Chapter Text
Moe was feeling antsy, these charity gala events were fun for the first few hours but eventually, he would hit a wall of social interaction and would much rather curl up into himself. At least his parents had attended the current charity event with him this time, both of them were close friends with whoever was hosting it. The night drew on and it was nearing the edge of Moe’s threshold of maintaining polite social interaction when he signaled to his parents that he was ready to leave. His dad tapped his shoulder, informing Moe that they were going to return their drink glasses to the bar before meeting him out front.
Moe made his way to the restroom before heading outside, nodding and waving to Reynolds and Cockburn as he did. He splashed some water on his face after he washed his hands, the cool water washing off the slight sheen of sweat that had formed on his face. Moe stuck to the edges of the room as he made his way to the entrance of the building, the cold night air spreading a layer of goosebumps across his skin. He leaned against the building, several metres from the entrance doors, watching people as they walked by in the late evening hours.
After several minutes passed, with no sign of his parents exiting the building, Moe groaned and pushed his way back into the gala. He took to the corners of the room again, making his way to the bar, spotting his parents scattered at the bar. “Oi mum, dad, I thought you were returning your glasses so we could leave?” Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the movement of the one and only Jamie Tartt standing at the bar, to whom Moe quickly nodded to.
Moe gestured to his mum to leave as the bartender approached Jamie with three drinks in hand, placing them down gently in front of Jamie. “Card or cash, sir?” The bartender asked directly to Jamie.
Moe dragged his eyes over to the drinks on the bar, quickly looking up at Jamie. Moe sucked in a raspy breath, his eyes quickly darting back to the drinks and over to his mum, and then his dad. Moe’s mind was scrambling and all he could focus on was the precariously close distance between Jamie and his mum. “Oh my fucking god,” was all Moe could say as the scene in front of him clicked together.
He felt his mum hit him on the arm, as he stared wide-eyed at the drinks in front of him. “Language, son. Leave without us, we’re sticking around for a bit, and we’ll be poor company to you.” Moe stared at his mum in absolute disbelief, she was standing there hitting on Jamie fucking Tartt, with no second thought. The man he’s complained about to his parents for weeks now was getting picked up by his parents.
“Mum, are you fucking joking?” flabbergasted seemed like the proper word for his complete and utter bewilderment right now. “I thought you only said he was hot to mess with me. You can not seriously be trying to pick up Jamie fucking Tartt right now.” Moe quickly turned to his dad, his eyes narrowing, “I can’t believe you’re enabling her dad, fucking gross! You know he’s a righteous twat.”
Moe heard a sharp ‘oi’ from his right, causing him to glare at the infamous little bastard beside him. “Oh, fuck off Jamie, non-twats don’t hit on their mates’ mums.” Moe poked a finger hard into Jamie’s chest, maintaining his glare as best as possible.
Moe caught movement in the corner of his vision as he heard his mum say, “oh please Moe, it’s not like you’re unaware that your father and I are adventurous.” Moe physically convulsed at the thought, sure he was aware that his parents did what they wanted in the bedroom but never had it been so fucking … personal.
He looked between the three of them and shoved his finger into Jamie’s face, pulling forth all the anger he could muster, and it wasn’t hard for him at the moment. “If you fuck my parents, I’m going to fucking kill you.” Moe stormed off through the middle of the room, aiming for the entrance of the building.
Moe was so entranced with his anger that he accidentally ran straight into Roy Kent. “Fucking sorry, bruv,” was all Moe could manage before he tried to run off again. Moe felt Roy grasp his arm and pull him back to look Roy square in the eyes.
“I don’t think so, son.” Roy growled with his infamous glare, “what the fuck was that about?”
Moe grumbled as he pulled his arm out of Roy’s grip. “Your fucking bestie, Jamie, is having a go at both my fucking parents right now.” Moe cringed and slammed his fisted right hand into his thigh. “What a fucking wanker for hitting on his mate’s parents. And what the fuck are my parents doing, flirting with him back.”
Roy stared straight back at Moe with the same straight-shooting, grumpy face, “oh fuck.” Moe rolled his eyes, not bothering to look at Roy again.
Before Moe could get another word out, he felt a pair of hands-on his shoulder behind him. “Oi, boyo, if I’d known your mum was up for grabs, I would have done something about it.” Moe spun around and immediately shoved Colin as hard as he could.
Moe felt Roy grab at his elbows while Isaac helped to steady Colin. “Oi, bruv, Jamie’s MILF problem isn’t Colin’s problem. Don’t take it out on him.”
Moe was fully tempted to thrash at Isaac for his comment if it weren’t for Roy holding him back. “My MOTHER is trying to fuck Jamie Tartt, Isaac.” Moe wriggled himself out of Roy’s grip, “do you really want your mum and her two left hands all over Jamie?” Isaac scoffed and twisted his face at Moe but Moe ignored him. “You’re all a bunch of dickheads.” Moe grumbled as he stormed out of the venue, every part of him set on fire. Moe hailed the first taxi that drove by, slouching in the backseat as he was quietly driven home, anger seeping into his bones.
~~~
Moe ignored Jamie at every possible attempt to talk during training throughout the next week. He couldn’t look Jamie in the eye without a wave of nausea accompanying it. Word quickly spread throughout the dressing room of Jamie’s attempt to go to bed with his parents, causing even Cartrick to openly laugh at Moe.
During training, the starters were working on a passing drill in the corner of the field when Colin tripped over a rogue pass from Jamie. “Sorry about that Mr. Bumbercatch, I’ll get it next time,” Colin had called out to Jamie. It shouldn’t have angered Moe so much but Colin’s words made him see red and the next thing he knew, his foot was connecting with a ball directed straight at Colin’s head. Colin barely dodged it, looking slightly startled at Moe’s aggressive kick at him, which only caused Moe to flip Colin off and storm off towards the water cooler.
After practice, as they slowly showered and changed, the dressing room talk shifted to everyone’s evening plans, as it usually did. Moe was standing next to Nate, slightly distracted by his conversation with the kitman when he heard Isaac’s voice drift over the chatter of the room. “Oi, Moe, bruv, got any plans with your stepdad tonight?” Moe caught Isaac wiggling his eyebrows, nodding his head towards Jamie. A wave of fury overcame Moe as he grabbed a water bottle from Nate’s hands, throwing it at Isaac, followed by a damp towel, and the longest string of curse words he’d probably ever said in his life. It took Roy and Richard to hold Moe back from fully launching himself at Isaac as well.
The teasing of Moe died down throughout the week but he was still endlessly irritated by Jamie and his dumbassery. Moe continued to ignore Jamie as best he could at training, his mind stuck on how upset he was at his parents for even entertaining the idea of going home with Jamie fucking Tartt. He was bitter and moody when he arrived at his parents’ house on Friday night for their weekly family dinners. He hated to admit it but he might have growled at his parents in greeting when he walked into their house for dinner.
Janet gave Moe a quick peck on the cheek as Moe made his way to the kitchen table. Moe sat bitterly in the kitchen chair, his arms folded against his chest as he firmly leaned back into the chair. His dad sat across the table from him, thumbing through a worn-out book, Ali’s reading glasses perched loosely on the tip of his nose. “Good evening son, nice to see you again.”
Moe glared at his dad, not bothering with a response as he squeezed his arms tighter around his chest. Janet pulled a stack of plates out of the cabinet, placing them on the table beside Moe. “I made curry tonight darling, I know that’s your favorite.”
Moe scowled at his mother, “making curry isn’t going to magically erase what you did last weekend.”
Moe rolled his eyes as his mother moved to rest her hand on his shoulder. “Would like to talk about that? It seems like you have some pent-up feelings about it.”
“Oh, pent-up feelings you say? As if going home and fucking one of my teammates, the one guy I’ve been complaining to you as someone who’s been hassling me lately is completely fucking normal.”
Ali closed his book and placed it on the table in front of him. “I understand why you’re upset Moe. We may have overstepped on our part but we didn’t initiate it first.” Moe shot his father a disgusted look, gagging slightly at the thought of Jamie initiating any sort of flirtation with his parents, let alone anything more promiscuous than that.
“Oh come off Ali,” Janet gave her husband a stern look as she moved to arrange the plates around the table. “Moe, sweetie, nothing happened between us. After you found us by the bar, Jamie refused to come home with us.”
Moe grumbled as he played with the lip of the plate in front of him. “How am I supposed to believe you? You did make a joke the other week about having a crush on him.”
Janet moved back to the stove to give the pan a stir, “I suppose you don’t have to if you don’t want to.” Janet brought the spoon up to her mouth, giving the curry a taste, turning the stove off with a satisfied smile. “Although, did you not see the look on his face when you threatened him at the bar?”
Moe scoffed yet again, “I would hardly call that a threat.” Moe stood up to grab forks from the kitchen drawer. He sighed as he gave his mother a kiss on the cheek, “besides, you only make the curry for me when you’re feeling a certain state of guilty.” Moe placed the forks beside the plates on the table, “don’t think I won’t be milking this curry out of you to make up for it for weeks though.”
Janet chuckled as she placed the pot on a trivet on the table, “and I’ll be glad to make it. I’ll make sure it’s not as hot as your dearest mummy though.” Janet said with a smile and shimmy of her shoulders sending Moe into a gagging fit.
~~
As Moe entered the dressing room the next for their match, he made a definite point to knock his shoulder against Jamie’s as he walked in. “I had dinner with my parents last night. They told me you didn’t go home with them but seriously, fuck you, man.” Moe shot Jamie an angry glare.
Jamie threw his hands in the air with a remorseful look, “sorry mate but I didn’t know she was your mum, I swear!”
Moe glared at Jamie as he shoved his shoulder and rolled his eyes, “whatever. Fucking tosser. The worst part is what it did to my fucking mum’s ego.” Moe gave Jamie a smile and threw his hands up in the air, “Oh Moe, you’ve got such a hot mummy, did you know that? All fucking night mate.” Jamie gave a weak chuckle to Moe’s impression.
Moe patted Jamie’s shoulder before walking towards his own locker, “I had to threaten to ban them from today’s game if she didn’t shut up.” This caused Jamie to laugh as he passed another apology on to Moe before they both settled into changing into their match kits, their minds turning to focus on the match ahead of them.