Accidental Soulmate (H2O) [VeeMark]

9~

In which Mark meets Vee's girlfriend.
~~~

Mark knows that things has been going too well. He knows it and yet he lets himself be fooled – like he always does.

It's about a week before the swimming competitions and there's a nervous buildup strumming through him, like an air bubble about to burst inside his chest. In fact, the whole campus has been held in suspense for the last couple of days because of the sporting event. It's nothing new; these kind of regional competitions were held every three years. It's a way for the students to find new friends and form useful connections amongst their own peers as a rabbit hole into the adult world. Yet, this time around there is an unusual buzz ghosting through the campus grounds.

And Mark, feeling the peer pressure, can't really pay attention to anything else besides his training plan. He's determined to improve his swimming strokes, aiming for even better results until the very end.

In his eagerness to excel, he forgets to do a proper warm up and manages to fuck up because of a leg cramp during an especially memorable swim practice. It's not that big of a deal, he flails a bit in the water and one of the team members treading closest in the pool pulls him quickly over to the shallow end. However, his self-confidence takes a complete nosedive, even P'Bar can't get a word in to make him see reason, least of all Vee, who worriedly watches the exchange from the sidelines. As the captain of the team, Bar has already been on Mark's ass a few times too many about taking it easy, to let his body get a proper rest before the actual thing. But Mark can't. He wants so badly to prove to everyone that he isn't just a useless waste of space, wants to earn at least one thing that would make him grow in the senior's eyes. After all, he's already an irreparable failure according to his father.

Needless to say, Mark's mood has been like a rollercoaster for the last few days.

He's lucky though, because Vee finds his ferocious expression cute, even if a little draining to deal with. He doesn't particularly enjoy the petty fights they've been getting into because of Mark's tendency to lash out like a cornered animal at whoever that dares to invade his safe space when he's stressed out. Although, Vee doesn't let that deter him from seeking Mark out.

The younger man usually mellows out by the end of whichever daily outburst he's going through, it's a routine by now, he slinks up to Vee for comfort just like a lovesick kitty wanting to be comforted. Mark doesn't really voice any of his troubles out loud, just silently rests his head against Vee's safe shoulder while they lounge on the poolside bleachers in the humid evenings and lets the older one softly pat his head or just pull him closer with a secure arm around his waist. Even on the rare occasion, when Mark isn't able to come down from his high stung nerves and deliberately keeps on picking moody arguments with Vee, they still somehow end up crammed up into a tight space, all up in each other faces for a round of emotional make-out session in the locker rooms or in-between the bookshelves at the library. Mark has this way of clinging to Vee as if it's the end of the world, trembling hands fisted into the back of his checked shirt as he lets Vee take him apart, bit by precious bit.

~~~

Vee isn't particularly surprised when Bar brings up Mark's unhealthy tendencies during an especially slow Monday class, that neither of them are making an effort to even look marginally interested in. Their only saving grace is the sheer size of the lecture hall and the large number of students in blue engineering over-shirts enrolled into the class. The two of them sit at the very back of the auditorium where there is a lesser chance to get caught for slacking off.

Bright, midday light spills from the big windows lining one length of the wall, creating light bunnies as the yellow sun rays bounce and skitter against the numerous metallic object inside the hall; a pair of wire-framed glasses when a girl turns her head, a bracelet on someone's wrist as they move their hand while taking notes, a buckle on a school bag that sways slowly against the side of a desk where it hangs and then back again to another pair of the glasses, creating an infinite scatter.