As athletic as Sam Evans had always been, he really didn't like running laps. It felt so aimless, like there was no purpose in it at all, other than using it to collectively punish your football team for someone shoving a kid in a dumpster right in front of their coach's face, which was exactly what coach Beiste was doing to her football team right now.
However, working out 6 days a week had its obvious advantages, Sam was quickly reminded of, as he was already sprinting to finish his final lap, finally being able to take the shower he'd been dying to take since he was sandwiched between Azimio and one of his trusty and equally sweaty minions half an hour ago.
As he jogged past coach Beiste, who gave him the thumbs up to signal that he was indeed done for the day, he broke into an unexpected smile, realizing that it was Friday, knowing very well what that meant. Since a couple of weeks ago, when he'd gotten into a surprisingly heated discussion with one of his closest friends, Artie Abrams, about which Zelda game was the most groundbreaking one, Fridays had become gaming night at Artie's place.
Artie, like Sam, was both a member of the football team and the glee club, which only proved to strengthen the bond the two guys had already began to form since first meeting each other, realizing how much they had in common, their nerdy personalities being the main thing.
Since he'd promised coach Beiste to go bench pressing in the gym before he went home for the day, Artie had been excused early from football practice, when his team mates were running laps. As Sam pushed the door to the boys locker room open, he reckoned Artie would be finishing up in the gym right about the same time, contemplating on whether he should go and meet up with him before his long anticipated shower, when he heard an unexpected noise coming from said showers, startling him a little since he knew the other guys were like five laps behind him when he'd left the field.
Not knowing what to expect at all, but eager to find out, he quietly rounded the corner, not wanting to intrude if it was just someone taking a shower. He knew from first hand experience with a certain Kurt Hummel that things like that could get a little awkward, especially between guys less open-minded as himself when it came to sexuality and all of that stuff.
What he found when his eyes scanned the showers for something or someone that noise had come from was much worse than he'd imagined. Propped up against the wall of the last shower stall was a fully clothed, soaking wet Artie, shivering like a leaf.
"God, Artie!", Sam exclaimed as he threw himself onto his knees to get Artie out of his heavy shoulder pads. As he grabbed his friend across the shoulders, turning him around to have Artie's back against his own chest to easier pull the pads off without throwing off his friend's balance and sending him face first to the floor, he realized Artie shouldn't still have his football gear on if he'd just come back from the gym.
"What happened?", he questioned anxiously. "Who did this?"
His voice shaking, sounding slightly out of breath, Artie explained. "Got out of practice...", he stopped to draw a shallow breath. "Cornered by hockey team...", another quick intake of oxygen. "Easy target...", Artie finished, slumping into Sam's chest as he'd finally managed to get the shoulder pads completely off and threw them across the room. The difficulty Artie had just breathing and how he was uncharacteristically speaking in short sentence fragments, probably from exhaustion, worried Sam a great deal. He couldn't find any indication that the hockey jerks had beat his friend up, but he imagined Artie would've put up quite a fight trying to wrestle his way out of someone's grip as they were practically drowning him.
"Hey. Perhaps we should find someone, like the nurse or something. You don't seem alright to me.", Sam voiced his worry, but as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he felt Artie tense up and try to push his way from Sam, with little success. He seemed all out of energy, 100 % exhausted, so when Sam seized him around the waist as he made his futile attempt to escape, there wasn't much more he could do than just let out a short and defeated sigh.
"Told you you don't look well, Artie.", Sam informed him, with only a hint of smugness in his tone from being right, as he repositioned his arms to Artie's shoulders, not convinced the slightest that Artie would be fine on his own, but not wanting to make him uncomfortable either by having his arms wrapped around his waist. They already looked a bit too intimate, Artie collapsed into Sam's strong arms on the floor, now once again leaning fully into Sam's chest.
Letting his mind quickly revisit the football practice, trying to come up with a plan for what to do next, he remembered Mike not being too many laps behind him, crossing his fingers for one of their fellow glee clubbers to be the one to find him and Artie. As worried as he was about Artie right now, he knew how many slushies they'd have to take between the two of them if one of their other team mates were to find the pair, soaking wet, in each other's arms on the floor of the locker room showers.
"I'm sorry, Artie", he began, as he tried to comfort his friend while they waited for help. "I think we're gonna have to cancel our gaming night." He'd be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed, but right now, all he cared about was someone finding the boys, and finally getting Artie back to his normal body temperature. The way he was shaking was really unsettling.
"But we could always reschedule, if you're up for it?", he tried to lighten the mood a little, pleased to hear Artie let out a strained chuckle as a response.
"Sounds... like a plan...", Artie forced out between breaths. "Gonna kick... your ass..."
"You're thinking I'll go easy on you", Sam replied with a laugh and a smile. "You wish."