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“A book?” Tyler says cautiously, feeling the shape of the present Josh just handed to him.
“Not just a book.” Josh settles down next to him, cross-legged in front of the Christmas tree, jogging Tyler’s elbow with his knee. “Open it.”
Tyler looks at Josh’s tentatively eager face, colors flickering across it from the lights on the tree. He prepares to force a big smile as he tears along one edge and slides the book out of its wrapping, but when he flips open the blank cover his eyebrows shoot up in genuine surprise.
“Coupons?”
Josh just grins, so Tyler looks closer, realizing that they seem to be homemade, and he starts to read out what some of them are offering.
“Free cookie baking session with Josh. Free cuddles. Free coffee run. Free f- uh,” Tyler blushes, glad that their families left them alone in their apartment for their first Christmas here.
“You can use them whenever you want,” Josh informs him. “They don’t expire until next Christmas.”
Tyler laughs and leans over to hug Josh. “Wait, do I need to cash in a coupon for this?”
Josh turns his head to kiss Tyler on the cheek, just catching the edge of his lips. “No, but go ahead.”
“Okay, here goes.” Tyler tears out a coupon and hands it to Josh, who inspects it carefully before tucking it into the pocket of his sweatpants.
“Half an hour of cuddling. That seems to be in order, sir.”
“Starting now?”
“Yup. I hope you’re ready.” Josh flexes his arms in a show of warming up. “Because I’m gonna cuddle you so hard.”
Tyler laughs, scrambling across to the couch before Josh can tackle him onto it.
*
“Jooosh.”
Tyler pokes Josh in the side of the head.
“Mmmf?”
Josh props himself up on his elbows to glance at the clock on the nightstand and groans. 7AM on a Sunday morning. He flops facedown into his pillow again.
“Jooosh, get up. I want coffee.”
Josh grumbles into the pillow, what sounds like “mrryrr owdmmcffee”. Tyler sighs, and the bed shifts as he reaches for something. Josh hears the sound of ripping paper, and when he turns his head and cracks one eye open Tyler is holding a coupon out in front of his face.
“Free coffee run,” Tyler says smugly, snuggling back down under the blankets when Josh takes the coupon from him resignedly and sits up. Josh flinches as his bare upper body is exposed to the cold and looks down at Tyler accusingly. “Don’t look at me like that! As per the terms of that coupon I could be sending you outside into the cold to fetch Starbucks. I’m only sending you to the kitchen.”
Josh rolls his eyes and swings his legs out of bed, reaching for a shirt and socks. He rubs his face as he stumbles to the bedroom door, and Tyler coughs.
“Yeah?” Josh asks, turning back to look at him and leaning against the door frame. His mild irritation is overridden by a surge of affection as he sees Tyler spread out under the blankets across both sides of the bed, trying to keep it warm.
“Hurry back,” Tyler smiles, and darts his eyes to the floor next to his side of the bed, where his underwear and clothes are lying in a pile.
Josh shakes his head, but he’s smiling as he heads to the kitchen.
*
Movie nights with their friend circle always end up more like “spend hours arguing and trying to find something to watch and eating all the snacks before they actually choose a movie” nights.
It’s Josh and Tyler’s turn to host it at their apartment, and the usual squabbling is underway. Mark is pegging Tyler with Cheetos, Debby is singing loudly to drown out Dustin’s attempts to spoil the twist ending of a horror film she hasn’t seen yet, Jenna is sitting on the floor with her back against the couch determinedly scrolling through Netflix while muttering to herself, and Tyler is sitting on Josh to free up couch space, meaning that Josh is also getting showered with cheese puffs.
Josh opens his mouth to tell Mark to quit it and a Cheeto lands in it, prompting a fist-pumping cheer from Mark and causing Tyler to try to twist around to look at Josh and then fall out of his lap, kicking Jenna in the arm on his way down.
“Enough, guys!” Jenna yells, hitting Tyler with a cushion as he scrambles to his feet and tries to dodge away. Debby finally stops singing, and Dustin takes the opportunity to say, “She was the killer the whole time.”
Debby shrieks and Mark laughs, and Josh puts his head in hands and massages his temples. He’s forced to sit up when Tyler drops back into his lap, brandishing a slip of paper.
“Alright guys, shut up. Do you see this? I get to pick the movie,” he says, loud enough that the others quiet down and stare at him. They squint at the coupon, looking unimpressed.
“Those coupons are for you to use on Josh, not the rest of us,” Debby complains.
“And Josh is here,” Tyler says. “It’s coincidental that you are too.”
“Thanks so much,” Dustin says dryly.
“Just pick something before Mark buries us all in Cheetos,” Jenna orders, fending off Mark’s response of throwing one at her with raised hands. Debby drops down next to her, cross-legged, and leans on her shoulder in agreement.
“Okay.” Tyler curls his legs up onto Josh’s lap and looks at him. “I wanna watch the original X-Files movie.”
There’s a chorus of grumbles and sighs – Josh has made them all watch it before at least twice – but Josh smiles and Tyler kisses him quickly on the lips. Josh wraps his arms around Tyler to hold him more securely, and he watches the light from the TV screen flicker on the skin of Tyler’s rising and falling chest as the movie starts, and they all settle down. Jenna and Debby look up at them both, then at each other, and intertwine their fingers.
*
Josh is dancing with somebody’s aunt – a relation of one of the brides’ friends, maybe? – when Tyler taps him on the shoulder, apologizing to the middle-aged lady as he tugs Josh off the dance floor by the hand. Most of the guests at the wedding reception are dancing or congratulating Debby and Jenna for the millionth time, so their path to the double doors out of the venue’s ballroom is unimpeded.
“Where are we going?” Josh asks as Tyler pulls him along the corridor and turns into a smaller hallway.
“Sorry to tear you away,” Tyler smirks over his shoulder. “You looked like you were having the time of your life.”
Josh snorts.
“But…” Tyler opens a door and pulls Josh inside what appears to be a storage closet, lit by a small fluorescent bulb in the ceiling. “I missed you.”
Tyler closes the door behind them and immediately surges forward to kiss Josh. Josh goes with it and grounds one hand at the back of Tyler’s neck and one on his waist as Tyler slides his tongue into Josh’s mouth.
Josh loses track of time a little bit, loses track of where Tyler’s hands are and how badly they might be crumpling his only good suit, but eventually he pulls away and tries to readjust his clothes, panting a little and hoping his own lips aren’t as red as Tyler’s.
“We’d better get back before someone notices we’re gone,” he says, but Tyler seems to be preoccupied, patting the pockets of his suit jacket. “We really should – ”
Tyler leans forward and cuts him off with a kiss. “Not just yet.”
Josh thinks they’ve already spent long enough in this closet, but he closes his eyes and leans in for another kiss. His lips press against paper instead, and he opens his eyes in confusion. Tyler is holding a coupon against his mouth, his eyes above it amused but dark with something else, and Josh leans back to read the words he’d written himself several months ago: free blow job.
“I hate you,” he says immediately, and Tyler throws his head back with a laugh as Josh snatches the coupon from him and tosses the crumpled paper into the corner of the closet, behind a stack of plastic buckets. He looks down at the wooden floor, which doesn’t seem to be too dusty, and sinks to his knees with a sigh.
“I love you,” Tyler gasps several minutes later, fingers tightening their grip in Josh’s hair as Josh gags a little when Tyler’s cock brushes the back of his throat. Josh looks up as he bobs his head, sees Tyler with his eyes closed and cheeks flushed and his tie pulled loose from his collar where Josh had reached up to pull Tyler down for a taste of himself on Josh’s lips. He swallows when Tyler comes, and keeps moving his mouth and tongue until Tyler is whimpering from oversensitivity, Josh’s eyes glinting with vindication.
He stands up while Tyler catches his breath, slumped back against the wall with knees slightly bent and his underwear and pants halfway down his thighs, and Josh can’t pretend he doesn’t love Tyler for this. So he kisses him like he’s something delicate, the coupon forgotten somewhere, and when they do up buttons and smooth out each other’s clothes it’s not about favors.
*
Tyler is sleeping on the couch when Josh gets home, and he winces as he tries to stand upright and follow Josh into the kitchen to help him unpack the takeout he brought back. He waves away Josh’s concerns with excuses about a stiff neck and sore back, but later in the evening when he’s lying stretched across the couch with his head in Josh’s lap, Josh is looking through the coupon book that Tyler left on the coffee table.
“Why didn’t you use this one?” he asks, showing Tyler a coupon that offers a free back rub. Tyler grimaces and wriggles into a more comfortable position.
“I don’t know if I should keep using the coupons, Josh. They were a great present, really they were, but I don’t want to make you do things all the time.”
Tyler struggles to sit up properly so he can look Josh in the face, digging his skinny elbows and then his tailbone into Josh’s thighs, but Josh doesn’t mind.
“The whole point was that all of those coupons are for things that I want to do for you,” Josh says. “Whenever you want me to do them. Even when it’s inconvenient.”
Tyler smiles wryly at certain shared memories, but he still looks slightly worried. “Are you sure?”
“Come on.” Josh gets his arms under Tyler and tries to lift him up, staggering into a standing position and carrying him bridal-style to their bedroom. “I’m giving you a back rub.”
He lets Tyler roll out of his arms and end up facedown in the middle of their bed, grumbling something into the blankets.
“Where did you put that set of fancy oils Jenna and Debby gave us?” Josh asks, checking under the sink in the bathroom.
“Closet,” Tyler lifts his head up to say, then flops back down again. Sure enough, Josh finds the box, gift-wrap ribbon still attached, in the back of their closet.
Josh gets as far as telling Tyler to take his shirt off and pulling the bottles of oil out of the box before realizing he is not a trained masseuse. He looks from a bottle of lavender oil in one hand to tea tree in the other and frowns.
“Do I just rub this on my hands or…?”
Tyler stretches after removing his t-shirt, groaning, and lies back down on his front. “Oil me up, I don’t care.”
Josh laughs. “We’re not wrestling, Tyler.”
“We could.”
“We’re not.”
Tyler sighs and Josh selects another bottle at random – vanilla – and pours some into his palm, rubbing it over his fingers. He surveys Tyler, wondering where the best place to start is and exactly how he should go about it, and he settles for straddling the backs of Tyler’s thighs with his knees either side of his waist so he’s at the right angle to massage Tyler’s back.
Josh starts by tentatively pressing his fingertips in small circles below Tyler’s shoulder blades, moving down to his lower back and increasing the pressure. He pushes his hands up and drags them back down, fingers hooked over Tyler’s shoulders, pressing the heels of his hands in hard, and Tyler makes a quiet strangled noise.
“Good?” Josh asks, and Tyler rolls his shoulders back in affirmation. Josh kneads below Tyler’s neck, and he can feel the tension in Tyler’s muscles. Josh starts to hum softly under his breath as he works at easing out the knots of tension under Tyler’s skin, and Tyler turns his head to the side and closes his eyes, eventually relaxing until his body goes slack under Josh’s hands.
He continues to rub Tyler’s back with increasing gentleness until his wrists have started to ache, and Tyler’s sleepy breathing is coming out in soft sighs. Josh leans down to kiss Tyler’s shoulder then climbs off him to put the oils away, thinking that maybe they should use them more often.
He washes his hands before returning to the bed and spooning up behind Tyler, but as Josh carefully fits his body around Tyler’s he shifts sleepily and mumbles, “You still smell like a birthday cake.”
Josh laughs and hugs Tyler closer to him, tucking his face into Tyler’s neck. “Sorry.”
“No, s’good. Kinda makes me want to eat you,” Tyler yawns.
Josh smiles, cheek pressed to Tyler’s shoulder. “Maybe in the morning.”
*
“There’s nothing good on TV,” Tyler whines, flopping down on top of Josh, who sees him coming just in time to stretch his legs out before Tyler turns him into a couch cushion.
“Then find something else to do.” Josh was intending to take an afternoon nap with reruns of The Simpsons on low volume in the background, but apparently Tyler has other plans. He sits up with his knees either side of Josh, perching uncomfortably on Josh’s stomach. Tyler holds out the coupon book in front of Josh’s face and flips the pages back and forth.
“Pick something.”
Josh sticks his finger in between two pages at random, and Tyler peers over the edge of the book to see which coupon his fingertip has landed on.
“Hair dyeing?” Tyler wrinkles his nose up, but Josh pulls out the coupon along its perforated edge.
“Lucky you, I still have some blue dye in the bathroom.”
Tyler looks mildly horrified, touching his fingers to the longer hair on the top of his head that’s sticking up in a carefully arranged way. Josh, however, is grinning as he attempts to sit up and ends up making Tyler lose his balance and tumble onto the floor.
“Let’s pick another coupon instead. What about baking?” Tyler says, but Josh is tugging him up by both hands and pulling him towards the kitchen.
He deposits Tyler in a kitchen chair with a towel around his shoulders and goes to fetch the leftover dye from the bathroom. It’s supposed to be applied to damp hair, so Josh sticks his hands under the tap and runs his wet fingers through Tyler’s hair before putting on plastic gloves.
Tyler fidgets while Josh applies the dye, trying to be more careful than when he does his own hair. It’s helpful that he usually aims for the messy punk look, because he’s not particularly good at this, but he gets the feeling Tyler might actually cry a little bit if Josh messes this up. He still ends up getting dye on himself and on Tyler, who keeps touching his hair even when Josh slaps his fingers away.
“Does it look okay?” Tyler asks as soon as Josh peels off the gloves and tosses them and the used tube of dye into the trash can.
“It’s not even done yet,” Josh reminds him. “Twenty minutes’ developing time, remember?”
“We should have dyed your hair,” Tyler says, glumly. “You know I can’t pull off blue hair the way you can.”
“Hey, of course you can. You’re gonna look so cute, trust me,” Josh insists. He puts a hand either side of Tyler’s shoulders on the back of the chair and leans down to kiss his forehead, then spends the next twenty minutes making sure Tyler doesn’t touch his head.
When the time is up, Josh leads Tyler to the bathroom and gets him to rinse his hair under the shower. It’s a few minutes before the water runs clear, and the towel is streaked with blue after Tyler tries to dry his hair with it.
“Almost done,” Josh grins, using his fingers to comb Tyler’s hair into its usual place. He puts a hand over Tyler’s eyes and steers him toward the mirror, removing his hand with a flourish. “Ta-da!”
“Oh my gosh,” Tyler yelps, staring at himself with wide eyes. “I look like a Smurf.”
Josh rolls his eyes. “You do not. It’s not even that bright, and it looks sick.”
Tyler covers his face with his hands and peeks through his fingers at his reflection while Josh reiterates how awesome he looks. “My mom is gonna hate this,” he groans.
Josh presses a light kiss to the nape of Tyler’s neck to placate him. “It’s temporary dye, it’ll wash out pretty soon. We should probably wash off the dye that got on your skin, though…”
Tyler makes a soft sound of laughter at Josh’s apologetic tone, noticing the bright blue smudges around his hairline and on the tips of his ears. There are even smeared blue marks on the side of his neck below his jaw, but they’re in the shape of Josh’s fingers. Tyler kind of likes it.
*
“Tyler, your pillow is blue,” Josh remarks as he makes their bed. The running water in the bathroom shuts off and Josh hears Tyler spit into the sink before sticking his head around the door.
“And yours is pink,” he points out, slightly garbled by the toothbrush in his mouth. He removes it and points it at Josh. “You bought the hair dye, you wash the stains out of our pillowcases.”
“It’s your turn to do the laundry this week,” Josh protests, trying to hook a crumpled sock out from under the bed with the toes of his left foot. Tyler’s clothes are strewn everywhere, and it’s not even like they’d had wild sex and discarded their clothes after frantically stripping. Tyler is just really messy.
And lazy, Josh concludes, when Tyler hands Josh a coupon torn from the book on his nightstand. It’s slightly damp from Tyler’s fingers, and the words get out of laundry free are turning spidery as the ink smudges.
“It’s always better when you do the laundry,” Tyler says, but Josh must still look grumpy, because he wraps his arms around Josh from behind and kisses his neck. “My shirts always smell so good when you do it.”
“Tyler, that’s the detergent. Your clothes would still smell like that if you actually put it in the machine yourself.”
“Mmmno,” Tyler replies, and Josh tries to pull away from the tickle of the vibration of Tyler’s lips against his skin. “It must be the dash of love and tender care you put in that makes them smell so special.”
Josh snorts, and Tyler smiles, eyes scrunched up in the way he knows by now always makes Josh want to kiss him. So he does, but walks Tyler backwards until he almost trips over the jeans he’d left on the floor yesterday. Tyler clings to Josh to regain his balance.
“See, your disregard for using our closet is a health hazard.”
Tyler actually looks contrite for a moment before he grins and pecks Josh on the lips. “Well, part of doing the laundry is gathering the laundry.” He tugs on the coupon Josh is still holding for emphasis. “Have fun.”
Josh sighs and begins to gather up Tyler’s clothes. A pair of boxers lands on top of the growing pile in his arms, and he turns to see a naked Tyler heading out into the living room and towards the kitchen.
“I’m gonna make breakfast,” he calls cheerily without turning around. “Love you!”
“Love you too,” Josh says, though he doubts Tyler heard him over the clattering of pans. He shoulders the door to their apartment open, leaving it unlocked and unlatched before heading down to the laundry room. If any of their friends should drop by, they – and Tyler – might be in for a surprise.
When Josh makes it back up to their apartment with a basket of freshly dried laundry some time later, Tyler is burning an omelet. Judging from the almost empty carton of eggs on the counter, this is not the first.
Josh plucks one of his own sweaters from the pile and slips it over Tyler’s head from behind. Tyler abandons the omelet to its fate and wriggles his arms through the holes, turning to beam at Josh. He closes his eyes and inhales.
“Is there anything better than a warm clean sweater?”
“You’re burning our breakfast, Dr. Seuss.”
“Ah, screw it.” Tyler scrapes the blackened eggs into the trash and dumps the pan into the sink. “Let’s have cereal.”
“Do you want to finish getting dressed first?”
Tyler blinks at Josh innocently. “Is there a problem?”
Josh’s sweater is just long enough to cover Tyler’s crotch, but Josh still tosses some underwear at him. It hits Tyler in the face, but he catches it when it slides off and sniffs it blissfully.
“You’re so weird.”
“It smells so good.”
“Courtesy of Pure Cotton Fresh,” Josh reminds him as he hops in place, pulling the boxers up one leg at a time.
“Nah. Love and tender care.”
“You’re so weird,” Josh repeats, even as Tyler walks towards him and he holds out his arms. Tyler just burrows into Josh’s chest, turning his head to keep smelling the sweater.
*
On a tired day when Tyler hasn’t wanted to get out of bed and do anything until mid-afternoon, he asks Josh to run a bath. Josh assumes he’s referring to the bubble bath coupon, and he pulls it out of the book while Tyler continues to drift in and out of sleep. He prepares the bath for Tyler as quietly as he can.
“It’s ready for you, Ty,” he whispers, touching Tyler’s shoulder and shaking him gently. He allows Josh to lead him into the bathroom, and complies when Josh directs him to move his limbs while he undresses him.
The bath is full of hot water, foam and bubbles rising to a safe level below the rim. Josh holds Tyler’s hand when he steps in, and he doesn’t let go even when Tyler sinks down into the water. He closes his eyes, but opens them again when Josh steps away.
“Where are you going?” Tyler asks, keeping his fingers stretched out. “I want you in here with me.”
“Oh.”
Josh had fetched their fluffiest towel and Tyler’s favorite shirt to sleep in from the dryer so they’d be ready for when he got out, so he adds another towel to the pile on the sink for himself.
Josh pulls off his socks and pants, followed by his shirt and finally his underwear, adding them to the heap of Tyler’s clothes. Tyler scoots forward in the bath, causing the water to swell in a miniature tidal wave that rocks back against Josh’s legs when he steps in behind Tyler.
The bath is just big enough for the two of them, and Josh settles down with his legs out either side. Tyler lies back between them, resting against Josh’s chest. When Josh rests his arms over Tyler’s shoulders, Tyler pulls his legs up and slides down a little until his head is resting below Josh’s ribs, his body cradled between Josh’s knees.
They sit quietly for a while, and Josh uses the soap to wash Tyler’s skin that he can reach. He breathes slowly, chest rising and falling under the water. Only quiet dripping disturbs the peaceful silence. The dye in Tyler’s hair is almost completely gone now, but the water still runs off with a faint tint of blue when Josh washes it for him, sluicing small amounts of warm water from his cupped hands.
By the time the water is getting cold and Josh nudges Tyler to stand up, he’s smiling. He helps Josh to stand up too after he’s pulled the plug out, and smears the bubbles on his hand across Josh’s jaw.
Josh laughs and retaliates by catching Tyler’s face between his own soapy hands and kissing him. When he pulls away, Tyler is grinning through a bubble beard.
“I love you,” Tyler says, and Josh reaches for the towel and wraps it around Tyler, wrapping his arms around him too.
“I love you too. So much,” Josh murmurs, kissing Tyler’s forehead.
Tyler shucks off the towel so that he’s naked again and kneels down in the slowly draining water. Josh looks at him questioningly, but Tyler just holds his gaze as he wraps his hand around the base of his dick. Josh hardens quickly after several strokes, and he leans his shoulders back against the cold damp tile, tilting his head against the wall as his breaths start to come faster.
Tyler’s mouth is suddenly on him, his fingers spreading across his hipbones with a grip tight enough to leave marks, and he gasps Tyler’s name. Josh moves his hips in small erratic motions, not wanting to choke Tyler, but he takes him all the way down and bobs his head. He goes back up with a slight scrape of teeth that makes Josh shiver.
“Almost –” he pants, and Tyler drags his fingernails from Josh’s hips down his thighs. Josh jerks, thrusting harder than he meant to, and he comes in Tyler’s mouth. Tyler blinks, his eyes dark as he stares into Josh’s and swallows around him.
“Come on,” Josh says breathlessly after Tyler has pulled off and is wiping his lips and chin. He doesn’t move until he’s sure that his legs will hold him up, stepping out of the bath and tugging Tyler up by the wrists. They forget the towels and Tyler’s pajamas, stumbling out of the bathroom kissing blindly and falling into their bed despite the dampness still clinging to their skin.
*
The day before his birthday, Tyler presents Josh with money for grocery shopping and a coupon tucked in with the twenty dollar bills. Josh doesn’t check it until he gets to the store and realizes it’s one of his own: romantic cooked dinner.
Josh would have tried to do something special for Tyler anyway, but they were going to his mom’s for the actual day. He’d intended to treat Tyler when they’d gone to bed or maybe in the shower, but Tyler had suddenly decided to send him out for groceries at 5.30pm. It was going to be a late dinner. Would that be more romantic? In all honesty Josh isn’t sure what makes a meal romantic, but he buys candles and ingredients to make spaghetti, because he has vague memories of watching The Lady and the Tramp.
Josh shoos Tyler out of the kitchen when he gets home and sets to work, after having googled a simple recipe to follow. He could have just winged it, but he figures a romantic meal has to actually be edible.
While Tyler is out running some other errand – he promises he won’t be long and gives Josh a quick kiss and a smile before leaving – Josh sets the table. He lights the candles and arranges the best flowers out of a bouquet he picked up on his way home in a tall glass, since they don’t own a vase. He also laments their lack of nice china when having to serve the pasta in the only dishes they have. Shouldn’t they have bought some good china by now? He and Tyler had been living together for almost a year.
Josh is still musing over this when Tyler comes back, while he pours red wine into ordinary glasses because they don’t own wine glasses either. They only even have a bottle of wine because it was a housewarming present from when they moved in to the apartment. Tyler laughs about how they finally have a use for it as he hangs up his jacket.
Tyler turns their stereo on while Josh brings the food to the table. It plays the last record they’d listened to on a low volume as Tyler walks up behind Josh and wraps his arms around his waist.
“Thank you for this,” he says quietly in Josh’s ear, pressing his lips to the spot beneath the corner of Josh’s jaw that he knows makes him ticklish.
“You haven’t tasted it yet. You might change your mind.” Josh ducks away and turns to kiss Tyler, a slow soft kiss that he only breaks when Tyler’s stomach grumbles loudly.
“I’m pretty sure my stomach won’t discriminate,” Tyler informs him as Josh pulls out his chair. He waits until Josh has settled down across the table and then looks from Josh’s button-up to his own plain white t-shirt. “I should have dressed up more.”
Josh just smiles and shakes his head, but Tyler insists on going to change his shirt. “This is important.”
Josh raises his eyebrows when Tyler comes back in the dress shirt he wears to special occasions and a bow tie. “Should I -?”
“No, no,” Tyler waves him off as he tucks his chair in to the table. “You’re perfect as you are. This is perfect.”
“Don’t oversell it,” Josh grins, but his face feels warm, and it’snot from the wine he started sipping while he was waiting for Tyler. He twirls some spaghetti around his fork but waits for Tyler to take his first bite.
Josh finally relaxes when Tyler catches his attentive expression and kisses his fingers exaggeratedly. “Honestly, Josh, thank you. This is so much better than I could have done it, believe me.”
Josh isn’t going to argue that, so he enjoys his own handiwork and accepts the toast Tyler proposes to his cooking skills, clinking his glass against Tyler’s with a laugh that fades into a fond chuckle at the way Tyler’s eyes twinkle above his glass while he downs his wine.
They talk in between mouthfuls until jokes and conversation have left the food to go cold, but they eat the rest of it anyway. In the comfortable silence as they finish, Tyler reaches across the table to grasp Josh’s hand. He takes a deep breath, and Josh is a little alarmed at how solemn he looks.
“Thank you so much, Josh. You’re the best… you’re my…” he seems to get stuck on the noun he means to say, and Josh laces his fingers between Tyler’s and squeezes his hand gently.
“It’s okay. It’s no problem, Tyler, you don’t have to keep thanking me.”
“It’s not just for the dinner,” Tyler mumbles. He’s flushed pink, maybe from the warmth of the candles, and he runs his finger under the edge of his bow tie anxiously.
“Hey,” Josh whispers, getting up to move around the table and take both of Tyler’s hands in his. “Oh, Tyler.”
Tyler’s eyes are shiny with tears, and Josh wipes them carefully away with the edges of his thumb before they can spill over fully. He leans down to kiss Tyler with a slightly rough tenderness until there’s no more sign of tears. When he pulls away he notices that it’s three minutes past midnight already, and Josh takes Tyler’s hand to brush his lips against his knuckles. “Happy birthday, love.”
“Oh.” Tyler seems startled, like he somehow forgot the special occasion was his birthday.
“Let me just clean up, and we can have dessert. I got your favorite ice cream. We can cuddle on the couch and see if there’s anything on TV, yeah?”
“Yeah,” Tyler smiles, straightening the cuffs of his shirt sleeves.
Josh doesn’t hear Tyler come into the kitchen while he’s rinsing off the dishes, but he drops them into the sink in surprise when he hears Tyler say his name from behind him.
He turns around and Tyler is down on one knee on the kitchen floor, bow tie undone around his neck because it was too dressy for this little dinner but that doesn’t matter, because there is a small black velvet box with a glint of gold in Tyler’s hand and he’s holding it out to Josh like it’s his birthday.
*
They spend the Christmas holiday that year at Tyler’s family home, where his relatives are still congratulating them on their engagement and asking to see their rings. The date has been set for June 18th, and almost everybody finds it adorable.
On Christmas Eve, Josh gets away from the chain of hugs from Tyler’s older family members to find Tyler’s coupon book and tear one of the last ones out. He finds Tyler on the basketball court behind the house like he knew he would, dribbling around his younger brother and cheering when he scores. The flash of gold on Tyler’s finger still makes Josh’s heart jump every time he sees it, almost as much as the smile Tyler gives him when he sees Josh standing on the side line.
Tyler walks over and Josh hands him the coupon – you vs me complaint-free b-ball – and his face crinkles up into an even bigger grin. Tyler doesn’t have anywhere to play basketball near their apartment, and Josh was always outplayed by Tyler whenever they did. Due to Tyler’s sometimes overbearing competitive nature, it resulted in a blanket ban from Josh, even unofficial games with a rolled up sock for a ball and no proper net.
“You’re probably going to regret this,” Tyler laughs as he gives the coupon back to Josh, who folds it into his pocket before letting Tyler drag him onto the court. Josh probably would have, but he isn’t doing this for himself. Tyler’s brothers play too, and put up more of a fight than Josh does, but Tyler beats them all.
It’s completely unsurprising, as is Tyler’s victory chant that his brothers counter with calls of “knock it off!”, but Josh sees Tyler sweaty and fired up and most of all happy, and Josh doesn’t care that he sucks at basketball. He wins in other ways.
He’s reminded of this when Tyler walks over to him and hugs him almost too tightly, burying his face in Josh’s neck. He’s covered in sweat and his heart is still beating so hard that Josh can feel it like it’s in his own chest, and he presses his cheek to the top of Tyler’s head, stroking his back. They only draw apart slightly when Tyler’s youngest brother yells that they should get a room as he heads back indoors.
Dusk has fallen while they played the game, and Tyler’s dad has switched on the Christmas lights on the outside of the Josephs’ house. They pay no attention to the cold, not even when flakes of snow begin to drift from the sky and settle on the dry ground. They kiss at the center circle of the basketball court in the gathering dark, the lights glimmering behind them, knowing that moments like this are the best gifts either of them could share with the other.