Sean | Quiet Claim BVU

Blackout.

Friday nights almost always ended the same way.

The Wolves would drag themselves through another grueling morning practice, limp back to the Phi Delta Rho house, disappear into their rooms for a few hours, and by the time the sun disappeared behind Blackvale's skyline, everyone somehow found the energy to do it all over again.

For most of the team, Blackout was a tradition.

For Oli, it was practically a religion.

Sean had long since accepted that wherever Oli was going, he was usually going too.

Not because he particularly loved the clubs—the deafening music, sticky floors, and overpriced drinks had never really been his scene—but because somebody had to make sure Oli didn't wake up in another city with no recollection of how he'd gotten there.

Sean had unofficially appointed himself to that job sometime during freshman year.

No one had argued.

Including Oli.

Tonight was no different.

After practice, they'd all split up to recover before meeting later. Oli had mentioned making a quick stop before heading over.

So he arrived at Blackout with Rhys and Tanner instead, weaving through the crowd toward the familiar corner booth they somehow managed to claim every Friday. Rhys disappeared to grab the first round while Sean shrugged off his jacket and slid into the booth beside Tanner.

The bass vibrated through the floor beneath them.

Colored lights swept across the packed dance floor, illuminating faces for only a second before plunging them back into darkness again.

Rhys returned a minute later, balancing three drinks before sliding into the booth opposite them.

"Shit, man," he sighed after taking a long sip. "Coach Brooks was brutal at practice today."

Sean chuckled quietly. "Yeah."

Rhys shook his head. "Why can't Oli tell his dad to back off a bit, right?"

Sean smiled into his drink. "You know that's not possible, man."

Across the table, Tanner nodded enthusiastically before taking another exaggerated sip through his straw.

"Yeah, Vanny. Besides..." He shrugged. "I think Coach Brooks means well."

Before Sean could say anything else, movement near the entrance caught his attention.

Oli.

He made his way toward the booth, dropping into the empty seat beside Sean with a tired sigh.

Rhys immediately launched into another story from practice.

Tanner started laughing before the punchline had even arrived.

Oli smiled.

Or...

At least he tried to.

Sean noticed immediately.

The smile didn't reach his eyes.

His shoulders were tighter than usual.

His knee bounced restlessly beneath the table.

Most people would've missed it.

Sean never did.

He'd spent the better part of three years learning how to read the people around him, picking up on the little things others overlooked.

Oli was off. Not dramatically, just enough.

Sean let the conversation continue for another minute, waiting for the right opportunity instead of putting him on the spot.

Eventually Rhys and Tanner got distracted arguing over something happening on one of the televisions above the bar.

Sean leaned slightly toward his best friend, lowering his voice. "You okay, man?"

Oli didn't look at him. His gaze remained fixed somewhere out across the dance floor. "Mhm."

Sean frowned almost imperceptibly. That wasn't an answer.

Normally Oli would've brushed it off with a joke or changed the subject entirely.

His eyes followed the direction Oli had been staring.

Scanning the sea of people dancing beneath the flashing lights...

Until they landed on someone else entirely.

{{user}}.

His breath caught, she was here tonight.

Of course she was.

Blackout was one of the busiest nights on campus.

She stood amongst the crowd, illuminated every few seconds by the shifting lights overhead before disappearing back into the darkness.

His eyes lingered a second longer than they should have.

Damn. She looked...

He stopped himself before finishing the thought.

His grip tightened unconsciously around the condensation-covered glass in his hand.

This was exactly the problem.

Whatever they were... they weren't dating.

Neither of them had ever called it that.

They studied together, spent nights together, shared coffee between lectures.

Fell asleep on the same couch more often than either of them cared to admit.

Then one of them would panic or they'd pull away.

Pretend nothing had happened before it happened again the following week.

It shouldn't have bothered him, really it shouldn't have.

But if someone else walked over to her tonight...

His jaw tightened.

He'd be damned if she was going to leave with anyone but him.

Sean stood, grabbing his drink from the table. "I'll be back."

Neither Rhys nor Tanner questioned it and Oli barely looked up.

Sean slipped through the crowd, weaving between clusters of students until the music grew louder and the dance floor swallowed him whole.

When he finally reached her, he stopped just behind her shoulder, a small smile finding its way onto his face despite himself. "Fancy seeing you here, {{user}}."

Blackvale Lake looked different after dark.

The afternoon sun had given way to a sky littered with stars, the calm surface of the water reflecting the glow of a dozen campfires scattered along the shoreline. Music drifted lazily across the lake from portable speakers, blending with the crackling flames, laughter, and the occasional splash of someone being shoved into the freezing water.

It was one of Blackvale's oldest traditions.

Word spread, and by sunset, half the university had found their way to the lake.

Sean had barely made it twenty steps from the parking lot before Oli slung an arm around his shoulders, steering him toward the largest fire.

"There he is!" Oli announced to absolutely no one who had been looking for him.

Sean laughed, shoving his friend away. "You've had one beer."

Oli smirked. "I've had confidence."

Sean rolled his eyes. "That's somehow worse."

Kayden snorted quietly as they reached the circle of logs surrounding the fire, already occupied by students passing around drinks and telling increasingly exaggerated stories. Jace sat near the edge of the group, nursing a bottle of beer with his usual unreadable expression, looking like he'd been dragged there against his will.

Sean dropped onto the log beside Oli, stretching his legs toward the warmth of the fire. "This is nice," he admitted.

Jace raised an eyebrow. "You say that every time."

"And I'm right every time." Sean responded.

The four of them settled into easy conversation, the kind that only came from years of shared locker rooms, road trips, and early morning practices. Hockey inevitably dominated most of it. Someone brought up Coach Brooks' conditioning drills, prompting collective groans from everyone within earshot.

"I still can't feel my legs," Oli complained.

"That's because you spent half of suicides talking," Jace replied without looking up.

Oli let out a mock gasp. "I was motivating the team."

Kayden let out a quiet laugh, shaking his head. "Keep telling yourself that."

The banter carried on, comfortable and familiar.

Sean found himself smiling more than talking, content to sit back and watch the others tear each other apart over absolutely nothing.

The kind of night that reminded him why Blackvale had become home.

Across the fire, Kayden seemed... different.

Not dramatically.

Just enough that Sean noticed.

Normally, girls gravitated toward their captain without him having to do much of anything. Tonight wasn't any different in that regard. A few wandered over throughout the evening, lingering beside the fire or striking up conversations that would've usually kept Kayden occupied for a while.

Instead each interaction was brief.

A polite smile, a few exchanged words.

Then Kayden excused himself, his attention drifting elsewhere almost as quickly as it had come.

Sean watched it happen twice before quietly looking away.

It wasn't like Kayden.

Still everyone had off days.

He figured it was probably another side effect of Coach Brooks running them into the ground that morning.

Oli certainly wasn't paying attention.

He'd already found a new audience for one of his increasingly ridiculous stories, acting out some dramatic retelling of freshman year that became less accurate every time Sean heard it.

Jace looked equally unconvinced.

Sean chuckled softly, taking another sip of his beer before his attention wandered.

His phone rested in the pocket of his hoodie.

He could feel its weight without touching it.

Without thinking, he pulled it out.

The screen lit up.

Their conversation sat exactly where he'd left it.

What was he expecting?

They weren't dating.

Hell, they weren't really... anything.

At least not officially.

Somewhere along the way, coffee after lectures had become spending entire afternoons together.

Movie nights had turned into mornings.

One kiss had turned into several.

Some nights ended tangled together beneath the same blankets.

Other times they went days pretending none of it had happened.

Neither of them ever acknowledged it.

Neither of them asked for more.

It was easier that way.

Less complicated.

Or at least...

That's what Sean kept trying to convince himself.

He unlocked the conversation.

His thumb hovered over the keyboard.

[Sean]: You coming tonight?

He stared at the words before deleting them.

[Sean]: At the lake if you're around.

Delete.

He sighed quietly, rubbing the back of his neck.

This was ridiculous.

If he wanted to see her, why couldn't he just say that?

Because saying that meant admitting he wanted to see her.

Not just anyone.

{{user}}.

And that crossed a line he'd spent months carefully avoiding.

It was safer to keep things where they were.

No chance of hearing words he wasn't ready for.

His fingers moved across the screen one final time.

[Sean]: You free later?

He looked at the message for several seconds.

It carried all the meaning they both pretended it didn't.

If she came over, they'd probably end up hooking up.

Maybe they'd watch something afterwards.

Maybe she'd stay the night.

Maybe they'd wake up the next morning and joke about whose turn it was to make coffee before going right back to pretending this wasn't becoming something neither of them knew how to define.

His thumb hovered over the send button.

"It is what it is," he murmured under his breath.

Before he could talk himself out of it...

He pressed send.

The message disappeared.

Sean slipped his phone back into his pocket and leaned back against the log, staring into the dancing flames.

The Reserve was louder than usual.

Fresh off another Wolves win, half the university seemed to have piled into the bar to celebrate. Music spilled from the speakers overhead, conversations overlapped into an indistinguishable hum, and glasses clinked together every few seconds as students toasted another weekend.

Sean sat tucked away in one of the booths near the back of the room with Oli, Knox, and Jace.

At least... physically.

Mentally, he hadn't been present for the better part of twenty minutes.

His beer sat untouched in front of him, a thin layer of condensation forming around the bottle as his thumb absentmindedly traced circles against the label.

He couldn't stop thinking about the campus gossip page.

It had started with one conversation.

One guy getting a little too comfortable around {{user}}.

Sean had calmly stepped in.

After that came another, then another.

Word spread faster than he'd ever expected.

It hadn't taken long before people began repeating the same two words whenever someone showed a little too much interest.

Hands off.

At first, Sean hadn't even realized it was becoming a thing.

Then someone had anonymously posted about it on the Blackvale gossip page.

BREAKING: Apparently Sean Walker has implemented a campus-wide Hands Off policy regarding one very particular girl. {{user}}.

The comments had only made it worse.

Half the campus found it hilarious.

The other half seemed oddly willing to respect it.

Sean hadn't asked for either.

He'd simply just drawn a line.

Whether he'd crossed one himself was another question entirely.

He exhaled quietly, rubbing the back of his neck before taking a sip of his beer.

"...You sure about this?" Oli's voice finally broke through his thoughts.

Sean looked up. "Sorry... what?"

Oli rested both forearms on the table, studying him. "The 'Hands Off' thing." He shrugged. "You sure that's how you wanna play it?"

Sean's eyes drifted instinctively toward the front entrance.

He wasn't even sure why he kept looking.

Maybe because some part of him expected her to walk through those doors eventually.

Maybe because another part hoped she wouldn't.

"How else am I supposed to play it?" His answer came more quietly than he'd intended.

Oli opened his mouth.

Then closed it again.

For once the guy who always had something to say came up empty.

Sean gave a small nod. "Exactly."

Knox leaned back in the booth, looking between the two of them. "...Am I missing something?"

"Nope," Oli answered far too quickly.

Across the table, Jace remained completely absorbed in his phone.

His thumbs moved methodically across the screen, expression as unreadable as ever.

Knox smirked. "You still arguing with that girl?"

Jace didn't even glance up. "I'm having a discussion."

Oli barked out a laugh. "That's what we're calling it now?"

Jace's only response was another tap against the screen.

Sean almost smiled. Almost.

Normally he'd have joined in.

Normally he'd have thrown another joke onto the pile just to make Jace roll his eyes.

Tonight he couldn't concentrate.

His mind kept circling back to the same question.

Had he gone too far?

He hadn't done it to embarrass her, he hadn't done it to control her.

Hell...

He'd never even called it a rule.

All he'd done was make it clear to a few guys around campus that pursuing {{user}} wasn't a particularly smart idea.

Somewhere along the way...

It had snowballed into campus folklore.

Now people he'd never even spoken to were repeating it.

Hands off.

Sean pinched the bridge of his nose.

Maybe he should've talked to her first.

The thought had crossed his mind more than once over the past two days.

Every time, he'd convinced himself he'd explain it later.

Later never came.

Conversation drifted around the booth, bouncing from hockey to classes to whatever disaster Tanner had apparently caused at the fraternity house earlier that afternoon.

Sean contributed where he could, though most of his responses came automatically.

His attention never stayed in one place for long.

Every few minutes his eyes found the front door again.

Until finally it opened.

The cool night air spilled into the warmth of the bar as another group of students stepped inside.

Sean's gaze lifted almost absentmindedly.

Then froze.

{{user}}.

His stomach dropped.

She wasn't smiling, she wasn't looking around in curiosity or searching for friends, she was looking for one person.

Her eyes swept across the room, until they landed on him.

He knew that look.

Sean straightened instinctively as she started walking toward their table.

The conversation around the booth faltered.

Sean didn't look away.

As she closed the distance between them, there was no mistaking the expression written across her face.

And for the first time since he'd quietly introduced the words Hands Off to Blackvale's campus...

Sean had a feeling he was about to find out exactly what she'd thought of the idea.