks. It had been a while since Sehun had seen Luhan this close, their meetings restricted to longing gazes from afar and small smiles as they passed each other in the hallways. Now they’re pressed up against each other, side by side, fighting to find the Snitch first.
Almost as if on cue, something small, round and golden buzzes right past them, zooming away with the rapidfire flutter of its wings. Sehun’s eyes close in on the Snitch, and it’s as if something takes over his body. Sehun fires into overdrive, willing himself to go even faster on his broom. He needs to get the Snitch. Sehun zooms after the Snitch, navigating the field of players, reflexes working to stop him from crashing into anyone.
He can feel Luhan giving chase, hot on his heels. Knowing that he’s ahead of Luhan, that he has the edge, makes him push himself even harder. He’s so, so close, if he could just reach out and grab the Snitch-
Sehun sees a flash of white, and his head feels like it’s just been split open, a sharp pain spearing through his brain. Sehun falls off his broom, and he can feel himself falling through the air towards the hard ground, but he can’t move. The pain in his head is pulsating through every cell in his body, and Sehun knows it’s the agony of being hit by a fully-accelerated Bludger.
Sehun hears a voice calling out his name, and he crashes into a pair of arms. That must’ve hurt, he thinks. Whoever caught him. It must’ve hurt their arms. He opens his mouth to say this, but his head hurts far too much, and his mouth just falls open, no words coming out.
“Sehun? Sehun? Can you hear me, Sehun?” He hears someone saying his name, over and over, and he recognises it. The soft lilt and the rounded syllables; it’s Luhan, his Luhan. Sehun wants to call out and tell him what’s wrong, but the pain spears through his head again and Sehun sees nothing but black.
When Sehun wakes, he smells clean bedsheets and alcohol. The glow of afternoon sunlight is streaming in through the windows, casting an orange hue over the room. He opens his eyes gingerly, wincing at the gumminess that’s stuck his eyelids together. Sehun looks around, turning as much as he can with how tender his neck is, and he realises he’s in the infirmary. The infirmary? Why? Sehun’s confused, and he tries to sit up so he can go and find the nurse and ask her what’s the matter, why’s he in the infirmary? But as he tries to sit up, a wave of exhaustion washes over him and Sehun falls back onto the pillow, groaning as he plops back down.
“Sehun? Oh my god you’re awake, I’ve been worried sick did you know that? You’ve been out for a day and a half, I’ve been shitting myself over you! The nurse said you took a very hard hit to the head, courtesy of Zhou Mi,” Luhan finishes, spitting the name out like it was poison.
Sehun opens an eye to see a very upset, very disheveled Luhan standing next to his bed, eyebrows creased into a frown. Cute.
Reaching for Luhan’s hand, Sehun brings it up to rest against his cheek. “Luhannie,” he whispers. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
He feels Luhan relax against his cheek, all tension melting away. Such a softie.
“I’m so glad you’re here, baby,” he says, melting into Luhan’s touch. The fingers curl around his cheek, gentle and warm, and another hand comes up to stroke his hair.
“You two are so gross.” Sehun’s eyes snap open, searching for the person who had spoken. His eyes land on Jongin on one of the beds across from his, leaning against the wall with arms stretched out lazily above his head.
Sehun’s eyes widen in alarm, head snapping up to look at Luhan. Luhan pats Sehun’s arm comfortingly. “It’s okay, Sehunnie. I told him.”
“What? Why?”
“Well, when you got smacked in the head by that Bludger, I was the first one to react. I ditched the game so I could catch you before you could hit the ground. A bit fishy, isn’t it? That I would give up catching the Snitch after the other team’s Seeker, my rival and apparently a complete stranger, got knocked out by a Bludger instead of just taking advantage of the situation and grabbing it for myself?” There’s a small smirk playing on Luhan’s lips, as if he found it amusing how he had given himself away.
“Didn’t want to leave your side even after the nurse had properly bandaged and doped you, either. Kyungsoo had to drag him out of here so he could get something to eat before he blacked out himself. ” Jongin adds.
Sehun peers up at Luhan, tears prickling his eyes. Luhan just smiles at him, eyes curving into crescents and crinkling at the corners. Sehun feels his heart swell with love, thinking about how lucky he is to have someone as amazing as Luhan in his life. They share another moment, just gazing into each others eyes, and Sehun can see Jongin fake gagging.
Rolling his eyes, Sehun turns back to Jongin. “And you’re okay with-” Sehun gestures to him and Luhan. “-this?”
Jongin shrugs. “I kinda knew from a while ago. After you told me that shit about Slytherin I knew something was off. Nobody on the Slytherin team is that careless with their team stuff, even Jongdae. So I went to Kyungsoo to see if he was giving false information just to throw us off, and turns out he was suspicious of Luhan too. Your boyfriend isn’t exactly the most discreet.” Jongin gives Luhan a look. Luhan shrugs, a blush creeping onto his cheeks. “We were mad, for sure, but when we realised you guys were making an effort to keep things sorta professional, we decided to let it be.
“So, yeah. It’s chill, I guess. As long as you don’t go blabbing about our major strategies to him. And as long as he doesn’t try to get anything out of you, either.” Jongin pointedly glares at Luhan, who stutters in protest.
Sehun doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. All those months- no, years- spent hiding his and Luhan’s relationship from Jongin, and Jongin was more chill about the whole thing than that ice bust Professor Kim Heechul had made of himself for the Winter Ball last year. All he knew was that he was relieved, as a laugh bubbles up in his chest, both that Jongin hadn’t gone off at him and also that he didn’t have to hide his relationship with Luhan anymore. It was like he’d just taken a huge shit, and he felt considerably lighter.
Suddenly, Sehun realises something. “Wait, we?” Jongin had referred to him and Kyungsoo as a single entity. Jongin hated Kyungsoo, why would he do that? Jongin didn’t even like using the field after the Slytherin team did because he said the stench of Kyungsoo was still lingering in the air.
“Yeah, well, when Jongin and I were trying to figure out what the hell was going on with our teams, we realised that both of us had unfinished business,” Kyungsoo says as he walks into the infirmary, walking over to the same bed Jongin’s on and sitting down. “A.k.a we both like each other and haven’t done anything about it for ages. Luckily, we had plenty of time to make up for that.” He smiles at Jongin, and it’s Luhan’s turn to retch.
Sehun feels his head start to swim again. Jongin… and Kyungsoo? This was definitely a hallucination, probably from the concussion he’d suffered because of the Bludger. There was no way Kyungsoo liked Jongin. Was there? Sehun doesn’t know. They hated each other’s guts, and now they’re fucking?
“I think I’m gonna get some rest,” Sehun says slowly, laying back down onto the pillow as he tries to process the bombshell that Kyungsoo and Jongin had just dropped on him.
“Sure, buddy. Kyungsoo and I have got some business to take care of,” Jongin says loudly with a wink as he grabs Kyungsoo’s hand and walks out of the infirmary. “See ya later, losers!”
Sehun’s headache returns in full force, and he needs 2 more painkiller potions before the throbbing ceases.
It’s exhilarating, being able to hold Luhan’s hand in public. Being able to look into Luhan’s eyes and not see worry about being found out. Being able to brush Luhan’s bangs out of his eyes somewhere other than behind a bookshelf in the library, and trace patterns on his thigh as they sit together in the courtyard under a shady tree. Being able to show everyone that Luhan is his, and he is Luhan’s, and they belong together. He loves it, and he loves Luhan, and he loves that everyone will now know that.
He catches himself staring at Luhan’s profile, taking in the aqualine slope of his nose and the long, fluttering lashes that curl up from his eyelids as Luhan reads a book. The scar on his lower lip, barely noticeable but still so familiar to Sehun. He’d spent hours just staring at Luhan while the older napped during their study dates, memorising every laughter line and scar and curve. He wanted to remember everything about Luhan, so that he would never forget what it was like to be so in love his heart could explode.
“Stop staring,” Luhan says, still focused on his book. Sehun smiles and turns away, leaning against the tree trunk and propping his head up on Luhan’s shoulder. He can feel Luhan’s smile too, and it makes his heart jump a little, knowing that beautiful smile was his to keep.
Sehun looks around the courtyard lazily, watching the students come and go. It made him feel Luhan’s presence all the more. That the people around him were all moving, leaving their spots and moving on to new ones with every passing moment, and yet, Luhan was still by his side.
Not moving, not leaving. There to stay.
end
