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Nathan wakes up in his hotel in Birmingham, wrapped in the arms of his boyfriend Chris. It’s still early, so he basks in the comfort and warmth they provide. Travelling together for the Premier League is one of his favourite things; for other competitions, they’re schedules rarely line up and they spend most of their together on Face Time. In tonight's competition, they have each other in the quarter final, but before that they have the whole day to spend together. Chris promised a shopping spree on his credit card for Nathan today and he already has a few ideas of things to buy.
When Chris wakes up, he squeezes Nathan closer.
“Mornin’ babe,” says Nathan, planting a kiss on the strong arms wrapped around him. Chris hums in response. “Room service for breakfast?”
“You know it,” Chris replies with a kiss to Nathan’s crown. “I’m gonna jump in the shower beforehand, if you want to join me.” Nathan follows him to the bathroom, shucking his joggers off haphazardly. As Nathan shuts the door behind them, Chris pushes him up against it and kisses him forcefully on the mouth. It was late, when they both got to the hotel last night, so they went straight to sleep and have a week’s worth of pent up energy to work through.
***
After their shower, they sit next to each other on the bed, bacon sarnies in hand, talking about where they want to go. Chris ends up with brown sauce on his chin that Nathan wipes off, gently with his thumb. He lifts his thumb to his mouth and sucks it clean. Chris rolls his eyes fondly.
“Stop it you, if I get hard again, I will make you life hell on the oche.” Nathan give him a look of incredulity.
“Baby, we both know how stupid that would be.” Nathan is met with an eyeroll and giggles. “It would be fun to see you try though.” Chris shoves Nathans’s half eaten sandwich into the younger’s face and turns to straddle Nathan’s lap.
“Okay yeah the oche is off limits, but whoever wins the match can get a quick blowie backstage before the semis,” Chris suggests.
“Oh game on.”
***
The first shop they head to is the Lego store. Nathan picks out a car and they get customised Lego people with the plan of keeping each other with them at all times. After that they find themselves looking at clothes, but nothing really piques their interest. They end up in a jewellery shop, looking at watches. Nathan’s current watch is a sporty number, given to him by a sponsor and it would be nice to have a classier watch for the rare occasion they go on a date to a nice restaurant, or he has important family gatherings. The thing is, even though Chris has earned slightly more than him in the last two years, Nathan still feels guilt at the idea of his boyfriend dropping thousands of pounds on a watch.
“Nath don’t think about the price. I want to give you something special, that you can wear most of the time. Think of it as a ring, but without anyone having to know I wanted to give you a ring.”
“You want to get me a ring?”
“Yeah, but we haven’t spoken about it yet, so a watch first. Anything you want. I have no budget; you’re worth it baby.” Nathan rests his head on Chris’ chest and takes a deep breath. “Come on, have another look.” Nathan peels away from Chris and takes another look at the display. He sees a Tudor watch with a black band and burgundy face that would match his playing shirt perfectly, he tries to ignore the almost £4000 price tag as he rests his fingers on the glass above it.
“Are you sure Chris?”
“As sure as I am about you.” Nathan almost feels like crying, being a gay darts player, 90% in the closet, can feel so isolating sometimes and knowing Chris is with him in all ways means so much. “You like that one?” Nathan nods. “It will look so good on your wrist and go incredibly well with your tattoos.” Chris wraps an arm around Nathan’s waist and presses a kiss into Nathan’s hair.
They call over a shop assistant, who is more than happy to let Nathan try the watch on. It is perfect. It feels a comfortable weight on his wrist and, like Chris said, it goes well with his tattoos. She boxes it up and takes payment from Chris, along with details for a warranty and gives them the information needed for setting up insurance. Nathan can’t stop looking at it.
***
They end up having lunch back at the hotel before going separately to the arena and the next time they see each other is on the practice oches before their match. Nathan left the watch at the hotel, not wanting to risk losing or damaging it the day he got it. They make quick eye contact, both with earphones in and darts in hand. Nathan gives a wink before turning to his practice board and warming up. Chris is one of his favourite opponents, because they know the other so well. However, Chris is also one of his least favourite opponents because beating or losing to your romantic partner can lead to tensions away from the board. This is the first time they’ve had sexual favours on the line during a televised match and Nathan is on edge.
Nathan wins the throw for the darts and starts the match with three legs on the trot. The excitement of winning takes over a bit and Chris wins the fourth leg. Nathan wins another two followed by Chris winning two making the score 5-3 to Nathan. In the final leg Nathan gets down to 69 in 15 darts, Chris misses a 120 check out and Nathan gets the win. As they embrace after the match, Chris whispers into Nathan’s ear.
“Get ready to have your soul sucked out of your body before the semi-final.” Nathan does his best to appear unaffected by the comment as he shakes the officials’ hands and waves at the crowd. As soon as he can, he follows Chris offstage and into what appears to be a janitor’s closet.
“Bit on the nose to be doing this in a closet,” Nathan quips, causing Chris to let out a chuckle.
“Nothing gets me quite as riled up as your perfect observation skills,” Chris responds and pulls Nathan into an aggressive kiss. Chris kisses down Nathan’s jaw and under his Adam’s apple, his hands rubbing rough circles into Nathan’s hips. “ Now for your reward.”