"All right, come on, let's get inside! Someone's gotta keep Frankie and Winston in check!"
The two boys raced back to the pitch-black house, shivering from the cold. Tristan turned to make his way towards the living room.
"Tris, where do you think you're going?"
"My basketball sweats are in my bag. I'll change into that."
"Not after this morning's practice. Come with me."
Tristan followed Miles to his room and straight into his walk-in closet where he found himself in a sea of collared shirts.
"Ah! Here we go!" said Miles as he turned towards Tristan with two matching track suits and a couple of undershirts.
Tristan arched an eyebrow. "You are aware that you're not the one with a twin, right?"
"Okay, if you wanna wear your ripe gym clothes, be my guest..."
"I take it back!" Tristan apologized as he grabbed the red version of outfit. "But just for the record, when I suggested that we have a bro date, I did not have any intentions of getting inside your pants."
Tristan was surprised when Miles' response consisted of the boy laughing under his breath and cuffing him gently on the arm before looking down with a shy smile. He turned away and ran his hand through his hair as if he was trying to hide a blush, but it was impossible to tell in the dark.
"Okay, let's get out of these wet clothes," Miles said as he peeled off his socks. "I won't peak if you don't."
Tristan turned away with a grin. Miles was being rather playful tonight.
As they were hanging their clothes to dry, Tristan noticed the moonlight reflecting on a small, metallic object on Miles' desk and picked it up.
"What's this?"
Miles looked over. "My lighter."
Tristan's eyes grew wide. "I had no idea you smoked. You know, smoking-"
"Yeah, yeah, you can skip the lecture. I quit a while ago."
"Why?"
"Well, when a certain someone called me out as a dummy for not knowing how bad steroids were, I decided that drugs didn't have to be for me," he replied looking into Tristan's eyes. "I never got to thank you for that."
"Hey, that's what friends are for."
It seemed that Miles wanted to say something but he looked down and shook his head as if he changed his mind at the last second. Instead he reached out to lift Tristan's hand that was holding the lighter, keeping the blond's palm face up. Miles gently covered the object with his other hand and used his thumb to collect it. Keeping his eyes fixed on Tristan's hand sandwiched in between his own hands, he held on for a bit longer than necessary before slowly sliding his fingers away. Tristan barely managed to suppress a gasp.
He may be out of the storm, but he felt like he was just struck by a bolt of lightening.
"Come on," Miles said quietly with a soft smile as he waved the lighter. "Now that there's no point to keep playing for the good TV, I just thought of something else we could all do."
Tristan nodded and gulped as Miles turned away. Damn it, his huge crush that he'd been bottling up just came crashing out like a tidal wave. But he couldn't be imagining things this time. They did have a moment... didn't they?
/-/-/-/-/
A/N: Hi fanfiction dot net world! I've been writing Triles fan fiction for a month, but this is the first time that I'm posting Triles fanfic here. It's been over a decade since I've been inspired this way. Tristan and Miles are my OTP! If enough people like my work and leave reviews I might continue writing them.
My friend lydiaroth also wrote a few Triles missing moments from Thunderstruck that I will be recommending as I move my way through out the timeline. After reading this, please check out her short fic titled "I Want You", which takes place as soon as Thunderstruck, Part 2 begins.
