Closed No Strings

[Sawyer Carnahan]

Sawyer was relieved to be back on solid ground, slumped on a bench in the locker room with his shoulders and legs aching after practice. He stretched an arm across his chest before scrubbing a hand through his hair, tangled beyond saving from the wind on the pitch, contemplating if he had the energy to shower in the locker room or wait till he got back to the towers when Finn walked in from off the pitch. Sawyer paused, watching as Finn discarded his Quidditch gear, eyes on his long limbs and high cheekbones. Sawyer knew he had a tendency to get a little taken with anyone who looked at him twice, but sometimes the infatuation was stronger than others. He'd been a little enamored with Finn since he'd kissed him at Spin The Bottle the other year and even if it made him feel like a creep for staring, Sawyer couldn't help himself when he thought about the memory of Finn's lips on his.

"Uh, hey, good work out there. You only looked like you wanted to throw up like twice this time," he offered Finn, clearing his throat and jostling himself back into motion as he dragged his shoulder pads off to chuck them in his bag, happy to let his mouth run before Finn turned and caught him staring.

 

[Finn Madison]

Underneath his heavy Quidditch padding, Finn ached. He knew he really ought to work out to play the position he was in - he had seen Connor Holland doing pushups in the pitch on a frankly alarming number of occasions - but it just never seemed to occur to him when he was looking for something to do. The result was, though, that whenever he got off the pitch, Finn always felt like all his bones had been turned to spaghetti. He just wasn't as fit as he ought to be, and now that he was a starting player, that was going to quickly become a problem. As he was struggling with the buckle on one of his shinguards he heard Sawyer speak, looking over and giving the younger boy a small laugh. He had always liked Sawyer, both as a teammate and a housemate who was easy on the eyes. "You must not have been looking closely." He joked with an easy smile, finally discarding his stubborn shinpad with a loud clanking of buckles. "I've got no idea what Juniper was thinking. I've got no idea what I was thinking, trying out again at all. But... here we are." He said with a self-deprecating smile and shrug. Finn had known for a long time that there were two options - either accept that he was just bad at Quidditch and own it, or waste all of his time feeling horrible about himself. He did slip into the latter from time to time, but was doing his best to focus on the former.

 

[Sawyer Carnahan]

Sawyer shock his head with a huff of amusement, moving to shove his robes in his locker and pausing to clap Finn on the shoulder as he passed. If his hand lingered there a little longer than necessary, no one had to know. "Nah yeah, I think everyone probably thinks they're the worst person on the team. I mean not me, I just have to sit around and look pretty by the hoops, but the rest of the team probably," he said easily, pulling his t-shirt out of his bag and giving it a quick sniff to check for bag-smell before pulling it on. Truth be told Finn was maybe a little green, but so was half the other new players on the team; he'd get over it. And Sawyer wasn't entirely lying, he didn't really have much to worry about in regards to fine motor skills as a keeper, he mostly just did a lot of watching and waiting. And he did that a lot off the pitch too, so he had plenty of practice.

 

[Finn Madison]

Finn snorted lightly at Sawyer's comment, pleasantly surprised at how much better it made him feel. He was still fairly sure he was the worst player on the team, but it felt strangely optimistic to hope the rest of the team were busy thinking the same about themselves. "Well, at least you've got the looking pretty part nailed." He said with a wink to the younger boy, happy to be on the more comfortable footing of flirtation. He had always thought Sawyer was cute, ever since their kiss during Spin The Bottle years ago. He kept his tone fairly light, but the words themselves were true.

 

[Sawyer Carnahan]

Sawyer paused where he was fumbling with his shoelaces, double-taking when Finn winked at him. "Yeah?" He asked, wincing when his voice cracked and forcefully clearing his throat. Flirting wasn't exactly Sawyer's forte, though he figured he must have done something right at some point if Ivy had apparently liked him. However brief a window that was. Though he'd not had any success in that department since either. But Finn was different from Ivy. Pretty, but still very different, Sawyer forcefully reminded himself, clearing his throat again. For starters, he'd actually kissed Finn once already. "Uh, well if we ever swapped you'd probably be uh. Good at that part. Too," he said, turning his attention to his shoelaces in an attempt to cut himself off from saying anything else embarrassing.

 

[Finn Madison]

Finn knew he had rattled Sawyer slightly, unable to help a small smile at the younger boy's reaction. Most of his close friends were now wearily accustomed to his flirting, and it was fun to remember how effective it could still be on someone who wasn't expecting to be flirted with. "I do my best." He said with a light chuckle, lifting his leg up to unbuckle his thigh padding. "I'd say I wish I had tried out for Keeper instead, but then we wouldn't be teammates. I'll suffer through my complete failures with a bat for that."

 

[Sawyer Carnahan]

Sawyer tried not to act like he'd just swallowed his tongue as Finn continued to flirt with him, fumbling the knot on his laces for a third time before chancing another glance over at Finn. This was fine, fun even, he just needed to think of something cool or clever to say to keep the conversation going so he didn't get stuck staring like a gormless weirdo. Easy. So easy.

Sawyer had no idea how long he'd been staring wide-eyed at Finn by now, though at least he'd gotten his shoe tied, so that was one victory. "Oh, uh, yeah. Yeah I'm glad too," he said stilted. Swing and miss on the cool and clever part there. "I mean, what can I say, everyone tells me I'm a... Keeper," he said sheepishly, hoping Finn suddenly found lame jokes very endearing in boys he was flirting with. "Sorry, that was terrible. I promise I can be suave, you just caught me off guard," he said with a huff of amusement. Terrible jokes were all Sawyer had to work with really, considering he didn't have Finn's sharp cheekbones and long limbs. On Sawyer it just looked gangly and awkward, he didn't know how Finn managed it, even when he was flailing around on the pitch with his beaters bat.