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rsadelleMaster Post - Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
Brownie's right about that. As easy as it was for Tyler to get laid last summer, it's even easier this summer. People in Toronto really do know who he is, especially now, and he barely has to walk into a gay bar before someone's offering to buy him a drink or asking him to dance.
He does his best to avoid the people who just want to say they hooked up with Tyler Seguin, but he ends up having a couple of uncomfortable conversations with Wally about his hookups talking about him on Twitter.
Other than that, he usually just picks the hottest guy who hits on him. He's living alone, so he can even take them back to his place if he wants. Not that he always wants to - it's still easier to go to someone else's place - but sometimes that's how it works out.
Tyler goes out one night, and brings home a guy he meets on the dance floor who mentions in passing that he goes to U of T. It makes him pause for a minute, and think back to last summer and Zack. It's not like he misses Zack, really, but they had a good time together.
Then he stops thinking about Zack in favor of watching the U of T guy suck his dick, and he forgets about it until sometime after he gets home from his workout the next day.
Zack's number is still in his phone, so Tyler pulls it up and texts him, In Toronto for the summer. Want to hang out?
He puts his phone down while he makes something to eat and gives Marshall a treat. There's a message waiting by the time he sits down with his food.
I'm dating someone, Zack's text says. But the three of us could have coffee or something.
Well, so much for the prospect of steady sex with someone he knows is fun and who knows what he likes in bed. But he did have fun with Zack, and Zack was really good with Marshall, so Tyler sends back, Ice cream? I'll bring Marshall.
Yes! Zack texts. I'll text you a time.
It takes a while before he does that, but Tyler's phone says, 8 tonight, same place as last summer, when he wakes up after his nap.
Tyler texts back an agreement and takes Marshall out for a short walk. There's no need to tire him out now when they're just going to walk for ice cream later.
Tyler's not sure exactly what to expect when he and Marshall walk to the ice cream place after dinner. He hasn't really stayed in touch with any of the guys he's hooked up with, but he and Ciara are still friends, so maybe it'll be cool.
Zack isn't there yet, and there aren't any other guys there alone who could be Zack's boyfriend waiting for him, so Tyler sits down with Marshall at an empty table. Marshall flops onto the sidewalk and pants up at him.
"I know, buddy." Tyler bends down to pet him and gets him some water from the cart of doggie bowls and water pitchers.
Marshall puts his whole face into the water bowl. It's only a couple of minutes later that he gets up, wagging his tail, and tugs on his leash. Tyler looks up in the direction he's going, and there's Zack. He looks good in a dress shirt and jeans. He's holding hands with the guy who must be his boyfriend, but he lets go to pet Marshall.
Tyler has to wait until Zack is finished saying hi to Marshall to hug him.
"Hey," Tyler says.
"Hi." Zack holds him by the arms and looks at him. "You look good."
"Thanks," Tyler says. "You too." He really does. It's too bad Zack has a boyfriend, because Tyler would totally hook up with him if he didn't.
Zack reaches out and pulls the other guy forward. "This is Marcus. Marcus, Tyler."
Marcus is cute, in a nerdy kind of way. More like the hipsters Ference always finds than the kinds of guys Tyler usually picks up.
"Hi, Marcus," Tyler says with a smile. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," Marcus says, and then he elbows Zack. "You didn't tell me Tyler your ex was Tyler Seguin."
Zack grins at both of them. "Nope." He hooks his arm through Marcus's and pulls him toward the shop.
Tyler ties Marshall up outside where he'll be able to see him from inside and goes in with them. Their conversation is all about ice cream for a couple of minutes, what's good, what flavors they all like and don't like, how Marshall gets treats but not ice cream. Tyler pays for all three of them, and gets a couple of doggie biscuits for Marshall.
Zack takes the chair closest to Marshall and ask, "Can I?" holding out his hand for the bag with the doggie biscuits.
Tyler hands the bag over. "Don't give him all of them."
Zack shoots him a look. "I know." He takes one out of the bag and bends over to offer it to Marshall, careful to keep his ice cream cone out of the way. "Good boy," he says when Marshall takes it neatly.
Tyler looks over at Marcus, who is watching the whole thing with a totally sappy look on his face. Well, at least if he can't hook up with Zack because he has a boyfriend, it's because he has a boyfriend who looks at him like that.
Zack sits back in his chair and pushes the bag of doggie biscuits back toward Tyler. He licks at his ice cream where it's starting to melt. It's still as sexy as it was last summer.
"I can't believe," Marcus says, "that you didn't tell me you dated Tyler Seguin."
"You don't have to say his name like that," Zack says. "It was just a couple of months last summer." He flashes a grin at Tyler. "Although I was his first Canadian boyfriend."
Tyler's not sure if he's supposed to laugh at that or not.
"You're on good terms with his dog," Marcus says, and that's the point where Tyler figures he can step in.
"He's a pretty friendly dog."
Marcus leans over where he can see Marshall. "Let me guess," he says, looking between Marshall and Zack, "you didn't even know who he was and you just liked his dog."
Zack and Tyler exchange a smile, and Zack says, "Yep."
The logical place for this conversation to go is to the rest of the story about Zack and Tyler dating. To head that off, Tyler says, "You were still in University last summer."
"Yeah," Zack says. "I graduated this year."
"Congratulations," Tyler says.
"Thanks." Zack flashes him a smile. "I'm not really done, though. I did this program working with kids this year, and loved it, so I'm doing another year to become a teacher."
"That's cool," Tyler says.
"It's more school," Zack says with a shrug, "but I think it'll be good in the end." He reaches over and takes Marcus's hand. "And I'm doing that at York, so I can be here with Marcus."
Tyler tries not to stare at them holding hands like he didn't get to do with Zack last summer. "What do you do?" he asks Marcus.
"IT," Marcus says. "Mostly tech support right now, but I'm hoping to move up into one of the sysadmin positions in the next couple of years."
Tyler only sort of knows what all that means, but he nods anyway.
"Not as exciting as what you do," Marcus says.
"I've never seen you this excited about anything sports related," Zack says.
"I am Canadian," Marcus says. "I might not follow hockey, but I know something about it, and it's a big deal that he's one of the first out players in the NHL." He nods at Tyler. "That was really great of you to do. I wish some of the guys I know who played hockey growing up had role models like you."
"It is pretty amazing," Zack says, smiling at Tyler. "I'm proud of you."
"Uh, thanks." Tyler figures neither of them are likely to go talking about him to the press or whatever, so he also says, "I mostly did it so I wouldn't have to worry about someone outing me." He can't help glancing at Zack and Marcus's hands.
"Probably easier for you to date now," Zack says, "not that you did that badly before."
"Yeah, kind of," Tyler says. "They don't have to not look like dates anyway."
"Hey," Zack says, "it wasn't that bad." He grins at Tyler. "I seem to remember some very seductive public ice cream eating."
It startles a choked laugh out of Marcus and a lighter one out of Tyler.
"Really?" Marcus says. He looks at Tyler. "Your ice cream eating doesn't seem very seductive now."
Tyler shrugs. "I'm not trying to seduce you."
"Trust me," Zack says, "if he were, you would know." He shares a smile with Tyler. Last summer, he would have gotten a smile that meant they were going straight home to fuck, but that's the thing about being friends with an ex. Now it's just friendly. Tyler doesn't try to make it any more than that either; he and Zack didn't work out, and he doesn't want to cause problems for Zack and Marcus.
"So since you can obviously date now," Zack asks, "are you seeing anyone?"
"Not right now," Tyler says. "There were a couple of guys during the season, but," he shrugs, "it didn't work out, so."
"You'll find someone," Zack says. "You're a good boyfriend."
"And hot as hell," Marcus adds. He grins at the look Zack throws him. "Not usually my type, but someone's."
Tyler has to laugh at that. "Thanks," he says. "I think."
"Just wait," Zack says. "Someday it'll be us and you and your boyfriend having ice cream. And this guy." He bends over to rub behind Marshall's ears, and Marcus gives him that sappy look again.
It's pretty easy, after that, to talk about stuff that isn't Tyler's dating prospects. Zack asks about his family, and Tyler asks Zack what he's doing during the summer, and it's fun, like maybe they really can be friends.
Zack and Marcus both hug him when they leave.
"This was fun," Zack says. "We should hang out again while you're here."
Tyler looks at Marcus, who seems cool with that. "Yeah," Tyler says. "That would be fun."
Zack takes longer to say goodbye to Marshall. Marcus shakes his head and laughs. "He's such a sucker for a cute dog."
*
"It sounds like you had fun," Brownie says when Tyler tells him about it.
"I did," Tyler says. "It's kind of weird because we hooked up all last summer, but it was cool."
"He's not the first person you've hooked up with that you hung out with later."
Tyler shrugs. "Yeah, but it was never weird with Ciara."
Brownie starts to laugh. "Maybe that should have been a clue."
Tyler makes a face at him. "Fuck off. I just thought I wasn't that into her."
Brownie doesn't stop laughing at him. "You weren't, because she's a girl."
Tyler has to crack a smile at that. "Yeah, yeah, I'm dumb, I know."
"Not totally dumb," Brownie says, "just a little clueless."
"You're such a dick."
"I guess I should be glad you like dick," Brownie says, totally serious and straight-faced.
Tyler almost falls off the couch laughing.
*
Tyler walks Marshall over to have ice cream with Zack and Marcus a couple more times, and spends most of his time training, hanging out, and hooking up when he feels like going out. It seems like summer's barely started before he's headed back to Boston for training camp.
It's good to see the rest of the boys. He kept up with most of them over the summer, but texting and the occasional email isn't the same as being in the room or out on the ice with them.
It's good to be home in Boston too, near the friends he's made over the last couple of years, in a city that loves him the way Boston does, and at home in the house with Fred and Marshall.
They have a party once Tyler's mostly settled in, a bunch of friends from around Boston, some of their friends, a couple of the boys. The house slowly fills up with people and conversation, booze and laughter.
Even though Tyler wakes up hungover to a house full of empty cans, bottles, and plastic cups, it makes it feel even more like he's home for the season.
*
You, me, party with Wentworth guys tonight, Fred texts on a Friday afternoon.
You don't even go there anymore, Tyler texts back.
My friends still do. Don't make other plans.
Can't stay too late, Tyler sends. Skate tomorrow morning.
Buzzkill.
The party is at a large apartment close to Wentworth's campus. It's already in full swing when they get there, and because it's Fred's crowd, his presence gets more of a reaction than Tyler's does. Still, Tyler's partied with a bunch of these guys over the last couple of years, so there are people he knows and can talk to. Not that he's ever had a hard time making friends at a party before.
It's at a break in the music when Tyler hears someone say, "No way, it's awesome. Like, there are these girls with secrets, and people are always dying, and there's the mysterious Red Coat, who might actually be more than one person."
Tyler drifts in that direction, because that's a conversation he can join.
"I'm telling you," the voice says, "it's crazy. Way more than Gossip Girl ever was." The guy who's talking is sitting on a couch, telling this to a couple of girls who don't necessarily look like they believe him. The girls are, whatever, girls, but the guy's cute. He has dark hair and an expressive face, and while he's not that built, he has the kind of look where he could be a runner or something like that.
"No way," one of the girls says. "Gossip Girl was the shit."
"Hey," the guy says, holding up his hands, "I loved that show too, but Pretty Little Liars turns the crazy up to, like, a thousand. Plus, it's still on the air and Gossip Girl is over."
The coffee table in front of the couch looks sturdy enough, so Tyler sits down on it and says, "Pretty Little Liars is way better than Gossip Girl."
The guy grins at him, and the girl who defended Gossip Girl gives him a look like she doesn't think he knows what he's talking about.
"Whatever," the other girl says. She grabs her friends hand. "I am not drunk enough for this debate."
"Uh, sorry," Tyler says to the guy when they leave. "I didn't mean to scare them away."
The guy waves his hand. "No worries." He grins. "If they don't understand the greatness of Pretty Little Liars I don't think I could be friends with them anyway."
Tyler laughs and moves from the coffee table to the free space on the couch. "I tried to get my best friend to watch it. He didn't understand, but we're still friends."
The guy shrugs. "You do what you gotta do, I guess."
Tyler laughs again. "He's great otherwise, so it didn't seem fair to ditch him just for that."
The guy grins at him. "You ever get him to watch anything else?"
"Nothing as good as Pretty Little Liars," Tyler says. "I did get him to watch 90210 for a while."
"Man," the guy says, "that show. Have you ever seen the original one?"
Tyler says no, and the guy spends a couple of minutes telling him how it compares to the new one.
"What you should really watch," the guy eventually says, "is The O.C."
"Yeah?" Tyler asks.
"Oh my God," the guy says. "It's so good. Not as much, like, guys taking their shirts off for no reason as a lot of the newer shows," the guy slides a look at Tyler that Tyler tries to answer with a subtle indication of his own interest in guys taking their shirts off, "but it's a really good story, good characters."
Tyler can't help but smile in the face of the guy's enthusiasm. "I'll have to check it out."
The guy flashes him a grin, says, "You won't regret it," and then cranes his neck in response to someone shouting across the room.
"Nathan," someone shouts again. "We need your expertise."
Nathan laughs, and says, "Sorry, I guess they need me," to Tyler.
"Wait." Tyler touches Nathan's wrist before he can stand. "Can I get your number so I can text you or something when I watch The O.C.?"
"Yeah, definitely." Nathan smiles. "If you give me yours too, I can let you know if I run into anything else you should watch."
They swap phones to enter their numbers, and Nathan looks down at his when he takes it back. "Tyler," he says. "I hope you like The O.C."
"Nathan!" The shout from across the room is more insistent this time.
Nathan gives Tyler a little wave and heads in the direction of the shouting. Tyler tucks his phone into his pocket and gets up to find someone else to talk to.
*
Tyler goes out with a few of the boys for lunch after skate, and then he goes home and takes a nap, but after that he looks up The O.C. and downloads the first season to his laptop and his iPad so he can watch it on the road trip they're leaving on tonight.
He plays cards with the boys on the plane, but a four-day road trip leaves him plenty of time on his own. He watches the first two episodes of The O.C. lying on his hotel room bed with his laptop sitting on his chest. It's pretty good - he likes the story so far, and the Ryan guy is pretty hot - and he only stops where he is because it's getting late and he needs to go to bed soon.
It's kind of late to text someone he doesn't know that well by the time he's done, so he waits until he gets out of skate in the morning to text Nathan.
Watched the first two episodes, he sends. Love it so far.
Nathan sends back a row of smiley faces and, Keep watching. It gets even better.
Tyler does, watching episodes in hotel rooms on the road and on the couch with Marshall next to him at home. He texts Nathan about them, and sometimes about other stuff.
What the hell is your schedule? Nathan asks after Tyler texts him while he's having breakfast in Vancouver.
Tyler chuckles and texts back, Weird. I play for the Bruins.
It takes a couple of minutes for Nathan to get back to him after that, and the delay makes Tyler worry that something about that is going to make Nathan stop texting him. He doesn't want that; he likes Nathan, and he thinks maybe this could be something more than just texting.
I had to google that, Nathan eventually sends, and Tyler breathes a sigh of relief that it didn't spell the end of whatever he might have with Nathan. Makes sense you can marathon a TV show. I was worried you were blowing off homework for it.
No, Tyler sends back. Watching in my free time.
Good, Nathan sends. I didn't want to be responsible for you failing out.
Tyler laughs a little at that, and gets elbowed by Ference.
"Who are you texting?"
That makes Marchy and Looch look up from their breakfasts too.
"Nobody," Tyler says, stuffing his phone into his pocket.
"You wouldn't look goofy like that for nobody," Marchy says.
"If you don't tell us," Looch says, "we'll just take your phone later and find out ourselves."
They'll do it too; Tyler's teammates are the worst friends. "His name's Nathan, and we're just texting."
"Nathan," Marchy says, making it sound as sleazy as possible. "Did you pick him up in a bar?"
"No," Tyler says.
"Where did you meet him?" Ference asks.
There's probably no way Tyler can get out of talking about it now, so he says, "At a party."
"Come on," Looch says, "you gotta give us more than that."
"I met him at a party," Tyler says. "We've been texting. There isn't any more." There kind of is, but there's no way he's telling them he's been texting Nathan about The O.C., or that they met because Nathan was talking about Pretty Little Liars.
"What kind of texting?" Marchy asks.
Tyler can feel himself turning red, which means they don't believe him at all when he says, "Just, like, normal texting kind of stuff."
"If that's the kind of thing you consider normal," Marchy says, "I hope you never send me normal texts."
Looch and Ference laugh along with Marchy, and keep laughing even when Tyler flips them off.
*
Most of the time Tyler watches episodes in his hotel room or at home, but a couple of times when no one's up for cards, he watches them on the plane. He only has two episodes of season three left when they're on a long flight to Phoenix, so even though he also wants to try to nap a little, he fires that up when the boys he's sitting with drop out of their card game.
He's enjoying the show, so it's cool, until he gets to the end of the last episode. It looks, for a moment, like things will be okay. They usually are, when Ryan's carrying Marissa somewhere. But this time things aren't okay.
Tyler lets out a shocked noise when Marissa dies. Marissa dies.
"What?" Marchy asks, leaning over into Tyler's space.
Tyler brushes him away and watches until the episode fades into the credits. He kind of has to breathe for a bit and blink a lot to keep from crying. He doesn't need the chirping that would come with that.
When he's pretty sure he's not going to cry his eyes out, Tyler fumbles for his phone. There's wifi on the plane, so he can still send a message to Nathan.
You didn't tell me Marissa dies, he sends with a string of crying sad faces.
Sorry, Nathan sends back with a couple of regular sad faces. Didn't want to spoil you.
How can Marissa die? Tyler sends. She's one of the main characters!
I know, Nathan sends. The next season is still good, even without her.
Tyler sends a row of sad faces and then, Don't think I can watch it now. Too sad.
Nathan sends him some more sad faces. Sorry. Want to hang out to try to forget about it?
Tyler's heart leaps, and then falls. He totally wants to take this somewhere other than their texting conversations, and he can't right now. Wish I could, he tells Nathan, but I'm on a plane to Phoenix.
When you get back, Nathan says. I'll try to make it better. And there's no way that isn't an offer for a date.
Tyler sends him a row of smiley faces.
*
There is no reason for Tyler to be this nervous about picking Nathan up. He's been on plenty of dates before. He's even been on dates in Boston since he's been out. There's nothing to be that nervous about.
Still, he has to wipe his suddenly sweaty hands on his jeans before he knocks on Nathan's door.
Nathan answers the door and smiles at him. "Hi."
"Hi." Tyler doesn't know exactly what to do now. He wants to touch Nathan, but he doesn't know if they're there yet.
Nathan solves it for him by going in for a quick hug.
Tyler hugs back and catches a brief glance of a living room with a couple of guys playing video games on the couch before Nathan steps outside and closes the door behind him.
"Roommates," Nathan says with a shrug.
"Cool," Tyler says, and then he leads Nathan down the stairs and out to his car.
Nathan whistles. "Nice."
"Thanks." Tyler pats the roof of the car. "It's my baby."
"I can see that." Nathan gets into the car and rubs his hands over the seats. "Very nice."
Tyler flashes him a smile. "I made reservations downtown if that's cool."
Nathan raises his eyebrows at him. "Sure, but I already know you cried when Marissa died, so it's too late to prove how cool you are."
Tyler can feel himself blush at that.
Nathan laughs a little. "Nah, it's cool. I bawled my eyes out the first time I watched that."
"I can't believe you didn't tell me. I was on a plane. With, like, my whole team."
Nathan laughs a little harder. "Oh, man, I'm sorry about that. I promise there's nothing else like that coming."
"There better not be," Tyler says. "I haven't been able to watch season four yet."
Nathan reaches across the car and squeezes Tyler's shoulder. "I really didn't mean for it to break your heart like that." He lets go. "Should we talk about something happier now?"
"Yeah," Tyler says. He glances over at Nathan. "You won't go out with me again if I spend our whole first date depressed."
"I might," Nathan says.
There's nothing Tyler could do about the smile spreading across his face even if he wanted to. Definitely a date, and definitely not the only one, as long as neither of them screw it up.
"You go to Wentworth, right?" Tyler asks. "What's your major?"
"I'm in the master's program," Nathan says. "Architecture."
"Wow," Tyler says. "So you want to, like, design buildings?"
"Yeah," Nathan says. "I always liked buildings and designing things. My parents have a million pictures of the Lego buildings I would make when I was a kid. I used to make a lot of models of houses, but I think I want to do more commercial buildings. Public buildings, like libraries and city halls and stuff, are really cool, but those are harder jobs to get."
"I don't know anything about architecture," Tyler admits. "I don't think about buildings a lot."
"You might not think about it," Nathan says, "but the architecture around you can influence how you feel and how you experience the space. Have you ever been in a building that was really uncomfortable or really great for seemingly no reason?"
Tyler thinks about that. There were places when he was looking for somewhere to live, in Toronto and in Boston, that he just didn't like, and there wasn't any furniture in them so it couldn't have been the decorating. "Yeah, I guess so."
"That's the architecture," Nathan says. "Thats what I want to do." He pauses. "Not the making people uncomfortable part, but the rest of it. Designing buildings that make people feel good and look cool."
Tyler grins at him. "Yeah, I figured. You don't seem like you'd want to intentionally torture people."
Nathan laughs. "No. Only good stuff."
Tyler parks, and there's a break in the conversation while they go into the restaurant and get their table. They talk about the menu for a few minutes, and order their food and a bottle of wine to go with it.
After the waiter leaves, Tyler asks, "So do you have a favorite building or whatever?"
Nathan grins at him. "I have a couple, and a wish list of buildings I want to go see sometime."
That seems kind of strange to Tyler, but he guesses it makes sense if Nathan's into buildings. "Like what?"
"The Oslo Opera House is at the top of my wish list right now."
"Oslo? Like, in Europe?"
"Yeah." Nathan pulls out his phone. "It's so cool. It has this roof that angles down to the water, but you can also walk on it and so it's become this public space that people totally use." He hands his phone over.
Tyler looks down at the picture Nathan pulled up. The center part of the building is all glass, with white stone or something angling up and down around it. It does come right down to the water, the white corners of the building sharp in the darker water.
"It looks cool." Tyler hands Nathan's phone back.
"We studied it in one of my classes," Nathan says. "It's an opera house, but it's not exclusively that. It has this whole element of accessibility to the public, and they planned it that way." He flushes a little. "Anyway, I want to go someday. The same firm designed the World Trade Center Memorial Pavilion and redesigned Times Square, and those are going to be easier to see."
Tyler smiles at him. "It's cool that you're excited about it, and New York's an easy train ride."
Nathan smiles back. "Yeah, I might try to go on a day off during the semester, but," he shrugs, "my program's pretty intense, and I don't know if I'll have time."
"My roommate went to Wentworth," Tyler says, "but only undergrad. Is grad school way more intense?"
"Yes," Nathan says. "Architecture undergrad wasn't exactly a cakewalk, but this is super intense. It takes up a lot of time, and even when I'm not doing schoolwork, I'm still thinking about design a lot of the time."
"But you love it," Tyler says. "Like, with hockey, it's a lot of work, but I love it so I don't mind putting in the work."
Nathan's smile is bright and obviously pleased. "Yes," he says, "exactly."
Tyler would do a lot to get Nathan to look at him like that again, so he asks about his classes and follows along as best he can.
"You should come to the studio sometime," Nathan says at the end of one of his descriptions of his program, "see all the models and the drawings."
"I'd like that," Tyler says. "And you can come watch me play a game."
Nathan laughs. "I won't know what's happening, but I'll cheer for you."
Nathan is easy to talk to, engaged even in Tyler's stories about people he doesn't know, and he chimes in with his own stories about his program and friends from undergrad. They linger for a while, finishing off the bottle of wine, but they eventually leave the restaurant, stepping out into a night that's grown significantly chillier.
Tyler looks up at the sky, what he can see of it beyond the lights of the city. It's dark above the lights, not reflecting back like it would be if it were cloudy.
"Let's take a walk," he says.
Nathan gives him a look like he just suggested they jump in the harbor. "It's freezing."
"It's not that bad," Tyler says. "And I know a place with really good hot chocolate. It's not far."
"It better be the best hot chocolate in the world," Nathan says.
Tyler laughs and starts walking. "If it's not, it's close to it."
They get a block down the street, and then Nathan says, "All right, it's not that bad out."
Tyler jostles him with his shoulder. "I told you." They're already walking close, they're on a date, and it doesn't matter if anyone sees them, so after a second of thinking about it, Tyler takes Nathan's hand.
Nathan throws him a surprised look, but then he nudges his arm against Tyler's and curls his fingers a little tighter around Tyler's.
Tyler's never really gotten to do this before, wander down the streets of Boston holding hands with a guy he's on a date with. A guy he really likes. It's pretty great, and he almost doesn't want to stop them when they get to the bar.
"A bar?" Nathan asks, looking up at the sign.
"They make the best hot chocolate." Tyler lets go of Nathan's hand so he can hold the door for him instead.
Nathan gives him a look, but goes in, sighing as the warmth of the place washes over them.
It's classier than it looks from the outside, quiet and full of small tables and comfortable booths. Tyler takes Nathan to a small, empty booth along the wall, seat curving around the curve of the table. They scoot in toward each other, leaving their coats on the outside, and Tyler plucks the menu from the center of the table and puts it in front of Nathan. "Hot chocolate," he says, pointing to it.
Nathan skims the menu, a whole page of hot drinks, and flips it over to glance at the drink specials on the other side.
One of the waitresses, a smiling blonde with a notepad already in her hands, comes over to them. "What can I get you?"
Tyler gives her a wide smile. "Hot chocolate."
"Two," Nathan says, putting the menu back. "I've been told it's very good."
The waitress laughs. "It is. Whipped cream on those?"
They both say yes, and she walks away, leaving them alone.
Nathan rubs his hands together. Tyler doesn't quite dare take them and rub them between his own, but he does ask, "Warming up?"
"Yeah. I grew up with cold winters, you'd think I'd be used to it by now."
"Oh yeah? Where?"
"Corinth," Nathan says. "Tiny town in New York. Like, the big city is Glens Falls and no one's ever heard of that either."
Tyler stares at him. "I've heard of Glens Falls. My best friend plays hockey there, for the Phantoms."
"Huh," Nathan says. "Kind of weird, but I'm guessing you're the kind of guy who knows people everywhere."
"A lot of places, yeah," Tyler admits. He knows a lot of people.
"Boys in every port?" Nathan asks lightly.
"No," Tyler says, too fast. "Not like that. Friends, but not like that." He's saved by the waitress bringing their hot chocolate, tall glass mugs topped with whipped cream.
"Anything else I can get you boys?"
"No," Tyler says, flashing her a smile. "We're good."
She leaves, and Nathan pulls one of the mugs toward himself. "This is not what I was expecting. This is like a bucket of hot chocolate."
Tyler laughs. "It's part of what makes it good." He watches Nathan drink from his mug, a blissful look spreading across his face, and then lick whipped cream off his upper lip.
"I think you were right," Nathan says. "This is the best hot chocolate I've ever had."
Tyler sips his chocolate. It is good, but he barely tastes it, needs it to do something about his suddenly dry mouth instead. "I told you."
"Well, I believe you now." Nathan drinks more of his, getting whipped cream on his lip again. The way he licks it off is very distracting, and Tyler loses track of the conversation. It wasn't that important anyway.
Nathan knocks his knee into Tyler's and leaves it there. "You're staring."
Tyler's cheeks heat and looks down into his mug, where the whipped cream is melting into the chocolate around the edges. "Sorry."
"Nah, I don't mind," Nathan says. He nudges Tyler's knee with his own. "Just not quite used to that kind of attention. Not like you must be."
Tyler shrugs and looks over at Nathan. He doesn't try to be subtle about it, just lets his eyes sweep from the top of Nathan's head to his mouth to his shoulders.
"I don't know why not. You're worth looking at."
Nathan smiles, and there's a slight flush to his cheeks. "Maybe you're just the first person to notice."
"Lucky me," Tyler says.
They move closer while they sit there and chat, so by the time Tyler's tipping back his mug for the last mouthful of chocolate, their shoulders and thighs are touching. Tyler doesn't really want to stop, but after they sit there for a few more minutes, he says, "I guess we should go."
"I guess." Nathan doesn't look like he's that much more enthusiastic about leaving, but they pull apart and put their coats on.
The temperature dropped while they were inside, and Nathan shivers when they get outside.
"It's not that far to the car," Tyler says.
"Good." Nathan puts his arm through Tyler's and tucks himself close to Tyler's side. It's even better than holding hands was earlier. They walk a couple of blocks like that, and then Tyler pulls his arm out of Nathan's and puts it around his shoulders instead.
Nathan smiles sideways at him and puts his arm around Tyler's waist. It's pretty much the perfect date.
"I'll walk you up," Tyler says when he parks in front of Nathan's apartment building.
"Very gentlemanly," Nathan says, but he doesn't tell Tyler not to, so Tyler goes with him up the stairs to his door.
They stand in front of Nathan's door just looking at each other for a really long moment.
"I had a good time," Nathan says.
"Me too," Tyler says. "You want to do this again sometime?"
"Yes," Nathan says, "definitely."
That makes it easy for Tyler to smile and step forward. Nathan takes a little step toward him too, and Tyler bends down the few inches he needs to so he can kiss Nathan. It's a short kiss, but it's still good.
Nathan brushes his fingers over Tyler's cheek. "Thanks for dinner and the best hot chocolate I've ever had."
"You're welcome." Tyler lets go of Nathan reluctantly. "I'll call you." He doesn't leave until Nathan goes inside and closes the door behind him.
Marshall comes running when Tyler gets home. Tyler bends down to pet him, and follows him back to the living room where Fred's slouched on the couch with an Xbox controller in his hands.
"Hey," Fred says, and then he looks up from the screen and pauses the game while he stares at Tyler. "You got laid."
"Nope," Tyler says. He unwinds his scarf and drapes it over the back of a chair, his coat going with it. He should probably put them away, but it can wait until tomorrow.
"Sure," Fred says.
Tyler shrugs. "It was a good date." He's still smiling, because it was a great date and he's probably not going to stop smiling until he falls asleep, if then. "I'm going to bed. Marshall, are you coming with me?"
Marshall cocks his head at Tyler, and then goes over to nudge at Fred's knees until Fred starts petting him.
"My dog likes you better," Tyler complains without heat. He leaves Marshall with Fred and goes to his room. He smiles all through getting ready for bed, and even through checking his messages before he goes to sleep. He has half a dozen texts from the last fifteen minutes, all asking about his date. He promises Brownie to Skype about it later, sends Fred, Stop telling everyone my business, and ignores the rest of them. The texts don't even keep him from smiling his way into sleep.
*
Tyler's still smiling when he gets to the rink in the morning for practice. He doesn't know why he's getting so many looks; he smiles all the time.
No one says anything to him about it until Marchy gets there, and then there's a lot of unsubtle nudging Tyler totally notices and Marchy comes to stand in front of him with raised eyebrows.
"What?" Tyler asks.
"You know what," Marchy says. "What's making you smile like that? Or is the question who's making you smile like that?"
Tyler throws a convenient roll of tape at him. He knows better than to throw any of his own gear.
Marchy grabs the tape out of the air and smirks like he thinks he knows something. "Was it Nathan?"
Tyler's blush totally gives him away.
"You finally hit that?" Marchy asks.
"No." Tyler snags the tape back since he actually does need it. "It was just a date."
"Couldn't seal the deal?"
Tyler's saved by Looch smacking Marchy across the back of the head. "Just because you live with someone you banged before you knew her name doesn't mean that's how it works for all of us." Looch nods at Tyler. "Good date, huh?"
Tyler's smile spreads across his face again. "Yep."
"Going on another one?" Ference asks.
"Yep." Tyler stops looking at them to smile down at his stick as he tapes it carefully.
*
The chirping he gets from Brownie over Skype is gentler if no less pointed. Tyler ends up laughing and blushing about it.
"You're really, whatever, about this guy."
"'Whatever'?" Tyler says.
"You know." Brownie waves a hand. "Twitterpated or whatever."
That sets Tyler off into laughter again. "Twitterpated? Are we in a cartoon now?"
Brownie chuckles with him. "Come on, you know what I mean. You like him."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "I really, really do."
"Enough to write him letters every day for a year?"
Tyler sobers, and nods slowly. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, I think so." He bites his lip. "Is it too early for that?"
Brownie shrugs. "I don't know, man. You're the one who's dating him. Is it too early for you to know that?"
"I haven't really felt like this about any of the other guys I dated," Tyler admits.
"There you go," Brownie says. "You might want to wait to tell him that, though. Don't want to freak him out after just one date."
Tyler makes a face at him. "Thank you so much, relationship guru."
Brownie holds up his hands. "Just trying to help you out. I want him to stick around long enough that I can meet him."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "That's what I'm hoping for."
They talk for a little bit longer, and then Tyler closes Skype and opens iTunes. He pulls up the next unwatched episode of The O.C. and sends a text to Nathan before he hits play: Starting season four.
Nathan sends back a smiley face with, Over your trauma?
IDK, Tyler sends, but I'm trying it anyway.
Nathan sends him a thumbs-up.
Tyler grins at it and puts his phone down while he watches.
*
Tyler's at his mom's in Toronto for dinner the night before a game when Nathan texts him. They're still just hanging out, not actually sitting down to eat yet, so Tyler unlocks his phone to see what it says.
My turn to plan a date. Are you free sometime this week?
Tyler grins down at his phone and thinks about what his schedule looks like. Thursday work?
Yes, Nathan sends. I'm warning you now it's going to be a grad student style date. Pizza and hanging out.
Tyler sends, I like pizza and hanging out, with a smiley face. Then he has to hold his phone up high to get it out of the way when Cassidy goes for it.
"Who are you texting?" She jumps to try to grab for it, but she's still enough of a shorty that Tyler evades her easily.
"No one you know."
"I don't care if I know them," Cassidy says. She grabs at his arm and picks her feet up to hang off of it. She's too heavy for it, but Tyler just switches his phone to his other hand before he lets his arm drop. "I want to know who it is!"
"Nope." Tyler has a lot of practice in keeping things away from Cassidy without hurting her, and like usual, it ends with her on the floor laughing even as she tries to get away from him.
"Mom! Make him tell me!"
"Cassidy, stop using your brother as a jungle gym. Tyler, let your sister up."
Tyler does, making sure his phone is locked before he puts it in his pocket, just in case she tries to steal it again.
"If it's serious with whoever you're texting," Mom says, "I still expect to meet him."
Tyler's blush totally gives that away.
Cassidy pokes him in the side. "You're texting a boy, and you didn't tell me?"
"Stop that." Tyler twists away from her and grabs her hand to keep from poking him again.
"Did you tell Candace?"
Tyler sighs and puts his arm around Cassidy. "No. If I tell her about it, I'll tell you too. Promise."
"You'd better." Cassidy leans against him.
"See how much nicer it is when you're getting along?" Mom says.
Tyler and Cassidy grin at each other, and then Cassidy shrieks with laughter when Tyler picks her up like he's going to hold her upside down.
*
Tyler knocks on Nathan's door right on time, and Nathan smiles when he opens it.
"Hi." Nathan leans in and kisses Tyler's cheek. "Come on in. My roommates are supposed to be out all evening, but," he shrugs, "you know how that goes."
"Yeah." Tyler kicks off his shoes and looks around the apartment. He didn't really get to see it when he picked Nathan up last time. It's nothing particularly special, mostly looks like the other college student apartments he's been in.
"So," Nathan says, "I thought we could make our own pizzas. I bought crust and toppings and stuff."
"Cool," Tyler says. He follows Nathan into the kitchen. It's a pretty small kitchen, small enough that they have to stand close while they spread sauce and cheese, pepperoni and vegetables on the crust.
"One of my roommates is into making pizza," Nathan says, "so we have a pizza stone. It means we'll have to cook them one at a time."
"That's cool." Tyler bumps his shoulder against Nathan's. "We can share both of them."
Nathan smiles at him, brightly enough that Tyler has to lean in and kiss him to see what it tastes like.
Nathan's still smiling when he pulls away, but it's gentler, and he puts one of the pizzas in the oven, sets a timer, and comes back to kiss Tyler again.
"Hey," Tyler says after a couple of minutes of careful making out, "I like your style of date."
"Good." Nathan leans on the counter next to Tyler.
Tyler kind of wants to keep making out, but there's food and whatever other kind of hanging out Nathan has in mind, and he doesn't want to move too fast and risk jeopardizing his chances for more of a relationship with Nathan.
"I liked your style of date too," Nathan says.
Tyler smiles at him, and they just stand there smiling at each other for a minute before Tyler thinks to ask Nathan how school's going. They talk about that for a couple of minutes, and Nathan asks about his season, and then the timer goes off and Nathan takes the first pizza out of the oven and puts the second one in.
Nathan slices the pizza with a couple of easy strokes of the pizza cutter, and he gives Tyler a plate to get his first.
"You want a beer with that?" Nathan asks.
"Yeah, sure."
Nathan gets two bottles out of the fridge and gives one to Tyler. He gets some pizza, and they sit down on stools at the counter to eat.
They're quiet for a couple of minutes while they dive into the pizza - it is really good, especially with cold beer to wash it down with - before they start talking again. The conversation is easy. They stick to light topics, and Nathan makes Tyler laugh more than once.
When the timer goes off for the second pizza, Nathan slices it and puts a couple of slices onto Tyler's plate without him even having to ask for it.
"Thanks," Tyler says.
Nathan shrugs. "I was up, and I do know a little something about how much athletes eat."
"Yeah?" Tyler blows on a piece of pizza, trying to make it cool down enough to bite into.
"My first roommate in undergrad was friends with a bunch of football players." One side of Nathan's mouth tugs up into a smile. "I got used to it." His smile gets broader, with a hint of flirtation in it. "I never dated any of them, though."
Tyler smiles back at him. "So I'm your first athlete?"
"Mmmhmm." Nathan reaches over and rubs his hand up and down Tyler's arm. "I like it so far."
Tyler blushes a little, and Nathan stops touching him to eat more pizza.
There isn't a lot of pizza left when they're done. Nathan puts the last couple of slices into the fridge and gets them each another beer.
"Can I see some of your work? Like building designs or whatever?" Tyler asks.
Nathan smiles at him, like he's done something right, and leaves him in the kitchen while he goes to get whatever it is he's going to show Tyler. He comes back with a roll of paper and his laptop.
"This is what plans look like when they're done." Nathan nudges their beers out of the way and unrolls the paper onto the counter.
Tyler leans over the counter, shoulder to shoulder with Nathan, and watches as Nathan touches the lines of the drawing while he explains it.
Nathan quirks a smile at him after a couple of minutes and says, "I'm probably boring you now." Tyler tries to protest - he likes seeing Nathan excited about his work - but Nathan rolls up the paper and opens his laptop. "This is more interesting. These are renderings of what the buildings would look like when they're done." He opens up a program on his laptop and pulls up a drawing of a building. He has a whole bunch of drawings, of the outside and inside of the building, and he explains them to Tyler as he goes through them.
"Wow," Tyler says. He's more impressed the farther they get in Nathan's virtual walkthrough of a building he designed. "This is really amazing. I can't even imagine designing something like this."
Nathan smiles and looks down at his laptop. "I guess I can't imagine doing what you do either," he says after a moment. Then he turns his smile on Tyler. "Okay, enough boring you with this."
"It's not boring," Tyler protests, but Nathan waves him off.
"I know it's not exactly your thing, and if you hang around me long enough, you'll hear plenty about it."
Tyler definitely plans to be around long enough for that, so he lets Nathan close up his laptop and put it and his drawing in his room.
Nathan comes back and takes a long drink from his beer. Tyler doesn't bother to hide the way he's watching Nathan's lips on the bottle and Nathan's throat moving. Nathan doesn't seem to mind.
"How do you feel about dancing?"
It's not what Tyler was expecting Nathan to ask. "I love dancing," he says after a second.
"Great." Nathan grins at him. "Let's see how you stack up against Just Dance 2014. I have to tell you, I do a mean Nicki Minaj."
Tyler laughs and follows him into the living room. Nathan has played enough to have the Nicki Minaj dance moves totally down, but Tyler has his own moves, and he doesn't do too badly.
They're laughing their way through "Candy," trying to get their movements coordinated right, when the front door opens and a couple of guys come in. It breaks their rhythm, and it takes them a couple of seconds to get back into it.
Nathan groans when their score flashes on the screen. "We were better than that!"
"Sorry, man," one of the guys says.
Nathan shrugs. "Shit happens. This is Tyler. Tyler, roommates, Cody and Drew."
Tyler shakes hands with them, and Cody says, "Sorry," again.
"It's cool," Tyler says. "I should probably get home anyway. I have practice tomorrow."
"I'll walk you out," Nathan says.
"It was nice to meet you," Tyler says to Cody and Drew, and then he pulls on his coat and holds the door open for Nathan.
They walk down to Tyler's car. It's too cold to linger for long, but Tyler doesn't want to leave just yet.
"I had a good time," he says.
"Me too." Nathan grins at him. "We'll have to go try out our moves at a club sometime."
Tyler can feel his grin stretching across his face. "Yeah," he says. "We should." He steps closer and puts his arms around Nathan so it's easier to kiss him.
They stand there for a little while, trading slow, soft kisses that heat Tyler up enough not to notice the cold until Nathan shivers.
Tyler lets go of Nathan reluctantly. "You should go inside."
Nathan nods, and steps back. "Call me."
"I will." Tyler ducks in and kisses him one more time before he gets in his car. He starts to notice the cold on the way home, once the heat starts to kick in and he can tell the difference.
*
Tyler smiles for a couple of days. He texts Nathan a lot and puts up with the chirping from his team and the Boston crew. He takes a moment to call Nathan from a hotel room in Buffalo.
"Hi," Nathan says. "I have class in, like, fifteen minutes, but I can talk for ten."
They talk for a couple of minutes, Tyler about his road trip, and Nathan about his classes. It's nice, and Tyler's starting to really understand why the family guys are always making time to call home.
"How about a date?" Tyler asks when their time starts to run out. "Tuesday?"
"Tuesday's not really a club day of the week," Nathan says.
"No," Tyler says. "We'll have to do that another night. I was thinking dinner and a movie."
"Going with the classics," Nathan says. "Sounds good."
"I'll pick you up," Tyler says.
"I'm looking forward to it," Nathan says, his voice warm and sincere. "I have to go to class, but I'll text you later."
Tyler says goodbye and hangs up, and then spends a minute wondering if it's creepy to jerk off to thoughts of a guy he hasn't slept with yet but wants to when the guy maybe doesn't know how much Tyler wants him. Then he decides he doesn't care that much and does it anyway.
*
They go casual for dinner on Tuesday, Nathan giving Tyler directions to an Indian place he swears is amazing. It is good, although being there with Nathan makes it even better than it would be otherwise.
Tyler drives them to the theater after dinner, and they stand there looking at the board for a couple of minutes before they decide on something that's supposed to be a romantic drama. Tyler buys their tickets, and they find seats in a mostly empty row, empty enough that there's no one on either side of them.
The movie is good, and even better because Tyler can hold Nathan's hand, and Nathan squeezes his hand and leans against him at the sad parts.
"We should have brought Kleenex," Nathan says when it's over.
Tyler laughs a little; it's good to know he wasn't the only one wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "Not as traumatizing as Marissa dying."
Nathan outright laughs at that. "I'm still sorry about that."
Tyler bumps against his shoulder. "I forgive you."
Nathan smiles brightly at him, and holds his hand until they get stopped by someone in the lobby who wants Tyler's autograph. Tyler shrugs an apology at Nathan, who just steps back and lets him talk to the fan for a minute.
They hold hands again in the parking lot, Nathan's fingers warm against his in the cold night air.
Tyler turns the heat on full blast when he starts the car, so it'll warm up as fast as possible, and then looks over at Nathan. He doesn't want the evening to end, and he really wants to do more than just kiss Nathan. They've been texting for a while, but this is only their third date, and Tyler doesn't have enough experience dating guys to know how things are supposed to work. "Is it too soon to ask if you want to come back to my place?"
"If you don't," Nathan says, "I will."
Tyler leans across the console to kiss him. "Want to come back to my place?"
"Yes."
Tyler smiles all the way home, even more when Nathan reaches across the car and puts his hand on Tyler's thigh.
"Nice," Nathan says when Tyler pulls up in front of the house.
"It's better inside," Tyler says, which is mostly a line, but it makes Nathan grin at him and get out of the car.
Marshall comes running as soon as Tyler unlocks the door, and Tyler crouches down to rub behind his ears. "Hey, buddy. Hi, did you miss me?"
Marshall licks him, and then pushes past him and noses at Nathan's knees.
"This is Marshall," Tyler says.
"Hi, Marshall." Nathan holds out his hand, palm up, so Marshall can smell him. When Marshall signals his approval, Nathan crouches down and lets Marshall push at him and nose at his shoulder. Nathan laughs and holds Marshall back, scratches the top of his head. "You're just a big puppy, aren't you?"
"He thinks he is."
Nathan grins at Tyler over Marshall's head. "And I bet you let him get away with it."
"Not all the time."
Nathan laughs. "But enough." He pats Marshall and stands up. "Is he well behaved enough to stay out of the way when he needs to?"
Tyler's breath catches in his throat. "Yeah," he says. "Marshall, lie down."
Marshall goes to his doggie bed in the corner, and Tyler and Nathan stand up. Nathan takes Tyler's hand and pulls him close to kiss him for just a moment.
Tyler leans his forehead against Nathan's and just breathes him in for a second after that. "My room's this way."
Nathan kisses the corner of his mouth. "You should definitely show me your room."
If Fred's home, he's in his room, and Marshall's being good, so there aren't any distractions when Tyler walks Nathan up the stairs and down the hallway to his room.
"This is it." It's clean enough, both because leaving too much stuff out with Marshall around is asking for trouble and because Tyler picked up a little earlier just in case.
Nathan looks around for a second. "Nice." Then he steps into Tyler's space and runs his hands up Tyler's chest. "Nice," he says again.
Tyler smiles and bends to kiss him. It's good, and this time they're in a warm bedroom, no coats in the way, no reason to stop anytime soon. They keep kissing for long minutes, and then Tyler takes half a step backwards, and another and another, pulling Nathan along with him until the back of his knees hit the bed.
Tyler sits down, pulling Nathan with him. It's like Nathan knows just what to do; he plants his knees on either side of Tyler's hips and lowers down into his lap. Tyler puts his hands on Nathan's shoulder blades and pulls him in so they're chest to chest. They're almost the same height like this, and it's easy to press his mouth to Nathan's, to kiss him slow and lazy, trading control back and forth.
Tyler's starting to get hard, and having Nathan moving on his lap a little as they kiss is just making him harder.
He moves his hands down, to the hem of Nathan's shirt, and pulls it up slowly, so Nathan can stop him if he doesn't want that.
Nathan doesn't stop him. Nathan lifts his arms up over his head so Tyler can pull his shirt all the way off. He's lean and there's probably some muscle under there, but his chest is smooth and just a little soft.
Tyler runs his hand down Nathan's chest from his throat to the top of his jeans. He dips his head and kisses the point of Nathan's collarbone.
Nathan sucks in a breath. "You too," he says, and he tugs at Tyler's sweater.
Tyler leans back a little and pulls off his sweater in one easy movement.
Nathan makes a noise that's something like an approving hum, and he puts his hands on Tyler's chest. "I knew you were built," he says, "but I didn't know-" He trails off and touches Tyler instead of talking, hands roaming across Tyler's chest, fingertips catching on his nipples before he runs his hands down to Tyler's abs. "You could be on a CW show."
Tyler laughs and pulls Nathan in to kiss him.
"No, really," Nathan says, laughing with him. "I'd watch you take off your shirt for an hour every week."
"I'll take my shirt off for you anytime you want," Tyler says.
Nathan hums and curves his hand around Tyler's waist. "I'll take that deal." Then he stops talking and they're kissing again, wet and deep and bare chests pressed together.
Tyler trails his fingers over Nathan's skin while they make out, and after a while, he runs them down to Nathan's jeans and skims along them from Nathan's back to his front. "Can I?" he asks.
"Yeah," Nathan says, "yes."
Tyler pops the button on Nathan's jeans and draws down the zipper, letting his hand brush against Nathan's already hard cock as he does. Nathan sucks in a breath, and then he stands up. As much as Tyler doesn't want to stop touching him, it's worth it when Nathan pushes his jeans down and steps out of them.
Tyler stands up too, and they're so close the back of his hands brush against Nathan's stomach when he unbuttons his jeans. He glances at Nathan's face, to make sure he's watching while Tyler pulls his zipper down.
"You wouldn't get this from a CW show."
Nathan's eyes jerk up to meet Tyler's, and he laughs and leans in to kiss Tyler. "I wouldn't get the full 3-D experience either."
"Nope," Tyler says. "I'm definitely better than a CW show."
Nathan laughs again and pushes closer to Tyler, so close their chests press together and Tyler can feel Nathan's cock hard against him. "Way better." Nathan dips his head and runs his tongue over Tyler's collarbone. It's a lot hotter than Tyler would have guessed that could be.
Tyler doesn't want him to stop, but he steps back a little, and pulls Nathan down onto the bed with him. They settle in on their sides next to each other, and Tyler pulls Nathan close enough to kiss him some more.
They don't do anything but make out for a long time, but Tyler isn't in any hurry to do anything else. It feels good, and he likes getting to just touch Nathan in ways he hasn't gotten to yet.
After a while, Tyler rolls onto his back and pulls Nathan on top of him.
"Mmm," Nathan says, "hi."
Tyler smiles at him. "Hi." He runs his hands up and down Nathan's back. "I really like you."
Nathan grins. "Yeah, I guessed. The being mostly naked in your bed clued me in."
Tyler nips at Nathan's bottom lip, then turns it into a real kiss. "Want to be all the way naked in my bed?"
"Yeah," Nathan says. "I could hang with that." He dips his head and kisses Tyler. "As long as you're all the way naked too."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "For sure."
The bad thing about it is that they have to pull apart to get all the way naked, but it doesn't take long, and once Nathan's naked, Tyler gets to look at him again, gets to see his cock hard and curving up toward his stomach.
"Come here." Tyler holds out his hands, and Nathan comes to him easily. Tyler pulls him back down onto the bed, tugging Nathan on top of him again. He can feel both their cocks hard between them, and he can't help moving his hips a little to rub against Nathan.
Nathan says, "Mmm," and dips his head to kiss Tyler. They make out again for a while, both of them moving just a little bit, rubbing against each other in tiny little movements.
Nathan tips to the side after a while, pulling Tyler with him so they're facing each other again. Before Tyler can kiss him, Nathan wraps his hand around both their cocks and strokes them together.
Tyler gasps, and Nathan smiles at him, a tiny, soft curve of his lips. Then Tyler really does have to kiss him, surging into it and catching Nathan's mouth fast and messy. The kissing is really good, but he pulls away after a minute so he can watch Nathan jerking them off with slow, even strokes of his hand.
"Tell me," Nathan says, and he's breathless too, "do you like it?"
"Yes," Tyler says. "Fuck, yes."
"Good." Nathan leans forward and kisses him, and then he stops kissing him and speeds up his hand, and they both look down to watch. It looks almost as good as it feels, and it feels fantastic. It's been a little while since someone else touched Tyler, and it's never been Nathan who he likes so much that it really means something to him to have Nathan be the one touching him.
Nathan comes first, spilling across both their stomachs and their cocks. He groans when he does, and it's a noise Tyler wants to hear him make over and over again.
Nathan switches up his grip after a little bit, letting go of his own cock and using his come to jerk Tyler off. It's super hot, the way it feels, the way it looks with come all over Tyler's hard cock and Nathan's softening one.
There's no way Tyler's going to last long, and he doesn't try to, lets himself come with a gasp when Nathan's fingers catch at all the sensitive spots around the head of his cock.
Nathan lets go of his cock after Tyler finishes coming, and rests his hand on Tyler's stomach while he kisses him.
"That was so hot," Nathan murmurs.
"Yeah," Tyler says. He kisses Nathan again, doesn't want to stop kissing him.
"Wait, wait," Nathan says after a couple of minutes. "We should get cleaned up so I can touch you without getting come everywhere."
Tyler reaches across him for tissues from the nightstand, and they clean up the worst of the mess. Nathan's hand is dry when it slides around Tyler's back to hold him close while they make out again. Their making out slows down after a while, until they're just exchanging lazy kisses and mostly breathing into each other's mouths.
"I can drive you back if you want," Tyler says. "Or you could stay." He says it pretty casually, but his heart is beating hard. He really wants Nathan to stay.
"Yeah? I don't have class until ten tomorrow."
"I can totally take you back before then." Tyler touches Nathan's cheek. "Stay?"
Nathan kisses him softly. "Yes."
Tyler smiles at him, too happy not to. "Cool," he says. "Cool." He leans in to kiss Nathan again, deeper this time, and he pulls Nathan close.
There's a smile tugging at the corners of Nathan's mouth when he asks, "Are you a cuddler?"
"Uh, yeah," Tyler says. He pulls back a little. "Is that cool?"
"Yeah," Nathan says. "It's good. Come here." He pulls Tyler even closer, and moves them around a little bit until they're tangled together. "Marshall isn't going to be upset I'm taking his place, is he?"
Tyler laughs. "No. He'll sleep in the living room, or with Fred."
"Good," Nathan says. "He's a sweet puppy, but I don't want to share you right now."
Tyler says, "Oh," and kisses Nathan because there isn't any other way for him to express how that makes him feel.
Part 6
Brownie's right about that. As easy as it was for Tyler to get laid last summer, it's even easier this summer. People in Toronto really do know who he is, especially now, and he barely has to walk into a gay bar before someone's offering to buy him a drink or asking him to dance.
He does his best to avoid the people who just want to say they hooked up with Tyler Seguin, but he ends up having a couple of uncomfortable conversations with Wally about his hookups talking about him on Twitter.
Other than that, he usually just picks the hottest guy who hits on him. He's living alone, so he can even take them back to his place if he wants. Not that he always wants to - it's still easier to go to someone else's place - but sometimes that's how it works out.
Tyler goes out one night, and brings home a guy he meets on the dance floor who mentions in passing that he goes to U of T. It makes him pause for a minute, and think back to last summer and Zack. It's not like he misses Zack, really, but they had a good time together.
Then he stops thinking about Zack in favor of watching the U of T guy suck his dick, and he forgets about it until sometime after he gets home from his workout the next day.
Zack's number is still in his phone, so Tyler pulls it up and texts him, In Toronto for the summer. Want to hang out?
He puts his phone down while he makes something to eat and gives Marshall a treat. There's a message waiting by the time he sits down with his food.
I'm dating someone, Zack's text says. But the three of us could have coffee or something.
Well, so much for the prospect of steady sex with someone he knows is fun and who knows what he likes in bed. But he did have fun with Zack, and Zack was really good with Marshall, so Tyler sends back, Ice cream? I'll bring Marshall.
Yes! Zack texts. I'll text you a time.
It takes a while before he does that, but Tyler's phone says, 8 tonight, same place as last summer, when he wakes up after his nap.
Tyler texts back an agreement and takes Marshall out for a short walk. There's no need to tire him out now when they're just going to walk for ice cream later.
Tyler's not sure exactly what to expect when he and Marshall walk to the ice cream place after dinner. He hasn't really stayed in touch with any of the guys he's hooked up with, but he and Ciara are still friends, so maybe it'll be cool.
Zack isn't there yet, and there aren't any other guys there alone who could be Zack's boyfriend waiting for him, so Tyler sits down with Marshall at an empty table. Marshall flops onto the sidewalk and pants up at him.
"I know, buddy." Tyler bends down to pet him and gets him some water from the cart of doggie bowls and water pitchers.
Marshall puts his whole face into the water bowl. It's only a couple of minutes later that he gets up, wagging his tail, and tugs on his leash. Tyler looks up in the direction he's going, and there's Zack. He looks good in a dress shirt and jeans. He's holding hands with the guy who must be his boyfriend, but he lets go to pet Marshall.
Tyler has to wait until Zack is finished saying hi to Marshall to hug him.
"Hey," Tyler says.
"Hi." Zack holds him by the arms and looks at him. "You look good."
"Thanks," Tyler says. "You too." He really does. It's too bad Zack has a boyfriend, because Tyler would totally hook up with him if he didn't.
Zack reaches out and pulls the other guy forward. "This is Marcus. Marcus, Tyler."
Marcus is cute, in a nerdy kind of way. More like the hipsters Ference always finds than the kinds of guys Tyler usually picks up.
"Hi, Marcus," Tyler says with a smile. "Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too," Marcus says, and then he elbows Zack. "You didn't tell me Tyler your ex was Tyler Seguin."
Zack grins at both of them. "Nope." He hooks his arm through Marcus's and pulls him toward the shop.
Tyler ties Marshall up outside where he'll be able to see him from inside and goes in with them. Their conversation is all about ice cream for a couple of minutes, what's good, what flavors they all like and don't like, how Marshall gets treats but not ice cream. Tyler pays for all three of them, and gets a couple of doggie biscuits for Marshall.
Zack takes the chair closest to Marshall and ask, "Can I?" holding out his hand for the bag with the doggie biscuits.
Tyler hands the bag over. "Don't give him all of them."
Zack shoots him a look. "I know." He takes one out of the bag and bends over to offer it to Marshall, careful to keep his ice cream cone out of the way. "Good boy," he says when Marshall takes it neatly.
Tyler looks over at Marcus, who is watching the whole thing with a totally sappy look on his face. Well, at least if he can't hook up with Zack because he has a boyfriend, it's because he has a boyfriend who looks at him like that.
Zack sits back in his chair and pushes the bag of doggie biscuits back toward Tyler. He licks at his ice cream where it's starting to melt. It's still as sexy as it was last summer.
"I can't believe," Marcus says, "that you didn't tell me you dated Tyler Seguin."
"You don't have to say his name like that," Zack says. "It was just a couple of months last summer." He flashes a grin at Tyler. "Although I was his first Canadian boyfriend."
Tyler's not sure if he's supposed to laugh at that or not.
"You're on good terms with his dog," Marcus says, and that's the point where Tyler figures he can step in.
"He's a pretty friendly dog."
Marcus leans over where he can see Marshall. "Let me guess," he says, looking between Marshall and Zack, "you didn't even know who he was and you just liked his dog."
Zack and Tyler exchange a smile, and Zack says, "Yep."
The logical place for this conversation to go is to the rest of the story about Zack and Tyler dating. To head that off, Tyler says, "You were still in University last summer."
"Yeah," Zack says. "I graduated this year."
"Congratulations," Tyler says.
"Thanks." Zack flashes him a smile. "I'm not really done, though. I did this program working with kids this year, and loved it, so I'm doing another year to become a teacher."
"That's cool," Tyler says.
"It's more school," Zack says with a shrug, "but I think it'll be good in the end." He reaches over and takes Marcus's hand. "And I'm doing that at York, so I can be here with Marcus."
Tyler tries not to stare at them holding hands like he didn't get to do with Zack last summer. "What do you do?" he asks Marcus.
"IT," Marcus says. "Mostly tech support right now, but I'm hoping to move up into one of the sysadmin positions in the next couple of years."
Tyler only sort of knows what all that means, but he nods anyway.
"Not as exciting as what you do," Marcus says.
"I've never seen you this excited about anything sports related," Zack says.
"I am Canadian," Marcus says. "I might not follow hockey, but I know something about it, and it's a big deal that he's one of the first out players in the NHL." He nods at Tyler. "That was really great of you to do. I wish some of the guys I know who played hockey growing up had role models like you."
"It is pretty amazing," Zack says, smiling at Tyler. "I'm proud of you."
"Uh, thanks." Tyler figures neither of them are likely to go talking about him to the press or whatever, so he also says, "I mostly did it so I wouldn't have to worry about someone outing me." He can't help glancing at Zack and Marcus's hands.
"Probably easier for you to date now," Zack says, "not that you did that badly before."
"Yeah, kind of," Tyler says. "They don't have to not look like dates anyway."
"Hey," Zack says, "it wasn't that bad." He grins at Tyler. "I seem to remember some very seductive public ice cream eating."
It startles a choked laugh out of Marcus and a lighter one out of Tyler.
"Really?" Marcus says. He looks at Tyler. "Your ice cream eating doesn't seem very seductive now."
Tyler shrugs. "I'm not trying to seduce you."
"Trust me," Zack says, "if he were, you would know." He shares a smile with Tyler. Last summer, he would have gotten a smile that meant they were going straight home to fuck, but that's the thing about being friends with an ex. Now it's just friendly. Tyler doesn't try to make it any more than that either; he and Zack didn't work out, and he doesn't want to cause problems for Zack and Marcus.
"So since you can obviously date now," Zack asks, "are you seeing anyone?"
"Not right now," Tyler says. "There were a couple of guys during the season, but," he shrugs, "it didn't work out, so."
"You'll find someone," Zack says. "You're a good boyfriend."
"And hot as hell," Marcus adds. He grins at the look Zack throws him. "Not usually my type, but someone's."
Tyler has to laugh at that. "Thanks," he says. "I think."
"Just wait," Zack says. "Someday it'll be us and you and your boyfriend having ice cream. And this guy." He bends over to rub behind Marshall's ears, and Marcus gives him that sappy look again.
It's pretty easy, after that, to talk about stuff that isn't Tyler's dating prospects. Zack asks about his family, and Tyler asks Zack what he's doing during the summer, and it's fun, like maybe they really can be friends.
Zack and Marcus both hug him when they leave.
"This was fun," Zack says. "We should hang out again while you're here."
Tyler looks at Marcus, who seems cool with that. "Yeah," Tyler says. "That would be fun."
Zack takes longer to say goodbye to Marshall. Marcus shakes his head and laughs. "He's such a sucker for a cute dog."
*
"It sounds like you had fun," Brownie says when Tyler tells him about it.
"I did," Tyler says. "It's kind of weird because we hooked up all last summer, but it was cool."
"He's not the first person you've hooked up with that you hung out with later."
Tyler shrugs. "Yeah, but it was never weird with Ciara."
Brownie starts to laugh. "Maybe that should have been a clue."
Tyler makes a face at him. "Fuck off. I just thought I wasn't that into her."
Brownie doesn't stop laughing at him. "You weren't, because she's a girl."
Tyler has to crack a smile at that. "Yeah, yeah, I'm dumb, I know."
"Not totally dumb," Brownie says, "just a little clueless."
"You're such a dick."
"I guess I should be glad you like dick," Brownie says, totally serious and straight-faced.
Tyler almost falls off the couch laughing.
*
Tyler walks Marshall over to have ice cream with Zack and Marcus a couple more times, and spends most of his time training, hanging out, and hooking up when he feels like going out. It seems like summer's barely started before he's headed back to Boston for training camp.
It's good to see the rest of the boys. He kept up with most of them over the summer, but texting and the occasional email isn't the same as being in the room or out on the ice with them.
It's good to be home in Boston too, near the friends he's made over the last couple of years, in a city that loves him the way Boston does, and at home in the house with Fred and Marshall.
They have a party once Tyler's mostly settled in, a bunch of friends from around Boston, some of their friends, a couple of the boys. The house slowly fills up with people and conversation, booze and laughter.
Even though Tyler wakes up hungover to a house full of empty cans, bottles, and plastic cups, it makes it feel even more like he's home for the season.
*
You, me, party with Wentworth guys tonight, Fred texts on a Friday afternoon.
You don't even go there anymore, Tyler texts back.
My friends still do. Don't make other plans.
Can't stay too late, Tyler sends. Skate tomorrow morning.
Buzzkill.
The party is at a large apartment close to Wentworth's campus. It's already in full swing when they get there, and because it's Fred's crowd, his presence gets more of a reaction than Tyler's does. Still, Tyler's partied with a bunch of these guys over the last couple of years, so there are people he knows and can talk to. Not that he's ever had a hard time making friends at a party before.
It's at a break in the music when Tyler hears someone say, "No way, it's awesome. Like, there are these girls with secrets, and people are always dying, and there's the mysterious Red Coat, who might actually be more than one person."
Tyler drifts in that direction, because that's a conversation he can join.
"I'm telling you," the voice says, "it's crazy. Way more than Gossip Girl ever was." The guy who's talking is sitting on a couch, telling this to a couple of girls who don't necessarily look like they believe him. The girls are, whatever, girls, but the guy's cute. He has dark hair and an expressive face, and while he's not that built, he has the kind of look where he could be a runner or something like that.
"No way," one of the girls says. "Gossip Girl was the shit."
"Hey," the guy says, holding up his hands, "I loved that show too, but Pretty Little Liars turns the crazy up to, like, a thousand. Plus, it's still on the air and Gossip Girl is over."
The coffee table in front of the couch looks sturdy enough, so Tyler sits down on it and says, "Pretty Little Liars is way better than Gossip Girl."
The guy grins at him, and the girl who defended Gossip Girl gives him a look like she doesn't think he knows what he's talking about.
"Whatever," the other girl says. She grabs her friends hand. "I am not drunk enough for this debate."
"Uh, sorry," Tyler says to the guy when they leave. "I didn't mean to scare them away."
The guy waves his hand. "No worries." He grins. "If they don't understand the greatness of Pretty Little Liars I don't think I could be friends with them anyway."
Tyler laughs and moves from the coffee table to the free space on the couch. "I tried to get my best friend to watch it. He didn't understand, but we're still friends."
The guy shrugs. "You do what you gotta do, I guess."
Tyler laughs again. "He's great otherwise, so it didn't seem fair to ditch him just for that."
The guy grins at him. "You ever get him to watch anything else?"
"Nothing as good as Pretty Little Liars," Tyler says. "I did get him to watch 90210 for a while."
"Man," the guy says, "that show. Have you ever seen the original one?"
Tyler says no, and the guy spends a couple of minutes telling him how it compares to the new one.
"What you should really watch," the guy eventually says, "is The O.C."
"Yeah?" Tyler asks.
"Oh my God," the guy says. "It's so good. Not as much, like, guys taking their shirts off for no reason as a lot of the newer shows," the guy slides a look at Tyler that Tyler tries to answer with a subtle indication of his own interest in guys taking their shirts off, "but it's a really good story, good characters."
Tyler can't help but smile in the face of the guy's enthusiasm. "I'll have to check it out."
The guy flashes him a grin, says, "You won't regret it," and then cranes his neck in response to someone shouting across the room.
"Nathan," someone shouts again. "We need your expertise."
Nathan laughs, and says, "Sorry, I guess they need me," to Tyler.
"Wait." Tyler touches Nathan's wrist before he can stand. "Can I get your number so I can text you or something when I watch The O.C.?"
"Yeah, definitely." Nathan smiles. "If you give me yours too, I can let you know if I run into anything else you should watch."
They swap phones to enter their numbers, and Nathan looks down at his when he takes it back. "Tyler," he says. "I hope you like The O.C."
"Nathan!" The shout from across the room is more insistent this time.
Nathan gives Tyler a little wave and heads in the direction of the shouting. Tyler tucks his phone into his pocket and gets up to find someone else to talk to.
*
Tyler goes out with a few of the boys for lunch after skate, and then he goes home and takes a nap, but after that he looks up The O.C. and downloads the first season to his laptop and his iPad so he can watch it on the road trip they're leaving on tonight.
He plays cards with the boys on the plane, but a four-day road trip leaves him plenty of time on his own. He watches the first two episodes of The O.C. lying on his hotel room bed with his laptop sitting on his chest. It's pretty good - he likes the story so far, and the Ryan guy is pretty hot - and he only stops where he is because it's getting late and he needs to go to bed soon.
It's kind of late to text someone he doesn't know that well by the time he's done, so he waits until he gets out of skate in the morning to text Nathan.
Watched the first two episodes, he sends. Love it so far.
Nathan sends back a row of smiley faces and, Keep watching. It gets even better.
Tyler does, watching episodes in hotel rooms on the road and on the couch with Marshall next to him at home. He texts Nathan about them, and sometimes about other stuff.
What the hell is your schedule? Nathan asks after Tyler texts him while he's having breakfast in Vancouver.
Tyler chuckles and texts back, Weird. I play for the Bruins.
It takes a couple of minutes for Nathan to get back to him after that, and the delay makes Tyler worry that something about that is going to make Nathan stop texting him. He doesn't want that; he likes Nathan, and he thinks maybe this could be something more than just texting.
I had to google that, Nathan eventually sends, and Tyler breathes a sigh of relief that it didn't spell the end of whatever he might have with Nathan. Makes sense you can marathon a TV show. I was worried you were blowing off homework for it.
No, Tyler sends back. Watching in my free time.
Good, Nathan sends. I didn't want to be responsible for you failing out.
Tyler laughs a little at that, and gets elbowed by Ference.
"Who are you texting?"
That makes Marchy and Looch look up from their breakfasts too.
"Nobody," Tyler says, stuffing his phone into his pocket.
"You wouldn't look goofy like that for nobody," Marchy says.
"If you don't tell us," Looch says, "we'll just take your phone later and find out ourselves."
They'll do it too; Tyler's teammates are the worst friends. "His name's Nathan, and we're just texting."
"Nathan," Marchy says, making it sound as sleazy as possible. "Did you pick him up in a bar?"
"No," Tyler says.
"Where did you meet him?" Ference asks.
There's probably no way Tyler can get out of talking about it now, so he says, "At a party."
"Come on," Looch says, "you gotta give us more than that."
"I met him at a party," Tyler says. "We've been texting. There isn't any more." There kind of is, but there's no way he's telling them he's been texting Nathan about The O.C., or that they met because Nathan was talking about Pretty Little Liars.
"What kind of texting?" Marchy asks.
Tyler can feel himself turning red, which means they don't believe him at all when he says, "Just, like, normal texting kind of stuff."
"If that's the kind of thing you consider normal," Marchy says, "I hope you never send me normal texts."
Looch and Ference laugh along with Marchy, and keep laughing even when Tyler flips them off.
*
Most of the time Tyler watches episodes in his hotel room or at home, but a couple of times when no one's up for cards, he watches them on the plane. He only has two episodes of season three left when they're on a long flight to Phoenix, so even though he also wants to try to nap a little, he fires that up when the boys he's sitting with drop out of their card game.
He's enjoying the show, so it's cool, until he gets to the end of the last episode. It looks, for a moment, like things will be okay. They usually are, when Ryan's carrying Marissa somewhere. But this time things aren't okay.
Tyler lets out a shocked noise when Marissa dies. Marissa dies.
"What?" Marchy asks, leaning over into Tyler's space.
Tyler brushes him away and watches until the episode fades into the credits. He kind of has to breathe for a bit and blink a lot to keep from crying. He doesn't need the chirping that would come with that.
When he's pretty sure he's not going to cry his eyes out, Tyler fumbles for his phone. There's wifi on the plane, so he can still send a message to Nathan.
You didn't tell me Marissa dies, he sends with a string of crying sad faces.
Sorry, Nathan sends back with a couple of regular sad faces. Didn't want to spoil you.
How can Marissa die? Tyler sends. She's one of the main characters!
I know, Nathan sends. The next season is still good, even without her.
Tyler sends a row of sad faces and then, Don't think I can watch it now. Too sad.
Nathan sends him some more sad faces. Sorry. Want to hang out to try to forget about it?
Tyler's heart leaps, and then falls. He totally wants to take this somewhere other than their texting conversations, and he can't right now. Wish I could, he tells Nathan, but I'm on a plane to Phoenix.
When you get back, Nathan says. I'll try to make it better. And there's no way that isn't an offer for a date.
Tyler sends him a row of smiley faces.
*
There is no reason for Tyler to be this nervous about picking Nathan up. He's been on plenty of dates before. He's even been on dates in Boston since he's been out. There's nothing to be that nervous about.
Still, he has to wipe his suddenly sweaty hands on his jeans before he knocks on Nathan's door.
Nathan answers the door and smiles at him. "Hi."
"Hi." Tyler doesn't know exactly what to do now. He wants to touch Nathan, but he doesn't know if they're there yet.
Nathan solves it for him by going in for a quick hug.
Tyler hugs back and catches a brief glance of a living room with a couple of guys playing video games on the couch before Nathan steps outside and closes the door behind him.
"Roommates," Nathan says with a shrug.
"Cool," Tyler says, and then he leads Nathan down the stairs and out to his car.
Nathan whistles. "Nice."
"Thanks." Tyler pats the roof of the car. "It's my baby."
"I can see that." Nathan gets into the car and rubs his hands over the seats. "Very nice."
Tyler flashes him a smile. "I made reservations downtown if that's cool."
Nathan raises his eyebrows at him. "Sure, but I already know you cried when Marissa died, so it's too late to prove how cool you are."
Tyler can feel himself blush at that.
Nathan laughs a little. "Nah, it's cool. I bawled my eyes out the first time I watched that."
"I can't believe you didn't tell me. I was on a plane. With, like, my whole team."
Nathan laughs a little harder. "Oh, man, I'm sorry about that. I promise there's nothing else like that coming."
"There better not be," Tyler says. "I haven't been able to watch season four yet."
Nathan reaches across the car and squeezes Tyler's shoulder. "I really didn't mean for it to break your heart like that." He lets go. "Should we talk about something happier now?"
"Yeah," Tyler says. He glances over at Nathan. "You won't go out with me again if I spend our whole first date depressed."
"I might," Nathan says.
There's nothing Tyler could do about the smile spreading across his face even if he wanted to. Definitely a date, and definitely not the only one, as long as neither of them screw it up.
"You go to Wentworth, right?" Tyler asks. "What's your major?"
"I'm in the master's program," Nathan says. "Architecture."
"Wow," Tyler says. "So you want to, like, design buildings?"
"Yeah," Nathan says. "I always liked buildings and designing things. My parents have a million pictures of the Lego buildings I would make when I was a kid. I used to make a lot of models of houses, but I think I want to do more commercial buildings. Public buildings, like libraries and city halls and stuff, are really cool, but those are harder jobs to get."
"I don't know anything about architecture," Tyler admits. "I don't think about buildings a lot."
"You might not think about it," Nathan says, "but the architecture around you can influence how you feel and how you experience the space. Have you ever been in a building that was really uncomfortable or really great for seemingly no reason?"
Tyler thinks about that. There were places when he was looking for somewhere to live, in Toronto and in Boston, that he just didn't like, and there wasn't any furniture in them so it couldn't have been the decorating. "Yeah, I guess so."
"That's the architecture," Nathan says. "Thats what I want to do." He pauses. "Not the making people uncomfortable part, but the rest of it. Designing buildings that make people feel good and look cool."
Tyler grins at him. "Yeah, I figured. You don't seem like you'd want to intentionally torture people."
Nathan laughs. "No. Only good stuff."
Tyler parks, and there's a break in the conversation while they go into the restaurant and get their table. They talk about the menu for a few minutes, and order their food and a bottle of wine to go with it.
After the waiter leaves, Tyler asks, "So do you have a favorite building or whatever?"
Nathan grins at him. "I have a couple, and a wish list of buildings I want to go see sometime."
That seems kind of strange to Tyler, but he guesses it makes sense if Nathan's into buildings. "Like what?"
"The Oslo Opera House is at the top of my wish list right now."
"Oslo? Like, in Europe?"
"Yeah." Nathan pulls out his phone. "It's so cool. It has this roof that angles down to the water, but you can also walk on it and so it's become this public space that people totally use." He hands his phone over.
Tyler looks down at the picture Nathan pulled up. The center part of the building is all glass, with white stone or something angling up and down around it. It does come right down to the water, the white corners of the building sharp in the darker water.
"It looks cool." Tyler hands Nathan's phone back.
"We studied it in one of my classes," Nathan says. "It's an opera house, but it's not exclusively that. It has this whole element of accessibility to the public, and they planned it that way." He flushes a little. "Anyway, I want to go someday. The same firm designed the World Trade Center Memorial Pavilion and redesigned Times Square, and those are going to be easier to see."
Tyler smiles at him. "It's cool that you're excited about it, and New York's an easy train ride."
Nathan smiles back. "Yeah, I might try to go on a day off during the semester, but," he shrugs, "my program's pretty intense, and I don't know if I'll have time."
"My roommate went to Wentworth," Tyler says, "but only undergrad. Is grad school way more intense?"
"Yes," Nathan says. "Architecture undergrad wasn't exactly a cakewalk, but this is super intense. It takes up a lot of time, and even when I'm not doing schoolwork, I'm still thinking about design a lot of the time."
"But you love it," Tyler says. "Like, with hockey, it's a lot of work, but I love it so I don't mind putting in the work."
Nathan's smile is bright and obviously pleased. "Yes," he says, "exactly."
Tyler would do a lot to get Nathan to look at him like that again, so he asks about his classes and follows along as best he can.
"You should come to the studio sometime," Nathan says at the end of one of his descriptions of his program, "see all the models and the drawings."
"I'd like that," Tyler says. "And you can come watch me play a game."
Nathan laughs. "I won't know what's happening, but I'll cheer for you."
Nathan is easy to talk to, engaged even in Tyler's stories about people he doesn't know, and he chimes in with his own stories about his program and friends from undergrad. They linger for a while, finishing off the bottle of wine, but they eventually leave the restaurant, stepping out into a night that's grown significantly chillier.
Tyler looks up at the sky, what he can see of it beyond the lights of the city. It's dark above the lights, not reflecting back like it would be if it were cloudy.
"Let's take a walk," he says.
Nathan gives him a look like he just suggested they jump in the harbor. "It's freezing."
"It's not that bad," Tyler says. "And I know a place with really good hot chocolate. It's not far."
"It better be the best hot chocolate in the world," Nathan says.
Tyler laughs and starts walking. "If it's not, it's close to it."
They get a block down the street, and then Nathan says, "All right, it's not that bad out."
Tyler jostles him with his shoulder. "I told you." They're already walking close, they're on a date, and it doesn't matter if anyone sees them, so after a second of thinking about it, Tyler takes Nathan's hand.
Nathan throws him a surprised look, but then he nudges his arm against Tyler's and curls his fingers a little tighter around Tyler's.
Tyler's never really gotten to do this before, wander down the streets of Boston holding hands with a guy he's on a date with. A guy he really likes. It's pretty great, and he almost doesn't want to stop them when they get to the bar.
"A bar?" Nathan asks, looking up at the sign.
"They make the best hot chocolate." Tyler lets go of Nathan's hand so he can hold the door for him instead.
Nathan gives him a look, but goes in, sighing as the warmth of the place washes over them.
It's classier than it looks from the outside, quiet and full of small tables and comfortable booths. Tyler takes Nathan to a small, empty booth along the wall, seat curving around the curve of the table. They scoot in toward each other, leaving their coats on the outside, and Tyler plucks the menu from the center of the table and puts it in front of Nathan. "Hot chocolate," he says, pointing to it.
Nathan skims the menu, a whole page of hot drinks, and flips it over to glance at the drink specials on the other side.
One of the waitresses, a smiling blonde with a notepad already in her hands, comes over to them. "What can I get you?"
Tyler gives her a wide smile. "Hot chocolate."
"Two," Nathan says, putting the menu back. "I've been told it's very good."
The waitress laughs. "It is. Whipped cream on those?"
They both say yes, and she walks away, leaving them alone.
Nathan rubs his hands together. Tyler doesn't quite dare take them and rub them between his own, but he does ask, "Warming up?"
"Yeah. I grew up with cold winters, you'd think I'd be used to it by now."
"Oh yeah? Where?"
"Corinth," Nathan says. "Tiny town in New York. Like, the big city is Glens Falls and no one's ever heard of that either."
Tyler stares at him. "I've heard of Glens Falls. My best friend plays hockey there, for the Phantoms."
"Huh," Nathan says. "Kind of weird, but I'm guessing you're the kind of guy who knows people everywhere."
"A lot of places, yeah," Tyler admits. He knows a lot of people.
"Boys in every port?" Nathan asks lightly.
"No," Tyler says, too fast. "Not like that. Friends, but not like that." He's saved by the waitress bringing their hot chocolate, tall glass mugs topped with whipped cream.
"Anything else I can get you boys?"
"No," Tyler says, flashing her a smile. "We're good."
She leaves, and Nathan pulls one of the mugs toward himself. "This is not what I was expecting. This is like a bucket of hot chocolate."
Tyler laughs. "It's part of what makes it good." He watches Nathan drink from his mug, a blissful look spreading across his face, and then lick whipped cream off his upper lip.
"I think you were right," Nathan says. "This is the best hot chocolate I've ever had."
Tyler sips his chocolate. It is good, but he barely tastes it, needs it to do something about his suddenly dry mouth instead. "I told you."
"Well, I believe you now." Nathan drinks more of his, getting whipped cream on his lip again. The way he licks it off is very distracting, and Tyler loses track of the conversation. It wasn't that important anyway.
Nathan knocks his knee into Tyler's and leaves it there. "You're staring."
Tyler's cheeks heat and looks down into his mug, where the whipped cream is melting into the chocolate around the edges. "Sorry."
"Nah, I don't mind," Nathan says. He nudges Tyler's knee with his own. "Just not quite used to that kind of attention. Not like you must be."
Tyler shrugs and looks over at Nathan. He doesn't try to be subtle about it, just lets his eyes sweep from the top of Nathan's head to his mouth to his shoulders.
"I don't know why not. You're worth looking at."
Nathan smiles, and there's a slight flush to his cheeks. "Maybe you're just the first person to notice."
"Lucky me," Tyler says.
They move closer while they sit there and chat, so by the time Tyler's tipping back his mug for the last mouthful of chocolate, their shoulders and thighs are touching. Tyler doesn't really want to stop, but after they sit there for a few more minutes, he says, "I guess we should go."
"I guess." Nathan doesn't look like he's that much more enthusiastic about leaving, but they pull apart and put their coats on.
The temperature dropped while they were inside, and Nathan shivers when they get outside.
"It's not that far to the car," Tyler says.
"Good." Nathan puts his arm through Tyler's and tucks himself close to Tyler's side. It's even better than holding hands was earlier. They walk a couple of blocks like that, and then Tyler pulls his arm out of Nathan's and puts it around his shoulders instead.
Nathan smiles sideways at him and puts his arm around Tyler's waist. It's pretty much the perfect date.
"I'll walk you up," Tyler says when he parks in front of Nathan's apartment building.
"Very gentlemanly," Nathan says, but he doesn't tell Tyler not to, so Tyler goes with him up the stairs to his door.
They stand in front of Nathan's door just looking at each other for a really long moment.
"I had a good time," Nathan says.
"Me too," Tyler says. "You want to do this again sometime?"
"Yes," Nathan says, "definitely."
That makes it easy for Tyler to smile and step forward. Nathan takes a little step toward him too, and Tyler bends down the few inches he needs to so he can kiss Nathan. It's a short kiss, but it's still good.
Nathan brushes his fingers over Tyler's cheek. "Thanks for dinner and the best hot chocolate I've ever had."
"You're welcome." Tyler lets go of Nathan reluctantly. "I'll call you." He doesn't leave until Nathan goes inside and closes the door behind him.
Marshall comes running when Tyler gets home. Tyler bends down to pet him, and follows him back to the living room where Fred's slouched on the couch with an Xbox controller in his hands.
"Hey," Fred says, and then he looks up from the screen and pauses the game while he stares at Tyler. "You got laid."
"Nope," Tyler says. He unwinds his scarf and drapes it over the back of a chair, his coat going with it. He should probably put them away, but it can wait until tomorrow.
"Sure," Fred says.
Tyler shrugs. "It was a good date." He's still smiling, because it was a great date and he's probably not going to stop smiling until he falls asleep, if then. "I'm going to bed. Marshall, are you coming with me?"
Marshall cocks his head at Tyler, and then goes over to nudge at Fred's knees until Fred starts petting him.
"My dog likes you better," Tyler complains without heat. He leaves Marshall with Fred and goes to his room. He smiles all through getting ready for bed, and even through checking his messages before he goes to sleep. He has half a dozen texts from the last fifteen minutes, all asking about his date. He promises Brownie to Skype about it later, sends Fred, Stop telling everyone my business, and ignores the rest of them. The texts don't even keep him from smiling his way into sleep.
*
Tyler's still smiling when he gets to the rink in the morning for practice. He doesn't know why he's getting so many looks; he smiles all the time.
No one says anything to him about it until Marchy gets there, and then there's a lot of unsubtle nudging Tyler totally notices and Marchy comes to stand in front of him with raised eyebrows.
"What?" Tyler asks.
"You know what," Marchy says. "What's making you smile like that? Or is the question who's making you smile like that?"
Tyler throws a convenient roll of tape at him. He knows better than to throw any of his own gear.
Marchy grabs the tape out of the air and smirks like he thinks he knows something. "Was it Nathan?"
Tyler's blush totally gives him away.
"You finally hit that?" Marchy asks.
"No." Tyler snags the tape back since he actually does need it. "It was just a date."
"Couldn't seal the deal?"
Tyler's saved by Looch smacking Marchy across the back of the head. "Just because you live with someone you banged before you knew her name doesn't mean that's how it works for all of us." Looch nods at Tyler. "Good date, huh?"
Tyler's smile spreads across his face again. "Yep."
"Going on another one?" Ference asks.
"Yep." Tyler stops looking at them to smile down at his stick as he tapes it carefully.
*
The chirping he gets from Brownie over Skype is gentler if no less pointed. Tyler ends up laughing and blushing about it.
"You're really, whatever, about this guy."
"'Whatever'?" Tyler says.
"You know." Brownie waves a hand. "Twitterpated or whatever."
That sets Tyler off into laughter again. "Twitterpated? Are we in a cartoon now?"
Brownie chuckles with him. "Come on, you know what I mean. You like him."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "I really, really do."
"Enough to write him letters every day for a year?"
Tyler sobers, and nods slowly. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, I think so." He bites his lip. "Is it too early for that?"
Brownie shrugs. "I don't know, man. You're the one who's dating him. Is it too early for you to know that?"
"I haven't really felt like this about any of the other guys I dated," Tyler admits.
"There you go," Brownie says. "You might want to wait to tell him that, though. Don't want to freak him out after just one date."
Tyler makes a face at him. "Thank you so much, relationship guru."
Brownie holds up his hands. "Just trying to help you out. I want him to stick around long enough that I can meet him."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "That's what I'm hoping for."
They talk for a little bit longer, and then Tyler closes Skype and opens iTunes. He pulls up the next unwatched episode of The O.C. and sends a text to Nathan before he hits play: Starting season four.
Nathan sends back a smiley face with, Over your trauma?
IDK, Tyler sends, but I'm trying it anyway.
Nathan sends him a thumbs-up.
Tyler grins at it and puts his phone down while he watches.
*
Tyler's at his mom's in Toronto for dinner the night before a game when Nathan texts him. They're still just hanging out, not actually sitting down to eat yet, so Tyler unlocks his phone to see what it says.
My turn to plan a date. Are you free sometime this week?
Tyler grins down at his phone and thinks about what his schedule looks like. Thursday work?
Yes, Nathan sends. I'm warning you now it's going to be a grad student style date. Pizza and hanging out.
Tyler sends, I like pizza and hanging out, with a smiley face. Then he has to hold his phone up high to get it out of the way when Cassidy goes for it.
"Who are you texting?" She jumps to try to grab for it, but she's still enough of a shorty that Tyler evades her easily.
"No one you know."
"I don't care if I know them," Cassidy says. She grabs at his arm and picks her feet up to hang off of it. She's too heavy for it, but Tyler just switches his phone to his other hand before he lets his arm drop. "I want to know who it is!"
"Nope." Tyler has a lot of practice in keeping things away from Cassidy without hurting her, and like usual, it ends with her on the floor laughing even as she tries to get away from him.
"Mom! Make him tell me!"
"Cassidy, stop using your brother as a jungle gym. Tyler, let your sister up."
Tyler does, making sure his phone is locked before he puts it in his pocket, just in case she tries to steal it again.
"If it's serious with whoever you're texting," Mom says, "I still expect to meet him."
Tyler's blush totally gives that away.
Cassidy pokes him in the side. "You're texting a boy, and you didn't tell me?"
"Stop that." Tyler twists away from her and grabs her hand to keep from poking him again.
"Did you tell Candace?"
Tyler sighs and puts his arm around Cassidy. "No. If I tell her about it, I'll tell you too. Promise."
"You'd better." Cassidy leans against him.
"See how much nicer it is when you're getting along?" Mom says.
Tyler and Cassidy grin at each other, and then Cassidy shrieks with laughter when Tyler picks her up like he's going to hold her upside down.
*
Tyler knocks on Nathan's door right on time, and Nathan smiles when he opens it.
"Hi." Nathan leans in and kisses Tyler's cheek. "Come on in. My roommates are supposed to be out all evening, but," he shrugs, "you know how that goes."
"Yeah." Tyler kicks off his shoes and looks around the apartment. He didn't really get to see it when he picked Nathan up last time. It's nothing particularly special, mostly looks like the other college student apartments he's been in.
"So," Nathan says, "I thought we could make our own pizzas. I bought crust and toppings and stuff."
"Cool," Tyler says. He follows Nathan into the kitchen. It's a pretty small kitchen, small enough that they have to stand close while they spread sauce and cheese, pepperoni and vegetables on the crust.
"One of my roommates is into making pizza," Nathan says, "so we have a pizza stone. It means we'll have to cook them one at a time."
"That's cool." Tyler bumps his shoulder against Nathan's. "We can share both of them."
Nathan smiles at him, brightly enough that Tyler has to lean in and kiss him to see what it tastes like.
Nathan's still smiling when he pulls away, but it's gentler, and he puts one of the pizzas in the oven, sets a timer, and comes back to kiss Tyler again.
"Hey," Tyler says after a couple of minutes of careful making out, "I like your style of date."
"Good." Nathan leans on the counter next to Tyler.
Tyler kind of wants to keep making out, but there's food and whatever other kind of hanging out Nathan has in mind, and he doesn't want to move too fast and risk jeopardizing his chances for more of a relationship with Nathan.
"I liked your style of date too," Nathan says.
Tyler smiles at him, and they just stand there smiling at each other for a minute before Tyler thinks to ask Nathan how school's going. They talk about that for a couple of minutes, and Nathan asks about his season, and then the timer goes off and Nathan takes the first pizza out of the oven and puts the second one in.
Nathan slices the pizza with a couple of easy strokes of the pizza cutter, and he gives Tyler a plate to get his first.
"You want a beer with that?" Nathan asks.
"Yeah, sure."
Nathan gets two bottles out of the fridge and gives one to Tyler. He gets some pizza, and they sit down on stools at the counter to eat.
They're quiet for a couple of minutes while they dive into the pizza - it is really good, especially with cold beer to wash it down with - before they start talking again. The conversation is easy. They stick to light topics, and Nathan makes Tyler laugh more than once.
When the timer goes off for the second pizza, Nathan slices it and puts a couple of slices onto Tyler's plate without him even having to ask for it.
"Thanks," Tyler says.
Nathan shrugs. "I was up, and I do know a little something about how much athletes eat."
"Yeah?" Tyler blows on a piece of pizza, trying to make it cool down enough to bite into.
"My first roommate in undergrad was friends with a bunch of football players." One side of Nathan's mouth tugs up into a smile. "I got used to it." His smile gets broader, with a hint of flirtation in it. "I never dated any of them, though."
Tyler smiles back at him. "So I'm your first athlete?"
"Mmmhmm." Nathan reaches over and rubs his hand up and down Tyler's arm. "I like it so far."
Tyler blushes a little, and Nathan stops touching him to eat more pizza.
There isn't a lot of pizza left when they're done. Nathan puts the last couple of slices into the fridge and gets them each another beer.
"Can I see some of your work? Like building designs or whatever?" Tyler asks.
Nathan smiles at him, like he's done something right, and leaves him in the kitchen while he goes to get whatever it is he's going to show Tyler. He comes back with a roll of paper and his laptop.
"This is what plans look like when they're done." Nathan nudges their beers out of the way and unrolls the paper onto the counter.
Tyler leans over the counter, shoulder to shoulder with Nathan, and watches as Nathan touches the lines of the drawing while he explains it.
Nathan quirks a smile at him after a couple of minutes and says, "I'm probably boring you now." Tyler tries to protest - he likes seeing Nathan excited about his work - but Nathan rolls up the paper and opens his laptop. "This is more interesting. These are renderings of what the buildings would look like when they're done." He opens up a program on his laptop and pulls up a drawing of a building. He has a whole bunch of drawings, of the outside and inside of the building, and he explains them to Tyler as he goes through them.
"Wow," Tyler says. He's more impressed the farther they get in Nathan's virtual walkthrough of a building he designed. "This is really amazing. I can't even imagine designing something like this."
Nathan smiles and looks down at his laptop. "I guess I can't imagine doing what you do either," he says after a moment. Then he turns his smile on Tyler. "Okay, enough boring you with this."
"It's not boring," Tyler protests, but Nathan waves him off.
"I know it's not exactly your thing, and if you hang around me long enough, you'll hear plenty about it."
Tyler definitely plans to be around long enough for that, so he lets Nathan close up his laptop and put it and his drawing in his room.
Nathan comes back and takes a long drink from his beer. Tyler doesn't bother to hide the way he's watching Nathan's lips on the bottle and Nathan's throat moving. Nathan doesn't seem to mind.
"How do you feel about dancing?"
It's not what Tyler was expecting Nathan to ask. "I love dancing," he says after a second.
"Great." Nathan grins at him. "Let's see how you stack up against Just Dance 2014. I have to tell you, I do a mean Nicki Minaj."
Tyler laughs and follows him into the living room. Nathan has played enough to have the Nicki Minaj dance moves totally down, but Tyler has his own moves, and he doesn't do too badly.
They're laughing their way through "Candy," trying to get their movements coordinated right, when the front door opens and a couple of guys come in. It breaks their rhythm, and it takes them a couple of seconds to get back into it.
Nathan groans when their score flashes on the screen. "We were better than that!"
"Sorry, man," one of the guys says.
Nathan shrugs. "Shit happens. This is Tyler. Tyler, roommates, Cody and Drew."
Tyler shakes hands with them, and Cody says, "Sorry," again.
"It's cool," Tyler says. "I should probably get home anyway. I have practice tomorrow."
"I'll walk you out," Nathan says.
"It was nice to meet you," Tyler says to Cody and Drew, and then he pulls on his coat and holds the door open for Nathan.
They walk down to Tyler's car. It's too cold to linger for long, but Tyler doesn't want to leave just yet.
"I had a good time," he says.
"Me too." Nathan grins at him. "We'll have to go try out our moves at a club sometime."
Tyler can feel his grin stretching across his face. "Yeah," he says. "We should." He steps closer and puts his arms around Nathan so it's easier to kiss him.
They stand there for a little while, trading slow, soft kisses that heat Tyler up enough not to notice the cold until Nathan shivers.
Tyler lets go of Nathan reluctantly. "You should go inside."
Nathan nods, and steps back. "Call me."
"I will." Tyler ducks in and kisses him one more time before he gets in his car. He starts to notice the cold on the way home, once the heat starts to kick in and he can tell the difference.
*
Tyler smiles for a couple of days. He texts Nathan a lot and puts up with the chirping from his team and the Boston crew. He takes a moment to call Nathan from a hotel room in Buffalo.
"Hi," Nathan says. "I have class in, like, fifteen minutes, but I can talk for ten."
They talk for a couple of minutes, Tyler about his road trip, and Nathan about his classes. It's nice, and Tyler's starting to really understand why the family guys are always making time to call home.
"How about a date?" Tyler asks when their time starts to run out. "Tuesday?"
"Tuesday's not really a club day of the week," Nathan says.
"No," Tyler says. "We'll have to do that another night. I was thinking dinner and a movie."
"Going with the classics," Nathan says. "Sounds good."
"I'll pick you up," Tyler says.
"I'm looking forward to it," Nathan says, his voice warm and sincere. "I have to go to class, but I'll text you later."
Tyler says goodbye and hangs up, and then spends a minute wondering if it's creepy to jerk off to thoughts of a guy he hasn't slept with yet but wants to when the guy maybe doesn't know how much Tyler wants him. Then he decides he doesn't care that much and does it anyway.
*
They go casual for dinner on Tuesday, Nathan giving Tyler directions to an Indian place he swears is amazing. It is good, although being there with Nathan makes it even better than it would be otherwise.
Tyler drives them to the theater after dinner, and they stand there looking at the board for a couple of minutes before they decide on something that's supposed to be a romantic drama. Tyler buys their tickets, and they find seats in a mostly empty row, empty enough that there's no one on either side of them.
The movie is good, and even better because Tyler can hold Nathan's hand, and Nathan squeezes his hand and leans against him at the sad parts.
"We should have brought Kleenex," Nathan says when it's over.
Tyler laughs a little; it's good to know he wasn't the only one wiping his eyes on his sleeve. "Not as traumatizing as Marissa dying."
Nathan outright laughs at that. "I'm still sorry about that."
Tyler bumps against his shoulder. "I forgive you."
Nathan smiles brightly at him, and holds his hand until they get stopped by someone in the lobby who wants Tyler's autograph. Tyler shrugs an apology at Nathan, who just steps back and lets him talk to the fan for a minute.
They hold hands again in the parking lot, Nathan's fingers warm against his in the cold night air.
Tyler turns the heat on full blast when he starts the car, so it'll warm up as fast as possible, and then looks over at Nathan. He doesn't want the evening to end, and he really wants to do more than just kiss Nathan. They've been texting for a while, but this is only their third date, and Tyler doesn't have enough experience dating guys to know how things are supposed to work. "Is it too soon to ask if you want to come back to my place?"
"If you don't," Nathan says, "I will."
Tyler leans across the console to kiss him. "Want to come back to my place?"
"Yes."
Tyler smiles all the way home, even more when Nathan reaches across the car and puts his hand on Tyler's thigh.
"Nice," Nathan says when Tyler pulls up in front of the house.
"It's better inside," Tyler says, which is mostly a line, but it makes Nathan grin at him and get out of the car.
Marshall comes running as soon as Tyler unlocks the door, and Tyler crouches down to rub behind his ears. "Hey, buddy. Hi, did you miss me?"
Marshall licks him, and then pushes past him and noses at Nathan's knees.
"This is Marshall," Tyler says.
"Hi, Marshall." Nathan holds out his hand, palm up, so Marshall can smell him. When Marshall signals his approval, Nathan crouches down and lets Marshall push at him and nose at his shoulder. Nathan laughs and holds Marshall back, scratches the top of his head. "You're just a big puppy, aren't you?"
"He thinks he is."
Nathan grins at Tyler over Marshall's head. "And I bet you let him get away with it."
"Not all the time."
Nathan laughs. "But enough." He pats Marshall and stands up. "Is he well behaved enough to stay out of the way when he needs to?"
Tyler's breath catches in his throat. "Yeah," he says. "Marshall, lie down."
Marshall goes to his doggie bed in the corner, and Tyler and Nathan stand up. Nathan takes Tyler's hand and pulls him close to kiss him for just a moment.
Tyler leans his forehead against Nathan's and just breathes him in for a second after that. "My room's this way."
Nathan kisses the corner of his mouth. "You should definitely show me your room."
If Fred's home, he's in his room, and Marshall's being good, so there aren't any distractions when Tyler walks Nathan up the stairs and down the hallway to his room.
"This is it." It's clean enough, both because leaving too much stuff out with Marshall around is asking for trouble and because Tyler picked up a little earlier just in case.
Nathan looks around for a second. "Nice." Then he steps into Tyler's space and runs his hands up Tyler's chest. "Nice," he says again.
Tyler smiles and bends to kiss him. It's good, and this time they're in a warm bedroom, no coats in the way, no reason to stop anytime soon. They keep kissing for long minutes, and then Tyler takes half a step backwards, and another and another, pulling Nathan along with him until the back of his knees hit the bed.
Tyler sits down, pulling Nathan with him. It's like Nathan knows just what to do; he plants his knees on either side of Tyler's hips and lowers down into his lap. Tyler puts his hands on Nathan's shoulder blades and pulls him in so they're chest to chest. They're almost the same height like this, and it's easy to press his mouth to Nathan's, to kiss him slow and lazy, trading control back and forth.
Tyler's starting to get hard, and having Nathan moving on his lap a little as they kiss is just making him harder.
He moves his hands down, to the hem of Nathan's shirt, and pulls it up slowly, so Nathan can stop him if he doesn't want that.
Nathan doesn't stop him. Nathan lifts his arms up over his head so Tyler can pull his shirt all the way off. He's lean and there's probably some muscle under there, but his chest is smooth and just a little soft.
Tyler runs his hand down Nathan's chest from his throat to the top of his jeans. He dips his head and kisses the point of Nathan's collarbone.
Nathan sucks in a breath. "You too," he says, and he tugs at Tyler's sweater.
Tyler leans back a little and pulls off his sweater in one easy movement.
Nathan makes a noise that's something like an approving hum, and he puts his hands on Tyler's chest. "I knew you were built," he says, "but I didn't know-" He trails off and touches Tyler instead of talking, hands roaming across Tyler's chest, fingertips catching on his nipples before he runs his hands down to Tyler's abs. "You could be on a CW show."
Tyler laughs and pulls Nathan in to kiss him.
"No, really," Nathan says, laughing with him. "I'd watch you take off your shirt for an hour every week."
"I'll take my shirt off for you anytime you want," Tyler says.
Nathan hums and curves his hand around Tyler's waist. "I'll take that deal." Then he stops talking and they're kissing again, wet and deep and bare chests pressed together.
Tyler trails his fingers over Nathan's skin while they make out, and after a while, he runs them down to Nathan's jeans and skims along them from Nathan's back to his front. "Can I?" he asks.
"Yeah," Nathan says, "yes."
Tyler pops the button on Nathan's jeans and draws down the zipper, letting his hand brush against Nathan's already hard cock as he does. Nathan sucks in a breath, and then he stands up. As much as Tyler doesn't want to stop touching him, it's worth it when Nathan pushes his jeans down and steps out of them.
Tyler stands up too, and they're so close the back of his hands brush against Nathan's stomach when he unbuttons his jeans. He glances at Nathan's face, to make sure he's watching while Tyler pulls his zipper down.
"You wouldn't get this from a CW show."
Nathan's eyes jerk up to meet Tyler's, and he laughs and leans in to kiss Tyler. "I wouldn't get the full 3-D experience either."
"Nope," Tyler says. "I'm definitely better than a CW show."
Nathan laughs again and pushes closer to Tyler, so close their chests press together and Tyler can feel Nathan's cock hard against him. "Way better." Nathan dips his head and runs his tongue over Tyler's collarbone. It's a lot hotter than Tyler would have guessed that could be.
Tyler doesn't want him to stop, but he steps back a little, and pulls Nathan down onto the bed with him. They settle in on their sides next to each other, and Tyler pulls Nathan close enough to kiss him some more.
They don't do anything but make out for a long time, but Tyler isn't in any hurry to do anything else. It feels good, and he likes getting to just touch Nathan in ways he hasn't gotten to yet.
After a while, Tyler rolls onto his back and pulls Nathan on top of him.
"Mmm," Nathan says, "hi."
Tyler smiles at him. "Hi." He runs his hands up and down Nathan's back. "I really like you."
Nathan grins. "Yeah, I guessed. The being mostly naked in your bed clued me in."
Tyler nips at Nathan's bottom lip, then turns it into a real kiss. "Want to be all the way naked in my bed?"
"Yeah," Nathan says. "I could hang with that." He dips his head and kisses Tyler. "As long as you're all the way naked too."
"Yeah," Tyler says. "For sure."
The bad thing about it is that they have to pull apart to get all the way naked, but it doesn't take long, and once Nathan's naked, Tyler gets to look at him again, gets to see his cock hard and curving up toward his stomach.
"Come here." Tyler holds out his hands, and Nathan comes to him easily. Tyler pulls him back down onto the bed, tugging Nathan on top of him again. He can feel both their cocks hard between them, and he can't help moving his hips a little to rub against Nathan.
Nathan says, "Mmm," and dips his head to kiss Tyler. They make out again for a while, both of them moving just a little bit, rubbing against each other in tiny little movements.
Nathan tips to the side after a while, pulling Tyler with him so they're facing each other again. Before Tyler can kiss him, Nathan wraps his hand around both their cocks and strokes them together.
Tyler gasps, and Nathan smiles at him, a tiny, soft curve of his lips. Then Tyler really does have to kiss him, surging into it and catching Nathan's mouth fast and messy. The kissing is really good, but he pulls away after a minute so he can watch Nathan jerking them off with slow, even strokes of his hand.
"Tell me," Nathan says, and he's breathless too, "do you like it?"
"Yes," Tyler says. "Fuck, yes."
"Good." Nathan leans forward and kisses him, and then he stops kissing him and speeds up his hand, and they both look down to watch. It looks almost as good as it feels, and it feels fantastic. It's been a little while since someone else touched Tyler, and it's never been Nathan who he likes so much that it really means something to him to have Nathan be the one touching him.
Nathan comes first, spilling across both their stomachs and their cocks. He groans when he does, and it's a noise Tyler wants to hear him make over and over again.
Nathan switches up his grip after a little bit, letting go of his own cock and using his come to jerk Tyler off. It's super hot, the way it feels, the way it looks with come all over Tyler's hard cock and Nathan's softening one.
There's no way Tyler's going to last long, and he doesn't try to, lets himself come with a gasp when Nathan's fingers catch at all the sensitive spots around the head of his cock.
Nathan lets go of his cock after Tyler finishes coming, and rests his hand on Tyler's stomach while he kisses him.
"That was so hot," Nathan murmurs.
"Yeah," Tyler says. He kisses Nathan again, doesn't want to stop kissing him.
"Wait, wait," Nathan says after a couple of minutes. "We should get cleaned up so I can touch you without getting come everywhere."
Tyler reaches across him for tissues from the nightstand, and they clean up the worst of the mess. Nathan's hand is dry when it slides around Tyler's back to hold him close while they make out again. Their making out slows down after a while, until they're just exchanging lazy kisses and mostly breathing into each other's mouths.
"I can drive you back if you want," Tyler says. "Or you could stay." He says it pretty casually, but his heart is beating hard. He really wants Nathan to stay.
"Yeah? I don't have class until ten tomorrow."
"I can totally take you back before then." Tyler touches Nathan's cheek. "Stay?"
Nathan kisses him softly. "Yes."
Tyler smiles at him, too happy not to. "Cool," he says. "Cool." He leans in to kiss Nathan again, deeper this time, and he pulls Nathan close.
There's a smile tugging at the corners of Nathan's mouth when he asks, "Are you a cuddler?"
"Uh, yeah," Tyler says. He pulls back a little. "Is that cool?"
"Yeah," Nathan says. "It's good. Come here." He pulls Tyler even closer, and moves them around a little bit until they're tangled together. "Marshall isn't going to be upset I'm taking his place, is he?"
Tyler laughs. "No. He'll sleep in the living room, or with Fred."
"Good," Nathan says. "He's a sweet puppy, but I don't want to share you right now."
Tyler says, "Oh," and kisses Nathan because there isn't any other way for him to express how that makes him feel.
Part 6