heir torturous gym endeavors were interspersed with the return to the locker room. It was always a 50-50 chance whether or not the locker room occupancy was ideal, but that day as with every other gym adventure, it was empty. It made it far too easy for Lee to spend their locker room time with his tongue in Milo's delicious mouth.

Lee shoved Milo back against the lockers, his hands on the metal and his mouth on Milo's. Milo moaned between his lips, sinking against the door to his locker as Lee licked along the side of Milo's tongue and along his teeth. Lee panted against him, gasping as they parted with hot, heady breaths. Lee sucked his lips against Milo's and shivered when he felt Milo's fingers under his cutoff t-shirt. Milo flattened his hot hands against Lee's abdomen and pushed up, dragging the shirt off in one fluid movement. Lee chucked it towards his locker, uncaring and fully focused on Milo's red lips and glittering eyes, sweaty hair and the dark, sweat-stained collar of Milo's shirt.

His skin tasted like salt as Lee licked up the column of Milo's throat. His breath hitched when Milo's wandering fingers passed beneath the hem of his sweats. His eyelids fluttered shut as a curse slipped between his lips.

And then, they heard the locker room door open.

"Fuck," Milo swore.

Lee's breath left him as Milo pulled his hands back and brushed them over the front of his shirt as if to calm himself down. Lee's lungs still burned like a motherfucker from cardio training, but he was totally willing to demolish his throat right then and there at the look Milo gave him. As if Lee could ever hold back when Milo was hot and sweaty against him like that.

The footsteps were heading in their direction, though, so Lee backed off and went to his locker, his eyes stuck on Milo. Milo, who was still flat against the lockers like if he moved, he'd fall over. Lee snickered a little as the guy passed by their aisle on the way to the showers.

Lee looked Milo up and down before turning back to his locker with a little scoff of amusement.

Workouts were the only time Lee allotted to their "distractions". If he let it leave the locker room like he did just two weeks ago in the quad, he'd be screwing Milo up and down the USFC campus. His grades didn't have time for that. They had yet to explore beyond tasks allocated to the hands and mouth regions, but fuck it, if Lee wasn't thinking about it every damn day.

He was still catching his breath as he put on deodorant and slipped on a sweater. Milo had somehow managed to solidify his wobbly legs and set to work unlocking his door.

Milo cleared his throat and rasped out, "What, uh... what do you have to work on tonight?"

"Lab report. And then calculus is due at midnight," Lee said. God, it felt like there were needles in his lungs. He couldn't catch his breath. He glanced over at Milo and said, "What about you?"

"I'm just working on my sexual fantasies, you know, the usual," Milo said. "And... I should probably work on that presentation assigned at the start of the semester..."

Lee chucked his deodorant at Milo's back. It smacked him dead center on the spine. Milo swore and jumped around to peg Lee with smug grin, snapping his towel in Lee's direction. Lee caught it and, since the showers on the other end of the room were running, he yanked the towel forward.

Milo followed the tug with a grin. Lee met him halfway and, leaning over the bench, touched their foreheads together. "You'll tell me all about them, right?" he whispered, glancing down at Milo's swollen lips. Milo had his bottom lip tucked between his teeth.

"What, my fantasies about you or my presentation? Maybe speak a little Spanish between your legs—?" Milo said, his breath against Lee's face and his tongue licking against his lips.The mint on his breath intoxicating. Lee never considered himself a minty guy before he met Milo. Bubblegum toothpaste just didn't do it these days.

Lee laughed and said, "Both, but preferably that first bit. The second bit was a bit too extra for me?"

"Oh was it? I got it from listening to too much rap music at Sigma," Milo said. Lee rolled his eyes, smiling all the same as Milo purred against him, "Then I'll tell you all about what I'm planning to do to you after you're done with finals." His eyes lidded and focusing entirely too much on Lee's lips.

"Shit," Lee whispered. "If only you knew what I was thinking."

"I would if you told me once in a while," he said.

Lee laughed, cheeks flushing. As if he could ever say any of that out loud. His brain was a cesspool when he wasn't dead set on finishing his homework and passing classes—and the epicenter of it all? Fucking Park.

It certainly didn't help knowing that, by this time next week, he'd be temporarily moving in with Park.

Before leaving, Milo walked Lee to the scale on the far side of the locker room, just outside of the shower area. Steam from the showers rolled out over the tiled floor as Lee dropped his shoes and backpack off to the side and stepped onto the scale. He shifted the weights around as Milo watched, arms folded, shoulder up against the wall beside the scale.

They had checked his weight at the start of November, back when they had started this entire endeavor. It was a given expectation that Lee would have gained more muscle mass by now. With all of the protein shakes after workouts on top of healthy meals at Lockhart Hall, Lee didn't doubt that there was a difference.

The scale evened out.

Lee was holding his breath until that point. He let out a gasp of relief and said, "Thank God. One-sixty-five."

"Nice, dude," Milo said, giving him a high five. Lee stepped off of the scale and up against Milo's side for a half-hug.

Off in the distance they heard someone's shout echo across the locker room in the shape of the words, "Sounds GAY!"

Lee snorted, covering his mouth as Milo perked up and said, "Simon?!"

"GAY!" Simon hollered from the opposite side of the locker room. Someone was snickering in the background.

Milo cupped a hand over his mouth and shouted, "You bet your ass it is, whore!"

"Jesus Christ," Lee muttered under his breath.

"You two comparing sizes over there?!" Simon bellowed back.

"Yeah, the size of your tits," Milo said. He sucked in a deep breath before screaming so loud his voice cracked: "You've got nice tiddies for a little boy!"

A locker slammed in the general direction of where Simon had been taunting Milo.

Milo cursed and ran for it, dragging Lee with him through the shower room. Lee swiped his backpack up, laughing as they skidded through the steam room to the beat of Simon's feet thundering across the locker room after them. Lee swore he heard Simon snarl, "You bitch-ass cunt!"

Lee barely got the straps of his backpack on before they were slamming through the pool room door at the far side of the showers. They hit the hot, thick air of the pool room, sneakers slipping across the damp tiles. Milo swore, his hand touching the ground as he pivoted and took off for the opposite side of the pool room. Lee shrieked when the men's locker room door slammed open behind them.

Milo dropped Lee's hand, chucked his backpack, and braced for impact. Lee startled when Simon came flying out of his periphery and slammed into Milo, who had his arms up like he was on the frontline. The lifeguard was on his feet, blaring the whistle as Simon and Milo collided with the water.

A massive wave splashed up after them, crashing with the lane floaters and sloshing onto the tiles at Lee's feet. Lee scrambled back, taking Milo's backpack with him and staring in horror at the lifeguard who threw his arms up at them. One of the swimmers in the nearby lane snapped their goggles up to watch as Milo and Simon resurfaced, sputtering curses at one another until Simon dunked Milo under again. Bubbles splattered up after him.

Lee waved to the lifeguard guy with a guilty grimace, saying, "Sorry! Sorry about this!"

"Just get out of the pool, guys!" the lifeguard shouted, blowing the whistle again.

Simon reached down and pulled Milo up by the collar of his shirt. Milo tossed his head back, black hair flinging a spray of water around as he shook it out into spikes. He pushed his hair back with a gasp, sputtering up water and coughing as Simon thrust him into the edge of the pool with a nudge to get him going. Milo rolled onto the tiles, cursing and pushing himself up onto one elbow. He looked back at Simon, who braced two hands on the ledge and heaved himself up in one fluid motion.

Their clothes were absolutely sopping wet as Simon slapped his hand onto Milo's back and waved to Lee. "Hey man," he said. Lee recalled the last time they had seriously seen each other. He recalled the fact that he had Milo's cum all over his hand when he bro-hugged Simon.

Heat flushed to his cheeks as he stammered out, "H-Hey dude, what's... goin' on?"

"Just kicking a little freshmen ass," Simon said, flicking his middle finger at Milo on his way to the locker room. Simon shook his head, laughing as Milo stuck his tongue out at Simon's back.

Milo's shirt was now sticking to him like a second skin and it would have been fine if Milo didn't have rippling abs. Lee swallowed hard and turned away as Milo plucked at his shirt in a feeble attempt to dry it off. He lumbered towards the exit, sneakers squeaking and squishing up a storm as he said, "Let's get out of here before the lifeguard wrings my neck."

"Yeah, agreed," Lee said, glancing over at his shoulder where the lifeguard was now out of his stand and staring them down from across the pool. The look on the man's face said, "I fucking dare you to run in the pool room. I dare you to do it. I want you to do it. I want you to do it so I can snipe you from over here, I swear to God."

Soon, they were out of the gym after leaving a trail of pool water through the lobby. Milo walked unabashedly over the carpet, not a care in the world, holding his backpack by the top handle with one hand and Lee's hand with the other.

"You know, I've been thinking about what we'll do over break," Milo said.

"Same here. Mostly about founding our own nudist colony but the only two citizens are you and me and the territory is just Roland's bedroom," Lee said.

Milo threw his hand up, emulating an explosion from his skull that had Lee laughing. "You read my fucking mind," he said.

"Oh really?"

"Yes really. And as the first order of our colony amendment, we have to go on a date," Milo said. A laugh bubbled out of Lee because it sounded so ridiculous, but then when he looked, Milo was watching him expectantly, smiling like always.

Lee cleared his throat and said, "Oh, you're serious."

"Yeah. I want to take you out. For real."

Milo's hand returned to Lee's. Lee clasped onto it out of habit, and when he did, he squeezed hard and gave Milo a firm nod. "Y-Yeah. Yeah, that sounds good," he said, watching with wide eyes as Milo leant forward and kissed his cheek. His skin was still damp from the pool, and he smelled like chlorine now. His hair was swept back, his hairline straight and broad across his forehead. Lee wanted to rub his thumb across it, so he did.

Milo's smile faltered. His wide, curious eyes searched Lee's face. Lee's eyes returned to Milo's after a moment, and he realized that they had stopped walking altogether in the middle of the bridge to Manley Hall. USFC was divided by a channel of the York River and over it, they could see the stretch of campus buildings down for several blocks. Their long, narrow windows and elegant architecture made it feel like they were in Europe instead of just simply the West Coast.

Lee dropped his hand and said, "Sorry. I got distracted."

"Am I distracting?" Milo asked with a grin.

Lee looked back at him with a sneer and said, "Yeah, 'cause of how butt-ugly you are."

Milo shoved him and said, "Piss off! I can't believe you!"

Lee laughed and scurried ahead, but Milo wouldn't let go of his hand. He turned around and said, "Yeah, 'cause your egotistical, narcissistic ass is too big to see it."

Milo went for his hair. Lee shrieked, laughing as Milo tried to wrangle him into a headlock. He probably could have, too, if Lee didn't play dirty. He went for Milo's crotch and grabbed it without a second thought. Long ago he came to the conclusion that, if he ever got into a fight, he'd go for the dick first.

Milo swore and dropped him. Lee elbowed him in the gut before making his escape, laughing all the way across the bridge. Behind him, he heard Milo cry, "No fair!" before booking it after Lee. Lee cursed and pumped his legs harder, faster, until Milo took him out from behind and sent them sprawling into the grass just beyond the bridge.

As if Lee could ever beat a USFC running back, anyway.