never will you ever ⇒cashton s.s. [completed]

one

ashton pulled his foot back, stretching his quadriceps. cool air blew through his hair and he closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. it'd been a long time since he'd been out on the field. he released his foot, digging his cleats into the grass. he rose up onto his toes and then rocked back on his heels. ashton had missed this; he'd missed every part of soccer and he hadn't realized that until a couple weeks ago.

"run around the field three times for warm ups!" called the coach.

ashton sighed. he'd missed almost every part. he began to jog slowly at first, building a rhythm as he and the rest of the team moved around the field's edges. his heart beat strongly in his chest and he reveled in being back on the field, back on the team. ashton noticed he'd started to lag behind, so he sped up. he passed everyone until he was neck and neck with the front runner. the boy running next to him, calum, looked over at ashton and rolled his eyes.

"i suppose a 'welcome back' is in order," calum sneered, although he was soon huffing and puffing as the running took a toll on him. they were on their third lap now, and ashton was definitely feeling the burn in his muscles.

once everyone had finished running, the team congregated in center field with the coach.

"everybody, welcome back ashton," coach avery said. he nodded gruffly at ashton as various team members said "welcome back ashton." out of the corner of his eye, ashton saw calum look away.

"i want to start with some footwork drills," coach avery said loudly, bringing the team's focus back. "then we'll run some kicking lines and then scrimmage. partner up."

no one seemed to want to be ashton's partner. he couldn't blame them, really; he'd quit the team a week into the season because of luke—

ashton winced. he didn't like thinking about luke. he was gone, and everybody knew why and knew that ashton and luke had been a couple. it didn't bother ashton that everybody knew, though. he was just frustrated at himself for falling for luke so quickly, for letting his relationship with luke take over his life.

coach avery partnered ashton with one of the freshman, and ashton tried to hide his annoyance. sure, he had been a freshman when he made varsity, but he was a junior now and he had the most varsity years under his belt. surely coach would have put him with someone who'd at least experienced varsity before. but that would have been calum, who had made varsity as a sophomore. ashton had always had a bit of a rivalry with him, and a partnering for any drill had always left them competing more than working together.

after the footwork drills and kicking lines were finished, coach avery split the team into shirts and skins for the scrimmage. ashton and calum were both forwards, and today they were placed on opposing teams.

calum, the captain of the skins, whipped his shirt off and tossed it to the side casually. ashton looked away. he knew calum had tattoos, but he'd gotten more since ashton had left the team.

calum took the kickoff, and they began the scrimmage. ashton really let his energy flow, giving his all and treating the scrimmage like a real game. it had been so long, and he'd missed this so much. ashton scored three times on the starting goalie. calum scored four times on the backup goalie. the scrimmage took up the last half of practice, and ashton's team emerged victorious.

"ease up, irwin," calum said as he passed ashton to retrieve his shirt. "this is practice, not a game."

"someone brought their game day attitude today," coach avery said. "good to see you out there kicking ass, ashton."

ashton grinned at the coach, ignoring calum completely.

"look out calum, you might have some competition for taking the kickoff," coach avery noted.

"happy to have him back, coach," calum responded, smiling cheerfully. as soon as the coach walked away, calum turned to ashton. "back for real now, are you? can we count on you for the whole season?" he looked ashton directly in the eyes.

"yes," ashton said, unfazed. "you can."

calum flipped his shirt over his shoulder. "good," he said.

ashton eyes zeroed in on one of calum's new tattoos: the word 'alive' inked along his left wrist.

calum smirked and walked away, singing on his way to the showers.

•••

so this is a thing

yeah