Matt/Kohei furious blushed and waited until Suto-senpai was out of sight before stuffing his hand down the front of his gym shorts and rearranging his boner to hopefully keep it from showing through his tight athletics outfit. Smooth, hairless, and feeling much smaller in his hand than Matt was used to, it was definitely the equipment of a teen boy on the verge of puberty (and probably a bit of a late-bloomer, to boot). Matt could feel Kohei's urges just like they were his own, and the young Japanese kid wanted nothing more than to run back to the privacy of the locker room to rub one out while thinking about his handsome senpai, but it was clear that Suto wasn’t going to let Kohei delay gymnastics practice any longer.
And so, once his bits had been more-or-less tucked away, Matt felt his lean legs walking him toward the gymnastics equipment that had been set up in the school gym. Hanging rings, parallel bars, and a pommel horse were waiting for him, equipment Matt was only faintly familiar with since he usually flipped the channel whenever gymnastics came on during the Olympics. Just seeing the equipment was making Matt nervous, but Kohei's eyes lit up as soon as he spotted them and Matt felt the pace of his steps quickening as the excited youth jogged toward them.
"Warm-up first, kid."
Suto stood at the edge of the gym, and his voice was both amused and annoyed at his underclassman’s reckless enthusiasm. Kohei let out a dramatic and childish-sounding sigh before sitting down on one of the floor mats and beginning his stretches. Even though Kohei was in control, Matt could feel every movement his body was making, his flexible spine bending forward until he could touch his nose to the mat, his legs effortlessly performing splits or touching his feet to the back of his own head. Matt knew that Kohei was a prodigy at gymnastics, but this was his first time experiencing the young Japanese teenager’s skills first-hand. Once, Kohei caught his senpai glancing at him out of the corner of his eye and made sure to bend down even farther to touch his toes, 'coincidentally' flashing the bare skin of his lower back to try to provoke a response from the older gymnast.
No such luck. Suto merely scoffed and jotted down a few notes as the rest of the team began to file into the gymnasium and begin their own exercises.
"Uchimura-kun," Suto called out once the entire team had arrived. "The coach said he'll be late, so I'll be handling things until then. Show the rest of the guys some of the routine you did in London."
"Hai, senpai!!" Kohei barked out exuberantly, earning a few amused chuckles from the other boys on his team. Geez, Kohei, make it a little more obvious you've got a crush on him..., Matt thought, cringing internally at how much Kohei (and, by extension, Matt himself) was smitten by the older teenager.
With Kohei limbered up to Suto-senpai's satisfaction, he playfully did a front-flip from the ground to his feet before running off to the rings and jumping up to grasp them. Swinging his legs back and forth through the air, he easily flipped himself upside-down and held himself there using only his surprisingly powerful upper body. He continued to swing and twist in the air before picking up enough speed to perform a dismount, an aerial somersault with a twist and a half before landing flat on his feet.
"Well... How was that... senpai...?” Kohei panted in his cute, unbroken voice as Suto took down a few notes on a clipboard.
"...Sloppy. You need to keep your feet closer together, and your arms were bending during the handstand," Suto sighed, making Kohei's face burn with embarrassment. "I hope you didn't perform like that in London."
Kohei could only stare at the floor, at his tiny little feet and smooth, golden-skinned legs.
"But… It's still the best I've seen you do since I started coaching you, so I suppose I shouldn't be so harsh," Suto conceded, making Matt feel his heart flutter at the backhanded compliment. "Just move on to your floor routine."
"Hai!" Matt exclaimed. He spotted the springboard at the edge of the floor mat and took a deep breath before running forward and beginning his floor gymnastics routine with a whip into a forward handspring, feeling like he’d done it a thousand times before, even he’d never had dreamed of doing gymnastics back in his old life.
But it wasn’t until halfway through a backward half-twist that Matt realized something. He wasn’t on 'autopilot' anymore, doing whatever 'Kohei' wanted to do. It was all him, twirling and leaping around with effortless grace. He was choosing which moves to string together, transitioning from a round-off into a whip, finishing with a lingering backwards handspring. Before magically transforming into a prodigy teenage Japanese gymnast, Matt never even knew what those terms mean, let alone how to do them, but now he knew exactly how to position his arms, legs, and head to twist his body around in mid-air with perfect control.
And it was fun. Matt had never considered his old body out of shape, but piloting this young Japanese kid’s body around was a blast.
This could be every day, Matt. In this body, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you... Just accept it. Become Kohei...
A little whisper in the back of Matt’s head was growing louder with each flip and twist he performed, urging him to let himself get more and more comfortable as the talented young gymnast Uchimura Kohei. To be more comfortable being Japanese, to live the rest of his life with a new family, new friends, a whole new culture.
Just think of it as a vacation. That’s what you wanted, right? Try something new, see the world? And if you really enjoy yourself… Maybe you could make it permanent…
"N-no... I can't... I shouldn't..." Matt muttered under his breath as he began another forward flip. As if the part of him that was becoming 'Kohei' was punishing him for his resistance, Matt suddenly felt all of his newfound gymnastic talent leaving him at the worst possible time: right before he needed to tuck his arms and legs in for his flip. Instead, he flailed around in the air frantically before landing flat on his back, feeling the wind get knocked out of his lungs.
Everything went white and his ears rang, but in spite of his he could hear his senpai barking out instructions to the rest of his teammates. "Call the nurse, we need to get him to the infirmary! ...Stupid kid, pushing himself like that when he’s jet-lagged. ...my own fault for..." Suto’s worried voice was growing fainter as the ringing in his ears grew louder.
Matt felt himself getting pulled up off the ground and carried off by two teammates, but he could only keep on muttering, "No, no... I can't, I shouldn't…"