Page 14 of Melted by a Man

A lean, smaller-framed person was standing in front of everyone. They had short brown hair that was pulled back with a thin headband to keep the longer locks on top out of their face, a face that had sharp cheekbones, and a defined jaw. Their septum ring glistened in the sunlight as they turned their head. When their dark blue eyes scanned the crowd of men in front of them, I squinted mine to see if I could make out the shapes that were shaved into the back of his or her head.

“Um,” someone raised his hand near the front, “I thought this was the men’s league.”

The team captain turned their head and made direct, unblinking eye contact with the blonde who voiced their statement.

“I’m sorry,” the team captain shook his or her head, “Did you have a question, or…”

I smirked, and Zaid coughed a bit to hide his laugh.

“Are we going to be playing with women, too?” The blonde waved his hand to vaguely gesture at the captain. I tilted my head at the person, since they were in charge of this gathering. Though they were smaller in comparison to some of the men here, I definitely wouldn’t mistake them for weak. I could see the toned arms and rounded shoulders because of the cutoff t-shirt they were wearing, and the way they held themselves made me think they were an athlete.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” they placed a hand on their relatively flat chest before pointing to the blonde and addressing the rest of the team, “Does anyone here identify as a woman? I’ll be writing everyone’s preferred pronouns next to their name.” They held a clipboard with a list on it in the air, before someone standing directly in front of me started shaking his head, “For example, at the top here you’ll find my name, Taylor Desmond. My pronouns are they/them.” The man in front of me threw his hands up in the air at the same time most of the other men in the group nodded their heads in understanding.

“I don’t care if you identify as a couch, or an orange, orthem—I don’t want to practice against someone biologically weaker than me and get yelled at when I inevitably hurt them.”

Taylor frowned, but before they had to defend themself again, I stepped forward and slapped a hand down on the bigoted man’s shoulder, making him jump as I spoke loud enough for my voice to project over the team.

“Oi,” I squeezed his shoulder, the message clear in my grip as he squirmed and turned his head to look up at me with concerned eyes. I was easily one of the tallest people here standing at six five, “Nobody is forcing you to be here, mate. If our captain is a problem for you, I suggest you find something else more misogynistic to fill your afternoons.”

He turned around after my advice, facing the rest of the team. There were probably about fifteen players, and all of them had a variety of disapproving expressions as they studied the man under my grip.

After a moment, he shook me off of him, “I haven’t played with someone like you before,” he nodded to Taylor, who stood tall and still, “I don’t want to fuck something up or do something wrong.”

“Do you feel threatened playing a recreational sport with me?” Taylor asked, lifting their chin.

“N-no.” he shook his head. Again.

“Are you genuinely worried about hurting me, or are you worried you won’t be able to toss around any slurs or problematic jokes with your boys in my presence?” Taylor added, making me raise my eyebrows.

“I’m not a homophobe,” he shook his head again and crossed his arms against his chest, “I’ve just only ever played rugby with other men.”

“Then welcome to your first day on a gender-inclusive recreational rugby team,” Taylor smiled, but I could see the tension in their dark blue eyes from here, “Rest assured, I can take a hit. If I couldn’t, I wouldn’t fucking be here forming afuckingrugby team, my guy.”

I grinned, falling a little bit in love with Taylor. Their eyes landed on my smile, and I saw their lips twitch with humor before they finished off strong, “Does anyone else have any concerns about my body or my pronouns?” The team was silent, Zaid and I exchanged a look with smirks and raised eyebrows, “No? Then let’s run a couple of laps to warm up.” They tossed their clipboard to the side and took off running, right past the group of players. The rest of the team slowly followed suit, but Zaid and I stayed and watched the man standing before us, who let his eyes trail after everyone else.

Then his dark eyes met mine again, waiting for something from me.

I nodded my head once at him and said, “Cheers!” before I clapped him on the shoulder and followed after Zaid.

“Damn,” Zaid shook his head as he jogged next to me, the both of us taking up the back of the group. The player with the bigoted questions raced past us to join the men he came with, “Every time I think we’ve made enough progress as a society, I’m reminded that we still haven’t.”

“It’s shit,” I agreed, glancing up at Taylor as they stopped their jog to encourage everyone else to run faster. As soon as we passed them, I winked and grinned.

They rolled their eyes.

“Knees to chest, pretty boy,” Taylor scolded, jogging with us again.

I turned around to face them and continued to jog backward, lifting my knees accordingly before placing a hand on my chest, “I prefer handsome, or rugged.”

“Noted,” Taylor’s lips twitched into a grin, and after a moment they added, “…My friends call me T.”

“I’m Leo,” I pointed to myself, then threw a thumb over my shoulder, “This is Zaid.”

Zaid slowed his jog so he could hold out a hand for Taylor to shake, “Nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Taylor glanced between us before cheering from the sidelines sounded. We all turned to see Signe, still sitting on her picnic blanket with her laptop in her lap, hands cupped around her mouth.

“Hot damn, look at that ass!” Signe shouted, fanning herself and dangling her tongue out of her mouth dramatically as soon as we passed by her.

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