Chapter 2
They began talking about Achilles in the context of Thessian society to try and get a feel for what they could do, and halfway through, Seojun shrugged out of his hoodie.
He was wearing a t-shirt with the sleeves cut off, riding low over his ribs.
His incredible, sculpted arms crossed, forearms thick across his thin shirt, which clung to the hard lines of his chest.
Hana prompted Minjae for the answer to a question he'd just ignored.
"I'm sorry.
I can't possibly be expected to concentrate with Seojun wearing that shirt.
I'm a little wet."
He expected, from the disinterested jock, maybe an expression of alarmed surprise, at best a confident laugh, at worst a look of disgust.
He'd gotten worse from that type before.
He didn't expect the wide-eyed surprise, and then the sweetest bashful smile he'd ever seen on any human ever.
He glanced up at Minjae under his lashes and murmured, "Sorry.
I'll cover up again," and pulled the hoodie back over his shoulders like a cape.
"Hold on a minute, just because Minjae can't handle it doesn't mean the rest of us should be deprived.
Get those back out here," Sora said.
Seojun shook his head, still smiling with his head down.
"I'm not gonna be a distraction."
They had no good ideas.
"Famous sports figure?"
"Nah, they had those in ancient Thessia.
Athletes and stuff.
They got a lot more glory and honor than Achilles got."
"Mercenary then?"
"Those only exist in action movies."
"Bullshit.
Those totally exist."
"And we know nothing about them."
"It's myth," Seojun said.
"Could we compare it to modern fiction, like Alex Knight or something?"
Hana and Sora nodded thoughtfully.
"That's not a bad idea."
"That's not superhuman enough, though," Minjae said, lying down and stretching out across his couch.
"Achilles is the son of a god.
He's not like Alex Knight.
He's incredible.
He's got to be physically a step above everyone around him, like Valor.
But, like, less than Valor.
Shadow?"
He looked at Seojun, who was staring blankly at Minjae's midsection, eyes glazed.
Minjae glanced down and saw that his shirt had ridden up under his woolen sweater, revealing a strip of tan skin, the dip of his hips, and the edge of his navel.
And, oh wow, Seojun was staring at it.
He stretched a little further, arms flat on the couch over his head, knees raising.
"How much," Seojun said, snapping his eyes away from Minjae like he'd been paying attention the whole time.
Maybe he'd just been zoning out.
Were his cheeks a little redder than before?
"Does everyone know about the CWF?
Professional wrestling and all that," he asked.
"Marcus Cole!" Minjae yelled, leaping up from the the couch.
"Marcus Cole is Achilles!"
"I was thinking more The Titan," Seojun said.
"He's part of a wrestling dynasty.
He has a lot of family in the business, so the son of gods thing can come in there.
He's the people's champion.
He's suitably super-human.
The powers-that-be within the fictional wrestling universe put him up to some pretty impossible odds sometimes, and now he's one of the god-like legends."
"It's fucking perfect!" Minjae yelled.
"Oh my god, we could have a wrestling match in class!"
"The fuck?" Sora said, "No, Min, that's kind of stupid and probably not allowed.
Or safe."
"This is going to be so good."
"Min, get ahold of yourself."
"Can you wrestle, Seojun?"
"I, um, I could probably learn pretty fast."
"Could you be Achilles?
Can you pick people up and throw them around or something?"
Seojun shrugged out of his hoody and lurched forward, shoulder ramming right into Minjae's hips, arms closing around his body, and then he stood, Minjae hooked over his rock-hard, bulging shoulder.
He yelped.
The ground looked very strange from that angle, straight down Seojun's back and over his butt.
His hands scrabbled in Seojun's shirt and Seojun jostled him into position.
Minjae felt one heavy hand on his hip, the other hot of the backs of his thighs, horribly wonderful.
Seojun swung around to face the girls, easy as anything.
Minjae felt his voice rumble through his back, "Is this strong enough?" like it took no effort at all, and his eyes slammed shut, dizziness rocking through him, the punch of arousal swelling in his cock warring with the gravity rush of blood down into his head.
In high school, before Minjae's growth spurt really hit, the boys in his class would pick him up and carry him around to show off their strength.
Because he was small, crazy, and looked like a kid, it didn't feel gay to them yet.
They did it to impress the girls, to be hot shit, and somewhere along the way his brain had irreparably linked being carried to being sexy.
It was a kink he'd forgotten he'd had.
Nobody had carried him in years, not since he'd grown almost a foot.
Not since Eric from band class had caught on to the way Minjae's cheeks blazed red when he picked him up, the way his breath came short and how he squeezed his legs up closer to his chest.
Eric had thrown him into a pile of chairs like he was a rabid animal.
Nobody had really been all that sympathetic about the cracked ribs.
Seojun was more gentle than Eric, more self-assured.
Stronger.
Minjae felt off-balance and too hot, small in the best way.
He made a sound like a scared puppy, a breathless, high-pitched, strangled yelp of a moan.
The girls squealed and Seojun giggled, showing off, basking in their attention as Minjae clung to his back and gasped.
Seojun felt him slip a little and bounced him up, lifting him easily, so easily, by the hips, and resettled him closer to his neck.
His hand slid warm and tingling wonderfully over his ass, and gripped there, squeezing, holding him steady like he didn't even notice.
Minjae's hands shook.
Through the wild wash of arousal pounding across his system, painfully intense, Minjae dimly realized he was panting hard, legs kicking uselessly, hands fisted in the fabric of Seojun's shirt.
He could see Seojun's tan skin where it disappeared down into his boxers before is vision started swimming.
His dick hardened quickly against the firm pressure of Seojun's hard shoulder.
Minjae could tell Seojun felt that awkward bump that shouldn't be there when he started struggling, because the moment he felt the incredible pleasure of rocking his dick down, even accidentally, a small, high sound squeaked out of his mouth, and Seojun dropped him back onto his feet so fast it felt like falling.
His knees caved.
Seojun caught him and he hung there for a moment, gripping Seojun's arms and staring up into his sparkly, dark, incredibly wide eyes, and then his hard dick knocked up against Seojun's thigh.
He gasped, eyes flickering shut in horror.
Choi Seojun, who had begun to seem like the cutest guy on the planet, knew Minjae had just gotten super hard in under fifteen seconds just from behind manhandled.
What a weirdo.
"Minjae?" Seojun said, gravelly and quiet, "what—"
"I'm sorry," Minjae whispered, wrestling his body up onto his feet and out of Seojun's grasp.
He sat down on the couch and pulled his knees up to his chest, heart pounding.
Seojun hesitated a moment, then flopped back into his seat.
The girls stared back and forth between then in cautious silence.
Minjae felt his face burning brighter and brighter.
"Okay, we should get back to planning.
I like the wrestling thing.
Maybe we could reinvent Achilles's quest as a wrestling story-line?
And replace Thessian social values and the way they understood these myths with more Valdorian themes?
Any input, Min?"
Minjae cleared his throat.
"That sounds good." His voice crackled quietly anyway.
Seojun shifted uncomfortably, and a seething pool of shame condensed in Minjae's stomach.
"That's it?
Anything else?
What just happened?
Are you okay?"
Minjae nodded.
I'm just...
never mind.
I'm fine."