Work Text:
Auston was finishing the last dregs off his iced strawberry matcha and replying to emails when the front door of The Canine Oasis opened with a little ding off the bell.
He glanced up and then kept his head raised to watch as a guy wearing a snapback and bulky sunglasses stepped in tentatively, clearly a new customer. He was wearing nondescript athletic gear and it was hard to tell if he had a nice face, but he was definitely fit. Auston could almost see the outline of his quads through the tight compression leggings.
Auston finished his perving and moved onto customer service.
“Hey,” he said casually. “Welcome to Canine Oasis.”
“Cool name,” replied the guy, flashing a smile that was surprisingly sweet for his general dude-bro vibe. “Respect.”
“Thanks,” replied Auston, and he tossed his empty drink container in the trash. “I’m from Arizona, so it felt, y’know.”
“Huh, yeah,” agreed the guy, like he actually understood Auston’s laconic response. He reached up to take off his sunglasses - a strange choice for Toronto in November - and seemed a little tentative as he levelled his gaze at Auston.
Fuck, he had really pretty eyes. Bright blue with long lashes, and Auston felt himself straightening a bit.
But then he wasn’t sure if he imagined the guy flinch slightly.
“Are you looking for dog care?” Auston asked, because he could be professional and also flirt with hot customers.
“Yeah,” said the guy, looking around again. “Are you the owner or is there…?”
“It’s my place,” smiled Auston, and he added a little bit of flair to, “Best daycare in town, or so all the dogs tell me.”
Hot customer laughed a bit, short and bright. He still seemed tense or nervous, or maybe just awkward, as he walked closer to the counter and glanced at the rate card stuck to it.
“I, um, travel a lot for work,” he explained, fingers fiddling with the edge on the laminated card and now Auston was watching his long, lean fingers and okay, he really needed to get laid. He shouldn’t be getting horny over fingers, even if they’d look really good wrapped around his dick.
“Lots of people do,” nodded Auston. “What’s work for you?”
It was meant to be an ice-breaker, a chance to extend the small talk, but instead he got a flash of wary eyes and the nervous fingers going totally still.
“Sorry,” mumbled Auston, turning back to the computer, “if that was too- yeah, sorry. I can email you a list of our services, or you can find it on the website.”
“I’ve looked at the website,” said hot customer, and his voice was suddenly more cheerful. When Auston glanced back, he found hot customer was smiling at Auston. It felt a little like tripping up the stairs, unexpected and disorientating. “It seemed good, so I thought I’d come down for a tour. I guess I should have called, but it was kinda spur of the moment. I’m Mitch, by the way.”
“Hey Mitch,” nodded Auston, and there was something a bit strange about Mitch, but he was also pretty and seemed easy to talk to. Auston always needed more business. “I can walk you around now, no problems.”
He grabbed a buzzer and a little sign that said “press me to speak to a human”, leaving them on the desk before beckoning Mitch towards the door that led to the rest of the building.
“What’s your name?” asked Mitch, after Auston had unlocked the door and was holding it open for him.
When Auston glanced at him, he was met with a flirty little grin and a playful gaze that made it clear Mitch knew, one, how to flirt, two, was very good at it, and three, had decided to flirt with Auston.
“I’m Auston,” he replied, and he gave Mitch a lazy grin in return.
“Cool,” replied Mitch, and he flicked his eyes shamelessly over Auston before walking through the door.
-
Mitch wasn’t a weekly regular and he must not have a nine-to-five job because he was always dropping his chocolate labrador Zeus off at strange times. Auston lived in a small place out the back of the business, and showed shameless favouritism by taking Zeus home with him when Mitch could only come late into the night to collect him.
“Sorry,” said Mitch, standing in Auston’s driveway and yawning into the hand holding his car keys. “The flight was delayed and then the bags were delayed and I basically want to die.”
“You travel like crazy, man,” Auston said, not for the first time. Mitch’s job must be something fancy to mean so many urgent flights, but Mitch did not seem like the corporate type. He seemed like the barely-employed type, if Auston was being brutally honest, like half his brain was somewhere else. He was always wearing sweats or leggings.
“I’m home for a couple of weeks now,” replied Mitch happily, and he knelt down to scratch over Zeus's ears, nuzzling their faces together. Felix and Rico were watching from the inside doorway, where Auston had the basketball playing while doing a P&L.
He had the urge to ask Mitch to come in and watch the game with him, maybe sneak close together on the couch under the guise of sharing a blanket against the January cold. But Mitch looked exhausted, almost sick with it. Auston should let him go home and sleep.
“Guess I won’t be seeing you for a while then,” commented Auston.
“Well, way to ruin my mood,” grinned Mitch, still down on the ground with Zeus. He was wearing a beanie and a few fluffy brown tufts were sticking out from under it, framing his face.
“You like the hockey?” asked Auston, noticing the Maple Leaf stitched onto the wool for the first time.
He knew literally nothing about hockey, other than the name of the local team that people seemed to get really heated about.
“What?” frowned Mitch, blinking at him in the shadowy lighting from Auston’s porch light. “Why do you say that?”
“The beanie,” explained Auston. It wasn’t his best attempt at flirting, but he’d had a long day and had been staring at Excel for about three hours straight.
“Oh,” laughed Mitch, half reaching up like he was going to touch the logo and then stopping. “Right. Sure, I like the hockey, most of the time. Hey, I keep meaning to ask, how did you end up here anyway, if you’re from Arizona?”
It was impressive that Mitch had remembered from their first conversation, it was the kind of little detail that made Auston almost sure he wasn’t alone in his growing crush.
“Came for a baseball scholarship, stayed for a guy,” replied Auston, and it was strange to condense a very complicated decade of his life into a sentence. The number of times his dreams had changed, morphed or been pulled out from under him. The way he wasn’t even sure if he’d stayed for his boyfriend or he just hadn’t been sure what else to do. The way he missed his family like an ache but going back to them had felt like failing. The crazy idea of looking after dogs that turned into an actual business that might make a profit this year (Excel results pending). “What about you?”
“I’m born and bred GTA,” replied Mitch, but there was a strange heaviness to his voice as he said it. “I’ve never lived anywhere else.”
They briefly hugged goodbye - something Auston didn’t do with his other customers - and Mitch smelt like shampoo and stale airplane air as Auston wrapped him up in his arms. Auston wanted to take his clothes off and lick up the inside his thighs, discover what he actually smelt like, what he tasted like. He didn’t think about that with his other customers, either.
“Bye,” said Mitch as he walked away, Zeus trotting behind him, and Auston waved.
Mitch looked back twice, smiling.
–
It was a random Tuesday when another potential new customer came into The Canine Oasis. Auston had to respect his entire aesthetic - he looked like a movie star or a drug dealer, or something. The white tank with matching double denim and a thick silver chain.
He was ridiculously attractive in a way normal people usually weren’t.
“Hi,” said Auston, and he couldn’t explain why something felt off. “Welcome to Canine Oasis.”
“Great to be here,” said the stranger, zeroing in very quickly on Auston and stepping up to the counter. His confidence was almost off-putting, like this wasn’t a real conversation, and Auston just levelled him with a blank stare while trying to find his mental footing. “You’re Auston?”
“Yes,” replied Auston.
“I’ve got two dogs, you know, Pablo and Banksy,” added the guy conversationally, but his eyes on Auston were much sharper than his tone.
“Okay,” said Auston, not reacting at all. This whole conversation was the opposite of casual. “You can look at the website or I can give you a tour.”
“You look like you work out,” continued the blonde guy, as though Auston hadn’t spoken. He let his eyes fall obviously to Auston’s biceps. “Are you into sports?”
“Sure,” said Auston. Maybe if he just stared at this guy long enough he’d get the message and leave.
“Not a big talker, huh?” laughed the guy, and he was studying Auston like a bug under a microscope.
“You’re doing enough talking for both of us,” replied Auston and his bitchy comment just made the guy laugh more.
“Fair enough,” smiled the guy sweetly. “You know, I get the appeal. I’m going to give you a tick of approval.”
Before Auston could never begin to think what he could reply to such a bizarre statement, the guy was leaving, the bell dinging behind him.
Left behind in the quiet office, Auston glanced around, wondering if there were hidden cameras or something on the walls. It felt like he’d been pranked, but he wasn’t quite sure what the joke was.
–
One day Mitch walked with his hair still damp from the shower and a split lip, along with a bruise on his cheek. Auston was chatting to Marie, who had a corgi named Plum, but he got distracted at the mess of Mitch’s face.
“We loved the paw paintings you did with them last week,” Marie continued, and Auston dragged his attention back to her with some effort. “I’ve framed it on my desk at work, it gets lots of compliments. People keep telling me it looks like the Eiffel Tower, but I tell them Plum has never been to France!”
She laughed and Auston echoed it, even as his eyes kept flicking to Mitch.
“Glad you liked it,” said Auston, handing her the receipt from the credit card machine. “We’re having a fashion parade in a couple of weeks, it’ll be in the newsletter.”
“Exciting!” she smiled, and then when she turned around holding Plum’s lead, she paused at the sight of Mitch.
She didn’t move for a second or two, and Mitch gave her an awkward smile.
“You’ll get them next time,” she said after a moment, tone warm, and then walked out the door while Auston reeled at the unexpected audacity of her speaking to a total stranger about their facial injuries.
“Do you know her?” he checked, frowning.
“Nah,” shrugged Mitch, hand coming up to his face self-consciously. He let out a long sigh. “I forgot they look sort of gnarly.”
“They don’t look good,” agreed Auston, and he winced a little bit inspecting where Mitch’s lip was scabbed and swollen. He did not like blood or anything close to it. “What happened? Are you, like, okay?”
Mitch offered him one of his sweet smiles at that, reaching out to give Auston’s hand a quick squeeze. His hands were cold from the outside chill, but Auston didn’t mind.
“Got smacked in the face at work, accidents happen, y’know? And it was a shit day even before that.”
“Ouch,” winced Auston, and he gazed at Mitch for a few seconds, because he really liked this guy and he was trying to work out the best way to do something about it. “Want to come and see the dogs? When I’m not feeling it I kinda just sit with them and it’s cool.”
Mitch’s whole face lit up, bright and excited, and Auston’s stomach did the same swoop as the first time.
“Yeah! Yeah, dude, I would love to. Is that allowed?”
“Sure, c’mon,” smiled Auston in reply, and he led Mitch out the back, ducking off to ask one of his employees to watch the desk while he took Mitch to the main play room.
They had about twelve dogs that day, in all shapes and sizes. Zeus bounded up to Mitch with his tail wagging like crazy, and then followed as Auston walked Mitch into the sea of dogs and flopped down in the middle. It was a sea of fur and curious noses and wagging tails.
Mitch followed suit, eyes a bit wide as three or four different pups came to sniff at him or try to jump up on him.
“Hey guys,” he beamed, reaching out to pat and scratch, while Auston let the beagle Snoopy step into his lap and take up prime position for Auston to rub at his muzzle as Auston shamelessly stared at Mitch.
His delighted expression as he greeted and patted each dog. The way tension Auston hadn’t even noticed fell away from his shoulders. The swoop of his eyelashes on his cheeks. His giggle when one of the huskies almost knocked him over.
“Do you want to get a drink with me?”
“What?” laughed Mitch, trying to wrestle the husky away, fingers buried in his white fur.
“Do you want to get a drink with me?”
Auston was glad Snoopy was big and solid on his lap, keeping him grounded as he waited for Mitch to reply. He wasn’t the type to get nervous easily, had always been naturally self-assured, but asking someone out was never a relaxing experience.
And Auston had never quite felt about anyone the way he felt about Mitch - amused and protective and needy and drawn to him like a magnet.
“Like…. a date?” said Mitch, finally stilling his movements and focusing in on Auston. His gaze was shrewd, some switch flipped.
“Yeah,” shrugged Auston, and he couldn’t suppress his hopeful smile. “Yeah, like a date. Something with less dogs and more food, or we can bring the dogs. I’m a pretty chill, as long as you’re there.”
Mitch’s lips quirked for a second, like he wanted to smile, but then he exhaled and dropped his eyes.
“I’m sorry, man, I can’t. It’s not that I… I think you know that I like you, but I can’t. I’m sorry.”
“Do you have a boyfriend?” asked Auston. He was would be pissed if Mitch had a boyfriend, because he had been flirting pretty hard with Auston and it felt like bullshit if Mitch had just been fucking with him before going home to another guy.
‘No,” snorted Mitch, almost a laugh. “No, I don’t.”
The heavy, stilted silence between them was filled with the sounds of the dogs breathing and their paws on the ground. Mitch ran a hand through his messy hair, and then dragged himself to his feet.
Auston found that he didn’t want to move. He was clinging to Snoopy a bit, surprised at how humiliated he felt. He had completely underestimated how much his bubbling crush on Mitch had been fueling his mood, making everything seem a little brighter and nicer, and suddenly he was feeling the coldness of rejection in his bones.
“I’m sorry,” mumbled Mitch again, grabbing Zeus's collar to hurry him towards the door.
Auston didn’t move off the ground.
–
February in Toronto was depressing as shit.
Auston worked and went to the gym, and didn’t do much else. He knew that he’d shrug off his Mitch-rejection-induced slump eventually, but every week that he promised himself that he’d do something social or even eat food that wasn’t delivered by Uber, he found that he couldn’t be fucked.
He felt like an idiot. What did he look forward to, before it was the next time Mitch was dropping in? What did he fantasise about before he went to sleep, why did he wear his favourite cute outfits, what made him feel like getting out of bed was worth it?
He was an idiot. He didn’t even know the guy. He had clearly misread the entire thing.
Mitch didn’t bring Zeus in anymore.
–
After nearly a month of being a frankly pathetic excuse for a human being, Auston’s friend Dave asked him out for burgers and Auston said yes.
He firmly told himself this was turning over a new leaf, and he was going to get on Grindr when he got home later to get laid. Getting laid would fix his rut and he could get on with his life, and he wouldn’t think about Mitch’s loud stupid laugh anymore.
The fact that he'd been too miserable to even fuck around was just sad (and very uncharacteristic).
“Hello,” said Dave, who was Czech and Auston had met at university. He nearly had to shout. They were meeting in a sports bar downtown and it was packed full. “I forgot the Leafs are playing.”
“No big deal,” said Auston, taking a big gulp of the beer he’d already ordered. It was loud, but it felt good to be in the middle of people, to remember that the universe existed outside his couch and his bedroom and the dogs. He looked up at the giant television on the wall. “Are they winning?”
“No,” laughed Dave.
They caught up over the buzz and roar of the people around them, and Auston found himself remembering how to be this version of himself, who was catty and playful and didn’t sit around feeling sorry for himself.
“Fuck, Marner is such a bitch,” yelled an older man at the high table next to them, clearly on the messy side of drunk. “Look at him, so fucking soft.”
“Shoot the fucking puck!” yelled another man next to him, as a collective groan went up around the room.
Auston's eyes instinctively flicked to the screen as he raised the end of his third beer to his lips.
He froze.
“If they don’t fucking trade him this year, I swear! He’s just taking us for a ride” said the same drunk man. “He’s probably just there hoping to suck the other guys off, fucking look at him, little fucking princess.”
On the large screen, Mitch was seriously talking to some other hockey players, pointing and then skating off to stand around a circle.
“Aus?” asked Dave, because Auston had been completely ignoring him for at least twenty seconds.
“Who’s that?” asked Auston, but the game had started again and he could barely see the puck, let alone Mitch. “One of the Leafs players, called Mitch?”
“Mitch Marner,” said Dave, and he let out a laugh. “Dude, we’re in Toronto and you’re asking me who Mitch Marner is. That is funny.”
“He’s…” and Auston struggled to pin down what he was trying to ask. “He’s good? He plays for the Leafs?”
“Yes, he’s their best player at the moment, him and Nylander," replied Dave. “He’s, ah, very famous. He’ll play in the Olympics, I think he was on a billboard somewhere when we walked in. Why the sudden interest in Maple Leaf players?”
“Dunno, maybe I’m into hockey now,” said Auston, and his eyes were now locked on the idiot who had been shouting slurs at Mitch on the TV.
Auston had a feeling it was cunts like this guy who had cost Auston a date with the guy of his dreams.
–
Auston did the most unprofessional thing of his life and got Mitch’s phone number from Zeus’s intake form.
He tried calling the next day, but it went to voicemail. Then he texted hi it’s Auston, can we talk and tried calling again. Mitch answered.
“Hey,” he said, sounding a little wary and a little hopeful.
“I found out you’re a hockey player,” said Auston, sitting on his couch and watching the muted highlight video of Mitch flying around the ice like he was magic. “I didn’t realise.”
“Yeah, I got that,” replied Mitch, with a soft little laugh. It sounded like his phone was pressed tight to his ear. “It was nice, that you didn’t know. It meant I knew you actually liked me for me, not for, y’know, all the other stuff.”
“You’re not out,” stated Auston, confirming the obvious.
“Nope,” replied Mitch, popping the ‘p’ a little sadly. “I’d get, like, killed or something. Mostly it’s cool and people are great, but… but there’s some people who are less great. About me, specifically.”
So fucking soft. Little fucking princess.
“So you did want to go out with me, though?” Auston checked, because he just had to be sure. Hearing Mitch’s voice - talking to him again - a month of mental climbing out from the depths of his crush had been wiped away in an instant.
Mitch laughed.
“Of course I want to date you, I’m crazy about you. I’m like, actually crazy about you. Not in a weird way, oh shit, don’t be freaked out, I just mean… I think about you all the time and I wish I could be with you, and do all the dumb romantic corny things and have tons of sex. That sort of crazy.”
“That sounds okay,” replied Auston, trying to keep his voice deadpan and not quite managing it.
“You want to fuck me so bad,” teased Mitch and Auston couldn’t disagree, could only huff out a laugh and imagine burying his face in Mitch’s pale neck and biting down to punish him for being such a smart ass.
“But,” continued Mitch, and all the elation had dropped out of his voice. “I meant what I said, I can’t date a guy. The club would lose their shit, and if anyone found out, it would be, man, it would be really really bad. I don’t want to be the poster guy for homophobic abuse in hockey.”
On the screen, two giant men crushed Mitch between them in a victorious hug, and frankly it all looked a bit gay to Auston, but he supposed the only reason they were so relaxed with each other was because presumed heterosexuality kept them all safe from any uncomfortable questions.
“What if we just did it quietly?” asked Auston, and he hoped that Mitch might be willing to be brave, to give them a shot. “Nothing in public, we hang out with the dogs, we just… we just do our own thing.”
You won’t play hockey forever, he didn’t add. It felt too soon, even if part of Auston was already irrationally sure they could go the distance.
“You don’t deserve to hide because of me,” replied Mitch, but Auston could easily hear it in his voice. He wanted to be convinced.
“I hate people anyway, I’m anti-social,” pushed Auston, and it was mostly true. He’d rather hang around with the people that mattered to him than go out in a crowd of strangers. “You can come home with me over the summer and we can make out in the actual sunshine, and I promise to never ask to come to a game because frankly I don’t give a shit about hockey, and… and we can just make it work. We can at least try.”
Mitch was silent for a beat or two, and Auston tried not to hope too hard.
“Okay,” burst out Mitch, and he let out this little sound that was half a nervous giggle and half a whoop of excitement. “Okay, yeah. Yeah, let’s date. Fuck, let’s date. That’s awesome. Oh my god.”
“Have you ever dated anyone before?” asked Auston, because Mitch sounded almost disbelieving.
“No,” replied Mitch cheerfully. “A few girls just to get people off my back, but not for real. This is going to be great! I’m going to date the shit out of you.”
“Want to come over?” asked Auston. He wouldn’t mind getting started, getting his hands on Mitch, finding out what it feels like to suck off a professional athlete. He was quite sure it was going to be super hot.
“I’m in Minnesota,” replied Mitch, still too excited to sound upset. “I’m back Tuesday. I’ll come over then.”
“Okay,” said Auston, and he was smiling like an idiot. Mitch made him feel like the best sort of idiot. “Tuesday. So, pro sports guy, do you like the Blue Jays?”
“Hell yeah,” replied Mitch, and Auston could hear him shifting around, like he was settling deeper into wherever he was sitting for a long chat. “Tell me all your opinions on them and I’ll tell you my better ones.”
“Damn, no wonder you’ve never dated anyone before,” shot back Auston, swinging his socked feet up onto the couch to stretch out. “So arrogant.”
“It’s not arrogance when you’re just good at shit,” replied Mitch breezily.
It was the sweetest, softest trading of insults Auston had ever taken part in.
“Felix really misses Zeus," murmured Auston after a moment, like the idiot he was.
“Yeah,” replied Mitch softly, and Auston could hear him still smiling. “Zeus really misses him too.”