Peter Anderson

Everything else receded into the background as Cad kissed back, relief and instinct taking over like he had never known. He kissed back without fear that he was doing it wrong, or badly- he just kissed, with as much emotion behind it as he could muster.

His body shifted over to autopilot, being lead by instinct and passion.  Peter brought one hand up to Cad’s face. 

Cas lingered, intoxicated by Peter’s eyes so close to his, the stench of the locker room fading as he got lost in their color. “…But…” Cad hesitated. “I don’t like her the way I like you.”

Peter closed the gap between them and pressed his lips to Cad’s. He was thankful that the team the rest of the team was nowhere to be seen, this moment belonged to them.

Cadmus was still lost, even as he drifted even closer to Peter. “Then… why would you be jealous of her?”

Peter scooted closer to Cadmus, only a few inches separated them. “Because she was with you.” Getting those few words was a huge weight lifted off of this shoulder....a weight that was then replaced with fear of what would come next. 

 “Jealous… of Michelle?” Cad deflated. “You like Hayden?”

“No, I don’t like her. I mean, as a person she’s fine but I don’t really want anything with her.”

“Jealous?” Cad’s brow furrowed as the last remnants of the team departed the locker room. Part of him felt like this was the wrong thing to focus on, but the other part was focused on his quickly beating heart. Unconsciously, he scooted a little closer to Peter. “What do you mean?”

“Yeah, I was jealous of....of...of Michelle,” his heart felt like was trying to force it’s way out of his chest.

“I mean,” Cad’s face went too red, hoping his crush wasn’t too obvious. “I was really angry, but I didn’t think you were a jerk. You’ll never be a jerk to me.” Crap. He’d made it worse.

“I’m sorry for upsetting you. I mean not that my goal then wasn’t to upset you. Because I wanted to. I was jealous,” he nervously quickly rambled on. 

“Oh…” Cad blinked, caught off guard by the honesty. “I, uh… you’re not…” he hesitated, half lying. “I didn’t think you were a jerk.”

“You don’t?” Peter was surprised. On one hand it made thing easier, Cad wasn’t mad at him but on the other hand, if Cad did like him, wouldn’t he be mad? “Uh, that’s good to know.”

“Uh…” Cad bit his lip, unsure how to reply. He didn’t know how to feel, or what to say. Peter had really hurt him, and Michelle, but now that they were standing here things felt almost normal again. Sawyer slid past him on his way out, clapping Cad on the back and half-scaring Cad so that he jumped. Embarrassed, he smiled softly at Peter. “I don’t… like what?”

“Like such a jerk, I was drunk and jealous.” He took a deep breath, “I did and said things that I didn’t mean.”

Cad was surprised when Peter approached him in the locker room, just as the others were slowly trickling out. His mouth fell open and his face went red as the blond stepped closer to him. He was immediately self-conscious of how gross and sweaty he was, not even thinking about the fact that Peter was the same way.

“Uh…hi,” Cad stumbled over his own words as he attempted to seem cool. “Nice to, uh… hi. Good to see you.”

Peter was relieved to learn that Cad was still talking to him after the other night. The a few team members were still hanging around the locker rooms, but they were too busy to notice the pair. 

“Good to see you too. Uh...about the other night, at Aaron’s party, I’m not normally like that.”