▬▬ι═══════ A FEVER YOU CAN'T SWEAT OUT ─── A SKIPPINGSTONES WUSHU AU
🥋 Davey has trained long enough to know the sound of his own breathing when he’s about to lose – and the sound of Austin’s qiang cutting the air has been haunting him ever since.
They come up through the same circuits, the same tournaments, the same echoing gyms that smell like resin and sweat and ambition. They bow to each other with perfect courtesy and then spend the next three minutes trying to outdo, outpace, and outlast the other. Austin fights loud and reckless, all sharp grins and last-second improvisation. Davey is precise and controlled, every movement drilled until it lives in his bones. Judges love them. Coaches pit them against each other. Everyone else learns to step back.
They know each other’s forms better than their own teammates’. They recognize tells, weaknesses, the exact second the other is about to take a risk. They trade medals and glares and clipped congratulations that mean nothing and everything. Losing to anyone else stings. Losing to each other feels personal.
Wushu demands balance – strength and grace, aggression and restraint. Davey and Austin are very good at the first part. The second part takes longer.
tags. fluff , rivals to lovers , wushu rivals , hurt/comfort , angst , not a slowburn (unfortunately,) martial arts , english is not the author's first language :)
author's note. i'm not gonna lie: this whole au came to me in fragments. but i love the idea of it so now it's here. (also i'm gonna be #thatguy who makes taglists so if u wanna be tagged everytime i make a (skippingstones) fic, pls tell me. i'm gonna be so embarrassed if no one sees this or no one wants to be on my taglist BYE.)
what drugs can i take to make me enjoy this?
https://archiveofourown.org/works/78942771/chapters/207059951
chapter two also out now :) (02/18/26)
