When they left the locker room, Colin was flushed and had his collar popped to hide the mark on his neck. He absently rubbed at it as they walked, hoping that he could somehow ease the aggressive blush.

"What class do you have now?"

"Philosophy," Colin answered, more curtly than intended. "Are you sure you can't see it?"

Bradley rolled his eyes. "Well, if you keep tearing at it people will be bound to wonder." He reached up and brought Colin's hand to his side.

"If anyone asks -"

"I sucked on your neck so hard and it felt so good that you were powerless to resist. Got it," Bradley laughed.

Colin elbowed him in the ribs. "Prat," he mumbled, smiling despite himeslf.

"No one is going to notice," Bradley promised, placing a hand on the back of Colin's neck. "I'll see you in Biology." He kissed Colin right above the ear and turned the next corner, out of sight.

Colin stared after him, hand absently wandering back to his neck as he walked to class, finding Katie and sitting down next to her.

She took one long look at him and then eyed his popped collar. "That doesn't suit you," she stated, her eyes darkening as though he'd insulted her personally; she reached over to fix it and he leaned away. She looked at him questioningly.

"Just trying out new things," he chuckled weakly, sounding just as unconvincing and just as stupid to her as he did to himself.

"Right, but not that," she said impatiently and flattened the upright fold. "Oh." She popped it back. "That answers why we didn't see you two at lunch."

"Yeah..."

She snickered just as Professor Sigan began to speak and squeezed his shoulder. Colin glanced at her and shook his head, grinning. Katie radiated with support, as though she'd known him for years, knew his mind and it stunned Colin to his core. He leaned over and kissed her cheek.

She winked at him and put her notebook on the table. "So," she said in an undertone, turning her head toward him while keeping an eye on the board Sigan was scribbling on, "have you been to Bradley's yet?"

Colin straightened up, feeling a faint flush on his cheek. He knew she hadn't meant to imply what his brain had interpreted but nonetheless, he shifted uncomfortably. "No."

She hummed and tapped her pen against the desk, taking down a few notes. "After we go shopping, we'll go back there. He'll drive you home afterwards."

Colin chuckled. "Shouldn't you ask him first?"

Katie looked at him as if she couldn't comprehend the question. "Well, of course, but I know he'll agree."

"How long have you two known each other?"

"Forever. He's the annoying brother I never wanted," she joked, squinting at the illegible scribbles Sigan was writing.

"Though he's older," Colin commented with a hint of playfulness.

"And I'm further mentally developed," she finished, lifting her chin at him and smiling. "I'm close," she started, fixing her eyes on him, "with both of them."

"Uther too?" Colin was surprised.

"Bradley is an only child," she explained, pausing to quickly finish up her notes, "my parents died when I was young and he took me in, they'd known each other for years. We were brought up together, Bradley and I, and Uther's kind of like an uncle to me."

Colin was stunned; though he'd noted the familiarity between the two of them, such as Gwen and Bradley did not have, he didn't think much of it beyond the fact that they had been good friends. But now everything he'd noticed between them seemed coloured by the information. "You live with them?"

"Yes," she said slowly, raising a brow at his shocked impression. "So, Bradley will drive you home tomorrow."

Colin dropped his gaze, wondering if he was getting ahead of himself. "Do you know," he started and paused to clear his throat from the lump that had formed, "do you know if he's told Uther?"

"He hasn't," she replied, regarding him thoughtfully with a hint of an apology lighting her eyes.

Colin chewed on that for a moment and looked up hopefully. "How do you think he will react?"

Katie's smile dropped and she turned from him, chewing on the inside of her cheek. After a long minute she sighed and shrugged. "Honestly, I don't know," she confessed, offering him a sympathetic gaze, "however he reacts, he'll get over it."

"Bradley doesn't talk about him much and when he does..." Colin trailed off as Katie nodded knowingly. Colin had rarely raised the subject with Bradley, somehow getting the impression that it was nearly taboo and all the questions that he had stifled seemed to rise up and bubble in his throat. "Are they close? I mean, good?" To keep himself from seeming too eager he quickly glanced at ther notebook and copied down two lines of notes, barely keeping track of the words.

Katie blew out a harsh breath. "It's complicated and I'm not really sure I'm in a place to tell you," she said. "No offense meant. It's been over ten years and I still can't really describe them, but I know Uther loves him; loves him more than any single thing on this planet." Her features softened, her gaze slipping past Colin. "Uther's like this great big fortress, all moats and thick walls, canons peeking out from the towers, but all for show really, to ward people off so they don't barge in and see he's only hiding a heart just as big as his stupid fortress," she chuckled, shaking her head. "Whatever this is, Bradley's got to do what's right - and damn the consequences."

Colin didn't know whether to feel reassured or nauseous. He had no plans to meet Uther anytime soon, hell maybe he never would, but to get an idea of what might come seemed prudent. "Thanks." He reached over and took her hand, lightly squeezing her fingers and smiling, trying to release some of the pressure that had built up in his chest. "I don't think I want to go up against that fortress."

She giggled and linked their fingers. "Don't worry about it for the time being." She let his hand go and straightened her notebook, dating the page and underlining it with a swirl at the end. She pursed her lips and slyly glanced at him, eyes dark under her lashes. "You should be focusing on your extra curricular activity today."

Colin threw his hands up, groaning. "You're all laughing but just wait, I'll show you a thing or two."

Katie grinned at him. "Alright, Gwen and I will cheer you on, then."

Colin threw her a withering glare. "Great."

To Colin's credit, he wasn't as horrible a player as everyone had prematurely judged - not that he was particularly good either, but then, such low expectations had allowed for him to impress. After being introduced as newest member of the team and consequently receiving very sceptical gazes, as much in wonder at his skill as in wonder at the fact that he was dating the Captain (who assured his teammates he had nothing to do with Colin's placement on the team), they spent ten minutes babying him trough the most basic of their plays.

He wasn't expected to participate in games, but for appearances sake they gave him a defensive position; something Colin had expected to be simple but was quite the hassle, even in practice. The way the players moved the ball around, as if it were passing straight through their feet and not just winding around the heel, amazed him and frustrated him because his defending was useless against their tricks. The players he paired up with barely broke a sweat as they spun around him, wrapping the ball around their legs and at times straight through his open ones. Despite it all, his obvious effort seemed to endear him to the team and they happily gave him pointers, clapping him on the back when he'd quite accidentally, kicked the ball away from one of the players.

Colin had felt some hostility at first, superiority for sure, but was relieved that it passed quickly. They acknowledged his energy and hell if he wasn't doing more huffing and puffing in the past hour than he had in his whole life and warmed to his comical seriousness in the undertaking of his role. He strove to garner some respect from them, not necessarily be seen as an equal but not a liability either. The word had rung in his ears since Bradley had said it and pissed him off just enough to make him care. Bradley was studiously ignoring him and staying well clear of him, which at first made Colin want to fling a ball at Bradley's head but had then just made him more eager to show the blond up for his earlier comments; he only realized later that Bradley was just trying to abate the rumours that he'd purposelly gotten Colin put on the team.

Among all the new faces and new names around him, Colin breathed out a sigh of relief at seeing Lancelot jog up to him. He'd whispered some advice into Colin's ear and looked on with a certain worry when Colin tried to follow up on it and went running after the ball. Colin recognized Bradley's friends from class but couldn't bother with the effort of trying to befriend them, especially since they stayed close to their Captain on the other side of the field. Colin mostly watched as the team ran their plays, who largely focused on coordinating their efforts, goofing off at times to show each other tricks they'd learned.

At present the goalie was practising aiming the ball down the field from his net to the offensive players. At some point the ball veered off, aiming straight for Colin and he tried to copy what everyone else had done to stop the ball with his chest and it was as close to a success as could be but for the fact that he'd positioned himself too close and instead of catching it with his chest he caught it with his face. His nose erupted in pain and the resulting slap of the ball on his skin echoed in his ears. He felt electric heat travel outward to his cheekbones and raised his fingers to his nose, touching it lightly and hoping it wasn't bleeding.

Bradley had rocketed over and made a quick inspection of his face to make sure nothing was broken. "Idiot!" Bradley growled, fingers digging into his shoulder painfully.

"Who in the hell sticks their face out in the path of a flying ball! Are you completely brain dead?"

Colin rubbed at his nose and shrugged Bradley off, frowning at now having pain in his shoulder as well as in his face. "I had intended for it to hit my chest," he admonished, snorting and then flinching from the pain.

Lancelot had jogged over, glancing at Bradley with nearly as much worry as he looked at Colin. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Colin assured, waving his hands at both of them. "Continue."

Bradley's brow darkened and Colin was banished off of the field. He tried to argue but Bradley pointed at the bench angrily, daring him to utter a sound. Colin rolled his eyes at the childish treatment and slouched off, being thoughtfully patted on the back by his teammates as he went.

The coach nodded at him as he sat down. "Well done, Morgan."

"Sorry?" Colin thought for a moment that his coach was sarcastically congratulating him on his failed attempt, but there was no note of sarcasm in his voice.

"I think they expected much less from you," Edwin said, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. "You've little skill, but I haven't seen them have that much fun in a while."

"The low expectations kind of worked in my favour," Colin admitted, touching his cheek gingerly. "I had fun too."

Edwin gave him a quick pat on the shoulder. "Glad to hear it."

"Colin!" Katie ran over, Gwen at her side. "Oh my god." She reached out to touch his face but decided against it.

"All in one piece."

"I heard the smack from where we were sitting," she said impatiently, clicking her tongue in annoyance. "What the hell was that stunt?"

"Tried to stop the ball," he said, wincing as Gwen held out an ice-pack and then pressed it to his cheek.

"Worked out, did it?" Gwen bent her head in sympathy.

"Clearly," he sighed wearily, now only feeling a dull throb in his swollen face.

"We saw Bradley chew you out," Gwen mentioned with a slight chuckle.

"Apparently I'm a brain-dead idiot," Colin mocked, stressing Bradley's accent.

Katie smiled widely at him. "Isn't he just the cutest when he's worried?"

"His insults were rather heartfelt," he agreed, chuckling despite the pain it caused. "On the bright side, I did manage stop the ball."

Katie stuck her bottom lip out and nodded. "I can see that."

Gwen motioned for him to turn the ice-pack over and when he did the icy sting made him hiss. For the rest of practice he watched Bradley from the bench, continuing to numb his face with the ice but no longer feeling so much of the pain. Bradley's cheeks were red from exertion and his sweat drenched hair stuck to his forehead, more messy than Colin had ever seen it; his leg muscles pulsed as he ran and stood out prominently when he kicked the ball. Colin was entranced by the fluidity of Bradley's movement, the determination in his brow, the skill with which he moved. Colin followed him with his eyes, absently aware that now and again other players passed through his view; his nose and cheeks were searingly numb but he could feel the insistent pulsing of his heart in his throat and in his face; his skin had been pink and now an angry red and a smile stretched across his face as his gaze was met across the field and blue eyes focused on him, so entirely drawn on him that even from a distance he could feel their intensity. Colin's breath hitched and his heart pounded in his ears and surely enough he realized, he was falling in love.