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He can’t remember a time he’s been so nervous. Maybe sitting next to Charlie on the floor at Harry’s party? Maybe the first time he saw him, after so long, in the clinic? Either way, he’s nervous now, walking into his very first uni rugby practice.
It’s already loud. Everyone is talking and shouting and laughing, in various stages of undress, and Nick takes a deep, steadying breath. He can do this.
He finds a small group of similarly overwhelmed-looking guys, and figures they must all be new, too. He goes to join them and introduces himself and after that it gets a bit easier.
“Alright everybody, shut up!” someone shouts, coming up to the large whiteboard in the room. Nick recognises him as the captain. “Welcome back. Hope everyone had a productive summer. Can’t wait to get out there and see how much you dipshits forgot.”
People laugh and throw water bottles at him and flip him off, while Nick just stares. That’s not how he ran his team, but he’s getting the vibe here that there’s going to be a lot of joking around.
“Before we go, we have one tradition to get reestablished.” He turns to the board and Nick’s jaw drops as he writes, very clearly: SLUT OF THE WEEK
The guys are all laughing, and someone starts a chant. It takes Nick a moment to understand what they’re saying, but he realises it’s a player’s name. “Wilson, Wilson, Wilson, Wilson!”
Someone who Nick assumes is Wilson stands on a bench and says, “Thank you, I’m honoured to be this year’s very first slut.” Then he does an elaborate bow, as the captain adds his name to the board.
Nick turns to the guys next to him. “What the actual fuck?” he says under his breath. They all just shrug.
“There was a party last night. Maybe something happened there?” one of them says.
Nick tries to brush it off. It’s obviously all in good fun. Maybe it doesn’t mean what he thinks it means.
*
He finds out over the next few weeks that it does, in fact, mean what he thinks it means.
They go through a few of the older guys first.
One got drunk and made out with someone at a party, which is apparently enough to earn you slut of the week.
One went home with someone from a party, which Nick thinks may be a little more deserving.
One walked up to practice with his new girlfriend and kissed her at the door to the locker room. He earned slut of the week for being a simp.
Nick is just counting down the days until he gets put up on that board, because Charlie is visiting this weekend and he knows he’s in trouble.
*
The second Charlie is in his arms, he forgets all about Slut of the Week. They have sex almost all night, that first night Charlie visits him in uni, and when Nick gets up in the morning, looking as exhausted as he feels, he takes one look in the mirror and knows he’s fucked.
“Charlie,” he groans. Charlie comes to join him, standing next to him in front of the mirror.
“I’m sorry,” Charlie says, looking only slightly embarrassed. “I didn’t know I was doing it that hard. You didn’t say stop.”
“The rugby team are gonna rip the shit out of me.” I’m gonna be slut of the week. He just knows it.
“Sorry,” Charlie says again, pulling him into a hug.
He sighs. “It’s okay. I accept my fate. Worth it.”
Charlie just giggles.
*
It starts immediately.
“Nelson got laid!”
“Is Charlie here this weekend?”
“Nelson! Getting some action!”
“Finally!”
He takes it all with a straight face, but when his name gets put on the board, he feels a bit of pride, as ridiculous as it seems. He decides, then, to embrace it. He did get laid, for the first time in a month. Multiple times, actually. He deserves to be slut of the week.
*
Once he tells Charlie about that little bit of pride, it’s all over. Charlie is sure to do something each time he visits, to ensure Nick earns that title. Sometimes it’s hickeys. Sometimes it’s sending sexy selfies of himself, laying naked in Nick’s bed, in the middle of practice. He knows Nick can’t resist opening them immediately, and also blushing like crazy.
Sometimes, Charlie walks him to practice and kisses him at the door and slaps him on the bum. Or tells him something dirty just before he walks in the room, once again forcing Nick to give himself away by the colour of his cheeks.
Sometimes, Nick knows he well and truly earned the title. Like the times they go to parties together, get drunk, and make out desperately against any available surface. Or that one time they stumbled into the bathroom together, forgot to lock the door, and got walked in on, Nick shirtless and Charlie’s hand on the button of his jeans.
That week, he was SUPER SLUT OF THE WEEK. And it also led to the decision that they have sex first, no matter what time Charlie arrives or what fun party they’re going to be late to. Nick does not want a repeat of the shit he got for that one.
When the year’s done, Nick has been Slut of the Week more than any other single player. They make a little trophy for him. He accepts it, blushing but happy. This level of acceptance is beyond what he could have ever hoped for when he came here. He knew it was a queer-friendly campus. But to be so welcomed and have his relationship be so celebrated– because it’s really not about shaming anyone. He realised that pretty quickly. It’s about joy and pride and all the good things about being with people who get you.
He wins the slut trophy every year after that, accepting it with a smile and a full heart.