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Furrowed brows. Narrowed eyes. Smoke practically coming out of his nostrils.
T.J. knew he didn’t look very friendly at the moment. But, could you blame him?
There he was, believing that he was going to have a wonderful day spent with his boyfriend. Yet, said boyfriend was across the room, flirting with another blonde-haired and blue-eyed man!
How could T.J. just let this happen? If he had known weeks ago that this would happen, he should never have introduced them! His Cyrus would be beside him right at that very moment and not with that… that boyfriend-stealer!
In the midst of his seething, the athlete felt a tug on his shirt and he looked down to see bright brown eyes staring back at him.
“T.J., I need to go potty,” she said, impatiently.
Sighing, he took her outstretched hand and led her to the bathrooms.
While he waited outside the door, just in case she needed something, T.J. couldn’t help but look in that one corner in the room where his boyfriend and the thief trying to steal him away were sitting together.
He watched with a steely gaze as Cyrus laughed at whatever he said before some hair ruffling occurred. And, then, a very wet kiss landed with a loud ‘smack’ on Cyrus’ cheek. And his boyfriend had the audacity to blush!
T.J. could barely keep himself from storming over and stopping the sickening display of affection.
“I’m dooone!”
T.J. offered a smile at the little girl emerging from the bathroom. “Great, Tiffany! Any trouble?”
Tiffany beamed and shook her head. “Nope! I even remembered to wash my hands!”
She held out both her hands and T.J. inspected them, thoroughly.
“Great job! You can go back to the others now.”
Giggling happily, the little girl skipped away to re-join her friends as they tumbled all over the mats in the corner.
T.J. sighed as he followed her back to the front and picked up some stray jump ropes lying around. At least it was a slow day. Not too many kids were in today so he could relax a little while they played amongst themselves until snack time.
As he was putting the jump ropes back into their proper places, he felt familiar arms wrap around his waist.
Frowning, he turned around.
Cyrus beamed up at him. “Hi, honey,” he cooed, toothily.
T.J. glared at him, making the other boy tilt his head to the side in wonder.
“Why the grumpy face?”
T.J. scoffed. “As if you don’t know.”
Cyrus raised an eyebrow. “… I don’t.”
“So you don’t know that you’ve been flirting with Matt for the past hour?!”
Cyrus blinked once. Twice. Three times.
“T.J.”
“What?”
“He’s six.”
A vein popped dangerously above T.J.’s forehead. “So?! He kissed you!”
“....He’s six. And it was just a peck on the cheek.” Cyrus chuckled. “It’s harmless!”
“I was six once too, Cy, and I know that that’s the age when crushes start and the next thing you know, he’s proposing to you on the playground!”
“Huh.” Cyrus pursed his lips. “He did offer me a ring pop earlier."
T.J.’s mouth fell open in shock. “See?! That kid is bad news! He’s going to steal you away from me!”
The corner of Cyrus’ mouth twitched, indicating that he was about to burst into laughter.
“Are you… seriously jealous of one of your kids, right now?”
Okay, so maybe T.J. was overreacting a bit. And, yes, Matt was probably just a harmless little six-year-old.
He was new at the Jackson Street Kids’ Gym. Started off really shy and a bit of a recluse. He even hid in the bathroom a few times to avoid taking part in some of the activities. T.J. and his co-workers were at their wit’s end with the kid… until Cyrus came by one day to visit because he had nothing to do. Both timid souls, the two immediately bonded.
So, now, every time Cyrus came by to visit, Matt would play with him and only him. He would ask Cyrus to hold his hand while he walked across a beam, to lift him up onto one of the jungle gyms, or even just have their own little race from one side of the gym to the other. And Cyrus would oblige each time.
It would have been cute except Matt had all of Cyrus’ attention whereas T.J. had very little of it!
It took him a full year of relentless flirting, leaving obvious hints, and begging for the blessing of two suspicious best friends for him to finally get Cyrus to date him. And Matt got Cyrus laughing and giggling and snuck a kiss in just a mere two weeks?!
T.J. pouted. “Maybe. He has dimples. We all know you have a thing for that.”
Laughing, Cyrus poked his cheek. “Yours is kinda there if you look close enough.” Then, he wrapped his arms around T.J.’s neck. “You know I don’t care that you don’t have dimples.”
T.J. raised a skeptical eyebrow. “You sure about that?”
“Positive.” As if to prove his point, Cyrus stood on his tiptoes and sweetly kissed his cheek. “I like you just the way you are.” Then, he squinted his eyes and poked his hair. “Maybe with a little less hair gel?”
“You know my hair is a mop without it.”
“I like your mop. You look even more handsome.”
At that, T.J. smiled. “Next time.” He wrapped his arms around Cyrus’ waist and brought him closer. “You sure you won’t leave me for some other blondie with pretty blue eyes?”
Cyrus laughed. “I promise not to leave you for a 6-year-old blondie with pretty blue eyes.”
“Good.” The taller boy smirked. “Make it up to me?”
Rolling his eyes but giving in, Cyrus tilted his head up. T.J. eagerly leaned down to meet his lips.
“Cyruuuuus!”
As Cyrus turned his head, T.J. missed his lips and ended up kissing his cheeks, instead.
He let out a frustrated groan. So close!
Forty-five inches of blonde hair, blue eyes, and a dimpled smile bounded up to T.J.’s boyfriend. Flashing a toothy smile, Matt grabbed Cyrus’ hand.
“You promised to watch me go up the net!” the little boyfriend-stealer whined before pouting.
Cyrus laughed and ruffled the fluffy blonde locks. “I did, didn’t I? Okay, let’s go.”
“Baaabe, you were gonna make it up to me,” T.J. hissed.
“Oh, right.” Cyrus pecked his cheek. “I’ll give you more later, okay? Duty calls!” He piped before taking Matt’s hand and leading him away.
“But you don’t even work here!”
Cyrus just responded with a flying kiss. Beside him, Matt turned around and flashed T.J. a devious smirk before sticking his tongue out at him, cheekily.
“Why you little-.”
“T.J.! It’s snack time!” a voice squeaked below him.
“No, it’s not! There’s ten more minutes!”
“T.J., Jack is stuck in the barrel again.”
“I told him not go in there many times!”
Resigning himself to his fate, T.J. went back to work, taking care of the little monsters he called his charges. (He loved them to death, though.)
Besides, Matt may have Cyrus right at that moment but the moment he clocked out, Cyrus was all his.
Take that, little boyfriend-stealer!