#2243

But Brett does open when Luke knocks. Shirtless, like some kind of sleaze bag boy-next-door. Luke snorts before he can think better of it, chirping him all the way through the entryway, and then Brett fills his mouth with something better.

They should’ve left it there, really, at the one time in Montreal. But then there’s the night in Buffalo a few weeks later, two quick handies to keep them loose and relaxed for the back-to-back, ostensibly. And Ottawa after that, where Brett lets Luke fuck fast and frantic into his mouth, eyes closed and moaning for it like something out of one of Luke’s wet dreams, or his porn search history.

Luke tells himself he’s surprised when Brett finally invites Luke over to his place, his honest-to-god house with no roommates or pesky brothers around like Luke’s own apartment, and they just… keep doing it.

It was meant to stay out of Jersey, where none of this could grow roots. There was always a bus waiting for them in the parking lot, a natural end. But here at home Luke keeps learning things he can’t unlearn. The specific blankets Brett has on his bed. The scent of the fancy hand soap he buys for his ensuite bathroom. The way he likes to kiss a lot after coming down from an orgasm even though there’s no reason for it, so different from any hookup Luke had before him. No bus in the parking lot here, just a when are you coming home text from Jack in his phone that he’s long since abandoned on the living room coffee table.

He starts feeling out the corners of Brett’s life, half on accident and half because Brett lets him get away with it. He snoops through his drawers for anything titillating, disappointed to find mostly junk mail and random crap like screwdrivers and an old leather wallet. He examines the family photos on the wall.

One afternoon he ransacks the pantry, Brett leaning against the kitchen countertop with his arms crossed and this gently amused look on his face as Luke judges his grocery shopping choices loudly and without shame.

“What?” he says with great suspicion when he spots Brett’s little smile. His youngest child I’m-being-made-fun-of sensor is pinging.

“Nothing.” Brett shakes his head. He’s still grinning. “You’re just cute.”

“Ew,” Luke says immediately, knee-jerk reaction, and Brett huffs one of those breathless laughs of his, like Luke’s surprised it out of him. The kind of laugh that makes Luke’s skin itch a little bit, if he thinks about it too hard.

“See if I try to be sweet to you again,” he says. Luke swats the threat away like he would a harmless fly as he gathers up his chosen snacks. Brett doesn’t know how not to be nice.

Brett’s house has a huge leather sofa that he stupidly bought in white, and a potted plant on the windowsill that he actually waters every week, and a drawer full of old T-shirts softened with time and washes, from which he pulls one for Luke to wear.

And he has a shower. One of the fancy rainfall ones with a bench and heated bathroom floors.

“You should take one,” Brett teases after their latest time falling into bed. He spider-crawls his fingers up Luke’s naked chest, which is still sticky with both their cum. “You smell.”

Luke kicks at him under the blankets. “I do not.” He even put on cologne before coming over today, resolutely not thinking anything of it.

But he is curious about this shower. He’s sure other people have shared this bed, but he wonders if Brett has had anyone else in there since he moved here. Any other guys. He wants to ask if he’s the first, but that seems childish in a way that would be hard to come back from. People Brett’s age probably don’t ask questions like that; they’re too, like, evolved and shit to care. “I’ll take one if you take it with me,” Luke bargains. Then, squirming a little at feeling exposed: “Like, and fuck me in there.”

Brett snorts. “You know how heavy you are, right? I’m not picking you up.”

Luke heaves a sigh heavier than he feels and stretches, twists his body this way and that. “Fine, I get it. You’re old and weak.” He ignores the retaliatory pinch to his side. “Suck me off in there, then. Can you handle that, old man?”

“Hmm,” Brett considers, and moves in to pull Luke back into his arms, slow and hungry like a wolf. His lips are warm against Luke’s neck, and it makes him shiver. “Say please.”

Luke rolls his eyes. Like Brett won’t give it to him anyway.

In the shower, Brett gets on his knees and makes it nice and sloppy. His wet hair sticks down on his forehead, and Luke almost brushes it out of the way for him, fingers twitching against Brett’s nape, but decides not to at the last second.

He hasn’t gotten off this much since college, but he’s not complaining. Again, the question floats to the top of his mind: Is this as new for Brett as it is for him? This type of sex? This type of tenderness? He seems so sure of himself, but that could just be because he’s a grown man in his 30s with a lot of sexual experience in general. Maybe at UNH, or in Raleigh…? But thinking too much about the Carolina Hurricanes sort of kills his boner, so he cuts that thought off at the pass.

After he spills down Brett’s throat and returns the favor, he figures they’ll hop out of there and he’ll head home, but Brett insists on washing Luke’s hair for him. Luke hesitates before saying yes, and then holds his breath as Brett works his fresh-smelling shampoo into his scalp. It’ll be hell on his curly hair, but saying that would make Brett’s thumbs stop massaging his temples like this, all gentle and slow, so he doesn’t.

“No one’s ever washed my hair for me before,” he says after it’s all rinsed out. “Like, other than my mom or whatever when I was little, I guess.”

Brett smiles at him through the spray of water. Luke knows this is dumb, but it’s like.. like, the sun or something. It’s bad for you to look right at it, even if you want to. “Not even a girlfriend or anything?” Luke clocks the or anything instead of boyfriend, unable to explain why it feels—he doesn’t know. It feels like nothing.

“Nah.”

“Well, it’s nice, right? I like doing it. This won’t be the last time,” he says, and Luke’s heart kind of—seizes up in his chest, for a moment, until Brett adds, “I’m sure someone else will do it for you, down the line. You’re still young.”

Luke blinks at him while he turns to grab the bottle of body wash off the shelf. Water streams down the center of his broad back. Luke could touch him there, if he wanted, between the shoulder blades. He has a couple freckles there he’d never noticed before.

I hate it when you say stuff like that, he almost says.

Brett turns back and catches the look on his face. “You okay?”

Luke opens his mouth, then shakes his head, then nods. He takes the body wash from Brett’s hand and pours some onto his palm. This is all just for fun, anyway, and the hot water is gonna run out soon. It can wait.

Luke immediately abandons his suitcase right next the door in favour of taking look around, his jaw drop a little at the sight. Brett had said he'd book them a holiday home, he hadn't said that he'd book them a really fucking nice holiday home. The place looks like it's straight out of a magazine, spacious and nicely furnished with a huge fire place taking up one wall of the living room. His really boyfriend had to go all out, as if the idea of a little getaway with just the two of them wasn't filling Luke with enough excitement already.

They finally get to be far away from annoying brothers and team mates they need to be quiet for, far away from any reason to hide their relationship. And, Luke thinks with a weird feeling settling in his stomach, far away from Brett's family. At least for now. While Luke is excited about getting to spend the holidays with Pesces, having Brett introduce him to everyone as his boyfriend does make Luke nervous no matter how much Brett promises that his family is going to love him. Well, safe for aunt Susan, apparently, but nobody really cares about her opinion anyway.

"So what do you say?" Brett asks, a grin on his face as he steps into the living room and spreads out his arms like he built the place himself.

"Show-off," Luke chirps him, watching as his boyfriend's smile grows even wider. Before Brett can make him admit that the place is really fucking nice, Luke decides to cross the distance between them and shut Brett up with a kiss. While it does keep his boyfriend quiet, it fails to wipe out the the way too self-satisfied and way too fond look of 'I'd lay the world down at your feet if you asked' that Luke is still struggling to handle. "It's a bit cold though."

"Yeah, let me just-" Brett looks around, quickly spotting a radiator. He rudely pulls away from Luke to go and turn up the heat but-

"Shouldn't it like make noises or something?"

"I guess?" They look at each other and, like on command, both step closer, leaning down to each press an ear against the radiator. But they could hear a penny drop in the silence that follows. Brett snorts at the display they're making, his nose scrunching up in that way that always has butterflies stir in Luke's stomach.

"What now?" Luke asks as they're standing up straight again. "Our cosy retreat isn't going to get very cosy if we freeze to death."

"I thought Jack was the one running cold in your family?" Brett teases and Luke- Luke wants to kiss him into silence, wants to shove his fingers deep inside Brett's hole and make him moan instead, anything so he doesn't have to think about how fucking fond he feels when his boyfriend teases him like this. One day he'll learn to live with all these feelings that feel too big for his chest, with the overwhelming nature of being in love — and in a relationship — with one Brett Pesce. But the day is not today and unfortunately not tomorrow either and Luke isn't entirely sure he can even say that day coming.

So for now, he settles for the only tactic that reliably gets him through these situations: petulance.

"Fuck off, there's a difference between being a human icicle and feeling a bit chilly in a house without heating." And the thing is he knows Brett can see right through it, can read him like a book and is only choosing to stay silent to help him safe face, patiently waiting for the hard shell to unravel because Brett just has to be perfect like that. Luke clears his throat, croaking out "What about the fire place?" just to hopefully get his mind from endlessly spinning around his boyfriend.

"I was told it was mostly decorative, but I guess it could keep the living room warm at least? Not sure how much it will do for the bedrooms upstairs. I don't know, let's just turn up all the radiators and then we'll see if anything works. If not I'll have to make a call and get them to send someone to fix the heating."

Luke accepts that without arguing and so they set off then, turning up every radiator they can find around the house. It's not quite the room tour either of them had imagined, but right now not freezing their fingers off has priority. Unfortunately, not a single radiator makes any kind of noise or gives another sign of life. The entire house stays just as cold as when they first walked in.

So Brett makes the call, but Luke can already tell by the look on his face that the news aren't going to be good. His fears are confirmed when Brett eventually hangs up with a heavy sigh. "They're sending someone over, but it might take a while." Brett pockets his phone and steps closer, wrapping his arms around Luke before kissing him. "Guess we'll have to make a fire and cuddle to stay warm?"

Luke gives Brett another lingering kiss, already mourning their lack of privacy until they can get the heating fixed. "I was hoping we would have lost a few layers of clothing by the time the cuddling starts."

He lets his fingers dance along the buttons of Brett's coat to make his point extra clear. But Brett stays unimpressed, only getting a hold of Luke's hand and lifting it up to place a kiss on his knuckles. "Baby, I love you to the moon and back, but I'm not undressing in these temperatures."

"Who's running cold now?" Luke can't help but smile at the breathless chuckle and shake of the head he gets in return. "Maybe we can build a blanket fort to keep us warm?"

For a moment Brett stays silent, simply looking Luke over with those fond eyes. "It's been ages since I last built a blanket fort." His voice is quiet, almost in awe in a way that tells Luke Brett is currently revisiting some childhood memories. It's a cute fantasy, Brett as a kid building a blanket fort with friends, laughing when the construction inevitably collapses on them and they're left trying to wriggle out of a pile of blankets.

"All the more reason to do it."

"Okay, I'm sold." Brett slides his hand into the back of Luke's neck and pulls him in for another kiss. "I'll take care of the fire and you gather everything we need for the fort?"

"Deal."

By the time Luke has gathered all the supplies — including every single sheet and blanket the house had to offer — a nice little fire is crackling in the fireplace. Brett greets him back in the living room with a quick kiss and a critical look around what is soon going to be their blanket fort. "You sure we need all that?"

"For a regular fort, no. But you know my brothers, building a blanket fort was like a competitive sport when we were kids."

"Of course it was." Brett picks up the rope Luke found in one of the kitchen cabinets, his face taking on a seriousness and determination he usually only displays on the ice. "Tell me what to do."

Grinning, Luke begins to put his plan into action. The living room is equipped with three sofas arranged in a u-shape around a fluffy carpet and a simplistic couch table. Getting said couch table out of the way is the least of tasks, even if Luke mourns the fact that Brett isn't sleeveless as he picks the whole thing up and carries it to the other side of the living room. Pushing the sofas together is obviously a bit more difficult and again, Luke wishes he could watch his boyfriend's muscles at work. But finding a place to tie down the ropes proves to be the most complicated of undertakings. With a lot of creativity — and a few prayers that they're not going to end up breaking any of the furniture — they eventually manage to span two ropes across the backs of the couches. Next up are layers upon layers of sheets and blankets, Brett's eyebrows inching higher up on his forehead with every blanket they add. But by the end of it they have a solid roof that is going to trap as much warmth as possible. The thickest blankets they layer on top of the carpet before laying out pillows until they've created a nice little nest, closed off on three sides by the couches with the entrance facing the happily dancing flames inside the fire place.

Luke is sweating more than just a little bit by the time he and Brett finally collapse inside their blanket fort. He didn't quite remember the construction process to be this exhausting. At least he's not the only one affected; when he looks over to Brett, his boyfriend's chest is heaving with heavy breaths. Luke watches the movement, swallowing around the lump in his throat. It's almost unfair how the smallest thing Brett does has Luke feel weak in the knees, every smile, every scrunch of his nose, every rapid blink of his eyes, every hand he ruffles through Luke's hair, every fucking laboured breath he takes.

Just then, Brett starts unbuttoning his coat and Luke has to hold back a groan at the idea of finally getting them out of all these layers. "The blanket fort keeping us warm is working better than expected," Brett laughs out, sitting up to shrug out of his coat. Luke barely waits until Brett has tossed aside his beanie and his scarf before pushing him down and rolling halfway on top of him. The only real light inside their fort is coming from the fire place in front of them and it's bathing Brett in a soft warm light that flickers across his face and highlights his features in a way that has Luke thanking every deity in existence that he gets to be with this man.

When Luke finally leans down to capture Brett's lips in a kiss, the latter doesn't hesitate to pull Luke closer and lick into his mouth. It takes some fumbling to get Luke out of his jacket as well, especially when neither of them is ready to stop kissing. Though when Luke's right arm just won't get out of his sleeve, he begrudgingly pulls back to get rid of his jacket, hastily getting it out of the way.

When he looks down, Brett is watching him like this is the first time they're undressing in front of each other, like they don't share a locker room, a shower, a bed. "Fuck, I really can't wait to get you out of those clothes already," he groans while pulling Luke closer again.

"Then what are you waiting for?"

Luke moves down to kiss down Brett's neck, his hands already pushing up Brett's hoodie when Brett tugs him back with a hand in his curls. "The maintenance guy could be here any minute."

"So?" Luke moves to straddle Brett's lap, knowing exactly how easily his boyfriend's resolve tends to crumble when he has Luke on top of himself. "We'll make it quick."

Brett curses under his breath while pulling Luke in again, kissing him with all he's got. The need to finally touch his boyfriend feels like it's burning Luke up from the inside; he quickly gets a hand between them again, pulling Brett's sweatpants down just enough to wrap a hand around his cock.

A breathless gasp is lost in their kiss, Brett's hold on Luke's hair turning tighter when Luke starts stroking him. Luke doesn't linger for long, pressing a last kiss to the corner of Brett's mouth before he moves down. He kissing along the sliver of exposed skin where he pushed up Brett's hoodie as he works on pulling his pants down when a loud knocking rings through the room. They groan at the same time, Luke letting his head drop down on Brett's abdomen as Brett's hand slips out of his curls. "Couldn't the damn maintenance guy take a few minutes longer?"

"I'm so fucking you in our fort the moment this guy is out the door," Luke announces as he's flopping down on his back and staring at the blankets above him. Brett giggles to himself and Luke can perfectly picture what he looks like right now — his hair a little dishevelled, clothes hastily straightened to hide that he's still half-hard and with the happiest grin on his face. Luke sighs, closing his eyes while he lets the low cracking and hissing of the fire place and Brett's voice in the distance wash over him, counting the seconds until they get to be alone again.