Leon, you see, had decided that he’d let himself act like he wanted. He bickered with his senpai as he did with his friends, and just like he did to the shorter boys, he’d sometimes joke with him like that as well. The older boy didn’t know that he did this with different feelings and just assumed he was being treated the same… But Nick wasn’t used to it. 

The elder’s face puffed red and his reaction was to strangle the other with the shirt “You wish, you damned asshole!”

Leon barked a laugh despite the pressure on his neck, he really was amused.

Nick tried to button up the shirt himself just to find out that all the buttons had popped off. Of course they had, he thought as he gave up and flopped between the other boy’s legs to think.

Now, to a watcher’s eyes, this position was not that much better than the one before. Behind their backs, pictures, recordings and whispers were happening all over. Popular boy and half naked boy in a weird position? Gold mine.

The second-year was not paying attention to their surroundings anymore as he, himself, was distracted. Distracted by how good Leon’s hair looked, even more messed up than normal and distracted by all the glory of chest muscles and six packs (were those eight? Was that an eight pack?) in front of him. He shook his head, convinced that what he was feeling was envy, even if his own body was similar, and breathed out (why was he holding his breath?).

“Why are you not wearing an undershirt anyways?” Nick asked, he was still holding Leon’s raggs in place by the end of it.

“It’s too hot for that” He shrugged. “It’s not like you are wearing it”

“I am wearing it” The second-year pulled his own shirt to the side a little and against all odds of having all those unbuttoned spaces, there was a shirt there.

“Is that a V neck?! Are you wearing a V neck as an undershirt?” Leon gapped.

“It’s not a V neck, is just a deep neck” Nick tsc-ed then seemed to have thought of something as he let go of the other’s fabric “You really are such a hassle”

Then he proceeded to take his own shirt off, staying only with the one that was inside.

“What are y–” Leon was startled.

“Use that” He handed over.

“Eew, no, I don’t want that” The long haired boy pretended to be disgusted, but his red ears betrayed him.

“”Eew”?! How dare you?” Nick threw his shirt on the other’s face “Just put that shit on”

“Arg, it’s sweaty!” Leon held the fabric between his thumb and his pointer. “I can just hold mine together, it’s almost time to leave anyways” He pouted even though he was feeling giddy.

“You are not walking around like that, you are going to cause an accident”

And when the younger boy made a questioning look, Nick pointed to his side: a girl who was holding her materials ran into a column and dropped everything, two friends tripped over each other’s foot when walking and a boy just straight up slipped on absolutely nothing. All of them were staring at Leon.

“F-fine” He got taken aback by the attention and held the shirt properly “What a pain in the ass. I’m going to change in the bathroom”

“Just change in here, weren’t you going to walk around naked anyways” Nick deadpanned just to mess with him.

“You shut the fuck up” The boy glared.

But when Leon tried getting up a sharp pain shot through his feet up to his leg. He cried out and his knee bucked, hitting the floor. Nick’s hands snapped up to support the boy’s body.

“What’s wrong?”

The red head hissed and propped his forehead on the elder’s shoulder on instinct “I think I twisted my ankle”.

—

It was just his luck really. Their two weeks of suspension from the club were up in the next two days, but he just had to go ahead and hurt himself. Not only that but he had to go through the humiliation of being carried princess style by Nick to their most visited place: the infirmary.

Don’t get me wrong, it made Leon’s heart beat like crazy, but under the whole circumstances it felt like a humiliation. How did he go from the one doing the protecting to being the one being carried? He was a big guy too, it must have looked ridiculous. Nick could’ve just piggybacked him, but as the elder himself said “he didn’t think it through”.

The nurse for once didn’t leave when they got there. She applied some ointment and made a temporary wrap on the boy’s foot, but said that he had to go to the hospital to take an x-ray just to make sure it wasn’t broken, because it was quite swollen. It was decided then that the older boy would take him there in his car.

“Do you want me to carry you to the car?” Nick asked, already extending his arms to hold the younger.

“No.” Leon buffed and slapped the hands away.

“Doo yoou want me to get you a wheelchair, then?”

“Nope.”

“Doooo yoooou… want me to get you a wheelbarrow?” 

“You’re really never letting that one go, huh?” Leon rolled his eyes and Nick laughed at him.

“Well, you can’t walk by yourself, what do you want me to do?”

The answer came in the form of a shorter boy entering the room. Mark glared at the two of them, he really couldn’t have one moment of peace.

He had watched the whole thing because someone had the brilliant idea to make it live. The boy was in class when it happened, but at a certain point everyone else was looking down at their phones. John nudged him and showed the video that was being shared all around. When Nick took off with his friend in his arms, Mark knew something wasn’t right and asked for leave immediately.

“Get your ass up and put your arm around my shoulders” He deadpanned.

The older boy expected resistance. Leon was stubborn as a mule, always doing exactly the opposite of what people told him to, especially when it was a command like that.

Apparently, he still had to learn that Mark was an exception to everything. The younger one mumbled some complaints, but got up on one foot nevertheless, swooping an arm around the shorter’s shoulders for support. Nick gapped.

“How come you listen to him but not to me?”

“He’s cuter” Leon humphed, not looking into his eyes.

Nick was overcome with disbelief, because no, there was no way that the pinscher project of a person - as that was the way he saw Mark - was cuter than himself. He felt very wronged. The childish want to stomp his foot was what brought him back to sanity, realizing he was left behind in the room. He still followed after the other two though, he was still the one driving the car to the hospital. In his mind he cursed himself as he did so.

There were a lot of things that the two boys hadn't learnt about each other yet. One of them was that both of them were not just competitive, they were astonishingly prideful.

Leon’s pride was crushed first from getting hurt and second from having to be carried around. He hated having to rely on someone else, keeping his worries to himself most of the time. That was the reason why he felt so sick on the audition day. The only person he relied on was Mark, because his friend had been with him throughout all his ups and downs. He made some exceptions for Nick already, but he was not about to throw all his trust on the guy, even if he liked him. For all sakes and purposes, on the outside they still hated each other’s guts. 

He was just obstinate like that.

Nick on the other hand, didn’t mind relying on people that much. But his pride absolutely hated feeling threatened or pushed aside. He liked feeling important to whom he minded, so when the kouhai finally called him senpai he was over the moon, only to find out on the next day that he went back to calling him by his name. At that moment he was irritated at the fact that Leon would listen to Mark but not to him. And so he took upon himself to become important enough for it to not happen again.

He was also obstinate like that.