Chapter Text
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
Roy stood in the middle of the London Heathrow lobby, a fake smile plastered on the gaffer’s face as he waved goodbye to his sister and niece and a pit in his stomach forming.
Phoebe excitedly waved back one last time and his sister gave a thankful grin as they disappeared into airport security, headed off on holiday for Christmas.
The trip had been in the works for months, all stemming from a school project Phoebe did on her favorite holiday back in the spring. Initially, she had begged to do her project on Uncle’s Day, which she was then informed is not a real holiday, something she proved wrong when she invited Roy and Jamie to her house to celebrate the special occasion. For similar reasons, Uncle Roy’s birthday was also out of the equation, and Perchtenlaufen was subsequently deemed “far too disturbing” for the other children (and adults) at school.
Because of this, she had settled on another Christmastime tradition called Notte delle Fiaccole, where people in the village of Abbadia San Salvatore light up a giant fire and parade through the streets of town on Christmas Eve.
It wasn’t nearly as spooky, but it was pretty cool, Phoebe had determined. So, in the holiday spirit (and with the pay of a head coach), Roy decided to send his two favorite people off to Austria for Perchtenlaufen and Italy for Christmas. For the New Year, they would head down from Tuscany to Rome for Epiphany, where they would celebrate the arrival of la Befana at Piazza Navona.
And Roy would be home, alone.
That didn’t have to be true, per se. His family always extended an invite, and every year he told them to fuck off, that the only family he cared for were his sister and niece and they were more than enough for him. There was the option to join the Higgins family as well, but Roy felt like he’d be embarrassing himself by showing up to the team’s Christmas.
(Dr. Sharon said otherwise, but he couldn’t be too sure.)
He could probably ask to celebrate with Beard and Jane, but who knew what kind of fucked up sexy Christmas-type celebrations they might have in order. It for sure wouldn’t be like his and Keeley’s sexy Christmas.
And yeah, he could probably ask to join Keeley’s family, but it would be fucking hard to explain to everyone (for the thousandth time) that they were better off as friends.
Really and truly, enjoying a nice day alone at home would be a million times better than grifting around and awkwardly trying to fit in with everyone else’s Christmas traditions.
Yeah.
Definitely.
Definitely better.
Roy tried to keep his mind off of it all morning as he headed off to Nelson Road for training. He wasn’t letting it get to him, of course not. But if someone asked why he was a little extra hard on everyone that day, he’d just growl and turn away. It was none of their fucking business, after all.
—
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
It was the first day of winter and pretty fucking cold.
Roy was especially disdainful of the nip in the air biting at his face as Jamie trudged along with his bicycle in tow. Despite Roy’s job as head coach, he had been adamant that Jamie kept up with his training. If that meant continuing to be the one staying on top of Jamie, then so fucking be it.
No one else seemed to want to put up with Roy’s extra conditioning bullshit the way Jamie did.
Roy also pretended not to care about the decorations all around him, the bright lights and baubles and wreaths strung up around town. The Christmas spirit that infected everyone like a fucking Hallmark movie.
(Ted had forced him to watch one last Christmas, which had turned into the team watching multiple of them on a few match weekends leading up to the holiday. He had to admit they were fucking corny but also a fucking delight.)
(The trend had continued this year as well.)
When they returned to Jamie’s later that morning, warming up with breakfast and tea, Roy eyed the tree that Jamie had put up in the living room. There were a few wrapped presents underneath, and he’d covered it in little football ornaments and things that looked like they were made by uncoordinated toddlers. Jamie noticed quickly.
“You like me tree? Put up all the old ornaments mummy used to give me every year, plus a few of the ones I made as a little lad,” he said, leading Roy to get a closer look. When Roy did get closer, he squinted at one that looked suspiciously like a red, orange, and yellow tie-dye ornament on his own tree at home.
“And that one?” he asked.
“Hmm? Ohhhh, yeah. Phoebe made me that one! Gave it to me the other day ‘cause she said you bought ‘em a trip for Christmas and they wouldn’t be ‘round. Real nice of you, scrooge.”
“I- why the fuck did Phoebe make you an ornament? And when the fuck did she give it to you, you shithead?”
“Because she fuckin’ loves me, yeah? And they dropped it to me the other day. Said they were out lookin’ for shit to take on holiday with them.”
“How the fuck does my sister know where you live?”
“Because she texted me? Sent my address to her and she hopped in the car and drove here using the GPS. It’s 2022 grandad, you should know how this shit works by now.”
Roy paused and stared at Jamie for a moment, the gears in his head turning.
“Are you dating my sister?” he gritted out.
“What the fuck? No, you old fart. ‘M not fuckin’ dating anyone right now.”
“Then why did she come here?”
“Holy fuckin’ shit, Roy, is it so fucking hard to believe I can be friends with your family? I mean, fucks sake you lot invited me for supper just a few weeks ago!”
“Well… yeah, because we were doing evening training shit and I needed to watch Phoebe last minute!” Roy defended.
“Right yeah, and all the times before that? Admit it Roy, I’m part of the family whether you fuckin’ like it or not,” Jamie said smugly, raising his brows at a stonefaced Roy, who eventually huffed.
“Fine. But you better not fucking touch my sister or-”
“You’ll cut my eyes out, yeah, yeah. You say that every time. You need to think of some new threats, mate, they’re not cuttin’ like they used to.”
Roy could only glare and growl as he walked back towards the kitchen to get a sip of his tea. They sipped and ate in silence for a bit when Roy subtly noticed Jamie hesitate to bring his teacup to his lips, which meant he was thinking thoughts. Thoughts from that pretty little head of his tended to scare Roy.
“Out with it,” he commanded, not even turning his head to look. He could feel Jamie’s eyes roll as he set down the mug.
“I was just wonderin’ what you’re planning to do for the holiday since your family’s gone.”
“None of your fucking business,” Roy immediately answered.
“Well I just… I’ll be home for Christmas. Mummy and Simon are coming to stay with me and, you know, do all the Christmas shit. Midnight mass, presents, Christmas dinner, the Boxing Day match, all that. Thought you might want to join if you’ve got nothin’ else planned,” Jamie shrugged, looking down as he traced the rim of his cup with his index finger.
Oh. Damn.
Roy watched him for a few moments again, too stunned to say anything. After a while, Jamie shrugged again.
“Don’t have to, just thought I’d offer, yeah? ‘M sure you’ve already got some plans.”
Roy wanted to accept, but he just couldn’t stand the embarrassment, so he did the next best thing: he abruptly stood and made an excuse to leave.
“I have… stomach pains. I will see you at training,” he said as he grabbed his coat and rushed out.
Yeah, Jamie would never suspect a thing.
—
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Roy was feeling real stomach pains as Christmas continued to approach.
The obnoxious sounds of jingle bells and children's laughter seemingly rang in his ears as a constant reminder of the holiday he’d planned to spend alone and the footballer he’d not-quite turned down.
At training the day before, he acted like nothing had happened save for Jamie asking if his stomach pains had gone away. Roy wasn’t even lying when he said no, but Jamie didn’t need to know that half of the pain came from Roy replaying the morning over and over.
After Thursday training as the players got ready to head home, Roy watched Jamie out the window, then called an emergency Diamond Dogs meeting.
“Alright, I am fucking entrusting you with this information, and I expect none of you to make fun of me for this,” Roy threatened, meeting the eyes of Beard, Higgins, and Nate after their howls settled to secure nods of agreement.
“It can’t be that bad, can it?” Nate asked. Roy glared, but then tossed up his arms in surrender.
“I… I sent my sister and niece off for the holiday and now I don’t fucking know who to celebrate Christmas with. This isn’t me fucking begging to come to anyone’s Christmas dinner, so don’t even fucking offer. I mean, someone invited me to theirs, but I’m not sure I should go.”
“Lemme guess, Jamie?” Beard cut in with a straight face. Roy took on a look of surprise.
“No!... Yes. Fuck. Yeah, it was him.”
“I thought you were friends now, yeah?” Nate asked, looking around at the others. “Have been for a while?”
“You could call it that,” Roy said.
“You’re always welcome to join the Higgins family, but I’m sorry… I’m not seeing the problem here,” Higgins commented, looking around. “You and Jamie are quite close. Are you maybe hoping that Keeley will invite you to hers?”
“What? Fuck no. It would be fucking weird if she asked me. It’s just that Jamie’s fucking mother and stepfather are going to be there and the thought of crashing on a family affair just… it’s so… it seems fucking wrong. I mean, the prick somehow butted into my family but I just can’t return the favor.”
The men all looked around the room at each other before Beard turned back to Roy.
“Look, Roy, whether or not you want to believe it, Jamie invited you for a reason, and that reason is that he thinks of you as family. I mean, you’ve met his mom, right? When we played City last season?”
“How the fuck did you know tha- you know what, I don’t fucking care. But yes, I unfortunately have sat on his childhood bed in his childhood room in his childhood home.”
“Okay first off, none of you were very subtle with the whole ‘sneaking out of the hotel’ thing, and secondly, when you got back I heard Keeley and Jamie making fun of you for hitting on his- oh! Oh my God. You don’t want to go because you have a thing for his mom and you’re afraid it’ll be weird!” Beard exclaimed, causing Higgins and Nate to look between them in shock.
“Fuck no!” Roy cried out. “I didn’t fucking… I… Okay. His mum is fucking fit I will give him that, but I wasn’t actually making a move on her. I was getting back at him for calling my sister fit at Uncle’s Day.”
“What is Uncle’s Day?” Nate asked with furrowed brows.
“Not the fucking point!” Roy replied, a point to which Nate conceded.
“If I may,” Higgins cut in, pointing up a finger to get everyone to look at him. “I agree with Coach Beard, at least on his first point. Roy, you obviously care a lot for Jamie, I mean, you wouldn’t have called this meeting if you didn’t. However, have you considered that he also cares quite a lot for you? And that that’s why he invited you to his family Christmas?”
Roy sighed.
Higgins had made a good fucking point.
And Beard and Nate were both making sounds of agreement.
“Fuck. I will accept his fucking invitation! Meeting adjourned, BARK, go back to your fucking jobs,” Roy said with a wave of the hand as he stood. There were quiet barks and howls around him as he stomped over to the door, but when he looked out the window, he found that Jamie had already left.
Wonderful.