Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Roy bit his tongue as he watched Jamie do push-up after push-up after push-up. The number he had told him to do was truly ridiculous, but Roy hadn’t expected Jamie to actually listen to him. Not really.

He’d only pulled such a high number out of his ass so that he could make sure that Jamie would be too busy trying not to collapse under his own weight to look at him by the time he found a way to bring up what he wanted to ask. Well, that and because he had wanted to see how far he could take tormenting Jamie for his own amusement before Jamie would stop listening to him.

Sure, he bitched and moaned a little here and there, but Jamie’s complaints weren’t particularly effective when they always came while he was already doing whatever Roy told him to.

Roy was well aware that he had been taking torturing Jamie a little bit further than usual since the season had ended. And the little shit had the nerve to act like he didn’t even notice. He was as annoyingly unfazed as ever.

While everyone else was enjoying taking a break for the off-season, Roy had expected Jamie to try to talk him into taking a break from training him or at least ease up until pre-season training would start up, but Jamie had been as committed as ever. Roy knew that from a coaching perspective, that was a good thing. But from a personal perspective, it was fucking irritating.

It really took all the joy out of making Jamie get up at four in the morning when he hadn’t even once questioned why the hell they were still getting up at that ungodly hour in the off-season when they could easily fit his training into far more reasonable hours. The fucker even had the nerve to be all cheery and chatty and shit every single day at four in the fucking morning.

So Roy was pushing him more than usual. Just to try to make that annoying chipper facade crack. Just to see how absurdly far Jamie would make him take it before it would.

And, okay, maybe the fact that Phoebe would not stop talking about Jamie and calling him Roy’s best friend didn’t help. And neither did the fact that his sister found it fucking hilarious and had started doing the same, both in front of and away from Phoebe. But none of that was more aggravating than the fact that Roy was rapidly running out of ways to try to convince them that he wasn’t.

And, okay, the whole stupid fucking fight over Keeley definitely was a part of it. Roy had been so damn sure that Jamie was over Keeley. Jamie was annoying in a lot of ways, but he had never said anything against Roy and Keeley’s relationship. The worst he’d ever said to Keeley about Roy was the same stupid old man jokes he made to Roy when she wasn’t here. And he’d long since apologized for telling Keeley he had still loved her and he had backed off after that.

That had been long enough ago that Roy had assumed that Jamie had been fully over Keeley. He had moronically believed that Jamie had completely forgotten any idea of getting back together with her, especially when he hadn’t tried to swoop in after Roy had been thick enough to end a good thing. And even when he’d learned firsthand just how hard Keeley Jones was to get over, he’d never considered that Jamie might still have feelings for her. And why wouldn’t he? She was fucking incredible. And way too good for either of them.

Roy had been stupid enough to assume that the moment that he was ready to pull his head out of his ass, Keeley would just take him back instantly. He had honestly thought that the biggest thing he needed to worry about was the chance that Jamie might try to get into his sister’s pants.

He hadn’t realized there was an option much worse than that. And then when out of nowhere Jamie had said that he wasn’t going to give up on the idea of getting back together with Keeley and just step aside unless Keeley officially got back together with Roy, Roy had acted like a complete and utter moron.

He’d spent the entire time since then mortified about what a complete ass he’d made of himself to Keeley. But that wasn’t even the worst of it. Oh no. He hadn’t just treated her like a fucking object or prize for them to compete over. He’d also been a total prick to Jamie while he was at it.

Roy was disgusted with himself for hitting Jamie and he was just as disgusted with himself for feeling guilty about hitting Jamie. Things had been so much easier back when Jamie had been a piece of shit and the only thing Roy had had to regret after hitting him was that he hadn’t done it harder.

Now, he wasn’t just worried about Keeley’s feelings on all of this. He was worried about Jamie’s feelings too and about fucking up their friendship. And the fact that he cared that much about Jamie made him so angry that he found himself taking it out on Jamie. And every time Jamie put up with his bullshit with that stupid smile on his face, Roy got a little more irritated and felt a little more shit over the whole situation and took it out on Jamie a little more.

At least he wasn’t smiling anymore. Jamie’s arms were shaking, but he kept on pushing through and counting push-ups anyway.

Roy watched him for a moment longer as he considered how to try to bring the subject up casually before he finally just gave up and asked, “Have you talked to Keeley lately?”

Jamie froze at the peak of his push-up to look up at him curiously, then turned away again as he lowered himself back down again.

“Are you asking because you want to know if I’ve talked to her at all? Or because you’re worried that I’ve already worked my charm on her?” Jamie asked.

Roy couldn’t tell if the edge to his voice was because he was annoyed or just because he was focusing all of his energy on making it through the rest of the stupid push-ups. Roy was tempted to tell him to stop them to find out.

He didn’t.

Instead, he said, “I don’t know.”

“Have you?” Jamie asked instead of answering.

“Which one?” Roy asked. “Talked to her? Or worked my charm?”

“Talked to her,” Jamie answered. He paused for a moment as his arms shook, then added half under his breath, “I don’t think she’s overly likely to get back together with either of us anytime soon after the pricks we made of ourselves.”

Jamie tried to push himself up again but only made it halfway up before he collapsed, then lay sprawled out on his stomach in the grass, trying to catch his breath.

Roy was tempted to point out that he hadn’t finished yet. He was tempted to threaten to make Jamie start his whole count over. Instead, he just watched Jamie lie there as he said, “Yeah, I’d say we both totally fucking blew it.”

Jamie made some grunt that sounded like agreement, but he didn’t move from the ground.

“Honestly, I still don’t understand why she put up with either of us in the first place,” Roy added.

Jamie laughed at that but stayed with the side of his face pressed against the grass.

“Are you going to get up?” Roy asked.

“Depends,” Jamie said.

“On what?” Roy asked.

“Are you going to make me do more push-ups when I do?” Jamie asked.

Roy had already made him do more than enough and maybe a teeny tiny part of him felt bad about that, but there was no way he was going to admit that. So instead he said, “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Okay,” Jamie said. “Just give me a minute.”

Roy wasn’t sure if he had meant to give him a minute to pull himself together enough to get up or if he’d meant to give him a minute and then he’d get back to the push-ups.

Roy watched him for a few seconds, then gave in, “I’m not carrying you home when you can’t get up by yourself. You’re done.”

Jamie didn’t answer. He just rolled onto his back and laid there for a little longer, then finally sat up and looked up at Roy as he rested his forearms on his knees.

“I’ve been trying to figure out how to apologize to her,” Jamie said.

That surprised Roy. Jamie was a hell of a lot better at that kind of thing than he was. Roy was shit at talking about feelings and apologies. He hadn’t figured out how to apologize to either of them yet. He’d kind of assumed Jamie had already fixed things with Keeley, or at least tried to.

Jamie was infuriatingly good at apologies since he’d started actually making them. It pissed Roy off to no end how annoyingly sincere Jamie could be about it and how embarrassingly easily he had forgiven him.

He wouldn’t have been surprised if Jamie had already apologized and Keeley had already forgiven him. The worst part of this whole situation was that Roy couldn’t even just hate Jamie. All of the things about Jamie that had made Roy root for Keeley to dump Jamie long before he’d had feelings of his own for her had long since disappeared. Jamie had grown and shit and now Roy was disgusted that he could understand why Keeley might consider him.

That was part of what had made Roy threatened enough by Jamie to make a complete fool of himself. Hell, if Jamie’s success wouldn’t be directly correlated to his own downfall, Roy probably would have been rooting for him. If it had been any other woman, Roy would have been rooting for Jamie to succeed. Well, any other woman that wasn’t his sister.

“I thought you were the prince of apologies now,” Roy said, completely failing to keep the bitterness out of his tone.

Jamie went to get up and groaned as he used his arms to push himself up off the ground. Roy stuck out a hand to help him up without thinking.

Jamie took it and let Roy haul him up, then dropped Roy’s hand and said, “Yeah, well, I’m trying to figure out how to tell her I’m sorry without her thinking I’m just saying it to try to put myself back in the running or come out of things looking better than you.”

Roy made a non-committal grunting noise.

He had worried about the same thing. He didn’t want her to think his apology wasn’t genuine and was just an extension of some stupid pissing contest with Jamie. He hadn’t realized until then that he had kind of expected Jamie to intentionally or unintentionally use his own apology to his advantage without a second thought.

“Am I supposed to know what that grunt means?” Jamie asked.

Roy considered for a moment then said, “I’ve been trying to figure out the same thing.”

“You have?” Jamie asked skeptically.

“I’m shit at apologies on a good day,” Roy pointed out. “I’m lucky if I don’t come off looking even more of a prick during them on a good day. I don’t need her thinking I’m doing it just to fuck with you.”

“Yeah, I could see that,” Jamie said and Roy wasn’t sure whether to be offended or not. Before he had the chance to make up his mind on that, Jamie added, “You know, we could do it together… That way neither of us gets an advantage out of it and it doesn’t look like it’s some stupid strategic shit.”

Roy considered for a moment, then admitted, “That’s actually not a shit idea.”

Jamie laughed and said, “Of course, it’s not. I’m full of great ideas.”

Roy rolled his eyes at that, but let him have it. He was still busy trying to figure out how to get this next part out. Somehow, it felt like it would be easier with Keeley there. But he knew that would be shittier. That would make it look like it was for her benefit and not Jamie’s.

“Are you going to make me do something else first or can we break for lunch now?” Jamie asked.

Roy glanced at his watch. He was getting hungry and it was getting close to Keeley’s lunch break so he grunted out, “Lunch.”

“Great!” Jamie said. “I’m fucking starving, mate.”

He went to go walk past Roy, but Roy stuck his arm out to block him.

“Hold on a minute,” Roy said.

Jamie stopped and looked at him curiously and Roy tried to brace himself for the words he knew he needed to say.

Jamie’s brow furrowed further as he asked,  “What are you glaring at me like that for?”

“Just give me a second,” Roy said.

Jamie’s judgy little confused face wasn’t helping anything. Roy sighed and decided to just rip the bandaid off.

“I’m-” he tried and then froze.

“You’re…?” Jamie repeated. When Roy didn’t elaborate right away, he asked, “Are you malfunctioning or something?”

“I need you to shut up or I am going to headbutt you,” Roy warned through gritted teeth. Then immediately after, he thought better of his word choice and added, “I’m not going to headbutt you.”

“Okay?” Jamie said. “Glad we got that sorted out. Can we go eat now?”

“Would you shut the fuck up and let me apologize to you?” Roy snapped at him.

“Apologize to me?” Jamie repeated. “What for?”

Roy glared at him. Jamie was staring at him confused as if he had no idea what Roy could possibly be apologizing for. Roy wanted to wring his neck for being so oblivious. And for making him have to spell it out.

“What do you mean what for?” Roy asked. “For punching you. I was being an idiot. I shouldn’t have hit you.”

“I hit you too,” Jamie pointed out.

“Yeah, but I hit you first,” Roy insisted. “You were just fighting back.”

“I mean, that wasn’t the only reason I was hitting you,” Jamie said. “And I kind of baited you into it. I was being a prick.”

Roy surprised himself as he said, “No, you weren’t. I was.”

“What?” Jamie asked, sounding stunned.

“I just assumed you were over her,” Roy said. Jamie had told him that he was still in love with Keeley and he had never told him anything after that to make him believe any differently. Roy had just chosen to assume that enough time had passed and Jamie had been supportive enough that he had been completely over Keeley and would be happy to see her and Roy get back together. “You shared how you felt with me and I punched you in the face for it… So I’m. Sorry.”

Roy could feel his jaw clenching as he waited for Jamie to respond.

“Trust me, you’re fine,” Jamie said. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry too. I mean, you told me your feelings and I turned it into a contest. That was pretty shitty too.”

Jamie just looked at him like he was waiting for Roy to say something, but Roy was physically uncomfortable with the sincerity of the moment. He had to resist the urge to just take off and abandon Jamie in the park.

It probably wouldn’t work anyway. The fucker would just run after him.

“Besides,” Jamie said as he broke into his stupid smug grin. “Hitting you was way worse. You’re practically a senior citizen. You’re lucky I didn’t break your hip.”

Roy rolled his eyes as Jamie did that stupid thing where he stuck his tongue out before he laughed obnoxiously at his own joke, but he was glad that Jamie had broken the horrifying tension.

“You are such a prick,” Roy accused, but he was laughing too now.

Keeley was staring down at her laptop screen and debating texting Rebecca to see if she was available for a last-minute lunch date when she was drawn out of her thoughts by a quiet knock on her open office door.

She was expecting to see Barbara but was surprised when she looked up to see Roy and Jamie standing in the doorway together. She wasn’t totally sure what was going on, but she had a bad feeling. Spending time with them together wasn’t unusual. Either one of them showing up at her office on their own wasn’t totally out of the realm of normal either. But both of them showing up at her office together was strange, especially after the night they had gotten into a stupid fistfight over her and then shown up at her house to try to make her choose one of them.

Keeley’s eyes focused on the takeout bag in Jamie’s hand and she had a sinking feeling as she was reminded of the time that Roy had made her coffee and Jamie had brought her one and she’d had to combine them to try to spare both of their feelings. She thought that they’d come far beyond that and she had liked them being friends and caring about each other too instead of just her.

She hated that now they were right back to the way they had been before Jamie had rejoined Richmond. She didn’t want to be caught in the middle of their drama and she didn’t want them using her as a reason to hate each other. She had a bad feeling that now they were going to start showing up like this all the time to try to be the one to get there first or get chosen to spend time with her. She absolutely was not going to allow that.

“Shit, you’re busy,” Roy said and it took her a second to realize that he meant because she had been in the middle of reading an email when he had come in. “We can come back later.”

“No, it’s fine,” Keeley said.

The email could wait. And if this was going to turn into them fighting over whether she would let Roy take her out for lunch or stay with Jamie and eat the lunch he had brought, then she figured it would be better to get this over with and set some ground rules to keep them from dragging her into their stupid, petty, misogynistic fight over which one of them they thought deserved her.

“We brought you lunch,” Jamie said as he set the bag on the table.

Roy took a few steps into the office too and closed the door behind them.

Keeley smiled a little with relief at that we. At least they weren’t already trying to upstage each other. Maybe they weren’t going to be awful to be around together now after all.

“Both of you?” she asked anyway just to check. She opened the bag, wondering whether there would be enough food for two people or three. She found only enough food for her. “Neither of you is going to eat anything?”

“We already ate on the way here,” Roy said. “Jamie was starving.”

“Plus, that’s an apology lunch and we figured there was a chance you’d want to kick us out instead of eating with us,” Jamie added.

“An apology lunch. Really?” she asked as she looked between them.

“We were fucking idiots,” Roy said. “We fucked everything up and treated you like shit and you didn’t deserve that.”

He must have sensed that she wasn’t about to throw them out at that instant, since he took a seat.

“We know you’re not some trophy we can win,” Jamie added as he sat down next to Roy. “Fighting over you was moronic. And obviously, it’s your choice.”

They had been doing so well, but now there it was again. Them telling her to choose between them.

“Oh, so you still expect me to choose one of you?” she challenged. “Oh, I see. That part was fine. The only problem was that you shouldn’t have gotten into a fistfight to decide who I would go to before you thought to award me the honour of settling it for you?”

“No,” they both said in a rush.

“That’s not what I meant,” Jamie insisted.

“What he’s trying to say is that we’d understand if you don’t want to choose either of us, especially after we pulled that bullshit,” Roy said. “You get to decide if you want one of us or if you don’t want either of us. And whatever you choose, we’ll respect. Right?”

He glanced over at Jamie and Jamie quickly agreed, “Yeah. What he said.”

Keeley glanced between them. She wasn’t sure what to say. Things had been a lot more awful when they’d been fighting over her, but at least then she had decided that she wasn’t going to get back together with either of them if that was how they were going to behave.

But now, they were being the emotionally mature versions of themselves again and that was better, but it made things so much more difficult. She liked the emotionally mature versions of them. She liked that they were friends. She liked that they brought out the best in each other. She just hated that it made knowing what to say so much more difficult.

She didn’t want to hurt either of them. Picking one would inevitably hurt the other, even if they all managed to stay friends. And she was fairly sure that admitting that she didn’t know how to choose right now would hurt both of them.

She hadn’t intended to have feelings for both of them, but things were complicated.

Roy was Roy. She’d never stopped having feelings for him. Obviously, she wanted to get back together with him. Obviously, it meant something that he wasn’t running from his feelings anymore. Sure, the obvious choice would be to pick Roy.

But things with Jamie were more complicated now. He had done a lot of growing up since their break up. He wasn’t the kind of man she’d have to put endless emotional labour into anymore. When she had broken up with him, she’d accepted that he would never be the kind of man that she had spent their whole relationship trying to convince herself she might be able to turn him into. But now, he’d grown into that person on his own. And since they’d started spending more time together, a part of her had feelings for him again too.

Keeley couldn’t just pick Roy and get back with him without telling him about her feelings for Jamie. But she was pretty sure that when he found out about those feelings, he wasn’t just going to be fine with getting back together and the three of them all being friends and spending time together as if nothing had changed.

And obviously, Keeley couldn’t just throw things away with Roy and pretend she didn’t have feelings for him to be with Jamie either. 

She didn’t want to lose either of them from her life. She didn’t want to choose neither of them. But she didn’t see how she could possibly choose without making a decision that would be unfair to all three of them.

Roy must have noticed the look on her face because he added, “You don’t have to choose right now. We didn’t come here to ambush you and get an answer. That’s not what this is this time.”

That should have been comforting, but Keeley didn’t know that she was ever going to be able to just make a simple choice. She couldn’t decide to have feelings for only one of them. She’d tried that already and it hadn’t worked. She didn’t see that changing and she didn’t want them to just wait around thinking that eventually she’d know what to do.

Keeley’s voice was quiet as she asked, “What if I don’t know how to choose?”

She wasn’t sure exactly what reaction she was expecting. Maybe, she’d thought that they’d look hurt or angry, but she didn’t know what she had expected them to say. She didn’t even realize that she had expected them to say anything until she was caught in the horrible silence that followed her words.

Roy’s face was completely unreadable. Keeley thought he might be angry, but there was a chance that his face was just like that. He had a naturally angry processing face. He had a naturally angry face most of the time. His body language was stiff, but that wasn’t really surprising after what she had just said.

Jamie was staring at her with his jaw slightly dropped and surprise in his eyes. After a moment, he turned to look at Roy like he was trying to judge how he should react based off of Roy’s non-reaction. Roy made eye contact with him for a moment, then looked back at Keeley. Jamie turned to look back at her and Keeley very abruptly realized she had absolutely no idea what to say now.

She couldn’t just kick them out of her office. She couldn’t just change the subject and pretend that she hadn’t said it. She couldn’t undo what she had revealed. And neither of them looked like they were planning on saying anything any time soon.

“What if I don’t want to choose?” she asked, even though she knew that was impossible. She would have to make a choice, even if it was to value her friendship with both over choosing either of them.

“What? Like date both of us at once until you figure it out?” Jamie asked.

Roy was staring at Jamie now. Or maybe glaring. It was hard to tell.

Keeley let out a humourless laugh at that. She wasn’t sure why she was surprised that Jamie’s solution sounded like another reality dating show. That wouldn’t be anything new for him. He’d already competed for a woman on national TV and lost. She shouldn’t be surprised that he would be willing to try the same when the stakes were a lot less public.

That never worked out in reality shows though. Some girl always dated a bunch of guys at once and fell madly in love with at least two of them and wasn’t able to untangle her feelings. She didn’t need to date them both, only to have her feelings for both of them grow even stronger and to become even more uncertain. That wouldn’t solve anything. That would only make things so much worse.

“What if I just want two boyfriends?” she asked.

She had meant it as a joke to try to lighten the mood and change the subject from why Jamie’s suggestion would only end more disastrously for them all. But as soon as the words left her mouth, she wanted to take them back.

They weren’t laughing. They didn’t look like they thought she was joking. She had definitely done nothing to help the situation.

Roy sat straight-backed and stiff in his chair as he studied her face. She wasn’t entirely sure she wanted to know what he saw there or what he was thinking. Jamie leaned back in his chair at that and suddenly looked deep in thought as if he was actually considering the idea.

She looked back at Roy and his eyes moved from her to Jamie and back again. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then closed it again and furrowed his brow.

Keeley waited to see if he would say anything, but after a moment, he stood up and headed over to the door. He paused in the doorway and turned back around to look at her.

She expected him to say something angry and storm out, but instead after a moment’s pause he said, “I have to go.”

And then he left before she could even think of anything to say.

That exit was maybe a little better than if he had just stormed off without a word, but not by much. Keeley was absolutely certain she had irreversibly fucked things up. Roy probably hated her now. She hoped that if he did that he at least wouldn’t hate Jamie too.

Jamie stood up then too and sounded half-apologetic as he said, “I should probably go too.” He pointed over his shoulder as he added, “He’s my ride and there’s like a ninety percent chance he’s going to leave without me and make me run home if I don’t beat him to the car.”

Keeley gave him a nod. At least he didn’t seem completely furious at her.

“I can give you a ride if he leaves you here,” she offered.

Jamie waved the offer off with a smile as he said, “Ah, he moves slow. I’m just giving him a headstart to make him feel better about how quickly I can catch up to him. Enjoy your lunch.”

She had made the offer in case Roy decided to leave Jamie behind intentionally because he was upset about what she had said, but she didn’t say that. Instead, she just watched him leave with a soft, “Bye, Jamie.”

“Are we going to talk about what she said in there?” Jamie asked after Roy had spent the last ten long minutes driving in complete silence. Jamie had tried to blather on about other topics to ease the tension, but Roy hadn’t said a single word, even to snap at him to shut up.

Roy grunted at that question and Jamie wasn’t sure if that was an improvement or not.

Jamie was mildly concerned that Roy was broken. He had a death grip on the steering wheel and he seemed ready to explode. Part of Jamie wished that he would just start yelling at him or swearing or something to get out whatever was going on inside that had him completely nonverbal.

Jamie felt a little guilty that behind his concern for Roy, he was kind of thrilled that he was apparently still in the running. He had thought that he needed to at least give telling Keeley how he felt a try before she got back together with Roy so at least he would know that it wouldn’t have made a difference. He hadn’t really expected that she might choose him. He felt bad that Keeley and Roy both seemed miserable, but he couldn’t stop himself from feeling a little happy that he hadn’t been completely ruled out.

“Okay, I’m just going to assume that means no talking,” Jamie said. “Does this mean afternoon training is cancelled?”

Roy grunted again, sounding more annoyed this time. There was almost a growly quality to it.

“Is that a no?” Jamie asked. “Or are we still training and you’re just pissed that I asked?”

Roy took his eyes off of the road for a moment to glare at him, then stared straight ahead again.

“How about one grunt for yes and two grunts for no,” Jamie suggested eagerly. “Where are we going?”

Roy glared at him, but didn’t break his silence to call him stupid for suggesting a yes or no system and then immediately asking a question that couldn’t be answered with it. Jamie had thought that playing dumb to annoy him might work, but clearly, it hadn’t.

“Are we doing more training?” Jamie asked.

Roy didn’t answer. He didn’t even grunt.

“Okay, I guess I’ll figure it out when we get wherever you’re taking me,” Jamie said, then leaned back in his seat with a blatantly exaggerated sigh.

Chapter Text

Jamie hadn’t heard Roy speak a single word in twenty-four hours and it was starting to freak him out. After they’d left Keeley’s office, they’d done afternoon training while Roy just seemed to quietly seethe, only giving directions in the form of grunts, growls, glares, and vague gestures toward different equipment.

Jamie hadn’t been sure whether Roy would show up the next morning, but there he was again. And when Jamie had tried to talk to him, it had been a lot of the same. Jamie had blathered at him for most of the morning and Roy had spent the entire time either ignoring him or grunting when he was particularly annoyed.

Now, they were on their second round of training for the day and Jamie had mostly given up on trying to convince Roy to talk to him. Even putting on his workout playlist that Roy had once described as “cunty twinkly pop bullshit” hadn’t gotten a rise out of him. Jamie had argued against the accusation at the time but then he had gone home and filled the playlist with even cuntier and twinklier pop songs just to piss Roy off so it was extra surprising that the updated version was going so utterly unnoticed.

This time there was no “I’m not listening to this”, no “Are you trying to make my ears bleed?”, no grabbing Jamie’s phone to turn it off, no unplugging the speaker and throwing it across the room. Nothing. It was like he hadn’t even noticed.

At least Roy was doing a proper job of spotting him while he lifted weights. Jamie hadn’t exactly expected him not to. But maybe he’d been a teeny tiny bit worried that Roy was just going to drop the bar on him and leave him struggling like that for a bit before he'd let him back out.

Jamie had seen Roy pissy. He’d seen Roy hate him. He’d seen Roy train everyone else and refuse to train him. Jamie had never seen anything like this before.

When Roy finally did talk, Jamie was so surprised that he would have dropped the whole bar on himself if Roy hadn’t caught it in time and helped guide it back into the stand.

“I need to go do something,” Roy said as if he hadn’t spent the last twenty-four hours going full caveman on him.

“Do what?” Jamie asked as he sat up.

“None of your fucking business,” Roy said, but that wasn’t anything unusual out of him. Almost as an afterthought, he added, “Do push-ups until I get back.”

“What? You have got to be kidding me.”

But it was too late. Roy was already ignoring him and heading out the door.

Jamie sighed and then moved to the floor to do more stupid fucking push-ups.

Roy couldn’t believe what he was doing as he headed to his office to check if Beard was still there. Technically, Beard didn’t need to be there, but Roy knew that he sometimes told Jane that he had something he had to do at the office so that he could get some quiet reading time in.

Beard glanced up from his book as Roy stepped into the office that they now shared. It still felt weird seeing his own things on the wall instead of Ted’s.

Roy sighed and braced himself for the horrible reaction he knew was coming as he said, “I want to call a Diamond Dogs meeting.”

Beard set his book down on his lap and grinned as he ooooohed like a fucking child whose classmate had just gotten called down to the office.

“Fuck this. Never mind,” Roy said as he turned and left the office.

He could hear the wheels of Beard’s chair rolling behind him and against his better judgment, he stopped and turned back around to look at him.

“Come on,” Beard said. “Obviously you came to me for a reason. Should I call them or not?”

Roy stared him down, willing Beard to just take his not fucking off or cursing him out as confirmation that he should, but Beard just leaned back in his chair and watched him.

“I don’t have anywhere else to be today,” Beard said. “I can wait as long as it takes.”

Roy clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides and looked away from Beard as he growled out, “Ted’s probably still in bed anyway. Just forget it.”

Stupid fucking Ted and his stupid fucking time zone with a six-hour lag. Roy had gotten far too used to him being there and eager to weasel his way into whatever Roy wanted to talk about and had no idea how to bring up whenever he needed. Roy should have remembered the fucking time difference before he’d come in here. This whole thing was stupid.

“Actually,” Beard said as he leaned back to glance at the clock. “He should be getting up any minute now.”

“Are you just saying that to fuck with me or are you serious?” Roy asked because he was not about to admit that he wanted to fucking talk about fucking feelings and shit, just to have a Tedless meeting or none at all.

“I mean, I can’t guarantee anything,” Beard said. “But I know him pretty well and my bet’s that if he’s not already up by now, he will be soon.”

Fuck it.

“Fine.” Roy said through gritted teeth. “Call a meeting.”

Keeley was relieved for the distraction of lunch with Rebecca and hearing all about her new mysterious pilot man, but the distraction was short-lived.

“But enough about me, what’s going on in your life?” Rebecca asked. “Have any drunken men shown up on your doorstep since I last heard?"

“No,” Keeley hesitated for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain it. “But they did show up to my office together to apologize for being total twats… And they did say that they’ll respect whatever I choose, whether I choose one of them or neither... And that they won’t throw their entire friendship away and make us all miserable if things don’t go their way.”

“Well, that’s an improvement,” Rebecca said. “Assuming you believed them, I mean. Did you?”

“I did,” Keeley told her, although she wasn’t sure whether she had ruined any chances of that being a possibility afterward anyway.

“So you forgave them?” Rebecca asked.

“I mean… yes,” Keeley said.

Rebecca eyed her like she was trying to figure out why she was hesitating.

“So does that mean you and Roy are back together?” Rebecca asked.

“No…” Keeley said.

“But you are going to get back with him?” Rebecca asked. When Keeley didn’t respond right away, her jaw dropped and she asked, “You and Jamie?" When Keeley still didn't answer, she asked, "Or are you done with the both of them?”

Keeley sighed and then admitted, “I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. There’s nothing I can do that doesn’t hurt at least one of them. And obviously, I still have feelings for Roy. I mean, we had a good thing. And things with him were always so good. And I know he can be emotionally constipated at times, but he’s not like that with me. And he’s ready to stop running away from what he wants. And he’s got the whole sexy tough guy thing but at the same time he’s so incredibly sweet with the people he cares about.”

“Well, it sounds to me like you know exactly what you want to choose,” Rebecca said.

Keeley winced as she said, “Not exactly…”

“You’re thinking of choosing Jamie?” Rebecca asked, looking like she was trying and failing to hide her surprise.

“No... I don’t know,” Keeley said. “I mean, not exactly. I know that we were kind of shit together. I mean, the sex was great, but everything else was a mess. But he’s different now. And I know. I know how that sounds. But I’m not the me that was waiting around for him to turn into the boyfriend I wished he could have been. And he’s not the same Jamie he was then. He’s grown up and changed all on his own. Before sex was all we were good at and now we’re not sleeping together but suddenly he’s good at communication and thinking about other people’s feelings and all of the stuff that was just never there. And now it’s like he’s all the things I kept waiting for him to be, but it’s just two years too late. And I know that it shouldn’t matter and I should just be able to be happy with Roy and not even think about it. But now I have feelings for him again too and I tried to ignore them and wish them away, but they’re still there.”

“Wow,” Rebecca said.

“I know,” Keeley said. “And it’s not like I could just get back with Roy and just never tell him. And it’s not like I could just say something and have them be fine with it. And I don't want to ruin their friendship getting back together with Roy but making that be in the back of his head all the time. But I’m pretty sure getting back together with him at all is not an option anymore anyway because I went and screwed everything up.”

“Oh no,” Rebecca said. “What happened? Actually, hold on…” She got up from the couch and went behind her desk to pour a couple of drinks as she insisted, “This conversation needs something stronger than tea.”

“Thanks,” Keeley said as she took the drink Rebecca handed her, then took a sip from it.

“Okay, now tell me everything,” Rebecca insisted as she sat back down next to her.

“Well, they’d just told me how they’d both be fine with whatever I chose and that I didn’t have to answer right away, I could choose whenever I wanted to,” Keeley said. “But I knew that they were just going to be waiting and that I was never going to be able to give them an answer that was going to make either of them happy…. I didn’t know what to do. And both of them were just… looking at me and I felt like I had to say something and I just… panicked.”

Rebecca winced, then asked, “How bad was it?”

“I asked what if I didn’t know how to choose,” Keeley admitted.

“I take it they didn’t like that,” Rebecca said.

“I don’t know. I don’t think so,” Keeley told her. “Roy went all quiet and tense and I’m pretty sure he was already upset enough about finding out that I had feelings for both of them before I went and made things worse.”

“Worse how?”

“Jamie asked if I meant I wanted to date them both at the same time until I could figure out which of them to choose.”

“And I take it Roy didn’t take that well.”

“I don’t know,” Keeley said. “I don’t think he took any of it well. But he definitely took it worse when they were both just looking at me, expecting me to say something and I knew that would only make things even worse and make me even more confused and I didn’t know how to say that, so instead I tried to make a joke. And I definitely should not have said it but it was out of my mouth before I could think about how badly it would go over if they didn’t realize I was joking. And I uh, kind of asked what if I just want two boyfriends... I didn’t think they were going to take it seriously.”

“And they did?” Rebecca asked.

“I don’t know. I think so. Jamie looked like he was thinking hard about something and Roy just was frozen like a malfunctioning robot for a minute and then he just got up and said he had to go and left. And now Roy probably hates me and is probably going to be all weird around Jamie again and they’re going to be back to hating each other and Roy is going to go back to coaching everybody except for Jamie and it’s going to affect how the team plays and now I not only ruined my love life and probably hurt them both, I also broke your team.”

“Okay, I think we’re catastrophizing a little,” Rebecca said. “Why don’t you just trap them in a room together, or not together for that matter, and tell them that you were joking and didn’t know what to do when they got all upset over it?”

“That still doesn’t fix things,” Keeley said. “It doesn’t undo the fact that I have feelings for both of them and they both know it. And…”

“And?” Rebecca asked with a raised eyebrow.

Keeley downed the rest of her drink in one long chug.

“And… I really did mean it as a stupid joke,” Keeley said. “But then… they both just started thinking about it like it was an actual thing to consider. And I don’t know… Obviously, I don’t like the way that things went with Roy basically storming off and Jamie chasing him. But a part of me maybe sort of a little bit liked the idea that they took it seriously. And I know that there’s like a zero percent chance that either of them would ever agree to it, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I said it.” She sighed and buried her face in her hands as she asked, “Does it make me a horrible person that I kind of wish that they would agree to it?”

“Fuck no,” Rebecca responded without a moment of hesitation.

Keeley looked up at her, surprised by how strongly and quickly Rebecca had come down on that side of things.

“Are you just saying that to make me feel better?” Keeley asked.

“No,” Rebecca insisted. “Men want to be with more than one woman all the time and no one burns them at the stake for it. And how many of them go behind their partner's back? You’re not even dating either of them. You told them both the truth and if they can’t handle it, that’s their problem. You’re broken up. Did you owe either of them anything to keep you from dating Jack? Fuck no. And the same is true now.”

This situation was more complicated than when she had started dating someone new that neither of them worked with or was friends with, but Keeley could see the point Rebecca was trying to make.

“It wasn’t your job to make them feel okay about you having feelings for her and it isn’t your job to make either of them feel better about you having feelings for the other. They know what they’re getting into. They can decide what to do with that information. What’s the worst that happens? They both say no and can’t get past you having feelings for the other? That’s their loss. Or, one of them decides they can handle it and know what they’re signing on for and there you go. Or, maybe hell freezes over and they both agree to it. You never know. At least now you won’t have to wonder what could have happened if you said something.”

“I guess,” Keeley said. Rebecca did have a lot of good points, but they didn’t erase her worries that she’d completely destroyed all the friendships between the three of them. “And I mean, at least Jamie didn’t seem to hate me after. He’d still probably never go for it and Roy definitely wouldn’t, but that’s better than them both hating me.”

“And who knows,” Rebecca said. “Roy storms off angry here all the time and at least half of the time he gets over himself and comes back later on his own as if the whole thing never happened.”

Keeley laughed as she admitted, “That’s true.”

She just really hoped that would be the case again this time.

Jamie hadn’t bothered to keep count of his push-ups this time because Roy hadn’t given him a number to hit. He’d just fucked off and told him to do push-ups until he came back.

That had been at least three or four fucking songs ago. Now, Jamie’s arms felt like they were going to fall off and he was starting to have his doubts that Roy hadn’t just taken off altogether and left him there to see how long it would take for Jamie to realize that he wasn’t coming back.

Jamie wasn’t sure if Roy was doing this out of spite or as an actual part of his training. Usually, he’d just assume that the answer was both and put up with it because the results were worth it. But after the way Roy had gone all angry grunty silent treatment for an entire day and then fucked off with no explanation, Jamie was starting to think this might have nothing to do with training and everything to do with Roy being pissed off that Keeley was even considering Jamie.

“Fuck this,” Jamie muttered to himself as he stood up. "I don’t have to do whatever he says. Bossy old fuck.”

He debated turning the music off, then opted to leave it on as he left the weight room. On the off chance that Roy hadn’t completely abandoned him, Jamie didn’t want him to hear the music stop and realize that he had stopped before he had come back. He didn’t need to get Roy pissed off at him if he actually had something else to do and his weird silent operating on spaced-out autopilot thing didn’t mean that he hated Jamie again.

Jamie considered checking Roy’s office, but if he was in there, that would mean that he was probably coming back and didn’t need to know that Jamie had ever thought otherwise. So instead, Jamie headed for the parking lot. Either Roy’s car would be gone and he’d have the right to be pissed off and leave too or else at least he'd know that Roy was still somewhere in the building.

When Jamie opened the door to the building and looked out, Roy’s car was still right where they’d left it. Keeley’s car was in the parking lot too.

Huh.

“I jus-” Keeley started, but she cut herself off mid-word when she saw Rebecca’s eyes flit to the doorway behind her.

She turned and found Jamie standing there.

He glanced between them, clearly sensing the tension, then asked, “Were you two talking about me?”

Rebecca looked to Keeley like she was going to follow whatever lead she started.

Keeley hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “Maybe.”

Jamie smiled and held a hand over his heart as he said, “I’m flattered.”

Rebecca shot Keeley a look that Keeley was pretty sure meant are you sure he’s not still just as self-absorbed? But Keeley was kind of charmed by it. He must have known that the absolute clusterfuck she’d pulled them into yesterday was why they had been talking about him and she was relieved that he was acting happy to be talked about and not irritated or worried about what she might have said.

When Jamie didn’t say anything else, Rebecca asked, “Did you need something?”

His loose confidence left his posture as he pointed awkwardly at Keeley and said, “Uh, actually, I came here to talk to Keeley.”

“Of course you did,” Rebecca said as she tried and failed to hold back a laugh.

Keeley could tell she wasn’t annoyed that Jamie had come to her office not even really intending to talk to her. She was just amused with how extremely little time it had taken for one of them to pop up and how much Jamie completely lacked subtlety.

“How did you even know I was here?” Keeley asked.

“Saw your car in the lot,” Jamie said. “And I figured either Roy would be up here or else you’d be able to give me some advice on what to do about him.”

That took Keeley by surprise. She had assumed Jamie had come up here to talk about the bomb she had dropped on them yesterday or to try to present his case for why she should pick him. She hadn’t expected him to have come up just to talk about Roy.

“What to do about him how?” Keeley asked nervously. She doubted she would be the best help right now when she was pretty sure she’d crushed Roy’s hopes and dreams and pissed him off all at the same time. She was probably the reason for whatever problem had developed between them and she wasn’t going to be able to magically take it back and fix that.

“He hasn’t said a word to me since we left your office yesterday and it’s freaking me the fuck out,” Jamie said.

“He’s not training you anymore?” Keeley asked.

Great. She hadn’t just screwed things up for herself. Now, they weren’t even talking and Roy was refusing to train Jamie and they were all going to be lucky if Roy got over it enough to coach Jamie when the new season started. He’d probably try to convince Rebecca to transfer Jamie again. At least she knew Rebecca wouldn’t allow it.

Maybe things would be easier if Jamie did get transferred. But that wasn’t fair to him. He didn’t deserve that. The team didn’t deserve to lose such a good player. Plus, Keeley would miss him and she was pretty sure that Roy wouldn’t admit it, but he would miss Jamie too. She didn’t know how she would live with herself if the tension got so bad that it came to that.

Jamie looked confused as he asked, “What? No. We’re on our third session since then.”

“But you just said he hasn’t said a word to you,” Keeley pointed out.

“Well, that’s not entirely true. He said-” Jamie paused to try to count something on his fingers a couple of times before he gave up and shook his head. “I don’t know how many words. But it was only like two sentences and other than that it’s just been a whole lot of grunting and growling and pointing at shit if I can’t guess at what the hell he’s getting at.”

Keeley was trying to piece together what she could possibly do to try to help that wouldn’t just make things worse, but she had no idea. It wasn’t like this was a situation any of them had experience with.

“What did he say?” Rebecca asked.

Jamie glanced over at her, then to Keeley, and back at Rebecca again.

“He said he had to do something and told me to do push-ups until he came back,” Jamie said. His voice grew defensive and he turned his attention back on Keeley as he added, “And hey, I did! But that was like twenty minutes ago and me arms hurt. But I was gonna keep going. I was… But then I got to thinking, right? And telling me to do push-ups until he came back and then fucking off home and seeing how long it would take me to figure it out and making me run home afterwards sounds exactly like the kind of bullshit Roy would pull for a laugh.”

He did have a point.

Something in Rebecca’s reaction must have reminded Jamie that she was Roy’s boss and that implying that abandoning his players during training for fun wouldn’t be unusual for him wasn’t a good idea, since he turned to her quickly and rushed to add, “Not that he’d take off like that during regular training. Nah, he’s far too professional for that. Definitely manager material. Top-notch pick. Really.”

Keeley tried to hide her laugh behind her glass at that.

Jamie defending Roy’s job performance was sweet and all and unexpectedly considerate, especially given whatever was going on between them, but it was also entirely unnecessary. There was no way Rebecca was going to let Roy go, even if he had left Jamie there doing push-ups for the rest of the day out of spite. And Jamie calling Roy too professional was laughable. This was the man who at his last job had said on national TV that he hoped that Jamie died from the incurable condition of being a little bitch. Rebecca had been well are of what she was signing on for when she’d hired Roy.

“Or at least, he wouldn’t anymore,” Jamie corrected himself. And then seemingly in response to his own comment, he added, “Oh shit, that’s right.”

“And you’re surprised by that?” Rebecca asked, sounding as amused as she was confused.

Jamie grinned and pointed at Keeley as if she had said anything at all as he insisted, “Good point! He’s still training me, yeah? It’s not like when he was training everyone else and wouldn’t say fuck all to me. That’s gotta be a good sign, right?”

Keeley went to open her mouth to agree, but he didn’t even stop for a breath to let either of them answer him.

“Oh, this’ll be fine. I can handle him being a grumpy old fuck. There’s nothing new about that. And I’ve won him over from worse before. I’ve just gotta wait him out.” Jamie’s whole face lit up as he added, “Great talk. See, I knew you’d know what to do.”

Keeley glanced at Rebecca to make sure that she wasn’t imagining the fact that Jamie had just had a fully one-sided conversation on his own and then credited her with his epiphany that came from it. Rebecca looked just as dumbfounded as she felt.

“I’d better go before he gets back from whatever the fuck he’s doing,” Jamie insisted. “Pretend I was never here. If Roy asks, I was doing push-ups the whole time.”

And with that, he rushed out of the room without waiting for an answer.

“What just happened?” Keeley asked as soon as she was sure he was out of earshot.

Rebecca didn’t answer. She just burst into laughter and Keeley couldn’t help but join in.

It turned out that Ted had not been awake yet.

Beard had made a group chat named 💎🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶🐶 and sent diamond dog video call? to it. Roy had been tempted to leave the moment he saw the group name, but that seemed counterproductive in his current circumstances.

Higgins had sent an I’m in! back immediately. Nate had responded a few minutes later with give me a minute.

Beard had been right that Ted would be up soon though. Less than ten minutes had passed since the first text before Ted responded with Sure! Trent? Roy? You in?

A moment later Trent had responded after him with In a meeting. Give me ten minutes?

Roy had sent Fine. as if he hadn’t been the absolute moron that had started this.

And that was how Roy had ended up leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, glaring at the wall and regretting calling the meeting more and more every minute but waiting for Trent to get out of his fucking meeting so that they could start anyway. At least Beard had gone back to reading his book while they waited instead of trying to talk to him. Roy was fairly confident that he would have left by now if Beard had said anything to even remotely push his buttons.

This was a stupid fucking idea. What the hell was Roy supposed to say? How was talking to any of them going to fix anything?

But then again, what was the alternative? Go talk to Jamie about it without knowing where he stood on the whole idea? Fuck no. And he wasn’t about to go talk to Keeley about it and fuck everything up.

So he just sat there. And waited. And waited. Until finally Trent started a group call and instead of feeling relieved, Roy just felt anxious.

Beard answered right away and Roy hit ignore on the call on his own phone. They could both use one device. Besides, it would be better if no one but Beard could see his face during this anyway.

When everyone else had answered the call, Roy heard Nate say, “I thought Roy was coming.”

“He’s here,” Beard said.

Roy grunted in acknowledgement.

“What’s the scoop, Beard? You’re the one who called the meeting,” Ted asked in that annoying fucking overly eager tone he always had. For some unthinkable reason, Roy had actually fucking missed that.

“No, I didn’t,” Beard said.

“Then who did?” Trent asked, sounding genuinely confused.

Beard grinned and rolled his chair over as he turned his laptop so that Roy would be in view with him. The fucker sounded absolutely delighted as he said, “Roy did.”

Ted beamed at that and started a chorus of ooooohs and the others immediately joined in. Beard clearly had learned absolutely nothing from Roy practically leaving before they’d even asked the others when he had pulled the same shit since he joined in immediately.

“That’s it. Hang the fuck up, I’m leaving,” Roy growled out.

Beard stuck out an arm to stop him as Ted insisted, “Wait, no. Don’t go. You’re right. That was insensitive of us. Obviously, if you’re calling another meeting, that means that things didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to with Keeley. Am I right?”

“You could say that,” Roy said through gritted teeth.

“Okay, so what’s the situation?” Ted asked. “Catch me up so we can help. Things aren’t going well with her?”

“I don’t know,” Roy said.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Higgins asked.

“She still has feelings for me,” Roy said.

“Well, that’s great, right?” Nate asked.

The others all talked over each other, chiming in with their agreement.

“I’m not sure I’m seeing the problem here,” Nate added.

Roy braced himself for a moment. Every muscle in his body was tense as he admitted, “She also has feelings for fucking Tartt again.”

There was a horrible silence for a moment and Beard made a grimace that he seemed to think Roy couldn’t see on the screen before finally, Trent said, “Well, I think we see the problem now.”

“And Jamie-” Ted started to ask.

“Wants to get back with her. Yeah,” Roy interrupted stiffly.

There was another uncomfortable silence before Higgins said, “That’s a tough one. I’m not sure there’s really anything that you can do though. I think you just have to give her time to figure it out on her own.”

“I think Higgins is right on the money there,” Ted said. “I mean you can’t make somebody choose you. And trying’s not going to help anything.”

Roy laughed humourlessly at that.

“Yeah, we already figured that one out after we got into a stupid, petty fight about it and then showed up at her place to try,” Roy said. “She threw us both out. Rightfully so.”

“Sounds like you might have some apologizing to do,” Beard said.

Roy sighed.

“We already did that,” Roy said. “That’s not why I called this stupid meeting.”

“So then why did you?” Nate asked.

Roy looked away from the laptop screen and glared out into the locker room. He couldn’t keep the edge out of his voice as he said, “She doesn’t want to choose.”

“What, like she doesn’t want to date either of you?” Trent asked. “That sounds like you’ve got your answer right there then.”

“No,” Roy said. He paused for a moment before he finally just got it over with and said, “She wants two boyfriends.”

“Oh,” Ted said and Roy wanted to break Beard’s laptop in the awful pause that followed that one word. “And what did you say?”

“I didn’t say anything,” Roy said. “I just said I had to go and up and left like a prick.”

Roy hadn’t had any idea of what to say or how to react. He’d just known that he’d had to get out of there before he did something fucking stupid and made things that much worse for all of them.

“And what did Jamie say?” Higgins asked.

Huh. Roy hadn’t stuck around long enough to find that out.

“I don’t know,” Roy said. “I left and then he showed up behind me by the time I reached the parking lot.”

“And he didn’t say anything after that?” Ted asked.

“He said a lot of things,” Roy said. “He doesn’t shut the fuck up. But nothing about what he thought of what she said.” Except that wasn’t exactly true. “Or, I ignored him when he tried to bring it up.”

“I mean, I think it’s a pretty easy decision,” Nate said and for a second Roy thought that he meant that Keeley’s decision was easy and he felt a weird flare of anger on her behalf. But then Nate added, “I mean, you just tell her that you’re not okay with sharing her and see what comes of it… Unless you are okay with it?”

Roy didn’t say anything to that.

“You know, when I said that triangles should be our team’s favourite shape, I didn’t think y’all would take it so seriously,” Ted said as if now was the time for one of his stupid fucking jokes.

“So what’s the issue here?” Beard asked after a moment, apparently assuming Roy’s lack of answer meant that he was okay with it. “Jamie wants to go for a classic throuple, but you don’t want to get involved with him?” He sounded scandalized as he added, “You want to go for the classic throuple and Jamie doesn’t want to do anything with you?”

“What the fuck are you on about?” Roy barked at him. “No, I just… I need to know if the fact that I’m actually considering it means that I’ve officially fucking lost it.”

“Oh,” Trent said.

The fact that all of them except for Beard looked fucking taken aback by the idea that he was thinking about it made Roy’s skin crawl. He never should have fucking admitted he was considering it. He should have just shot the idea down. There was definitely something wrong with him.

He should just stop talking. Say never mind, he’s not considering it after all and leave and be done with it.

But instead, he found himself fucking trying to explain. Maybe, it was just that he wanted to defend Keeley and her stance in all of this. Maybe, part of it was that he was embarrassed by their reactions and he wanted to defend himself.

“It’s not like she wants to have feelings for us both,” Roy insisted. “And obviously if she fucking feels strongly enough to bring it up to us, it’s not just some choice she can make and be perfectly fucking happy with the end result of. I mean, yeah, maybe she can choose one of us or choose neither of us and things could be okay. Maybe, she could even be satisfied with however it turns out. And if she did pick one of us, whichever of us she chose would be the luckiest fucking man alive. But she doesn’t deserve to be just satisfied. She deserves to have a relationship she feels fucking euphoric in. And Jamie-”

Roy paused for a moment. Everyone was staring at him and he was very aware that this was far more of any emotion outside of anger than he’d ever voiced around them before.

He faltered for a moment, then finished, “Jamie… Doesn’t deserve to die alone from an agonizing drawn-out death and to be missed by absolutely fucking no one anymore. And I guess maybe I’m not completely rooting for him to be miserable anymore.”

He liked when that stupid little prick was happy but there was no way in hell that he could just admit that, especially in those words. Somehow, that was so much more difficult to admit than it had been to admit that he hadn’t completely ruled Keeley's idea out. Somehow, Roy both wanted to see Jamie happy and fucking resented the hell out of him for it.

“And he’s not the self-absorbed little bitch he was when he was with her anymore,” Roy pointed out. “He’s all annoying and considerate and… fucking emotionally mature now. So if being with both of us makes her happier... and it makes him happy... and I’d sure as fuck be happy to have another chance with her... then how can that be a bad thing?” Everyone staring at him and not saying anything was making Roy want to punch a wall, so he added, “Could one of you fucking say something now?”

Roy hadn’t realized that he’d been readying himself for a whole argument until Ted responded and instead of bringing up some bullshit counterpoint, he said, “No, I mean you’re totally right. It sounds like you’ve already got things all figured out for yourself already.”

“What?” Roy asked. Because yes, he realized that he sounded like his mind was pretty fucking made up, but still. “Is that even a thing people can do?”

“Polyamory is a thing, yes,” Trent said. “A thing plenty of people are perfectly happy with.”

“Y’all are three consenting adults, right?” Ted asked. “The way I see it, all that matters is that you’re all in favour of it. And what anybody else thinks is irrelevant."

“Sounds like we’re not the ones you need to talk to about it,” Higgins added.

Right. He should probably talk to Jamie first and figure out what he thought before he said anything to Keeley.

Jamie who he had left in the weight room who knows how long ago.

“Fuuuuuuck,” Roy groaned out. When he was met with five confused looks, he added, “I forgot about Jamie.”

“I mean, I think you kind of have to talk to him if you’re going to sort this all out,” Nate said.

“No, not that,” Roy said. “I told him to do push-ups until I got back and then I just… forgot.”

“You don’t think he’s really stupid enough to still be doing them, do you?” Beard asked skeptically.

“You’d be surprised,” Roy said as he turned to leave.

He was halfway across the locker room when he heard the stupid fucking howling and barking behind him, but he was too busy to join in.

Roy was beyond irritated when he walked into the locker room and found stupid fucking Tartt doing push-ups on shaky arms because of fucking course he was still doing push-ups. Of course, he hadn’t stopped, even when Roy hadn’t been around to see it.

Obedient little shit. Roy couldn’t fucking stand him.

Jamie was glad he made it back in time to make sure Roy wouldn’t find out he’d left. He was even more relieved when he finally heard the door open a few minutes later.

“You can stop doing push-ups now,” Roy said.

Jamie shifted to sit on the floor and glare up at him as he asked, “What the hell were you doing for that long? I was starting to think you forgot about me.”

“I remembered,” Roy said. “I was just thinking.”

“And you couldn’t think in here?” Jamie asked.

“No,” Roy said.

“Well, I guess at least now you’re using words again,” Jamie said. “I was starting to think there was something seriously wrong with you.”

“There wasn’t anything wrong with me,” Roy said, sounding offended. “I was just… thinking.”

“Thinking? You mean that thing that you just said you couldn’t do in the same room as me?” Jamie asked.

Roy paused for a moment then said, “Yes.”

“Oh, well, great. That really clears things up,” Jamie said sarcastically. “And let me guess. You can’t possibly think and talk at the same time.”

“I can,” Roy said. He hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “I just have a history of saying and doing stupid fucking things if I don’t… process my fucking emotions and think things through first.”

“Okay, that’s fair,” Jamie admitted. “But does you using words now mean that we’re going to talk about what Keeley said yesterday?”

Jamie was expecting a fuck no, but he was surprised when instead, Roy asked, “What did you think about what she said?”

Jamie wasn’t sure how to answer that. It felt dangerous to say that he had been happy that Keeley had wanted to be with him too when he was pretty sure that that information had almost broken Roy. And answering first felt like a trap. Like he was going to say that the idea didn’t horrify him and then Roy was going to want nothing to do with it. But he would remember that Jamie had been okay with it long after Keeley inevitably chose Roy.

“I don’t know,” Jamie dodged. “What did you think about what she said?”

“I asked you first,” Roy insisted.

“Yeah, well… I asked you second,” Jamie said.

“Exactly,” Roy said. “That means you have to answer first.”

“And what if I don’t?” Jamie asked.

Roy sighed, then asked, “Do you want to grab a drink later?”

“What?” Jamie asked. “Why?”

“Because I don’t know about you, but this isn’t a conversation I want to have sober,” Roy said.

He had a point, but still. This felt like a trap. Like Roy was looking for an excuse to fight him or get all pissy at him.

“And you’re actually going to let me drink?” Jamie asked skeptically. “I’m not just gonna show up for you to pull some bullshit and make me watch you drink instead?”

“You can drink,” Roy said. “This one time.”

Jamie eyed him, but he couldn’t figure out what he was getting at.

“Last time we drank together didn’t go great,” Jamie pointed out. “Is this just a trap so you can get me drunk and punch me in the face?”

“If I wanted to punch you, I’d just do it now,” Roy said.

“I thought you always wanted to punch me at least a little bit,” Jamie insisted.

“If I was going to punch you, I would have done it already,” Roy amended.

“Alright, yeah,” Jamie agreed.

They may as well get the conversation over with. And at least this way no matter how horribly it went, he’d still get to drink out of it.

Roy waited until they were both a couple of drinks in before he finally broached the subject again.

“So what did you think?” he asked.

Jamie didn’t make him clarify. Obviously, he’d just been waiting for it to come up.

“You promise you’re not going to hit me if I tell you?” Jamie asked. “Or headbutt me in the fucking face?”

“I won’t hit you if you tell me the truth and not just whatever you think I want to hear,” Roy said.

Jamie took another swig of his drink and then said, “You’re not gonna like the answer.”

“I didn’t say I had to, did I?” Roy pointed out.

He was starting to think that maybe they were never going to even get far enough to properly start the conversation when Jamie finally said, “Alright. Fine. If we’re telling the truth, I don’t see a downside to it.”

“What?”

Roy wasn’t sure what he had been expecting Jamie to say, but that wasn’t it. The hesitation had made it seem like Jamie hadn’t completely ruled the idea out. But Roy had thought that maybe he’d tiptoe his way around it or make some self-absorbed comment about getting what he wanted and not feeling threatened by Keeley being with some old man at the same time. Jamie having absolutely zero items in the cons section of his pros and cons list was not what he had been anticipating.

“You can’t hit me,” Jamie reminded him, even though for once Roy hadn’t even been considering it. “But… I mean, it sounds like a win-win-win to me. Yeah? She gets both of us. I get another chance. We all get to not have to put up with you being such a miserable old fuck… It’s practically the best-case scenario, right?”

Jamie didn’t look like he expected Roy to agree with him. He looked like was waiting to get punched in the face.

Practically the best-case scenario. Like it had just been that easy for Jamie. Like he hadn’t even had to think about it. Like he would have just agreed to it yesterday without a second thought. And maybe he would have. Maybe it really was that easy for him. Clearly, he hadn’t spent the last day and a half grappling with the idea and with how to feel about it and with what the hell he was supposed to say.

“This is the part where you’re supposed to say what you think,” Jamie pointed out.

“Yeah,” Roy said.

“Yeah?” Jamie asked incredulously. “That ain’t a fucking answer. You spent twenty-four hours so deep in thought you couldn’t utter a single word and all you came up with was yeah?”

Roy sighed and took a long chug from his drink before he turned back to Jamie.

“Look, you already said it. She wants us both. We both want her. And it turns out that what they say about brains not fully developing until you’re twenty-five is true and you’re fucking living breathing proof of it,” Roy pointed out. “So there’s one answer that leaves everyone happy. I can live with it. And it sounds like you can too.”

“Shit, are we actually doing this?” Jamie asked.

“If you meant what you said and you weren’t just trying to sound like you would have gone for it because you assumed I wouldn’t,” Roy said. “And if she hasn’t changed her mind.”

“I meant it,” Jamie said. “But if we don’t want her to change her mind, we should probably wait to show up until we haven’t been drinking. Yeah?”

Jamie had a solid point, but Roy didn’t want to wait too long. He knew that Keeley must be feeling like total shit after how things went yesterday. He didn't want her to have to sit and wonder what they were thinking for no fucking reason.

So he pulled out his phone and said, “I’ll see if she can do lunch tomorrow.”

Jamie leaned to watch over his shoulder as Roy typed out Can we bring lunch to your office to talk things over tomorrow?

A few seconds passed, then the message was marked as read. Roy waited for the little typing dots to pop up, but they didn’t.

One minute passed. Then two.

“She left us on read,” Roy said, not bothering to hide the confusion from his tone.

“Nah, mate. She left you on read,” Jamie said as he pulled his own phone out.

“Right and I’m sure she’ll answer you right away,” Roy said sarcastically.

He watched Jamie type out r u busy @ lunch 2mrw? we talked abt what u said

“You text like a fucking child,” Roy pointed out.

“You literally just said I had a fully developed adult brain,” Jamie argued. That might have been true, but it didn't mean that Jamie was actually using more than three of his brain cells at a time. “You’re just mad 'cause you text like an old man.”

Roy ignored that to look at Jamie’s phone screen.

“She’s read it,” Roy pointed out. “I don’t see her typing.”

“Just give it a minute,” Jamie insisted, sounding illogically confident. Roy couldn’t tell if it was just a front or if he really thought that she was going to answer his poorly typed version of what Roy had already sent.

“Leave it. Obviously, she’s not answering either of us right now,” Roy said. “Maybe she’s thinking about it. Maybe she has to check her schedule. Maybe she changed her mind and wants nothing to do with either of us. I don’t know. All I know is I’m getting another drink. Do you want one?”

“Yeah, okay.”

Chapter Text

Keeley was lying on her couch in the middle of a movie when her phone buzzed. She expected it to be a message from Rebecca, but her whole body tensed when she saw Roy’s name instead.

She didn’t want to know what it said, but she hit pause on the remote and opened the text anyway.

Can we bring lunch to your office to talk things over tomorrow?

Keeley felt sick as she stared down at it.

She was pretty sure that we meant him and Jamie. She wasn’t sure what had changed since lunchtime when Roy had apparently barely said a word to Jamie and she wasn’t sure that she wanted to find out.

Obviously, Roy had been more than a little upset over the whole thing. And she couldn’t blame him. He had every right to be.

He had thought that they were on track to getting back together and she’d ripped that all away in the worst way possible. She should have just kept her feelings to herself. She shouldn’t have given him any sign that she still felt the same way about him. She should have just let them both move on. At least then they would have still been able to all be friends.

Jamie hadn’t seemed to hate either of them yet at lunch, but maybe that would change. Maybe, it already had from whatever they had talked about. Maybe, Roy wouldn’t want anything to do with Jamie anymore and he’d slowly grow to resent her for it over time.

But what had she thought would happen? The voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Jack told her that she should have seen this coming. That it was her fault. That she had been selfish and impulsive and stupid. That she’d ruined everything and she deserved whatever she got for it.

Keeley hated thinking about Jack. She hated that even though she didn’t want anything to do with her anymore, what Jack would think still managed to weasel its way into her head. She shouldn’t care. She didn’t care what Jack thought of her love life. But Jack had made her feel so incredible and important and loved and then she’d ripped that all away and made her feel so incredibly small and naive and unworthy.

Roy had never been like that. Keeley knew that. He’d always made her feel special and important and even when they hadn’t been together anymore, he’d always been so kind. She knew he hadn’t ever said or done anything to make her feel so incredibly terrified of what horrible and cruel and probably true thing he might say to her. But Jack hadn’t ever given her any warning either.

Not before the video got leaked. And even after, she had acted like everything was fine at first. And then out of nowhere, she had treated her completely differently and blamed her and then completely disappeared.

Roy and Jamie hadn't had a problem with her over the video. Neither of them had treated her like something that was ruined for them because of it. She knew that. But what if her admitting to her feelings for both of them had been Roy’s equivalent to the video?

She didn’t think she could take it if that was the breaking point that made him look at her the way that Jack had. Like every time he looked at her, it would be all he would be able to think about. Like he'd be constantly wondering how she could have ever let it happen. Like suddenly he couldn’t imagine how he’d ever let himself become involved with someone like her in the first place.

She was about to put her phone down when it buzzed with another text.

r u busy @ lunch 2mrw? we talked abt what u said

Keeley stared down at her phone and knew that she should probably answer one of them or both of them, but she couldn’t make herself.

She was going to have to find out what exactly they'd talked about sooner or later, but she didn’t want to commit to anything right now. She didn't want to be counting down the hours until she'd have to deal with that conversation. She didn’t want them coming to her office to tell her whatever it was they were going to. She didn’t want to worry about anyone overhearing or coming into her office afterward and finding her crying. She didn’t want to set a precedent of them showing up there for their drama like it wasn’t her place of business on the off chance that things didn’t go as horribly as possible and instead, they decided to just compete over her anyway. She hated that the possibilities were so bad that what had seemed like the worst-case scenario a few days ago now might be the best she could possibly hope for.

Keeley sighed and set her phone down on the table. She got up off the couch and went to the kitchen before returning with a bottle of wine. She poured herself a glass and then resumed her movie to try to take her mind off of things.

The messages could wait. She could decide what to do tomorrow. For now, she just wanted to not have to think about it for a little while.

“Has she texted you back yet?” Jamie asked as they left the bar.

“No,” Roy said. “I would have told you if she had.”

But he looked down at his phone again after that anyway, just in case she had answered since he had last checked a few minutes ago and he had somehow missed it.

“Me neither,” Jamie said. “Do you think she changed her mind and she don’t want either of us now?”

“I don’t know,” Roy said. “And there’s not really any point guessing.” He didn’t want to talk about it anymore, so he changed the subject quickly with, “How about we don’t get up at four tomorrow and call it even for the extra push-ups I made you do?”

Jamie stopped walking and turned to study his face. He didn’t get much of a look though because Roy didn’t stop walking to wait for him.

Jamie jogged a few steps to catch up with him. He sounded amused as he accused, “You’re just saying that because you know you’re going to be hungover then.”

Huh. Roy had assumed that the look Jamie had given him was because he’d been about to use the ‘extra push-ups’ thing to call him out on having forgotten about him. Not that Roy cared if he found out. He’d only lied and said he hadn’t because he hadn’t wanted to listen to Jamie whine. Not because he cared if Jamie felt bad about it.

“Do you really want to get up at four after this?” Roy asked.

Jamie seemed to consider for a moment, then said, “Fair enough. Not four works for me.”

Roy was a shit influence. He was supposed to be training Jamie. But instead, Jamie was happily following their routine even in the off-season and Roy was the one fucking it up by talking him into going out drinking and then skipping early morning training. But the idea of getting extra sleep and not having to put up with Jamie’s incessant peppiness while hungover at four in the goddamn morning was far too appealing for him to change his mind and take the offer back anyway.

“Good.”

Keeley still had absolutely no idea what to do about the texts by the time morning came. She could just leave them on read and keep ignoring them both until she was ready to deal with whatever conversation they were trying to have.

That was the most appealing option for sure. Except then she’d never see them again and that would kind of defeat the whole purpose of putting off potentially losing one or both of them from her life.

She knew that she was going to be distracted at work no matter what, but at least if she sent a text before she left, she wouldn't have to wonder what to do about it all morning. She could at least worry while knowing that there was nothing she could do about it until she met up with them.

So finally, she sucked it up and decided to answer them. At least if she met them and got it over with, she would know. She wouldn't have to keep coming up with new horrible possibilities to make herself feel sick over.

Keeley debated sending a group text, but she wasn’t sure how well that would go over. Besides, at this hour they were probably together anyway, assuming Roy was still training Jamie.

So she opened the thread with Roy since his text had come first, then typed out a quick response.

Roy woke up to a text from Keeley.

She said that she didn’t want to meet at work, but had suggested a cafe for them to meet at instead. He sent back that that worked and watched as his message was marked as read. He waited a moment, but she didn’t type anything back. He wasn’t sure what he had expected her to say anyway.

Roy knew he’d be seeing Jamie soon, but he texted him anyway.

Did she send you the same message?

Jamie’s response was immediate and unenlightening.

?????

Roy took a screenshot and sent it to him.

news 2 me but im in

Roy rolled his eyes at Jamie’s childish typing style. At least the fact that he apparently texted Keeley that way too meant that it wasn't a texting style that he chose specifically for the sake of torturing Roy. Still, Roy wasn’t one hundred percent certain whether Jamie was physically incapable of spelling or if he just chose to message as if he couldn’t for fun. 

He wasn’t about to ask. He was just glad that he hadn’t sent a string of emojis this time.

Morning training was surprisingly normal, other than the fact that they’d skipped the first session. Roy had given Jamie directions with his words like a normal human being and for a while, Jamie was too busy focusing on Roy’s instructions to think about lunchtime.

But as they walked to the cafe together, Jamie started to think more about it.

He wasn’t overly concerned with how the conversation would go. Keeley had already said she wanted two boyfriends. He already knew Roy’s stance on it. It was pretty easy to figure out that this was going to go his way. All of their ways, really.

That wasn’t what he was worried about. He just didn’t want Roy to find out that not all of those extra push-ups he’d given Jamie the early morning off for hadn’t actually happened. Or that he’d spent some of that time talking to Keeley behind his back instead. The last thing he needed was Roy getting pissed off and thinking the conversation had been something it wasn't when they were so close to a good thing.

As they got close, Jamie decided it would be better if Roy found out from him than Keeley, so he paused on the sidewalk and turned to face Roy as he admitted, “Full disclosure, I talked to Keeley yesterday.”

Roy paused and turned to look at him confused.

He didn’t say anything, so Jamie added, “When you took off for ten years while I was doing push-ups I got sick of it and went to go check if you had abandoned me. And then I saw her car in the lot and went and talked to her.”

Jamie was expecting Roy to get mad. He was expecting Roy to bitch at him or give him the silent treatment. He was at least expecting him to ask what he'd talked to Keeley about. What he wasn’t expecting was for Roy to burst into laughter.

“About fucking time,” Roy said.

“What?” Jamie asked. He felt like he was missing at least three steps on the way to understanding what Roy was talking about.

“Forget it,” Roy said which was no more help at all.

“So you ain’t pissed at me?” Jamie asked. Something felt wrong here. Roy should have at least been telling him the bullshit he was going to pull to make him make up for it later.

“No,” Roy said. He paused for a moment, then smirked as he admitted, “Full disclosure, I did forget I left you there.”

“You fucker,” Jamie complained. But he was so relieved that Roy wasn’t upset, that he found himself laughing too.

Keeley got a coffee as she waited, but she didn’t order any food. She doubted she’d be able to eat in her nervous state anyway.

At least soon she would be able to stop wondering how upset they were. She just needed to rip the bandaid off and get this over with.

She had picked one of the tables outside so that she would be able to see when they were coming. She stared out down the road and forgot about her drink altogether as she tried and failed to not wonder about what they might say and how badly this might go.

She was bracing herself for the worst when they finally appeared down the street.

Jamie stopped on the sidewalk and visibly winced as he said something to Roy. Roy stopped and looked at him and Keeley had an awful feeling. She wasn’t sure they were even going to make it to the table without fighting. This was definitely a bad sign that their showing up together did not mean that they were on good terms.

Except, then Jamie said something else and Roy’s head rolled back with laughter at whatever Jamie had said. Jamie looked confused for a moment, then mildly annoyed as they kept talking. But in the end, he joined in on the laughter as they started walking again.

Keeley had no idea what they were talking about, but her nerves eased just the teeniest tiniest bit at that. Maybe, she hadn’t completely ruined their friendship then. Maybe there was a chance that this wouldn’t have to go horribly for all of them after all. Maybe it would only have to end poorly for her.

She gripped her coffee cup tight as they joined her at the table. Roy sat down across from her and Jamie sat at his side.

“Okay,” Roy said and Keeley furrowed her brows in confusion.

No greeting. No yelling. No questions. Just a contextless “okay”.

“Okay?” Keeley repeated as she tried to figure out what he could possibly mean.

“Jesus Christ, this is worse than your yeah last night, ” Jamie complained as he turned to look at Roy. He nudged him on the arm with the back of his hand as he insisted, “She has no idea what the fuck you’re talking about, mate.” He turned back to Keeley as he insisted, “I swear he was using full sentences last night. What he meant was hi Keeley, how are you? That’s great. Hey, so we talked about the two boyfriends possibility and we’re both on board.”

The only thing more shocking than the fact that Jamie had apparently assumed that Keeley would have answered that she was doing well when she had spent the last 48 hours stressed and miserable over the whole situation was how he had ended his little one-sided conversation.

“What?” Keeley asked as her brain tried to catch up with his words. There was no way she could have possibly heard him right. “You’re fucking with me.”

They had to be. There was no other possibility.

“We’re not,” Roy said.

She looked between them, just waiting for the other shoe to drop. They both just sat there like this was an ordinary conversation. Maybe she was hallucinating. Or maybe this was just some weird dream. All she knew was that there was no way this was actually happening.

“It was an easy decision really,” Jamie insisted. “I mean, you’re hot, I’m hot. Roy’s… well, you seem to find him attractive. Everybody wins. Why shouldn’t we go for it?”

And somehow Roy was just sitting there calmly as if none of what was coming out of Jamie’s mouth was surprising to him at all. He didn’t even seem bothered by Jamie pretending he wasn’t aware that Roy was very very attractive.

“Because people don’t just date multiple people at once,” Keeley insisted. “I mean, maybe on stupid reality shows where the whole point is to get down to one person with the most drama possible on the way, but not in real life. People don’t just… have two boyfriends because they can’t decide.”

“Actually they do,” Roy said. “Trent says there are plenty of people that are happy in polyamorous relationships.”

Keeley couldn’t hide her surprise from her features at that. That must not have come up in their conversation last night since Jamie was staring at Roy open-mouthed.

“You talked to Trent Crimm about this?” Keeley asked. She was too surprised to even know how to feel about that.

“What? No,” Roy said quickly. “I just remembered hearing him say it once. That’s all.”

“Look, even if that’s true, it’s still not exactly a thing most people do,” Keeley pointed out. “It’s selfish. I mean, what will people think?”

She could hear Jack’s voice in her head telling her exactly what people would think. That she was selfish and immature and desperate for attention. That no one would take her seriously. That she didn’t deserve to be taken seriously. That she didn't deserve either of them, let alone both. That she needed to just grow up and make a choice.

“Who gives a flying fuck what people think?” Roy asked and Keeley was surprised by how angry he suddenly sounded. “We’re grown fucking adults. Aren’t we? Other people can get fucked. If all three of us are happy with it, they can go cry themselves to sleep over it and it won’t fucking matter for a millisecond.”

Jamie looked between Roy and Keeley and back again and slowly closed his mouth and smiled like he was absolutely delighted with Roy’s sudden rage at hypothetical other people.

Keeley really wasn’t sure how this had turned into Roy trying to convince her that dating them both was okay when she had expected this conversation to end with Roy not being okay with her at all in any capacity anymore because she had even mentioned the idea.

Keeley wasn’t really sure what to say. In all of the many versions of this conversation that she had imagined, not a single one of them had involved them both apparently being okay with the two boyfriends thing.

She had never really considered that it could be an actual possibility. And now that they were telling her it was, she still wasn’t convinced it could go well, even if they were both willing to try.

Roy had said if all three of us are happy. What were the odds that all three of them actually would be? What were the odds that they wouldn’t get jealous and competitive and awful to each other? What were the odds that neither of them would get uncomfortable with her being with the other and that neither of them would be afraid to become the one that ended up alone because they had admitted it?

Keeley hesitated for a moment, then asked, “And you’re both just… a hundred percent okay with it?”

“Absolutely,” Jamie said without a moment’s hesitation.

“I’m fine with it,” Roy said after him.

“And you’re not just… saying that because you think that if one of you says no, that I’ll just pick whichever of you doesn’t?” she asked.

“No.”

Keeley stared down at her coffee. She had no idea whether she believed them. She had no idea whether they could even know if what they were saying was true or not.

“And neither of you is going to freak out if I do something with the other?” she asked. She meant physically, but she also meant even just spending time at all with one. She didn’t want it to become a situation where they resented any time she spent with the other and tried to compete for her time and affection.

“Right,” Jamie said.

When Roy didn’t say anything, Keeley looked up at him, then Roy added, “What he said.”

She looked between them for a moment, then sighed and said, “Look, if I’m even going to consider this, then you have to tell the truth and actually communicate if something bothers you or makes you uncomfortable or anything.”

“Fine by me,” Jamie said cheerily and Keeley actually believed him. He’d been so incredibly unbothered by the whole thing since the moment she had first said it, that it was easy to believe him now. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to take all the waiting if he hadn’t been so delightfully himself after she had said it and when he’d shown up in Rebecca’s office. It had only made her feelings for him grow more.

As soon as he’d responded, Jamie turned and looked at Roy. Keeley couldn’t tell if it was because he knew something she didn’t or if it was just because Roy clearly struggled with communication at times.

“Okay,” Roy said.

And that should have been fine. That should have been enough. They’d answered her plenty of times. But Keeley had that awful gnawing feeling. The one that had been showing up more and more since Jack. The one that said that something was wrong and she was going to be too oblivious to see it until it was far too late. The one that said that even if it seemed like everything was fine, she was going to get the rug pulled out from under her and she was going to lose them both and make them resent her and each other.

“I mean it,” Keeley said. “If I find out either of you are just pretending to be fine with anything or if you don’t say anything and just take whatever problem you have out on each other, I won’t hesitate to be done with the both of you.”

“Alright,” Roy said and Jamie nodded along with him.

“So you’re not going to go all weird silent and make Jamie do push-ups for half an hour out of spite if something bothers you?” Keeley added.

“Yesterday wasn’t out of spite. I was keeping him occupied while I did something and then I forgot that I’d left him doing them,” Roy said. “Most of the time when I make him do ridiculous things, it’s because it’s funny. And, okay, a little bit to spite him. But that’s only because he does whatever I say and it pisses me off.”

“What the fuck?” Jamie complained. “You literally told me that you’d only train me if I listened to whatever bullshit you told me to do.”

“I know,” Roy said. “But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t piss me off.” He must have noticed that Keeley was less than reassured by that since he turned his attention back on her as he insisted, “I can handle it. I’m good at communicating when I have a problem with Jamie. When he makes me want to punch him in the dick, I tell him to cut it out or else he’ll get punched in the dick.”

“That’s true,” Jamie added as if that was at all what she had meant. “And it happens less often than you’d think now.”

Keeley stared back down at her coffee as she considered whether to say something about the Jack situation or not. She didn’t want them to know just how horribly it had ended. She didn’t want to talk about Jack at all. But if she was setting a ground rule that they had to communicate about things, then she couldn’t really justify keeping to herself the reason why that was such a thing for her now.

She sighed again and hesitantly looked back up at them as she admitted, “Things with me and Jack didn’t end well.”

They both looked confused about why she was bringing her up at all, but at least they’d stopped talking about punching dicks.

“And apparently she had a problem way before I figured out she did and instead of saying something, she just pretended she didn’t to my face and then was all weird behind my back and uninvited me to things because she was embarrassed to be seen with me. And then she just up and left the country to get away from me and still couldn’t even just come out with it and say that she wanted to end things. So instead she just completely pulled out of my business and told everyone else but me. I had to find out from Barbara,” Keeley said. “That’s not really the point though. The point is that she really fucked with my head.”

Roy’s jaw tensed in a way that looked increasingly painful as he listened.

“What a bitch,” Jamie insisted.

“Look, I’m not telling you this so that you’ll be mad at her or comfort me or whatever,” Keeley said. “I just need you to know why it’s important, okay? I can’t do that again. And I can’t do walking on eggshells just waiting for this to implode and for you to hate each other or me or both. And I can’t just always be wondering if either of you is secretly upset and just stewing in it and letting it get worse and worse while I'm a complete idiot thinking that things are okay.”

“I can handle talking about actual feelings,” Roy said. His voice still sounded weirdly tense as he said, “Just give me a second.”

They waited for an agonizingly long minute before Jamie leaned over to nudge Roy in the arm with his elbow as he asked, “Are you going to say something now or should we just come back again tomorrow and see if you’re ready to start speaking again?”

“Shut up.” Roy said in a strained voice without looking at him. His tone was no more relaxed when he spoke again with his eyes locked on Keeley. “I know that I’m shit at talking about feelings with anyone other than you.”

“You talk about feelings to her?” Jamie interrupted in a tone of sheer disbelief. “Feelings? As in more than one? As in not just anger? Are you sure you even have other emotions?”

“Jamie. Shut the fuck up,” Roy insisted, still without looking at him.

“Okay,” Jamie said in a defensive tone. He dramatically raised his hands in a display of innocence as if he hadn’t actively been heckling Roy while he tried to get out whatever he clearly was struggling to say.

“I know that I’m at my absolute worst at communicating when it has anything to do with him. And that he’s going to be… around. And I’m going to have to… communicate anyway,” Roy continued awkwardly. “But I’m not going to fuck things up and blow another chance with you because I’m too afraid to deal with my feelings again. The only thing I’m more afraid of than talking about feelings and shit is fucking things up with you all over again.”

Jamie looked amused and like he was considering interrupting again and Keeley shot him a warning look.

“And I am way more in love with you than I am annoyed by him,” Roy said. “You deserve to be the happiest you can possibly be. And if that means being with him too, then I don’t have a problem with it. Really. I can handle having him around. I mean, in case you haven’t noticed, for some completely unimaginable reason I spend hours of every single day of my life with this prick voluntarily.”

Jamie was staring at Roy with a look of complete awe, but Roy still very pointedly refused to look at him.

“I get why you think I’m going to get pissed off and punch him in the face, but do you know what’s really fucked up? When I found out that he wanted to get back with you too, I was worried about his fucking feelings,” Roy said as if it was the worst thing in the world. “Do you know how fucking annoying it is to give a shit about his feelings now?”

He was making his point more than a little aggressively, but Keeley liked what he was saying. Jamie must have too because he was beaming at Roy. It was probably a good thing Roy was refusing to look at him so that he wouldn’t see how smug Jamie looked about Roy admitting to caring about his feelings.

“I don’t have a problem with you being with him too. If I’m upset about anything, it’s the fact that I don’t want to bash his face in over it,” Roy said. “And the fact that by some truly horrifying fucking twist of fate I actually give a shit about whether he’s happy or not. And not even in the seeing him miserable brings me joy kind of way anymore. Because apparently my life is one giant fucking joke and the punchline is that somehow he became my-" He paused for a moment, then finished that with, "Nope. Can’t say it.”

Jamie looked momentarily offended at the implication that Roy had used to feel great happiness over his misery, but that quickly disappeared and his jaw dropped as Roy cut himself off before he could actually admit out loud how much Jamie meant to him.

“Say one word about it and I will break your nose,” Roy warned, clearly for Jamie although he still refused to even look in his direction.

“Will not,” Jamie accused gleefully. He sounded strangely sure of himself considering how tense Roy’s entire body had gone and the condition that Jamie had ended up in after their last fight. “You can’t hit me, I’m your-"

“Don’t fucking test me,” Roy cut him off with a growl. “I’ll feel bad after, but I’ll do it anyway.”

Jamie shut his mouth then but still looked just as smug as before.

Keeley found herself smiling at that. Sure, they were bickering and Roy was threatening Jamie. But this was normal bickering. Well, almost. This was normal bickering combined with Roy being weirdly honest about his feelings and getting uncomfortable while Jamie was completely unfazed by it or his anger.

Maybe they really wouldn't kill each other over the other being with her after all.

Apparently, Roy took her not saying anything yet to mean that she needed him to talk more, even though he’d already more than proven that he was willing to make himself uncomfortable for the sake of communication. And even though she had only meant that she needed them to communicate in future situations and not that Roy had to prove he was capable now. It really was reassuring that he had anyway though.

“Don’t get me wrong, if he takes you for granted like the fucking imbecile he was last time again, I will punch him in the dick so hard that he’ll need months of reconstructive surgery and healing time and then when he’s finally not in pain anymore and finally has a fully functioning dick again, I’ll show up at his house in the middle of the night and cut it off with a rusty knife,” Roy added. “But otherwise, I am disgustingly, horrifyingly okay with you two.”

The smug expression completely disappeared from Jamie’s face and was replaced with unconcealed horror. He scooted his chair a little further from Roy’s and cupped both of his hands over his crotch protectively.

“I’m not gonna,” Jamie whined. “I have a fully developed brain now, remember? So could you stop making threats about me dick?”

Keeley was kind of astounded. Roy’s spiel definitely should not have been romantic when most of what he had said had been insults and threats toward Jamie. And yet she believed that he was okay with it now much more than she had before. And she liked that he cared enough to put himself through saying all of that. She liked having the side of him back that talked about how in love with her he was. She liked having protective boyfriend Roy back.

“Okay,” she said.

“Okay?” Jamie asked.

“Okay, let’s try it,” she clarified.

And unbelievably, they both smiled at that as if they were the lucky ones and not her.

“Are you busy tonight?” Jamie asked, wasting absolutely no time.

Keeley looked from him to Roy. Roy just sat there instead of arguing over who would get to take her out first. Keeley wanted to kiss him for not turning it into a weird stressful competition, but she wanted this to work and kissing either of them in front of the other seemed like a bad idea right now, especially when trying out this situation was so incredibly new.

She focused back on Jamie as she said, “I’m having drinks with Barbara. But I can do tomorrow.”

Jamie grinned as he rushed to agree, “Tomorrow works.”

She looked over at Roy and he said, “We can do something this weekend. If that works for you.”

As if there was any way she was going to go the whole weekend without seeing him after all of this. It was already Thursday now and she’d be with Jamie tomorrow. She didn’t want to wait any longer than necessary to find out if just maybe this might actually work.

“How’s Saturday?” Keeley asked.

“Perfect,” Roy said.

“I should probably be getting back,” Keeley said. She considered for a moment, then said, “But I’ll see you tomorrow-” She paused to lean across the table and kiss Jamie on the cheek, then turned to Roy and added, “And you Saturday.”

She kissed him on the cheek too and was delighted when they both just smiled and didn’t implode the moment she gave a shred of affection to the other. She kind of still couldn’t believe that this was real and not just some bizarre wine-fueled dream.

She had been certain there was no way that this conversation could possibly go that wouldn’t end with her crying her makeup off and struggling to fix it in a rush before heading back to the office and yet now she just sat there beaming at them for a second longer before she got up.

Jamie barely managed to wait until Keeley was fully out of sight before he leaned closer to Roy with a huge smirk on his face and bragged, “I’m your best friend.”

He knew there was at least a sixty percent chance that Roy was going to hit him for it, but that was a risk he was more than willing to take.

Jamie was having the absolute best day. He had a date scheduled with Keeley for the first time in years and in his own emotionally constipated way, Roy had admitted that Jamie was his best friend.

So yeah, he was happy about it. And yeah, he was going to bring it back up and annoy Roy about it because what else was he supposed to do? Just quietly tuck that information away? Hell no.

And if that meant that Roy had to hit him or make him run the streets with a backpack full of bricks weighing him down or make him do whatever other sadistic shit he’d come up with to even out the scales and make himself feel better, then Jamie could live with that price.

But Roy didn’t even hit him. He must have been in a good mood too because he just growled out, “I fucking hate you.” As if he hadn’t admitted that he spent hours of every day with Jamie voluntarily. As if he hadn’t admitted that Jamie’s happiness mattered to him. As if he hadn't tried to say that he was his best friend.

Jamie was actually getting away with taunting Roy unscathed, so naturally he had to push it a little further as he insisted, “No, you don’t. You love me. You- Ow! What the fuck?”

Jamie pretended to be offended as he rubbed at his arm where Roy had punched him hard. It was definitely going to bruise, but Jamie didn’t actually care. Because Roy hadn’t even denied it. And that was more than worth it. That was a greater achievement than any of the many football games Jamie had won. Roy could have actually broken his nose and it might have even been worth it, assuming that it didn’t heal hideously.

Jamie had two options here. He could let Roy off the hook and admit that he was his best friend too… maybe even throw in that he loved him too and probably get punched for it, but even out the playing field. Or, he could keep basking in the fact that Roy had admitted they were best friends first and rub it in a little more and probably also get punched for that.

Either way, Roy was going to be pissed off and uncomfortable. But one option was much more fun than the other. And knowing when to shut up and leave things alone had never been Jamie’s specialty, so he grinned and said, “Isaac’s still me best friend, you know.”

“Fuck off.”

Chapter Text

Roy didn’t even have to knock on the door the next morning before Jamie pulled it open with a big grin on his face.

“Morning Coach,” Jamie said in that annoyingly enthusiastic tone that made Roy want to make him get up for three in the morning instead just to see if the earlier hour would dampen his eagerness a little.

But that would mean that Roy would have to get up even earlier himself and as it was, he already was questioning his sanity enough for choosing to be up and ready at four in the morning every single day for the benefit of Jamie fucking Tartt.

“Is it necessary for you to be so goddamn peppy before dawn?” Roy asked.

Jamie was bouncing from foot to foot, seemingly even more eager to get going than usual. Roy should have been annoyed that he was even more obnoxiously excitable before sunrise than usual, but he was surprised to find he wasn’t.

Sure, his over-the-top energy was abrasive like always, but at least he had a good reason to be excited for the day this time.

Jamie’s grin somehow spread even wider as he reached out and patted Roy on the cheek and insisted, “I'm just trying to copy your sunny disposition.”

Roy didn’t know when Jamie had decided that he was just allowed to touch Roy’s face without getting headbutted for it. He didn’t know when he had become right about it either.

The audacity of the move was more annoying than the touch itself, but Roy didn't have the energy to make it a thing at that hour so he just rolled his eyes and said, “Let’s go.”

Roy had seemed pretty normal during first training, so when they got to the gym for second training, Jamie decided to test his luck.

“Absolutely not,” Roy growled out the moment that Jamie turned his playlist on. “We’re not listening to this shit again.”

He grabbed Jamie’s phone out of his hand to pause the first song less than ten seconds in.

Jamie had to make an effort not to laugh or smile at that. He was glad Roy was back to himself and not acting totally indifferent to his music. Besides, Jamie was in such a good mood about his date with Keeley later that he would have agreed to listen to just about anything. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to put on his usual act anyway.

“Your old man music is going to put me to sleep,” Jamie whined, even though there was nothing particularly wrong with Roy’s music. He just wasn’t about to admit that with the way Roy always bitched and moaned about any songs he put on.

“And your music is going to make me homicidal,” Roy retorted.

Overdramatic asshole.

“Fine,” Jamie said with a heavy sigh because he was being the bigger person and he needed Roy to know that. “We can listen to your granddad music today. But we’re listening to mine tomorrow.”

Roy just grunted and shoved Jamie’s phone back at his chest so Jamie took that as agreement.

For the first time in days, Keeley didn’t feel a sense of dread when her phone buzzed at lunchtime.

The message was from Rebecca.

Are you doing alright?

Keeley smiled to herself as she sent a text back.

I’m great

Rebecca’s response only took a few seconds.

Are you actually? Or are you just saying that because you don’t want to talk about it?

Keeley sent back Actually and then a moment later added I have a date tonight

With who?

Jamie… and then Roy tomorrow

Wow, so they really went for it

Keeley laughed as she texted back I honestly thought they were fucking with me at first

They’d better not be

Keeley hesitated a moment, then responded Maybe I’m just an idiot but I actually believe they both want this to work

You’re not an idiot. You’re the smartest woman I know

Keeley grinned to herself at that.

You know I’m mad in love with you, don’t you?

She loved that things were so easy with Rebecca. She didn't ever have to worry about how her words might come off with her.

Jamie was on his sixth outfit change when he gave in and video called Roy.

Roy answered halfway through the second ring with, “What the fuck do you want?”

Jamie was kind of surprised that Roy had actually answered the video call instead of ignoring it and maybe texting or calling him back instead if he was lucky.

“Is that seriously how you answer the phone?” Jamie asked. “You really have like zero social skills, don’t you?”

“It’s how I answer when I can see that it’s you that's calling,” Roy told him. “And I have enough social skills that I can’t get you to leave me alone no matter what I do.”

“That’s not social skills if you’re being a grumpy old fart and I'm just a big enough person to take pity on you and ignore it,” Jamie insisted.

“Shouldn’t you be getting ready for your date instead of pestering me?” Roy asked.

“I can multitask,” Jamie insisted. “I am getting ready. But I need your advice.”

“You want my advice with Keeley?” Roy asked, sounding more than a little skeptical. “What makes you think I won’t just give you shit advice so that we can both be rid of you?”

“Because you like when I’m happy. Duh,” Jamie said dismissively. “And you didn’t talk like an actual human with emotions yesterday to make this work just to let me fuck things up and disappoint her today, did you?”

Roy sighed loudly, then said, “Alright, what do you want?”

Jamie set his phone down on the dresser, carefully propping it up, then backed up far enough that Roy could take in his outfit and then did a little spin so that he could see it from all angles and give properly informed feedback.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Roy asked before Jamie could even properly ask him what he thought.

“The outfit,” Jamie said, letting his exasperation show in his tone. “What do you think?”

“I think you look fucking ridiculous as usual,” Roy responded oh so unhelpfully. “Don’t tell me this is actually what you called me for.”

“Well, who else was I supposed to call?” Jamie asked.

“Literally anyone else,” Roy told him.

Sure, Jamie could have called one of his teammates. But if one of them found out he was going on a date with Keeley, they would all find out. And Jamie was pretty sure only saying that he was going out with her again and having everyone act weird around Roy because of it would not go over well for him. And assuming that Keeley and Roy would be fine with everyone knowing that she was seeing both of them sounded like a dangerous choice too. He didn’t want to fuck things up with Keeley again so soon and he wasn’t really keen to get his nose broken by Roy either.

Keeley was the only one other than Jamie with any semblance of a fashion sense around here anyway. But he couldn’t call her up and ask her what to wear for their date. That was the kind of bullshit he might have pulled the first time around when Keeley had done almost everything for him and he’d been stupid enough to not even notice, let alone be grateful for it.

So now he was stuck with fucking useless Roy who walked around in the same boring-ass all-black outfit all the time like he was on his way to a fucking funeral every single day of his life.

“Are you going to help me or not?” Jamie complained.

“Do you seriously think that the clothes you wear are going to make a fucking difference?” Roy asked like the absolute fashion novice he was.

“Uh, yeah,” Jamie said, making sure that just how obvious he thought it was seeped into his tone. “How else is she supposed to know that I’m really trying this time around?”

“By actually trying, you absolute knob,” Roy insisted.

“Yeah, I’m going to,” Jamie said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to look good while I’m doing it.”

“I really don’t think she’s going to turn you down if you show up in the wrong shoes.”

Jamie hadn’t even gotten close to figuring out shoes yet. He still hadn’t settled on his clothes yet and he was running out of time.

“Okay, so there’s this or-”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Roy interrupted as Jamie pulled his shirt off as if there was any part of Jamie’s body that hadn’t regularly been on full display in locker rooms and communal showers in front of him.

“You’ve literally seen me naked more times than I can count,” Jamie pointed out. “I know you’re old as fuck and probably have some undiagnosed heart condition, but I really don’t think seeing me without a shirt on is going to kill you.”

“That doesn’t mean I want to watch you strip on camera,” Roy insisted.

“Don’t be stupid. Everybody wants to watch me strip on camera,” Jamie insisted as he pulled on a different shirt.

It was obvious that Roy was at his house so it wasn’t like he had to worry about anyone seeing their call and taking it wrong out of context. And he hadn’t hung up yet so obviously he wasn’t really that annoyed. Roy had hung up on Jamie over far less before.

“Every time I think you’re getting a little less insufferable, you find a new way to outdo yourself,” Roy told him.

Jamie pulled his pants off and grabbed a different pair as he smirked and accused, “So what you’re saying is that before this you thought I was sufferable.”

“Yes. I suffer every time I’m with you but just barely survive it to endure it all over again,” Roy said. "I'm not sure what about that you think is worth bragging over."

“Is this one better or worse?” Jamie asked when he finished doing up his pants.

“You look exactly as stupid as you did in the last outfit,” Roy told him.

“You’re useless. You know that?” Jamie asked, but he moved to change to another option anyway just in case Roy might say something more or less insulting about it that he might be able to work with.

“You’re the one that chose to call me,” Roy pointed out. “I’m just glad you decided to wear a shirt on your own this time.”

“I didn’t wear a shirt one time,” Jamie complained. “And you’re just mad because you know that I pulled it off… How’s this?”

“Oh, now this one I have an actual opinion on,” Roy said.

“Really?” Jamie asked.

“Of course not,” Roy said. “But if I pretend to will you stop taking your clothes off in front of me?”

“I should have known you’d be no help at all,” Jamie insisted. “Calling you for fashion advice is like calling Ted for a good cutting insult. I mean, I’m not certain you’re not legitimately allergic to colour. I don’t know how you didn’t have to get hospitalized every time you put your kit on. Is that the real reason you retired? You couldn’t stand being out of your usual colourless colour scheme? I mean, really, you’re like a sad cartoon character that’s stuck in the same boring ass outfit every day.”

“Are you finished?” Roy asked.

Jamie wasn’t, but he decided not to push it further anyway. Instead, he sighed and admitted, “Look, I can’t call Keeley like I usually would so now I’m stuck with you.”

“You call Keeley for advice on what to wear?” Roy asked as if the idea was ridiculous.

“Sometimes,” Jamie told him. “Why shouldn’t I? She’s got mad fashion sense.”

Roy didn’t argue that. He just made a facial expression like Jamie had a point.

Jamie knew he had a point. That was why what he wore was important. He wanted to impress her.

“I think you’re more likely to screw things up with one of the stupid things out of your mouth than with what you choose to wear,” Roy said and Jamie couldn’t tell if he had meant it to be reassuring or insulting. Probably both.

Jamie still wasn’t sold on any of the options yet, so he rooted around in his closet for something better.

“Do you really need more options?” Roy asked. “Just pick something.”

“I’m trying to,” Jamie insisted.

He held up another shirt in front of himself, using his phone as a reflection to try to decide whether it was worth trying on or not. Roy was scowling at him, but he ignored him. Roy was always scowling at him.

Roy sighed heavily and then said, “Just wear the first one.”

“Are you just saying that so that I’ll leave you alone?” Jamie asked.

“Yes,” Roy confirmed immediately. “That and… she likes pink. She’ll like the pink shirt.”

Jamie grinned as he asked, “Did you just give me an actual opinion? One that wasn’t just saying I look stupid in everything I wear?”

“Don’t get used to it,” Roy warned with a growl.

“Maybe I’ll call you next time too,” Jamie said because he knew it would annoy him and because okay, it had taken a while, but Roy actually had been useful in the end after all.

“Don’t you dare call me for this ever again,” Roy said and before Jamie had a chance to respond, he had already hung up on him.

Well, Jamie was still going to have to figure out shoes on his own, but at least now he knew which outfit to go with.

Jamie showed up right on time, looking great in that effortless way of his. Keeley expected him to lead her to where his car was parked in her driveway, but instead, he grabbed her hand and said, “I thought we’d walk instead.” He glanced down at her shoes and added, “Unless you want me to drive instead. Or if you want to change your shoes.”

She glanced down at her feet. Sure, there was a bit of a heel on them, but she’d walked in far worse.

“As long as you’re not taking me hiking, I’ll be fine,” she assured him and she had to laugh at the way his nose crinkled up at the suggestion that he might even consider going hiking on a date.

“No way,” Jamie said as he started to lead the way. “Hiking’s for poor people with ugly feet. We’re way too rich and good-looking for that.”

The fact that she was pretty sure he was saying it completely seriously only made it more difficult not to laugh.

“Where are you taking me then?” she asked.

“You’ll see,” he said with a big smile.

“Oh, so it’s a surprise then,” Keeley said. She didn’t really have a problem with just letting him lead the way, but him not telling her nearly every detail beforehand was new.

“I can be mysterious,” he said defensively.

“Uh huh,” she agreed, even though when they had been together the first time, he had seemingly broadcasted his every thought to her the moment that he had it. More than once she’d woken up to a contextless text he had sent in the middle of the night like if you put the little marshmallows in it that just makes hot cocoa into soup yeah???

“You don’t believe me?” he asked.

“Maybe I just need a little proof,” she told him.

“I can be plenty mysterious,” Jamie insisted. “I’ve got secrets. I’m great at keeping secrets.”

She wasn’t sure how true that was overall, but she had to admit that he did have a few secrets he’d managed pretty well with.

“Oh yeah?” she said, feigning innocence. “Tell me one.”

“I ain’t falling for that that easily,” Jamie insisted.

“Well, it was worth a try,” Keeley said, although she wasn’t particularly disappointed one way or the other.

Jamie didn’t say anything after that. He just held her hand a little tighter and grinned at her.

“What are you smiling like that for?” she asked, even as she found herself smiling back.

“I’m just taking it all in,” he insisted.

“All of what in?” she asked.

“That I’m on a date with Keeley Jones,” he said.

And just like that she was reminded of exactly how she had been so charmed by him the first time around.

She’d slept with Jamie before they’d even gone on a date. Before she’d even considered the idea really.

She’d been at a party with some of her model friends and there he’d been.

She’d been aware of his reputation already... aware of all footballers’ reputations really. But clearly, that had never stopped her.

Then again, Roy’s history of sleeping with girls who would rob him in the morning wasn’t exactly intimidating, especially when with all of the thousands of things that made him angry, he always just shrugged it off. Of course, his Rolex had gotten stolen, that was just the risk you took when you hooked up with someone and it wasn't like he really needed it anyway.

The first time she’d slept with him, she’d turned to him afterward with a big smirk and had asked How does this usually work? Do I wait for you to fall asleep first or should I just steal what I want now? And he’d tipped his head back and roared with laughter, then told her to keep whatever she wanted. She was pretty sure he’d meant it too, but she’d just told him that the only thing that she’d wanted to keep was him. And for a long time, she had.

Jamie was different though. His reputation hadn’t worried her because she hadn’t gone into it planning for anything to come of it. She hadn’t been looking for anything serious. She’d just been looking for a little fun and he had been hot and clearly working his charm aiming for the same goal. He’d had no idea that she’d already decided she was going to take him home before he’d even bought her a drink.

But then the next morning came and he hadn’t disappeared in the night like she’d half expected him to. He’d been just as charming and happy and she’d assumed it was just so that he could make it out of her house easier. When he’d asked for her number and insisted that he’d call her, she hadn’t really expected him to use it. She’d figured that even if he did call, it would probably just be for another hookup. But then he had called and asked her on a date. And when she’d gone on it, he’d been so endearingly enthusiastic the whole time. And sure, he’d talked a whole lot about himself, but he’d also talked a lot about her. And he kept saying things like I can’t believe I’m on a date with Keeley Jones in a tone of complete awe that had more than charmed her.

Looking back, that made a lot more sense now that she had seen her poster up in his teenage bedroom right next to Roy’s.

But now here he was again, saying the same kind of thing as if he couldn’t believe that she could possibly have agreed to a date with him.

Her reputation wasn’t exactly in the best condition at the moment. Her modelling career was over, she’d nearly lost her business and had had to be bailed out by her best friend, and the leaked video was the thing she was most known for. Being Keeley Jones hadn’t felt like that great of a thing lately, but Jamie was grinning at her like after everything, he was still just as enamoured with her as he had been back at the very start when he hadn't really known her yet and she had been a beautiful idea more than an actual person to him.

Keeley wanted to kiss him and then she realized that now there was no reason that she shouldn’t so she stopped walking and gently pulled him closer by the hand.

He stopped walking and looked confused for a moment, but then she kissed him and it felt just like it always had. This part had always been easy. The chemistry had always been there and they’d fit against each other like they were made for it.

When she pulled back, he had a dopey smile like he couldn’t believe his luck.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“I just can’t believe I’m on a date with Jamie Tartt,” she said and she knew that was going to go right to his head, but somehow that didn’t seem like the worst thing in the world to her.

It was well worth inflating his ego for the delighted laugh he let out as she pulled him by the hand to get him to start walking again.

It turned out that Jamie had made a reservation at a restaurant they had used to go to together all the time. She hadn’t even realized that he had noticed it was her favourite at the time, but apparently he had and he’d remembered it.

And at first, it was just Jamie on her mind for a little while. But then the waiter took their drink orders and Jamie just got a glass of water instead of ordering a real drink and there was Roy right there, even if he wasn’t really. She knew exactly why he hadn’t ordered a real drink and she was a little surprised that he was following Roy’s rules on a date when he wasn’t there to have a clue, but then again she wasn’t really. Jamie seemed to do most of what Roy said without questions these days.

Keeley really didn’t mean to start thinking about Roy again on their date. And she really didn’t want to bring him up when they were on their first date now that they were trying things again. But now he was on her mind and she was thinking about him and about how she had kissed Jamie on the way here and that little hint of doubt crept back in.

If it was Roy she was with and Jamie on her mind, she probably wouldn’t have said anything. Then again, if it was Roy she was with, she wasn’t sure if she’d be worried about what Jamie would think or not.

But Jamie seemed so cool and unbothered by the whole situation that she figured it probably wouldn’t ruin the whole night if she asked one little question.

“Can I ask you something?” she asked. When he looked confused by why she was asking for permission, she quickly added, “It’s about Roy. But then we can go right back to just us after.”

“Okay,” he said and he didn’t sound bothered at all. He sounded amused.

Now that it was actually time to ask, she wasn’t entirely sure how to word it. Did he seem like he might implode if he found out that I kissed you didn’t seem exactly right.

“You saw him today, yeah?” she said, then realized that if they were counting questions, she’d already used hers up. “That’s not the question. I just- Did he seem okay with all of this without me there to hear it?”

“Yeah,” Jamie said without even having to stop to think about it first. “He was totally back to his normal annoying self during training today. And I mean, he helped me pick out what to wear and I look good so how bitter can he really be, right?”

That took her by surprise. Not only the fact that Roy had apparently helped Jamie get ready for the date but also the fact that Roy had apparently been a part of Jamie’s decision to show up in a pink shirt. It was a nice pink shirt and if he really had contributed anything to the conversation and not just listened to Jamie talk his own way to an answer like in Rebecca’s office, then he had done well. It just wasn’t exactly an outfit that screamed Roy’s influence.

“Roy helped you pick that?” she asked skeptically. “Roy Kent?”

“I know,” Jamie said with a grin. “It’s crazy, isn’t it? Can’t believe he picked anything with a single colour in it.”

“Well he chose well,” Keeley told him. “You look good.”

“I know, right? I look even hotter than usual,” he insisted. “And you do too by the way.”

And Keeley knew it was ridiculous, but she was just as charmed by his confidence and unusual way of complimenting her as she had been the first time around.

Janice looked more than a little surprised when she opened the door for Roy.

“You actually came,” she said, sounding happy rather than annoyed. Even if she had sounded annoyed, he probably would have deserved it though. His attendance record for yoga mum activities had been more than a little lacking lately.

“And I brought wine,” he said as he held the bottle out in offering.

He’d brought it as an apology, but he couldn’t actually say the words. It turned out he’d more than maxed out his ability to apologize and talk about feelings for the week.

Janice looked the bottle over and grinned. “This is nice.”

And it was... sort of. Roy had made himself late staring the options down until he’d finally picked one that was nice, but not too nice. Not nice enough that they’d question what kind of job he had to be able to show up with something so expensive as if it was nothing.

Avoiding questions about his work and shrugging off any that did come up had become an art form at this point. He didn’t need to fuck that up over a bottle of rosé.

“Come on. Come in. The girls are all in the living room already,” Janice insisted. Roy had barely made it inside before she called out, “Guess who showed up!”

Roy had said he’d be there in the group chat, but he wasn’t surprised they hadn’t really been expecting him. He hardly made it to any of their movie nights or brunches or yoga sessions anymore between regular training, home games, travelling for away games, extra training with Jamie, and watching Phoebe when his sister couldn’t.

It was good to be so busy. It really was. It was good to have a purpose again and a reason to get up in the morning, even if it was before dawn and to go spend time with Jamie fucking Tartt.

But that meant the yoga mums had taken the backburner more and more as the season progressed more and more and Roy had put all of his time and energy into his team. He’d felt bad that most of his contributions to the group chat had been to say that he couldn’t make it and worse that sometimes he didn’t even respond to last minute plan making at all when he was busy at a game and by the time it was over his response would be hours too late and that he was busy anyway.

He’d missed the yoga mums and he’d missed being just Roy for a little while, but somehow being Roy Kent had completely taken over his life again. But now that it was the off-season again, he’d finally have time to actually show up and not be a completely shit friend.

“I know. It’s been a while,” Roy said because that was the closest to an apology he could muster at the moment and he didn’t want to dwell on the subject for long. “My schedule’s been a mess, but I should have much more time now.”

He’d almost said that work had been crazy, but he’d thought better of it at the last second. It was much better to let them fill in the details however they wanted to themselves and not to say anything too specific that might raise questions he didn’t want to deal with.

Roy didn’t lie to the yoga mums exactly. He just strategically left information out.

They were walking together after dinner when Jamie spotted an art gallery and gestured at it as he asked, “Do you want to go in there?”

Keeley looked at him with a mixture of amusement and confusion.

“You want to go in an art gallery?” she asked skeptically.

“Yeah. Why not?” he asked. “I like art. I can be all sophisticated and shit.”

And okay, one of those things was a lot more true than the other, but he wasn’t as totally clueless about art as everyone probably assumed. He could tell when he liked something and when he didn’t and that was all there really was to it, right?

“You have not changed that much,” she accused, but she led him in by the hand anyway.

She stopped at the closest painting and turned and looked at him as she asked, “What do you think of this one then?”

Jamie took his attention off of her to look at the painting for a moment, then he turned back to her and insisted, “I think whoever painted it didn’t plan properly and ended up with a shit ton of leftover space in that corner and didn’t know what to do with it and then they decided to just throw a cat in. Only problem is, they’d never seen a cat in their life and instead of just googling what they looked like like a normal person, they asked the one other person in the world that had never seen a cat to describe what they looked like and worked off of that.”

Keeley let out a surprised laugh at that and it was well worth her finding out that he still didn’t know shit about art and that the whole fun of a place like this for him was making up stupid stories behind why the paintings had turned out all weird like they had.

She moved to grab his hands with both of hers and walked backward as she pulled him along with her over to the next painting.

“Okay. How about this one, Mr. Art Critic? What was the guy who painted it thinking?” she asked.

Jamie looked it over for a few seconds. Sure, it was impressive and detailed and all, but the colour scheme was absolutely fucked.

He turned back to look at her as he insisted, “He was painting it and thinking everything was going great and this was gonna be his real money maker, but then he fucked up and thought he’d gone for a different colour than he had and suddenly there was some weird purple blob right in the middle of the fucking face and he didn't want to start over so he tried to cover it up by putting some other weird colours in and then it ended up like this.”

Actually, Jamie was pretty sure that the colours were like that on purpose. He just couldn’t imagine why. At least his explanation would mean there was an actual reason behind it.

Keeley didn’t tell him he was stupid though or that there was a purpose behind the colours. She just smiled like she thought what he was saying was worth listening to.

She pulled him to the next one and instead of asking him this time, she said, “This one got paid to paint this guy, but the guy was kind of a dick. Rushing him and underpaying him and moaning about how long he had to sit still for it. That’s why the painter made his eyes look all weirdly far apart like that. So everyone who saw the painting would think he really looked like that without doing anything too obvious because he still wanted to get paid.”

They went around like that, flitting from painting to painting making up stories to explain why they looked the way they did, regardless of whether they liked the paintings or hated them.

When they ran out of paintings to look at, Jamie leaned close to her ear as he insisted, “You know I feel bad for all the people who painted all the stuff in here.”

“Why?” Keeley asked as she turned to face him. “Because we just made fun of everything in here?”

“No,” he said with a smile. “Because you’re clearly the most beautiful thing in here.”

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard.

When they came up for air, he couldn’t resist adding, “I’m a close second, of course.”

“Of course,” she agreed with a laugh, then she kissed him again.

“Did you hear they announced a new season of Lust Conquers All?” Maureen asked.

“When’s that start?” Roy asked.

Sure, he’d only started hate watching it with the yoga mums because he’d wanted to watch Jamie make a complete ass of himself on national television. Roy had fucked his knee irreparably taking Jamie down and had effectively ended his own career over him, so he’d been more than a little bitter when Jamie had fucked off from his team to go make some shitty reality tv show. Back then, he’d been pissed that Jamie had not only ended his career but thrown his own in the garbage for fun.

Now, he’d had enough time to admit at least to himself that Jamie hadn’t ended his career. He had. He’d already been on the verge of retirement anyway and he’d just let his anger at Jamie take over and had sped the process up himself.

And now he understood more why Jamie had gone on that stupid fucking show and temporarily ruined his own life for it. It was a little more difficult to laugh at the decision when he knew Jamie had done it to send a message to his dickbag father and try to break out of his control. It was more difficult, but not altogether impossible.

And okay, Roy had gotten invested in the petty little drama of the show. He was sure that he could find someone new to root against. So he’d probably watch the new season with them again.

“There isn’t a date yet,” Lauren said. It became very clear that they had already talked about this at one of the many events Roy had missed and they were bringing it back up now for his benefit as she added, "And they haven’t said who yet, but apparently they’re having all previous contestants.”

“You know who I hope they get back?” Rachel asked and Roy could already sense the answer before she even said it. “That footballer. What was his name again? Justin?”

Because of course, they wanted Jamie back. They’d all loved him. And of course, they were bringing him up again. Because Jamie Tartt was inescapable. And the worst part was that Roy didn’t even really mind them talking about him in his one night off of the world where his life was irreparably intertwined with Jamie’s.

The mention of Jamie didn’t even make his blood properly boil anymore. The only issue was the fact that Janice was reaching for her phone and Roy was terrified that she was going to look up which footballer had been on the show to remember his name and that she’d see something she shouldn’t and there would be no going back from it.

“Jamie, I think,” Roy said as if he didn’t know damn well and they didn’t both spend more time with each other than they did with anyone else.

For a moment, it was okay. Janice’s phone went back down. The conversation was safe again.

“Yes! That’s it,” Rachel said excitedly. “I bet you he’s back.”

Roy was nearly certain that Jamie would not be back. He’d had his weird little meltdown over not giving a shit what his dad thought anymore, so he wouldn’t have been likely to go on out of spite, even if he wasn’t getting back with Keeley. And Jamie had been dumb as dirt about Keeley before, but Roy really doubted he was stupid enough to even consider going back on another dating show for attention. Besides, if things between Jamie and Keeley didn’t work out and he tried to fuck off and skip pre-season training to go find another rebound on another fucking season of Lust Conquers All, Roy would murder him before he even had a chance to pack his things.

Part of Roy wondered if the show had asked Jamie, but there was no way in hell that he was going to bring it up to him to find it out. He’d rather die an agonizing drawn-out death than have Jamie find out that he’d watched every episode.

“I don’t know. Aren’t footballers’ schedules kind of busy?” Nicole asked.

She was absolutely right and with his extra training, Jamie’s schedule was busier than the average footballer’s, but Roy didn’t say a word. He just took another sip from his rosé and waited for the conversation to shift.

“Didn’t they tell him his team dropped him in his exit interview though?” Maureen asked. “Sounds like he’d have all the time in the world to me.”

“Maybe they took him back,” Janice said and she grabbed her stupid fucking phone again like she was going to look him up and find out.

Roy couldn’t risk her seeing a picture of his face pop up in the results, so he quickly said, “He’s on a different team now. There’s no way he’s going to make the same mistake and get himself dropped again.”

And now they were all looking at him.

Fuck. He hadn’t meant to sound like he knew too much about Jamie.

At least Janice wasn’t on her phone anymore. “Oh, I didn’t realize you followed football,” she said.

And because Roy was a fucking idiot and afraid that the flimsiest connection to liking football would make them all realize who he was, he said, “I don’t. I just heard some guys talking about it at work.”

Okay, so maybe he lied to the yoga mums a little when necessary.

“That’s too bad,” Lauren insisted. “He always made for good drama. And he was pretty easy on the eyes.”

“Maybe they’ll film during the football off-season,” Nicole said. “Then there’s no reason him and his abs can’t come back.”

There were plenty of reasons, even if Jamie wouldn’t have to miss pre-season training for it and Roy was surprised that he was relieved that Jamie was on a date with Keeley as they spoke. That meant there was no chance of him disappearing on them all to make a prick of himself on camera for weeks.

Roy kept what he knew to himself though. He could let them daydream about something that would never happen while he downed the last of his drink.

Keeley hadn’t really been planning on sleeping with either of them again right away, just in case shit hit the fan right away and that could minimize the damage to them all.

But when they reached her doorway, she found she wasn’t really worried about how it would go over anymore and she couldn’t think of a single reason that waiting would be better than going for what she wanted now.

She'd had an even nicer time with Jamie than she'd expected and she wasn't ready to end the night yet.

Jamie kissed her when they got to her doorway and she wasn't sure if he meant it as a kiss goodnight or if he was hoping to lead somewhere.

As he pulled back, she remembered how confused he had been last time when not trying to sleep with her for once had led to sex. She wasn't sure if that was why he said, "Good night."

It didn't really matter anyway. She knew what she wanted and she was pretty sure he wanted it too, so she asked, “Do you want to come in with me?”

Jamie beamed and all pretense that he might leave immediately disappeared.

“Do you even have to ask?” Jamie asked. “Of course I do.”

Roy quickly wiped at his eyes before any of the yoga mums could catch him crying as the credits of The Notebook came on the screen. It wasn’t his fault that the ending was fucking depressing and beautiful at the same time. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t actually a robot that had been programmed to only feel rage.

When Janice turned the tv off, Roy got up and started grabbing empty wine glasses to help her clean up.

He followed her into the kitchen and set them down as she told him, “I’m really glad you made it tonight.”

“So am I,” he said honestly.

“You’re not going to disappear on us again then?” she asked.

Roy couldn’t make any guarantees once the next season started, so he just said, “I’m not planning to anytime soon.”

Apparently, that was good enough because Janice smiled in return.

Except then she said, “And who knows. Maybe one of these times you can take a turn to host.”

Shit.

“Maybe,” Roy said because outright refusing would be kind of a dick move and weirder than just hoping it wouldn’t come up again and that he could put it off indefinitely.

He knew that it was more than his turn to have them over. But then he’d have to hide all his football shit and still wonder if he’d have to explain how he could afford his place and the things in it. Plus, he’d have to risk Jamie showing up unannounced and if that happened, he’d never live it down from either side.

“And maybe we can meet that girl you’re always talking about sometime,” Janice added.

That part at least seemed more doable. Keeley already knew about the yoga mums. And sure, he’d never had the heart to bring up the breakup to them so he’d just kind of stopped talking about her so much for a while. But if everything went well, then they’d be back together and he wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.

“I’ll ask her about it sometime,” Roy promised.

“You’re not seriously leaving,” Keeley said when Jamie got out of bed and grabbed his jeans off of the floor.

“I’m not,” he assured her. “I’m just looking for my phone so I can text Roy.”

She just stared at him confused for a moment. That made even less sense than if he had just run off right after they’d had sex.

“You need to text Roy? Right now?” she asked. “About what?”

He pulled his phone out of his pants pocket and then flopped back down onto the bed beside her without putting any clothes back on.

“He’s gonna be looking for me at four,” Jamie explained as he unlocked his phone. He glanced over at her as he insisted, “I can leave if you don’t want my alarm to wake you up that early.”

“I’m sure I’ll be able to fall back asleep after,” she told him.

His alarm going off in the middle of the night was less than ideal, but she still wanted him to stay.

Jamie turned his attention back to his phone as he said, “I’m trying to figure out how to tell him I’ll be here instead without just sounding like I’m bragging about having sex.”

When Keeley had decided to sleep with Jamie, she hadn’t anticipated that he would text Roy right afterward. Sure, she’d said that communication was important, but this wasn’t exactly what she had meant. It wasn’t that she thought that they should keep the fact that they’d had sex secret from Roy, but she wasn’t really sure that they needed to send him a message to update him either.

“Can’t you just take tomorrow morning off instead?” Keeley asked.

“No way,” Jamie said. “I mean, don't get me wrong, I’d love to stay here with you and all. But he’s gonna know that we slept together if I tell him not to show up anyway. And I don’t want him thinking that just because we’re back together that I’m gonna brush him off and not take his training seriously anymore.”

He did have a point that sending Roy anything to change from their regular routine may as well be the same message. And it was sweet that he was worried about not wanting to let Roy down, even if it did make Keeley mildly anxious about how the text would go over.

She pushed his phone out of the way so that she could kiss him again, then said, “Alright. Get up in the middle of the night for him if you want.”

Jamie smiled at her, then turned his attention back to his phone again with a look of concentration.

She shifted closer to lie on her back next to him, shoulder to shoulder so that she could see what he was sending.

He started typing and backspaced, then started again and settled on dont kill me i swear im not just texting 2 rub ur nose in it but im sleeping @ keeleys and a moment later he sent another text that added ill still b ready @ 4 tho just here instead of @ mine

Keeley felt a little bit of dread when the dots that showed Roy was typing showed up a few seconds later. Now was when she was really going to find out if Roy could handle this arrangement or not.

When Roy’s text finally came, Jamie laughed out loud.

Fine. But cover your dick before you answer the door this time.

Keeley felt a rush of relief that Roy didn’t seem upset. She took a moment to just revel in the fact that things hadn't blown up, then she shot Jamie a confused look and asked, “Do you have a habit of answering the door naked for him?”

That was a comfort level she hadn’t anticipated them having with each other, but then again Jamie had never been shy.

“I wasn’t naked,” Jamie insisted as he sent a thumbs-up emoji back to Roy. “I was wearing a shirt. And I thought he was joking about being up at four. He woke me up.”

“And you didn’t think to put anything else on before answering the door?” she asked.

Jamie shrugged. “It’s not like it’s anything he hasn’t seen hundreds of times before.”

Chapter Text

Jamie groaned when his alarm went off the next morning and he had to roll away from Keeley to turn it off.

Still getting up to train had seemed like a much better idea when he’d texted Roy the night before than it did now. But he’d already missed one morning this week and he didn’t want Roy to give up on training him.

The more time Roy put into Jamie’s career, the less likely he was to trade him away like fucking Ted had, even if he did fuck up again. Jamie liked the extra insurance policy after spending the better part of two years just waiting for the other shoe to drop again when he got a little too difficult or self-absorbed or fucked up a little too much.

But now Ted had fucked off back to America with his actual kid and Jamie didn’t have to worry about his confusing feelings toward him. He didn’t have to worry about the fucker weaselling his way into his head or about him giving up on him again anymore.

Now, Roy was in charge. And that should have been worse. That should have felt like a guarantee he’d be traded away at the first decent opportunity. But even before the Keeley situation had made pulling that off more complicated, Roy had kept training Jamie every single day since the season had ended. And Jamie had kept listening to every word he said because he knew where his value came from. He knew Roy had only put up with him long enough to start actually liking him because he’d played well enough that Roy couldn’t just write him off and bench him or trade him away. He knew that with Roy’s help, he could live up to his full potential and be truly valuable. He knew he was only one major injury or severe dip in performance away from losing his value and having to figure out how the fuck to start over when he didn’t even spend time with anyone outside of football aside from Keeley and his mum.

Every morning that Roy got up before the ass crack of dawn to boss him around was another morning that Jamie knew he still had value enough to keep around. He wasn’t about to throw that away and become just another player. He liked being Roy’s favourite. And okay, he was Roy’s least favourite too, but that didn’t change the little surge of pride he got when Roy was fed up with everyone else for not trying hard enough or listening well enough while Jamie knew he was the exception that Roy couldn’t quite bring himself to use as the shining example they all knew he was.

When he turned his alarm off and sat up, Jamie glanced at Keeley to try to check if he’d completely woken her up. She was blinking back at him tiredly.

“Sorry,” he said.

“You seriously get up this early every morning on purpose?” Keeley asked.

“You get used to it after a while,” he told her and it was pretty true. It just also was usually significantly less annoying when he was getting out of bed on his own and wasn’t waking Keeley up just to take off on her. “You should go back to sleep. I’ll come back after.”

He wasn’t totally sure she’d want him coming back and potentially waking her up again, but she smiled at that.

She shifted closer so he leaned down to kiss her, then got out of bed. He still had to get ready before Roy got here.

There was no way he was working out in the jeans he’d worn the night before, but that was okay. He’d thrown extra clothes into his car yesterday in the hopes that he would get to spend the night.

Jamie was mildly nervous about being around Roy after last night. Not because he thought Roy would actually do anything to him or anything, but he just hoped that things wouldn’t be all weird now. He didn’t want to say the wrong thing and have Roy go into one of his freaky non-verbal rage spirals.

But things would probably be fine. He just wouldn’t talk about his date and then things wouldn’t have to be awkward. Worst case, Roy would just make him do something a little more ridiculous than usual for fun, right? He could totally handle that.

Thankfully, Jamie was fully clothed and ready to go when Roy arrived at Keeley’s place.

Roy wasn’t really sure what to say to him about picking him up from the date he’d stayed the night during, but he didn’t have to figure it out because Jamie was already running obnoxiously ahead of him like it was just any other day.

He ran backwards so he could grin back at Roy as he asked, “Are you coming or what?”

It was annoying, but at least Roy could just follow his lead and boss him around like there was nothing obviously different about this morning.

Except, maybe it was different because at first Jamie just listened to him quietly. He was clearly in a good mood, but he wasn’t blathering at him like usual.

It wasn’t like Roy wanted to hear about his date or wanted him to fill the silence with meaningless white noise. It was just mildly unmooring for Jamie to seem comfortable with a silence instead of looking for anything and everything he could possibly say to fill it.

Quiet Jamie only lasted for a few minutes though before Roy was wishing he would shut up again.

“So what did you do last night anyway?” Jamie asked. “Wait, no. Let me guess. You sat around at home because you literally don’t talk to anyone other than us now that the season’s over. I’m gonna go with you spent the entire night reading some boring ass ridiculously long book like a sad librarian.”

Roy thought that sounded like a perfectly lovely night, but Jamie was barely literate and being a brat about the thought that anyone could possibly enjoy a quiet night in with a good book, so he told him, “Wrong.”

Jamie eyed him for a moment, then laughed as he said, “So you were watching Phoebe then.”

Like she was the only possible option. And okay, maybe ninety-five percent of his time spent with other people was with Jamie or Phoebe or Keeley, but he didn’t have to admit that.

“I do have friends outside of you, you know,” Roy pointed out.

“You were with Beard then,” Jamie said with absolute certainty that rubbed Roy the wrong way enough to respond instead of just ignoring him.

“Unlike you, I have friends outside of the team,” Roy insisted.

Jamie narrowed his eyes at him, then insisted, “If you mean Trent Crimm, that doesn’t count.”

Roy wasn’t even convinced that he was friends with Trent, but he didn’t say that.

“You don’t know all of my friends,” Roy told him.

“Bullshit,” Jamie accused. “You know all of my friends. And I obviously have way more than you do what with the whole being able to hold an entire conversation without reverting back to grunts thing.”

Roy just ignored him. He didn’t need Jamie to believe him. He wasn’t going to stoop to his level.

“If you’re not making them up, then what are their names?” Jamie asked. “How did you meet them? Why would they put up with you?”

“I don’t have to prove fuck all to you,” Roy told him. “Believe it or not, I actually don’t give a shit if you believe me.”

“I’m just saying, you don’t have to make up friends to try to make your night sound more interesting,” Jamie said. “You can just say you’re old and don’t like to leave the house anymore.”

“Fuck off,” Roy said. “I do have a life outside of you.”

“Uh huh,” Jamie said as if he thought he was humouring him. “I know. You’ve got Keeley and Phoebe too. I’m not your whole life. I just take up like sixty percent of it.”

“And yet you still manage to get on one hundred percent of my nerves,” Roy countered.

“What can I say? It’s a talent,” Jamie said happily.

Roy really couldn’t fucking stand him.

Keeley was already awake again when she heard the sound of her front door opening and closing. She headed downstairs and found Jamie standing with a coffee tray in one hand and a bag of food in the other.

“Told you I’d be back,” he said with a big smile. “I brought breakfast. I don’t know if you’re hungry or not yet, but I’m fucking starving.”

She hadn’t been expecting him to bring anything back with him, but she was glad he had. She was glad he’d come back at all.

“I could eat,” Keeley said. She took the coffee tray from him and kissed him, then asked, “How were things with Roy?”

She tried to ask it casually as if she’d only thought to ask because that was the only place he’d been since she’d last seen him, and not because she was holding her breath waiting to find out whether Roy was okay or if he’d gone all silent on Jamie again.

“Great,” he said. “I mean it’s kind of sad that he thinks he has to make up friends to seem more interesting, but other than everything was good.”

Keeley eyed him for a moment. She couldn’t tell if he genuinely thought that Roy was making up having friends or if he was just making a joke at Roy’s expense despite the fact that he wasn’t even there to hear it.

“Babe, Roy has friends,” Keeley told him.

“I know. You. Me. Beard. Ted,” he listed then paused to think for a moment. “Apparently Trent Crimm. But I don’t know who he thinks he’s fooling by claiming he spends time with anyone outside of you, the team, and his family.”

Keeley wasn’t sure what exactly Roy had said that had started this, but she definitely was not about to bring the yoga mums up and be responsible for Jamie never shutting up about them again. So instead she asked, “Wait a second. Are you jealous?”

“What?” Jamie asked. “What could I possibly have to be jealous about?”

“That Roy has other friends,” Keeley said.

“Why would I be jealous?” he asked. “I just don’t see why he has to be so mysterious about them if they really exist.”

“You do know that you don’t have to know everything about every aspect of his life, right?” Keeley asked.

“Duh. I know that,” Jamie said, sounding distinctly like he had not even considered that possibility before she had said it.

They were halfway through their second training session of the day with Jamie’s playlist on when Roy finally gave in and asked, “Am I imagining things or is this playlist somehow even cuntier than it used to be?”

"Thank you,” Jamie said as if he was the one with the right to be exasperated. “I fixed it up especially for you. It’s about time that you finally notice.”

Because of fucking course he’d taken Roy’s complaint as an invitation to make his playlist even more obnoxiously bubblegummy and narcissistic. And of course, he was acting annoyed that he hadn’t been quite successfully annoying enough for Roy to figure it out the first time around.

“You are an absolute child,” Roy accused.

“No, I’m not,” Jamie insisted. “I have a fully developed adult brain. You said so yourself.”

Jesus Christ. Roy never would have said it if he’d realized that Jamie would hold it over his head for the rest of time.

When Roy didn’t dignify that with a response, Jamie took it as an invitation to fill the silence. Apparently, Roy should have made him lift more if he was still able to annoy him this much during a set.

“Hey, I’ve been thinking,” Jamie said.

“That’s new,” Roy said before he had a chance to finish.

“I could help you later if you want,” Jamie offered.

Roy just stared down at him, but Jamie didn’t elaborate so finally he gave in and asked, “With what?”

“Getting ready for your date,” Jamie said as if it was obvious and as if there was any reality where Roy would ever go to him for help with that. “And choosing something less depressing to wear.”

“I’ll pass,” Roy said without a moment’s hesitation.

“Are you sure?” Jamie asked. “You’ve been wearing the same thing for literal years. It’s about time you try something new.”

Roy had no interest in trying anything new and he especially had no interest in finding out what kind of clown outfit Jamie would try to dress him in when he was going to see Keeley.

Jamie’s weird fashion sense suited him just fine in that obnoxious way where he was young and good-looking enough that he could dress like an absolute twat and still pull it off.

Roy knew enough to know what he looked good in and what would make him look absolutely fucking ridiculous though. And everything Jamie Tartt had ever worn off of the pitch fell into the second category. Hell, Roy was still living down wearing the shirt that Phoebe had made him to work. He would be a walking talking comedy act if he started taking fashion advice from Jamie. 

“Keeley likes my regular clothes just fine,” Roy told him.

“You were right, she also likes pink,” Jamie insisted. “Maybe you should take your own advice and wear something-"

“I’m not fucking coordinating outfits with you,” Roy cut him off.

The only thing more out of place than Roy showing up to his date in pink would be him doing it the fucking day after Jamie had worn pink on his date with her.

“Okay,” Jamie said. “I’m sure we can find something else.”

“We aren’t doing anything,” Roy pointed out. “I’m a grown man. I can dress myself.”

“If you say so,” Jamie said in that annoying tone that said he thought he knew better. “Excuse me for wanting your date to go well.”

Roy wasn’t sure he hadn’t preferred it when Jamie had been rooting against him over him trying to be helpful now.

“What are you doing with her anyway?” Jamie asked because apparently, he was physically incapable of shutting up.

“Haven’t decided,” Roy said.

Jamie set the weight back in its rack so that he could sit up and turn around to glare at him.

“You’re joking, right?” Jamie asked. “Or just keeping whatever it is a secret from me?”

“No?” Roy said and he really hadn’t meant it to come out as a question, but Jamie was looking at him like he’d grown a second head.

“I thought you weren’t going to fuck things up all over again,” Jamie said like he was personally disappointed in Roy which made no fucking sense because what Roy did shouldn’t have any impact at all on Jamie’s end of things.

“I’m not,” Roy said defensively. “And I really don’t have to explain myself to you.”

“If you say so,” Jamie said and it was even more annoying than the first time he'd said it.

Roy didn’t want Jamie looking at him anymore. Jamie's judginess like he had gone on one date with Keeley for the first time in years and now suddenly he was the fucking expert on dating her was pissing him right off.

Roy had thought that he hadn't had a problem with Jamie's date going well, but maybe he did after all if Jamie was going to be a self-righteous prick about it.

“Just… shut up and go back to lifting before I add more weight,” Roy told him.

“Fine,” Jamie said and it was more annoying that he didn’t say it huffily than if he had.

Jamie swung his leg back over the bench as he thankfully turned away from him, then laid back down and went back to lifting. Roy still had to spot him, but at least Jamie had finally shut up now.

Except apparently there was something horribly fucking wrong with Roy because now the silence was getting to him and Jamie wasn’t saying or doing anything, but Roy could feel him thinking and somehow that was worse.

Roy managed to bite his tongue for a minute or two before he finally barked out, “Look, it’s not like I don’t give a shit enough to plan something.”

“Okay? I never said you didn’t,” Jamie said in a stupid fucking confused tone like he hadn’t clearly been judging Roy since the moment he’d said he hadn’t planned anything yet.

“It’s not like I don’t like going on dates,” Roy said defensively.

“Literally no one thought you didn’t,” Jamie said and now his tone felt really judgy. “Are you okay? Like… mentally?”

“Forget it,” Roy said.

“Okay.”

And because Jamie was annoying and did whatever Roy said, he just dropped it.

So now Roy not only looked like he couldn’t bother to actually plan a date, but like he also hated going on dates. Which he didn’t. That was so not what he had meant. And he didn’t know why he gave a shit what Jamie thought, but he didn’t want Jamie thinking he was phoning it in and going to be an absolute shit boyfriend.

“I do like dates,” Roy said.

This time Jamie didn’t make any annoying comeback and his silence was somehow even worse because now Roy was all self-conscious and shit and Jamie was just looking at him and waiting.

“I just… I don’t really give a fuck what we do. That couldn’t matter less as long as it’s with her,” Roy said. “The dates aren’t the part I really miss, you know?”

Jamie raised both eyebrows like he thought he knew exactly what Roy meant and was shocked he had gone there with him which was pretty rich coming from a man that had taken the time to text him either right before or after having sex with Keeley the night before.

“That’s not what I meant,” Roy growled. Then a moment later, he added, “I mean, yes, that too.” Jamie smirked up at him like the immature little shit he was, so he warned, “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Jamie complained.

“Then stop looking at me,” Roy amended.

“How am I supposed to stop looking at you while you’re glowering over me like that?” Jamie asked.

And okay, maybe he had a point, but Roy didn’t have to admit that.

“Should I just stop spotting you then?” Roy asked.

He wasn’t really going to do it. He didn’t need his best player out injured at the start of the next season for the five seconds of satisfaction it would give him. Jamie didn’t know that though.

Roy took a step away but didn’t move far. He could still easily grab the weight in time if he needed to, but he was far enough to be just outside of Jamie’s eyesight.

“Wait, no,” Jamie whined urgently. “Roy come back!”

Roy let out a laugh under his breath as he stepped back into Jamie’s line of sight.

“That’s not fucking funny,” Jamie complained, but Roy begged to differ. “I don’t think Keeley’s gonna want to date you if you murder me.”

“She might if I make it look like a tragic accident,” Roy pointed out, not because he actually thought it was true but because he knew it would annoy Jamie and Jamie had been annoying enough all morning that he deserved a little payback.

“You can’t kill me anyway,” Jamie insisted. “You’d be miserable without me.”

“You keep telling yourself that,” Roy retorted.

“So if you didn’t mean sex then what did you mean?” Jamie asked because of course he remembered exactly where the conversation had left off before things had derailed.

Roy was tempted to brush the question off. He knew Jamie was going to be insufferable either way. He wasn’t sure why he’d even started to tell him. Now, he could either just get it over with and tell him or he could put it off and probably have Jamie badger him about it until he eventually gave in anyway.

So Roy sighed and admitted, “I meant all the… I don’t know. Domestic bullshit. Being comfortable enough to not have to make plans. Just being happy to spend time together doing fucking whatever because even boring fucking errands are better together.”

It wasn’t bullshit. It had been everything. But there was a limit to how vulnerable Roy could stand to be with Jamie and he’d already surpassed it. He was one annoying comment from Jamie away from barging out and pretending the conversation had never happened.

And of course, Jamie had the nerve to smirk up at him again because he was apparently incapable of learning his lesson.

“You’re just a big softie inside. Aren’t you?” Jamie accused, sounding utterly amused with the idea.

“Shut up,” Roy warned.

“Oh, I’m going to tell everyone,” Jamie insisted. “I can’t wait to text the whole team.”

“I will break your phone,” Roy threatened.

“You know, I really thought the whole having a date today thing would put you in a better mood,” Jamie complained.

“I am in a good mood,” Roy pointed out. “I’m in a great fucking mood.”

“It doesn’t show.”

Jamie didn’t actually text the whole team. They probably wouldn’t believe him anyway and would just assume he was only sending it to fuck with Roy. And he would have been, but that didn’t really matter anyway.

He couldn’t just send the accusation contextlessly. Sure, it would annoy the fuck out of Roy to text a contextless Roy’s a big softie to everyone they knew, but it wouldn’t cut as well as actually proving it.

Which Jamie couldn’t do. Because he liked Roy talking to him like an actual person with human emotions. Well, that and more importantly, he couldn’t tell them a word of what Roy said without risking anyone asking questions about Roy and Keeley. And Jamie didn’t know if Roy would, but he sure wouldn’t have any idea what the fuck to say to those.

He wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of everyone finding out about Roy and Keeley and him just being the annoying third wheel. If that was how this was going to go, he could live with it, but he didn’t need to speed the process up.

And okay, maybe he didn’t want to go to all the effort of getting a new phone when Roy would inevitably follow through on his threat. It wasn’t like he couldn’t easily afford it or anything. It was just a hassle he wasn’t interested in wasting his time on.

When Roy came to pick her up, Keeley couldn’t help but grin at the sight of him.

Roy smiled too as he took in her appearance, then told her, “You look fucking incredible.”

Keeley wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him hard. God, she had missed this. She’d been using far too much of her energy on not kissing him and not sending the wrong signals when they could have been doing this the whole time.

Part of her was tempted to pull him inside and scrap the date altogether, but she pulled away from him reluctantly anyway.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“Anywhere you want,” he told her. “I don’t care. I just want to spend time with you.”

So of course Keeley had to kiss him again.

When she pulled away this time, she grabbed his hand and pulled him along with her.

“Where are we going?” he asked.

“Don’t know,’ she told him. “I haven’t decided yet. We can figure it out on the way. Right now, I just want to spend time with you.”

Jamie had been planning to spend a quiet evening in on his own and to not do much of anything at all before going to bed early and actually getting a reasonable amount of sleep for once.

But he’d given Roy enough shit about being old and boring that now he was second-guessing himself. It wasn’t exactly that he was worried about Roy asking him about how he spent his night tomorrow morning. Or maybe it was. He couldn’t let himself look like he had less of a social life than fucking old man Roy. Roy didn’t even like people. He actively disliked spending time with almost everyone.

So Jamie called Isaac instead.

It took four rings before Isaac finally answered, “What’s up?”

“I’m fucking bored,” Jamie complained. “Are you doing anything tonight?”

“We could go to a club,” Isaac suggested.

That almost sounded like fun. Except…

“I can’t drink,” Jamie pointed out.

“Seriously?” Isaac asked. “Kent’s still got you on that short of a leash in the off-season?”

“He doesn't have me on a leash,” Jamie said indignantly because Isaac maybe had a point, but he had a reputation to uphold. He grinned smugly even though Isaac wouldn’t be able to see it as he added, “I just have to be careful to stay in shape enough to carry the whole team on me back again next season.”

Jamie was relieved when Isaac laughed along with him instead of getting pissy over the joke.

“Just because you can’t drink doesn’t mean we can’t pick up girls,” Isaac pointed out.

Well, that was more difficult to find an excuse for.

Jamie could just say he was seeing someone, but the team was notoriously fucking nosey and he doubted he’d just be able to leave it at that. And there was no way he was being the first to tell someone about the situation they all had going on without consulting Roy and Keeley first.

So he just said, “Nah. Don’t feel like it.”

“You don’t feel like getting laid?” Isaac asked skeptically.

He had a point. He definitely had a point. Jamie just didn’t know how to make it out of this conversation safely while acknowledging that.

“Maybe I just don’t feel like the absolute labour of being your wingman,” Jamie said because it was much easier to make a joke at Isaac’s expense and shift the focus off of himself.

“Is it because I said pick up girls?” Isaac asked. “We can go to a different kind of club if you want. I never got to play real wingman for Colin ‘cause he’s already got Michael, but I’m sure I’d be good at it.”

For a long moment, Jamie was silent.

There was no way that Isaac could know. Jamie had only ever told three people about being bisexual. His mum had taken it totally fine. His dad had been a whole mistake but never would have told anyone else. And he'd told Keeley the first time around, but she wouldn’t have told anybody. Plus, even if she had, why the hell would Isaac think suggesting girls was a problem? Jamie loved hooking up with girls.

Finally, after a long pause that he wished he could take back, Jamie asked, “What?”

“I don’t know,” Isaac said. “I’m just checking. I mean clearly, I missed all the signs with Colin and he’s my best friend. So I just didn’t want to assume the whole having sex in a jacuzzi on national telly thing wasn’t just some kind of overcompensating or something.”

“I like girls,” Jamie told him and it wasn’t a lie, it just wasn’t the whole truth. It didn’t matter anyway. He was back with Keeley now. He didn’t need to try to hook up with anyone and coming out now would just be one big unnecessary complication. “I’m just tired as fuck because Roy makes me get up before four every morning. I’m not up for going to a club just to go home and have him knocking on my door an hour later.”

“You could come over and we could play video games,” Isaac offered.

“Yeah, that’s better,” Jamie agreed.

“Cool. I’ll see if Colin wants to come too.”

“The yoga mums want to meet you sometime,” Roy said when they’d been walking for a few minutes.

Keeley gasped loudly for dramatic effect and then asked, “You talk about me to the yoga mums? I’m honoured.”

“I talk about you to anyone that will listen,” Roy said as if it was as obvious as the fact that the sky was blue.

“Does this mean I actually get to meet them?” she asked excitedly.

“If you want to,” he said.

“Of course, I fucking want to. Are you kidding?” Keeley asked. “Do I get to have a secret identity with them too?”

“They already know your name’s Keeley,” he said. “But they don’t know that you’re Keeley fucking Jones. You can tell them whatever you want.”

“I like the idea of being all mysterious and undercover,” she insisted. “Surely if the Roy Kent can go unrecognized then I can too. We can be just Roy and Keeley. Regular people.”

He laughed like he thought she was joking. Like he somehow wasn’t fully aware of how much of a massively huge deal he was.

Keeley liked the idea of a little anonymity. She liked the idea of a room full of people that hadn’t heard about any of the mistakes she’d made. Or about the video that hadn’t even been a mistake but had been used against her anyway.

“You’re not afraid I’ll mess things all up for you if I meet them and they do recognize me?” she asked.

“No way,” he said. “So they find out that I’m a lucky enough bastard to get a chance with you? So what? They’re going to figure that out whether they know fuck all about your work or not.”

Keeley had known she had missed this, but she hadn’t realized just how much until she had him back.

“I really fucking love you, you know that?” she asked.

And maybe it was far too soon into starting things back up to be saying it, but it was true. And it wasn’t like he hadn’t said how in love with her he was days ago in front of Jamie.

“I fucking love you too.”

Isaac didn’t greet Jamie at the door so much as he opened it and moved out of the way as he said, “Colin’s on his way.”

“That’s cool,” Jamie said.

And it was. He wasn’t threatened by Isaac and Colin’s friendship, no matter what stupid joke Roy would inevitably have cracked about it if he’d heard Isaac calling Colin his best friend in front of Jamie.

It wasn’t Jamie’s fault that Roy was too immature to understand that Isaac’s friendship with Colin didn’t change either of their friendships with Jamie. Jamie was way more mature than Roy was. So Roy could suck it.

“Anything new with you?” Isaac asked as they sat down on the couch together.

Jamie considered. There were plenty of things that were noteworthy, but there was nothing that he was sure he was allowed to say.

“Not really,” Jamie said. “You?”

“Colin finally let me properly meet Michael knowing who he actually was and all,” Isaac said. “So I’ve been hanging around with them. But other than that, nothing really.”

“Roy’s been keeping me mad busy,” Jamie said. “I’ve basically only seen him and a bit of Keeley and the rest of the time I’ve just been exhausted. I swear he’s on a mission to make me have an embarrassingly early old man bedtime just to make himself feel better about how fucking ancient he is.”

Jamie figured that should be safe enough and distract from talk of Keeley well enough. He didn’t want to outright lie and potentially get caught in it later. He just wanted to make sure he didn't give everything away either.

But luck was not on his side because Isaac didn’t focus on the Roy being a sadistic old fuck part.

Instead, he asked, “What’s the deal with those two these days? Are they back together or what?”

“Dunno,” Jamie lied with the most casual of shrugs. “You’d have to ask them.”

“I mean, I’d just assume they were from how much time they were spending together at the end of the season if you weren’t always with them too,” Isaac said.

“Yeah. Weird,” Jamie said because he had no idea what else to say.

Isaac opened his mouth to say something else, but Jamie was spared from having to find out if it would be about Roy and Keeley or if he’d move on to a new topic when Colin let himself into Isaac’s house.

“What are we playing?” Colin asked and Jamie had never been happier to see him.

They ended up settling on a restaurant they’d never tried before.

Well, Keeley ended up settling on it. Roy was really just going along with whatever she said. And she kind of liked being the only person outside of Phoebe that he handed so much control to so easily.

“I’ve been thinking,” Roy said and Keeley wasn’t exactly sure why that filled her with dread when everything had been going so well so far. “About Phoebe.”

“Oh.”

That wasn’t where she had expected the conversation to go. Keeley hadn’t seen her in a while and that stupid voice in the back of her head said that he wasn’t going to want her around Phoebe since that video of her had leaked. Or Phoebe’s mum wasn’t going to want her anywhere near her daughter.

Oh god. Did Roy’s sister already hate her without even having met her yet?

“I was thinking maybe we don’t tell her about us for a little while,” he said. “Just in case this whole thing doesn’t work or you change your mind about me or whatever. I don’t want to get her hopes up and then have to have the break-up talk with her all over again.”

Keeley didn’t anticipate changing her mind about him, but the suggestion did make sense. Things were going shockingly well so far, but there was still the chance that this could all fall apart and she didn’t want to disappoint Phoebe any more than he did. Plus, the fact that he hadn’t even considered the possibility that he might be the one to change his mind did help calm her nerves a little.

“That’s fair,” she agreed.

Roy looked relieved.

“And obviously you can still spend time with her if you want,” he said as if it wasn’t obvious that Keeley would want to hang out with her. “I’d just rather hold off on the big news for a bit than jinx ourselves. Besides, I still have to talk to my sister about all of this and see what she thinks about what to tell her.”

He said it so casually that for a second Keeley thought she must have misunderstood him.

“Wait, you’re going to tell your sister about everything?” she asked. “About Jamie and me too?”

“Am I not supposed to?” he asked and he looked mildly alarmed like he actually thought he might be in trouble for it.

Keeley was just as touched by the fact that he was planning to tell his sister as she was terrified by the idea. Roy had said fuck what anyone else thought, but Keeley couldn’t help but wonder what Roy’s sister might think of her or say about her when she found out. Keeley really really wanted Roy’s sister to like her and this seemed like grounds for her to make up her mind against her without even meeting her first.

Keeley's voice came out a little quieter than before as she asked, “Do you think she’s going to hate me for it?”

“Why would she hate you?” Roy asked.

The confused furrow in his brow was sweet and all, but Keeley didn’t understand how he could possibly not see why his sister might resent her for not just being content with one boyfriend like everyone else in the world.

“Because I’m dating Jamie too,” she said. “Don’t you think she won't be happy about that?”

“I don’t think she ever had any interest in Jamie,” Roy said. “And if she did, then you really saved me there.”

“What?” Keeley asked. “I meant that she’s going to think I’m terrible for not just dating you and having him too.”

“I mean, I can’t say that polyamory has ever come up before so I don’t know what her take on that is,” Roy said. “But I do know what her take on you is.”

“She doesn’t even know me,” she pointed out.

“That hasn’t stopped her from telling me how horrendously I blew it when I ended things with you,” he said. “And it didn’t keep her from pestering me about when she’d get to meet you before then. Or about when I’m going to get you back now.”

Keeley was surprised that his sister had wanted to meet her. She was kind of surprised that Roy had never introduced them if that was true.

“So then how come I never met her?” Keeley asked.

“Because I was fucking terrified of all the embarrassing shit she would tell you,” Roy said and Keeley had to laugh at that. “I’m serious. Look, I love her, but she’s an absolute fucking menace. She lives to see me suffer. She invents whole holidays just so she can embarrass me.”

“You really think she won’t hate me?” Keeley asked.

“She couldn’t possibly,” Roy said. “Not when you make me and Phoebe so happy.”

“Okay. You can tell her then,” Keeley said. She smiled as she added, “But make sure you say all that good stuff about me too when you do.”

She was relieved when Roy laughed.

“I absolutely will.”

“Shouldn’t you be going home now?” Isaac asked as he nudged Jamie's leg with his foot. “It’s nearly dark out. Isn’t it past your bedtime?”

“Shut up,” Jamie said. “I’m not a child. I don’t have a bedtime. And if I did, it wouldn’t be any time soon.”

“Nah, bruv,” Isaac said. “Roy’s gonna be looking for you soon. You’d better get going.”

The smirk on his face made it obvious that he wasn’t actually trying to kick Jamie out. He was just being a dick.

“You don’t seriously still get up in the middle of the night for him?” Colin said. “It’s summer.”

“You’re missing the part where he has to get up even earlier than I do to be at my place by four,” Jamie said. “He might be trying to torture me, but I’m torturing him back just as much by going along with it.”

“There’s still no way that’s worth getting up at four am,” Isaac insisted.

Jamie was used to it at this point, but he didn’t think it was worth pointing that out. They were going to think it was ridiculous no matter what.

“Can I ask you something?” Keeley asked as she leaned across the table once they had finished eating. “Did you really help Jamie get ready yesterday? He said you helped him pick his outfit and everything.”

“Helped would be an overstatement,” Roy said. “I just said something so that he’d stop taking his clothes off in front of me.”

She let out a surprised laugh at that.

“I saw your text last night,” she said. “Does he make a habit of walking around naked around you?”

“I wouldn’t say a habit,” Roy said. “But if you’re asking if he’s way too comfortable with me, then yeah. He’s way too comfortable with everybody.”

And why shouldn’t he be? Jamie was in the prime of his life and in peak physical condition with a body that did whatever he wanted and looked good during it. If Roy could do it all over again, he might be inclined to appreciate what he had while he still did the same way Jamie had always overly appreciated his own body.

“And that doesn’t bother you?” Keeley asked, seeming amused by his nonchalant answer.

“Not really,” he admitted. “I’m used to it. Seeing a bunch of men naked all the time just kind of comes with the job. I mean, do I want to see any of them naked? No. But at this point, I’m desensitized to it or something. And honestly, I get a lot less of it now than I did as a player.”

“Is it weird that you being all calm and unbothered about it is kind of doing it for me?” Keeley asked. “Because honestly, listening to you act all mature about Jamie has been turning me on for days.”

Roy laughed loudly at that. He thought it probably should have bothered him, but he really couldn’t find it in him to be upset. If he could handle her getting off to a video of him crying, he sure as shit could handle his putting up with Jamie turning her on. Hell, it made him feel better about the whole being way too close to Jamie now thing. He could definitely work with that.

“You think me putting up with his meltdown over what to wear was good?” Roy asked. “I thought he was calling me for actual advice about his date and for some reason I was even going to give it to him.”

“Oh, I love it when you talk dirty,” she said.

It was completely ridiculous, but Keeley was absolutely beaming so he kept going anyway.

“Earlier today I had a whole conversation with him about what kind of shit I value in a relationship,” he added.

“You did not,” Keeley said. “Stop it, you’re going to give me an orgasm in the middle of this restaurant.”

Roy could barely hold back his laughter at that.

“You know, we could just get out of here and I could show you exactly how much I've missed you,” he said.

“Oh, absolutely,” she said. “You can’t get me out of here fast enough.”

Jamie woke up to a jab in the rib cage.

He blinked his eyes open, momentarily confused about where he was, then glared up at Isaac who was standing over him laughing.

“What was that about not having a bedtime?” Colin asked from somewhere beside him.

He was laughing too.

“Ha ha, very funny,” Jamie said sarcastically. “I wasn’t even asleep. I was just resting me eyes.”

“You were snoring,” Isaac accused.

“I do not snore,” Jamie said haughtily.

It was one thing to call him on falling asleep. It was a whole other thing to claim that he would ever do something as unattractive as snore.

"Sorry, but you definitely do,” Colin insisted.

Jamie hated them both.

“Maybe you should actually go home,” Isaac said. “You seem like you could use the sleep.”

“No way,” Jamie insisted as he fought off a yawn. “I’m fine.”

“Alright,” Isaac said. “Just don’t fall asleep and kill your character again. You’re supposed to be helping us.”

Roy took Keeley back to his place and they barely made it inside the door before they were all over each other. They didn’t even make it to the bedroom at first.

Instead, Roy guided Keeley to the couch and only broke their kiss after she had already sat down so that he could grab a cushion to throw on the floor for under his bad knee.

Keeley wondered how she had managed to get quite so lucky as he kissed his way up her inner thigh. She shifted to pull her dress up out of the way, but instead of kissing up further, he pulled away for just long enough to pull her underwear down and toss it aside. Then he was pulling her other leg over his shoulder and sloppily kissing his way back up.

Keeley ran her fingers through his hair when he finally reached where she wanted him.

God, she had missed this.

Roy made a point of showing her just how much he had missed her multiple times before they even made it to the bedroom. And then it was her turn to take over and show him just how badly she had been wanting him for weeks.

By the time they were finished, they were both exhausted and ready for bed anyway.

“You’re not gonna text Jamie right now. Are you?” Keeley asked as she snuggled up to his side.

“Fuck no,” Roy said. “I’m not even going to think about him until my alarm goes off.”

That sounded like he still planned on getting up for four like usual just like Jamie had. That was nice in a way and unfortunate all at the same time.

At least Keeley would have plenty of time to fall back asleep once he left without having to worry about being back up for work since it was still the weekend. And long term she supposed she would just have to get used to being woken up for a few minutes in the middle of the night whenever she was with either of them.

Jamie was more exhausted than usual when his alarm went off the next morning.

He had stayed much later at Isaac’s than he should have just to prove the point that he could stay up as late as he and Colin could and now he was suffering the consequences.

He checked his phone just in case Roy had texted to cancel, but he had no messages so he dragged himself out of bed anyway. There was no way he was going to be the one to cancel, especially after he’d left Keeley the morning before for the sake of training.

Jamie could make it through training. He’d made his way through it exhausted before and he was sure he could do it again.

He’d just have to take a massive nap later.

Roy tried to turn his alarm off before it could wake Keeley up, but it was an alarm so of course she woke up anyway.

“Go back to sleep,” he said because there was no way he was waking her up for good at this hour.

“In a minute,” she said with a yawn. “First you have to kiss me. That’s my new rule. Wake me up before four and you have to kiss me before you go.”

“I can live with that rule,” he said, then he leaned down to kiss her. “I’ll be back later to make you breakfast. You go back to sleep. And feel free to steal whatever you want while I’m gone.”

She laughed softly, then said, “No wonder you got robbed so much.”

Jamie looked markedly less enthusiastic when Roy got to his place this time.

“You look like shit,” Roy said bluntly.

“I was up late with Isaac and Colin,” Jamie explained. “But I’m fine. How was your date?”

Roy was kind of surprised that he had asked. He’d figured they’d probably talk about anything other than how the date had gone again like yesterday morning.

“Fucking great,” Roy told him.

And Jamie had the nerve to smile at him.

“Stop smiling at me like that,” Roy said.

“Why?” Jamie asked.

“Because it’s fucking annoying,” Roy insisted.

“You’re not seriously pissed off that I’m happy for you?” Jamie complained.

And Roy wasn’t. He just hadn't known how else to respond.

Chapter Text

Roy and Jamie had just arrived at Roy’s kebab place when Roy’s phone buzzed in his pocket.

He glared down at the screen as he saw that it was a message from Ted in the Diamond Dogs group chat, then shoved his phone back in his pocket before Jamie could see. The last thing he needed was Jamie pestering him about the group chat name and what they were talking about.

Roy pulled his phone back out a few minutes later when they were settled at their table.

Hey! It’s been a few days, Roy-O. How are things going with Keeley and Jamie?

Roy glared down at his phone, annoyed that Ted had asked at all and even more annoyed that he’d asked in the group chat. But okay, maybe it was also a little nice that he still gave a shit and was checking in even from across the fucking ocean.

Roy was Roy though and he couldn’t let himself get a reputation for being all flowery about feelings and shit. He had been far too vulnerable the last time he'd talked to the Diamond Dogs to just give an easy answer now.

He went to go type a response, but then he glared up at Jamie when he was pulled out of his thoughts by a flick to the forehead.

Jamie was definitely getting far too comfortable with him.

“Did you just flick me in the fucking head?” Roy asked, even though he knew the answer.

He just wanted to see if Jamie would admit it or if he’d get properly nervous and try to backtrack.

“Yeah, because you’re not even listening to what I’m saying,” Jamie whined.

“I’m listening,” Roy lied as he tried to backtrack mentally to what he last remembered Jamie talking about, but he was coming up completely blank for anything since they had ordered.

“Really?” Jamie asked. “Then what was I saying?”

“I don’t know,” Roy admitted. “Something about your hair?”

Jamie glared at him and said, “Fair guess, but no.”

Roy looked back down at his phone again and Jamie scoffed indignantly.

“My eyes are up here, Roy,” Jamie insisted and he snapped his fingers right in Roy’s face to try to get his attention. “Helloooo!”

Roy should break his fingers for that, or at least grab his hand a little too tight in warning to threaten it, but he let it slide because Jamie maybe had a point about Roy ignoring him. And maybe Roy felt a little bad about it this time when it was unintentional instead of his usual ignoring him intentionally just to piss him off.

“Just give me a second,” Roy said.

Roy sent back a quick Fuck off text and then looked back up to find Jamie looking at him with his brows furrowed and a scowl on his face.

“Are you done now?” Jamie asked in an annoyed tone. “Are you ready to pay attention to me now?”

Roy grunted in confirmation and then clarified, “Yeah. Go ahead.”

“I was saying-” Jamie started, but then Roy’s phone buzzed on the table again. “Oh my god... Go on then. Look at it. I know you’re not going to listen to a word I say until you do.”

It was more than a little disorienting that Jamie of all people was the one scolding him about being distracted by his phone. As if Jamie didn’t compulsively take pictures of himself fucking fifty times a day. On several occasions, Roy had had to stop what he was saying to check if Jamie was even listening, but Jamie always waved him off with a yeah, yeah, I’m listening and some annoying quick summary that totally missed the point of what Roy had been saying but did prove that he had been listening while obnoxiously posing.

It was embarrassing that Roy was worse at multitasking and paying attention than Jamie. But Jamie was just staring at him, waiting for him to check his text, so Roy did.

The message was from Ted again.

Aw, I’m sorry that things didn’t work out how you were hoping

Roy could feel Jamie’s eyes on him and he felt like a scolded child so he answered the text quickly.

What are you talking about? Things are fucking great

Roy meant to put his phone back down, but Ted was already typing again and he had a bad feeling that he was about to say something that was going to make Roy have to block him.

“Who are you texting anyway?” Jamie asked. “You’d better at least be ignoring me for something good.” He leaned closer across the table and his voice came out much quieter and more intrigued as he asked, “Are you sexting Keeley right now?”

That got Roy’s attention enough to look up from his phone.

“What?” he asked.

“No shame in it if you are,” Jamie said as he leaned back with a grin. “I mean, everybody’s sexted in a public place before. And at least then I can totally get why you’re so distracted.”

“It’s not Keeley,” Roy said as he looked back down at Ted’s latest text.

That’s great! I couldn’t be happier y’all worked things out

Roy growled vaguely under his breath at that. Of course, Ted was being all happy and supportive and shit. It was exhausting.

“Is it one of your mysterious secret friends you won’t tell me about?” Jamie asked.

“No,” Roy said as he left the group chat instead of responding or just ignoring the message. “It’s Ted.”

“You’re sexting Ted?” Jamie asked and Roy glared up at him. Jamie raised his hands up in the air in a sign of innocence as he added, “Okay, sorry. I know you’re not sexting him. There’s literally nothing less sexual than Ted and his awful moustache.”

Roy glanced back down at his phone, expecting to see that Ted had already added him back, but he was still out of the chat.

Huh.

Roy hadn’t actually intended to quit the Diamond Dogs. He’d just wanted to leave to be dramatic and keep anyone from saying anything else too nice and uncomfortable that he wouldn’t know how to respond to. Ted was supposed to add him back right away and his exit was just supposed to act as a warning to everyone else.

Maybe Ted just hadn’t noticed that he’d left yet.

Roy shoved his phone back into his pocket. He’d check again later when Jamie wasn’t waiting for him to listen to whatever he’d been rattling on about before.

“Okay, what were you saying?” Roy asked as he focused his undivided attention back on Jamie.

“I was saying that I’m thinking of bleaching my hair,” Jamie said.

Unfuckingbelievable.

Jamie had actually had him there for a moment. Roy had felt bad for not listening and he’d thought maybe he’d missed something of even the slightest bit of importance.

“I said you were talking about your hair,” Roy pointed out. “You said I was wrong.”

“Yeah, I lied,” Jamie said like it was obvious. He clearly thought Roy was the problem for being hung up on it and that he wasn’t the problem himself for guilt-tripping Roy when he had been absolutely fucking right. “But you didn’t catch it which means that I was right and you weren’t even listening.”

Roy absolutely couldn’t stand it when Jamie managed to very occasionally outsmart him in very specific circumstances.

“Well, I’m listening now and what you’re saying is stupid,” Roy pointed out. “Why do you want to bleach your hair? You’re already fucking blond.”

Jamie leaned back in exasperation and ran a hand through his hair dramatically as he looked away.

Roy let him have his little drama queen act and didn't take the bait.

Finally, Jamie glared back at him and complained, “I can’t believe you just said that to me.”

“What? That you're blond? I said it because you are,” Roy insisted. “I know you stare at yourself enough in the mirror to have figured that out by now.”

“This is walnut mist and you know it,” Jamie complained as he tugged at his hair. “I’m thinking about going blond.”

“Right,” Roy said. “Then how about you humour me and show me what the fuck you think the difference is.”

Jamie sighed loudly and picked at his nails for a moment like for some reason he was actually genuinely exasperated that Roy had the nerve to call his blond hair what it was.

“Yeah, okay. Fine,” Jamie said finally and he pulled his phone out. He tapped on the screen a few times, then held the phone out for Roy to see. “I’m thinking about going this shade.”

Roy looked between the picture and Jamie and back again a few times.

“Well?” Jamie asked expectantly.

His huffiness was the only reason Roy was sure that he wasn’t actively fucking with him. As far as Roy could tell, it was the exact same fucking shade he had now and it would be a monumental waste of time and money.

But Jamie obviously didn’t want to hear that and Roy didn’t want to get him any huffier than he already was so he just nodded and lied, “Yeah, I see the difference now.”

Jamie visibly relaxed like he was utterly relieved that Roy had seen the imaginary difference.

“So what do you think?” Jamie asked. “Should I change it or no? It’s a big decision, yeah?”

Roy wasn’t sure why Jamie gave a fuck about what he thought, but he was just sitting and waiting like he thought Roy’s opinion was absolutely crucial to making his decision.

It wasn’t like it was even a real decision though. It was just whether or not he was going to waste time and money to convince himself that he’d made a difference and then get all huffy about it when nobody noticed or just leave it as it was.

So Roy said, “Your hair looks fine as it is. I thought you liked the walnut mist.”

Jamie relaxed a little more and then after a moment a smile slowly spread across his face.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Jamie said. “I’m hot as I am. Why in the world would I want to change anything about how I look?”

That wasn’t exactly what Roy had said, but he didn’t bother arguing. At least now Jamie wasn’t going to have a meltdown over his hair colour.

“I knew you’d know what to do,” Jamie said as he reached out and patted Roy on the cheek across the table.

“Stop touching my face,” Roy said.

Jamie took that as an invitation to touch his face even more as he pinched Roy’s cheek and tugged on it a little. He beamed as he pointed out, “You're the one that’s letting me.”

Roy slapped his hand away from his face and warned, “Pinch my face again and you don’t want to find out what I’ll pinch of yours.”

Somehow Jamie had the nerve to laugh at that.

“We should go shopping sometime, yeah?” Keeley suggested.

She was having lunch with Rebecca again and was glad to have a little girl time. She’d been seeing Roy and Jamie again for the better part of a week and it was great. It really was. It kept her busy in the best of ways and really the only downside was that whichever she was with would get up to run off to the other at four am.

But other than that, everything was amazing. And she loved that they still got along so well and still spent so much time together, even if it was a little bit strange that she hadn’t seen them both together at the same time since the lunch they’d talked everything over during. But she’d see them both together at the team thing at Sam’s restaurant that weekend anyway.

“Absolutely,” Rebecca said. “When are you thinking? You’re the one with the extra busy schedule these days.”

Keeley laughed and said, “I’m not that busy. Never too busy for you anyway.”

“How’s Saturday before the team thing?” Rebecca asked. “Can you pencil me in?”

“Perfect,” Keeley insisted. “I’m not pencilling you. I’m writing you in with permanent marker. In great big letters. No, scratch that. I’m carving you into my schedule in stone. I’m-”

Keeley paused for a moment then when she was halfway through putting it into the calendar on her phone and a text from Ted popped up.

Hey! Just wanted to let you know that I heard the good news and I’m really happy for y’all 😃

“You’re...?” Rebecca asked.

“Huh, that’s weird,” Keeley said.

“What’s weird?” Rebecca asked as she slid closer to her to look over her shoulder.

“Did you tell Ted?” Keeley asked.

She doubted Rebecca would have, especially without telling her, but she didn’t know how else Ted could have found out. She wasn’t even entirely sure what Ted had found out. She wasn’t sure if that y’all meant her and Roy, her and Jamie, or all three of them.

Rebecca read the text over her shoulder and then said, “I didn’t say anything to him about it.”

“Didn’t say anything to who about what?” Higgins asked and startled Keeley enough that she practically jumped out of her seat.

“Jesus, you scared the hell out of me,” Keeley said as she held a hand over her chest and waited to feel her heart rate slow down a little.

“Sorry,” Higgins said. “I didn’t mean to alarm you or interrupt anything. I was just coming by to see you while you’re here.”

“Oh, that’s sweet,” Keeley said. “And you didn’t really interrupt. I just got kind of a weird text from Ted and I was wondering what he meant.”

“Oh,” Higgins said. “I know what you’re talking about.”

Keeley exchanged a look with Rebecca, then Rebecca skeptically asked, “You do?”

“It’s actually why I was coming to talk to you too,” Higgins said. “I heard that congratulations are in order.”

Keeley definitely felt like she was missing something. Was there some kind of other news they thought she had that even she didn't know about?

“Oh yeah?” Keeley asked. “For what?”

“You rekindling your relationship,” Higgins said. “Unless I misunderstood Roy’s text that is.”

Ah. So this was about her and Roy.

Okay. She could work with that and figure out what to say about Jamie later.

“Roy told you about me and him?” Keeley asked.

“Yes. And you and Jamie,” Higgins said as if that wasn’t a huge fucking deal. “He told Ted too. So I’d assume that’s the reason behind whatever text he sent.”

Keeley grinned.

“Seriously?” she asked. “Roy Kent? Texted you and Ted to fill you in about it out of nowhere?”

“Not really out of nowhere, no,” Higgins said. “Ted asked and really Roy just answered him.”

“What exactly did Ted ask?” Rebecca asked and that was really a great question because Keeley was still struggling to figure out how the topic could have possibly just come up if Roy hadn't been the one to bring it up.

“Oh, well, Roy was talking about it to all of us Diamond Dogs last week and Ted just asked if there were any updates.”

“Diamond Dogs?” Keeley asked.

“Oh, it’s a group of men who support each other and help talk through problems together,” Higgins explained. “There’s all the current coaching staff and of course Ted and myself and then also-”

“Trent fucking Crimm,” Keeley said in a tone of sheer awe.

She should have known that Trent hadn’t just happened to bring up polyamory around Roy before.

“Yes, precisely,” Higgins said.

Rebecca was eyeing Keeley like she was wondering what exactly she was missing, but Keeley was far too distracted by the weight of this realization to take the time to explain right now.

“Holy shit,” Keeley said. “I can’t believe this. Roy actually participates in this group? And talks? About feelings and all that?”

The evidence was pretty clearly signalling that he had, but this was a lot to take in at once and she wanted to hear just how much Roy apparently participated in this group.

“He only recently actually gave in and joined, but he’s participating now. He’s already called a few meetings himself actually,” Higgins said.

“Wow,” Rebecca said and that was a complete understatement.

It wouldn’t have surprised Keeley at all if Jamie had casually told a bunch of people, but Roy had gone and talked about actual feelings and hadn't just been actually fully on board from the start. He was also comfortable enough with the whole idea to have mentioned it to so many of his friends before they’d even had a real conversation about it.

Holy shit. He hadn’t just disappeared on Jamie because he was angry or wanted space. He must have been secretly talking his feelings out with his friends.

Keeley had never been so turned on in her entire life. If she didn’t have to go back to her own office and job soon and if Roy wasn’t almost definitely with Jamie, she would have gone and found him and jumped his bones right then and there.

“Okay. I know that whatever he talked about is probably private and all. And I would never ask you to break his trust or anything like that,” Keeley insisted. “But if he’s secretly got any problems with it or doubts or anything that you think I should know about, then blink twice.”

Keeley leaned forward in her seat to watch his eyes, but he waved the idea off.

“Oh, no. Nothing of the sort,” Higgins said. “I think all he was really looking for was reassurance that there was nothing wrong with him for being okay with it.”

Keeley sprung up from the couch and pulled Higgins into a tight hug that seemed to take him by surprise.

“What’s this for?” Higgins asked as he hugged her back.

“I’m just really glad you told me."

Roy’s phone started buzzing in his pocket again well into their third round of training for the day.

He pulled his phone out for long enough to make sure it wasn’t anything important and saw that he had a message from Beard in the Diamond Dogs group chat.

Right. Because Beard had been the one to make the group chat, not Ted. That was why it had taken so long to get added back. Beard had just been busy doing who knew the fuck what.

“What the fuck are you smiling about?” Jamie asked.

“Nothing,” Roy said.

He locked his phone and shoved it back into his pocket before Jamie could start trying to guess what texts he thought he was getting this time. He could read Beard’s text later. It would probably just piss him off anyway.

Roy should have muted the chat. He’d just been trying to dodge Jamie’s questions and not look like he was completely absorbed with his phone, but for the rest of training his phone buzzed on and off in his pocket.

He just assumed it was the rest of the Diamond Dogs tormenting him, but when they finally finished for the day and he pulled his phone back out, he found 23 new messages in the Diamond Dogs group chat that he still didn’t bother opening and 3 missed texts from his sister that he tapped on right away.

Can you pick Phoebe up?

Roy?

?

“Fuck,” Roy said as he checked the time.

He was definitely going to be late and Phoebe was going to be stuck waiting for him. He should have ended training early, but he hadn’t seen it on time.

“What?” Jamie asked as Roy sent back a quick On it text.

“I’ve got to pick Phoebe up,” Roy said. “And I should have already left so move your ass.”

When his phone buzzed with another message, Roy actually checked it.

You’re the best

He didn’t feel like the best. He felt like a prick.

Jamie was mildly surprised that Roy was still driving him instead of making him run home because something had come up. He didn’t press his luck by making a comment about it. Not when Roy had gone all stress mode the moment he’d seen the text.

Jamie was surprised that Roy had gone so tense about it. Sure, he was naturally set to tense most of the time, but that had lessened a lot since he’d actually properly started things back up with Keeley again. It was like being with her somehow relaxed him, even when she wasn’t there. And Jamie had been enjoying basking in the easier-going version of Roy that he sometimes managed to get a solid glimpse at, but now all the tension that had been missing all day had come rushing back all at once. His grip on the steering wheel was tight enough that it looked like he was trying to practice for strangling someone to death.

Hell, Roy was even driving at a reasonable speed and not going extra slow just to mess with Jamie which had been one of his favourite running jokes since the one time that Jamie had made the mistake of making a comment about Roy driving slow like an old man that had lost his glasses.

“What’s the big rush?” Jamie asked.

“I’m late for pickup time,” Roy said through gritted teeth. “Phoebe’s just going to be sitting there wondering if anyone’s showing up.”

And sure, waiting around at school after everybody else got picked up was a bummer and all, but Roy was acting like it was the end of the world.

“She’ll be fine waiting a few minutes,” Jamie assured him. “I got picked up late plenty of days when I was in school and it was me dad’s day to get me. Sometimes, he didn’t even show up at all. And sure, it kind of sucked a little at the time, but look at me now. I turned out fucking amazing.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel better?” Roy asked. Jamie had meant for it to, but the edge in Roy’s tone said that that wasn’t the correct answer. “Comparing me to your piece of shit dad?”

Oh. That was so not what Jamie had meant.

“Look, we can talk about your tragic childhood later,” Roy said dismissively when Jamie still hadn’t figured out how to undo what he’d said a few seconds later.

“I did not have a tragic childhood,” Jamie argued. “And we don’t have anything to talk about later.”

Roy took his eyes off the road and just stared at him for a second before he said, “Yes, you did. And we are absolutely fucking talking about it later.”

With that, Roy thankfully turned his gaze back on the road. Jamie didn’t argue with him because he didn’t want to risk Roy taking his attention off of the road to glower at him again and because even if Roy was greatly over-exaggerating the situation, Jamie liked knowing that he cared.

“Look, I wasn’t saying that you’re like me dad,” Jamie said. Roy didn’t look at him, but he didn’t growl either so Jamie took that as a good sign. “You’re not even a proper dad and you’re still a better father than he is.”

“That definitely means you had a bad childhood,” Roy insisted.

“Shut up,” Jamie said. “I’m trying to be nice.”

Roy rolled his eyes and Jamie wasn’t sure if he had only done it to annoy him or if he hadn’t intended for him to see it at all.

“My point was that you aren’t like him,” Jamie tried again. “You’re barely late and you’re about to pop a blood vessel over it. He just laughed it off when he’d show up an hour late and I was lucky if he even did. Me mum didn’t even trust he’d actually get me and started showing up anyway a few minutes late to take me if he didn’t show up. And stop giving me that look like I had a bad childhood.”

It hadn’t been a bad childhood. His mum had always been there to get him when his dad hadn’t. And she’d always gone out of her way to make him feel special whenever his dad forgot him.

“You’re me mum, not me dad,” Jamie said.

“Do us both a favour and never call me that again,” Roy said and Jamie was annoyed, but at least if he was making a poor attempt at a joke, he must not be quite so high-strung anymore.

“Would you just shut the fuck up and let me compliment you?” Jamie asked. “You’re a good uncle. Like weirdly good for someone physically incapable of caring about like ninety-nine point nine percent of people. And the fact that you’re this stressed out about being late one time just proves my point. So you’re late by a few minutes? So what? That’s nothing. She’s not wondering if somebody’s coming to get her. She knows you’ll show up if no one else does. Just like I knew me mum would come get me anyway.”

Jamie was half-expecting Roy to argue with him just to be annoying and half-expecting him to go back to trying to convince him that he’d had some traumatic childhood that he hadn’t.

Instead, Roy just drove the rest of the way in silence.

When they got to the parking lot, it had mostly emptied out, but there was a woman waiting with Phoebe. They were sitting on top of a picnic table together. Jamie assumed she must be Phoebe’s teacher.

Roy barely had the car in park before he’d flung himself out of it. He hadn’t closed the door behind himself in his rush so Jamie could hear him apologizing as he headed over to the picnic table.

“I am so sorry,” Roy said with actual genuine human emotion in his voice. He hadn’t even choked on getting the words out. Somehow overhearing that felt far more intrusive than any of the times Jamie had quite literally seen Roy bare ass naked and quickly averted his eyes.

Phoebe didn’t seem put out at all by Roy showing up late. She jumped up from the table and sounded utterly delighted to see him as she rushed at him and called out, “Uncle Roy!”

Roy turned his attention to the teacher as he said, “Thank you.”

And that was interesting too. Whoever this version of Roy was had actual manners. It was eerie.

Phoebe grabbed Roy’s hand and then they were heading back to the car. She smiled when she noticed Jamie was there.

“You brought Jamie?” she asked and Jamie was touched by her excitement.

“He was already with me,” Roy said.

Phoebe dropped his hand and moved to get back in the car as she insisted, “Right because he’s your best friend.”

Jamie doubled over with laughter as Roy got into the car with that extra heavy-duty scowl on his face.

“No because he needs so much more training than everyone else to even manage to keep his job,” Roy said and then before Jamie could even try to defend himself, Roy changed the subject. “What do you want to do?”

Phoebe considered for a moment, then asked, “Have you ever seen Ratatouille?”

“No, but we can watch it,” Roy said and Jamie was amazed that he had agreed to anything at all so easily without any grumbling, but then again it really wasn’t so shocking at all when it was Phoebe asking and when he knew that Roy was already feeling guilty about being late. “Put your seatbelt on.”

“Can Jamie come?” Phoebe asked as she put her seatbelt on.

Jamie turned full bodily in his seat to face Roy as he asked, “Yeah, can Jamie come?”

Roy glanced at him, then pulled out of his parking spot as he asked, “You want to watch a movie about a cartoon rat?”

“Sure. Why not?” Jamie asked.

It wasn’t like he had anywhere else he needed to be or anything better to do.

“Fine,” Roy agreed and Jamie grinned at Phoebe in the rearview mirror.

When they got to Roy’s house, he unlocked the door and pushed it open, then gestured for Phoebe to head inside in front of them.

“Go on,” he said. “Get the movie set up.”

She ran inside without hesitation and Jamie waited outside with him but eyed him like he thought Roy was about to yell at him or something.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Jamie asked suspiciously.

“Shut up,” Roy said because he really did not need Jamie being unnecessarily dramatic right now.

Roy moved closer to him and Jamie leaned away from him and shot him a nervous look.

“Did you just fucking flinch?” Roy asked indignantly.

“Uh, yeah,” Jamie said like he had every right to have. “Can you blame me? You kept me out here to hit me, didn’t you?”

Like if Roy was going to punch him, he wouldn’t have happily done it in front of Phoebe.

“No, you moron,” Roy complained. “I was going to fucking hug you.”

“Oh,” Jamie said.

He stopped leaning away and shuffled a tiny step closer so Roy tried again and this time Jamie actually let him hug him.

Still, usually when they hugged, Jamie just kind of clung onto Roy as if his life depended on it. But now, his posture was stiff as he awkwardly hugged him back.

Roy wasn’t insulted or anything by it though. That would be stupid.

“Wait, why are you hugging me?” Jamie asked. “I swear to god if you say it’s because I had a traumatic childhood, I will hit you.”

So Roy didn’t say anything. Because, yeah, it was that. And it was the fact that Jamie was too oblivious to even realize it. And how he sometimes just spouted off something tragic like it was normal, or in the case of what he’d told him about how his dad had arranged for him to lose his virginity, like it was a good thing. Somebody had to hug him and Roy was the only one there to do it.

But it was also the other stuff Jamie had said in the car. The shit Jamie had sounded so sure of that it had actually made Roy feel a little better, not that he would admit that out loud.

Jamie apparently accepted his lack of answer because suddenly his face was buried in Roy’s neck and he was hugging back tight enough to crush Roy's ribcage.

Roy definitely wasn’t relieved or anything though. He couldn’t care less about the quality of hug Jamie gave him. This was all for his sake anyway.

“Are you two coming or what?”

Roy untangled himself from Jamie and turned to find Phoebe standing just inside the doorway staring at them.

He knew it was probably healthier for her to see him hugging Jamie than just bossing him around and swearing at him and hitting him and assuming that was what a best friendship was supposed to be like. That didn’t make it any less fucking embarrassing though.

When work was finally over, Keeley headed straight to Roy’s place.

She’d been thinking about what she’d found out at lunch all afternoon and she didn’t want to wait any longer to get to see him.

She figured he should be finished up with Jamie and home by then. And when she got to his place and saw his car there, she knew she must have been right.

She knocked on the front door and there was a brief wait and then Roy opened the door.

He smiled when he saw her, but Keeley didn’t wait for him to say anything before she quite literally pounced on him. They could talk later about what she’d found out and about how incredibly hot she found Roy’s confidence in their situation and his ability to actually share his feelings with people. Right now, she just wanted to get him out of his clothes as fast as possible.

Roy seemed surprised, but he caught her with his hands under her thighs. Keeley wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled herself closer so that she could kiss him, then she tugged at the back of his t-shirt to try to get him to take it off.

Roy did not take his shirt off. He turned his face away from hers and cut the kiss short.

For a moment, Keeley was confused, then she realized why he was hesitating as she heard Jamie laughing from somewhere further in the house.

Shit.

Keeley quickly unwrapped her legs from Roy and dropped to the floor. She turned in the direction Jamie’s laugh had come from and her stomach dropped as she saw Jamie snickering into one hand while he blocked Phoebe’s view of them with the other hand.

Keeley was absolutely monumentally stupid.

At least Jamie didn’t seem upset, but Phoebe was swatting Jamie’s hand away and stretching up to try to see past it. There was no way she couldn’t have seen too much after Keeley had told Roy that they could keep getting back together a secret from her for a while.

Keeley looked back over to Roy as she insisted, “I am so sorry.”

She meant the apology for Jamie too. And for Phoebe too really. She had not at all intended for either of them to have any chance of seeing her basically climbing Roy in front of them. But she focused her gaze on Roy as she said it because she was most worried about how her fuck up would affect him. He definitely seemed most likely to be upset considering Jamie had just been laughing over the situation.

“It’s fine,” Roy assured her.

He went to move closer to her then stopped himself and turned to look over at Phoebe like he was trying to assess just how much she had witnessed.

“Does this mean you and Keeley are back together?” Phoebe asked excitedly.

And that question was more than a little awkward.

Keeley had no idea if Roy had talked to his sister yet or what she might have said. She had no idea whether it would be worse to admit that she was back with Roy when he hadn’t been planning on her finding out yet or if it would be worse to claim she wasn’t back with him yet after what Phoebe had just seen. And then there was the whole Jamie sitting right there left out and just watching this all go down thing.

Keeley wasn’t sure there was any right answer so she looked to Roy.

He stared back at her uncertainly for a moment, then his eyes flitted over to Jamie.

The silence was getting long and neither of them were answering so Jamie seemed to take it upon himself to answer.

“They sure are,” Jamie said and he just left it at that.

He didn’t sound bothered, but Keeley wanted to look over at him to try to figure out if he was just playing off being fine to put on a show for Phoebe. She couldn’t make herself tear her gaze from Roy though when she still couldn’t totally tell how he was taking Phoebe finding out way sooner than either of them had planned.

“Does this mean we can do stuff together again?” Phoebe asked and she sounded so enthusiastic that it broke Keeley’s heart. Even with all of their plans for her to not disappear from Phoebe’s life after the breakup, it had been months since Keeley had spent any time with her.

Keeley turned away from Roy to smile over at Phoebe as she told her, “Of course, we can.”

She heard Roy finally close the front door behind her and then he was there in her personal space, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. Keeley was as relieved for the reassurance that they were okay as she was worried about Jamie just sitting there watching while Phoebe gushed about her and Roy being back together with no clue about Jamie having anything to do with anything.

“Do you want to watch the rest of Ratatouille with us?” Phoebe asked.

“Sure,” Keeley said. “But you might have to catch me up. I’ve never seen it before.”

Roy let go of her as she headed over to the couch. Jamie scooted over to make more room and Phoebe followed suit so that there was room for them on the opposite side of her than the corner Jamie was squishing himself into.

“Well, Remy’s a chef but he has to hide in Linguini’s hat so that nobody knows that their food was made by a rat,” Phoebe explained as Keeley sat down beside her.

Roy sat down right next to her, close enough on the overcrowded couch that their legs were pressed together.

“I know we’re supposed to be rooting for the rat and all, but I really don’t think that any of this is sanitary,” Jamie insisted in the very serious tone of a man who could totally get behind the idea of a talking, cooking rat but not the potential health code violations. “If I was in a restaurant and found out a fucking rat had cooked my food, I’d be going straight to the nearest emergency room.”

Phoebe stuck her hand out and Jamie looked confused for a moment, then grumbled under his breath as he pulled his wallet out of his pocket. Clearly, this was not his first time paying for swearing around her.

Keeley held back a laugh at that as Roy unpaused the movie. He set the remote down and then he slipped his hand into hers. And it was nice. It was. But she found herself trying to subtly catch Jamie’s gaze over Phoebe’s head to check on him. Jamie was fully invested in Ratatouille though, or at the very least pretending to be, so Keeley focused her attention back on the screen.

It was very obvious to Jamie that Roy and Keeley could use some alone time, both to sort out whatever that weirdness when Phoebe had asked if they were back together had been and because Keeley had clearly shown up looking to fuck, only to get double cock-blocked by him and Phoebe.

So when the credits came on, Jamie turned to Phoebe and asked, “Do you want to go get some ice cream?”

Phoebe immediately turned to look at Roy and asked, “Can we?”

“Uh uh,” Jamie insisted. “He’s not invited. He’s just going to whine about all the stuff I’m not allowed to eat. I meant just you and me.”

She turned to look to Roy again anyway.

He glanced from her to Jamie so Jamie waggled his eyebrows suggestively for good measure to show that he was totally down for playing babysitter while they boned. The way Jamie saw it, it would be an everybody-wins situation. Roy and Keeley would get laid. Phoebe would get ice cream and the pleasure of Jamie's company. And as a reward for being such a phenomenally good sport, Jamie would get to eat whatever ice cream he wanted without Roy being able to get pissy about it or tell him not to.

Roy looked annoyed with Jamie, but he told Phoebe, “Go ahead if you want.” He turned his focus back on Jamie as he warned, “Don’t get anything ridiculous.”

Jamie wasn’t sure if Roy meant for himself or for Phoebe, but either way he was absolutely not going to listen to him.

“Mind your own business,” Jamie insisted as he got up from the couch. “This is why you’re not invited.”

Roy flipped him off which was kind of rude when Jamie was literally playing wingman, but Jamie wasn’t that bothered. He flipped him off in return for good measure. He was pretty sure they’d both owe Phoebe more money for it later, but that was fine.

As Phoebe got up to follow him, Jamie lowered his hand and looked over at Keeley. She’d been watching him all closely since he’d ripped off the bandaid for them both and confirmed the obvious fact that she and Roy were back together. He double-checked to make sure that Phoebe wasn’t watching him, then he smirked and stuck his tongue out at Keeley suggestively.

Roy kicked him in the leg for it, but Jamie didn’t see what his problem was when Keeley was hiding a laugh with her hand now instead of looking at him like she thought he might shatter over Roy’s niece knowing about his relationship instead of Jamie’s.

When Jamie and Phoebe were gone, Keeley turned and buried her face in Roy’s chest with a groan.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled into his shirt as he rubbed her back. “I promise I did not mean for her to find out, especially like that.”

Roy was well aware that it had been a case of unfortunate timing and not an intentional plan to speed up the timeline of Phoebe finding out.

He laughed and then pointed out, “Hey, this just means now we don’t have to figure out how to tell her. At least about our part anyway. I still have to have that talk about what to do about the Jamie part.”

Keeley lifted her head back up and looked at him for a moment, then she got distracted and pulled her phone out of her pocket. She looked down at it with a furrowed brow.

“It’s a text from Jamie,” she said, sounding utterly confused.

She unlocked her phone and then laughed.

“What did he do now?” Roy asked.

Keeley turned her screen so that she could see.

dont worry ill make sure we dont come back anytime soon 2 interrupt anything 😏

Roy laughed under his breath at that, then complained, “Even when he’s being helpful, he’s unbearable.”

“I think it’s nice,” Keeley insisted, but she looked amused too.

“I never said it wasn’t,” Roy pointed out. “It’s fucking weird, but I’m definitely not complaining.”

Keeley laughed, then put her phone back away.

“Hey, I got a weird text from Ted today,” she said as she turned her attention back to him.

Fuck.

“That fucker ratted me out, didn’t he?” Roy asked cautiously.

“About you telling him and Higgins and Trent and the other coaches about everything?” Keeley asked. “No. He just sent a vague text about how he’s happy for me. Then Higgins came in and filled in the blanks.”

“Sorry,” Roy said.

“For what?” Keeley asked with a big grin. “You actually talking about your feelings and not being afraid to tell people about the Jamie thing is so hot. It’s a literal fantasy, babe. Why do you think I came over ready to mount you the moment I saw you?”

Roy laughed and pulled her into his lap with his hands on her hips.

“I don't know. I saw no reason to question a good thing."

Jamie hadn’t eaten since lunch and he was fucking starving so after they’d hit the ice cream place and each gotten one of the biggest sundaes on the menu, he took Phoebe to a fast food place and got a huge order of chips.

Roy would have shit his pants if he was there, but he wasn’t and Phoebe was having a good time with Jamie keeping her occupied, so Jamie was going to take advantage of it and get some greasy food out of the whole deal.

As he ate, he tried to figure out what they could do after to keep them away from Roy’s place a while longer. He wasn’t really sure what kids liked.

Finally, he asked, “Do you like football?”

Phoebe nodded her head and said, “Uncle Roy used to coach my team before he got too busy coaching yours instead.”

“Really?” Jamie asked because it was surprising information.

It wasn’t really surprising that Roy would want to coach her team. It was more surprising that he’d stopped and apparently not even because he’d gotten kicked out of the position for swearing around a bunch of little kids.

“Mhm,” Phoebe confirmed matter-of-factly. “He still comes to my games when he can.”

“Yeah, that figures,” Jamie said. He considered for a moment, then asked, “Do you want to go play after this?”

“Really?” Phoebe asked with a grin.

Jamie shrugged. “Why not?”

Jamie walked her to the nearest park after that. He figured either they’d find someone already playing to join, he’d pay some kid with a football to give it to them, or else they’d go buy a new one and come back.

When they got to the park, a group of teenagers were already playing together.

Jamie headed over to them and asked, “Mind if we join?”

They stopped the ball and all turned to look at him.

“You’re Jamie Tartt, aren’t you?”

“Sure am,” Jamie responded proudly.

“Of course, you can play with us. Are you kidding?”

“I call him for my team,” a girl said.

A guy on the other team sighed heavily and then said, “Fine, but you’re giving me half your players then. He’s gotta count for at least three people.”

Jamie thought he should count as much more than that, but he didn’t point that out. Instead, he turned to Phoebe and said, “You can be on a team with me, yeah?”

“No thank you,” Phoebe said and Jamie gave her an annoyed look.

He couldn’t imagine why in the world she wouldn't want to be on a team with him. Everybody wanted to be on a team with him. Even Roy liked being on the same team now.

“Why not?” Jamie asked, not bothering to hide how offended he was.

“Because my team’s going to beat yours,” she insisted. “I bet you two hundred pounds that I’m right.”

“Do you even have two hundred pounds?” Jamie asked.

He had his doubts when she was a literal child.

“Sure do,” Phoebe said. His doubt must have shown on his face because she added, “Uncle Roy swears a lot.”

“Ah. Makes sense,” Jamie said because of course she had more money than she knew what to do with if he really had to pay her for every time he swore around her. “You’re on.”

He didn’t mind the possibility of taking Roy’s money. 

“You have to play with only your left foot though,” Phoebe insisted. “Otherwise, it doesn’t count.”

The fact that she was related to Roy really showed there in the way that she’d gotten him to agree to her wager and then immediately added more conditions to make it harder on him. Jamie had to give her props for the quick thinking though. He didn’t mind a little extra challenge anyway.

“Fair enough.”

Jamie hadn’t been kidding when he said he’d keep Phoebe busy for a while.

Keeley had still been in a rush, urgent from how long she’d waited before she’d even been able to come over. Plus, she hadn't wanted to risk Phoebe coming back and walking in on anything even worse than what she had already seen.

It turned out they hadn’t needed to be anywhere near as careful as they had though. Now, they were just lying on the couch together with her head on his chest.

“I feel like a fucking teenager that's sneaking around,” Roy said with a laugh.

“We’re not very good at sneaking around though, are we?” Keeley asked. “We didn’t even manage to keep us secret for a week.”

“Secrets are overrated anyway,” Roy told her.

Keeley propped her chin up on his chest as she eyed him skeptically and asked, “Really? Aren’t you the one with the secret identity?”

“It’s not a secret identity if I still go by the same name and just leave details out,” Roy insisted. “Besides, I told you about that. That’s not a real secret. You already know practically everything about me and everything you don’t, I’d tell you anyway.”

“Even the embarrassing stories you were worried your sister would tell me about?” Keeley asked with a grin. “Let’s hear one of those now then.”

“Never mind,” Roy said with a laugh. “I’ll tell you about anything but that.”

“Fine, but you know I’m going to hear them one day.”

“Wrong foot!” Phoebe called out when Jamie forgot again and dribbled the ball with both of his feet on his way up the pitch.

There was no official rule in place for wrong foot because wrong foot wasn’t an actual thing so Jamie just picked up the ball and held it out to her.

“Yeah, yeah,” he complained. “Take your free kick.”

If Jamie’s team was bothered that he was quite literally giving the ball away to the other team, they didn’t mention it.

He moved out of the way and watched Phoebe take the kick. He didn’t bother running after the ball. He was trying not to show off too much and was trying to make sure his team trailed in points in a believable enough way. Mostly, he was just passing to his teammates whenever he got the ball and was using it as an opportunity to practice his accuracy with his left foot. Sometimes that meant trying to pass to the right spot and sometimes that meant ‘accidentally’ missing and letting Phoebe get the ball off of him.

He was purposely playing worse than his usual level, much more so than the switched foot should have justified, but a crowd still gathered to watch them anyway.

A few minutes later, one of Jamie’s teammates passed him the ball and he had a wide-open shot on net.

He took careful aim, intending to shoot just over the right-hand corner of the goalpost.

Instead, it hit the crossbar with a loud clang. Damn. Close enough though.

Jamie groaned dramatically for good measure as one of Phoebe’s teammates ran after the ball and Phoebe laughed at him.

It was nice getting to actually play again with other people. Most of what he’d been doing with Roy since the season had ended had just been conditioning training to keep him in shape. Sure, Roy had made him run drills and take practice shots, but with the rest of the team not there, he hadn’t gotten to actually play lately. Even though the other players weren't as good as his teammates or usual opponents and even though Phoebe had outlawed his dominant foot, Jamie was having fun.

He practiced his left-footed aim with successfully and intentionally unsuccessful passes and with shots precisely aimed to fail in the way he wanted them to. It reminded him of the game Dani had started with him when he'd first joined the team and had thought Jamie had hit the crossbar on purpose.

Jamie practiced dribbling the ball up the pitch one-footed and trying to weave around the other players. By the time they'd been playing for a while, he was only losing possession and control of the ball when he wanted to.

He practiced his acting skills too as he groaned and heavily sighed and kicked the grass in mock frustration every time one of his 'passes' got intercepted or his shots 'missed'.

The rest of his team took it easy on Phoebe too. They played hard when they were trying to score, but Jamie could see how they let her get past them with feigned surprise and how her shots came a little closer to scoring than if they had been kicked by anyone else. And how every once in a while, his goalie would let one in off of her anyway.

When Phoebe’s team was up 3-0, Jamie decided it would finally be okay to show off a little.

So he picked the ball off of one of the players on the other team in his own end and then took a shot with his left foot from way back there.

The pitch was way smaller than the professional ones he was used to and he’d taken successful shots from physically further away with his proper foot, even if it hadn’t been from quite as close to his own net on a real pitch. So he knew the shot wasn’t really as impressive as it seemed. But there was a collective gasp as the ball dropped right in anyway.

“Holy shit!” one of the teens called out. “That was incredible!”

Jamie beamed at the uproar it caused. It wasn't long before he was humbled though.

“Your team is still losing,” Phoebe pointed out and Jamie had to laugh.

Jamie texted that he and Phoebe were on their way back a while before they actually returned.

The alone time with Roy had been more than nice, but Keeley was glad that he would be there soon too. She had missed spending time with both of them together but hadn’t wanted to bring it up when they were getting along so well and she wasn’t sure they wouldn’t feel awkward and unsure about how to both be around her at once now.

Keeley had already responded to Jamie that the coast was clear, but he let himself in the house with his face buried in the crook of his arm anyway. Obviously, he wasn’t actually too concerned that he might walk in on anything though because he let Phoebe walk in in front of him with her view completely unobscured.

“Is it safe to look?” Jamie asked in an utterly amused tone as if he hadn’t seen both of them naked before countless times.

“Yes. Stop being a twat,” Roy told him.

Jamie dropped his arm and beamed at them as he insisted, “Just checking.”

“Jamie owes me two hundred pounds,” Phoebe told them excitedly.

“Does he?” Keeley asked as she shot him an amused look. “What exactly did he say to rack up that price?”

“Didn’t say anything,” Jamie said defensively.

“I beat him at football,” Phoebe bragged.

Roy grinned with absolute delight at that.

“Wow, you must be mad good then,” Keeley said with a smile.

She was surprised Jamie had gone and played with her after he’d already gone through three rounds of training with Roy that day. She figured he must be more than a little exhausted after all that.

“Or Roy’s just shit at training me,” Jamie suggested. When Phoebe shot him a look, he added, “Yeah, yeah. I heard it.”

Roy flipped him off as Jamie got his wallet back out to cover his balance for the day. Phoebe already made enough money off of Roy. She must really be doing well now that she apparently spent time with Jamie too.

“I should get going,” Jamie said when he’d handed a pile of bills over.

“You don’t have to,” Keeley told him.

“Nah, I’ve got stuff to do,” Jamie said with a dismissive wave of his hand.

Keeley felt bad that she had basically unintentionally kicked him out of hanging out with Roy and Phoebe. She wished he’d stick around for a bit, but she didn’t want to force him to stay if he really had something to do or if he was leaving because he felt awkward hanging out with all of them together, especially with what limited information Phoebe now had about their situation.

“Do you want a ride?” Roy offered.

“I’m good with walking,” Jamie said. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m kind of in impeccable shape. Peak physical condition really.”

“And so modest on top of it all,” Roy said sarcastically.

“Don’t take it out on me just because you can’t go for a walk without your knee putting you on bed rest for three days afterwards,” Jamie insisted.

Keeley expected Roy to get annoyed since she was fairly certain that his knee was still a sore subject but he just smirked and asked, “Who needs bed rest when I’ve got you to pull me around like a fucking sled dog?”

Jamie laughed at that and turned to leave so Keeley sprung up from the couch.

“At least let me walk you out,” she insisted.

She was glad when Phoebe went and sat on the couch next to Roy instead of following them.

Once they got outside, Keeley pulled Jamie away from the window and over to the side of Roy’s house where she could hopefully make sure that Phoebe wouldn’t see or hear anything she shouldn’t. Keeley didn’t want to make that mistake twice in one day.

She gently pushed him back with a hand on his chest. He let her guide him up against the wall where even if Phoebe got up and went into another room, she still shouldn’t be able to see them.

Keeley left her hand on his chest as she leaned in to kiss him.

“What was that for?” Jamie asked with a smile as if he hadn’t gotten completely left out in the reveal to Phoebe and then played wingman and babysitter afterward.

“Because I wanted to kiss you,” Keeley insisted. “Is that so surprising?”

“Nah, I’d kiss me too if it was physically possible,” Jamie said with a lazy grin. “Just thought you’d want to keep your distance a little bit while we're here now that Phoebe knows about you two.”

“Sorry about that,” Keeley told him. “We definitely did not plan on telling her right away. And I know that was probably weird for you.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Jamie said with a shrug. “She’s his niece. Makes sense he’d be the one she’d find out about. That don’t bother me.”

Keeley kissed him again and then told him, “Roy said he’s going to talk to his sister about eventually telling her the whole truth. And just so you know, he already told Ted and Beard and Higgins and Nate and Trent about all of it.”

“You’re shitting me,” Jamie said with a look of utter disbelief.

“I’m really not,” Keeley said with a laugh. “Rebecca knows too. But I’m guessing you already knew that.”

Jamie didn’t even acknowledge that though. Instead, he just said, “So that’s what he was ignoring me to text Ted about.”

Phoebe ran off to the bathroom a few moments after Keeley and Jamie headed outside, so Roy took the opportunity to finally check his messages from the Diamond Dogs.

There were a lot of congratulations and that’s greats and questions he couldn’t be bothered to answer so he read through them all and then shoved his phone back away.

“You could easily have taken Jamie for more than two hundred you know,” Roy pointed out when Phoebe came back. “He’s got a big enough ego that I don’t think there’s a bet big enough that he'd turn it down.”

Honestly, Roy was a little surprised that Jamie had even let Phoebe win. All of this being a team player bullshit was really getting a little over the top.

“I’ll bet more next time then,” Phoebe told him. “He said he wanted a rematch sometime anyway.”

“Is that so?” Roy asked as a hundred different ways he could scam Jamie out of his money through Phoebe crossed his mind. “I’m surprised he wasn’t too humiliated to ever face you again.”

It wasn’t like losing the money would matter at all to Jamie or that gaining it would matter at all to Roy, but the thought of putting a damper on Jamie’s pride did seem like fun.

Chapter Text

It was Roy who finally made the group chat.

Keeley was shopping with Rebecca when she got the text.

What time are we meeting up later?

Keeley hadn’t been aware that they were.

“What do you think of this?” Rebecca asked as she held up a dress.

“Cute,” Keeley told her.

When she looked back down at her phone, Jamie had changed the chat name to sexy people and granddad. A notification popped up almost immediately that said that Roy had left the chat.

Well, that hadn’t lasted very long.

“Is something wrong?” Rebecca asked.

“I don’t think so,” Keeley said.

She put her phone away and went back to looking at clothes. A few minutes later her phone buzzed again and she saw that Jamie had added Roy back to the group chat and then sent a text.

hold on im fixing it

Keeley was pretty sure that Roy wasn’t going to consider it an improvement when the chat name changed to jones kunt and tartt. She expected Roy to immediately leave again but instead, he sent I can’t believe you didn’t put your own name first.

alphabetical order dickwad

Oh wow. I didn’t know you knew the whole alphabet.

Jamie started typing, but before he could send whatever he was going to, Roy changed the chat name to jones kunt and twat. Then instead of whatever he’d been typing before, Jamie sent oh thats PERFECT

Keeley thought it sounded like it could be a law firm name in a porn video where the whole plot was that lawyers had a threesome, but she thought it was probably best to keep that thought to herself.

Roy sent So what time? and Keeley asked Are we all going together?

She’d just kind of assumed they’d all meet up there. Sam was closing his restaurant early to have the team over. Keeley was team adjacent enough even when she wasn't dating any of the players that Sam had invited her too.

I don’t know about you but I plan on getting fucking smashed. Jamie can’t drink so he gets to drive.

Jamie didn't respond, but a moment later, he sent a selfie of him scowling at the camera. His face was half obscured by the hand that was flipping Roy off.

The chat was quiet for a minute, then Roy sent back a picture of him and Phoebe glaring at the camera and flipping Jamie off.

how much did u have 2 pay her 4 that???

It was worth it.

Well, this wasn’t the most productive group chat Keeley had ever been in, but at least they seemed to be getting along well enough in it.

Roy set his phone down on the counter and turned to face Phoebe.

“Go to your room for a bit. I need to talk to your mum,” he said.

Phoebe went without complaint, but Roy watched down the hallway just to be sure she was really gone before he turned his attention to his sister and tried to figure out how exactly to bring the subject up.

“I hear you and Keeley are back together,” she said.

That certainly made things easier.

“Phoebe told you about that?” he asked.

“That’s pretty much all she’s been talking about for days. Well, that and how she’s better at football than Jamie.”

“It runs in the family,” Roy said. “I wasn’t really planning on her finding out about Keeley so soon, but it became kind of… unavoidable.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why weren't you? Are you planning to screw things up all over again?”

“No,” Roy said in an irritated tone. “But things are more… complicated this time around.”

“Complicated how?”

“She’s also dating Jamie,” he explained.

“Like temporarily and you’re not really back together?” she asked.

“No,” Roy said. “We are back together. And so are they.”

“And you’re okay with that?” she asked.

“Yeah. It’s not a problem,” Roy said. “And it’s not like I’m planning on telling Phoebe about it right away or anything. I just figured I should probably check with you on what you want me to tell her. Or if you don’t want me telling her anything at all.”

She was silent for a moment and it was making Roy anxious.

“Tell her whatever you want to. I’m sure she can handle finding out,” she said. “I’m going to be honest, though. I really don’t think she cares about your love life at all outside of what it means for who she gets to spend time with. She’s been practically bouncing off the walls about Keeley being around again. And she likes Jamie so I really don’t think that it’ll be a problem.”

Roy picked his phone back up to check if Jamie had answered his question yet but of course, he hadn’t because being difficult for no reason was fun for him. So he sent another text.

Jamie. What time?

“I’m trying to figure out what time I’ll have Phoebe back, but Jamie’s being a useless prick,” he told her.

Roy was taking Phoebe for a while so that his sister could have some time with her friends. That meant she needed to know what time she had to be back. Which meant that Roy had to know what time to be at Jamie’s.

His phone buzzed and he was hoping that it would be with an actual useful text, but he wasn’t surprised in the least when it was not.

hmm maybe id answer if u said the magic word

Roy didn’t understand why Jamie was being so massively annoying about this.

Fuck off.

ok 👋

Roy ignored him for a moment as he called down the hallway, “You can come back now.”

He fucking hated Jamie Tartt more than ever as he typed out another message jumping through his stupid fucking hoop so that at least he could finally get an answer.

Fine. What time please.

i cant believe u actually said it

im 2 dumb to tell time tho so i cant help 😩

Phoebe came back into the room, looking ready to go. If Jamie would just answer like a normal person, they could.

Stop dicking around. I need to know what time to have Phoebe back.

ur @ ur sisters??? say hi 4 me

There was no chance in hell that Roy was passing that message along. Instead, he turned to his sister and said, “Do me a favour and flip Jamie off for me.”

“Why?”

“Does it matter?”

She seemed to consider for a moment, then shrugged and said, “Not really.”

Roy opened the camera on his phone and took a picture of her smiling while she flipped the camera off, then immediately sent it to the group chat.

Keeley, who had remained completely silent outside of her one question about them going together, started typing immediately.

Holy shit!!!

That’s your sister???

Are you kidding me right now?

She is fucking gorgeous

Like

A literal goddess

And she’s a doctor on top of it all???

What the hell is in your genes that made you both so mad hot and smart???

Jamie was typing the whole time that Keeley was spamming them with messages and Roy was expecting a whole fucking awful paragraph but instead, he finally sent thats EXACTLY what i said

That was definitely not exactly what Jamie had said, but Roy wasn’t going to point that out and get into the specifics of how exactly Jamie had called his sister hot.

“Tell them thanks from me.”

Roy glared at his sister.

“Fuck no. I am not encouraging this shit,” Roy insisted. “And stop reading my texts over my shoulder.”

“I was just trying to find out if you’d gotten an answer yet or not,” she said in a tone of false innocence.

He glanced back down at his phone and saw that they had not stopped texting.

I can’t believe Roy let you meet her

let is an overstatement

i was the only person in the whole world phoebe could find that gave a damn enough 2 show up 4 his uncle day party

sad really

i only went bc i was embarrassed 4 him

Roy could feel his sister eyeing him so he asked, “What?”

“Nothing.”

But he could still feel her eyes on him.

Babe. We already had this conversation. You know Roy has other friends

yeah but im his favourite

Roy was so sick of Jamie's stalling bullshit, but he wasn’t just going to let that slide so he sent You’re not my favourite. I just waste the most time on you. Now answer the fucking question.

im ur favourite

im ur best friend

I fucking hate you.

liar

u love me

and u cant do anything abt it this time 🤣

cant punch me thru the phone 😌

No. But I can block you.

ok have fun driving urself 👋

Stop dicking around.

admit u love me and ill tell u the time

“When are we leaving?” Phoebe complained.

Roy ignored the text and called Jamie instead.

“Holy shit are you actually going to do it?” Jamie answered after a single ring.

Roy ignored that absolutely ridiculous question and snapped out, “I’m busy. Keeley’s busy. I am like five seconds of your bullshit away from saying fuck it and skipping this whole thing so stop wasting everyone’s time and just give me an answer. And then text Keeley what time you’re getting her.”

“Alright, fine,” Jamie said with a sigh. “Didn’t think you were going to get this pissy over it. I don’t know. Just come here at half six or something and we can get Keeley after.”

“See? There was no reason that you had to make things so fucking difficult for no reason.”

Neither of the boys said anything else in the group chat after Jamie’s text trying to get Roy to say that he loved him. They’d both been silent for a few minutes and Keeley was strongly debating just saying that she’d meet them there to make things easier.

Keeley was kind of surprised that Roy hadn’t left the chat again, but she was certain that he wasn’t going to respond to that message which meant they were going to be at a stalemate all day unless Jamie gave in and stopped pushing Roy’s buttons just for fun.

But then a few minutes later, Jamie sent two texts in a row to just her.

figured it out

well get u @ like 6:45ish

No.

It couldn’t be. There was no fucking way.

They had to have sorted it out a different way. Roy couldn’t have given in.

Could he have?

Jamie was in an excellent mood.

Sure, not being allowed to drink was a bummer, but that wasn’t anything new. Jamie was still looking forward to going to Sam's restaurant and seeing everyone on the team that hadn't already left on vacation or to visit their families. And he’d only been looking forward to tonight more since he’d found out that Roy had apparently already told a fuck ton of people who would be there about the situation they all had going on.

Now, they were all going together and Jamie wouldn’t have to worry what he was and wasn’t allowed to say. He wouldn’t have to worry about what questions they might all get. He didn’t have to try not to be too obvious with Keeley. He wouldn't need to keep his distance.

Clearly, Roy and Keeley had no problem with everyone on the team finding out and that meant Jamie could actually tell Isaac and everyone else the truth this time.

When they got out of the car at Sam’s restaurant, Keeley linked her arms through both of theirs, with one of them on either side of her.

She looked from Jamie to Roy with a smile and asked, “You’re sure you’re ready for this?”

Roy nodded his agreement, but Jamie was a lot louder with his answer.

“Are you kidding?” he asked. “I assumed everyone was going to just find out about you two to make things easier. I’m more than ready.”

Roy hadn’t even known that telling people about his side of things and keeping Jamie’s a secret was an option, let alone that Jamie had thought that had been the most likely choice. It seemed needlessly complicated and awkward to Roy. They all spent far too much time around the team to manage to hide anything for long and it would be weird if everyone knew Roy and Keeley were together while Jamie was just some weird clingy third wheel that couldn’t take a hint.

That kind of dynamic had been awkward enough in front of Phoebe. Roy hadn’t had any idea whether to act like boyfriend Roy or friend Roy to Keeley right after Phoebe had found out about only half of their situation. Keeley had clearly been worried that he would be upset with her so he’d gone for trying to reassure her, but he’d seen the way she’d kept eyeing Jamie like she was worried about how he was taking it. And okay, maybe Roy might have been just a little worried about that too. That was why he’d hesitated on how to answer Phoebe's question about them and had looked to Jamie for what to do.

“Okay,” Keeley said after a pause.

Roy didn’t miss the way that she took a deep breath like she was readying herself.

He remembered the way she had asked if his sister would hate her for dating them both and the way she had talked about it like she thought she should have just been happy with one or the other of them. Her smile was just as bright as ever, but he had a feeling she was putting it on for them to hide her own nerves over how the team would take it which meant Roy was going to have to headbutt anyone that dared to make a stupid joke about it.

“Hey. If anyone even looks like they’re even thinking about saying something stupid about this, I won’t hesitate to start breaking noses,” he assured her.

This time her smile reached her eyes.

“Don’t you think that’ll look bad?” Keeley asked, but she sounded amused instead of worried. “Breaking a bunch of your own players’ noses so soon after your big promotion?”

“What’s Rebecca going to do? Fire me for it? No chance,” Roy pointed out.

Roy knew that Rebecca liked him keeping up appearances for the public and all, but he was certain that she would be on his side if he injured someone for making Keeley feel like shit about her relationships.

“If she was going to fire you over hitting people, your career would have ended the moment she took over,” Jamie pointed out.

Roy was pretty sure that Jamie was intentionally implying that no other teams would have taken him if she'd sacked him, but he chose to ignore that for Keeley’s sake as he agreed, “Exactly.”

“Okay. Let’s go,” Keeley said and then she was pulling them along.

Roy unhooked his arm from hers at the door to hold it for her. He was feeling generous so he didn’t even drop it on Jamie once she’d made it through.

He hooked his arm through Keeley’s again once he was through the door. There were a lot of eyes on them, but the arm thing probably wouldn’t have been enough for everyone to assume what was going on if Jamie hadn’t taken it upon himself to immediately announce it to the entire room. And for once, Roy wasn’t even annoyed by Jamie’s habit of entering a room obnoxiously loudly to make sure as many eyes as possible were on him.

“Hey Isaac, I might have left one piece of news out,” he said loud enough to be heard throughout the entire restaurant. “Oh, and actually I do know the answer to your question about whether Roy’s back with Keeley or not. He is. And so am I.”

Jamie looked incredibly proud of himself as several of the jaws around the room dropped.

“Well, that’s one way to do it,” Roy said. “Not what I would have gone for, but it’s efficient. I’ll give you that.”

“It really is,” Keeley agreed. “That just saved loads of time.”

Roy realized he was practically smiling and quickly fixed that. So far no one was making a dick of themselves, but Roy gave a death glare to the crowd at large in warning anyway for good measure.

“Oh, and I’d be careful what you say," Jamie added loudly. "Because Roy’s already looking for an excuse to break bones and he’s not allowed to break mine anymore.”

Roy hadn’t been aware that up until this point, he’d apparently had permission to break Jamie’s bones. Maybe that was for the best though.

Jamie apparently decided his job was done since he broke off and headed over to Isaac’s table with that stupid smug grin of his. Keeley let go of Roy and headed over to Rebecca. She’d be safe enough over there so Roy followed Jamie because Jamie loved attention and never shut up so Roy shouldn’t have to answer any questions himself if Jamie was there to blather away for the both of them. Plus, then Roy could keep an eye on him to make sure he didn’t say anything particularly obnoxious to the rest of the team.

“See, I knew there was something suspicious when you didn’t want to go out,” Isaac bragged. “Roy didn’t make you that boring.”

Roy wasn’t really sure what he supposedly had to do with anything, but he really couldn’t care less so he didn’t bother asking.

“I mean, I still could’ve played wingman to you,” Jamie said. “But I meant it when I said that it’s far too much work to try to convince anyone to go home with you.”

Jamie laughed and stuck his tongue out and Isaac didn’t even look annoyed by the joke at his expense. Roy wasn’t the only one Jamie had grown on like a fungal infection. When he’d first rejoined the team, a comment like that would have had everyone glaring his way.

Dani came over and slung an arm around Jamie’s shoulders as he said, “I’m happy for you. It’s not the kind that I’d go for, but who doesn’t like a good threesome?”

“You’re not wrong,” Jamie said as if Dani hadn’t just implied that they both had sex with Keeley at the same time.

Dani was in fact wrong. He was incredibly overwhelmingly wrong and Roy genuinely did not know what was wrong with Jamie that he wasn’t correcting him.

Roy shot Jamie a what the fuck is wrong with you?  look and hit him in the arm when he didn’t notice fast enough.

“What?” Jamie asked.

“What do you mean what?” Roy asked. “Stop acting like I’d ever have sex with you.”

“I was just agreeing that threesomes are a good thing,” Jamie said defensively. “Grow up, Roy. Don’t pretend you don’t know that. Obviously, I didn’t mean that we were having them.” He turned to Dani as he insisted, “That’s not what this is. We’re just with her separately. Obviously, nothing happens between the two of us. That would be disgusting. Have you seen Roy? He’s fucking ancient.”

“Fuck off,” Roy said.

At least Jamie was properly clarifying now, but he didn’t have to be such a little bitch about it.

“So is your pilot coming tonight?” Keeley asked with a grin.

“No. No way,” Rebecca said. “He’s busy tonight. And even if he wasn’t, it is far too early to subject him to all of this. I mean, I’m surprised Roy hasn’t fled yet and he’s used to everyone here.”

She had a point. Keeley was relieved to have a little space with Rebecca while most of the team swarmed Jamie and Roy. Their enthusiasm and questions would almost definitely overwhelm someone who hadn’t already met any of them before. Keeley was plenty used to them all now, but she’d been a bit intimidated at first too.

Roy already looked annoyed, but it was hard to tell if anyone had actually done anything or if he was just at his baseline annoyance level that came with any social situation.

“Fair enough,” Keeley said. “But I get to meet him first, right?”

“Of course,” Rebecca said. “I wouldn’t dream of introducing him to anyone else before you. Well, you and Sassy.”

Heads turned all over again as Colin walked into the restaurant hand in hand with Michael. He’d brought him to one of these before, but never as his boyfriend instead of just his friend.

Keeley wondered if Michael knew exactly what he was getting himself into as the bomb Jamie had dropped seemed to completely disappear from the radar as the team turned their attention on Colin and Michael before they’d even gotten three steps inside.

Isaac practically launched himself over at the doorway in a rush to hug Colin and then Michael when they showed up.

“Uh oh. Looks like you have even more competition for your best friend,” Roy said close to Jamie’s ear.

“Shut up,” Jamie complained because it wasn’t nearly as funny when Roy gave him shit about Isaac as when Jamie gave him shit about the same topic.

Roy just laughed so Jamie ignored him and followed his teammates over to Michael. Roy didn’t follow.

“Jesus Christ, give him a little space,” Colin complained. “Don’t make me regret letting you all properly meet him.”

Colin didn’t look like he regretted it at all though. He was absolutely beaming now that he could bring his boyfriend to team events without making up a cover story or worrying about anyone finding out too much.

He’d seemed a lot happier in general since he’d told the whole team. He’d come out of his shell a lot more too. Jamie hadn’t realized just how much of a difference there was before now.

“Sorry we’re late,” Michael said. “Work was running late.”

“Trust me, I’m sure we didn’t miss anything important,” Colin insisted.

Several heads turned to face Jamie.

“What? What am I missing?” Colin asked. “Did someone else finally come out?”

And okay, Jamie did not appreciate him asking that when half the team was staring at him. None of his teammates were wrong in assuming he was most likely to help fill out those statistics, but that coming up was starting to become a pattern. Which was not ideal when he was trying not to weird Roy out and mess up the good thing they all had going on and mess up the way their friendship had developed, especially after Roy had just gotten annoyed at the suggestion that anything could ever possibly happen between the two of them.

Jamie liked his friendship with Roy just how it was. He didn’t want to have to second guess whether Roy's complaints were empty like usual or whether knowing that Jamie was bi suddenly made Roy feel uncomfortable every time he grabbed Roy’s face or made a stupid comment.

Besides, if he was going to come out, everyone would know it. He didn’t do things halfway.

“Jamie and Roy are both dating Keeley,” Jan said.

“But not each other,” Dani added. “Trust me, you do not want to make that mistake in front of Roy.”

“How does that even work?” Colin asked. “Aren’t you worried Roy’s going to cut your dick off?”

Jamie shrugged and said, “Not really. I think if he was going to, he would have by now.”

Keeley had been planning on waiting for the crowd around Colin and Michael to die down before heading over to introduce herself, but a long time had passed and it didn’t seem to be dying down at all. So eventually, she headed over to at least listen in on the conversation while she waited.

She didn’t even make it over to them though before Roy stood up and put an end to the conversation.

“Oi! You! Outside now,” he called out in his incredibly loud and vaguely angry coach voice.

“Me?” Colin asked, pointing to his own chest. “I didn’t do anything.”

Keeley turned and saw Roy heading over. His gaze definitely was focused on where Colin and Michael were standing.

“Not you,” Roy said. Then he pointed aggressively at Michael and said, “Him.”

Michael looked at Colin confused. Colin looked to Keeley. She just shrugged back at him and tried to convey with her face that she thought it was probably fine.

She had absolutely no idea what Roy was up to, but she figured it couldn’t be anything too bad. Worst case, he might give Michael a menacing talk about what would happen if he hurt Colin, but it wasn’t like Michael was actually going to be unsafe outside with Roy.

The team had gone mostly silent, but there were a few quiet murmurs among themselves.

“Come on,” Roy said impatiently. “Let’s go.”

And then he walked out the doors without actually waiting to see if there was any indication that Michael might follow him or not.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” Keeley told Colin. Then she turned to Michael and said, “He sounds a lot scarier than he actually is.”

When the entire team had rushed Colin and Michael, Roy had hung back and headed over to sit with Beard and Trent instead. He’d known the team had meant well with their excitement, but they were a lot. He didn’t need to add to it.

But several minutes had passed and it hadn't seemed to be dying down, so Roy had taken it upon himself to do something about it.

It took a few seconds, but Michael followed him outside and a little way down the street where the entire fucking team wouldn’t be able to gawk at them through the window. Roy had half-expected Colin to follow them, but he didn’t really care one way or the other.

They stood in silence for a few long moments, then Michael said, “I’m sorry. You did mean me, didn’t you?”

“Yeah,” Roy said and left it at that.

“Okay?” Michael said when he realized that Roy wasn’t going to say anything else. “Is there something you needed to talk to me about or…?”

“Not really,” Roy said. Michael was still looking at him confused, so he added, “They’re all a fucking lot, even when you know them and like them and aren’t the centre of their fucking attention. They didn’t look like they were planning on stopping on their own anytime soon so I figured you could use some air and a chance for them to fuck off and get distracted by something else.”

“Oh,” Michael said. “Then thank you I guess.”

“We don’t have to talk,” Roy said. “I’m sure you’ve gotten more than enough questions to last a lifetime in the last ten minutes.”

“Do they always all talk over each other without even waiting for an answer like that?” Michael asked.

“Sometimes,” Roy admitted. “Probably not usually quite so bad though.” They stood in silence for a moment, then he added, “They’ll tone it down a bit when they’re more used to you. They’re just… excited.”

“Excited’s not a bad thing,” Michael said. “I’d take it over the alternative any day.”

“Fair enough,” Roy said. Then he added, “Wait here a second. I’ll see if they’ve fucked off or if they’re all packed up against the glass.”

He walked back over to the restaurant and of fucking course they were all waiting against the window and door while trying to look like they hadn’t clearly been watching for them to come back.

Roy sighed and then pulled the door open and barked out as loud as he could, “You fuckers have thirty seconds to get your asses into seats before I start punching dicks.”

“But-” Colin tried, but Roy interrupted him.

“But nothing,” Roy said. “I’m fucking hungry. Sit the fuck down so we can actually eat.”

He didn’t wait to see if Colin would try again before he let the door fall shut and headed back over to Michael who was staring at him with a surprised expression.

“It should be fine in a minute,” Roy said in a much calmer voice.

“You’re not really going to punch anyone in the dick are you?” Michael asked.

“We’ll see,” Roy said. “Hopefully, I won’t have to.”

Everyone sat down long before Roy came back with Michael a minute later.

Jamie was in the seat next to Keeley, but the one across from her was open so Roy slid into it.

“What the fuck was that?” Jamie asked.

“Nothing,” Roy said. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Are you actively trying to scare him off from ever coming to something like this again?” Jamie asked.

“What?” Roy asked. “No. We were just having a conversation.”

“About anything important?” Keeley asked.

Huh, so she didn’t have any idea what that whole scene was about either.

“Not really,” Roy said. “Mostly small talk. He seems nice enough though.”

Jesus Christ. Normal people didn’t go through a whole screaming intimidation act to get someone alone for small talk.

“Your social skills are even worse than I thought,” Jamie accused.

At least the rest of them were used to it, but he did not envy Michael.

Roy was already more than a few drinks in when Sam came over and tried to offer Jamie a drink.

“I’ll take that,” Roy said and grabbed it out of Sam’s hand before Jamie could refuse for himself.

“Uh-” Sam said, then looked back at Jamie. “I can get you another one.”

Roy hadn’t finished his own drink, but he took a long chug from Jamie’s anyway.

“It’s fine,” Jamie said. “He’ll just take that one too.”

“Oh,” Sam said. “He still won’t let you drink even though the season’s finished. Really? ”

Jamie shrugged and said, “He misses bossing you all around. I let him pretend he’s in charge of me to make him feel better.”

Keeley let out a surprised laugh at that.

“Jamie’s incapable of having a single thought on his own, so it works out great,” Roy said.

Sam looked between them and then said, “Are you two fighting or joking around? It’s hard to tell these days.”

“It really is,” Keeley said to Roy’s surprise. “But I’ve learned that like ninety-nine percent time of the time as long as no one’s getting hit, they’re getting along a lot more than it sounds like.”

“And Roy barely even hits me anymore,” Jamie said smugly.

Roy ignored him and chugged down the rest of his drink. Jamie’s smile grew into that smirk that had had Roy ready to punch him on sight for a long time.

“What the fuck are you so happy about?” Roy asked him.

“Oh, I’m just thinking about how hungover you’re going to be at four,” Jamie said.

“I’ll survive,” Roy said because he was not going to admit that he was dreading morning training so that Jamie could rub it in more. And he was not about to cancel another training session because he’d been drinking, especially when Jamie would be perfectly sober and absolutely fine.

“Are you sure?” Jamie asked. “Last time we got drunk, you were begging me to cancel our first round of training.”

“Yeah that sounds like me,” Roy said sarcastically because no one was going to believe Jamie’s exaggeration anyway. “And you were so incredibly difficult to convince.”

“That might have been because of the bruising more than the drinking,” Keeley suggested.

“No, this was a different time after that,” Jamie said. “Roy’s a massive hypocrite and a terrible influence. I’m not allowed to drink until he gets bored and wants someone to get drunk with him.”

Keeley was looking between them curiously. Roy decided against explaining that they’d gone and gotten drunk together again before going to talk to her about getting back together like that hadn’t gone horribly the first time around.

“Wouldn’t that make you allowed to drink tonight?” Sam asked.

“Too many better options,” Roy said.

Jamie flipped him off and Roy laughed.

When Keeley got up from the table a while later, Dani came over to sit with Roy and Jamie.

“I was thinking,” he said. “Maybe you could train me with Jamie too over the summer.”

“Okay,” Roy said. “Great. Be at Jamie’s at four tomorrow morning.”

Jamie covered his mouth to try to hide his amusement. Dani was hard enough to wake up in time for the bus on the way back from an away game. There was absolutely no way he was actually going to drag himself out of bed before dawn.

Dani just stared at Roy for a moment, then cracked a smile and pointed at him as he said, “Ha ha, very funny. You almost had me there for a minute.”

Jamie leaned closer to Dani and told him, “He’s not kidding, mate.”

Dani turned and shot him a confused look.

“Trust me,” Jamie said. “I already made that mistake.”

Dani furrowed his brow and then looked between them for a moment before he said, “Oh. No... No way. I can’t do that. I need my beauty sleep. Have fun with Jamie though.”

“Are you sure?” Roy asked with that sadistic smirk that he got when he was planning something particularly awful. “You get used to it fast. Jamie stopped throwing up by the end after like a week.”

Roy was absolutely fucking with him. Jamie had never thrown up during Roy’s training. He’d felt like throwing up. He’d felt like he was going to die. He’d collapsed from stupid fucking push-ups. But he had not thrown up.

Dani looked absolutely horrified though so Jamie put on a shit-eating grin and decided to play along.

“That’s true,” Jamie said. “I haven’t even passed out for what? At least a month, right?”

“Never mind,” Dani said as he stood up. “Forget I even brought it up.”

Jamie burst into laughter as Dani backed away from them, then headed over to another table without even coming up with an excuse first.

Isaac had gone over to stand behind Bumbercatch’s chair and talk to him so a spot had opened up across from Colin. Keeley decided to take advantage of it before someone else could.

“Hey,” she said as she sat down and smiled at Colin and Michael. “I thought I’d come say hi now that there’s not a whole lineup.”

“I’d call it a mob more than a lineup,” Colin said.

“I’m Keeley by the way,” she introduced herself as she turned her attention to Michael. “I’m with Roy, the angry looking one—you met him earlier—and Jamie, the loud blond one… Oh, but don’t tell him that I called him blond. Apparently, it’s walnut mist and having that recognized is very important to him.”

Keeley glanced back over at the table she’d left and saw them laughing together at something with Dani.

This whole thing was going much better than she’d expected. She hadn’t exactly expected it to go wrong or anything, but she’d had doubts in the back of her mind that had kept her nervous about it anyway. But now that they were all here together, it was weirdly normal.

“I’ve heard a lot about them,” Michael said. “And a fair amount about you too.”

“All good I hope,” she said.

“Don’t worry, you’re fine.”

When Roy went over to the bar for another drink, Trent came up and stood beside him.

“It seems like things are going well,” Trent pointed out and Roy didn’t why it was so annoying that he was right when objectively that was a good thing.

“Yeah,” Roy said because he didn’t know what else to say. After a moment of that annoying waiting-him-out silence Trent was so good at, he added, “That shit you said was actually helpful.”

“Was it?” Trent said like that was somehow news to him. “I’m glad.”

He smiled at Roy for a moment, then took off without even ordering another drink himself. The prick had come over just to check in on him.

Roy wasn’t really sure how he’d gone from avoiding saying anything at all in front of Trent in case he’d publish it and use it against him to fucking broadcasting his personal details to him and knowing he wouldn’t use a word of it.

Huh. Maybe they were friends after all.

Roy had barely left the table before Isaac and Colin came over with smirks on their faces.

“Shouldn’t you be getting home?” Colin asked and it was obvious he was trying very hard not to laugh.

“Yeah, we wouldn’t want to keep you here past your bedtime,” Isaac added.

Jamie flipped them off, but they just burst into laughter.

“I’m surprised Roy hasn’t made you go home yet,” Colin said. “Isn’t he afraid you’re going to fall asleep?”

“Fuck off,” Jamie said. “I fell asleep one time.”

“Two times,” Isaac corrected. “Or are you forgetting about falling asleep during that meditation session?”

“Falling asleep just means it was working,” Jamie defended himself. “Don’t you two have anything better to do than stand around and bully me?”

He wasn’t actually particularly bothered, but he knew that response would annoy them more than insulting them back.

Colin looked like he was considering for a moment, then said, “No, not really.”

Jamie let out a laugh and then gestured to the chairs across from him and said, “Well then you could at least sit down and bully me.”

Keeley was headed over to Rebecca again when Dani intercepted her.

“Keeley, I am so sorry,” he said in a tone that made her wonder what awful thing she could have possibly missed.

“For what?” she asked.

“Do they really both wake up before four every morning?” Dani asked. “Or were they just messing with me?”

“Oh,” Keeley said with a laugh. “Yeah, they do.”

“I don’t know how you put up with it,” he said. “I could never.”

“It’s not that bad,” Keeley said. “I only wake up for like a minute most of the time.”

Sure, it definitely was not a wake-up time she would have ever chosen for herself. And in a perfect world, they wouldn’t take off in the middle of the night. But they always came back. And she was getting pretty good at falling back asleep before they’d even properly left the house.

Besides, if alarms going off before four in the morning was the only price she had to pay to get to have them both, then it was more than worth it.

Keeley was busy talking to Dani and Jamie looked perfectly content with Isaac and Colin so Roy followed Trent over to a table with Beard, Nate and his girlfriend, Higgins and his wife, and Rebecca. Beard and Trent were leaning over an iPad doing who knew what and the couples were in the middle of some conversation so Roy pulled up a chair beside Rebecca.

She leaned over to him and dropped her voice quiet enough for just him to hear as she accused, “You seem happy.”

Roy considered for a moment, then admitted, “Not just happy. Struck by fucking lightning.”

Rebecca grinned and Roy was in a good enough mood and enough drinks in that he let himself smile back.

What Trent and Beard were up to become abundantly clear all at once as a familiar voice said, “Sorry I’m late. Henry had a game today. Maybe it’s a good thing I’m late though because if I’d seen y’all eating I would have been missing Sam’s food even more.”

Because of course fucking Ted was there on Facetime with a beer in his hand.

“If you miss it so much, then maybe you should get on a fucking plane and come back,” Roy told him without a hint of sympathy in his voice.

“Aw, I miss you too, buddy,” Ted said because he could see right through Roy from across a fucking ocean.

“I never said I missed you,” Roy pointed out, but he didn’t deny that he had missed him either.

Thankfully, Ted didn’t dwell on that. Instead, he shifted focus as he said, “Oh, you must be Jade. Nate the Great has told us all about you.”

When Keeley did finally make it over to Rebecca a while later, Roy was there too. There was an iPad on the table with Ted on FaceTime and the chairs had all filled up.

She still wanted a chance to talk to Ted so she stopped behind Roy’s chair and said, “Hey Ted.”

Roy glanced up at her, then shifted in his chair and held a hand out to her. She took it, not really thinking anything of it, then was taken by surprise when he pulled her closer and wrapped his other arm around her to pull her down into his lap. She definitely was not complaining though. This was just as good as any chair. Better even.

“Hey Keeley,” Ted said. “Nice to see you two back in action.”

Keeley laughed at that, but Roy apparently found something in his smile suspicious.

"Make another stupid fucking triangle joke and I will fly to America just to punch you in the teeth,” he threatened.

Ted just grinned wider and asked, “Is that a promise? Because I’d love to see you here. That would be more than worth one measly little punch, especially if you stuck around for a while after.”

Keeley turned her head to peek at Roy just in time to see him roll his eyes and shake his head in disbelief.

“Oh my goodness. Is that a genuine Roy Kent smile I see?” Ted asked. “Somebody call the press. Where did Trent go?”

“I can’t fucking stand you,” Roy insisted, but he was still smiling.

He’d been doing that a lot tonight and Keeley was finally starting to believe that this might all really stand a chance past the off-season.

When the attention had shifted off of them and Beard and Ted were in the middle of a heated debate, Keeley turned and smiled down at Roy as she pointed out, “You’re in a good mood.”

He leaned closer to her and dropped his voice to almost a whisper as he said, “That’s because I’m a little drunk.”

Keeley let out a laugh at that. He’d already told her that he planned on getting completely smashed before they’d even gotten here, he’d had a drink in his hand for most of the night, and he had not been shy about taking Jamie’s share of the drinks too. The fact that he was drunk was not really the secret he was making it out to be.

“Really?” she asked in a tone of false surprise anyway. “You’re kidding me.”

“Well, there’s that,” Roy said. “And there’s the fact that now that everyone knows, there’s absolutely no reason that I can’t do this.”

His hand moved to her hair and then he was kissing her.

Keeley would have been perfectly content to kiss him forever, but there were enough other people there, including Jamie, that she broke it off earlier than she would have liked.

She glanced back over to the table where Jamie had been sitting with Isaac, Colin, Michael, and Sam the last time she’d looked to double-check that he was alright.

Jamie met her eyes for a moment. He smiled and waggled his eyebrows at her a little, then quickly turned his attention back to whatever Sam was saying.  He was absolutely ridiculous and she loved him for it.

When Trent got a call from someone, he broke off from the rest of his old man friends to take it outside.

Jamie kept an eye on the door and headed over to him when he came back inside.

Trent looked surprised when Jamie approached him which was fair. Their social circles typically didn’t overlap all that much. Jamie hung out with the other young sexy people on the team and sometimes Roy. Trent hung out with Roy and the other geezers and sometimes Colin. Overall, Jamie was used to only being around him in a big group and not one-on-one.

“I owe you one,” Jamie said. Trent looked confused so he added, “I knew something was fishy when Roy started quoting you and trying to pretend polyamory just came up randomly at some point.”

“Oh that,” Trent said. “That really wasn’t a big deal. You don’t owe me anything.”

He eyed Jamie for a moment, then glanced over at where Keeley was still sitting in Roy’s lap and then back at Jamie. His brow furrowed momentarily, then relaxed and he got that smile that Jamie usually only saw when something he knew he was going to put in his book happened. That gave Jamie a fantastic fucking idea.

Jamie put a hand on his shoulder and grinned as he said, “Nah, mate. I do. In fact, I’m giving you exclusive rights to write a book about me. Anything you want to know, just ask.”

Trent looked completely puzzled, but that was okay. He’d come around and realize what an amazing opportunity this was soon. Who wouldn’t want to read a book about him? It would be the sexiest biography ever released.

Jamie was doing Trent a big favour really. His sales were going to be through the roof.

Roy was starting to get tired. The several drinks probably had something to do with it. And the getting up while it was still dark out every day. And the fact that he hadn’t stood up in so long was not helping keep him awake.

But there was absolutely no way that he was going to admit how worn out he was. Not when Jamie was driving. He did not need to give Jamie fuel for a whole new category of Roy’s so old monologues.

Besides, he was perfectly happy where he was. Nothing was going to make him get back up from under Keeley.

Well, almost nothing.

He was starting to regret just how much he’d drank. Not because of how the alcohol was affecting him or out of fear of the hangover that would inevitably come later though. One of the best parts of retirement was being able to eat and drink whatever the fuck he wanted without a worry in the world. And drinking even more in front of Jamie just to rub in the fact that he was stuck with water all night only made it that much better. No, the only reason that Roy had a single regret was because suddenly he really needed to piss and that meant Keeley would have to move.

“Hey,” Roy said. “I need up.”

Keeley got up right away and wasn’t that a shame, even if it was for the best.

Roy didn’t realize quite how drunk he was until he stood up and the headrush hit him.

“You okay, babe?” Keeley asked.

“I’m fine,” he assured her, then gave her one last smile before he headed for the washroom.

Keeley went to get herself a drink while Roy was gone since he’d already had more than enough himself and she wasn’t sure he was going to make it to the car awake if he got another one.

Jamie came over while she was still waiting for her drink and said, “He wasn’t kidding when he said he was going to get totally pissed, was he?”

Keeley turned and kissed him because there was absolutely no reason that she shouldn’t.

“If I’d known making fun of Roy would make you kiss me, I would have done a lot more of it,” he insisted when she pulled away but left her arms wrapped loosely around his neck.

“You make fun of him plenty,” she pointed out. “And that had nothing to do with why I kissed you.”

She’d kissed him because now there was absolutely no reason in the world that she shouldn't, even with everyone else there. She’d kissed him because he’d been so mature about the whole kissing Roy and sitting in his lap in front of him thing instead of getting upset or coming over to kiss her at the next possible opportunity to try to even the playing field. She’d kissed him because she was in a good mood and wanted to and because he had a very kissable face.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “Because if you have a secret degrading Roy kink, I can totally work with that.”

She laughed at that.

“I’m sure you can,” she said. “But I’ll pass.”

Then suddenly Roy was there, grabbing the drink Keeley had ordered off of the bar. It had been set down by Jamie and apparently Roy had assumed that Jamie had taken advantage of him being gone for one minute to order a drink.

“What the fuck?” Jamie complained. “That wasn’t even my drink.”

Roy lowered the glass from his lips and held out what was left of it to Keeley as he said, “Sorry.”

“Alright, let’s get you home, drunky,” Jamie said when Sam finally kicked them all out at the end of the night.

Roy stood up and wrapped an arm around Keeley’s shoulders. Jamie wasn’t sure if it was for balance or because apparently when Roy drank too much instead of getting even angrier, his resting angry face disappeared and he got a little clingy.

They made it to the car fine, but Jamie wasn’t entirely convinced that Roy was still going to be awake by the time they got anywhere.

That made where to drive first an easy decision. He was definitely dropping Keeley off before Roy if he was going to have to possibly haul his drunk half-asleep ass inside. She did not need to be there for that.

When Keeley got out of the car at her house, Roy was leaning his head against the window in the backseat and looked like he was about to fall asleep at any moment.

Keeley leaned down to stick her head back in the open car door as she offered, “You could just sleep here, you know.”

“Can’t,” Roy said. “I’m sleeping at Jamie’s.”

Keeley glanced over at Jamie, but he looked just as surprised as she was.

“Don’t remember inviting you,” he said.

“I’m not getting up any earlier than I have to,” Roy insisted. “I’m not fucking commuting to him with a hangover at four in the morning.”

“He could stay too,” Keeley offered.

Figuring out the sleeping arrangements might be a little awkward, but she didn’t want to seem like she was only okay with Roy staying. And really it would keep them both from having to get up even earlier to get to the other. Plus, it would get Roy to a bed before she had to wonder if Jamie would help him inside or just leave him sleeping in the car overnight.

She was definitely going to leave it up to them to figure out which one of them was sleeping in her bed though. Either they could figure it out themselves or one of them could take the guest bed and the other could take the couch. There was no way in hell she was making that decision and hoping it would go over alright. It was much different having one sleep in her bed when the other wasn’t there and this had the potential to end up much more awkward.

“Yeah, okay,” Roy said and then he lifted his head up. He opened his door as he said, “But I’m not waking you up at four because of it.”

“Well then I’m not either,” Jamie insisted as he got out of the car. “You’re not gonna make me look like the prick.”

Keeley was used to being woken up by their alarms anyway, but she didn’t mention that because she didn’t want them to both backtrack and fight over who’d get to sleep with her. She was certain that giving the option of both sleeping in her room with her would not go over well so she didn't even mention it. She knew better than to push her luck like that.

It was probably better this way anyway. Neither of them could get their feelings hurt if neither of them stayed with her.

They’d barely made it inside the house before Jamie said, “I call the guest bed.”

“No you fucking don’t,” Roy argued.

So much for them not fighting over the sleeping arrangements.

“I already did,” Jamie insisted. “Sucks to be you. Enjoy the couch.”

“I’m old, remember?” Roy argued. “My bones can’t handle the couch. Yours can.”

“Oh, fuck off,” Jamie insisted. “What happened to I’m not that old? I’m sleeping in the bed either way so you’re just gonna have to deal with it or take the couch.”

Roy paused for a moment and Keeley really hoped that she wasn’t about to have to throw them out for an even stupider fistfight. But then Roy said, “Fine. But Donald Duck it into bed with me and I will kill you.”

“Wasn’t going to,” Jamie said defensively.

“What?” Keeley asked more to herself than either of them.

She really wasn’t sure how she had ended up with both of her boyfriends sleeping over and them sharing a bed with each other instead of either of them sharing with her. But they weren’t arguing and it really didn’t affect her one way or the other if one of them slept on the couch or not so she left it at that.

Roy hadn’t been supposed to agree.

Jamie had only said that he was sleeping in the bed either way because he had known that Roy wouldn’t go for it and that he’d win the game of chicken. Or, he'd thought he'd known that. But now apparently they were sharing a bed and that was… fine.

Jamie didn’t have any feelings about that whatsoever.

Nope. This was fine. It wasn’t any different than when he fell asleep on the bus with his head on Dani or Sam or Colin’s shoulder.

So it was Roy? So it was a bed? So what? Big deal. That didn’t make him feel weird or nervous at all.

So what if teenage Jamie would have absolutely lost his shit at the thought of sharing a bed with Roy fucking Kent? He was a full-grown fucking adult now and Roy was a full-grown fucking dinosaur and he had no opinion on this one way or the other.

Jamie was not tempted to run off to Keeley and keep her awake to have a full-blown crisis at her. He was not tempted to take the stupid fucking couch and hope Roy wouldn’t ask why.

It was fine. They were just going to sleep. That was impossible to fuck up. Worst case he'd sleep like shit and be more exhausted than usual in the morning. But it wasn’t like Roy was going to take one look at him in the same bed and just know.

Plus, what was he supposed to say anyway? Oh by the way I’m bisexual and used to have a wank to your poster so I get it if you want to change your mind?

No way. Or maybe he should have. At least that would have been one way to ensure that he got the bed to himself. And that would be great for the night and all, but then Roy would get all weird and uncomfortable with him and might decide that the situation the three of them had wasn’t so great for him after all.

Jamie had not forgotten the incredulous look Roy had given him when he hadn’t corrected Dani’s threesome comment fast enough. Keeley had said that she’d be done with both of them as soon as anyone got too uncomfortable and things got too weird. Jamie was not going to blow this for all of them just because he couldn’t handle sharing a bed with Roy fucking Kent.

Jamie didn’t know why he was overthinking what to sleep in so much. Roy already knew he got cold up top and too hot on his lower half. It would be way more weird to sleep in his jeans than to take them off, especially when Roy’s only rule had been that he didn’t fully Winnie the Pooh it.

So he left his jeans in the washroom and headed back into the bedroom. Apparently, he had been overthinking shit for absolutely no reason because Roy was already half asleep on top of the covers fully clothed. He didn’t even open his eyes or acknowledge Jamie’s presence, even when Jamie got into bed beside him.

“Shove over,” Jamie complained.

When Roy ignored him, he elbowed him in the arm hard.

“Move the fuck over or else I’ll lay on top of you,” Jamie threatened because he was stupid and didn’t think through the consequences of what he would do if Roy didn’t react to the game of chicken how he was supposed to again until after the words had already left his mouth.

But Roy just rolled over with a groaned out, “Fine, fuck.”

Jamie was relieved and not at all disappointed because that would be fucked up.

He sprawled out on his stomach on his half of the bed and turned his head away from Roy in the hopes that he could just forget he was there and fall asleep.

Jamie lay there for several minutes, but he still wasn’t any closer to falling asleep and the silence was getting to him.

It was going to be so much worse if Roy ever found out after this. Maybe, he should just rip the bandaid off and tell him now. Or, he could just keep it a secret forever. Yeah, that would work.

But a few more minutes passed and Jamie couldn’t sleep and Roy was absolutely going to kill him if he found out about Jamie’s history of being horny for him. Which was just history. Definitely not still a thing. Jamie was with Keeley and Roy was old as fuck and bossy and Jamie was not into that at all. Roy wasn’t even that hot anymore.

So things were totally fine now. They were just friends. Friends that didn’t have any weird feelings whatsoever. Friends that absolutely did not get horny thinking about the other with Keeley. No, they were okay with the other being with Keeley because they were mature as fuck and there was absolutely nothing hot about the idea at all.

If anything, it was a little gross. No, not gross. Just... totally neutral... totally didn’t affect anything at all.

Jamie couldn’t fucking stand this silence anymore. He wanted to turn his head and check if Roy was still awake but he also wanted to pretend that he himself was asleep.

Maybe, he should just test the waters a little... Ask him something totally hypothetical.

Hey, I’m totally not, but I was just wondering… would you still have been enough of a stubborn asshole to share a bed like this if I was bi and you knew it? Yeah right. That was stupid.

Roy was fine with Keeley being bi, but that was much much different. It didn’t personally affect him the way this would. He liked Keeley being into him.

Oh, Keeley had a wank thinking about him? That’s great. That’s normal. That’s not going to make anything weird. Keeley had a wank thinking about a hot girl? Who hasn’t? No big deal. Jamie had another wank thinking about Roy? That could easily be a punchable offence, especially after how Roy had reacted to Dani thinking they’d had sex.

But then Jamie had an idea. It was an idea that could potentially make him look like a colossal prick but it just might safely test the waters to find out if Roy would be pissed without actually just blurting it out and hoping for the best.

He would just ask Roy if he’d share a bed with Colin if they didn’t have enough hotel rooms or not. It might be a little out of nowhere, but Roy was drunk and he wasn’t going to put together why Jamie was asking. Worst case, Roy would think he was a homophobic dickhead and hit him, but at least then it might be safe to explain why he’d actually asked.

It was a good plan. A great plan. There wasn’t a single flaw. Now all he had to do was ask before he could have the chance to think too hard.

“Hey, Roy,” he tried, but there was no response.

Jamie lifted his head and turned to check if Roy was ignoring him, but he didn’t look particularly conscious.

“Are you awake?” Jamie asked anyway. When Roy didn’t respond, he flicked him on the head and said, “Hey. Wake up, dickhead.”

Roy did not wake up and kill him for flicking him in the face again. Jamie had taken too long to decide what to do and now he was out cold.

“For fuck’s sake,” Jamie grumbled to himself as he tried to get comfy again.

Well, he’d tried. Now he’d just have to keep it a secret for the rest of time and hope that Keeley never called him out on it or else Roy was absolutely one hundred percent going to cut his dick off.

Chapter Text

Roy felt like absolute shit when his alarm went off the next morning. For a moment, he didn’t realize why he could hear two alarms. But then one of them stopped and he remembered that he and Jamie had both taken the guest room.

Roy pulled his phone out of his pants pocket with a groan and turned his alarm off.

“Rise and shine!” Jamie called out way too happily as he clapped his hands loudly. “Let’s go! Time to get up!”

“Fuck off.”

Jamie turned the lights on and Roy pulled his pillow over his face.

“Get up, mate,” Jamie said. “You said you’d be fine, remember?”

“Kill me.”

“Nah, need you to coach me,” Jamie said dismissively. “So get the fuck up.”

Because apparently, he'd taken it upon himself to be as much of a dickhead as possible. The fucker could not have sounded more amused.

Roy was starting to think that spending so much time last night rubbing in the fact that Jamie hadn’t been allowed to drink might not have been the best decision. It wasn’t quite as hilarious now that he was facing the consequences and Jamie was the one having fun at his expense.

“Give me a minute. I'm getting up,” Roy said, although he made no effort to actually move.

“I’m going to get me extra clothes out of the car. If you’re not up by the time I get back, I’m dragging you out of bed.”

Roy was half-tempted to make him do it and call it resistance training. Jamie probably would. But Roy didn’t really feel like getting all bruised up when he hit the floor. Plus, they didn’t need to wake Keeley up with the noise it would make when Jamie dropped him.

So Roy gave himself a few more seconds to just lie there regretting every decision he had ever made and then forced himself up.

It was going to be a long fucking morning, but at least he hadn’t slept on the couch. His whole body already hurt enough as it was.

Jamie was supposed to be running, but he had chosen a slow jog instead of running because Roy looked like he might actually die if Jamie made him run to keep up.

Even with the slower pace, Roy kept falling behind and Jamie had to keep jogging back over to him when he got too far ahead.

“You’re not going to keel over on me, are you?” Jamie asked.

“Fuck off,” Roy responded. “I’m not that old.”

“You are that hungover,” Jamie pointed out. “You know, we could turn back if you’re not up to it.”

“I’m fine,” Roy insisted because he was a stubborn old fuck.

“Interesting how last night when you were supposed to take the couch you were ancient," Jamie pointed out. "But now suddenly you’re not even old."

“I am really not in the mood for your shit right now,” Roy growled at him. “New rule. You’re not allowed to talk while you’re running.”

“Okay,” Jamie said. “But I’m not running so that rule doesn’t apply right now.”

“I will strangle you,” Roy warned.

“You’d have to catch me first,” Jamie insisted and then he took off at a full sprint with a loud laugh.

“Do push-ups until I get there,” Roy called out after him.

Jamie genuinely couldn’t tell if it was meant as a joke or if he was pissy enough from being hungover that he meant it.

Jamie made it to the park long before Roy was even in sight. He could do push-ups like Roy had told him to, but the last time he’d done that when Roy had left him unattended, Roy had gotten all pissy at him afterwards for listening.

Besides, if Roy keeled over in the street, Jamie didn’t want to be left doing push-ups for the rest of his life. So he just stretched against the bench while he waited.

“That doesn’t look like push-ups,” Roy complained when he finally showed up several minutes later.

“I thought you didn’t like it when I listened to you,” Jamie pointed out.

Roy rolled his eyes and sat down on the bench.

He must have been pretty damn relieved to be able to sit down and just bark out orders because he didn’t even yell at Jamie for not listening and being a shit on purpose.

Keeley woke up to the smell of something cooking. One of them must have come back after morning training.

Cooking seemed more like Roy, but Jamie seemed more likely to be functional enough to have come to do anything other than lie back down.

Keeley went downstairs to find out who it was. She could hear faint music and Jamie’s voice before she even made it to the kitchen.

“-should just be glad I don’t want to wake Keeley up or else I’d turn it up even louder.”

She paused in the doorway and saw that they'd come back together. Jamie was cooking while Roy sat at the table with his head resting on his arms. A mug of coffee rested inches from his face.

Keeley just watched them for a second and smiled to herself when Jamie turned the music down for Roy despite what he had just said.

“Smells good,” Keeley said as she walked into the kitchen.

Jamie turned around and grinned at her while Roy lifted his head up off of the table.

"Morning," Jamie greeted her. "Roy was going to help, but he's a fucking mess."

“Telling you what to do is helping,” Roy pointed out.

Well, that made Jamie being the one cooking make more sense.

Keeley looked between them with a grin, then went over to Jamie and kissed him.

Roy had kissed her last night while Jamie was within eyeshot and Jamie had clearly not minded at all. Then when she’d kissed Jamie later, Roy had shown up while she’d still had her arms around his neck and his only concern had been whether Jamie was drinking or not so she figured it should be a safe enough choice. She still kept the kiss quick anyway though, just in case.

When she pulled back, she saw Jamie glance at Roy behind her, then smile. Roy must not look bothered then.

Keeley poured herself a cup of coffee, then headed over to the table as she asked, “Rough morning, babe?”

“Better now that you’re here,” Roy told her.

Keeley set her mug down on the table, then leaned down to kiss him. She sat down at the table after and just grinned to herself. Breakfast with either of them was great and all, but both of them there making breakfast together and acting the same way they would if only one of them was there was even better.

“You’re in a good mood,” Roy said, throwing her own words from the night before back at her.

“I just really like this,” she said as she pointed from him to where Jamie had focused back on cooking.

“It’ll be even better when Roy cooks next time,” Jamie said.

Keeley liked the sound of that next time.

“Oh, you’re cooking next time?” Keeley asked as she eyed Roy. She had a sneaking suspicion that this was the first he had heard of this.

“Apparently,” he said. “But that’s probably better anyway. Jamie doesn’t even know how to crack an egg properly.”

“I cracked them fine, thank you. You’re just picky. And bossy about literally everything,” Jamie accused. He turned his attention to Keeley as he added, “Is he bossy in bed too?”

Roy glared in Jamie’s direction.

“Not really,” Keeley said. She watched Roy to see if he looked like he was going to argue or cut her off, but he looked completely unconcerned as he reached for his coffee so she added, “I mean, every once in a while for fun. But he’s great at taking directions too.”

“Sure am,” Roy agreed as he lifted his mug to cheers her without a hint of embarrassment.

“Well, that’s something I have to live with knowing now,” Jamie said.

“Shouldn't have asked then,” Roy said with a smile in Keeley's direction and she had to laugh.

During their second round of training, Roy’s phone buzzed with a series of texts from Colin.

Michael told me what all that was about last night

so thanks? I guess?

really could have done without you yelling at him for no reason first though

There was no way that Roy was sending anything to explain himself or respond to Colin’s annoying thanking him. Roy didn't mind Colin knowing, but he wished he wouldn’t have said anything to him about it. Now, it was a whole thing. Roy hated whole things.

Roy exited out of that conversation, hoping that if he didn't answer Colin that he would just drop it and never bring it up again. As he did, he saw that there were several texts in the Yoga Mum group chat that he kept on mute because he would quite literally never live it down if Jamie saw even just the chat name.

Roy skimmed through the messages and saw that they were talking about having brunch on Tuesday. It was supposed to start before his second round of training with Jamie would be over, but he could always show up late. Or make Jamie quit early and add the extra time to the afternoon.

He’d figure something out.

On Monday, Keeley had lunch with Rebecca. This time Rebecca had come to her office instead.

“Can I ask you a kind of weird question?” Keeley asked.

“Of course,” Rebecca said. “In fact, I would argue that not asking it is no longer an option anymore.”

“Alright... So hypothetically,” Keeley said even though she was well aware that they both knew that there was nothing hypothetical about it. “If someone had two boyfriends and they both stayed over but slept in a bed with each other instead of with her would that be weird?”

Rebecca’s eyes went wide.

“Oh my god,” she said. “Do you think there’s something going on between them?”

“What?” Keeley asked. “No. No way.”

Sure, she was well aware that there was a time when Jamie would have been all for that idea. But that had been before he had actually met Roy.

A while into their first go around, Jamie had caught on to the way that Keeley sometimes talked about women and had made a guess at the reason why. When she’d confirmed that she was bi, he’d told her that he’d figured it out because he was too. And after that, they had checked out men together and they had checked out women together. But Jamie’s favourite (or maybe least favourite, it was hard to tell) man to talk about had been Roy Kent.

Keeley had put up with a lot of rants about how much Jamie couldn’t stand him. And about how meeting him had absolutely not lived up to his expectations.

Keeley, you won’t believe what that old twat did today.

Can you believe they let that old dinosaur stay on the team? Somebody should put the fuck out of his misery for all of our sakes.

I can’t believe I ever had a thing for that miserable old fart. You’re not going to believe what he said about my hair today.

If I ever get that old and slow, just kill me. Seriously. I’m embarrassed for him.

You’re never gonna believe the bullshit Granddad pulled today.

You know he’s never told me I made a good play once? He just whines about how I shouldn’t be on the team like he ain’t even got eyes to notice how good I am.

I don’t know why Roy walks around like he’s so fucking important. I don’t get how they let him be captain anymore. He’s slow and an absolute prick and he ain’t even hot anymore. What the fuck are they keeping him around for?

Now I get why people always say don’t meet your heroes.  'Cause they might turn out to be hairy old geriatric dickbags.

That prick won’t even pass to me. And then he has the nerve to get all mad when I go pick the ball off of him. How else was I supposed to get it? I wasn’t gonna let him give it away to the other team again. He should be thanking me for giving him an assist instead of being a total bitch about it.

I dunno why old man Roy thinks he’s so much fucking better than me. He’s always bitching and moaning like I’m the problem but at least I talk to anyone. He just grunts and ignores everybody except for when he suddenly learns how to talk for five seconds just to threaten me for no fucking reason.

Roy don’t even listen to me! He just gets all pissy at me. And he don't even let me talk long enough to deserve it anymore!

I mean, yeah, maybe he’s still hot if you’re standing really far away and squint. But it don’t even matter because even if you never get close enough to tell that there’s nothing sexy about him anymore, he’s still gonna open up his mouth sooner or later and show how much of a fucking psychopath he is. A dead fish has a better personality than him, Keeley!

Can you believe Granddad is Ted’s favourite? He hasn’t played a decent match in years, don't talk to anyone, and don't even come to team shit 'cause it’s past his old man bedtime but we’re all supposed to be like him? Fuck that. Lasso’s just showing how much he has no idea what he’s doing. You know, if he was smart, he’d make me captain instead.

Keeley had heard a lot of ranting about Roy. Honestly, he’d come up in conversation with Jamie more back then than he did now while she was dating both of them and Jamie spent most of his time with Roy.

Even at the time, Keeley hadn’t been convinced that Jamie was totally sure whether he absolutely hated Roy or still had a thing for him. It had seemed like maybe both, but she’d thought better than to point that out and start him on a new monologue about how annoying and revolting he found Roy.

Now that they were friends and Jamie didn’t seem bothered by Roy’s personality at all, Keeley had absolutely no idea if Jamie thought about Roy that way again or not. It wasn’t like they discussed it. They hadn’t really discussed anything about him being bi lately.

She was pretty sure that Jamie still hadn’t told anyone even remotely related to the team though so she didn’t mention any of that to Rebecca. Back then, he hadn’t wanted to risk anyone on the team finding out and acting weird around him in the locker room for it. Now that Colin was out and that didn’t have to be a concern anymore, she wasn’t really sure what was holding him back. And maybe she was wrong and he had said something and just never mentioned it to her. But she was not going to take that risk. Besides, it wasn’t like it even mattered when she was sure that Roy did not think of Jamie that way either way.

“They were fighting over who would take the couch and who would take the guest bed,” Keeley explained. “And then they just ended up both taking the bed together.”

“Why didn’t either of them sleep with you?” Rebecca asked. “Hell, why didn’t they both sleep with you if they were going to share a bed anyway?”

“I don’t know,” Keeley said. “Roy was drunk and trying to I don't know? Be chivalrous or something. And then as soon as he said he wasn’t sleeping in my room and waking me up at four, Jamie had to hop right on board like it was some kind of competition about who was more considerate and like I don’t wake up from their stupid alarms that early most mornings anyway.”

“Typical men,” Rebecca said. “Granted, very different situation. But still…”

Keeley let out a laugh at that.

“I’ve got to leave early,” Roy said out of fucking nowhere during their second training session on Tuesday.

“Why?” Jamie asked suspiciously.

Roy hadn’t cancelled when he’d been a hungover mess on Sunday morning. Now absolutely nothing had happened, Roy seemed completely fine, and he was trying to duck out early anyway. It didn’t make sense.

Jamie could handle him leaving early once. He could. Hell, he was hungry enough that he was glad to be ending early. But he definitely was not going to make it easy on Roy when he was acting all weird and shady.

“I have lunch plans,” Roy said like that made any sense.

Roy didn’t make plans when they were training. People didn’t try to make plans with Roy when they were training. And if they had, Roy would have made lunch plans at their actual lunchtime.

“With who?” Jamie asked.

“None of your business.”

Ah. So this was about Roy’s mysterious other friends.

“Then bring me with you,” Jamie said.

He thought it was a perfectly reasonable request when they ate lunch together practically every day, but Roy looked at him like he thought Jamie had lost his mind.

“Fuck no,” Roy said.

“Why not?” Jamie complained. “Are you embarrassed of me?”

“Yes,” Roy said matter-of-factly.

“That’s rude as hell,” Jamie complained. It wasn't necessarily surprising, but he still hadn't needed to just flat-out say it. “That hurts my feelings, you know.”

“You’ll survive.”

Roy glanced over his shoulder before he even approached the restaurant, just in case Jamie was trailing him like a nosey little prick. Thankfully there was no sign of him and Jamie had decided to wear orange like a fucking traffic cone so the odds that he was following and Roy had somehow missed him weren’t particularly high.

Roy had barely sat down at the table before Rachel said, “I can’t believe you made it. I was sure you’d be busy at work.”

Shit. He’d been so busy trying to make time for them again instead of just blowing them off that he’d forgotten it was a weekday. He'd forgotten that regular people with their regular person jobs would still be at work. Regular people didn't have a whole off-season.

“I took my lunch break early,” Roy said and hoped they wouldn’t ask any follow-up questions about what job he had that kept him so busy he had barely shown up to anything lately but also allowed him to supposedly move his lunch early just because he felt like it. As a distraction, he added, “I would have brought Keeley, but her lunch breaks aren’t as flexible.”

And okay, that was an absolute lie when he was fairly certain Keeley could take lunch whenever the fuck she felt like it as the fucking CEO, but he would far rather they focus on her than on what he might do for work. Besides, it was true that he hadn’t brought her because he knew that she had important work shit and meetings and he didn’t want her thinking that he thought she would or should just drop everything and rearrange her whole schedule to come day drink with him and the yoga mums. There would be other opportunities for Keeley to meet them.

“Does that mean you’re done hiding her from us?” Lauren asked.

“I wasn’t hiding her,” Roy defended himself. “She’s just been busy.”

Which was a weak as shit excuse and he knew it, but it wasn’t entirely untrue either. And he definitely was not going to get into the fact that they’d broken up for a while and gotten back together. If he hadn’t shared their breakup before, he sure as fuck wasn’t going to bring that up now.

Roy’s phone buzzed and if it was Jamie pestering him with questions, Roy was actually going to murder him.

But it wasn’t. It was his sister.

They stuck me with a shift on Sunday

Sunday was Father’s Day. Usually, all three of them spent the day together doing something that would hopefully be fun enough to keep Phoebe’s mind off of the sack of shit that had contributed to her DNA. Honestly, Roy did it to try to keep both of their minds off of the waste of space that had been moronic enough to walk out on them.

This put a wrench in that plan, but at least he could still give Phoebe a decent day.

That’s fine. I’ll still take her.

He was planning on taking her to the zoo and going from there. He’d also been thinking of bringing Keeley and Jamie along. Keeley didn’t talk to her family much and generally had spent holidays with Roy and Phoebe anyway and Phoebe would be thrilled to see her there. And Jamie’s dad was just as much of a waste of space as Phoebe’s so Roy was sure he could use something to keep his mind off of what day it was too.

Hopefully I’ll be able to make it out on time and won’t have to miss the whole day

Roy considered for a moment. It almost definitely wouldn’t go well for him, but it would make for one hell of a distraction for his sister and Keeley did want to meet her. So against his better judgment, he sent back Do you want to meet Keeley then if you do?

Are you kidding?

I finally get to meet her?

Even as Roy typed his message, he knew that it wouldn’t work. Only if you promise not to embarrass me.

When have I ever embarrassed you?

He was definitely going to regret this.

Roy didn’t dignify her message with a response as he put his phone away. When he tuned back into what was going on around him, Maureen was talking about the new flooring she was getting in her kitchen. At least he hadn’t missed anything too important.

Keeley was surprised when the credits of the movie she was watching with Jamie came on. She wasn’t sure that she'd ever actually made it through an entire movie with him before. When they had used to put one on, they’d always completely ignore it within five minutes.

It was nice getting to properly watch one with him. That didn’t mean she wasn’t ready to jump his bones now that it was over though.

Except when she turned to him, he was chewing at the skin on the side of his thumbnail and looked uncharacteristically deep in thought about something.

Keeley pulled his hand away from his mouth and he glanced over at her surprised enough that she was pretty sure he hadn’t paid attention to the end of the movie for a whole other reason than usual.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” she asked.

Jamie was silent for a moment, then asked, “Do you want to go see me dad with me on Sunday?”

That hadn’t been what she’d been expecting, but now she got what was going on. Sunday was Father’s Day.

“You want me to come with you?” she asked.

Jamie had never brought her around his dad before. When they’d been together, she’d heard plenty about him and his mum, but he’d never introduced her to either. As it was, she’d only met his mum because she and Roy had basically stalked him to her place.

“He’s sobered up now,” Jamie said. “So he ain’t so bad anymore. But it’d still be easier if you came.”

That was new. When they’d been together, Jamie had always talked about his dad like he’d idolized him. She’d only found out about the way Jamie’s dad treated him well after they’d broken up and from Roy of all people. She’d known it had to have been particularly bad when Roy had been angry on Jamie’s behalf after that game against Man City.

But now Jamie sounded almost apologetic. Like he felt bad for asking her to be around his father.  

And, sure, if it was up to her, neither of them would be going to see him. But if Jamie was going to go, then she wanted to be there for him. And she liked that he wasn’t keeping her completely separate from his relationship with him, although now she wondered if the real reason he’d never introduced her to him before had been more about not wanting her to hear something than it was that he hadn't considered her important enough.

“I can do that,” Keeley said and Jamie immediately looked relieved like he’d thought she would refuse. After a moment, she added, “You know you don’t have to go see him though, right?”

“I want to,” he said and she couldn’t tell if it was true or not. “I went once already since he stopped drinking and it was… better.”

Between the way he had hesitated before deciding on a word and the look on his face, Keeley had a hard time believing that, but she didn’t say that. If Jamie wanted to believe things would be better now and give his dad another chance, then she was going to hope that he was right and be there for him if he wasn’t.

At least if she was there, she could drag Jamie out the moment his father said anything he shouldn't instead of Jamie just sitting there and taking it.

“I don’t even know what to get him now that he don’t drink no more,” Jamie said. “I can’t get him anything football related because his team ain’t even mine.”

“You don’t have to get him anything,” Keeley pointed out.

It wasn’t like he’d done anything to deserve it.

“Yeah, I do,” Jamie said. “It’ll be way more weird if I don’t.”

“We’ll figure something out.”

Keeley still didn’t think his dad deserved anything or that Jamie had any reason to worry about what to get him. But if bringing something was for Jamie’s benefit and not his dad’s, then she’d help him pick out something.

“I can only do the first training session Sunday,” Roy said during training the next day because apparently he hated Jamie and didn’t want to spend time with him anymore.

“Fine, go have fun with your secret friends,” Jamie said in a tone that wasn’t at all huffy because he didn’t care at all that Roy had decided he was allowed to cancel on him whenever he wanted without even asking if Jamie was okay with it.

Which he was. He was so okay with it. He was a good enough player with or without Roy anyway. He definitely was not disappointed at all that Roy was finally getting tired of putting so much time and effort into him.

“It’s Father’s Day,” Roy said like Jamie wasn’t already perfectly aware of that. “I’m spending the day with Phoebe to take her mind off of it and the utter sack of shit that disappeared on her.”

“Oh,” Jamie said. “Okay.”

Great. Now he had to train without Roy for most of Sunday and he felt like a big dick for getting mad about it.

“I’m thinking of asking Keeley if she wants to come with us to the zoo,” Roy said. “And you can come too.”

He said it so casually like they didn’t both know that Roy was offering because he thought Jamie’s dad was an utter sack of shit too. Which, yeah, sometimes he was. But Jamie’s situation and Phoebe’s situation were completely different.

Jamie was grateful for the offer and annoyed all at the same time. But maybe part of that was the fact that he had to tell Roy now.

“I’m taking Keeley to see me dad, but we can go after,” he admitted. Roy’s brow furrowed but he didn’t say anything so Jamie blurted out, “I know what you’re thinking, but he’s done with drinking. And he didn’t say anything bad the last time I saw him so…”

Jamie had intentionally kept the information that he’d been in touch with him at all to himself so Roy only looked more confused when Jamie mentioned the last time he’d seen him.

“You never said anything,” Roy pointed out and if Jamie didn’t know better, he might have thought Roy was offended.

Jamie hadn’t said anything because he’d been embarrassed about reaching out to his dad in the first place. He hadn’t wanted Roy to know about it, especially when he’d reached the olive branch out first and his dad hadn’t even had the decency to respond to his text. But then one of his dad’s friends had told him the real reason his dad hadn’t been at the Man City game and hadn’t had his phone and Jamie hadn’t really believed it until he’d gone and seen him himself.

And things had gone weirdly well, but he’d kept it to himself anyway. Jamie hadn’t wanted to jinx himself. He didn’t want to embarrass himself admitting that things were going better with his dad just to have the rug pulled out from him all over again like after his whole super dad routine in Amsterdam. And he didn’t need Roy telling him not to get his hopes up. He was fully aware of how stupid it was and he didn’t need to be judged for it on top of that.

But now Roy was obviously inviting him to hang out with him and Phoebe because he thought Jamie was fatherless and going to spend the day devastated if he was on his own. So Jamie had told him. Because he didn’t need Roy feeling sorry for him. He wasn’t like Phoebe. His dad might not have always been the greatest, but at least he was still his dad. He’d never up and fully walked out on him. But Jamie was not about to get into that with Roy and have Roy get all pissy at him for defending him.

So instead, Jamie just said, “I don’t tell you everything.”

“Sure you don’t,” Roy said.

He sounded completely amused by the idea and Jamie was momentarily tempted to out himself out of spite just to prove Roy wrong and see the look on his face. But then he’d have to deal with the consequences and that idea was much less appealing.

“You have your secrets and I have mine,” Jamie insisted. “Maybe if you tell me about the secret friends you’re so weird about, I’ll tell you one of my secrets.”

He wouldn’t really. Or he’d at least probably pick something far less dangerous.

“I’m good,” Roy said. “I highly doubt you have any secrets that I would find even remotely interesting. They’re probably all some bullshit about how mortified you are over a completely ordinary haircut you had as a child or something.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Jamie lied because that was the much safer option. “I could never keep anything big secret.”

Chapter Text

Jamie had seemed fidgety and nervous the whole way there, but he took a deep breath before they went in and then suddenly he was back to his usual confident self.

He grinned as he headed over to where his dad was sitting without a moment’s hesitation. He’d been quiet on the way over, but now he was greeting his father loudly.

“Hey, Dad,” Jamie said as he bent down to hug him.

Keeley hung back a few steps as she watched his father pat him on the back.

“This is my girlfriend, Keeley,” Jamie said with a grand sweeping gesture toward her.

Keeley waved and moved a little closer.

“The model, right?” his father asked.

Jamie looked at her with a big smile as he said, “She’s a CEO now. Got her own firm and everything.”

Jamie’s dad held his hand out to her and as she shook it, he said, “Nice to finally meet you.”

“Yeah,” Keeley said because so far nothing was going wrong and she didn’t want to be the reason that changed but she couldn’t make herself say it was nice to meet him either after some of the things she’d heard about him.

“Here, this is for you,” Jamie said as he handed over a small wrapped box.

Keeley had suggested that Jamie just get a box of chocolates or something if he didn’t want to show up empty-handed, but Jamie had gotten his dad an expensive watch that he absolutely didn’t deserve.

Keeley grabbed Jamie’s hand as they watched him unwrap it.

For a moment, she worried that he was going to have the nerve to not even be grateful for it, but then he grinned and insisted, “Oh, this is perfect. The guys are all going to be jealous when I get out of here.”

Keeley relaxed a little then, but kept her grip on Jamie’s hand.

Maybe this wouldn’t have to go disastrously after all.

“Uncle Roy, can we have ice cream for breakfast?” Phoebe asked.

Roy’s sister shot him a warning look like she thought he might actually fall for that.

“No way,” Roy said. “You need actual food, not just sugar.”

“I’ve got to go,” his sister said. “But I’ll text you when I know if there’s any chance of making it later.”

“Alright,” Roy said. “Let’s go, Phoebe.” She followed him outside and once they got to the car, he asked, “What do you want for breakfast?”

“I already told you,” Phoebe insisted.

“Yeah and I already told you it’s not happening,” Roy pointed out. “So choose something else.”

Phoebe didn’t say anything.

“Look, you have to have a real breakfast,” he tried. “We’re not getting ice cream and that’s that.”

“Fine,” she said, then she sighed dramatically and looked out the window.

“Good,” Roy said. “So what do you want?”

Phoebe didn’t say anything.

“Oi, I asked you a question,” Roy said. “Or should I just pick for you?”

Phoebe didn’t answer. She just kept staring out the window.

Her mood had completely dropped and her excitement had completely disappeared. Her silence was getting to him.

Roy tried to wait her out, but he only lasted about thirty seconds before he sighed loudly.

“Alright, fine,” he gave in. “You win.”

Everything was going great until it was time for Jamie to go. Jamie was having a nice time and his dad was in a good mood and treating Keeley alright. For a moment, Jamie really thought he was going to get to leave without any sour taste in his mouth.

But then just as Jamie had turned to go, his father said, “Hey, tell that coach of yours sorry for me, will you?”

Jamie took a second to brace himself, then turned back around to face his father.

He tried and failed to keep the edge out of his tone as he asked, “Roy? Why? What did you do to him?”

This only made Roy knowing that he’d come here and was back invested in his father all over again so much more humiliating. How bad had it been that Roy hadn’t said anything to him? Or did Roy think he’d known the whole time while he was walking around like an oblivious twat?

“No, the other one,” his father said dismissively.

“Ted?” Jamie asked.

He wanted to believe that whatever his father had said or done wasn’t that bad and that he actually meant his apology. But the fact that he wouldn’t even use a name when he was supposedly sorry and Jamie knew that he knew all of the coaches' names wasn’t seeming all that promising.

“Not that wanker,” he insisted and Jamie would have just turned and left if he wasn’t being held in place by the dread of what he was about to find out. “The one that threw me out of your locker room.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

Jamie definitely did not want to know how his father had retaliated. It would have been bad enough to find out at the time. But now over a year had passed where Beard had just kept whatever had happened from Jamie like he couldn’t possibly handle it. Knowing just how many times he must have been around Beard since with no fucking clue about what had happened was fucking humiliating. And there was no way he was leaving here still the one in the dark about it.

“What did you do to Beard?” Jamie asked and his voice came out much quieter than he had intended.

“I’d been drinking,” his dad said as if that much wasn’t obvious. “And complaining about the prick coach that had kicked me out and roughed me up on the way. And then there he was all by himself, like a gift. So we decided to get back at him.”

We. It was mortifying enough that his father had decided to give his coach a beatdown. It was so much worse that he and his dickbag friends had all mobbed him to make sure Beard had absolutely zero chance of defending himself.

Why the fuck had Beard never mentioned this?

“You beat me coach up?” Jamie asked. “How many of you were there? Actually, never mind. Don’t answer that. I don’t want to know.”

How did Beard not hate Jamie? Or maybe he did. Maybe he’d secretly resented his place on the team ever since. Surely, he’d regretted standing up for Jamie after that at the very least.

Hell, he wouldn’t have had to have stepped in or gotten his ass handed to him if Jamie would have just grown a backbone and stood up for himself earlier.

“He was fine,” Jamie’s dad insisted. “His friend showed up out of nowhere. Huge fucker. That put an end to it pretty fast. But still. Tell him for me, will you?”

That was about the last thing Jamie ever wanted to talk to Beard about. But now, he obviously had to at some point. And Jamie really fucking resented his dad for that and for putting him in this position and for all the shit he’d pulled.

And even more than that, he hated that he couldn’t even just be properly angry at him. Because his dad was sobered up and trying to fix things and apologizing and Jamie had absolutely no idea how to handle that. He had no idea how the hell he was supposed to handle the conversation with Beard.

He hated that not only did he already feel like he needed to apologize once again for his dad’s behaviour, but this time it was at his dad’s request.

Jamie didn’t say anything.

He just stared at his father until Keeley grabbed his arm and said, “Jamie, let’s go.”

Jamie watched his father for a moment longer, then let Keeley pull him outside.

She stopped and turned to look at him as soon as they reached the parking lot.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Jamie said. “At least now I know instead of walking around like a complete fucking prick now. And at least he’s apologizing and making amends and all that shit. That’s part of it, right? And yeah, I’d prefer it if that wasn’t through me. But it’s something, right?”

Keeley did not look like she agreed. She looked like she was trying to decide whether saying something would be a bad idea or not.

“What?” Jamie asked.

“Apologizing is great and all yeah,” she said hesitantly. “But that’s his job, not yours. He can’t just make you make amends for him. He has to put in the work himself.”

She still looked like she was holding something back.

“It’s not like Beard’s going to go visit him,” Jamie pointed out. “Through me is better than nothing.”

“Beard might not visit him, but you did,” Keeley pointed out. “And I didn’t hear him say a single word apologizing to you. Or did he do that last time and I’m just missing something?”

He hadn’t, but at least he’d been acting differently. That had to count for something. That was more than he’d done in over a decade.

The last thing Jamie wanted to do was get into an argument with Keeley over his father, especially when he was pissed at him himself, so he didn’t say that.

“Alright, I hear you,” Jamie said. “Let’s just get out of here.”

“Your mum doesn’t find out about this,” Roy said as he watched Phoebe practically inhale her hot fudge sundae.

Ice cream for breakfast once wouldn’t kill her. So she’d be a little sugared up? So what. He could handle it. That was better than having her all pouty and disappointed by a long shot.

Roy’s phone buzzed with a text from Jamie and on a different day, he might have ignored him for a little bit for fun or checked what it said later because he was busy with Phoebe. But Roy knew who Jamie had gone to see so he opened the message right away.

if me dad ever hits u u have my permission 2 break whatever bones u want btw

Things clearly had not gone well then. Roy wasn’t particularly surprised by that, but he was annoyed anyway.

But at least now he had permission to fuck up Jamie’s dad as much as he wanted the next time he had the displeasure of seeing him.

Roy took a screenshot of the message and favourited it so that he’d be able to find it later on a moment’s notice. That way Jamie couldn’t try to take his permission back if his dad showed back up in his life just to be a total dickwad again. Roy wasn’t above baiting Jamie’s dad to hit him if it meant he got to properly shut him the fuck up after.

Roy doubted Jamie wanted to talk about what happened. Plus, he figured even if he did, he’d probably already be talking to Keeley about it. Or he’d want to talk about it in person instead of over text.

So instead of asking what happened and making Jamie relive it, he just sent back Noted.

Roy set his phone down for a moment, then picked it back up and sent a text to Keeley.

How bad was it?

“Is Keeley coming with us?” Phoebe asked.

Roy set his phone down again as he said, “She is. And Jamie is too.”

“Because he’s your best friend and you invite him everywhere,” she said matter-of-factly.

“I don’t invite him everywhere,” Roy insisted. “I don’t invite him anywhere. He just shows up and won’t leave me alone. He’s like a leech.”

Roy had invited him this time, but she didn’t need to know that. And that was different. It wasn’t like he had a habit of inviting Jamie places. He just kind of tolerated him when he showed up.

“You invited him to watch Ratatouille,” Phoebe accused like a fucking liar.

“You invited him,” Roy pointed out. “I just didn’t throw him out.”

He picked his phone up again when it buzzed.

It went better than I expected until the end

I don’t know

At least he was nice to him

Roy wasn’t sure that was better, but he didn’t say that. He’d far rather Jamie’s father be his usual prick self and keep Jamie from wasting more time on him now instead of waiting for the other shoe to drop later.

At least when it would, Roy would get to beat the shit out of him.

Roy had barely parked before Phoebe rushed out of the car. Apparently, Roy wasn’t exciting anymore now that they were at Keeley’s house.

But then she stopped running halfway to the door and turned back around to look at him wide-eyed when Roy had barely made it out of the car.

“I don’t think you should look,” Phoebe said.

“Why?” Roy asked, even though he had a feeling he knew where this was going.

Phoebe didn’t say anything for a long moment.

Roy glanced over at the window Keeley and Jamie were now watching them from.

“Is this about Jamie?” Roy asked.

Phoebe seemed to consider for a moment before she loudly whispered, “They were kissing.”

“They do that,” Roy said. “He’s her other boyfriend.”

“Oh,” she said.

And that seemed to be that. Roy hadn’t freaked out so Phoebe had just accepted it as fine, no questions asked.

But then they got two steps inside and Phoebe asked, “Do you kiss Jamie too?”

“Fuck no,” Roy said loudly and it was worth the price it would add to his tab. “I would rather get run over by a fucking train than kiss Jamie once.”

“You don’t have to sound so offended by the idea,” Jamie complained which was awfully fucking rich when Roy knew he was just as horrified by the suggestion. “I’m a good kisser. Tell him, Keeley.”

Keeley had been staring at Jamie, but she turned to look at Roy as she said, “That is true.”

Her eyes went back to Jamie again as soon as the words had left her mouth. Like she was actually worried that Jamie’s ego was so fragile he couldn’t handle anyone on Earth not wanting to kiss him.

Well, she had missed Jamie’s whole speech about how unfuckable Roy was so he supposed she hadn’t seen the precedent that Jamie had already more than set for handling these types of questions.

“I’ll take your word for it,” Roy said because there was absolutely no chance in hell that he was ever going to find out for himself and he was trying to not sound like a complete dick when Keeley seemed to find the train thing a bit far. “Are you ready to go?”

When they made it to the zoo, Keeley grabbed Jamie’s hand and leaned closer to Jamie while Roy paid.

“You good?” she asked.

Jamie wasn’t entirely certain if she was asking because she assumed he couldn’t handle Father’s Day without having a breakdown at some point or if she was asking because of the Roy thing back at her house. He couldn’t really ask her for clarification with Phoebe standing right next to them though.

Jamie deserved a fucking medal for his self-restraint.

He had very narrowly held himself back from responding to Roy’s I’ll take your word for it with Or you could just kiss me and find out for yourself.

It would have been the perfect response. There was a 99.9% chance it would annoy the hell out of Roy which was reason enough to blurt it out. Plus, there was a 0.01% chance that Roy might go for it to prove a point and yeah, he’d probably be a dick after and yeah, Jamie was probably fully delusional in thinking there was any chance at all but that didn’t stop his brain from going there.

The only thing that had fully held him back had been Keeley. Roy had no idea that Jamie was bi and was never ever ever going to find out about that as long as he lived so it was a safe enough joke to make. He’d just assume it was Jamie living to annoy him, which it mostly would have been. But Keeley knew about Jamie and she knew about the thing he’d used to have for Roy once upon a time. She had been watching Jamie way too closely ever since Roy’s extreme overreaction to Phoebe asking if they were a thing too.

So if Jamie told Roy to stop being a coward and just kiss him and find out himself, Keeley would think it was a whole thing. Which it wouldn’t be. Jamie didn’t even actually want to kiss Roy. Sure, he would if Roy happened to go for it, but he’d say the same thing to anyone. Given the chance, he one hundred percent would take it, but so would anyone else.

Jamie didn’t need Keeley reading into things and thinking he was trying to make something happen with Roy. He didn’t need her watching him like she thought his feelings were going to get hurt. Jamie’s feelings weren’t hurt. He knew anyone that would kiss a man would want to kiss him. Roy being horrendously tragically straight was his loss, not Jamie’s.

“I’m great,” Jamie told her.

When Roy came back, Jamie went to go pay for himself.

“Where the fuck are you going?” Roy asked. “I already paid.”

“Oh,” Jamie said.

He’d just kind of assumed that Roy had paid for himself and Phoebe and Keeley and would have left Jamie to pay for himself just to be a dick. Not that Jamie wasn’t perfectly fucking capable of paying his own way. Roy just liked to inconvenience him for a laugh.

Jamie wasn’t sure whether to be grateful that Roy was being nice or pissed off that Roy seemed to be just assuming that Jamie must be having some tragic traumatic day and he couldn’t possibly handle Roy’s usual ribbing.

Jamie’s phone buzzed then and he pulled it out of his pocket and found a message from his mother.

Have you talked to your dad today?

“Hurry up,” Roy growled at him like a total dick and Jamie was actually kind of relieved for it.

“I’m giving you and your fucked knee a head start,” Jamie lied. “You should be thanking me.”

Jamie didn’t look up, but he just assumed Roy was flipping him off. He hesitated for a second before sending an answer back to his mum.

went and saw him

How did that go?

ok

Jamie started typing another message and then stopped three times in a row. Everything was making it sound like it had gone worse than it really had. Or better than it had. Or both at once. So he gave up and just shoved his phone back in his pocket.

Roy and Keeley were holding hands now and Phoebe was holding onto Keeley’s other hand. Jamie headed over to them and tried to forget about how the visit with his dad had ended.

“Which way are we going first?” Roy asked.

“I want to see the giraffes,” Phoebe said.

Roy led the way and Jamie pulled his phone back out as he trailed behind everyone else.

His mum had sent him another text and Jamie was expecting her to be asking something about what had happened or whether he was okay or something. Instead, she changed the subject altogether.

Not wanting to talk about him was fair play, but Jamie didn’t see why she had to change it the way she did.

Hey

It wouldn’t kill you to answer Simon’s texts every once in a while, you know

maybe not

still dont want 2 tho

Jamie couldn’t imagine why she was bringing this up now. Simon hadn’t even texted him today. Sure, he’d sent him a message like three days ago, but Jamie hadn't gotten anything new today. And Jamie ignoring Simon’s texts was nothing new.

Every once in a while Simon sent him a text like Just wanted to check in. How are you doing? or Tried a great new cake recipe. Let me know next time you’re stopping by and I’ll make another for you to try or Saw the game. How’s the ankle? and Jamie left him on read so that he wouldn’t be encouraged to message him more often.

Simon was alright and all. His mum keeping him around was fine, but that didn’t mean Jamie wanted to make small talk with him or tell him about what was going on in his life. Simon could just find out from his mum anyway. There was no reason Jamie should have to say things twice.

Really the only times Jamie actually used Simon’s number were when he couldn’t get a hold of his mum and used him to get in contact with her and every year on Simon’s birthday when his mum made him send him a text.

That worked well enough. They got on just fine that way. 

Jamie waited a second to see if his mum would start typing again after she read his messages, but she left it at that.

“Jamie, are you coming?” Keeley asked.

Jamie watched for the typing dots for a second longer, but they didn’t appear so he locked his phone and jogged a few steps to catch up with them.

The zoo was pretty busy and Phoebe had a harder time seeing the animals past other people once they got into more crowded areas and when the animals weren’t as tall as the giraffes.

Keeley had half-expected Roy to shove a path through the other people but instead, he’d dropped Keeley’s hand so he could carry Phoebe on his shoulders so that she’d be able to see easier.

Jamie had seemed off when they’d first gotten there and he’d been trailing behind them and distracted by his phone. He seemed to be having a much better time now though, even if it was at Roy’s expense.

“Hey, look!” he said happily, using the hand that was holding hers to point at a gorilla. “That one’s almost as hairy as Roy.”

“And I bet you’re nearly as smart as it is,” Roy retorted.

“That’s not the insult you think it is,” Jamie insisted. “Gorillas are smart. They can make tools and shit.”

“That’s another one,” Phoebe said.

“I know. Add it to my tab and I’ll pay you later,” Jamie told her. He turned to Keeley as he said, “I don’t know how you manage to never owe her anything.”

“Oh, I still slip up sometimes,” Keeley said. “Roy just pays for it for me.”

“Well then he can just pay for mine too,” Jamie said with a smirk. He was clearly already planning to misuse it if Roy agreed to it.

“No way,” Roy said.

“That’s not fair,” Jamie complained.

“She has girlfriend privileges,” Roy pointed out. “You’re already enough of a freeloader.”

But obviously, he didn’t really care or else he wouldn’t have paid for them all.

“Plus you swear way more than Keeley does,” Phoebe added.

“That’s true,” Jamie admitted.

Keeley wasn’t sure it was though. She thought she was just better at hiding it around her.

By the time they were leaving, Roy bent down and set Phoebe back on the ground.

“You’re gonna have to walk from here,” he said.

Phoebe grabbed onto one of his hands and he grabbed Keeley's with his other.

“I’m surprised you managed to carry her this far with your old man legs,” Jamie insisted as he turned to walk backwards just so he could annoy Roy. “Are you sure you don’t need a walker to make it to the parking lot?”

“Shut up or I’ll make you carry me all the way to the car,” Roy warned.

Keeley was sure that was an empty threat. Sure, it would annoy Jamie but it also required a lot more trust than there was anyway Roy was going to put in him. And there was no way Roy was going to be seen with Jamie carrying him around in public anyway.

But then Jamie laughed and said, “I don’t see how that’s any different than the usual shit you make me do. We already skipped our usual training today. May as well fit some in.”

When Roy let go of her hand, Keeley was expecting him to hit Jamie or something but instead, he just said, “Alright. Why not?”

Jamie stopped walking, then turned around and bent down to wait for Roy to get on his back.

Keeley had never really put much thought into what Roy training Jamie might look like until then. But if this was normal what the hell were they doing for hours every day?

“Hurry up,” Jamie complained when Roy hesitated for a moment. “Get on me back.”

“Drop me and I will murder you,” Roy warned.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jamie said dismissively. “You didn’t fall when I dragged your bike. You’re not gonna fall now.”

Keeley wasn’t so sure about that. Jamie tipped a little as Roy climbed onto his back for a piggyback ride but he caught his balance and shifted his grip on Roy a little, then turned back to her and Phoebe with a big grin.

“This is your normal training?” Keeley asked.

“Pretty much yeah,” Jamie said at the same moment that Roy said, “Not exactly.”

“You know what, you’re too fucking heavy. I am going to drop you,” Jamie insisted.

He leaned back and let go of Roy’s legs, pretending he was going to drop him on his back, then grabbed him and leaned forward to balance them again. He howled with laughter, even though he couldn’t have seen the look of momentary horror on Roy’s face.

“You are such a fucking prick,” Roy accused. “This was a terrible fucking idea. Put me down.”

“Can’t,” Jamie said happily. “I take me training too seriously.”

“Fuck off,” Roy said. “I don’t trust you.”

“Stop moaning, you’re fine,” Jamie insisted. He looked to Phoebe as he asked, “Want to race to the car?”

“Okay,” she said.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” Roy tried to warn Jamie, but he just ignored him as he counted down loudly over him.

“3… 2… 1… Go!” Jamie shouted, although he definitely started running somewhere between one and go.

Phoebe started running after he did, but she was quick and not hauling a full-grown man on her back so she caught up fast.

“Alright, I guess I’ll walk by myself then,” Keeley said to herself because there was no way she was running after them all in a dress and wedges.

By the time she caught up, they were all waiting at the car and Jamie was setting Roy down. Roy didn’t immediately hit him for racing with him on his back instead of setting him down when asked so he must not have been that upset.

“We are never doing that again,” Roy insisted.

“Then how am I supposed to redeem myself later?” Jamie asked. “Nah, we’re having a rematch.”

“And I’ll win that too,” Phoebe insisted.

“I’m not participating in that,” Roy said. “Jamie’s just going to have to lose all on his own.”

Keeley was fairly certain there was zero chance of Jamie losing a race without someone on his back, but she didn’t mention that.

“Well then Keeley can be on me back next time,” Jamie suggested.

“Maybe in a different outfit,” Keeley said because there was absolutely no way she was getting a piggyback ride in a short dress.

She'd already fucked up and had Phoebe witness her kissing both Roy and Jamie when she wasn't supposed to know about them yet. There was no way she was going to flash her on top of that.

After the zoo, they went to go eat. Roy’s sister had already texted to say that she’d meet them there. He’d told her where they were going and that Phoebe had found out about Keeley dating Jamie too.

She hadn’t shown up yet when they arrived, but Roy asked for a table for five.

Keeley looked at him curiously while Jamie gave him a judgmental look.

“I’m honestly embarrassed for you,” Jamie said when they sat down at the table. “How’d you get this far without learning how to count to four? Am I gonna have to teach you math too?”

He was such a little prick.

“I can count, you twat,” Roy said. “Phoebe’s mum is coming.”

Roy was relieved when that was enough to distract from anyone asking what else Jamie had taught him.

“Wait, seriously?” Keeley asked excitedly.

Roy hadn’t told her in case she’d get stuck at the hospital past her shift. Plus, if Keeley didn’t know she might be coming until it was confirmed, then she didn’t have to be nervous for no reason.

“Against my better judgment, yes,” he said.

“Are you really that worried about what she might say to me?” Keeley asked.

“No,” Roy lied. “I’m just regretting bringing Jamie.”

Sure, Jamie was back with Keeley and far less likely to hit on Roy’s sister, but that didn’t mean that he didn’t have an obnoxious shit-eating grin like he was planning a whole new way to make Roy miserable when she got there.

“Why?” Phoebe asked. “Mum likes Jamie.”

Jamie burst into laughter at that.

“I can’t imagine why,” Roy said. “I guess she hasn’t spent enough time with him to be sick of him yet.”

He really hoped that Phoebe was just projecting her liking Jamie onto her mum. The last thing Roy needed was for them to become friends just to spite him.

“And apparently neither have you,” Keeley said and Jamie looked absolutely thrilled at her calling him out.

“I’ve been sick of him since I met him,” Roy said. “I’ve just gotten used to being annoyed by him.”

“You’re annoyed by everyone,” Jamie pointed out. “That doesn’t even mean anything.”

“Almost everyone,” Roy corrected.

“You two are gross,” Jamie complained as Keeley grinned back at Roy.

“And you’re a child,” Roy insisted. “Actually, that’s an insult to Phoebe. You’re worse than a child.”

“Are we actually gross or are you just mad that you’re the only one at the table he still finds annoying?” Keeley asked.

“Okay, wow. Rude,” Jamie complained because she was clearly right.

Roy had to laugh at him, even if soon he wouldn’t be the only one anymore.

It didn’t take long before his sister showed up and headed straight over to their table. She barely even glanced at Roy before she turned her full attention to Keeley.

“You must be Keeley,” she said as if she didn’t know damn well who she was and hadn’t since long before Roy had gotten involved with her. “I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Cora.”

“You talk that much about me?” Keeley asked as she turned to Phoebe.

“Oh sure, from her too,” Cora said. She shot a pointed look at Roy, then smiled back at Keeley as she said, “It’s nice to finally get to put a face to all the stories.”

“You already knew her face,” Roy pointed out as she sat down. “You’ve known the entire time. And you follow all of her social media like a fucking stalker.”

Keeley turned to Roy as she said, “You never told me that.” She focused back on his sister as she added, “Otherwise, I definitely would have followed you back.”

“Oh, he didn’t tell you on purpose I’m sure,” Cora insisted. “Don’t feel bad though. He never introduces me to anyone,” she said. “I only met Ted because he showed up at my work and even then, he didn’t know who I was.”

“You dated Ted?” Jamie asked in a scandalized tone because of fucking course he was taking any and every opportunity to be a little shit.

Before Roy even had the chance to tell Jamie to fuck off, his sister turned to him pretending like she had just realized he was there which was fucking stupid, especially when he was sitting between her and Keeley.

“Oh, Jamie’s here too,” she said and shot Roy a look.

“And?” he asked stiffly.

Sure, he hadn’t mentioned it before, but it wasn’t like it was a big deal. And if she was about to start getting on him about Jamie being his best friend in front of him like Phoebe had, Roy was going to be pissed.

“Nothing,” she said just a tad defensively. “I think it’s great. Really.”

Jamie grinned smugly at him and Roy wanted to punch him in the face.

“It’s not that great,” Roy said. “Mildly tolerable maybe.”

“Yeah, yeah. Whine all you want, but you’re still the one who invited me,” Jamie said happily.

Phoebe’s head whipped around to look at Roy at that.

“You said you didn’t,” she pointed out.

“Yeah. I lied,” Roy admitted. “I do that sometimes.”

“Like when you say Jamie’s not your best friend,” Phoebe said.

“Yes, exactly like that,” Jamie insisted as if he wasn’t an obnoxious liar about Isaac being his best friend just as often.

“Or like when Jamie claims he isn’t blond,” Roy added and Jamie’s death glare was well worth the monologue he was going to have to listen to about the many imaginary differences between walnut mist and blond later.

His sister was smiling over at him now with that look that meant that she was planning something completely awful. Roy was really questioning his sanity. There had to have been something horrendously wrong with him that he’d thought it was a reasonable idea to have her and Jamie both there to patronize him in front of Keeley while he had to behave in front of Phoebe.

He shot Cora a warning look but doubted it would do anything to stop her. It never had before.

“Stop glaring at me like that. I already told you I’m not going to embarrass you. I wouldn’t ever dream of it,” she complained but Roy didn’t trust that fucking smile. He was immediately proven right as she turned her attention away from him and said, “Oh, Phoebs! You can give Uncle Roy your present now.”

“Fuck you,” Roy told her without hesitation.

“It wasn’t my idea,” she insisted as she pulled a wrapped gift and card out of her bag and set them on the table.

This was not how Father’s Day worked. There was Mother’s Day when Phoebe made a card and gift at school. There was Uncle’s Day when Cora helped her make a stupid gift and stupid card for Roy just to torture him. And then by the time Father’s Day rolled around, they mostly ignored the holiday, but Phoebe always came home from school the Friday before with a card and gift for her mum because she was the parent that had stayed and stupid fucking school had made her make something.

She didn’t ever give Roy a present on Father’s Day. This was not how this was supposed to work. Roy entirely blamed Ms. Bowen for this. There was no way she hadn’t put this stupid fucking idea into Phoebe’s head.

Roy shot a death glare in his sister’s direction. She should have warned him about this. She should have at least had Phoebe give it to him when he’d picked her up this morning. But, no. She’d held onto the gift and held onto the information that it existed. She’d chosen to wait until now to make a whole big spectacle of it to humiliate him in front of Keeley and it must just be a bonus that Jamie was here to witness it too.

Roy absolutely hated his sister. He would have told her that too, but he couldn’t with Phoebe sitting between them.

“Read the card first,” Phoebe insisted as she shoved it into his chest.

He shot his sister one last glare for good measure and avoided looking at Keeley or Jamie, then looked down at the card.

Fuck.

The front was a picture she’d drawn of them together. It wasn’t the kind of dogshit drawing other kids did. It was detailed. It was good. And it was obvious she had wasted a fuck of a long time on it.

Roy hesitated for a moment to try to brace himself, then he opened the card. It was filled with writing.

Happy Father’s Day!

I love you Uncle Roy. You’re the best uncle ever. You’re way better than a dad.

Love Phoebe

“Oh my god, you’re crying!” Cora said sounding absolutely delighted at how she’d completely ruined a lovely fucking day.

“I am fucking not,” Roy insisted without looking at her.

And he wasn’t. He absolutely was not. He was tearing up, but he was not fucking crying. He hadn’t let any tears actually fall and that was a very important distinction.

“Do you like it?” Phoebe asked.

No. He fucking hated it.

“I love it,” he told her honestly.

“Now open your present,” she insisted.

Roy set the card down on the table and Keeley immediately snatched it up and opened it to see what had made him cry. Jamie practically fell out of his chair as he leaned far over to read it at the same time like the fucking vulture he was.

Roy took the present as Phoebe handed it to him, but he didn’t start opening it. Instead, he watched Keeley and Jamie.

Keeley grinned up at him as she finished reading, then turned her attention to Phoebe as she said, “That’s the best card I’ve ever seen.”

Jamie looked all smug and amused as he said, “Come on, then. Open your gift, Roy. I want to know what it is.”

No, he just wanted to watch Roy suffer.

Roy unwrapped it and then opened the box inside. He pulled something wrapped up in a pile of bright orange tissue paper out and unwrapped it.

It was a mug. She’d painted most of it with the same colours as the shirt she’d made him. On one side she’d left ROY in white and on the other side she’d left a big white heart.

He was absolutely never going to fucking live using it down.

“You should bring it to work,” Cora insisted eagerly. “Keep it in your office where you can use it all the time.”

Phoebe looked up at him expectantly.

“I’m going to,” Roy said defensively.

Jamie looked thrilled like being able to give Roy shit over it was the real gift and it was all for him. He was going to be unbearable about it either way. Roy could handle putting up with the rest of the team’s shit for Phoebe’s sake.

Keeley pulled out her phone then and held it out to Cora as she said, “Here, show me your accounts so I can follow you back.”

Roy shot Jamie a warning look as he said, “Don’t even think about it.”

“Oh, we’re already friends on everything,” Cora said as she added her own accounts on Keeley’s phone. “Have been since Uncle’s Day.”

“You barely follow anyone,” Jamie pointed out. “Her accounts were ridiculously easy to find.”

Because of course, Jamie had added her on everything after like a fucking stalker just to spite him.

“Right because that’s not fucking weird,” Roy said.

“It’s not,” Jamie insisted. “You’re just old and don’t know how social media works. Besides, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be allowed to follow her if Keeley can.”

Roy strongly disagreed but clearly, nothing he said was going to matter anyway so he figured it was better to just drop it instead of giving Jamie fuel to be even more obnoxious.

Cora handed Keeley her phone back and then turned to Phoebe as she asked, “Did I miss anything exciting today?”

“I’m faster than Jamie,” Phoebe told her mum proudly.

Roy had already sent his sister a text letting her know that Phoebe knew about Jamie and Keeley, but Phoebe didn't know that and he was a little surprised that didn’t rank as news.

“Hey, you only won because I was stuck hauling Roy’s fat ass,” Jamie complained.

“Aren’t you the one who chose to start a race while already carrying him?” Keeley asked in an amused tone.

She was absolutely right. Jamie had zero right to complain like he hadn’t talked Roy into letting him carry him and then decided to start a race and nearly kill them both in the process.

“I specifically remember telling you not to run with me on your back,” Roy pointed out.

“Well then we would have lost way worse,” Jamie argued as if Roy had supposedly been on a team with him and was upset to lose to a literal child who was running without a person on their back.

“We didn’t lose,” Roy pointed out. “You lost. I wasn’t participating.”

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t have lost even worse without me,” Jamie insisted. “You’re a fucking snail. You’re actually incapable of running.”

“I literally run with you every day,” Roy pointed out. “I would have finished just fine.”

“I don’t know that I’d call that running,” Jamie lied like the absolute asshole he was. “But if you think you’d stand a chance, then race me. We can go outside right now. I’ll even carry Keeley on me back to try to give you a fair chance.”

Jamie’s immaturity still managed to astound Roy sometimes. He looked dead serious like he thought Roy was actually going to get up before they’d even ordered to go have some stupid pointless race in the parking lot.

“Once again, I am not letting you carry me in this outfit,” Keeley said. “And even if I wasn’t in a dress, I’m still not getting dragged into the middle of this.”

“I’m not racing him anyway,” Roy insisted. “I don’t need to prove fuck all. I’m not a child like he is.”

Besides, Roy already knew how that would end and he didn’t need to hear Jamie obnoxiously bring it up for the rest of his life.

“You just don’t want to because you know you’d lose,” Jamie said.

Roy kicked him under the table and the fucker had the nerve to laugh.

“I can’t believe you found anyone more competitive than you,” Cora insisted.

“I’m not that competitive,” Roy said.

Sure, he liked winning. But he didn’t have a complex about it like Jamie or anything.

“Yeah, sure,” she said sarcastically. “Remind me again why you banned me from coming to your games?”

“Wait, you banned her from watching you play?” Keeley asked. “Seriously?”

“Banned is a strong word,” Roy lied. “I just heavily encouraged her not to.”

“He told me I was bad luck and blamed me for every game he lost when I was there,” Cora corrected. “I’m not even allowed to watch him coach.”

“Maybe I just don’t want you around anyone on the team,” Roy said and that was part of it too. But so was the bad luck thing. He didn’t need to risk it happening all over again, even if he wasn’t playing.

“You let me around Jamie,” she pointed out.

“And I’m regretting every second of it,” Roy insisted.

“I didn’t even do anything,” Jamie said defensively.

“Oh, you have to let her come to one,” Keeley insisted. “Either you win and the curse is broken or doesn’t apply to coaching or whatever or else you get proven right.”

Roy wasn’t convinced that was worth risking losing a game for no reason, but it was months before that could potentially be a problem, so he left it.

“I want to come too,” Phoebe said.

“Of course,” Keeley said. “You can both sit with Rebecca and me.”

“That would be great,” Cora said.

Roy looked to Jamie to see if he was at all concerned at the idea of cursing one of their games or if he was looking to make things worse just to spite Roy. He was just sitting there, not looking particularly concerned but not actively making it worse either which was somehow more annoying than if he was actively piling on with them.

Roy was so fucked.

They’d just ordered when Jamie’s phone started buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that he had two messages from Simon.

He shoved his phone back in his pocket and was going to ignore them, but the messages just kept coming.

So after a couple of minutes, he gave in and pulled his phone back out. He opened the conversation, intending to just glance at the messages and lock his phone again. But instead, he found himself frowning down at his phone.

Sorry about earlier. Your mum told me what she sent to you

You don’t have to respond to me ever if you don’t want to

But I hope you don’t mind that I’m still going to message you now and then because I do care about you

I know. I know. I’m not your real dad. And I might be just the bloke that lives with your mum to you but you’re not just her kid that moved out and pops by every once in a while to me

So feel free to ignore my messages all you want, but just know I don’t give up that easily

“What is it?” Keeley asked as she leaned closer like she was trying to catch a glimpse at his messages.

Jamie set his phone screen down on the table.

She was giving him that look. The worried one she’d given him when she’d asked if his dad had ever even apologized to him.

Simon had apologized to him. Over something completely fucking pointless and minor, but still. And it wasn’t like Simon had ever really done anything worth a proper apology over. The worst he did was take up space in Jamie’s life, but he also made his mum happy enough for it to be worth putting up with that.

Simon had never fucking beaten his coach up. Simon had never humiliated him in front of his entire team. The worst he did to embarrass Jamie was be so irritatingly nice to him no matter how much Jamie brushed him off because he wasn’t his dad. He was just some guy.

But he was just some guy that had been around for years and years and wasn’t going anywhere. He was just some guy who had moved in with them when Jamie had been sixteen and had no interest in a new dad and had made up any excuse he could to be out of the house and ignore him when he was in it. He was just some guy who had put up with Jamie’s moody teenage phase and pretending he didn’t exist at all adult phase. He was just some guy who had no reason to treat him nicely or care what he thought and yet the act hadn’t disappeared when he’d gotten what he’d wanted and Jamie’s mum had married him. And it hadn’t disappeared when Jamie had moved out or when he’d been signed to a team hours away. Simon had never gone radio silent on him, even when Jamie had wished he would. Simon had made his mum far happier than she had ever been with his real dad.

Jamie was starting to think that just maybe he might be the prick in the situation. There was a chance that maybe, just maybe, Jamie might have been under-appreciating Simon. And maybe, he should have been just a little bit nicer to him.

Roy had fucking cried when Phoebe had given him the Father’s Day card she’d made him. Like he was so surprised and touched that she had thought of him. Like he wasn’t quite obviously the one stable father figure in her life. Like she didn’t make it obvious every day how much she loved and appreciated him.

Jamie had literally never once shown Simon that he appreciated him in the least. He couldn’t even be bothered to answer any of his texts. He hadn’t even considered that what day it was had anything to do with why his mom had told him to answer Simon until that moment.

“Jamie,” Keeley said when he didn’t answer her right away.

Roy was looking at him concerned now too.

“I have to go,” Jamie said.

“Is everything okay?” Keeley asked.

“Yeah. I just realized there’s somewhere else I should be right now,” he said. He turned to Roy as he added, “Don’t bother getting up early tomorrow.”

By the time Jamie caught a train and made it to his mum’s place, it would be late. There was no way he was taking another train back after and then getting up early to go train with Roy. He’d stay there for the night and get up to run on his own.

“What the fuck does that mean?” Roy asked. When Jamie stood up, he added, “Don’t you need a ride to wherever you’re going?”

“Nah, two working legs, remember?” Jamie asked with a smirk. “I’ll be fine.”

He hesitated for a second as he glanced at Cora and Phoebe, but Phoebe had already caught them once today and Roy had either already told his sister or was going to anyway so he leaned down and kissed Keeley goodbye.

If Roy hadn’t already told her, then Jamie was just giving him the perfect opening to bring it up after he left. Roy should be thanking him really.

After dinner, they went to an ice cream parlour.

Ice cream had been Cora’s idea. When they’d finished eating, she’d asked Phoebe if she wanted to go get the ice cream she’d been waiting all day for. She’d invited Roy and Keeley along and Roy had looked to Keeley for her answer like there was any way she was going to pass up more time with them.

Keeley still hadn’t heard anything from Jamie since he’d taken off during dinner, but while they waited in line, Roy texted him in the group chat.

Don’t bother getting up early tomorrow for first training or morning training at all?

By the time Jamie answered, they had gotten their ice cream and sat down at a table.

probably wont b back until the afternoon but ill still get up early w/o u

unless u want 2 come to manchester in the middle of the night

Fuck no.

That confirmed her suspicions about where he’d gone. He should be fine with his mum and stepdad. He’d get a chance to visit them and maybe Roy wouldn’t have to get up and take off at four in the morning for once.

Phoebe was about a third of the way done her banana split when she said, “Uncle Roy took me to get ice cream for breakfast.”

“Did he?” Cora asked as she turned an unimpressed look on him.

“I have no idea what she’s talking about,” Roy claimed as if it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing he’d do, even without a special occasion to use as an excuse.

“What happened to her needing real food?” Cora asked.

“She ate real food later,” he defended. He turned to Phoebe as he asked, “What happened to not telling your mum?”

Phoebe shrugged as she said, “She already bought me more so there’s no reason to hide it anymore.”

“She has a point,” Keeley said with a laugh. She turned her attention to Cora as she said, “I hear you have all kinds of embarrassing stories to tell me.”

“Oh, not just embarrassing stories,” Cora said with a big grin. “I’ve got loads of embarrassing pictures too. One of these days I’m just going to quit my job and live off of selling them all to the media.”

“Oh, I have to see those,” Keeley said eagerly.

Roy sighed loudly like he hadn’t known exactly what he was getting himself into when he’d decided to introduce them.

As Cora unlocked her phone and looked for pictures, Keeley turned to Roy.

She knew that he wouldn’t just sit there and let this happen around just anyone. She felt honoured to have exclusive unargued access to pictures he would never have let anyone else see.

“Relax, babe,” she said. She grabbed his face in both hands and kissed him, then added, “I’m sure you’ll look adorable in all of them.”

Jamie grabbed a bottle of wine on his way from the train station.

When he got to his mum’s house, it was Simon who answered the door.

“I’ll get your mum,” Simon said.

Jamie had never shown up looking for anyone other than her before. He wasn’t in the habit of even stopping and chatting with Simon while he waited. He’d mostly just half-greet him as he barged right in and went to go find her so it wasn’t surprising that Simon was already moving out of the way and turning to call out to her.

“Actually, I’m here for you,” Jamie said a little awkwardly.

Simon turned to look back at him surprised as he asked, “For me?”

Okay, so maybe leaving his messages on read hadn’t been the best move, but he hadn’t known what to say and it wasn’t like he wasn’t finally trying by showing up. And somehow this was far less awkward than responding to him in any kind of genuine way over text would be.

Jamie put on an act of having all the casual confidence in the world as he asked, “It is Father’s Day, ain’t it?”

Jamie had never said anything to imply that Simon was any kind of father to him before. In fact, on many occasions, he had made a point about how he wasn’t his dad and how he was just some guy who lived with his mum. He’d been a little nervous that acting differently would be awkward and Simon would look all confused and weirded out.

But instead, he looked completely shocked for a second, then smiled brightly.

“Here,” Jamie said and shoved the bottle of wine into Simon’s chest.

Jamie let himself inside past Simon.

Simon closed the door behind him and looked down at the bottle of wine.

“I hope you’re planning on helping me drink this,” Simon said.

“Can’t,” Jamie said as he followed him into the kitchen. “Roy would have a bitch fit.”

“Your coach?” Simon asked. “He doesn’t let your team drink?”

Usually, Jamie would just ignore Simon’s questions and assume he could figure out later from his mum if he wanted to know.

“The rest of the team’s allowed to,” Jamie said. “But Roy’s training me extra and not drinking is one of his rules. He’s kind of a prick about it most of the time, but he has his reasons for it.”

“Who was that at the door, ba-” Jamie’s mom called out, but she cut herself off when she reached the kitchen doorway and found them together. She looked between them with a grin as she said, “I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

That was clearly a lie. She looked thrilled at the idea that they might have been having an actual conversation without her there.

“Look what Jamie brought us, dear,” Simon said as he held up the wine bottle.

Jamie appreciated being let off the hook with that us.

Jamie’s mum turned to him and pulled him in for a big hug.

“You’d better be staying to drink this with us,” she insisted.

“Can’t drink it,” Jamie told her. “But I’m staying. There’s no way I’m taking another train tonight.”

He’d already taken enough to go visit his dad and head back after, only to head back out again after Simon had texted him.

Chapter Text

Monday evening, Jamie was lying around at home when he got a text from Isaac in a new group chat.

Colin’s freaking out abt pride this weekend so ur all going. Anyone that doesn’t gets fined.

Richard answered first with I’m in France???

Isaac responded immediately.

Don’t care. Figure it out or pay up. Ted’s way further away than you are and I don’t see him complaining.

He hasn’t said anything Richard argued.

Jamie checked who all was in the group chat that had caused Isaac to make a new one instead of using one of the other ones.

All the players except for Colin were in it, plus all the coaching staff, Rebecca, Trent, Higgins, and Will. Plus, Isaac had added Ted just to fine him for being in America which was hilarious, especially because knowing Ted he would probably pay up.

Ted started typing then as if Richard had summoned him by pretending he’d complain with him.

I wish I could be there, but I’m happy to pay the fine

Isaac started typing, but before he could even send his message, Richard sent Fine. I’ll see what I can do

Isaac stopped typing and then Roy started.

Keeley’s coming too.

A moment later, Isaac sent See? Even Keeley’s coming

Which was complete bullshit. It should have just been assumed she’d be coming to whatever team shit either way, even before she’d gotten back together with Jamie and Roy. The fact that Isaac was acting like she was doing anyone a favour by attending Pride when she was openly bi and he’d invited every straight person he knew was so much worse.

Jamie didn’t even have to say something though because Roy and Rebecca immediately started typing at the same time. So while they typed out whatever they were going to yell at Isaac with, Jamie sent its been nice knowing u isaac

Isaac started typing but stopped again when Rebecca’s message came through.

You did not just send “Even Keeley”. What in the fuck do you think you mean by that? And why the hell wasn’t she included in this group chat in the first place?

Roy was still typing, but it was Isaac that responded first.

I just meant she’s not even proper team and she’s still coming

Rebecca responded again before Roy finished whatever long-ass message would be used as evidence in the trial after he murdered Isaac.

Fuck you. Will she count as “proper team” when I give her some of my shares and she becomes your boss too?

Jamie wasn’t sure if she was serious or not. He didn’t think it should really make any difference in whether they considered her team or not after everything she’d done for them and everything she’d been around for. The idea of Keeley technically being his boss was surprisingly hot, but Jamie figured now wasn’t the time to mention it when Roy was clearly already out for blood.

Isaac didn’t start typing. The group chat was horribly silent as everyone waited for Roy’s message.

Even Keeley? You have got to be fucking kidding me with that bullshit. You invited fucking Ted and not her and then you act like she’s doing you or Colin or anyone a fucking favour? Fuck off. She doesn’t owe you anything. She has every fucking right to be there, even if she didn’t regularly waste her time on you idiots. She’s bi and was going with or without you fuckknobs. She could dump both our asses and still have every right to be there. But if we’re leaving her and Colin out of the chat, then I guess we’d better kick Trent and make it a proper straight only pride chat. NOT PROPER TEAM? That had better be a moronic fucking joke. Jesus fucking Christ. She wastes way too much fucking time on you pricks for anyone to pull that bullshit, even without everything she’s done for you assholes. Ted doesn’t work here anymore either or even live on the same continent and you add him and not her? She’s been around longer than Ted, Beard, Rebecca, Will, and some of you fuckers. Don’t give me some bullshit like she’s just a plus one to team shit.

The group chat was uncomfortably silent for a moment. No one said anything or even started typing.

Jamie considered for a moment, then typed guess ull have 2 kick me out 2 then

He didn’t send it yet though. Instead, he thought it over for a moment. It would be an easy way to pull the trigger and not have to tell anyone more than once. And the odds of anyone daring to say anything annoying and trying to drag Roy into things and make Jamie’s sexuality be about him just because they happened to be dating the same woman weren't very high right after Roy’s rant.

Plus, Roy would look like a complete hypocrite if he turned around and said something shitty to Jamie about his being bi after being mad on Keeley’s behalf when Isaac had ignored the fact that she was. And if he did it now, Jamie wouldn’t have to watch Roy’s reaction or be there for the start of his potential angry processing time.

Sure, he’d have to deal with the consequences eventually, but that would at least be a problem for 4 am Jamie and not for Jamie right now. Hopefully. Probably. Maybe.

He wasn’t sure whether to leave the message how he’d already typed it or change it to well if bi ppl arent allowed then kick me out

He considered for a moment, then decided it was easier to switch to the version with the bi part and avoid any confusion after Isaac’s whole thinking he had a problem with hooking up with girls thing.

Trent responded before Jamie could finish typing or deciding whether to actually hit send or not.

Even if you kick me out, the odds of a group chat this large not having any queer people left are quite low

What the fuck, Trent? He was completely right, but it was still rude as shit to point that out while Jamie was the only one typing.

Jamie stopped typing after Trent’s message. He’d started and stopped twice since Roy’s message and Keeley was very curious about what he might have been going to say.

“I can’t believe Jamie stopped typing without sending anything,” Roy said. “I didn’t know he knew how to do that.”

“I guess you and Rebecca already covered it all,” Keeley said, trying to sound unconcerned.

Roy was right though. Jamie starting typing even once and then not sending anything was strange. Twice in a row was extra weird, especially when what had stopped him the second time was Trent saying he doubted everyone else in the chat was straight.

She wanted to know what he’d been typing. She wanted to know if he’d been debating taking the fine for not showing up and then had decided it was more suspicious to be the one person that didn’t. She wanted to know if he’d been about to tell everyone the truth. Or maybe, he’d just been going to send something completely different and she was worried about him for no reason.

Keeley wanted to message him or call him, but she didn’t want Roy to think it was weird if she started having some secret conversation with Jamie she had to hide from him while they were hanging out. She was absolutely not going to be the reason Roy figured it out if Jamie hadn’t already told him. She’d just have to talk to him later about it and whether going to Pride with everyone was freaking him out or not.

Keeley’s phone buzzed as Isaac added her to the group chat and sent Sorry Keeley. Obviously you’re invited

Roy and Jamie were on their way to get lunch on Tuesday when Roy’s phone started ringing in the cupholder.

Jamie immediately grabbed Roy’s phone like the nosey little shit he was.

“It says it’s Phoebe’s school,” Jamie said.

Shit. He definitely needed to answer it then. 

“Put it on speakerphone,” Roy said.

“What am I, your secretary?” Jamie complained as if Roy wasn’t busy driving and he hadn’t stolen his phone anyway.

He did answer and put it on speakerphone though, despite his whining.

“Hello,” Roy answered and he wasn’t sure why it was already so embarrassing to have a normal phone call that he didn’t answer angrily while Jamie was watching him.

“Hey, it’s Leanne. I couldn’t get a hold of your sister. Do you have time to come by for a chat at some point?”

Roy could feel Jamie’s eyes on him.

He didn’t really want to wait to find out what he was getting called in for now so he said, “I can come by now if that works.”

“That works. My room’s full of kids right now, but they should be outside in a few minutes,” she said.

“Alright, I’ll see you then,” Roy said.

The moment Ms. Bowen had hung up, Jamie asked, “Leanne?”

“She’s Phoebe’s teacher,” Roy said defensively.

“And you’re on a first-name basis with her?” Jamie asked, sounding incredibly amused. “And you talk like an actual person to her?”

“Shut up,” Roy said because the last thing he needed was Jamie finding out about the weird dynamic they’d had and making fun of him for it or taking it as something it wasn’t and not finding it funny at all anymore.

“I’m hungry,” Jamie whined. “How long is this going to take?”

“I don’t care,” Roy said. “And I don’t know.”

“I can’t believe you do parent-teacher shit,” Jamie said. “I can’t believe they even let you in the building.”

Roy ignored him.

When they got to the school, the kids were already outside. Roy absolutely did not want Jamie coming inside with him, so he said, “Wait in the car.”

“Uh, no way,” Jamie insisted as he got out with Roy anyway. “I’m not being the weird guy that sits in the car watching kids play.”

He had a point and wasn’t likely to go back to the car if Roy pushed it like he had a real reason for wanting to leave him behind. Plus, Roy didn’t want Jamie bringing up Roy making him wait in the car to Keeley after what he’d told her about Ms. Bowen during their last go at things. So he didn’t argue and just headed for the front doors.

“Besides, I want to meet Leanne,” Jamie said. “Is she one of your secret friends?”

“No,” Roy said. “And don’t be weird around her.”

Roy didn’t bother stopping at the office, he just headed straight to Phoebe’s classroom.

They’d barely made it into the room before Jamie started looking around and touching kids’ art that Roy was fairly certain he was not meant to go anywhere near.

“Stop touching things,” Roy warned. “Just sit down and don’t be annoying.”

“I thought I was always annoying,” Jamie pointed out because he was.

“Fine. Then sit down and don’t say anything,” Roy said.

When he turned his attention over to where Ms. Bowen was standing by the sink, she was looking over at Jamie confused.

Roy didn’t bother explaining why he was there. This would be much better if they just both pretended he wasn’t.

“Some days I swear I would go home with less glitter all over me if I switched career paths and became a stripper instead,” she said as she tried and failed to wipe glitter off of her hands with a wet paper towel.

Jamie let out a surprised laugh at that. Roy ignored him.

“How bad is it?” he asked instead.

“The glitter?” Leanne asked. “No worse than usual. I’ll survive.”

“Whatever you called me here for,” Roy clarified.

“Oh, that,” she said. “Honestly, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but I’ve got parents crawling up my ass over it, so I said I’d talk to Phoebe’s family about what she said.”

“What’d she say this time?” Roy asked.

Sure, he hadn’t exactly been doing the greatest at not swearing in front of her, but he didn’t think he’d taught her any new ones. He was the most likely candidate to have taught her whatever she’d said though.

Leanne hesitated for a moment, then said, “Well, we were having a conversation about what they wanted to be when they grow up. And when it was Phoebe’s turn she said she wanted to be a CEO.”

So fucking what? Why shouldn’t she be? Why the hell had parents thrown a bitch fit over that? Why the fuck had Roy gotten called in over this?

“And you don’t think she can be?” Roy asked with an edge to his tone.

“What? No,” she said. “That wasn’t what had parents calling me and sending obnoxious emails. It was her reasons behind it…. She said it was because she wanted to be rich and have two boyfriends.”

“Ah,” Roy said. So this was about him after all.

Roy didn’t really see what Keeley’s job had to do with anything, but it wasn’t overly surprising that Phoebe wanted to grow up to be like her.

“Well, it’s good to have goals,” Jamie said, sounding very amused.

“Some of the kids were a little confused by her answer,” Leanne said. “But a shocking amount of them started saying they wanted the same thing. And when one insisted that wasn’t possible, she, uh… This is a little awkward and I’m sure it’s just some kind of misunderstanding, but she said her Uncle Roy’s girlfriend has another boyfriend.”

“No. No misunderstanding,” Roy said. He gestured over his shoulder as he added, “That’s him.”

“Oh,” she said as Jamie waved over at her. “I was wondering why you’d brought some man with you.”

She said it like she still wasn’t clear on what exactly he was doing there. Roy wasn’t entirely sure either and he wasn’t about to get into it.

“We were supposed to be going to eat,” Jamie complained.

“Shut up,” Roy said. “Just play on your phone or something while you wait.”

He’d said it to be patronizing, but Jamie huffily pulled his phone out of his pocket anyway.

Roy turned his attention back on Leanne again as he said, “Ignore him.” She looked like she was debating saying something he wasn’t convinced he wanted to hear in front of Jamie so he said, “I’ll talk to Phoebe about not mentioning it at school. That should save you a few phone calls.”

“That would be great. Thanks,” she said. “And sorry. If I had it my way, I’d be allowed to block parents that piss me off.”

“It’s fine,” Roy said. “Is that everything?”

She looked from Jamie to Roy and hesitated for a moment, then said, “Yeah. That’s everything.”

“Great,” Roy said. He turned to Jamie and said, “Let’s go.”

“Finally,” Jamie said as he shoved his phone back into his pocket.

Roy hit him in the back of the head for it as he warned, “Stop being a dick.”

“Okay, sorry,” Jamie grumbled. “Can we go eat now?”

“You’re not really going to tell her not to talk about it, are you?” Jamie asked when they made it back to the car.

“Yeah, I am,” Roy said.

So much for fuck what everyone else thought. Maybe Roy hadn’t really intended for Phoebe to find out at all. Somehow Roy managed to seem like he didn’t give a shit who knew while also suddenly acting like they were doing anything wrong as soon as Phoebe’s teacher got complaints. At least he hadn’t denied what was going on to her, but still. It was disappointing.

Jamie didn’t say anything. He just pulled his phone out, not because he had anything to do on it but because he wanted to make a point of ignoring him.

“People are going to be cunts,” Roy said. “Phoebe doesn’t need to get shit for it or left out of things because of it. And Ms. Bowen doesn’t need to be getting pissy emails about shit that has nothing to do with her.”

Huh. So now she was Ms. Bowen.

“Okay,” Jamie said.

“Don’t do that,” Roy said.

“Do what?” Jamie asked because he literally hadn’t done anything.

“Be a judgy little shit at me like that,” Roy said.

“All I said was okay,” Jamie pointed out.

“I can feel you thinking at me,” Roy insisted.

“I thought I was incapable of having a thought on my own,” Jamie retorted. “Do whatever you want.”

Keeley was over at Jamie’s place that evening when she asked, “Are you alright with the whole everyone going to Pride together thing?”

It was the first time they’d talked about his sexuality in years and he looked a little surprised.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” he asked.

“You still haven’t told everybody, have you?” she asked.

“No,” he said, seeming completely unbothered by the question. “But if everyone’s going, then nobody’s going to figure me out anyway.”

When he’d first told her, she’d felt special being one of the only people that had known. She’d liked that he’d been vulnerable enough with her and cared about her enough to trust her with it. Now she just felt a little sad for him that he still didn’t feel comfortable telling other people.

“You haven’t told anyone else?” she asked. “Not even Roy?”

They were obviously even closer than she’d realized now and Roy was fine with her being bi and he was friends with Trent and Colin. He wasn’t going to freak out if he found out about Jamie.

“Me mum knows. And me dad might. I don’t know. He did know, but he might just think it went away because he wanted it to and I learned to hide it around him,” Jamie said with a casual shrug. “Roy’s literally the last person I would tell.”

“The team’s all supportive of Colin,” Keeley pointed out. “Why haven’t you told them too?”

“Dunno,” Jamie said. “Just got used to not telling anyone I guess. And I mean, me dad threw enough bitch fits at me games without giving him new ammunition.”

“I thought you didn’t care what he thought anymore,” she said.

“I don’t,” he said. “Mostly. It’s more about Roy now. Not like that. More like I don’t want him assuming I’m trying to make something happen that I’m not and getting all weird on me. I don’t want to have to think before I act around him.”

“I really think he’d be fine with it,” Keeley said. “But it’s up to you what you want to do.”

“I did try to tell him once,” Jamie said.

“And?” she asked.

“And he fucking fell asleep,” he complained.

She found that hard to believe. She didn’t think Jamie was lying, but she was struggling to picture a scenario where Jamie started coming out to him and Roy fell asleep during.

“He was drunk,” Jamie admitted. “But still, it was fucking rude.”

“You could try again, you know,” Keeley pointed out.

“Nah,” Jamie said. “The moment passed. It’s probably for the best anyway.”

“Ms. Bowen told me about what you want to be when you grow up,” Roy said because he wasn’t sure how else to bring the subject up.

“I want to be in charge of everyone else and get to do whatever I want like Keeley,” Phoebe said.

“Fair enough,” Roy said. “She also said you wanted two boyfriends.”

“Not now,” Phoebe said. “When I’m older.”

“I sure fucking hope not now,” he said. After a moment, he added, “But that’s fine. You can however many you want.”

“That’s what I said, but Billy was a total dickhead about it,” she said.

“Oi, don’t talk like that,” Roy said. “Even if he was.”

“He was,” she insisted.  “He kept saying it wasn’t possible and I told him it was and that Keeley has two and he just called me a liar.”

“I heard about that too,” he said. “Billy sounds like a fucking moron.”

“He is,” she agreed.

“Look,” Roy said. He stopped and considered for a moment how to word what he wanted to say. “Some people are little bitches that can’t handle other people being happier than them, okay? They’re miserable, pathetic shitfucks that want everyone else to hate themselves as much as they do. Billy and his parents? They’re pathetic little bitch shitfucks.”

She nodded her head in agreement.

“They don’t have anything better to do with their lives than bitch and moan about other people. But they’re not worth our time, yeah?” Roy asked. “They whined about what you said to Ms. Bowen and you know what? She thinks they’re shitfucks too. But she has to pretend to give a shit what they think because that’s her job. So we can’t talk about it at school anymore so that she doesn’t have to listen to them. But Keeley’s still keeping both of us around and you can have as many boyfriends as you want when you grow up. Hell, you can have ten of them and Billy and his bitchass parents can get fucked.”

Jamie and Roy were on the way to lunch again the next day when Roy’s phone started ringing again.

Jamie groaned when it was Phoebe’s school.

He was starving. He didn’t want to have late lunch again. What could have possibly gone wrong enough since yesterday that Roy had to get called again? There wasn’t even enough time for any of the kids to have gone home and told their parents about something that they’d bitched about again since Roy’d had whatever stupid talk he’d had with Phoebe.

Jamie grabbed the phone to stop Roy from answering it as he complained, “How about we get food first and then you see what they want?”

“No,” Roy said. “Answer it.”

“No,” Jamie said just to make a point that he didn’t want to and to see what Roy would do if he refused.

Roy took one hand off the steering wheel to reach over and try to get the phone from him. As he did, he swerved into the middle of the road.

“Okay, I’m answering,” Jamie said. “You don’t have to kill us.”

Jamie answered the call and put it on speaker again. At least Roy was driving in his own fucking lane now.

This time Roy didn’t answer like a normal person. Instead, he said, “Let me guess, you need me to come in.”

“The situation escalated a little since yesterday,” Leanne said. “So yeah, that would be helpful.”

Roy sighed, then said, “Alright. Give me a few minutes.”

Jamie hung up without waiting for her to answer, then said, “I think she’s just making up an excuse to drag you in. I bet nothing even happened.”

“Shut up,” Roy said.

He didn’t tell Jamie that he was wrong or childish or an idiot for implying Phoebe’s teacher had a thing for him though. Interesting. That meant Jamie was probably right.

He could understand what Ms. Bowen saw in Roy, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to annoy the fuck out of Roy about this later anyway.

When they made it to the school, Roy didn’t even bother telling him to wait in the car. Jamie wouldn’t have anyway, but he liked that Roy wasn’t even pretending to try to stop him.

“Oh, you brought him again,” Ms. Bowen said the second she saw Jamie with Roy.

Like he was a cockblock and it wasn’t the middle of a school day. Jamie was definitely not the thing standing between her and Roy anyway. He didn’t mind being the one to get to disappoint her though.

“He has a name,” Jamie pointed out.

“It doesn’t matter though,” Roy said because he was an absolute dick.

“I do recognize him,” she said. “I just wasn’t sure if I was supposed to pretend I didn’t.”

“I usually do,” Roy said. “His ego is already way too big to be healthy.”

“Ted says I’m very psychologically healthy,” Jamie said because it was true that he’d said that after Jamie had said he didn’t want to be any animal when he got to be himself and because he knew it would annoy the fuck out of Roy.

“Ted’s an idiot,” Roy said. “And so are you.”

“That wasn’t even a good insult,” Jamie said. “You’re off your game.”

Roy completely ignored him because he obviously knew he was right. Instead, he asked, “What happened this time?”

“Phoebe told one of the boys in the class that he and his parents were-” she paused for a moment like she was trying to remember the exact wording. “Miserable, pathetic shitfuck bitches was I think her exact wording.”

Okay, maybe this was worth eating lunch late for. Jamie probably wasn’t supposed to laugh, but he did anyway.

“That’s on me,” Roy said as if there had been any doubt at all where she had learned that from. “When I told her she couldn’t talk about it at school because people were being miserable little bitches, I forgot to say not to call them that to their faces.”

Jamie grinned. Roy volunteering to have a talk with Phoebe about keeping the situation to herself at school made a lot more sense now. Jamie was less offended if Roy had torn the kid and parents that had been talking shit apart in his conversation with Phoebe than if he’d just gone along with their bullshit easily like it had seemed.

Ms. Bowen looked unsure what to say to that.

“I’ll handle it,” Roy said. “It won’t be a problem again.”

Chapter Text

When Jamie called the group chat with Roy and Keeley, Roy answered against his better judgment. He let it ring a little first though so that Jamie wouldn’t think he was too willing to drop everything for him, even if he hadn’t actually been doing much of anything.

By the time he picked up, Keeley already had too. She was in the middle of doing her makeup but had stopped what she was doing to see what Jamie was pestering them both about.

“What the hell do you want?” Roy asked.

“See how rude he is to me?” Jamie complained. “I bet he wouldn’t have answered like that if you were the one that called.”

“That’s because I actually like her,” Roy pointed out.

“You like me too, you old fuck,” Jamie argued. “And I need help choosing an outfit.”

“Why the fuck am I here then?” Roy asked.

“You did a good job helping him last time,” Keeley pointed out.

“Exactly,” Jamie said.

Roy knew he should have sabotaged him. He wouldn’t be putting up with this shit if he had.

“Besides, I need a boring unfashionable straight-man opinion,” Jamie insisted.

“You’re a straight man,” Roy pointed out.

“Yeah, but I’m fashionable and sexy and interesting,” Jamie said as if it was obvious.

“And you’re pretending Roy isn’t?” Keeley asked.

“Yeah ‘cause I need to know what boring fucks like him are wearing,” Jamie said.

“You’re exhausting is what you are,” Roy told him.

“Exhaustingly sexy,” Jamie insisted with a stupid fucking smirk that nearly made Roy hang up on him right then and there. "What are you wearing anyway?"

“I’m a sad cartoon character, remember?” Roy asked. “I only have one outfit.”

That wasn’t true, but Jamie was right that he dressed similarly enough from day to day that he could piece together what the full look was even if he could only see Roy from the shoulders up.

“You’re fucking with me,” Jamie complained for absolutely no reason. “You can’t dress like you’re on the way to a funeral to go to Pride.”

Roy ignored him. Maybe he was wearing all black, but they weren’t fucking funeral clothes. And clearly, he could wear them since he already was.

Keeley didn’t seem bothered by it. She’d focused back on doing her makeup.

“Jesus Christ,” Jamie complained when Roy didn’t immediately agree with him. “See, it’s a good thing I included you on the call. You’re going to stick out like a sore thumb. Go put your fucking rainbow shirt on.”

“You have a rainbow shirt?” Keeley asked. “Oh, I’ve got to see that.”

Roy sighed, then admitted, “Phoebe made it. And it’s not a proper rainbow shirt.”

“Just the colours that spell Roy,” Jamie added. “Now put it on. It won’t kill you to wear colours once in your life to go to Pride.”

Roy hated giving in to Jamie, but he maybe had a point about wearing colours to Pride even if Roy resented it and would never live it down. But he was definitely not about to refuse to suck it up and wear a few colours for Keeley’s sake, especially in front of her.

“Fine,” Roy said a little more grumbly than was strictly necessary just because he didn’t like the idea that Jamie might think him getting to tell Roy what to wear was going to be a thing now. “I’ll change. But I’m leaving my phone here. Unlike some people, I don’t need to strip on camera for attention.”

Jamie flipped him off, but Roy pretended not to see it as he set his phone down on the table.

“Boo!” Keeley called out with a laugh. “That’s no fun. Take us with you. I for one would love to watch you strip on camera.”

Roy picked his phone back up and Keeley grinned. She’d stopped doing her makeup to give him her undivided attention.

“Alright, fine,” he said, but he put on a show of being put out over it as if he gave a fuck whether Jamie saw him shirtless or not.

He’d only made the comment in the first place to make an easy dig at him.

Roy carried his phone upstairs and set it down on a dresser. Keeley loudly whooped as Roy took his shirt off and he rolled his eyes but he had to laugh too.

“Wait, I wasn’t ready,” Keeley insisted. “Do it again, but this time let me put music on first so you can make a proper show of it.”

“You want me to put the shirt back on?” Roy asked skeptically.

“And then take it off again in slow-motion,” she suggested. “Or take everything off. That would be even better.”

He couldn’t help but smile at that.

“Later,” he promised as he headed over to the closet and grabbed the shirt Phoebe had made for him.

He has barely pulled it on before Jamie said, “Do a spin.”

“No,” Roy said because he was not indulging Jamie while he was being a little shit.

“C’mon,” Jamie said. “I do spins for you when I show you an outfit.”

“You already know what it looks like and I’m not trying to show you fuck all,” Roy said.

“I mean, I wouldn’t mind seeing a spin,” Keeley said.

So Roy sighed and he did his stupid fucking spin for her benefit before he picked his phone back up and found them both grinning.

“I can’t believe you actually did it,” Jamie said.

Roy didn’t want to linger on that too long and he didn’t want to listen to Jamie make fun of the shirt he had talked him into wearing, so instead he changed the subject.

“What are your options?” he asked.

“See, I knew you wanted to help,” Jamie said. He looked utterly delighted that the attention was on him now and that Roy was putting up with more of this stupid call. “There’s this.”

He set his phone down and backed up far enough and did his stupid fucking spin.

“You look hot, babe,” Keeley told him.

But of course that couldn’t just be good enough. No, he needed to try out other options anyway.

“Try not to have a heart attack, Roy,” Jamie said like an absolute prick and then he was taking his shirt off.

Roy was honestly kind of surprised Jamie didn’t make a show of it or do it in slow-motion or ask for music first after the comments Keeley had made when he was changing.

“Oh, I am loving this video call,” Keeley said as Jamie took his pants off. “Ten out of ten.”

Jamie pulled on other clothes that were just as colourful and did another spin. Roy could tell that the clothes were different. He wasn’t stupid. The difference was just meaningless to him. He couldn’t care less what Jamie wore.

“This one’s better,” Keeley said.

“Roy?” Jamie asked.

“I don’t care,” Roy said. “Go with what she says.”

“Okay, but I have like-” he paused. “Six more options.”

“Christ,” Roy said.

Being Jamie sounded fucking exhausting. He couldn’t possibly take this long to pick an outfit all the time.

While he changed again, Roy watched Keeley. She looked nearly done with her makeup and she’d done rainbow eyeshadow. It looked like it must have taken a while.

“Are either of you even looking?” Jamie complained.

“Sorry,” Keeley said. “I was putting my lashes on. I’m looking now.”

Roy didn’t apologize, but he did look over at what Jamie was wearing now. This option came with his orange sunglasses. Roy wasn’t sure why he was including them with this outfit and not the other ones, but he didn’t ask.

“It’s fine,” Roy said. “Can we skip the other five now?”

“No,” Jamie said. “Is it colourful enough? It’s not too colourful though, is it?”

“It’s perfect,” Keeley insisted.

They still had to watch him try on five more outfits, just for him to go back to that one anyway.

By the time he was finally dressed, Keeley had a bi flag on one cheek and another one Roy didn’t recognize on the other.

“What’s that one for?” he asked.

“Polyamory,” she said. After a second she asked, “Is that okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Roy asked.

He understood that going to a very public event where plenty of pictures were bound to be taken of them was very different than just telling the team. He understood why she was checking with them. But Jamie had never felt shame a moment in his life and was perfectly content with the world knowing all of his business considering he’d already dated multiple women at once and had sex in a jacuzzi on national television. And Roy had known what he was signing on for when he’d agreed to it. It would defeat the whole purpose of Pride if either of them told her to hide half of her identity. Besides, she had nothing to be fucking ashamed of.

“Jamie?” she checked anyway.

“What?” he asked. Then he seemed to realize what she was asking as he said, “Oh, yeah. It’s not a problem.”

“I’m going to go now that Jamie doesn’t need help getting dressed like a fucking toddler anymore,” Roy said. “But I’ll see you there.”

“You’re a fucking toddler too then,” Jamie argued. “I had to tell you what to w-”

Roy hung up before he could finish.

“Jamie, hold on a second,” Keeley said when Roy had hung up.

The main reason Jamie had included Roy on the call had been to avoid having another conversation about his sexuality or Keeley checking in on him. Well, that and because if Roy didn’t think his outfit was too much for a straight man at Pride, then probably no one would. But he didn’t hang up anyway.

“Are you alright?” she asked.

“I’m great,” he said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“You seemed nervous about what to wear,” she said.

“Just wanted to look good,” Jamie said dismissively. But then he asked, “This one says Pride, but not too much. Right?”

“You got Roy to wear a rainbow shirt,” Keeley pointed out. “If people are going to be talking about what anyone’s wearing, it’ll be about that. Not what your clothes might mean.”

“That’s true,” Jamie admitted.

He was as relieved as he was disappointed that Roy’s tie-dye shirt he hadn’t even picked out himself was going to get more attention than his carefully crafted outfit.

Keeley hesitated for a second, then asked, “Were you trying to tell Roy again?”

“What? No,” Jamie said. “Just said that without thinking.”

He hadn’t really meant to say the boring unfashionable straight man thing and have Roy figure everything out. Maybe he’d been testing the waters a little bit to see if Roy was onto him though. And clearly, he hadn’t been.

“Okay,” she said. “Do you want to go to Colin’s together?”

He’d been perfectly fine with them all going separately and meeting up there. But the idea of walking in with Keeley was much more appealing.

“Sure,” he said as if it wasn’t a big deal. “That’d be cool.”

“I’ll pick you up in a few minutes then.”

When they got to Colin’s, Keeley parked on the road. As soon as they were out of the car, Keeley grabbed Jamie’s hand and squeezed it. Then she kissed him, being careful as she did not to get any of her makeup on his face.

They headed to the door together. Keeley was sure by now enough people had shown up that Colin wouldn’t be surprised anymore.

Isaac had told everyone to meet at Colin’s place early so that they could all go together since Colin was anxious about going to Pride. Sure, he’d already kissed Michael after their last game and his sexuality had been pretty public after that. But the public response was very mixed and Keeley could see why he was a little worried. That was why Isaac had invited the entire team to stand with him.

Roy was already there when they got inside. If he thought there was anything unusual about the fact that Keeley and Jamie had gotten ready separately and then had shown up together, he didn’t mention it.

Instead, he came over and looked Keeley up and down with a smile, then told her, “You look like a beautiful rainbow.”

He kissed her with seemingly no concern for the potential for transfer.

“Careful,” she warned with a laugh. “You’re going to get makeup on your face.”

“I’ll live,” Roy said with a stunning lack of worry for a man who had pretended it was the end of the world when Jamie had told him to wear colours to Pride.

He kissed her again just to prove a point. Keeley moved to grab his face, only to remember her hand was still in Jamie’s and stop.

Colin’s house was already filled with most of the team. Keeley let go of Jamie and headed over to where Colin was sitting with Michael, completely surrounded by his teammates.

“I can’t believe you talked Roy into wearing actual colours,” Colin said when she reached him. “I still can’t believe he owns a shirt with colours.”

“His niece made it,” Keeley told him.

She didn’t mention that she hadn’t actually done anything and convincing Roy to wear it had been all Jamie. She wasn’t sure either of them would want the attention that might gather. Besides, for all she knew it being her idea could easily be what Roy had told everyone before they’d gotten there.

“I like the flags,” Colin said as he gestured to her face. “They’re a nice touch.”

“I brought more colours for if you want any,” Keeley offered.

She’d brought them to offer to him, Michael, and Trent.

“That’d be great.”

When Keeley was finished with him, Colin came back with a flag on each cheek. One was a rainbow and the other was made up of greens and white and blues.

Isaac took one look at him, then stood up and said, “Hey, Keeley. Can you give me that rainbow one?”

“Sure,” she said with a big smile.

“You don’t have to do that, mate,” Colin said, but he looked thrilled that Isaac was offering anyway.

“I know I don’t,” Isaac said. “But I’m going to anyway.”

“I’ll take one too,” Sam said. He turned to Keeley as he added, “If that’s no trouble.”

“None at all,” Keeley said.

“I’ll get one too,” Dani said as he followed Isaac and Sam over to Keeley.

Jamie got up too and joined what was rapidly turning into a line.

Richard, who had apparently come back from France instead of paying the fine, followed him. The rest of the team was all standing up to make it clear that they wanted them too, even though they were going to have quite the wait if Keeley was putting them on everyone. It was a good thing that they’d met up early enough to make sure that they'd be able to make it in plenty of time, no matter how late half the team was.

“You seriously don’t all have to,” Colin said but he was grinning. He seemed in awe that everyone had shown up to support him and even more that they would be willing to get a rainbow flag painted on their face.

“Yeah, well we are,” Isaac said. “So suck it up, bruv.”

That was all the more reason to get one. Clearly, they hadn’t been doing a good enough job of supporting him through the bullshit since he’d come out if he was this surprised that they’d all show up for him.

“I can help,” Trent offered as he headed over to Keeley. “Might speed things up a little.”

Roy stayed back as he watched the line form. There was no sense standing there the entire time. He’d wait for the line to die down before he went for his. Instead, he waited with Beard, Nate, and Higgins.

When Rebecca showed up a few minutes later, she asked, “What’s with the lines?”

“Keeley and Trent are putting rainbow flags on everyone’s faces,” Roy said.

“We’re waiting for the line-up to clear out,” Beard added.

“Oh, well I can help with that,” Rebecca said and she went over to join Trent and Keeley.

Keeley gave everyone just one flag on one cheek since it was way faster than two and no one had requested another flag they wanted for the other side.

Jamie had gotten his pretty early on and now he was sitting on the couch with some of the others that were finished. Keeley glanced over at him between players to keep an eye on him.

Logically, she knew that he was fine and she probably didn’t need to be watching him so closely. She just also knew that it had to suck for him to feel like he needed to stay closeted even while attending Pride and watching all of his teammates support Colin and Michael.

Jamie didn’t seem off exactly. He wasn’t fidgeting or noticeably uncomfortable. But he was quieter than usual. He was just sitting there listening to whatever everyone else was saying like he didn’t care if the attention was on him at all, or like he was glad that it wasn’t. Or maybe Keeley was just reading too far into things and worrying over nothing just because of what she knew.

“What are you looking at?” Roy asked.

“Hm?” Keeley asked as she tore her eyes from Jamie to look at him. “Nothing.”

She wasn’t sure how long he’d been standing there. She hadn’t even realized that he was next because she’d been busy staring at Jamie.

And now pretending she hadn’t been was quite possibly a mistake because Roy followed her gaze over to Jamie and then looked back at her confused. She’d had no reason to act like she hadn’t been watching him and now Roy looked suspicious.

So she tried to distract him as she asked, “Are you sure a rainbow flag will fit with your sad cartoon character look?”

“Jamie made me take a day off of that, remember?” he asked.

“I mean, I know it’s ridiculous when practically everyone knows already,” Colin said. “But it still somehow feels like I shouldn’t be allowed to go. I know I shouldn’t care what people are going to think and that the people that are going to bitch about this are the same ones that already have been complaining that I should be kicked off the team.”

“They’re fucking idiots,” Isaac said. “And their opinions are bullshit. They think they’re so brave hiding behind their phones and claiming you’re not good enough, but you’d outplay any of them. And they know that. I bet they’d all be way too afraid to face you. And if they did, you’d kick their asses.”

“I know,” Colin said. “But it’s just a lot of pressure, you know? Like now I feel like I can’t have a shit game and have it just be an off day like everyone else. Now that I’m the only openly queer player in the whole league, it’s like I have to be perfect or else it reflects on a whole community and suddenly it’s oh he played like shit because he’s gay and it’s all the more reason for nobody else to dare to tell the truth.”

Jamie glanced over at where Keeley was drawing a flag on Roy’s cheek. He considered for a moment, then looked back over at Colin.

“That shouldn’t all be on you,” Jan said. “That’s bullshit to just assume anything about every gay player just because of one person.”

“That doesn’t mean people will do it any less though,” Colin insisted.

Jamie hesitated for a moment longer, then stood up.

It was bullshit for everything to be on Colin just because he was the only one on any of the teams with the balls to come out. That was way too much pressure to put on one person.

But Jamie was well acquainted with pressure. Performing well under pressure was the usual for him. Performing based on spite was his norm and he’d been looking for a new motivator since spite against his dad had stopped working for him. Jamie could play well to spite the assholes that had been shitting on Colin like he deserved his spot on the team any less for having kissed a man on the pitch.

At least Jamie already knew his team was supportive. That was more than could be said for players on other teams that might be looking at the bullshit Colin was facing and only becoming more certain that they weren’t going to publicly come out.

The worst Jamie had to worry about was some supposed fans whining that he should get kicked off the team just for him to make them look like fucking idiots the moment they played their next game. The worst he had to worry about was Roy pulling back a bit and having to rework the dynamic between the three of them.

And yeah, maybe it would be weird for a bit and Roy might have to punch him for the whole just sitting there saying nothing while Roy stripped for Keeley on camera thing. But Jamie could survive that. It wouldn’t be the first time Roy punched him.

Trent was finished with Higgins, but Jamie went over to Keeley anyway. She was pretty much done with Roy and he wanted her to do it anyway.

Keeley glanced up when he stopped beside Roy.

“Give me one like yours on the other side,” he said.

Keeley’s eyes flitted from him to Roy and then back to him again. Jamie made a point of keeping his eyes focused on her only.

“Are you sure?” she asked, but she was grinning.

“Yeah. Fuck it,” Jamie said.

Keeley kissed him, then said, “I’m proud of you, babe.”

Jamie risked looking at Roy, but it didn’t help him judge his reaction at all. Roy was just staring at him with that angry face that could mean just about anything.

Keeley drew a bi flag on his other cheek and Roy just stood there. He didn’t leave, but he didn’t say anything either.

Jamie tried to ignore him because Roy’s ominous ass was making him nervous.

When Keeley finished, Jamie took a second to brace himself, then put on his cockiest smile as he turned to go back over to the rest of the team.

“Now it won’t be all on you,” he told Colin loudly. “It’ll be a lot harder for them to claim no one queer should be allowed to play when I’m carrying the entire team on my back.”

Jamie laughed at his own joke he’d made at everyone else’s expense, but Colin didn’t even seem to register it.

He just grinned and pulled Jamie into a hug aggressive enough that he nearly knocked him over with the force of it.

“Finally someone else comes out,” he said.

“Couldn’t handle the attention being all on you,” Jamie insisted as he hugged him back hard. “Had to make it about me instead.”

As he pulled back, Colin left a hand on Jamie’s shoulder and insisted, “Jamie’s my favourite on the team now.”

Jamie beamed, utterly proud of his unearned favouritism. The offended look on Isaac’s face only made it better.

“What the fuck?” Isaac complained. “I’m your best friend.”

“Not anymore,” Jamie said, just to rub it in even though he was certain it wasn’t true. “Suck it, Isaac.”

He didn’t think about how that insult might be taken differently now that he was out, but Isaac seemed completely unfazed by his choice.

“I can’t believe somebody else came out and I still don’t get to play wingman. I mean, good for you having a girlfriend and all,” Isaac said. His voice doubled in volume as he announced, “But whoever comes out next is letting me be their wingman or so help me.”

Roy was such a piece of shit.

Jamie had practically told him this morning and Roy had been too stupid to even realize. He’d just breezed right past it and called him straight like a fucking idiot.

Keeley hadn’t seemed all that surprised when Jamie had asked for another flag. She hadn’t had to ask which of hers he had meant.

“You already knew, didn’t you?” Roy asked as he watched Jamie thrive on being the centre of attention.

“He told me a long time ago,” she said. “But I mean, even if he hadn’t, the poster of you right next to the poster of me probably would have given it away.”

“You think he used to have a thing for me?” Roy asked.

“Forget I said anything,” she said which definitely meant she did.

Roy looked back over at Jamie. Roy was such a colossal asshole. He’d just assumed that Jamie was straight and that he’d been entirely disgusted at the idea whenever anyone asked shit about anything happening between the two of them. Roy hadn’t ever even considered that there might have been a time when Jamie could have thought about the idea.

He couldn’t stop thinking of all the fucking moronic shit he’d said. He’d made a complete ass of himself and most of it had been in front of Keeley too. So now he looked like a biphobic prick to both of them because he’d been too stupid to even consider the possibility that Jamie might not be straight.

Why the fuck had he hit Jamie for not acting disgusted when Dani had thought they were sleeping together?

Stop acting like I’d ever have sex with you.

I would rather get run over by a fucking train than kiss Jamie once.

Why in the hell had he doubled down like such a dick when Phoebe had asked if he kissed Jamie too? Sure, he still would have said no if he’d known, but he would have been less of a dickwad about it.

Now, he understood why Keeley had been watching Jamie like his ego might have been bruised from Roy’s comment. Roy was an absolute idiot.

Roy’s phone buzzed.

“Fuck,” he said as he pulled it out and saw the message from his sister.

I know it’s last minute but can you take Phoebe?

“What is it?” Keeley asked.

“I’ve got to go pick Phoebe up,” he said.

Taking off and potentially missing Pride right after Jamie came out and he’d just stood there and stared at him without saying anything like a fucking moron was about the last thing Roy wanted to do. But he still had no idea what the fuck to say to Jamie and Jamie was busy talking to other people anyway. And someone needed to watch Phoebe.

When Jamie had looked back over to Roy and Keeley the first couple of times, Roy had been staring at him with that look that was probably meant as a glare.

Jamie had just brushed it off and gone back to laughing and joking around with the rest of the team. He could handle Roy glaring at him and going all silent. It was unsettling, but it had worked out alright last time. At least he was still there. That had to be a better sign than if he’d fucked off the moment Jamie had asked for the second flag.

But when Jamie looked back again and saw Roy had disappeared, his stomach dropped.

That wasn’t a good sign.

Even when Roy had gone all angry caveman after finding out Keeley wanted them both, he hadn’t just ditched Jamie without a word. And he had to be extra pissed or uncomfortable or whatever the fuck his problem was if he was taking off on Keeley and abandoning her before they even actually left for fucking Pride.

What a dick.

Jamie didn’t give a shit about what he thought anyway. But he could at least not be an asshole to Keeley over it.

“Did Roy say anything to you before he fucked off?” Jamie asked, trying to sound like he couldn’t care less.

They were on their way to Pride with everyone else, but Jamie hung back a little so he could ask Keeley away from the rest of the team.

“His sister texted,” Keeley said. “He had to go get Phoebe.”

Huh. So maybe it wasn’t about Jamie. That didn’t mean he wasn’t probably glad for the excuse to get away from him anyway. Or maybe, he hadn’t even gotten a text and had just made it up to get out of there without risking upsetting Keeley.

“Oh,” Jamie said. He didn’t say anything else because he absolutely was not about to ask anything more about Roy or keep talking about him. But that only lasted about thirty seconds before he pointed out, “He didn’t even say anything. He just stared at me and then fucked off.”

“He didn’t say anything bad or get upset either,” Keeley pointed out. “I’m sure it’s fine.”

“Probably should have said something before he stripped for you this morning if I was going to,” Jamie said. “Now he’s all freaked the fuck out. Which is kind of conceited when I didn’t even enjoy it.”

That was only partly a lie. It had stressed Jamie out enough that it had mostly ruined the fun. He wasn’t going to think about it later or anything anyway so really Roy had nothing to be pissy about.

Okay, he was definitely going to think about it later, but so fucking what? All Roy had done was take his shirt off. Big fucking deal. Why shouldn’t Jamie think about it?

It wasn’t like he’d stared at Roy naked like a fucking creep back when he’d been on the team. No, Jamie had panicked and avoided looking at him as much as possible. Because he was fucking respectful. He wanked replaying the fucking totally appropriate shit in his mind because he was a fucking gentleman. And okay, the changes he made and the shit that he added onto his memories were not appropriate at all but that was his fucking business.

“You know, I get it if you did enjoy it,” Keeley said.

“No way. He’s not even my type,” Jamie said even though they both knew he was blatantly fucking lying, but he was annoyed with Roy so he said it anyway. “It was okay. Nothing special. I wasn’t into it or anything. That’d be weird.”

So Jamie had fantasized about Roy stripping for him before under the assumption that it would never in a thousand years actually happen? So real-life Roy had done the most appropriate and boring striptease on camera knowing damn well he was there? So what? That was all for Keeley’s benefit anyway. And he hadn’t even taken his pants off.

He would definitely take his pants off when Jamie thought about it later. Keeley talking Roy into changing in front of them and cheering him on had really done something to his brain and unlocked a whole new fucking category of things he shouldn’t be thinking about, but that wasn’t his fault. He was being perfectly fucking appropriate in that call. They were the perverts that had done this to him.

“Jamie,” she said.

He didn’t like the way she was eyeing him like she was onto him. It would be easier for both of them if they just pretended Roy wasn’t his type, so he interrupted before she could say whatever she had been planning to.

“You know who I really don’t get the hype around though?” he insisted. “Zava. I swear half the team would have happily fucked him, but I don’t get it.”

“I don’t know,” she said with a grin. “Watching someone play that well is pretty hot.”

“You’d better be talking about me and not him,” Jamie complained.

He wasn’t really joking, but she laughed anyway.

“Don’t worry, I was,” she insisted.

“I mean it,” Jamie said and even he wasn’t sure if he was joking or not. “I’m fine with you fucking Roy. I mean, who wouldn’t? But I’ll have a nervous breakdown if I find out you’d go for Zava. So if you have a thing for him, I’m gonna need you to pretend you’re disgusted by him anyway. At least around me.”

“He really bothered you that much?” Keeley asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Jamie said. “Everybody practically worshipped him and I was about ready to lose it if he stuck around any longer. I mean, I’m a team player now and all, but I was about ready to tackle him on the pitch. And not in a sexy way.”

Keeley laughed at that and Jamie couldn’t find it in himself to be annoyed.

He hadn’t talked like this with her in a long time. He’d missed it.

When Cora answered the door, she already had her keys in hand, ready to leave for work.

“Phoebe, Uncle Roy’s here,” she called over her shoulder.

She turned back to him and then stopped for a moment and just stared at him.

“Is there something you wanted to tell me?” she asked.

“What?” Roy asked. He didn’t even remember the rainbow flag on his cheek until she pointed to her own face. “Oh, that. No. The team’s going to Pride together. Keeley put them on everyone.”

“Ah,” she said. “Makes sense.”

“You’re wearing the shirt I made you,” Phoebe said excitedly as she appeared in the hallway behind her mum.

“Sure am,” Roy said. “Hey, do you want to go to a parade?”

“Will Keeley be there?” Phoebe asked excitedly.

“She will,” he said.

“What about Jamie?” Phoebe asked.

“Yeah, he’ll be there too.”

Jamie took a selfie with his tongue sticking out and sent it to the Pride group chat. He tagged Ted and sent u owe me £100 on top of ur fine 4 missing me coming out

Ted probably wouldn’t be up yet, but he was probably enough of a chump that he’d pay up no questions asked when he ever did wake up.

“You couldn’t just send it to him without everyone else?” Keeley asked as she looked down at her phone.

“Nah, this way he’s got an audience watching,” Jamie said with a grin. “Either he pays up or he looks like a total dick in front of everyone. And who’s going to complain when they get a free picture of me out of it?”

“You don’t really think he’s going to fall for that,” Zoreaux said when he saw Jamie’s text.

“It’s Ted,” Jamie pointed out. “Of course he is.”

“Fall for what?” Colin asked because Isaac had left him and Michael out of the group chat so they’d be surprised when everyone showed up at Colin’s place instead of just Isaac.

“Isaac put Ted in the group chat just so he could fine him for not showing up,” Jamie said.

“Sure did,” Isaac said proudly. “How many times do you think I can invite him to shit just to fine him before he says something?”

“I don’t know. Maybe a hundred?” Richard guessed.

“It’s probably higher than that,” Beard said. “But don’t tell him I told you that. And don’t abuse it.”

They were definitely going to abuse it.

“Jamie’s trying to make Ted pay him another fine personally for missing him coming out,” Sam told Colin because they’d gotten a little sidetracked before they’d actually gotten to what Ted was absolutely going to fall for.

“What the fuck, why isn’t he paying me then?” Colin asked.

“He was there when you came out,” Jan said.

“That’s true,” Jamie pointed out.

“You can have the first fine,” Isaac said. “It’s for ditching out on you anyway.”

“Is it really ditching out if he’s in a different country?” Keeley asked.

“I was in a different country,” Richard complained.

“Yeah and think of all the money you saved coming back for this,” Isaac insisted.

“It literally cost me more money to come back for this and leave again after,” Richard pointed out.

“Nobody forced you to be here,” Jamie said just because he knew it would piss him off.

Colin was beaming as he insisted, “You know, I’m really not sorry to inconvenience you.”

Roy was in a party store when Jamie started texting in Isaac’s big group chat. He shoved his phone back in his pocket and followed Phoebe. He could see what he wanted when he got back to the car. If it was important, he probably wouldn’t have sent it to a chat with over thirty people in it.

“Where are you going?” Roy complained. “I thought we were getting face paint.”

Roy was antsy to meet up with everyone else but when Phoebe had found out what kind of parade they were going to, she’d insisted that she wanted a rainbow on her face too. So now they were getting face paint. Or, they were supposed to be. But Phoebe had run off down the completely wrong aisle.

“Look!” Phoebe said as she held up a tacky rainbow necklace made up of huge plastic flowers.

“Fine, you can get it,” he said.

“You need one too,” she said eagerly.

“I’m good,” Roy said, but she held one out to him anyway.

“Try it,” she insisted.

Roy sighed loudly and then begrudgingly took it from her and put it on with a scowl.

She grabbed another and put it on herself with a big grin.

“Now we match,” she said.

“Great,” Roy said sarcastically because it wasn’t worth wasting the time to argue with her about it. He’d just ditch his at the first opportunity he got. Maybe Keeley would want it. “Now can we go find face paint?”

“Okay,” she said. As she followed him to the proper aisle, she said, “I want mine to be a rainbow heart.”

“Okay,” Roy said. He could probably handle drawing that.

They found the face paint pretty quickly and Roy paid for it and the stupid necklaces.

“You’re Roy Kent, aren’t you?” the cashier asked. Roy didn’t answer but apparently, he took his silence and Phoebe’s grin as confirmation because he asked, “Can I get a picture with you?”

“Fuck no,” Roy said. He held out a hand to Phoebe as he said, “Let’s go.”

Roy made it about three steps outside of the store before he remembered the stupid shirt and rainbow on his face and stopped walking.

“What?” Phoebe asked.

Roy thought about all the moronic fucking things he’d said to Jamie without a second thought. He thought about how it looked just swearing and leaving when he got asked for a picture looking like this. He thought about the fact that the cashier that had asked had no fucking way of knowing that he was in a rush or that that was how he answered practically everyone who asked the same question.

Roy sighed heavily, then said, “We have to go back in there.”

Phoebe followed him without question.

Once they were inside, he dropped her hand again to keep her out of it and growled out, “Alright, let’s take your fucking picture then.”

“Seriously?” the cashier asked with a big grin.

Roy didn’t smile in the picture, but that was nothing new. Once they’d taken it, he went back over to Phoebe and said, “Now we can go.”

When they made it back to the car, Roy did the rainbow heart on her cheek, then got in and checked what Jamie had sent.

It was a picture of himself with his tongue halfway out of his mouth of course because for some unimaginable reason that was his go-to pose. And below that, a message trying to get Ted to pay him for missing him coming out.

Roy laughed under his breath and locked his phone again, but apparently not fast enough.

“Is Jamie your boyfriend now?” Phoebe asked.

“What?” he asked as he tried to figure out why she’d asked again and how to respond better this time. “Why?”

“We’re going to Pride,” Phoebe pointed out. “And he sent you a picture.”

“He sent everyone a picture,” Roy said. “And we’re not going to Pride for me. We’re going for Keeley. And Colin and his boyfriend. And Trent… And for Jamie.”

“Oh,” she said. “Well if you do want to date him, that’s okay with me.”

Roy hesitated for a moment. His first instinct was to insult Jamie and insist that there was zero chance of that ever happening. But he was trying to work on not being a dick and he’d already fucked up and gone overkill in front of Phoebe before.

So instead he just said, “I’ll keep that in mind. But don’t get your hopes up.”

Keeley had been a little worried that Jamie would get nervous once they were actually out in public at Pride and people started taking pictures of him, but he seemed happy as could be.

A lot of people were asking for pictures with him, with her, and with the team. Jamie didn’t seem bothered. He was doing full photoshoots with any strangers that asked.

It was nice seeing him so happy and seemingly not at all worried about the amount of pictures of him that were definitely going to end up all over the internet.

Keeley’s phone buzzed and she hoped it would be Roy but instead, it was Ted responding to Jamie.

No problemo 😃 I’m happy for you

It took a moment for Jamie to finish taking pictures and notice.

“What a dick,” Jamie said as he read the message, but he was smiling. “I should have asked him for more. I bet I could have gotten at least 200 out of him.”

Something behind Jamie caught Keeley’s eye.

“Oh my god,” she said.

“What?” Jamie asked, then he turned around and laughed loudly.

Roy was on his way over with Phoebe on his shoulders and somewhere since they’d last seen him they’d acquired matching cheesy rainbow flower necklaces. Phoebe had a rainbow heart on her cheek that Keeley was ninety-nine percent sure Roy had gotten roped into doing for her.

Roy set Phoebe down and then kissed Keeley.

“Sorry, we got delayed,” he said. “Going to the party store apparently couldn’t wait.”

“Oh, but it was worth it for this,” Jamie insisted as he tugged on Roy’s necklace. “This is fucking perfect. I need to get like a hundred pictures of you in this at least.”

“If you like it that much, then it’s yours,” Roy said.

Keeley was pretty sure he was just looking for an excuse to get rid of it without hurting Phoebe’s feelings, but Jamie looked thrilled as Roy took it off and put it around Jamie’s neck instead.

Roy went to pull back, but Jamie pulled him in for an aggressive hug. Keeley was surprised when Roy not only allowed it but hugged him back.

She’d been pretty sure they’d be fine and clearly, she had been right. Jamie had been worried over nothing.

Jamie squeezed Roy even tighter and lifted him off of the ground.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Roy said. “You don’t need to carry me around.”

Jamie set his feet back on the ground but held onto him a moment longer anyway. Roy must not have been too annoyed because he didn’t even shove him away.

Phoebe was walking with Keeley when Roy fell behind like he wanted to catch Jamie alone.

He was walking weirdly close to Jamie, but Jamie wasn’t about to say anything about it if Roy was still comfortable being in each other’s personal space.

“Hey,” Roy said. “If I’d known, I would have answered Dani and Phoebe differently.”

“Oh yeah?” Jamie asked with a smirk. “You would have said we were fucking instead?”

Roy rolled his eyes but didn’t even hit him.

“No,” he said. “But I would have gone about saying that we weren’t a little more tactfully.”

“You? Tactful?” Jamie asked. “Bullshit.”

“I said more tactfully,” Roy pointed out. “I didn’t say I’d be completely nice about it. I just would have been less of a dick.”

“Oh my god,” Jamie said as he realized what was happening. “Are you apologizing to me again?”

“Shut up,” Roy said. It must have been a reflex though because he immediately followed it up with, “But yes.”

“You could kiss me to make up for it,” Jamie said because apparently, he was physically incapable of just leaving things alone when they were already going well. “And then tell me how much better kissing me is than getting hit by a fucking train.”

That comment hadn’t actually bothered Jamie, but it made for a good enough excuse to indulge his habit of pushing his luck with Roy.

Roy didn’t seem bothered though. He assumed Jamie was joking and laughed.

“Well, it was worth a try,” Jamie said. “I guess we’re good anyway. Even if you didn’t actually say the words I’m sorry. And even if you’re too much of a coward to kiss me.”

Jamie had meant it as a joke, but Roy looked at him like he was actually concerned.

“Calm down, I didn’t actually give a shit about any of what you said,” Jamie assured him.

Roy was silent for a long time and Jamie figured that was the end of the conversation. But apparently, Roy had just been trying to force the words out because a couple of minutes later, he stared straight ahead as he said, “I am sorry though.”

Jamie stared at his face, but Roy wouldn’t look at him so eventually he gave in and said, “You’re fine. We’re good.”

Roy was silent again for a long pause, then he said, “Keeley said this is why you had that poster of me.”

Fuck. Jamie didn’t know whether to deny it or not. But Roy was being his normal weird self already and he’d forced out an apology for things that really hadn’t been a problem. So it didn’t seem like it would be the end of the world to admit it.

“Yeah, well me dad wouldn’t tear down a poster of a guy as long as I put up a footballer,” Jamie said. He shrugged as he added, “And you used to be hot, so…”

“Right,” Roy said. He sounded amused as he added, “Back before I was fucking ancient.”

Okay, so maybe Jamie had doubled down a little too much when Roy had called him out on not being disgusted by Dani assuming they’d slept together. But none of what he had said wasn’t the kind of shit he’d usually annoy Roy with anyway.

“Exactly,” Jamie said with a grin. “And before I found out how horrible your personality is.”

Roy laughed out loud at that.

It seemed like things really were fine then. Roy had found out Jamie had used to have a thing for him and he hadn’t shut down or gotten angry about it.

That meant there was nothing to worry about. Jamie could just relax and be happy with how things were. That was all in the past.

Haha, wasn’t it funny that Jamie used to want him? They could safely laugh about it now, knowing that Jamie was fully over it. Or, at least he could pretend to be for all of their sakes.

Chapter Text

On Monday, Jamie and Roy took lunch to Keeley’s office.

Barbara gave them a smug look as they passed by like she knew all about what was going on. Jamie smirked back at her on his way by.

They’d already texted Keeley to make sure she was alright with them coming and to find out what she wanted. So she wasn’t surprised when they showed up, but she did look thrilled.

She’d liked it a lot when they’d all had breakfast together. That was part of why they’d both come instead of just one of them. They both had lunch together all the time anyway and if she liked having them both then there was no reason for one of them to go and the other to have lunch somewhere else to give them time alone.

“Hey,” Keeley said with a big grin.

“Hey,” Jamie said.

He went over and kissed her before he sat down. While Roy went over to kiss her too, Jamie started pulling food out of the takeout bag. He’d waited to eat with Keeley, but his stomach was begging for him to feed it something so he didn’t have time to wait for them to be ready.

He’d hardly taken one bite before he was interrupted by his phone buzzing. He checked who the message was from to see if it could wait until later, but it was from his mum so he opened it.

With her message, she’d sent him the link to the Instagram post he’d put up after Pride. It was a photo set of nice pictures with Keeley and his teammates and then a picture with Jamie sticking his tongue out and grinning while Roy glared at the camera and flipped it off because he was incapable of taking a decent picture like a normal person.

We’re proud of you baby

We’re. So Simon knew now too. Jamie had never bothered telling him. He wasn’t really surprised that he was apparently fine with it, but it was nice knowing it anyway. Jamie was certain that if he hadn’t been, his mum wouldn’t have mentioned him at all in her text.

“Stop looking at your phone and pay attention to me,” Roy complained.

“God, you’re needy,” Jamie said and then he glanced up and saw Roy was smirking.

He didn’t give a shit at all that Jamie was looking at his phone. He was mocking him.

“I was imitating you, moron,” Roy said.

“You were looking at your phone for way longer than I was,” Jamie pointed out.

“Let me guess,” Roy said because apparently he wasn’t finished doing his shitty impression. “Isaac?”

“Wrong,” Jamie said.

“Sam?”

“No.”

“Dani?” Roy tried again.

“Still no.”

“Your mum,” Keeley guessed.

“You’re right,” Jamie said because he wasn’t embarrassed about texting his mum.

“So when do I get to meet the yoga mums?” Keeley asked over dinner.

“Any time you want,” Roy said. “Give me a time and I’ll see if it works for them.”

“How about this weekend?” she asked.

Roy took out his phone to message them right then and Keeley grinned like she hadn’t expected that.

He didn’t want to accidentally sound like he was inviting them all over, so he worded his message carefully.

Keeley still wants to meet the lot of you. Does going out sometime this weekend work?

No one answered right away, but that wasn’t unusual. Not everyone was glued to their phone the way Jamie was.

“Jamie’s definitely going to be annoying about it if he finds out you met anyone he didn’t,” Roy pointed out, even though there was absolutely no reason why Jamie should be entitled to all the people in his life the way that Keeley was.

“Question,” Keeley said. “Are we keeping it a secret from him because you’re embarrassed about the yoga thing or the women in their sixties thing? Or is it just to annoy him by refusing to answer his questions for no reason?”

A bit of all of the above, but none of those were his real concern. He could deal with Jamie giving him shit if that was all it was. But he should have realized this would inevitably come up sooner or later. It was probably better that she found out now instead of waiting to see how long it took for it to come up around her.

“It’s because all of them are fucking obsessed with him,” Roy admitted.

“What?” Keeley asked. She just stared at him for a moment before she added, “But I thought they didn’t know who you were. How do they know about Jamie and not you?”

“That stupid dating show he went on,” Roy said. “They all watched it together.”

“Wait a second. Did you watch it with them?” she asked.

“Yes,” Roy said. “At first because I couldn’t think of a good excuse not to when they put it on. And then to watch him make an ass of himself. And then I don’t know. I got invested.”

“No way,” Keeley said as if he would ever make something like that up for fun.

“There were so many episodes,” he told her. “It was on every night for like a month and a half and I watched every fucking episode. You have no idea how many hours I wasted on it when I was supposed to be free of him. You have no idea how many times I’ve had to sit through watching him fuck in that jacuzzi. They just kept showing parts of it over and over every episode after it happened. I’ve seen every fucking angle they thought to record it from. I can’t unsee it.”

Keeley laughed, but she covered her mouth quickly and said, “Sorry, it’s not funny.”

“I mean, it kind of is,” Roy admitted. “But it wasn’t at the time. And Jamie can never find out how much fucking time I wasted watching him. I will literally never hear the end of it and I don’t need him annoying me even more to try to get to meet them. Which he can never fucking do and they can never find out I know him or else my cover will be blown with them.”

He didn’t need Jamie telling everyone they knew about him liking the show or watching it all or about the yoga mum group he was a part of either.

“That does make more sense than just not wanting him to know they exist at all,” Keeley said. “But maybe if he found out about that part and not the show part, he’d stop asking questions.”

“Maybe,” Roy admitted. “But that’s not a risk I’m willing to take just to have him whine when I won’t let him meet them but can’t come up with a good reason why I’m so set on it not happening.”

Jamie was planning on calling it a night early when Isaac texted him.

We’re going clubbing. You in?

Jamie was already half-naked and about to get in bed but there was absolutely zero chance he was going to admit that. He would hear about it for the rest of his life from the whole team.

So instead he sent its tuesday night

So? Days mean nothing in the off season

He had a point. Even Jamie’s schedule didn’t really change from weekday to weekend. He would have been up before four again anyway, even if they’d asked him on the weekend.

When Jamie didn’t agree fast enough, Isaac sent another message.

We won’t tell Roy if you get drunk

Roy would definitely know when Jamie was still drunk and then hungover during training anyway. And it wasn’t like he’d just made the rule to annoy Jamie. There were reasons behind it. Plus, Jamie liked knowing that he could control his drinking. He couldn’t be turning into his father if Roy said no drinking and he went along with it with no problem. Jamie had no interest in hiding his drinking or acting like he couldn’t handle being sober even if other people weren’t.

But he absolutely did not want to get into that. He wanted to get into his fucking bed and go to sleep.

whos we?

A moment later, Jamie was in a group chat with Isaac, Colin, and Bumbercatch. Isaac sent the first message.

Sam’s busy and Jamie won’t answer

A few seconds later, Colin sent maybe he’s asleep already

Which was fucking rude. Jamie was perfectly awake and obviously, now he couldn’t just go to bed and prove them right. He didn’t want to become known as a boring old fart like Roy. He didn’t need them to stop inviting him to shit because they just assumed he’d be busy training with Roy or going to bed as early as a child would.

Isaac sent two messages in a row while Jamie debated how bitchily to respond.

Colin’s coming to wingman so you can’t claim you can’t come because of Keeley

Unless her and Roy means you’re free to do what you want with other people. Then we can go to a different kind of club

They hadn’t ever discussed it, but Jamie had made that mistake already the first time around and there was no way he was about to bring the subject up to Keeley. He’d far rather never know the answer than bring it up and remind her of the mistakes he’d made last time and hurt her all over again. Besides, Roy had already made it very clear what would happen if he fucked up and made stupid fucking assumptions about what was and wasn’t allowed all over again. Jamie was far too attached to his dick to risk even bringing the subject up, let alone actually acting on it.

Besides, sex with Keeley was amazing. He didn’t need to throw that away for something that would probably be disappointing anyway. And he certainly didn’t want to go home with anyone else tonight. He just wanted to get back to his bed as quickly as possible.

nah not making that mistake again

ill come but im not drinking

Jamie was expecting to get shit for that but instead, Isaac sent Great! You can drive everyone

“For fuck’s sake,” Jamie muttered to himself.

fine give me a few minutes to get ready

“You know, you still owe me that proper striptease you promised,” Keeley pointed out when they made it up to her room.

“Alright, get your music on then,” Roy said.

Keeley didn’t need to be asked twice. She sat down on the edge of the bed and put on some appropriate music for the occasion.

“Remember to do it in slow motion,” she said eagerly and he laughed. “What? That’s the tease part. It’s not a proper striptease if you just pull everything off in one go.”

“Maybe I need an example first,” Roy said.

He absolutely did not, but she was happy to play along anyway so she got back up off of the bed.

“Alright,” she said as she pulled him over to the bed by the hand. As she pushed him down where she had just been sitting she added, “But it’s still your turn after.”

“Fair enough,” he said with a grin.

Jamie had made a horrible mistake.

The night out had been fun and all. He’d caught a second wind once they’d gotten there and the loud music had woken him up. Dancing and playing wingman sober had still been a good time. And when Isaac and Moe had disappeared with girls, Colin had still been there to keep him company. Being the designated driver and watching his friends make complete fools of themselves was fun in its own way.

But everyone else had a very different sleeping schedule from Jamie. They wanted to stay late while Jamie had been having fun and hadn't realized just how late it had been getting. He’d been a little tired, but nothing serious.

Then suddenly Moe had already left with a girl and Isaac was on his way out with another and it was well after two. He’d still had to drive Colin home while also stopping him from drunkenly calling Roy and insisting Jamie should be allowed to sleep in. When Colin had tried to find his contact for the third time in a row, Jamie had had to take his phone away and had ended up handing it off to a very tired-looking Michael once they'd arrived at Colin's place.

By the time Jamie made it home himself, it was nearly three. His whole body was exhausted, his ears were ringing, his head was pounding, and he had to be up in an hour.

But going out and staying out so late was his own damn fault. And Roy had still trained him when he’d been hungover and looked like death, so Jamie didn’t message Roy to cancel. He didn’t need to get shit for his dumb decisions and he’d be fine. He could survive one day on shitty sleep. It wasn’t like he hadn’t gone out late with the guys before training before.

“Why do you look like a corpse?” Roy asked when Jamie opened the front door and just stared at him.

“That’s fucking rude,” Jamie complained.

Well, at least Roy didn’t have to put up with his obnoxious enthusiasm, but Jamie looked like shit and he seemed genuinely pissy about Roy’s comment.

“You’re bitchy today,” Roy pointed out.

“Yeah, I’m allowed to be,” Jamie said. “I only got an hour of sleep. Let’s just get this over with.”

Roy was tempted to tell him to go back to bed, but Jamie was already locking his house and clearly, he was planning on just training anyway. If he wasn’t worried or asking to cancel, then Roy would just leave it. It wasn’t like he had to be too concerned about Jamie being overly exhausted anyway. There weren’t any games coming up. It wouldn’t matter if he was worn out.

Roy hesitated at the door anyway.

“Are you coming or what?” Jamie asked.

He wasn’t running yet, but he was walking quickly down the driveway to get a lead on Roy. Even when he was tired as fuck, he still had to make a point of being obnoxiously ahead of him.

Jamie had let him still train him when he was hungover as fuck and had been a whole prick about it. Roy didn’t need to take it easy on him just because he was a little tired. Or not that easily at least.

So Roy started running and planned on passing Jamie just to piss him off, but even on one fucking hour of sleep, Jamie was fast. Within seconds of starting actually running, he was ahead of Roy already.

Obnoxious fucking show-off. But at least he was their show-off. Jamie might be annoying as fuck about his abilities, but that was the other teams’ problems at least as much as it was Roy’s problem personally.

Jamie woke up to something hitting him in the head.

“What the fuck?” he grumbled to himself as he opened his eyes.

“We’re here,” Roy said.

Jamie glanced around for a second.

Right. They were getting lunch. And apparently, Jamie had fallen asleep in the car on the way over.

“Yeah, okay,” Jamie said. “Let’s go.”

He fought back a yawn as he forced himself out of the car.

At least he’d made it through two-thirds of their training for the day already. He could make it through one more session. He’d get his energy back after they ate. Then he could go home and sleep. Well, for a bit anyway. He had plans to go over to Keeley’s later. So his nap would have to be a quick one, but that was fine. There was no way he was cancelling on her because he’d been too stubborn to say no to the club or drag them out of there before closing.

They sat down and ordered and then Jamie caught Roy staring at him.

“What?” Jamie asked.

“I’ve just never seen you go this long without talking before,” Roy said which was definitely a fucking lie.

“Maybe it’s your turn to carry the conversation,” Jamie said. “I can’t be responsible for ninety percent of it every second of every day.”

“You choose to talk that much unprompted every day,” Roy insisted. “And it’s more like ninety-five percent.”

“Then it’s more than your turn now,” Jamie pointed out.

Far too much of his energy was being concentrated on holding his head up because he knew if he let it rest on the table, he’d definitely fall asleep again before their food got there.

But Roy didn’t say anything. He just fucking stared at him.

“What?” Jamie asked in his bitchiest tone to try to bait Roy into saying fucking something.

“Are you going to survive afternoon training?” Roy asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Jamie said and it was probably true. Hopefully.

“I have to end early anyway,” Roy said.

Jamie wasn’t sure if it was less likely that Roy was taking pity on him or that he actually coincidentally needed to take off early.

“Why?” he asked skeptically.

“It’s Phoebe’s last day of school,” Roy said. “I’ve got to pick her up.”

“Say hi to Leanne for me,” Jamie said with a smirk.

“Fuck no.”

“Why not?” Jamie asked. “I think she likes me. I mean, obviously not as much as she likes you, but-”

“Nevermind,” Roy said. “I miss when you weren’t talking.”

“No you don’t,” Jamie insisted. “You can’t stand it when I don’t say anything.”

“Talk about something else then,” Roy said. “Like why the fuck you only got one hour of sleep.”

“How are things at work going?” Rebecca asked over lunch.

“Good,” Keeley said. “Way better actually. I mean, obviously, the whole Jack pulling out of the company and not even having the decency to send me an email about it fucking sucked. And it felt like the end of my career when it happened, but it turns out it’s actually the best fucking thing that could have happened.”

“Oh, absolutely,” Rebecca said. “You don’t want her having a hand in anything or having an ounce of control. Good riddance. You’re better off without her. Professionally and otherwise.”

“Yeah, I trust you way more anyway,” Keeley said. “And like now everyone that works for me actually respects me, right? They’re not just there thinking I’m just some spoiled brat that isn’t the real boss. They’re there because they want to be. I don’t have to feel like I have to walk on eggshells around them.”

That had started before she’d actually met Jack and then when Jack had been around, she’d only been treated better because Jack was there and because of her connection to her. And then Jack had tried to rip that away from her. But it was much nicer working in a building where her employees actually listened to her and respected her and she didn’t have to worry about them or Jack going over her head. The change had been terrifying at first, but now it was just freeing.

“They’d better respect you,” Rebecca said. “And if they don’t, well then you’re the boss. Just get rid of them and make an example to everyone else.”

Keeley laughed at that, then asked, “Hey, would it be totally crazy to take a vacation now that things are going better and just assume they’re not going to go to shit right away if I do?”

“No way,” Rebecca said. “You deserve a vacation. And I’m sure Barbara can handle it while you’re gone. And if she can’t, then she can call you and you can put out the fires from where you are or come back early.”

Keeley chewed at her lip as she remembered Roy telling her how she could do whatever work she needed to do remotely. This was different than then and she wasn’t planning on taking anywhere near as long as Roy had had planned, but it still made her nervous. Work would probably be fine. Things were better now. They were in a more stable place. It wasn’t a brand new PR firm with brand new employees she’d just be taking off on before she even found her footing.

But part of her was worried that everything she’d worked to build and fix would fall apart if she allowed herself this. And another part of her worried that it wouldn’t… that things would go perfectly smoothly without her and that information would just hang awkwardly between her and Roy.

Besides, she didn’t even know how taking a vacation would work now that she was with Roy and Jamie both. She could just go somewhere on her own and not have either of them there, but she didn’t like that option. She didn’t want to take time off of work just to not see either.

She could just stay where she was and have some extra time off of work to spend with them and keep up the routine they’d already had going. That would be the easiest option when they both had time off too. It wasn’t the most appealing option, but it might be the fairest to them. She wasn’t sure how she would tell Roy she was taking vacation time and still couldn’t go anywhere with him because of Jamie though. She didn’t want him resenting her or Jamie for it.

She could take one first and then the other after and just have half of the limited time with each. At least she wouldn’t have to miss either for too long if it was only like a week each. But she still would miss whichever she wasn’t with and worry. And she wouldn’t just be taking herself away from one of them at a time, she’d also be taking the other and completely interrupting Jamie’s training and their time with each other. Plus, the time apart from Roy hadn’t gone well for her last time.

Or, she could try to bring them both and hope it wouldn’t turn into a clusterfuck. But that was a lot to ask and the sleeping arrangements were likely to be a lot more awkward with both of them there and everything being far more in the face of the other than what they’d become used to. She highly doubted after the disappointment of her not going on the last vacation he’d planned for them that Roy would be happy with a much shorter romantic trip that came with Jamie and divided her time between them.

Sure, Roy was much more used to spending time with Jamie and liked him more now, but that didn’t mean that he wouldn’t want his vacation to at least be a proper vacation from Jamie. Maybe he was joking most of the time when he said he needed a break from Jamie, but they already spent the majority of every single day together. And when Keeley had spent the majority of every single day with Roy, she’d been at her limit and needed a break, regardless of how in love with him she was. There was no way that Roy didn’t need a genuine break from Jamie to be able to continue getting along with him as well as he did. She was surprised they weren’t all over each other’s nerves already.

“What’s that look?” Rebecca asked.

“I don’t know,” Keeley said. “Maybe it’s easier to not. Then I don’t have to figure out how the hell that works now that I have two of them. I mean, I’m terrified that I’m going to suggest the wrong thing or not take enough time and it’ll just remind Roy of last time.”

Keeley not going with him and the six long weeks apart hadn’t been the only factor in their breakup. There’d been other warning signs before that like the teacher Roy hadn’t told about her and the little ways their lives didn’t fit together the same way once she’d started her firm and gotten so busy with it while Roy had had all the time in the world during the last off-season.

When he’d come back, they’d tried. But she had felt Roy pulling back and keeping his guard up with her in ways he never had before after he’d come back. She’d felt it coming before he’d finally called it and nothing either of them did to try to prevent it seemed to help or matter. It had been better than being blindsided like she had been with Jack, but it wasn’t something she wanted to risk putting herself through again.

“Terrified why?” Rebecca asked.

“I don’t want to hurt him or make him mad at me or ruin everything all over again,” Keeley said.

“Him running scared from a good thing wasn’t on you,” Rebecca argued. “If he can’t handle the fact that you have other things that are important to you outside of him and that you can’t just drop them all to go spend over a month with him on a dime, then isn’t it better to find that out now? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life terrified to take a vacation because you don’t know how he’ll feel about it and you’re afraid to have a repeat of last time?”

“Not really,” Keeley admitted.

“And as for the mad at you thing,” Rebecca said. “Has he ever even gotten mad at you before?”

Keeley considered. If he had, he’d never shown it to her. She’d seen him angry over a thousand things. She’d seen him turn into scary angry Roy at other people. She’d seen him furious on her behalf and on Phoebe’s. She’d seen him upset and hurt. She’d seen him shut down. She’d seen him pull away. She’d seen him laugh off something she’d expected him to be furious or hurt over. But she couldn’t think of a time that he’d turned his anger on her.

Rebecca had a point. Even if Roy got mad, he wasn’t likely to take it out on her. For someone whose whole reputation was his anger, he’d always been gentle toward her and Phoebe. He’d always felt safe. She didn’t know why she was questioning that now. Worrying about things going wrong and hurting him was her history with him, but that stupid worry about him getting angry was Jack weaselling her way back into her head all over again. Keeley had thought she was done with her leftover influence, but maybe not.

“You’re right,” Keeley admitted. “I just have to talk to him and go from there. As soon as I figure out what to say or suggest. With two of them, there’s no perfect option that’s going to make everybody happy.”

“It’s not your job to find some perfect solution that’s everyone’s first choice,” Rebecca said. “Either you tell them what you want and go from there or just give them the options and let them choose. Figuring it out doesn’t have to be all on you.”

“You’re right,” Keeley said again. “Thanks.”

She’d just have to get it over with and talk to Roy about it. She knew she needed to talk with them both, but Jamie was easier. He was more likely to go with whatever option Roy went for than the other way around. And Roy’s reaction was the one she was worried about. She’d just have to see what he said and go from there with Jamie after.

When Roy picked up Phoebe, she was too busy talking with her friends to even acknowledge he was there, let alone come over to him. Clearly, it being the last time she’d see them at school until after summer break made them more important than she was excited to see him.

“Wow, I’ve never seen you get ignored like this before,” Leanne said as she came to stand beside Roy.

“It happens occasionally,” Roy said. “Usually it's when Keeley shows up and suddenly I’m nowhere near as exciting anymore.”

“Ah, right,” she said. “Keeley.”

Roy wasn’t sure what to say to that. So he didn’t say anything. He just watched Phoebe.

“Hey, can I ask you kind of a weird question now that Jamie fucking Tartt isn’t here for once?” Leanne asked.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Roy said because he was pretty sure that was where this was going. “He just has absolutely no life and spends ninety percent of his time with me or Keeley.”

“Okay,” she said, sounding amused. “Good to know, I guess? That’s actually not what I was going to ask though.”

“Ah,” he said. “I get that question a lot. Mostly out of Phoebe.”

“She does talk a lot about him,” Leanne said. “Not as much as you or Keeley, but still.”

“Yeah, well, my sister invited him around her and now none of us hear the end of it,” Roy said because it was true and it was easier than admitting that he spent so much time with Jamie that he was around Phoebe regularly. “Sorry, what were you going to ask?”

“How does that whole thing work?” Leanne asked. “The two boyfriend thing? If she’s dating both of you, does that mean the two of you are able to see other people?”

Roy didn’t realize until then that they’d never really talked about it. He hadn’t even considered it. He hadn’t wanted Jamie catching on to whatever lingering weirdness there was to their dynamic that had maybe at one point felt like it might lead somewhere. He hadn’t even considered that it might not be a problem. He hadn’t really thought Leanne would just come out and address whatever it was they’d had going on, especially since he’d gotten back with Keeley and Phoebe had apparently told her entire class about it.

“I don’t know,” Roy said honestly. “It’s never really come up before.”

Apparently, Jamie had turned down going out with Isaac to pick up girls weeks ago, but then again that was different and Roy had also graphically threatened to cut Jamie’s dick off if he even thought about cheating on Keeley again.

“At the risk of making a complete fool of myself,” Leanne said. “If you could, would you ever maybe want to do something while they’re busy together?”

“Oh,” Roy said because he’d known damn well why she had brought the subject up but that didn’t mean he’d been prepared for her to flat-out ask or that he had any idea what to say.

When he hadn’t been with Keeley and she’d been with Jack and he’d genuinely considered it for a moment, he’d thought it wouldn’t work because she was Phoebe’s teacher and he didn’t want to do that to her and because the whole reason he’d ended things with Keeley was that he’d been too much of a mess for a relationship.

But now he was actually acting like a fucking adult capable of maintaining a relationship instead of running scared. And she was about to not be Phoebe’s teacher anymore.

That didn’t mean it still wouldn’t be a stupid idea though. Phoebe still knew her and would still see her at school after. It would still be potentially weird for her if Roy dated her former teacher and potentially a whole clusterfuck if it didn’t work out and Phoebe wanted it to.

“You know what, never mind,” Leanne said when Roy just stood there like a fucking idiot and didn’t say anything. “That was stupid. Pretend I didn’t say anything.”

Roy turned to look at her and was trying to figure out what the fuck to say and how to act like a normal fucking person capable of responding to questions when Phoebe ran right into his legs, hugging his stomach.

“Where’s Jamie?” she asked like it should just be a given that Roy would have brought him. “Is he in the car?”

“I didn’t bring him,” Roy said.

“Why not?” Phoebe asked as she let go of him and took a step back.

“Because I needed a fucking break from him,” Roy lied.

“Can we go see Keeley?” she asked.

“She’s still at work,” he told her.

“What about after?” Phoebe asked because apparently, she wasn’t going to let the subject drop that easily, no matter how awkward it made things. Then again, she had no way of knowing what she had interrupted.

“Maybe,” Roy said. “I don’t know. She might already have plans.”

“Jamie won’t care,” Phoebe said confidently. “He likes me.”

She said it as if he was the only other person in the world Keeley could possibly be spending time with. And as if either of them would just be fine with him crashing their date with or without Phoebe.

“That doesn’t mean he wants us on their dates,” Roy pointed out. “And she does spend time with people other than Jamie.”

“You don’t,” Phoebe insisted. “And if you date Jamie, then we could spend time with them all the time.”

Wow. What the fuck?

It wasn’t even true that he didn’t spend any time with other people. Roy wasn’t sure why Phoebe acting like he had zero friends outside of Jamie in front of Leanne was so irritating and embarrassing.

“I took you around tons of other people this weekend,” Roy pointed out.

“And you only talked to Keeley and Jamie,” Phoebe argued.

That was entirely untrue. He’d talked to Colin and Beard and Trent and Nate and Rebecca at the very least. That had mostly been before he’d left to pick up Phoebe, but still.

“Can we just leave?” Roy asked because he didn’t need to be embarrassed any further. “Are you ready?”

“Fine,” Phoebe said with a melodramatic sigh that proved that Roy had been letting her spend far too much time around Jamie. “Bye, Ms. Bowen.”

Phoebe dragged him away by the hand and Roy gave Leanne an awkward wave over his shoulder. When they made it back to the car, he just stood there instead of unlocking it.

Fucking hell.

“I thought you wanted to leave,” Phoebe pointed out.

He definitely had.

He definitely still did.

But Leanne wasn’t Jamie or Keeley or anyone on the team. Roy couldn’t just fuck off when he didn’t want to and didn’t know how to deal with a conversation and then show up later as if nothing had happened. It was shitty enough when he did it to them. Doing it now was so much worse. Now that the school was breaking for summer, Roy literally wouldn’t know how to get a hold of Leanne for months, even if he wanted to.

That idea was appealing in a way when he would absolutely love to avoid dealing with it indefinitely. But it was also an absolute shit thing to do and Roy liked Leanne enough that he wasn’t willing to pull that bullshit on her.

“I’ve got to go talk to Ms. Bowen,” Roy said. He tried not to sound angry about it but he wasn’t convinced that he was successful.

He was worried Phoebe was going to ask why, but she just said, “Okay.”

She followed him back over and when they got close, Roy told her, “Go play for a minute.”

The last thing he needed was her overhearing the conversation or going on and on about Keeley or Jamie again.

“That was fucked, wasn’t it?” Roy said as he walked back up to Leanne. “You’re not used to my whole just fucking off mid-conversation thing. I do that with other people too. Not just… this.”

“You’ve actually done it to me before,” Leanne said.

Shit.

“Well fuck me, then,” Roy said and then he realized just how unfortunate that word choice was. He winced a little as he said, “That came out wrong.”

“I figured the going silent and avoiding the question was answer enough,” she said.

He hadn’t intentionally avoided it though. He’d just been trying to figure out what to say and then Phoebe had been there and he hadn’t been about to get into it it front of her.

“I wasn’t trying to avoid it,” Roy said. “I just didn’t know what to say. It’s not like I never considered it. I just can’t now. I’ve got too much going on already.”

Honestly, he was kind of surprised that he wasn’t even really considering it. But the window for when it might have worked had already passed and had never really been there at the same time.

He couldn’t do that to Phoebe. And he wasn’t the same Roy he’d been when he’d seriously considered the idea that their flirtation could ever lead anywhere.

That Roy still hadn’t known how to be Roy Kent anymore. That Roy had liked being defined by anything other than what he’d used to be. That Roy had already been coaching but still hadn’t fully accepted that it was as close as he could get to the life he’d used to have. That Roy had liked being just Roy and Phoebe’s uncle and not having to be Roy Kent for a few minutes every once in a while. That Roy had been wanting to fix the Keeley-shaped hole he’d dug into Phoebe’s life and his own with someone else that cared about Phoebe the same way.

But right now, he was fucking happy with things as they were. He liked coaching. He liked being Roy Kent again. He liked how he spent his time. And maybe he could talk to Keeley and he could make time and he could give it a try and see if things could work out or not. But that was all a lot of effort and a lot of social battery and a lot of those aspects of starting dating someone new that were so not Roy’s thing.

If he was given the option of trying to really learn someone new and having to make all that getting-to-know-you small talk and having to have them learn how he functioned or spending his time without Keeley with Jamie or Phoebe or having a little quiet time on his own, he’d happily take the second option without question.

Leanne seemed great and all, but he didn’t really know her. Not in the kind of way where you could just fall into a relationship without having to jump through all the hoops and go through all the early dating steps that he didn’t have the energy for anymore. And he might have a little more time on his hands in the off-season, but that wouldn’t be the case when the season started and he was busy all the time again. Even trying to balance the yoga mums was going to be hard enough with all of the team obligations he had. He didn’t need to add a second girlfriend onto things too. He didn’t have the time or energy for that and he didn’t want to change or take away from anything in his life now to try to make room for another relationship.

“Right. That’s fair,” Leanne said. “I just didn’t want to be kicking myself all summer wondering what if I had asked.”

Keeley was half-watching reality TV when Jamie showed up.

He followed her to the couch and she’d barely sat down before he laid down with his head resting in her lap.

“Do you want to watch something else?” Keeley asked.

“This is fine,” he said.

He wasn’t even looking at the TV though. He was just looking up at her.

“You seem tired,” she pointed out as she ran her fingers through his hair.

Jamie leaned into her touch as he said, “Got roped into being designated driver last night. By the time I got rid of everyone else and got home, it was practically time to get up again.”

“You didn’t have to come over if you’re that worn out,” Keeley pointed out.

“Wanted to,” Jamie said. “I’d rather be tired with you than at home.”

“That’s sweet,” she told him.

“Just don’t tell any of the guys how tired I am from one night out,” he insisted. “I already get enough shit from them without it.”

“Really?” Keeley asked. “Why?”

“Fell asleep during team meditation one time,” he said defensively. “And then at Isaac’s a couple weeks ago. Now him and Colin won’t shut up about how it’s past my bedtime as soon as it gets dark out.”

She wasn’t sure if he was genuinely bothered by it or if he just didn’t want to give them more fuel to work with.

“Why do you two still get up so early now anyway?” Keeley asked. “I mean, it’s not like you’re going to run out of time for training if you get up at a reasonable hour, right? And it’s not like you have to fit it all in before regular training time. So why keep doing it to yourselves?”

There was a few seconds' delay before Jamie looked visibly confused. She was surprised he seemingly hadn’t wondered this at any point on his own.

“Dunno,” he said. “Roy tells me to be up so I get up. Keeps me in routine, I guess.”

Keeley was surprised he’d never bothered to ask. She’d known he was different with Roy and his teammates now and way more of a team player than he’d used to be. She hadn’t expected him to be just following Roy’s every instruction without a single question after how much he’d complained about every single thing Ted had ever told him to do and every time Roy had said anything when they’d been together the first time.

“When you said you carrying him around like that was normal training, did you actually mean that?” she asked.

“Hasn’t made me carry him before, but he pulls all kinds of shit like that. Haven’t you seen the pictures of the bike thing?” he asked.

“The bike thing?” she asked.

Jamie wriggled a bit to get his phone out of his pocket.

She watched as he opened Instagram and opened a fan account of himself called Jamie Tartt Updates. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised to find that he was already following the account. She watched as he scrolled through pictures of himself until he found the one he was looking for.

He passed the phone to her so she could get a better look at the picture of Jamie tied to Roy’s bike and dragging him around while Roy sat with his feet up, putting a shocking amount of trust in Jamie’s ability to keep him balanced. The picture was captioned They're so stupid. I love it.

Apparently, Jamie wasn’t offended because he’d already liked the post.

“This is what you two have been getting up to?” Keeley asked. She’d thought Roy had been exaggerating when he’d said he had Jamie to drag him around like a sled dog but apparently, that was genuinely a part of Jamie’s training.

Keeley wasn’t sure if she was more surprised that Roy trusted Jamie to not let him fall off the bike, intentionally or accidentally, or that Jamie had agreed to it and publicly liked the picture of it that apparently had been going around.

“I mean, not always,” Jamie said. “But he comes up with ridiculous shit all the time. It’s normal training and then whatever he thinks will be hard and funny for him to watch.”

“And you just go along with it?” she asked.

“It works, don’t it?” he said as if it was obvious that that made things worthwhile when he’d already been one of the best players before Roy had stepped in. “Besides, it’s funny watching him pretend like he doesn’t want to keep me around when he’s personally making sure he can’t throw a fit and trade me away again anyway.”

He said it as if there was any chance that he might get traded again when they both knew that no one would even consider trading him now. Even when he’d been refusing to share any of the credit and had picked the ball off of his own teammates just so that he could be the one who scored, he’d only been traded because he’d been too good and Rebecca hadn’t wanted to risk keeping him around, especially when he was finally growing up and making an effort to be a part of the team. Rebecca had known that he was already good enough without Ted’s influence and that Ted getting through to him and making him a team player had far too much potential to ruin her plan of driving the team into the ground. Now that she wanted the team to succeed, she wouldn’t let anyone try to trade him, even if any of the coaches were stupid enough to suggest it.

“You do realize Roy isn’t the one that traded you, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, I know,” Jamie said. “But it was the best day of his life, I’m sure.”

“Best might be an exaggeration,” Keeley said. She smiled as she added, “Maybe like third best.”

Jamie laughed at that.

“Yeah well, it’s his fault he’s stuck with me for good now,” Jamie pointed out. “He just couldn’t stay away from me.”

“I’m certain you being on the team had absolutely nothing to do with him taking Ted’s offer,” Keeley pointed out. “If anything, he held off longer because of it. But coming back was all Ted and Isaac.”

“Isaac?” Jamie asked. “The fuck did he do?”

“Ted needed help with him handling the whole captain thing so he asked Roy,” Keeley said. “And Roy took him to play street football somewhere and whatever he did must have worked because Ted offered him the job then and there.”

“Took him to play where?” Jamie asked. “How come he never took me?”

“I don’t know, babe,” Keeley said. “You’d have to ask him.”

“I guess,” he said a little poutily.

She wasn’t sure if it was because he was tired or because he was jealous that he wasn’t the only one that had received special extra training from Roy.

“I’m sending this to myself,” Keeley said as she did from his phone. “I need to save this.”

It was in the running for her new lock screen, along with the selfie Jamie had posted of him with Roy at Pride. Jamie looked happy as could be while Roy was giving the camera his usual glare. Roy had been laughing before, but Jamie had given Roy so little warning before pulling his phone out that he’d barely had time to scowl at the camera and flip it off in time.

Keeley would have to try to get a picture of them together sometime. Roy was less likely to go all angry tough guy if she was the one taking it.

She passed Jamie his phone back but he just set it down on his chest instead of bothering to move around to put it back in his pocket.

“Can you play with my hair again?” he asked.

“Sure,” Keeley said.

She went back to running her fingers through his hair and he closed his eyes, looking perfectly content. Maybe it was just the fact that he didn’t pile so much gel into it now, but his hair was so much softer now than it had used to feel. He still used plenty of product though, she’d been in his bathroom and seen how much of his counter was dedicated to hair and skincare products. Maybe he'd just found better ones now.

Keeley grabbed her own phone with the hand that wasn't in Jamie's hair and opened the post to get a screenshot of the picture. She liked the post and followed the account while she was at it. She wouldn’t mind seeing more pictures of Jamie, especially if there was more of what the hell Roy and Jamie got up to when she wasn’t around.

When she looked at the recent posts, underneath the pictures of him with fans at Pride was a video. She tapped on it and saw him playing with a bunch of teenagers and Phoebe in a public park. It cut from him dribbling awkwardly using just one foot but getting around the other team anyway to him blatantly letting Phoebe pick the ball off of him and acting all over dramatic afterward to him taking a shot from the opposite end of the pitch and it going straight in before starting over.

Keeley glanced down at Jamie. She’d been intending to ask what the one-footed dribbling thing was about, but she stopped herself when she found that he’d fallen asleep in her lap.

Clearly, he could use the sleep, so she didn’t bother him. She just focused back on the show she’d left playing in the background.

The episode ended and she was a few minutes into the next one when she got a text from Roy.

Are you busy? It’s fine if you are, but Phoebe’s asked me like three hundred times if we can do something with you so I said I’d ask.

Keeley considered for a moment, then sent back Jamie’s here but he came over and fell asleep five minutes later

We can do something a different time then.

No, it’s fine. You can come over. But let yourself in

Jamie seemed pretty asleep, so she wasn’t even sure he’d wake up when they got there. If he didn’t wake up, that was fine. And if he did, then Keeley could see if he wanted to use her bed or stay up with them.

Roy figured it should probably be safe enough to let himself and Phoebe in without knocking after Keeley had specifically told them to.

Still, he’d been planning on going in before Phoebe, but the moment he’d opened the door she’d run ahead of him. He probably should have seen that coming, especially when she was already all sugared up.

By the time he caught up to her, she was telling Keeley all about how she was on summer break now while Jamie lifted his head from Keeley’s lap, looking more than a little confused.

Maybe they shouldn’t have come after all. They’d already woken Jamie up and taken over his night with Keeley.

Jamie sat up and looked from Roy to Phoebe like he was trying to figure out when they’d gotten there.

“How long was I asleep?” Jamie asked.

“Not that long,” Keeley said and Roy wasn’t all that convinced, but that wasn’t his business. “You can use my bed if you’re still tired.”

“I’m fine,” Jamie said. “I can stay awake.”

Keeley paused the show she’d been watching and handed the remote to Phoebe as she said, “Here, you find something for us to watch.”

She sat down on Jamie’s other side and looked for something more interesting so Roy took the chair.

“Are you going to be able to get up at four tomorrow?” Roy asked as he eyed Jamie.

“I’ll be fine,” Jamie said. “Worry about yourself, old man.”

“Why exactly do you still get up at four anyway?” Keeley asked.

Roy glanced at Jamie, waiting to see what reason he could possibly have for still just going along with it like an idiot, but Jamie was looking at him like he was waiting for Roy to answer.

“He just kept getting up that early and he was annoying me enough that I let him to see how long it would take for him to ask about it,” Roy said. “And then he never did and it was just a habit I guess. Plus, it still made for a lot of day left after.”

“So you’re both torturing yourselves getting up while it’s still dark out when you don’t have to just because neither of you bothered to point out it wasn’t necessary anymore?” Keeley asked and it really did sound stupider when she said it.

“Apparently,” Jamie said, sounding mildly annoyed but not nearly annoyed enough for Roy’s reveal that they’d initially still been getting up that early just to fuck with him.

“You get up while it’s still dark out?” Phoebe asked, sounding horrified. “Why?”

That was a good question and clearly out of habit wasn’t a good enough answer.

“So that there’s enough time to fit all of Jamie’s training in,” Roy said because that was definitely part of it. Their schedules were just a lot more flexible these days.

“Why doesn’t he just train less?” Phoebe asked. “Or not at all? Isn’t he supposed to be on summer break too?”

“Can’t not train,” Jamie said. “I’ll get out of shape.”

That was true. But maybe they didn’t need to be training quite as much before pre-season training started up.

“How about this,” Keeley said. “Do whatever you want when you’re not with me, but unless either of you can give me a good reason why you actually need to be up that early, I’m not putting up with either of your alarms before dawn anymore.”

That seemed more than fair. Roy hadn’t ever intended to fuck with her sleep schedule along with theirs. But Jamie had gotten up for four after his date so Roy had done the same and now Keeley had been putting up with a lot because they’d followed through on that precedent ever since.

Roy looked at Jamie, but he was staring back at him again, waiting to see what Roy would say.

“That’s fine with me,” Roy said.

“Yeah, that works,” Jamie agreed.

Phoebe barely made it ten minutes into the movie she’d put on before the sugar crash hit. Before it was fifteen minutes in, she was asleep and Jamie had fallen asleep again with his head on Keeley’s shoulder.

Roy eyed them, then looked to Keeley, trying to decide whether to say something to her or if it would wake them up.

“You know, if you want to nod off too, I can keep myself company,” Keeley said quietly. She sounded amused rather than bothered by Roy inviting himself over for Phoebe’s benefit, just for her to fall asleep after all the excitement and extra sugar of the last day of school.

“Good thing we came over so urgently so that she could fall asleep too,” Roy said. He eyed Phoebe to make sure she was really asleep and then said, “I guess this works out though because I have something to tell you about.”

“I have something to talk to you about too,” Keeley said. “Is yours something good or something bad?”

Roy hesitated.

“Not good then,” she said.

“I don’t know. Not really either. Just… weird,” he said. He kept an eye on Phoebe, but if she was awake she definitely would have butted in or peeked over at him or pulled some face by now. So he decided to just get it over with as he said, “Phoebe’s teacher asked me out today.”

“The one you didn’t know why you didn’t tell about me last time?” Keeley asked.

“That’s the one,” he admitted. “But she definitely knows about you now. And Jamie too. Phoebe told her whole class about it and started a whole movement of kids who want two boyfriends apparently.”

“Oh,” Keeley said. After a pause, she added, “Well, you could, you know. Go out with her, I mean. It would be kind of shit of me to tell you you can’t when I’ve got Jamie.”

“Nah,” Roy said. “I already told her no anyway.”

“I thought you liked her,” she said. “I mean, isn’t that the whole reason you didn’t mention me? I’m not going to get pissed if you admit it if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I don’t know,” he said. “I did. Maybe I still do. But that doesn’t change my answer anyway. I mean, dating two people sounds fucking exhausting. I don’t know how you put up with Jamie too. I’m not even dating him and I’m sick of him.”

He also probably spent more time with Jamie than she did, but he didn’t point that out.

“It’s not like you wouldn’t have time for her when I’m with Jamie,” Keeley said.

But that wasn’t entirely true either. He’d still have Phoebe and the yoga mums. He’d still have quiet nights in with a good book on his own. He’d still have all the shit the three of them did together. And he didn’t want to take away from any of that to make time to add someone else. He’d rather spend an evening like this with Jamie there too than on a date with someone other than Keeley.

“I barely have time for people outside of the team and you and Phoebe,” Roy said. “And I’m fine with that. I don’t want to make time for other people. I barely like being around anyone as it is. I don’t need to make fucking small talk and shit and learn about a new person that can’t just read through my bullshit like you and the lot of them can. And all that start of dating bullshit before you just know each other and get to the good part? Going back to all that again sounds like a fucking nightmare.”

Maybe, he could have put himself through that if he was single. But when he could spend more time with Keeley instead, he couldn’t make himself even consider going through that with anyone else ever again.

“Besides, there’s a time when I would have maybe thought about it,” Roy added. “But that was when not being able to play anymore still felt like the end of the fucking world. When I liked just being Phoebe’s uncle and that being enough and not having to talk about fucking football or Jamie or any of it. But now I’m fucking happy with the way things are already. I like being Roy Kent and not just Roy. I like talking about football and it doesn’t even piss me off when people keep bringing up Jamie anymore. I like things the way they are and I don’t need to change shit. I like spending time with you. I like coaching. I like having a purpose worth bothering to get up for in the morning, even if it has been at fucking four in the morning when there was no reason it needed to be and even if it was to go put up with Jamie for extra hours every single day. And don’t tell him this because he’ll be a fucking prick about it for the rest of my life, but I even like spending a fucking obscene amount of time with him.”

Jamie had been awake for a while and he’d been going to point that out when Keeley made the comment about everyone falling asleep on her. But then Roy had said it had worked out because he’d had something to talk to her about and Keeley had said she’d had something to talk to him about too and nosiness had kept him from sitting up or acknowledging that he was awake.

Was it any of his business? Maybe not. Was it possible they would have told him anyway and just didn’t want Phoebe to know? Maybe. But Jamie wasn’t about to risk them postponing their conversations and going home wondering what the fuck they’d talked about and left him out of.

And then Roy had dropped a fucking bomb about Leanne asking him out. And Keeley had dropped a fucking bomb that apparently Roy had a thing for her too and she’d apparently known about it the whole time. And then it was clearly far too late to admit that he’d been faking being asleep.

Jamie liked that Roy had turned Leanne down. It was nothing against her and none of his fucking business, but he didn’t want Roy to start bringing her to things. He didn’t want Roy cancelling on him and ditching him all the time to spend time with his girlfriend that had the summer off too. He liked him and Keeley getting to almost exclusively take up all of Roy’s time. He liked doing shit with one or the other or both of them. Roy already had enough people in his life that ate up his time and Jamie wasn’t interested in sharing him any further.

But then Roy said not to tell Jamie about liking spending so much time with him and the only thing that kept Jamie from saying that it was too late and he’d already heard was the fact that he still didn’t know what Keeley had wanted to talk about.

He was definitely storing that information away for later though. Knowing that Roy talked nicely about him behind his back was too good to not use against him eventually. Jamie had to concentrate on keeping a smirk off of his face so he wouldn’t give himself away by looking too smug that Roy would apparently rather spend time with him than another woman he had a thing for.

“What was your thing you wanted to talk about?” Roy asked.

“Well,” Keeley said and Jamie had to fight the urge to open an eye to peek over at her when she hesitated. “Things at work have been less of a clusterfuck lately.”

Huh. That was good and all. Jamie was happy for her. But that wasn’t exactly the kind of thing Jamie had expected her to be talking about. He’d been expecting something juicier than that when he’d faked being asleep to hear it.

“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” Roy asked.

“Yes, but,” Keeley said and then she hesitated again. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a bad idea.”

“What is?” Roy asked.

“I was thinking that maybe I could take a little time off without things completely imploding while I’m not there,” she said and Jamie didn’t understand why she sounded so nervous about the idea. “I mean, it wouldn’t be six weeks… But maybe I could take one or two weeks.”

“I don’t need six weeks,” Roy said. “I was a fucking moron expecting you to just be able to drop everything and go with me.”

“I don’t even know how it would work with this anyway,” she said. “I mean we could just stay here I guess. Or I could do half with one of you and half with the other. I don’t know if that’d be weird though. Or I could take you both, but I don’t know that that’s not weirder or how that would even work. And I doubt that either of you would want that anyway. I mean, I’m sure you could use a break from Jamie.”

That was a rude assumption. It was almost definitely based on Roy’s constant bitching that he needed a break from him, but still. Roy was the one who had fucking volunteered to spend every day of his life training Jamie. Hell, he was the one who had chosen to come back and coach a team Jamie was on. Roy had been living a Jamie-free life and he’d chosen to take a job spending every day with him again.

Roy had no right to complain. Jamie had signed on to come back to a team blissfully free of Roy only to get stuck with him all over again. And Roy had been a dick about it and Jamie had been the bigger person until Roy had learned to act like a normal fucking person around him. And then Roy had chosen to spend even more time with him and give him special extra training. And now Roy was the one fucking inviting Jamie to shit all the time and hauling him around with him.

Jamie didn’t ask to spend the majority of his time with Roy. He didn’t fucking have to. Roy was the one who was obsessed with spending time with him.

“So let me get this right,” Roy said. “I can get a week off of Jamie, but have no you either. Or, I can be stuck spending time with Jamie every day like I would have been doing anyway and get two weeks of vacation with you out of it? Sounds like an easy enough decision to me.”

“I haven’t talked to Jamie about it yet,” she said. “So I don’t know what he’ll think. I was waiting to talk to you first.”

“Take him to Amsterdam. He’ll be thrilled. He fucking loves it there and he somehow knows every fact imaginable about the place. He’s like a free tour guide you never fucking asked for,” he said. “I’m sure he knows some romantic shit to do. He can show you the fucking windmills.”

Roy was swearing a lot and complaining about Jamie a little, but he sounded surprisingly happy about the idea.

“You’re awake aren’t you, you fucking shit,” Roy accused and he sounded angry again now.

Shit. Jamie had slipped and let himself smirk a little at that. Well, no sense in hiding it now and trying to play it off then. If he kept faking, Roy would probably just kick him or throw him on the floor or something.

“That’s a fucked up way to talk to your niece,” Jamie said as he opened his eyes and sat up.

“You know I meant you,” Roy insisted.

“You thought the windmill was romantic?” Jamie asked because that was the whole reason he’d gotten so smug in the first place. He turned to Keeley as he added, “I can’t believe I took Roy on a date and didn’t even know it.”

Roy didn’t have time to date a second woman he actually liked, but he did have time to spend two weeks in Amsterdam looking at windmills with Jamie and Keeley.

“Must not have been a very good date if I still thought you were straight,” Roy countered.

Which was rich coming from a man who had refused to kiss Jamie.

“Bullshit,” Jamie said. “You had a great fucking time. The whole team left disappointed they didn’t get to see anything and I showed you all over. You had such a good time, you want to take me back there.”

“Fine,” Roy said. “It wasn’t completely awful.”

Which was a ringing fucking endorsement coming from him.

“You’re straight, aren’t you?” Jamie asked because technically he’d assumed just as much about Roy as Roy had about him. But he was also fairly certain that Roy not arguing with him calling it a date now meant absolutely nothing and wasn’t some hint that he’d been wrong all along, no matter how much Keeley was eyeing him.

“Yes,” Roy said.

“Just checking. I assumed it as much about you as you assumed it about me,” Jamie said. “But the fact that I’m right’s not surprising. If you weren’t straight, there’s no way I wouldn’t have gotten into your pants after that night.”

Roy glanced over at Phoebe like he was worried she might have overheard, but she hadn’t moved an inch and Jamie could hear how steady her breathing was.

Roy dropped his volume when he responded anyway.

“Right because no one could possibly resist your charm unless their entire sexuality prevents them from being attracted to you,” Roy said sarcastically.

“Exactly,” Jamie said.

Jamie’s moves were good enough that even a straight man had found them romantic. If Roy had been into men, Jamie definitely would have at least gotten a one-night thing out of him by now, even if it was just a hate fuck.

Roy looked at Keeley like he was expecting her to back him up.

“Sorry, I can’t help your case,” she said. “I know he’s completely full of himself, but the unwavering confidence does it for me anyway.”

Jamie grinned and Roy rolled his eyes.

“Alright, that’s enough of this conversation,” Roy said. “Or else I’m not being the one who has to handle it if Phoebe wakes up and overhears something she shouldn’t.”

Roy was kind of surprised that Jamie hadn’t fallen back asleep yet by the time the credits to the movie Phoebe had slept through came on the screen. He probably wouldn’t last much longer and it was getting late anyway.

“I should get her home,” Roy said.

He stood up and went over to kiss Keeley on his way past, then he scooped Phoebe up instead of waking her.

He managed to get her out of Keeley’s house without waking her up, but she was awake by the time he got both of them into the car and turned it on anyway.

“Where are we going?” Phoebe asked with a yawn as Roy backed out of the driveway.

“I’m taking you home,” he said. “It’s late.”

If her mum wasn’t home by the time they got there, then he’d just put her to bed and stick around until she got home.

“Can we do something with Keeley again tomorrow?” she asked.

“She still works tomorrow,” Roy told her. “She doesn’t have the whole summer off.”

“What about Jamie?” Phoebe asked. “Can I play football with him tomorrow?”

“I don’t know,” Roy said. “Maybe. We’ll see tomorrow.”

He wasn’t totally sure what the plan was for tomorrow or if he’d have Phoebe again or not, let alone what time. He also had no idea if Jamie would be as worn out again. If he was falling asleep all day again, he probably wouldn’t want to play with Phoebe.

“Okay,” Phoebe said. She was quiet for a moment and Roy wasn’t sure she hadn’t fallen back asleep until she said, “Uncle Roy?”

“What?” Roy asked.

“If you want to date Jamie too, that’s okay,” she said and he had no idea what had prompted it this time.

“Yeah, you’ve mentioned that,” Roy said.

“If Keeley can date him too, then so can you if you want,” Phoebe added. “You already like spending time with him anyway.”

There was no point in pretending that wasn’t true. Phoebe would just argue and prove him wrong if he did.

So instead, he said, “There’s more to it than that. You can like spending time with someone and not want to date them.”

“Okay,” Phoebe said. “But it’s okay if you do want to though.”

“I get it,” Roy said. “You want me to date him so you can spend time with him and Keeley all the time. You know you still get to spend time with him without me dating him, right?”

“Alright,” she said.

Roy half expected her to tell him again just how okay she thought it would be but instead, she just left it at that.

Chapter Text

Keeley woke up for the first time when Jamie’s alarm would have usually gone off. Jamie was still fast asleep on his stomach beside her with an arm draped over her.

Apparently, he was tired enough that he didn’t have to naturally wake up at the same time, even without the alarm. That was probably good though. He clearly needed the extra sleep.

When she woke up the second time, Jamie’s alarm was going off but it was actually light out and it was basically time for her to get up to get ready for work anyway.

It was nice having him there when it was a reasonable time to get out of bed. The only time she’d gotten up while one of them was still there since they’d gotten back together had been when Jamie had stayed over at his mum’s place and Roy had been able to sleep in because of it.

Jamie pulled away from her to turn his alarm off, then rolled onto his side to face her.

“I like this wake-up time much better,” Keeley said.

She pulled him in for a kiss and hooked a leg over his to keep him there when he laid on top of her. They couldn’t do much when Roy would be coming to pick up Jamie soon and then she’d have to get ready for work not long after that, but she wasn’t ready to get out of bed or let him go quite yet.

Jamie kissed his way up her neck, then said by her ear, “Roy told me to text him when I’m up.” For a moment, Keeley thought he meant that he’d already texted him and he needed to get ready. But then he added, “He doesn’t have to know I’m not still sleeping.”

“Hmm, you were pretty tired yesterday,” Keeley agreed. “It wouldn’t be that surprising.”

“I’ve got to pick Phoebe up before we eat,” Roy said. “Don’t even bother whining about it. You’re perfectly capable of having lunch by yourself if you don’t want to wait.”

“I didn’t even say anything,” Jamie insisted, sounding far too offended for a man that complained every single time their lunch got even slightly delayed. “But I am hungry.”

“Great,” Roy said. “Fend for yourself.”

He turned and headed out the door without waiting to see if Jamie would follow him or not. He didn’t even make it to the car before Jamie had fallen in step beside him. Roy had to resist the urge to laugh at how predictable he was.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Roy said as he unlocked the car.

“I don’t like eating by meself,” Jamie said defensively as he got in the car.

Roy debated mocking him for it, but that seemed like a risky move when he wasn’t all that fond of it either. So he didn’t say anything at all.

“Does this mean we’re done training for the day?” Jamie asked once he’d pulled out of the parking lot.

“I don’t know,” Roy admitted. “I doubt Phoebe wants to watch me boss you around for hours. She was on my case about getting to play with you again though.”

Phoebe was on his case about a lot of things lately. He didn’t need to bring that up in front of Jamie though. Roy just hoped she wouldn’t pull her it’s okay if you want to date Jamie routine in front of him. The last thing he needed was her trying to convince Jamie too.

“That works for me,” Jamie said immediately as if he didn’t have to put any thought into his answer.

“You don’t have to humour her for my sake, you know,” Roy pointed out.

“Who says it’s for your sake?” Jamie asked. “What else am I going to do all afternoon? In case you haven’t noticed, I like football. And I like attention. Besides, she’s way nicer to me than you ever are.”

He had a point. Still, Roy was surprised that Jamie put up with spending so much time with Phoebe without getting tired of her or annoyed. Jamie whined about almost anything that mildly inconvenienced him and he didn’t have any reason to invest so much time in her. She wasn’t his niece and he wasn’t dating Roy. There wasn’t really any reason for him to pretend to like spending time with her if he didn’t.

Jamie was expecting to just wait in the car, but Roy got out and then turned and leaned back in the door as he said, “Come on.”

So Jamie followed him up to the front door.

Cora was already dressed for work and holding her keys when she opened the door, but she stopped for a moment and said, “Hi, Jamie.”

She hadn’t even greeted Roy at all.

“Hey,” Jamie said with a big smug grin that Roy wasn’t even looking at him to see.

“Alright, that’s enough of that,” Roy said, even though Jamie hadn’t done anything. “Come on.”

When Jamie didn’t move fast enough, Roy grabbed a handful of his shirt and yanked him into the house behind him.

“Jesus Christ. Calm down,” Jamie muttered as he followed him. “I wasn’t even flirting with her. You don’t have to be so possessive.”

“Shut up,” Roy said, although he didn’t sound any more annoyed than usual.

“Can I say bye to her or is that illegal too?” Jamie asked just to be annoying.

“Bye Cora,” Roy said for both of them instead of actually answering.

“Don’t just feed her ice cream,” Cora warned. “She hasn’t had lunch.”

“I’ll make her something,” Roy said, but Jamie had no idea if Cora heard him or not before the front door closed.

“That was bullshit, right?” Jamie asked. He was pretty sure Roy was going to give Phoebe ice cream for lunch anyway. He just hoped that he would get some out of it too.

“Why would it be?” Roy asked.

Jamie didn’t say anything. He didn’t think calling Roy on being a pushover to his face was likely to go well for him.

“I’ve been thinking of maybe taking a vacation,” Keeley told Barbara.

“Okay,” Barbara said, seeming confused about why she was telling her. “I’m certain you don’t need my approval for that.”

“I know I don’t,” Keeley said. “But I trust you. And I was wondering if you’d be okay with making sure things run alright without me here.”

“How long are you going to be gone?” Barbara asked.

“Only a couple of weeks,” Keeley said. “I’m going to Amsterdam with Jamie and Roy.”

“You’re taking both of them?” Barbara asked. “Don’t you think that’s bound to go wrong?”

A few days ago, she had. But now, it didn’t seem like it would be the end of the world to her. They’d both agreed to it and Roy had been the one to suggest where they went, seemingly for Jamie’s benefit. Roy was the one who had volunteered to take on the planning pieces. She was feeling significantly less worried about the possibility of it going wrong since she’d actually talked to them about it.

“They’re surprisingly mature about this kind of thing,” Keeley said. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

Barbara almost looked disappointed as she said, “That’s good for you. I’m glad. But if it does end up going disastrously, do I get to hear about it?”

“Probably?” Keeley said because it seemed like yes was the answer she was looking for.

“Alright,” Barbara said. “I’ll look after things here then.”

“Thank you,” Keeley said.  “And if shit hits the fan, then you can totally call me to help sort it out or get on the first flight back.”

“I’ll be fine,” Barbara said and the confidence in her tone made Keeley feel a little more relaxed about the whole idea of being away from work for two whole weeks.

After the lunch Roy made for them, the three of them walked to the nearest park. No one was playing yet, but they’d brought a football with them and Phoebe didn’t seem bothered.

“We can have a shoot-out,” she said excitedly. “But I get to choose where you have to shoot from every time.”

“Only if I get to choose where you shoot from too,” Jamie insisted.

Jamie wanting to choose where she'd shoot from instead of giving her an advantage made much more sense than whatever had happened when Jamie had let her win last time. Maybe Phoebe’s gloating had hurt his ego too much to lose on purpose again.

“Okay, but you still have to use your left foot,” Phoebe said.

“No problem,” Jamie said. He set the ball down much closer to the goal than Roy was expecting and then moved out of the way instead of playing goalie as he said, “You’re up first.”

Jamie had given her an easy shot perfectly centred a few feet away from the net so Phoebe scored easily. She ran and grabbed the ball. For a moment, she eyed Jamie, then she set the ball down about a third of the way down the pitch, as far to the side as she could manage.

“It has to go in the top right or it doesn’t count,” Phoebe told him and Roy held back a laugh at that.

He’d been worried she wouldn’t want to watch him boss around Jamie but apparently, she liked bossing him around just as much as he did.

“Nuh-uh,” Jamie disagreed, sounding more like a child than Phoebe. “You can’t just add on new rules whenever you feel like it.”

“Sure I can,” Phoebe insisted. “You let me add the wrong foot rule after you already agreed to my bet last time.”

Jamie just stared at her for a moment, then said, “Okay, well I don’t know why you had to bring that up.”

“Just follow the rule,” Roy said in an exhausted tone. “Or do you really think you can’t manage to aim that well?”

“What the fuck?” Jamie asked, looking instantly offended. “Have you met me? Of course, I can fucking aim that well. I could aim that well blindfolded.”

There was an idea for training. But then again, if Jamie could really manage, he would be fucking unbearable about it after so maybe it wasn’t worth it. It was only fun in a giving him a task that would be difficult just to annoy him kind of way. It wasn’t exactly a practical skill to work on. No one was going to blindfold Jamie in a game. Besides, using where players around him were to his advantage was far more useful than shooting without looking anyway.

“Great,” Roy said. “Then stop bitching and take your shot.”

“I would if you would stop talking to me,” Jamie insisted like a fucking liar.

Roy shut up anyway so that Jamie could stop using him as an excuse. Jamie took a few steps back so he could get a running start, then he fired the ball right into the top right corner of the net.

Unfuckingbelievable. He’d used his fucking right foot anyway as if Roy wouldn’t notice him cheating against Phoebe and call him on it. That was a new low, even for Jamie.

But before Roy had to say something, Phoebe called out, “Wrong foot! That doesn’t count.”

“What? No way. That was definitely off me left foot,” Jamie argued because he was such an arrogant asshole that he couldn’t even fess up when he was caught cheating against a literal child.

“I saw you use that one,” Phoebe insisted as she pointed at his right foot.

“Yeah, ‘cause that’s me left foot,” Jamie insisted. “See, it makes the-”

He cut himself off as he held up both hands to see which one made the L the right way and frowned when he proved himself wrong.

Jamie was stupid in a lot of ways, but he knew his lefts from his rights. Roy was very aware that Jamie knew his left from his right to find the right position on the pitch or follow instructions without checking. He was just playing dumb because he’d gotten caught.

“Told you,” Phoebe said proudly, clearly buying Jamie’s bullshit.

“Okay, fine,” Jamie grumbled. “It doesn’t count. But only because I got mixed up. I easily could have made that with me left foot.”

“Maybe,” Phoebe said. “But you didn’t so I’m winning.”

“For now maybe,” Jamie said.

He walked away from Phoebe to go get the ball to place it for her next turn. As soon as he was past her and his back was to her so she wouldn’t be able to see his face, all the annoyance disappeared from his features and he looked perfectly pleased with himself.

He shot Roy that smug look that usually made Roy want to punch him in his stupid perfect teeth, but Roy was too confused to even be properly annoyed.

Had Jamie known that Phoebe would call him on using the wrong foot and done it on purpose? That didn’t seem like Jamie, but then again he clearly must have let Phoebe win last time. And Roy wasn’t entirely certain that Jamie couldn’t have won the race to the car even with Roy on his back. Maybe Jamie wasn’t that bitter about her bragging about beating him after all, even if he had argued about it afterward and complained and demanded a rematch.

Roy’s suspicions only increased when Jamie left the ball in a reasonable spot again instead of giving Phoebe something difficult just so that he could catch up.

The longer Roy watched them together, the more certain he became that Jamie was intentionally losing while being an overdramatic little shit to keep Phoebe from realizing that he was letting her win.

Sure, he had the disadvantage of using his left foot and being given a smaller target and of Phoebe putting the ball in increasingly difficult spots. But Jamie never gave anything too difficult to Phoebe. And even when he missed, he’d hit the crossbar perfectly to almost make the shot she’d demanded or else he’d still get the ball in, just in the opposite corner instead of the one she’d called out. He also consistently trailed Phoebe by one point. Any time she missed her shot, Jamie conveniently missed the next one or the one after that. He’d miss out on the point from the centre of the pitch and then perfectly make a shot from three-quarters of the way down. And every single time he missed, he sighed and complained and made up excuses, just to smirk all over again the moment Phoebe wouldn’t be able to see it.

It was honestly a real piss-off. Even while he was losing on purpose, Jamie was still managing to be an obnoxious show-off.

Letting Phoebe win was a lot more generous than Roy would have expected out of Jamie. Two years ago, Roy wouldn’t have been surprised to see Jamie knock a child over, score on them, and then gloat in their face.

This was a better alternative, but still. Roy was going to have to talk to Jamie about letting Phoebe win every single time at some point when she wouldn’t be there to overhear it. Otherwise, he would definitely be hearing it from Cora if Phoebe came home even just a few more times bragging about how much better than Jamie she was.

Seeing Phoebe happy and making fun of Jamie was nice and all in the short run, but it also went completely against the way Cora was raising her. That was probably part of why Phoebe believed so easily that making Jamie use the wrong foot and shoot at a smaller target from further away made up for the fact that he was a professional football player enough that she could genuinely win. She wasn’t used to adults losing to her on purpose so she hadn’t figured out that that was what was happening yet.

Roy laughed as Phoebe set the ball down in the corner so that Jamie would be forced to take a corner kick where his only options were to kick the ball off of the pitch, away from the goal, or directly into the outside of the goalpost.

“It has to go in the bottom right corner,” Phoebe said as if she thought Jamie might somehow manage to get it in with absolutely no wind to work with and a truly ridiculous angle.

“How the fuck am I supposed to get it in at all?” Jamie asked.

Phoebe didn’t answer. She just laughed.

Jamie sighed heavily and muttered, “Unbelievable.”

He took the kick and sent the ball rolling across the front of the goal and off of the pitch.

Phoebe laughed harder as Jamie groaned and complained, “It’s not my fault that it’s impossible… Hey, stop laughing so hard or I’ll make you take the same.”

“And then I’ll give you the same shot every time,” Phoebe said without a moment’s hesitation.

“That’s fair,” Jamie admitted. “That’s good strategy.”

After the park, Roy drove them both back to his place. He’d claimed he was only bringing Jamie because Phoebe had asked, but Jamie wasn’t stupid. He knew Roy liked having him there. He just had to put on a show of acting huffy for the sake of his dignity.

Phoebe ran inside the moment that Roy had the door unlocked. Jamie moved to follow her in, but Roy stopped him by grabbing his arm.

Jamie turned to face him with a confused look. He hadn’t even said anything that could be misconstrued as him having a bad childhood. And he’d let Phoebe win. So Jamie didn’t see why he was getting stopped to get in trouble or talked to about something.

“What’s with the always letting her win thing?” Roy asked.

That took Jamie by surprise. He was certain that Roy must do the same thing with her. Phoebe had him wrapped around her finger. Besides, wasn’t letting the kid win what reasonable adults did?

Growing up, Jamie had gotten a lot of pressure from his dad to win every game he’d played. It had felt like the end of the world whenever he’d lost anything. Whenever he won he’d felt amazing and whenever he lost he’d felt like a massive disappointment. He didn’t want to be responsible for Phoebe feeling that way when she was a literal child and he was a professional fucking athlete and a damn good one at that. The odds were more than stacked in his favour. So what if he unstacked them? That was being a decent fucking human being, wasn’t it?

But Jamie didn’t explain any of that because he didn’t want Roy giving him that look like he was thinking Jamie’d had some traumatic childhood.

So instead, he said, “She’s a kid. Beating her into the ground seems a little cruel, don’t it?”

“She can handle losing,” Roy said. “She’s not like us. Cora’s raising her to know that you can’t possibly win everything and that that’s okay.”

Jamie furrowed his brow as he pointed out, “But it is possible to win everything. I mean, it’s not likely maybe, but it is quite literally possible.”

A person could get incredibly lucky. The odds were low but not impossible. Or, you could only take on games and challenges you already knew you could win. Or, you could train your ass off and become the very best and have a little luck on your side. Or, you could just play one fucking game ever and win it, then retire for life afterwards just to prove a point.

“That’s what I'm talking about,” Roy said. “She’s not going to grow up to make winning a stupid fucking game her whole personality. She’s not going to be so debilitatingly competitive that she blows her knee out because winning a fucking game is worth it, just to lose anyway and then fall apart and have a full-on identity crisis for fucking months over it.”

Jamie felt awkward. He didn’t really know what to say to that. He was pretty sure saying it wasn’t just a game wasn’t the right answer, even if it was true. He also wasn’t really sure what to say about what Roy had just admitted to him.

Sure, Jamie picked fun at Roy and his leg and his age, but he’d been doing that since long before Roy’s knee had fully given out on him. He was pretty sure the comments didn’t even annoy Roy anymore. Hell, sometimes he almost seemed amused.

Jamie had never felt awkward talking about Roy’s knee and the end of his career before, either when they’d hated each other and he’d been genuinely trying to hurt him or since they’d become friends and it had been intended as the kind of ribbing all the guys did with each other. But now, Roy was telling him that he’d fallen apart after.

Jamie had rooted for the end of Roy’s career for months before it had actually come. Jamie had made joke after joke after joke about how Roy was old and useless and irrelevant and should just give up. Tackling Jamie had been the reason Roy’s knee had become completely irreparable. And at the time, Jamie had felt a little bad. But nothing like this.

He’d mostly just thought oh, that sucks for him but everyone had seen this coming all year anyway. It was bound to happen sooner or later and at least he’d finished off the season. At least he wouldn’t have to get relegated with the rest of them. He’d figured Roy would be fine. He had plenty of money and fame and he had Keeley and he’d get over it quickly enough. He’d figured Roy had been fucking happy while his life had been falling apart.

It was uncomfortable finding out that Roy had been miserable for months and had a whole crisis because of it now that he actually gave a damn about Roy’s feelings. Jamie was surprised that Roy was admitting it to him at all. He felt his role in the whole ordeal a hell of a lot more now than he ever had before. He’d thought Roy was a petty fucking drama queen when he’d come back and coached everyone else and ignored him. Now, Jamie wondered how the hell Roy had ever gotten over Jamie putting the last nail in the coffin of his career enough to actively help Jamie improve his own career by putting far more time and effort into him than he put into anyone else on the team.

Jamie wasn’t sure whether to apologize to Roy or thank him or brush past the admission like it wasn’t a big deal to try to keep Roy from getting uncomfortable and not wanting to say something anywhere near as vulnerable in front of him ever again. He was also debating hugging him, but he wasn’t sure it wouldn’t genuinely piss Roy off and make things even more awkward if he tried it right then.

Jamie still hadn’t figured out what to say when Roy gave up on waiting. Maybe he was just as uncomfortable with the whole thing as Jamie was.

“Watch this,” Roy said and then he was heading inside without another word so Jamie followed. “Oi, Phoebe. Staring contest. Now.”

Phoebe turned around at the sound of her name, then became very focused when Roy told her they were having a staring contest. Roy bent down enough that they were at eye level.

Jamie looked between them, but he may as well have not been there. They were both very focused. Jamie half-expected Phoebe to stick her hand out fast to try to get him to flinch or to clap loudly or something to guarantee a win.

Instead, she just stared back and giggled while Roy stared her down with a look that stopped grown men dead in their tracks.

The longer that the contest lasted, the more sure Jamie became that their eyes must be burning.

“You blinked,” Roy pointed out when Phoebe finally did. “I win again.”

Phoebe didn’t demand a rematch. She didn’t claim Roy had somehow cheated. She didn’t even look disappointed. She was still laughing.

“Uncle Roy’s like a fish,” she insisted as she turned to look at Jamie. “He doesn’t need to blink.”

“I’ve noticed,” Jamie said.

He wouldn’t be surprised if he found out that Roy practiced that unsettling stare in the mirror. Or maybe, staring contests with Phoebe were his practice.

“He always wins staring contests,” Phoebe added.

Huh. Jamie had thought that Roy was the kind of uncle that would have let Phoebe win literally everything. Sure, Roy was a competitive person, but he also blatantly spoiled Phoebe and was a pushover with her most of the time. Jamie might have taken him for the winning against a child type with any other kid, but not with her.

“See?” Roy asked. “She’s totally fine.”

“Hey,” Jamie said during lunch the next day. “If all the shit I say about your knee actually bothers you or whatever, you can just tell me to fuck off, yeah? Or, I guess you already do that anyway, so tell me to actually fuck off. You can do it about the old man stuff and the whole your career is over shit too if you want.”

Roy was surprised by the offer. He was even more surprised that he genuinely didn’t care.

If Jamie had offered back when Roy had been a player on the team, Roy would have assumed he was fucking with him. Now, he could tell Jamie was genuinely concerned about the impact of his words. Two years ago, Roy had wanted to strangle Jamie for every stupid fucking joke he’d made and now, they didn’t bother him at all. Now, he fucking liked joking around with Jamie about the kind of shit that had made him want to kill him earlier. The pressure was off and now Roy liked that Jamie was the only person in the entire world that didn’t treat Roy like he might break if someone talked about his knee for too long or without being careful enough.

Keeley had been the one who had taught him that he was more than just a football player. She’d shown him that he’d had worth outside of his ability to perform on the pitch. She’d shown him that his life didn’t have to be over just because his career was. Roy was eternally grateful for all of that and he fucking loved her. But even she was a little careful about what she said when it came to his knee. Even she looked at him like she was waiting for him to explode or break when Jamie made a joke too harsh. And he appreciated the concern. He did. But sometimes it was nice to have Jamie dish it out like he knew that Roy could take it. And now that his entire self-worth wasn’t wrapped up in his identity as a football player, Roy quite easily could.

“Back when I knew my knee was on its way out, that and all the ways I wasn’t what I used to be were all I could worry about every fucking day. I wanted to kill you for saying shit like that back then,” Roy admitted. “And after it finally did give out, I had nothing left to lose and if I had seen you even once in person after that and you’d said a single fucking word to me about it I would have had nothing left to lose and would have beaten the fucking shit out of you without a single thought about the consequences. But now, you’re the only person in the world with enough balls to treat me like I’m not made of fucking glass when my fucked up knee comes up or when there’s talk of what I used to be. You are one of very few people who treat me the same now as they did before. That doesn’t piss me off.”

“But I was a prick to you before,” Jamie pointed out, sounding confused.

“Yeah and you’re still a prick to me now,” Roy said. “I just like it more these days. And you’re easier to put up with now that you’re less unbearably self-absorbed and obnoxious to other people.”

“You like that I’m still obnoxious to you?” Jamie asked because of course that was the part he’d chosen to hang onto.

“You like me being a dick to you, don’t you?” Roy asked instead of actually admitting it.

“I mean, I don’t hate it,” Jamie said. “But I like the being nice to me sometimes now part too.”

Roy hadn’t even been aware that he’d ever been outright nice to Jamie to his face, outside of that awkward interview when Jamie had been all depressed and down on himself and Roy had had to take over to talk about how good of a player Jamie was.

“I’m nice to you?” Roy asked, letting his confusion seep into his tone.

“Yeah,” Jamie said like it was obvious.

“Since when?” he asked.

Roy genuinely couldn’t think of a single nice thing he’d said directly to Jamie. Which, okay, admittedly wasn’t the greatest. But that was how they functioned and it worked just fine. Strangely, they understood each other without having to outright say most things now.

“Since you like me now. Duh,” Jamie said.

Roy wasn’t sure when Jamie thought he’d started liking him. Roy wasn’t even sure himself when it had started. Jamie just kind of grew on him and his rage had just kind of lessened until one day Roy was disgusted to realize just how significant of a role somehow Jamie fucking Tartt had in his life and not even as his mortal enemy anymore. No, Roy had gone from hating him to tolerating him to genuinely liking him without any awareness as it happened. It had all just hit him like a ton of fucking bricks when suddenly Phoebe was calling him his best friend and Roy was genuinely worried about his emotional well-being and then suddenly when they’d both screwed up with Keeley, the thought of losing the friendship he’d barely realized he’d had with Jamie had become unimaginable.

“Who said I like you?” Roy asked.

“You last night,” Jamie pointed out. He put on a truly horrendous impression of Roy as he added, “Don’t tell Jamie, but I like spending time with him. If I could, I would spend every single second with him for the rest of my life.”

“That is not what I said at all,” Roy pointed out.

“You like spending obscene amounts of time with me,” Jamie insisted because of course, he had remembered that wording. “Admit it, you want to spend every moment of every day with me. You’d have me there every second outside of when you’re having sex if you could.”

“That isn’t true and you know it,” Roy told him.

Jamie’s jaw dropped and he pretended to be scandalized as he asked, “You want me there when you have sex?”

“You caught me,” Roy said dryly. “I just didn’t know how to bring it up before now.”

“Are you telling me you have a thing for being watched?” Jamie asked in a theatrical whisper as he leaned across the table to invade Roy’s personal space. “That’s some kinky shit, Roy.”

“Don’t try to project your shit onto me,” Roy said. “You’re the one who had jacuzzi sex on national television."

That was a safe enough argument. Everyone knew about Jamie’s jacuzzi sex that led to him losing any chance at playing for Man City when he’d gotten kicked off of the show, whether they’d seen it or not. It would be weirder if Roy pretended he’d never heard about it.

Jamie leaned back and laughed.

“That’s true,” he said without an ounce of shame. “You’ve got me there. Hey, if you want to watch-”

“Shut up,” Roy warned.

“I mean, we’d have to ask Keeley first, but I’m sure-” Jamie continued, looking utterly amused by himself.

“I will hit you,” Roy interrupted.

Jamie laughed loudly at that, but at least he stopped.

After work, Keeley brought Barbara with her to go pick Rebecca up for a girls’ night.

Roy’s car was in the lot when they got there, but that wasn’t overly surprising considering how much time he and Jamie spent on training and how they’d pushed their wake-up time back.

Rebecca was already ready when they got there, so they headed out together. Keeley stopped at the door to the parking lot when she heard footsteps behind them. Roy and Jamie were halfway down the hallway. Jamie’s hair was wet and slicked back.

Roy was walking fast ahead of Jamie, but Jamie seemed totally unbothered as he jogged to catch up to him and say something by his ear. Roy rolled his eyes and Jamie laughed gleefully at whatever joke he’d made.

“We’ll wait outside,” Rebecca said with an amused smirk.

“Speak for yourself,” Barbara said. “I’m waiting right here.”

Rebecca shot her a meaningful look and Keeley had to laugh.

“What?” Barbara asked. “This situation fascinates me. I want to watch how awkward they are when they’re around you together.”

If that was her goal, she was bound to be disappointed. They hadn’t been properly awkward around each other since Roy had forced himself to talk about his feelings in front of Jamie to convince her that things could work back when she’d been hesitant to give it a try.

“Didn’t think we’d run into you here,” Roy said.

“You can thank me for that,” Jamie insisted. When Keeley shot him a confused look, he added, “Roy was whining about how long I take to shower again, but if I’d been any quicker we would have missed you.”

“You two shower together?” Barbara asked as she eyed them both.

“No,” Jamie said at the same time Roy said, “Not anymore.”

Jamie stared at Roy open-mouthed and his brows furrowed in confusion.

“Communal showers in the locker room,” Roy clarified.

“Fascinating,” Barbara said, sounding genuinely intrigued.

“It isn’t really,” Jamie said. “It’s nowhere near as sexy as you’d think.”

Keeley was well aware that the communal showers had been a point of stress for Jamie. While Roy apparently put zero thought at all into showering in a room full of other men, she knew that Jamie had been worried about looking anywhere too long or about anyone finding out about him being bi and suddenly having a problem with having ever showered in front of him. Jamie had zero shame about his own body, but he’d dreaded the showers and had gotten in and out as fast as he could back then.

She wasn’t sure if that had changed at some point over the last two years or if Jamie just took a long time now because he had the showers to himself and he didn’t mind keeping Roy waiting.

“We should go,” Roy said. “No need to intrude on girls’ night even longer.”

“It’s no intrusion,” Barbara said.

Keeley and Rebecca both turned and shot her a surprised look, but she didn’t say anything else.

“Either way, we should get going. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Roy said. He kissed Keeley and told her, “I love you.”

Keeley grinned as she told him, “I love you too.”

Roy telling her he loved her before he left her to whatever plans she had was nothing out of the ordinary. But that usually happened over text, alongside him telling her to have fun or that he’d talk to her tomorrow.

Keeley liked how comfortable he was with everyone knowing exactly how he felt.

Roy turned and gave the other two each a nod as he added, “Rebecca. Barbara. It’s always nice to see you.”

Barbara smiled back at him the way she always did when Roy went out of his way to acknowledge her presence.

As Roy left, Jamie took his eyes off of him for long enough to shoot Keeley one last smile before he followed him.

As she headed outside with Rebecca and Barbara, Keeley could hear Jamie ask, “Who are you and what did you do with Roy?”

Roy didn’t dignify that with a response.

“That wasn’t as awkward as I hoped it would be,” Barbara said as soon as they made it to the car. “I mean, there was definitely some tension there. But I’d imagine you’ll have even better stories for me after you take them both on vacation together.”

“What tension?” Keeley asked at the same time as Rebecca asked, “They’re going together?”

“Roy saying he loved you before they left and the other one just standing there saying nothing at all,” Barbara said in a tone that said she thought that was very obviously what she had meant. “Is that because he’s your second-place boyfriend? Or is he your second-place boyfriend because he won’t say it?”

“Jamie’s not my second-place boyfriend,” Keeley insisted.

“Roy is?” Barbara asked, sounding shocked by her own assumption.

“I don’t rank them,” Keeley pointed out.

“Okay, sure. You like both of them exactly the same,” Barbara said, sounding utterly unconvinced. “But if you had to get rid of one of them...?”

“She doesn’t have to get rid of either of them,” Rebecca pointed out. “That’s kind of the whole point.”

“Exactly!” Keeley agreed.

“Right. You’re happy with them both and everything’s great,” Barbara said. “So then what was with that exit?”

“My relationships with them don’t have to move exactly the same way,” Keeley pointed out. “It’s not weird. Jamie doesn’t have to say it just because Roy did. It would be way weirder if he only started saying it again to try to prove something right after he saw Roy say it and me say it back. That’s the kind of macho competitive bullshit I don’t want anything to do with.”

“Really?” Barbara asked. “I would have thought two hot guys fighting over you was what made the situation appealing.”

“No way,” Keeley said. “Two men fighting over you isn’t sexy like every TV show ever tries to make it out to be. It’s just exhausting and stressful. It’s way hotter when they stop fighting and get along for your benefit.”

But that wasn’t exactly it either. Sure, they put up with things they never would have had to otherwise for her benefit, like the whole going on vacation together thing. But they didn’t just coexist because they had to. Far better than them managing to get along for her benefit was that most of the time, it wasn’t for her benefit at all.

“Why the fuck are you being so quiet?” Roy asked when they’d barely been in the car for two minutes. “It’s weirding me out.”

“Do you think it’s weird that I don’t tell Keeley I love her?” Jamie asked.

“Jesus Christ,” Roy said, sounding like he deeply regretted asking why Jamie had gone quiet on him.

“What?” Jamie asked. “You wanted to know what I was thinking about. It’s a serious question.”

“There is a limit to how much relationship advice I’m willing to give you, you know,” Roy said.

Jamie doubted that. He might have believed it if Roy hadn’t complained and then been fully willing to give him advice already before. Roy had been disappointed that Jamie didn’t have a serious enough question when Jamie had needed help getting ready. He should be glad Jamie was asking him about something bigger now. And if he wasn’t, then he shouldn’t have brought it up himself.

“Who else am I supposed to talk to about it?” Jamie asked because Roy quite clearly had the most context to work with, both about being with Keeley and about Jamie’s relationship with her.

“Go ask Isaac,” Roy said dismissively. “He’s your best friend.”

Because of course Roy had to be a dick and couldn’t just admit he was willing to help like a normal person.

“Come on,” Jamie said. When Roy didn’t give in immediately, he added, “We both know that he isn’t.”

Roy didn’t say anything. Jamie couldn’t tell if he was mad or just ignoring his question or just having that annoying delayed reaction time he got sometimes. Asking wasn’t going to help anyway, so he decided to give Roy a minute to sort out whatever argument he was having with himself. If that didn’t work, then he would start annoying the fuck out of him until he’d inevitably give in anyway.

Roy was silent for what felt like an eternity, but a shorter eternity than usual at least, before he finally sighed and asked, “You seriously don’t tell her?”

“You don’t have to sound so judgy about it,” Jamie said defensively.

Roy took his eyes off of the road for a moment to glare at him like he was a fucking moron.

“Why not?” Roy asked finally. “You do love her don’t you?”

There was an edge to his voice like he actually thought Jamie might say he didn’t. Clearly, Roy was the stupid one and not Jamie.

“Duh,” Jamie said. “Never stopped, remember?”

“So you could tell her at a funeral while she was dating me, but now that you’re back with her and things are going well, you’re too stupid to?” Roy asked.

“Death freaks me out,” Jamie defended himself. “And I already said sorry for that.”

“I’m not looking for another apology,” Roy said. “I’m trying to understand what the fuck your problem is. And so far all I can come up with is that you’re a fucking child.”

That was easy for Roy to say. He’d already told Keeley how in love with her he was in front of Jamie before they’d even properly gotten back together. He didn’t have to wonder if she’d say it back or if he’d make things all awkward. He didn’t have to worry about looking like he was just saying it because Roy already had.

“It’s different for you,” Jamie insisted.

“How?” Roy asked like he was so fucking sure Jamie was wrong.

“Anyone with eyes could see that you two still felt the same way about each other the whole time you were broken up,” Jamie pointed out. “She never stopped being in love with you. You just went right back to how things already were. She was over me for a long time. And if I’d just gone back to how things were last time, she probably would have already gotten rid of me all over again.”

“And?” Roy asked.

“What?”

Jamie had been expecting Roy to admit he had a point or at least take the opportunity to make a comment about just how much of a fuck up Jamie had been last time.

“What does that have to do with fucking anything?” Roy asked.

“She hasn’t said it to me again yet either,” Jamie pointed out.

“So what?” Roy asked. “You don’t get to complain about that when you’re the one that fucked things up in the first place and now you’re being too much of a little bitch to tell her how you feel about her.”

“I told her,” Jamie pointed out. “I’m trying not to make her feel like she has to say it back. And not to make things super fucking awkward if I say it and she don’t.”

He was trying to be fucking considerate of other people’s feelings for once. Roy didn’t have to glare at him for it.

“Right,” Roy said and Jamie could already tell he was in for trouble from the way he said that single word. “You told her out of fucking nowhere that you were still in love with her over a year ago, so now she must know you feel the same way you did then just because you’re back together. And now, what? It’s her fucking turn because of it? And you’re just playing emotional chicken while you wait to see if she’ll say it first? Grow the fuck up.”

“I’m trying to actually put thought into shit instead of just saying whatever I feel like and not thinking or caring about what it means for anyone else,” Jamie insisted. “I already fucked that up last time I told her and made things weird for her. I don’t need to do that again.”

He had a history of either saying exactly how he felt and not caring what it meant for anyone else or else lying about how he felt like he had with Amy when he’d been on Lust Conquers All just to get what he wanted. He was trying not to be a total douche and Roy was acting like he was just some fucking child that was too afraid to tell a girl how he felt.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this to you of all people, but you’re overthinking it,” Roy said. “If you love her just tell her. Don’t play stupid fucking games.”

“Alright, fine,” Jamie said. “Maybe you’re right.”

He probably was, Jamie just didn’t want to fully admit that. He’d been trying not to put pressure on Keeley to have to say it back or deal with the awkwardness if she didn’t. He hadn’t stopped to think that he was putting the pressure of having to say it first on her until Roy had brought it up. Jamie’d never felt that pressure himself before.

“I am right,” Roy insisted.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jamie said. “You know everything.”

He took out his phone and debated texting Keeley to tell her, but stopped before he’d even typed a single word. He didn’t need to bother her during girls' night. It could wait.

“I’m taking Keeley out for lunch,” Roy said at the end of training the next day. “You’re not invited.”

Roy had braced himself for Jamie to complain and ask questions. He’d been expecting Jamie to try to invite himself. He’d been expecting Jamie to ask why Roy had planned a date in the middle of the day when they’d usually be getting lunch together.

Instead, Jamie just said, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Roy repeated.

“Yeah,” Jamie said, sounding confused by Roy’s surprise. “Why? Am I supposed to throw a fit about it or something?”

“No,” Roy said. “But that didn’t stop you from throwing one anyway last time I had lunch without you.”

“I didn’t throw a fit last time,” Jamie argued. “I just pointed out how fucking weird you were being.”

Roy didn’t take the bait to get into another whole debate about whether he had been acting weird or not. So he just ignored him.

“You know, I told you one of my best secrets,” Jamie insisted. “It’s only fair that you tell me about your secret friends. That was the deal.”

“I never agreed to that deal,” Roy pointed out.

“I know,” Jamie said. He sounded perfectly amused with himself as he added, “I was just kind of hoping you’d feel bad enough about saying my secrets couldn’t possibly be interesting that you’d rat yourself out to make up for it.”

“There’s nothing to rat myself out about,” Roy lied. “You just don’t have to know every single thing about every aspect of my life.”

“I tell you everything about every aspect of mine,” Jamie insisted.

Roy was fairly certain that wasn’t true, even with all of Jamie’s compulsive over-sharing.

“I never asked for that,” Roy pointed out. “It’s your own fault that you share every thought you have unprompted.”

“If you won’t tell me about your mysterious secret other friends, then at least tell me about wherever you took Isaac,” Jamie said.

“Where I took Isaac?” Roy repeated, trying to figure out what he was even talking about.

“Keeley said you took him to play somewhere before Ted offered you the coach job,” Jamie said.

“Oh,” Roy said. “I took him to play where I grew up.”

“Why haven’t you ever taken me there?” Jamie asked.

“He needed it,” Roy said. “You don't.”

Jamie looked confused at that, but Roy didn’t have time to get into it and play twenty questions with Jamie right then.

“I have to go,” Roy said. “Keeley’s waiting.”

“I can’t believe I’m actually getting to meet them,” Keeley said as they walked up to the restaurant together. “Is there anything else I should know before we go in?”

“No, you know the whole horrible truth already,” Roy said.

“Babe, as far as deep, dark secrets go, that’s a pretty tame one,” Keeley told him. “Who hasn’t enjoyed some bad reality TV?”

Roy laughed at that and seemed a little less tense as he led her inside.

“I’m impressed,” one of the women said the moment they reached the table. “You haven’t cancelled on us in weeks.”

Roy didn’t seem bothered as he said, “It’d be pretty shit of me to be the one to make the plans and still cancel.”

Keeley sat down next to Roy and glanced around the table.

“This is Nicole, Rachel, Maureen, Janice, and Lauren,” Roy said as he gestured around the table for her. “And of course, this is Keeley.”

“You look so familiar,” Rachel said. “Have we met before?”

“I get that all the time,” Keeley said. “I guess I just have one of those faces.”

“Maybe you just look like someone,” Nicole suggested.

Rachel nodded her head in agreement as she said, “That must be it. I just wish I could think of who.”

“I don’t know,” Keeley said with a shrug. “If anyone’s figured it out, they’ve never told me.”

“It’s nice to finally get to meet you,” Maureen said. “Roy’s been hiding you away for far too long.”

“He talks about you all the time though,” Janice added.

Keeley grinned over at Roy as she said, “I’ve heard that from a few people now.”

“Hey, did you hear that someone leaked a list of who’s supposedly going to be there at the start of this season?” Lauren asked as she focused over on Roy. “Jamie wasn’t on it.”

When Roy had said that the yoga mums loved Jamie, Keeley had assumed that Jamie would never actually come up unless they saw him with Roy. She hadn’t expected them to bring him up at all, let alone within minutes of them sitting down at the table. Jamie hadn’t been on the show in years and yet he was the only name they had mentioned.

“Him not being there at the start doesn’t mean he won’t come in later though,” Nicole insisted.

Keeley looked at Roy to try to judge his reaction to them talking about Jamie and whether it still happening was out of the ordinary or not, but she didn’t get much of a look before the focus shifted onto her.

“We’re talking about Lust Conquers All. Have you ever seen it?” Maureen asked.

“No, never,” Keeley said, even though that wasn’t entirely true. She’d seen a bit of it here and there, but never a full season like Roy apparently had.

“Oh, well, I’m sure you’ve heard about how we watch it together,” Maureen said. “This year they’re having all old players on and Jamie was one of the contestants on it a couple of seasons back. We were hoping he’d be back. He kept things interesting.”

“And you should see him,” Janice added. She grabbed her phone as she said, “I’ll find a picture.”

“She doesn’t need a picture,” Roy said with an edge to his tone.

Keeley glanced at him and saw that he was clearly much more tense than he had been just a moment ago. She reached over and set her hand on his leg under the table and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Oh, don’t get jealous,” Janice said as she held her phone out to Keeley. “She’s just looking. It’s not going to kill you for her to see a picture of another man.”

Keeley looked down at the picture. It was an old one from when Jamie had been on the show. He was shirtless and blatantly posing for the cameras. Keeley could see on the search bar that Janice had searched lust conquers all Jamie so the odds that she’d seen anything about Roy and stayed quiet weren’t high. Roy must have noticed too because she could feel him relax under her hand.

“I can see why they picked him,” Keeley said with a grin. “He’s mad sexy.”

“And he’s a footballer too so you know he must be keeping in shape like that still,” Nicole added.

“Really?” Keeley asked. “I’ve always kind of had a thing for footballers.”

Keeley passed the phone back and looked over at Roy again. He was covering his mouth, clearly trying not to laugh at the performance she was putting on.

Chapter Text

By the time they got back to the hotel the first night, it was dark out and Keeley was worn out.

Roy hadn't been exaggerating about how much Jamie loved Amsterdam or how much he knew about it. When they'd arrived, they'd checked into the hotel and dropped their stuff off in the rooms Roy had booked. Then Jamie had wasted no time before hauling them right back outside and dragging them all around, talking a mile a minute about everything they passed. You'd think they only had a few days there and not almost two full weeks from how much he'd decided to squeeze into one day.

Keeley saw why Roy had suggested coming here though. At first, she’d been surprised by the suggestion. She’d been imagining somewhere sunnier and beachier when she’d first started considering taking a vacation. She’d been happy enough with the idea of Amsterdam though, especially when Roy seemed to be choosing it for Jamie’s sake and they’d both agreed on it so quickly.

But now, she really saw why Roy had suggested it. Jamie was even more full of energy than usual and it was hard not to be just as excited as he was about everything when his whole face lit up every time he thought of a new fact to share.

Keeley hesitated outside the door to her hotel room. She wasn’t exactly sure how this part worked.

Roy had taken over planning all the logistics after they’d all agreed to Amsterdam. He’d picked a nice hotel and had made sure it had a gym so that they wouldn’t have to stop Jamie’s training altogether, even if they’d already both agreed to tone it down a bit while they were there. He’d also booked two rooms so that she could have private time with one while the other slept in the other room. Roy’d gotten connecting rooms so that they could spend time together when they wanted to or get to each other easily, but they’d still have privacy when they wanted.

Roy had insisted that the room situation wouldn’t be a problem. They’d be busy anyway so it wasn’t like they’d be spending all that much time in the rooms. Plus, they already were used to one or the other spending the night with her. Roy already knew every time that Jamie stayed at Keeley’s house because he had to meet him there instead in the morning and he’d insisted this wouldn’t be any different. He’d been so confident about his solution to the whole what should they do about sleeping arrangements with the three of them there thing, that Keeley hadn’t really worried about it up until then.

But now, it was the first night there and they were all standing in the hall and things felt palpably awkward to her in a way they hadn’t since she’d first started dating them both and hadn’t known what they would and wouldn’t be okay with.

Keeley had no idea who was going to sleep where. She absolutely did not want to be the one to decide that. There was only one big bed in each room. Obviously, someone was going to have to sleep in her room and someone was going to have to sleep in the other.

“Do you both want to come in?” Keeley asked because neither of them was making any move for either door. They seemed to be waiting for her or the other to decide, but she didn’t want to kick either of them to the other room. She’d far rather delay the decision and hope they’d figure it out among themselves later so she added, “We could see if there’s anything half decent on.”

They both turned to judge the other’s reaction, then Roy said, “Why not?”

As soon as they were in Keeley’s room, Jamie grabbed the remote and flopped down on the bed on top of the covers. He had no interest in continuing the awkwardness from the hallway.

The bed was big enough for all of them to fit on to watch whatever they could find. Keeley’d already invited them both in and Roy had already agreed, so there was no sense standing around and trying to figure out how to go about it or whether to drag the sad little desk chair over for someone to sit in.

Roy had shared a fucking bed with him before without Keeley. He could suck it up and watch something from the same bed as Jamie or else he could get fucked and go to the other room right now.

Keeley glanced at Roy like she was wondering how he was going to handle this. For a moment, Jamie thought things were going to get all weird again, but then Keeley came and joined him on the bed, close enough to Jamie to leave plenty of room for Roy on the other side.

Jamie kept flipping through the channels, but every channel either had on commercials or something that looked boring as fuck.

“You’re not even leaving it long enough to see what’s on,” Roy complained as he joined them.

“Don’t need to know what it is if I can already see that it’s boring,” Jamie insisted as he kept flipping through channels.

“Why don’t you just use the guide channel?” Keeley asked. “Most of these are on commercials anyway.”

“This is faster,” Jamie lied. “Besides, I’ll see what’s on them eventually if nothing better comes up.”

Neither of them argued with that, but Roy’s patience wore off about twenty seconds later.

“Just choose something,” he complained.

“I am choosing,” Jamie pointed out. “What? Do you think I’m just going through them all for fun?”

“Yes,” Roy said without hesitation. “Choose something or give me the fucking remote.”

Just for that, Jamie kept flipping even after something that didn’t look half bad. He didn’t want to give Roy the satisfaction of thinking he’d stopped for his sake. Besides, he wanted to know what Roy was going to do if he didn’t listen.

“Jamie,” Roy said in a much bitchier tone.

Jamie stopped switching channels just long enough to turn the volume up, then went right back to channel surfing, feeling thoroughly pleased with himself as the awful sound of switching channels as soon as a new one loaded over and over and over got that much worse. 

“Can’t hear you,” Jamie lied. “TV’s too loud.”

Roy sat up and leaned across Keeley to try to get the remote, but Jamie was faster. He leaned halfway off the bed with his arm outstretched to keep the remote out of Roy’s reach while still holding the button to keep flipping through the channels.

“I will kill you,” Roy threatened while Jamie laughed loudly.

“Jamie,” Keeley said.

Jamie turned to look back at her and saw her gently pushing Roy back onto his own side of the bed. She held out a hand to Jamie for the remote. Jamie considered for a second, then gave in.

“Alright,” he said as he finally let go of the button. “You can have the remote. Just don’t give it to Roy.”

“Thank you,” Keeley said as Jamie handed her the remote and laid back down properly.

He half-expected her to give it to Roy anyway or for him to ask for it immediately, but Roy didn’t complain anymore as Keeley took all of ten seconds to find something she wanted to watch.

Jamie watched for a few minutes, then pulled out his phone to check his Instagram and post some of the pictures he’d taken.

Roy woke up later that night with the TV still playing and the lights still on.

He turned to look for the remote, only to find that Keeley and Jamie had fallen asleep fully clothed on top of the covers too. Keeley was still in the middle of the bed, but Jamie had rolled over onto his stomach and was half on top of her. Somehow he was sprawled out enough that he still managed to take up most of the space on his own side of the bed.

Roy couldn’t see the remote anywhere so he was pretty sure Jamie had rolled on top of it. He debated jabbing Jamie in the side and waking him up to get it but decided against it. It would be funny, but not worth risking waking Keeley up too.

He tried just closing his eyes and going back to sleep, but between the light and the sound of the TV, he wasn’t falling back asleep no matter how tired he was.

So eventually, Roy gave in and got up off of the bed. He turned the TV off with the button on it, turned off the lights, and went back to bed.

When an alarm went off in the morning, Keeley couldn’t even remember whose it was.

She didn’t remember going to bed. She didn’t remember deciding who would sleep with her and who would take the other bed.

Keeley blinked her eyes open and found that Jamie was the one lying with his arm over her. She was about to ask him if he was going to turn his alarm off when it turned off without him moving.

“Get up, fuckhead,” Roy said beside her and Keeley was certain that was meant for Jamie and not her.

That would explain why she didn’t remember going to bed for the night or choosing the sleeping arrangements then. That solved the problem for one night, but Keeley didn’t know what they’d do the next time. That was a problem for later Keeley though.

“Yeah, yeah,” Jamie said as he rolled onto his back. “I’m getting up.”

After morning training, they all had lunch together.

“What are you making us do today?” Roy asked as if he wasn’t the one who had suggested Amsterdam and letting Jamie take them wherever he wanted.

“I’m not making you do anything,” Jamie pointed out. “You’re the one who gave me full control so you should be asking what do we get to do today.”

Roy had taken over planning the logistics for getting there and back and where they’d stay. Everything else was all up to Jamie.

“Fine,” Roy said. “You overdramatic shit. What are we doing today?”

“I want to see a windmill,” Keeley said. “I hear they’re very romantic.”

Roy laughed at that, even though he definitely would have rolled his eyes if Jamie had been the one who had said it instead.

“I’d be up for that,” Roy agreed.

“Windmill it is then,” Jamie said. “But we’ve got lots of day left. I’m still showing you shit on the way.”

He ended up taking them to a park on the way.

“Did you know this is like three times bigger than Central Park?” Jamie asked as if Keeley had known anything at all about Amsterdam Forest before he’d brought them there.

She thought maybe Roy had heard about it last time, but that was quickly proven wrong when Roy said, “I hadn’t even heard of this place until five minutes ago. So no.”

Keeley thought maybe they were just going to look around at a leisurely pace, but Jamie pulled her along eagerly by the hand, wasting no time on the way to wherever he was taking them.

When Roy fell behind, Keeley reached out her other hand for him.

He took it and fell into step beside her as he asked, “Where the fuck are we going anyway?”

“Goat Farm,” Jamie said.

“They have a whole farm of just goats?” Roy asked.

Keeley’s smile faltered as she was reminded of the goat incident and the start of things with Jack.

“There’s other stuff too. It’s called Goat Farm, but there’s chickens and cows and pigs and horses and sheep too. And they have goat milk ice cream,” Jamie said. The excitement disappeared from his tone and he stopped walking as he added, “Or we could do something else if you want.”

Keeley glanced at Roy, assuming that Jamie had made that offer for Roy’s sake or in response to some reaction Roy had had. But Roy was just looking at her and when she turned to Jamie, he was watching her too like she was the one he’d been asking in the first place.

“Me? No. I’m fine. It sounds fun,” she said and she plastered her smile back on for good measure. When neither of them started walking again or looked away, she said, “Lead the way, goat boy.”

If Jamie had a problem with being called goat boy, he didn’t say it. He just laughed and said, “Okay.”

He stopped watching her so closely after that. Roy watched her for a little longer before he either got too distracted by the Amsterdam facts Jamie was spouting or he decided she seemed interested enough that she was fine.

And she was fine. Seeing animals and having goat milk ice cream did sound fun. It hadn’t been the baby goat’s fault that Shandy had been crazy and locked it in an office building. It wasn’t the baby goat’s fault that Jack hadn’t turned out to be who Keeley had thought she was.

Keeley wasn’t going to let Shandy and Jack ruin cute animals for her. She wasn’t going to waste any more time thinking about how ashamed Jack had been to be seen with her when she had two boyfriends who weren’t ashamed to be seen with her at all.

They were perfectly happy walking one on each hand with her. They’d been perfectly happy telling the whole team about them. They’d been perfectly happy going around all the cameras at Pride with her when she’d had the polyamorous flag on her face. They’d been the ones to reassure her about that being okay when she’d hesitated. They were the ones that had assured her they were perfectly fine taking a romantic trip with the other and now they’d only been there one night and Jamie had already plastered pictures of it all over Instagram and taken more since the photoset he’d posted.

Keeley was glad things had ended with Jack. She was glad she’d found out the kind of person she really was. She was glad she got to spend her vacation time with Jamie showing them all over Amsterdam instead of spending her time worrying about making a good enough impression on the people in Jack’s life.

Roy had been worried about how the goat farm would go after Keeley had gone all quiet and distracted while Jamie had been talking about it, but when they got there she seemed genuinely thrilled as she rushed over to see the lambs.

Roy had been supposed to be taking pictures of the trip for Phoebe, but so far he hadn’t taken a single one. He’d figured Jamie was taking more than enough pictures for all three of them and he could just show her those.

But he knew that Phoebe would want to hear all about the goat farm and the animals so he took his phone out to get some pictures since every picture Jamie was taking at the moment had him posing in the foreground.

“Look at how cute she is,” Keeley said as Roy took a picture of her feeding a baby goat. She turned her attention to the goat as she insisted, “I bet you wouldn’t shit all over my office. Would you? You look like a good goat.”

Roy shot her a confused look as Jamie asked, “Why would a goat be in your office in the first place?”

“Shandy didn’t like it when I fired her,” Keeley said. “She set a goat loose in there.”

“Seems cruel to the goat,” Roy said. “And like a shit way to try to get a reference for her next job.”

“That isn’t all she did,” Jamie said. “She tried to sleep with me to get back at you.”

“Why didn’t she try to sleep with me?” Roy asked, feeling mildly offended that he seemingly hadn’t even been considered for a revenge fuck.

Well, he hadn’t been considered for one by Shandy. He was pretty sure a revenge fuck was how he’d ended up in Keeley’s bed after the Jack break-up.

“Probably because she knew you wouldn’t go for it and she didn’t want to risk getting rejected,” Keeley said.

“That’s true,” Roy said. “Jamie is known for thinking with his dick.”

“Hey, I didn’t even sleep with her,” Jamie defended himself. “I think with me head sometimes.”

“Seriously?” Keeley asked, sounding as surprised as Roy was that Jamie hadn’t fallen for it when he’d been single and had no reason not to.

“I mean, I might have if her opening line hadn’t been hey, want to fuck to get back at Keeley and make her miserable,” Jamie said. “That kind of ruined the mood immediately.”

Keeley laughed at that. “Subtle, isn’t she?”

When they made it to the windmill, Jamie posed for a picture in front of one of them while Roy and Keeley looked at it in awe.

By the time Jamie had taken a picture that he was happy with, Keeley and Roy weren’t looking at the windmill at all. They were just smiling at each other. Jamie took a picture of them before Roy could notice and scowl or flip him off, then locked his phone.

“I can see why this worked on you,” Keeley said.

Roy didn’t even laugh like Jamie expected him to. He just grinned over at Jamie for a moment and then turned his attention back to Keeley.

Jamie had to remind himself that this wasn’t a romantic moment for all of them. This was Roy’s romantic moment with just Keeley, not him too. For a second, Jamie had slipped up and let himself imagine this was a romantic trip for all three of them and not Keeley’s trip with both of them. Which was dumb as hell when Roy had already confirmed he was straight and when he quite clearly only had eyes for Keeley.

Jamie thought that maybe he should regret bringing them there, but he didn’t. He liked that they were there with them. He liked that they were happy to be there. He liked that Roy was enjoying it as much now as he had the first time around. He liked that Roy was grinning like the windmill was living up to his expectations all over again. He liked that he was part of the reason for that happiness.

But as Jamie watched them together, he realized he hadn’t given them a single moment alone together since they’d gotten to Amsterdam. With their training this morning, Jamie hadn’t given Roy a single break from him at all.

Roy had come here for Keeley. Jamie knew that Roy was having fun with him there, but that didn’t mean he didn’t probably want some alone time with Keeley. Jamie had been so busy having a great time dragging them both around that he hadn’t even stopped to consider that he had been monopolizing all of their time.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m fucking exhausted,” Roy said. “Want to get dinner and head back to the hotel?”

“Sounds good to me,” Keeley said.

They both turned to look at Jamie then. They were both still smiling while they waited for Jamie’s answer.

“You guys go,” Jamie said. “I have some other stuff I want to do.”

“Are you sure?” Keeley asked.

Jamie looked from her face to Roy’s and then back at her again. Jamie didn’t want to overstay his welcome and he needed some time to clear his head anyway. He needed to remind himself that this wasn’t a date with both of them, no matter what Roy had said when Jamie had claimed that last time had been one.

Roy not arguing the fact meant nothing when he’d confirmed he was straight right afterwards. This time, Jamie couldn’t let himself pretend that any of his moves might lead anywhere with Roy the way that he had last time when Keeley had moved on and they’d both been single. This time, it was very clear that this was never going to end with something happening between him and Roy. This time, he’d known from the start that this wouldn’t end in anything other than Keeley taking one of them back to her hotel room or them all going back to it together because none of them wanted to decide who to kick out. Them both getting to bring Keeley here was a good thing. Getting to be with her and them both getting to be happy should be enough.

It was enough.

“Yeah, go,” Jamie said. “I’ll take the other room when I get back.”

They both looked happy to get a little time alone and relieved he’d solved the sleeping arrangements for them all.

Their smiles made it worth pulling himself out of the rest of the night.

“Do you think Jamie really had other stuff to do?” Keeley asked as they headed back to the hotel.

“Who knows,” Roy said. "Who fucking cares?"

He wasn’t sure whether Jamie really had that much energy and excitement left that he just had to go do more things before he went back to the hotel or if he’d just been making an excuse to give them alone time together. Either way worked for Roy.

It made going back inside much less awkward if they already knew who would be sleeping where.

“You’re really not sick of him yet?” Keeley asked.

“No more than usual,” Roy admitted. “Why? Are you tired of listening to him talk?”

Keeley laughed and said, “No. I kind of like it.”

“Really?” Roy asked. “Well, then, have you heard that there are more bikes than there are people in Amsterdam?”

He was well aware she had. Jamie had already told them twice because he’d forgotten which facts he had and hadn’t mentioned. If Roy heard some of the facts Jamie had told him the first time around too many more times, he might turn into a walking fucking Wikipedia page too.

“Hm,” Keeley said. “You know what? I think I actually might have heard that somewhere. Can’t remember where though. Do you have any other fun facts to tell me? Actually, you know what? Save them for when we get upstairs.”

Roy laughed. “If you want to hear Amsterdam facts in bed, you’re going to have to ask Jamie.”

“I don’t need the facts,” Keeley said. “I just want you."

Keeley woke up to Roy’s alarm the next morning.

She was glad they’d moved their wake-up time back until it was light out, but she still didn’t envy either of them getting up and exercising at that hour, especially after how busy their days had been so far.

He turned his alarm off and then turned back to her.

“Morning,” Keeley said.

“Morning.” He leaned down to kiss her, then asked, “You’re not going to be too bored on your own while we train are you?”

“Bored?” Keeley asked. “No way. I’m going right back to sleep the moment you’re gone.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “You don’t have to wait until I’m gone though. You can just go back to sleep now.”

“I don’t know how either of you has the energy to go exercise right now,” she said. “I mean, I’m having fun, but we’ve been here two days and I’m already worn out.”

He laughed at that.

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I thought he’d slow down when he wasn’t trying to cram everything into one day, but I was wrong.”

“Maybe you should go back to sleep too,” Keeley suggested. “You can’t tell me you’re not tired.”

“I’ll be fine,” Roy said. “I’m used to getting up before four, remember? This is nothing.”

Jamie yawned as they headed back into the gym after their run.

“Why are you tired?” Roy asked. “I thought you had endless energy here.”

“I do,” Jamie said. “I just lost track of time and got back late, but I’m fine.”

He’d gone for a run to clear his head and it had worked mostly. He just also hadn’t realized how far he’d gone or how late it had gotten. By the time he’d made it back to the hotel, he’d fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

“What were you doing anyway?” Roy asked.

“Wasn’t drinking if that’s what you’re asking,” Jamie said.

“It wasn’t,” Roy said, seeming confused by the assumption.

“Wasn’t in the red light district either,” Jamie added.

“I never said you were,” Roy said, only sounding more confused. “I’m not quizzing you on whether you got up to something you shouldn’t have. I just thought if you did do something, you’d want to talk my ear off about it.”

“Oh,” Jamie said because he had a point. “Uh-”

“If you made up having shit to do, I don’t care,” Roy said.

“Mostly I just went for a run,” Jamie admitted. “The city’s nice at night.”

“I’m not mad that you made up a reason to give us alone time,” Roy said. “I appreciate it.”

“Oh,” Jamie said because he wasn’t used to Roy flat-out saying that he appreciated anything. “I can’t believe you just said you appreciate me. I think Ted wore off on you.”

“Fuck off.”

“Ooh, Van Gogh Museum let’s go there,” Keeley said when she saw a sign for it.

She expected Jamie to be eager, but he hesitated for a moment before he admitted, “I don’t know anything about the stuff in there. Never went there before.”

“Well then you’ll finally get to see something new,” Keeley said.

“I could use a break from you talking anyway,” Roy told Jamie. “I don’t know how you haven’t lost your voice yet. I keep waiting for it to happen and it never does.”

“Ha ha,” Jamie said sarcastically. “You’re hilarious.”

“I thought you liked art,” Keeley tried again. “You’re all sophisticated and shit, remember?”

Jamie actually laughed at that, then said, “Alright, yeah, let’s go.” He turned to Roy as he warned, “But you don’t get to be a dick while we’re in there.”

“Alright,” Roy said with a smirk. “I’ll save all my insults for the moment we leave.”

Keeley highly doubted he was physically capable of it, but she didn’t say that. If Jamie was going to trust what Roy had said enough to talk about the paintings the way he had at the art gallery, then she wasn’t going to complain.

Except once they got inside, Jamie asked, “Well how am I supposed to make fun of these?”

“What?” Roy asked, clearly confused about why Jamie seemed disappointed that he enjoyed the art.

“There’s not any fucked up cats or anything,” Jamie said. “I mean some of these paintings are a little wiggly, but the guy’s not giving me much to work with.”

“What the actual fuck are you talking about?” Roy asked.

“We pretty much made fun of every piece at the last art gallery he took me to,” Keeley clarified.

Roy looked from her to Jamie then back to her again.

“Jamie took you to an art gallery?” He asked. He pointed at Jamie as he asked, “This Jamie?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Jamie asked.

“Your idea of art is anything with a topless woman in it,” Roy accused.

“You literally have a drawing of tits as the only art in your office,” Jamie pointed out. “And you’re not gonna make me feel bad for what I like. Who doesn’t want to look at pictures of tits?”

“He has a point,” Keeley said.

“Yeah, okay,” Roy admitted.

“Besides, I don’t only like art with tits,” Jamie said. “I said I like the shit in here, didn’t I? And I like shirtless pictures of guys too. I mean renaissance art is the horniest shit I’ve ever seen. Every guy’s got like a twelve-pack because it’s the closest they could get to gay porn.”

Roy let out a surprised laugh at that. Clearly, Jamie didn't usually talk like this around him.

“Only problem is they’re all totally hairless,” Jamie said with a smirk. “I like hairy guys way more.”

He didn’t even look at Roy while he said it, but it was still an awfully bold comment considering how often Jamie made jokes about how hairy Roy was.

“Right,” Roy said. “That’s the only problem. Not how fucking unlikely the twelve-pack is.”

“Shut up,” Jamie said. “It’s not about being realistic. It’s about the fantasy.”

“I like the renaissance ones where they clearly painted their boyfriend and then went oh wait, put boobs on so no one will figure out,” Keeley said.

“True,” Jamie said. “That’s the best of both worlds.”

“You are fucking ridiculous,” Roy said, but he was laughing too.

After the museum, Jamie started babbling on about some restaurant they just had to try. He was talking a mile a minute so much that Roy ended up following them halfway down the street before he managed to get a word in to bail.

“I’m not hungry,” Roy lied.

He was, but he could get something at the hotel. Jamie had fucked off for their sakes last night. Roy could fuck off for his sake now.

“What?” Jamie asked, looking concerned. “How the fuck are you not hungry? Eat something anyway. I promise you won’t regret it.”

“You two go,” Roy said. “I’m old and tired. It’s way too late for me to be out.”

He wasn’t lying about being exhausted, even if he wasn’t planning on going to bed at that hour anyway.

Jamie looked utterly confused for a second, then realization crossed his features all at once.

“Oh,” Jamie said and then he grinned like an idiot. “I get it. Yeah, you can fuck off.”

“Oh, I can?” Roy asked. “Great. Glad I have your permission.”

Roy had been trying to be subtle but so much for that. He didn’t really know why he’d bothered anyway. Keeley was laughing at Jamie taking longer to catch on to what was happening and then completely changing his tune the moment he realized Roy was trying to help him get laid.

Roy went over to her and kissed her, then said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“You’re really still not drinking on vacation?” Keeley asked.

“Roy never said I could,” Jamie pointed out.

“You could ask him,” she said.

“Nah,” he said. “Don’t care that much.”

“It doesn’t bother you not being allowed to have a drink when someone else does?” Keeley asked.

“No,” he said. He considered for a moment then added, “I like it actually.”

“Why?” she asked.

“The shit my dad has is supposed to be genetic, right?” Jamie said. “That’s not all there is to it. But if your family has it, it’s a coin flip if you get the same shit or not. So I don’t ask. I like not having to ask. And then when Roy says drink, I can drink without worrying about it being a problem. ‘Cause if it was, I wouldn’t have waited for him to feel like letting me. Roy doesn’t know any of that part though. And he don’t need to find it out.”

It wouldn’t be the end of the world if he knew or anything, but Jamie didn’t want it to factor into Roy’s decisions around it. And he didn’t need Roy giving him that look.

“Does it bother you being around people when they drink then?” Keeley asked.

“Nah,” Jamie said. “None of you get like him and his friends.”

Jamie had been planning on telling Keeley that he loved her now that he finally had her alone, but he’d waited until after they’d ordered and then Keeley had asked about the drinking and now he’d made things awkward talking about his dad.

He picked at the skin at the side of one of his nails as he tried to figure out how to swerve the conversation to bring it up without making it weird.

Keeley reached across the table and pulled his hand away from the other.

“What are you thinking about?” Keeley asked.

“Thinking I shouldn’t have brought me dad up,” Jamie said with a laugh.

“You’re allowed to talk about him, you know,” she told him.

“I don’t want to talk about him,” he said. “Didn’t mean to talk about him at all. I was trying-”

He cut himself off when he realized he didn’t know how he was planning to end that sentence. Roy would call him such a little bitch if he was there to witness this.

Keeley looked at him confused.

Jamie sighed, then said, “I was trying to figure out a romantic conversation so I could say it like a normal person instead of going all trainwreck and unloading my daddy issues on you and telling you that I love you five seconds later, but Roy’s around all the time and I don’t want to say it for the first time when we’re back together in front of him and I’m sick of waiting for the right time to say it.”

Keeley smiled at him and asked, “You love me?”

Shit. Well, there went saying it any even remotely romantic way.

“Uh, yeah,” Jamie said, letting how obvious he thought it was show in his tone. “Been in love with you for years, remember?”

“Yeah, but I thought you got over me for a while in between,” Keeley said.

“No way,” he told her. “Just got better at hiding it. There’s no getting over Keeley fucking Jones. Why’d you think we both came begging you to take us back?”

Keeley laughed at that.

“I love you too.”

Roy was in the extra hotel room reading when he heard noise coming from next door.

For a second, he thought maybe he was wrong about what it was and the walls weren’t really that thin, but then he heard a distinctly familiar sound that had definitely come from Keeley.

“Oh fuck,” Roy said to himself.

He so should not be hearing this. It was one thing knowing the sounds Keeley made in bed. It was a whole other thing hearing them while she was with Jamie and neither of them had any idea he could hear them.

Roy needed to leave. He didn’t know where he was going to go. He just knew he could not be in this hotel room anymore. Connecting hotel rooms had been the stupidest decision he had made in his entire life.

Roy did not need to be thinking about Keeley and Jamie in bed together. He did not need to be thinking about what Jamie might have done to make Keeley make that sound.

Before Roy could even get out of bed, a moan from Jamie that he was never going to be able to unhear came through the wall.

“Nope,” he said to himself. “Fuck this.”

Roy had seen that stupid jacuzzi scene and not batted an eye once. Half the nation had seen it. But this was different. Jamie had taken his mic off before getting in the stupid fucking jacuzzi so Roy hadn’t had to hear everything. And Jamie had known that hookup had been public.

Jamie did not know that Roy was hearing his sex noises and wondering what was happening and getting a little turned on thinking about it. Which had nothing to do with Jamie, obviously. But Keeley was hot and thinking about her in bed made him horny so thinking about her in bed with Jamie also made her horny in a way it never had before now that Roy was actually hearing them and being forced to really think about it.

Roy grabbed his keycard and his book and got the fuck out of there as fast as he could, but not fast enough to not have to live with the knowledge that Jamie was chatty in bed because of fucking course he was. At least Roy hadn’t had to hear what he’d been saying, but the muffled voice through the walls was still far too much.

Roy did not need to stay and overhear anything that wasn’t any of his fucking business any longer. He didn’t need to get hornier and have to decide between staying and hearing it or leaving the room with a hard-on.

What he needed was a drink. So he headed to the hotel bar and tried desperately to stop thinking about it.

He’d seen Jamie naked more times than he could count, but that was different. That had never been sexual. That had never made his body pop back up in Roy’s brain like this.

He just needed to stop thinking about it. But trying to make himself stop thinking about it was like trying to forget an itch was there. It just didn’t work. It only made things worse.

Roy had never stopped to think about Keeley and Jamie’s sex life before. He’d lived blissfully fucking oblivious to any of the details. Sure, he’d known that they had sex, but he never put much thought into it. Well, not in a long time. There might have been a time when he’d wondered a little, but that was two fucking years ago and had had more to do with his obsessive hatred of Jamie and his unhealthy competitiveness with him than anything else.

But he’d known that was fucked. He’d moved on from it. He’d gotten over it. He hadn’t wondered if Jamie touched her the same way or if she felt as good with him in years. At least up until now.

But now, it was even more confusing. That had been fuelled by pure Jamie Tartt hatred.

This was something far worse. This was Roy well acquainted with all the things Keeley liked and picturing Jamie in his place. This was wondering what they’d been doing not out of jealousy or anger but out of some weird fucking horniness that came from hearing Keeley and knowing he couldn’t be with her tonight.

Roy had a couple of drinks but he didn’t want to end up with a hangover the next day, so he stopped after that. He still was absolutely not risking going back to the room yet though, so he took his book and moved to the hotel lobby where it would be quieter.

He was having trouble concentrating at first, but eventually, he managed to make some progress. For a little while, he was even distracted enough that he forgot about what was probably going on as he read.

But he was exhausted and eventually, he gave up on reading too. He checked the time and saw that it should probably be safe to go back to his room.

Still, he took his fucking time on the way back. When he stepped back into the room, he just stood there for a solid thirty seconds, waiting to make sure they were done.

It seemed like they were so Roy got ready for bed and decided to get some fucking sleep so he wouldn’t have to think anymore.

But that didn’t work. At all.

Instead, he lay awake and his stupid fucking brain started thinking about Keeley again. Which would be perfectly fucking fine under normal circumstances. Under normal circumstances, he could just have a wank thinking about her and then get some fucking sleep.

But right now, he was physically incapable of thinking about Keeley without thinking about Jamie. And he was not fucking risking wanking and Jamie fucking Tartt popping up in his head again during. No fucking way. He was open-minded about the Keeley and Jamie thing and all but there were fucking lines he was not willing to cross.

Porn.

That was the answer. He would just watch some porn and think about it and not think about anything else and he would be fine. He could get it out of his system and then pretend it had never happened and never think about it again as long as he lived.

Roy grabbed his phone and made sure the volume was off since the walls were apparently fucking uselessly thin then found a video to watch.

Porn did not help. Roy’s stupid fucking horny pea brain had locked onto one fucking thing and it wouldn’t let it go. He tried three different videos but all that managed to do was give his stupid brain all new ideas of ways to picture them.

Why the fuck was he still thinking about Jamie? Thinking about Keeley he got. Keeley was a fucking goddess. But now he couldn’t seem to think about himself with Keeley for long before it would morph back into fucking Tartt and her.

It was like some terrible fucking porn video playing in his head and at least Keeley was there, but so was Jamie.

Whatever. Fuck it.

He could just treat it like porn then. He’ll just have a wank and get it out of his system and then never think about it again and never tell anyone.

Jamie was annoying as fuck, but at least he wasn’t bad looking. As long as Jamie never fucking found out, he could work with this. It wasn’t like he wanted to think about Jamie. But if he had to think about Keeley with a guy that wasn’t him, then at least it was someone hot.

Not that Jamie being hot mattered to Roy. But everyone knew that everyone would rather watch porn where the guy was hot too. That was why they fucking hired the guys they did. There was nothing that was more disappointing than a video where the girl was really hot and then the guy was absolutely nothing. It totally spoiled the mood.

Roy wished he didn’t have to have a fucking anatomically correct mental image to work with, but he couldn’t change that. Really, he wished he didn’t have any mental picture at all. But that ship had long since sailed.

Keeley was still half asleep when Jamie turned his alarm off the next morning, so he decided to let her fall back asleep instead of bothering her.

Jamie had left all of his stuff in the other room the night before, so he pulled his underwear back on for Roy’s sake and then went through the door that connected their rooms.

Roy had left his side unlocked and had been the one to get connecting rooms in the first place so Jamie didn’t see why he was so fucking startled when Jamie came in.

“What are you so fucking jumpy about?” Jamie asked as he closed the door behind him so that Keeley could go back to sleep.

Roy was halfway through getting dressed and it wasn’t even the fun half that was naked, although that was probably for the best because Jamie already hadn’t known where to look when Roy had been naked around him before Roy had even found out he was bi. It was still a tad disappointing though.

“Nothing,” Roy said. He pulled a shirt on, then asked, “Why the fuck didn’t you put anything on before you came over?”

“I did,” Jamie said as he looked down at his own body. He wasn’t wearing much, but Roy had seen him in less. Jamie had just put his underwear back on as a fucking courtesy to try to not make things weird.

When he looked back up, Roy wasn’t looking at him anymore. He was zipping his bag up.

“Besides, all me other clothes are in here,” Jamie added. “No point in getting all the way dressed in yesterday’s shit just to change all over again.”

Roy let out a grunt that Jamie recognized as the one he made when someone absolutely had a point and he just couldn’t be bothered to admit it.

Jamie went and grabbed his own bag and dug out something to wear. He figured Roy would want to get going since he was ready so he decided to just change right there. He’d changed in front of Roy a thousand times. Why should it be any different being naked around him now that Roy knew he was bi?

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Roy said behind him.

Jamie turned around and found Roy standing with his back to him. Which was totally fucking weird. Jamie avoided looking at Roy naked. Jamie avoided looking at all of his teammates naked, especially Roy. That wasn’t new. Roy looking away while he changed was.

They’d had an entire fucking conversation with Jamie’s dick out when Roy had shown up for their first go at training and Jamie hadn’t thought he’d really meant to be up that early. Roy hadn’t been weird about that. He hadn’t turned away and been a drama queen then.

Jamie let his annoyance show in his tone as he asked, “What the fuck are you doing?” When Roy didn’t answer right away, he added, “If you’re looking away for my sake, then stop. If you can look at my dick when you think I’m straight, then you can look at my dick when I’m bi. You don’t have to treat me fucking weird now that you know.”

Roy just stood with his back to Jamie for a moment longer, then sighed and turned around.

“See?” Jamie asked as he spread his arms and made no move to actually get dressed. “You saw me naked and it didn’t turn you gay.”

“Sorry,” Roy said.

He looked like he was forcing himself to look at Jamie, but at least he was fucking making eye contact again instead of staring at a wall to avoid looking at him.

Roy hesitated for longer than Jamie would have expected before he finally asked, “Can you get fucking dressed so we can go now?”

“Yeah, okay,” Jamie said. He focused back on getting dressed and Roy didn’t look away like a fucking weirdo. Once he had all his stuff on, Jamie turned his attention back to Roy and said, “Let’s go.”

Chapter Text

Keeley seemed more awake than she usually was at that hour. By the time Jamie came back out of the washroom, she was sitting up in bed doing something on her phone.

“You could run with us if you want,” Jamie offered.

“I’m alright,” Keeley said. “I wouldn’t be able to keep up with you anyway.”

“Well, that’s not a problem,” he said. “I have to slow down for Roy all the time already.”

Jamie knew she wasn’t slow and it wasn’t that she didn't like running. She’d used to run with him sometimes a long time ago, but this time around he was always already with Roy and she never joined in.

“I’m fine staying here,” she said. “Go have fun with Roy.”

She smiled at him but something in it wasn’t as bright as usual.

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I mean, it’s got to be mad boring just sitting around waiting for us to get back.”

“Not really,” Keeley said. “I’m tired anyway. I’ll probably just go back to sleep.”

Jamie looked at her confused for a moment. She didn’t look all that tired to him. She wasn’t looking at him anymore. She was fully focused on her phone again. But maybe she was just sat up dealing with some work thing and she really was waiting for him to go and it to be handled so that she could go back to sleep.

“Okay,” he said finally. “I’ll see you after then.”

“Yeah,” she said with her eyes still locked on her phone.

Jamie went over to kiss her before he left and she looked a little startled for a second like she'd been too busy looking at her phone to notice him on his way over. But she did kiss him back so she was probably just stressed about work or something.

“See you later, babe,” she said as soon he pulled back.

"Are you alright, old man?" Jamie asked, sounding perfectly chipper and unconcerned. "You're even slower than usual."

"I'm fine," Roy said. And he was. Or, he mostly was.

Roy’s knee was getting harder and harder to ignore. But running through the pain wasn't anything new for him. It had just been a while since he'd found himself in this position. He'd felt far worse though. He wasn't going to do any major damage or anything. He was just going to be fucking sore and stiff for a while.

He wasn't out of shape. Sure, he wasn't in footballer shape the way he'd used to be, but he still went running with Jamie every morning. He was still in better shape than the average man. So he hadn't expected his knee to be such a fucking problem for him on this trip.

He was still running with Jamie every day, but that was no different than usual. The walking was different though. When they weren't on bikes, it was a lot of fucking walking while Jamie hauled them around all fast and excited. Way more walking than Roy was used to.

At first, he hadn't even realized it was a problem. But the more that they walked day after day, the more that the pain weaselled its way in and then got a little more and a little more. It was worst when he wasn't walking or running or anything. When he'd sit down a little too long and his knee swelled up even worse and got all stiff.

Overnight, it got worse. And first thing in the morning it was a bitch. Maybe, Roy should have packed his stupid fucking knee brace. But then again, he would rather go through a world of pain than let himself be seen in public wearing that stupid fucking thing. There was a reason he left it at home when he ran with Jamie instead of bringing it for the support. He got by without it and wearing it would be fucking embarrassing and a reminder of just how much he couldn't go back to the way things had been. He didn't even like wearing it on his own. He definitely wasn't going to risk pictures of it ending up plastered all over the internet.

“Then hurry the fuck up, mate,” Jamie said. “I swear a toddler could run faster than you.”

Roy was barely running slower than usual, but he pushed himself to speed up anyway. He’d forgotten what a good motivator wanting to murder Jamie could be.

“You’d better run fast,” Roy warned. “Because I’m going to fucking kill you.”

“Can’t kill what you can’t catch,” Jamie said gleefully and then he rushed even further ahead.

Because of fucking course he’d been pacing himself while Roy had been pushing himself to keep up.

Maybe Roy wasn’t over hating Jamie after all.

Keeley was enjoying what little time she got to herself when she got a message from Rebecca.

How’s Amsterdam?

Keeley considered for a moment, then sent back Good

Things were good. They’d been doing a lot of fun stuff. It was just that she was also suffocating a little bit and soon it wasn’t going to matter how fun the activity was, she was going to be too busy wishing for a moment alone to get anything out of it.

Uh oh Rebecca responded a moment later.

What? I said things are good

Yes, but that’s all you said

Rebecca had a point. Keeley hadn’t gushed on about anything or provided any details. Rebecca had seen right through her one word.

Keeley considered typing out her response but then decided to just call her instead.

“Hello,” Rebecca answered halfway through the first ring.

“It is good,” Keeley said. “I wasn’t lying about that. They’ve been great and getting along and there haven’t been any real problems. I mean, I’m lucky they’re getting along so well and putting up with each other this much-”

“But?” Rebecca interrupted.

Keeley sighed then admitted, “But they’re just always there. I go to sleep with one of them there. I wake up with one of them there. I get a teeny tiny window without them while they go train and then the days barely started and there they both are, right there with me for every second after that until one of them makes an excuse to get some time alone and I still have the other. And then even when I fall asleep I don’t get a break because there they are in my dreams too.”

She knew it probably sounded bad. It wasn’t that she wanted to get rid of them. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy the alone time with one or the other. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand why they didn’t want to waste any of their limited time there. She could just really use some actual alone time without any boyfriends there. They’d been there for over a week and she was in desperate need of some personal space and time to decompress away from them.

“I mean I love them both, but I’m going to completely lose it on them if I don’t get a proper break,” Keeley added. “Sometimes they’re being all sweet and affectionate and I know I should like it but I just want to tell them to give me an inch of space so that I don’t start hating them. It’s gotten to the point that sometimes I pretend I need to take a piss just to get a minute or two away from them and remind myself that I like being around them.”

She knew that she was only focusing on the negative and not all the things she liked about spending time with them, but Rebecca would know she was just venting. Rebecca wasn’t going to assume that just because she was overwhelmed, she wasn’t happy with her relationships. It was nice being able to get it all out instead of keeping it bottled up inside, trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings.

“Have you told them that you need some space?” Rebecca asked.

“No,” Keeley admitted. “I mean, we’re not here for that much longer anyway. I don’t want to waste the time we have when I’m the reason we couldn’t go anywhere longer. And I thought they’d get worn out or want a break or something, but they’re together practically all the time except for night and they just keep showing up ready to spend the entire fucking day together every single day and I don’t know how I’m the only one that needs the break and they’re not sick of each other. They’re not even getting on each other’s nerves or fighting any more than usual. And apparently, Jamie wants to spend even more time together. This morning he was trying to talk me into going running with them instead of staying in the room bored without them and then here I was trying to rush him out the door and trying not to snap in his face that if anything, I want more time without them and that the time in the room alone is the only thing keeping me on the brink of sanity.”

“Well, I’m not sure just sticking the rest of the trip out is really better than telling them to fuck off for a while if you’re just going to end up hating them both and breaking up with them or killing them just so you can get some peace and quiet,” Rebecca pointed out.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Keeley said. “I know. Now can we talk about literally anything that isn’t them?”

Rebecca laughed. “Sure.”

“Where are you dragging us today?” Roy asked when they were having lunch together.

Before Jamie could answer, Keeley said, “Actually, I was thinking that maybe I’d just stick around here and relax for today.”

“That works for me,” Roy said.

They’d been running and walking and biking around non-stop anyway. He wouldn’t mind a lazy day to rest his knee.

“Yeah, I’m fine with that,” Jamie agreed.

Keeley frowned.

“Oh,” she said and she glanced between them for a second, then said, “Uh…”

Fuck. Roy knew what this was now. She’d been trying to get rid of them and they’d just agreed to join her as if they’d been invited.

She’d told him before that she needed time to herself to not feel like she was suffocating spending every moment with him. Now, she had two of them and she didn’t get a break to go to work or have a night alone or go out with friends like she would at home. They got a break from each other overnight and most evenings. The only time she got alone was what little she could grab between waking back up after one of them left and then all having lunch together.

Roy had been so fucking stupid to not even consider she might be burnt out from spending so much time with them. He’d known she was different from him and needed time apart and he’d completely fucking forgotten and ignored it like a total twat.

“Actually, you stay here,” Roy said. “Jamie had some more stuff he wanted to show me anyway.”

Keeley looked relieved at that so of course Jamie had to ruin it.

“I did?” Jamie asked.

Roy glared at him and hoped he would just catch on for once in his life as he said, “Yes, you idiot.”

“Oh, right,” Jamie said, but he sounded just as confused as he had a moment ago.

“It’s not that I don’t like spending time with you,” Keeley said. “I just want to be able to keep liking being around you and I don’t know if I can make that last while also spending every single second together.”

“Oh,” Jamie said because apparently, he had finally caught up. “Yeah, we can spend the day together without you.”

Keeley looked confused, but her tone came out amused as she asked, “You two don’t want a break from each other too?”

Roy turned to look at Jamie and found him staring back at him like he was waiting to see what Roy thought.

“Not really,” Jamie said.

Roy looked away from him and back to Keeley as he added, “We practically spend this much time together in a normal week anyway.”

Keeley looked between them with a confused expression that said she clearly did not understand as she said, “Right.”

“What do you want to do all day?” Roy asked when they made it outside.

“Do you want to go to the sex museums?” Jamie asked.

“The what?” Roy asked.

“The sex museums,” Jamie repeated. “There’s two of them.”

“You’re making that up,” Roy said. “One would have been hard enough to believe. I’m not going to fall for you pretending there’s two of them you can just walk into in broad daylight.”

“Well then it’s settled,” Jamie said. “We’re going so I can prove I’m not making it up. We’ve got to go to the Erotic Museum now 'cause that closes first.”

“Why do you just know that?” Roy asked.

“Because I did my fucking research while you were just following me around looking pretty,” Jamie said. Roy’s brow furrowed at being called pretty, so Jamie went for a quick distraction as he said, “Come on, it’s this way.”

The Erotic Museum was so much weirder than Roy had expected. He’d thought it would be something vaguely reminiscent of a regular museum. He was not expecting to see a wall mural of Snow White with her tits out surrounded by chairs shaped like mushrooms. 

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” Roy said.

“I can’t believe I brought you to a very classy museum and you’re walking around being judgy,” Jamie said with an obnoxious smirk. “Sometimes art has nudity. Grow up, Roy.”

“And sometimes art is a statue of a dick the size of a human being?” Roy asked.

“Exactly!” Jamie said. “Good art makes you feel something. Would you rather look at art that makes you all depressed or look at ridiculous shit that makes you laugh?”

“I hate that you have a point,” Roy said.

“Just admit it, you like it here,” Jamie insisted.

“I never said I didn’t,” Roy pointed out. “I said it was stupid, but if I didn’t like stupid things, I wouldn’t spend nearly as much time with you.”

“Come on,” Jamie said. “I heard there’s a Mona Lisa with her tits out around here somewhere and I want to see it.”

“Of course you do,” Roy said, but he did too.

The Sex Museum was more like a real museum. It was still fun, but not quite as ridiculous as the first one they’d gone to. There was more to see there though so they ended up staying longer.

“I told you there were two sex museums,” Jamie insisted when he finally led Roy back outside. “You should really trust me more.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know there were competing fucking sex museums?” Roy asked.

“Because I told you, duh,” Jamie said. “Are you hungry?”

“I could eat,” Roy said.

“Good,” Jamie said. “Then we’re going back to the restaurant you wouldn’t let me take you to.”

“Right,” Roy said sarcastically. “Sorry for letting you take Keeley on a date. That was a real dick move of me.”

“Didn’t ask you to leave,” Jamie pointed out.

“So you wanted me there tagging along on your date?” Roy asked skeptically.

“Could’ve been your date too,” Jamie said. “It’s not like you’re not in a relationship with her too.”

“That’s not really how double dates work,” Roy insisted.

“What do you think we’ve been doing ninety percent of the time we’ve been here?” Jamie asked.

“Maybe," Roy admitted. "But don’t you still want time alone with her?”

“I already told you it wouldn’t bother me if you were there while we were having sex,” Jamie pointed out. “So what do you think?”

Roy stopped walking and turned to stare at him. Jamie stopped too and looked back at him.

“Yeah, but you were joking then,” Roy said.

“Was I?” Jamie asked. When Roy didn’t laugh, he added, “Who says I’m not joking now?”

He’d only half been, but he figured it was better to pretend he hadn't been remotely serious about it when Roy was looking at him like that.

Roy seemed to accept that that meant he’d been joking about the whole thing, or at least he pretended to at the very least.

“You’re an idiot,” Roy accused.

“That insult only gets less effective the more you use it,” Jamie insisted as he started walking again. Roy started walking again too as Jamie said, “I mean, getting to talk to her alone and grow a pair and tell her how I felt without you there judging me was good. But it don’t bother me when you’re there either.”

“I can’t believe you made it through dinner,” Jamie said. “But let me guess, you need to go back to the hotel now because you’re old and no fun.”

Jamie hadn’t shut up the entire day, but somehow he didn’t lose his voice. Even stranger than that was the fact that Roy didn’t even get properly annoyed with being the sole focus of all of his excited jabbering though. He wasn’t even sick of the day with him when they’d basically been together since dawn.

Roy was getting far too used to him.

“We could do that,” Roy said. “Or you could pick a bar and we could get wasted, then sleep in tomorrow.”

They were supposed to be on vacation anyway. One day off wouldn’t kill them or they could start late and give Keeley more time to herself.

“We’d both drink?” Jamie asked suspiciously.

“Yes,” Roy told him. “We’re on vacation, aren’t we?”

“Okay,” Jamie said. “But you have to promise not to fall asleep at the bar and make me carry your ass home.”

“Why the fuck would I fall asleep?” Roy asked.

“Last time you got drunk around me, we barely got you to the car,” Jamie pointed out which was a complete exaggeration.

“I’d also been up for twenty hours,” Roy pointed out. “I’ll be fine.”

They’d barely made it three steps inside before Roy stopped and pulled his phone out. Jamie caught a glimpse of Cora’s name on the screen.

“You go in,” Roy said. “I have to take this.”

He didn’t even wait for Jamie to answer before he headed back outside where it was quieter. Jamie would far rather go outside with Roy and eavesdrop than sit around on his own and wait, but he went and ordered a couple of drinks anyway.

He’d been expecting Roy to come in and take one after a minute or two, but he took fucking forever, so eventually Jamie gave up and started in on the drink he’d been saving for Roy.

When Roy finally did show up, he sat down as if he hadn’t just disappeared for like fifteen minutes.

“Finally,” Jamie said huffily. “You’re supposed to be drinking with me, not abandoning me for an hour.”

“It wasn’t an hour,” Roy said. “You’re just needy and overdramatic.”

“What was that about anyway?” Jamie asked, partly because Roy had been gone long enough that he’d been starting to wonder if something was wrong and partly because he was nosey and wanted to know more details than just whether things were okay or not.

“Phoebe was refusing to go to bed if she couldn’t talk to me first,” Roy said. “She’s hard to get off the phone.”

“So am I and you have no problem hanging up on me,” Jamie pointed out.

“Yeah, well, I like her more than you,” Roy said.

They were several drinks in when Jamie pulled out his phone to make sure Keeley still hadn’t sent him anything.

She hadn’t.

Jamie considered texting her something since he wasn’t used to going this long without talking to her anymore since they’d gotten back together, but he hesitated after he opened their text thread.

Keeley had wanted space from them. And apparently, this was something that must have come up before because Roy figured it out before she even said anything and then Jamie was left looking like a complete idiot.

Jamie stared down at his phone for a moment longer, then locked the screen and took a long swig from his drink. Keeley didn’t need any drunk texts right now.

When Jamie looked back over at Roy, he was staring at something instead of meeting Jamie’s eyes. Jamie followed Roy’s gaze down to his arm and then looked back up at Roy.

“What?” Jamie asked.

“You know that doesn’t say arm, right?” Roy asked. “You just said that to be fucking obnoxious. You didn’t actually think that was what you were getting?”

“Oh yeah?” Jamie said, playing dumb just to see what Roy would say. “What’s it say then? And how the fuck would you know?”

“There were articles all over the place about how you’re a stupid fucking twit and got sunset on your arm thinking you were getting the word arm,” Roy said. “You’re stupid, but you’re not that stupid. And we both know half the time you’re just playing at being as moronic as you act. So you knew and were just fucking with the press, right?”

Those articles had all been forever ago. Jamie hadn’t seen a single comment about it in at least a year, maybe two.

“You read the articles about me?” Jamie asked with a grin. He put a hand over his heart as he said, “I’m touched, Roy. Really.”

“I used to just read the ones you could tell were going to make fun of you from the headline,” Roy said. “Now, I don’t bother with any of them anymore.”

“Right, why bother having to fucking read when you’ve got the real deal right in front of you,” Jamie said with a laugh.

Roy didn’t even roll his eyes or bitch him out for that. He just asked, “You knew, right?”

“That you read articles about me?” Jamie asked. “I mean, I knew you were obsessed with me, but I didn’t know that specifically.”

“That it didn’t say arm, you idiot,” Roy insisted.

“That insult’s pretty hypocritical when you’re trying to claim I’m too smart to have asked for arm,” Jamie pointed out.

“Just answer the question,” Roy said.

“Oh, wow,” Jamie said. “You’ve been stewing about this for years, haven’t you? I kinda wanna keep it a secret and make you wonder for the rest of your life just for fun.”

It really wasn’t that important. Jamie had just gotten the tattoo on an impulse and had never put all that much thought into it, but apparently, Roy had been thinking about it for literal years.

“You’re such a prick,” Roy said with a shake of his head, but his smile proved that he wasn't really that annoyed.

“I did ask for arm,” Jamie admitted. “Thought it would be funny. I only found out what it really said when the tweets and articles started coming out.”

Roy had been about to take another swig of his drink, but he stopped just in time to laugh without choking.

“You’re something else,” Roy said. “You’ve got to be the only person in the world that regrets getting a tattoo in another language because it came out as something half reasonable instead of something utterly stupid.”

“Who said I regret it?” Jamie asked.

“It’s not what you wanted and people made fun of you online for months over it,” Roy pointed out. “How could you not regret it?”

“I got it 'cause it was funny,” Jamie pointed out. “How is it being something less stupid by accident not fucking funny?”

“Fair,” Roy admitted. “I know I definitely laughed at your expense for it.”

“Besides,” Jamie said. “It looks good. And I like it, so that’s all that matters.”

“I hate that that actually makes sense,” Roy said. “I think you’re making me stupider.”

“Nah, you were stupid to begin with,” Jamie said with a laugh. “And I don’t see why being happy with how I look is supposed to be stupid. I’m hot. Me tattoos make me even hotter. Why should I pretend I don’t know that? That would be stupid.”

Apparently, Roy was still too stuck on the tattoo that didn’t actually say arm to even try to knock Jamie down a peg by pretending he wasn’t a fucking ten since he asked, “How the fuck do you just wake up one morning and think hey, you know what I should get for my first tattoo… the fucking word arm?”

“Okay, well first of all, it wasn’t morning,” Jamie insisted. “And I was drunk. And the getting a tattoo idea came first. Arm is just what I went with when I got there.”

“And the rest of it?” Roy asked. “Were you sober for that? Or you just didn’t want to take another try at getting arm?”

Jamie grinned, then asked, “Is this your way of saying you actually like the sleeve?”

“It’s better than your other stupid one,” Roy said because of course he couldn’t just say yes like a normal person.

“Well I was drunk for that too,” Jamie said. “Thought damn, the rest of me arm looks really boring. Picked this out when I got there because I thought it would look cool. And I was right and I don’t regret it either, so…”

Roy just stared at him for a moment, then he laughed and asked, “You really don’t put a single thought into anything, do you?”

“Not really,” Jamie admitted with a shrug. “Why would I when life’s way easier this way?”

“I can’t tell if that’s actually smart or the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Roy said.

“Why’s it gotta be one or the other?” Jamie asked and then he had a great fucking idea. “Oh my god, I know what we should do now.”

“What?” Roy asked.

“Get tattoos,” Jamie said excitedly. “It’ll be fucking great.”

“No,” Roy said immediately.

“Why not?” Jamie asked. “You didn’t even consider it.”

“We’re drunk,” Roy pointed out.

“And?” Jamie asked. “I got these drunk and I love 'em.”

“I’m not you,” Roy insisted. “I’m not just going to get something fucking stupid tattooed on me because I’m bored.”

“It don’t have to be something stupid,” Jamie insisted. “Come on, be like me and take a break from thinking for a night. It’s way easier.”

For a second, Jamie thought Roy was actually considering it, but then he said, “No. But I’ll come along and watch you be a fucking idiot.”

Jamie grinned and pulled his phone out to look for a place that took walk-ins and was still open.

Roy leaned closer to watch what he was doing and then when a tattoo and piercing place popped up, he asked, “What happened to your fucking ear piercings?”

Jamie hadn’t realized that Roy was aware enough to have noticed his pierced ears in the first place or how short-lived that had been. Most of the guys either hadn’t noticed or hadn’t said a word about it.

“Kept having to take them back out to play,” Jamie said with a shrug. “The holes closed up.”

“Oh,” Roy said. After a moment, he added, “I liked the dangly one.”

Jamie glanced up from his phone to look at Roy confused.

“What?” Roy asked with a defensive edge to his tone.

Jamie was debating bragging or giving him shit for it or making some comment about how he hadn’t known that Roy had any fashion sense, but he hesitated.

That would be fun for a moment. But this was the only nice thing Roy had outright said about anything Jamie had ever worn. And if Roy was going to start giving him actual compliments that weren’t about his performance in games and training, Jamie wasn’t about to make a joke and stop it from ever happening again. So instead, Jamie decided not to call attention to the comment at all and changed the topic.

“I actually went to get me nipples pierced, but the healing times for that are way worse,” Jamie said. “So went for the earrings instead and didn’t manage to keep those anyway.”

Roy didn’t say anything. He just stared at him, looking utterly baffled. Jamie was used to Roy giving him the silent treatment though. That didn’t faze him anymore.

“Right,” Jamie said as he patted Roy on his judgy little cheek just to see what he’d do. “Let’s go then.”

They tried to bike to the tattoo shop, but it didn’t go well.

Roy didn’t realize how much either of them had drank until they tried to stay upright on a bike. He’d insisted that was probably a sign Jamie was too drunk to choose a tattoo, but Jamie had waved the comment off and suggested they walk instead.

So now there they were. Jamie had already found out they had time for him and had decided he wanted to get the tattoo on his chest and now he was flipping through some stupid book for ideas. Jamie stopped and pointed to a picture of a paw print tattoo and Roy scowled down at it.

“Not this,” Jamie said as if he could feel Roy judging him without even looking up. “But this just gave me a brilliant fucking idea.”

Roy had wanted to hate the tattoo. He’d wanted it to be something he could make fun of Jamie for.

But instead, Jamie had gotten all fucking excited and asked if they could draw a greyhound for him and then twenty minutes later, they had a stencil and Jamie was practically vibrating with excitement as he jumped up from the chair he’d been waiting in.

“Come on,” Jamie said. “Aren’t you coming with me? You’re me moral support.”

So Roy followed him over to the chair and watched Jamie tug his shirt off. He watched the tattoo artist put the stencil on and Jamie grinned at the mirror and then turn to grin at Roy and wait for his approval.

“That’s going to look fucking stupid if you end up on another team,” Roy pointed out because it was the only insult he could think of when Jamie just had to go and get the one fucking tattoo Roy couldn’t properly make fun of.

“Guess you can’t ever trade me then,” Jamie said with that obnoxious fucking smirk that used to make Roy want to break his nose.

“It’s a lot better than what I thought you’d pick,” Roy admitted.

“You like it,” Jamie accused as he went back over to the chair so that the tattoo artist could get started. “You should get one too.”

“I’m not getting matching tattoos with you,” Roy insisted.

“Why? 'Cause you think this place would be closed for the night by the time they managed to shave enough of a spot for it?” Jamie asked.

“I thought you liked hairy men,” Roy pointed out because it was more than a little hypocritical for Jamie to make fun of him being hairy now that he’d admitted that was his type.

“What’s the matter?” Jamie asked. “Are you afraid I won’t think you’re hot anymore if you shave your chest?”

“That must be it,” Roy lied because Jamie was going to be just as stupid whether he gave him a real reason or not and Jamie seemed to think fuck it, why not? was reason enough to permanently mark his body.

Roy wasn’t against getting tattoos. He just wasn’t going to get one because Jamie had told him to. Besides, he had no idea what he’d get anyway. Jamie was already getting the one good idea he’d ever had and there was absolutely no way Roy was getting one to match, no matter how much Jamie pestered him about it.

Jamie was still getting tattooed when Roy’s phone started ringing.

It was Ted starting a video call in the fucking Diamond Dogs chat. Roy was in a good enough mood and wanted to see Ted’s face enough that he just answered it.

“What the fuck do you want?” Roy answered with a grin when Ted’s face popped up on the screen.

Trent joined a moment later, then Beard, then Nate.

“Where’s Higgins?” Ted asked, then he winced. “Oh, shoot. I forgot that it’s late there.”

“He might be asleep,” Trent said.

“I can’t believe anyone has an earlier bedtime than you,” Jamie said, unnecessarily loudly because apparently, he wanted to make sure everyone would hear him being a little prick loud and clear. “No, Jamie, I can’t come to dinner. I already should have been in bed three hours ago because I'm ancient.”

“Would you fuck off?” Roy asked as he glared over at Jamie.

“Jamie’s there?” Ted asked. “Hey, Jamie! How are you doing?”

“Fuck off, old man,” Jamie called back happily.

“Is Keeley there too?” Ted asked.

“Nah, she’s having a night off from our bullshit,” Roy said.

“I’m sorry, but what is that terrible buzzing sound?” Nate asked.

Roy turned his phone so they could see Jamie getting tattooed.

Jamie posed with his tongue out as if Roy was taking a picture and not quite blatantly on a video call, then said, “You guys have an old man group chat? That’s fucking adorable.”

“Alright, that’s enough of you,” Roy said as he turned his phone back around. “I can fuck off outside if you still want to talk without Higgins. Full disclosure, I’m fucking pissed though.”

“I could tell,”  Ted said. “You don’t smile this much sober.”

“Fuck you, I smile all the time,” Roy argued and Jamie snorted loudly. Roy turned to him as he said, “I just don’t smile around you because you’re fucking annoying.”

“You literally smile around me more than you do around them,” Jamie insisted.

“How the fuck could you possibly know that?” Roy argued.

“Uh, because they saw you smile and went wow what the fuck is happening, duh,” Jamie said. “You hardly even remember to scowl at me anymore.”

“You’re fucking delusional,” Roy told him.

“You know what?” Ted asked. “This conversation can wait. It’s nothing that important anyway.”

“Fuck you,” Roy said. “It was important enough that you called a meeting for it. That means it’s important to you. Which means it’s important to me. We’re fucking talking about it. Just let me get away from Jamie so I can focus.”

“What did I do?” Jamie complained.

Roy ignored him as he stood up and took a second for the head rush to pass, then headed outside where Jamie wouldn’t be able to hear about whatever Ted had called about and wouldn’t be there to distract him.

“Okay,” Beard said. “What’s going on?”

“How do you know when you’re ready to start actually dating again?” Ted asked. “I mean, how do you know if you’re not waiting long enough or waiting way too long or where that sweet spot between even is supposed to be?”

It was silent for a long moment while everyone seemed to be waiting for someone else to answer. Roy wasn’t sure any of his experience was going to be useful to Ted or even remotely comparable to going through a divorce, especially with someone you shared a child with.

“Don’t all answer at once, fellas,” Ted said.

Trent opened his mouth and immediately closed it again, then a second later said, “Well, my divorce was because I came out to my wife, so my experience isn’t going to be very helpful here.”

“That’s fair,” Ted said.

“Michelle’s already dating,” Beard pointed out. “Why shouldn’t you?”

“When I asked Sassy out, she said I was way too much of a mess,” Ted said. “She had a point too. I don’t know. Maybe I just felt like I should be ready to see someone else.”

“That was a long time ago,” Beard insisted. “What? Are you just never going to date again in case you’re still a mess?”

“Tried that,” Roy said. “Didn’t go well. Don’t recommend it.”

“If you want to go on a date, go on a date,” Nate said. “Otherwise why worry about it?”

“I guess it really is that easy, isn’t it?” Ted asked. “Thanks.”

When Jamie’s tattoo was finally finished, he said, “Get a picture to send to the rest of the geezers.”

Roy pulled his phone out and Jamie posed.

“Put your fucking tongue back in your mouth,” Roy said.

Jamie ignored him because he knew Roy would take the picture anyway.

“They’re gonna love it,” Jamie insisted. “Wait, give me your phone, I want to send something with it.”

He was kind of surprised when Roy actually handed his phone over instead of telling him to fuck off.

He had already sent the picture so Jamie sent a message underneath.

cant get rid of me now fuckers 🖕

“What the fuck is with this group chat name?” Jamie asked.

“Mind your own fucking business,” Roy said as he took his phone back.

“Send me that so I can post it,” Jamie said. But then the tattoo artist was trying to bandage him up and in the way so Jamie held his phone out and said, “You post it.”

“I don’t know your passcode,” Roy pointed out as he took Jamie’s phone.

“Sixty-nine sixty-nine sixty-nine,” Jamie said.

He laughed loudly as Roy sighed.

“You’re an absolute fucking child,” Roy insisted.

“Hey, I was just putting our numbers together,” Jamie insisted. “You should be happy I included you. I even put you first.”

“That’s not why you picked that and you know it,” Roy accused.

“Make sure you put a good filter on it,” Jamie said.

“Too late,” Roy said. “I already posted it.”

“What did you put as the caption?” Jamie asked.

“I didn’t put one,” Roy said.

God, Roy was old and bad at social media. But before Jamie could even point that out, Roy was already talking again.

“You know, if you’re going to pierce your nipples, you may as well get it over with and do it while we’re here,” Roy said.

“What?” Jamie asked because surely he must have heard him wrong.

“You said the healing time’s a bitch, right?” Roy asked. “So if you’re going to do it, then do it now. Because I’m not putting up with it if you change your mind and decide to get them during the season.”

“Are you seriously trying to talk me into piercing me nips?” Jamie asked.

“No,” Roy said. “But you said you wanted to. And it wouldn’t be the worst decision you’ve ever made.”

Jamie grinned as he said, “Oh my god, you are. You want me to pierce them, don’t you?”

“No,” Roy said. “I just think that if you want to, then you should before the very narrow window when you can actually do it closes.”

“I don’t know,” Jamie said. “What if they don’t look good on me?”

He absolutely knew they would look good on him. Everything looked good on him. He was going to look even hotter with them and he was well aware of that. He just wanted to see what Roy would say since Roy was quite blatantly trying to convince him to do it.

“They’ll look fine,” Roy said. “If you can pull off a fucking tattoo that’s supposed to say arm then you can pull off nipple piercings.”

“You think I pull the tattoo off? Jamie asked with a grin.

“Shut up,” Roy said. “Stop pretending you have a single ounce of modesty and just get them or don’t.”

“Fine,” Jamie said. “I’m getting them, but only because you told me to.”

“No,” Roy said. “You’re not doing that. Do it for yourself or not at all.”

“Relax, I’m doing it 'cause I want to,” Jamie said. “You wanting me to too is just a bonus.”

Roy didn’t know why he’d even brought the piercings back up. Maybe it was the endless staring at Jamie’s chest while he was getting tattooed that had made him think of it again.

Now, of course, Jamie was being annoying and acting like Roy was the one who wanted him to do it. Jamie himself had said that he wanted nipple piercings and had tried to get them before. Roy was just doing him a favour pointing out that if he didn’t get them now, soon he wouldn’t be able to again. That was all.

And sure, they would probably suit Jamie in that obnoxious way that literally everything seemed to look good on him. But it’s not like it was Roy’s idea. Jamie was the one who had brought it up in the first place.

Jamie was perfectly calm right up until his first nipple actually got pierced.

“Ow!” Jamie whined and Roy laughed.

“Oh, this is already worth it,” Roy said happily. “I’m so fucking glad I get to be here for this.”

Jamie flipped him off.

The piercer finished up with that nipple and moved to get the next one ready.

Jamie reached out toward Roy, grabbing at the air with one hand as he said, “Come here.”

“Why?” Roy asked.

Nothing was even happening yet. The piercer was still preparing the area.

“Roy,” Jamie whined.

So Roy moved closer to him anyway.

Jamie grabbed Roy’s arm and pulled him even closer. He leaned to rest his forehead against Roy’s shoulder and took a deep breath, then his grip on Roy’s arm tightened as the needle went through.

“Fuck,” he hissed out.

“You’re fine,” Roy told him.

“Well, I am now,” Jamie said. He pulled away from Roy again and asked, “How do they look?”

“Fucking sore,” Roy said.

Jamie’s nipples felt significantly better after the sharp pain of actually piercing them, but putting his shirt back on had not been fun.

So now, they were walking back to the hotel while Jamie pulled his shirt away from his chest so it wouldn’t chafe the whole way back.

“Me nipples hurt,” Jamie complained.

“You’ve mentioned that,” Roy said which was fucking rude. Roy was the one who had talked him into getting the piercings. He could at least have a little sympathy.

“They look fucking good though,” Jamie insisted. “So it’s worth it.”

“If you say so,” Roy said. “You couldn’t pay me to pierce mine. That shit looks painful.”

“Oh sure, but talking me into it is no problem,” Jamie said. “What, did you just bring it up because you wanted to watch me suffer and I didn’t react to the tattoo enough?”

“Maybe,” Roy said.

“You are such a fucking dick,” Jamie complained.

“You’re the one who wanted them in the first place,” Roy pointed out.

“Yeah, but that was before me nipples were screaming,” Jamie argued.

“Stop whining,” Roy said. “The piercings look good. You wanted them. They were your fucking idea. You don’t get to bitch about it hurting like you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into.”

“Actually, I do,” Jamie argued. “And you have to listen to it because you’re the one that told me to go through with it.”

When they made it back to the hotel, Roy tried the wrong key card twice before he remembered to use the other one and they managed to get into the room. Jamie barely made it inside before he pulled his shirt off. He sat down on the side of the bed and looked like he was struggling to untie his shoes.

“Me nipples hurt,” Jamie complained as he finally kicked his shoes off and fell back on the bed. After a moment, he undid his jeans and started wriggling out of them in a way that made Roy turn away to deal with his shoes instead.

He sat down on the other side of the bed and tried to focus exclusively on untying his shoes.

“Roy, I said me nipples hurt,” Jamie whined.

Roy finished getting his shoes off, then glanced over and found Jamie pouting up at him

“I wonder why,” Roy said sarcastically.

He pulled his shirt off and stood up to get rid of his own pants, but Jamie said, “Wait.”

“Why?” Roy asked, pausing in the middle of undoing his jeans.

“I need ice for my tits,” Jamie said.

“Why do I have to get it?” Roy asked.

“You’re me coach. You’re supposed to take care of me,” Jamie insisted. “Besides, you still have pants on. I’m not putting clothes back on.”

Roy considered for a moment. He did have a point.

“Yeah, okay,” Roy said as he buttoned his pants back up. “I’ll be back.”

He didn’t bother with a shirt or shoes. He just grabbed his key card and the ice bucket.

When he came back a few minutes later, Jamie had moved to lie on one side of the bed instead of across the whole bottom of it. He’d turned the TV on and actually chosen something instead of just flipping through the channels endlessly like an obnoxious little prick.

Roy held the bucket out, to him, but Jamie just grabbed the bag of ice out of it and held it against his chest, then let out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks,” Jamie said.

Roy stuck the empty bucket down on the bedside table, then turned to head for the washroom.

“Hey, where are you going?” Jamie complained as if he could possibly be going anywhere far in the fucking hotel room they were sharing. “You can’t just leave me here in pain all by meself.”

“I need to take a leak,” Roy said. “Is that allowed? Or did you want to come in and hold it for me?”

Jamie made a face like he was considering it.

“That wasn’t a serious offer,” Roy said.

“Don’t wanna get up right now anyway,” Jamie said as if the thought of him getting up again was the only ridiculous part of the idea.

“Great,” Roy said. “Well, I’m gonna go piss now. Try not to have a mental breakdown over being left alone for thirty seconds.”

“Shut up.”

Roy didn’t bother closing the door when he got into the washroom. It wasn’t like the door was near the bed anyway. He got rid of his jeans while he was in there too. There was no way he was voluntarily sleeping in them.

When Roy went back into the rest of the room, Jamie looked away from the TV and looked Roy up and down with a smirk that meant he was about to say something really fucking annoying.

“What?” Roy asked.

“Who’s the needy one now?” Jamie asked. “You’re the one who can’t take a piss with the door closed because you’d get too lonely for me.”

“I’m just lazy,” Roy insisted. As he went to get in on the other side of the bed, he said, “Shove over.”

“I’m not even on your side,” Jamie complained, but he moved over a little anyway.

Roy was fucking tired, but Jamie still had the TV on and ice clutched to his chest, so Roy forced himself to watch the show he’d put on anyway.

When the ice had melted enough that it was a drippy fucking mess, Jamie gave up on it and shoved the bag back in the bucket. He turned off the TV and tossed the remote onto the bedside table, then tried to roll over to lay on his stomach. He hissed loudly as his nipple brushed the bed.

“Ow, fuck,” he complained as he rolled back onto his back.

Roy got out of bed and turned the light off, then stumbled back to the bed, bumping into it before he actually managed to get in. Roy tried to pull the sheet up, but that wasn’t good either. Jamie hadn’t worn a shirt to bed because his nipples hurt enough without fabric rubbing against them so he pushed the sheet back down.

Roy pulled it up again and Jamie shoved it back down again.

“Can’t have that on me nipples,” Jamie complained.

Roy made some sort of grumbly noise under his breath but left it how it was. Roy shifted around to get comfy and didn’t say anything.

Jamie tried to lay still, but trying to sleep on his back was a fucking nightmare so he rolled onto his side to try that instead. That was worse though so he moved back onto his back. That still wasn’t comfy though so he tried adjusting his pillows. And when that didn’t work, he tried lying on his other side.

“Would you stop fucking moving around?” Roy asked. “I’m trying to sleep.”

“So am I,” Jamie complained. “I’m used to sleeping on me stomach.”

Roy didn’t argue then and Jamie rolled back onto his back and tried to force himself to fall asleep like that. But the position felt horribly uncomfortable. He couldn’t find a good angle for his legs and he felt vaguely like a corpse lying in his coffin. Plus, his top half was fucking cold and his legs were fucking hot and it was all wrong.

A few minutes passed and Jamie only got more uncomfortable while he couldn’t even tell if Roy was still awake or not. Jamie sighed loudly and then did it all over again when Roy didn’t say anything in response to his first attempt.

“What?” Roy asked all huffily and overdramatically.

“Me top half is cold,” Jamie said and he was proud of his restraint to stop there and not list every single one of the many problems keeping him awake. “And me tits hurt.”

“I don’t know what you expect me to do about it if you won’t wear a shirt or pull the fucking covers up,” Roy said.

“Feel sorry for me, you prick,” Jamie complained.

“Alright,” Roy said, sounding distinctly amused and like he didn’t pity Jamie at all. “But I’m gonna sleep at the same time.”

“Must be fucking nice,” Jamie muttered to himself.

He tried to stay lying still but it was fucking miserable and after a few minutes of silence he was pretty sure Roy was asleep anyway so he started shifting around again, trying to find any kind of angle he could live with for more than a few seconds. He was starting to wonder if he could just get used to the pain of lying on his stomach since that was probably his only chance at falling asleep at all.

“Jamie,” Roy complained, sounding utterly exhausted with him.

Yeah, well, Jamie was fucking exhausted too.

“I keep going to go roll over and remember it’s a bad fucking idea,” Jamie said. “I can’t fucking stand sleeping on my back, mate.”

Roy didn’t say anything to that until Jamie tried to shift around a little more.

Roy sighed loudly, then said, “Lie on your back.”

Jamie had already tried that several times but he didn’t have any better ideas and Roy was using his bossy voice so Jamie listened.

Roy shoved a pillow halfway onto Jamie’s shoulder and Jamie assumed it was a half-assed attempt at beating him with it until Roy rolled over. He landed with his head on top of the pillow and Jamie’s shoulder, then he pinned Jamie where he was with an arm over his stomach, bent at the elbow so that his fist could pin Jamie’s other shoulder down.

“There,” Roy said. “Now you can’t fucking move. Go the fuck to sleep.”

Jamie smiled to himself. Sure, Roy was just trying to make him stop keeping him awake, but Jamie was perfectly happy with his solution. If he had to be uncomfortable, at least he was getting Roy lying partially on top of him.

“This is actually warmer,” Jamie said. “Thanks.”

“Fantastic,” Roy said and Jamie genuinely couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. “Now shut up.”

“Shutting up,” Jamie said and Roy let out a huffy little laugh at that like he couldn’t decide whether to be bitchy or amused.

A minute or two more passed and at least Jamie didn’t want to roll over anymore but he wasn’t asleep yet either and he was bored. He wasn’t sure if Roy was awake or not so he decided to check.

“Hey, Roy?” he asked.

“I’m asleep,” Roy lied.

“No, you’re fucking not,” Jamie pointed out.

“I would be if you’d stop talking,” Roy insisted.

So Jamie shut up and decided to count himself to sleep instead. But that was boring as fuck and wasn’t working and he lost track somewhere after thirty so he gave up on that tactic and went back to trying to talk to Roy.

“Would you still like me if I broke me foot?” Jamie asked.

“What?” Roy asked sleepily.

“If I broke my foot so bad I needed surgery and couldn’t play anymore, even after,” Jamie said. “Would we still spend time together?”

“We’d both still be dating Keeley,” Roy pointed out. “So obviously.”

“Right. Yeah,” Jamie said. But that wasn’t exactly the question he’d been trying to ask so after a few seconds he added, “But what about you and me? Would we still be friends and do shit together outside of that with no training and no more me on the team?”

“Dunno,” Roy said. After a moment, he added, “Probably… This better not be you deciding to quit the team and fuck off onto some reality show again.”

“Not quitting until my body gives out like yours,” Jamie said. “I was just curious. That’s all.”

Roy was quiet for a moment, then said, “I’d never hear the end of it from Phoebe if I stopped bringing you around.”

Jamie laughed. “That’s true. Can just get me invites to everything from her instead, even if you try to get rid of me.”

Roy was quiet for so long that Jamie wondered if he had fallen asleep.

“Hey, Roy,” Jamie tried again. He waited, but Roy didn’t say anything. “I’d rather get invited by you,” Jamie said, even though Roy was almost definitely asleep.

Keeley had expected either Roy or Jamie to show up at her room to sleep at some point in the night. But when she woke up, she still had the room all to herself.

Jamie and Roy must have taken the other room together to give her some extra space.

Keeley figured they must be up by now since it was the time their alarms usually went off now, so she opened the door that connected the rooms and her jaw dropped.

She’d realized they were likely sharing a bed again. That much was obvious when they neither had come to her room and the other one only had one bed. But she hadn't expected them to still be in it when she opened the door.

She’d expected that they'd probably stuck to their own sides and bickered over the covers all night and that they'd maybe even stuck a pillow divider between them. Instead, she found them both shirtless with the sheet down by their waists. Jamie was lying on his back which was weird, but probably had something to do with the nipple piercings and bandage on his chest that only raised more questions. Roy was more in the middle of the bed than on his own side. He was lying on his stomach with an arm draped over Jamie and wrapped up around him. He’d moved his pillow so that he could sleep on it on Jamie’s shoulder and Keeley had so many questions.

Roy groaned and shoved his face further into the pillow as light came in from the other room. Jamie didn’t look like he was in much better condition as he frowned and squinted his eyes shut.

Roy pulled his arm up like he was going to shield his eyes with his arm but before he could get that far, his arm brushed one of Jamie’s piercings and Jamie sprung up in bed and slapped his hand over it which couldn’t possibly be helping.

“What the fuck?” Jamie hissed out, then swung his arm out to hit Roy in the back.

Roy lifted his head and looked from Jamie to Keeley and then back to Jamie again, clearly confused about something.

“Did you two drunkenly sleep together?” Keeley asked.

It was fine if they had, it was just more than a little surprising. She still couldn’t tell if they had anything on their lower halves and the whole Roy practically lying on top of Jamie with his arm over him thing really had no other explanation.

“No,” Jamie said at the exact same time that Roy said, “Yes.”

Keeley stared at them open-mouthed as Jamie turned and gave Roy a very confused look.

“No way,” Jamie insisted. “I would not have forgotten that.”

But he lifted the sheet after he said it anyway like he was checking whether he was naked or not to try to confirm his answer.

“Slept,” Roy clarified as he sat up with a groan. “We didn’t have sex.”

“Slept was not what she was asking,” Jamie pointed out. “And you can’t just go around telling people you fucked me if you’re not going to follow through on it.”

“My bad,” Roy said. “Let’s have sex right now.”

“What?” Jamie asked, looking totally stunned by the response. “Wait, seriously?”

“No, of course fucking not,” Roy said. “If this bed moves at all right now, I’m going to throw up.”

Keeley genuinely couldn’t tell if he’d added that last part as an explanation for why he wasn’t going to have sex with Jamie or if it was an unrelated comment that had just become more of a pressing concern after he’d already started talking.

“Roy did say I could touch his dick,” Jamie said. “But then he took that offer back like two seconds later.”

Keeley assumed Jamie was making that up just to annoy Roy until Roy grunted out, “That was a joke.”

“What exactly did you two get up to last night?” Keeley asked. “And how did it end with Jamie getting nipple piercings and what I’m assuming is a new tattoo?”

“Jamie took me to two sex museums and then we got drunk,” Roy said.

“Do you like them?” Jamie asked as he grinned down at his nipples. “Roy talked me into it.”

“I think it’s very obvious I did fucking not,” Roy insisted grouchily.

“You literally did,” Jamie argued. “I was only going to get the tattoo that you brought up in the first place but you’re the one that kept bringing the nipple thing back up.”

“Yeah, I’m not buying it, babe,” Keeley told him.

“Thank you,” Roy said.

“They look hot though,” Keeley said and Jamie’s expression instantly shifted from annoyed to smug.

“That’s what Roy said too,” Jamie told her.

“That is not what I said,” Roy insisted as if he thought she might have believed Jamie.

“Let’s see the tattoo then,” Keeley said as she sat down by Jamie’s legs.

He unpeeled the tape and pulled the bandage away enough to show her the greyhound tattooed on his pec.

“Roy was gonna get a matching one but he chickened out,” Jamie said.

Keeley glanced over to Roy who was leaning forward, holding his head up with his forehead resting against his hand.

“I was never going to get one,” Roy clarified. “He just whined at me to get one and then bitched when I wouldn’t.”

Chapter Text

After they ordered their lunch, Jamie pulled his phone out to check his Instagram and see how much Roy had fucked up posting for him.

The picture wasn’t awful. He looked good enough to pull it off, even if Roy had refused to use any filter or edit or crop the picture at all before posting.

Still, it didn’t match up with the usual quality of his account or the photosets he’d posted every other day they’d been there. So Jamie added a comment on his own post that said @RoyKent is my personal photographer

Roy wouldn’t see it. He’d have to open his own social media for that. But this way he could make sure everyone knew where the shit quality had come from.

Jamie checked his notifications and liked the comments some of his teammates had already left, then locked his phone and looked up at Roy with a dramatic sigh.

“When can I train again?” Jamie complained.

Roy had grounded Jamie from training the day after getting his new tattoo and piercings which was stupid because Jamie would be completely fine as long as he kept the tattoo covered and didn’t wear a shirt while he worked out.

“I don’t know,” Roy said.

“That’s not fair,” Jamie complained. “You never said I couldn’t train after.”

“You’re the one that said you got your ears pierced instead last time because of how long nipples take to heal,” Roy pointed out.

Jamie didn’t see why he had to bring that up. He looked to Keeley for help, but she didn’t say anything.

“Yeah, 'cause I kind of have to wear a shirt during games and if I tried to stop the ball with my chest I’d be fucked,” Jamie pointed out as he turned back to Roy. “I can still run and do other shit.”

“Give it a few days,” Roy said.

“Or I could not and you could act like me coach,” Jamie complained.

“I am,” Roy said. “Part of being your coach is making sure you do better than I did. So moan all you want, but I’m not letting you be so fucking afraid of admitting you need to take a break or to slow down that you put your health second and end up fucking your game over for it in the long term.”

Well, when Roy put it like that it was kind of hard to argue.

"He has a point," Keeley said as if Jamie didn't already know and resent that.

“So what you’re saying is you think I’m better than you were?” Jamie asked with a grin.

“I’m saying you could be,” Roy said. “If you learn from my mistakes.”

Keeley wanted to talk to Roy alone about the whole situation she’d walked in on that morning, but they’d both been hungover and just gone back to sleep, then they’d gone to lunch together, and then Jamie had dragged them onto a canal tour.

They were both acting perfectly normal as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened the night before and that was almost weirder than how she’d found them.

Keeley was tempted to ask if that was how they’d slept the last time they’d shared a bed, but that felt like a question for just Jamie who wouldn’t bat an eye at the question or wonder why she was asking.

She was pretty sure that couldn’t possibly be how they’d slept the time before. But then again, she would have never guessed that they’d slept that way last night if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. Even if Jamie had told her, she would have assumed he was making it up to annoy Roy.

She knew Roy got physically clingy when he was drunk, but she’d thought that was only with her. Roy waking up on top of Jamie and looking confused about it seemed like it meant there was a chance that something similar had happened when Roy had also been drunk the last time they’d shared a bed without her. Maybe it had and they’d just agreed to never discuss it.

It wasn’t just the cuddling that had her wanting to talk to Roy alone though. She definitely did want to ask him how that had happened, but she couldn’t just outright ask without risking making him uncomfortable and being the reason he acted differently around Jamie because of it. If Roy was just really comfortable in his friendship and secure in his masculinity enough to be physically affectionate with him, Keeley didn’t want to ruin that and make him overthink things.

But now she genuinely couldn’t tell if Roy was just really comfortable with Jamie and not letting Jamie’s sexuality and joking flirting get in the way of that or if Roy might not be quite as straight as he thought or said he was. Between the cuddling with Jamie, the not complaining when Jamie had called Amsterdam a date the first time around, and the sarcastic comment he’d made about having sex with Jamie right there and then only to say he was too hungover instead of actually turning him down, Keeley wasn’t really sure what to think.

But either way, pointing anything out too much was bound to not help anything. She didn’t need to freak Roy out if he wasn’t straight and didn’t know it yet. She didn’t need to freak him out if he was straight and just playing along with Jamie’s sense of humour either.

Still, she needed to have some sort of conversation with him. Maybe it was better that she hadn’t caught a minute with him alone yet though. That bought her more time to figure out how to even bring the topic up.

“I’m running out of facts,” Jamie admitted.

“Finally,” Roy said.

Keeley was surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. Sure, he’d repeated old ones sometimes, but he’d still found new ones to bring up daily.

“Oh,” Jamie said. “I thought of one. I lost me virginity here.”

“On the river?” Keeley asked because it genuinely wouldn’t surprise her.

“No,” Roy answered for him.

Keeley turned to him confused and asked, “Why do you know that?”

“He told me about it last time,” Roy explained.

“Yeah, and he was fucking rude and claimed it was traumatic for her,” Jamie complained.

“I really didn’t,” Roy said. “That’s not what I meant at all.”

Keeley looked between them confused, but neither of them explained.

Instead, Jamie smirked and said, “Boat sex is pretty good too though.”

“That’s true,” Keeley admitted. When Roy shot her a confused look, she added, “What? He’s right.”

When Jamie checked Instagram again that afternoon, he had a lot more likes and comments. He liked the responses from the team and then saw Cora had replied to his comment about Roy.

I know that trick. He’s not doing you a favour. He’s just trying to keep himself from having to be in the picture

That sounded about right. Jamie had captured more than a few pictures with Roy in them on the trip so far, but Roy hadn’t been a willing participant in any of them and the only one where he hadn’t been glaring at the camera was the one Roy hadn’t noticed him take.

Jamie replied to Cora’s comment with yeah well wait until u see the pic i managed 2 get of him actually smiling

He hadn’t posted it in the photoset with the picture of him at the windmill. He’d kept it to himself, but now he DMed Cora the picture of Roy and Keeley smiling at each other.

“Jamie, where are we going?” Roy asked.

Jamie looked up and saw that he’d fallen behind while he’d been looking at his phone. Roy and Keeley were standing together hand in hand waiting for him to tell them which way to turn.

“This way,” Jamie said as he slid his phone back into his pocket.

Jamie had taken them to a street filled with shops.

Roy didn’t have much to do in most of them, but Keeley seemed to be enjoying herself and that was good enough for Roy. Jamie was having fun too, grabbing things for himself and suggesting other things to Keeley.

“Hey, Roy, you should try this,” Jamie said as he held up a bright pink shirt. He grinned like this was the first time he’d made this joke and not the tenth ridiculous thing he’d decided to show Roy as if there was any chance in hell that he would actually try it on.

“No,” Roy said. He’d already learned that longer answers just gave Jamie more to work with when he’d inevitably pester him instead of just listening.

“What about this?” Keeley asked as she held up a much more reasonable grey shirt.

With the amount of stuff they’d both grabbed to try, Roy was going to be waiting for them for a while anyway. Roy didn’t care about getting new clothes, but Keeley wanted him to try it, so he said, “Okay.”

“What?” Jamie asked, sounding horribly offended. “How come you’ll try things she gives you?”

It was because Keeley handed things he might actually wear while Jamie handed Roy the kinds of things that he’d wear himself but Roy would never be caught dead in.

“It’s because I like her more than you,” Roy said though because that was the far more entertaining answer.

Jamie was standing around bored, waiting for Roy to just choose something to bring back for Phoebe already, when Cora messaged him back. Jamie was relieved for something to do since the worst part of waiting around for Roy for what felt like an eternity was that Keeley was helping him instead of paying any attention to Jamie.

Cora had liked the picture Jamie had sent her, then sent I like the tattoo

roy was supposed 2 get one 2 but he wimped out 😩

Somehow I doubt that

Damn, Jamie had hoped she’d believe him and annoy Roy about it. Jamie still didn’t see why Roy had refused to get one when he clearly had liked what Jamie had picked out.

ok but he did talk me into getting another tattoo

and the nipple piercings

That’s a joke, right?

nah he totally did after he took that picture

i think it was like 90% cuz he wanted 2 laugh @ my pain and 10% that he knew itd look hot

It was much more likely 99% that he wanted to watch Jamie in pain and 1% that even Roy couldn’t deny he’d look hot with that, but Jamie was entitled to exaggerate a little.

if u dont believe me i can prove it

He couldn’t take a picture at that moment, but he could take one at some point later. Maybe, he’d take one when they got back to the hotel room, assuming his nipples weren’t bleeding or something from all the having to wear a shirt all day. That would be distinctly unsexy which would defeat the whole point he would be trying to make about how even Roy knew that Jamie looked hot with them.

Are you going to get your personal photographer to take that picture too?

yeah that would go so well

hey roy i need u 2 take a picture of my nips bc ur sister wants 2 c them

Keeley was kind of surprised that Roy hadn’t tapped out of shopping with them yet. She knew it didn’t exactly match up with his interests, but he followed her around every store and offered to carry things for her and didn’t take off to go somewhere that might be a little more interesting to him.

He wasn’t even looking at his phone to distract himself while she looked around. Jamie was on his phone more than Roy was and Jamie loved shopping.

“What do you think of this one?” Keeley asked as she held up a truly hideous dress. “Should I try it?”

The dress was made of a fabric that vaguely resembled steel wool but was an awful shade of browny green. Keeley already knew that she wasn’t going to try it on. She just wanted to see how Roy would react because so far he had been equally encouraging toward every single thing she’d shown him. It was nice and all, but she kind of wished Rebecca was there to tell her when something suited her and when something would look horrendous.

“Sure,” Roy said. “It’d look good on you.”

“No!” Jamie said from halfway down the aisle when he turned to look. “You’re not wearing that. Don’t even try it on.”

Keeley laughed at that and held it up in front of herself as she asked, “No? I think it’s cute.”

“You are literally the only person that could pull that off, but that still doesn’t mean you should ever wear it,” Jamie insisted as he pulled it out of her hands and put it back on the rack. “If anything, we should buy it and burn it so no one else ever has to look at it.”

“Right. That isn’t overdramatic,” Roy said sarcastically. “It isn’t that bad.”

“It has shoulder pads, Roy!” Jamie insisted as he pulled the dress back off of the rack. “Why don’t you just sign her up to play on Ted’s stupid fucking American football team if you’re gonna make her wear these.”

“I’m not making her wear anything,” Roy defended himself. He reached out and pulled at the dress to check if there were really shoulder pads as if he couldn’t tell just from looking at it.

His brow furrowed in confusion when he saw that Jamie was right and Keeley had to laugh.

“Why would anyone put shoulder pads in a fucking dress?” Roy asked.

“Exactly!” Jamie said.

Jamie was waiting for Keeley to finish trying on clothes when he got a text from Isaac in the group chat that had only players. There was one with the coaches too, but this was the one that they used whenever they wanted to cut the coaches out of the conversation. Like when they were bitching about them or making bets about them or blatantly ignoring curfew at away games.

This message wasn’t any of that though. It was a screenshot of his comment, Cora’s reply, and his response to her. Isaac had tagged Jamie but sent no actual message.

For a moment, Jamie thought Isaac wanted him to send the picture of Roy smiling as proof, but then Isaac sent a screenshot of Cora’s account.

It had a tiny little full-body picture of her as the profile picture with the name Cora O’Sullivan. Under her bio, it said, “Followed by Jamie Tartt, Roy Kent, and 1 other”. Instead of any of her posts, it said “This account is private. Follow this account to see their photos and videos.” 

Who’s this private account you all follow?

Right. Cora had a different last name and none of them had met her.

roys sister

Isaac responded again immediately. The hot one?

he only has 1

so yeah

“What do you think?” Keeley asked as she stepped out of the changing room in a dress.

“You look fucking gorgeous,” Roy said.

“You’re no help,” Keeley accused with a grin. “You say that to everything.”

“Because you look amazing in fucking everything,” Roy insisted.

“Jamie?” Keeley asked as she turned to him.

“The last one was better,” Jamie told her. “This one’s boring. You’re way too hot for it.”

Keeley turned and focused on the mirror for a moment, then said, “Yeah, you’re right.”

When she went back into the changing room, Jamie checked his phone and saw there was a new message from Richard and that Colin was typing.

You can hardly even see the profile picture it’s so small

Jamie had hardly read that message before Colin sent Jamie could send a better one

Jamie wasn’t sure why Colin cared if he saw a picture or not. He figured it was just curiosity until Isaac responded suspiciously quickly with That’s a great idea

Jamie considered for a moment. He definitely could send a screenshot of one of her posts. But Cora had a private account and Jamie didn’t need Roy murdering him for sending a picture to the whole team.

Besides, Jamie liked being special. He liked being the only one on the team that had met her or knew what she looked like. He liked how this was quite blatant proof to everyone that he knew things about Roy that they didn’t and he was allowed into parts of his life that they weren’t.

So Jamie grinned to himself as he sent a string of messages back.

cant

dont have a death wish

u could ask roy 2 tho

Isaac and Richard responded within seconds of each other.

Yeah right

Do you want us dead?

Jamie laughed at their messages as he locked his phone.

“What?” Roy asked.

“Nothing,” Jamie lied. “Mind your own fucking business.”

Roy found out what Jamie had been up to on his phone a few hours later when Jamie was leading to them some restaurant for dinner. Roy’s phone buzzed in his pocket and when he pulled it out, he found a message Isaac had tagged him in in the team group chat.

@Roy tell your sister to approve our follow requests

Roy glared at Jamie as he asked, “What the fuck did you do?”

Jamie pulled his phone out to see what Roy was talking about, then said, “Nothing.”

Keeley leaned against Jamie’s side so she could see what was going on.

Roy sent back a one-word response in the group chat.

No.

Colin responded why not?

If Isaac thought getting Colin to ask was going to work, he was sorely mistaken. Roy didn’t know what Jamie had done that had them all trying to follow Cora, but he wasn’t going to do anything at all to help them. The only reason he wasn’t texting Cora to ignore them all was because he knew that would make her approve their requests just to annoy him and because she didn’t like being told what to do.

Roy kept her separate from the team. He didn’t need the entire team to hear every humiliating story she had about him. He didn’t need any of them hitting on her. And he certainly didn’t need her getting more ammunition to use against him out of them.

“How did they even find her account?” Roy asked.

“You really don’t follow that many people,” Keeley pointed out.

That was true, but it still didn’t explain how they’d figured out who she was.

Roy glared at Jamie, waiting for him to crack and admit to whatever the fuck he’d done.

“How the fuck am I supposed to know?” Jamie asked instead. “This is the first I’ve heard about any of it.”

He was definitely lying, but Roy didn’t have the energy to argue with him about it so he just rolled his eyes.

Roy got a text from Cora during dinner.

Why do I have like thirty new follow requests from your team?

“Fucking weirdos,” Roy grunted under his breath.

He hadn't realized that all of them had sent requests at the same time. He wasn't sure why he was surprised.

Jamie, probably. But he won’t admit it

Speaking of Jamie, did you really talk him into piercing his nipples?

Unfuckingbelievable.

How do you even know about that?

We talk

When the fuck did they start talking to each other outside of running into each other while Roy was there?

“You message with my sister?” Roy asked.

“Yeah, why?” Keeley asked.

That hadn’t been what he was asking, but he was kind of surprised to find that out. That made him significantly less nervous than Jamie messaging her though. Keeley wasn’t likely to be in cahoots with Cora to make his life miserable the way Jamie probably was.

“Why shouldn’t I?” Jamie asked.

Roy considered, but he didn’t really have an answer for that, other than that it was annoying. But saying that out loud would be like inviting Jamie to message her twice as often.

Jamie had been annoying about calling her hot, but he’d never outright hit on her and him being around her wasn’t really any worse than Keeley outside of the fact that Keeley didn’t live to see Roy suffer.

“You didn’t seriously tell her I told you to pierce your nipples,” Roy said.

Keeley laughed, then immediately covered her mouth when Roy turned to her.

“Sorry,” Keeley said. “But it’s funny.”

Roy got another text, but this one wasn’t from Cora. It was Jan in the group chat.

@Jamie is she going to let us follow her or what?

Jamie grinned and started typing something on his phone that was almost certainly going to annoy Roy.

“Okay, but did you actually tell him to?” Keeley asked.

“No,” Roy said.

“He totally did,” Jamie said. “Was gonna leave with just the tattoo until he brought it back up and wouldn't shut up about it until I gave in.”

“All I said was if you were going to do it anyway, you may as well do it at the same time so I wouldn’t have to kill you when the healing time fucked with games,” Roy corrected.

Now that Roy was sober and thinking clearly, he was well aware that he had been an absolute idiot. Between the new tattoo and the piercings that had Jamie choosing his shirt carefully, training was out of the question for the foreseeable future. When he’d been drunk, Roy hadn’t really thought about how it would impact training, just that the healing time wouldn’t get in the way of games.

Jamie was far stupider though. He’d tried to convince Roy he could still go running as if he hadn’t spent the entire walk back the night before whining.

At least it was the off-season though. And at least if they had to take a break for Jamie’s benefit that Jamie was all huffy about, they only had to do it once and not separate times for the piercings and the tattoos. That was the whole reason he’d brought it back up anyway.

“I’m not hearing the difference,” Jamie insisted as a picture from him popped up in the group chat.

Keeley leaned against Roy’s arm so she could read it too.

The picture was a screenshot from Jamie’s DMs with Cora.

yeah that would go well

hey roy i need u 2 take a picture of my nips bc ur sister wants 2 c them

hey the team wants 2 no if ur gonna approve their requests or not

I’ll pass. I have a private account for a reason

ha

im the only one on the team allowed bc im ur favourite

Sure. Let’s go with that

You can be my favourite on the team, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like Keeley better

wow u really r related 2 roy

Roy honestly wasn’t even surprised by the bullshit at the top or that Jamie hadn’t bothered to crop it out.

Does Keeley know that you’re sliding into Roy’s sister’s dms? Thierry asked.

Jamie responded right away.

she slid into mine first

and yes

what makes u think keeleys not messaging her too???

A moment later, Dani sent even if Keeley’s okay with it Roy’s still going to kill him

Before Roy had a chance to type that Dani was right, Keeley said, “That’s a pretty sexist assumption.”

“What?” Roy asked.

“Acting like you’re in charge of who she is and isn’t allowed to talk to and like you’re going to freak out about Jamie talking to her,” Keeley said. “Even if Jamie did flirt with her, why would that be any of your business?”

Roy considered for a moment. He was tempted to say because Jamie was already dating Keeley, but that didn’t sound like a better answer. That sounded like he would be trying to tell her what she was and wasn’t allowed to be okay with Jamie doing as if she hadn't given him permission to date Leanne if he’d wanted to.

Roy didn’t like the idea of Jamie flirting with his sister or getting too close to her, but maybe he was the problem in this situation, especially when Jamie had never expressed any real interest in trying for anything with Cora.

Before Roy could figure out how to respond to Keeley, Sam sent a message in the group chat.

I’m sorry but are we seriously going to ignore the fact that Roy’s sister asked for pictures of Jamie’s nipples?

Yes. Roy sent back.

Colin responded a moment later with several messages in a row.

is that a thing girls ask for?

nipple pictures?

like I know shirtless pictures are a thing

but nipples?????

Richard responded with No way. I’ve never been asked for a picture of my nipples. If it was a thing I would know

“What do you even message her about?” Roy asked because it seemed like it might at least answer some questions without making him look like a total ass in front of Keeley.

Jamie stared down at his phone for a moment longer, then scrolled on something and handed it over.

“See for yourself,” Jamie said. “But give me your phone. I need it while you’re using mine.”

Roy handed his phone over, still open to the group chat since he figured Jamie was just going to be annoying in there and that with how he typed no one would think it was Roy anyway.

Instead, Jamie stood up and said, “I’ll be back. Gotta get a picture for them.”

Roy absolutely would not have let Jamie use his phone if he’d known he was going to take it anywhere else and do anything outside of the team group chat. But it would be far worse to try to get it back now so he let Jamie go. He figured Jamie would probably be distracted enough by the team and taking pictures of himself that he hopefully wouldn’t look through anything else. But if Roy told him not to or tried to get his phone back, Jamie would definitely go searching for anything he could use against him.

Keeley rested her chin on Roy’s shoulder as she looked at the messages with him.

The first few messages were from the day Roy hadn’t seen Cora’s texts and had been late to pick Phoebe up.

Are you with Roy?

Never mind

Then hours later, Cora had messaged Jamie again.

I hear my kid’s better at football than you

roys a really shit coach ig

phoebes lucky he quit her team b4 he could ruin her game too

I’ve heard about it about a hundred times already which is really saying something. I’m surprised she has room to talk about anything else outside of Roy and Keeley getting back together

Jamie hadn’t responded to that and the next conversation was started by Cora again. She’d messaged Jamie in the evening and he’d responded the next day.

Any clue why Roy told me to flip you off earlier?

ive never done anything wrong ever hes just a grouchy old fuck with no social skills

It was the refusing to give him a time, wasn’t it?

told him 2 say hi 2 u 4 me

might have already pissed him off already b4 that tho

Might have?

Again, Jamie was the one who had stopped responding. But he was also the one who had started the next round of messages on Father’s Day.

if roy cries again take a picture 4 me

He didn’t and I didn’t think to take a picture the first time

damn

Then the next time they’d talked started with Cora sending Jamie a link to a post with the picture Roy had taken with a fan at that stupid party store before Pride, then a link to Jamie’s Pride photoset.

I need to know if this is the same necklace and how you convinced him to wear it

he showed up and gave it 2 me

i think phoebe made him wear it

jesus christ

has roy ever taken a nice picture like a normal person???

Once or twice maybe

After that, they hadn’t messaged until after the last time Jamie had played football with Phoebe.

roy said im not allowed 2 lose 2 phoebe anymore 😔

he said u have a rule against it

That’s not exactly it

He used to let her win everything and make up new rules mid-game just to rig things for her. The gloating and cheating were kind of cute when she was really little, but it wasn’t going to be if she went to school with her own rules for everything and no ability to play with other kids without having a meltdown if she lost. Besides, eventually she was going to figure out Uncle Roy had been letting her win at every game they’d ever played and I wasn’t looking forward to explaining that

ok but contrary 2 popular belief i actually dont want 2 show off bad enough 2 enjoy beating a kid

me dad didnt let me win everything and he still gave me a complex abt it

i wasnt allowed 2 lose anything without getting yelled @ 4 it

couldnt even win the wrong way

im just trying not 2 b a dick like him

“Shit,” Keeley said.

That was an understatement. Roy hadn’t realized why Jamie had been so set on letting Phoebe win, but now that he was looking at the messages he realized he was a fucking idiot for not piecing it together sooner.

Roy really wanted to kick the shit out of Jamie’s father.

“Jamie said I’m allowed to beat the shit out of his dad,” Roy said. “I mean, it’s supposed to be if he hits me first, but if he shows up being a piece of shit, then I’m sure I can manage to get him to throw the first punch.”

He expected Keeley to smile at that but instead, she furrowed her brow and asked, “When did he say that?”

“Father’s Day,” Roy said.

“That’s because of the Beard thing,” she said.

“What Beard thing?” he asked.

“Apparently, Jamie's dad and his friends beat up Beard for throwing him out of the locker room when he was being a dick to Jamie,” Keeley said. “And Jamie only found out when suddenly he wanted him to apologize to Beard for him.”

“What the fuck?” Roy asked. He was surprised and a little offended that Beard and especially Jamie had never mentioned anything about it to him. “Who cares about waiting for him to do some new shitty thing? Maybe I should go break his fucking nose anyway and send a message not to.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Keeley said and Roy was surprised. “I mean, he’d totally deserve it and I hate him too. But Jamie doesn’t. Going and beating his dad up out of nowhere is just going to hurt Jamie and make him feel guilty. It’s not going to help anything.”

Roy was so confused.

“Jamie does hate him,” Roy insisted. “I mean, sure, it lost its effectiveness on the pitch, but that doesn’t mean suddenly he likes him. He's just done wasting time on him altogether.”

The fact that Jamie had gone to see him on Father's Day and before then contradicted that a little. But Father's Day went badly. Jamie texted Roy that he could break any of his father's bones he wanted to as long as he had a reason for it. Jamie was done wasting time on him again now. Wasn't he?

“Maybe, he was. But then he found out about him getting sober and he visited him and thought it was better,” she said. “He wants it to be better. And I know. I’m worried his dad’s going to fuck it up and he’s going to just end up hurt all over again too. But you don’t want to be the reason it doesn’t. That’ll just make things worse for everyone.”

She had a point, but that didn’t make Roy hate it or hate Jamie’s father any less.

Roy glanced up and saw Jamie headed back for the table so he didn’t say anything else about it. He just looked back down to read the rest of the texts.

I’m not saying you have to go all professional footballer on her. The whole making it harder on yourself than her is something. You don’t have to win every time though. And just don’t do that with everything. You could win a race or a board game every once in a while and the world won’t fall apart. The whole point is showing her that

yeah okay

genuinely lost that race tho

couldnt have gone any faster without roy falling on top of me

Why were you carrying him in the first place?

training

If you say so

The next set of messages was from only a few days ago. Cora had sent Jamie a photoset he’d posted.

Since when can Roy ride a bike?

i taught him

Why do I not believe you?

im serious!

did it months ago

Underneath that, Jamie had sent a link to some post from some fan account of him that of course he fucking followed. Apparently, someone had taken a picture of Jamie dragging Roy around on his bike.

see???

Interesting teaching strategy

no he already knew how then he was just being a dick

“Jamie taught you to ride a bike?” Keeley asked.

Roy could feel her eyes on him instead of the phone now.

“Unfortunately,” Roy said.

But it wasn’t really that unfortunate. The unfortunate part was that he had waited so long that he hadn’t already known how not that Jamie had taught him.

“I can’t believe I didn’t know you didn’t know how to ride a bike,” Keeley said.

“It’s not like I was proud of it and telling people,” Roy pointed out. “Jamie only found out because he kept trying to make me bike to a fucking windmill and he was going to figure it out whether I told him or not.”

Honestly, Roy was kind of surprised this was the first that Keeley was finding out about it too though. Jamie had had thousands of opportunities to bring it up around Keeley just to make Roy’s life miserable and for some reason, he never had.

The rest of the messages were from that day. Jamie had sent a picture of Roy and Keeley that Roy hadn’t even realized he’d taken. He wasn’t sure when Jamie had taken it, but they were smiling at each other.

“You’ve got to send me that picture too,” Keeley said as Jamie sat back down at the table.

Roy read through the rest of the messages quickly.

I like the tattoo

roy was supposed 2 get one 2 but he wimped out 😩

Because of course, Jamie was still lying about that to anyone who would listen.

Somehow I doubt that

ok but he did talk me into getting another tattoo

and the nipple piercings

That’s a joke, right?

nah he totally did after that picture

i think it was like 90% cuz he wanted 2 laugh @ my pain and 10% that he knew itd look hot

if u dont believe me i can prove it

Are you going to get your personal photographer to take that picture too?

yeah that would go so well

hey roy i need u 2 take a picture of my nips bc ur sister wants 2 c them

After that, it was just the messages from the screenshot. Roy traded his phone back and then glared down at the open group chat.

Jamie must have had it muted unless he was mentioned because Roy hadn’t seen a single notification while he was holding Jamie’s phone, but now he saw he’d missed a bunch of messages with various players debating how weird Cora requesting a nipple picture was and talking about the weirdest pictures women had requested from them.

That conversation had been quickly cut off by a picture of Jamie in the public washroom mirror, holding his shirt up to show off his new piercings.

Sam had immediately sent Ohhhh

Then Colin sent this makes so much more sense

Dani sent they look good on you

HOLD ON A SECOND Isaac sent. Then a moment later, he added Why the hell is that picture from Roy?

Why does Roy have a shirtless Jamie selfie just ready to send?

he has me phone so i took his

At least Jamie had had the decency to actually explain instead of sending back the most obnoxious lie he could think up on short notice.

“That’s a good picture, send it to me too, babe,” Keeley said with a grin.

Roy went to his camera roll to send it to her and found at least a couple dozen different versions of the same picture Jamie had taken on his phone.

“Why are there so fucking many?” Roy asked.

“Had to make sure I picked the best one,” Jamie said with a shrug.

“Here, send what you want,” Roy said as he handed the phone to Keeley so she could find the right picture herself or choose whichever ones she wanted instead.

When they made it back to the hotel, Jamie went for the room that wasn’t Keeley’s. He’d been the one to spend the night there last and his chest hurt anyway. He just wanted to lie down.

But then Roy followed him into the room instead of going with Keeley.

“If you’re here to spend the night, me chest hurts too much to do anything other than actually sleep,” Jamie said as he pulled his shirt off. “But I’ll definitely take a rain check.”

Roy didn’t laugh or roll his eyes or make some snarky comment. He just grabbed the ice bucket and then went through the doors that joined the hotel rooms like a complete dick.

“What the fuck?” Jamie asked. “I was going to use that.”

He followed Roy into the other room, but Roy was already grabbing the other ice bucket and leaving.

“Fucking sadist,” Jamie complained. He turned to Keeley as he insisted, “He laughed at my pain while I was getting these done. Can you believe that?”

“Yes,” she said immediately. “Actually, that makes your whole he talked you into it story make so much more sense.”

“You finally believe me?” Jamie asked.

“I’m considering the possibility that you might just be exaggerating instead of making it up altogether,” Keeley said.

Roy went back to Jamie’s room, but when he saw that Jamie was in Keeley’s he joined them there.

“How much fucking ice do you think I need?” Jamie asked as Roy handed him one of the ice buckets.

“It’s not all for you,” Roy said.

He set the other bucket down and sat down to pull his shoes off, then stood back up to take his pants off.

Keeley looked at Jamie to try to judge his reaction. Jamie was still just holding the bucket and staring at Roy.

When Keeley looked back at Roy, he was on the bed with his legs stretched out in front of him and the bag of ice against his knee.

Roy looked at Jamie as he said, “You make me walk so much I don’t even care if either of you see me icing it anymore.”

Keeley didn’t see why he had cared in the first place. Okay, maybe she saw why he didn’t want Jamie cracking jokes. But she was surprised he’d been hiding his knee bothering him from her and apparently only looking after it if he was in the other room alone.

She got on the bed beside him and told him, “You don’t have to hide when it’s bothering you, you know.”

Keeley kissed him and she’d barely pulled back before Roy was glaring past her at Jamie.

“Don’t fucking say it,” Roy warned.

“I wasn’t gonna!” Jamie defended himself but he definitely looked two seconds away from saying something stupid just to annoy Roy.

“Say what?” Keeley asked.

Jamie’s grin only grew as he looked at Roy. Keeley turned back to him, but Roy was shaking his head in disbelief.

“What am I missing here?” Keeley asked.

“Do not,” Roy warned Jamie again.

“Roy wants me to watch you have sex,” Jamie blurted out.

Keeley didn’t know what to think of that. She was tempted to think Jamie was just blatantly lying except for the fact that Roy had somehow known that was what he was going to say which implied this was not the first time they had had a discussion about this.

She stared at Roy open-mouthed, then couldn’t hide her intrigue as she asked, “Wait, seriously?”

Roy looked at her confused, but it took a solid ten seconds before he said, “Obviously not. Jamie’s the one that wants me to watch you two. And I thought he was joking, but the more he brings it up, the less sure of that I am.”

“You brought the idea up,” Jamie insisted.

Keeley had never been more curious about what they talked about when she wasn’t around.

“No, I did not,” Roy argued. “I said you’re an attention whore, not that I want to watch you. I already see you naked far more than anyone should have to.”

“We’ve been over this,” Jamie argued. “You don’t get to bitch about me being naked now when you didn’t when you thought I was straight.”

“I didn’t watch you have sex while I thought you were straight though,” Roy argued.

Keeley whipped her head around to smirk at Roy, but she didn’t say anything. She was well aware that Roy had watched Jamie have sex on Lust Conquers All, but she couldn’t bring that up if Jamie didn’t know and she was pretty sure that if he did, he would have been using it against Roy in this conversation already.

Roy quite blatantly noticed the look she was giving him, then immediately looked at Jamie instead.

“Don’t act like you wouldn’t find it hot,” Jamie argued.

“What?” Roy asked with an edge to his voice instead of arguing or threatening Jamie or using some snarky comeback.

“Who cares if you’re straight?” Jamie asked. “You know Keeley’s hot. You look at me naked all the time already anyway and you survive that.”

Roy pulled the pillow from behind his head and threw it at Jamie.

Jamie jumped back to dodge it and nearly spilled the ice bucket he was holding in the process.

“What the fuck?” Jamie complained. “That could have hit me in the nipple.”

“I’ll hit you in the nipple if you don’t shut up,” Roy warned.

“Which one? Do you have a favourite?” Jamie asked. He looked down at his own chest, then back up at Roy. He pursed his lips and tapped them with one figure as he pretended to be deep in thought. “It’s the left one, ain’t it?”

Roy sat up suddenly with a warning growl and Jamie took a step back.

“Okay, okay,” Jamie said. “Calm the fuck down, you miserable, old dickhead. I’m stopping.”

Roy stayed as he was for a few seconds longer, then laid back down.

Jamie got on the bed on Keeley’s other side and pulled the bag of ice from the bucket to put on his chest, then handed the remote to Keeley. Apparently, he’d already baited Roy’s anger enough for one night.

Roy woke up still in Keeley’s bed with her and Jamie. He grabbed his phone to check the time and saw that Jamie had changed his lock screen to one of the shirtless pictures he’d taken earlier.

“Fucking prick,” Roy said under his breath.

He went to his camera roll to find a picture of Keeley to replace it with and was immediately confronted with the dozens of pictures Jamie had taken. Roy stared at the grid of pictures for a moment then started selecting them all to delete.

The amount was worse than he’d thought. By the time he’d selected them all, his phone said “33 Photos Selected”.

Roy turned to glare over at Jamie, but he was still happily asleep next to Keeley.

Roy tapped on the little trash can icon and a message popped up with a button to confirm that he wanted to delete them.

He wasn’t sure why he hesitated. Keeley had already gotten whichever of them she’d wanted off of his phone and Jamie hadn’t asked for any of them. Even if he did, he could get them from her.

It wasn’t like Roy had any fucking use for shirtless pictures of Jamie. And even if he did, they were all over the fucking internet. Not with the new tattoo and the piercings, but still.

Roy pressed cancel, then went and tapped on the first picture Jamie had taken. He could at least look through them before he deleted them all from existence.

The first several were very similar. Jamie had his shirt held up to his collarbones and his tongue was hanging out of his mouth. The only difference between them so far seemed to be the angle. Even then, some were identical and seemed to have been taken a fucking millisecond apart for no reason.

Then there was one with some random guy in the background looking at him and turned away, shielding his face from the camera. And yet there were still at least half of the pictures left because Jamie was fucking ridiculous and of course, he had zero shame about having a whole topless photoshoot in a public bathroom.

He was clearly laughing in the next couple, then suddenly there was one where he was flipping the camera off with the hand holding his shirt up while giving the camera a shit-eating grin.

The next four were quite clearly him imitating Roy. He was still holding his shirt up and still flipping off the camera, but now he was scowling and glaring at the camera. Each time Roy swiped to the next picture, Jamie's glare intensified. Roy laughed under his breath at that, then glanced over but they were both still asleep.

This time, he kept his eye on Jamie a little longer to make sure he wasn’t being obnoxious and pretending again, but his breathing was slow and perfectly steady.

So Roy turned back to his phone and swiped through the rest of the pictures. They were all more of his tongue out to various degrees and from different angles. In at least three of them, he was winking.

When he reached the end of the pictures, Roy went back and selected them all and then hesitated again.

He debated with himself for a moment, then unselected the one with him flipping off the camera where he was smiling and his tongue was actually in his fucking mouth for once.

He stared down at his phone for a few more seconds, then deleted the other 32.

Roy went back to the picture he’d saved and stared down at it for a minute. He should just delete it too. He’d never hear the end of it from Jamie if he found out he’d kept it.

But then again, Jamie couldn’t get into Roy’s phone if Roy didn’t let him in it. He didn’t have the passcode and there was no way in hell Roy was going to give him free rein to look through his phone, regardless of whether that picture stayed or not.

He should still probably just delete it. It wasn’t like he needed it or was ever going to look back at it. But he went back out of the picture without erasing it anyway.

It was because it was quite possibly the only picture Jamie had ever taken of himself smiling without his tongue hanging out of his mouth like a dehydrated dog. That was all. It would be a shame to delete it from existence when it might very well never happen again.

Keeping it didn’t have anything to do with the nipple piercings. If anything, they had made Roy more tempted to delete them.

Jamie hadn’t worn a shirt a single moment he wasn’t in public since getting them and he probably wasn’t going to start any time soon. And that was fine. Roy saw the whole team shirtless regularly anyway.

But those fucking piercings were distracting. The metal would catch the light and then there Roy would be staring at Jamie’s nipples like a complete fucking weirdo all over again and he’d have to tear his eyes away fast before Jamie could notice and make some obnoxious reach of a comment about it.

Roy looked through the pictures he’d favourited until he settled on one of Keeley and Phoebe to set as his lock screen.

When Jamie woke up the next morning, he went to roll over onto his stomach while still half asleep and then froze when he bumped into someone before he even got anywhere near lying the way he wanted to. When he opened his eyes, he saw Keeley shift a little and then blink her eyes open too. He must have woken her up rolling into her.

Someone had turned the lights and TV off during the night. Jamie assumed it must have been Roy since he had no idea how Keeley could have possibly gotten in and out of the middle of the bed without waking him up.

Jamie liked this whole all of them sharing a bed thing. Too bad it would almost certainly never happen again outside of this trip. They weren’t all going to nod off watching something together in any of their beds once they were back at their houses.

Jamie leaned up on his elbow, then reached past Keeley to hit Roy in the chest, careful not to get her with his arm in the process.

“What?” Roy grumbled.

“Get up, you’re supposed to train me,” Jamie tried.

“No,” Roy said.

“What do you mean no?” Jamie asked incredulously. “You can’t just say no.”

“He just did,” Keeley pointed out.

“At least have a reason for it if you’re going to bitch out,” Jamie complained.

“You know the reason,” Roy insisted.

“That was yesterday,” Jamie said. “I’m totally fine now and ready to go.”

“You can train today if I can hit you in the nipple without you flinching,” Roy said.

“That’s not a fair test,” Jamie pointed out. “Who says I wouldn’t flinch from getting hit in the nipple even before the piercings? That don’t prove anything.”

“Maybe not, but it’ll be fun for me,” Roy said.

Jamie reached past Keeley to hit him again. He couldn’t hit hard while still keeping her out of it, but maybe that was for the best when Roy was almost certainly going to hit him back harder anyway.

“Hit me in the chest one more time and see what fucking happens,” Roy warned.

Jamie was nothing if not curious so he moved to do it again, but Keeley put her arms up in the way to block them both from reaching each other.

“Nobody’s hitting anybody anymore,” she insisted. She turned on Jamie as she added, “And you’re not training with a fresh tattoo and piercings so quit complaining about it.”

“I like it when you’re bossy,” Jamie told her. “You should boss me around way more often. I think I’m into it.”

He was definitely into it. He already had vivid fantasies about Roy bossing him around in far sexier ways than usual. He already liked it when Keeley got fed up with him and told him what to do. The fact that being bossed around did it for him was absolutely not news to him and there was no I think about it, but he was trying to soft launch being bossed around in sexy situations without Keeley inevitably calling him on his thing for Roy the moment he brought it up. That was still the easier to bring up of a couple of things he wanted to try with Keeley though.

Roy scoffed at what Jamie had said which was fucking rude, especially from a man who had been so smug about it when Keeley had said that thing about Roy being good at taking directions and had completely rewired Jamie’s brain with one sentence and given him all new fantasies about watching Keeley boss Roy around.

“You want me to boss you around? Okay,” Keeley said. “Then go away.”

Roy laughed so loudly and suddenly that he choked and Jamie was genuinely concerned for his health.

“What?” Jamie asked.

He was pretty sure she was joking, but he was still confused.

Keeley turned and kissed him which honestly only confused Jamie more. Was he asleep and having some sort of sexy dream where they were going to boss him around and let him watch them together?

Oh shit. Did he really fall asleep in a bed with both of them?

Jamie willed himself to wake up. He wanted to see where the dream would go, but not if it meant moaning or saying a name he shouldn’t in his sleep or waking up in a bed with Roy with a boner that would keep Roy from ever sharing a bed with him again.

But then Keeley said, “I want to talk to Roy alone. So go away. Go shower.”

And that made more sense. That sounded less like a sexy dream and more like he’d forgotten they needed time without him sometimes again.

Unless…

“Wait, talk or-" Jamie started to ask, but Keeley didn’t even let him finish.

“Talk,” she insisted.

Jamie looked between them, then agreed, “Yeah, okay.”

He may as well actually shower first thing now that Roy wasn’t going to let him go running and get sweaty and gross.

Jamie wasn’t sure which room she’d meant for him to shower in, but he went for the washroom in the hotel room they were already in. No one had told him not to and he figured that way they’d know he was coming back soon when they heard him turn the water off.

Keeley had made a good call sending Jamie to go shower if she wanted to have a private conversation. He took so long to shower that they were bound to have enough time for whatever she wanted to talk about. Roy was tempted to point that out, but he kept it to himself because he wasn’t sure how serious of a conversation she was planning to have or if she’d just wanted a moment with him away from Jamie.

Keeley looked over her shoulder until they heard the water turn on, then she laid back down on her side facing Roy.

He rolled to look at her and just waited to see what she had to say.

“If you want to have sex with Jamie, I’m okay with it,” Keeley said quietly.

It was so ridiculous and unexpected that it took Roy a solid ten seconds to even be sure that he’d heard her properly and that his brain hadn’t completely glitched.

“What?” he asked finally after an excruciatingly long silence that she just stared back at him during.

“You don’t have to, obviously,” she said as if Roy wasn’t already damn well aware of that fact. “Just… If you ever decide you want to… It’s alright with me, yeah?”

Roy had no idea what to say to that. He had no idea where this conversation could possibly be coming from.

He didn’t say anything at all for a couple of minutes as he tried to wrack his brain for what he could possibly say to that or what possibly could have prompted her to think he might want to. Keeley just laid there watching him and the room was completely silent other than the muffled sounds of the shower and Jamie singing.

“Is this because of the joke I made yesterday morning?” Roy asked. “I wasn’t actually offering to have sex with him just because he whined at me.”

“Okay,” Keeley said, but she didn’t clarify if that was why. “That’s fine.”

“And I never said I wanted to watch you two or have him watch us or any of that,” Roy said. “That was all Jamie. He made some stupid fucking joke about how much time he thinks I want to spend with him and now he won’t shut up about it.”

He didn’t really want to watch them together. That would be fucking weird and awkward and he would never be able to look Jamie in the eyes again afterward. There was a big difference between imagining them together for some fucked up reason and actually wanting to be there and live with the awkwardness and consequences of that.

“Okay,” Keeley said.

She said it so nicely and yet suddenly Roy understood why his one-word answers unnerved other people.

They lay there in a very confusing silence for a while longer before Roy realized why else she might have thought it.

“Is this because of how we were sleeping yesterday?” Roy asked.

“It’s not not about that,” Keeley admitted.

“I was tired and he wouldn’t stop rolling around and sighing and shaking the bed every three seconds,” Roy told her. “I wanted to sleep so eventually I gave in and made it so he couldn’t move.”

That sounded worse and like a much flimsier reason now that he tried to explain it, but he’d been drunk and logical solutions hadn’t exactly been his strong suit at the time. Otherwise, he probably would have tried to get another room or something when Jamie had made falling asleep fucking impossible.

Keeley was staring at him and he felt like she was still wondering about something that wasn’t the case, so he added, “I was drunk. I wasn’t exactly thinking things through.”

“Okay,” Keeley said again. After a moment, she added, “I’m not saying that you want to.”

“I don’t,” Roy told her.

Keeley moved closer and kissed him. When she went to pull back, Roy kissed her again and rolled on top of her.

“The only one I want is you,” he told her.

Suddenly, Roy really wished Jamie had used the shower in the other room so that they could lock him out. As it was, Roy was tempted to take her to the other room and lock Jamie out or go shower together in the other washroom. But that was bound to be awkward when Jamie got out of the shower and they’d disappeared together. The last thing they needed was Jamie to use his key card and walk in on them anyway and Roy genuinely wasn’t sure Jamie wouldn’t be dumb enough to just barge into the other room looking for them, regardless of whether they locked the door that joined the rooms or not.

Keeley laughed as she said, “Oh, are we letting Jamie walk back in on us putting on the show he wants now?”

Roy would never hear the end of it for as long as he lived if he let Jamie walk in on them in bed in any sense, so he reluctantly pulled away from her.

“No, you’re right,” Roy said. “We should get ready.”

Roy was showering in the other room when Jamie finally came out of the bathroom with a towel draped low around his hips.

“What was that about?” Jamie asked as if Keeley had sent him out of the room for the conversation just to tell him all about it after.

“Don’t worry about it,” Keeley said. Then she pretended the idea had just come to her randomly as she asked, “Hey, you know the way you and Roy slept the other night?”

“You mean with him half naked on top of me?” Jamie asked. “Yeah, I remember. That’s kind of fucking hard to forget.”

“Did you sleep like that that time you shared a bed at my place?” Keeley asked, hoping the question sounded casual and not like she’d been wondering about it for twenty-four hours.

“I wish,” Jamie said. “Actually, maybe I don’t. Then I was far too worried that Roy was going to cut my dick off if he found out I was bi and he was my type. If he’d rolled on top of me or taken his clothes off, I probably would have had a fucking panic attack or something. Still might’ve been worth it just to check it off of my horny teenage bingo card though.”

Lying all over each other wasn’t just a thing they did then. And Roy insisted all the rest of it was just jokes Jamie had started. Maybe, she’d been reading into things too far. Maybe, they really were just good friends and she’d been seeing possible things on Roy’s end because she’d been looking for them. Maybe, this was all because things would be that much easier for all of them if they were both into each other. Things would be so much easier if it wasn’t her dating both while Jamie was attracted to Roy and while it was impossible to tell what of Jamie's behaviour around Roy was joking around and what was serious anymore.

“Please tell me you didn’t actually have a horny bingo card,” Keeley said.

“Nah,” Jamie said. “Didn’t need one. Would’ve checked most of it off way too fast to be a challenge anyway.”

“Most of it?” Keeley asked.

“If it was going to happen at all, most of it would’ve been checked off pretty fucking fast,” he said. “And the rest-“

“Involved Roy?” Keeley guessed.

Jamie shrugged. “Some of them. Some of them were about you, but we’ve already done most of those. And then some of them were just with guys in general.”

For a moment, she wondered what he’d meant by they’d done most of the things he’d thought of with her. But that question quickly disappeared from her mind when he said that last part.

“You haven’t done anything with a guy?” Keeley asked.

That surprised her with his reputation and how many girls he’d been with.

“Was too afraid of me dad finding out and killing me growing up,” Jamie said far too casually. “Then I wanted to later. Almost did after we broke up and then when I was doing anything I could to spite him, but I was way too recognizable. Didn’t want to throw my whole career away over a fuck, even if it would’ve been funny when he found out. Why do something I couldn’t take back when there were plenty of girls I could go for instead, right?”

Keeley went over to hug him, then remembered the piercings and tattoos and hugged him much looser than she had intended to keep from touching his chest.

He immediately hugged her back and rested his chin on her head, then asked, “What’s this for?”

“I just hate that you had to pretend that long,” Keeley told him.

“Wasn’t that bad,” Jamie said. “I like this now better though.”

The rest of the vacation went by fast. Roy didn’t let Jamie train anymore, but at least Jamie had stopped trying to convince Roy to change his mind when Roy had given in and said they could start up again when they got back.

Roy’s knee was glad for the break anyway. It got worked enough with all the walking and biking without adding on daily runs. Without the training, that opened up a lot more time. They took advantage of it to actually get to sleep in for a change. It still made for more time together so Keeley told them when she needed a break and Jamie would haul Roy off somewhere or they’d go back to the hotel while she went somewhere without them there to talk at her the whole time.

They still took turns sleeping in the other room except for the last night when they were all so exhausted they ended up all falling asleep together halfway through a movie again.

By the time they needed to go back, Jamie had kept them so busy that they’d seen pretty much everything and they were all worn out enough that they were glad to be headed back.

It might not have been six weeks, but Roy wouldn’t have survived six weeks of Jamie running them around anyway. Besides, six weeks would have interfered with pre-season training anyway and six weeks had been a long time to be away from Phoebe last time. He already missed her after two weeks. It was far better that he hadn’t wasted the entire overlap in their summer breaks away from her again.

Chapter Text

Jamie was more than ready for lunch after he and Roy finished up with their morning training, but Roy had insisted that he had to pick Phoebe up. Jamie had wanted to complain but instead, he’d been fucking mature and hadn't said a word about it since he knew it had been two weeks since Roy and Phoebe had seen each other and he’d gotten to spend every one of those days with Roy.

He’d expected Phoebe to barely notice him past Roy and yet when they got out of the car at Cora’s house and Phoebe came flying out the door, she ran directly into Jamie and wrapped her arms around his waist.

She’d never hugged him before and she’d certainly never run past Roy to greet him before. Jamie turned a startled look on Roy and Roy glared back at him like he thought Jamie was being a prick.

Right. He should probably hug her back. He’d been so surprised he hadn’t even really thought of that.

“You smell bad,” Phoebe said as Jamie wrapped an arm around her.

Roy laughed at that as if it wasn’t entirely his fault that Jamie was stinky and sweaty.

Jamie wasn’t sure what to say to that so after a moment he said, “Roy stinks too.”

Probably not as badly. But that was because outside of running together he mostly just stood or sat around and watched Jamie do all the hard work.

“Why aren’t you hugging him anyway?” Jamie asked when Phoebe finally pulled away from him. “You didn’t miss him?”

“He came over last night,” Phoebe said.

Of course, he had. Jamie should have guessed, especially when Phoebe had ignored Roy for him the day after they came back.

Phoebe went over and hugged Roy after anyway though.

“Jamie smells worse,” she said cheerily and Roy grinned like he thought that was fucking hilarious.

“Phoebs, don’t tell people they smell bad,” Cora said as she came out of the house. “It’s rude.”

“Unless it’s Jamie,” Roy said. “He doesn’t count as people.”

Jamie shot Roy an offended look as he asked, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Cora stopped next to Roy and said, “At least he still gets paid to smell bad. What’s your excuse?”

Jamie laughed loudly as Roy glared at her.

Keeley had been nervous to go back to work. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Barbara. She just hadn’t fully believed that things would really be totally alright until she saw it with her own eyes.

When Barbara finished catching her up on everything that had happened while she was gone, Keeley pulled her into a big hug.

Barbara didn’t hug her back but she didn’t pull away either.

“Why is this happening?” Barbara asked.

“Because you’re amazing,” Keeley insisted. “You’re a lifesaver. Really.”

“I was just doing my job,” Barbara said, sounding confused.

But when Keeley pulled back, she saw that Barbara was smiling a little.

“Doing a damn good job,” Keeley corrected.

Barbara’s smile grew a little more at that.

“So how did your trip go?” Barbara asked. She perked up as she added, “Did your boyfriends get sick of each other and get into any fights? Was there blood?”

“No fights,” Keeley said. “It was good. And the only blood was from Jamie getting a tattoo and piercings.”

“Oh,” Barbara said. She didn't sound totally convincing as she added, “That’s good.”

Keeley laughed as she said, “You know if you want to watch them get in a fight so bad, there are plenty of videos of one online. They’re pretty easy to find.”

“Really?” Barbara asked.

“Oh yeah,” Keeley told her. “They used to hate each other. Honestly, I’m surprised they only got into a fight in the middle of a game once.”

Roy’s phone buzzed on the table while they were waiting for their food.

Jamie blatantly leaned over the table to see who was texting him before Roy could even grab his phone.

Roy couldn’t imagine why Trent was texting him. They didn’t tend to text in a private conversation very often since the season had ended. It was mostly the Diamond Dogs group chat or he’d see him at team things he still got invited along to, even though he was finished his book and wouldn’t be there next season.

I need you to ask Ted if he went on a date or not

Roy stared down at the text confused.

“What does Trent Crimm want?” Jamie asked.

He tried to lean across the table to read the message upside down but Roy tilted his phone so that he couldn’t see it.

“Mind your own business,” Roy said as he messaged him back.

Why can’t you ask?

“It’s rude to be on your phone at the table,” Phoebe said and Jamie laughed as if his phone wasn’t practically glued to his hand most of the time.

“Yeah, Roy,” Jamie chimed in with a smirk. “Why are you being so rude?”

“I’ll get off it when the food comes,” Roy told Phoebe, completely ignoring Jamie and his stupid comment.

Jamie didn’t give a fuck that he was on his phone. He just liked being obnoxious for fun.

You’re not seriously going to make me say it

Roy stared down at Trent’s message trying to figure out what the fuck he was talking about, but he came up with nothing so he sent back Say what?

Trent typed for an unnervingly long time before he finally sent back just one sentence.

I already quit my job over what I had to publish about him and then wrote a book about him, I can’t also be the only one who cares enough about the answer to ask if he went on a date or not

For a second, it still didn’t make sense. And then it really fucking did and Roy’s jaw dropped.

“What?” Jamie asked.

He tried to grab Roy’s phone out of his hands, but Roy held it to his chest to keep it away from him.

“What’s going on?” Phoebe asked.

“Nothing,” Roy lied. “Both of you mind your own business.”

“Maybe we would if you’d stop ignoring us and then blatantly reacting to whatever juicy fucking information he’s texting you,” Jamie complained. “What is it? Something about next season he’s technically not supposed to tell you but did anyway because we’re his favourites?”

“No,” Roy said. “It has nothing to do with football.”

He pulled his phone away from his chest and shot Jamie a warning glare, then typed back Holy shit. You have a thing for Ted.

Trent started typing, but Roy didn’t wait to see what he said. He just switched to the Diamond Dogs group chat and sent @Ted did you go on that date?

“Maybe I’ll text Trent and ask him what you two are on about if you’re not gonna tell me,” Jamie threatened.

“Don’t,” Roy said as he got another private text from Trent.

I’m well aware of how stupid it is to care about the answer when it couldn’t possibly change anything for me one way or the other

Roy was trying to figure out what to say to that when Ted sent something in the Diamond Dogs group chat.

Nope. Nate was right. Why go on a date if I’m not really interested just because I feel like I should? That’s not fair to anyone

Roy didn’t say anything to that. Instead, he smiled to himself as he switched back to his private conversation with Trent and sent Ooooooooh

It was about time he got to annoy one of the other Diamond Dogs the same way they constantly bothered him. Maybe, Trent would think twice before he joined in next time.

Trent sent back a moment later I texted you because I thought you of all choices wouldn’t be a child about this

Roy laughed to himself as he sent back You thought wrong.

“The food’s here,” Phoebe pointed out as if she thought Roy couldn’t quite blatantly see that with his own eyes.

“Yeah, so put your phone away and give us attention,” Jamie huffed as he grabbed one of the chips off of Phoebe’s plate and threw it at Roy’s face.

The next day at lunch, Jamie decided to give Roy a taste of his own medicine and ignored him while he scrolled through Instagram on his phone.

“Would you put your phone away?” Roy asked.

“Can’t,” Jamie lied. “Doing something important.”

Actually, he was looking at a picture of him and Roy running together that morning. It hadn’t taken long at all for someone to catch a picture of him training shirtless and post it online. The one he was looking at was on one of the Jamie Tartt fan accounts he followed, but he was sure it was probably all over the internet if it had already been reposted there.

Usually, Jamie preferred to train in long sleeves. But until his piercings healed more, running with his shirt off was the only way to make sure he didn’t chafe the hell out of his nipples. At least it meant he looked extra hot when people took pictures of them training now though.

“Define important,” Roy said.

Jamie ignored him as he liked the post and then read the caption.

somebody needs to tell me who convinced this man to pierce his nipples so that I can personally thank them

Jamie laughed as he responded to the comment with thank @RoyKent then

Roy would almost certainly never find out about it, but even if he did, it would be his own damn fault for talking Jamie into getting them.

Roy grabbed Jamie’s phone out of his hand and scowled down at it. Jamie assumed he’d seen what he’d responded and was mad about it until Roy looked up at him confused and asked, “Why the fuck are you looking up shirtless pictures of yourself?”

“Because I’m hot,” Jamie said as if it was obvious. “Why aren’t you looking up shirtless pictures of me?”

Jamie hadn’t actually been looking up pictures of himself. He just followed accounts that posted pictures of him and was lucky enough to have one pop up, but he didn’t think that Roy would care about that distinction.

“Because I’m not obsessed with you,” Roy said which was quite the fucking lie.

“Uh, you’ve literally been obsessed with me for years,” Jamie pointed out. “I’ve been on your mind every second of every day since we met.”

He expected Roy to swear at him or point out just how much he was exaggerating. Jamie was not prepared for Roy to just agree with him and admit that the weird hyperfixation they’d had going on was mutual.

“And yet I’m still not as obsessed with you as you are with yourself,” Roy retorted which was basically just admitting that he was obsessed with Jamie. That was a point in Jamie’s column, not Roy’s.

“You’re missing out then,” Jamie said as he grabbed his phone back. “Want me to send you this? Or were you done looking at it?”

“I already see way too much of you shirtless,” Roy complained.

“And whose fault is that?” Jamie asked unsympathetically. “Excuse me for taking care of me nips. I don’t see why you’re mad about that… Unless...”

Jamie grinned and Roy glared at him before he even actually got to say anything properly annoying.

“Whatever you’re about to say, don’t,” Roy warned.

Jamie completely ignored him as he asked, “Are you jealous that now everyone gets to see me training shirtless too? That’s it, isn’t it? You’re mad that it’s not special now that it ain’t for your eyes only.”

Jamie was well aware that couldn’t possibly be what it was. He was just also well aware that saying it was the easiest way to annoy Roy.

“I’m not mad about anything,” Roy said. “I just want you to put your fucking phone away.”

He sure sounded mad, but then again he usually did.

“Fine,” Jamie said with a laugh as he put his phone away. “Are you this needy with Keeley too?”

“Keeley doesn’t get distracted by her phone anywhere near as much as you,” Roy said. “And I have ways of getting her off it I can’t use on you.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

Jamie didn’t know whether to ask for more information or tell Roy that there was such a thing as oversharing. But then Roy might really not share anything else like that again and that would certainly be better for Jamie’s mental health, but Jamie couldn’t make himself say it anyway.

Not when now he had plenty of new material to work with when picturing Roy with Keeley. And plenty of material to work with imagining much much more fun ways that Roy could try to get him off of his phone than his usual grouchy methods.

“Actually, I don’t even need her to put the phone down,” Roy said just as casually.

Jamie could not relate. He liked Keeley’s undivided attention. But something about the mental image of Roy eating Keeley out while she didn’t even set her phone down was making him struggle to think of anything else because he so did not need to get hard in the middle of this restaurant.

Jamie wondered if Keeley had ever texted him while Roy was going down on her. Probably not. Too bad. He wished she would, but that would be a difficult request to bring up and he didn’t know if she’d get annoyed at him trying to get in on that situation. Plus, they’d probably have to ask Roy or at least tell him what was going on if they were going to try that and that ruined the whole possibility.

But that was probably for the best anyway. Disappointing as fuck, but at least it meant he didn’t have to think about it as a serious possibility in the middle of this fucking restaurant while Roy was sitting right across the table from him, completely oblivious to the way he was actively torturing Jamie.

“Couldn’t be me,” Jamie said after what he hoped wasn’t too long of a pause. “I like attention too much.”

Roy laughed, then sarcastically said, “I’m shocked.”

Jamie flipped him off, but he was glad for that. Roy giving him shit was their usual dynamic. He knew how to find his footing in that.

“Maybe she just gets bored when she’s with you,” Jamie said. “She don’t need a distraction when she’s with me.”

“Trust me, she doesn’t get bored with me,” Roy said so fucking confidently and like he was so fucking sure of his abilities that Jamie had to force his brain back on track again.

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Jamie said just to annoy him.

“For the hundredth time, I don’t want you watching us have sex,” Roy said.

That wasn’t surprising, but it was still a shame. It was a good reminder too.

“Good. I don’t want to see that anyway,” Jamie said and it was one of the biggest lies he’d ever told. “Watching old men have sex is just sad anyway.”

Roy really wasn’t that old. He was old for professional football, but that career had a narrow window for the best of players. He didn’t look like an old man though. He wasn’t an old man in any normal kind of context. He could still get any woman he wanted and plenty of men. He could start an OnlyFans and make so much fucking money that what he had now would look like nothing. Honestly, it was a shame that he hadn’t.

Roy didn’t argue with Jamie’s blatant lie though. He just said, “I think I liked it better when you were looking at pictures of yourself.”

“How was the rest of your trip?” Rebecca asked.

“Good,” Keeley said and then she realized she’d given a one-word answer again, even though it genuinely had been great. “They were really good about the whole me needing space thing. And we still did more fun stuff together.”

“Did anything exciting happen since we talked on the phone?” Rebecca asked. “Catch me up.”

“I would have texted you about it already if anything really exciting happened,” Keeley pointed out. “I mean Jamie got drunk and got a new tattoo and pierced his nipples, but that’s much more exciting for me than it would be for you.”

Keeley couldn’t really talk about the part of the rest of the trip she wanted to. She’d love to get Rebecca’s take on what she’d walked in on and whether she thought that Roy and Jamie really were just good friends with a one-sided attraction or if there was more to it. But they knew Rebecca. They worked with Rebecca. She was their boss. And while there were plenty of things about them that she did tell Rebecca that no boss needed to know, this was different.

It wouldn’t be fair to Roy to bring it up to her, especially when she’d barely brought it up to him. Sure, she’d told him she was fine with it if he wanted to do anything with Jamie, but he’d seemed completely stunned by the conversation. And she hadn’t had any real talk with him about it beyond just open-ended permission and just going along with whatever he said. It would be weird to get into all the details with Rebecca when she hadn’t with him.

Maybe it would have been different if he was just some guy Rebecca barely knew. But that wasn’t the case, so Keeley bit her tongue and kept it to herself.

Rebecca laughed as she asked, “And where was Roy during that? I can’t imagine he was just tagging along with the both of you for that.”

“Oh, no. He was there,” Keeley said. “I wasn’t actually.”

“Oh,” Rebecca said. “Well, that must have been a surprise to come back to.”

Keeley studied her face, but she couldn’t tell what she was thinking. She wanted to ask but thought better of it.

“A surprise is an understatement,” Keeley said honestly.

When Roy checked his phone after training the next day, he had messages in the Yoga Mum group chat asking about getting brunch on the weekend.

Jamie would be annoying about it, but it would be easier to move training around it now. Between the later start time and Roy watching Phoebe more now that she was on summer break, they'd gotten much more flexible about it.

Roy texted back that he’d be there, then got a message back from Maureen.

You should bring Keeley

That was a good idea so he sent back I’ll see if she’s busy

Then he opened his conversation with Keeley and sent Do you want to go to Yoga Mum brunch on Saturday?

She responded a few seconds later.

I’m invited? Does this mean I have the yoga mum stamp of approval?

Roy didn’t see how she could have thought there was any chance that she wouldn’t.

I told you they’d like you. Are you busy then?

I’ll be busy at yoga mum brunch

Roy laughed at that, then sent a text to the Yoga Mum chat.

Keeley’s coming

Jamie was bored that evening and he knew that Keeley and Roy were busy together, so he called Isaac.

“What’s up?” Isaac answered.

“Are you doing anything tonight?” Jamie asked.

“You tell me,” Isaac said. “What were you thinking?”

“Take me to play where Roy took you before he started coaching,” Jamie said.

“He never took you there?” Isaac said sounding surprised. “Seriously?”

Jamie was even less happy about that now that Isaac sounded like he thought it was weird too.

“Apparently, you needed it and I don’t,” Jamie said. “Whatever the fuck that means.”

“So now you want me to take you there without him,” Isaac said, sounding confused. “Don’t you get enough training in already?”

Not really. They’d cut back and then Roy had made him take the better part of a week off because of his piercings. Even now that they were back to training, Jamie had a theory that Roy was taking it easy on him which was insulting.

“He don’t play with me,” Jamie said instead. “It’s not just training. Don’t you miss actually playing?”

“Yeah, okay,” Isaac said. “I’ll see if any of the lads want to come with us.”

He hung up before Jamie could say anything else, then a moment later a message popped up in the group chat from the last time they’d gone out clubbing. Isaac had added Sam in too since the only reason he hadn’t been there last time had been that he’d been busy at his restaurant.

Any of you want to play?

Jamie sent back u should add dani

Dani would almost definitely be down to play if he was around and wasn’t busy. Plus, Jamie hadn’t had a proper competition with him in far too long.

Jamie added someone has 2 stand a chance against me

Isaac added Dani without argument and sent Me and Jamie are going to play. Who else is in?

Bumbercatch sent ok

A few seconds later, Dani sent I’m in

Colin asked can I bring Michael?

Isaac responded immediately with Obviously

That just left one person left.

sam????

When Sam didn’t answer his message right away, Jamie tried again.

SAM????

Sam started typing and then stopped a few seconds later without sending anything, so Jamie recorded a voice message of himself whining, “Saaaaammmmmmm!!!!! Answer us please you fucking prick!”

That worked to at least get him typing again, but his answer wasn’t what Jamie had been looking for.

I don’t know…

Jamie sighed and then FaceTimed Sam.

“I shouldn’t,” Sam said as soon as he answered.

But he’d answered and he’d said I don’t know instead of flat-out saying no. That meant he could be convinced and Jamie was very good at getting what he wanted.

“Okay, well you’re going anyway,” Jamie said.

“I should really stay at the restaurant,” Sam said, but everything about his tone said he wanted to go with them instead.

“Simi can handle it,” Jamie said. Then he raised his voice to a shout as he asked, “Or do you not trust her?”

He was hoping she’d hear and send Sam on his way, but he didn’t hear a word from her. Sam did glance off to his side at something though.

“Would you stop yelling?” Sam asked. “I’m at work.”

“Yeah, well, you shouldn’t be,” Jamie said unsympathetically. “You should be getting your ass ready to come play with us. Think of the poor players there with no idea what’s coming for them. Are you really going to make them split the professional players unevenly?”

Jamie wasn’t at all concerned about how the teams would get split up. He just wanted Sam to agree to go and it seemed like the kind of thing that Sam would care about.

“I don’t know,” Sam said again, but Jamie could tell he was trying not to smile.

“Sam, look at me,” Jamie said. “Are you really going to say no to this face?”

He pouted dramatically and fought back a laugh that would definitely interfere with the disappointed message he was trying to send with his face.

When Sam still didn’t say anything, Jamie threw his head back dramatically and whined, “Saaaaaammmm, you’re killing me here!”

“Okay, fine,” Sam said. “I’ll come.”

Jamie whipped his head back down to face the screen again as he asked, “Wait, seriously?”

“Seriously,” Sam said with a smile and Jamie beamed back at him.

Keeley had barely opened the door before Phoebe was hugging her.

“I missed you,” Phoebe insisted.

“I missed you too,” Keeley told her.

“You’re lucky,” Roy said. “When she hugged Jamie, she just told him he smelled bad.”

“Really?” Keeley asked.

“Well, he did,” Phoebe said defensively. “But you don’t. You always smell good.”

“That’s true,” Roy agreed.

Keeley led them inside as she told Phoebe, “That’s because Jamie’s a boy. Boys are stinky.”

Phoebe crinkled up her nose as she asked, “Then why do you date them?”

“Because I like stinky boys,” Keeley told her. She laughed as she added, “The stinkier, the better.”

She was only partly joking. When it came to guys, she had a pretty clear type and as hot as footballers were, they didn’t exactly smell great after working out. Maybe, Keeley was just used to it, but she hardly even noticed anymore.

“You must really love Jamie then,” Phoebe said dramatically and Roy let out a surprised laugh.

“I do,” Keeley said. “You know, your Uncle Roy’s a stinky boy too.”

“Yeah, but not as stinky as Jamie,” Phoebe said as she sat down on the couch and grabbed the remote.

“Everyone has their flaws,” Keeley said with a dramatic sigh. She had to hold back a laugh when Phoebe crinkled her nose in disgust again at the implication that Roy not being stinky enough was somehow a downside. “I guess I still love him as much anyway though.”

“If putting up with stink all the time is what dating boys is like, then I’m only going to date girls,” Phoebe insisted.

“Fair enough,” Keeley said.

“You can have ten girlfriends instead then,” Roy said. “Or did you change your mind about that number?”

“You said ten,” Phoebe insisted and Keeley wondered when exactly that had happened. “Ten sounds like too much work though. Maybe just two.”

“Good idea,” Keeley said. “Two’s perfect. That way you have at least one of them around whenever you want and you still get your time alone.”

There were already people playing when they got there, but they let Jamie and the others join in. They split into two groups and Colin tried to talk Michael into joining, but he opted to just watch instead.

“Hold on a second,” Jamie said.

He pulled his shirt off and left it off to the side and by the time he’d turned back around, his teammates were all crowding around him to get a good look at his greyhound tattoo and nipple piercings.

“Your tattoo looks much better in person,” Sam said.

Jamie was pretty sure that was because the picture on Instagram had been right after he'd gotten it while it had been all swollen and irritated still and the picture he’d sent from Roy’s phone had still been too zoomed out to get a proper look like they all were now.

He didn’t mention that though. He just grinned.

“How bad did those piercings hurt?” Moe asked with a wince.

“Not that bad,” Jamie lied. He shrugged as he added, “Wasn’t a big deal.”

Jamie expected the six of them to be running circles around everyone else there. But he very quickly understood part of why Roy had chosen there to bring Isaac. Honestly, Jamie was kind of surprised Roy hadn’t brought him just to try to humble him.

Having real competition was good though. It was refreshing. Jamie hadn’t played against anyone but Phoebe and a bunch of teenagers since the season had ended.

He’d missed this. He’d even missed getting knocked on his ass when he underestimated who he was up against.

Trying to trap the ball with his chest when he had to cover his nipples with his hands to protect them was less than ideal. There was a learning curve to trying to avoid the ball hitting his hand and getting called on it. Even when they took pity on him and let him get away with his hand touching the ball, it still bounced in some stupid direction off of his knuckles and was no help anyway. But other than that, he’d been right that he was completely fine to play again outside of a professional game setting.

“What’s the score?” Isaac asked when they’d been playing for a while.

Everyone looked around, but no one answered. Jamie had just assumed one of the people already there had been keeping track, but apparently not.

All of his teammates’ eyes turned on him as Colin insisted, “Jamie has to know.”

“Why me?” Jamie asked defensively. “Fucked if I know.”

He knew exactly why they thought he would, but he’d just been having fun and assuming somebody else had that handled.

They played for a while longer before they took a break to get water and switch around the teams.

“Come on,” Colin tried again as he grabbed onto one of Michael’s hands. “Join us.”

“I’m fine just watching,” Michael said as he looked from Colin to the rest of them.

He seemed nervous about the idea of joining a bunch of professional players in a way that Phoebe had never seemed nervous to play with Jamie. Then again, she’d grown up playing with Roy. Michael had no experience playing with professional players unless he’d played with Colin some other time. Maybe he didn’t have any experience at all.

“It’ll be fine,” Isaac insisted.

“We’ll take it easy on you,” Sam added.

Dani and Moe nodded their heads in agreement.

Colin must have seen something in Michael’s face that gave away that he was about to give in because he grinned before Michael even said, “Fine.”

“You’re on my team,” Colin said as he dragged Michael onto the pitch with him. He turned on everyone else as he loudly announced, “Any of you fuckers knock my boyfriend over and I’ll kick the shit out of you.”

Michael laughed, but Jamie wasn’t certain that he was entirely joking. Even if he was, Isaac would probably do it for him anyway.

All of Jamie’s friends turned to look at him at Colin's comment which was fucking rude. He didn’t see why it would be directed at him. He was nice and shit now. If he could handle not being competitive enough to knock Phoebe over, he could handle not injuring Michael.

“What are you all looking at me for?” Jamie whined.

“Nothing,” Dani said like a liar.

“I can play nice,” Jamie complained. “I do it all the time. Roy literally whines at me to play like more of a prick.”

“That sounds like Roy,” Sam said sarcastically.

“It does,” Jamie insisted.

Roy pulled out his phone when he got a message, then laughed when he opened it.

“What?” Keeley asked.

Isaac had sent a picture of him, Colin, Jamie, Sam, Dani, and Moe. Roy could tell from the background that Jamie had gotten what he’d wanted, even without Roy taking him there. He was kind of surprised that Jamie hadn’t texted him about it himself.

All six of them were crouched leaning together in absolutely ridiculous poses. Roy had no idea who had taken the picture. They’d probably asked someone there to do it just so they could maximize how stupidly they could pose. They were absolute fucking morons and Roy loved every one of them.

Roy sent back Why do you look like the cover of a fucking boy band album?

Then he handed the phone to Keeley so she could see.

She laughed too, then told him, “I’d listen to that album.”

“I want to see too,” Phoebe complained. Keeley handed her the phone and Phoebe took one look, then grinned and said, “Jamie looks so stupid in this.”

She wasn’t wrong. He at least was wearing a shirt in the picture, but maybe that made him even stupider if he’d been playing in it.

“Gee, I wonder where you learned that from,” Keeley said, then she turned to look back at Roy.

Roy had taught her well and he wasn't sorry about it at all.

Jamie was over at Keeley’s house the next night when he said, “I’m thinking about going to see me dad this weekend.”

“Okay,” Keeley said because it wasn’t like she really had any other choice.

Sure, she could tell him that she thought that was a bad idea, but she wasn’t convinced that would stop him from going. And even if it did, that would make her the person that got in the way of him giving his dad another chance.

She thought the fact that his dad still hadn’t apologized to him should have been enough for Jamie not to want to spend any more time on him. But Jamie seemed to believe his father’s nice act. And maybe Keeley was wrong. Maybe, it wasn't an act. Maybe, she was just being too protective and things really were going to go better this time.

She hoped they would. She hoped Jamie’s dad would apologize to him and Jamie would get whatever he was looking for that kept sending him back out of the visit.

“Would you come with me again?” Jamie asked.

She didn’t want to, but she didn’t want him going alone either. He hadn’t even noticed that his father hadn’t apologized to him until she’d pointed it out and last time hadn’t ended in the best of ways.

There was no way she was going to say no and send him on his own when he was using that nervous voice that was so fundamentally not Jamie.

“Sure,” she said. She forced herself to smile for his benefit.

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said and that only made her more sure of her decision.

“If you want me there, then I want to go,” Keeley insisted. “I have plans with Roy on Saturday, but we could go on Sunday.”

He looked relieved as he said, “Yeah, okay.”

Roy had just finished painting Phoebe’s nails a glittery purple colour when she said, “Your turn!”

“I’m good,” Roy tried even though he had had this argument many times before and had lost every single time. “I don’t need any.”

“Sure you do,” Phoebe said. “And I want to practice.”

She was already perfectly capable of painting nails on her own, but Roy knew pointing that out wouldn’t help anything. That didn’t change the fact that she liked it better when he did it and then she always wanted to paint his after.

Roy just stared her down, but she’d been born immune to his scary looks which was good most of the time, but a little inconvenient now.

“Pick a colour,” Phoebe said.

“I don’t want to,” Roy complained.

“Pick or I’ll pick for you,” she tried.

Roy sighed heavily, then said, “Fine. Black.”

“I still don’t have black,” she said because of fucking course she didn’t.

Roy had a theory that Cora specifically didn’t buy black just so that he’d get stuck walking around with colourful nails until he got away from Phoebe and scrubbed it off before anyone else could ever see it. Keeley had seen once, but that was because she’d been there when Phoebe had trapped him into it. Roy had thought having Keeley there to do her nails for her and letting Phoebe do Keeley's nails would help. It did not. Phoebe had just made Keeley do both of theirs a matching red.

On more than one occasion, Roy had considered just giving in and buying her black nail polish. But that felt like admitting defeat. That would be encouraging this behaviour. And if he did it when she wasn’t already planning to paint his nails, he’d just be inviting it on himself an extra time.

Roy tried to wait her out, but Phoebe just sat there and waited. He had no doubt if he held off any longer that she would choose some awful colour for him and refuse to agree to anything else because he’d taken too long, so he took a deep breath and then gave in.

“Blue then,” he said and she grinned wide.

For a minute, she was so focused on painting his nails while he just sat there and endured it that she didn’t say anything.

Then she glanced up at him between nails and asked, “Do you like stinky boys?”

“What?” Roy asked.

For a moment, he was stupid enough to think that this was about her rethinking her whole swearing off of boys thing or her looking for him to back her up that stinky boys weren’t worth wasting time on.

Instead, she said, “Keeley said she likes stinky boys. Do you?”

And then he realized this was about fucking Jamie Tartt, the stinkiest boy around. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t caught on earlier. He’d thought that maybe she’d forgotten about bugging him about Jamie since the trip, but apparently not.

“No,” Roy said. “I don’t like boys at all.”

“Then how come you spend so much time with so many stinky boys?” she asked.

Maybe, this wasn’t about Jamie after all then.

“It’s my job,” Roy told her. “If they don’t smell bad, then I’m not working them hard enough.”

“Are any of them stinkier than Jamie?” Phoebe asked.

“I don’t know,” Roy admitted. “I don’t go around smelling them all and taking notes.”

“But you must get grossed out when they smell really bad,” she insisted.

“Not really,” Roy said honestly. “I’m used to it.”

He’d spent years as a stinky professional football player. Now that he was retired, he personally didn’t have to smell, but he was still used to being around them all. It didn’t even faze him when they’d come over and give him a sticky sweat-drenched hug. Getting attacked with secondhand stink after a good game was just part of the job and he wouldn’t trade it away, even if he could.

“That’s gross,” Phoebe insisted.

“Yeah, it is,” Roy agreed, but maybe he was gross too.

Jamie and Keeley had put a movie on after he’d asked her about going with him on the weekend, but Keeley must have gotten bored of it because she moved to sit in his lap about fifteen minutes in.

Personally, Jamie had thought it was interesting, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t happy to ignore it when she kissed him.

Keeley tugged on his hair as she kissed him harder and Jamie let out a sound that a lesser man would have been embarrassed about.

Jamie grabbed hold of her hips with both hands and she leaned back to pull away from him a little. She still stayed close enough to wrap her arms around his neck though.

He was disappointed until she asked, “Did you mean what you said about wanting me to boss you around?”

“Definitely,” Jamie said quickly. “I could not have meant it more.”

She laughed and kissed him again, then said, “Okay, then carry me upstairs.”

Jamie did not need to be told twice. He moved his hands to her ass as he forced himself up off of the couch without using his hands. She wrapped her legs tight around his waist as soon as he was standing up and he took a second to catch his balance before he started walking.

“This is seriously hot,” Keeley insisted as he carried her up the stairs. “Remind me to thank Roy later for all the training he has you doing.”

Jamie laughed at that and nearly lost his balance for a split second but he managed to catch himself okay. A stupid part of his brain said that this was the kind of thing Roy would make him do during training, but that wasn’t true. There was no way Roy would let him carry him like this and Jamie highly doubted he was likely to start encouraging him to use Keeley as a weight.

“I’m sure he’ll be glad that we’re putting it to good use,” Jamie lied.

He carried her into her bedroom but didn’t put her down because she hadn’t told him to.

“What now?” Jamie asked.

“Put me down,” Keeley said. Jamie was momentarily disappointed until she added, “And take off your clothes.”

She unwrapped her legs and he set her down, then pulled off his shirt. She sat down on the bed to watch as he stripped off the rest of his clothes.

They’d barely made it upstairs and he was already half hard just from the anticipation of her bossing him around during sex.

“Roy’s right,” Keeley said with a grin. “You are really good at taking orders.”

Jamie wasn’t sure if she’d intentionally dragged Roy into it to make this even hotter for him, but either way that went straight to his dick. She knew about his thing for praise and she’d always known how to use it to get him even more worked up. This was the first time she’d brought Roy into it though and Jamie was far too turned on to feel embarrassed about how she’d seen right through him enough to know what that would do to him.

“He said that?” Jamie asked.

He was vaguely aware that the fact that he’d asked and how eager he had been about it did not fit the narrative he’d been trying to project that Roy was hot and obviously his type but he didn’t feel any differently about him than he did about any other hot guy. He just really couldn’t care less at the moment.

Keeley laughed but it didn’t feel like she was laughing at him.

“I know you’ve heard him complain about how you’re too good,” she said.

Jamie wanted to ask too good at what? Too good at following directions? Too good on the pitch? Both? But Keeley hadn’t even touched him and he was already getting embarrassingly hard. He wasn’t sure how much she’d let him fixate on the Roy thing before she’d get sick of it or have questions. He wasn’t sure how long he could possibly last if Keeley kept telling him how good he was on her behalf and Roy’s at the same time once they actually got going.

So he bit his tongue and forced himself to say nothing.

“Are you going to be as good for me as you are for him?” Keeley asked.

“Better,” Jamie promised.

“Good boy,” Keeley said and Jamie could feel that in his heart as much as he could feel it in his dick. “Now get on the bed.”

Jamie obeyed with a grin on his face.

Roy hadn’t had a chance to get rid of the nail polish before he had to leave to meet Jamie.

He’d planned on taking it off the moment he got home, but there’d been some big accident and Cora had gotten stuck working even later and hadn’t known what time she’d be back so Roy had ended up spending the night in the guest room. Then in the morning, he’d taken on breakfast duty to let her have a chance to get any sleep and Phoebe had been glued to his side. There had been no opportunity at all to sneak off and get rid of the nail polish without her noticing.

He’d made that mistake once before. It hadn’t gone well for him.

So that was how Roy ended up going to Keeley’s place to pick up Jamie fucking Tartt with fucking bright blue nail polish on.

Maybe, Jamie wouldn’t even notice. Or, maybe, he’d say something so completely obnoxious that Roy would finally snap and actually murder him.

Roy kept his hands in his pockets when he first got there. It wasn’t a permanent solution, but it would buy him a little time. And maybe if he really made Jamie’s life miserable, he’d be too exhausted and distracted to even notice.

“Morning Coach,” Jamie said with a huge grin as he walked out fucking shirtless again.

“If you can wear a shirt to play with Isaac and them, you can wear a shirt now,” Roy insisted.

“Didn’t wear a shirt then either,” Jamie said dismissively. “Put it back on after.”

Great. So Roy was going to have to put up with Jamie running around shirtless for another day. He’d never realized how grateful he should have been for Jamie’s usual workout clothes before he’d started showing up topless every day.

But if he complained about it, Jamie would just turn it into a thing. It wasn’t a big deal anyway. Roy was used to seeing Jamie with his shirt off. There was absolutely nothing different about it now.

They’d been training for a while when Jamie noticed Roy’s hands. He didn’t know how the fuck he hadn’t seen it earlier. Sure, he didn’t exactly make a habit of staring at Roy’s hands while they were running, but this was kind of hard to miss.

“Nice nail polish,” Jamie said as he looked up at Roy with a shit-eating grin.

There was a chance that Roy would never let him stop doing push-ups for it, but what was he supposed to do? Not say anything about it? No fucking chance.

“Shut up,” Roy warned.

“Why?” Jamie asked. “All I said was it looks nice.”

“Fuck off,” Roy growled out like he was genuinely annoyed.

Fascinating.

So Jamie didn’t say anything for a moment and bit back a comment about it being the most colour he’d ever seen Roy wear voluntarily. He resisted the overwhelming urge to make some joke about how he couldn’t believe Roy wasn’t having an allergic reaction to all that colour.

Jamie deserved a fucking award for his restraint. Maybe his reward was the fact that Roy hadn’t added more push-ups to his count yet. He made it through ten more before Roy finally spoke again.

“Phoebe did it,” he said as if Jamie hadn’t figured that much out on his own.

When Jamie looked back up at him, Roy was staring off at something in the distance instead of looking at him. His hands were back in his pockets again. Maybe, that was how Jamie hadn’t noticed at first.

“I figured,” Jamie said.

“I usually get rid of it before I fucking go anywhere, but Cora didn’t get home until fucking late and I ended up still being there this morning and I got stuck with it,” Roy said defensively. “Last time I took it off while I was still around her, she threw a whole fucking fit so I just. Didn’t bother.”

Jamie wasn’t sure why Roy was so defensive about it. Okay, maybe a few years ago, he would have made fun of Roy for the nail polish without knowing about the context or giving a fuck if there was a reason for it or not. He would have just sensed Roy’s discomfort and focused in on it like a fucking asshole.

But now, Roy quite blatantly being uncomfortable had him easing off of it. It really wasn’t that funny anyway. There wasn’t much to make fun of about Roy loving Phoebe far more than he hated colour and far more than he was embarrassed by the nail polish. Actually, it made Jamie feel things he didn’t want to think about.

“Meant it when I said it looked nice,” Jamie tried.

“Just talk about something else,” Roy said.

“Okay,” Jamie said. “I’m going to see me dad on Sunday. I’m taking Keeley too. So I’m gonna need to push training back.”

He had to tell Roy at some point anyway. He figured he might as well make a good distraction of it.

Roy looked at him now and Jamie could feel him judging him.

Jamie looked back at the ground and pretended it was because he was focusing on his push-ups and keeping track of them and not because he was afraid Roy was going to look at him like he was a complete fucking idiot for it.

“I know what you’re thinking so just say it,” Jamie said when he couldn’t stand the silence anymore.

“I’m not thinking anything,” Roy lied.

Jamie looked back up at him but Roy just stared back at him.

“You think I’m stupid,” Jamie said.

“I always think you’re stupid,” Roy pointed out.

Jamie so wasn’t in the mood for Roy playing dumb right now.

“You think I’m stupid for going to see him,” Jamie tried again with an edge to his voice.

“No,” Roy said. “I don’t understand it and I think he’s a piece of shit, but I don’t think you’re stupid for it.”

Fucking liar.

“Whatever,” Jamie said. He imitated Roy’s tactic as he said, “Just talk about something else.”

“I have to move training back tomorrow too,” Roy said. “Can’t start until the afternoon.”

“Why?” Jamie asked suspiciously.

“I’m taking Keeley to spend time with the friends you’re not allowed to know about,” Roy said.

“What the fuck?” Jamie complained. “Why does she get to meet them and I don’t?”

“Because I’m dating her,” Roy said. “And because I like her more than I like you.”

“That’s your excuse for fucking everything.”

After work, Keeley headed straight to Roy’s house. She wasn’t sure if Jamie or Phoebe would be there or not, but she wanted to talk to him alone if she could.

Roy looked surprised when he answered the door, but that made sense. Keeley hadn’t had plans with him. She hadn’t asked before coming over.

Keeley didn’t greet him with her usual smile or kiss. She just let herself in as she asked, “Is anyone else here?”

“No,” Roy said as he followed her over to the couch. “What’s wrong?”

Keeley sighed as he sat beside her.

“Jamie’s going to see his dad again this weekend,” Keeley said. “He asked me to go with him Sunday because he knew I already had plans with you tomorrow.”

“He told me,” Roy said.

He sounded about as happy about it as Keeley felt.

“He never even apologized to Jamie, you know,” Keeley told him. “He’s supposed to be doing better now and I know I’m supposed to believe that and like that for Jamie. But last time we were there, he asked Jamie to apologize to Beard for him. But he couldn’t be bothered to apologize to Jamie for any of the shit he pulled. And I know he didn’t do it the time I wasn’t there either. I asked.”

Roy’s jaw clenched at that.

“If I thought it would do anything, I’d try to talk to him without Jamie there,” she said. “Because I don’t think Jamie’s going to say anything about it for himself and I don’t want to make things all weird by making a problem of it right in front of Jamie. But I doubt he’d even listen to me anyway. Nothing about anything I’ve heard about him exactly screams listens to women, you know?”

Roy was silent for a long moment, then he said, “We could both go.”

Keeley hadn’t been angling for that, but she did like that suggestion. It might go better with Roy there. He was a man. And he was good at making people listen to him.

“Do you think it would help anything or just make things worse?” Keeley asked.

“I can make him listen,” Roy said confidently. “And if he hates me, who gives a fuck? I don’t give a shit what he thinks of me.”

“When would we even go?” Keeley asked.

“Tomorrow morning,” Roy said. “Fuck brunch. We can do something with them another time. I already told Jamie we had to push training back anyway. He doesn’t have to know that plans changed and we’re not with the friends he doesn’t know about. He’ll be annoying about not being invited either way, but he won’t suspect anything.”

Keeley was kind of surprised that Roy dropped his plans so fast for Jamie’s sake and to spend his morning travelling just so he could have a conversation with Jamie’s father. But then again, it wasn’t the first time Roy had dropped everything because he was worried about Jamie.

“What if they don’t let us in?” Keeley asked.

She hated to sound like she was arguing against going, but she also didn’t want to waste all the time getting there during visiting hours just to get turned away again.

“You’ve been there before, right?” Roy asked. “Maybe, they’ll let you in because of that. Or maybe, he’ll approve me on name alone. Or maybe, money will be enough to get us in if both of those fail.”

He didn’t seem at all worried that they’d cancel on the yoga mums just to not get in. He was already pulling out his phone to text them.

So Keeley said, “Okay. It’s worth a try.”

They got in to see Jamie’s dad no problem. It turned out to be much easier than Roy thought it might be. Jamie’s father didn’t hesitate at all to approve them when the receptionist sent someone to ask him about it.

The fucker actually grinned when he saw them.

“What did I do to earn a visit from the Roy Kent?” he asked cheerily as if he thought Roy was there for a friendly visit and as if Keeley didn’t fucking exist, despite the fact that she was the one who had been properly introduced to him and who had wasted her time on visiting him before.

Roy wondered if he’d ignored her when she’d been there with Jamie too or if he’d put on a show of playing nice just so that he could convince Jamie he wasn’t still the prick he clearly was.

James stood up and held a hand out like he thought Roy was going to shake it. If anything, Roy would like to crush every bone in his hand, but jumping to that already would defeat the whole purpose of coming there. So instead, Roy just glared at his hand until he pulled it back.

“Shut up,” Roy growled. “And sit down.”

James’ smile fell then as he sat back down, then looked over at Keeley confused. Oh sure, now that Roy wasn’t being friendly enough for his liking, he could look at her and acknowledge that she was there.

Roy pulled a chair up close so he could lean into his personal space and glare at him as he talked, then he snapped his fingers in front of his face.

“Oi, look at me. Not her,” Roy said.

“What is this?” James asked, sounding annoyed by Roy’s presence now.

Good. Roy was annoyed that he had to be there too.

“Your son’s coming to see you tomorrow,” Roy told him. “And you’re going to apologize to him for being a terrible piece of shit father and for all of the ways you fucked up and treated him like shit. And you’re going to mean it. And you’re going to do better. Or else, I’m going to come back here and I’m going to smash my fist into your face so hard that they’ll be picking bits of your skull out of your brain for months. Got it?”

James looked from Roy to Keeley, then back to Roy again.

“What is this?” he scoffed. He laughed as he asked, “Are you his boyfriend or something?”

Like it was some hilarious joke and some disgusting possibility all rolled up in one. No wonder Jamie had kept his sexuality a secret for so long. Roy really wanted to punch him hard and leave, but Jamie wouldn’t be impressed if he showed up the next day and found his dad with a black eye and pissed off at him for what Roy had done.

So instead, Roy asked, “So fucking what if I am? Do you have a problem with that?”

James tried to look past him at Keeley, but Roy shifted to block his view of her again.

“He deserves so much better than you, but for some fucked up reason he actually gives a shit about giving you another chance. So if you’re going to fuck it up, then be done with him now. But if you want any chance of being in Jamie’s life at all, then you’re going to do better. Be better. Do what I fucking said,” Roy warned. “Make your fucking apologies to people yourself instead of putting that on him. And tomorrow when he comes, you’re going to act surprised. You’re not going to mention that either of us were here. She’ll be here watching. And if you say a word about any of this or you don’t apologize convincingly enough or you say one fucking word that Jamie doesn’t like, I’ll be back and I won’t be so friendly next time. Do you understand?”

When he didn’t answer right away, Roy lunged forward although he knew he wouldn’t be able to get away with anything without getting thrown out for it and probably getting Jamie mad at him.

It was enough to intimidate James though.

“Okay, fine,” he said.

“Great,” Roy said and he grinned dangerously. “Great talk.” Roy stood up and turned to Keeley as he said, “Come on, let’s go.”

“Did I hear wrong or did you tell Jamie’s dad that you’re his boyfriend?” Keeley asked once they were on the train on the way back. “Does Jamie know that?”

She was certain she had not missed something that big, but it was fun to ask anyway and really Roy couldn’t get that huffy over it when he was the one who had said it first.

“He was being a homophobic prick,” Roy said. “He wanted me to be disgusted or embarrassed by the implication. He wanted to make fun of Jamie for the possibility that he could have a boyfriend. I wasn’t fucking playing into any of that bullshit. Who cares if he thinks we’re together?”

That did make sense. It didn’t really surprise her that that had been his motivation behind it and she liked that Roy hadn’t gotten all defensive at the suggestion.

Keeley was glad that Jamie hadn’t been there to hear the way that his dad had asked Roy if he was his boyfriend like it was ridiculous. But she was certain that Jamie would have been thrilled to watch Roy’s reaction.

Too bad he could never find out about it or about the fact that they’d been there at all.

Chapter Text

On Sunday afternoon, Roy hadn’t brought up Jamie’s visit with his father. Jamie hadn’t either and Roy had already gotten a few brief texts from Keeley that morning that had told him what he’d needed to know, not that Jamie knew about that.

Roy had figured that Jamie just hadn’t wanted to talk about it, but then Monday morning came and Jamie was being weirdly quiet while they were running and not speeding ahead of him like he usually would so Roy could tell that something was going on.

“What?” Roy asked.

“What do you mean what?” Jamie asked, sounding offended.

“You’re running a normal human speed,” Roy pointed out. “Why?”

“Maybe, I’m just taking pity on you,” Jamie insisted.

Yeah right.

“Whatever it is, just get on with it now,” Roy said.

Jamie shot him an annoyed look and Roy half expected him to speed off just to spite him but instead, after a moment, he said, “Didn’t think you’d want to hear about it.”

Roy didn’t have to ask what he meant. Jamie wasn’t exactly wrong. If it was up to Roy, Jamie would never waste another breath on his father again. But if Jamie needed to talk about it or wanted to talk about it or whatever, then Roy could live through it.

“You didn’t ask about it at all,” Jamie pointed out. “And I know you think I’m stupid for it, so…”

Jamie had a real thing for calling himself stupid the moment something with his father came up and it made Roy want to take another train just to follow through on his threat, regardless of how Keeley had said it had gone.

“Stop calling yourself stupid,” Roy grunted out.

“What?” Jamie asked. “You literally call me stupid like ten times a day.”

“That’s different,” Roy insisted.

He knew how hypocritical he sounded, but it was.

“How the fuck is it different?” Jamie complained.

“When you say it, it’s like you’re some brainwashed fucking robot that believes all of his bullshit,” Roy argued. “When I say it, I don’t mean it.”

“Bullshit,” Jamie said. “You absolutely fucking do.”

And okay, maybe that was true sometimes. But it was still different. Jamie said it about shit with his dad like he was worthless.

“When I say it, it’s like when you say I’m too old for shit,” Roy amended. “Sometimes it’s true. Sometimes, you’re just being a dick. But you don’t give a shit when it is true anyway. It doesn’t make any fucking difference to you.”

Jamie stopped running and just turned and looked at him so Roy stopped too.

“So you’re saying I’m stupid, but you don’t care?” Jamie asked.

Yes.

“No,” Roy said. “Maybe. You’re stupid about some things. But you’re not an idiot. And he has no right to make you feel like one. He’s the fucking moron.”

Jamie just stared at him a moment, then his lip twitched up into the tiniest hint of a smirk.

“Yeah, okay,” he said and then he turned and started running again. Roy joined him and they ran together for another minute or so with Jamie still matching Roy’s pace before he finally said, “He apologized to me yesterday.”

Roy didn’t say anything. Just grunted.

He’d already heard that from Keeley and he wasn’t sure what to say about it. He didn’t want to say anything that could be taken as supporting Jamie’s shitbag father or anything that could be taken as not supporting Jamie so not saying anything at all was much safer.

“He’s never done that before,” Jamie said. “Like ever.”

He said it like it was a big deal and Roy could see why he’d think it was, but the fact that it was disgusted him. Jamie seemed to be waiting for him to say something though.

So Roy asked, “Did you forgive him?”

“Said I’d think about it,” Jamie said and that surprised Roy. “Said maybe if him acting differently still lasts when he gets out of there.”

Keeley hadn’t mentioned that part and Roy would have never guessed it. He would have guessed that when Jamie was clinging so hard to the idea that this time was different that he would have forgiven him just like that. This was far better and Roy couldn’t help but grin at that.

Roy was proud of Jamie, but he didn’t know how to say that. Just outright saying it felt too weird. So instead he just ran a little closer so that he could bump Jamie’s arm with his elbow.

Jamie turned and smiled back at him, then rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, I thought you’d like that.”

Roy had a stupid press conference that Rebecca was making him do so that meant they had to quit the weight room early. It also meant that Jamie was just going to have to sit around and wait for Roy to be done. He was debating whether to just lurk in the background and listen or go take practice shots on his own when Roy frowned down at his phone.

“What?” Jamie asked.

“Phoebe was supposed to go to some friend’s house, but now that got pushed back and Cora has to go to work soon,” Roy said.

He looked like he was considering ditching the press conference which was stupid as fuck. Rebecca would definitely be on his ass if he pulled that, especially for his stupid first official one as team manager.

“I can take her,” Jamie offered.

It wasn’t like he had anything else to do with his time waiting for Roy anyway and Keeley was busy at work. Maybe, the idea of having to look after children terrified him a little, but this was Phoebe. He’d managed alright with her last time he’d watched her while Roy and Keeley had been busy together and she seemed to like him well enough. How badly could it possibly go?

Roy was staring at him with his eyebrows all furrowed like he was trying to figure out if Jamie was joking. Or maybe he just wished that Jamie was.

“I think I can manage to keep her alive without you for an hour,” Jamie said.

Roy stared at him for what felt like forever before he finally looked away to type something on his phone. Jamie thought he was ignoring his offer until Roy pulled his keys out of his pocket and said, “Fine, okay.”

Jamie probably shouldn’t have been surprised that Roy was letting him drive his car. That was objectively a lower level of trust than letting him babysit Phoebe without him and Roy’s car was how they’d both gotten there. Still, Jamie half expected him to yank the keys away when he went to take them.

Roy didn’t though. He just let Jamie take them and grunted out an awkward, “Thanks.”

Ten minutes later, Jamie was parked in Cora’s driveway. He got out as she opened the door.

She looked surprised as she said, “Oh, it’s you.”

Jesus fucking Christ.

“He didn’t tell you I was coming?” Jamie asked.

“He said he figured something out,” Cora said. “I figured that meant he was coming.”

“Yeah and I figured he’d fucking told you I was instead,” Jamie said.

Cora glanced from him to Roy’s car and then back at him with a smirk as she asked, “Roy lets you drive his car?”

“Didn’t really have an option when I was doing him a favour and had no other way of getting here, did he?” Jamie asked.

Phoebe came running out the door then. She looked from Jamie to the car and frowned.

“Where’s Uncle Roy?” she asked.

“Well, fuck me then,” Jamie muttered under his breath. When Cora shot him a look, he raised his hands in apology as he said, “Sorry.”

“You smell again,” Phoebe said as she stopped beside him.

“Thanks,” Jamie said sarcastically. “Roy’s busy. You’re stuck with me for now.”

He was insulted by the fact that she didn’t even look excited.

“I thought you were supposed to like me,” Jamie complained.

“I do,” she said. “But I like Uncle Roy more.”

“Yeah, don’t we all,” Jamie muttered, then he noticed Cora headed toward her car. “Hey, aren’t you going to at least give me some instructions or something?”

She turned and looked at him confused.

“You watch her all the time with Roy, don’t you?” Cora asked. “This is just like that.”

“All the time is a bit of an exaggeration,” Jamie said.

“You’ll be fine,” she insisted and Jamie had no idea what she could possibly be basing that off of. He couldn’t see why in the hell she trusted him to have any idea what to do with Phoebe.

“When can we see Uncle Roy?” Phoebe asked as Cora got in her car.

“When he texts that he’s finished with his stupid press conference,” Jamie said. “Get in the car.”

Phoebe listened and Jamie got in, then turned to look at her in the backseat.

“Why are you back there?” he asked.

She looked at him just as confused as she said, “I’m not old enough for the front seat.”

“Oh, right,” Jamie said. “That was a trick question. You passed.”

“Where are we going?” Phoebe asked.

“I don’t f-” Jamie started, then stopped himself before he could add even more debt onto his swearing tab. “I don’t know.”

“Can we go play in the park?” she asked.

“If you want,” Jamie said. “I’m surprised you’re not sick of football yet, having Roy as an uncle and all.”

“Uncle Roy doesn’t play with me anymore,” she said.

“Wait, seriously?” Jamie asked.

He knew that Roy refused to play with him and the rest of the team. He knew that Roy just stood there and watched when Phoebe played with him. He’d thought that had been about him being there and about Roy not being able to play like he’d used to being a sore spot for him. Jamie hadn’t realized he wouldn’t even fucking play with Phoebe anymore.

“That’s why I like you,” Phoebe said. “You play with me.”

Roy’s press conference started off boringly and predictably enough, but then the questions got significantly more annoying.

“What are your thoughts on the fans that are asking for Colin Hughes to be traded?” a reporter asked. “There has been some talk of some fans not buying tickets this season if he’s still playing.”

Roy wanted to say that the people whining about Colin could get fucked. He wanted to say that they were little bitches. He wanted to vividly describe what he’d do to anything stupid enough to suggest that kind of bullshit to his face. Roy wanted to tell the reporter exactly what he thought of the fact that he would even ask him that question.

But he was supposed to be professional now. And while he was sure Rebecca wouldn’t have a problem with the sentiment, she’d certainly have a problem with the delivery.

Roy wished he was being interviewed by Trent instead. But he wasn’t, so he had to put up with these jerkoffs.

Roy paused for a moment to think about what he was going to say and to edit all the swearing out before he said, “I think they’re fooling themselves if they call themselves fans. I really couldn’t care less if they don’t want to buy tickets. There are plenty of other people willing to take their seats and we don’t want them there anyway. And as for Colin, he’s not going anywhere. He’s more than proved how capable and valuable of a player he is. He’s a part of our team and we all stand behind him. If anyone wants to get rid of him, then they can get rid of all of the rest of us too because that’s the only way that’s happening.”

He was worried that the next reporter was going to ask some other stupid at least mildly homophobic question but instead, he asked, “What do you have to say about the rumours that we’ll be seeing Jamie Tartt on a different team soon?”

The question was so ridiculous that for a moment, Roy thought he had heard it wrong.

“Why the f-” he started and then he remembered he was supposed to be thinking before he spoke. His voice came out sounding vaguely less angry as he asked, “Why would he be on a different team?”

“Well, it’s no secret that you and Tartt have a history of not getting along,” the reporter said which was an understatement. “When you were a pundit you said, and this is a direct quote, ‘Jamie Tartt is a muppet and I hope he dies of the incurable condition of being a little bitch’.”

Roy let out a laugh at that and said, “That was a good one.”

“When you were on the same team you got in a fight on the pitch that ended in a yellow card,” the reporter said as if Roy didn’t remember that perfectly well on his own. “He was responsible for the injury that caused your retirement. So there are rumours that now that Ted Lasso is gone and you’re in charge, you’re going to get rid of him the first chance you get.”

Roy just glared at him for a moment as he tried to process the amount of stupid that had just come out of that reporter's mouth.

“Jamie Tartt didn’t end my career,” Roy said. “I did. I was already just delaying the inevitable anyway and I tackled him. He wasn’t trying to injure me. I was the one hoping he’d wind up hurt.”

He’d figured that out a while ago, but he was still surprised by just how sure he was that it wasn't on Jamie now after he’d spent months and months feeling sorry for himself and blaming Jamie for something that hadn’t even been his fault.

“Are you or are you not considering trading him?” the reporter asked again like it wasn’t fucking obvious.

Sure, when he’d first started coaching, he would have given away his entire salary if it would have meant that they could have gotten rid of Jamie again. Now, the idea was completely fucking ridiculous.

Roy was relieved that Jamie hadn’t stuck around to watch this press conference so he wouldn’t have to look at his stupid smug face while he spoke.

“Not a chance,” Roy said. “I couldn’t care less what anyone has to offer for him. Jamie Tartt isn’t going anywhere.”

Roy hoped that would be that but of course, it wasn’t. The next reporter that stood up asked, “Can you elaborate on that?”

He could. He wasn’t sure he wanted to, but he easily could.

“Jamie Tartt trains harder than any other player in this league,” Roy pointed out. “And even before that, he was already a great fucking player. Even when he was completely self-absorbed and had no concept of what being part of a team meant, he was already the best player on the team. He was better than I was. That was half of why I hated him so much. And now that he’s a team player too, he’s unstoppable. And he’s getting even better every single day.”

Roy felt actively uncomfortable with all the eyes on him and the fact that this was on camera, but this was his fucking job and he could suck it up and handle the fact that this was definitely going to get back to Jamie. And, really, why shouldn’t it? Every word he was saying was true.

“And sure, I couldn’t stand playing with him and couldn’t stand playing against him,” Roy said. “Because he doesn’t just have technical skill. He has this way of reading people and getting into their heads that is absolutely infuriating when you’re on the receiving end of it, but it works wonders on the pitch when you need it to. I’d far rather have that working in our favour than against us. None of us put that much work and that many hours into making him the best player he could possibly be, just to throw that away and give that advantage to someone else. Jamie Tartt is ours and I’d say you'd have to pry him out of my cold, dead hands, but even then, Rebecca Welton would be far too smart to give him away, even if I was gone.”

No one said anything like they were all just waiting to see if he was finished and Roy couldn’t stand it.

So, he glanced around the room and said, “Next question.”

Keeley watched Roy’s press conference during her lunch break. It was quite possibly one of the hottest things she’d ever watched. It wasn’t quite at the level of his retirement video, but still.

There was something incredibly sexy about Roy going all protective over his team. There was something incredibly sexy about Roy talking about the injury that had ended his career so calmly and with so much certainty that Jamie wasn’t to blame. There was something incredibly sexy about Roy openly talking about Jamie’s abilities and his value like that without a hint of bitterness in his tone.

He didn’t sound like he hated that he was being forced to say it. He sounded like he thought it was absolutely ridiculous that he'd had to point it out when everyone should have already been able to see it for themselves.

Jamie was absolutely going to lose it when he saw the video if he hadn’t already. It wasn’t even about her and Keeley was losing it a little herself.

Keeley sent the link to him just in case he hadn’t yet.

Jamie was at lunch with Roy and Phoebe when he got a text from Keeley. She’d sent him a link to a video of Roy’s press conference with I think you’ll want to see this 😏

Jamie wasn’t sure what that smirking emoji could possibly mean that Roy had said, but he did know that it probably meant that Roy would get all pissy if Jamie watched the video right in front of him.

Normally, that would have been all the more reason to tap the link and crank the volume up. But Phoebe had already talked Roy into taking her for ice cream after she ate a real meal and pouted at him with Jamie until Roy had given in and said that Jamie could have some too.

So, sure, Jamie was curious about what exactly Keeley thought he’d want to see. Sure, he wanted to blast the video of whatever Roy had said about him right in front of him and play keep away with his phone when Roy would probably try to grab it away. But he also wanted ice cream.

So it could wait. For now, at least.

After ice cream, Roy drove Phoebe to her friend’s house. He was relieved when Jamie waited in the car instead of trying to follow them.

Roy knocked on the door and a woman had barely opened it before Phoebe ran into the house to join her friend without so much as a goodbye. Roy was so busy being offended about that that he almost didn’t notice a man pop up behind the woman at the door out of fucking nowhere.

“You’re Roy Kent, aren’t you?” he asked.

“No,” Roy said with a warning edge to his tone.

“Yes, you are,” the other man insisted with a stupid fucking grin.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Roy lied.

“Can I get a-” he started, but Roy didn’t wait to find out if he was going to ask for a picture or an autograph or what.

He just turned and left.

“Bye Uncle Roy!” Phoebe called out the door.

Roy froze in his tracks and forced himself to turn back around for just long enough to wave back at her and say, “Bye, Phoebe.”

Jamie waited until he got home to watch the video.

He opened his messages to go find the link Keeley had sent him and saw that there were new texts in the team group chat that included the coaches so he checked them first.

Richard had sent the same link with the question @Roy what kind of blatant favouritism is this?

A while later, Colin had sent I thought he was being nice about me until he started talking about Jamie

Jamie hadn’t even watched the video yet and he was already fucking grinning. No wonder Keeley had sent it to him.

Before Jamie could even tap on the link, Roy sent back I hate it more than any of you do. One of you needs to join our extra training so that I can have literally any other favourite.

That was a pretty bitchy way to confirm that Jamie was his favourite, but Jamie didn’t even care. He’d already known that he was Roy’s favourite, but it was a whole other thing for Roy to admit it. It was a whole other thing for him to admit it in front of the whole team and not even add tack on some stupid comment about how Jamie was his least favourite too.

Before Jamie could even send anything else, Beard sent a text.

I love all my children equally.

Roy started typing immediately.

Bullshit.

Beard sent I have no idea what you’re talking about.

Roy sent You’ve literally told me your favourites.

A moment later, Beard sent back you can’t prove that.

Jan sent we need names Roy

Jamie couldn’t care less about who Beard’s favourites were. They were all glazing over the most important thing here. Him.

So Jamie reminded them.

who cares about beards list???

im roys #1 with no competition

and i think we should all talk some more abt that

i think its the only thing we should ever talk abt again tbh

@Roy how does it feel to be a giant fucking hypocrite

Roy started typing and then stopped after a few seconds. Jamie waited for him to start again, but he didn’t.

Isaac sent @Roy did you die?

A moment later, Colin suggested maybe he broke his own phone again

Dani asked are we making bets on what happened to him? if we are then mine is that Jamie’s the one who sent those texts and now the real Roy has his phone back

Jamie sent wow thats fucking rude

He did have a point though. It did entirely sound like something Jamie would do if Roy had left his phone unlocked and unattended. But Jamie had earned his favouritism from the real Roy and he didn’t like that being questioned.

Sam sent Wouldn’t the real Roy have said that then?

exactly

Roy still wasn’t typing so Jamie went back to his conversation with Keeley and opened the link. He watched the start at 2X speed until it finally got to the part about him. That part, he played at the regular speed.

Jamie had known from all the messages that Roy must have said something nice about him, but he hadn’t been prepared for Roy to go on a whole fucking speech about him being the best player on the team and the hardest-working player in the league. He hadn’t expected Roy to act like he’d never heard a stupider question than the one that had implied he’d even consider letting Jamie go to another team.

Jamie replayed that end part a few times.

Jamie Tartt is ours and I’d say you'd have to pry him out of my cold, dead hands, but even then, Rebecca Welton would be far too smart to give him away, even if I was gone.

Jamie Tartt is ours.

You'd have to pry him out of my cold, dead hands.

Oh, Jamie was absolutely saving this video to jerk off to later. The entire section about him was like every piece of praise he could have ever imagined Roy using, at least when it came to football. Except, it was more than that. It was so many things he could have never imagined Roy actually saying, let alone publicly.

It was abundantly clear now why Keeley had sent it to him. He went back to his messages with her and sent her several texts in a row.

jesus fucking christ

its like hes actually trying to murder me

maybe thats his plan

death by horniness

Maybe it was a bit much, but it was no worse than anything he’d said around her the first time around, back when he’d had no feelings towards Roy other than hatred. Besides, she was the one who had sent it to him with that emoji. She had clearly known exactly how he would react to it.

Keeley headed straight to Roy’s place after work.

When he opened the door, he had his phone in his hand.

“Are you alone?” Keeley asked because she was not about to make that mistake again.

“Yes,” Roy said looking a little confused as he shoved his phone into his pocket.

“Good,” Keeley said and then she kissed him hard.

Roy pulled him back with her so that he could close his front door, then pushed her up against it.

“I saw your press conference,” Keeley said as he kissed at her neck.

He let out a laugh against her skin so she guessed that meant he wasn’t offended that that was what had gotten her going.

“It turns out you saying nice things about Jamie really does it for me,” Keeley said.

“That’s shocking,” Roy said sarcastically as he pulled back enough to look at her face.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Keeley asked.

“You threatened to have an orgasm in the middle of a restaurant over me acting mature about him,” Roy said.

“Okay, I see your point,” Keeley admitted. “This is even better though.”

This was Roy putting aside all of his toxic macho bullshit and being vulnerable enough to admit what he really thought of Jamie while being emotionally mature about him. Even when he’d been telling her how much he cared about Jamie while he’d been trying to convince her that dating them both could work, he’d done it aggressively and with the whole tough guy angry act.

She liked hearing Roy just say nice things about Jamie without having to tack a threat or thirty swears or whatever kind of qualifier on to make himself feel better about caring about him and liking having him on his team and in his life now.

“Really?” Roy asked and there was something she couldn’t read in his expression. “I can work with that.”

“You can?” Keeley asked, but Roy was already leading her to the stairs by the hand.

When they got upstairs, he pulled her onto the bed with him. She landed on top of him, but he rolled them over and started kissing his way down her neck.

In between wet kisses, he murmured, “Jamie’s my favourite on the team.”

Okay, so this was really happening then. Keeley hadn’t expected him to actually start spouting off nice things about Jamie in bed, but she certainly wasn’t complaining and wasn’t going to tell him to stop.

Roy pulled away long enough to get her shirt off, then he was kissing down from her collarbone to her chest as he told her, “I like spending every day with him.”

That one wasn’t even about football. He wasn’t even staying safely in coach mode.

“He’s my best friend,” he added as he kissed down her stomach. When he reached her waistband, he added, “I actually like his new tattoo… And I don’t completely hate his nipple piercings.”

Keeley laughed at that and pulled him up by the hair so she could kiss him.

Keeley didn’t respond for a long time, but when she finally did she sent Killing you seems like it would probably be bad for the team so I don’t think it could have possibly been on purpose

Roy sent a message in the group chat seconds after Keeley responded. Jamie hadn’t even had time to start typing a reply before it popped up. Jamie switched over to that conversation and saw that underneath the team’s various guesses about what had happened to Roy, he had sent two messages.

@Jamie I guess your stupid fucking tattoo plan worked. That’s the real reason I can’t trade you

I’m not dead you overdramatic fucks and my phone is perfectly fine. I was just busy

Roy was convincing no one by that pretending Jamie’s greyhound tattoo was why he couldn’t get rid of him, especially when Jamie knew how funny Roy thought it would be if he ended up on a different team with it.

But that didn’t matter right now. There were far more important things to annoy Roy about right now.

Jamie grinned to himself. He knew exactly why they had both reappeared at the same time. He could just let it go and pretend he hadn’t figured it out. Or, he could be really fucking annoying about it.

Jamie ignored both of their messages as he switched to the jones kunt and twat group chat. He started to type a message, but no, that wasn’t nearly enough. Then he considered sending a voice message, but then he would miss the fun of their reactions.

Really, FaceTime would be ideal, but that was probably pushing it too far. He doubted that they’d answer if they were still naked and if they did then the joke would be on Jamie, not them. So he settled for calling Keeley.

“Hello?” Keeley answered after the first ring, sounding completely confused about why he was calling her.

“Am I on speakerphone?” he asked.

“Do you want to be?” she asked in a confused tone that told Jamie that he wasn’t yet.

“Obviously,” he said.

“You are now,” she told him.

Jamie just grinned to himself for a moment before he loudly sing-songed, “I know what you two were doing.”

Keeley laughed. Roy did not.

“You do realize there are other reasons people don’t answer their phones, right?” Roy asked like an absolute fucking loser.

Jamie didn’t see why he was trying to pretend he hadn’t just gotten laid. Jamie was well aware that they had sex. He wasn’t upset in the least to know what they’d just been up to. In fact, if anything, he wished he had more details.

“You’re right though,” Keeley said and this time Roy did laugh. It was just barely audible over the phone but Jamie caught it anyway.

“I’m just honoured that I’m the first thing you both think about after getting off,” Jamie insisted happily. “I’m flattered, really. I-”

“I’m never texting you again,” Roy cut him off.

“Good luck with that,” Jamie said because he knew Roy was bullshitting. “That don’t mean you won’t still think about me after sex. Or were you both already thinking of me during? Because-”

Keeley clearly thought he was funny because she burst into laughter in the middle of that, but Roy wasn’t as impressed.

“I’m hanging up on you,” Roy interrupted.

“You can’t hang up on me,” Jamie insisted. “It’s not even your phone.”

But he didn’t even finish saying those words before Roy had already ended the call.

The next day, Phoebe dragged Roy and Jamie to the park. There were already teenagers playing and they let Jamie and Phoebe join them.

“You should play too,” Phoebe insisted as she turned back to Roy.

Several of the teenagers grinned like they thought he was going to join in.

Roy had absolutely no interest in that. He hadn’t brought his knee brace and he didn’t want to be seen with it anyway. Besides, it would be fucking humiliating having people all excited to play with Roy Kent just to play like complete shit and go home limping.

“I’ll keep score instead,” Roy said because he hoped it would keep her from starting to ask again. The only reason she’d stopped in the first place was because Cora had stepped in and stopped her back when his knee had been freshly fucked and it really hadn’t been a possibility at all.

He’d far rather stand on the side and call out scores like fucking Ted had for Isaac instead anyway.

“Okay,” Phoebe said and Roy was overwhelmed with relief.

Jamie was giving him a look, but Roy pretended he couldn’t see it.

Jamie left his shirt on and managed to make it through the game without totally fucking up his nipples. Maybe that was partly because they’d played a lot shorter than he usually would before Phoebe had gotten exhausted and hungry, but still. A win was a win.

When they were getting ready to leave, Phoebe asked, “Uncle Roy, can we go get ice cream now?”

“Fine,” Roy gave in as easily as ever.

“Can we come back here tomorrow?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Roy said. “Probably.”

“Will you play with me and Jamie then?” she asked.

Roy froze. His whole body went weirdly tense. Well, weirdly tense for when he was around Phoebe.

He shot Jamie a look like he thought that he was somehow behind this when he wasn’t even. Okay, maybe he’d assumed that Roy played with Phoebe still and had said something about it, but how was he supposed to know that that wasn’t the case? Roy gave in to everything Phoebe asked him to do.

Jamie glanced around and he could tell that the others around them were quite clearly listening for Roy’s answer and trying to pretend that they weren’t. Jamie had no doubt that most of them would be right back there tomorrow, hoping that Roy Kent would be back and that they could catch a glimpse of him playing.

“Please?” Phoebe asked and she gave him those sad eyes that Jamie had seen Roy give into many times before.

“Maybe,” Roy said stiffly. “We’ll see.”

Jamie was over at Keeley’s that night, when she said, “If you want to try something with a guy, I'm okay with it.”

Jamie’s head whipped around to look at her and he furrowed his brow as he asked, “Is this a trap?”

She wasn’t sure why he thought he would be. Sure, she could see why the way things had ended the first time would make him think she had a problem with it, but their situation was very different now. And she’d thought it over for a while before she’d brought it up.

“No,” Keeley said. “I’m dating two of you. I know you know I told Roy he could date that teacher if he wanted to. What makes you different?”

She actually hadn't been entirely certain that Jamie had been awake for the Roy getting asked out part of that conversation. But he didn't seem at all surprised by that so he must have been.

“‘Cause I fucked up last time,” Jamie pointed out. “And ‘cause that’s dating, not just hooking up.”

Keeley hadn’t realized just how much they hadn’t set any rules until that point. She’d had no interest in looking for anyone outside of the two of them and she’d only really thought about their side of things when Roy had told her about being asked out and since she’d found out that Jamie had apparently never done anything with a guy.

“It’s not fucking up again if I’m telling you you’re allowed to though, is it?” Keeley asked.

“Roy would still cut my dick off though,” Jamie said and Keeley couldn’t tell if he was exaggerating or if he honestly thought Roy might.

“Roy’s not dating you, I am,” Keeley pointed out. “He doesn’t get to decide what I’m okay with for me.”

Jamie was silent for a second, then said, “Still feels like a trap. Like you’re gonna say you’re okay with it now and I’m gonna be dumb and believe you and then I’m gonna get my dick sucked but I’m also gonna get dumped for it.”

He was clearly thinking about it then, despite his arguing against it.

“I’m not going to break up with you for doing something I said you could,” Keeley said. “Just, if you’re going to do something with someone else, make sure you’re safe about it and don’t do it behind my back. I don’t care whether Roy knows or not. He’s irrelevant to what you do. You don’t have to tell him. But I’d rather know before something happens than find out after, especially from someone else.”

“Maybe,” Jamie said and she could tell he was considering it. “Does that mean you were pissed when you thought Roy fucked me?”

She was surprised by the question, but that was different. Roy wasn’t some random guy or girl Keeley didn’t know or know about. Keeley knew about Jamie’s thing for Roy and had for a long time. She’d already given Roy blanket permission to do whatever he wanted with Jamie if it turned out he did want to do something. But Keeley couldn’t tell Jamie that without potentially getting his hopes up over something that would never happen or potentially unleashing him being extremely obnoxious about it to Roy.

“No, that was different. I’m not worried about you and Roy,” she said. Before he could ask any more questions, she offered, “We could go to a gay bar sometime. See if you see anyone there you feel like doing anything with.”

Jamie smiled then and visibly perked up as he asked, “You’re gonna come play wingman? And tell me what you’re okay with before I do anything?”

“Sure,” Keeley said.

“Yeah okay,” he said as if she’d talked him into it. “I’ll go and see if there’s anyone hot enough there to deserve even a chance to kiss me. And maybe if they’re really hot-”

Keeley laughed and he looked relieved.

When they got to the park the next day, Roy pulled his knee brace out of the back of the car and pulled it on. He’d worn shorts so it would be easier to take it on and off and he’d have more mobility, but that also meant it would quite blatantly be on display.

But Phoebe had worn him down and she wanted him to come back and play with her so there he was.

He’d never worn the stupid brace around her before. He’d never worn the stupid brace around any of the people in his life before.

He was expecting Jamie to make some obnoxious jokes. He was expecting Phoebe to ask questions. But they both just stood there and waited for him and then followed him over to the football pitch as if it was nothing out of the fucking ordinary.

Roy didn’t know whether to be grateful or annoyed that Jamie wasn’t being a little bitch about it.

When they got close, Roy pulled Jamie back by the back of his shirt and warned in his ear, “Lose to me on purpose and I will tear your piercings out.”

“Okay. Jesus,” Jamie muttered as Roy let go of him.

“I call Uncle Roy on my team,” Phoebe said cheerfully as the people who were already playing stopped as they walked up.

“Fine, I didn’t want to be on your team anyway,” Jamie said like the immature brat he was.

“We call Roy Kent,” one of the teens said and Roy was surprised.

Calling him and Phoebe was objectively a worse decision than calling Jamie, but he joined the team that had asked for him anyway.

Instead of a proper start, Jamie just went and took the ball and dribbled it over to Roy. He grinned like a fucking prick as he said, “I’ll take it easy on you and only use my left foot. You know, since it’s been a while. And since I was already better than you, even before you were all old and rusty.”

Jamie was so busy being a twat that he forgot to pay attention to the ball. Roy easily picked it off of him and passed it to Phoebe before Jamie even finished speaking.

Instead of looking annoyed, Jamie just smiled even wider.

“You’re a better player when you shut the fuck up,” Roy told him.

Roy was stuck covering Jamie because of course, he was. He was the closest thing to a professional football player his team had.

Jamie was undeniably faster and better, but Roy had three things working in his favour: Jamie only using his left foot, the fact that no one on Earth had studied Jamie’s playing more closely than Roy had, and unabashed cheating.

When Jamie got past him with the ball, Roy just grabbed him by the back of his shirt and yanked him back, then shoved past him and took the ball.

“What the fuck?” Jamie complained. "You can't just drag me around."

“I didn’t hear a whistle,” Roy said smugly as he passed the ball to one of his teammates.

Then he remembered the piercings and for a moment, he thought he’d fucked up yanking on his shirt and that was what Jamie was complaining about.

But when he turned back to check on Jamie, he was tossing his shirt aside and smirking.

“Let’s see you try to cheat now, asshole,” Jamie said.

“I’m sure I’ll find a way,” Roy said and Jamie laughed.

He was perfectly fine then.

Jamie’s team was up by one goal that he’d assisted within a few minutes. Jamie was still doing his stupid taking being a team player too far thing so when he stopped with the ball a few feet away from Roy and smirked, Roy knew exactly what he was doing.

He wanted Roy to cut off his angle to the goal so that he could pass to an open player without Roy getting in the way. He wasn’t going to shoot anyway though so the moment Jamie moved like he was going to kick the ball, Roy started moving before his foot even connected.

He’d anticipated Jamie’s pass right so he got in the way of it with no problem. He knew it was only a matter of time before Jamie would pick it right back off of him, so he knocked the ball forward a little to get a bigger angle and then took a shot from there.

Roy’s shot wasn’t as hard or as accurate as it had used to be, but this pitch was fucking tiny and it was enough for the ball to go in. His team and the crowd that gathered around them cheered at that and okay, Roy had definitely missed that.

He’d been so worried about looking weak in front of Phoebe and not living up to his former self that he’d forgotten how much fun this had been before he’d been desperately clinging to the last shreds of his career or before he’d lost it altogether. He’d been so worried about embarrassing himself that he’d forgotten that not being able to keep up with professional football players that trained every day anymore while his knee couldn’t take the strain of that routine anymore didn’t mean he’d suddenly lost every skill he’d ever had.

Roy looked over at Phoebe and she looked in awe at him scoring from the middle of the pitch. She didn’t care that it wasn’t anything like what he’d used to be able to do in his prime. She didn’t know this was any different.

Roy turned a smug smirk on Jamie and was surprised to see he was grinning, even though Roy had just tied things up and he wasn’t winning anymore.

“It’s called shooting,” Roy said. “You should try it sometime.”

“Three years ago you would be rolling over in his grave if he heard you say that to me,” Jamie insisted.

“What grave?” Roy asked. “I’m not dead, you twat.”

When neither of them had the ball, Roy stayed glued to Jamie. It was easier when Jamie was just jogging or walking while he watched everyone else than when he took off fucking sprinting out of nowhere.

Roy stayed in Jamie’s personal space and blocked the angle for anyone to pass from much closer than was strictly necessary. But that was because Jamie seemed too worried about Roy’s knee to shove him or do anything other than huff a little when Roy kept backing up practically into him for no reason and shoving him further out of the play. So Roy was going to take full advantage of that and annoy the hell out of him in the process.

The next time Roy assumed Jamie was going to pass and tried to block that instead of his path to the net, Jamie scored from just as far away as Roy had to get back in the lead and then smirked at him as he said, “You’re right, shooting works.”

After that, Jamie went back to passing for a while. But then he had the ball and Roy recognized the smug look that Jamie got that said watch this. It was the same one that he always got right before he did that stupid little dribbling spin around another player that he loved to show off with.

So Roy moved to get in the way and apparently Jamie didn’t see it coming because he barely had time to angle his chest to try to protect his piercings before he knocked right into Roy full force shoulder first. Roy’s legs gave out from underneath him as they fell together. Roy landed on his back and Jamie only landed partly on him for a second before his momentum sent him rolling away.

Roy lay on his back and stared up at the sky as he waited for the overwhelming pain to kick in. But seconds passed and it didn’t. Sure, he was definitely going to have bruises later and his ass hurt from landing hard on it, but his knee was no worse than it had been a minute ago. It wasn’t overworked the way it had been at the end of his career and the brace had kept it from going at any kind of angle that would have fucked it more.

He’d gotten knocked on his ass and he was fine. He was no more damaged than anyone else would have been. And even if his knee swelled up after this and decided to be a little bitch about it afterward, there was no strict training schedule for him to follow after and that he'd have to try to hide the pain during. There was no important game that he had to worry about being in rough shape for. Jamie had knocked him on his ass and he hadn’t fucking shattered. The world hadn’t ended.

He bent his knees just in case and yup, they were fucking fine. Roy burst into relieved laughter.

He’d spent years so fucking afraid to risk playing again and finding out just how incapable he was and just how little his leg could take anymore. Now, here he was, blocking Jamie fucking Tartt and knocking them both over again and living to tell the tale. And there Jamie was, staring down at him looking concerned for him and very confused.

Phoebe popped into Roy's vision beside him a second later.

“Do you have a fucking concussion?” Jamie asked.

“No,” Roy said.

“Are you okay?” Phoebe asked.

“I’m fine,” Roy said with a grin. “I’m fucking great, actually.”

Jamie still looked confused, but he stuck a hand out to him. Roy took it and let Jamie haul him up.

Roy grinned at him and apparently now that he was standing up and walking, Jamie must have really believed he was okay because he smiled back.

Jamie got a little less gentle with Roy after that. When Roy got too annoying, he’d shove him away and Roy would laugh and go right back to what he’d been doing anyway. Jamie would huff and bitch and roll his eyes, but he was smiling too.

Roy decided to really push things when Jamie ran past him and got the ball. He stopped him by just hooking his arms under Jamie’s armpits and lifting him up and dragging him back a few steps.

“Okay, this has to be a foul,” Jamie complained. He got even louder as he whined, “I want me free-kick!”

He would have been more convincingly upset if he wasn’t laughing even as he complained.

Everyone was standing around watching them while the ball just sat there so Roy said, “Phoebe get it.”

She didn’t have to be told twice. Roy wasn’t sure if the other team’s goalie intentionally let her score or if he was just too distracted by Jamie’s whining and unsuccessful attempts to break free from Roy’s grip, but Phoebe carried the ball up the rest of the pitch and kicked it right in.

Roy laughed loudly as he set Jamie back down. A few years ago, Jamie would have thrown a huge bitch fit if Roy had pulled that. He probably would have been huffing some bullshit about pressing charges. But now, Jamie looked perfectly amused as he turned around and shoved Roy in the chest hard enough to send him back a few steps. Roy shoved him right back just as hard with a smile.

“If you’re gonna cheat this much, I’m gonna use both fucking feet against you,” Jamie warned.

That was probably supposed to be a threat, but Roy liked being enough competition that Jamie would resort to it, even if it was because there was no one there to enforce any real rules and even if it was because Jamie let Roy get away with whatever he wanted.

“Is that a promise?” Roy asked.

Jamie looked surprised for a moment and then he fucking grinned.

Keeley was at work when she got a text from Trent Crimm.

Have you seen this?

Underneath was a link to a tweet. A moment later, Trent added There are plenty of other videos too.

Keeley opened the link and found a video of Jamie playing football in a public park. At first, she thought it was just going to be another video like the one of Jamie from the day he’d taken Phoebe there. But then there was Roy, in a knee brace she didn’t even know he owned, looking like he was playing too.

She couldn’t even think of the last time she’d seen him play. It must have been that last game. She hadn’t realized how strange it was that he spent so much time on football and the team and she wasn’t even sure if she’d seen him so much as kick a ball in years.

In the video, Jamie tried to pass the ball and Roy cut him off and then took a shot and got it in from the middle of the pitch. Jamie looked just as excited as everyone else did and Roy was grinning.

Keeley searched Roy Kent on Twitter and there was tweet after tweet talking about Roy Kent being seen playing for the first time in years and screenshots and video clips.

And in every single video and every single picture, Roy looked so fucking happy. They both did. But she hadn’t seen Roy like that in so long. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen him look quite so happy and carefree while he was playing professionally.

Jamie and Roy were running right into each other and shoving each other and in one of the videos, Roy was even carrying Jamie away from the ball while Jamie pretended he was trying to kick Roy in the legs but was clearly missing on purpose. This was different than the arguments and fights they’d used to get into when they’d played together and against each other though. They were laughing and smiling and getting on each other’s nerves without looking like they were going to start throwing punches at any moment.

Keeley wasn’t entirely sure why Trent had sent one of the videos to her, but she was glad he had.

Keeley sent a text to Jamie.

Does Roy usually play with you?

Jamie responded within seconds.

no fucking way

So what did you have to do to talk him into it?

gave him a kidney

he dont even want it he just doesnt want me to have it

What did you really do?

wasnt me

that was all phoebe

That figured. She should have known.

When they got out of the car at Roy’s house, Phoebe said, “You smell as bad as Jamie today.”

Jamie laughed at that. He still wasn’t fond of being told he stunk, but it was much funnier when Roy got dragged into it.

“Keeley’s going to really love you,” Phoebe added and Jamie looked from her to Roy confused.

He didn’t see what the fuck Roy stinking had to do with Keeley loving Roy or why Phoebe was talking like Keeley didn’t clearly already love him, but neither of them bothered to explain it to him.

“That’s too bad for her,” Roy said as he unlocked his house. “I’m not sitting around like this waiting for her to show up.”

They’d barely made it inside before Roy disappeared and left Jamie watching some stupid kids’ show with Phoebe. Jamie half paid attention to it and half paid attention to his phone.

When Roy finally came back, he’d showered and changed into a T-shirt and a different pair of shorts. He sat down next to Jamie and stuck his leg up on the coffee table so he could put an ice pack on his knee.

“That’s not fair,” Jamie complained. “How come I still have to stink?”

“No one’s stopping you from showering,” Roy said.

“I don’t have any other clothes here,” Jamie said.

He kept some clothes at Keeley’s for when he’d inevitably go straight from her place to training with Roy, but he had no reason to keep clothes at Roy’s place. And there wasn’t a whole lot of point in showering just to get right back into the same sweaty clothes all over again.

“I own clothes,” Roy said like he thought Jamie was stupid.

“Oh,” Jamie said because he hadn’t thought that Roy would let him take any of his, but now stealing Roy’s clothes was all he could think about.

“Go shower,” Phoebe said. “I’m sick of smelling you.”

Fucking rude. Jamie wasn’t telling her to go shower after she’d been running around too.

“Keep complaining and I’ll stay here stinking just to prove a point,” Jamie warned, but he stood up anyway.

Roy didn’t move his leg out of the way and Jamie could have just gone past Phoebe around the table the long way, but he didn’t want to give Roy the satisfaction. So Jamie glared at Roy on his way past as he stepped dramatically over his leg, being careful not to bump it.

Jamie was still in the shower when the team started messaging in the group chat.

Isaac sent a video someone had taken of them at the park earlier with @Roy when are you gonna play with us again?

Roy just stared down at the message for a moment.

Playing today had been fun. He was definitely going to be sore and swollen for a few days, but it had been worth it. There was no way he could maintain his old schedule anymore, but maybe he didn’t have to give up playing altogether.

Playing with the team was different though. Today, Jamie had been the only professional football player on the pitch. Roy hadn’t made a fool of himself like he’d thought he might, but he was well aware that every player on his team would run circles around him if he played with them and playing with all of them would be very different than playing with just Jamie.

As it was, the game had been over for Roy’s team the moment Jamie had started using both feet while Roy was on him. That had been worth it though because Jamie had transformed back into the show-off douchebag he’d been hiding away for far too long and he’d needed a reminder of what he was capable of when he wasn’t busy worrying about how he was going to come off more than what was best for the play.

Playing a stupid ruleless game with mainly amateurs had been fun. Maybe, Roy would even do it again. He just wasn’t sure that he was ready to face looking like the only amateur on the pitch against his own players. He’d long since gotten over resenting them all for still being able to play professionally when he couldn’t. He didn’t want to be bitter at them all over again.

So he sent Never.

Immediately, the messages started pouring in.

what the fuck????

That’s not fair

What makes Jamie so special?????

you’re our coach you have to play with us

Come on

Several of them were still typing as Roy locked his phone. He had the chat muted so he shouldn’t get any more notifications as long as none of them tagged him.

It didn’t take long for them to figure that out though or to realize that he wasn’t even reading their messages anymore. Soon his phone was buzzing nonstop as they didn’t even complain at him anymore, they just kept sending @Roy with no real message.

Phoebe glared over at his phone and then looked up at him as she said, “That’s really annoying.”

Roy laughed. She wasn’t wrong.

Roy unlocked his phone and left the chat so that he would still see if he got any real messages but he wouldn’t have to put up with them all spamming the hell out of him.

“There,” he said as he set his phone back down.

But it turned out that peace and quiet were out of the question because seconds later, Jamie was shouting down the stairs.

“Your closet is even sadder than I thought it would be,” he yelled like the fucking drama queen he was. “Seriously, it’s like two funerals got married.”

That insult didn’t make sense, but Roy didn’t bother pointing it out. Instead, he just called back, “I don’t care. Just pick something.”

Jamie didn’t say anything else, but suddenly Roy’s phone was buzzing again. Someone had added him back in the chat and now like ten of them were tagging him in a new message every two seconds all over again.

Roy debated leaving the chat again, but that wouldn’t last for long. He debated just turning his phone off, but that wasn’t a sustainable solution. He debated threatening them all, but that really didn’t translate as well over text.

So instead, he opened the chat again and sent If you all shut up, I’ll consider it.

Several of them were typing when he sent that, but they all stopped after. Good. Maybe now he could finally get a fucking moment of peace.

Jamie finally came downstairs then wearing the tie-dye shirt Phoebe had made and a pair of Roy’s jeans. The clothes didn’t exactly fit him, but they were close enough that he could manage. Besides, Roy had seen him wear clothes that had quite blatantly fit him far worse.

Roy wasn’t surprised by the shirt Jamie had picked, but he was kind of surprised he hadn’t gone for a more comfortable outfit instead of jeans.

Jamie stopped two steps into the room and posed.

“I look pretty fucking good, don’t I?” he asked. “I pull this off way better than you if I do say so myself.”

He was right, but that wasn’t hard when the shirt he’d picked was much closer to something Jamie would wear than anything Roy would have ever chosen for himself.

“You have to give Uncle Roy that shirt back after,” Phoebe insisted.

“I know. I will,” Jamie said as he came back over to the couch to sit with them again. “But for now it’s mine.”

Phoebe looked between them for a moment and then burst into a fit of giggles.

“What?” Roy asked.

Phoebe looked at Jamie as she asked, “Are you wearing Uncle Roy’s underwear?”

If he was, Roy didn’t want to know. And if he wasn’t and had just skipped underwear altogether before putting on Roy’s jeans, he didn’t want to know that either.

“Mind your own business,” Jamie said. “You can’t just go around asking people about their underwear, you know.”

He didn’t seem all that bothered by the question though and Phoebe just laughed even harder at his response.

When Keeley was finished at work for the day, she wanted to go see one of her boys. She wasn’t sure which one to text or just show up for though. Honestly, she wanted to see both of them.

So she opened up the jones kunt and twat group chat and sent a message.

Do you two want to do something?

Keeley hadn’t even made it to her car before Jamie had answered for both of them.

sure

were at roys

Keeley wasn’t sure why she was surprised they were together when she hadn’t had plans with either of them. That worked out perfectly for her though.

When someone knocked on the door, Jamie sprung up to get it so Roy could rest his old man knee. He was expecting it to just be Keeley anyway, but when he opened the door, he found Cora standing there.

She quite blatantly looked him up and down, then said, “Nice shirt.”

Apparently, Roy had heard because off in the distance, Jamie heard, “Oh fuck.”

“Thanks,” Jamie said, completely ignoring Roy. “I stole it.”

“Does Phoebe know Roy’s trying to unload it on you?” Cora asked.

“She’s letting me wear it as long as I give it back to him after,” Jamie said.

Before Cora could even say anything, Roy pushed Jamie out of the way.

“Fucking rude,” Jamie muttered under his breath.

Cora looked between them with a smirk and then settled her gaze on Roy as she asked, “You two are sharing clothes now?”

“Grow up,” Roy said. “He showered after training. This was better than him walking around naked after.”

“Okay,” Cora said in a tone that said she was probably only dropping it because Phoebe was coming over. “Phoebs, are you ready?”

When Keeley got to Roy’s house, it was Jamie who answered the door, wearing Roy’s clothes for some reason.

“I look hot, don’t I?” he asked as he took a couple of steps back, then lifted his arms up and did a slow spin so she could take in the whole look.

“Oh, always,” Keeley said and he grinned. She kissed Jamie and then headed further inside and asked Roy, “Is this your way of trying to get rid of that shirt?”

“It didn’t work,” Roy said. “Phoebe already told him he has to give it back after.”

“Good,” she said. “I like it on you anyway.”

“Hey,” Jamie complained. “What about me? Even Roy admitted I look good in it.”

“I did not,” Roy said.

“You didn’t correct me,” Jamie insisted. “That’s the same thing.”

Roy scoffed at that.

“You look better out of it anyway,” Keeley said as she turned back to Jamie.

That worked on him just like she thought it would. Jamie grinned and said, “Yeah, you’re right. I look better with nothing on.”

“That’s not what she said,” Roy argued.

“Yeah, but it’s what I meant though,” Keeley said and then laughed at the smug look on Jamie’s face.

Chapter Text

“Okay, well how about this?” Jamie asked when he’d finished pulling on another shirt.

Keeley had already watched Jamie try on at least ten other outfits while she sat on his bed and she was loving it. It was like she was getting her own personal fashion show. Besides, it was cute how much care he was putting into picking out the perfect outfit.

“Very sexy,” Keeley said.

Jamie looked at himself in the mirror for several long seconds and then said, “You’re right.” He turned back to her as he asked, “If you saw me looking like this, you’d want to fuck me, right?”

“Definitely,” she assured him. “But I’d want to fuck you in literally anything so…”

He smirked at her for a moment, then stared back at himself in the mirror again with a focused expression.

“Is this one better than the last one though?” he asked, suddenly sounding serious again.

Keeley got up from the bed and walked up behind him. She wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her chin on his shoulder as she looked at their reflections with him.

“You look fucking amazing, babe,” she assured him. “Every guy there is going to be fighting to try to get a chance with you.”

“Keeley didn’t want to come?” Janice asked.

“I didn’t ask,” Roy said honestly. “She already had other plans.”

“Maybe next time then,” Lauren said.

“Maybe,” Roy agreed.

He had no doubt that Keeley would probably be happy to spend a night watching Lust Conquers All with them at some point, but he also knew that she and Jamie had already planned something together for that night.

That was good anyway. That meant Jamie was far less likely to text him endlessly or call him or FaceTime him while he was with the yoga mums. He could just enjoy his time with them and his shitty TV show without having to worry about anything.

“Are we going to go in or are you just gonna sit there smiling at me all night?” Keeley asked.

Jamie didn’t get out of the car yet. He still couldn’t totally believe that she was taking him to find some guy to mess around with. But they’d talked about it several times and she’d insisted that she was fine with it.

So Jamie was too. He was going to have some fun. He was going to take his mind off of Roy and hook up with a guy that wasn’t him. He was going to give himself a different guy to think about when he wanked. He was going to finally do some of the things he’d been too afraid to do in his hoe era when he’d been far too afraid that any guy he did anything with would know exactly who he was and would tell anyone and everyone about it. Back then, he’d been far too afraid that someone would get pictures of him with a guy.

But now, he was out anyway. And Keeley was with him. And she was totally fine with it. So who gave a fuck if anyone found out?

“What are your rules?” Jamie asked. “Like, what are you okay with me doing?”

“As long as you’re safe about it, I’m fine with you doing whatever you want to,” she said.

She’d said similar when she’d first brought it up and he’d said she could tell him what she was and wasn’t okay with when they got there. He’d thought she’d have some sort of limits. Maybe, he’d even been hoping she would.

He didn’t want to go home with some random guy. He knew that much. He was fine with fucking around somewhere not quite public there, but he didn’t want to leave Keeley behind and go somewhere else. He didn’t want to spend the night at some guy’s place and then have to sneak out or cancel training or explain why the fuck he was there to Roy. He didn’t want to bring some guy back to his place either.

Besides, he wanted to go home with Keeley. He didn’t want to just abandon her to go home on her own. He wanted to talk to her about it after. He wanted to sleep tangled up with her.

“I want to make out with a guy,” Jamie said. After a moment, he added, “And maybe give him a blowjob.” When she didn’t flinch or look upset at that, he said, “Hopefully get one too.”

“Okay,” Keeley said as casually as if he’d said he was considering trying a new restaurant and not getting his dick sucked by someone else.

“You’re seriously okay with this?” Jamie asked again.

“I’m seriously okay with it,” she confirmed. She smiled at him as she added, “I wouldn’t be here playing wingwoman if I wasn’t, would I?”

Jamie had no idea how he had gotten so overwhelmingly lucky.

“I really fucking love you,” Jamie said as he kissed her.

“I love you too.”

“They’re definitely bringing Denise on next week,” Nicole said.

Right. Denise. The woman that had had jacuzzi sex with Jamie on national television.

“I fucking hope not,” Roy said out loud before he really thought it through.

Roy hoped Nicole was wrong. He hoped Denise wouldn’t be on at all. If they brought her back, they’d play clips from her first season and Roy would have to watch her with Jamie all over again.

“Why not?” Maureen asked. “There’s no way they’re not going to bring her back when Amy’s already there. That’s just good telly.”

Watching the clips of Amy from the first time around had been annoying enough. Roy hadn’t needed to watch her and Jamie together again. And he certainly hadn’t needed to watch her crying when Jamie had gotten voted out either.

“I bet they bring Jamie back first,” Rachel said.

“Oh, definitely,” Lauren agreed. “They’ll bring him back, probably make him and Amy go on a date, wait for the inevitable to happen, and then five minutes later in will walk Denise.”

It did sound exactly like something the show would pull. Roy really couldn’t argue with that when he shouldn’t have any reason to know that Jamie definitely wasn’t going to show up. So he just stayed silent and hoped they would drop it soon.

Keeley sat at a table by herself as she watched Jamie dancing with the guy they’d picked out together.

Even with a guy grinding against him, Jamie kept turning his head to grin over at her as if he was silently asking Are you seeing this?

Keeley hadn’t expected that she’d need to convince Jamie to give his undivided attention to the guy, but she liked that he was being extra careful. She liked that he was looking over at her even while he was having a good time with someone else.

Kiss him Keeley mouthed at him because apparently, Jamie needed some encouragement.

Jamie clearly understood because he turned around and wrapped his arms around the guy’s neck and then they were making out.

Keeley wasn’t even jealous. She was happy for Jamie and honestly, it was kind of hot. She hadn’t expected it to be a turn-on, but she certainly wasn’t upset about it.

They made out for a while, then the other guy said something in Jamie’s ear. Then Jamie was smirking at her over his shoulder as he got led away by the hand.

Roy was helping Janice clean up when she asked, “Did everything get sorted out alright?”

Roy just stood there and stared at her with both hands filled with wine glasses for several seconds, trying to figure out what she was even asking.

Oh shit. Right. He hadn’t really offered up any explanation for why they’d cancelled on brunch. He’d just texted the night before saying that something came up and they couldn’t make it anymore.

“Everything’s fine,” Roy said as he set the glasses down. “We just had to… do something.”

He knew that was a weak end to that sentence, but he hadn’t known what else to say. Oh yeah, sorry, I had to go threaten Jamie fucking Tartt’s father at the last minute so that created a bit of a conflict in my schedule. No fucking way.

“You don’t have to bring her around again if she has other things to do,” Janice said. “I can understand if she’d rather spend her time with people her own age. Just don’t disappear on us because you’re afraid it’ll hurt our feelings to find out she doesn’t want to join in.”

“No, it’s not that,” Roy said. “She liked meeting you all last time. Really. She’d probably be here if she hadn’t already had plans. And something really did come up last time. It was a family thing.”

It wasn’t really. It was a Jamie’s family thing, maybe. Not his. But that was the easiest way to brush it off without sounding like he was just making up bad excuses because they hadn’t wanted to come.

Jamie was pressed up against the door of a bathroom stall with a guy’s tongue in his mouth and it should have been enough to keep his mind off of Roy.

Jamie had no idea what this man’s name was. He hadn’t thought to ask and he didn’t really care. He was hot and willing and that had been fun at first. But now he was having a hard time maintaining fun when all he could think about was how Roy would have pushed him up against the door much harder.

That was one detail Jamie didn’t even have to imagine. Roy had pushed him up against walls and doors in anger enough times that Jamie knew exactly how it would feel.

He didn’t know what kissing Roy would feel like though. He just knew it wouldn’t be this. The guy he was making out with wasn’t even a bad kisser or anything. He was good enough. But Jamie wished he’d had the forethought to choose a guy with a beard or at least a hint of stubble.

Then again, the whole point had been to try to get his mind off of Roy, not give himself a more accurate picture of what he was missing out on.

Well, not the whole point. But certainly a large enough part of it.

Clearly, Jamie wasn’t having a whole lot of success.

The guy came up for air and then he was kissing at Jamie’s neck and Jamie really hoped he wouldn’t leave a hickey. Normally, he wouldn’t mind. But he did not want to have to explain that to Roy.

Oh yeah, Keeley took me out and we chose a guy for me to fuck around with in the toilets and he decided to leave his mark.

That would go over well.

Jamie tipped his head back and closed his eyes and tried to stop thinking about Roy. He tried to just enjoy the hands up his shirt and the mouth on his neck.

He was enjoying it. Kind of.

He wished this guy would talk a little. Tell him how good he looked. Tell him what to do. Tell him how good he was being for him. But no, he was being all silent. And okay, that was probably at least partly because his mouth was busy, but still. He wasn’t even being quiet in a sexy intense kind of way. Just the boring way.

When the guy pulled away a bit and reached for the button of Jamie’s pants, Jamie should have been excited. He should have just been into it.

But this wasn’t doing it for him. Okay, it was doing it for him a little. But not enough.

He didn’t want this guy touching him while all he could think about was Roy anyway. He didn’t want a sloppy bathroom hookup with some guy that probably knew what he was doing but didn’t know about any of what Jamie was into.

He’d gotten far too used to sleeping with just Keeley. In a good way though. She knew how to get him going so much better. She knew he liked to be talked to. She knew exactly what to say. She knew he wanted his ego stroked along with his dick.

Getting off with someone else wasn’t worth it for just some fucking guy. This wasn’t doing what he’d wanted it to. This wasn’t going to fix his thoughts about Roy. This wasn’t going to do anything other than make it so that he could say he had any experience at all with a man.

“I have to go,” Jamie said before the guy could even get his zipper down.

Jamie came back after only a couple of minutes and Keeley was confused.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her up out of her chair, then he was kissing her hard.

Keeley pulled back to ask, “What happened?”

“Couldn’t do it,” Jamie said.

“Wait, like-” Keeley cut herself off and looked down.

“My dick works perfectly fine, thank you,” Jamie said. “Just didn’t want to. Would way rather sleep with you.”

“Are you sure?” Keeley asked.

“Yeah,” Jamie said. “Let’s go.”

Keeley let him lead her back to the car and once they were inside, she turned to him and asked, “Is this about Roy?”

“No,” Jamie said but he was staring straight ahead out the windshield instead of looking at her.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

“No,” Jamie admitted.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she asked.

“No,” he said. He turned to look at her as he added, “I meant it when I said I wanted to have sex with you instead. He didn’t know any of what did it for me. And yeah, I could’ve told him and seen if he’d listen. But I’d way rather just have sex with you and know I’m not gonna end up disappointed.”

Keeley eyed him for a moment, then said, “You could still try something new tonight if you want.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. He sounded eager all over again as he asked, “Like what?”

“You could tell me what else is on your nonexistent bingo card that we apparently haven’t tried yet,” Keeley said. “And we could see if I’m into trying it. I bet I will be.”

She’d been curious about it anyway.

Jamie looked like he was considering for a moment.

“Well, there is one thing that I’ve thought about a lot,” he said.

“Oh yeah?” Keeley asked. “What’s that?”

If it was what she thought it was going to be, she was totally okay with trying it out.

Jamie hesitated for a moment, then said, “I want you to peg me.”

“Oh,” Keeley said because that really wasn’t what she had been expecting but now that the idea was in her head, she was very very into it. That was quite possibly the hottest thing he’d ever said to her.

How had Keeley never even thought of using her strapon on him before?

“If you want to,” Jamie added.

“Oh, I want to,” Keeley said with a grin and Jamie visibly relaxed. “You have no idea how much I want to. Believe me, babe, I am more than happy to fuck your brains out and tell you how good you are at taking it the second we get back to my place.”

Jamie grinned at that.

“Have I mentioned how in love with you I am?” he asked.

“You have,” she said. “But I like hearing it anyway.”

Jamie woke up in the best fucking mood.

He hadn’t even thought about Roy or about the club or the failed hookup once since they’d made it back to Keeley’s place. The only thing he’d had room in his brain for at first had been her. And then she’d made it so that he couldn’t think at all.

He should have brought the idea up years ago. He would have if he hadn’t been such a coward. Back then, he’d been so terrified that if he brought pegging up, then she’d think he wasn’t manly enough or that somehow other people would find out and they wouldn’t think he was man enough because of it.

Now, he didn’t care if everyone on Earth found out that he liked Keeley fucking him if it meant she’d do it again. It had been better than he’d expected. It was so much hotter with her fucking him than when he’d messed around with toys on his own. It was so much hotter when she was kissing him and talking to him all the way through. It was so much hotter when she quite clearly found it just as hot as he did and wasn’t just doing it for his sake.

He pulled away from Keeley reluctantly and turned his alarm off. It really was a shame that he had to get up and go train, especially when it was Sunday morning and Keeley didn’t have to be up for work at all.

If Roy wasn’t probably up and getting ready, Jamie definitely would have cancelled. As it was, he was tempted to tell Roy to fuck off for a while. But that wouldn’t be great for his training. Plus, Roy would probably get pissy about it.

“Morning,” Keeley said as she rolled over to face him.

He kissed her, then shot her a dopey smile as he said, “Morning.”

“What are you so happy about at this hour?” she asked.

“You,” he said. “Obviously.”

Jamie was in as good of a mood as ever when he came to the door. Maybe even better than usual.

He grabbed Roy’s face with both hands as he said, “Morning, coach.”

Roy grabbed both of Jamie’s wrists and pulled his hands off of his face, then warned, “Leave my face alone.”

That warning never lasted for long, but Jamie at least kept his hands to himself for the moment instead of grabbing Roy’s face again just to be annoying.

Instead, he just started running ahead of Roy, then turned around to run backwards as he asked, “What did you do last night without us? Watch Phoebe or sit around by yourself?”

“Neither,” Roy said. “And that’s all you’re getting.”

“Right,” Jamie said. “You have to keep your mysterious act up.”

“I don’t have a mysterious act,” Roy defended himself.

“Sure you don’t,” Jamie said. He dropped his voice lower as he said, “I’m Roy Kent. I keep secrets just to annoy everyone around me.”

“That’s not what I sound like,” Roy argued.

“That’s exactly what you sound like.”

Jamie was having a hard time maintaining his good mood.

He’d still had a great fucking night with Keeley. He was perfectly fucking happy with his decision to go home with her instead of sticking things out in a hookup he wasn’t anywhere near as into as he’d expected to be.

But at the same time, now that he was away from Keeley and he was stuck spending hours with Roy again, the earlier part of last night was back on his mind again a lot more. He was happy with how the night had ended and yet he was still annoyed that such a large part of what had gone wrong at the bar had been that he hadn’t been able to get his mind off of Roy.

Now, he was with Roy. And Roy was completely oblivious to what had happened. Which was good. There was no way in fuck Jamie was having that talk with him.

Hey, I tried to exchange blowjobs with a stranger but all I could think about was how different it would have been if you'd been the one there instead. Let’s talk about that.

Roy would malfunction for a week at least, if not permanently.

Jamie hadn’t wanted to talk about it with Keeley last night and he didn’t want to talk about it now, especially with Roy. He just wanted to stop thinking about it.

But it just kept creeping back in.

Then, when he was lifting weights and Roy was spotting him, Roy oh so casually suggested, “I was thinking we could go to Keeley’s for lunch.”

There was nothing wrong with that and Jamie was more than happy to get more time with Keeley, so he said, “That works for me. We can grab food on the way.”

But then fucking Roy said, “I was thinking I could cook.”

Jamie didn’t say anything.

Technically, there was nothing wrong with it. Keeley would probably like Roy cooking for her. Jamie wanted Roy to cook for him. But it wouldn’t be for him. He had to remind himself of that. It would be for Keeley and he’d just also happen to be there eating.

He’d let himself get far too careless about things with Roy. That was how he’d ended up in the fucking mess he’d been in last night. That was how it had gotten so bad that every other man was just Not Roy. That was how he’d ended up worried about what Roy would think if he found out where he’d been as if Roy would give a single fuck about Jamie hooking up with a guy.

Roy wouldn’t care. Even if he got pissed off, it would be about Keeley and him worrying about her reaction.

Jamie liked that Roy and Keeley were together. He liked that they were happy. He liked that he got to spend time with both of them. He did.

It was just getting a lot harder to keep his feelings in check now that they were spending so much time all together. And now that he and Roy were spending so much time together away from the rest of the team. And now that Roy was giving him special treatment outside of extra training.

So Jamie hesitated when Roy suggested he cook for them all. He wanted it to happen and didn’t all at the same time. He wished Roy would set some fucking boundaries and cut him out of things. Except that wasn’t even true at all. He wanted Roy to lose the rest of his boundaries altogether.

But still. Jamie would rather fucking just sit and talk and have lunch with Roy than get his dick sucked by a hot guy that was actually willing to touch him and that pissed him off.

“Or not,” Roy said when he finally figured out Jamie wasn’t going to answer him.

“Do whatever the fuck you want,” Jamie said. “I don’t care.”

“You’re the one that volunteered me to cook next time,” Roy pointed out.

He was right, but that had been ages ago. That had been when he’d still been in the closet and he’d thought he’d had things under control. That was back when there had been far clearer boundary lines. That was when Jamie would have never dared to let himself pretend like Roy was his boyfriend too. That was when Jamie hadn’t even known what Roy was like as a boyfriend. He hadn’t witnessed it up close and personal the way he did now.

Now, Jamie was well acquainted with what boyfriend Roy was like. He had a front-row seat to watch how he was with Keeley and wish it would extend to him too. He had a close enough view of it that every once in a while, he deluded himself into thinking Roy wasn’t treating him that differently, just to get hit hard with reality all over again.

“So cook then,” Jamie said more huffily than he’d intended.

He’d been aiming to sound indifferent enough that Roy would just do whatever he wanted and drop the subject. He clearly fucking failed though because Roy stared down at him for a few seconds then asked, “Why are you so pissy all of a sudden?”

“I’m not,” Jamie lied.

It probably would have been more convincing if he’d used a less bitchy tone, but he wasn’t in the mood for that. He was fucking annoyed with Roy. It was bad enough that he wouldn’t get out of his head. Now, he also had to make a whole thing out of Jamie not responding enthusiastically enough for his liking. 

“Clearly,” Roy said sarcastically. “Seriously, what the fuck’s your problem?”

“Don’t have one,” Jamie lied as he focused all of his energy on lifting the stupid barbell and on not looking at Roy.

Roy took the barbell out of his hands and stuck it back in the fucking rack for him so Jamie sat up so he wouldn’t have to look at him as he asked, “What the fuck is your problem?”

“What the fuck is my problem?” Roy asked. “You’re the one throwing a fucking temper tantrum.”

He sounded annoyed now too. Good.

Jamie turned around to glare at him as he argued, “No, I’m not. I’m just trying to train. You’re the one that won’t let me because you want to talk about feelings and shit. Ted really did a number on you.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Roy asked. He was silent for a moment, then his voice came out noticeably more concerned as he asked, “Did something happen last night?”

“No,” Jamie said.

It was a fucking lie and the truth at the same time. Nothing had really happened. That was the problem. He’d had Keeley’s full permission to go mess around with a guy. Hell, he’d had her encouragement. It had been supposed to be a little meaningless fun. It had been supposed to be a chance to see what it would be like. It had been supposed to take his mind off of Roy instead of it staying stuck laser-focused on him every time he even considered anything with a guy.

But Roy had fucking ruined it. Roy had fucking ruined him. Keeley was the only girl he could even properly think about anymore, but that made sense. He had Keeley. He got to be with her. She was fucking good to him and she knew all the things he liked that some random girl wouldn’t and she was more than happy to work with them.

Not considering other girls made sense. Not being able to see past Roy when he wasn’t there made no fucking sense. Getting cockblocked by the idea of Roy when a hot guy was right there and ready to go didn’t make any sense.

Jamie had always been good at hooking up. He’d been fucking excellent at meaningless sex. But now he was fucking broken. Roy had broken him and now he wasn’t even good at being a slut anymore. Which was fucking tragic. Jamie had been an excellent slut. Roy Kent had no fucking right to take that away from him.

Roy wouldn’t fuck him. Roy wouldn’t do anything with him. The only reason Roy might have had a problem with Jamie getting his dick sucked would have been because of some misguided macho bullshit that he thought was on Keeley’s behalf. But Roy wouldn’t have any right to complain. If Roy didn’t want another guy to suck Jamie’s dick, then he should just suck it himself.

Roy didn’t care though. Jamie was the moron that did. And the worst part was he couldn’t even fucking yell at Roy for it. He couldn’t get properly mad and give him shit for fucking with his head because Roy was so fucking oblivious and so fucking uninterested that it was beyond embarrassing.

Roy was never going to figure out how Jamie felt no matter how he pushed his jokes further than he should and no matter how he slipped up. That was a good thing, but it was fucking infuriating at the same time.

And now Roy wanted them to all have fucking lunch together. He wanted to fucking cook for them both like he didn’t already fuck with Jamie’s head enough already. Like he could just walk around treating Jamie the way he treated Keeley half the time and lumping him in with her whenever he felt like it. Because it meant fucking nothing to Roy.

Fucking Roy didn’t have to remind himself that Jamie wasn’t his boyfriend. Roy didn’t have to feel anything over romantic gestures that weren’t even for him. Roy could spend as much time as he wanted with him and still be normal about it.

“Are you and Keeley fighting or something?” Roy guessed.

That only made Jamie angrier.

“No,” he said. “Things with Keeley are great. More than great. They’re fucking amazing. Never been better actually, so you can fuck right off with that.”

Roy stared at him for several agonizingly long seconds before he finally asked, “Then what the fuck are you so pissed off about? What? Is this because I said we could all have lunch together? We have lunch together every fucking day. And if you don’t have a problem being around Keeley-”

“It’s not about fucking lunch,” Jamie said.

It was and it entirely wasn’t at the same time.

“So what then?” Roy asked. “Do you need a fucking exorcism?”

“Have you even considered that maybe I’m fucking mad at you?” Jamie asked.

The confused look on Roy’s face showed that he clearly had not.

Roy just stood there with his brows furrowed in confusion for so long that Jamie got up intending to leave, but he froze in the doorway when Roy asked, “You’re mad at me?”

“Yes,” Jamie confirmed as he turned back around and crossed his arms over his chest.

It was objectively a bad choice to admit that, but Roy was a nosey old twat and he’d pushed Jamie to it. Jamie had tried to ignore it and play nice and just train like usual, but Roy had been too fucking immature to manage that.

“For what?” Roy asked.

He didn’t even sound angry or annoyed. He just sounded confused. And that somehow made things so much worse. It would have been so much easier if Roy would have just been a dick and Jamie could have focused on that and used it as an excuse to yell at him.

“Mind your own business,” Jamie said because that was his only option.

He was already ruining things with Roy more than enough. He didn’t need to push it past the point of no return.

“What?” Roy asked. “If you’re pissed off at me for something, how is that not my business?”

“It just isn’t,” Jamie insisted.

“Well, how the hell am I supposed to fix it if you won’t even tell me what I did?” Roy asked.

That shocked Jamie. As far as Roy knew, he was being entirely fucking irrational and freaking out on him over literally nothing. Because Roy hadn’t done anything wrong and Jamie was well aware he was acting fucking insane. But Roy was still trying to figure out what was going on and fix it.

It made Jamie wish he could take back every word he’d said, but he couldn’t. And if he tried, Roy would only think he’d lost it even more. Jamie was exhausted and restless at the same time. He felt guilty as fuck for losing it on Roy and yet he was angry at him for being considerate and not a massive asshole about it.

This was something Roy couldn’t fix. He couldn’t just decide to have feelings for Jamie because it would make things easier on Jamie. And Jamie couldn’t just decide to not be attracted to Roy or have feelings for him and make things fucking normal like Roy thought they were. He’d tried that. Pushing it down and hoping it would disappear didn’t fucking work.

Jamie’s voice came out slightly calmer as he said, “You’re not supposed to. You can’t fix everything, Roy.”

“So what? You’re just going to stay pissed at me forever?” Roy asked.

Maybe.

“No,” Jamie said. “That’s not what I’m saying. I just need a little space from you.”

He didn’t want space from Roy. He just wanted his fucking head to clear up enough that he could act like a rational human being around him.

Roy looked torn for a moment, then he said, “Okay.”

“Okay,” Jamie said.

But he didn’t leave. He just stood there and stared at Roy like a fucking idiot.

“We don’t have to have lunch together,” Roy said. “You could have lunch with Keeley without me or-”

“No,” Jamie said like a fucking hypocrite. “We’re having lunch together.”

“But you just said…”

Roy sounded utterly confused. Jamie was fucking confused too.

“I know what I just said,” Jamie said. “But we’re having lunch together.”

“Do you want space or not?” Roy asked.

Jamie had no idea. Mostly, he just wanted to go back to the way things had been before this whole disaster of a conversation.

“I don’t know,” Jamie admitted. After a second he said, “I’ll meet you there.”

“What?” Roy asked. “I can drive you there. Or somewhere else.”

They’d driven there together in Roy’s car like they always did. But Jamie wasn’t even choosing to run to avoid Roy. Not really. Yeah, he could probably use a little time away from Roy to get a fucking grip. But he needed to get some of this angry energy out and Roy had stopped him from training and obviously, trying to calm the fuck down around Roy right now wasn’t the best plan.

“I want to run,” Jamie said. “Need to.”

“Okay,” Roy said. He sounded confused, but that was probably because they’d done plenty of running already that morning. “If you want, I could-”

“No,” Jamie said. “I don’t. This is my space from you.”

Keeley was surprised when Roy showed up at her door. She grinned when she saw him, but then her smile fell when she saw how tense he was.

“Where’s Jamie?” she asked.

“Fucking running here,” he said.

“Did you tell him to do that?” Keeley asked.

“No,” Roy said. “Apparently, he needs space from me.”

“Oh,” Keeley said. “But he’s coming here too?”

“I said we didn’t both have to,” Roy said. “But apparently we all have to eat lunch together, even though he needs space enough that he can’t stand to be in a car with me. I don’t know what the fuck is going on really. Did he say anything to you about what he’s suddenly pissed off at me for?”

She had a strong theory, but it didn’t seem like her place to share it.

So instead, she said, “No. He seemed perfectly happy with me this morning.”

That was true. Keeley knew that the club hadn’t gone exactly how he had hoped that it would and that Jamie hadn’t been thrilled about that. But things had been good after. They’d been really good after.

Jamie had been excited to try something new with her instead. It had been his idea and he’d sure as hell seemed to enjoy it during. He’d sure as hell been happy and told her how much he’d liked it afterward. He’d sure as hell been happy and in a great mood all morning before he’d left.

But now, Keeley was second-guessing herself. She was worried she’d been oblivious and he hadn’t really been as okay as she’d thought. Maybe, trying something new to try to cheer him up hadn’t been that great of an idea after all.

“Yeah, he seemed happy to me too,” Roy said. “Until he got all huffy out of nowhere.”

“I don’t know,” Keeley said. “Maybe, I just didn’t notice something and it’s not even about you.”

“No, it’s definitely about me,” Roy said. “He told me that much. He just won’t tell me what he’s mad about. I don’t know if he found out about me threatening his dad or-”

“I don’t think it’s that,” Keeley said. “He would have said something to me about it if it was.”

She wasn’t sure that was true, but it was the easiest explanation she could offer without admitting that she knew what Jamie was probably upset about but she couldn’t tell him either.

“I don’t know,” Roy said. “It was like one second he was completely fine and then he got a little pissy and the moment I called him on it, it was a fucking disaster.”

“You do spend a lot of time together,” Keeley pointed out. “It’s not that surprising that you’d start rubbing each other the wrong way. I mean, you put any two people together for long enough and they’ll start driving each other crazy. Maybe he really does just need space and that’s all it is.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing here then,” Roy said. “Maybe, I should just leave before he gets here.”

“I don’t know,” Keeley said. “Didn’t you say he said that we should all eat lunch together? Did he say that before or after he said he needed space from you?”

“After,” Roy said stiffly.

“I don’t know if disappearing before he gets here is the answer then.”

Jamie felt like a fucking moron.

Running had done the trick to clear his head up. Now instead of angry, he just felt guilty and stupid.

Roy hadn’t done anything wrong. All Roy had done was be a good boyfriend to Keeley and a good friend to Jamie. It wasn’t his fault that Jamie apparently couldn’t handle keeping those two things separate.

Getting all pissy with Roy hadn’t fixed anything. All it had done was probably freak him the fuck out.

Jamie didn’t know how to fix this, but he knew he needed to. He didn’t need to fuck things up with one of the people that cared about him most in the world just because he was being a little bitch about Roy not caring about him in the exact way he wanted him to.

By the time Jamie made it to Keeley’s house, he had gone over dozens of different ways to try to apologize to Roy without explaining what had come over him, but he hadn’t settled on any of them.

He knocked on the door anyway and it was Keeley who answered. Roy’s car was there though so he must be inside.

Keeley took a step outside with him and closed the door behind her.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

She was looking up at him so concerned and it only made him feel that much stupider about the whole thing.

“I’m fine,” Jamie said. “Really.”

Keeley eyed him suspiciously and he was expecting her to bring up the Roy thing again and not let him dodge the conversation this time. Instead, she asked, “This isn’t about what we did last night, is it?”

“What?” Jamie asked and he couldn’t hide how surprised he was by the question from his tone. “No. I liked that. A lot. We should absolutely do that again. Regularly.”

“Okay,” Keeley said. She smiled a little as she added, “I definitely agree with you on that… But what about you and Roy?”

“I mean, we could ask him, but I really don’t think he’s going to fuck me,” Jamie said. “And I mean, yeah, that’s a shame. But it’s kind of expected.”

Keeley didn’t laugh.

“You know that’s not what I meant,” she said.

He wasn’t getting off the hook that easily then.

“I was being a dramatic little shit,” Jamie said. “Everything’s fine.”

When Keeley came back inside, Jamie was following her.

He looked significantly calmer than he had earlier, but Roy stood up and offered, “I can leave if you want.”

Jamie didn’t say anything. He just walked right over to Roy and buried his face in Roy’s neck as he hugged him.

Roy was so fucking confused. But he was also relieved. He’d far rather be confused with Jamie hugging him than confused with Jamie all worked up and pissed off at him over something he wouldn’t even explain.

Roy looked to Keeley to see if she had any idea what was going on, but she looked just as surprised as he felt. Roy hugged Jamie back loosely, careful not to bump against his chest and hit his piercings.

“Are we good?” Jamie asked as if Roy had been the one angry and he’d been the one who had fucked up somehow.

“You tell me,” Roy said. “Are you over whatever I did?”

Roy still wished Jamie would fucking tell him so that he wouldn’t do whatever he had again, but it wasn’t worth starting another fight over if Jamie still didn’t want to tell him.

“Make me lunch and we’ll call it even,” Jamie said. “I’m fucking starving.”

“Okay,” Roy said. When Jamie didn’t let go of him, he asked, “Are you going to let go of me or am I supposed to cook like this?”

“Give me a second,” Jamie said.

So Roy just stood there with Jamie wrapped around him. He shot Keeley a confused look but she just smiled back at him.

Chapter Text

Keeley woke up on her own to two texts the next day.

Jamie had sent morning with a selfie of him in bed with his hair still all mussed up from sleeping and Roy had sent Good morning ❤️

Keeley grinned to herself. She liked that she was the only person in the world that Roy Kent sent emojis to and she liked that even though she’d given him an absolute world of shit for it the first time he’d done it, he still kept sending her hearts anyway. The red heart was the only emoji she’d ever seen him send.

Roy and Jamie didn’t usually text her in the morning if the other was with her so they must have talked at some point since lunch yesterday to know that neither of them was there. Or, maybe they were both just guessing that the other wasn't. Keeley wasn’t really sure.

She wasn’t a hundred percent sure where they stood right now. Jamie had seemed like he had been fine with Roy and around him during lunch and afterward the day before, but he’d also been stuck to Keeley’s side and affectionate with her more than he usually was when Roy was around. Keeley hadn’t been sure if it had just been in the same way he’d been all happy and affectionate that morning before whatever had happened with Roy, or if it had been to distance himself from Roy a little, or if he’d just been trying to draw clearer lines between Jamie and Keeley and Jamie and Roy. She hadn’t asked him about it and she wasn’t planning to since Jamie clearly hadn’t wanted to talk about the Roy situation.

She took a selfie to send back to Jamie. Her hair was a mess and she didn’t have any makeup on, but it wasn’t like Jamie hadn’t seen her like that in the morning before anyway or with her face a complete mess when she hadn’t bothered with removing her makeup before bed.

Keeley sent it to Jamie with morning babe 🩷

Then she sent the same to Roy. She’d debated sending it to both of them in the group chat, but that seemed like it might not go over well when Roy had cancelled training for the morning and something was going on with Jamie around Roy.

To Roy, she added One of these days I’m going to take a screenshot of one of those hearts you keep sending to me and sell it to the press to ruin your whole tough guy reputation and prove you actually have a heart. I bet I could make millions off of it

Jamie responded first, seconds after Keeley got out of bed.

gonna talk 2 beard 2day

dont want 2

but kind of have 2

Keeley considered how to word what she wanted to say nicely, then decided to just send it bluntly instead.

Fuck what your dad said. You don’t have to do anything

Jamie started typing and then stopped.

A text from Roy came before Jamie started typing again.

How do you plan on proving that’s really from me?

Keeley had been about to respond to him when messages started coming in from Jamie again. That conversation was about a more important topic so she switched back to his messages.

i know i dont

but its way weirder being around him pretending i dont know now

dont want 2 do that every day

At least that was for Jamie’s benefit instead of his dad’s then.

Keeley debated asking if he’d told Roy about what had happened, but she already knew from Amsterdam that he hadn’t. Part of her felt like she should tell him that she’d told Roy, but she didn’t want to add another layer of stress to things or tell him that when she knew things were already weird between those two without her having said things she maybe shouldn’t have. She’d just assumed Roy had known when she’d first mentioned it.

So instead, she sent Good luck, babe. Let me know how it goes

thx i will

Keeley went back to Roy’s last message again. 

How do you plan on proving that’s really from me?

Your contact name. Duh. Everyone will see Roy Kent 💞 at the top and know it’s from you

Right. Because you couldn’t possibly edit a picture or put that name for someone else

I couldn’t. That’s illegal. Everyone knows that’s impossible. But if you insist on better evidence, I could just take your name off altogether and have them publish it with your phone number

Sounds incredibly legal for them to publish. That wouldn’t prove anything anyway. Maybe Phoebe stole my phone

That message makes it a VERY convincing theory, babe

You wouldn’t show anyone anyway

You’re awfully confident considering I’m taking a screenshot to post on twitter as we speak

She wasn’t. Not because it wouldn’t be funny. She just didn’t want him getting in a huff enough that he would never send her a heart again.

Go for it if you want, but it’ll be a shame when I’ll have to never text you again

She knew there was absolutely no way he’d follow through with that, but she played along anyway.

Fine. You’re safe… For now at least

That morning was the start of pre-season training. Roy had called off training with Jamie beforehand because he didn’t have any idea whether Jamie needed space still or not, but it was probably better to err on the side of caution than have Jamie pissed off all over again around the whole team, especially when there was a limit to how much space Roy could physically give Jamie now that they were back to training as a team again.

It was weird driving to the stadium without Jamie in the passenger seat jabbering away at him or connecting his phone to blast his music and then singing along obnoxiously loudly just to get a rise out of him when Roy turned it way down.

Getting a break from Jamie’s constant noise and having a quiet drive by himself should have been relaxing. It wasn’t.

Then Roy had barely stepped into his office before Beard glanced up and asked, “Where’s Jamie?”

“What am I? His keeper?” Roy asked.

“Aren’t you?” Beard asked.

Roy narrowed his eyes at him but didn’t dignify that with a response.

Jamie went in a little early because it wasn’t like he wasn’t up already or like he had anything better to do when Roy had called extra morning training off. Besides, now that everyone was going in all the time, he’d run out of excuses to put off talking to Beard.

He was going to have to be around him again so he couldn’t just avoid checking his office for him and pretend he hadn’t had any opportunity anymore. Besides, as much as he didn’t want to have the conversation, he didn’t want to spend time stuck around Beard without having gotten it over with.

Jamie popped his head into the office and Roy looked up like he assumed he was there for him. Nate and Beard both looked over to Roy too. Like Jamie couldn’t possibly be there for any other reason.

“What do you want?” Roy asked.

He glared up at him and Jamie almost laughed at the grouchy act he was putting on now that he was around the other coaches.

“You to get the fuck out of here,” Jamie said.

“This is my office,” Roy pointed out.

“Do I look like I care?” Jamie asked. “Go away. And take Nate with you. I need to talk to Beard.”

Something in Roy’s expression shifted ever so slightly at that, then he stood up with the mug Phoebe had made him still in hand.

“Come on, Nate,” Roy said.

Jamie still was hanging off of the doorframe so Roy pushed past him, shoving Jamie’s shoulder with his own, on his way by. Nate followed and looked from Jamie to Roy, then stepped carefully around Jamie on his way out.

Jamie turned and watched them until they were a safe enough distance away, then stepped further inside and closed the door behind him.

He debated between sitting and standing for a moment before he sat down on top of Roy’s desk, facing Beard.

Beard just leaned back in his chair and waited for Jamie to start talking.

Jamie looked down at his hands as he said, “So I talked to me dad. He’s sobered up now.”

Beard was silent for a moment too long, like he was expecting Jamie to say something else, then he said, “That’s good.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Jamie said. He looked up to meet his eyes as he added, “I mean, it is. I want it to be. I just. I don’t know. It’s probably stupid to think things are going to suddenly be better now because of it.”

Beard didn’t say anything. He just stared at him in that ominous fucking way of his.

“He told me about what happened with you,” Jamie added. “And his friends and all… He wanted me to tell you he was sorry about it.”

Beard still didn’t say anything. This was even worse than trying to have a conversation with Roy.

“I dunno why you never told me,” Jamie said. He tugged his sleeves down halfway over his hands, then picked at a piece of lint as he stared down at his hands and added, “But I get it if you hate me for it. I mean, I should’ve told him not to pull that shit way earlier. If I had, then he never would’ve taken it out on you. I’m sorry for my part in it too.”

There was a horribly uncomfortable pause before Beard said, “I don’t hate you. And his actions aren’t on you.”

Jamie was surprised by that. He looked back up at him again but didn’t say anything.

“Given the chance, I’d do the exact same thing over again, even knowing how it would turn out,” Beard said. “There are parts of that night I’d take back. Throwing him out of the locker room for how he treated you isn’t one of them.”

Jamie just sat with that for a moment and let it really sink in. Jamie hadn’t even thought Beard liked him or cared about him one way or the other outside of how he played. It was a little jarring to find out he’d get the shit kicked out of him for Jamie’s sake all over again, especially when Jamie was fairly confident he wouldn’t have even considered taking a punch for Beard before that moment.

He and Beard had always had a good system going. A system where they barely spoke to each other and just kind of coexist without having to get into any of the awkwardness of getting emotionally invested in each other. Or, at least, that’s what Jamie had thought. Ted had always been the one trying to get all deep and emotional and whatever with Jamie. Beard had just kind of been there. Or maybe, he hadn’t. Maybe, Jamie just hadn’t paid enough attention to him to even notice him giving a shit. Who knew?

“That seems like a pretty dumb choice, Coach,” Jamie told him. “Unless you’ve got a secret thing for getting your ass handed to you and even then, I’m sure there are sexier ways of going about it anyway.”

Jamie was expecting some sort of comeback or something. He was in no way braced for what Beard said instead.

“It’s not stupid to want things to get better with him,” Beard said.

What? Could fucking everyone see right through him now? Sure, he was the one who had said that he knew it was probably stupid. But Beard was the one who had brought it back up unprompted and who was sitting there just giving him that stern look of his while he said the thing Jamie had been so desperately wanting to hear.

Roy had said it, sort of. He’d said Jamie should stop calling himself stupid. But Jamie knew how stupid he thought it was anyway. He knew how pleased Roy had been that he hadn’t let himself just go all in and fully forgive his father like he had wanted to. And even Keeley was wary about the idea. She was supportive and she went with him when he needed her there, but he knew she didn’t trust the situation. He could feel her just waiting for the other shoe to drop. He felt stupid for telling himself that maybe it wouldn’t this time while he could feel her and Roy waiting for it to inevitably happen.

He could feel them waiting for the opportunity to say they’d told him so. And worse than that was that he knew they wouldn’t. They’d think it, maybe. But they’d be there to pick up the pieces and try to make him feel better while he’d be the idiot that had been fooled again and needed them to put him back together because of it.

“It’s kind of stupid,” Jamie said finally. “It’s not like I shouldn’t know better. I know this probably isn’t just gonna magically make things all better. But I still want to believe that it could, you know?”

“Everyone deserves a second chance, don’t you think?” Beard asked. “I mean, look at you. Look at me.”

Jamie furrowed his brow as he asked, “Wait, what the fuck do you mean about you?”

“I was friends with Ted in college. And then we lost touch. He got a family and I got myself into prison,” Beard said. “I had nowhere to go when I got out, so I called Ted. He let me stay with him and I stole his car. When I got caught with it, he told the cops that he’d given it to me.”

“That sounds like Ted,” Jamie said.

Fucking moron.

“He had no reason to give me a chance, but he did. And look at me now,” Beard said. “Things being different this time isn’t impossible. Giving your dad a second chance doesn’t make you stupid or weak. It’s brave and it’s generous. It makes you the bigger person and him lucky that you’re letting him have another try.”

Jamie looked away from Beard. He stared past him into the locker room where the rest of the team was already starting to filter in instead.

“You never know. Maybe he just needs to know someone believes it’s possible for him to live up to the version of himself he wants to be,” Beard said. “And, hey, if he does go back to the same way he was again, then at least you tried. At least you’ll know there’s nothing you could have done that would have made a difference. And then you can safely walk away and cut ties confident in your decision.”

Huh. Jamie hadn’t considered that. He hadn’t thought that if shit hit the fan again him having wasted his time on his old man would be anything other than another punch to the gut. He’d never considered that it might do anything for him, regardless of the outcome.

Jamie would have been tempted to hug Beard if he wasn’t sitting down. But then again, that might have been awkward. They weren’t exactly on hugging terms. Besides, if Jamie hugged Beard now, everyone would see through the window and someone would be bound to ask what that had been about. Jamie didn’t need to get back into any of what had happened or how he felt all over again the moment he got out of there.

So instead, Jamie just gave him a nod of appreciation and Beard gave him a nod back.

“Thanks, Coach,” Jamie said. He hopped down from Roys desk and turned to the door, then turned back to Beard again and hesitated for a moment before he admitted, “That was actually weirdly helpful.”

Beard shrugged with one shoulder and said, “I have my moments.”

Jamie headed out into the locker room. Roy was growling at the team and death glaring at Isaac in particular.

“The heart is really a nice touch,” Colin said, sounding perfectly amused. “Really screams out this is Roy Kent’s.”

“I wouldn’t make fun of Roy’s mug if I was you,” Jamie said. “Make fun of it and you’re basically making fun of his niece.”

When Keeley got to work, she checked her phone and saw that Jamie had texted her again.

went ok

better than i expected actually

beard was cool abt it

Keeley was relieved.

That’s great, babe

Jamie sent another message right away.

turns out hes ok when u bother 2 talk 2 him

That surprised Keeley.

Have you not been talking to Beard this whole time?

not really ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

mostly never needed 2 b4

It really was a wonder that Roy and Jamie had ever become friends if Jamie apparently didn’t even find talking to all of his coaches necessary.

When Roy got a text from his sister, he was glad that he hadn’t let any fans come watch pre-season training the way Ted had let them watch training last year. Originally, he just hadn’t wanted every play they practiced to end up online before they’d even played a game. But now that Cora was dropping Phoebe off, he was extra glad there wasn’t a crowd to gawk at her all day. She was already probably going to be bored out of her mind. She didn’t also need to be stared at like a fucking zoo animal.

Roy slid his phone back into his pocket and crossed his arms over his chest as he focused back on watching the team stretch.

“You know, now that Ted’s gone, a new spot opened up for surprise sandwich Thursday,” Beard said as he leaned closer to Roy without taking his eyes off of the team. “If you’re interested.”

Roy turned and glared at him as he said, “That is the stupidest fucking thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“Okay,” Beard said, uncrossing his own arms to hold his hands up in surrender. “It was just an idea. We don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

Roy stared him down for a few seconds longer for good measure, then said, “Shut up. I’ll make you a stupid sandwich for Thursday.”

Beard smiled at that and Roy turned his attention back on the team again before he could get caught doing something stupidly pathetic like smiling back.

He stood there watching the team warm up in comfortable silence with Beard and Nate for a while before he got another text from Cora.

Here

“I’ll be right back,” Roy told the other coaches.

He didn’t bother saying anything to the team. They could listen to Beard and Nate while he was gone. And he absolutely did not need them to know where he was going. He’d told Cora he’d meet her at the door for a reason. He didn’t need training getting entirely derailed while the whole team gawked at her like fucking idiots.

Phoebe greeted him with a hug the moment he opened the door.

“You might be pretty bored,” Roy warned.

“I don’t know,” Cora said. “She’s been talking nonstop about getting to go to work with you since she found out.”

“Do I get to boss them all around too?” Phoebe asked eagerly.

“Sure,” Roy said. “You can be an assistant coach.”

Phoebe grinned at that.

“Say hi to Jamie for me,” Cora said right before she turned to leave.

“Absolutely not,” Roy called after her. Roy led Phoebe inside as he asked, “Do you want a whistle?”

Phoebe didn’t share Roy’s allergy so there was no reason she shouldn’t be allowed one.

“Okay,” she said. “Can I have a clipboard too?”

Roy considered for a moment, then said, “Yeah, give me a minute.”

He figured he may as well give her a team roster to mark up with it too.

Roy disappeared out of fucking nowhere while the team was warming up, then when he finally came back Phoebe was with him. She was carrying a clipboard and when Roy gave her a nod, she whistled obnoxiously loudly. Several players covered their ears with their hands at the sound.

Apparently, she didn’t get mouth hives from whistles and Roy had decided to make it everyone else’s problem.

“Listen up, fuckers,” Roy called out. “Every time you swear in front of Phoebe, you owe her a pound.”

“But you just-” Bumbercatch started off, then cut himself off.

Phoebe marked something on her clipboard and said, “I’m going to make so much money.”

She was absolutely right. She already made enough money off of Roy and now Jamie as it was. She was going to be rich if she started spending time around the whole team and billing them all.

Phoebe glanced up at Jamie as she added, “Mum said to say hi to you.”

“No, she didn’t,” Roy insisted.

“She did,” Phoebe said. “Uncle Roy just didn’t want to tell you.”

There were some snickers at that like the team thought that Cora was the sibling Jamie wished he had a chance with and that they were going to get front-row seats to the disaster if he ever made a real move on her.

“Of course she did,” Jamie said just to annoy Roy. “Me and your mum are basically best friends.”

Roy glared at him for that.

“No you fucking aren’t,” he said and Phoebe made another mark on her clipboard. “Phoebe, pick a number.”

She thought for a moment, then said, “Ten.”

“All of you run ten laps around the pitch then,” Roy said. When they grumbled instead of immediately starting, he added, “Now.”

He turned to Phoebe and she blew the whistle way too loudly again.

“What would he have done if she’d said four hundred or something?” Dani asked as they all started running.

“He would have made us run four hundred laps then,” Jamie said.

Roy had just finished splitting the team up for a scrimmage when Phoebe added, “And you have to use the wrong foot the whole time.”

“What she said,” Roy agreed.

Extra practice with their non-dominant foot couldn’t hurt and if it kept Phoebe from being bored out of her mind, that was a bonus. Besides, he had told her that she could boss the whole team around too.

“We can still use both feet when we’re dribbling though, right?” Sam asked.

“No,” Phoebe said. “And you can’t complain because Jamie does it all the time.”

Jamie had never looked more smug as he beamed proudly.

“I sure do,” he said and Roy rolled his eyes.

“Great,” Richard muttered. “Jamie’s her favourite too.”

Roy resisted the urge to argue that Jamie wasn’t his favourite. He’d been stupid enough to not argue with them after that press conference and now he’d never live it down as long as he lived.

“Uncle Roy’s my favourite,” Phoebe corrected. “Then Keeley, then Jamie.”

“Keeley’s not even here,” Jamie complained like he was genuinely offended she still ranked higher when Phoebe had no reason to be ranking her at all.

Roy had to laugh at Jamie’s disappointment.

“Jamie’s not my favourite,” Nate said.

Roy expected Jamie to complain.

Instead, he just said, “Yeah, that’s fair, mate.”

Jamie was having a great time. Phoebe had him play with his left foot often enough that he was far more used to it than anyone else. While everyone else was playing clumsily and having Phoebe blow the whistle on them for using the wrong foot over and over again, Jamie was upstaging them all.

He scored for a third time, then grinned over at Roy to make sure he’d seen it. Roy had, but instead of a smile or any kind of proper acknowledgment of Jamie’s accomplishment, he just gave him a small nod. Whatever. Phoebe looked awestruck at least.

They played for a while longer, then stopped and took a break for water.

Jamie went off to the side and downed some water, then headed over to where Phoebe was taking shots on Beard.

“Shoot low,” Jamie told her. “He’s old and can’t bend.”

Phoebe turned to him and asked, “Can we play the shooting game?”

“Sure.”

Beard came over to join Nate and Roy’s conversation as Jamie started playing with Phoebe instead.

Roy watched them over Beard’s shoulder. Jamie wasn’t even hiding how good he was with his left foot now, but he was giving Phoebe easy shots on the open net so they were tied anyway.

Phoebe set the ball down and said something. Jamie stood behind it, then covered his eyes with both hands. Then he blatantly moved one of his hands out of the way with a smirk.

“Stop peeking!” Phoebe called out with a laugh.

“I’m not!” Jamie lied loudly and indignantly.

But he covered his eyes properly again anyway. He took five slow, careful steps back with his eyes still covered then took a running start and missed the ball altogether in a way that Roy was certain was fake.

“You’re losing,” Phoebe pointed out happily.

“Am not,” Jamie argued. “You said I could only touch the ball once. I didn’t touch it at all. That means I get another try.”

Phoebe didn’t argue. She just moved out of the way.

Jamie turned and smirked at Roy like he wanted to make sure he was watching, then he stood behind the ball, covered his eyes, and took five slow steps back again. This time, he took a running start and sunk the ball right into the middle of the net with his left foot.

Jamie stuck his tongue out at Phoebe like the immature brat he was, then he beamed over at Roy.

“Anyone else kind of hate him right now?” Colin asked.

Roy absolutely did. He couldn’t fucking stand him.

Jamie set up another easy enough shot for Phoebe that she got in, then Phoebe took the ball and ran to the far end of the pitch and set it down in one of the corners opposite of the net he’d be aiming for.

“It has to go right in the middle,” she shouted to Jamie as he headed over to join her. “And it can’t bounce first.”

Jamie was definitely going to lose without trying then.

He still attempted it anyway. He started off as far back as he could and took a running start before kicking the ball as hard as he could.

It absolutely didn’t count as a point in their game. The ball went far, but not all the way down the pitch, before it bounced and rolled its way into the net. If anyone else had been on the pitch against him, that kick wouldn’t have stood a chance of making it even halfway as far. Plus, the ball hadn’t wound up perfectly in the centre of the goal like Phoebe had wanted.

Still, it was annoyingly impressive. The only thing that made it tolerable was knowing that Jamie was playing for their team and not against them.

Phoebe stuck her tongue out at Jamie, copying his move from the last round. Clearly, she wasn’t as impressed by how close to what she’d wanted he’d managed.

If the prick could do that left-footed, what else had he been holding out on in games in the name of being a team player?

At the end of the day, Roy grabbed a box out of his office and stuck it in the middle of the locker room, then read off how much everyone owed Phoebe off of her clipboard.

There was a lot of grumbling, but they all paid up.

“Alright, come on,” Roy said as he grabbed the overflowing box to carry for her. “Let’s get you out of here before you end up scarred for life.”

They’d only made it maybe ten steps out of the locker room before Phoebe stopped and turned to him.

“We have to wait for Jamie,” she said.

“Why?” Roy asked.

“Because he needs a ride,” she insisted. “You drove him here.”

Roy didn’t know why she assumed that. She hadn’t been with him on the way there and he definitely had not driven Jamie. He was perfectly capable of getting home on his own.

“He took his car today,” Roy told her.

Phoebe looked at him confused for a moment, then asked, “Jamie has a car?”

Roy wasn’t sure why she was so damn surprised. He was pretty sure she must have seen it when Jamie had come to Uncle’s Day.

“Why wouldn’t he?” he asked.

“If he has a car, then why do you drive him around everywhere?” Phoebe asked.

“Because he’s already with me anyway and we’re going to the same place,” Roy said.

“Why does he drive your car instead of his?” she asked.

Jamie had driven Roy’s car one time.

“He doesn’t usually,” Roy said. “He was already with me and didn’t have his car that one time.”

“He’s always with you,” Phoebe said. “We still have to wait for him if he’s coming with us anyway.”

Roy wasn’t totally sure why she’d assumed Jamie would come with them anyway. Usually, he probably would if they offered. But after the day before, Roy had no idea what to think. For all Roy knew, Jamie was thrilled to be finally getting a break from him after a long day.

“I don’t have plans with him,” Roy said because that was easier to explain.

“So?” Phoebe asked. “You spend all day with him without any plans all the time.”

Roy paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to handle this.

“You could ask him if he wants to do something,” Roy said finally. “But he might have other plans. Or he might need space. People need that sometimes.”

“Are you and Jamie fighting?” she asked.

“No,” he said. Then a second later, he admitted, “I don’t know.”

“Is this gonna be like when you and Keeley broke up?” Phoebe asked.

Roy didn’t even know where to start with that.

“I’m not breaking up with Jamie. I’m not even dating him,” Roy pointed out. “I know that you know that.”

“But it’s still like that if you fight and then you don’t want to spend time together anymore,” Phoebe insisted.

This was exactly the kind of situation he’d been trying to avoid that had been part of the reason it hadn’t been worth trying anything with Leanne. Phoebe had imprinted like a baby duck on Jamie and it was really all Cora’s fault for inviting him to Uncle’s Day.

Then again, this was different. He wasn’t dating Jamie. So they couldn’t possibly break up and have Jamie disappear from her life. Besides, Jamie Tartt’s career was and always had been inextricably tangled with Roy’s. Even if Jamie got completely sick of Roy and refused to spend any time with him outside of work ever again which wasn’t fucking likely, Roy would still be around him all the fucking time. Phoebe would still be around him.

“Keeley needs space sometimes too. That doesn’t mean she’s breaking up with me. It just means she needs time without me there sometimes,” Roy said and as soon as the words left his mouth, he knew it was a bad comparison to use in front of Phoebe, no matter how appropriate it was to the situation. “Jamie’s allowed to not want to spend every second with me. That doesn’t mean he’s not going to be around anymore. You just spent all day with him, didn’t you?”

Jamie didn’t bother taking his time getting ready. Roy had already left anyway and taking longer just to piss him off was a lot less entertaining when the rest of the team was there.

Jamie was just finishing pulling his hat on and checking his reflection to make sure it looked good and was sitting perfectly when he heard Thierry ask, “So have you asked Simi out yet or what?”

Jamie smirked. He fucking knew it.

“Not yet,” Sam admitted. “I don’t know. What if she says no and then work is all awkward afterward?”

“Why in the hell would she say no?” Colin asked.

The rest of the lads all joined in with their encouragement and insisted that Sam had to ask her and of course, she’d say yes.

Jamie followed Sam and Jan out of the locker room as Jan grabbed Sam’s shoulders with both hands from behind and said, “She’d definitely say yes. Who wouldn’t?”

“Yeah, I’d have sex with you,” Jamie agreed before he really thought through how it might make things awkward.

He’d been spending far too much time around Keeley and Roy where he could just say whatever flirty, sexual thing he wanted and there would be no consequences.

But Sam didn’t get weird either. Sam turned right back around and smiled brightly at him.

“Really?” he asked as he walked backwards. “I’m flattered.”

“Oh, definitely,” Jamie said. “Just look at you. Besides, I can tell you’d be generous in all-”

Jamie didn’t get to finish his sentence before Roy was clearing his throat bitchily just around the corner.

Sam turned back around and said, “Oh.”

Roy was waiting with Phoebe and shooting a death glare in Jamie’s direction. Well, how the fuck was he supposed to know they’d be there when they’d already left? What, was he never supposed to say anything sexual ever again in case Phoebe happened to be lurking around somewhere? It wasn’t like he was actually going to sleep with Sam and Phoebe had caught him cheating on Keeley. Besides, even if he had been actually trying to get into Sam’s pants, it was awfully bold of Roy to assume that he wouldn’t have talked to Keeley about it and okayed it first.

“I’m not a part of this,” Jan said like an absolute coward as he fled.

Roy turned his glare on Sam just for fucking existing in the conversation.

“Sorry,” Sam said. “We didn’t see Phoebe there.”

Jamie wasn’t all that sorry, but he didn’t say that as Roy’s glare focused right back on him. Whatever. He’d done far worse before. Roy was just being dramatic.

Phoebe didn’t seem to give a fuck. She just looked up at Jamie as she asked, “You’re coming with us, right?”

“Where?” Jamie asked as if the answer would have even the slightest impact on his response.

“Uncle Roy’s going to buy us ice cream,” she said eagerly.

Sam looked from Roy to Jamie confused.

“No,” Roy said. “With all the money you made today, you can pay for it.”

That was complete bullshit. He was just trying to pretend in front of Sam that he wasn’t absolutely going to pay for all three of them like usual. At this point, Jamie could probably forget his wallet at home for a week and Roy wouldn’t even notice.

“You let Jamie eat ice cream?” Sam asked, sounding amused.

“He doesn’t,” Jamie said. “But Phoebe does and she’s in charge of him.”

Roy glared at Jamie while Phoebe smiled proudly.

“Do you really want to test that?” Roy asked.

Obviously, Jamie did. Phoebe had Roy wrapped around her finger and it would be fun to watch Roy seethe as he gave in and bought him ice cream for her benefit anyway.

“You’re coming then?” Phoebe asked.

“Duh,” Jamie said. “What? Am I going to miss an opportunity to ignore the diet Roy has me on?”

Jamie actually didn’t give a fuck about the diet most of the time. There were reasons behind it and reasons he followed it. Annoying Roy was fun though.

Phoebe turned to Sam and for a moment, Jamie thought she was going to invite him too. But instead, she said, “Bye Sam.”

Roy looked amused by that as the corner of his mouth just barely twitched up into a smirk.

Phoebe grabbed Jamie’s hand and he just stared down at her in surprise. She did this with Roy all the time and Keeley sometimes, but Jamie wasn’t used to her grabbing onto him. But then she grabbed Roy’s hand with her other one and pulled them both down the hallway because she didn’t feel like waiting for them any longer and that was definitely something she’d learned from watching Keeley then.

“You smell better now,” Phoebe said and somehow it still came across as a dig.

“Yeah, ‘cause I showered,” Jamie pointed out. “Would you stop smelling me? It’s weird.”

“I don’t try to,” she defended herself. “You just smell so bad sometimes I can’t avoid it.”

Roy laughed. Fucking dick.

“I’m serious,” Jamie said. “Keep talking about how I smell and I’m gonna text your mum about it.”

He didn’t expect that to actually work, but she shifted her focus at that.

“Is it true the showers don’t even have walls and you’re all just stuck in the same room?” Phoebe asked. “That’s what Stacy’s brother said.”

Jamie didn’t know who Stacy or her brother were and he really couldn’t care less. But whoever they were, they should mind their own fucking business.

“You get used to it,” Roy said.

“That’s disgusting,” Phoebe said. She turned back to Jamie as she added, “If I was you, I’d quit.”

“It was way more disgusting when Roy used them too,” Jamie said. “There was hair everywhere.”

Roy let go of Phoebe’s hand for just long enough to hit Jamie in the chest past her. He hit too high and too centred to hurt his nipples though so Jamie didn’t give a shit.

Keeley had been just getting ready to leave work when Jamie had texted that he and Roy were getting ice cream if she wanted to join. By the time she got there, the three of them were already sitting at a table together with their ice cream.

Keeley barely walked up to them before Phoebe asked, “Did you know that Jamie has a car?”

Keeley glanced over at Jamie, but he looked confused and vaguely offended by the comment.

“Really?” Keeley asked. “Since when?”

Roy looked amused. Jamie did not. He just scowled.

“I’m kidding, babe,” Keeley said as she sat down beside him and across from Phoebe.

Jamie kept pouting so Keeley kissed him and then smiled when he couldn’t maintain his moody act after. Jamie kissed her again and wrapped an arm around her, then pushed his sundae toward her on the table. Keeley could have easily gotten her own ice cream, but she took his instead.

“You two are being so gross,” Phoebe complained.

Keeley wasn’t sure if it was all the kissing or the sharing a spoon that had gotten to her, but they really weren’t doing that much. Sure, Jamie was making a point of treating her differently than Roy more than he usually did when all three of them were together, but he wasn’t doing anything Phoebe hadn’t seen before.

“We’re not that gross,” Keeley insisted. “We could be way grosser.”

Phoebe crinkled her nose up like she thought that Keeley was planning on proving it.

“How was going to work with your Uncle Roy?” Keeley asked. “Was it completely boring?”

She grinned as she said it because she highly doubted Phoebe would find doing anything with Roy boring.

“It was fun,” Phoebe said. “I got to boss everybody around like Uncle Roy does.”

“Yeah and she’s a far better coach than him too,” Jamie said.

Keeley could feel Jamie’s body move from Roy kicking him under the table, but Jamie just laughed.

“Can I come to your work again tomorrow?” Phoebe asked.

“I don’t know,” Roy said. “Ask your mum later.”

Things felt more normal after that. Jamie still kept his arm around Keeley, but he wasn’t ignoring Roy’s presence and didn’t seem uncomfortable. He and Roy bickered in that familiar way that somehow had long since become comfortable.

Then, as they were leaving, Jamie paused before he got into his car and said, “See you at four, Coach.”

Keeley wasn’t sure if they’d discussed that before or if that was his way of pushing Roy into going back to their regular routine. Either way, Roy didn’t argue. He just nodded.

Phoebe got into Roy’s car and then Keeley stopped Roy before he could get in too.

“You should come to my place after you drop Phoebe off,” she told him with a suggestive smile.

“You don’t mind waking up that early?” he asked.

“Who said I’m not planning on kicking you out after?” she asked. But when he didn’t laugh or make some snarky comment back she added, “I don’t mind if it means falling asleep with you in my bed.”

Keeley woke up far too early the next morning when Roy’s alarm went off in the middle of the night. She hasn’t missed getting woken up this early, but she was glad Roy and Jamie were back to their normal schedule instead of still avoiding extra practice after what had happened on the weekend.

“I don’t know why you two like to torture yourselves like this,” she complained as if she wasn’t the one who had asked Roy to stay the night while fully aware that this would happen.

“I guess I must like torturing Jamie more than I like sleeping,” Roy said as he turned his alarm off.

It was a ridiculous suggestion and yet, Keeley wouldn’t at all be surprised if that was how the routine had really first started. She didn’t buy it as an excuse anymore though.

“It’d probably torture him more to refuse to get up to give him extra training at all,” Keeley said. “I bet he was all pouty and miserable yesterday morning when he had to actually sleep or exist on his own without you.”

Roy turned and shot her a confused look.

“I only cancelled yesterday because he was already seeing too much of me without adding even more back on,” he pointed out.

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t get all sulky about it anyway,” Keeley said. “In case you haven’t noticed, he takes your training very seriously. Follows all your rules when you’re not there to see it and everything.”

“Well, then what am I supposed to do?” Roy asked. “I train him like normal and he gets all pissy and goes on about how he needs space from me. Then five seconds later, there he is again and now I’m the problem for giving him space.”

He seemed very exasperated considering there was a perfectly easy way to figure out the answer to his questions and he apparently hadn’t even considered it at all.

“You could just ask him, you know,” Keeley said. “Hey, Jamie. Do you still need space or do you want things to go back to normal? Or hey, Jamie. Let me know when you need space so I can give you some. Hey, Jamie do you want to do extra training together or not? Hey, Jamie-”

“I get it,” Roy interrupted. “I should talk to him.”

“You think so?” she asked.

She pretended not to see it when Roy rolled his eyes at that.

“I already tried that,” he insisted. “When he was all pissed off and he didn’t want anything to do with talking about it.”

“Yeah because he was pissed off,” Keeley pointed out. “When have you ever wanted to talk about anything when you’ve been angry? But usually, you can manage when you’ve had three to five business days to calm down.”

Roy spent most of the extra morning training thinking over what Keeley had said. She had a point, but that didn’t mean that bringing Jamie’s meltdown Sunday back up wouldn’t make him all pissed off and shut down all over again.

So Roy didn’t say anything until the training was completely finished and they got into his car because he was a fucking coward and ignoring the fact that there had ever been a problem was far easier than risking addressing it.

He was trying to figure out the words to bring it up without Jamie getting all bitchy on him again when Jamie connected his phone to Roy’s car and started playing some stupid Harry Styles song. Usually, Roy would complain about that, but this morning he had other things to worry about on his mind.

“I can’t believe you’re not whining,” Jamie said. “I guess I’m finally affecting your taste in music.”

Roy ignored that. Arguing with Jamie about something pointless and getting sidetracked would be far too easy and his window to talk to Jamie alone before they’d be around the team all day was rapidly narrowing.

“Are you still mad at me?” Roy asked.

Jamie was silent for a moment, then he asked, “What?”

Roy’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. He was almost certain that Jamie was playing dumb.

“No,” Roy said.

“What the fuck do you mean no?” Jamie asked incredulously. “That wasn’t a yes or no question, mate.”

“No, you’re not pulling the pretend you don’t know what I’m talking about thing so that you don’t have to talk about it,” Roy insisted. “Are you still mad at me for whatever it was that had you acting fucking insane on Sunday?”

Jamie was silent for uncharacteristically long before he finally said, “At you? No.”

“What does that mean?” Roy asked as he turned the music off.

“Nothing,” Jamie said like a fucking liar. “Look, I just didn’t sleep much that night and it was a good thing at the time, but then I was fucking tired later and getting pissed off over little things, okay? But I don’t have some fucking problem with you or something. There’s nothing to even talk about.”

Roy thought that over for a moment and debated if there was any reason it couldn’t be true.

“The needing space thing then-" Roy started.

“Was because I was going to punch you in the face if you did anything even mildly annoying because I was fucking worn out,” Jamie insisted. “I’m fine now. I don’t need you cancelling training and walking on eggshells around me.”

“Okay,” Roy said. “But I can’t read your mind. So next time, fucking say something before you’re all pissed off so I can leave you alone instead of making things worse.”

“Fine,” Jamie said, sounding just a tad huffy about it. “I’m sorry.”

Roy wasn’t really sure what Jamie was even apologizing for, but he said, “It’s fine.”

Jamie was pretty sure he knew where Roy was going when he fucked off and left them all unattended while they were moving from the weight room to training on the pitch.

Technically, Beard and Nate were probably supposed to be telling them to do something. But they didn’t.

Most of the team was stretching and chatting when Dani brought a couple of balls over and tossed one at Jamie.

“That game you were playing yesterday reminded me of the one we used to play,” he said. “Do you want to play it?”

Jamie had hated it when Dani had made a game of trying to copy Jamie’s shots after he’d assumed that Jamie had hit the crossbar on purpose. Jamie had resented Dani’s talent and been sure Dani’s whole personality was fake and that he was just pretending to be nice while angling to take Jamie’s spot and star status on the team. Even when he’d come back, he’d felt threatened by Dani at first because Dani had quite successfully taken his place when Ted had gotten rid of him.

But now, Jamie wasn’t threatened by Dani being good. Sure, he still wanted to be the best. But Dani being good would just motivate him more and what was good for the team was good for him. Besides, Jamie had long since realized that it wasn’t an act with Dani. He just genuinely was that cheery and excitable nearly all the time.

“You’re on,” Jamie said. “But no crossbar this time.”

Jamie set his ball down and took a shot with his right foot, sending the ball flying right into the top left corner of the net, then he turned and watched Dani do the exact same.

“What do you say we find out who can keep their accuracy from the furthest away?” Jamie asked after he got his ball and set it down several feet back from where they’d shot from last time.

“Works for me,” Dani said.

This time he shot first, then Jamie copied his shot and hit the exact same part of the net right after.

“This is going to be fun,” Dani said with a grin.

He was right. Now that Jamie wasn’t afraid of a little friendly competition anymore, playing with Dani was fun.

When Roy made it outside with Phoebe, the whole team was watching Jamie and Dani.

Jamie took a shot from a quarter of the way down the pitch and sunk the ball into the top right corner. A moment later, Dani did the exact same.

Then they went and got their balls and moved noticeably further down the pitch before Dani took a shot that Jamie immediately repeated.

Roy had been planning on complaining at everyone else for standing around, but now that he was watching them, he wanted to see just how far they’d take it.

“Shit,” Roy said after he watched them set up their next shots from even further away and make those too. Their aim didn’t quite match as well, but still.

Roy had forgotten how fucking good Dani was when he actually shot. Dani had gotten complacent when Zava had been around. He’d been so busy setting Zava up and watching him shine that he hadn’t bothered to fuck all for himself. Everything was just passed to Zava. And then even with Zava gone and them trying out total football, Dani had still been happy to play a supporting role. Maybe Jamie wasn’t the only one that was taking the whole team player thing too fucking far.

Phoebe watched a few shots, then got bored and wandered off to grab a different ball.

Sam offered to pass with her and she agreed happily. It should have been a good thing that she was occupied and amused but for some reason, Roy was annoyed by Sam being friendly with her which was fucking mental. But then again, Phoebe already jabbered away at him about Jamie all the time. The last thing he needed was her getting attached to even more of the players.

Roy watched as Jamie and Dani kept moving further and further away from the net. Every time they moved further back, their shots matched a little less, but they still went in. Even when they got far enough away that the ball would awkwardly bounce down most of the other end and slowly roll over the line, their shots still ended up in the goal. Most of the further away shots would be completely unusable in a game, but Roy kind of hated them both anyway in the best way.

They were fucking incredible. He’d known that. He had. But he’d forgotten just how much they could shine when they forgot about the team for a minute and took the time to show off. He was definitely going to have to keep that information in mind and figure out how to get them to use that at the right moments.

Jamie had just finished his game with Dani when Phoebe asked, “Do you want to race? Or are you scared that I’ll win again?”

“Nah, I’m definitely way faster,” Jamie insisted. “Have you seen how much longer me legs are than yours?”

“That’s why you have to carry someone,” Phoebe insisted.