#sunball

I bounced on the balls of my feet as I waited for the ref to blow her whistle and officially signal the start of the game. I didn't want to look nervous, but it was more than a little hard to hide.

"Hey."

I looked over to find Ithan Holstrom, my mate and husband, giving me a little smile as he reached out and squeezed my hand. I knew he must be nervous, too, but just sharing that look with him helped put me at ease.

"We've got nothing to worry about, alright? All the hard work and training is going to pay off."

I nodded and let out a breath, willing myself to believe his words. He was right; I knew he was right. And even if he wasn't, in the worst-case scenario, there'd be something to learn from the failure.

The sharp tweet of the ref's whistle echoed over the field, and our son took off like a shot into the middle of the fray in his team's final sunball game of the season. From the sidelines, Ithan and I jumped up into the air, shouting and cheering at the top of our lungs for him and his team.

"Let's go Connor!"

"You got this, Con!"

I used my fingers to whistle loudly, and Ithan clapped next to me. Just to our left, I felt a familiarly judgey pair of eyes shift towards us, but I ignored them both.

"We might need to find somewhere else to watch this game."

I didn't even both glancing over at Marc as he spoke, and neither did Ithan.

"You say that every game, and yet you keep ending up next to us," said Ithan. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Declan shrugging.

"After everything we've all been through together, it feels like we should be sitting together with you, our dear friends bonded to us through shared trauma. But today might be the day we finally draw a line in the sand."

I finally turned to look at Dec and Marc to see Dec looking Ithan and I up and down, staring pointedly at our shirts in particular.

For the final game of the year, Ithan and I had put together homemade fan jerseys for the team, with Holstrom written across the back. We were both incredibly proud of our handiwork, and Connor had been a little embarrassed but mostly smiling when we'd shown him. A few of the other team parents had asked if we could make versions for them and their kids next season. Dec's stare had a noticeably sharper edge of judgement to it.

"Jealousy's not a good look on you," I said. Dec rolled his eyes and Marc shook his head, but I just grinned back at them. I could see Dec readying whatever response he might've cooked up to that, but before he got the chance to say it, Connor managed to steal the ball near the mid-field and score the first points of the game.

"YES!" screamed Ithan, both of us jumping around and punching our fists in the air.

"ATTA KID CONNOR! Nice work!"

"Woohoo!"

The two of us kept clapping, loudly, and Connor shot a grin in our direction when he passed us. I faintly heard Dec and Marc muttering something to each other, but I absolutely did not care what it was.

Despite their grumbling, Dec and Marc didn't move away from Ithan and I as the game continued. They cheered for their kid, too, although they were a little more chill than Ithan and I. Their loss, and also to be expected since they weren't two retired sunball players like Ithan and I.

Heading into the final stretch of the game, the score was tied. I had Ithan's hand in a death grip, and he squeezed back just as hard. Connor walked onto the field with the rest of his teammates, and I recognized them lining up in the formation of a new play their coach had drawn up. I narrowed my eyes.

"I thought he decided to scrap this play," muttered Ithan. I could see him shaking his head out of the corner of my eye, and I was fighting the urge to do the same.

"I thought so too. Dammit, if this guy who's never played a game of sunball in his life costs us this game..."

"Why didn't one of you just coach, then?" Marc chimed in, a teasing lilt to his voice. "Or both of you?"

"Connor wanted to join a friend's team that already existed," I said, never taking my eyes from the field.

"We're planning to talk to the dad who's coaching now to see if he'd be interested in letting us take over," Ithan continued. "He said something at a team dinner about being a little tired of the time commitment this takes."

"Solas, if the two of you are already like this, I don't think I'll be able to handle however much worse being co-coaches makes you."

Ithan and I both ignored Dec's comment, instead keeping our attention laser-focused on the game ahead of us. The ref blew her whistle again, restarting play, and within moments things went off the rails.

The designed play quickly fell apart, leading our team into a trap they couldn't easily get out of and resulting in almost an immediate turnover. With less than a minute now on the clock, Connor and a few of the other, faster members of his team were streaking back down the field towards their own goal, trying desperately to stop the opposing players from scoring. My heart fell through to my shoes, Ithan and I clutching each other's hands for dear life, willing the opponent to miss. It didn't work. They scored, and our team had only a few seconds to decide how to respond and to execute on that decision.

"So... if we lose, what's the plan?" asked Dec, leaning over. "Ice cream cancelled, see you all next season?"

"Obviously not," I snapped, taking out a little of my stress on Declan. I knew he could take it, and that he wouldn't hold it against me. "We regroup and celebrate the positive takeaways, while noting the things we can change for next season. Definitely while getting ice cream, which is something we do after every game, because it's for doing your best, not winning or losing."

"Which you'd know if you stayed for the ice cream tradition with the team after the game," Ithan added. Dec gave a noncommittal hum and Marc huffed a little laugh, but I barely heard either. Connor had pulled his teammates into a huddle without even glancing to the bench where his coach watched, giving each of them quick instructions while they prepared to bring the ball back into play. I watched as each of his teammates nodded, one by one, and then they lined up again in the order they'd been in to run the coach's play that had failed so badly last time.

"What are they doing?" I asked, aiming my words at Ithan but not looking away from the game.

"I don't know..."

The two of us watched with baited breath as Connor put the ball back in bounds and play officially restarted. The clock got down to the final seconds as one of the other players brought the ball up the field, apparently to run the same play that had just failed so horribly. And then, at the last second, he whipped around and passed the ball to Connor.

As soon as the ball touched Connor's hands, he took off like a shot, directly counter to the play they'd run last time. The other team took a second to react, especially as Connor's teammates all changed the play on a dime with him, and they were exactly the seconds our team needed.

Before his defender could react, Connor shot through a hole in the defense created by his teammates sprinting to the outside of the field. The final seconds ticked away just after the ball left Connor's hand, and as the buzzer sounded, it soared through the goal.

"YES! HELL YES CONNOR!"

"THAT WAS BEAUTIFUL! GREAT FUCKING JOB, CON!"

Our shouts were just barely loud enough to be heard over the cheers of the rest of the parents and Connor's teammates, who rushed the field to wrap him up in their celebratory huddle. It killed me to hold back, but I knew he wouldn't want his parents rushing the field to interrupt his team celebrations, so I managed to wrangle that energy and turn it on Ithan instead.

"AHHHHH!" we shouted, both over the moon happy, as I jumped up and towards Ithan. He caught me mid-air, spinning me around in his arms as I wrapped my arms around his neck, laughing in celebration. He set me down, and we shared a quick kiss before stepping just far enough apart from each other to do the intricate celebration high-five we'd come up with back when we'd first started dating, when we were both still playing sunball ourselves.

A moment later, Connor came over to us, a massive smile on his face. We did the handshake again, this time modified to fit three people so all three members of our family could do it together, then Ithan and I both pulled Connor in for a tight, tight hug.

"That was a fantastic play, Con," Ithan said, ruffling Connor's hair. "You should be so proud of yourself for that."

"I know we damn sure are proud of you. Both on and off the field."

Connor grumbled a little, pushing back from us to rejoin his teammates after a few long moments, but the smile never once left his face.

"After team debrief, we're heading to the ice cream place down the block!" I called after him. He waved back with a smile, and Ithan slung his arm around my shoulders as we watched him walk away.

"So... how long are we going to have to relive that particular play over and over and over?" asked Dec, he and Marc drifting back to Ithan and I after congratulating their own son.

"For the rest of time," I said. "I mean, come on. Did you see that? Did you see how they pulled that off? How Connor pulled that off?"

"You know, I don't think we're the only ones you two are going to have to worry about anymore," Ithan continued. I glanced up at him and followed his gaze to where Connor had his arm slung around Dec and Marc's son's shoulders, talking animatedly like they were reliving the play they'd just pulled off. "I think we're finally converting him to 'crazy sunball maniac' with the rest of us."

Marc just sighed. "Well, there are worse things for him to spend his time doing."

"Are there? You haven't actually lived with one of these sunball maniacs yet," Dec grumbled. I just grinned at them both.

"Don't worry, us sunball maniacs have a fun time. We'll convert you both in no time, especially once somebody in your own house is working with us."

Dec gave a dramatic eyeroll, and Marc just laughed.

"I don't know, Dec, I'm starting to think we give in to the chaos. At least if we join them all for ice cream, it won't be a surprise when we spend all of dinner talking about the game and how it went."

"Yes Marc!" Ithan and I cheered. Dec groaned, but after a moment, he gave in with a tired sigh.

"Alright, fine. If I learned one thing living with Ruhn and Flynn, it's if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. But I'm still not bothering to learn the rules."

Ithan and I shared a grin.

"Don't worry, Dec," said Ithan, throwing his arm over Dec's shoulders as the four of us started drifting in the direction of ice cream, following after the players. "We'll make sure you learn 'em whether you want to or not."

Dec groaned, but Marc, Ithan, and I laughed. We more or less let it go as we chatted over ice cream and joined back up with our kids, but I caught Ithan's eye just as we were entering the ice cream place, and I knew we were on the same page. Connor, Ithan, and I were going to suck the Emmet-Rosarin family into our sunball insanity by the end of next season, and there was nothing any of them could do about it.

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