“I don’t know,” Blake says. “This?”
“Bed? Sex? Cats staring at us?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Elliot says. “And tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow you can pick.”
“I told Adam I’d swing by at some point.”
Blake pulls a face, because he doesn’t want to share Elliot, but Adam is Elliot’s best friend and he just got traded and he might not be in town anymore when Elliot comes back again, so Blake gets it. “Okay.”
“You could come.” Elliot taps his finger on Blake’s chest. “He said he wanted to meet my… guy.”
“Your guy?” Blake asks.
“What would you like me to call you?”
It’s a loaded question. Elliot clearly knows what he’s asking here and this should probably be its own conversation, about what they want to be for each other and where this is going.
Elliot blinks at him, waiting.
“I…”
“Yes?” Elliot says, lips twitching. “You wanna be my mistress? My comrade? My partner in crime?”
“All of that sounds better than your guy.”
Elliot grins.
“Can he keep a secret?” Blake asks. He doesn’t like the thought, someone else knowing. Mainly because he doesn’t know Adam Ishida. Or, he should say, he only knows him as a player, not as a person.
Elliot nods. “Absolutely.”
“You trust him?”
“I trusted him when I told him about me.”
“Yeah,” Blake says. That should be enough for him.
“We don’t have to do this. I can go meet him for lunch and then you and I can hang out after.” Elliot leans closer and touches the tip of his nose against Blake’s temple. “Think about it. You don’t have to decide right now.”
“If we… did that…” Blake trails off when Elliot kisses his cheek.
“Yeah?”
“Mattie said…”
“Mattie from your team?”
“Yeah. He said I could bring my boyfriend over for dinner.”
“Your boyfriend?”
“Well, if I ever had a boyfriend, he said I could bring him.” Blake turns his head to look at Elliot, who’s very close, his eyes warm and brown, green flecks in them. Blake could count every single freckle on Elliot’s nose right now. “You know, hypothetically.”
“And I’m the boyfriend in this hypothetical scenario?”
Blake hums.
“Yeah?” Elliot asks.
“Yeah.”
#
Elliot has never been this scared in his entire life.
Not a joke. Jake Matthews isn’t the most intimidating guy in the league, generally kind and good-natured, but when Blake pulls into his driveway, Elliot is sweating and not just because it’s a particularly hot day.
He wishes that they were doing the lunch with Adam first, but that’s not until the day after tomorrow. He’s in enemy territory. Jake Matthews has never liked him, because the Knights just don’t like the Ravens, and he probably won’t like him now. They’re having dinner at his house, and maybe Elliot would have also felt better if they were doing this at Blake’s, but Blake has assured him that it’ll only be Matthews and his wife, no kids. “But the dogs will probably be there,” Blake added.
He was trying to cheer Elliot up, but it didn’t help.
When Blake rings the Matthews’ doorbell, Elliot is still thinking up reasons why he needs to leave immediately. The worst thing is knowing that Blake would literally let him hide in the car if Elliot asked. If Elliot had said something five minutes ago, Blake would have turned the car around and canceled dinner.
It’s too late now, though.
Because the door is swinging open and there’s Jake Matthews, who looks so different so far away from hockey. Just… like a normal person. He announced his retirement a few days ago, but to Elliot he’s still Blake’s teammate.
“Mattie, hey,” Blake says and hugs him.
“Hey, kid. Hey, Elliot, come on in.”
“Here, we brought dessert,” Blake says and hands over the cookies he made with Elliot. Well, Elliot made them. Blake handed him ingredients. He did a great job.
“Thank you,” Mattie says and ushers them inside.
There’s a bunch of stuff lying around that indicates that children live in this house, but, like Blake said, there’s no sign of the kids anywhere.
“I didn’t tell the girls that you were coming over tonight,” Mattie says when he catches Elliot looking around. “They’re having a sleepover at a friend’s house.”
“I’ll come by and take them out for ice cream some other time,” Blake says.
“Please don’t, they already like you better than me.”
Elliot laughs.
“I’m not kidding,” Mattie grumbles. “Follow me, you two.”
He leads them through the house and out onto the terrace. The grill is on and a woman, Mattie’s wife, is putting down plates with steaks and burger patties.
“Elliot, that’s my wife, Katie,” Mattie says.
Elliot shoots Blake a look, like that’ll stop him being jittery all over. Another person who knows about them now. Elliot hasn’t even told his parents yet. Blake gives him the smallest of smiles in return, a quick one before Elliot turns back to Mattie’s wife. “Nice to meet you,” he says.
“Hey,” Mattie says, voice low, “we can keep a secret, both of us. We’re pretty good at it.”
Elliot nods and goes over to shake Katie’s hand. She asks him what he likes to eat and two minutes later they’re talking about the best steak marinades and Elliot tells her about what he’s been cooking with his mom and for the next ten minutes they’re swapping recipes. There’s no way that Elliot will remember them, but talking about cooking calms him down, because he actually knows what he’s talking about and really has something to say.
When he turns around to see what Blake is doing, he find shim sitting at the table, eating potato salad, him and Mattie both looking at them.
Elliot clears his throat. He probably should spend some time talking to Mattie, too.
“Oh, go ahead and try the potato salad,” Katie says and nudges him towards the table. “Mattie and I fight about it all the time, because he hates it and I don’t, and I have Blake on my side already and I could use some more support.”
Elliot sits down and helps himself to a spoonful of potato salad.
It’s amazing.
“Oh no,” Mattie says. “He likes it. You do, don’t you?”
“It’s really good.”
Mattie turns to Blake. “Of course you had to go find someone who likes the damn potato salad.”
Katie laughs. “Yeah, so he doesn’t care that you’re on the Ravens,” she says, making a face that tells Elliot that the Ravens are usually not spoken about kindly in this household, “but the potato salad might be a deal breaker.”
“Sorry,” Elliot says.
“I’ll get over it,” Mattie says, lips pursed. “You want a beer, Elliot?”
“Sure, thank you.”
Mattie gets up to grab him a beer, then he wanders over to the grill to help out Katie.
Blake reaches over, fingertips brushing against Elliot’s wrist.
Elliot pulls his arm away, glancing over at Mattie and Katie, who aren’t even looking at him, Katie poking the tongs in Mattie’s direction.
“It’s okay,” Blake says, “they already know.”
“Yeah, but…”
Blake puts his hands in his lap. “I won’t if you don’t want me to.”
“No, that’s not it,” Elliot says and holds out his hand so Blake can do whatever he wants with it. He shoots another glance in Mattie and Katie’s direction when Blake takes his hand, thumb rubbing back and forth against his palm. “I’ve never… really…”
He’s never touched another guy like this in front of other people. He’s not used to being in a place where he doesn’t have to hide this, unless that place is his
or Blake’s apartment.
It’s nice, sitting here with Blake like this.
He takes some more potato salad and Blake starts stealing it off his plate. “Hey,” Elliot says. “Get your own.”
Blake sticks out his bottom lip and Elliot can’t help but kiss him. Blake kisses him back and puts his arm around him after, playing with the fabric of his shirt, fingers tapping out a gentle rhythm.
“Do you kids want steak? Burgers?” Mattie asks as he comes wandering back over to them. “Both, because you’re hockey players who’ll eat everything?”
Elliot fights the impulse to shake off Blake’s arm.
“Like you’re not one of them,” Katie says.
Neither of them is batting an eye at how close Blake and Elliot are sitting.
“Not anymore,” Mattie says.
“Hey,” says Blake, offended.
“Aw, kiddo.”
Blake shrugs. “I’ll miss you.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Mattie says. “At least not any time soon.”
Blake smiles a little now.
“Anyway, I’m not too worried,” Mattie goes on. “You have someone to spend Christmas with now.”
“Oh,” Blake says, like he hadn’t even considered that. Elliot hadn’t considered it either.
“Or you can both come to our place,” Mattie says.
“I’ll make the potato salad,” Katie adds. “Elliot, steak?”
“Yes, please.”
Elliot eats way too much food, and they throw balls for the dogs in the backyard, and Mattie and Katie are all over the cookies they brought, and they both take them to the door when they leave. Elliot gets a hug from both of them and Mattie tells him to take good care of Blake.
“All good?” Blake asks when he pulls out of Mattie’s driveway.
“Less scary than I thought it would be.”
“Mattie’s all right,” Blake says.
“Now I’m scared about you meeting Adam.”
“Why?”
“Adam isn’t nearly as chill as Mattie.”
Blake laughs.
“Promise you’ll still love me after I’ve introduced you to him?”
Blake looks over at him.
Elliot doesn’t knows why until he realizes that he just said love. “You know what I mean,” he says quickly.
“Yeah,” Blake says. “I know what you mean. And, yeah, I’ll still… yeah.”
Elliot smiles.
#
They’re literally about to walk into Central Park where they’re going to have lunch with Adam Ishida, when Elliot stops in his tracks and grabs Blake’s arm. “Oh, shit.”
“You okay?” Blake asks. Elliot is really careful about touching him in public. He looks panicked when their hands brush, and now his fingers are digging into Blake’s skin.
“I forgot to tell him that it’s you.”
“What?”
“I… When I said I was bringing my…” Elliot looks around, voice turning into a whisper, “boyfriend, I didn’t tell him it was you.”
“So, what, he’s expecting some random guy?”
“I don’t know. Probably?”
“Okay,” Blake says. “Can’t wait to see his face.”
“You still wanna go?”
“Yeah, sure,” Blake says. It’s honestly the opposite of a problem. “Come on. It’ll be funny.”
Elliot lets go of him and leads the way down a path that looks exactly like all the other paths. Blake is glad that Elliot knows where they’re going, because he would get hopelessly lost in this park. To him, it’s probably one of the scariest places in New York City, mostly because you can walk in here with the intention of going for a quick stroll and then end up on what’s practically the other side of the city. He told Elliot that and he laughed at him. For at least five minutes.
It took Blake by surprise when Elliot told him that they’d be meeting Adam in the park for a picnic, because it’s in public, although it’ll just look like two teammates and another hockey player friend hanging out together during the offseason.
“Oh, there he is,” Elliot says, and nudges Blake to the left.
Adam Ishida is sitting on a blanket, surrounded by bags, pulling plastic containers out of a backpack. He does not see them coming.
“Hey, Adam,” Elliot says and Adam looks up, grinning. “This is Blake.”
“Hey,” Blake says.
“Oh, hey,” Adam says, clearly recognizing Blake. His eyes dart from Blake to Elliot, then back to Blake. He’s definitely going through something, connecting dots in his head. “Oh, hey. Hey, hey. Have a seat.”
They do and Elliot starts unpacking the food they brought. Elliot made it in his own kitchen, with his own pans, whistling as he prepared the food. Blake paid for the ingredients, so he at least made a contribution.
“It’s really nice to… well, not meet you, but…” Adam shrugs. “You know what I mean. Meet you in this very official capacity.”
“Yes, very official,” Blake says.
“You could have told me, you know?” Adam says to Elliot. “So I could have, like, not made a complete idiot of myself?” He turns to Blake and adds, “I’m sorry that I sort of… stared at you a bit there, but…”
“Not who you were expecting?” Blake asks.
“Definitely taller than I was expecting,” Adam replies. “I didn’t think Elliot was into guys that are so much taller than him.”
“He’s not that much taller than me,” Elliot grumbles.
“Only, like, twenty feet.”
“Shut up.”
“Here, Blake,” Adam says, “have some dumplings. I picked them up at this place Elliot and I love a lot.”
“Oh, I know the place.”
“It’s a great place.” Adam smiles down at a box of dumplings. “I’ll miss that place.”
There’s a pinch to Elliot’s mouth now, so Blake hands him another box of dumplings, because that’s pretty much all he can do right now. He’ll hug him later. And tomorrow he’ll buy him those fifty dumplings he owes him, if he doesn’t have enough of them already.
Adam is a nice guy, which isn’t exactly surprising, but Blake didn’t expect they’d get along so well. Adam eventually leaves, because he’s busy packing up his entire life, but offers to leave them his blanket.
Blake and Elliot stick around for a little while longer, Elliot lying on his back, dozing while Blake looks out at the park, watching people and their kids and their dogs, throwing balls and frisbees, chasing each other around the park, reading under trees, sharing food, laughing.
Blake jumps when Elliot touches his elbow.
“Oh, no, I’m sorry,” Elliot says, laughing. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Fuck.”
Elliot bites his bottom lip and sits up, fingertips brushing lightly down Blake’s arm. “Blake?”
Blake huffs at him.
“I’ll buy you ice cream to make up for it?”
“No, don’t go anywhere,” Blake says gruffly. Although ice cream doesn’t sound like the worst idea. “Or let’s go together.”
Elliot nods and starts grabbing the blanket before Blake has even had a chance to get off, that overeager shit. Blake grumbles at him a little more, following Elliot down a path that leads fuck-knows-where.
Elliot knows where he’s going, though, like he did before. They get ice cream and then Elliot pulls him up on a rock, half in the shade of a tree but still pleasantly warm when they sit down. Elliot is close, his arm brushing against Blake’s whenever he moves.
“You wanna sleep at my place tonight?” Elliot asks.
“Sure,” Blake says.
“Can I make dinner?”
Blake laughs. “Okay.”
“Not that I don’t like the dinner you make.”
“Elliot.”
“But… I like cooking.”
“You can cook at my place.”
“I know. It’s not the same, though,” Elliot says.
“Because you hate my pans?” Blake says, and he’s teasing but he knows that he’s right. Elliot hates every single pot and pan in his kitchen. “That’s the issue, right?”
“They’re not my pans,” Elliot whines.
“Oh my God.”
“I just like having my own stuff, it’s not that yours is bad, but when I’m in my kitchen, I know where everything is and I–”
“It’s okay, Elliot. Take a deep breath.”
Elliot sticks his tongue out at him. “You have ice cream in your beard.”
“It’s not a beard.” Blake wouldn’t voluntarily grow a beard in a million years. He looked ridiculous during the playoffs.
“You’re scruffy. Is that better? Have I pleased you with my choice of words? Do you want me to pull up a dictionary so we can find another word?”
“It’s called a thesaurus and no, thanks, Elliot, we’re all good here.”
Elliot laughs and leans into him. His skin is warm against Blake’s, little specks of sun on his face, in his hair, eyelashes curved against his cheeks. Some of his chocolate ice cream has dripped onto his shirt. Right onto one of the white stripes. He hasn’t noticed yet, but he’ll complain about how the stains are always on the light stripes and never on the dark ones, like all striped shirts are cursed somehow.
It won’t always be like this. The season will start and they’ll go back to their separate lives, but they’ll match up their schedules and they’ll see what they can do, and they’ll see each other on the ice four times next season and… “Elliot, next summer…”
“Iceland?” Elliot asks, eyes bright.
“If you want to.”
“I always wanted to go with you,” Elliot says. “Remember the first time I said I wanted to go? You said you’d go with me.”
Blake nods. Back then, he didn’t believe they would.
Elliot smiles, trying to outshine the sun. “I want to kiss you so much right now.”
“Do it,” Blake says, only because he knows that Elliot won’t.
“I can’t.”
“You can do it later,” he says. “Standing invitation.” Elliot can kiss him when they’re back at his apartment, as much as he wants, for as long as he wants.
“In ten years,” Elliot says, “we’ll come back here. And I’ll kiss you.”
Blake snorts. “In ten years?”
“Yeah.” Elliot tilts his head. “Okay, maybe five.”
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