Challengers Alternate Universe.

challengers alternate universe.

trigger warning for sexual, physical, and emotional abuse as well as rape, cheating, blackmail and manipulation.

the timeline of this au takes place from 2010 to 2024 in a world where covid never happened.

art and patrick met in their freshman year of college in 2010. they both attended stanford university in california. art was majoring in sports marketing on a tennis scholarship and patrick was majoring in business. both boys decided to pursue tennis full time once they graduated, having fallen in love with the sport after just one practice. they quickly became the best doubles team in school and went on to win the juniors us open, earning the nicknames fire and ice along the way. there were rumors throughout their entire college career that they were dating, but both boys ignored the rumors. the truth was that they were dating and had been since a month into their freshman year, but they were keeping it quiet because patrick wasn’t out yet.

when they returned from winter break, it quickly became clear that their relationship had changed, and not for the better. patrick already had a habit of asking art to do things in the bedroom, and he pushed the limits of art’s boundaries until they broke. art would show up to practices with bruises all over him and he would brush them off as clumsiness or from prior practices or matches. if they suspected, none of his friends said anything. patrick’s abuse got worse and worse as the months wore on and art was looking forward to summer break so he could get away from patrick, not that he’d ever tell him that. patrick would use the fact that he wasn’t out yet to keep art quiet. if art told people about what patrick was doing, he’d be outing him, and both boys knew art would never dream of doing such a thing. so patrick was free to use art however he liked.

by the time their senior year started, art was miserable. he didn’t see any way out of his relationship and honestly he didn’t want to try. being away from patrick just made their reunions that much worse and he didn’t want to risk trying to leave and making everything worse than it already was. the day that the boys win the juniors us open, they meet tashi duncan. art falls in love almost immediately. when she arrives at their hotel room, art is incredibly relieved. the attention is off of him for a night and he wants nothing more than for tashi to stay. she doesn’t. patrick and art have sex when she’s gone and art hates it like he always does.

patrick and tashi start dating two days after that. patrick never broke up with art, but since tashi doesn’t know he and art were ever dating in the first place, it’s fine. he and tashi date for three months. art doesn’t meddle in their relationship. he tries his best to keep his head down and get through school and avoid patrick as best he can.

tashi gets injured. art is there for her. patrick isn’t. patrick and tashi break up two days after tashi’s injury. art helps her to get back on her feet and train as best she can. the three of them graduate in 2014 (tashi was at stanford on a tennis scholarship and she was majoring in sports medicine). art asks tashi to be his coach in june of 2015 and they start dating in august of 2016.

in 2017, art and tashi get engaged and are married in august. lily is born nine months later, in 2018. art’s tennis career has taken off. he wins two australian opens, two french opens and two wimbledons in the next two years. tashi’s coaching is getting more and more ruthless and she’s becoming less and less like the tashi art fell in love with. he and patrick are still meeting in secret and tashi and patrick have also started meeting in secret. they’ve been meeting since art and tashi got married. patrick uses lily against art, threatening to tell her and tashi what art has been doing and with who if art ever refuses to see him.

in 2023, art sustains an injury to his shoulder that removes him from tennis for a while. he returns to the sport in 2024 but it’s clear that he’s lost whatever winning streak he was on four years ago. tashi wants nothing more for him to get that streak back, so she enrolls him in a challenger in new rochelle, new york.

his competition is none other than patrick zweig. art loses the challenger but still manages to qualify for the us open. he wins the us open that same season. he divorces tashi and gets full custody of lily a month after his us open win. he also gets a restraining order against both patrick and tashi and retires from tennis that same year. in december of 2024, netflix airs two documentaries about the court cases and art’s life. he sues them, as he hadn’t given them permission to use any of the footage they’d somehow gotten, and wins. in the wake of the restraining order and the documentaries, patrick’s trophy and the money he’d won from the challenger are taken away. tashi also loses most of her credibility and has trouble finding people that want her to coach them.

art keeps out of the spotlight and only plays tennis when lily wants to play on the court at the local playground. he’s working on recovering from everything tashi and patrick put him through. it’s a slow process, but he’s hopeful.

art’s triggers

having his hair pulled

being touched or kissed on or near his waist, hips or hair

the colors red and blue

being called “sweetheart” or “baby”

being asked what he’d do for his partner and being expected to answer with “anything” or being told that his partner will do anything for him

being told that he’s the best thing to ever happen to his partner

being restrained in the bedroom

being marked (hickeys, bruises, etc)

being told he’s doing a good job in the bedroom

another note: because of art’s trauma with tashi and patrick, he avoids men and women that remind him of them for a long time. he becomes very internally biphobic and homophobic and will avoid bisexual and gay men if he can. he doesn’t mean to offend, he just doesn’t want to end up in a relationship like the one he was stuck in for fourteen years. he is working through the trauma they put him through, but it’s a very slow process.

Challengers Alternate Universe.

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