девятка! Devyatka! (I Want It!)

“What do you think about the name Cash?” Tyler asked on the car ride back to his place. Jamie glanced over and Tyler was very carefully petting the dog, with a gentle, tender loving care.

“It’s nice.” Jamie felt his stomach lurch, when Tyler smiled brightly at him. They pulled up to the place and Tyler very carefully got out, holding Midnight - or Cash - like he was a baby.

“Hey, wait, no before we go in, take a picture,” Tyler stated and handed Jamie his phone. Then he leaned down next to Cash, who was sniffing his shoes curiously.

“There.” The older Star handed the phone back to its rightful owner.

Tyler picked his new dog up and skipped up to the door, happily (and a bit flamboyantly).

“Marshall!!” Tyler called when he came in, still holding the puppy in his arms. Marshall bounded into the foyer and skidded to a stop when he saw the newcomer. He tilted his head to the left and then right in interest, before carefully sniffing the puppy.

“This is your new brother Cash.” Tyler’s grin grew, when Marshall finally wagged his tail, like the sun peeking out from the clouds.

Jamie thought a little bit and realized he might be a little in love with Tyler. He couldn’t help himself, but he supposed that the two of them fit together…sure they had just met and had only been hanging out together for a few months, but still, he felt something like love inside of him. Inside of his heart.

“Uncle Jamie got him for us cause we were lonely, what do you think?” Tyler kept talking to Marshall and Jamie bit his lip to prevent from bursting out in “awes”…or worse.

After a few minutes, he decided to text his brother.

Please, tell me you didn’t buy him a dog? Jordie texted him, while the two were watching Marshall very carefully play with Cash like a good older brother.

What if I did? Jamie sent him a reply.

Don’t encourage the crush he has on you, unless you’re going to act on it. This is serious bro, Jordie texted back, and Jamie looked over at Tyler before turning his phone off. His brother was actually making him mad.

Cash quickly tired out, and Tyler panicked for a second about not having a doggy bed for him, but he just took one of his own pillows and put it next to Marshall’s.

“Not that either of them are going to end up sleeping there,” Jamie teased Tyler.

Tyler laughed and shook his head. “We need to go shopping, I need puppy food, and new toys and a dog bed.”

“It’s like ten o’clock, is Petsmart or any pet-store even open?”

“Walmart will do for today.” Tyler pushed himself up off the ground. He held out a hand for Jamie to take. The older man looked at it briefly, before taking it. Tyler grabbed him in a hug after he pulled him up to his feet. “Thank you,” he whispered. “This was real sweet and kind of you.” Jamie hugged him back and didn’t think about kissing him, or anything else like that. Just hugging and enjoying the friendship that was budding between them.

****

The next day,

“So Jordie is moving in with his girlfriend.” Jamie said as he laid out on the picnic table in Tyler’s massive back yard. Tyler was in the grass with Cash and Marshall, but he sat up when Jamie spoke to him.

“No way, he’s just leaving the apartment? I never thought you two would separate.”

“Yeah,” Jamie sighed. He didn’t say anything about how Jordie though they were dating. It wasn’t the right time, place or moment for that little talk.

“Who are you gonna get to move in with you?”

“I dunno, I don’t need that much space by myself, I might move into one of the one bedrooms.”

Tyler was silent for a moment, and Jamie was afraid to look at him.

“If you want you can move in with me, you know this place has plenty of room.”

“Yeah?” Jamie turned to look at him.

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Duh, Jamie.”

Jamie grinned at him. Yes, that would be great!

So Jamie moved in with Tyler. And after a busy day, both men were exhausted. The following day they would have to reveal their secret that they’d moved in together. I mean, how could that remain a secret. Besides, chances were Tyler would be walking around, boasting about it. How he was rooming with the Captain!

As the two were in the kitchen one day, Jamie found himself remembering how the boys had reacted as soon as the team found out that Jordie was moving in with his girlfriend they had all looked over at Jamie and nudged him.

“Moving in with Seggy?” Brenden Dillon had asked.

“Yeah,” Jamie had remarked, holding his head high. It wasn’t a bad thing, at least not in his mind.

Cody Eakin had scoffed at that. “Not surprising.”

No, what was surprising was how no one was surprised that he was moving in with Tyler.

“You should teach me how to cook,” Tyler spoke from the kitchen counter where he liked to sit and watch Jamie. The Dallas Stars Captain could hear Marshall and Cash play fighting, with Cash’s little growls and Marshall’s happy barks.

“I dunno. How else would I pay for the rent?” he asked, looking over at Tyler with a mischievous look and gleam in his eye like he was up to no good.

Tyler’s eyes went darker in color, and Jamie quickly swallowed and looked back down at the stir-fry he was making them for that evening. He heard Tyler sigh and the scraping noise the stool made as he pushed it away from the counter. From the corner of his eye, Jamie could see Tyler walking towards him and he bit his lip when Tyler pulled himself up onto the counter and sat next to the stove.

“So what are you doing now?” the younger hockey player asked, leaning over.

Tyler was still a pretty horrible cook. He couldn’t manage to make scrambled eggs the right way, without drying them out, but he was getting better at helping out to make them. Breakfast was still all on Jamie though, because Tyler was horrible in the morning. (Typical 21-year-old!)

Jamie would crawl out of bed and knock on Tyler’s door, he made sure that he opened the door enough for Cash and Marshall to wiggle in and jump on the bed, before heading into the kitchen. Eggs, he thought, eggs and bacon today and maybe some bagels, we have a game tonight.

Halfway through making the bacon, Tyler would stumble out of his room with scruffy hair and the dogs on his heels. He would let the dogs out and stumble back over to the counter and stare at Jamie, until the Captain took pity on him and gave him his coffee.

Today though, Tyler walked past the counter and leaned on Jamie. His forehead rested between his friend’s shoulder blades and the older man could feel him breathing on him.

“You’re the best,” Tyler mumbled.

“Because I made bacon?” Jamie guessed.

“Yeah,” Tyler sighed, rather dreamily.

Jamie huffed out a laugh and shook his head. “Okay Tyler.”

Living with someone who wasn’t your brother was a bit weird, Jamie found out. Tyler only liked Reality TV shows that he would rather buy in a box set and watch all at once then buying the cable subscription. But Jamie was sort of okay with that.

“How are we supposed to watch the NHL Network or Once Upon A Time?” Jamie asked.

“Ugh, if you wanna wait here for the cable guy and pay for it, then you totally can,” Tyler groaned, waving a hand at the TV. “But I don’t want to go through all that shit.”

Jamie continued to cook, while Tyler did the dishes. When that was done, the two went through the normal routines: Jamie took out the trash and did the laundry, while Tyler kept the house spotless. (Tyler somehow managed to keep the house free of dog hair…it was a miracle really.) This was what happened with their day and it was pretty successful for the most part, until a few weeks later.

One night, Cash, the black labrador, came limping into the house. He was whining and whimpering and Tyler sprang into action. They both freaked out and drove to the emergency vet at once.

“Do you think he stepped on something?” Tyler asked from the passenger side seat.

“I bet it was the damn wasps,” Jamie snapped. “I told you we needed to get the exterminator out last week.”

The dog whined and Tyler shushed him, pressing kisses to his nose.

They rushed into the emergency vet’s parking lot and Jamie filled out the paperwork as quickly as possible, pausing every few seconds to scratch behind Cash’s ears just like he liked it. When he came to the question about who owned the dog he paused and quickly wrote both of their names.

It turned out it WAS the damn wasps.

Cash got a little wrap on his paw and they made sure it stayed on and wasn’t removed. Tyler “instagramed” a picture of his dog with little sad faces. It was a little depressing, but at the same time, rather adorable. And once again Jamie knew he shouldn’t be so in love with this guy but he was. He so was. Jamie sighed and started the car up.

The car ride home was awkward, but that was nothing necessarily new. Slowly and surely, they made it back to their place. Jamie kicked his shoes off at the door, instead of politely untying them like usual and Marshall came rushing out to greet them. Tyler had set Cash down on the ground. He heaved out a long sigh and rested his head against Marshall’s. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“About what?” Jamie asked, scratching Cash’s ears, as he was once again back to his normal self.

“Everyone thinks we’re dating.”

The Dallas Captain looked over at him sitting on the cold foyer floor and couldn’t remember a reason why he ever thought it wasn’t a good idea to date him.

“Not your fault,” he eventually remarked.

Tyler laughed a little, but not happily. It made Jamie rather nervous...he wasn’t sure why it did, but it did. “I dunno, I sit next to you and lean on you, and make stupid comments about how much we connect...basically I’ve said “I love you” in hockey terms and the guys have picked up on it.”

Jamie looked over at him. “You know, I let you sit next to me, and I let you lean on me, and I’ve made the same stupid comments and the guys have picked up on it as well. It’s not a joke because it’s you saying those things, its a joke because both of us are saying those things. My brother actually thinks we’re dating and nothing I say is going to change his mind because most of our conversations revolve around you and the dogs.”

Tyler grinned weakly at him and sighed again, but not as exaggerated.

“That was me telling you...that...I love you,” Jamie told him, and Tyler’s head snapped up to look at him.

“Tyler,” Jamie began and rubbed his face. “I got you a dog and then moved in with you.”

“We’re both idiots,” Tyler laughed and slid over to Jamie, before pulling him in for a kiss. Cash and Marshall barked and jumped around them and Tyler had to break apart because he was laughing so hard.

Yeah, they were both idiots, but at least they had finally gotten it out and confessed. Jamie felt much better and he was sure that Tyler did too!

Notes

Bennguin is really growing on me, while I'm doing this. I'm just a completely sucker for bromances though.


Next up: To Russia we go...and is that--wait, Jamie's adopting a Russian??