This Is Me

Part 45

Stumbling into the locker room, Sean dropped onto the nearest bench and took a few deep shaky breaths. He felt like he was going to be sick. That had been far too close. Mark kicked a trashcan across the room, yelling out. "What the hell was that?!" Felix crossed his arms over his chest, answering dryly. "Rasputin using the attention to his advantage. Got to admit... He's clever. With the performance he did earlier... everyone knew he was tired. So, dropping Sean like that would just be brushed off as just another accident." Mark whirled around on Felix, snapping back. "Tell me that Matthew didn't set that up?! Cause if he did, I'm going to wring his fucking neck!" Sean took one last calming breath, before telling Mark seriously. "Matthew only suggested that we do the routine to keep the other skaters off me. With all eyes on us, he didn't think that they'd try anything. He was right... for the most part." Mark stormed up to point a stern finger at Sean, grumbling out darkly. "Oh, all eyes were on you... We'll talk about that routine later."

Sean looked up at Mark with slightly worried eyes. He could tell that Mark was just as rattled for more than one reason. Mark was clearly angry with Rasputin, upset that he was almost injured again, and jealous of Nate. Felix shrugged innocently, asking. "What was wrong with the routine? It was fine. Nate did most of the work." Sean shot Felix a light scowl that made Felix flash him a smug grin. Mark broke up their looks by snapping out. "For starters, I have never seen that. How long have you been grinding on Nate like that?" Sean rose up onto his feet, retorting icily. "I wasn't grinding on him! And we used to do that kind of shite during practice, because Nate wanted to petition for same sex couple skating. They told him that two men couldn't because we couldn't bring a feminine balance to the routine. So, we practiced to prove them wrong. BUT WE NEVER GOT THE CHANCE!" Mark moved closer to him, asking him in a softer voice. "Did you kiss him?" Felix silently shrank away from them, not wanting to get into this.

Sean looked Mark directly in the eyes as he answered honestly. "Back when we first did the routine, I did. I was single then and the plan was to end the routine with a kiss. But then I got engaged... He started dating. We changed the routine to only pretend too. We thought letting the people THINK we did it made the performance more powerful." Mark raised a hand to touch his jaw, his voice dropping to a whisper as he asked more hopefully. "You didn't kiss him?" Sean shook his head truthfully, confirming lovingly. "I didn't kiss him, Mark. What we did was an act." Mark dropped his hands to hold Sean's wrists, mumbling out slightly hurt. "How come you've been able to do all that with him... but you couldn't do that for this Harley routine?" Sean pressed his forehead to Mark's, answering openly. "Two reasons. One, I wasn't doing the routine alone. And two... He just likes me as a good friend. So, I didn't always feel like he was looking at my ass." From the corner of the room, Felix snorted loud enough to draw their attention.

Felix huddled himself up though, waving a dismissive hand and pretending like he didn't catch what they were saying. Sean drew Mark's attention back to him by wrapping his arms around his neck. The second Mark turned his head, he kissed him. The kiss worked to calm both of them down, until Nate stumbled into the door. All eyes turned to him and Nate glanced at Felix before chuckling. Composing himself quickly, Nate grumbled to Felix with a lighter chuckle. "God, you scared me. I thought you were a woman for a second in that get-up." Felix looked down at his schoolgirl uniform, then proudly belted out. "But a sexy schoolgirl, right?" Nate shook his head with a smile, relaying to Mark more seriously. "Mark, I went to report this incident and you're not going to believe what I overheard..." Mark stepped away from Sean, his body tensing up for bad news. Nate moved closer, keeping his voice low as he regaled to him. "Rasputin was there with his coach and a few other younger skaters. They are all claiming that Sean WANTED to be dropped!"

Felix moved closer, stating out semi-loudly in disgust. "Well, that's bullshit! What proof do they have of that? None." Nate looked to Felix retorting firmly. "Wrong. Rasputin was showing security his arm. Apparently, Sean left marks that suggests that his story is true. Young skaters are even going on record to say that they heard us plotting this all out in the locker room to get Rasputin disqualified! They think were trying to set Rasputin up." Mark shrugged unsettled, injecting shakily. "What did they say when you told them our side?" Nate's face turned grim as he grumbled out. "They don't believe our story is strong enough. They have young skaters backing their story. Swearing that it's all true. As far as the ISU is concerned... Rasputin has all the evidence they really need to confirm his story." Mark ran his hands through his long brown bangs, shrugging his shoulders to say. "Ok. So, what does that mean for us? Are they going to kick us out?"