Stars Uncrossed (BoyxBoy)

Chapter 26

Aidan sat next to Emmy on the sideline seating area at Hilldale Gymnastics as he watched Luca from afar, he was by the balance beams talking to two older men, one looked to be in his late twenties, another in his late forties. Aidan smirked as he watched Luca smiling wide for the two men, particularly the older one.

"Which one's the Canadian guy?" Aidan leant over to ask Emmy, who shushed him in return, watching intently as Luca made his way towards the two rings suspended in the air.

"The blonde man is Mr. Yuri." Emmy whispered, pointing to the man in his twenties. "The other man is Gerard Gauthier." She explained irritatedly.

Yuri Alexandrovich was a retired gymnast who represented Russia at the Olympics in Beijing and London and Gerard Gauthier had six Olympic gold medals representing Canada, and now was a coach for the Canadian men's Olympic Gymnastics team.

Aidan watched with bated breaths as Luca stretched in his tight leotard, Aidan could barely control himself as he stared at Luca's perfectly sculpted body. He was so masculine while still being feminine, it was like he was the perfect mix of the two. The tights were bright red and left his muscular arms exposed, running down skin tight past his waist and down to his knees. Part of Aidan hated that his Luca was on display for everyone to see, he wanted to be the only one to see him like that.

Yuri walked up behind Luca and grabbed his waist, hoisting the smaller boy up so he could grab onto the suspended rings. Aidan felt a tinge of jealously in his chest as he watched the other man hold Luca like that, but he trusted Luca. He watched proudly as Luca raised himself up, flipping and contorting on the rings as the Mr. Gautier nodded, staring at him with narrowed scrutinizing eyes. This went on for a while, as they went through floor exercises, pummel horse, horizontal bar and parallel bar.

Aidan watched him carefully, with a smile across his face, but he couldn't help but feel as though someone was watching him as well. He followed the undeniable feeling, cocking his head to the right to see a familiar dark haired boy glaring daggers at him. Gio Greco.

Gio was flanked by Arianna and Gianna, though the two girls were far too busy watching Luca to notice Aidan. Gio was smug and arrogant, and Aidan never cared much for him, ironically enough that's exactly what Gio said about Aidan as well.

The two boys had so much in common, which terrified Luca at times; had they gone to the same school they might have been the best of friends. Aidan gave Gio a tight lipped smile, nodding politely to him as he watched his glare turn into a scowl, before confusedly breaking eye contact and staring back at his cousin on the parallel bars.

Aidan smirked to himself, knowing he successfully pushed Gio's buttons, but that wasn't why he smiled at him. He knew that one day Luca would tell Gio about them, and he knew that one day they'd have to put their differences aside for a certain beautiful dark haired boy who both Aidan and Gio loved, albeit in very different ways. Luca was their common denominator, he would be the reason they'd bury the hatchet, and for him, Aidan would do anything.Even if that meant befriending the brash asshole who was Giovanni Fucking Greco.

"I'm impressed." Mr. Gauthier said as Luca walked up to him, wiping the sweat of his brow and clapping off the residual chalk powder off of his hands. "You have potential, Yuri was right about you. But I must say, I'm surprised you'd pass up the option to represent the States at the Olympics." The older man said with a curious glint in his eyes.

The truth of the matter was that Luca did pass up representing the US team. When he was sixteen, he was so close to training with the USA Gymnastics team, but with everything that happened with Ryder Lark, it didn't happen.

Luca was offered a position on the team, but he later learnt that it was partially for damage control. When Luca first turned Ryder Lark in to USA Gymnastics, he was offered a position to train with them ONLY if he signed a Non-Disclosure Agreement that would prevent him from ever telling his story.  He declined the option outright; if God willed him to go to the Olympics, he'd go on his own merit, not out of pity.