Chapter Text
They lose. Bitterly. Terribly. Eric out by the top of the fourth after not paying attention to the twinge in his shoulder. BU gets a home-run off that final pitch with bases loaded, and they just can’t seem to catch up or regain their morale and…
And that’s it.
Jack’s final game as a college student, with a future ahead of him forty-five minutes away in Providence with the Falconers who have had decent World Series prospects, but haven’t yet been able to get there.
Eric was thrilled for him, mostly because it was so close, but he hates himself a little because he feels like he denied Jack this one thing, this one, big, important thing he’d worked so fucking hard for.
It doesn’t go like Eric expects. It doesn’t end with Jack’s disappointed face, or a, ‘we need to talk’, or Jack pulling away from Eric as he carefully sets a hand on his shoulder.
Instead he gets Jack fussing over the injury, and poking at the ice pack now wrapped to his shoulder, and holding his face while he kisses Eric over and over and over as the team wolf-whistles and makes jokes about their wedding.
It could be so much worse.
But it isn’t.
***
“So this is it.” Jack’s hands flop to his sides, like he doesn’t quite know what to do with the, and Eric felt stuck in the doorway like he’s not sure he can step over the threshold, like he wasn’t sure yet if he was welcome.
Jack turned and looked at him, giving him a fond smile and a little eye-roll, and dragged him over by the hips, kissing him as the door clicked shut behind them. Inside, it felt like a bubble, like a private universe of their own.
“Welcome home,” Jack whispered against his lips.
Eric laughed, holding Jack’s hips as his bag slipped to the floor and his mouth stayed within reach of Jack’s. “Thank you, sweetpea.”
His eyes closed, and yeah, that’s what the feeling is.
Home.