d i r t y b l o n d e
The first time Hayner laid eyes on his soon-to-be arch nemesis was at sunrise. Half past five exactly.
He couldn't ever forget, because of the way the sun had glared in his eyes as it peeked over the skyscraper-littered horizon and he had turned and shielded his eyes and then - then he had seen him.
The sunlight seemed to get itself tangled up in that short cropped hair and framed his face like some kind of halo. Pale, icy eyes glanced his way and for some horrible and unknown reason, Hayner felt himself panic for a moment before tearing his gaze away and back to the task at hand. He had more important things to worry about. He crouched low over the diving block that he had come to know so well and took a deep breath.
The cold, refreshing taste of the pool hit him as he crashed in, his senses flooded with chlorine and chemicals and all thoughts of the sun-boy, that golden, luminescent being who had not even noticed him, were put aside. He started moving immediately, focussing his breathing with every stroke of his arm, every kick of his legs. It felt good to move his muscles through the silky water. His coach and long-time friend, Olette, followed him along the side of the pool with a stopwatch in her hand.
Streams of bubbles burst from his mouth as he powered along, enjoying the burn that crept through his muscles. As he reached the end of his first ten laps he exploded from the surface of the pool like a geyser, mouth sucking in all the air he could get, the now-warm morning sun dancing softly on his brown skin and reflecting off the rivulets of water that ran down his body.
"Refreshing," he greeted Olette, who had a slight frown on her pretty face.
"Bad start. Your dive wasn't clean, it cost you seconds there." She smiled forgivingly. "Don't forget that the start is the most vital part to your race!"
"Ah, yeah. I know." Hayner made the effort to sound slightly sheepish. He knew what had distracted him at the outset. Sharp, sharp greeny-blue eyes like acid sky pierced his thoughts and he blinked rapidly, tried to concentrate on what Olette was saying.
"Hop back in, we'll try that again with a better start. Maybe we need to go over some finer points of your dive."
Hayner didn't argue. He fought the urge to stare at the blonde stranger again and took his irritation out on the water. Green-blue ripples reflected the sky above, little winks of luminescence caught by the bright sun and for a moment he wondered. He hurriedly dived in, destroying the brief moment of quiet beauty.
After a couple of hours had passed and Hayner's legs were telling him to stop calling and call it quits, he stopped swimming furiously up and down the pool and took a breather on the bleachers, head between his knees as he breathed in sweet oxygen. The sun was high up in the sky now, sunlight pouring down from a cloudless sky. He raised again a hand to shield his eyes.
His eyes wandered of their own accord, some remote part of him searching for the newcomer (whom he had, for some strange reason, now come to associate with the sun), coming to a halt as he saw the sun-boy getting out at the deep end, muscles flexing and water streaming down his strong body as he stood up. Hayner's mouth went dry and he instinctively swallowed, completely taken in by the simple, forceful attraction he felt. He fought the fantasy that invaded him; a fantasy about that tall, hard body and that pale golden hair which was also mimicked on the sun-boy's lower navel. He tried to fight it, to derail his thoughts from the downward track they were already headed on. Hayner didn't believe in shallow, physical, selfish sexual attraction. Attraction lay in character and in depth of personality. That was what he had come to make himself believe and he sure as hell wasn't about to throw it out the window for this wanker.
He was so distracted that he managed to miss the fact that said wanker was now approaching him, only jerking out of his daydreams when the taller interrupted, "Hey."
With a start, Hayner looked up and was instantly taken hostage by those haunting, searching green-blue eyes which were close enough that he could see his own reflection in them and the bright endless sky above him. With another start, he lurched backwards. Hadn't the guy ever heard of personal space?
Hayner was an impulsive child, fond of acting before and without thought. Hayner was known for a quick and fiery passion, was easily excited and easily brought to hasty judgment. Unfortunately it got him into trouble more often than not.
In his effort to remain cucumber-cool and not appear so affected, he replied with a short, "Hey," except it came out sounding more like, "What the hell do you want?"
Play it cool, Hayner. Good work.
The other blonde - blonder than him - frowned in surprise and what could possible have been hurt and opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again and instead bared a menacing sliver of white, pearly teeth in a leer. "I just came over to say you better pull your goddamned socks up, because I'm here now and we don't take losers on the team."
"What? Who the hell do you think you are?"
The other clearly saw fit to ignore him, shaking his head shortly and stalking off. Hayner's chest grew uncomfortable with annoyance and then rage. He sulked his way over to Olette, grabbing her by the shoulder and growling, "Who is that dickwad anyway?"
As if she'd been expecting it, the brunette sighed and rolled her eyes. "He's been here all of ten minutes and already you've made an enemy of him?"
"He called me names!" Hayner fumed.
"Oh. I see," she replied, sounding unconvinced. "He's come here from Balamb Garden for the swim team. His name's Seifer Almasy. Try to get along with him. You'll be seeing a lot of him since you're both swimming for Twilight Town in the national competitions coming up in a few months."
"Like hell I will!" Hayner nearly shouted. He hated being upstaged. Especially by somebody for whom he was realistically no match, and on top of that somebody who was way out of his league. Competitively, that is. Nothing to do with attraction. What was he, a hormone-drunk sixteen year old? No, Hayner was mature and mature enough at that to deal with this dickhead in a mature way. He'd prove it.
Next episode coming soon.
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