warning: There's a brief saucy scene in this chapter.

11:03 is typing...

11:04 Omw

11:04 O fuck sorry wrong person

11:05 Thoroughly disappointed now

11:05 Yeah right dude

11:06 Are you going to the quad today?

11:06 Girl I'm already there where are YOU?

11:07 Your inner drag queen is showing

11:07 And I'm stopping by. I have 45min before my next class

11:08 Excellent

11:08 You should play washers with us like a bunch of Midwestern folks Up Nort'

11:08 #LakeLife4Life

11:09 What about me SCREAMS Midwestern

11:09 Your pale skin

11:10 I'm literally Japanese

11:10 Lee, I hate to break it to you

11:11 But not all Asian people have asses as pale as yours

11:11 🤦‍♂️

11:12 Why are we friends

11:12 AND I'M NOT /THAT/ PALE

11:12 I TAN. KIND OF.

11:13 Does your scalp burn

11:13 :T

11:13 I'll take that as a yes, weakling

11:13 Serious question

11:13 Ok

11:14 👊 is typing...

11:14 When you go out tanning

11:15 Do you or do you not tan in the nude

11:16 I thought this was a serious question

11:16 It's serious because I can't be the only one

11:17 🤭

11:17 As a premed student I cannot endorse intentional tanning

11:18 Damn I knew it

When Lee left Panda Express and crossed the campus, he didn't expect to hear music along the way. It echoed between USFC buildings and hummed down the side streets Lee took to avoid student traffic. He shoveled lo mein in his mouth as he went in between texting Roland, laughing to himself and almost choking in the middle of the street.

He coughed into his elbow and laughed again. He turned the corner to the quad steps, looking up from his phone just long enough to realize that shit, if Sigma Alpha hadn't completely taken over the quad or what?

From Lee's high ground, he overlooked the quad space. It was a grassy knoll area between USFC buildings and filled with tall, colorful trees. Cherry blossoms and crab apple trees were in bloom and their white and pink petals fluttered across the grass and between the stripes of hammocks strung between the trees. It smelled like a barbecue and Lee realized that those idiots were really cooking out in the middle of campus and throwing a Hammock Jamboree.

Lee hurried down the steps. He pocketed his phone in the back of his jeans and, upon reaching the ground, he realized that it would be harder to find Milo than he anticipated.

There had to be about thirty hammocks—some double-deckered, others triple-deckered, which would be impossible for Lee to check anyway. The sight alone was alarming. The quad was a hot spot, sure, but never for this magnitude of tomfoolery. It was normal to say maybe two or three set up, and Lee's brain couldn't quite handle the sheer excess of this endeavor.

He walked down the knoll feeling distinctly like he was at a campground exclusively for hammock enthusiasts. He discretely peered into the hammocks that were close to the ground, in search of Milo, but came up empty until he followed the scent of the barbecue to the other side of the quad. There, he found a triad of hammocks where none other than Simon Osborne was standing, shirtless, in a pair of banana-printed teal shorts. He was at the grill flipping burgers.

Lee slowed to the edge of their little campsite. He stood on the outskirts of the ribbon of smoke drifting from the grill as meat sizzled on the grill. Music was blasting on the speakers at the neighboring site. Lee barely stood there for two seconds before a familiar head peeked out from behind the hem of a ground-level hammock.

"Lee!" Milo cried. In an instant, he flipped the entire hammock over. Lee jumped in surprised, only to sigh in relief when Milo landed on his feet, no problem.

Simon turned around and, after meeting Lee's eyes, took in the sight of Milo's sweatshirt. It would have just been an average Hunter shirt if it didn't have Park's last name in bold, white type slapped down the length of the sleeves.

Lee managed a weak smile as Simon rose an eyebrow at him. Milo tugged on the sleeve, pulling Lee past the tendrils of smoke and over to his hammock. It was a plain blue hammock that, when stretched out, could fit two people easily. Milo pulled the gap open and sat perpendicular with it, like it was a porch swing. He patted the spot next to him, so Lee set his backpack aside and dropped down.

The hammock swayed and wobbled. Lee clutched at the edge of it, eyes wide, Panda Express in his other hand. Milo laughed and said, "Have you ever been in a hammock before?"

"Not really, no," he confessed. He felt like someone had just suspended him in the air on a sheet of saran wrap. He did not like it one bit.

Just as he was just preparing to get off, Milo stretched his arms up and over the back of the hammock sling. He grasped onto the hem on their far side and with the other, he set his hand on Lee's opposite shoulder. It effectively put Lee flat against Milo's side and with the dip in the hammock, there was no avoiding it. They were... cuddling?

Weird, Lee thought as he popped a piece of sweet fire chicken into his mouth.

"So you have anatomy after this?" Milo said, and Lee hummed his ascent. "Do they have nude models in that class?"

Lee snorted. "No, that's figure drawing."

"Oh. Then have you taken a figure drawing course?"

"Fuck no," he laughed. Milo seemed disappointed. "Why?"

"Don't you think it'd be fun to be a nude model?" he said.

Lee almost choked on his lo mein again. He put the back of his hand to his mouth to keep his giggles in when Roland's head popped out of the hammock next to them. "I heard it pays well," Roland said.

"Yeah, but I also heard old white dudes with beer guts do it," Simon said.

"Where did you hear that?" Roland said.

"My old man does it," he said, flipping a burger over. As the meat sizzled and popped, Lee felt like he was choking. He couldn't swallow his food when the risk of vomiting was so high.

"No way," someone said from the hammock above them. When they leant over, Lee recognized the braid—it was one of the few long-haired players on the team, Hayden. "I feel like this is something you would have advertised sooner."

"I've known you for three years and I never knew this about you," Roland added.

"You say that like my dad nude modeling is about me," Simon said, hands out in an exasperated fashion. "My mom got him into it. She's been modeling since her college days, ya know. Got her through uni."

Roland hooked his elbows over the edge of his hammock and settled his chin on his hands. He shook his head, saying, "You never cease to amaze me."

Simon exploded with a passionate, "It's not about me, you bitch!"

"It's kinda sweet how your parents became nudists to support your college education, dude," Hayden said.

Simon picked up a steaming hot burger with his tongs and reeled back as if to chuck it. Milo shrieked and flung himself in front of Lee as the burger went flying. Their hammock shook and Lee screamed like a bat out of Hell as Hayden cursed above them, deflecting the burger with his class textbook. It went flying towards the grill where it kicked up embers and started an open flame.

Lee's heart was pounding so hard he thought it might rupture his ribcage. Eventually, their hammock steadied, but the entire situation put him on the edge of pissing himself. They may have only been a few feet from the ground, but Lee's innate fear of heights made swinging in a hammock pure torture.

Milo leant back with a curse in Simon's direction. "Nice first impression, asshat."

Simon had the grill under control once more. "Oh, Lee and I have already met," he said.

Milo turned to Lee, who blinked, still startled and clutching his half-finished Panda Express to his chest. When Lee said nothing, Milo said, "You've already met Simon? Since when?"

"Since Roland mixed me a drink in his room," Lee said.

"Roland mixed you a drink?"

"Relax, dude, not like we sucked each other off," Roland said, no longer visible now that his hammock was mostly zipped up.

Milo looked like he was about to lunge off of the hammock to kick Roland into the atmosphere. Lee reached back to hold Milo still with a hand on the back of his shirt collar. Milo dropped back down with a huff. Simon was laughing at the grill, hands on the hips of his teal, banana printed shorts.

Hayden leant over his hammock again to look down at them. His braid fell over the edge as he asked, "So are you two dating or something?"

"Yeah," Milo said.

Lee stuck a piece of chicken in his mouth to stop his internal screaming from escaping. Dating. They never talked about that, but he supposed it made sense considering... well, everything. If anything, Milo's sweatshirt said it all.

Hayden put a hand out to Lee, who reached up to give it a light shake. "Nice to finally meet you, Lee. You can call me Hayden."

"'Finally'?" Lee laughed. "What've you heard?"

"All good things," Hayden said.

"He was present for the Denver Debacle," Simon said. He shook the tongs in Lee's direction and said, "Which, by the way, I have to thank you for because that shit was priceless. And also apologize on behalf of Roland for even endorsing that shit."

"It's not shit," Milo muttered as Lee sat back against his side.

"Oh really?" Lee said around a mouthful of rice. "I hope you realize how easy it is for me to stand up and walk away right now."

Milo leaned over to put his chin on Lee's shoulder, his arm tightening around Lee's shoulders. "I take it back," he whined. "Forgive me?"

"You can beg on your knees later," Lee said and it wasn't until the words all left his mouth that he realized what he was saying. His eyes widened at the sound of Simon whistling. He could see Roland's entire hammock shaking with barely restrained laughter. Lee put a hand to his forehead and moaned, "Ignore me, please..."

Simon slapped his hands together and threw his head back laughing.

Milo put his lips close to Lee's bright red ear and said, "Oh, I absolutely will. Tonight?"

Lee shoved him away and hissed, "I was kidding."

"Oh my God," Simon gasped. "It all makes sense now. I like this one, Park."

Lee leant over to set his empty Panda container down. When his feet touched the ground, he moved as if to stand, but Milo's hand caught him. "Aw, don't go," he said.

Lee sighed. He looked back to where Milo was staring up at him with those wide, round eyes that were light enough to be gold in the sunlight. Lee checked the time on his phone. He had at least twenty minutes before he absolutely needed to leave.

"Fine," he said.

When he sat back down, Milo shifted over so that they could lie down side-by-side. Lee tensed until the hammock settled. Where the blue fabric touched the sunlight, it cast a vibrant blue filter over them in their little bubble in the middle of the Sigma Alpha makeshift campgrounds. Lee let his head loll to Milo's shoulder when Milo finished wrapping the hammock up over them. It was cozy in there, insulated by the elastic fabric.

Milo touched their noses together. "You good?" he whispered.

Lee nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

Milo smiled, an eyebrow quirked. "'Think so'?" he repeated with a little laugh.

"I have a fear of heights," he confessed. He glanced down before meeting Milo's eyes again to say, "When I was little, my brother would hold me over the edge of whatever—a pool, the steps, the balcony."

"That's fucked up," Milo said. "If this makes you uncomfortable, we can get out and chill in the grass or something."

Lee laughed. "No, it's fine when it's not moving. I'm fine, really."

Milo relaxed a little. They were squished together by the natural shape of the hammock, and Lee didn't mind it one bit. If he kept lying there half-on top of Milo, he'd fall asleep and miss class. Lee set an alarm on his phone then before stuffing it in the front pocket of the sweatshirt.

He put his hand to Milo's opposite shoulder and ran his thumb along the line of Milo's collarbone. He watched as Milo swallowed and he wondered if he made Milo feel hot and bothered at the most inopportune moments of the day like Milo did for him as well. He glanced up from where his chin had been settled on Milo's shoulder and Milo blinked his eyes over to meet Lee's.

Lee laid an experimental kiss to Milo's shoulder. Milo's fingers were running circles on his back until that moment, at which point Milo clutched at his arm. Lee moved his lips to Milo's neck where he laid a quiet, soft kiss to the skin there, and again beneath Milo's jaw. Milo tipped his head back as Lee took Milo's skin between his teeth.

Even with the music playing in the distance, Lee kept the sound of his lips and tongue as quiet as possible. He licked across the mark before sucking it back between his teeth. He could hear the hitch in Milo's voice as he bit intentionally hard into it. It would leave a dark and obvious bruise that Lee was more than happy to leave behind.

Milo let out a low, whispered curse as Lee dragged his fingers through Milo's hair. He kissed up along Milo's jaw to his ear where he took Milo's earlobe between his teeth. He licked the outside of it before ending it by whispering, "Don't make a sound."

"What're you—" Milo started, only to break off when Lee slipped his fingers under the hem of Milo's sweatpants.

Milo's breath hitched again, tensing with a curse. Lee stopped, his fingers grazing over the soft fabric of Milo's boxers. Milo put his hand to Lee's wrist, stilling them both. Lee waited, breath tight in his chest where his heartbeat sped up at the sight of the blush on Milo's cheeks. Lee G. Asano, first of his name, made Milo Park blush.

A devilish grin spread across Lee's lips when Milo nodded. His hand didn't leave Lee's wrist, though—not even when Lee's fingertips grazed over the soft skin on Milo's pelvis to the heat between Milo's legs.

Lee could feel Milo's skin trembling. Milo bit his lip, breath shuddering out as Lee dragged his fingers along Milo's length before grasping hold of it. Contrary to popular belief, Lee had never once jerked a guy off in a hammock, but the flush of confidence in his system and the high of adrenaline from the fact that they were in the middle of the quad really got him going.

Thank God for obnoxious frat boys, though. The music was loud, Simon and Roland were yodeling about whatever, and so Milo's gasps and cussing flew under the radar. Watching Milo break apart in ecstasy was the highlight of Lee's day.

When Milo finished, Lee realized, once again, why he didn't want Milo to suck him off in Roland Ball's bedroom. His hand was sticky with cum as he pulled out of Milo's sweatpants.

"Shit—sorry," Milo whispered, out of breath.

Lee brought his fingers to his lips and gave them an experimental lick. It was salty and weird, and he kind of felt like hot ice cream had dripped all over his hand. He imagined it was ice cream as he licked his hand clean and said, "Don't worry about it."

"Jesus Christ—" Milo was saying.

"Worry about your pants, though," Lee said. The timer on his phone went off. "I gotta go. I'll see you later."

Milo just stared at him as he opened up the hammock and hooked his legs over the edge. He almost wondered if Milo was disgusted, but he figured that'd be a more obvious expression. Instead, Milo just stared at him with those round eyes, cheeks flushed, ears pink, looking absolutely stunned and stunning.

Lee leant out of the hammock and staggered to his feet. It was a miracle that he hadn't popped a boner, but he did feel a little something tingling down there as he shouldered his backpack, dried his hand off, and prepared to leave.

When he turned, he came face-to-face with the sight of Simon over at Roland's hammock, spinning the idiot around and around. Roland was screaming inside the hammock as it circled around like a goddamn double dutch jump rope and Hayden was recording it from over Milo's hammock.

He didn't really want to bring attention to himself, all things considered, but he felt odd ditching without saying a thing. "I'll see you later, guys," Lee said, loud enough for them to hear over the music.

Simon stopped the makeshift rollercoaster. As Roland's hammock swung to a slow halt, Simon threw his arms up and said, "You're leaving?! You just got here!"

"Yeah, like, thirty minutes ago," Lee deadpanned. "I have class, unlike some of you, apparently."

"Whoa, fighting words," Hayden said.

Simon walked up to Lee and offered his hand for a bro-hug. Lee didn't think twice as he used his right hand to slap onto Simon's and bump their shoulders together. "Nice seeing you again, dude," Simon said, slapping him on the shoulder. "I'll definitely be seeing more of you."

"Y-Yeah, you will," Lee said, his brain in an ever-evolving constant stream of screaming as he let go of Simon's hand and walked away. Thankfully, his hand had dried since getting out of the hammock, but he had, by no means, used his clean hand just then.

Lee rubbed his hand idly on the front of his jeans. I really need to wash my hands, he thought, hurrying his steps as he escaped from of the quad.