SHAME (boyxboy)

24 - You Do Know You Aren't Just Some Guy, Right?

Please note that translations are in the comment section!!!

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Mia Bauer and Jake Fraser met at the young age of twenty-three whilst attending a summer elective to fast track their final year of law school.

Mia Bauer came from German immigrants; her parents having moved to Australia well before she was born (and thus preventing any real claim to her German roots). Jake Fraser, on the other hand, had distant ties to heritage in either Scotland or Norway; although, he never really seemed all that sure whenever Milo asked which one was closer. Both families, regardless of where in Europe they originally stemmed from, held academia and prestige in high regard, which meant that class always came first.

Always.

The rigid nature of his relatives had estranged Milo in more ways than one, mainly being that he had never really known how to define himself. They liked labels – Milo's family – they liked to box things in, categorise them, pin people down as segments of something rather than a whole human being. Maybe it was a law thing. Maybe it was an academic thing. Milo wasn't sure. All he knew was that it always ended up with him standing out in the rain waiting for someone to never arrive.

For all his family's boasting about their awareness of the world, they tended to forget the smallest things. Like picking up their son from training or making it home in time for dinner. Little things; human things.

So, when Milo stepped off the school coaster bus, training bag slung over his shoulder, and searched the buzzing school car park in an attempt to catch sight of a familiar car, he ended up sinking back against the cold metal with resignation churning in his stomach.

Of course, they weren't here.

'Oi,' Lachy clapped a hand down on Milo's shoulder, jolting him from his rumination, 'we're still on for Wednesday, right?'

'Yeah,' Milo nodded, rolling his eyes and dropping his own hand down on Lachy's shoulder, 'course man, I can't play in these cleats-' he held up a pair of nearly dead footy shoes, '-any longer, unless I wanna break something.'

'Pff, yeah,' Lachy snorted, patting Milo's shoulder twice before walking over to where his mum was standing, sending a wave back over his shoulder at Milo as he left, 'see yah, Fraser!'

Milo didn't bother waving back, as Lachy couldn't see him, but did send Bailey and Oscar short waves as they moved off to their respective cars. He could have asked either one of them for a lift home, but...he wanted to catch sight of someone else first.

'You good, Milo?' Mr. Walsh locked the bus, raising an eyebrow in Milo's direction.

'Yeah,' Milo grinned, 'I'm good.'

'Mn,' Mr. Walsh nodded, sending Milo one of his stern but comforting looks, 'well, have a good break Fraser and make sure you do your homework; I do hear things in the staff room you know.'

'Yeah, yeah, bye Walshy.'

Milo snorted when Mr. Walsh shook his head and walked off to his little blue Mini, blonde hair glinting under the LED car park lighting and broad shoulders tightening as he miraculously folded himself into the front seat of the car.

For a moment, Milo wondered if he had made the wrong decision to wait to talk to Max when the dark-haired boy was nowhere to be seen.

They had developed some kind of unspoken agreement to not mention what had happened - which Milo had dubbed as The Weird Moment™ - in the hospital for the last day and a half of the training camp. From the moment that Mr. Walsh had stepped back into the emergency room cubicle, the dynamics had immediately reverted back to acquaintance-like impartiality. And all Milo had been able to think about, through the next day and a half of training exercises, meals and team banter, was that he needed to understand how Max Huang worked.