Fair Territory

“I’ve never been on a plane before…”

“I know…I think your mom told me that ten times.”

Alex blushes at the reminder of the little meeting that Jack had with his mother earlier. It’s been two full months since they’ve started dating and this is the first time that Alex is being allowed to go on the road trips. But not without consent from his mother, which proved to be a bit more difficult to get.

Jack did a good job of pretending not to care about Alex any more than just a friend. His mother was worried, naturally, to let her seventeen year old son (who’s never really ever been on his own) go on a road trip with a baseball team full of guys she doesn’t know at all. Alex didn’t blame her for needing a bit of convincing. But Jack promised her he would look out for Alex, because he sees a lot of himself in Alex and he thinks that going on the trip with the team would help his career quite a bit. She doesn’t support Alex’s love for baseball and his dream to play it professionally, but she really couldn’t deny him going. It’s being paid for by the team, he has someone looking out for him…She couldn’t say no. And for once, Alex can actually thank her for doing something for him.

“She wasn’t as bad as you always made her out to be, you know,” Jack says softly, his arm wrapping around Alex’s shoulders.

They’re sitting at Gate 3, waiting for their flight to be announced. The whole team is there, including Brendon and Flyzik and all of the other trainers and coaches. They’re not all getting on the same flight, but Alex is glad that he was lucky enough to be put on the same one as Jack and Brendon and Ryan. At least he’ll have people to talk to while he’s panicking on his first flight.

“There was no way she could have said no without looking like a bitch,” Alex explains, “She hates what I want to do with my life but she can’t just deny me of doing something with my job if everything’s paid for. You know? And I also think it helped that I’d be missing a few of my summer games and I wouldn’t be able to take Connor with me. While I’m gone, she’ll probably try doing damage control and get him to hate baseball.”

“Well, Connor’s a smart kid,” Jack laughs, squeezing Alex tighter. “He won’t be swayed so easily.”

“Hopefully,” Alex mumbles. Their flight number is announced and he feels his heartbeat quicken. He’s nervous about this. “Will you hold my hand when we take off?” he asks Jack, leaning into him as they walk towards the gates. “I promise I won’t break your fingers.”

“Maybe a blowjob in the bathroom will calm you down more? How about we join the mile-high club?” Jack teases quietly, his grip around Alex’s shoulders tightening. There’s a sudden flash of a camera and Jack has to convince himself to just ignore it. He might be used to news reporters following him around, but Alex isn’t. “Don’t lean on me so much – they’re going to get ideas.”

“I don’t want my mom seeing our picture in the paper,” Alex worries, biting his lower lip and looking up at Jack. “They won’t put that in, right?”

“No,” Jack laughs, shaking his head as he hands his ticket over to the lady behind the desk. “They don’t care so much about us. It might end up on a blog somewhere but it definitely won’t end up in the New York Post.”

“What about Newsday.”

“That either.”

Alex sighs, finds himself following along behind Jack like a lost puppy. Brendon is a few people in front of them, and he turns around to give Alex a thumbs up and smile. Alex responds with a weak smile and a half-assed wave. He doesn’t really care if he’s being overdramatic. It’s his first time on a plane – he’s allowed.

-&-

“How much longer?” Brendon whines as he throws his head back against the seat. It’s cushioned, but it still fucking hurts. He glares at the airplane ceiling, cursing the amount of time they still have to spend on it.

Ryan laughs amusedly from his seat beside him, flipping a page in the tabloid magazine he’s holding as he says, “It’s only been twenty minutes since the plane took off, Bren. I’d say we have another three hours or so.”

“This sucks,” Brendon grumbles as he tries his best to get comfortable. “I wish I was at least sitting next to Alex.” He lifts up the armrest between the seats and immediately curls up into Ryan, taking up as much space as possible.

“What, am I not good enough?”

“You’re definitely good enough,” Brendon says quietly. He closes his eyes and rests his head on his boyfriend’s shoulder, hoping that he can maybe get some sleep on this flight. He has a feeling he’s going to be worked extra hard at the next few games. Pete doesn’t seem like the type of coach who will let him slack off at all.

Another half an hour passes, Brendon spending it watching the small TV screen on the back of the seat in front of him. “What Happened in Vegas” is playing and it’s actually pretty good so far, he decides. He regrets opting not to see it while it was in theaters. He’s absorbed in the movie, concentrating hard on what’s happening, when Ryan’s sliding his hand up his leg. Brendon jolts, head hitting Ryan’s shoulder and he stares up at the older boy, eyes wide and mouth open. “Can’t you see that I’m busy?” Ryan shrugs, his hand sliding up even further and Brendon bites his lip. “Ryan. Quit it.”

“Shut up, B. Just relax.”

He can’t be serious, Brendon thinks as Ryan continues sexually assaulting him. Although, he guesses he can’t really consider it assault, seeing as he enjoys it and wants it just as badly as Ryan seems to. But they’re on a plane. There are people surrounding them. This is definitely not legal by any means. But he doesn’t do anything to stop the older boy, his fingers gripping the arm rest as Ryan starts to palm him through his jeans.

“Ry-Ryan, what if someone notices?” he manages to ask. His jeans feel tighter and his breath is ragged and everything Ryan is doing right now is putting him on edge. “I think you should-”

“Don’t follow right away,” Ryan suddenly warns, removing his hand from Brendon’s crotch. He pushes himself up and out of his seat, making Brendon fall over in the process. He winks at the younger boy, motions towards the back of the plane, and then he’s walking, leaving Brendon baffled. This is not typical Ryan behavior.

He looks over at Alex and Jack and Martin who are sitting in the aisle across from him. Alex is curled up into Jack and Jack is listening to his iPod. Martin is staring out the window, looking miserable as usual (as of late). He glances between them and the direction that Ryan just went in and makes a quick decision. They’re not paying him any attention so they won’t notice that he’s gone.

He makes sure that the flight attendant is nowhere near the back of the plane when he gets up to follow Ryan. He makes his way to where the bathrooms are located and he stares between the two doors. One says ‘occupied’ and one says ‘available’. He doesn’t have to play any guessing games to figure out which one Ryan’s in.

One more glance to make sure that the flight attendants are towards the front of the plane, and Brendon is slipping into the small, cramped bathroom where he finds Ryan sitting on the edge of the small sink counter. He’s smirking, that cute, adorable one that makes Brendon melt every time he sees it.

“What are we doing in here?” he finds himself asking, even though he has a pretty good idea.

“Ever heard of the ‘mile high club’?”

“Isn’t that illegal?”

Ryan tilts his head, “Is it?”

“I…I don’t know. That’s why I asked…”

Ryan seems to be thinking about the legality of the situation, staring at Brendon with a thoughtful expression. But then he’s shrugging only seconds later, sliding off the counter and letting his hands rest on the younger boy’s hips. His fingers press into his hipbones as he says, “Who cares? Pete’s not on this flight and I paid the flight attendant twenty bucks to ‘forget’ to come towards the bathrooms for a bit.”

“You really went that extra mile, huh?” Brendon mutters. Ryan’s hands on his hips are more than obvious and he really sort of wants them somewhere else. “Let’s make that twenty bucks worth it, then.”

It hasn’t been very long since they’ve done this. Of course, it wasn’t in a small, cramped bathroom on a plane thousands of miles above ground, but that’s just a technicality. Ryan’s hands are ice cold against Brendon’s skin, which is a strange feeling. He’s used to warmth, but he assumes it’s because it’s pretty cold in the cabin and Ryan gets cold faster than most people.

“You’ve got too many clothes on,” Ryan mumbles as he tugs Brendon’s shirt up and over his head. He moves quickly to Brendon’s belt, long fingers fumbling in getting in undone. He tosses the belt down to the floor and slides Brendon’s jeans down, motioning for him to kick them off.

Brendon does as asked, and shivers as the cold air hits his bare skin. He manages to turn them around so that he’s the one with his back against the counter and he hops up onto it, quickly wrapping his legs around Ryan’s waist to bring him even closer. He kisses Ryan hard, his fingers tangling into his hair. Ryan works on getting his own jeans off, pushing them down so that they’re around his ankles. He doesn’t have time to get them all the way off. Twenty bucks probably doesn’t buy them that much time.

Brendon’s breath hitches as Ryan presses his lips along his jaw, hands moving down to wrap around his erection. His heart is pounding in his chest and he gets that familiar feeling in his stomach – the one that’s always a result of when Ryan is pleasuring him somehow. He rests his forehead on his shoulder, hands coming up to push him away as he says, “Ryan, we don’t have time-”

Then suddenly Ryan pulls away, bending down to look through the pocket of his jeans. He pulls out a small packet of lube and grins at Brendon. He rips it open with his teeth and pours some out into his hand. “I don’t need to stretch you do I?”

Brendon shakes his head and hops down from the counter. He watches Ryan spread the lube on his dick, pumping slowly and making sure he uses enough. Brendon turns around, hands resting on the counter as he readies himself for Ryan to push in. He looks up, finding his reflection staring back at him. He watches Ryan through the mirror, as he presses up against Brendon, one arm going around his waist and other resting on his hip.

When Ryan finally presses in, Brendon groans, half out of pain and half out of pleasure. They’ve done this enough times for it to not hurt so bad. But of course, the pain will always stick around a little. He lets his head fall, breaking the eye contact he was holding with Ryan through the mirror. Ryan rocks his hips forward, trying his best not to be too rough. They don’t have much time, but still. He doesn’t want to hurt Brendon.

“Y-you can go,” Brendon says after a few moments, still looking down. “I’m okay.”

Ryan nods to himself, grips Brendon’s hips tighter and thrusts into him harder and faster than he was before. He presses his lips to the back of Brendon’s neck and then rests his forehead there. Brendon arches his back more and more with every thrust and Ryan wants to laugh, because he’s not quite understanding how it’s possible for him to be bent like that. But he keeps quiet, thankful that Brendon is always quiet in bed. So different from his usual personality.

It’s sloppy and messy and fast and completely un-romantic, but it’s something and it’s theirs. Yes, they’re in bathroom on an airplane with people not that far away but still. It does mean something. They reach their climax at almost the same time, Ryan making sure that Brendon doesn’t come all over the sink counter by using his hand and jerking Brendon off.

He pulls out of Brendon after a few seconds of regaining his breath and he looks at his hand and grimaces. It’s gross. But what does he expect? He washes his hands off quickly as Brendon starts pulling his clothes on. He catches the younger boy’s eye and he smiles. “Not bad,” he says with a light laugh. “Ten minutes. I think that’s a new record.” He kisses the back of his neck, hoping that one day he can show Brendon just how much he really does mean to him.

The go back to their seats separately – Ryan first and then Brendon. When Brendon sits down beside him, a small smile on his face that won’t be going away any time soon, he looks over at the others across from him, and he finds that Jack is awake and staring at them.

“You two are disgusting.”

-&-

“You know…This is nice,” Grieco mumbles. Most of his words are muffled. He’s lying next to Flyzik, arms around his waist and his head on his chest. Flyzik is half asleep, his chest rising and falling gently and Grieco wishes they had more moments like this. Just hanging out and not worrying about anything. The only reason they have time to do this right now is because the other flight that the rest of the team was on is delayed, and won’t arrive for another two hours. Pete’s on that flight, so everyone’s relaxing and taking advantage of the peace and quiet.

Flyzik manages to nod in agreement, pulling the younger boy closer to him in the process. “You’re really warm.”

Grieco laughs. “Maybe because I’m actually wearing clothes and you’re only wearing sweatpants?”

“You love it,” Flyzik smiles opening his eyes and looking down at Grieco. “Hey…Can we move in together?”

Grieco suddenly doesn’t feel as great as he did a few seconds ago. He fakes a smile and leans down and presses his lips to Flyzik’s forehead. He completely ignores his question and instead asks his own, “When can we order room service?”

Flyzik frowns and sits up, his arm leaving Grieco’s frame. “Why are you ignoring that? Do you not want to move in together?”

“Well-”

“If that’s the case, you don’t have to ignore it, Alex,” Flyzik laughs, reaching out and cupping his face in his hands. “Come on. Talk to me. You know I’ll understand, baby.”

“It’s not…not that I don’t want to,” Grieco explains. He needs to be delicate about this. Because it’s not something he’s proud of. But at the same time, it’s something he had to do. “I do want to. I just don’t know…I’m not sure where I’m going to be a year from now, you know? Hell, I don’t even know where I’ll be six months from now.”

“So you’re afraid of getting moved up? The Yankees play in the Bronx – it’s not that far. We could get a place somewhere in the middle-”

“I’m not talking about getting moved up to the Yankees. I…I’ve been talking to the people over at the Cyclones and well. They offered me a lot of money to go play for them. And they guaranteed that I would be moved up to the majors within a year. It’s…Matt, you know that-”

“So…you’re just going to leave?”

“Well, I can’t really, I still have my contract with the team so I’d have to wait-”

“You would leave? You would leave everything you have here, just to be able to go to the majors?”

Grieco blinks, realizing that maybe Flyzik is going to take this a lot worse than he originally thought. “I…That’s what I want, Matt. That’s…what I’ve been working for. You know that. You of all people should-”

“What I always thought was that you wanted to play for the New York Yankees. Not the Mets. Alex, I understand that you feel slighted and underappreciated, but it’s not always going to be easy. This career isn’t easy. You have to fight your way to the top. You can’t just go jumping ship when you think-”

“I’m not jumping ship! I’m waiting the season out. I’m waiting to see what happens. But if I don’t get moved up, what’s the point?!”

“Look at Jack. He might be an asshole, but he was once in the majors. He played for the greatest team in baseball. But they moved him back down. Did he leave the team? No. He stayed and he’s working his way back – earning his way back. I thought you always understood that that was how it went.”

“Matthew-”

Flyzik shakes his head and gets up from the bed. He pulls on the sweatshirt he had discarded earlier and pulls it on. “I’m going to go hang out with Dallon and Rian and all them. I’ll talk to you later.”

And suddenly, Grieco finds himself alone in a hotel room in a strange city. It’s not so different from how things might be in the future, when he leaves the team. He’ll really have nobody then. But he’ll be where he wants. Is that worth losing everybody you’ve come to love?

-&-

It’s nice not having Pete around, Martin decides. It really hasn’t been long since Pete joined the team but almost everyone has come to the quick agreement that he is an asshole. He seemed nice at first. But he was faking it. The second everyone got comfortable around him was the second he turned it all around and became a tyrant. To everyone except Jack, that is. Nobody really knows why, but Pete seems to actually like Jack. Martin won’t complain. As long as he’s not putting any more attention on him than necessary, he’s fine. Doesn’t matter.

And, since they all seem to be so united against Pete (quietly, of course), they don’t seem to hate Martin as much. It’s almost as if they’re totally over his whole ‘sleeping with the enemy’ thing and have moved on to hating someone else. That’s another thing that Martin is fine with. It’s nice having friends on the team again.

“I think if we at least win all three games this series, Pete will back off. Because that’s what he was brought here for – to make us win. And if we win, he can’t complain as much. Right?” John says from his spot at in the computer chair.

They’re sitting in Ryan and Jack’s room (Ryan, Jack, Martin, John, Alex, Brendon and Gabe), waiting for the phone call that will tell them that the other flight has landed. They ordered room service and have been relaxing, because they know once Pete steps into the hotel, that won’t be happening as much.

“I think we need to win seven or eight of the next nine games in order for him to be less pissed,” Jack says, taking a sip of his water. “I don’t think he’ll ever be content with what we’re doing but I mean. We can try.”

John nods, not really looking Jack’s way. Nobody was sure what John would say when he found out that Jack was now ‘co-captain’. Martin didn’t think it was fair – Jack is definitely not a team player and John is. But John didn’t protest. He smiled and said okay and that was it. Which sort of goes to prove how much more John deserves that position than Jack does.

Eventually, everyone breaks off into their own conversations, leaving Martin sitting next to John and wondering if he should say anything. He’s not sure if John likes him or not anymore. He was never particularly close to him but that day he found out about Zack, John looked so beyond angry that Martin wasn’t sure if he could ever look him in the eye again.

“So, hey,” John says suddenly, turning in his chair so that he’s facing Martin. He smiles, tightens the grip he has on the beer in his hands. “I have questions.”

“Um. Okay. About?”

“I know I pretty much freaked out on you when I found out about you and Zack Merrick. But I swear, I was just overreacting. I was afraid of what would happen if news got out, you know?”

Martin finds himself nodding, “Yeah, I totally get it. Don’t worry about it.”

“So…anyway, you and Zack. How you two even meet? Was it before you joined the team?”

Martin grins – he can’t help it. Every time he thinks of Zack, he gets those familiar butterflies and that overwhelming feeling of happiness. “We met at a baseball exposition in California. We were both training. It was the summer before our senior years of high school. I don’t know…we just clicked really easily.”

“So you were dating before you were on the team? That kind of…doesn’t make it as bad as everyone thinks it is.”

Martin shrugs. “I don’t know. I mean, if it got out to the media, they wouldn’t care when I met him. They’d just write me off as a traitor and say shit about me. And him, too. But the way I see it is, if I love him, why should it matter? It’s not like I go home and tell him everything we did at practice. I would never do that.”

“You’re right…it really shouldn’t matter at all,” John sighs, running a hand through his hair. “I’ll talk to the guys. I’ll try and make them see what you just told me. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

“Thanks…it just sucks going from being accepted to being alienated, really.”

“I shouldn’t have let that happen,” John says, “I’m sorry. We’re a team. A family, really. Just because one of us does something we don’t all agree on doesn’t mean we can just turn our backs on them.”