AN: Overtime: an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw.
Chris and Peter meet on the high school basketball team. Peter is fifteen. Chris is seventeen. Peter's brother is in Chris' grade. They're able to hang out at practice. Their alone time is spent at the track field before school. They tell their parents they're going out for morning runs. Technically, it's true.
Eventually, Peter's brother Michael finds out. His parents think he's seeing a girl. The Argents are kept in the dark.
Peter follows in his dad's footsteps by attending Berkeley. Or, as Michael points out, he follows Chris there like a puppy. Gerard wants Chris to be more involved with the family business. Kate wants to be invited to college parties and to introduce Chris to some of her friends. Chris complains about his family. Peter complains about how unfair it is that they can't be together like a "real" couple.
The week before Chris graduates – cum laude – Peter starts to avoid him. When Chris corners him after class, Peter just sighs. "We need to talk." Chris starts to yell in frustration, scaring off the last few students in the hallway. Peter is determined. Peter doesn't think their relationship is a good idea in the real world. Chris is too hurt to argue. Except he does tell Peter that he thinks that's bullshit and to go fuck himself. They don't see each other again after Chris leaves school.
Chris moves on. He meets a feisty redhead named Victoria. She's Kate's roommate's sister's friend. She comes from a wealthy family and is a natural born leader. Gerard loves her. They marry after a few years of dating. He's content. He has someone who loves him, someone to come home to. And then he has a daughter, Allison. Allison becomes the new light of his life.
Gerard mentions the Hale fire to Chris on a Sunday. He says it matter-of-factly, mentions Mike Hale and most of his family are dead. Only three survived. Chris doesn't panic until Victoria is asleep.
He goes to the hospital the next weekend on his way to meet a client. He learns two of the survivors were Mike Hale's eldest children. The other was a man transferred to long term care. None of the others made it to the hospital. Chris insists on a name until he's blue in the face. He asks for a supervisor when no one will tell him. When the woman leaves her desk to get someone, he looks up Hale on her computer. He's gone before she comes back.
Chris visits Peter on the first Saturday of every month, under the guise of monthly meetings and gun conventions. Most of the time, he really is going to a meeting. Sometimes he just wants to see Peter.
Chris sees Laura and Derek as he's leaving the second time he visits. He learns from the nurse that they're leaving for New York; the funerals have taken place and they have friends in Brooklyn. Peter will be taken care of, but the nurse is glad Chris is still around to visit. She thought maybe he was going to New York too. She assumes he's family. He doesn't correct her.
Chris talks to Peter every time he visits. He tells him of Victoria, Allison, sometimes Kate. That Peter would have liked Victoria. She's bold and clever like Peter. That Allison is the only reason he and Victoria are still together – something they both know but never talk about. That he has a tape of the Bears game against Oregon to show Peter when he recovers. The Bears lost but they scored forty-one points in double overtime and it was awesome.
It takes years for him to accept that Peter will never wake up. The revelation leads to overwhelming grief. He takes Peter's face in his hands, feeling the smooth burn scars. He asks him, blinking away tears, if he can give him a sign that he's listening. To blink, or flinch, or scream at him for letting him go, anything at all. Peter's eyes remain blank. The heart monitor is steady. Chris chokes. He kisses his forehead and allows himself to linger for a moment. "Forgive me," he says before leaving, ignoring the nurse calling after him. ("Sir? Sir!") Peter had gone through many nurses, none of whom had asked Chris his name.
Years later, when he's back in Beacon Hills, he pretends he's forgotten about Derek's uncle. He pretends Peter is still in his rocking chair by the window. He pretends that night in the woods was just a nightmare. It isn't until Allison's junior year that he first sees Peter – his Peter – again.
Peter's scowling at the list Stiles gave him. He can see Derek's handwriting but most of it is crossed out with alternatives scrawled on the side. He's mindlessly pushing the cart down the aisle when a familiar scent hits him. His gut clenches as he looks up to see Chris frozen in place. Their eyes lock and neither of them know what to say. They agree they need to talk in private. They don't need to say where or when.
They meet the next day at sunrise at the old track field. The school has a new track field now. Peter takes in Chris' stiff gait. He knows Chris won't break first, that he's waiting for Peter.
"So. Do you still have that Bears tape?"
Chris stares at him. "What?" he croaks.
"You promised me a Bears game, don't think I'll-" Peter is cut off by Chris tackling him. Had he been human, they'd both be on the ground. Chris presses his nose against Peter's neck, an intimate gesture. He feels the deep breaths and erratic pulse before wrapping his arms around Chris' waist. Peter doesn't apologize for telling Chris to leave all those years ago. Chris doesn't apologize for leaving. Neither mentions their actions since the fire. For the moment, everything is surprising, finally, relatively okay.
AN: The basketball game mentioned was a real game in 2006. The California Golden Bears is Berkeley's basketball team.