by K P Maxwell
“Yo!” he says, clapping Damien on the arm with a sharp grin. “You brought him.”
“Cat,” Ty says, and the word is more unfriendly than not. Kaz grins even wider.
“That I am,” he says. “Just a harmless little house cat.” He says it like it’s non-threatening but there is something underlying the words that Damien doesn’t quite catch. Kaz extends a hand, and Ty takes it. At least they can pretend to be amicable, Damien thinks woefully, but in reality, he’s pretty sure they’re just having some sort of dick measuring contest.
After introductions are finished, they split into teams. There’s some initial squabbling, and Damien makes Eli and Ty play on separate sides, because he doesn’t think it’s fair otherwise. Eli grins competitively at Ty in response, and Ty just shrugs. “Sounds good to me,” he says.
Sebastian, however, also insists that Damien and Ty play on separate sides, and in retaliation, Damien demands that Sebastian and Daniel play on different sides as well. Sebastian doesn’t seem to mind, and appears amused to have gotten his way. That just leaves Jake and Kaz, one for each team.
Damien ends up on a team with Kaz, Eli, and Daniel. The other team is Liam, Ty, Sebastian, and Jake.
The game is aggressive but they all have fun. Damien hasn’t played basketball in years, but he’s kept up with jogging when the weather isn’t too bad, so he still has the stamina even though he’s not a gym rat like some of the others. Daniel and Eli are really fun to have on a team together, as well. They’re both happy types, and with Kaz, it ends up with their team joking around a lot. They don’t take the game very seriously, and as a result, the other team completely crushes them.
Liam, apparently, can jump absurdly high for someone of his height, and he’s also fast. Sebastian is annoyingly good at basketball, and Jake apparently also gets really into it. And everyone knows how it’s going to turn out when Ty plays anything competitive. So really, Damien’s team never had a chance.
They end the game with Daniel on the ground, laughing, after Sebastian blocked him too hard and knocked him over. Sebastian glares down at him. “Are you okay?” he asks, and the tone is half accusing, which makes Daniel laugh harder.
Damien goes to run interference, but Ty grabs his arm before he can make his way over there.
“You. Locker room. Now,” Ty growls, and it sends the best kind of shiver up his spine, so Damien sneaks back to the locker rooms with Ty while the others are preoccupied.
Ty barely gives him time to get his clothes off before he pulls him into a shower stall. Luckily this gym has curtains, because most of the gyms Damien’s been to in the past don’t even bother. And Damien’s pretty sure what Ty has in mind here.
Ty pushes him up against the partition, before they even get the water on, hands running all over Damien’s body. Damien’s cock is instantly hard. Really, it has been since Ty pulled him out of the gym earlier. Damien reaches over frantically to turn the water on to try to hide the noises he’s going to inevitably make.
Ty’s mouth is hot against his own, distracting him from the mist of cold water. When the water finally heats up, Ty pulls Damien under the spray, turning him around so Damien is facing the showerhead. Damien whimpers at the sensation of Ty’s cock sliding against his ass already, and Ty pulls him closer.
“Gotta be quiet, brat,” he whispers, and Damien nods, even though he knows it’s going to be impossible.
And then Ty’s cock is pressed up against his hole, and he’s still slightly loose from earlier this morning, but surely it’s not enough. Tears prick Damien’s eyes.
Ty soothes him, petting his hair. “You can take it,” he says, shallowly thrusting against Damien, and Damien nearly chokes on a whine. His cock is so hard already, bobbing in the spray of the shower. Ty presses kisses along Damien’s shoulder blades and grips his hips firmly. He pushes oh so slowly.
“Too much,” Damien says, but the thick head of Ty’s cock finally breaches his hole, and there’s a sensation of relaxing at that. Ty continues the shallow thrusts, his fingers tight on Damien’s hips. Damien finds it in himself to push back on it. He’s totally split open on Ty’s cock, and the other man isn’t even all the way inside him yet. Damien leans forward to press his mouth against his forearm to try to muffle the noises he can’t help but make. The shower only drowns out so much of it, he’s sure.
“You’re so tight,” Ty whispers again his skin when he finally bottoms out, his balls pressed up against Damien. “Won’t be able to hold out very long.”
Damien nods, not willing to risk trying to speak. He thinks it would just come out as a moan anyways.
One of Ty’s hands releases its grip on Damien’s hip to make its way to his cock, and Damien’s hips stutter at the sensation. Ty groans again, apparently not caring too much about being overheard, and Damien feels hot with embarrassment. This isn’t something he thought he’d enjoy necessarily, but he sort of likes it. Knowing that the others might hear them. Figure out what they are doing.
Ty’s hand moves faster over Damien’s cock and his own thrusts get more desperate, and Damien’s coming suddenly, Ty’s fist still rubbing over the wet heat. Ty pulls out at the last minute, and Damien feels the hand leave his cock, and Ty’s coming all over his back.
Damien’s knees feel like jelly now, and he can barely hold himself up, even with his arms pressed against the wall of the shower. Ty holds him for a moment before he chuckles, starting to wash Damien’s back off.
“You’re so pretty like this,” Ty says, and Damien can only reply with half of a laugh.
“I’m just glad you drove here,” he manages to say after a minute, finally getting his bearings again and turning around to face Ty. He feels sore in a really good way, he thinks, and Ty grins at him.
“Better finish up in here,” he says, voice low, and he smacks Damien’s ass on the way out of the shower.
Damien hates it a little bit, but loves it all the same.
Damien didn’t manage to shower without getting his hair wet due to… well. He shakes his hair out, staring at it in the mirror. It’s hopeless though. It’s just going to have to dry like that.
Kaz walks up behind him, a huge grin on his face. “Have fun in there?”
Damien’s eyes meet Kaz’s through the mirror, and he can see himself cringe in embarrassment.
“Oh, I got an earful alright,” Kaz says, without waiting for Damien to reply. “Makes me wish I had another go at you before you married yourself off to one of Portland’s alpha wolves.” He reaches up to tousle Damien’s hair, and Damien moves his head away. “I think that man would literally kill me if I came anywhere near you with my dick, though.”
Damien chokes out a laugh at the absurdity of that statement, but he appreciates the compliment. His face is hot with embarrassment at being heard like that, but at the same time, Kaz has already had the full treatment so to speak, so it could be worse.
Eli on the other hand… When Damien finally makes it out of the locker rooms, and out to the area where the others are waiting, Eli very carefully avoids eye contact with him. Damien giggles. Ty just looks pleased with himself, and slaps Eli on the back.
“Sorry about that, man,” he says, laughing.
“You’re really not though, which is the worst part,” Eli says, and Ty laughs even louder at that.
Eli just shakes his head at the other man, and Damien tries not to blush too much as he says goodbye to the rest of the guys. Even though he could go back with them, he decides to go back with Ty instead. Ty wraps an arm around his waist, pulling him close, on the way to the car.
Damien can’t help but think that he wishes he were going home with Ty to a place that they shared, but he brushes the thought off as ridiculous. They still barely know each other, and it would be too soon for that… Right?
Chapter Twenty-One
It takes a few more weeks of looking for an apartment before Damien feels ready to give up. Kaz’s contacts fell through. They already found someone to li
ve in the group house and take the spot that Kaz and Jake left open earlier in the year. Plus, the house is further east than Damien would like. Damien doesn’t have a car, which is a big factor in the location. Mainly, he just doesn’t want to be that far away from Ty, but he also needs to be close enough to public transit to be able to get to work. He hasn’t even decided what to do about that yet, either.
“Why don’t you let me help you?” Ty mutters against Damien’s hair one morning as Damien’s scrolling through new listings on Ty’s laptop. Damien’s had to get used to Ty seeing him in all of his unkempt glory when he first wakes up in the morning. Luckily Ty doesn’t seem to mind.
“Hmm?” Damien asks sleepily, looking up from the screen.
“Why are you trying to find your own place?” Ty asks gruffly. “Just move in here.” He looks away as if he’s afraid of Damien’s reply.
Damien sits up, the blanket sliding down his chest to pool in his lap, half-covering the laptop’s keyboard. “Here?” he asks. “Are you sure?”
Ty nods, his eyes sliding back to meet Damien’s own.
“Yeah,” Ty says. “Why not?”
Damien purses his lips, thinking. It feels too fast. Isn’t it too fast? His heart’s racing at the idea all of a sudden though. He feels like this is what he has been wanting all along. Maybe he has been too picky about apartments because none of them are Ty’s place.
“When?” Damien asks, and Ty shrugs.
“Whenever. Today’s fine, tomorrow, next week,” he grins at Damien. “I’ll give you a set of keys and a spare keycard to the building just as soon as we get out of this bed.”
Damien smiles back at him, feeling cautiously happy about the idea.
“What if I don’t want to get out of the bed?” Damien teases. He sets the laptop on the nightstand next to the bed, and Ty growls, pulling him closer again so he’s half-draped across Ty’s lap.
“I guess I’ll have to entertain you then,” Ty says in a low voice, and Damien huffs a laugh before Ty’s mouth is pressed hotly against his own.
Later that day, Ty does give him a set of spare keys and a keycard to the building. Damien accepts them reverently, staring down at them before pulling out his own keys and adding Ty’s to the key ring.
Ty smiles as he watches Damien, and it’s a soft smile, something fond. Damien couldn’t have imagined this level of affection from the man when they first started this whole thing. When Ty was Damien’s client and nothing more.
It’s already late on Sunday afternoon though, so Ty takes Damien back to the café, and Damien decides he’ll move in next Sunday when the café is closed for the day again.
Now, he just has to break the news to Melanie and the others.
He finds her in her office when he gets back, and he leans against the doorframe, watching her finish up what she’s working on before she looks up at him.
“What’s up?” she asks, and Damien feels nervous to tell her all of a sudden.
“I’m going to move in with Ty,” he says, and he can see the moment it registers on her face. Some microexpression that she tamps down on quickly.
“Damien,” she says, sighing. She stares at him for a moment, and he’s not sure what to expect. His own feelings on the matter are complicated. It feels wrong to do it this way, too fast, like Damien is pushing for something to happen that’s not quite ready yet. But, oh, he wants to try.
“Okay,” she says, finally. “When?”
“Next weekend,” he replies, and his throat feels dry with the words.
“You’ll still work here?” she asks, and it’s only half a question.
Damien’s surprised though. He thought — well, maybe he thought that she really didn’t need him here anymore. Not with Kaz and Jake taking up a lot of the work.
“Do you want me to keep working here?” he asks.
“Yes, of course,” Melanie says immediately.
“In fact, we need you here,” she continues, “But I’m not going to try to stop you if you really want to look for another place to work.”
“I thought Jake and Kaz were supposed to be replacements for me,” he says, and Melanie chews her lip for a moment.
“Damien, they were never supposed to fully replace you. You are irreplaceable to me,” she shakes her head at him. “They were just to take over your client work, and also the café really needed more people. I’d like for people to be able to take more vacation.” She gives him a look at this. “You, for example, never take vacation, and you should be taking at least a day off each week over the Sunday that you all get.”
Damien knows this is true, but he’s never really given much thought to it before. He’s always wanted to keep the ship running smoothly, so to speak.
Melanie waves a hand at him. “I’m not trying to guilt you into staying or anything. I wish you would just realize how important you are to me. You’re welcome to work here as much or as little as you’d like, even living with Ty.”
Damien frowns at this. For some reason, he hadn’t considered that. He feels like he’s been running, full-steam towards this ideal future, but he doesn’t even know what that future holds. He’s just been running away, with no clear picture of what he’s running to.
Maybe he can have it both ways though. Maybe he can still work at the café and live with Ty.
“I’d like to keep working here,” Damien says, and he finds that he really does. He can’t imagine working anywhere else. Melanie nods.
“That’s great to hear. I won’t expect you to work as much as you did while living here, of course,” she clarifies. “Come in whatever days you want, and the other guys can work around it. Honestly we could use another body around here, regardless of how often you’re coming in. The café’s gotten more popular recently, and you’re not the only one who never takes days off.”
Damien thinks she’s talking about Sebastian. There’s no way Sebastian has a single day of vacation, now that Damien thinks about it. They are, perhaps, more similar than Damien’s ever realized.
“Okay,” Damien says. “Thank you.”
Melanie smiles at him, but it’s a little wistful. “Of course,” she says. “And just be careful okay?”
Damien’s heard that a few times from her. He nods, turning to go. Now he has to tell the rest of the guys, and he’s not looking forward to that either.
Sebastian is in the main living area when Damien gets upstairs. He’s sitting on the couch, intently playing some first person shooter game, and he tilts his head up in recognition when Damien comes in. Damien sits down next to him, waiting for him to get done with the current round in silence. He’s never been drawn to video games, and he can barely follow Sebastian’s quick movements on the screen. Sebastian eventually gets knocked out by another player, and drags his eyes away from the television.
“Yes?” he asks Damien, and Damien’s not sure why he feels like breaking the news to Sebastian first, but it somehow feels easier than talking to the rest of the men at the café.
“I’m moving in with Ty,” Damien says, and Sebastian’s eyes widen nearly imperceptibly, before he sets his controller down.
“You’re seriously moving out?” Sebastian asks him, and he’s looking at the television screen again. The game’s showing clips of the other players that are left as they compete. Damien nods.
Sebastian eyes dart back over to him. “I suppose that makes sense,” he says, and his mouth twists into a frown. Damien’s not sure what else to say. Good chat, he thinks, nearly ready to stand up again, but then Sebastian surprises him by continuing the conversation.
“You know this is going to end terribly,” Sebastian adds, matter of fact as if he can somehow foresee the future. Damien splutters a laugh.
“How so?” he asks, and Sebastian shrugs, looking away again, back to the screen. There are only a handful of players left, and the area of play is growing smaller. Damien’s not sure what’s appealing about this sort of game he thinks. Sebastian doesn’t answer him, though,
and Damien turns towards the other man in frustration.
“No, I’m really curious,” Damien presses, and Sebastian sighs. He grabs the controller again, seeming to fidget with it, as if he needs a distraction. He looks down at it when he replies to Damien.
“You don’t know him at all,” Sebastian says, but he’s saying it to the controller, and this whole situation is weird. Damien’s not used to Sebastian caring about things, and this is the second time that he’s shown that he has real human emotion. Damien wants to reject his statement, but unfortunately it’s still a little true, and there’s something warm growing inside him at the idea that Sebastian is worried about him. He almost wants to press at it. To tease Sebastian about it. But he feels like it would be entirely inappropriate given the effort Sebastian’s making.
Damien shrugs instead. “I guess,” he says, and Sebastian just looks vaguely uncomfortable. A message flashes on the television screen that the round is over and a new round is beginning, prompting Sebastian to confirm if he wants to join. Sebastian gestures with the controller at the screen.
“Let me know if you need any help moving,” he says, and he presses a button on the controller to confirm that he’ll enter the next match. It’s a nice thought, but Damien doesn’t have much to his name. He can’t imagine Sebastian helping anyways.
“Thanks,” he says, standing, not particularly invested in watching Sebastian play any longer. Sebastian nods at him in parting, and Damien stares at the other man briefly before he heads back down the hall towards his room.
Sebastian’s the one who encouraged him to tell Ty his feelings in the first place, he thinks. But a small part of him does still wonder if maybe they are moving too fast with all of this. He can’t worry about that now, though. He’ll tell the other guys in the morning.
