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rsadellePart 1
Brandon can be a considerate friend when he wants to be, so he doesn't call Brian when he gets home from dinner and Brian is probably already asleep but waits until he's on his way to the rink the next day.
They bullshit for a while, a mix of chirping and exchanging stories, before Brian asks, "You still in love with that kid?"
"We're dating," Brandon says. "And please don't call him a kid."
"He's like eight years younger than us."
Brandon almost says, "Ten," but thinks better of it and says, "He's the guy I'm dating. Calling him a kid makes me sound like a dirty old man."
"Are you saying you're not a dirty old man?" Brian laughs as he says it, and then stops laughing and says, "Wait, don't answer that. I don't need to know about your sex life."
"I don't need to know about yours either," Brandon says, "but that never stops you from telling me about it."
"Did I ever tell you about that time Lauren bought handcuffs?"
Brandon laughs and says, "Stop, stop right there."
Brian laughs with him too. "So things are good with Alex?"
"Yeah," Brandon says. "Yeah, they're really good."
"Good," Brian says, "and, hey, if you ever want to borrow some handcuffs."
Brandon's still laughing when he pulls into the parking lot and hangs up on Brian.
*
Alex knocks on Brandon's door the first night they're on the road after they agree to tell people. That's got to be one advantage of Gally knowing.
Alex walks right past Brandon when he opens the door and says, "I should have never told Gally."
Brandon closes the door and stops smiling. Maybe Gally knowing wasn't a good idea. "Why not?"
Alex throws himself down on Brandon's bed. "Because he is the worst at chirping."
Brandon's heartbeat returns to normal, and he draws in a deep breath. "Oh yeah?" He follows Alex over to the bed now that he's not stuck in place with worry.
"Yeah." Alex tips his head up when Brandon crouches over him, knees outside Alex's hips, hands above his shoulders.
Brandon bends down to meet him and gives him the warm hello kiss he would have given him at the door if Alex hadn't blown right past him.
Alex's hands end up on Brandon, one on the back of his neck and one at his hip, but instead of following through on that, Alex keeps up the conversation when the kiss ends. "I would tell you what he said, but it is too bad. You would lose all respect for him."
Brandon chuckles and kisses Alex's neck. "Would I?"
"Yes." Alex arches his head back as Brandon presses kisses all along the line of his neck. "I can't believe no one has ever taught him how to chirp better."
Brandon laughs against Alex's neck, and then lifts his head. "Do you want to keep complaining about Gally's chirping, or do you want a blowjob?"
Alex looks at him for a minute without answering, and then his face creases into a smile. "Blowjob," he says.
"Right answer." Brandon kisses him, long and deep, and then goes back to kissing his neck because he was having fun with that. It's still fun, and he scrapes his chin along Alex's neck because he likes the way it makes Alex gasp and he really likes the way it leaves a red patch of beard burn on his skin.
Brandon skips from there all the way down to the waistband of Alex's pajama pants. Not that he doesn't appreciate Alex's chest, but he'd rather get to Alex's cock. Alex lifts his hips to help, and Brandon gets his pants down enough to get his cock out.
Alex isn't all the way hard yet. Brandon gets his mouth on him anyway, mouths at his foreskin, tucks his tongue into it to tease at the head of his cock.
Alex gets loud when Brandon does that, and Brandon draws off his cock. "Keep it quiet unless you want everyone to know." He pats Alex's thigh. "I think Patches is next door."
Alex groans. "Don't talk about our team when you're blowing me."
"Stay quiet and I won't have to." Brandon grins at the glare Alex throws him, and goes back down.
The next noise Alex makes, when Brandon cups his balls in one hand, is muffled, and Brandon looks up to see him pressing his mouth into his own forearm.
"Don't hurt yourself there," Brandon says.
Alex groans a little louder. "Don't stop."
Brandon mouths at the side of Alex's cock, using just his lips for a bit before he goes all the way down on him again. Alex is all the way hard now, cock thick and full in Brandon's mouth.
Brandon works him over with careful attention to what makes Alex buck his hips up, what makes him groan, what makes him grab at Brandon. Stroking his fingers up behind Alex's balls makes him pull his arm away from his mouth to swear at Brandon.
Brandon grins as best he can around Alex's cock and keeps up that teasing touch along with the suction on Alex's cock. He doesn't really need Alex's warning to know he's about to come, but he appreciates Alex's thoughtfulness just the same. He goes down as far as he can, lips a tight seal around Alex's cock, and sucks hard, swallowing what he can when Alex gives a probably muffled enough shout as he comes.
Brandon wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and pushes himself up, crouching over Alex like he did to start all this.
"Ow," Alex says. "I think I bit my arm too hard."
Brandon tugs Alex's arm away from his face and turns it to see the bite marks sunk into his skin. "Hmm," he says. "You're going to get a lot of questions if that leaves a mark."
Alex turns his arm to look at it. "I don't think it will." He rubs at the mark with his other hand.
Brandon takes his arm and brings it up to kiss over the bite marks. "There," he says, "all better."
Alex's lips twitch into a smile. "That only works on little kids."
"Is that so?" Brandon rubs his thumb along the soft underside of Alex's arm. "Are you thinking about it now?"
"No," Alex admits. He tugs at Brandon, hand curved around the back of Brandon's head. "I only think about you now." He kisses Brandon slow and lazy.
"If you're only thinking about me," Brandon says, "how about getting me off?" He rubs his cock against Alex's hip.
"Okay," Alex agrees. "Do you want me to blow you or jerk you off?"
Brandon groans into Alex's neck. "Whatever you want to do."
Alex pushes Brandon off him, just a little, and gets Brandon's cock out. He's good enough with his hands to be coordinated even though he just came, and he strokes Brandon with a perfect, tight, rough grip.
Brandon doesn't have to resort to biting into his own arm; he puts his mouth on Alex's neck instead and lets that muffle his noises. He's careful not to bite down when he comes, opens his mouth wide instead, lips and tongue pressed hard to Alex's skin.
Alex lets him enjoy the afterglow for a minute before he says, "Ugh. You slobbered all over me."
Brandon sighs and then pulls back to look at Alex. "I came all over you too." He nuzzles at the dry side of Alex's neck. "You should probably clean up before you go back to your room."
"You made the mess. You should clean me up."
Brandon just laughs at Alex, and he rolls over onto his back to watch Alex walk to the bathroom.
Alex comes back a few minutes later with a damp washcloth that he runs gently over Brandon's cock. "You see," he says, "I am much nicer than you."
"I sucked your cock," Brandon says. "That was pretty nice of me."
"You would have done that anyway because you like it." Alex takes the washcloth back to the bathroom.
"I do like it." Brandon hooks his arm around Alex and pulls him down onto the bed. "I like you."
Alex smiles at him, one of the simple, happy ones, and kisses Brandon softly. "I like you too."
*
Brandon's having lunch in the lounge after practice when Alex comes in, still sweaty and concerned looking with Vanya in his arms and a diaper bag slung over his shoulder. His face clears a little when he comes over to where Brandon's sitting at the counter.
"I told Anna I would babysit, but I'm not done yet. Can you-"
Brandon reaches out for Vanya before Alex finishes the question. "Yeah, I can take him." He smiles at Vanyushka and kisses his forehead. "We're going to have fun while Uncle Sasha finishes his workout."
"Thank you," Alex says as he passes the diaper bag over. "Seriously, Prusty, thank you so much."
Conscious of the people around them, Brandon doesn't lean over and kiss Alex the way he wants to. Instead he shifts Vanya to his other arm and puts one hand on Alex's back. "Alex, it's fine. Go finish your workout."
Alex meets his eyes for a charged, silent moment that Brandon likes to think means he would be getting kissed if there weren't people around. "Okay," Alex says. He puts his hand on top of Vanya's head. "You be good for Prusty. You can be terrible for Gally if he comes to see you."
Brandon laughs, which makes Vanya laugh and Alex smile at both of them.
"Go," Brandon says. "We'll have some Cheerios and play while we wait for you."
"The Cheerios are for him, not you," Alex says, and he pulls a container of them out of one of the diaper bag's pockets.
Brandon takes the container from him and waves Alex away. Vanya is already reaching for the container, so Brandon moves his plate far enough away that Vanya can't reach it and puts a small handful of Cheerios on the counter.
Brandon keeps one arm hooked around Vanya so he can't squirm out of his grasp and lets him grab at the Cheerios while Brandon finishes his lunch. Brandon uses his fork to take careful bites; Vanya smashes Cheerios against the counter or grabs them in his fist and smashes them into his mouth.
"Yeah, buddy," Brandon says when Vanya holds a hand covered in Cheerio crumbs up to him. "Good job there."
Vanyushka gives him a wide grin, so like Anna and Alex's smiles, and babbles happily before stuffing another half-smashed Cheerio into his mouth.
P.K. slides onto the stool next to Brandon and asks Vanya, "Hey, bud, what's that you've got there?"
Vanya babbles something unintelligible and grabs at Cheerios with both hands.
"Cheerios," P.K. says. "Sweet. You gonna share those?"
Vanya smashes a Cheerio into his mouth. It takes him two tries to get it in his mouth instead of on his face around his mouth.
P.K. laughs. "Man, everyone's keeping me away from carbs."
"You don't want to know what Chucky would do to you if you took his nephew's Cheerios," Brandon says.
"I think I could take him."
Brandon grins sharply at him. "I'd be on his side."
P.K. chuckles. "You've got a couple of uncles looking out for you, huh?" He rubs Vanya's shoulder. "Yeah, you do."
Brandon takes another bite of his lunch so he doesn't say or do something stupid because of how much he likes having P.K. call him Vanya's uncle.
P.K. smirks at him like he knows anyway, and keeps up a fairly steady stream of chatter aimed at Vanya.
Brandon finishes his lunch but stays at the counter until Vanya seems to be done with his Cheerios. There's Cheerio dust all over the counter and all over him.
"You're a mess," Brandon says affectionately. He presses a kiss to the top of Vanya's head. There are baby wipes in a pocket of the bag Alex left with him, so he uses one of those to wipe Cheerio crumbs off of Vanya's hands and face, and off the counter. "There we go," he says. "Now you can use that adorable face to get yourself out of trouble again."
Vanya squirmed while Brandon was cleaning him up, but now he seems to get that Brandon's saying something good to him. He smiles brightly and grabs at Brandon's beard.
"Oh, yeah," Brandon says with a laugh. "Like the trouble you'll get into for grabbing people's beards." He twists away from Vanya's grip and pretends to bite at his hands instead.
Vanya shrieks with laughter.
Brandon's been occupied enough with Vanya that he hasn't been paying attention to the rest of the room, so it comes as something of a surprise to him when Pricey says, from right next to him, "Baby fever." Brandon looks up in time to watch Pricey slap P.K. on the back. "You know you're looking at that kid like you look at carbs?"
P.K. dissolves into laughter. "Like you're any better."
Pricey shrugs, unconcerned. "I've got someone to be my baby mama. It's just a matter of time." He rubs Vanya's shoulder the same way P.K. did. "Hey, little man. You keeping Prusty busy?"
Vanya looks at Pricey, and then he buries his head in Brandon's shirt, fussing a little.
"Your face scared the kid," P.K. says delightedly.
Brandon ignores P.K. and Pricey and rubs Vanya's back. "Was that too many people?" He hefts Vanya up a little so it's more comfortable to hold him against his chest. "Okay, how about we go over here, just us?" He cedes the stool he's been sitting on to Pricey and takes Vanya over to a corner of the room where they can sit on the floor and be out of the way.
"Let's see what your mama packed to keep you busy." The diaper bag is the size of a small suitcase. When Brandon unzips the main zipper, there's a blanket on top that he shakes out onto the floor, and a few of Vanya's toys below that.
Brandon fishes out a couple of plastic things that Vanya can grab, bang together, or chew on, and puts them on the blanket for Vanya to pick up what he wants.
The way he can watch a baby chew on toys and be utterly fascinated is still a novelty to Brandon, and he loses track of anything else going on in the room in favor of talking softly to Vanya while he plays.
Alex is dressed in his street clothes, coat draped over his arm, when he appears next to Brandon. He crouches down to smile at Vanya. He says something in Russian, and Vanyushka positively beams at him.
Brandon knocks his shoulder against Alex's. "You eat yet?"
Alex shakes his head. "I will take him home and then eat."
"I'm not in a hurry," Brandon says. "If you want to eat first, we're having fun." He reaches out to rub Vanya's arm. "We can keep hanging out."
"Okay," Alex says. "If you're sure."
Brandon lets his voice drop low, intimate and too quiet to be overheard by the few people in the room. "Alex, I love hanging out with you and Vanya."
Alex gives him a wide-eyed look that melts into something soft that would be the prelude to a kiss if they were alone. They're still at the rink, though, and Alex has enough sense to only rest his hand on Brandon's shoulder for a moment before he gets up. He comes back a few minutes later with a plate, and he sits cross-legged on the edge of the blanket to eat.
Then it's a lot like hanging out with Alex and Vanya at home, except for the space between Brandon and Alex. If they were at home, Brandon would have Alex pressed up against him and he could turn his head and kiss him whenever he wanted. They're probably not fooling anyone paying much attention to them anyway, but it's late enough that there aren't that many people around to notice. Brandon's deeply thankful that the 24CH cameras aren't in the room with them. They could probably spin something friendly and innocuous out of it for them, but he's glad he doesn't have to try.
Alex puts his plate away when he's done eating, and then he swings Vanya up into the air.
Brandon grins up at them while Vanya squeals with laughter and waves his arms around.
Alex winces when Vanya whacks him with the toy still in his hand, and gently takes it away from him.
Brandon reaches up for it, and repacks the diaper bag while Alex makes Vanya laugh, and then he takes Vanya while Alex puts on his coat. Alex gets Vanya's coat and hat on next, and slings the diaper bag over his shoulder when Brandon hands it to him.
Brandon wants, very badly, to kiss Alex. He settles for waving goodbye to Vanya and catching both Alex and Vanyushka in a one-armed hug.
"Prusty," Alex says seriously, "thank you."
Brandon ruffles his hair instead of kissing him senseless. "You don't have to thank me. I had fun."
Alex hmms. "I will find some way to thank you." The words sound completely innocent coming out of his mouth, but there's a look in his eyes that sends anticipatory shivers down Brandon's spine.
He doesn't have a good comeback for that, and Alex smirks as he leaves.
*
Alex texts, Are you home? late that evening, after Brandon's eaten, while he's lying on the couch catching up on what's stored on his DVR.
He sends back, Yes.
I'm coming over.
Brandon grins at the presumptuousness of that and fast forwards through the boring parts of the show he's watching while he waits for Alex. He turns off the TV when Alex knocks on his door, and idly thinks about giving Alex a key so he wouldn't even have to get off the couch when Alex comes over.
He's smiling at that thought when he opens the door, and Alex smiles back at him, wide and happy.
"Hi." Brandon pushes the door shut and loops his arms around Alex's shoulders. He gives Alex just enough time to return the greeting before he kisses him, soft and slow like he couldn't earlier.
Alex kisses him back the same way for a little bit, and then he deepens it and pushes Brandon against the wall. "I'm going to blow you now."
"Yeah, okay," Brandon says, dizzy with the sudden rush of lust. He thunks his head against the wall as Alex goes to his knees, right there in Brandon's entryway, still dressed all the way down to his coat.
Alex grins up at him and gets Brandon's cock out, shoving his sweats and boxer briefs just far enough down his thighs to make that possible. Brandon's a little turned on already from making out with Alex, and he gets all the way there pretty fast with Alex at his feet jerking him off slowly.
Alex sucks him then, mouth tight and hot around Brandon's cock.
Brandon brings his hands down to Alex's hair. He doesn't pull or try to make Alex do anything he's not - what he's doing is so good Brandon doesn't want him to do anything else - but he needs to touch, to feel Alex under his hands.
Alex swallows around him when Brandon comes. Brandon's knees tremble, and it's only the wall he's leaning against that keeps him upright while Alex draws off his cock, licks his lips, and smiles up at Brandon before he stands up.
Alex leans in, caging Brandon against the wall, and kisses him, as thoroughly as he just blew him.
Brandon's used to making his muscles work when he's been pushed to his physical limits, so he gets it together enough to wrap his arms around Alex and kiss him back.
Brandon pulls away to breathe and says, "I'm going to get you off now."
"You don't have to," Alex says. "The blowjob was to thank you."
"You can keep thanking me by letting me watch you come," Brandon says firmly. He kisses the grin off of Alex's face and gets his coat open and his jeans unbuttoned.
Alex stays pressed close to him, his breath stuttering out in small gasps while Brandon jerks him off with sure, even strokes. Brandon kisses Alex's cheek, his mouth when Alex turns his head enough for that, rubs his beard against Alex's skin.
Brandon pushes Alex back a little when he can tell that Alex is getting close. "Come on, Alex," he murmurs. "Let me see you come." He twists his hand on Alex's cock, trying to add another level of sensation to it.
Alex gasps out Brandon's name and says, "Yeah, yeah, I'm going to," and then comes all over Brandon's hand.
Brandon takes Alex's weight and wraps his other arm around Alex's shoulders when Alex slumps into him. They rest against the wall for a minute, Alex panting into his neck and Brandon feeling smug about how hard he just made Alex come.
Brandon nuzzles Alex's cheek. "You want to hang out for a while?"
Alex turns his head and kisses Brandon softly. "Yeah."
They separate so Alex can take his coat off and Brandon can go wash his hands, and they meet again at the couch. Brandon tucks himself up against Alex, slouching down so he fits easily under the arm Alex throws around his shoulders and can lean his head on Alex's shoulder. He lets Alex decide what they're going to watch off of the DVR, or, more to the point, doesn't protest when Alex picks up the remote and chooses something.
Brandon rests one hand on Alex's thigh, fingers curving in, not to do anything with it, just to touch him. It's comfortable. All of this is comfortable.
At a slow part - Brandon's seen later episodes and knows the outline of what happens - Brandon squeezes Alex's thigh to get his attention and says, "P.K. called me Vanya's uncle."
Alex tightens his arm around Brandon's shoulder. "He did?"
"Mmhmm." Brandon tips his head to look at Alex, but Alex is wearing one of those inscrutable looks where he doesn't give away what he's thinking. "That okay?"
"Yes," Alex says. "If it does not bother you."
Brandon turns a little more toward Alex. "It doesn't bother me. I liked it. I want to be his uncle. I want to be his uncle because I'm with you."
"Oh," Alex says, and his eyes get a little wide before he smiles, soft and easy. "Yes," he says. "I want that too." He leans in and kisses Brandon. "You are his uncle too."
Brandon kisses him, harder and deeper than Alex kissed him. "Okay," he says. "Good."
"Good," Alex echoes, and they grin at each other like fools for a minute before they settle into being cuddled together again.
*
They lose, badly, to the Leafs at home. It's not a good game for anyone, and the Leafs get one of their goals off a turnover from Alex.
Alex is predictably upset, not that any of them are happy about it. But most of them are just hurling their jerseys into the bin with varying degrees of force and getting on with their post-game rituals. Alex is standing in front of his stall muttering shit about how he fucked up. Brandon's had more time to get used to the occasional bad game; he's still pissed about it now, but once he's away from the rink, he'll be able to let it go until they have to dissect their play in meetings tomorrow.
Brandon's also used to being the voice of reason and experience for Alex and Gally, so he goes over to Alex. "Chucky." Brandon puts his hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex shrugs it off, which Brandon half expected. "Man, you gotta let some of that go. We'll do better next game."
Alex spins around and glares at him. "In case you forgot, you're not on our line anymore," he spits out, vicious in a way he isn't usually with Brandon. "I don't need a fucking babysitter."
Brandon steps back, stung. "Fine," he snaps, and he turns away to his own stall. He gets out of his pads with deliberate care, does his post-game workout, takes a shower, puts on his suit, and goes home, all without looking at Alex.
He understands, sort of, that Alex didn't want comfort or didn't want it from him, but it still hurt to have Alex push him away. They were friends before they were dating, and it wouldn't have been the first time Brandon gave him advice after a bad game.
Brandon tries to take his own advice to let some of it go. He changes into pajama pants and a t-shirt at home and throws together something to eat that he doesn't really taste. Sometimes it takes him a while to settle after games, but tonight he just wants to fall into bed and let it all wash away into sleep.
That doesn't mean he falls asleep once he gets into bed. He's still awake, not quite to drifting, when his phone buzzes with a text.
It's from Alex: Still awake?
Brandon could not answer, let it go until tomorrow with everything else. He weighs his phone in his hand for a minute, thinking about it, but in the end he wants to talk to Alex more than he wants to not deal with how this evening went. Instead of texting back, he turns on the lamp next to his bed and sends Alex a FaceTime request.
Alex is clearly also in bed when he answers, pillow behind his head, camera angle suggesting he's holding his phone up over himself the same way Brandon is.
"Hi," Alex says.
"Hi." Alex wanted to talk, so Brandon doesn't rush to say anything else and lets Alex do it.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Alex says after a second.
Brandon exhales and sinks farther into his bed with the sudden release of tension. "Okay," he says. "You okay?"
Alex shrugs. "Are you?" He bites his lip for a second. "Are we?"
"Yeah," Brandon says. "I'm a tough guy. I can take it."
Alex's mouth turns down with a frown. "You should not have to. I am sorry."
Brandon almost wishes it had been an away game so there would only be a short trip down a hallway between them. He wants to kiss that look off of Alex's face. "You were upset," he says. "We're okay. I promise."
Alex sighs. "Okay."
"Are you going to be able to sleep?" Brandon asks.
"Probably not yet," Alex says. "I keep thinking about all the things I did wrong."
"Alex," Brandon says, gentle and careful.
Alex shrugs at him. "It is in my head."
"Hmm," Brandon says. "Want to forget about it and jerk off together?"
Alex looks tempted, like he's going to say yes, and then a frown creases his face and he shakes his head. "I would like to," he says, "but I don't deserve it. Not after tonight's game."
"Alex," Brandon says, and he keeps it gentle; he's speaking as the guy who's dating Alex, not as an older, more experienced teammate. "You gotta let some of it go. You weren't the only one who had a bad game, and it doesn't mean you don't deserve good things too."
"I know," Alex says, and he really looks torn up about it. "I know all that, but in my head it's all." He waves his free hand in gesture that's probably meant to describe how mixed up his head is.
Brandon's heart hurts with him. That's love, he supposes.
"I can't let go of it," Alex says. "And I don't deserve-"
Brandon cuts him off, thinks hard about how much he loves Alex when he says, as gently as he can, "Sashenka."
Alex's eyes go wide and his mouth snaps shut.
"You don't have to earn anything from me," Brandon says. "Or with me. You already have it." It's the closest he's come to outright telling Alex he loves him.
Alex's voice is just the tiniest bit shaky when he says, "That's not fair. Your name doesn't work like mine does. I don't have something like that to call you."
Brandon smiles at him, and he can see in the corner of his screen that the way he feels about Alex is written all over his face. "You'll come up with something."
Alex's face scrunches up for a minute, the way it does when he's thinking hard, and then it smoothes out and he says, "Solnyshko moy." He says it just as softly and tenderly as Brandon said his name.
"What does that mean?" Brandon asks, keeping his voice soft to match.
"My sun," Alex says, "like sunshine."
Brandon can feel the smile spread across his face. "Yeah? Do I light up your life?"
Alex collapses into what can only be called giggles, the video on Brandon's screen shaking with Alex's body. "Yes," Alex says, smiling brightly.
"Good. I want to." Brandon yawns, his sudden exhaustion catching him by surprise, like his body is deciding that he's done with the day now that he's made Alex smile.
Alex's smile dims into something softer. "I'm keeping you up."
Brandon shrugs. "Are you going to be able to sleep?"
"Yes," Alex says after a moment. "Not right away, but yes."
"Good," Brandon says. "Good night, Alex."
"Good night, Brandon."
The last thing Brandon sees before he closes FaceTime is Alex smiling softly at him.
*
"We going to do something Friday?" Brandon asks Alex while they're hanging out by the pool in Florida. They have a game later, for the second night in a row, but they're all ready to soak up as much sun as they can while they're here. Most of the rest of the guys have either gone upstairs to nap or joined in the water war P.K. has going on at the other end of the pool. Brandon can't put his hands all over Alex the way he wants to with Alex lounging around shirtless, chest and shoulders on display, but they're alone enough for the moment to make plans.
Alex looks up from his phone, and then turns it off and sets it on the small table between their chairs.
Brandon raises his eyebrows at that; he didn't think making plans for a night when they don't have a game was that serious a conversation.
"You could come over for dinner," Alex says.
"You going to cook for me?"
"No," Alex says. "My mom will. My dad will be there, and Anna and Peter and Vanya."
Brandon raises his eyebrows again; maybe this is a serious conversation. "Are you taking me home to meet your family?"
"You've already met my family," Alex says, somewhere between sulky and exasperated.
"I've met everyone in your family," Brandon says. "You've never taken me home for dinner."
Alex folds his arms over his chest. "Do you want to come to dinner or not?"
"Yes," Brandon says. "Of course I want to come to dinner." He watches while Alex relaxes and drops his hands to his sides, and then asks, "Have you ever brought a boyfriend home before?"
Alex smiles at him, a small, soft thing. "No."
"So I'm the first."
"Yes," Alex confirms. Then he looks up at Brandon from under his eyelashes, which is a neat trick for a guy as tall as he is. "Maybe the last one too."
That socks the breath out of Brandon. It's an even clearer declaration than Alex saying that Brandon is Vanya's uncle too.
"Yeah," Brandon says when he gets his voice back. "You know, you're my sunshine too."
Alex beams at him like the sunshine Brandon just named him.
When they go upstairs, Brandon tugs Alex into his room and kisses him long and slow before he pushes him back out into the hallway to go to his own room.
*
Alex answers the door on Friday wearing the green sweater and holding Vanya tucked against one shoulder. Brandon's heart stops and restarts triple-time.
"Hi," Alex says. "Vanyushka just got up from a late nap." He smiles at the baby, tender and adoring, and Brandon can't stand to not be touching him.
"Hi," Brandon says. He puts his hand on Alex's cheek to draw his attention and leans in to kiss him soft and slow.
Alex's eyes are wide when he looks at Brandon after that. "Hi," he says, again, his tone almost making it a question.
"Hi." Brandon smiles softly at him, and hands Alex his coat and the bottle of wine he brought while he reaches for the baby. "Hi, nephew," he says. "Come see Uncle Brandon." Vanyushka is a warm, still slightly sleepy weight in his arms, and Brandon tucks him against his chest carefully.
He looks up when Alex says, "Oh." There's a look on Alex's face that Brandon doesn't quite recognize, but he's pretty sure he knows what it feels like from the other side.
"Yeah," Brandon says, and he's pretty sure he's sending that same look of awed love back at him. "Now you get it."
Alex surges forward and kisses Brandon hard. They're careful not to squish Vanya between them, but they're not careful about anything else. They're both breathing faster when they break apart, Vanya still calm and sleepy against Brandon's chest, and Alex's hair is a mess where Brandon had his free hand tangled in it.
Alex steps back and hangs up Brandon's coat. "Come in," he says after another moment.
Brandon grabs Alex's arm and tugs him close so he can smooth Alex's hair back down. He takes advantage of having Alex close and his hand cupped around the back of Alex's head to press another brief kiss to his lips.
Alex takes his hand to lead him farther into the house. It feels good. They're usually in public or at Brandon's smaller place; they don't hold hands much. Brandon likes it even more when they get to the kitchen where Alex's family is, having all of them see that Brandon and Alex are together.
"Brandon brought wine," Alex announces to his family, which means they really all look at Brandon and Alex.
"Thank you," Inna says. She comes over to take the wine from Alex and hug Brandon. He has to drop Alex's hand to return it.
Alex Sr. comes over to shake his hand next, while Inna makes Alex open the wine, and then Peter shakes his hand and Anna hugs him.
Vanya lifts his head up when Anna's there and babbles, meaningless syllables all strung together.
Anna smiles at him and answers in Russian before she presses a kiss to his cheek. "My sweet boy, you should talk to your Uncle Brandon too."
She steps back, and Vanya does turn his babble on Brandon. He also grabs at Brandon's beard.
Gently detangling Vanya's fingers keeps Brandon from being swamped by the wave of joy that Anna naming him Vanya's uncle sends through him. He pretends to bite at Vanya's hand, which still works to make Vanya shriek with laughter and bat his hands around.
Alex hands out glasses of wine, bringing Brandon his last and staying there, hand low on Brandon's back, smiling at Vanyushka after they toast and drink.
"Remember this," Inna says, looking at Brandon and Alex and then at Anna and Peter. "Someday your sweet boy will be all grown up, and you will miss the days when he was so small."
"Mama," Alex says, half protest and half affection.
"It is true." Inna comes over to Brandon and Alex. Despite the protest, Alex bends so she can smack a kiss onto his cheek, and then she goes over to kiss Anna too. "You remember these days."
"I promise, Mama," Anna says. She looks over at Brandon, at Vanya, and Brandon returns her smile.
"I will remember," Alex says. His hand rubs gentle circles into the small of Brandon's back.
Brandon doesn't think he'll ever be able to forget what this is like, his introduction into being part of Alex's family. He's looking forward to watching Vanya grow up, but even now he knows there's something special about this time, when he's so tiny, and something special about this first evening spent with Alex's family.
Inna brushes a finger over Vanya's cheek on her way back to the stove.
"So what was Alex like as a baby?" Brandon asks.
Alex goes from smiling to scowling.
Brandon chuckles. "You brought me home," he says. "That means I get to ask your family for stories about you growing up."
Inna laughs too. "Much like he is now."
"Very serious about some things," Alex Sr. says. "But so full of laughter sometimes."
"I'll show you pictures," Anna promises. She ignores Alex turning his scowl on her. "He was a cute kid. Not quite as cute as mine, but cute."
Alex opens his mouth, then stops and shakes his head. "He is very cute." He turns toward Brandon. "You are very cute," he says to Vanya, and then something in Russian.
Vanya reaches out to him, a lunge that has Brandon bringing up his other arm to keep Vanya from falling while also trying not to spill his wine.
Alex chuckles and stops touching Brandon to hold Vanya instead. Brandon takes Alex's wine glass so he has both hands free to deal with a squirrely baby. Alex smiles at him, and leans his shoulder against Brandon's.
Brandon smiles at the two of them, and then asks Peter, "How's business?" He's not entirely sure what it is Peter does, only that it's something in finance that allows him to travel between Miami and Montreal.
"Oh, you know," Peter says, "the market is the market."
Brandon nods like he knows what Peter's talking about. They don't have much common ground outside of their place as the non-Russian members of the family.
When Inna announces that dinner is ready, Alex hands Vanya over to Peter while he and Anna help carry dishes, and then they all sit down around a table practically groaning under the weight of so much food.
Vanya gets bite-sized pieces of some of the dishes, and he gets food all over his hands and his face while the rest of them keep up a lively conversation over dinner.
When they're finished eating, Inna refuses Brandon's offer to help clear the table and has Alex help instead.
Brandon grins at him. "Even big NHL stars have to do their chores."
Alex digs his elbow into Brandon's shoulder when he leans over him to grab plates off the table. Brandon just laughs at him, and Alex grins back and presses a quick kiss to Brandon's temple.
Brandon turns to watch Alex walk to the kitchen. It's a nice view. "You can come home with me sometime," he says, "and see what kinds of chores my mom makes me do."
Alex gives him a soft, sweet smile from the kitchen and kisses his cheek on his next trip from the table to the kitchen.
They adjourn to the living room when Alex and Inna finish cleaning up from dinner and Anna finishes cleaning up Vanya so he can be somewhere that isn't easily wiped down plastic. Alex sits next to Brandon on the couch, Peter sits on the floor with Vanya, and Alex Sr. and Inna sit in chairs. Anna grabs something off of a shelf and comes over to sit on Brandon's other side.
"No," Alex says, and he grabs for the book she's holding and continues talking in Russian.
Anna calmly but firmly keeps the book away from him. "You showed Peter my baby pictures when he first came for dinner."
Brandon intervenes, batting Alex's hands back. "I definitely want to see your baby pictures."
Alex slumps against his side.
Brandon puts an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sure you were a cute baby." He smacks a kiss onto Alex's cheek.
"You've tweeted some of them," Anna says, "so chill out."
Alex grumbles, "That's different," but he settles in against Brandon and doesn't try to stop Anna again.
"Oh, you were cute," Brandon says when Anna opens the book. The first few pages are all of Alex as a baby, many of them with a smiling Anna, some with other people. He laughs when Anna turns to a page where Alex looks less than pleased. "I know that look."
Alex gives him the same scowl he's aiming at the camera in the photo.
Brandon laughs harder.
"He's always made that face," Anna says.
"Always," Inna confirms. "You are lucky Vanya doesn't do the same thing."
Anna heaves a sigh that's obviously faked. "He'll probably learn it from spending so much time with his Uncle Sasha." She pats Brandon's arm. "You'll have to make sure he smiles a lot so Vanya learns that instead."
"I'm going to try," Brandon promises.
Despite threats to the contrary, Anna restrains herself to one photo album of Alex as a kid. Brandon gets to hear a couple of stories, about Alex playing hockey, about their move to Italy, about Anna and Alex making new friends every time they moved.
They talk about other things after Anna puts the photo album away, an easy, wandering conversation that pauses occasionally when Vanya demands everyone's attention.
Inna and Alex Sr. go up to bed while the rest of them are still chatting.
"Thank you for dinner," Brandon says when he stands up to shake Alex Sr.'s hand and hug Inna. Alex Sr. smiles at him and Inna kisses his cheek.
"We are glad to have you," she says. "You will have to come back."
"I promise," Brandon says.
Brandon wasn't too nervous about making a good impression on Alex's parents, but he does relax a little more when it's down to just the two of them and Anna, Peter, and Vanya. He sits down on the floor with Vanya and Peter, smiling widely at the baby when he babbles and waves one of his toys his way.
Anna sits down with them too and scoops Vanya up into her lap. She says something to him in Russian.
Brandon looks up and catches Peter's eye. He doesn't look as confused as Brandon feels.
"Do you speak Russian?" Brandon asks.
"Not fluently," Peter says. "I'm still working on it." He grins and shakes Vanya's foot. "Can't have the rest of my family conspiring against me."
"Hmm," Brandon says, and he looks at Alex consideringly. That might be a strategy worth borrowing.
"It's not easy," Peter says, catching on to where Brandon's going with this. "I've been working on it for a while and having Anna help me, and I'm still not fluent."
"You're getting better," Anna says, and then something in Russian that makes Peter smile at her and Alex roll his eyes.
"I understand about half the conversations around here," Peter says. He looks from Brandon to Alex. "It's probably worth your time if you're going to stick around."
"That's the plan," Brandon says easily. He looks up at Alex, who's frowning. Brandon shrugs to let him know he doesn't mind Peter hassling him. He can take it, and he can shut it down if it gets worse.
Peter changes the subject anyway, asking about their last road trip and letting them all move on to less fraught lines of conversation.
Vanya gets tired after a while, eyes blinking slowly between bouts of fussiness.
Anna says something in Russian and then, "Bedtime for this one." She lifts Vanya up, from her lap to her shoulder, and Peter stands and offers her a hand up.
"For us too," Peter says with a yawn.
Brandon stands with them, to shake Peter's hand, hug Anna, and press a kiss to Vanyushka's cheek. Alex also kisses Vanya goodnight before Peter and Anna take him upstairs, and then it's just Brandon and Alex in the living room.
Brandon puts his arms around Alex and kisses him, because he can and because he wants to. Alex kisses him back and is smiling every time they break apart.
"You could stay," Alex says after a few minutes, his hand carding through Brandon's hair. "Spend the night."
Brandon raises his eyebrows. "With your family here?"
"They know we are together," Alex says. "They know I stay at your place. Peter always stayed here before he and Anna got married."
"Peter lived in Miami," Brandon points out, "not fifteen minutes away."
"It will be fine," Alex says. He draws back. "If you don't want to-"
"I want to," Brandon rushes to say. He tugs Alex closer and kisses him deeply. Alex kisses him back, his momentary reticence melting into eager participation, and they don't stop kissing until they're both hard and Alex has one hand gripping Brandon's ass and the other tangled deeply in his hair.
"Not here," Alex mutters into Brandon's mouth. He locks the front door and turns out lights as they go upstairs. His voice is a soft murmur as tells Brandon whose rooms the doors along the hallway lead to. His room is at the end, and he turns on the light as they go into it, closes and locks the door behind them.
Brandon takes a moment to look around. Alex has a large bed, only a few pictures on the walls, two open doors that Brandon can see through into his closet and bathroom. The bed is the most important part. Well, the bed and Alex.
Brandon gets his hands on Alex again, sliding them under the edge of his sweater and onto the skin beneath. Brandon's already hard, but touching Alex while getting to look at him in the green sweater makes his breath come even faster.
Alex slides his mouth over Brandon's. "Too bad we have a game tomorrow. I want to fuck you."
Brandon groans. "You can finger me," he suggests. "And next time we don't have a game I can come over and you can fuck me in your bed."
Alex surges against him, hands grabbing hard at Brandon. "Yes," he says against Brandon's mouth, his chin, his neck.
Brandon chuckles a little, digging his fingers into Alex's hips in return. "Yes to which part?"
"All of it," Alex says. "Everything. Take your clothes off."
Brandon laughs and steps back to strip his shirt off. He raises his eyebrows when Alex just stands there watching him.
"I want to watch you," Alex says.
Just for that, Brandon takes his pants off as slowly as he can. It doesn't work to goad Alex into doing anything other than watching, but Brandon likes it anyway. Alex isn't trying to hide his interest, and Brandon likes watching the way his lips part and his eyes darken.
Brandon pushes his boxer briefs down slowly, too, and strokes his cock a few times once he's naked. "You going to keep just watching?" he asks when Alex still doesn't move toward him.
"Maybe," Alex says, frank appreciation on his face. "You should do that in my bed."
Brandon suppresses a shiver at the suggestion and then goes over to push the covers aside so he can stretch out in Alex's bed. He wraps his hand back around his cock and jerks himself off slowly, easily. He's not trying to get himself off, just giving Alex a show.
"Enjoying yourself?"
Alex hums an agreement and climbs over Brandon to get into the nightstand on the other side of the bed. He's still dressed, all the way down to that sweater that makes him look so good Brandon has a hard time not jerking off with more purpose.
Alex settles back onto his knees next to Brandon and holds up the lube in explanation. Brandon nods at him, suddenly breathless with how much he wants Alex to touch him. He has to wait a moment for Alex to pour lube into his fingers, and then Alex touches him, one finger rubbing wetly against his hole.
Brandon gasps at the way it lights him up inside. "Fuck," he breathes out. "I wish you could just fuck me."
"Me too," Alex says simply, and he bends over to kiss Brandon while he pushes one finger into him.
They kiss a lot while Alex fingers him, one finger and then two, careful with it at first, and then less so, Alex's fingers thick and rough inside him, fucking into him while he jerks himself off and tries to be quiet enough that they won't be heard by anyone else in the house.
"You look really good like this," Alex says. "I like having you in my bed."
Brandon groans, probably too loud, and uses his free hand to pull Alex into another fierce kiss. "Now you know how I feel every time you come over to my place."
"Hmm," Alex says, and then he grins sharply. "We don't always get to your bed." He moves his fingers, slow and torturously good inside Brandon.
"It was your idea to come up here," Brandon gasps out. "We could have-" His words cut off when Alex moves his fingers again and it feels too good for him to think about anything else.
"I want to watch you come," Alex says. He matches the words with another slow drag of his fingers in Brandon.
"Yeah," Brandon says, because he can't form any more words than that. He stops trying to make it last, jerks himself off hard with the intent of making himself come. Alex helps, his fingers pressing just right inside of Brandon, his eyes dark as he watches, his mouth hot against Brandon's every time he bends in to kiss him. They're not kissing when Brandon comes, mouth going wide as he tries not to shout with how good it feels.
"Brandon," Alex says hoarsely. He kisses Brandon hard, pulls his fingers out of him gently, grabs for a tissue from the nightstand to wipe them clean.
"What do you want?" Brandon asks. He's still gasping with the intensity of coming. "I can blow you."
Alex groans and tugs his sweater up. Brandon would be sorry to see it go, but he gets to look at Alex's chest instead, and then Alex pushes down his pants and underwear and he gets to look at Alex's cock too, flushed and hard, wet at the tip.
"Yeah," Brandon says, his mouth watering with the need to taste Alex. "Come here." He shifts, props himself up on one of Alex's pillows so he's at a better angle to get at Alex.
Alex gets all the way out of his clothes before he takes Brandon up on the invitation. His knees settle on either side of Brandon and he holds his cock with the hand that wasn't inside Brandon as he guides it into Brandon's mouth.
Alex moans, too loud but not seeming to care, when Brandon closes his lips around his cock. "Brandon," he says, "you look-" He jerks his hips. Brandon pats his thigh to let him know it's okay, and that he doesn't mind if this is fast.
It is fast, Brandon sucking around Alex while Alex fucks shallowly into his mouth, a bare minute or two before Alex chokes out a warning and his come floods Brandon's mouth.
"Fuck," Alex says, and then, "Sorry," as he moves away.
"When have I ever minded having you come in my mouth?" Brandon keeps Alex from moving very far and kisses him, brief kisses to start, while they both catch their breath, and then longer ones, deep and slow.
They get up after a while to clean up. Alex has a spare toothbrush for Brandon, and for all the other things they've done, there's something so very intimate about brushing their teeth side by side at the sink.
They go to bed naked, Alex waiting for Brandon to climb into it before turning off the light and joining him. Brandon blinks against the darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust enough for him to find Alex's mouth and kiss him.
They make out slow and steady for a bit, and then settle down together, shifting a little to get comfortable. They're still awake, touching each other softly, just to touch because they can.
"For a long time," Alex says, "I think because I'm gay I never have kids. I never get to watch someone grow up, never get to be there for them. Having Vanyushka here is like a miracle."
"Alex," Brandon murmurs. His heart aches for all the things Alex so clearly wants. "Sashenka. Being gay doesn't mean you can't have kids." He keeps his voice soft, secrets whispered in the dark. "It doesn't mean we can't have kids."
The sheets rustle as Alex shifts, moving just a fraction closer to Brandon. "I want that," he confesses so softly Brandon almost can't hear him.
Brandon tugs Alex closer, tucking him against his chest. "Me too," he whispers back.
Alex rubs his cheek against Brandon's shoulder. "I want my kids to grow up with Vanya. With my family around. Like things are now."
Brandon bites back the instinct to argue about spending the rest of his life living with the in-laws he's just getting to know. "We can figure it out," he promises instead. "I don't want them yet. I want just you for now." He kisses Alex, soft and sweet, drinking in the way Alex kisses him back the same way. "We have time."
"Yes," Alex says with a sigh. "Solnyshko moy. We have time."
Brandon can be a considerate friend when he wants to be, so he doesn't call Brian when he gets home from dinner and Brian is probably already asleep but waits until he's on his way to the rink the next day.
They bullshit for a while, a mix of chirping and exchanging stories, before Brian asks, "You still in love with that kid?"
"We're dating," Brandon says. "And please don't call him a kid."
"He's like eight years younger than us."
Brandon almost says, "Ten," but thinks better of it and says, "He's the guy I'm dating. Calling him a kid makes me sound like a dirty old man."
"Are you saying you're not a dirty old man?" Brian laughs as he says it, and then stops laughing and says, "Wait, don't answer that. I don't need to know about your sex life."
"I don't need to know about yours either," Brandon says, "but that never stops you from telling me about it."
"Did I ever tell you about that time Lauren bought handcuffs?"
Brandon laughs and says, "Stop, stop right there."
Brian laughs with him too. "So things are good with Alex?"
"Yeah," Brandon says. "Yeah, they're really good."
"Good," Brian says, "and, hey, if you ever want to borrow some handcuffs."
Brandon's still laughing when he pulls into the parking lot and hangs up on Brian.
*
Alex knocks on Brandon's door the first night they're on the road after they agree to tell people. That's got to be one advantage of Gally knowing.
Alex walks right past Brandon when he opens the door and says, "I should have never told Gally."
Brandon closes the door and stops smiling. Maybe Gally knowing wasn't a good idea. "Why not?"
Alex throws himself down on Brandon's bed. "Because he is the worst at chirping."
Brandon's heartbeat returns to normal, and he draws in a deep breath. "Oh yeah?" He follows Alex over to the bed now that he's not stuck in place with worry.
"Yeah." Alex tips his head up when Brandon crouches over him, knees outside Alex's hips, hands above his shoulders.
Brandon bends down to meet him and gives him the warm hello kiss he would have given him at the door if Alex hadn't blown right past him.
Alex's hands end up on Brandon, one on the back of his neck and one at his hip, but instead of following through on that, Alex keeps up the conversation when the kiss ends. "I would tell you what he said, but it is too bad. You would lose all respect for him."
Brandon chuckles and kisses Alex's neck. "Would I?"
"Yes." Alex arches his head back as Brandon presses kisses all along the line of his neck. "I can't believe no one has ever taught him how to chirp better."
Brandon laughs against Alex's neck, and then lifts his head. "Do you want to keep complaining about Gally's chirping, or do you want a blowjob?"
Alex looks at him for a minute without answering, and then his face creases into a smile. "Blowjob," he says.
"Right answer." Brandon kisses him, long and deep, and then goes back to kissing his neck because he was having fun with that. It's still fun, and he scrapes his chin along Alex's neck because he likes the way it makes Alex gasp and he really likes the way it leaves a red patch of beard burn on his skin.
Brandon skips from there all the way down to the waistband of Alex's pajama pants. Not that he doesn't appreciate Alex's chest, but he'd rather get to Alex's cock. Alex lifts his hips to help, and Brandon gets his pants down enough to get his cock out.
Alex isn't all the way hard yet. Brandon gets his mouth on him anyway, mouths at his foreskin, tucks his tongue into it to tease at the head of his cock.
Alex gets loud when Brandon does that, and Brandon draws off his cock. "Keep it quiet unless you want everyone to know." He pats Alex's thigh. "I think Patches is next door."
Alex groans. "Don't talk about our team when you're blowing me."
"Stay quiet and I won't have to." Brandon grins at the glare Alex throws him, and goes back down.
The next noise Alex makes, when Brandon cups his balls in one hand, is muffled, and Brandon looks up to see him pressing his mouth into his own forearm.
"Don't hurt yourself there," Brandon says.
Alex groans a little louder. "Don't stop."
Brandon mouths at the side of Alex's cock, using just his lips for a bit before he goes all the way down on him again. Alex is all the way hard now, cock thick and full in Brandon's mouth.
Brandon works him over with careful attention to what makes Alex buck his hips up, what makes him groan, what makes him grab at Brandon. Stroking his fingers up behind Alex's balls makes him pull his arm away from his mouth to swear at Brandon.
Brandon grins as best he can around Alex's cock and keeps up that teasing touch along with the suction on Alex's cock. He doesn't really need Alex's warning to know he's about to come, but he appreciates Alex's thoughtfulness just the same. He goes down as far as he can, lips a tight seal around Alex's cock, and sucks hard, swallowing what he can when Alex gives a probably muffled enough shout as he comes.
Brandon wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and pushes himself up, crouching over Alex like he did to start all this.
"Ow," Alex says. "I think I bit my arm too hard."
Brandon tugs Alex's arm away from his face and turns it to see the bite marks sunk into his skin. "Hmm," he says. "You're going to get a lot of questions if that leaves a mark."
Alex turns his arm to look at it. "I don't think it will." He rubs at the mark with his other hand.
Brandon takes his arm and brings it up to kiss over the bite marks. "There," he says, "all better."
Alex's lips twitch into a smile. "That only works on little kids."
"Is that so?" Brandon rubs his thumb along the soft underside of Alex's arm. "Are you thinking about it now?"
"No," Alex admits. He tugs at Brandon, hand curved around the back of Brandon's head. "I only think about you now." He kisses Brandon slow and lazy.
"If you're only thinking about me," Brandon says, "how about getting me off?" He rubs his cock against Alex's hip.
"Okay," Alex agrees. "Do you want me to blow you or jerk you off?"
Brandon groans into Alex's neck. "Whatever you want to do."
Alex pushes Brandon off him, just a little, and gets Brandon's cock out. He's good enough with his hands to be coordinated even though he just came, and he strokes Brandon with a perfect, tight, rough grip.
Brandon doesn't have to resort to biting into his own arm; he puts his mouth on Alex's neck instead and lets that muffle his noises. He's careful not to bite down when he comes, opens his mouth wide instead, lips and tongue pressed hard to Alex's skin.
Alex lets him enjoy the afterglow for a minute before he says, "Ugh. You slobbered all over me."
Brandon sighs and then pulls back to look at Alex. "I came all over you too." He nuzzles at the dry side of Alex's neck. "You should probably clean up before you go back to your room."
"You made the mess. You should clean me up."
Brandon just laughs at Alex, and he rolls over onto his back to watch Alex walk to the bathroom.
Alex comes back a few minutes later with a damp washcloth that he runs gently over Brandon's cock. "You see," he says, "I am much nicer than you."
"I sucked your cock," Brandon says. "That was pretty nice of me."
"You would have done that anyway because you like it." Alex takes the washcloth back to the bathroom.
"I do like it." Brandon hooks his arm around Alex and pulls him down onto the bed. "I like you."
Alex smiles at him, one of the simple, happy ones, and kisses Brandon softly. "I like you too."
*
Brandon's having lunch in the lounge after practice when Alex comes in, still sweaty and concerned looking with Vanya in his arms and a diaper bag slung over his shoulder. His face clears a little when he comes over to where Brandon's sitting at the counter.
"I told Anna I would babysit, but I'm not done yet. Can you-"
Brandon reaches out for Vanya before Alex finishes the question. "Yeah, I can take him." He smiles at Vanyushka and kisses his forehead. "We're going to have fun while Uncle Sasha finishes his workout."
"Thank you," Alex says as he passes the diaper bag over. "Seriously, Prusty, thank you so much."
Conscious of the people around them, Brandon doesn't lean over and kiss Alex the way he wants to. Instead he shifts Vanya to his other arm and puts one hand on Alex's back. "Alex, it's fine. Go finish your workout."
Alex meets his eyes for a charged, silent moment that Brandon likes to think means he would be getting kissed if there weren't people around. "Okay," Alex says. He puts his hand on top of Vanya's head. "You be good for Prusty. You can be terrible for Gally if he comes to see you."
Brandon laughs, which makes Vanya laugh and Alex smile at both of them.
"Go," Brandon says. "We'll have some Cheerios and play while we wait for you."
"The Cheerios are for him, not you," Alex says, and he pulls a container of them out of one of the diaper bag's pockets.
Brandon takes the container from him and waves Alex away. Vanya is already reaching for the container, so Brandon moves his plate far enough away that Vanya can't reach it and puts a small handful of Cheerios on the counter.
Brandon keeps one arm hooked around Vanya so he can't squirm out of his grasp and lets him grab at the Cheerios while Brandon finishes his lunch. Brandon uses his fork to take careful bites; Vanya smashes Cheerios against the counter or grabs them in his fist and smashes them into his mouth.
"Yeah, buddy," Brandon says when Vanya holds a hand covered in Cheerio crumbs up to him. "Good job there."
Vanyushka gives him a wide grin, so like Anna and Alex's smiles, and babbles happily before stuffing another half-smashed Cheerio into his mouth.
P.K. slides onto the stool next to Brandon and asks Vanya, "Hey, bud, what's that you've got there?"
Vanya babbles something unintelligible and grabs at Cheerios with both hands.
"Cheerios," P.K. says. "Sweet. You gonna share those?"
Vanya smashes a Cheerio into his mouth. It takes him two tries to get it in his mouth instead of on his face around his mouth.
P.K. laughs. "Man, everyone's keeping me away from carbs."
"You don't want to know what Chucky would do to you if you took his nephew's Cheerios," Brandon says.
"I think I could take him."
Brandon grins sharply at him. "I'd be on his side."
P.K. chuckles. "You've got a couple of uncles looking out for you, huh?" He rubs Vanya's shoulder. "Yeah, you do."
Brandon takes another bite of his lunch so he doesn't say or do something stupid because of how much he likes having P.K. call him Vanya's uncle.
P.K. smirks at him like he knows anyway, and keeps up a fairly steady stream of chatter aimed at Vanya.
Brandon finishes his lunch but stays at the counter until Vanya seems to be done with his Cheerios. There's Cheerio dust all over the counter and all over him.
"You're a mess," Brandon says affectionately. He presses a kiss to the top of Vanya's head. There are baby wipes in a pocket of the bag Alex left with him, so he uses one of those to wipe Cheerio crumbs off of Vanya's hands and face, and off the counter. "There we go," he says. "Now you can use that adorable face to get yourself out of trouble again."
Vanya squirmed while Brandon was cleaning him up, but now he seems to get that Brandon's saying something good to him. He smiles brightly and grabs at Brandon's beard.
"Oh, yeah," Brandon says with a laugh. "Like the trouble you'll get into for grabbing people's beards." He twists away from Vanya's grip and pretends to bite at his hands instead.
Vanya shrieks with laughter.
Brandon's been occupied enough with Vanya that he hasn't been paying attention to the rest of the room, so it comes as something of a surprise to him when Pricey says, from right next to him, "Baby fever." Brandon looks up in time to watch Pricey slap P.K. on the back. "You know you're looking at that kid like you look at carbs?"
P.K. dissolves into laughter. "Like you're any better."
Pricey shrugs, unconcerned. "I've got someone to be my baby mama. It's just a matter of time." He rubs Vanya's shoulder the same way P.K. did. "Hey, little man. You keeping Prusty busy?"
Vanya looks at Pricey, and then he buries his head in Brandon's shirt, fussing a little.
"Your face scared the kid," P.K. says delightedly.
Brandon ignores P.K. and Pricey and rubs Vanya's back. "Was that too many people?" He hefts Vanya up a little so it's more comfortable to hold him against his chest. "Okay, how about we go over here, just us?" He cedes the stool he's been sitting on to Pricey and takes Vanya over to a corner of the room where they can sit on the floor and be out of the way.
"Let's see what your mama packed to keep you busy." The diaper bag is the size of a small suitcase. When Brandon unzips the main zipper, there's a blanket on top that he shakes out onto the floor, and a few of Vanya's toys below that.
Brandon fishes out a couple of plastic things that Vanya can grab, bang together, or chew on, and puts them on the blanket for Vanya to pick up what he wants.
The way he can watch a baby chew on toys and be utterly fascinated is still a novelty to Brandon, and he loses track of anything else going on in the room in favor of talking softly to Vanya while he plays.
Alex is dressed in his street clothes, coat draped over his arm, when he appears next to Brandon. He crouches down to smile at Vanya. He says something in Russian, and Vanyushka positively beams at him.
Brandon knocks his shoulder against Alex's. "You eat yet?"
Alex shakes his head. "I will take him home and then eat."
"I'm not in a hurry," Brandon says. "If you want to eat first, we're having fun." He reaches out to rub Vanya's arm. "We can keep hanging out."
"Okay," Alex says. "If you're sure."
Brandon lets his voice drop low, intimate and too quiet to be overheard by the few people in the room. "Alex, I love hanging out with you and Vanya."
Alex gives him a wide-eyed look that melts into something soft that would be the prelude to a kiss if they were alone. They're still at the rink, though, and Alex has enough sense to only rest his hand on Brandon's shoulder for a moment before he gets up. He comes back a few minutes later with a plate, and he sits cross-legged on the edge of the blanket to eat.
Then it's a lot like hanging out with Alex and Vanya at home, except for the space between Brandon and Alex. If they were at home, Brandon would have Alex pressed up against him and he could turn his head and kiss him whenever he wanted. They're probably not fooling anyone paying much attention to them anyway, but it's late enough that there aren't that many people around to notice. Brandon's deeply thankful that the 24CH cameras aren't in the room with them. They could probably spin something friendly and innocuous out of it for them, but he's glad he doesn't have to try.
Alex puts his plate away when he's done eating, and then he swings Vanya up into the air.
Brandon grins up at them while Vanya squeals with laughter and waves his arms around.
Alex winces when Vanya whacks him with the toy still in his hand, and gently takes it away from him.
Brandon reaches up for it, and repacks the diaper bag while Alex makes Vanya laugh, and then he takes Vanya while Alex puts on his coat. Alex gets Vanya's coat and hat on next, and slings the diaper bag over his shoulder when Brandon hands it to him.
Brandon wants, very badly, to kiss Alex. He settles for waving goodbye to Vanya and catching both Alex and Vanyushka in a one-armed hug.
"Prusty," Alex says seriously, "thank you."
Brandon ruffles his hair instead of kissing him senseless. "You don't have to thank me. I had fun."
Alex hmms. "I will find some way to thank you." The words sound completely innocent coming out of his mouth, but there's a look in his eyes that sends anticipatory shivers down Brandon's spine.
He doesn't have a good comeback for that, and Alex smirks as he leaves.
*
Alex texts, Are you home? late that evening, after Brandon's eaten, while he's lying on the couch catching up on what's stored on his DVR.
He sends back, Yes.
I'm coming over.
Brandon grins at the presumptuousness of that and fast forwards through the boring parts of the show he's watching while he waits for Alex. He turns off the TV when Alex knocks on his door, and idly thinks about giving Alex a key so he wouldn't even have to get off the couch when Alex comes over.
He's smiling at that thought when he opens the door, and Alex smiles back at him, wide and happy.
"Hi." Brandon pushes the door shut and loops his arms around Alex's shoulders. He gives Alex just enough time to return the greeting before he kisses him, soft and slow like he couldn't earlier.
Alex kisses him back the same way for a little bit, and then he deepens it and pushes Brandon against the wall. "I'm going to blow you now."
"Yeah, okay," Brandon says, dizzy with the sudden rush of lust. He thunks his head against the wall as Alex goes to his knees, right there in Brandon's entryway, still dressed all the way down to his coat.
Alex grins up at him and gets Brandon's cock out, shoving his sweats and boxer briefs just far enough down his thighs to make that possible. Brandon's a little turned on already from making out with Alex, and he gets all the way there pretty fast with Alex at his feet jerking him off slowly.
Alex sucks him then, mouth tight and hot around Brandon's cock.
Brandon brings his hands down to Alex's hair. He doesn't pull or try to make Alex do anything he's not - what he's doing is so good Brandon doesn't want him to do anything else - but he needs to touch, to feel Alex under his hands.
Alex swallows around him when Brandon comes. Brandon's knees tremble, and it's only the wall he's leaning against that keeps him upright while Alex draws off his cock, licks his lips, and smiles up at Brandon before he stands up.
Alex leans in, caging Brandon against the wall, and kisses him, as thoroughly as he just blew him.
Brandon's used to making his muscles work when he's been pushed to his physical limits, so he gets it together enough to wrap his arms around Alex and kiss him back.
Brandon pulls away to breathe and says, "I'm going to get you off now."
"You don't have to," Alex says. "The blowjob was to thank you."
"You can keep thanking me by letting me watch you come," Brandon says firmly. He kisses the grin off of Alex's face and gets his coat open and his jeans unbuttoned.
Alex stays pressed close to him, his breath stuttering out in small gasps while Brandon jerks him off with sure, even strokes. Brandon kisses Alex's cheek, his mouth when Alex turns his head enough for that, rubs his beard against Alex's skin.
Brandon pushes Alex back a little when he can tell that Alex is getting close. "Come on, Alex," he murmurs. "Let me see you come." He twists his hand on Alex's cock, trying to add another level of sensation to it.
Alex gasps out Brandon's name and says, "Yeah, yeah, I'm going to," and then comes all over Brandon's hand.
Brandon takes Alex's weight and wraps his other arm around Alex's shoulders when Alex slumps into him. They rest against the wall for a minute, Alex panting into his neck and Brandon feeling smug about how hard he just made Alex come.
Brandon nuzzles Alex's cheek. "You want to hang out for a while?"
Alex turns his head and kisses Brandon softly. "Yeah."
They separate so Alex can take his coat off and Brandon can go wash his hands, and they meet again at the couch. Brandon tucks himself up against Alex, slouching down so he fits easily under the arm Alex throws around his shoulders and can lean his head on Alex's shoulder. He lets Alex decide what they're going to watch off of the DVR, or, more to the point, doesn't protest when Alex picks up the remote and chooses something.
Brandon rests one hand on Alex's thigh, fingers curving in, not to do anything with it, just to touch him. It's comfortable. All of this is comfortable.
At a slow part - Brandon's seen later episodes and knows the outline of what happens - Brandon squeezes Alex's thigh to get his attention and says, "P.K. called me Vanya's uncle."
Alex tightens his arm around Brandon's shoulder. "He did?"
"Mmhmm." Brandon tips his head to look at Alex, but Alex is wearing one of those inscrutable looks where he doesn't give away what he's thinking. "That okay?"
"Yes," Alex says. "If it does not bother you."
Brandon turns a little more toward Alex. "It doesn't bother me. I liked it. I want to be his uncle. I want to be his uncle because I'm with you."
"Oh," Alex says, and his eyes get a little wide before he smiles, soft and easy. "Yes," he says. "I want that too." He leans in and kisses Brandon. "You are his uncle too."
Brandon kisses him, harder and deeper than Alex kissed him. "Okay," he says. "Good."
"Good," Alex echoes, and they grin at each other like fools for a minute before they settle into being cuddled together again.
*
They lose, badly, to the Leafs at home. It's not a good game for anyone, and the Leafs get one of their goals off a turnover from Alex.
Alex is predictably upset, not that any of them are happy about it. But most of them are just hurling their jerseys into the bin with varying degrees of force and getting on with their post-game rituals. Alex is standing in front of his stall muttering shit about how he fucked up. Brandon's had more time to get used to the occasional bad game; he's still pissed about it now, but once he's away from the rink, he'll be able to let it go until they have to dissect their play in meetings tomorrow.
Brandon's also used to being the voice of reason and experience for Alex and Gally, so he goes over to Alex. "Chucky." Brandon puts his hand on Alex's shoulder. Alex shrugs it off, which Brandon half expected. "Man, you gotta let some of that go. We'll do better next game."
Alex spins around and glares at him. "In case you forgot, you're not on our line anymore," he spits out, vicious in a way he isn't usually with Brandon. "I don't need a fucking babysitter."
Brandon steps back, stung. "Fine," he snaps, and he turns away to his own stall. He gets out of his pads with deliberate care, does his post-game workout, takes a shower, puts on his suit, and goes home, all without looking at Alex.
He understands, sort of, that Alex didn't want comfort or didn't want it from him, but it still hurt to have Alex push him away. They were friends before they were dating, and it wouldn't have been the first time Brandon gave him advice after a bad game.
Brandon tries to take his own advice to let some of it go. He changes into pajama pants and a t-shirt at home and throws together something to eat that he doesn't really taste. Sometimes it takes him a while to settle after games, but tonight he just wants to fall into bed and let it all wash away into sleep.
That doesn't mean he falls asleep once he gets into bed. He's still awake, not quite to drifting, when his phone buzzes with a text.
It's from Alex: Still awake?
Brandon could not answer, let it go until tomorrow with everything else. He weighs his phone in his hand for a minute, thinking about it, but in the end he wants to talk to Alex more than he wants to not deal with how this evening went. Instead of texting back, he turns on the lamp next to his bed and sends Alex a FaceTime request.
Alex is clearly also in bed when he answers, pillow behind his head, camera angle suggesting he's holding his phone up over himself the same way Brandon is.
"Hi," Alex says.
"Hi." Alex wanted to talk, so Brandon doesn't rush to say anything else and lets Alex do it.
"I'm sorry I yelled at you," Alex says after a second.
Brandon exhales and sinks farther into his bed with the sudden release of tension. "Okay," he says. "You okay?"
Alex shrugs. "Are you?" He bites his lip for a second. "Are we?"
"Yeah," Brandon says. "I'm a tough guy. I can take it."
Alex's mouth turns down with a frown. "You should not have to. I am sorry."
Brandon almost wishes it had been an away game so there would only be a short trip down a hallway between them. He wants to kiss that look off of Alex's face. "You were upset," he says. "We're okay. I promise."
Alex sighs. "Okay."
"Are you going to be able to sleep?" Brandon asks.
"Probably not yet," Alex says. "I keep thinking about all the things I did wrong."
"Alex," Brandon says, gentle and careful.
Alex shrugs at him. "It is in my head."
"Hmm," Brandon says. "Want to forget about it and jerk off together?"
Alex looks tempted, like he's going to say yes, and then a frown creases his face and he shakes his head. "I would like to," he says, "but I don't deserve it. Not after tonight's game."
"Alex," Brandon says, and he keeps it gentle; he's speaking as the guy who's dating Alex, not as an older, more experienced teammate. "You gotta let some of it go. You weren't the only one who had a bad game, and it doesn't mean you don't deserve good things too."
"I know," Alex says, and he really looks torn up about it. "I know all that, but in my head it's all." He waves his free hand in gesture that's probably meant to describe how mixed up his head is.
Brandon's heart hurts with him. That's love, he supposes.
"I can't let go of it," Alex says. "And I don't deserve-"
Brandon cuts him off, thinks hard about how much he loves Alex when he says, as gently as he can, "Sashenka."
Alex's eyes go wide and his mouth snaps shut.
"You don't have to earn anything from me," Brandon says. "Or with me. You already have it." It's the closest he's come to outright telling Alex he loves him.
Alex's voice is just the tiniest bit shaky when he says, "That's not fair. Your name doesn't work like mine does. I don't have something like that to call you."
Brandon smiles at him, and he can see in the corner of his screen that the way he feels about Alex is written all over his face. "You'll come up with something."
Alex's face scrunches up for a minute, the way it does when he's thinking hard, and then it smoothes out and he says, "Solnyshko moy." He says it just as softly and tenderly as Brandon said his name.
"What does that mean?" Brandon asks, keeping his voice soft to match.
"My sun," Alex says, "like sunshine."
Brandon can feel the smile spread across his face. "Yeah? Do I light up your life?"
Alex collapses into what can only be called giggles, the video on Brandon's screen shaking with Alex's body. "Yes," Alex says, smiling brightly.
"Good. I want to." Brandon yawns, his sudden exhaustion catching him by surprise, like his body is deciding that he's done with the day now that he's made Alex smile.
Alex's smile dims into something softer. "I'm keeping you up."
Brandon shrugs. "Are you going to be able to sleep?"
"Yes," Alex says after a moment. "Not right away, but yes."
"Good," Brandon says. "Good night, Alex."
"Good night, Brandon."
The last thing Brandon sees before he closes FaceTime is Alex smiling softly at him.
*
"We going to do something Friday?" Brandon asks Alex while they're hanging out by the pool in Florida. They have a game later, for the second night in a row, but they're all ready to soak up as much sun as they can while they're here. Most of the rest of the guys have either gone upstairs to nap or joined in the water war P.K. has going on at the other end of the pool. Brandon can't put his hands all over Alex the way he wants to with Alex lounging around shirtless, chest and shoulders on display, but they're alone enough for the moment to make plans.
Alex looks up from his phone, and then turns it off and sets it on the small table between their chairs.
Brandon raises his eyebrows at that; he didn't think making plans for a night when they don't have a game was that serious a conversation.
"You could come over for dinner," Alex says.
"You going to cook for me?"
"No," Alex says. "My mom will. My dad will be there, and Anna and Peter and Vanya."
Brandon raises his eyebrows again; maybe this is a serious conversation. "Are you taking me home to meet your family?"
"You've already met my family," Alex says, somewhere between sulky and exasperated.
"I've met everyone in your family," Brandon says. "You've never taken me home for dinner."
Alex folds his arms over his chest. "Do you want to come to dinner or not?"
"Yes," Brandon says. "Of course I want to come to dinner." He watches while Alex relaxes and drops his hands to his sides, and then asks, "Have you ever brought a boyfriend home before?"
Alex smiles at him, a small, soft thing. "No."
"So I'm the first."
"Yes," Alex confirms. Then he looks up at Brandon from under his eyelashes, which is a neat trick for a guy as tall as he is. "Maybe the last one too."
That socks the breath out of Brandon. It's an even clearer declaration than Alex saying that Brandon is Vanya's uncle too.
"Yeah," Brandon says when he gets his voice back. "You know, you're my sunshine too."
Alex beams at him like the sunshine Brandon just named him.
When they go upstairs, Brandon tugs Alex into his room and kisses him long and slow before he pushes him back out into the hallway to go to his own room.
*
Alex answers the door on Friday wearing the green sweater and holding Vanya tucked against one shoulder. Brandon's heart stops and restarts triple-time.
"Hi," Alex says. "Vanyushka just got up from a late nap." He smiles at the baby, tender and adoring, and Brandon can't stand to not be touching him.
"Hi," Brandon says. He puts his hand on Alex's cheek to draw his attention and leans in to kiss him soft and slow.
Alex's eyes are wide when he looks at Brandon after that. "Hi," he says, again, his tone almost making it a question.
"Hi." Brandon smiles softly at him, and hands Alex his coat and the bottle of wine he brought while he reaches for the baby. "Hi, nephew," he says. "Come see Uncle Brandon." Vanyushka is a warm, still slightly sleepy weight in his arms, and Brandon tucks him against his chest carefully.
He looks up when Alex says, "Oh." There's a look on Alex's face that Brandon doesn't quite recognize, but he's pretty sure he knows what it feels like from the other side.
"Yeah," Brandon says, and he's pretty sure he's sending that same look of awed love back at him. "Now you get it."
Alex surges forward and kisses Brandon hard. They're careful not to squish Vanya between them, but they're not careful about anything else. They're both breathing faster when they break apart, Vanya still calm and sleepy against Brandon's chest, and Alex's hair is a mess where Brandon had his free hand tangled in it.
Alex steps back and hangs up Brandon's coat. "Come in," he says after another moment.
Brandon grabs Alex's arm and tugs him close so he can smooth Alex's hair back down. He takes advantage of having Alex close and his hand cupped around the back of Alex's head to press another brief kiss to his lips.
Alex takes his hand to lead him farther into the house. It feels good. They're usually in public or at Brandon's smaller place; they don't hold hands much. Brandon likes it even more when they get to the kitchen where Alex's family is, having all of them see that Brandon and Alex are together.
"Brandon brought wine," Alex announces to his family, which means they really all look at Brandon and Alex.
"Thank you," Inna says. She comes over to take the wine from Alex and hug Brandon. He has to drop Alex's hand to return it.
Alex Sr. comes over to shake his hand next, while Inna makes Alex open the wine, and then Peter shakes his hand and Anna hugs him.
Vanya lifts his head up when Anna's there and babbles, meaningless syllables all strung together.
Anna smiles at him and answers in Russian before she presses a kiss to his cheek. "My sweet boy, you should talk to your Uncle Brandon too."
She steps back, and Vanya does turn his babble on Brandon. He also grabs at Brandon's beard.
Gently detangling Vanya's fingers keeps Brandon from being swamped by the wave of joy that Anna naming him Vanya's uncle sends through him. He pretends to bite at Vanya's hand, which still works to make Vanya shriek with laughter and bat his hands around.
Alex hands out glasses of wine, bringing Brandon his last and staying there, hand low on Brandon's back, smiling at Vanyushka after they toast and drink.
"Remember this," Inna says, looking at Brandon and Alex and then at Anna and Peter. "Someday your sweet boy will be all grown up, and you will miss the days when he was so small."
"Mama," Alex says, half protest and half affection.
"It is true." Inna comes over to Brandon and Alex. Despite the protest, Alex bends so she can smack a kiss onto his cheek, and then she goes over to kiss Anna too. "You remember these days."
"I promise, Mama," Anna says. She looks over at Brandon, at Vanya, and Brandon returns her smile.
"I will remember," Alex says. His hand rubs gentle circles into the small of Brandon's back.
Brandon doesn't think he'll ever be able to forget what this is like, his introduction into being part of Alex's family. He's looking forward to watching Vanya grow up, but even now he knows there's something special about this time, when he's so tiny, and something special about this first evening spent with Alex's family.
Inna brushes a finger over Vanya's cheek on her way back to the stove.
"So what was Alex like as a baby?" Brandon asks.
Alex goes from smiling to scowling.
Brandon chuckles. "You brought me home," he says. "That means I get to ask your family for stories about you growing up."
Inna laughs too. "Much like he is now."
"Very serious about some things," Alex Sr. says. "But so full of laughter sometimes."
"I'll show you pictures," Anna promises. She ignores Alex turning his scowl on her. "He was a cute kid. Not quite as cute as mine, but cute."
Alex opens his mouth, then stops and shakes his head. "He is very cute." He turns toward Brandon. "You are very cute," he says to Vanya, and then something in Russian.
Vanya reaches out to him, a lunge that has Brandon bringing up his other arm to keep Vanya from falling while also trying not to spill his wine.
Alex chuckles and stops touching Brandon to hold Vanya instead. Brandon takes Alex's wine glass so he has both hands free to deal with a squirrely baby. Alex smiles at him, and leans his shoulder against Brandon's.
Brandon smiles at the two of them, and then asks Peter, "How's business?" He's not entirely sure what it is Peter does, only that it's something in finance that allows him to travel between Miami and Montreal.
"Oh, you know," Peter says, "the market is the market."
Brandon nods like he knows what Peter's talking about. They don't have much common ground outside of their place as the non-Russian members of the family.
When Inna announces that dinner is ready, Alex hands Vanya over to Peter while he and Anna help carry dishes, and then they all sit down around a table practically groaning under the weight of so much food.
Vanya gets bite-sized pieces of some of the dishes, and he gets food all over his hands and his face while the rest of them keep up a lively conversation over dinner.
When they're finished eating, Inna refuses Brandon's offer to help clear the table and has Alex help instead.
Brandon grins at him. "Even big NHL stars have to do their chores."
Alex digs his elbow into Brandon's shoulder when he leans over him to grab plates off the table. Brandon just laughs at him, and Alex grins back and presses a quick kiss to Brandon's temple.
Brandon turns to watch Alex walk to the kitchen. It's a nice view. "You can come home with me sometime," he says, "and see what kinds of chores my mom makes me do."
Alex gives him a soft, sweet smile from the kitchen and kisses his cheek on his next trip from the table to the kitchen.
They adjourn to the living room when Alex and Inna finish cleaning up from dinner and Anna finishes cleaning up Vanya so he can be somewhere that isn't easily wiped down plastic. Alex sits next to Brandon on the couch, Peter sits on the floor with Vanya, and Alex Sr. and Inna sit in chairs. Anna grabs something off of a shelf and comes over to sit on Brandon's other side.
"No," Alex says, and he grabs for the book she's holding and continues talking in Russian.
Anna calmly but firmly keeps the book away from him. "You showed Peter my baby pictures when he first came for dinner."
Brandon intervenes, batting Alex's hands back. "I definitely want to see your baby pictures."
Alex slumps against his side.
Brandon puts an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sure you were a cute baby." He smacks a kiss onto Alex's cheek.
"You've tweeted some of them," Anna says, "so chill out."
Alex grumbles, "That's different," but he settles in against Brandon and doesn't try to stop Anna again.
"Oh, you were cute," Brandon says when Anna opens the book. The first few pages are all of Alex as a baby, many of them with a smiling Anna, some with other people. He laughs when Anna turns to a page where Alex looks less than pleased. "I know that look."
Alex gives him the same scowl he's aiming at the camera in the photo.
Brandon laughs harder.
"He's always made that face," Anna says.
"Always," Inna confirms. "You are lucky Vanya doesn't do the same thing."
Anna heaves a sigh that's obviously faked. "He'll probably learn it from spending so much time with his Uncle Sasha." She pats Brandon's arm. "You'll have to make sure he smiles a lot so Vanya learns that instead."
"I'm going to try," Brandon promises.
Despite threats to the contrary, Anna restrains herself to one photo album of Alex as a kid. Brandon gets to hear a couple of stories, about Alex playing hockey, about their move to Italy, about Anna and Alex making new friends every time they moved.
They talk about other things after Anna puts the photo album away, an easy, wandering conversation that pauses occasionally when Vanya demands everyone's attention.
Inna and Alex Sr. go up to bed while the rest of them are still chatting.
"Thank you for dinner," Brandon says when he stands up to shake Alex Sr.'s hand and hug Inna. Alex Sr. smiles at him and Inna kisses his cheek.
"We are glad to have you," she says. "You will have to come back."
"I promise," Brandon says.
Brandon wasn't too nervous about making a good impression on Alex's parents, but he does relax a little more when it's down to just the two of them and Anna, Peter, and Vanya. He sits down on the floor with Vanya and Peter, smiling widely at the baby when he babbles and waves one of his toys his way.
Anna sits down with them too and scoops Vanya up into her lap. She says something to him in Russian.
Brandon looks up and catches Peter's eye. He doesn't look as confused as Brandon feels.
"Do you speak Russian?" Brandon asks.
"Not fluently," Peter says. "I'm still working on it." He grins and shakes Vanya's foot. "Can't have the rest of my family conspiring against me."
"Hmm," Brandon says, and he looks at Alex consideringly. That might be a strategy worth borrowing.
"It's not easy," Peter says, catching on to where Brandon's going with this. "I've been working on it for a while and having Anna help me, and I'm still not fluent."
"You're getting better," Anna says, and then something in Russian that makes Peter smile at her and Alex roll his eyes.
"I understand about half the conversations around here," Peter says. He looks from Brandon to Alex. "It's probably worth your time if you're going to stick around."
"That's the plan," Brandon says easily. He looks up at Alex, who's frowning. Brandon shrugs to let him know he doesn't mind Peter hassling him. He can take it, and he can shut it down if it gets worse.
Peter changes the subject anyway, asking about their last road trip and letting them all move on to less fraught lines of conversation.
Vanya gets tired after a while, eyes blinking slowly between bouts of fussiness.
Anna says something in Russian and then, "Bedtime for this one." She lifts Vanya up, from her lap to her shoulder, and Peter stands and offers her a hand up.
"For us too," Peter says with a yawn.
Brandon stands with them, to shake Peter's hand, hug Anna, and press a kiss to Vanyushka's cheek. Alex also kisses Vanya goodnight before Peter and Anna take him upstairs, and then it's just Brandon and Alex in the living room.
Brandon puts his arms around Alex and kisses him, because he can and because he wants to. Alex kisses him back and is smiling every time they break apart.
"You could stay," Alex says after a few minutes, his hand carding through Brandon's hair. "Spend the night."
Brandon raises his eyebrows. "With your family here?"
"They know we are together," Alex says. "They know I stay at your place. Peter always stayed here before he and Anna got married."
"Peter lived in Miami," Brandon points out, "not fifteen minutes away."
"It will be fine," Alex says. He draws back. "If you don't want to-"
"I want to," Brandon rushes to say. He tugs Alex closer and kisses him deeply. Alex kisses him back, his momentary reticence melting into eager participation, and they don't stop kissing until they're both hard and Alex has one hand gripping Brandon's ass and the other tangled deeply in his hair.
"Not here," Alex mutters into Brandon's mouth. He locks the front door and turns out lights as they go upstairs. His voice is a soft murmur as tells Brandon whose rooms the doors along the hallway lead to. His room is at the end, and he turns on the light as they go into it, closes and locks the door behind them.
Brandon takes a moment to look around. Alex has a large bed, only a few pictures on the walls, two open doors that Brandon can see through into his closet and bathroom. The bed is the most important part. Well, the bed and Alex.
Brandon gets his hands on Alex again, sliding them under the edge of his sweater and onto the skin beneath. Brandon's already hard, but touching Alex while getting to look at him in the green sweater makes his breath come even faster.
Alex slides his mouth over Brandon's. "Too bad we have a game tomorrow. I want to fuck you."
Brandon groans. "You can finger me," he suggests. "And next time we don't have a game I can come over and you can fuck me in your bed."
Alex surges against him, hands grabbing hard at Brandon. "Yes," he says against Brandon's mouth, his chin, his neck.
Brandon chuckles a little, digging his fingers into Alex's hips in return. "Yes to which part?"
"All of it," Alex says. "Everything. Take your clothes off."
Brandon laughs and steps back to strip his shirt off. He raises his eyebrows when Alex just stands there watching him.
"I want to watch you," Alex says.
Just for that, Brandon takes his pants off as slowly as he can. It doesn't work to goad Alex into doing anything other than watching, but Brandon likes it anyway. Alex isn't trying to hide his interest, and Brandon likes watching the way his lips part and his eyes darken.
Brandon pushes his boxer briefs down slowly, too, and strokes his cock a few times once he's naked. "You going to keep just watching?" he asks when Alex still doesn't move toward him.
"Maybe," Alex says, frank appreciation on his face. "You should do that in my bed."
Brandon suppresses a shiver at the suggestion and then goes over to push the covers aside so he can stretch out in Alex's bed. He wraps his hand back around his cock and jerks himself off slowly, easily. He's not trying to get himself off, just giving Alex a show.
"Enjoying yourself?"
Alex hums an agreement and climbs over Brandon to get into the nightstand on the other side of the bed. He's still dressed, all the way down to that sweater that makes him look so good Brandon has a hard time not jerking off with more purpose.
Alex settles back onto his knees next to Brandon and holds up the lube in explanation. Brandon nods at him, suddenly breathless with how much he wants Alex to touch him. He has to wait a moment for Alex to pour lube into his fingers, and then Alex touches him, one finger rubbing wetly against his hole.
Brandon gasps at the way it lights him up inside. "Fuck," he breathes out. "I wish you could just fuck me."
"Me too," Alex says simply, and he bends over to kiss Brandon while he pushes one finger into him.
They kiss a lot while Alex fingers him, one finger and then two, careful with it at first, and then less so, Alex's fingers thick and rough inside him, fucking into him while he jerks himself off and tries to be quiet enough that they won't be heard by anyone else in the house.
"You look really good like this," Alex says. "I like having you in my bed."
Brandon groans, probably too loud, and uses his free hand to pull Alex into another fierce kiss. "Now you know how I feel every time you come over to my place."
"Hmm," Alex says, and then he grins sharply. "We don't always get to your bed." He moves his fingers, slow and torturously good inside Brandon.
"It was your idea to come up here," Brandon gasps out. "We could have-" His words cut off when Alex moves his fingers again and it feels too good for him to think about anything else.
"I want to watch you come," Alex says. He matches the words with another slow drag of his fingers in Brandon.
"Yeah," Brandon says, because he can't form any more words than that. He stops trying to make it last, jerks himself off hard with the intent of making himself come. Alex helps, his fingers pressing just right inside of Brandon, his eyes dark as he watches, his mouth hot against Brandon's every time he bends in to kiss him. They're not kissing when Brandon comes, mouth going wide as he tries not to shout with how good it feels.
"Brandon," Alex says hoarsely. He kisses Brandon hard, pulls his fingers out of him gently, grabs for a tissue from the nightstand to wipe them clean.
"What do you want?" Brandon asks. He's still gasping with the intensity of coming. "I can blow you."
Alex groans and tugs his sweater up. Brandon would be sorry to see it go, but he gets to look at Alex's chest instead, and then Alex pushes down his pants and underwear and he gets to look at Alex's cock too, flushed and hard, wet at the tip.
"Yeah," Brandon says, his mouth watering with the need to taste Alex. "Come here." He shifts, props himself up on one of Alex's pillows so he's at a better angle to get at Alex.
Alex gets all the way out of his clothes before he takes Brandon up on the invitation. His knees settle on either side of Brandon and he holds his cock with the hand that wasn't inside Brandon as he guides it into Brandon's mouth.
Alex moans, too loud but not seeming to care, when Brandon closes his lips around his cock. "Brandon," he says, "you look-" He jerks his hips. Brandon pats his thigh to let him know it's okay, and that he doesn't mind if this is fast.
It is fast, Brandon sucking around Alex while Alex fucks shallowly into his mouth, a bare minute or two before Alex chokes out a warning and his come floods Brandon's mouth.
"Fuck," Alex says, and then, "Sorry," as he moves away.
"When have I ever minded having you come in my mouth?" Brandon keeps Alex from moving very far and kisses him, brief kisses to start, while they both catch their breath, and then longer ones, deep and slow.
They get up after a while to clean up. Alex has a spare toothbrush for Brandon, and for all the other things they've done, there's something so very intimate about brushing their teeth side by side at the sink.
They go to bed naked, Alex waiting for Brandon to climb into it before turning off the light and joining him. Brandon blinks against the darkness, waiting for his eyes to adjust enough for him to find Alex's mouth and kiss him.
They make out slow and steady for a bit, and then settle down together, shifting a little to get comfortable. They're still awake, touching each other softly, just to touch because they can.
"For a long time," Alex says, "I think because I'm gay I never have kids. I never get to watch someone grow up, never get to be there for them. Having Vanyushka here is like a miracle."
"Alex," Brandon murmurs. His heart aches for all the things Alex so clearly wants. "Sashenka. Being gay doesn't mean you can't have kids." He keeps his voice soft, secrets whispered in the dark. "It doesn't mean we can't have kids."
The sheets rustle as Alex shifts, moving just a fraction closer to Brandon. "I want that," he confesses so softly Brandon almost can't hear him.
Brandon tugs Alex closer, tucking him against his chest. "Me too," he whispers back.
Alex rubs his cheek against Brandon's shoulder. "I want my kids to grow up with Vanya. With my family around. Like things are now."
Brandon bites back the instinct to argue about spending the rest of his life living with the in-laws he's just getting to know. "We can figure it out," he promises instead. "I don't want them yet. I want just you for now." He kisses Alex, soft and sweet, drinking in the way Alex kisses him back the same way. "We have time."
"Yes," Alex says with a sigh. "Solnyshko moy. We have time."