After Game Bruises

"After that loss to Mendicino..." Gary's voice was drowned out by groans and muttering that circled the locker room.

"Loss?" Neilson McAndrew rubbed his shoulders glad to be free of the bulk of his pads.

There were even more groans followed by curses. "Yeah. Never mind."

Neilson remembered very little from the game, but he reviewed the events that transpired afterward regularly and in clear detail. Instant replay. Again and again. Never tiring of the memory of the scent of her skin or the softness in her touch.

----

Kevin was late and she was pissed, exhausted and ready to get back to the dorm. Lakhi gave up waiting and turned away from the outside door to the locker room, stopping in her tracks when she saw someone standing just beyond the bright lights above the door. "McAndrew?"

"Yeah." The shadows added to the weight of defeat on his face.

"You seen Kevin?" She started to ask but then she saw that he was still wearing his game jersey. "You okay?"

"Yeah." His voice was empty.

"Come on." She said softly taking his bag from his hands. Neils obediently followed her to her car and rode silently as she drove back to her dorm building.

"You sure you're okay?" She scouted the hallway to make sure the coast was clear before ushering her to her room.

"Yeah." He favored his right leg.

"I don't believe you." She latched the door behind them. "Go shower." She caught his grimace as he struggled to pull his jersey over his head. "Neils?"

"I can't get it." He groaned.

"Lift your arms." Lakhi instructed pulling on his sweat crusted shirt. "You smell." She wrestled to remove his pads. "God! Neils!"

He sucked in a sharp breath as she ran her fingertips along the bruises that coated his abdomen. "Yeah."

"I didn't know you were hurt so badly."

"I'll heal." He shrugged and clutched his shoulder.

"God, it's that arm again." Lahki's concern showed on her face.

"It's okay." Neilson grinned to prove that he could bear the pain before he lugged his backpack into the bathroom.

"Don't put a shirt on!" Lakhi called in when she heard the shower shut off. Neils appeared at the door in his boxers. "What do you want?"

"Come here." She settled him on the floor and sitting on her heels behind him she brought out a tub of muscle rub. "Kevin uses this stuff all the time." She knew football. Growing up with Kevin for a brother had taught her a lot about after game bruises to both flesh and pride.

Neils gasped as Lakhi smeared the blue gel across his shoulders. "It'll help." She promised.

"I hate this stuff." He muttered trying to shove his shirt deeper into his backpack.

"Shh." Lakhi scolded. "Stay still."

He could see her long fingers out of the corner of his eyes as she smoothed the gel out spreading it around and working slowly to massage it in.

Silence filled the room while she worked. The old building creaked and popped but the night was still and dark. She hadn't turned the room light on, choosing to rely instead on the orange glow of the light in the parking lot outside. Together with the florescent light that crept out from under the bathroom door it cast strange long shadows across the room. Neilson watched their dark forms stretch together on the wall. They were distorted by the corner but he could still see the canopy of her hair as she moved and he could feel it brush across his arm. Then she ran her fingertips over his shoulder blades and he sucked in another sudden breath.

"Sorry." She murmured thinking she had hurt him.

Neilson watched her hair fall across her face as she leaned closer to him. Slowly, gently. If he hadn't seen her silhouette kiss his shadows' shoulder he would have missed the fleeting pressure of her lips entirely.

"Khi?"

"Yeah?"

Her voice sounded different, or perhaps he had never listened to it before? Perhaps he had just never noticed how soft and clear it was? Or the way her mouth moved when she shaped her words. He couldn't see it now, but he must have noticed subconsciously. How else would you explain the sudden certainty that he knew he loved the way she spoke his name and the way it was a mix of both an invitation and a benediction. Her hands had stopped soothing, instead they rested motionless on his shoulders. He shifted away, loathe to lose that sweet contact but desperate for more before it.. before what? Before reality broke in, pounding on the door, shattering the spell. Before he lost the one thing he hadn't know he'd been longing for for years. Before something inside of him exploded from the sheer incredible impossibility of this very moment.

"Lakhi?" Their knees bumped together when he turned around to face her, both of them now sitting Indian style on the floor peering through the darkness.

"Are you okay, Neils?" Her voice was husky and sent a rush of formerly forbidden thoughts through him.

"Yeah." He swallowed. They were still forbidden thoughts but he no longer possessed the strength of will to prevent himself from thinking them. He eyes were luminous. Her tongue darted across her lips as if she were nervous. Why would she be nervous? His own heart was pounding so rapidly that he was worried she could hear it. They were close. So close. Her eyes were fluttering, then they closed. A split second later adrenaline shot through him as the warmth of her breath touched his lips and he discovered the moist softness he had never even dared to dream her lips would be. Her hands were trembling when he found them and the trembling matched his own. Fingertip to fingertip. Palm to palm. He folded the fingers of first his right hand, then his left, gently tracing the grooves in her palm, touching and tasting with the very ends of his fingers. Carefully doing batter with her fingers until their hands were fully entwined. He could feel the goose bumps rise on her skin when his hands drifted, seemingly of it's own accord up her arm. He threaded his fingers into her hair, entranced by it's softness until he pushed it away to reveal the smooth curves of her throat and collarbone.

From somewhere far away in the dark recesses of his mind he came to the knowledge that he had always wondered how she would respond if he kissed right there, at the tiny hollow in her throat. His lips contacted with her skin. Her sigh tore away a small piece of his soul. Breathe. He commanded himself. Breathe. And then his mouth was moving across her shoulder and her arms were wrapped around his neck.

They were kneeling on the floor, their bodies close together. It was too much. He couldn't bare another minute. She was too small and fragile and she tasted too sweet. That brief touch of her lips before was nothing compared to this. This contact. This intricate dance of mouth and tongue between them.

"Neils." She murmured. He crushed her to him hiding her face against her neck, wanting to absorb the exquisite scent and feel of her.

She made him shivered when her nails scraped his jaw as she traced his face. Then she kissed him again pulling him closer, fusing them together, claiming his heart more and more completely with each caress of her mouth.

"Lakhi." He wanted to tell her everything that was racing through his mind, all of the crazy things he was feeling and had been feeling for weeks now, maybe even months, but all he could do was whisper her name and even then his voice broke.

----

Who really could blame him for forgetting that loss? Forgetting the paid off referees and the uncalled foul that still hurt every time it rained. Why should he force himself to remember that when he could still feel her kisses and hear her soft breathing?

"Where were you that night?"

"Huh?" Neilson's head jerked up. Kyle Baker was vigorously towel drying his hair right in front of him.

Raucous laughter filled the locker room.

"Crawl off somewhere to lick your wounds?" Gary taunted.

Neilson shrugged.

"Naw. I bet he got some pity sex from one of his hot fans." Kyle rested his hands on his hips and strutted the length of the benches. "Oh mi gosh! That McAndrew is so hot... like. I just wanna jump him!"

"Guys." Neilson protested. Kevin's elbow dug into his ribs cutting him off.

"Let's go, loser."

"Hold on." Neilson growled slinging his pack over his shoulder.

"The brat's waiting. She already called me twice."

"Your sister?" Kyle tossed his towel in the corner.

"That Lucky girl?" Gary grinned. "Sexay."

"Lakhi." Neilson's quiet correction went unheard in the ruckus as Kevin backed Gary into the lockers.

"She also happens to be my baby sister." He didn't need to make his threat any more clear, just scan the locker room before stomping out. Neilson glanced around the room as well before stuffing his hands in his pockets and following Kevin.

He should worry. He should wonder if they were right. What would his family say? How would Kevin react? For a moment he nearly had it. He almost worried, but then he caught sight of her car and couldn't stop his own grin.

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Author's Notes:

I am going to consolidate my one shots under this one title.

Hope you enjoyed.