Chapter Text
Kevin didn’t have much experience with snow.
The nest didn’t let him leave long enough to see it and South Carolina didn’t get any.
But Minnesota was a different story. He’d moved up north the year he’d turned pro, only intending to stay for a couple of seasons, leave his mark and then sign to a different team. His plans had been slightly ruined three years in, when he’d been told Jeremy Knox was signing with them. Five years later, he was still there.
For the first few months, Kevin regretted not changing teams. He’d admired Jeremy from a distance when they were in college, proud of what he was doing within the sport, but he didn’t actually know him. Kevin found his niceties grating and his dislike of causing conflict irritating. Jeremy had captained the Trojans, but as Vice Captain of their team, it didn’t seem like he had any control. He didn’t appreciate Jeremy’s calmness when things were going to shit during a game.
It was the little things. Kevin guessed, at least. The way Jeremy couldn’t eat anything spicier than ketchup and that one time he cried when he saw beaten up fruit at the store. Kevin grew fond of watching his hands work at the strings of his racquet, of watching the way Jeremy rolled his shoulders whenever he was uncomfortable.
Eventually, Kevin started to see the things that frustrated him for what they actually were. Jeremy won people's favour with his charming personality and so had multiple people to choose from whenever something needed done. It was a well thought out, surprising manipulative plan. The calmness during games became comforting, if Jeremy wasn’t losing his shit, neither was the rest of the team.
Kevin went from trying to avoid him so he didn’t hurt his feelings, to hanging out at his place every night to moving in with him.
It was Jeremy’s idea to move out to the middle of nowhere. The drive to work was longer, and the little noises of an old house settling kind of freaked Kevin out, but there was room for Jean (the Labrador, not the player) to run around and the place felt like home.
It had been merely coincidence that the dog Jeremy fell in love with at the shelter was named Jean, and human Jean had not been pleased. Especially since he'd been relegated exclusively to Jean 2 or Human Jean. Despite buying a house together and moving to the middle of nowhere, Jeremy seemed to have no interest in Kevin. Kevin has seen what Jeremy was like with previous partners; the soft looks, the kind smiles. Kevin wasn’t on the receiving end of any of them.
Kevin, on the other hand, had moved past the crush stage and fallen fully in love. He wasn’t afraid to call it that because it was love. He knew it by the ache in his chest and the swoop in his stomach whenever Jeremy stood too close.
The house had been a smart choice, neither of them liked being trapped in an apartment, but each night Kevin spent lying alone when the man he loved was two doors down felt like torture.
Jean 1 delighted in ripping the head off of the various wonky snowmen in brutal fashion, until Jeremy got tired of being cold and Kevin got tired of having to reattach snow-Andrew’s head. Jean left a trail of wet paw prints across Jeremy’s carefully chosen carpet and flopped onto the sofa, even though he’d been told several times he had his own bed, which was perfectly comfortable. The couch was a dark green, at Kevin’s insistence because he knew there was no way the cream couch Jeremy wanted would survive their habit of takeout and movies.
Jeremy and Kevin showered and pulled on cozy clothes, huddling under blankets with the heating up full. Jeremy had put on some Christmas movie Kevin was going to ignore in favour of pretending not to stare at Jeremy. Not staring at Jeremy was hard enough when he was doing regular people things, let alone when he was curled up under a Trojans blanket, face relaxed and sleepy. Kevin put a cold hand under the blanket and wrapped it around Jeremy’s ankle, receiving a firm kick in return.
Just as Kevin opened his mouth to reprimand him, everything went dark.
Jeremy jumped hard, and Kevin caught him before he fully fell off the couch.
“Idiot,” Kevin said with a chuckle, “it’s just the power. Must be the snow. We’ll light some candles and play a board game or something.”
“And you said my scented candle collection was pointless!” Jeremy exclaimed, waving an accusing finger in Kevin’s face, “eat my apple spiced scented ass, Day.” Kevin did not say that, given the opportunity, he would love to.
Instead, Kevin rolled his eyes and released Jeremy so he could bound up the stairs to grab some of his collection. To light the house. It wasn’t even properly dark, but from the sounds of banging and the little crash, Kevin assumed Jeremy had run into everything in his path.
Within moments, the house was smelling like a Yankee candle store. The candle next to Kevin was festively named Letters to Santa and reeked badly enough of sugar and spice to give him a headache. He didn’t say anything to Jeremy, but somehow the other man sensed his discomfort and swapped it for the baby powder scented one he had at his side.
Finding a board game was tricky. The majority of them were banned in the household. Jeremy got bored too easily and Kevin was too intense and they usually ended up just arguing. Once there had been tears (Kevin) and once the table had been flipped entirely (Jeremy). Scrabble especially, was strictly off limits; if they wanted to survive the night, the box had to stay taped up.
It took them almost twenty minutes of almost-arguing before they settled on a nice easy jigsaw instead. Kevin didn’t remember where they got it, so it was presumably one of Jeremy’s impulse buys that he’d hidden until it had been long enough for Kevin to forget about it. It had a picture of some puppies on it and Jeremy gasped and giggled at them while Kevin tried to avoid the box being shoved in his face in favor of finding edge pieces.
Kevin didn’t even realize it was getting cold until Jeremy pulled another blanket from the sofa and wrapped it around himself with a little shiver. He finished putting the piece he’d found in the correct place before he looked up.
“Shit. Our heating’s out,” Kevin realized. “We’re gonna be freezing.”
“I’m already freezing,” Jeremy said with another shiver. The tip of his nose was red and he curled further into his blankets. Kevin got to his feet, pushing some candles closer to Jeremy, keeping the jab about Californians on the top of his tongue.
“You’re going to get sick like this. I’ll go dig out the duvets and get some coats.”
“I’ve got those clicky heat pack things in my top drawer, grab some,” Jeremy added and started flapping his hands when Kevin took too long to stand. He gave Jeremy a playful kick on his way past and Jeremy responded with his middle finger.
Kevin loathed every step he took up the stairs to the cupboard in the hall. It was pitch black, too dark to even see his hand in front of his face. His phone torch was only making things creepy. Their one and only good duvet was in a big vacuum sealed bag and Kevin grabbed it and struggled to get it open with cold fingers. He cursed the stupid drafty house and Minnesota in its entirety.
Kevin dug out the heat packs (USC Trojan branded, an odd thing to sell for an LA team) and took his coat off the hook. Kevin also got one of his sweaters that was big enough for Jeremy to put over the one he was already wearing. Kevin nearly died getting back down the pitch black staircase, trying not to trip over the various items he was holding.
Jeremy was smiling when he came back into the room. He had the baby powder candle cradled in his hands.
“What’s so funny?” Kevin asked, depositing the things and handing Jeremy one of his heat packs.
“You talk to yourself,” Jeremy said. His deep brown eyes glittered in the candle light, dark but amused. Kevin huffed.
“I do not.”
“I could hear you cursing the state, then the house, then me for making you move here- which by the way, is totally not true.”
“You’re an idiot,” Kevin replied.
“I heard you say that too.”
“I have no secrets. No privacy. I hate living with you.”
“But I do make excellent omelets.”
Kevin hummed lightly. “Is my pain worth it?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, did you not want me to make you breakfast anymore?” Jeremy put a hand on his chest in mock offense. Kevin dropped to his knees and clasped his hands together.
“I have made a tragic mistake.”
“You’re forgiven,” Jeremy replied airily, wafting a hand like a king dismissing his servant, “but when the power’s back you’re getting a tomato frown instead of a smile.”
“A fitting punishment.”
“Jigsaw?”
“Sure.”
Jeremy started getting sleepy only a couple of hours later. It was still early, but they’d had a fairly energetic day and kevin was fairly certain going to bed early just once didn’t necessarily mean that Jeremy was going to wake him up at ass o'clock and demand attention.
Kevin clicked his fingers in Jeremy’s face when he started drifting off. Jeremy blinked awake, looking soft. Kevin wanted nothing more than to gather him up and cuddle him and never leave. Jeremy un-cocooned himself a little from his obscene amount of blankets to check his watch.
“Nyeh,” he complained, “it’s still early.”
“We can go to bed,” Kevin said with a shrug. “It’s okay.” Jeremy huffed a little and wriggled, having to shed more blankets to get to his feet. He swayed a little as he finally found his way upright and shivered.
“It’s still so cold,” Jeremy whined.
“Weather says it’s 20°,” Kevin replied, also climbing to his feet and collecting Jeremy’s blankets from the floor. The carpet was plush, but he knew the second he stepped onto the hardwood floor he’d be in hell.
He ushered a chilly Jeremy upstairs and left him at his bedroom door. Kevin settled in his bed and thought about reading a book. His phone informed him it had thirty percent battery, not enough to keep his phone on all night. There was one small issue and it wasn’t the potential hypothermia.
Kevin was scared of the dark.
Kevin knew it was a little dumb for a thirty year old man to be afraid of the dark, but he’d grown up in the dark and now he had the opportunity to sleep with however many lights on he wanted. In the first week of sharing a room with Andrew at Palmetto, Andrew, tired of sleeping with the lamp on, had bought him a night light shaped like a book. It was soft enough that it didn’t bother the others but bright enough that Kevin didn’t feel scared.
Kevin flipped over in his bed and peered through the dark at where he knew the same night light was plugged in. He mourned the soft golden glow for a little before he closed his eyes and forced himself to go to sleep.
A little knock on the door woke Kevin up just as he was drifting off. Jeremy popped his head around, face lit up by a little torch. He was still huddled under a mountain of blankets, and Jean (the dog, not the player) took the opportunity to sprint through the open door and curl up under Kevin’s blankets. He was most certainly not allowed there, but Kevin let it slide just once. His bed would be too cold anyway.
“Too cold to sleep,” Jeremy explained. Kevin didn’t reply, just lifted up his blankets to allow Jeremy to join. Jeremy practically leapt under, accidentally bashing Kevin in several places as he did so.
“Ouch,” Kevin grumbled, then poked Jeremy’s hand where he still clutched the torch. “This would have been nice to know about a little while ago.”
“Forgot I had it,” Jeremy confessed, doing his best to sort the blankets and apparently, disturb Kevin’s sleep. Once he was all settled he curled up facing Kevin and took a deep breath.
“You’re here,” Kevin said, “you can turn the torch off.” Jeremy was playing with it absentmindedly, twisting the top over and over again.
“You don’t like the dark.”
“Oh.” Kevin didn’t feel like he could say much more than that. His chest felt tight, breath knocked out of him with just a few words. Sometimes he got so wrapped up in the experience that was Jeremy, that he forgot that Jeremy was wrapped up in him too. Jeremy had climbed out of bed and come to Kevin’s room because he knew Kevin would be scared all alone in the dark. Kevin closed his eyes against a fierce tide of emotion and took a shaky breath.
He meant to say something. A confession or a ‘you didn’t have to’ but instead what came out was a strained, “thank you.” There was a little click as Jeremy hung the torch from the bedpost closest to him.
“Go to sleep,” Jeremy whispered and put his head on Kevin’s chest. It was so close to one of the scenarios Kevin had dreamt. Moments where Jeremy would simply be there when Kevin needed him. He wanted to hold Jeremy in a million different contexts and love him until one of them died.
Something settled in Kevin’s chest as he wrapped his arms around Jeremy and pulled him closer, tangling their legs together.
“Goodnight, Jer.”