#like ik its typically ryan being bffls with laura and max but this is a bit of both an i really like it

[lenillusion]

radioheads hs decathlon au, drabble/concept

----- warning: i didnt do much editing, sorry word count: 1926 words

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They're both on rivaling decathlon teams but Dylan's been on it since sophomore year whereas Ryan has only joined as a senior.

So when time for the decathlon comes around Dylan doesn't know what to do with himself after seeing the cute new member of their top rivaling team. his performance doesn't falter of course, a cute new face isn't enough to spoil his efforts. but that doesn't stop him from looking whenever he can.

After Dylan's team crushes the competition (because of course he would), instead of his annual round of gloating, he figures he should go talk to the guy. he's filled with confidence from his win and Dylan figured he earned himself this small pleasure.

He doesn't know the guy's name, just "Erzahler" from the announcements but he figured that would suffice.

"Hey- uh, Erzahler? Wait up!" It came out a little awkward but it did it's job considering Erzahler stopped where he was walking next to Laura Kearney, their star member, to face him.

Poor guy looked like deer in headlights, silently mouthing "me?," with a finger pointing at his chest. Laura had stopped walking too but when she saw him ambling towards them she grinned and beckoned him over.

"Lenivy! Its nice to see you this year." Laura had always been his main competition since he joined the team but despite their sometimes scathing rivalry, she was always warm to him after competition. It was easy to smile back at her, this time with sincerity and friendliness as opposed to the jagged smirks born of competitiveness they shot each other over the day.

Erzahler looked almost confused, a micro expression really. He had certainly seen their antagonism throughout the competition and couldn't get why they were being civil now. Dylan almost wanted to laugh but figured that wouldn't be a good first impression for the guy he's trying to score a date with. Maybe if their relationship makes it beyond the "decathlon rivals" stage he could tell him about his semi-complicated dynamic with Laura.

"You too, Kearney. But as lovely as it is seeing your face, I gotta say, kicking your ass today was certainly the highlight." His tone was light and teasing, falling into banter was easy with Laura. The following glare she gave him had laughter tumbling out of him, it was too easy.

"Shut the fuck up, Lenivy," Laura crossed her arms, giving him a playful yet pointed look. "I know you didn't come over here just to gloat, if you were you would have done it earlier. What do you want?"

The accusation had him clutching his chest and whining with overdramatic flair. "Oh, come on, Kearney!" He dragged out the syllables of her name. "Can't I talk to you without an ulterior motive?"

His pouting didn't faze her one bit. "Yeah, you can but I'm not stupid, Lenivy. You literally called out to Ryan, you obviously weren't planning on talking to me." She explained with her innate ability to shut down all his bullshit.

"Ryan?"

"Yeah, Ryan Erzahler, thats his name."

'Oh. Um- yeah, of course." He felt a little stupid asking now but regardless it suited Erzahler. A pretty name to a pretty face.

Speaking of Erzahler, the guy had gone from slighting confused to blatantly uncomfortable 3rd wheeling his and Laura's conversation. He's really hoping he hadn't somehow managed to put Ryan off forever, hopefully he can salvage this.

"But um, yeah I did want to talk to Erzahler er- Ryan?" He looked over to Erzahler to see if he expressed any discomfort with being called his first name, thankfully he just nodded with this really awkward, really cute smile. He quickly looked back to Laura.

"Do you think I'd be able to talk to him alone for a sec, I promise I'll give him back unharmed." He masked his nervousness with an amused smirk, but Laura has known him for 5 years and she's far from emotionally dense. when she takes a moment to search his face, her eyes soften and she nods.

"Go right ahead," She turns to put a hand on Ryan's shoulder, "You good with that big guy?"

Ryan seems a little hesitant and Dylan cant really blame him. Their teams did spend all decathlon antagonizing each other and he's not sure if anyone explained to him the nature of their teams' relationship, its all out of good sportsmanship at the end of the day.

Ultimately he agrees, and not long after they're left alone.

Once Laura had left, the easy and playful atmosphere had gone with her. Now there was only a stale sort of tension in the air. He's starting to doubt his chances of walking out of here with Ryan's number.

Ryan fiddled with the sleeve of his uniform, looking slightly above Dylan's eyes when he addressed him.

"So, what was it you wanted to talk about... Lenivy, was it?" Ryan got straight to the point. The high from winning was dulling down, his confidence dwindling with it. He could probably back out now but worse case scenario, Ryan says no and they never see each other again since this is his last high school decathlon. So he figured he might as well see this through, he refuses to let a cute guy be his undoing.

"Oh um, yeah its Lenivy, Dylan Lenivy," Asking out the cute rival team member was feeling a lot harder than he made it out to be in his head. "I know this is like super sudden because we've never met before but, I just um...." He paused, his face growing warm, he didn't really know how to go about this.

Weirdly enough, Ryan's eyes seemed to light up a bit, his posture relaxing as he made to fill the silence left by Dylan's stumbling.

"Is this about the fact you've been staring at me all day?" It wasn't said as an accusation, simply a fact, an observation. Dylan froze regardless. He knew he wasn't being subtle per se but even still he figured that Ryan would be too caught up in the competition to notice. He was wrong and now he's paying for his carelessness.

At the sight Dylan's tensing posture, Ryan tried to clarify his words.

"I'm not like accusing you of anything, its just something I noticed. You weren't that subtle."

"Ah, God I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable or anything, I just- um- I just think you're super cute, is all." He felt a little better after saying it.

Ryan's lips parted slightly, understanding crossing his face at his confession. "Ohhh, that... makes sense."

Dylan's eyebrows furrowed, confused. "It does?"

Ryan huffed out a small laugh. "Yeah, I thought you were staring at me because of whatever weird hatred- or not hatred? You have for my team. but it didn't fully make sense because you weren't being antagonistic with me like you were with them."

Dylan let out a nervous giggle. "Uh yeah, I knew you were new and I wasn't sure if you'd be down with the annual decathlon assholery that I dish out. So I decided against it. plus you were really cute and I didn't wanna uh, ruin my... chances..."

"Your chances?" Ryan raised his eyebrows, playful but tentative.

Dylan sputtered, his face getting redder. "Uh, I mean? Not chances? I mean I was gonna ask you out but like, you know..." He prays that Laura can't see his pathetic display from wherever she's standing. He knows that she'll tell both Kaitlyn and Max about his inability to function near a cute boy and he'd never live it down.

An amused smile grew over Ryan's face at his struggling. "Actually? I don't know."

Jesus fucking Christ he should have known that anyone who hung out with Laura was gonna be cut from the same cloth of "Demon" that she was. Ryan is actually gonna kill him. He was gonna die at his senior year decathlon in front of a boy he's had a crush on for barely a day.

The word vomit spilled from his lips with disgusting ease. "Well, I mean I meant to come over here to ask you for your number? Yeah, like I noticed you earlier today when you were talking to that ginger kid on your team and you were really pretty oh my god. and I figured like ah what the hell what's the worst that could happen, it was harmless really. I wasn't- I'm not really expecting anything from you? I'm just a little high on victory and I wanted to see- to see if... I don't-"

He was, thankfully, cut off by Ryan laughing. It was sweet and almost fond? He's not too sure but he's positive he isn't making fun of him.

"Oh god, I don't really know what I was expecting when you came up to me but you're actually pretty cool." Ryan's laughter had died but his voice held the same lightness to it.

"Me? Cool?"

"Yeah, I'm a bit surprised. You spent all day being this half-terrifying, overly competitive, insanely intelligent uh- thing and now you're here, tripping over yourself trying to ask me out. Its.... cute." It took Ryan a second to pick out the word but he looked like he meant it nonetheless.

"Me?"

Ryan gave a barely there smile. "Yeah, you."

This was going way better than Dylan imagined. "So um, by logic, if I think you're cute and you think I'm cute- that means we should go out some time?" He really hopes he was picking up these signals right.

Ryan looked off to the side in thought. "Hm," When he looked back he was nodding slightly to himself, confirming his decision.

"How about this? Laura invited me to get lunch with her and her boyfriend next Saturday. You two seem to know each other so I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I invited you, then I won't have to third wheel those two." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a blue gel pen.

"Give me your arm."

"Wha- are you gonna write your phone number?"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "No, I'm writing the address to the cafe we're going to."

"Oh." He's a little disappointed but considering he's gonna see Ryan again next Saturday, it isn't too bad.

"Don't be like that," Ryan mumbled while writing the address, the ink stood out sharply against his pale skin. When Ryan was done he pulled back and put the pen in his pocket.

"Text Laura for more details, I assume you have her number or some way to contact her." Ryan looked back to where Laura went off to.

"Uh- yeah, I do." Considering they've known each other for 5 years and he dated her boyfriend in freshman year (before they got together), it'd be weird if he didn't have her number at this point.

"Great, now if everything goes well next Saturday then maybe, just maybe, I'll give you my number. Maybe even an actual date too." There was a slight mischievousness to his tone but Dylan was too delighted to care.

"Wait, really?"

"I don't see why not."

Dylan was really trying to contain himself from being too eager but he just scored a not-date with a really cute boy for the first time since freshman year (you can't just date someone else after dating Max Brinly okay? not just anyone can measure up to that,) it's not hard to be eager.

"Fuck yeah, okay. I'll see you next Saturday." He breathed out, giddy and relieved.

Fucking score.