It's Like Running Away

"Anyway," Dodge said, feeling a little pride at having made his point, "I'm done eating. Want to walk out to the track? We can sit around until our food settles. Or mine, since you hardly eat."

Aiden looked down at his plate, which still had a bit of food on it. "Oh." Then he looked back up at Dodge. "Yeah, sure. That works."

"Oh," Dodge muttered, glancing at Aiden's plate. He hadn't noticed that his boyfriend had actually managed to eat something today while being so stubborn. "Finish, if you're not done," he urged.

"No," Ai said, shaking his head. "I am done. I've been done, actually."

"You eat like a bird," Dodge said, wiping his mouth and hands of any leftovers. "Hopefully that will change once we get you running harder." He shot up from the table, not really weighed down at all by the huge meal he'd just had. "Or maybe I'll just have to tire you out in other ways," he said, winking and walking toward the door without waiting for Ai.

Aiden got up from the table, muttering something about how he ate more than he normally did, not that anyone was around to hear it anymore. Then he slowly walked to the door, trying to fight off the blush that was ever so slightly creeping up at Dodge's suggestive parting comment.

Dodge grinned to himself as he set off toward the track at a leisurely pace. He found it easier to tease Aiden if he didn't have to deal with the immediate consequences. He glanced back over his shoulder to see him coming out of the door and slowed his pace to a crawl so that he could catch up.

It only took a moment for Aiden to catch up to Dodge, and in that time he had successfully stopped his face from coloring and walked up looking completely unaffected by the comment. It was definite progress that he could get used to. It wouldn't do to go around turning red all the time after all.

"Think you can beat your own time today?" Dodge asked, his mind already shifting to the right focus for running. It was fine and good to be playing around and teasing everywhere else, but the track was for practice and progress.

"Maybe," Ai said, considering it. "If you don't go about distracting me. Which you are quite prone to do..." Considering all the on-track kissing that had happened in the short time they'd known each other and been together.

"A good athlete doesn't let anything distract him," Dodge chided, shaking his finger at Ai. "Even a really frisky boyfriend."

"I guess I'm not very good, then," he said, smiling.

"You just need more practice, I think. With the running and the frisky boyfriend." Dodge winked roguishly. "Luckily I'm an excellent teacher at both."

"Are you now?" Aiden challenged. "Because I'm not really seeing it yet. You should work on that."

Dodge stuck up his chin defiantly, holding in a laugh. "You just don't know talent when you see it, young blood."

"Is that so?" he challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, what do you have to compare me to, eh?"

Aiden stopped momentarily to blink at the logic of the statement. "Well..."

"Exactly. Besides, you didn't seem to be complaining much about my skills when you slept over."

"That was also one of the more awkward events of my life initially..."

"But awkward isn't the same as bad. Of course you were awkward. Firsts are always awkward." He scrunched up his now. "My first kiss...wow."

"Do I even want to know?"

"It was a girl," Dodge said with a grimace on his face. "That probably says everything."

"Ah, I see." But he didn't really, since he'd never actually kissed a girl.

"I mean, they're not all bad. Girls. But that was..." Dodge shook his head. In a way, it had been helpful to really not enjoy that kiss. It made him figure a lot of stuff out. Kisses seemed to be good for that. "It wasn't fun. My second one wasn't really either."