LANCASTER AND MAXWELL ( ✔ )

chapter thirty-five.

Chapter Thirty-Five.

THE homecoming game comes quicker than Sullivan could've ever imagined, and he's nervous.

He's not even the one playing, but he has to shove his hands in his pockets repeatedly because they keep clamming up on him. Finally, the male says fuck it and plucks a joint out the front pocket of his jeans.

"You can't smoke that here," Brittany muses with an amused laugh, looking up at him from her seat on the ground. "Weren't you just placed on probation?"

"'Weren't you just placed on probation?'" Sully mocks in a high-pitched voice, rolling his eyes. "Snitches get stitches, Britt." He looks back at her before taking a long hit, exhaling carefully as he tries to get his nerves to calm down, even if only slightly.

Diggy rolls his eyes and claps a hand on Sully's shoulder before patting the spot. "You gotta calm down, SJ. Arthur is gonna be fine, always has been," he reassures.

Sully moves his mouth from side to side, biting down on the inside of his cheek. "The recruiting coaches from Florida and Clemson are here to see him tonight, and I don't even know if he's completely over that concussion to be taking hits."

"Relax, SJ. The Regis High Gladiators are top-five in the nation for their offense. Nobody's gonna touch a hair on his head tonight." Between Diggy and Britt's reassurances and the joint his nerves are descending, but as the clock runs down and the team is closer to coming out, he can't help but to worry. He's been there every Friday night for him, spectating as Arthur sat idle on the sidelines waiting for his turn to lead his soldiers. And now that his sword is back in hand, Sully worries for his king.

Damn emotions and the love of his life, damn it all to hell.

He feels the vibrations of the bleachers over him rattle and shake, and his heart twists when he sees the team walk out of the tunnel with the knights and Arthur at the front lines. He watches as his warriors go to war, and he will watch as they come out unscathed. His nerves dissipate into thin air, all the stress in his body gone. He knows that the knights — his friends — will take care of his treasure.

They march towards the stands, and Arthur takes his stage on top of the bleachers on the side, a wild look in his eyes and the type of smile on his face that sends Sully over the edge. He listens as Arthur howls out, "Call out the echoes!"

The crowd doesn't even hesitate. "Wake up our ancestors!"

Arthur turns to his soldiers, his comrades, and Sully looks at the faces of the knights and he thinks that he finally gets it. They'd go over a cliff for him, and so would he.

"What do you say, boys?"

"Roll down the thunder!"

Tilting his head back he basks in the fluorescent lights, Sully can finally see Arthur in his true habitat where he belongs, and he is ... breathtaking. He will never grow tired of this, and as the days of their senior year begin to dwindle and spin themselves into memories and old tales they can tell their kids, Sullivan knows that this will be the only thing he will miss about Richmond.

Arthur puts on his helmet and he enters into battle. SJ takes a long drag of the diminishing joint as his lover shakes hands and decides their fate. As the team prepares to take the field, he can see Arthur's head twist and turn to scan the crowd, as if he were looking for something. And when his line of vision lines up with Sullivan's, the brunette just knows that the glimmering smile he has worshiped since the days he laid eyes on him is on his face. With a small smile of his own, he watches as Artie presses his palm against his lips and throws it to him, as if the kiss were a football. In a small, swift motion, Sully catches it with his free hand and puts the kiss in his pocket. He'll make sure to get a real kiss out of him later.