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After their first match once everyone had returned from international break, and yet another win for Richmond, Sam had joyfully announced that Ola’s had been fully booked out for a team party to celebrate both the win and those who had played for their countries. Jamie thought that was very generous of Sam, given he’d been fucked over by not being called up himself, but Sam quickly dismissed any concerns and said he was just happy to be able to celebrate the wonderful achievements of his friends, because of course he did, because he’s Sam and he’s basically the best person ever.

The party is brilliant. Jamie’s belly is stuffed with delicious food and he’s not even annoyed that he’s not allowed to drink like everyone else because he’s still riding the high of having played for fucking England. No one on the team is getting super drunk, they're still in the middle of the season, but they’ve reached a point where they’re loose and a little rowdy, and Jamie is loving it. Hanging out with drunk people is always a bit hit and miss, but Jamie feels warm and safe with the team and it’s fucking hilarious watching them. He’s not sure whose idea it was but they’re now playing fuck marry kill, which is a perfect game for some light ribbing at each other’s choices. Jamie laughs along as Bumbercatch says he’d fuck Karl Marx and as Jan goes on a tirade justifying his choices, listing the pros and cons of each one. Then it comes round to Jamie’s turn.

‘Ok, Jamie. Fuck, marry, kill: Ted, Beard and Roy.’

‘Marry Roy, fuck Beard, kill Ted,’ Jamie replies instantly. They hadn’t even given him a hard one, the answer was so obvious he didn’t even need to think before responding. Except by the few gasps he hears and the way his teammates are staring at him, they don’t agree, which is dumb because that’s objectively the right answer.

‘You can’t kill Ted!’ Dani exclaims and the rest of the team murmur in agreement.

‘Look it’s not like I want to kill Ted!’ Jamie defends himself ‘but it’s either that or fuck him and I definitely aint fucking Ted that would just be fucking weird.’

‘What about marry?’ Colin pipes up.

‘Yes, Ted is clearly the best marriage candidate out of the three,’ Jan adds in his matter of fact way that makes it seem like everything he says is the objective truth – even though in this case Jamie is certain he is wrong.

‘Yeah have you tried his biscuits? Bet you’d get to have them all the time if you married him,’ Isaac says, receiving shouts of approval from the rest of the team.

‘Nah mate, Ted’s baking’s got nothing on Roy’s cooking,’ Jamie argues back. Sure Ted’s biscuits were nice and all but nothing beats a delicious and nutritionally approved Roy Kent meal. When he’s met with silence he thinks he’s made his point, but as he looks around he sees the team giving each other looks of confusion. ‘Come on you’re telling me none of you have tried Roy’s cooking?’ Because he’s absolutely certain if they had they’d all be agreeing with him.

‘Roy cooks for you?’ Sam asks with a slightly mischievous smile on his face.

‘Yeah after training. He cooks me these bangin’ omelettes for breakfast. Honestly I’d marry him just to have those omelettes every day for the rest of my life.’ The team all start talking at once and Jamie can’t make out a word they’re saying until suddenly they all fall silent. He looks up to see the cause, Roy walking up to the table, a beer in hand.

‘The fuck was all that about?’ Roy gives them all a glare, but mostly Jamie which isn’t fair because Jamie actually has no idea why the team had got so riled up. It’s Sam who eventually speaks.

‘Coach is it true that you make Jamie omelettes every morning?’ Roy shoots another glare at Jamie which again is not fair. Jamie hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true.

‘Yeah but only because that little prick can’t look after himself.’ Well that was fucking rude.

‘Oi, I can look after myself perfectly fine, you just said all my food was bland and flavourless which was actually fucking rude by the way. That was the stuff me mum would cook for me as a kid.’ Roy’s face falls and he actually looks properly guilty which is funny for a second but then Jamie starts to feel bad. ‘I was joking mate, it’s all good. I proper appreciate you cooking for me.’ Roy’s face sets into a frown.

‘Oi coach. Fuck, marry, kill: Ted, Beard, Jamie,’ Colin interrupts whatever weird turn the conversation had taken.

‘The fuck?’ Roy turns to stare at Colin.

‘We’re playing fuck, marry, kill. So what do you think?’

‘Hey why me?’ Jamie whines.

‘He can’t choose himself can he?’

‘Yeah but why not like Higgins or Trent, like the rest of the old man group. I mean I guess the answer would obviously be fuck Trent if he was in it, he’s got that fit hair and all, but you could stick Higgins in there.’ Jamie’s ramblings are ignored in favour of the rest of the team trying to persuade Roy to answer. After puppy dog eyes from both Dani and Sam Roy finally relents.

‘Fucking fine. Fuck Beard, kill Ted, marry Jamie.’ Jamie’s head snaps up to look at Roy and a smug grin spreads across his face, feeling vindicated that not only does Roy’s answer match his, but also that Roy would choose him to marry.

‘See I was right,’ he says, but is once again ignored as the team’s attention is on Roy.

‘You’d marry Jamie?’ Colin asks at the same time as Dani says ‘You’d kill Ted?’ with the same devastation as he’d said it to Jamie minutes earlier.

‘If I had to put up with Ted’s relentless fucking optimism and jokes all the time I’d end up fucking murdering him anyway and Beard’s too fucking weird. Jamie is the least annoying choice.’ Roy’s words are barely even a compliment, in fact most people would probably say they’re not a compliment in the slightest but Jamie can’t help but beam at them. Roy looks back at him with an exaggerated eyeroll but Jamie could see the corner of his mouth upturn slightly. Maybe the omelettes weren’t the only reason he chose marry for Roy, the idea of being the reason Roy Kent smiled every day was certainly rather appealing too.

‘Hey Jamie,’ Colin called, snapping him out of those thoughts. ‘Since you seemed to have so many opinions fuck, marry, kill: Trent, Higgins, Roy.’

‘Well I already said fuck Trent, then it would have to be marry Roy, kill Higgins.’ Again that gets him looks from the team.

‘Higgins is quite a good cook as well. His Christmas dinner was delicious,’ Sam says with a perfectly innocent smile on his face.

‘Nah Higgens aint got nothing on Roy sorry.’ Jamie shoots another smile at Roy who suddenly seems to be fascinated by something right on the other side of the room.

‘Coach, you’ve got to cook for us now since we’ve heard so much about how wonderful your food is,’ Isaac says followed by cheers from the team.

‘Fuck no!’ Roy scowls and walks away before anyone else can get a word in, leaving Jamie with a smug feeling of satisfaction knowing he’s the only one on the team Roy will cook for. That feeling, however, quickly falls away as he looks at the faces of his teammates and realises they are absolutely never going to let him live this down.

---

Roy is glad for the excuse to walk away before he does something stupid and embarrassing like fucking smile or blush. There aren’t many people he’s cooked for, in fact the list is exactly four people long: his sister, Phoebe, Keeley and Jamie. The fact that Jamie makes that list should be somewhat baffling, except it makes a weird amount of sense, in the same way it made sense Jamie would be the one out of the three choices he was given that he’d rather marry. But that wasn’t the point, the point was that out of all the people he’d cooked for none had praised him like Jamie was. Sure they’d told him it was delicious and thanked him for cooking, but Jamie was boasting to the whole team about how great his food was, citing it as a reason to marry him. It had become obvious while he was dating Keeley that Roy liked to be appreciated, liked to be needed. It’s one of the reasons he and Keeley had decided not to try getting back together. She was a fiercely independent person, she didn’t need Roy there in the way he wanted to be. Jamie on the other hand seemed to have no qualms about accepting Roy’s attention. If anything he just came back and demanded more. It was making Roy feel all sorts of things that he didn’t really want to examine, not least the fact that his mind had just been comparing Jamie to his ex-girlfriend.

He quickly downs the rest of his beer and walks up to the bar and orders another. He feels someone walk up beside him and braces himself for it to be one of the team trying to annoy him into cooking for them, but when he turns around he sees Keeley smiling at him and feels a smile form on his face in return. It’s been nice, since he apologised to her and they decided to try being friends. He thought that it might hurt, having her in his life but not in the way she was before, but instead he’s found that aching he’s felt since he broke up with her has subsided and he really enjoys getting to just chat to her again without things being super awkward.

‘Seems like you caused quite a stir over there,’ she teases. He rolls his eyes and forms his face into a scowl, though he knows Keeley knows him well enough to know that it’s not real.

‘Jamie went and blagged about my cooking and now they all want some.’

‘Well I don’t blame them, you’re a great chef. I’ve really missed that ragu you made me.’

‘You should come over for dinner, I’ll make you some,’ he offers instantly and Keeley gives him a warm smile.

‘I’d love that.’ He feels a warmth in his chest and smiles back. She nudges his side. ‘So… you cook for Jamie then?’ She looks up at him with a teasing smile. He shrugs dismissively.

‘We train together. He needs a protein heavy breakfast afterwards so I cook.’ He’s not quite sure why he’s so defensive about his relationship with Jamie, he’s sure Keeley would be absolutely delighted to hear how much time they spend together. Or perhaps it was exactly that. It was bad enough that his sister had heard about it through Phoebe and teased him relentlessly, Keeley on top of that would be absolutely insufferable.

‘Well I’m glad the two of you are getting on better. I’m sure he really appreciates the help you give him.’ That causes a blush to rise on Roy’s cheeks,  and that same feeling he’d downed his drink to avoid thinking about returns. Jamie does seem to appreciate him, doesn’t complain as Roy comes up with more and more outlandish training methods and pervades further and further into his life, to the point where they spend practically every spare minute together. He grunts and hopes that Keeley puts the red on his cheeks down to alcohol. It would be mortifying to be caught blushing over Jamie fucking Tartt.

He's saved, or perhaps the opposite, from having to confront that, by Jamie himself swaggering over and giving them both a bright smile.

‘Jamie! Hi,’ Keeley greets, returning his smile.

‘Keeley, grandad,’ Jamie says in return, giving a nod to each of them, then gets the attention of the bartender and orders a glass of water, earning a raised eyebrow from Keeley.

‘Not getting another drink?’ she asks.

‘Nah, not drinking at all actually. Got to be good for this one don’t I?’ He jabs a thumb towards Roy. Keeley now turns to Roy, with her eyebrows shooting up her forehead.

‘Training,’ he growls and shoots a glare at Jamie which he can admit isn’t exactly earned, Jamie hadn’t said anything untrue after all and he hadn’t even complained once about being on water all night.

 ‘Yeah and I gotta do what my husband says right? That’s one of those ancient laws from back in Roy’s time isn’t it?’ This time when Roy growls and glares at him it’s thoroughly earned. Keeley looks between the two of them like they’re some kind of puzzle.

‘We’re not married,’ Roy clarifies with an extra glare at Jamie, just in case that’s what Keeley’s thinking.

‘We chose to marry each other in fuck marry kill, that’s basically the same thing right?’ Jamie replies with a cheeky smile. Roy knows Jamie’s doing this to wind him up and reacting will only egg him on, but that doesn’t stop another growl coming out of him. Jamie’s face breaks into a wide satisfied smile and for some unknown reason Roy feels the corners of his own lips trying to twitch upwards. Keeley continues looking between them with fascination and Roy has to fight back the urge to growl at her too.

‘I’m going to go catch up with Ted and Beard. I’ll leave you two to… whatever this is,’ she says after a moment. ‘Roy, message me about dinner, yeah?’ Roy nods and watches her walk away, leaving just him and Jamie leaning against the bar.

‘So… you and Keeley..?’ Jamie inquires as soon as she’s out of earshot.

‘We’re friends,’ Roy says defensively, though he’s not sure why he feels the need to explain it to Jamie. ‘I… apologised to her and we decided to try being friends.’ Jamie nods.

‘So you’re not trying to get back together with her anymore?’

‘No.’ Roy’s not really sure where the change had happened, but sitting watching Jamie make his England debut, writing the one hundredth attempt at an apology letter for Keeley, he’d realised that he didn’t want to get back together anymore. He missed her but he no longer wanted things to go back to how they were before he fucked it all up. He could see that neither of them could really give the other what they needed. He wondered why Jamie was asking. Did he want to get back with Keeley? The idea of the two of them dating formed a pit in his stomach, though he knew that wasn’t fair. There was no reason Jamie shouldn’t date her. He was far from the arsehole he was when they first dated and he deserves someone good.

‘Cool, the Keeley Jones friendship experience is fucking mint, would definitely recommend.’ Jamie grins at him and that eases the pit in his stomach. They stand in a comfortable silence for a while as Roy drinks from his beer and Jamie his water.

‘I’m sorry,’ Roy interrupts the silence as he recalls their earlier conversation. Jamie looks at him, baffled. ‘About saying your food was bland and flavourless.’ Realisation passes over Jamie’s face, but he still has a slight frown.

‘I already told you it’s fine.’

‘I still shouldn’t have said it,’ Roy insists. Jamie looks at him thoughtfully.

‘Look, I know it’s not the most exciting food. We couldn’t really afford a lot and Mummy had to work late so she couldn’t make anything fancy. But I like it, it reminds me of home.’ Jamie isn’t meeting Roy’s eye, looking down and fidgeting with his hoodie. ‘Not that I don’t appreciate what you cook for me!’ he adds quickly. ‘It’s like eating a proper restaurant meal every breakfast, it’s mint. And umm… it’s nice that you put in the effort for me… or like for my performance or whatever.’ Roy feels more guilty than ever now. He gets it. He knows what it was like to grow up with little money and working parents, with meals being comprised of just the bare essentials. Even when he got up to Sunderland the cafeteria meals weren’t much better. As soon as he’d got money he’d vowed to never eat any of that shit again, but he could see how it would be different for Jamie. Roy didn’t exactly have the kind of love for his parents as Jamie did his mum. He sweeps over the last part of what Jamie said because if he thinks about that too hard it’s going to send him down some sort of spiral.

‘I’m glad you have that… things that remind you of home.’ Jamie hums in agreement and when he looks back at Roy there’s a small smile on his face. Not like the wide grin before, something softer, more private. Roy feels the inexplicable urge to reach out and stroke his thumb around the corners of it. His arms remain firmly planted at his side.

‘Seriously though, I don’t think I’ve ever properly thanked you for cooking for me. I meant it when I said I’d marry you if it meant I could eat those omelettes every day for the rest of my life.’ Jamie’s tone is back to teasing, though there’s something in his voice that Roy can’t interpret. He almost wants to tell Jamie that he would happily make him omelettes every day, spend every morning with Jamie sitting on his kitchen counters rambling on about whatever’s on his mind. He doesn’t say it though. Instead he rolls his eyes and they stand in companionable silence until Jamie is swept off again by the team. Roy's glad he's not in Jamie's place as the whole team decends upon him, but Jamie looks totally at ease joking around with them and Roy feels a warmth grow in his chest as he watches.

Chapter Text

Dinner with Keeley is great. The conversation flows easily and now that he’s not worried about being left behind, Roy loves hearing about Keeley’s business, about how she’s rebuilding after her shitty ex pulled out on her and all about her CFO Barbara who Roy thinks he’d quite like. Everything is going great until Keeley brings up Jamie.

‘So how are things going with you and Jamie?’ Roy’s lips tighten. He’d been trying not to think about tonight. The prick already takes up far too much space in his mind, he doesn’t deserved to be eating into Roy’s Keeley time too.

‘There’s no thing with me and Jamie.’ Keeley gives him an exasperated stair.

‘You said you train together.’

‘Yeah.’ He doesn’t want to lie to Keeley, but he still finds himself reluctant to tell her the whole truth. Keeley sighs.

‘So how’s that going?’

‘He’s improving. He’s faster and stronger and his game sense is incredible. I mean you’ve fucking see him playing.’ Keeley’s now smiling at him and he feels extremely self-conscious, he hadn’t meant to praise Jamie like that but it’s hard not to, not with the way he’s been playing lately.

‘Yeah Jamie’s been doing brilliantly but that’s not what I meant.’

‘The fuck did you mean then?’ Keeley shakes her head and rolls her eyes slightly.

‘I meant you and Jamie, how’s that going? I mean you clearly like him enough now to choose him to marry,’ she teases.

‘It was him Ted or Beard. He was just the least worse option,’ he says gruffly.

‘You certainly wouldn’t have thought that a couple of years ago,’ she says pointedly. ‘I saw the way the two of you were the other night. Why is it so hard for you to admit you actually like him now?’ Keeley looks at him with a stare that feels like it’s piercing right into his soul. He can’t deny it, not like the way he denied to Phoebe that Jamie was his best friend on Uncle’s Day.

‘Fine whatever, I guess I fucking like him now.’ Keeley smiles but still looks like she wants him to say more and fuck that smile still does things to him. He somehow feels like he’s disappointing her by not saying more so he thinks about Jamie. Thinks about how he liked that he’s the first person he sees most mornings and the last person he sees before bed. He thinks about how he goes to sleep every night looking forward to the next morning, looking forward to listening to Jamie ramble about whatever’s on his mind, whether that be football, his mum or a collection of facts he learnt from some obscure documentary he caught on the telly. He likes when Jamie laughs. He likes the way his lips look as they curl up into a smile. He likes how he can see the changes in Jamie’s body, that he’d made it that way, that he’s helped sculpt Jamie’s body to be perfect. ‘Fuck!’ he shouts, ‘I want to marry Jamie Tartt.’ Keeley’s widen and her jaw drops open.

‘Holy shit,’ she breaths out. ‘I was angling for you admitting that you and Jamie are good friends now and maybe that you want to fuck him. You want to fucking marry him?’

‘Fuck!’ Roy shouts again. Why did he say that? That wasn’t a fucking normal thing to say, that wasn’t a normal thing to think about someone you’re not even dating. ‘Why am I like this?’ he says in a defeated tone.

‘Shit Roy you’re serious.’ He wants to deny it, tell her of course he’s not serious, but he can’t. Now the idea’s in his head he can’t get rid of it. He wants to marry Jamie. ‘It’s ok,’ Keeley says, her voice kind and reassuring. He doesn’t believe her in the slightest.

‘It’s not ok!’ he snaps back. ‘Why can’t I just have a normal fucking friendship without fucking it all up?’ He hates how defeated he sounds, hates how it’s taken him this long to truly realise how much Jamie means to him and that now it’s all too much.

‘Ok, first of all you haven’t fucked anything up. Second any kind of relationship between you and Jamie was never going to be normal. You’ve been weirdly intense about each other from day one.’ Roy scowls.

‘Maybe I haven’t fucked it up yet but I will. You know what I’m like Keeley.’

‘Yeah I do know you Roy and I know if there’s any way you’re going to fuck it up it will be if you believe it’s doomed from the start. Just because things didn’t work out between you and me doesn’t mean they won’t between you and Jamie. Jamie’s not like me. I need my alone time, but he doesn’t – he hates being alone. He’s a bit like a puppy.’ Her last sentence snaps him out of trying to process the rest of what she’s saying.

‘A puppy?’

‘Yeah, like he follows you around and gives you those sad eyes when you leave.’ Roy thinks about the way Jamie follows him back to his house after training, the way he pouts whenever Roy has to tell him he’s busy (which more often than not these days ends with Jamie trotting along behind him for whatever errand he has to complete), and he realises Keeley’s right. Still, that means fuck all if Roy’s going to go and ruin his friendship with Jamie because he developed feelings that he’s too much of an emotionally stunted arsehole to deal with in a healthy way.

‘Whatever it is you’re thinking, stop it now. I won’t have you being all self-deprecating over this.’

‘How do you know I was being self-deprecating?’

‘I know you Roy.’ Fuck she does. He doesn’t know whether he loves or hates that. ‘Look I think it’s brilliant that you like Jamie.’

‘What’s brilliant about having unrequited feelings for my best friend?’ Keeley beams.

‘For starters the fact that you’re admitting he’s your best friend and also I really don’t think those feelings are unrequited.’

‘Of course they fucking are,’ he responds immediately. Jamie’s young and fit and could have his pick of pretty much any woman he wanted and probably a good number of men too, there’s no way he’d chose Roy.

‘You must have seen the way he looks at you.’

‘What way does he fucking look at me?’

‘Like you’re the only one there. Like he’d do anything for you, all you’d have to do is ask.’ Roy scoffs. He doesn’t think about how Jamie does everything he says pretty much without question, that’s different. It’s training. Nothing more.

‘It’s not like that,’ he says weakly.

‘Roy, trust me, yeah? As someone who’s dated you both and know you very well, I really think you should give it a shot.’ She looks at him earnestly and Roy does trust her, more than anyone else, but it’s still so hard to believe her.

‘What if he doesn’t feel that way?’ His voice is strained as he speaks. It feels pathetic really, his heart breaking just at the idea of Jamie rejecting him.

‘Then he won’t be a dick about it, it’s not going to fuck up your friendship. Look, I’m not telling you to tell him you want to marry him, just ask him out on a date or something. Isn’t it worth a try?’ Is it? It seems like either way he’s heading down a path that could irrevocably ruin his and Jamie’s friendship. If a rejection is inevitable then would it be best to get out the way so he can move past it, get over his stupid feelings so they can’t get in the way of their friendship, just like he had with Keeley? He doesn’t say any of that out loud - he knows Keeley would hate it if she knew he was thinking this way. Instead he swallows it all down.

‘Maybe,’ he says and she smiles back at him widely.

---

Roy’s been weird all morning. Not even his usual weird of mad about something and taking it out on Jamie. Weird in that he keeps looking at Jamie, staring as if he wants to say something and then suddenly snapping his head away again. Jamie doesn’t know how to deal with this kind of Roy-weird. The other kind of weird is easy, just be infuriatingly cheerful about whatever Roy throws at him until he gets annoyed enough to yell about whatever’s actually wrong. He tries the cheerful approach first, telling Roy all about the documentary about big cats he watched the other night – he’s sure Phoebe would have absolutely loved it. But somehow every time he glances back at Roy that strange look of longing has intensified. He tries being a prick next, starts poking fun at Roy’s 3-in-1 shampoo because it’s such an easy target, and honestly it’s frustrating how Roy manages to look so good with so little effort when Jamie puts hours into looking as perfect as he does. That doesn’t work either and Roy isn’t a prick back to him which really takes all the fun out of it and just makes Jamie feel like he’s being mean. Then he tries silence. Hopes that if he doesn’t talk maybe Roy will fill in the gaps and say whatever is on his mind. Unfortunately Roy seems content to go through the rest of their workout in silence. By the time they finish neither of them have said a word for the last 20 minutes at least. Nevertheless, Jamie still follows Roy back home. Roy still heads straight to the kitchen to cook breakfast for him while Jamie heads up for a shower and to change into one of his outfits that now lives at Roy’s house.

As Jamie walks down from his shower, he decides it’s time for his final approach: actually asking Roy what’s going on. Historically that hasn’t worked out too well, but he’s getting desperate. As soon as he enters the kitchen Roy’s gaze snaps up to meet him and it’s like he freezes. Roy’s stare remains fixed on him, in a way that Jamie can’t quite tell if it makes his skin crawl or turns him on, neither of which are things he wants to be feeling standing in the middle of Roy’s kitchen. Suddenly the pan in front of Roy starts hissing angrily. Roy swears and the stare is broken as Roy turns his attention back to the pan just in time to save the omelette from burning. Jamie decides that whatever conversation he’s going to end up having with Roy probably shouldn’t happen in front of a burning hob, so he just lays the table, gets himself and Roy a glass of water and sits and waits for Roy to be done cooking.

Roy comes in and places the as usual, delicious looking omelette in front of him, now refusing to meet his eye.

‘Seriously mate, what’s up with you today?’ Roy’s mouth opens and closes a few times, like he’s struggling to find the words. Jamie waits patiently. Honestly the fact that Roy hasn’t just told him to fuck off is a great sign.

‘I want to marry you,’ is what comes out when Roy seems to finally regain the ability to speak, and Jamie feels like his brain short circuits.

‘What? I mean yes, but also, what?’

‘The fuck do you mean yes?’

‘I mean yes I want to marry you too, but also what the fuck do you mean?’

‘No.’

‘What do you mean no?’

‘You can’t want to marry me.’

‘Ok, first of all you can’t tell me how I feel, second of all how come you’re allowed to want to marry me but I’m not allowed to want to marry you.’ The conversation starts to catch up with Jamie as he speaks. Surely he must have heard Roy wrong, or at least interpreted what he said wrong, because there’s no way Roy Kent wants to marry him. And now he’s probably gone and made things all weird by announcing that he wants to marry Roy. ‘Um… what do you even mean by that anyway?’ Jamie asks, trying to keep his tone light, leave some plausible deniability that all of this was a joke.

‘I mean, I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to wake up every day with you and make you breakfast. I want to celebrate every victory with you. I want to be there with you when you get called up for the world cup. I want to be there when you come back home at the end of the day. I want to learn how to cook all the meals the way your mum does. I want to know everything about you and everything you care about. I want… I want you.’ Roy looks as if he might pass out, which is fair, Jamie is feeling a little lightheaded himself. So maybe he had heard Roy perfectly after all. Is he dreaming? Is he dead? This can’t be real, though on the off chance that it is, he absolutely can’t let this slip away.

‘Um… yeah I want that. I um… want all of that too.’ Jamie stumbles over his words – though in his defence it’s hard to be coherent when the man you’ve been secretly in love with for months tells you he wants to marry you.

‘You can’t,’ Roy says and Jamie’s thoughts suddenly snap into clarity as they turn into a defiant anger.

‘What the fuck do you mean I can’t?’

‘I mean you’re you!’ Roy snaps back at him. ‘Why the hell would you want me?’

‘Why would I want you? Seriously? I’m me? You’re you! You’re Roy fucking Kent. But honestly I don’t even give a shit about that anymore. I just care that you’re Roy. The Roy who cooks me breakfast every morning,’ he gestures at the neglected omelette in front of him, ‘the Roy who gets up at 4am to help make me the best I can be, the Roy that pretends to be a grumpy twat but is secretly a big hairy teddy bear, the Roy who’s such a good fucking Uncle to the most amazing little girl in the world, the Roy who makes me smile, the Roy who makes my day so much fucking better just by being there. Is that enough for you?’ Roy stares at him with his mouth hung slightly open. Jamie can tell he wants to argue, but he doesn’t say anything. Jamie leans back in his chair, folds his arms and grins triumphantly.

‘Great,’ he says ‘So when are we getting married?’ Roy looks at him like he’s grown a second head.

‘We’re not actually getting fucking married!’

‘Why not? You want to marry me. I want to marry you. What’s the problem?’

‘You have to know how insane this is. This isn’t… this isn’t fucking normal.’

‘So, since when are either of us normal?’ Jamie knew they were both intense, they had to be to get from a council estate to where they were now.

‘We don’t even live together. What if I’m… if it’s too much.’

‘Fine,’ Jamie relents. ‘We don’t have to get married yet, I’ll just move in.’

‘What?’

‘I’ll move in. I already have loads of stuff here and I spend practically all my time here anyway. No reason to leave.’ Roy doesn’t immediately deny him this time. Honestly Jamie thinks Roy’s acting far too shocked about all of this given he’s the one who brought up marriage in the first place.

‘Fine,’ he says eventually. Jamie’s face cracks out into a smile, and Roy’s trying to look grumpy about it but the corners of his mouth twitch upwards just enough for Jamie to notice. Jamie’s already planning where he’s going to put various things of his around the house when he realises he doesn’t know whether he’ll be sleeping in Roy’s room or the guest bedroom.

‘Quick question, when you say you want to marry me, is that like the kissing and fucking kind of marriage or a best friends sort of marriage.’ Roy’s eyes widen and his face returns to the same shock he’d been displaying for most of the conversation.

‘You agreed to all of this before you asked that?’ he says incredulously. Jamie shrugs.

‘Yeah. I mean, I want you. The kissing and fucking would just be a bonus.’ Roy’s face remains set in shock but there’s something else to it too, and Jamie could swear his eyes look a little shiny. ‘Roy…’ Jamie says tentatively, hoping he hasn’t somehow fucked this up already. Roy blinks rapidly.

‘Sorry was just… having a feeling.’

‘A feeling?’

‘You really like me,’ he says with a tone of wonder in his voice.

‘Yeah obviously.’ Jamie’s actually a little concerned that Roy is experiencing early-onset if he got this far into the conversation without realising. ‘Love you actually.’

‘Fuck,’ Roy says but there’s a smile playing on his lips. ‘I love you too.’

‘So is that a yes to the kissing and fucking?’

‘Yes.’ There’s a hint of pink on Roy’s cheeks and it looks absolutely fucking adorable. Jamie wants nothing more than to kiss him and he realises that there’s absolutely nothing stopping him. He leaps up from his chair. Roy looks startled and his eyebrows nit together in confusion and perhaps worry too. Jamie doesn’t bother explaining, just marches around the table, ducks his head down and their lips meet.

So Jamie might have been lying a little when he said he didn’t give a shit about Roy being Roy Kent anymore. Obviously he cares more about Roy just being Roy, but he’s spent half his life wanting to kiss Roy Kent and it’s finally happening. It’s fucking exhilarating, feeling the way Roy’s mouth goes pliant against his, the way their lips move perfectly against each other like it was meant to be. Best of all is the way Roy chases him the moment he starts to pull away, lifts an arm and places a hand in Jamie’s hair and pulls him back into him. It’s everything Jamie dreamed it would be and more.

Eventually they pull apart and fuck, Jamie doesn’t think he’s ever seen Roy like this before. He looks so relaxed, so open, so vulnerable. Jamie wonders if he looks the same, he certainly feels it. He wants to reach out and touch every part of him, hold him and never let go.

‘Fuck, never want to let you go,’ Roy murmurs and Jamie wonders briefly if their kiss was so good they somehow developed a psychic connection. Roy’s hand, which had been in his hair is now stroking his cheek and Jamie leans into the touch.

‘Don’t have to.’ Jamie reaches his hand out and Roy immediately takes it with his free one. ‘Why don’t we take this up to our bedroom.’ Our bedroom, the bedroom that he and Roy now share. Roy gets a hungry look in his eyes and moves to follow Jamie, but then suddenly jerks back.

‘Oi, not until you finish your breakfast.’ He gestures at the entirely untouched plates of food still sitting on the table. Jamie whines. Sure any over day he’d never complain about eating Roy’s cooking, but his blood is rapidly heading south and he doesn’t want to wait. ‘You’re not doing another workout until you’ve got some calories in you.’ Jamie raises an eyebrow and smirks – though it turns closer to a full on smile than a smirk.

‘Oh? It’s going to be a workout is it?’

‘Don’t think I’m not going to make you work for it Tartt.’

‘Yeah? Well I’m going to blow your fucking mind Kent.’ Jamie leans in close and lowers is voice to a whisper. ‘And that’s not the only thing I’m going to blow.’ If Jamie’s going to be turned on and uncomfortable while they eat, he’s sure as hell going to make sure Roy is too. Roy rolls his eyes but Jamie can see from the way he squirms that he’s not unaffected.

‘You fucking prick.’

‘Well I’m your fucking prick, stuck with me now.’ Roy’s hands ball up into fists as he looks like he’s barely restraining himself from taking Jamie right there. That’s almost as exhilarating as their kiss had been, knowing that he has this kind of power over Roy.   

‘Yeah you are. Now eat your fucking breakfast.’ Well Jamie’s not about to start ignoring Roy’s commands now. The sex can wait a few more minutes, they’ve got the rest of their lives together after all.

Chapter Text

The day following the confession is torture. Once they’d got up to the bedroom, neither of them had kept track of the time and he and Jamie are very nearly late for training. They rush into the locker room with no time to think about keeping up appearances. Everyone’s eyes snap up to them and Roy mumbles an excuse about traffic and walks straight into the coaches office.  He gives the same excuse to them and thankfully no one seems to question it. His almost-lateness turns out to be a blessing in disguise as Ted doesn’t start with his usual small talk, just dives straight into discussing the drills for the day. Once they’ve gone through the plans, Roy risks a glance at Jamie and sees he’s already changed and laughing along with something one of the lads has said. He’s fucking beautiful when he laughs. He’s always beautiful. Fuck. Roy tears his eyes away from him. He turns his attention back to the coaches resolves to avoid staring at Jamie for the rest of training.

That, it turns out, is a much harder feat than anticipated. Jamie is working through every drill with his usual brilliance and grace and it’s hard not to stare, especially when it comes to the passing drills and Jamie’s in the centre of it all, commanding the field like he’s conducting an orchestra. He forces his attention onto the other players, watching them one at a time with laser focus and shouting out instructions before moving onto the next player. It seems to do the trick and gives Roy something to think about other than the image of Jamie in his bed that morning.

Ted calls the end of the drill and tells the players to take a rest and do some stretches, then sidles up next to Roy.

‘Everything alright with you and Jamie?’ Fuck, Roy had thought he’d been doing well.

‘Everything’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be?’ He responds, carefully keeping his voice and face neutral.

‘Just you haven’t said a word to him all training. A real blast from the past from when you were first coaching. Wanted to check there’s nothing I need to be concerned about.’

‘We’re fucking fine. He was fucking perfect, didn’t need me to say anything.’ Roy regrets the words as soon as they come out of his mouth. It’s not that they aren’t true - even though he’d been pointedly avoiding looking at Jamie, it was impossible not to see his influence as the ball made its way around the team - it’s the stupidly wide grin that spreads across Ted’s face.

‘Alright then, I’m glad to hear that. And I have to say I’ve been real pleased with how the two of you have been getting on this season. It’s certainly beyond my wildest hopes from back when I first met the two of you.’ Roy almost laughs at that. If only he knew all of it, he’d probably lose his fucking mind. Instead he just gives a vague grunt of agreement. If anyone had told him two years ago that he’d voluntarily move in with Jamie Tartt he’d think they’re crazy, though if he’s being completely honest with himself he’d have been a little less surprised about the fucking him part, even when he hated him he’d unfortunately been aware of exactly how attractive he was, and thoughts of pushing him against the wall and fucking him until he couldn’t speak may have popped into his head once or twice.

Roy tries not to ignore Jamie for the rest of the day, though that’s hard when every time he looks at him he just thinks of him in his bed. Not even the sex, though that was brilliant too, but after, when Jamie had laid down next to him looking totally blissed out, the way his smile had widened when he’d caught Roy staring. He has to snap himself out of his thoughts several times, but he makes it through the day with no disasters, at least until the end of the day when he gets up from his desk ready to leave and sees that Jamie isn’t there anymore. He panics. Has Jamie already left? Did he go back to his own house? Has he realised that he doesn’t actually want to live with Roy and everything he said that morning was just a heat of the moment thing? Had he realised that Roy was way too much and wanted nothing to do with him anymore? Roy feels his throat close up and something that feels suspiciously like tears form in his eyes. He’s absolutely not going to let anyone see him fall apart over this so he stalks out the locker room with his head down and straight out to his car. He doesn’t notice Jamie standing there until he almost walks straight into him. Jamie looks up at him with wide eyes.

‘Are you ok?’

‘I… thought you left.’ Roy blinks rapidly to try and cover up just how close he’d been to crying over this. God he’s pathetic.

‘Oh sorry. I umm… wasn’t sure if I’d be coming home with you.’

‘Of course you’re coming home with me, you fucking live there now. Unless you’ve changed your mind. I know it’s a lot. We can go slower, or forget about it all together if that’s-‘

‘Roy!’ Jamie cuts him off sharply. ‘Of course I haven’t changed my mind. I thought maybe you had. You’ve kind of been ignoring me all day.’ Jamie fiddles with his hands nervously and Roy realises he’s been a complete idiot.

‘Fuck, sorry. I’ve been ignoring you because I don’t know how to look at you without making it obvious how I feel and we haven’t talked about telling people yet so I didn’t… I was an idiot, sorry.’ Jamie’s face breaks out into a small grin.

‘Can’t resist me?’ he teases and Roy doesn’t even have a rebuttal for that, because no, he can’t. Jamie’s face turns a little more serious. ‘About telling people… I don’t mind. I don’t think I’m ready to go public yet but the team and coaches if you wanted to.’ Roy nods. It would probably be good for at least the coaches to know, make sure their relationship doesn’t fuck with playing at all, and the team will probably be annoying and tease them about it, but it will all be in good fun and Roy somehow doesn’t find the idea of it as abhorrent as he feels like it should be, in fact he almost feels warm imagining it.

They go home together and they don’t train that evening, just talk. They talk about how they’re going to tell people. Jamie’s going to tell his mum and Roy his sister (he’s going to wait a bit before telling Phoebe – he doesn’t want to break her heart too if it doesn’t work out). They don’t want to make a big announcement with the team, they’re just going to let it happen naturally, not bother being too discrete about it at the club. They talk about Jamie moving in. He’s not going to sell his house yet, it’s not like they need the money and this way he doesn’t have to move everything at once. They’ll make a trip over there after training tomorrow to pick up essentials and the rest can follow after. After they’ve got those topics out of the way they just talk about whatever, about football, about things they’ve seen on the TV, about anything that comes to mind. The conversation flows easily and when Roy goes to the kitchen to make dinner, Jamie follows him there and continues to natter on, asking all sorts of questions about what Roy’s making. They eat and Jamie raves about Roy’s cooking as he always does, then they clean up in sync with Jamie washing and Roy drying and putting things away. Then they plop themselves on the sofa and put on a random detective show that comes up on the TV.  Jamie snuggles up into Roy and Roy puts an arm around him. It’s a fucking perfect evening and the best part about it is that Jamie doesn’t leave at the end. They go to bed together and it feels like the most natural thing in the world.

The next morning isn’t rushed like the previous one had been. They’re both reluctant to leave their positions of being cuddled up next to each other, but they make it out for a run and breakfast in plenty of time and end up arriving early for training. Roy has a few things to catch up on, having arrived late and left so abruptly the previous day so he goes straight to his office and Jamie wanders off to god knows where.

As the other coaches start filing in, Roy realises he’s going to have to figure out how to tell them about him and Jamie. Before he can figure it out, Higgins walks into the office looks a little confused and turns straight to Roy.

‘Hi Roy, Jamie just came into my office asking to change his address on the records and well… I thought I should check with you because it’s the same one we have down for you.’ Ah, so that’s where Jamie had wandered off to.

‘Yeah,’ he replies, no point in beating round the bush now, ‘we live together now.’ Beard lets out a gasp and Ted immediately swivels around on his chair so that he’s facing Roy with a grin from ear to ear.

‘Since when?’ he all but squeals.

‘Since yesterday. Also,’ he adds, figuring it’s best to get it all out the way at once, ‘we’re… together.’ He doesn’t really know how to describe exactly what he and Jamie are, dating doesn’t seem to quite cover it. Trent is the first to respond to that.

‘Together romantically?’

‘Yes,’ Roy confirms. If Ted and Beard’s squealing was bad before, it’s so much worse now. He also sees Beard not so subtly hand Trent a ten pound note. ‘We’re not making a fucking big deal about it. I’m telling you so you can make sure it doesn’t interfere with work.’ They settle down a bit but the grin on Ted’s face doesn’t subside.

‘Well from my perspective, if you’re happy, I’m happy.’ Roy looks out to the locker room and catches Jamie’s eye, who had obviously been watching all the commotion. Jamie smiles at him and Roy feels himself smiling back.

‘Yeah I’m happy.’

---

Every time Jamie wakes up with Roy’s arms around him he feels for a moment like he’s dreaming. Then he remembers he’s not and he feels on top of the fucking world. He’s not sure he’ll ever get used to this, used to waking up with Roy, going to bed with Roy, doing everything with Roy. He’s not sure if he’s been more than a hundred meters away from Roy even once since they got together. Keeley would probably say something about healthy boundaries or whatever, but Jamie doesn’t want boundaries and it doesn’t seem like Roy does either which is why Jamie is a little thrown when Roy informs him he’s going to be out the next evening and won’t be back until late.

‘What? Why? Where are you going?’

‘Yoga,’ Roy answers gruffly and Jamie’s eyes widen in surprise.

‘You do yoga? Wait why are you going to be back late? How long does yoga take?’ Jamie doesn’t know a lot about yoga but he’s pretty sure it isn’t usually a many hour activity. Roy lets out a long sigh.

‘We do yoga first then we watch shit TV and drink wine for the rest of the evening.’

‘We? Who’s we?’ Jamie is utterly baffled. He feels like he’s unlocking a whole new part of Roy’s life that he had no clue existed before.

‘The group of women in their sixties that I do yoga with,’ Roy says with an almost pained expression. Jamie’s eyebrows shoot right up to the top of his forehead.

‘Can I come?’

‘No!’ Roy barks out immediately, leaving Jamie feeling a little dejected. He knows he and Roy don’t have to do everything together, but he wants to meet Roy’s friends and the fact that Roy didn’t even think about it before saying no kind of hurts.

‘Why not?’ he wines, trying to make it seem like he’s just being annoying rather than actually hurt.

‘They can’t meet you.’

‘Why? Are they homophobic or something?’ That would make sense Jamie supposes, and it would mean it wasn’t anything about him specifically, though he wonders why Roy would willingly hang out with a bunch of homophobes.

‘Of course not.’ Roy lets out another long sigh. ‘They can’t meet you because they don’t know who I am. They don’t know shit about football and to them I’m just some bloke named Roy. But they know who you are because they watch fucking Lust Conquers All and if they met you I’d have to try and explain how I know you and they might find out the truth and I don’t want that because I like just being Roy sometimes.’

‘Oh… Yeah, I get that.’ Jamie’s still reeling from everything he’s just learnt about Roy, but he really does get it. He often wonders if people would like him if he wasn’t Jamie Tartt. If he had a bunch of friends who didn’t know who he was he doesn’t think he’d want to risk them finding out either. The tension that seems to have built up in Roy’s shoulders releases and he smiles at Jamie.

‘We could do an early dinner beforehand if you’d like? Just something simple.’ Jamie beams.

‘Yeah that would be fucking mint.’

Jamie’s glad Roy wants to make time for him even when he has other plans but he still doesn’t like the prospect of spending the rest of the evening alone, so as soon as he gets into training the next morning he asks the lads what their plans are for the evening.

‘Roy’s busy so I’ve got the evening free,’ he explains.

‘Well it’s your turn to host FIFA night bruv,’ Isaac says and the rest of the team murmurs in agreement.

‘Yeah, it’s been ages since you’ve hosted,’ Colin adds. Jamie realises he can’t remember the last time he had the lads round to play FIFA. He’d got out of the habit when they’d all been infatuated with Zava (he didn’t want that dickhead anywhere near his house) and with his training with Roy taking up most of his time, he’d never got round to inviting them again. It would be nice to get back to doing that regularly.

‘Sure. I mean I’ll have to check with Roy first but I’m sure he’ll be cool with it.’

‘Why do you have to check with Roy? I thought you said he was busy,’ Colin asks.

‘Well it’s his house too, so I should probably check it’s ok with him even if he’s not going to be in.’ Suddenly the whole dressing room erupts into chaos and Jamie belatedly realises he hasn’t gotten round to telling the lads about him and Roy yet.

‘You live with Roy!?’ someone shouts. It’s hard to work out who’s saying what with all their voices overlapping. Jamie grins. He’s already caused some chaos, why not create a bit more?

‘Of course we live together. He’s my fiancé.’ That causes the exact reaction he’d been hoping for. Anyone who wasn’t already paying attention whips up their head and the shouts grow louder and more unintelligible. ‘Oi lads, calm down. Can’t make out a word any of you are saying.’ The lads begin to settle down and they all automatically defer to Isaac as their spokesperson.

‘You and Roy are engaged?’ he asks. Jamie nods. ‘Since when?’

‘Last week.’ Isaac furrows his brow.

‘How long have the two of you been dating?’

‘’Bout a week.’

‘But you just said you got engaged a week ago.’

‘Yep.’ Jamie decides that he will absolutely not be elaborating on any of this. For starters is fucking hilarious to watch as the cogs try and turn in the teams brains, and second it feels private, like that morning in Roy’s house was just for the two of them, and he didn’t want to share it with anyone.

Something seems to break the team out of their stunned silence and suddenly they’re all talking over each other again. Isaac tries and fails to bring back a bit of order, but the shouting continues until Roy walks into the dressing room.

‘Oi, what the fuck are you all shouting about?’ The shouting dies down immediately. Sam’s the one to speak up.

‘Coach, is it true that you and Jamie are-‘

‘Yes,’ Roy cuts him off before he can finish. ‘No fucking questions. If you’re not out on the pitch in the next minute then you’re all doing an extra ten laps around the field.’ That gets everyone scrambling up and heading out of the door. A few of them stare at Roy and Jamie as the walk past, but no one lingers, the threat of ten extra laps being sufficient to prevent that. Soon Jamie’s the only one left.

‘You too Tartt, don’t think I’m going to go soft on you just because we’re…’ Roy gestures between the two of them. Jamie rolls his eyes.

‘Obviously you’re not going soft on me Coach. Just wanted to ask if you’d be ok with the lads coming over to play a bit of FIFA while you’re out?’ Roy stares at him for a while and his face pinches up into a slight look of disgust. Jamie worries to a moment that he’s going to say no, but then his face softens.

‘It’s your fucking house too, of course you can have friends over.’ He still doesn’t seem particularly happy about the idea and Jamie realises he probably hasn’t had anyone else from the team over before.

‘You sure? We can just go to Colin’s or something if you’d rather.’

‘I’m sure. Just as long as they don’t expect me to cook for them.’ He’s almost smiling now and Jamie relaxes a little bit.

‘Course not. I’ll tell them to come over after dinner.’ Roy nods.

‘Right, well fucking get out of here then, your minute is almost up.’ Jamie’s pretty sure it’s already been a minute. Maybe Roy is getting soft on him after all.

FIFA night with the lads is great, even though he has to keep stopping them from trying to snoop around Roy’s house. The sofa in Jamie’s old house had been picked out by an interior designer so it looks stylish but wasn’t particularly comfortable. Roy’s sofa is the opposite, definitely wouldn’t be described as stylish, but it’s comfortable as fuck and as such Jamie almost falls asleep on it multiple times throughout the evening and has to be jostled awake. By around 10pm they decide to take pity on him and all head out with a promise to do this again soon. Jamie should probably head up to bed, especially if Roy’s still going to expect them to wake up at 4 tomorrow, but Roy isn’t back yet, and Jamie has gotten accustomed to having Roy’s body in bed beside him over the last week, so he doesn’t much feel like going to sleep alone and decides to wait up for Roy. Though it turns out with Roy’s comfy sofa and no one to jostle him awake, it’s pretty much impossible to not fall asleep and within minutes he’s out cold.

He's only woken up again by someone placing him on a bed.

‘Roy…?’ he murmurs. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Putting you in bed you muppet. Why the fuck where you sleeping on the sofa?’

‘Didn’t want to go to bed without you.’

‘Idiot.’ Roy rolls his eyes but he’s also smiling, so he’s clearly not actually annoyed.

‘How was yoga?’

‘Good. Maureen’s got a new boyfriend so we heard all about him. Then I let slip I was seeing someone and they spent the rest of the evening interrogating me about you.’

‘Sorry.’ Roy furrows his eyebrows.

‘The fuck are you apologising for?’

‘You don’t want them to know about me.’

‘I don’t want them to know about me. It was… nice getting to tell them about you. Just had to leave out a few details. How was FIFA?’

‘The lads were asking about you too. Didn’t tell them much, but I liked it too.’ Roy nods and smiles softly, then places a kiss on Jamie’s temple and tucks the two of them into bed. Jamie’s about to fall back asleep when he suddenly hears Roy let out a loud ‘fuck!’

‘What’s wrong?’

‘We haven’t told Keeley yet.’ Jamie’s eyes widen.

‘She’s going to be so mad if she hears it from someone else.’

‘I’ll invite her over for dinner tomorrow.’ Jamie nods in agreement. Sounds like a plan.

---

Keeley wakes up to a couple of text from Roy.

Would you like to come for dinner tomorrow?

Jamie will be there too.

She grins. Obviously whatever conversation Roy had had with him had gone well and she’s intrigued to see more of their new dynamic so a dinner with the two of them sounds great. She quickly checks her calendar and is relieved to find she doesn’t have any meetings finishing late, so shoots Roy a reply telling him she’ll be there.

The work day passes quickly. She finds herself oddly nervous as she stands outside Roy’s door. She’d consider herself friends with both Roy and Jamie now, but still she wonders if it will be weird having dinner with two of her exes, who may or may not now be dating each other.

Some of her nerves settle when Jamie opens the door and greets her with a wide smile.

‘Keeley! Good to see you! Roy’s in the kitchen cooking. It already smells fucking delicious so we’re in for a treat I reckon.’

‘Good to see you too!’ She opens her arms and Jamie instantly takes her up into a hug. It’s nice seeing him like this, so open and warm in a way he never was when they were dating. They wander into the kitchen together and Roy lifts his head and smiles as they walk in. He looks more relaxed than she’s seen him in a long time, perfectly at ease dealing with the various pans in front of him.

‘Glad you could come. I’m making curry.’

‘Smells great, I’m looking forward to it.’ She replies. Jamie perches himself on one of the stools next to the counter and she follows suit. They chat as Roy cooks. Jamie asks about her day, then recounts his own (and by extension Roy’s). The two of them do most the talking, with Roy chiming in occasionally. By the time dinner is ready, Keeley’s face almost hurts from smiling. It feels so natural spending time with the two of them like this, getting to be friends with both of them. She’s really glad it all worked out this way, even if it involved some heartbreak along the way. Though as much as she’s loving this new dynamic between the three of them, she still hasn’t got the answers she was hoping for in regards to their relationship with each other, so she decides to just straight up ask as soon as they’re all sat down with their food.

‘So, anything the two of you want to tell me?’ The two of them lock eyes and the way they look at each other is enough to give her the answer, but she still waits expectantly for them to actually say it.

‘We’re together,’ Roy says at the same time as Jamie says ‘We’re getting married!’ Keeley’s eyes widen in shock and she almost misses the glare Roy sends Jamie’s way and his answering eyeroll.

‘Alright!’ Jamie exclaims then turns back to her. ‘Roy’s being all weird about how he have to try living together and stuff for a while before we get married even though he’s the one who brought it up in the first place.’

‘You brought up marriage?’ She asks Roy and a blush spreads across his face.

‘Didn’t mean to,’ he mutters. ‘Just slipped out.’ She turns to Jamie to see if she can gauge anything more about his thoughts on the whole thing, and he’s smiling widely, looking at Roy with complete adoration.

‘Well it seems like it worked out.’

‘Yeah, only because this one seems to be just as fucking weird as I am.’ Roy looks at Jamie fondly and Jamie sits up proudly like he’d just been complimented. Keeley wonders if she should have predicted this. She’s known from the start that they’re both a lot more alike than they’d wanted to admit and they’re both very intense, so maybe she should have expected that it would end up like this once they finally got over themselves. But up until now she couldn’t have imagined the two of them looking at each other so lovingly, or Roy confessing that he wants to marry Jamie and Jamie having no qualms about that, despite the fact that they’ve only been dating for- Keeley realises she doesn’t know exactly how long they’ve been together. It’s only been a bit over a week since her dinner with Roy so it’s not been long regardless, but she wants to know the whole story.

‘Come on then, tell me how it happened. I want to know all the details.’

They launch into the story. Once again, Jamie does most the talking with Roy occasionally piping in  (‘The little idiot didn’t even know if there would be kissing involved before saying yes!’). The story is incredibly sweet but also batshit insane and Keeley is so invested she hardly touches her food. The story gets to the point of Jamie dragging Roy up to what had just become their shared bedroom before Roy cuts Jamie off. Keeley lets out a moan of disappointment. She may no longer be interested in dating either of them but the idea of the two of them having sex is incredibly fucking hot and she’d have quite liked to know how it went.

‘What?’ Jamie also moans. ‘It’s Keeley, she’s had sex with both of us before.’

‘It’s fucking different. The shit we do is just for us. It’s none of her business.’

‘Aww,’ Jamie coos, giving Roy a wide smile. Keeley could almost throw up with how nauseatingly cute these two are.

‘No offence,’ Roy adds belatedly, looking at Keeley. She puts on a dramatic sigh.

‘Fine, I suppose I’ll have to do without hearing about your incredibly hot sex.’

‘It was so hot!’ Jamie exclaims, shutting his mouth immediately when Roy turns to him with a glare. Keeley can’t help but chuckle, and Roy’s mouth twitches into a slight smile too, instantly bringing back the wide grin on Jamie’s face. She hadn’t been sure what to expect for this dinner, but it certainly wasn’t this, certainly not something so absurd and yet so warm and solid.

‘Alright, alright,’ she raises her hands in mock surrender. ‘I won’t pry any further into your beautiful love story, but for what it’s worth, the two of you seem perfect together, even if I think you’re both completely mad.’

‘Thanks Keeley, we really appreciate it. And we really appreciate you.’ He turns briefly to Roy, a silent communication passing between them with a slight nod from Roy. ‘I don’t think either of us would be here without you, so thank you, for putting up with us and being a great friend even when we were being idiots.’

‘Of course, I love both of you, and I don’t think I can take too much of the credit. I know the both of you have done a lot of work to get here. There’s just one thing I want you to promise me.’

‘Yeah’, ‘Anything’ They both say.

‘Don’t stop putting in that work, yeah? You’ve got something great here. Don’t let yourself give up on it.’ They both take her words in very seriously and look at each other for a moment then her.

‘I won’t. I promise.’ Roy is the first to speak.

‘Yeah, me too.’ Jamie adds, grabbing onto Roy’s hand and gripping it tightly. Keeley’s pretty sure they’re going to be alright, and she for one, can’t wait to receive their wedding invite.