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Jamie hadn't been back to Manchester since he introduced Roy and Keeley to his mum and Simon. They weren’t supposed to come, but Jamie knew they were worried about him. He also knew that, at that moment, they were two of the most important people in his life. Of course, he wanted his mum to meet them. So he let them go with him, even if he had planned to go alone.
This was the first time he was back home after that. He had been going out with Roy for a couple of months, and this time, he actually wanted Roy to go with him. He wanted a proper dinner with him, Simon, and Georgie.
Jamie was nervous about bringing Roy home. He didn’t know exactly why, since Roy had been there before so he’d met his mum and Simon already. He’d already been in his childhood bedroom for fuck’s sake. He wasn’t the first romantic partner he brought home, either. He was the first man, yeah, but he had been out as bisexual to his mum for almost ten years now. They knew this would probably happen someday. He never explicitly came out to Simon, but he didn’t necessarily keep it a secret either. Maybe it was some degree of internalized homophobia, or maybe it was the seriousness of it all. Maybe it was the fact that Roy was nearly his mum’s age, and he was scared she wouldn’t approve of him. Maybe it was because this wasn’t just any man he was bringing home. This was Roy fucking Kent, the man he grew up admiring, the man he has a poster of in his bedroom right upstairs. Whatever it was, it made him anxious.
Dinner had been served, but Jamie barely touched his food. He stared mindlessly at his plate, nibbling on the inside of his lips and picking at the skin around his thumbnail. His thoughts raced between everything and nothing— About what his dad would think of him right now. What berating insult he would scream at his face for being with a man. How he’d look down on “The Great Roy Kent” for being there tonight with his son calling himself his boyfriend. He thought about what Roy would do to James if he was there when he yelled at him. He thought about the first time Roy hugged him after he got humiliated in front of the whole team; he thought about hugging Roy back.
“Jamie. You okay?”
Roy’s voice snapped him out of his daydream.
“Mm?” Jamie looked up at him, slowly returning to the present, “Yeah, ‘m good, why?”
“Fuck’s wrong with you, then? You’ve barely touched your food. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Just thinking ‘bout stuff,” Jamie smiled. He relaxed, but still felt silly for being so nervous about having Roy there tonight. “I never thought you’d be sitting here, having dinner with me and my family as me boyfriend, y’know. Still got your poster up on the wall. ‘S a bit weird, innit?”
Georgie chimed in on the conversation. “You know, Roy, Jamie’s very lucky to have ended up with you.”
“Ooh, yes, he is,” Simon added, “I remember when he was younger he said something along the lines of, ‘I don’t know if I wanna be him or be with him’ in reference to you. Guess he went with the latter, huh?”
“Is that right, love?” Roy asked with a shit-eating grin on his face, teasing Jamie. Georgie started talking before he could respond.
“Oh, but he tried to go for the first option. Didn’t you, darling?” she added.
“Whaaaaat?” Jamie asked in a high-pitched tone, hoping his mind would be quick enough to think of something completely unrelated so he could change the topic. But of course, his mind went blank.
Georgie turned to Roy, who seemed to be really fucking interested in whatever she had to say.
“When he was around, errr… sixteen, maybe seventeen years old, he grew his hair out into a mullet like the one you used to have.”
Jamie felt his face warming up, blood quickly rushing to his cheeks. He hoped Roy couldn’t tell.
“Pffft, that never happened. I just grew me hair out. Wanted it longer. No big deal. It’s a phase everyone goes through, innit? Can we change the subject now?”
Roy raised his eyebrows, listening to Georgie as she kept going.
“No, I very clearly remember you saying you wanted the Roy Kent mullet. I have a picture on my Facebook, but it’s gonna take a while. That was like… ten years ago, probably more.”
“Mummy, that’s absolutely not necessary.” Jamie tried to diverge the conversation once again but was unsuccessful. His mum was already looking through her fucking Facebook albums searching for the photo.
“It’s absolutely fucking necessary,” said Roy, “I need to see that.”
Jamie groaned, his face flushing a light pink as he leaned back in his chair, trying to play it cool. “Oh, come on, it’s fucking embarrassing,” he muttered, a slight smile tugging at his lips. “Y’know what? It’s probably not even there anymore. When was that, like, 2013? Probably got deleted or something.”
“That’s not how Facebook works,” Roy laughed.
“How am I supposed to know how Facebook works? I’m not a fucking fossil!”
“Jamie!” Simon chided playfully.
“Sorry.”
“Found it!” Georgie interrupted. She turned her phone around, handing it to Roy. On the screen was a picture of a young Jamie, beaming with joy, wearing a Chelsea jersey that was most definitely a size too big, along with some grey sweats. He was pointing at the Roy Kent poster on his wall with a huge smile that showcased his slightly crooked teeth, and you could see some acne on his cheeks. His hair was styled into an awful mullet, an attempt to recreate Roy’s hairstyle. The haircut wasn’t necessarily bad, but it framed his face very awkwardly. His hair was straight, too, which didn’t help. Roy’s hair was dark, thick, and curly, which made the mullet look very different on him.
Jamie tried to take the phone away from Roy, but his grip on Georgie's phone was strong. He was staring at the picture of Jamie, soaking up every single detail about it, burning the image into his brain. Which was difficult, he couldn't stop moving as Jamie tried to take the phone from him.
“Give me that! Stop looking! Fucking hell. I looked awful, Jesus, give me the fucking phone!” he said, giggling as if he were getting tickled.
“You look fucking adorable,” Roy told him, still staring at the picture.
Well. That was most definitely not the reaction he was expecting. He slowly backed off from his attempt to grab the phone, shifting back into his seat, taking in Roy’s words.
“What? Fuck d’you mean adorable? That’s like, the worst picture of me, like, ever.”
“I mean, yeah, you look proper ridiculous, but it’s cute.”
“Well, I showed your picture to the barber, so can’t blame me for the ridiculous part, can you?”
“Either he did a really fucking awful job or my hair was horrible.”
“Both, probably.”
“You’re saying my hair was bad?”
Jamie shrugged. “But I liked it on you. Clearly that was enough to go get it done myself.”
“Doesn’t matter how bad the hair looks, what matters is you seemed to be really fucking happy about it.”
Roy, the son of a bitch, was smiling. He was smiling almost as big as Jamie was in the fucking picture.
“Oh, and he was,” Georgie added, “here, click on it, read the caption of the post.”
He read it out loud in an awful attempt to mimic Jamie's Mancunian accent as if he wasn’t torturing him enough already.
“‘Jamie: Look, mummy, I’m gonna be just like him one day!’”
Jamie was furiously blushing, his head buried in his hands. He wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground and never come back.
“You’re never gonna let me live this down, are you?” he asked, the sound of his voice muffled by his fingers.
“Fuck no! This is the greatest picture I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I’m gonna save it as my wallpaper, print it out and put it on my bedside table” Roy joked, giving Georgie her phone back.
“Fuck off,” Jamie laughed, his body relaxing again, the bright red blush on his face starting to fade away.
“You were really happy about your haircut, my sexy little baby. Even if it only lasted a month. You loved it, you loved him.”
“Still do, mummy” Jamie muttered.
“You love me?” Roy asked, in disbelief.
“Come on, babe, did you not see the fucking picture? Of course I love you. I’ve loved you for like, fucking ages, haven’t I?”
It’s the first time Jamie ever said ‘I love you’ to Roy. At least to his face.
“I love you too, Jamie,” he looks at him for a second before taking him in for a hug, his cheeks starting to hurt from smiling so hard for so long.
Jamie felt genuinely loved by someone who wasn’t part of his family for the first time in a long time. He felt seen. He felt warm.
He doesn’t even realize how or when it happens, but the anxiety that was flooding his mind and body dissipates. Right now, nothing else matters except the fact that he loved Roy, and Roy loved him back, no matter what.