Anon Author

“I hate him,” Leon says darkly as the group continues to prepare for the long trail ride, grunting when his palomino immediately shakes her head and nearly unseats him when he scrambles to adjust.

“Ohh, I know what that means, you’re saying rude things about me again,” calls out a voice from behind the two of them.

Connor bites down on a laugh when Matthew -call me Matty- sidles in between their horses, hand raised to pat Leon’s horse as he mock cooes at her.

“That’s right Bella,” Matty pretend whispers, “if the city boy disparages my good name again, you just dump his ass on the ground.”

“Aren’t you supposed to make sure we stay on the horses,” Leon grits out.

Matty rolls his eyes, “I can’t help it if they can sense how much of a dick you are. Seriously, do you deal with this everyday?”

That last question is aimed at Connor.

Connor pauses, he has no idea how to say ‘no, this is the most I’ve seen Leo emote since the devastating playoff loss that ended our Cup run a few weeks back’ so he settles for a bland shrug.

“Right,” Matty drawls after a few seconds, when it becomes clear that Connor isn’t planning to elaborate. He reaches out to pat Connor’s horse and-

Connor sucks in a quick breath when he realizes how close that hand is to his thigh.

And it’s stupid, he’s not, he doesn’t, but-

He can’t help but stare when Matty looks up at him from below his lashes.

He’s a sight.

Sun-kissed skin, lips red because he has an obvious oral fixation and stretched in an insouciant smile that shouldn’t make him handsome but does.

“Lucky these city boys are lookers Bella,” Matty says casually, looking over at Leon when the other makes a choked off noise, “because Lord knows neither of them have a personality.”

Which-

“You,” Leon starts, eyes dark.

“Me?” Matty has the audacity to smirk at Leon.

Connor swallows hard at the look that temporarily steals over Leon’s face before he controls it and smoothes it into an approximation of his usual grumpy frown.

But it had been there long enough for Connor to see it.

The desire, the frantic lust that consumes them sometimes after a big game-

Connor doesn’t know what his face looks like but he thinks he’s blushing, because suddenly his mind is whirling, and flashes of dark eyes, naked skin and red lips and-

A low whistle forces him to blink away the images.

Matty is eyeing them both with a curious look, one that turns decidedly sly at whatever he sees on their faces.

It makes him look like an asshole.

It’s also painfully attractive.

“I had you boys all wrong,” he says slowly, “less miracle on ice and more brokeback mountain eh?”

They’re saved from replying when the other Tkachuk brother calls for attention.

Matty gives them another look, indecipherable but no less heated for it, before he smirks. 

“No,” Quinn blurts out, looking a bit wild around the eyes, “just.”

He bites his lips.

They are really red, Elias notices distantly.

“I just,” he continues reluctantly, looking like every word pains him, “it’s just, it, uh, was kinda weird when you said my boy.”

Elias pauses to think this through and furrows his brows when nothing immediately comes to mind. “You do not like to be called boy?” he tentatively guesses, wondering if this is one of those times where he has failed to perhaps pick up on some obscure English connotation or slang. 

But it’s odd? 

He’s certain Quinn and the others have said “boys” in the past when referring to the team.

Quinn’s cheeks are already red, but as Elias watches, the flush makes its way down his neck.

It’s oddly mesmerizing.

“No,” Quinn bites out, looking away, “I, it’s not the boy part.” He clams up immediately, regret visible on his face and takes a step back.

Out of sheer instinct, Elias reaches out to catch his arm to prevent him from going further.

“You do not like me saying you’re mine?” he parses out, then pauses when he realizes what he said. This isn’t above his understanding of English and he’s aware of how that question came out. Elias opens his mouth to try and explain that, oops, sorry Huggy, that’s not what he meant to imply, only, he catches sight of Quinn’s slightly parted lips and still ruddy cheeks and snaps his mouth shut.

Oh, Elias thinks.

Ohhhhh.

His mind flashes back to that interview.

He swallows, aware of the line they’re dancing on but unable to help himself.

“Do you like it when I call you my boy,” he asks quietly, and is viciously pleased by the choked noise Quinn makes. 

Elias tries not to laugh in relief, as the doubts and confusion of the day abruptly disappear, leaving him feeling warm and something close to giddy. “Or do you like it better when I call you my captain?”

Quinn sucks in a sharp breath.

“Petey,” Quinn says softly, “I, what-”

“Okay you motherfuckers,” Frank calls out once he enters the main living area where the others are currently in various state of wakefulness, “who thought it was funny to do this?”

Joey, the closest to him and who appears to be the most awake of the three, turns and peers quizzically at him. “What’s up?”

Frank points to the thick black choker adorning his neck. He had found himself wearing it when he woke up a few minutes ago and has been lowkey simmering in embarrassed rage since, not because he didn’t like the soft leather or the clean design, but because the damn thing has a tiny Ghost Face mask hung prominently onto the front. Doesn't help that he can’t seem to find a way to take it off because it’s on so damn tight and the back appears not to have an easy buckle.

“Really fucking funny,” he mutters darkly.

“Uh,” Joey says once he’s gotten a better look, eyes wide, “not me bro.”

“Well one of you-”

“You’re so loud,” Julie gripes as she shuffles closer, “what’s got you all-”

She pauses.

Frank glowers at the honest look of shock on both of their faces, well, at least he’s found the culprit for the insanely lame prank. “Alright nerd,” he calls out to Susie, “real dumb attempt at fucking with me, now take this thing off before I get summoned into a trial.”

Susie makes a sleepy sounding ‘hey’ at the label but obediently moves closer, rubbing at her eyes with the sleeve of her hoodie, she squints at his neck before her mouth drops open.

“Wha-”

Frank will fully admit that, post being taken by the fog and being able to participate in trials everyday where he gets to expend most of his innate bloodlust by stabbing boring losers, he is a much chiller dude than when he was living in Ormond.

But not so chill so as to put up with this amount of bullshit and disrespect.

“I swear to-”

“Frank,” Julie cuts in quietly, “it’s not one of us.”

“Hah?” Frank tries not to yell, “I know it’s not Joey or you, but what about Miss I Like Chokers Over Here? This your idea of joke Susie?”

He feels a vicious sense of satisfaction when he sees Susie visibly pale within the confines of her hoodie, shrinking into herself at the mounting fury in his voice. Good, he thinks harshly, she needs to fucking learn a lesson if she thinks she can get away with messing with me.

“I didn’t do it,” Susie mumbles out, backing up a step and holding up her hands in a gesture of supplication, “I promise Frank, I wouldn’t-”

“So what?” Frank snorts, “some magical fairy just up and gifted me a new choker last night?”

Susie shakes her head and backs up another step, “no, that’s not what I’m saying, I just, I swear I didn’t do it, you got back later than I did and I was already asleep. I don’t, I'm saying it’s not mine.”

Despite the low burn of fury in the pit of his stomach, something tells him to stay silent and reassess the situation. So he does. Frank stares at Susie first, narrowing his eyes and taking in the nervous downward turn of her lips and the fidgeting of her hands as she pulls at the hem of her hoodie. The longer he watches her, the more convinced he is that she isn’t lying, which then leaves the other two. Frank shifts his gaze towards Joey and Julie, scrutinizing them in turn, both having sensed the change in the air and having quietened in response.

“God, just let me take it off,” Julie says eventually, squaring up her shoulders and meeting his gaze directly when she can’t seem to stand the tension any longer.

Frank thinks about being contrary a bit longer but grunts and turns instead so she can get to the back of the choker. He still has no idea who the fuck decided to put this on him but he’s content to figure it out once he has the damn thing off.

“Hold still,” Julie chides half-hearted when he tenses at the touch of her cold fingers against the back of his neck, “what the hell even is this?”

“What,” he demands.

Julie sighs noisily through her nose but doesn’t say anything else.

Frank feels her fingers tug at what must be the buckle and then-

“SHIT,” he swears and jerks away from her hands when what feels like lightning strikes through his upper body. “What the fuck did you do?”

“What? What happened?”

Frank rounds on his gang, gnashing his teeth against the residual tingles he still feels in his fingers, “what the fuck was that? It feels like you fucking stuck an electrical plug into my neck.”

Julie’s look of confusion clears but it’s Joey who speaks, though he looks very much like he wishes he didn’t have to. “That, uh,” he swallows, “that’s not a choker.”

Frank waits a beat. “Well?” he prompts impatiently.

“It’s a shock collar,” Joey finishes.

There is a beat of silence.

Frank whirls around and stomps back to his room, determined to find his knife so he can try and cut the damn thing off. Then he’ll come back and shut these fuckers up for messing with him, because they must be messing with him. Let's see if they still think it’s funny when he’s fully awake and no longer being humiliated. 

He’s digging around his bed (sue him, he likes sleeping with his knife okay?) when he spies something pink sticking out from under his pillow where it wouldn’t be obtrusive unless someone was looking. He hesitates, ignoring the concerned calls he hears from the other Legion members coming closer, and tugs at the pink slip he sees until it's in full view.

It’s a heart-shaped sticky note, the kind of lame shit one sees around Valentine’s Day back in Ormond.

‘Hope you like the gift Frankie, saw it and immediately thought of you!

x.o.x.o. GF’