Dusk Till Dawn
I was gonna post this later but I physically can not wait any longer.
Apologize in advance
CW- death, panic attack, screaming, crying, fighting, accidental slight domestic abuse, self-harm, depression, anxiety, mention of child abuse, food, suicide attempt, hospital, dissociation, grief, hurt, blood, overdose, surgery
Remus didn’t know what to do or how to help.
All he could do was hold Sirius as he kicked and screamed and cried and punched and gasped for air.
“I’m so sorry,” Remus whispered even though he knew his husband wasn’t processing what he was saying. “I’m so sorry.” Tears streamed down his face.
Remus didn’t know how much time had passed since they got the call.
Heart attack.
Overworked with physical activity.
Celeste had called them crying.
It was at least an hour later when Sirius collapsed against him, exhausted from the meltdown.
“It’s gonna be okay.” Remus kissed the top of his head.
“I can’t, Re. Please,” Sirius gasped out quietly. “I can’t.”
“Shh, I know. It’s gonna be okay.” Remus held him tighter.
“I don’t want. I don’t want to.” He sobbed.
Remus had nothing else to say until his phone rang.
“Hey, Logan.” He asked the call.
“Did Celeste tell you?” Logan’s voice was a broken sob.
“Yeah,”
“Okay, uh, is Sirius okay?” He asked.
“Not at all. Are you?”
“No.” He sobbed. “No.”
“Logan I’m so, so fucking sorry.”
Dumo had been a father to everyone on the team but it was different with Sirius and Logan. They had lived with him for years, had breakfast with him in the morning and dinner with him at night, watched TV together, talked to him about what was going on in their lives. He was truly their father.
Even more so for Sirius.
Sirius never understood what a father was supposed to be like until he met Dumo.
He knew they weren’t supposed to hit their kids but he didn’t know that they were supposed to love them.
Dumo was the first person to truly, truly care about him.
Yes, Regulus loved him and cared for him but that was different.
Sirius didn’t know what love was so he ran away from it. Not joining in on dinners, staying in his room, not speaking unless spoken to.
But Dumo never let him get too far. He didn’t push Sirius to join them or talk with him but he didn’t let him think he was alone.
Slowly Sirius stopped trying to escape it and instead started to welcome it.
It still took a while for him to truly open up, but Dumo was always there.
Dumo was always there.
He didn’t leave when Sirius would flinch away from his touch or fast movements or loud sounds.
He didn’t leave when he walked into Sirius’s room while the teenager was having a full-blown panic attack that left him paralyzed.
He didn’t leave when Sirius gave him a black eye because he was trying to wake him up from a nightmare.
He didn’t leave when he saw the bandages.
He never left.
Even when Sirius moved out he was still there.
Remus didn’t know who Sirius would call or what he would do without Dumo.
“Arthur’s gonna call us all in tomorrow and tell the rest of the team.” Logan pulled him back to reality.
“They don’t know?”
“No, uh, Celeste only told me, you, and Arthur.”
“I’ll see how Sirius is but I doubt we’re going to be able to go” Remus looked down at Sirius, who had fallen asleep after exhausting himself.
“Yeah neither of us have to go. I still don’t know if I’m going to.”
“Let me know if you are.”
“I will,” Logan told him. “Alright, um, tell Sirius I’m here if he needs me.”
“I’ll tell him, but know that we’re here for you too.”
“I know.” Logan let out another sob he had been holding in and hung up quickly.
+++
Sirius and Remus stopped when they walked into the conference room.
“Hi,” Celeste sadly smiled at them, obviously exhausted.
“I did-didn’t know you were coming.” Remus stammered.
“I can’t stay long. I just had to come by and help write the statement to give to the league.” Celeste met Sirius’s eyes as she explained.
Sirius quickly looked down at the ground.
“Hey, Sirius.” She said softly.
“I can’t.” He looked up with tears streaming down his face. “Celeste I don’t know- I can’t.”
Celeste wrapped him in her arms as he fell into her sobbing.
“He loved you so much, Sirius. He was so, so proud of you.” Celeste told him as everyone left the room to give them time alone.
“I don’t know what to do.” He pulled away.
“Come talk,” she led him over to the table.
“I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have to deal with me. You should be with your kids.” Sirius wiped his eyes but the tears were still falling.
“You’re my son just like Marc and Louis are. Now talk to me.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.” He admitted.
“What do you feel?”
“I don’t know. I can’t explain it. It’s like I can feel all the emotions but I’m also numb to them but not fully numb because they still hurt.” He sobbed. “Celeste it hurt. It hurts so fucking bad. It hurts.”
“I know it does sweetheart. I know.” She hugged him again.
“I don’t think I can do this.” He shook his head. “I can’t handle this feeling. I need it to stop.”
“Hey, none of that.” She cupped his cheek. “Adele and Katie and Marc and Louis already lost their father, they don’t want to lose their brother too.”
“I don’t want them to but I can’t take this.”
“You can Sirius. You’re strong. It’s going to get better. I know we’re all gonna miss him more than anything. But it will stop hurting so much.”
Sirius could only cling to her and sob.
++++
“Hi, baby.” Remus hugged Sirius as he walked out of the room with Celeste.
Sirius curled into his chest.
“I’m gonna head out,” Celeste told them with a sad smile. “The kids are with their grandparents and the team’s already here.”
They said their goodbyes and walked into the main lounge where half the team was already gathered.
“You okay?” James asked Sirius who could only shake his head and collapsed onto the couch, letting Remus pull him onto his lap.
The previously happy energy in the room dulled as they waited for the rest of the team to trickle in. The energy rose slightly as they cracked jokes to lighten the mood.
“Alright now that you’re all here-”
“Dumo’s not.” Nado pointed out.
“I know,” Arthur said sadly.
“Hey if he gets to skip why couldn’t we?” Kasey protested.
“Make him do extra laps tomorrow,” Thomas told Arthur.
All of their remarks stopped as they looked over at Sirius as he sobbed into Remus’s chest. Logan had his arms crossed on his knees and head buried in his arms his body shook as Leo and Finn rubbed his back.
“Coach why’s Dumo late?” James looked at Arthur. The coach had tears streaming down his face.
“Why is Dumo late?” Kasey asked through clenched teeth.
“Celeste called last night.” He started to explain. “He had a heart attack.”
“No” Thomas shook his head.
“Oh god,” Lily threw her hand over her mouth.
“They tried to bring him-”
“Stop.” James shook his head in shock.
“I’m so sorry.” his voice broke.
The room filled with silent sobs.
“The league’s going to release a statement tonight,” Arthur told them before falling silent, letting them all process the news in silence.
“Celeste wants us to clean out his locker.” He said a few minutes later. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to, she just wants to get everything out of it so she can keep some things. She said you can have anything you want from it.”
The team stood up numbly and walked into the locker room.
“You sure?” Remus asked Sirius as he climbed off his lap. Sirius nodded and grabbed onto his hand.
It was only silent whispers and cries as the team pulled things from his locker and stall.
“Stop,” Remus’s loud voice cut through the silence. “Sirius stop.”
They watched as Sirius punched Remus’s arms that were wrapped tight around his waist to hold him back.
“Let me go.” Sirius snarled, getting lifted off the ground when he tried to kick Remus’s legs. “Let me go.”
“I’m not gonna let you go until you calm down.” Remus held him tight.
Sirius didn’t stop.
The team watched their captain in shock and overwhelming sadness.
“Sirius, you have to stop. You’re going to make yourself sick, baby.” Remus tried to calm him.
Then Sirius is screaming.
Just screams.
And screams and screams.
They’re terrifying sounds. Torturously filled with panic and grief and sadness and desperation and anger and pleas.
He screams until his voice wears out and he can’t fight anymore. He turns around in Remus’s arms and screams with what little voice he has left.
Remus was shaking with sobs as he held his broken husband. Wishing he could fix everything that broke him.
Remus picked Sirius up as his knees gave out and carried him out of the locker room. Leaving everyone in silence.
++++++
It didn’t truly hit Remus until the league released a statement.
Then it hit hard.
They had breaking news on all the sports channels to explain his death and what it meant for the team.
Once the tweets started he made sure Sirius was still asleep after exhausting himself from breakdowns last night and quietly left the bedroom.
As soon as he stood in front of the sink he started shaking.
Moments later it all hit.
He sank against the wall with silent sobs.
He had lost people before, his grandpa, an uncle, but he wasn’t close with them.
He was close with Dumo.
Hell, he’s the reason he’s married to the love of his life.
His first thought when they got the call was Sirius.
And that’s who he had focused on since the call.
All the effort it took for him to try and be there for his husband, left little time to think about anything else.
But Sirius was asleep and all the tweets he was being tagged in that told him that they were sorry for his loss. Now he could process it.
He cried for Dumo, and Celeste, and Adele, Marc, Louis, Katie, the team, the fans, Logan, Sirius.
He cried for all of them.
He cried until he felt someone sit down beside him and pull him into their chest.
He was going to apologize for waking Sirius but his mind was racing too fast and all he could do was let Sirius hold him and cry.
+++3 Days Later+++
“Sirius?” Remus shot up as he felt the empty bed beside him. “Sirius?”
He ran out of the room calling his husband’s name with no response and, fuck, this wasn’t good.
“Sirius? Sirius.” Remus stopped as he looked into the ice rink in their basement.
Sirius was shooting pucks into the goal. Each shot more forceful and more powerful than the last.
“Baby,” Remus called out, getting his attention. But the black-haired man just shook his head after making eye contact. And went back to hit the black rubber.
“Baby.” He called out again. “Come back to bed. Please love?”
Sirius dropped his stick and stood in the center of the ice panting.
Remus could see the tears now that he was standing still. He was wearing simple grey sweatpants that he had stolen from Remus. But his heart jolted when he saw the hoodie.
It was Dumos lucky hoodie.
As much as the older man said superstitions were stupid, he never played a game without wearing it.
The once bright blue fabric was now a dull blue-grey color.
The red letters barely readable after too many washes.
The small New York Rangers logo was only noticeable if you knew it was there before.
The team always chirped at him for wearing it. “That’s betrayal, Dumo.”
Celeste had given it to Sirius earlier but he had refused to even touch it until now.
Sirius skated over to the side and took off his skates quickly before pushing past his husband.
“Sirius” Remus followed him up the stairs. “Hey, stop.” He grabbed his arm.
“Leave me alone.”
“Sirius calm down.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” Sirius seethed and hit his hand away.
“Calm down and I won’t have to tell you to.”
“I fucking hate you.” Sirius gritted his teeth and pushed Remus in the chest.
“Don’t push me,” Remus told him firmly.
“I don’t know why I married you.” He pushed him again, with more force as tears streamed down his face.
“Stop pushing me.”
“I hate you.” He pushed him hard, Remus’s back hitting the wall.
“Sirius don’t fucking push me.”
“I HATE YOU.” He screamed and raised his fist.
“Don’t you dare,” Remus grabbed his hand before it could connect with his face before grabbing the other and holding them in a restraint. “You can scream and cry and tell me you hate me or that you don’t love me all you want, I’m not gonna stop you.” He told him firmly. “But I am never going to let you hit me.”
Sirius seemed to snap out of his trance and collapsed into Remus. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. Please, I didn’t mean to. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He sobbed and screamed.
“I know. I know you’re sorry. I know you didn’t mean to but no matter how angry you are, you can’t physically hurt me, or someone else, or yourself.” Remus held him.
Sirius could only sob.
“This doesn’t mean you’re your parents, Sirius.” Remus could read his mind. “Your parents hit for no reason. You tried to hit me because you’re angry and scared and devastated and so many other emotions that you don’t know how to handle.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
“No, it doesn’t make it okay. But there was still an understandable reason for it, meaning you aren’t your parents.”
“I didn’t- know- I- was- do-doing-ing it,” He gasped. “I don-don-t know-why- I- di-did- i-i-it-t-it.” He was hyperventilating at this point. His knees gave out and dragged both of them to the floor.
“You need to take deep breaths for me, baby. You’re going to pass out if you don’t slow your breathing down.” He kissed his forehead. “Try and match your breathing with mine.” He put Sirius’s hand over his chest.
Sirius choked and gasped for a few minutes before sobbing. “I-I can’t.”
“I know it’s hard but you’ve got to try my love. Breath with me okay.” He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. Repeating it until Sirius started to follow his rhythm.
“Good job baby.” He kissed his forehead again as his breathing slowed.
“I don’t know why I did it.” He hiccuped slightly.
“Baby you grew up in a world where abuse was a sign of emotion. If your parents were angry they hit. If they were disappointed they hit. If they were hurt they hit. You learned that if you’re hurting you make others hurt. Not verbally like some people do but physically. That’s what you had always known and accepted. And yes you aren’t controlled by their tactics anymore but your mind still remembers those lessons that you didn’t even know you learned.” Remus rubbed his back and rocked him slightly as he explained.
“Right now you are hurting more than you ever have before. And you are devastated and panicked and angry. And those are all normal and perfectly okay to feel. But your mind doesn’t know what to do with this level of emotions so it goes through everything that has happened when you felt these emotions until it thinks it’s found a way to get rid of them. In your mind anger had always and only meant pain and hurt. It’s not your fault baby. It’s not. But we’re gonna have to figure out a way to stop your mind from thinking that.”
“I’m still sorry.”
“I know you are. And just because it’s not your fault and that it’s not really you that’s doing it, does not mean I’m going to allow you to hurt yourself or someone else.”
“I’m so sorry.” Sirius sobbed again.
++++++++ 2 months later ++++++++
“And with 5 minutes left of practice, they come calling.” Arthur pulled out his ringing phone. “Hey, Loops.” He put the man on speaker. “Where are you?”
“The uh, um,” He sounded dazed and disoriented.
“Remus? Are you okay?” Arthur asked.
“Hospital. At the hospital.”
“What? Why?” James asked.
“Sirius, he, he, uh, ki- tried, cut. He tried to ki, ki-” He couldn’t finish the sentence.
“Oh god,” Leo breathed.
“Is he okay?” Logan asked.
“They pu-pumped his stomach.” He trailed off.
“Remus?” Arthur asked after a short stretch of silence.
“Sorry. He’s in surgery, on his, uhm, wrist. Was too deep.”
The team all stood in shock.
“Do you want us to be there?” Arthur asked him.
“Please.” Remus gasped.
“Okay. Yeah, we’ll be there soon. Do you need anything?”
“Clothes. There’s blood. Clothes?”
“Yeah someone will grab you a change of clothes.”
“In bag. Locker. Sirius’s. Clothes.” Remus seemed to be getting more and more disoriented.
“Alright, we’ll bring them,” Arthur told him as Finn dug through Sirius’s bag and pulled out a change of clothes.
“Okay.”
“We’ll be there soon.”
“Okay.” Remus hung up.
“Fuck” James collapsed into his best friend’s stall, sobbing.
+++++++
“Oh, shit” Kasey breathed when they turned the corner into the waiting room.
There was blood on Remus’s clothes.
Sirius’s blood was on Remus’s clothes.
“Hey, Loops.” Finn walked in and handed him the bag of spare clothes to change into.
“Hmm?” Remus blinked. “Oh, thank you.” He took the bag from him and stood up.
“Woah,” Finn caught him as he staggered. “You okay?”
“Fine.” Remus stood up and tripped out of the room on shaky legs.
He took one look in the mirror and ripped off his clothes, chucking them in the garbage. Quickly putting on the clean clothes that smelled like his lover, and started to wash the blood off his arms.
He scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed until he felt the faucet turn off and the soap taken out of his hands.
“It’s off, Fruit Loops,” Thomas told him softly.
“I’m gonna lose him. I’m gonna lose him.” Remus whispered around the sob stuck in his throat.
“No, you’re not. You’re not gonna lose him. We’re not gonna lose him.” Thomas said firmly. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Sorry.” He ran a hand through his hair.
“No need to apologize.”
“Um, thanks for, you know, coming to check on me.”
“I got your back Loop, we all do.” Thomas threw an arm around Remus, in support and to keep him upright, as they walked back to the waiting room.
“Remus.” Lily was there when they walked back in. “God I’m so sorry.”
Remus let her pull him into a hug and sobbed into her neck.
++++++++
Remus looked up when someone new walked into the waiting room.
“Hey,” He stood up as Celeste hugged him.
“How is he?” She asked when he pulled away, tears streamed down her face.
“I don’t know. Last thing they said was that he was in surgery.”
“What happened?” She asked softly as they sat down.
Remus let out a sob. “It’s my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” Celeste told him along with the rest of the team.
“It is. I knew something was off. I knew something was wrong.” Remus couldn’t hold back his sobs any longer.
“When he woke up he said he was going to get a drink but was going to come back to bed and I fell back asleep for a few minutes and he wasn’t back so I went to the bathroom cause the light was on but the door was locked and he wasn’t answering and I kicked down the door and he was pale and he wasn’t moving and the cuts kept bleeding and they wouldn’t stop. I tried to stop it but I couldn’t. They wouldn’t stop bleeding. There was so much blood and he wasn’t breathing. I couldn’t stop the bleeding.” He was hysterical by the end. Celeste pulled him into her arms and shushed him softly. “He had no pulse. He was dead. He kept dying in the ambulance. He wouldn’t stop dying.”
Celeste squeezed the distraught man until he calmed down.
“Fuck, sorry.” Remus pulled away and wiped his eyes. “I don’t know why I freaked out like that.”
“Remus, your husband is in the hospital. You’re allowed to freak out.” Arthur told him.
Everything stopped as the doctor walked in.
+++++
Remus’s breath hitched as he stood in the doorway of Sirius’s stale hospital room.
His husband looked up at the noise.
“I’m sorry,” Sirius gasped. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, my love.” Remus rushed over to Sirius and leaned his forehead against the others.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” The distraught man kept repeating as tears fell fast.
“I love you. It’s okay. I love you. It’s okay.” Remus cupped his cheek and cried along with him.
“I’m sorry.” Sirius couldn’t stop repeating.
“Shh, shh. Don’t apologize. Baby, please don’t apologize.” Remus pressed his lips to his husband’s forehead, letting his lips linger on the warm skin.
Sirius’s words slowly and quietly faded out until only sobs left his mouth.
Remus pulled away and sat on the edge of the bed. He took Sirius’s hand lightly and tried as hard as he could to ignore the white bandages wrapped around his wrists.
They sat in silence as Remus rubbed soothing circles on the back of his hand.
“Please say something,” Sirius pleaded.
“I thought I lost you,” Remus whispered.
“I'm sorry,” Sirius’s voice was worn out.
“I thought you died.” He gritted his teeth. “And I didn’t know what I was going to do. I didn’t know if I was going to live while you weren’t.”
“Please, please don’t say that,”
“It’s the truth, Sirius. You don’t want to live without Dumo and I don’t want to live without you,”
Sirius stayed silent.
“I have never felt so purely hopeless than I felt when I was in that bathroom. There was nothing I could do.”
“I’m so sorry I’m putting you through this.”
“Stop apologizing,” Remus begged.
“It was so stupid of me but I didn’t know what else to do.”
“I was two feet away. You promised you would come to me when you felt like this.”
“I didn’t want you to be mad at me.” Sirius wouldn’t meet his eye.
“What?” Remus breathed out. “Baby why would I be ma- have I done anything to make you think I would be mad?”
Sirius shook his head and stared down at his lap.
“Sirius, please. What did I do?”
“Nothing I promise that you didn’t do anything.” Sirius met his eye and looked back down.
“I will never. Ever. Be mad at you about something like this.”
“I’m sorry,” Sirius whispered. “I’m sorry.”
Remus pulled him into his arm, praying that he would never have to let go.
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Coast To Coast
Hi Hazelnuts!! The final chapter of Coast To Coast! The technical end of the SW universes. I can’t even believe it. Thank you all so much for loving these three boys--and all of my OCs. When I first started writing Sweater Weather, I didn’t expect people to care about the rest of the team. I am so thankful that you do. From me, Leo, Logan, and Finn, thank you, thank you, and bitch ass moves.
Love, Haz
part ix
tw: brief minor panic attack
Finn could relive it when he closed his eyes.
They’d ducked into a dark room at Hogwarts stadium, empty save for some spare equipment. The noise had been loud even from within, or maybe it just rang in Finn’s ears. He’d hoisted the Cup. They’d won on home ice. He’d pressed his lips to Logan and Leo’s cheeks out there—and some others, for good measure—and now all he wanted was to do this. Finn had not so much gotten his breath back before he had been kissing them. He could feel Leo and Logan, their hands gripping his uniform just as tightly as he held theirs.
“The Conn Smyth,” Finn remembered saying into Logan’s mouth. The kisses had been beyond sloppy, and Finn had everything. The Cup. Logan. Leo.
He had everything. Right then, he didn’t even mind that no one knew it. He knew it. His family knew it. The people that mattered knew it.
Leo’s mouth had dragged up Logan’s neck and met Finn’s in an effort to kiss Logan, too.
“Hat trick,” Leo said. Leo had stripped himself of his goalie pads, and knelt, right there on the rough carpet, long legs jammed between Logan and the door. He had pushed Logan against the shelves and undone Logan’s pants, pulling his jock aside and his spandex, getting at his cock. Logan was already a little hard when Leo took him in his mouth, nose bumping the swell of his jock. When he moved, his jersey rustled against his padded pants, mixing with Logan’s breathing. Logan leaned into Finn’s side, a moan punching out of his mouth.
“Leo—”
“Shh, baby,” Finn said, and turned Logan’s head so that he could kiss him, mumbling into his mouth. He reached down to cup his balls, thumb stroking Leo’s lip. “Kiss me now.”
Logan did, Finn silencing his sounds. Their fingers were tight in Leo’s hair.
Logan had been shaking a little under their mouths. He was half-laughing, half-panting, green eyes bright and pupils blown. He’d whined low in his throat as he came, as they both kissed his neck, fingers in their damp hair. His skin had tasted like the champagne from the locker room, and when Finn kissed Leo, Leo’s mouth had, too—from drinking it out of the Stanley Cup.
The Cup.
There had been Pascal’s, too, and kisses without having to hide, and clinging clothes in the pool. And then they were home, alcohol filtering out of their systems and still wide awake, at four in the morning, stripping off their clothes for a hot shower. And everything had lulled. Finn thought about Logan’s head on his chest, Leo’s, from behind him, on his shoulder. The hot water pounding around them.
Finn blinked away from the memory and back to the warm light of their bathroom, where he was sitting on the counter now, Gryffindor turned to summer outside and Leo between his legs.
“Hold still,” Leo said.
“I’m trying,” Finn said. He tapped his heels against the back of Leo’s knees. “Logan’s making me laugh, yell at him.”
Logan held up his hands, one holding his phone. “What? I’m just standing here.”
Leo ducked closer, his fingers gentle on Finn’s jaw as he carefully scraped the last of Finn’s stubble away. Finn hummed when Leo wiped the last of the shaving cream with a warm towel.
“There,” Leo ran a hand over Finn’s jaw. “Done.”
“Perfect, should I do you now?” Finn grinned, moving his hands to Leo’s ass. “Oh, wait—”
Leo flicked Finn’s freshly shaven cheek.
“—Baby face.”
“Lo, you’re up,” Leo mocked glared and Finn laughed, pulling him in closer.
“I like baby face,” Finn said, and made a show of biting at the skin of Leo’s jaw with a growl.
“Don’t turn him on,” Logan said, shoving at Finn. “I want this thing off of my face.”
“I’m a little turned on,” Leo said.
Finn kissed Leo’s neck twice before sliding off of the counter, letting Logan take his place.
“That was so hot,” Finn said.
“What?” Leo said, spreading cream onto Logan’s cheeks.
“I don’t know, everything.” The equipment closet, the bathroom at Dumo’s, getting home to their bed. “I was just thinking about the Cup night. It was pretty fucking perfect.”
“Just think about when we have the Cup,” Logan said.
Leo shook his head as he tilted Logan’s chin up with his fingers. “I don’t even want to think about what the thing has been through, it is not going in our bed.”
“We can clean it before,” Finn said and Leo just scoffed.
“When does your plane leave tomorrow?” Logan asked, messing with a piece of Leo’s hair.
“Pretty early,” Leo started on Logan’s other cheek. “I’ll leave for the airport at seven. What about you guys?”
“I go to New York on Thursday, my Cup day is on Friday,” Finn said, looking up as he remembered. “And then I’ll meet Lo at Harvard.” He grinned. “And then we’ll meet you in good o’l New Aw-leens after that for your Cup day, and then to Canadia for Tremzy.”
Logan snorted. “Canadia?”
“I always want to say that because of Canadian. America gives you Americans, but Canada doesn’t give you Canadans.”
“You’re so weird.”
“Shaving cream always looks like it would taste good,” Finn continued, as if he didn’t hear Logan. He reached out and swiped a finger along Logan’s jaw, gathering some of the white foam. “But it really doesn’t.”
“I could try doing it with whipped cream,” Leo said.
Logan just looked between them, bewildered. “Just get this thing off.”
Seeing Leo’s bags by the door did something to Finn’s chest. He knew exactly where he was going, and knew he was coming back, but it caused a thin string of worry to begin to unspool itself in his chest. Hockey wasn’t the securest job in the world, and he knew they were all highly valued by the Lions—they had just won a Cup—but still. Finn worried. He would always worry, especially now. He was in love now. He was locked in.
Leo looked up from counting through his wallet, ID, and printed out ticket.
“Alright,” he smiled. “See you there?”
“Call us when you land,” Logan said. “You have to call us when you land or else I’m gonna, like…”
“He’ll freak out,” Finn said.
Logan smushed Leo’s cheeks with his hands. “I’ll freak out.”
“I’ll text you before the wheels even hit the ground,” Leo said, leaning down for a kiss. “How’s that, Lo?”
Logan leaned into Leo’s body, into the kiss, and Finn loved that. “Okay.”
When the door shut behind him, Logan sighed. “I’m going to be all alone in this apartment until my flight.”
Finn smiled, wrapping his arms around Logan from behind. “That’ll be, like, four hours.”
“Still.”
Finn’s hands traveled down to below Logan’s sweatpants band. He was still warm from being in bed, from taking Leo’s cock that morning. “At least you have something to think about until we’re together again. And then we’ll give Nut something to think about until we get to Louisiana.”
It made Logan smile. “Yeah…”
“Come help me pack,” Finn said and kissed Logan’s neck.
“You suck at packing.”
“I know, that’s why I need help.”
Finn laughed when Logan groaned, but followed him into the bedroom.
~
They were bringing the Cup back to Harvard. Finn had spent the majority of his day with the Cup in New York City. His parents were there, and Alex, and there was a parade. He’d wanted his boys with him, though. And now Logan was here, waiting for him in the summer night heat in front of an already rowdy OKN that was anticipating the Cup’s arrival.
The last time Finn had stood in this driveway, Logan had said goodbye. Finn had pulled over the second he had gotten off of campus because he couldn’t see. Standing there, in front of their old house and holding the Cup, the flashbacks of sitting and crying with his forehead against the steering wheel, feeling like his lungs were trying to burn up, wasn’t exactly welcome.
“Mon coeur,” Logan whispered as he approached Finn. He clapped a hand on Finn’s shoulder, a perfectly friendly gesture to any onlookers who couldn’t feel the way his fingers slipped beneath the neck of Finn’s t-shirt. “I know.”
Finn looked at him, flexing his fingers against the Cup’s rim. “I love you, Lo.”
Logan was wearing one of his old Harvard hats, flipped backwards. He had a gray t-shirt on and black shorts that cut just above his knee. His Nikes were ones that he’d had since Freshman year. He looked just like he had then. He looked just as he had when Finn couldn’t have him.
“I love you,” Logan said now.
Most of their old teammates were there, having traveled back just for this, and were already well on their way to drunk. Finn forced himself to push the feelings aside—he was used to doing that in this house. He raised the Cup above his head and shouted along with the rest of them, with Logan. Finn could hear his own heart more than he could hear the shouts of welcome and elation. He could feel the sweat beading down his back and temples more than he could register himself setting the Cup down on a high table, among beer cans. Most of the guys here wouldn’t dare touch it out of bad luck, but they started up a round of We Are The Champions anyway. Finn felt too hot and too cold all at once, looking around at the familiar house. Logan was shaking people’s hands, people were shaking Finn’s hand, and clapping him on the back. He walked around and he was smiling, and laughing. He was handed a drink, and then another, and he was cracking jokes to make others laugh. And something felt like it was blocking part of his throat. What air he could draw was clammy. He had lost Logan about an hour in. The Cup was gleaming on its card table pedestal. It looked too bright. Everything looked a little too bright. He put his drink down.
“Where are the drinks at?” he asked a sandy-haired guy. He needed water.
“Kitchen, man,” the guy grinned. “Knock yourself out, you deserve it.”
Finn looked for Logan, but still didn’t see him.
“Thanks,” he said instead.
The kitchen was only more shouts and bodies, more back slaps. It felt even hotter with the sun completely gone outside, like there was nothing except this house, nothing except this feeling. Most people were too drunk to really talk to him, though. There were girls, too. Girls kissing his cheeks, their hands on the back of his neck—
And there was Logan. He had a bottle of rum in one hand, in the middle of pouring it over some coke and ice, and there was a girl pressed along his side. She had her hand on his chest, twisting his fleur-de-lis pendant in her fingers. Finn could see plainly that Logan was carefully trying to extract his body from hers. He had that slight smile on his face that he got when he was uncomfortable. He set the bottle down when he finished pouring his drink and stepped away, willing to talk, but that was all. There would be pictures, probably.
Finn remembered seeing Logan kissing a girl. He remembered a mouth against his own neck while he watched, and then Logan’s mouth against his, for the first time. He remembered Logan leaving, and he remembered going to sit in the car, waiting for him to come out—and sitting in the pulled over car, leaving Logan for Gryffindor, his stomach churning, memories blurring, he wanted him and he couldn’t have him and Logan said no—
Finn stumbled back a step just as Logan looked up. Harz. Finn watched Logan’s mouth say the word, but he couldn’t hear him. Finn turned, walking until he found a dark hallway, somewhere near the back of the house with the trash bins and dusty cleaning supplies. His fingers were shaking as he took out his phone. It only rang twice.
“Leo?”
“Hi, Harz,” Leo said. “Sheesh, big party, huh? I didn’t know college parties actually sounded like that.”
“I—” Finn wiped sweat from his forehead, pushing his hair back. He sort of wondered if he was going to pass out.
“Finn?” Leo said, more carefully this time.
“Leo—”
“Hey, sweetheart, hey, what’s wrong?”
Finn blew a breath out, glancing around the corner to make sure he was still as alone as he could get before ducking his head to his chest. “I don’t know. I don’t know what’s wrong, I should be having fun. I tried to have fun.”
“Okay,” Leo said. The music was making his voice hard to hear. “That’s okay, is Lo with you?”
“Yeah,” Finn rasped. “I mean, no—I mean, he’s here somewhere.”
“Can you find Lo and then somewhere quiet for a second?”
“What the fuck is wrong? I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong, Harz, I think—I think it’s just tough on you being back at that house. I was thinking it might be, actually.”
“The house,” Finn repeated.
“Yeah,” Leo said. “Finn, I really want you to find Logan, okay? Logan can help you better than I can right now. Especially now. Okay, sweetheart?”
“Sorry, Knutty, you’re—” Finn dug his fingers into his eyes. “You’re with your family—”
“No, no, no,” Leo said. “I love you. Love you so much. Call me always, okay?”
“Okay,” Finn said. “I’m—”
“Harzy?”
Finn looked up. Logan was standing there, green eyes bright from the street lamps outside.
“Finn, ça va?”
“Lo’s here now,” Finn said into the phone. “Bye, Nut. Love you. Call you later.”
“Love you,” Leo said, and then hung up.
“It was Nut,” Finn said. He swallowed over his dry throat and shoved his phone back into his shorts. He pointed to Logan’s drink. “Can I have some of that?”
Logan glanced behind them, but the hallway was empty. He walked forward and handed Finn the plastic cup, hand between his shoulder blades.
“Harz…” Logan’s voice shifted into concern. “You’re burning up, what’s—”
Finn took a long swallow. It was all too sweet. “I’m just—it’s hot. I’m really thirsty.”
“Let me get you water,” Logan said. “Stay here, don’t move.”
Finn barely had time to set the cup down before Logan was back, cracking open a bottle of water for him. It was slick with condensation, and Logan held it to his lips when it nearly slipped out of Finn’s hand.
“Your heart’s pounding,” Logan said, hand still between Finn’s shoulder blades.
“I don’t know,” Finn said, and finished half of the bottle in one go. Logan’s thumb caught a drop from the corner of his mouth.
“What can I do?”
Finn let his head thunk back against the wall. “I don’t know.”
“Okay,” Logan said. “Okay…”
“I’m…” Finn began. He was sorry, he knew he was freaking Logan out. He could see it on his face.
Logan shook his head a little, but was quiet. He moved his palm from Finn’s back to Finn’s neck. It was cool from the water bottle and Finn rolled into it. He looked at Logan, and then reached forward and took the Harvard hat from his head. It made his hair fall forward, dusting gently near his eyes. It eased Finn’s heart.
“I need to breathe,” Finn said, and Logan seemed to know what he meant.
They were suppose to go to the roof. Finn needed air, he needed to not be in this stuffy house anymore, as seeped in hard memories as the carpet probably was in alcohol. But they both paused at the top of the stairs. The door to Logan’s old room was ajar, the one he’d had as a Junior. The year Finn had left.
“I asked about it,” Logan said hoarsely into the silence. “What’s-his-face said the guy living here’s abroad this semester.”
Finn could only nod.
The music from downstairs seemed far away as they walk inside. The bed was in the same place. The dresser, everything. There was the same metal trash bin. The whiteboard above the desk had never even been erased. It still had some guy’s schedule across it. Finn remembered the flight scheduled for Thanksgiving that he always chirped Logan for never erasing.
Finn turned away and only barely quieted the first breath of tears. They surprised him as much as a trip and a fall would.
“Finn,” Logan’s voice came out pained. “Finn…”
“Sorry,” his breaths were hitching too fast for his words. “It’s just a lot—like, looking,” he gestured vaguely to the bed where he’d held Logan for what had been the last time for a long time. A long time. “Looking at it all. Fuck, sorry.” Finn pressed his hand over his eyes, his other arm going around his stomach.
Logan was there in a moment, though, pulling his hands away from him, like tearing a wall down, and he held Finn tightly, pressed up on his toes to wrap his arms around him. Finn clutched him, crying into his neck.
“Lo.”
“I’m sorry,” Logan was crying, too. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”
“You don’t have to,” Finn began, but he really couldn’t speak. He could feel himself shaking only because Logan was so steady in that moment.
“Yes,” Logan said. “Yes, I do.” Logan pulled back, hands slipping to Finn’s neck and jaw. “I knew you were hurting. And you were hurting more than I was because you were okay with what you wanted. I wasn’t. I—on the phone, after you got to Gryffindor, you were crying.”
Finn shook his head, not to say no, or stop, but just against the onslaught of memories. They ached.
Logan wiped his eyes on his sleeve and then his hands were gentle on Finn again, wiping his wet cheeks. “I knew you were, and I didn’t say anything. I didn’t do anything.”
“It’s—”
“It’s not okay,” Logan said fiercely, then pressed forward and kissed Finn quickly. “It’s not okay. You never stopped being my best friend. Not for a second, and I should have been there, even if it was only as that. We should have talked. Like you wanted to. And I’m—” Logan’s voice broke. “Finn…”
~
Finn’s contact photo was one that Logan had taken of him secretly. In it, Finn was reading, slouched in a library chair across the table from him, his glasses on and his hair messy from a long bus ride, coming home from an away game. Logan had acted like he was on his phone, and snapped the picture, blushing despite himself.
Logan loved that picture.
Now, he could barely look at it.
It popped up, along with Finn’s name.
Call me when you get there. Logan wished he’d never said that. He took his headphones off and pushed his laptop screen down. And stared at his phone. It rang again, and again, and then Logan jolted and picked it up.
He opened his mouth to say something and froze again, breathing through his heartbeats. Maybe it wasn’t Finn, maybe he just wished it was and some robot spam voice was going to—
“Lo?”
Finn.
“Hello?” Logan managed, which was stupid, as if he didn’t know who it was. That was not how he answered Finn’s phone calls, ever.
“Hey, Lo,” Finn’s voice sounded soft, and so tired. “I’m at the hotel. In Gryffindor.”
“You made it.”
There was another handful of painful seconds, then, “Yeah.”
“Yeah,” Logan breathed. “Yeah, good. Good.”
“Meeting some of the guys tomorrow.”
Logan nodded, eyes staring. “They’ll—love you.” The words choked him.
Finn didn’t respond for a long time, but Logan knew he was still there by his breathing. It was…it was like—
“Yeah,” Finn said, finally, and his voice was raspy, barely there. There was a sharp sound of breath.
Finn was crying.
“Yeah, it’s good,” Finn said again, and it was muffled, like he had a hand over his mouth.
Logan had a sudden, horrible image of Finn sitting in a hotel room, all alone, hunched over at the end of a cold bed, cheeks flushed beneath his freckles from tears, hand locked over his mouth so Logan wouldn’t hear.
Logan threw his hat off and pushed his hair off his forehead. He felt too warm. He needed to respond. They were just sitting there, on two ends of an invisible line.
“Tremz—” Finn started, and then there was another rush of breath through the speaker, like Finn couldn’t finish the sentence.
And Logan was still stuck, listening. He couldn’t listen to Finn cry. He couldn’t do it.
“Tell me what Black is like,” Logan said. “Call me later, if you want—” Logan clamped his mouth shut, briefly closing his eyes. “I—I’m really proud of you. You know that, though.”
Finn was really, really quiet then, like he’d pull the phone away entirely. Logan put a palm over his eyes. His head hurt. His chest hurt.
“Yeah,” Finn said. “Okay.”
“Bye, Harzy.”
There was an exhale that maybe had a goodbye in it somewhere, and then the line went dead.
Logan lowered his phone from his ear and stared at the screen. The call had lasted all of five minutes.
He clicked it off, closed his computer, and curled into his bed. He fell asleep, finally, with the lights still on.
~
Logan was stroking his hand through the back of Finn’s hair gently. Finn’s breathing had calmed, but he didn’t hold Logan any less tight, bent to tuck his face against Logan’s neck.
“I love you,” Logan whispered. “I loved you then and I love you now.”
Finn whispered it back.
“I’m sorry I pretended. I was scared.”
“I know. I was scared, too,” Finn replied.
He straightened, then, and looked at Logan. His head hurt a little, but he felt clearer. Logan looked ready to pull him back in again, and Finn would have let him—if they were really alone.
“Come to me tonight, okay?” Finn said. His nose was a little stuffed up from crying. “At the hotel. After we’re alone, and we’ll call Peanut, and just—sleep next to me.”
Logan nodded. As if he could do anything else.
“What do you want to do now?” Logan asked.
Finn sniffed, wiped his red eyes, but smiled. “Let’s go downstairs. We have the Cup, and…despite it all, this is where I found one of the loves of my life.”
Logan smiled and let Finn kiss him slowly.
“Let’s go enjoy this.”
“Finn,” Logan said before they left the room. “Tell me if you want to talk about it. Ever. Tonight. I will, I’ll talk about it with you. I don’t want you to feel what you just felt downstairs.”
Finn turned back around and took Logan’s face in his hands, kissing him soundly. “I don’t think that was about you. I think that was about me. You hurt me, and I hurt you,” Finn softened the words with another kiss. “But now we’re what helps each other. Yeah? Some people aren’t that lucky.”
Logan nodded. “Yeah.”
~
Logan knocked on Finn’s door about ten minutes after they had arrived at the hotel. It opened to reveal Finn wearing a gray Gryffindor t-shirt and sweatpants. Logan stood in the doorframe for a minute, socked-toes digging into the hotel carpet.
Finn stepped aside, closed the door once Logan had stepped in, and Logan tucked his fingers up and under Finn’s shirt, resting his cheek against his chest.
“Oh,” Finn laughed a little. “Hi.”
“They have video games on this TV.”
Finn scratched Logan’s scalp lightly, his other hand resting on his hip. “I’d own you, but you’re tired.”
“Non.”
Finn chuckled. “I can hear it in your voice.”
“You smell good.”
“Me?”
Logan nodded. “Like you.”
Finn rested his cheek in Logan’s hair. “I hope that’s a good thing.”
“It is,” Logan said. “Let’s call Nut.”
When Leo answered the phone, he was somewhere noisy, but he smiled when he saw the two of them sprawled out.
“Hey, baby,” Finn said. “Partying it up?”
Leo looked between the two of them knowingly and smiled. “I’m glad you two talked.”
Finn laughed. “How’d you know?”
“Logan’s got that look. It’s basically his I-just-scored-a-goal look, but it goes for this, too.”
Logan rested his head on Finn’s shoulder. “How are you?”
Leo looked around. “Good. Just at a family get-together. Eating, celebrating,” he tilted his head in the way Logan loved. “Missing my lover boys. Especially now that I’ve seen you. How are you?”
“Our party was…intense,” Finn wrapped an arm around Logan and kissed his temple. “We’re glad to be chilling, I think.”
Logan nodded, palm over Finn’s heart. “We miss you.”
“We really miss you.”
Leo pushed a hand through his hair. “Well, text me, okay? After you’ve,” Leo snorted. “consummated the hard talk.”
Logan laughed loudly, jostling Finn. He couldn’t deny that Leo was right. Logan needed that closeness right now. And by the way Finn held him closer at the words, he thought Finn did, too.
“Not during,” Leo said. “As much as I want it, I’m surrounded by cousins and shit right now.”
“If you’re sure,” Finn grinned.
Leo opened his mouth to respond, when the camera was yanked away from them to reveal a smiling Eloise Knut.
“Hi, boys! Oh, aren’t you two cozy.”
“Hi, Eloise,” Logan smiled. “Ça va?”
“Honeys, we’re so excited to have you coming to stay with us. Leo’s glaring at me for the phone.”
Finn laughed. “We’re excited, too.”
The screen was pulled back to Leo. He was closer now, and half-whispering a rush of words. “Okay, I love you, text me, feel free to send me pictures later, I’ll be all alone in my room.”
Finn touched his fingers to the phone camera, as if to touch Leo. “Love you, Butter.”
“Can’t wait to see you,” Logan leaned in close to the camera. “You look tan already. Fuck.”
Leo grinned, dropped a devastating wink, and hung up.
Finn set his phone down on the bedside table and looked at Logan. They were both quiet for a minute. The overhead light buzzed a little, but other than that, it was just them.
“Should we be cheesy and order champagne?” Finn asked softly, smile teasing.
Logan shook his head. “I don’t want to see anyone but you all night.”
Finn sighed, a sated huff of breath. “Lo.”
Logan reached up to brush his fingers along Finn’s jaw. “Viens ici.”
Finn didn’t seem to need a translation. He came, leaning forward slowly to brush their lips together. He stopped with a gentle laugh.
“Quoi?” Logan said, tilting his chin forward to press his mouth against Finn’s cheek.
“Why does it feel like I’m kissing you for the first time?” Finn murmured.
Logan looked at him, pulling back only enough to do it. Finn’s eyes were still closed, dark eyelashes ending it a lighter, reddish blond color. He opened them then, looking back at Logan. Logan pushed Finn’s hair away from his eyes, a little long with the flurry of the playoffs, and smiled.
“It sort of does, yeah. Better than our actual first kiss.”
“No, I love our first kiss,” Finn eased Logan back into the pillows and crawled over him. “Knocked my fucking socks off.”
“I saw you with that girl,” Logan said, pushing his hands under Finn’s t-shirt. “I don’t know, I just…I couldn’t let you go. We had just pulled that all nighter, remember?”
“I thought about that today,” Finn said. “When I was…freaking out, I don’t know. And of course I remember,” Finn bent to press a kiss to Logan’s neck. Logan’s eyes slipped closed at the feeling.
“We made coffee at, like, three in the morning,” Logan whispered, holding Finn closer. His skin was warm, his mouth familiar. “We were in the kitchen.”
“I said you put too much sugar in your coffee,” Finn moved to the other side of Logan’s neck, kisses wet and loving.
Logan smiled at the memory, brows drawn together as he felt Finn’s teeth against his skin. “And I said,” Logan pushed Finn’s shirt up further, his other hand going to his thick red hair.
Finn laughed into his skin. “You said, I’m sweet, Harzy.” Finn drew back, then, eyes bright. “And I said, yeah, you are.”
“And you were standing right here,” Logan said, and tightened his thighs around Finn’s hips.
Finn dropped back to a whisper again. “And I swear to God, I almost kissed you.”
“I wanted you to.”
“I wanted you to want me to.”
“And then I went and left you in that room at the party.”
“You don’t get to fault yourself for those things,” Finn said. “Okay, baby, listen to me.”
Logan let Finn pull him into a sitting position, let him pull him into his lap. Finn lifted Logan’s shirt off, throwing it somewhere in the room, and then picked up his fleur-de-lis pendant and kissed it, then kissed where it rested on Logan’s chest.
“Fucking girls touching this thing all night,” Finn grumbled, and Logan watched him kiss it a few more times with a smile before looking up.
“I love you. I love you and it’s okay now. It’ll take time, but it is okay,” Finn smiled when Logan kissed the words in his mouth. “I love you so fucking much, it’s insane.”
Logan kissed Finn’s lower lip gently and let it bounce back into place. “I’m never going to leave you like that.”
“I forgive you,” Finn whispered. “Can you forgive me?”
Logan paused. “What do I have to forgive you for?”
Finn raised an eyebrow. “Takes two to tango.”
Logan shifted. “Finn…”
“We went through it. Let me love you instead of us punishing ourselves for being, you know. Scared.”
Logan tangled his fingers in the hair at the back of Finn’s neck. “You’re so smart,” Logan said. He watched as Finn played with the necklace again, letting it rest against his palm. “I wish people who think they know you knew that.”
Finn let the pendant go and finally kissed him. Logan felt the silver fall against his chest. He tightened his grip around Finn’s neck as Finn eased him back into the pillows, mouth all heat and insistence.
“This could be our first kiss that we’ve forgiven ourselves for,” Finn said.
Logan kissed Finn again. “Yes.”
“You get quiet when you know I’m right.”
“You get loud.”
Finn laughed into their next kiss, and Logan did, too, and Logan liked that the best.
“Love you,” Finn said softly. His eyes were happy, and if Logan was still worried about him from earlier, it was gone with that look. He could feel Finn’s cock through their sweatpants, could feel his heart when he pressed his lips to his neck.
Logan stroked his hands down Finn’s broad back. He grabbed the hem of Finn’s shirt and pushed it up until Finn himself had to sit up, tugging it over his head. He was pale, and a little burnt at his neck and biceps from parading the Cup around New York in the summer. Logan had to sit up and kiss the pink skin.
“I got burnt,” Finn said.
“No kidding,” Logan huffed out a laugh, but he kept his kisses tender. “Is this what love is? I find it cute that you got sunburned?”
“Yep,” Finn smiled. “It’s also wanting to get fucked by your sunburned lover.”
“Well, yeah,” Logan tilted his head up, arms around Finn’s hips. “I thought that was obvious.”
Finn laughed and rocked back onto the bed so he could get his pants off, but Logan beat him to it, lunging forward and bracketing him in with his arms.
“Oh, hi,” Finn said. “You wanna do it for me?”
“Yes,” Logan said, and bent to press his lips to Finn’s chest. He kissed down the center, then over to one hip, and then the other. He rubbed Finn through his sweatpants, heart quickening at the glimpses of the trail of red hair he got, leading down to his hard cock. He rubbed the heel of his palm along Finn, the material of his sweatpants dragging taut. Finn let out a breath, head falling back on the mattress for a moment before he reached to tangle a hand in Logan’s hair.
“I used to think about you all the time when I got off,” Logan said, and pulled Finn’s sweatpants down just enough to mouth right above his cock. “Even when you were just across the room in your bed.”
Finn smiled, then pulled a lip between his teeth. “I’m pretty sure we heard each other more than a few times.”
Logan remembered it well. The soft shifting of sheets in the dark, Finn’s short pants of breath, and himself plumping up in response. Hearing Finn like that had been as much frustrating as it had been a relief. Logan remembered pressing his cheek into his pillow, trying to keep himself silent when he could tell the exact moment Finn was about to come, and the moment when he did. It was like being able to tell when Finn was going to pass to him, or score. There was the sharp intake of breath, his hand froze, and then he would make a single, soft noise, and pick up his pace again. One night, when the moon had been bright and Logan had been facing the right direction, he’d been able to watch Finn’s chest heave with it, pale in the milky light.
He didn’t have to be quiet now, and he could look all he wanted.
Logan pulled Finn’s sweatpants down and wrapped a hand around his cock. He looked up at him as he wrapped his lips around the head and then closed his eyes. A moment later, he felt Finn suck in a breath, felt his thumb brush over the delicate skin under his eye.
“You’re gorgeous, you know?” Finn said softly. “Oh—”
Logan sunk down further, hollowing his cheeks and relishing on the heat that spilled on his tongue. He got his knees under him more, cock throbbing with each brush of his own thigh, so he could raise to suck just the head into his mouth, then lower, just for a moment, until his lips brushed Finn’s balls. He pulled back and off for air and smiled a little, cheeks flushed. Finn had his head tilted back, his mouth open, panting with the brush of Logan’s throat.
“You’re so good,” Logan said, and sucked Finn down again. Finn moaned, hips pushing into Logan’s mouth. Logan sputtered a little but hooked his arms under Finn’s hips when he went to pull back and kept him there, bobbing his head faster.
“Logan,” Finn’s voice was tight, his name ending with a loud punch of breath. “Lo, baby, oh god.”
Logan pulled off with a gasp and leaned down to lick at Finn’s balls, taking one into his mouth, then the other. His cock was making a mess inside his own sweatpants as he took Finn down again. He was a warm, solid weight on his tongue, and Logan wanted him inside. Logan sucked hard once more, then looked up at Finn.
“Fuck me,” Logan said. “Harzy.”
Finn’s arms looked a little shaky as he pushed himself up into a sitting position and when Logan laughed, Finn slapped his chest before pushing him onto his back.
“I love you,” Finn said, and hovered above him. He was on his forearms so that his hands could stroke through Logan’s hair, and his kisses were open-mouthed and sloppy. “Oh, I love you.”
Finn was dripping on Logan’s thighs, darkening the material of is sweatpants.
Logan reached blindly in the direction of the bedside table. “Lube.”
“Let me get it, I’ll get it,” Finn was breathless, pink from his cheeks to his neck.
Logan let Finn roll away, and brought his ankles up to kick off his sweatpants. On the way back down, Finn was back and he caught Logan’s ankles, grinning as he pulled them to rest on his shoulders.
“This is new,” he said.
Logan laughed. “Kinda hot, too.”
Finn tilted his head to kiss along one of Logan’s calves. He bit lightly at the muscle on the inside of his knee.
“Didn’t know I had a thing for jocks, but…” Finn ran his palm over the swell of Logan’s ass appreciatively. “Between Leo and you…okay, then.”
“Hm,” Logan hummed, pressing his calves down on Finn’s shoulders to lift his ass up towards him. His cock was a dark, neglected red against his stomach. “You look so good, c’mon.”
“Keep telling me I’m good and I might just come.”
“Non, don’t.”
Finn pushed his hips forward so that the wet tip of his dick dragged messily against Logan’s entrance. “Non?”
Logan’s eyes slipped closed and his grin felt a little drunk. “Harz.”
Finn smiled, kissed the inside of Logan’s ankle, then wrapped his arms around Logan’s legs to keep them there while he clicked open the lube. “Okay, here we go.”
Logan settled back into the pillows. “I used to pretend it was you when I did this to myself.”
Finn’s fingers worked slowly and Logan bit his lip.
“When?” Finn’s voice came softly.
“Shower,” Logan said. “Sometimes—sometimes at night. With you right there. My stupider decisions.”
“I knew it,” Finn said, and twisted his fingers just so, making them both smile when Logan let out a low moan.
“Accidentally said your name once.”
Finn’s gaze snapped to his, his fingers stilling. Logan could remember it almost perfectly. The blood-chilling dread that had followed after he’d let the word slip into their small room. Finn.
“Did you,” Logan curled his fingers over Finn’s thighs, voice dropping. “Did you hear me?”
Finn’s nod was slow, and his voice even softer. “Yeah.”
And then Finn was leaning forward, Logan’s legs falling against his sides so that they could press together.
“Say my name now,” Finn whispered.
Logan’s breath hitched as he felt the head of Finn’s cock at his entrance. “Finn.”
“Say it again,” Finn’s mouth dragged up his neck, and Logan still didn’t know what it was about that. It made him crazy.
Logan clutched at him. “Finn.”
Finn pressed inside him slowly, and Logan didn’t need him to ask again.
“Finn,” Logan’s voice rose, and then broke over his name as Finn drew back and then into him again, and again.
“This is what I pictured when I heard you,” Finn murmured, shoving their hips together in slow, long rocks. “God, Logan.”
Logan wound his legs and arms around him. His palms slipped on Finn’s slick back. Finn smelled like sweat and himself. Logan had fallen asleep to that scent on bus rides when he couldn’t touch him, he scored goals to that scent when Finn, soaked with sweat and adrenaline, would crash him into the boards. Logan heard himself make some sort of broken sound, because Finn was going to be all over him after this, inside of him.
“I love you, Lo,” Finn said, arms around Logan’s back and shoulders, his knees against his hips. Finn fucked like he never needed to stop, like they were wound together so tightly they’d never separate.
“I love—” Logan’s back arched up against Finn on its own when Finn jammed his prostate. “Ah—”
His cock ached with every brush of Finn’s chest against his own, until Finn finally reached between them and wrapped a hand around him. Logan’s breathing hitched and his eyes felt suddenly wet.
“I love you.”
Finn forgave him. Finn forgave him.
Logan held on tighter, finding Finn’s mouth with his own, and said it again. “I love you.”
Logan came between them suddenly. Finn licked into his slack mouth, but Logan pressed him closer when he stilled, moving to pull out.
“Non, stay,” Logan panted, voice pitching up at the end of his word, then giving out as his orgasm shook through him. “Stay.”
Finn stayed, smiling. “You’re never one-and-done, are you?”
Logan’s smile felt delirious. “Good thing I have two of you—fuck, do that again.”
Logan’s fingers tangling into Finn’s sweaty hair, and they kissed as Finn rocked into Logan gently.
“Think about when we’re all together again,” Finn whispered.
“Stay,” Logan said.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Stay.”
“Shh, baby,” Finn whispered, kissing the corner of his mouth. His movements were gentle, and small enough so they were never apart. “I’m here.”
Logan’s cock dripped steadily between them as Finn brushed his prostate over and over, and Logan felt wound tight and boneless, all at once.
“Oh, Lo,” Finn groaned, and flexed his hips into Logan harder.
Logan kissed Finn’s neck, teeth scraping into his skin. Logan felt surrounded by him.
“I’m coming,” he found himself saying, because it felt like he still was. Finn’s cock was rubbing up consistently against his walls, and his own cock was red in the tacky pool of come on his stomach. Logan could hear himself panting for breath. His muscles still felt tight, his toes curled against Finn’s calves. He groaned, head falling back against the pillows instead, pushing himself up against Finn’s cock, heavy inside of him.
“Logan,” Finn’s voice was shaky. “Lo, I’m gonna—” he said, and then wet heat filled Logan up. Finn fucked in one more time and stayed there, forehead pressed to Logan’s.
The heat that tore through him made him dig his nails into Finn’s back. Finn was making soft noises as his cock pulsed, and Logan could feel some drip down between his thighs.
Finn was stroking his hair back from his forehead, sweaty and hot, and kissing his jaw. Logan tucked himself against Finn. He was too big, too broad, really, but Finn covered him up with his body, kissing him and all but melting them together. Finn pressed in one last time with a low sound, and then fell against Logan’s chest. They breathed hard against each other in the aftershock, kissing slowly, languidly.
Finn pulled out when he was too sensitive, and Logan rolled them over, thigh thrown over Finn’s hips to kiss him some more. He kissed Finn’s cheeks, and his neck, and every part of skin he could reach without having to pull away. He left marks, smudges that said he had been there—even if no one else would know. He would know. He would be proud, and he would be happy.
Finn, unusually, melted back against the sheets and let Logan do as he wanted. He lay back when Logan told him to. When Logan went to the bathroom and cleaned them up. When Logan came back, pulling the covers over them and laying on his back, it was Finn’s head against his chest and Logan’s hand stroking through his hair.
“Today,” Finn began, and then hesitated. “Today freaked me out.”
“I know, I could tell,” Logan said. “You’re allowed to be freaked out. You’ve watched me and Leo both freak out and been there for us. Let us be there for you. What can I do?”
Finn’s fingers were fidgeting with Logan’s necklace. “I think I’ll be okay. I just didn’t know that would happen.” Finn raised his chin to look up at him. “We’ve come a long way from hard nights,” he smiled. “Not to say there won’t be more but…”
Logan cupped his cheek. “We can talk to each other. We can say that we love each other.”
Finn smiled, just a little. “Says the boy who hates talking.”
Logan smiled, too, leaning in to brush their lips together. “Yeah, but I love hearing you talk. And read. And moan my name—”
Finn tilted his chin up to kiss some more before pulling Logan more firmly against him.
“We get to see Nutter tomorrow.”
Logan hummed. “Think he just walks around naked because it’s so hot?”
Finn snorted. “Probably not. It’s a nice thought though.”
“Thinks he has a million bookshelves?” Logan smiled at the thought, of Leo curled up in his childhood room, of Leo showing them everything he had ever loved before he loved them.
“Oh, definitely.”
“Yeah. What did he say when you called him?”
“Told me to find you,” Finn raised his head. “Listen, I didn’t call Leo because I didn’t think you could help. I just…I need him just as much as I need you.”
“You don’t have to explain,” Logan hushed him. “I’m the same. And also I’m…I don’t know how to say it other than, I was part of the problem.” He kissed Finn softly. “I know.”
“Okay,” Finn said, and pressed back against Logan, nose against his neck. “Don’t go anywhere, okay?”
Logan just held him tighter. “I won’t.”
~
They were both groggy from the plane. Logan had his headphones around his neck and his hat shoved into the elastic side pocket of his backpack.
“I can feel the humidity already,” Logan said. “Where’s Nut?”
Finn took out his phone. “He can’t exactly get through security. Arrivals, probably. I texted him that we landed. He didn’t—oh, he said he’s walking from parking now.”
Logan jumped once, keeping in pace with Finn. “I want him. How long do you think we’re going to be surrounded by family? Not that I don’t love them but fuck.”
“Stop it, you’re getting me going.”
Logan sent him a sleepy smile as they followed the signs to arrivals.
And there Leo was, standing in a t-shirt and shorts with a backwards hat on—not Lions colored, as if that would help him not get recognized if someone knew what they were looking for. His sunglasses were folded into his shirt and he was searching the crowd in his careful way.
“Oh, fuck me,” Logan heard Finn breathe.
Logan gave Finn a small shove. “C’mon, let’s see how close we can get before he sees us.”
Not very close. A second later, Leo was grinning at them. They walked forward quickly and stopped right in front of him. Logan’s heart was pounding.
“Hi,” Leo sounded breathless.
Their hugs weren’t what they would have been away from prying eyes, but Finn clutched Leo as hard as he could, whispering in his ear.
“We missed you so much. So fucking much.”
Logan watched them for a moment and then Leo was turning to him.
“Hi, Tremz.”
Logan wanted to kiss him, wanted to curl his fingers under his shirt to the small of his back where he was always warmest. Instead, he let Leo pull him in for a quick hug.
“Flight was okay?” Leo asked, and took their suitcases from them. When they looked at him, he laughed. “What?”
“Nothing,” Logan said softly, and he and Finn shared a look as they watched Leo lead the way outside. They loved him.
Logan froze after they stepped out of the airport. He held his hands up, as if testing for rain.
“Are—” he began, then looked up. “Are we under a heater?”
Leo laughed. “No. That’s NOLA for you.”
“Oh god,” Logan said faintly.
Finn, however, walked right into the sunshine and tilted his head up. “I will never be cold again.”
“You’ll get sunburned, though,” Logan grumbled.
“Aw, Harz,” Leo said, then more softly, “Love you. C’mon, boys, car’s this way.”
Leo lead the way towards the parking lot, and walked ahead a little when he got out his keys and his car lit up.
Logan felt his steps slow, and Finn’s beside him.
“Leo—Leo drives a Jeep,” Finn said softly to Logan.
“Leo drives a Jeep,” Logan repeated.
“I’m…”
“Yeah.”
The top was open to the air, windows down. Leo swung the suitcases into the trunk, and Logan watched his muscles move beneath his shirt.
“I want…” he grumbled and Finn laughed, squeezing the back of his neck.
The moment they were in the car, Leo in the driver’s seat with Finn beside him, Logan leaned forward from the back and wrapped his arms around Leo the best he could, burying his nose into the place where his curls fanned out around his ears. Logan hummed, pressing kiss after kiss there.
“Tremz, you’re killing me here,” Leo laughed, then turned his face, shaded by the car and some thick trees, and let Logan kiss him. The angle was awkward, and Logan knew he was using way too much tongue, but Leo melted back into his seat for it. Finn reached forward to put a hand on his neck.
“You are tan,” Finn said. “How do you do that?”
Logan had a sudden urge to see where the sun hadn’t reached.
“Okay, okay,” Leo laughed between kisses. “Let me get us out of here.”
Logan just dipped his head down a little farther and nipped at Leo’s neck, just over Finn’s fingers.
“Tremz,” Leo said, leaning into it.
“D’accord,” Logan said, and sat back. “That’ll be okay for now.”
“Well, don’t I get a snack before dinner, too?” Finn said, and then pulled Leo in and kissed him—albeit more gently than Logan had.
“Hi, Butter,” he smiled.
“My name is just slowly devolving into food products,” Leo smiled. “Hi.”
Leo unfolded his sunglasses and slid them on, pushing the button to start the car. “Ready?”
“So fucking ready,” Finn said, and put his sunglasses on, too.
Logan tilted his head back and closed his eyes, letting the overwhelming heat sink in. “Allez.”
Leo’s house was bright and large, all creams and whites. There were thick, white columns, and the entire front was framed by two turreted, oriel windows. There was a gate, and then oak trees, cypresses and small white flowers that cascaded over the porches and steps.
“Well Jesus,” Finn said, standing up a little in his seat. “Not what I was expecting.”
Leo glanced up at him as he pulled through the round about. “No?”
“I mean…” Finn laughed. “I don’t know.”
“C’est très beau,” Logan said, pushing himself up using the back of Leo’s seat. “Fuck me, it’s hot.”
Leo turned the car off. “Let’s get out of the sun. I’m sure my mom—”
“There they are!”
They looked up to one of the great, wooden doors opening. Eloise and Wyatt stepped out, Wyatt more calmly than his wife. Eloise was waving to them with both arms.
“Yep,” Leo laughed. “C’mon.”
“Oh, Finn,” Eloise said when they climbed the porch steps and into the shade of the overhang. “You won’t last a second in this sun, honey, let’s get you inside.”
Finn smiled. “Yeah, sunscreen is big in my family.”
“Logan,” Eloise smiled and hugged him, too. “I’ve got some iced tea and lunch all ready.”
Logan stared up at the entrance hall, all high ceilings and clean tiles and dark wood. There were shawls hanging on hooks by the door, mingled with leaning hockey sticks. Logan recognized Leo’s favorite Nikes. He was suddenly very aware that Leo lived here. It was sort of like getting used to coming home to him everyday. But this was Leo’s, and it had been Leo’s for years and years. Logan wanted to walk through every room and look for little signs of him.
“We have the dining room, sure,” Wyatt smiled, gesturing to it. “But, I don’t know, we always liked the kitchen better it being just the three of us and all. Come on through, boys.”
“We’ll eat, and then you can take showers or a nap or whatever you want,” Eloise said.
Oh, yeah, Logan thought. Whatever we want.
“This looks amazing,” Logan said as they walked into the kitchen.
The table was half surrounded by chairs, and half by a curved window seat in one of the oriel windows. The table itself was laden with pressed, pork paninis, along with what looked like creamy side dishes, and vegetable salads.
“Thank you, Tremzy,” Eloise’s smile was wide. “You all sit down, me and Wyatt’ll get the silverware and the pie.”
It was cool inside and Logan let out a breath when he scooted into the window seat after Finn had, and then Leo. He watched them smiling at each other as Leo put two sandwiches on Finn’s plate and poured him some tea. It made Logan smile, too. He was about to reach for the sandwiches when Leo turned to him.
“You want two, too?” Leo said softly. His accent sounded stronger, maybe from being around family.
Logan nodded, feeling helpless and in love. “Yeah, sure.”
“You want tea?”
“Ouais.”
“You two okay? You’re all quiet.”
Logan looked at Finn, who laughed.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been better in my life,” Finn said.
“Well—good,” Leo said.
Logan glanced at where Leo’s parents were coming back over.
“We’ll tell you later.”
The food was delicious, but what Finn really loved was how, when they were done, Leo helped bring all of the plates over and then began silently sort of trying to wave them out of their seats and towards the main staircase.
“Alright, well, see you boys, then,” Wyatt laughed. “Leo, I don’t want you to have the boat out too late, so keep that in mind.”
Eloise smiled. “Oh, they have time. It’s a big house, don’t worry about anything.”
“Mama,” Leo said. “And dad, you just ruined the surprise!”
Wyatt whistled. “Oh, damn, sorry…”
“We’ll be over at the Bailey’s next door for drinks, okay? See you boys when you get back,” Eloise said.
Leo groaned and took one of both their hands, pulling them towards the stairs. “Okay, okay, we’re going now.”
Finn sent Eloise a last grin, which probably didn’t thwart her ideas at all, and let Leo pull him away.
They climbed the stairs too close together, their feet barely missing each other.
“This house is so cool,” Logan said. “I see why you miss it. It feels like home.”
“Yeah,” Finn said, eyeing the bookshelves that lined the hallway they were going down, caught in dusty light between windows. “I like it here.”
And they were finally alone.
Finn used Leo’s hand to pull him into his chest, and kissed him hard. Leo sighed into it, and Finn felt Logan at their sides a moment later.
“Leo,” Logan urged, and then Finn was watching them kiss. It was like breathing.
“Missed you two,” Leo panted when Logan finally let him go. “Jesus.”
They stood there between the sun streaks coming through the window, swaying a little together.
“Lo, do you want to take your shower?”
Logan raised his head from Leo’s chest and looked up at him. “What?”
Leo nodded his head in what Finn assumed was the direction of the nearest bathroom. “You take showers after you go on planes.”
Logan’s expression went soft.
“You can,” Leo said. “But then we’re going out.”
Logan’s eyebrows drew together. “Out?”
“Yeah,” Leo’s smile was slow and he began tugging them down the hall. “I wanna show you guys stuff. Take you out to dinner.”
“But I haven’t seen you in…” Logan asked. “And I need to go out into public right away?”
“Not that we won’t have time for that,” Leo stopped in front of a door. “But that can happen at dinner. You think I’m not dying, too?”
“At dinner,” Finn repeated, then looked at Logan. “He says we can have sex at dinner, Leo, how the hell can we have sex at dinner, where are you taking us?”
Leo grinned and sat up. “You’ll see. Lo?”
“I don’t want to shower, I want to have sex at dinner apparently,” Logan said, then pulled Leo closer. “I just want to be with you.”
Leo toured them all around, drove them through wide and narrow streets, watched as Logan purchased some sort of rum-filled, sugary drink that Logan forced Finn to take a sip of. There were beads hanging from trees, colorful and glinting in the sunlight.
The sun was beginning to lower in the sky, the heat receding a little, when they pulled up to the docks.
It made Leo golden as he pulled two coolers from the trunk, and then walked them down the boards. Logan couldn’t look away.
“Here she is,” Leo grinned, and gestured towards a small motorboat, glossy white with wake-boards hooked to the top, and leather seats. “Our restaurant for the night.”
“Oh,” Finn said. “I see.”
“Sex on a boat,” Logan nodded.
“Dinner on a boat,” Leo said.
Logan walked forward and wrapped his arms around him. “You on a boat.”
Leo smiled before climbing carefully aboard and setting the coolers down by the steering wheel. “C’mon.”
Finn gave Logan a little shove as he was climbing into the boat, but laughed when Logan flinched, holding tightly onto his shoulders.
“Mais, non!” Logan laughed as they jostled each other onto the slightly more solid ground. He shoved him back once they were on firm footing. “Harz.”
Finn laughed and fell back onto one of the leather seats, warmed by the sun. “Now I see, we’ll be in the surrounded by water. If some type of water police catches us, is that bad?”
“Water police?” Leo laughed. He sent Logan a soft smile when Logan began helping him untie the ropes and bring the buoys in.
Finn grinned. “Well, now you’re both going on sailor on me. Untying rope.”
Leo snorted and threw a loop of his rope over Finn’s head, pulling until it pulled Finn’s neck forward lightly.
“Sailor, huh?”
Finn smiled lazily up at him. “Yeah.”
Logan wished they were out on the water already, so he could kiss Leo like he wanted to, but instead he settled for helping him push the boat away from the docks while Leo started the engine. He’d flipped his sunglasses down over his eyes, and Logan followed.
“You’ve been on a boat before, Tremz,” Leo said when Logan came to stand beside him at the wheel. Leo was perched on the top of the chair, long legs stretching down to the ground. He looked relaxed and happy.
“Yeah, at home. My friend had one growing up. We’d go out on the lake in the summer. Fish sometimes, or swim.”
They were pulling away from the land, and every second made Logan happier. The wind picked up with the engine until they were flying. Finn shouted over the roar and Logan looked back, squinting in the sun as he tried to smile for the phone Finn was holding up. He probably looked stupid, but he didn’t care. Because now the docks were small, the shore was far away, and he could push against Leo’s side. The wind was cool, and Leo’s chest through his t-shirt was sun-warmed. Logan pressed his nose against him. He smelled like the sun, too. Leo kissed his forehead, one hand on the wheel, and one around Logan’s back. Logan hoped Finn was taking a picture of this, too. Logan had never really hoped for pictures before.
“Love you,” Leo said, voice close to his ear to be heard.
Logan tilted his head against Leo’s chest and reached out to trace the muscles in his forearm that flexed as he steered the boat.
“Love you, too,” Logan replied.
Leo smiled and drew the speed down until the motor was a steady bubble, and the heat warmed the goosebumps on Logan’s arms from the wind.
“This is nice,” Finn sighed and Logan looked back to see him sprawled over a flat, padded area at the back of the boat, eyes closed.
There was some type of board walk in the distance, but mostly they were shaded by a ring of gnarled looking trees that made a U-shaped little cove. Leo dropped anchor, and they had it all to themselves. The sun was lower but still hot, and Leo pulled out a canopy from somewhere among the equipment above, pinning to the sides of the boat so that it stretched like a tent above them. It offered shade. Seclusion.
“Pre-dinner swim, what do you think?” Leo asked before stripping off his shirt.
“What?” Finn sat up. “I didn’t wear—”
The words died in his mouth, though, when Leo, practically smirking, undid the buttons of his shorts next. Logan felt his pulse jump at the sound of Leo slowly pulling his zipper down.
“Oh,” Finn said, then laughed.
“Yeah?” Leo asked.
“Ouais, ouais,” Logan said. “Leo.”
Leo grinned and reached for Logan again, pulling his t-shirt over his head for him, then leaning down for a kiss, hands on Logan’s chest.
“I’m just having fun imagining you planning this,” Logan heard Finn say. “‘I’m gonna get Finn and Logan on my boat, and then I’m gonna get them naked, in the water, and then I’m gonna feed them dinner.’”
“You’ve never been skinny dipping before, Fish?” Leo said, pulling away, eyes lingering on where Logan was kicking off his shorts, too.
“Nope,” Finn said, rolling onto his back to push his shorts off before standing and ridding himself of his shirt. “But I’m extremely open to it. Sunscreen. I need sunscreen.”
Leo walked forward and wrapped his arms around Finn, tucking his hands right into his briefs to cup his ass. “Sun’s never seen this, huh.”
“First time for everything,” Finn said after a moment, and kissed Leo soundly as he pushed his briefs down.
Logan, to his own surprised, didn’t feel exposed standing there naked on Leo’s boat. The sun was orange, low enough to turn the clouds pink, and it dappled through the trees, making the water look smooth and inviting. He put one foot on the side of the boat and looked over. He could see the bottom, sandy and rocky, but it was deep enough to jump.
“I’m dating a couple of Greek gods,” Finn sighed. “Fuck, Tremz, you look like one of those statues. My own Patroclus and Achilles.”
Leo laughed. “Who does that make you?”
Finn looked into the water, too, before stepping up onto the padded back he was dozing on before. “Apollo, come to crash the party.”
And he jumped, making the boat rock.
Leo pressed up behind Logan, all skin on warm skin. “Ça va?”
“This heat’s gonna kill me,” Logan grinned, looking back and up at him. “Allez.”
Finn surfaced, shaking his hair out of his eyes. “Come on, it’s perfect here.”
Leo pressed up and over the side of the boat like a jump over the boards, before tucking himself neatly into a canon ball and giving Finn a face full of salty water.
“Come on, Lo!”
Finn and Leo looked up at him, and Logan could barely believe it all.
Logan didn’t jump into anything except fights. Throwing the gloves down was easy. There were time limits to the consequences, and they were never anything more than a few minutes. Everything else—who knew what would happen. Logan wasn’t a jumper. Finn was. Finn always had been. While Logan watched and waited and thought and didn’t, Finn loved and went and acted and did. And Leo…Leo jumped more than anyone gave him credit for. Logan hadn’t been eighteen when he got to the NHL, and he didn’t know how he would have turned out if he had been.
“It’s super nice,” Leo called up.
Finn splashed the water. “C’mon, baby.”
Logan smiled, looking down at them, and jumped. The water was beyond relieving. The salt stung his eyes a little, but it felt good, in the way salt water did. Logan knew it would dry on his skin later and feel even better. When he came up and shook the water from his eyes, Finn had dived down to touch the bottom and Leo was smiling at him.
“Nice?”
Logan pushed forward until he could wrap his arms and legs around Leo. He felt—clingy, he guessed. Since being apart. He could feel every part of Leo against him and Leo made a pleased sound.
“Very,” Logan said.
Leo let them float for a minute before they sank under the water again. Leo kissed him, surprising Logan with his eyes closed, and Logan had to come up for air and to laugh.
Finn floated beside him, the sky darkening a little and revealing the first of its stars. Logan looked up at the anchored boat, and thought about how they had all night.
“The Cup arrives tomorrow,” Finn said as they floated together.
Leo grinned. “Crazy. They’re throwing a parade for me. I think it’s gonna be insane.”
“You deserve all the parades,” Finn said.
Leo rolled his eyes but smiled. “I just wish…” he looked between them.
“You deserve that, too,” Logan said. “Whenever it comes.”
Leo’s smile was still happy, if not wistful. “Yeah.”
“I can’t believe we’re here,” Logan said. “And I mean here here, but also…here.”
“Better start believing it,” Finn tread closer and pulled Logan back against him. Logan laughed, but it was true. He did feel like he was starting—starting everything anew.
This could be the first kiss we forgive ourselves for, Finn had said.
And—Logan did. He forgave. He loved them.
They climbed up the ladder at the back of the boat a while later, limbs tired from racing and treading water, and Leo pulled towels out for them from under a seat. They were big and well-loved, and Logan got as much water out of his hair as he could before draping it over the front seats to dry and stepping back into his underwear.
“Just three naked dudes on a boat,” Finn said absentmindedly as he pulled his shorts back on. “It’s getting dark.”
“That’s why we have these,” Leo said and produced two lanterns and a few candles from another compartment that Logan hadn’t noticed. He hooked the lanterns to the ceiling and turned them on. They bathed everything in a soft, yellow light.
“Hungry?” he asked while lighting the candles.
“Yes,” Finn sighed. He grabbed Logan’s hand and pulled him down onto one of the seats, gathering him against his chest. Logan sunk back into it.
“Hey, Lo, smile,” Finn said, and then he had his phone out, camera flipped to show them. Finn ducked so that their cheeks were pressed together and pressed a palm over Logan’s heart. With Finn’s chest pressed to his back, Logan could feel Finn’s. They both looked sun-tanned and, even to himself, deliriously happy.
“Tremz, can you pull that part out there? It’s like a little table from the back just beside you.”
Logan leaned forward and found the plastic divot that Leo was gesturing to. It slid out from beneath the cushion and into a temporary table, which Leo, underwear now on, set the coolers on top of. He looked at the two of them.
“I’m about to blow your mind.”
“You do that often,” Finn said, fingers drumming on Logan’s thigh.
Leo smiled. “No. Really.” He opened the cooler and brandished it towards them. “Crab.”
Inside the cooler was ice and crab legs.
“Crab,” Finn repeated.
“The mind blowing part comes when you eat it. It’s in season. Now, here we’ve got potatoes and some corn and hopefully some of it’ll be warm but…I wanted it on the boat, so…small sacrifices. Got some beer, too, if you want it,” Leo pulled it out from below the ice, setting things on the table as he talked. Logan was going to kiss him.
“And I’ve got strawberry shortcakes,” Leo said, and he was blushing a little. “For my strawberry and my…”
“Shortcake,” Finn laughed.
Leo laughed and leaned down to kiss Logan’s scowl. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I laugh every time I think about it I had to, you’re not short, really.”
“You sound so convincing.”
“You’re not, but you sure are a cake,” Leo kissed him again, squeezing his thighs, and Logan smiled this time.
“I guess I can live with that,” Logan said, and kissed him back.
“Cream’s on ice, too, so that’s good. And…yep.” Leo reached into the cooler and held up what looked like a hammer. “Y’all know how to eat crab?”
“Why…is that hot,” Finn said, and Logan nodded. Leo just smiled.
They made a mess on top of the table cloth Leo had set out, laughing as they cracked the shells and sucked out the meat.
“I’m so bad at this,” Finn said, picking his way through one of the last bits.
“Here,” Leo leaned over and broke into the shell with practiced fingers.
“How?”
Leo smiled and shrugged.
Logan watched the two of them, finishing off his own. He looked around them in the darkness. They were lit by the candlelight now, and the lanterns. The sky still had some light, but the sun was below the horizon and it would soon be gone. It was like it was only the three of them in the world. The stars were plentiful and vast from where they were sitting in the back, but the lantern hanging in the center of the little canopy Leo had set up made it look like their own little tent, private and out of sight.
“Where did you fall?” Finn asked.
“When did I fall?” Leo said. “For you? Um. Probably when you—”
“Non, non,” Finn laughed softly. “Where. Where did you hit your head?”
Leo tilted his head. “What? Oh! Oh, getting onto the boat.” He pointed to the side, and then towards the steering wheel. “Hit my head on the windshield corner.”
Finn hissed through his teeth. “Ouch.”
“Yeah, it wasn’t pretty,” Leo said, but smiled as Logan reached out to touch the lighter hair.
“When did you fall, though?” Logan asked, and Leo smiled.
“I don’t know, exactly,” Leo kicked the cooler out from beneath the table and retrieved the strawberries and cream he had pointed to before, as well as three fluffy looking biscuits. “I guess just…doing stuff together.” Leo laughed as he prepared the desert, scooping strawberries onto the breads. “I sort of thought it was just adrenaline at first. Me wanting you, I mean. But then we were roommates, at home or away, and then we starting hanging out off the rink and…well, I loved you.” Leo pushed the plates towards them. “I loved you both.”
Logan tilted his head back, heart feeling tight again.
“I know we went back to Harvard,” Finn said suddenly. “And I know what you said about feeling like you missed out a while back. I don’t know, I just want to make sure you know that we missed you the whole time.”
“How,” Leo began, looking between them. “How are you now?”
Logan wasn’t sure which one of them he was talking to, but he looked back at Finn who tightened his arms around him.
“We got some stuff out,” Finn said, then laughed a little. “And I guess I sort of…let some stuff in.”
“And I said sorry,” Logan said.
“And I forgave you,” Finn kissed his cheek. “But also you forgave you.”
Logan rolled his eyes but smiled as he took a bite. “Yeah, I know.”
Leo leaned back in his seat, smiling at the two of them. “Good.”
Finn sighed. “And then this one came, like, three times.”
Leo laughed out loud. “That is his way.”
Logan groaned. “I can’t help it.”
“Oh, baby,” Finn laughed. “We don’t want you to help it.” Then, he looked back up at Leo. “But, really. We missed you, Peanut.”
“We don’t like being without you.”
“Me too,” Leo said softly. “I don’t know, I just…it’s funny being in the NHL, in Gryffindor, and then coming home to aunts and uncles and older cousins. Like, to them, I’m still just sort of nineteen. And I am nineteen, but…I don’t know I’ve been feeling like I used to feel. Being home. Being without you.” Leo looked out at the water. “Like I’m right back where I started, not out to anyone except my parents, just some kid with this really tedious dream and sort of—ready to be lonely forever.”
“Leo,” Logan said.
Leo looked at them and laughed a little, pushing his hair back. “That was my long way of saying that I missed you, too. And in saying that…” he bit his lip and stood. “I have something.”
“You have something?”
Leo waved his hand as he bent at the floor, popping up a storage pit. “Planned, I have something planned. That I’ve always wanted to do with…well, with a boyfriend. Boyfriends.”
Logan looked back at Finn. “Boyfriends.”
Then, Leo started pulling out blankets. And pillows. His smile was giddy as he lay them out beneath the canopy, the boat rocking gently, and the pillows piled high. Leo gestured to it with both hands when he was done.
“Sex on a boat.”
“That sounds like the name of a tropical drink,” Finn said.
Logan nodded. “I’m in.” He stood, the blankets soft beneath his bare feet as he walked over the bed to pull Leo to him. “You’re so…”
“Sweet?” Finn said, and Logan smiled.
“Oui.”
Finn took one step up and then fell into the center of the blankets, stretching out on his back. Leo took Logan by the hands, sitting down and pulling Logan down with him. Logan sank slowly, knees straddling Leo’s hips, laying his head against Leo’s chest.
Finn turned onto his side so he was closer to them and ran a hand through Logan’s hair. “Leo hog.”
“Va te faire,” Logan grumbled and raised an eyebrow when Finn made a face. “You don’t know what I said.”
“Tone of voice,” Finn laughed. “Move over a little, then, I missed him, too.”
Leo put an arm out for Finn to roll into, face tucking against his shoulder. “I’ll just sit here watching y’all fight over me.”
Logan leaned down to press kisses to Finn’s face at the same time Leo did, and Finn made a soft sound.
“Look at you,” Leo laughed and wrapped his arm more tightly around Finn. “Letting us snug you.”
Finn laughed a little, too, but it was different somehow in Logan’s ears. Something was bothering him. “I let you snug me.”
“Yeah, for a second, and then you snug us.”
“We snug each other.”
Logan snorted and met Leo’s eyes over Finn’s head.
“Well, fine, fine.” Leo stroked Finn’s hair, cheek resting at Finn’s temple. “This is nice, though.”
Finn just pushed closer and Logan reached out a stroke his fingers over his neck. They were quiet, full and sun-tired and sated, until Finn sat up on the blankets and turned to face them, cross-legged.
“Guys,” Finn began.
“Hm?” Leo responded.
Logan pushed himself up onto a forearm on Leo’s chest. Something was wrong.
“I was thinking…” Finn cleared his throat. “I was thinking.”
“Who, you?” Logan tried, seeing if Finn would smile. When he did, Logan’s chest eased a little.
“I was thinking about trying something.”
“Okay,” Leo said. “Sure, what is it?”
Finn let out a shaky breath. Then, he looked between them.
“You and Lo,” Finn began. “You two like it when I fuck you and…I don’t know, maybe—I’d…like it, too.”
Logan felt his entire body flush with a spike of heat. It was a like his heart tried to slow down and speed up all at once, like a full-force tug. Oh.
Finn looked down at his hands. The top of his nose and cheeks were a little red from the sun, his hair curly from the salt, and he wanted—
Logan let himself drop back down, forehead against Leo’s shoulder. He was turned on. He was dizzy with it.
“Finn,” Leo’s voice was faint, his fingers pressing into the skin of Logan’s bare back.
“We don’t have to tonight,” Finn said. “I’d seriously be happy, more like fucking elated, with any and all, I was just—”
“Would you want to, though?” Leo asked. “Tonight, I mean? Because I…I’d want to.”
“I might not like it,” Finn said. “But yeah. Yeah.”
They both looked at Logan and all Logan could do was stare at Finn.
“You…” Logan was already nodding. “Finn.”
“Lay down, lay down,” Leo sat up and took Finn’s hands, pulling him until Finn was on his back again.
Logan pushed up from Leo to settle on Finn’s other side, hand going to rest above the zip of Finn’s shorts. Finn glanced up at him while Leo got up and reached for the glove box.
“Since when?” Logan asked Finn, leaning down to press a kiss to his mouth.
“I don’t know,” Finn said, hips pushing up gently against Logan’s hand, which was rubbing him gently through his shorts. “It’s not like I never thought about it, but I never…thought thought about it until…well, the night we won the Cup.”
“The Cup?” Leo said, settling back down between Finn’s legs.
“Yeah,” Finn tilted his head to the side, eyes going a little foggy. “It was just—a really intense night. I mean all of it, winning, the parties…”
“The sex,” Logan finished for him, and he was dizzy all over again. It had been intense, making their way back to their apartment and falling into Finn’s bed. The night had stretched forever. It had been fierce, rolling into each other, keeping each other weighted down, close and safe from floating away with it all.
Finn smiled. “Yeah. You two. I…I like being that close to you. And I thought maybe you could be that close to me, too.”
Leo put his hand over Logan’s. It pressed Logan’s palm harder against where Finn was growing stiff in his clothes. Leo popped the button open and leaned down to kiss over the hard muscles of Finn’s stomach.
“Just tell us how it goes, okay?” Leo said. “We can switch it up if you want.”
“Literally,” Finn laughed, but it was breathless.
Logan could tell he was nervous, could feel his heart beneath his palm. He leaned over, the pendant of his necklace falling onto Finn’s skin, and kissed over where his palm had been.
Leo pulled Finn’s shorts off while Logan kept him busy with hard, lingering kisses. Leo looked up at them and felt as surreal as ever. Ever since the Cup, Leo had been waking up every morning and reciting the list of events to himself, almost making sure they still felt real.
Finn. Logan. Falling in love. Making best friends. Coming out to them. Winning a Cup. Falling more in love. Taking Logan and Finn home. Knowing they missed him. Experiencing a sort of trust that he’d never even known before.
Finn’s skin was soft beneath his hands. There was salt dried on it, and he bent to taste the clean scent of it. It mixed with Finn’s arousal, making him ache. Finn’s cock was half hard, twitching as Leo eased his palms around it, not quite touching. He hadn’t been sure if Finn would ever want to be fucked. He and Logan had talked about it a few times, wondering if they should ask again, but they had decided to let Finn bring it up, if he wanted. And now—
“Lay back,” Logan was laughing, palm on Finn’s chest.
“I want to see,” Finn said.
Leo snorted. “You’re not really going to be able to see anything yet.”
“But…”
“You’re such a baby,” Logan sighed, but stood, kicking his clothes off and then sliding behind Finn, cradling him between his thighs and arms. Finn was still slumped low, and Logan smiled at Leo, resting his chin on Finn’s shoulder as he wrapped a hand around his cock. “There.”
Leo watched them, getting out of his shorts and squeezing his hardening cock, and then Finn looked up at him.
Finn gave him a smile. “Okay, cool, ready.”
“Cool,” Leo laughed, but instead of reaching down, he pushed forward onto his hands and knees, hovering over Finn’s body. “That’s not what you do for us, though, is it?”
Finn blinked. “What?”
Leo bent to kiss Finn’s neck, pressing their hips together so that Logan could wrap his hand around both of them at once. Finn gasped and Leo fucked into Logan’s fist, their cocks rubbing together in his tight hold.
“You make sure we know how much you love us first, Harzy,” Leo said. “Right?”
Leo felt Logan bend to kiss the other side of Finn’s neck. “Right.”
Finn was breathing harder now. “Right…”
Leo leaned back to capture Finn in a kiss, muscles tensing as Logan jacked them quicker.
“You’re gonna come so much, sweetheart, I know it.”
Logan laughed gently. “We’ve talked about it.”
“Talked about it?” Finn asked, hands moving down to press into Leo’s ass. “When?”
“Sometimes,” Leo smiled and reached down to stroke over Finn’s thigh. He leaned back, out of Logan’s reach, his cock hard falling heavily against his thighs. “Don’t get him too good, Tremz.”
Logan retrieved his hand, stroking them down Finn’s sides instead. Finn’s cock was red and sticking straight out, wet at the tip.
“Fuck,” Finn breathed.
Leo uncapped the lube with one hand and bent to suck Finn’s cock into his mouth while he warmed it between his fingers.
“Leo…” Finn said, and then cut off when Leo gently pressed his first fingertip in.
“D’accord?” Leo heard Logan whisper, and Finn whispered a yes back. But Finn was tight, every muscle Leo could feel taught around him.
“Relax, mon rouge,” Logan whispered. “You’re okay, we’ve got you.”
Leo pulled off his cock and sat back, working his finger gently.
“I’m just not used to it,” Finn said, glancing down to try and see. “I think I need something to do.”
Logan snorted. “Of course you do.”
Leo looked up from his fingers. “I have a Rubik’s Cube around here somewhere.”
Finn laughed out loud, his head falling back into Logan’s chest right as Leo pushed in a little farther and—
“Oh,” Finn jolted, smile going slack. “Oh, fuck.”
Logan smoothed his hands down Finn’s chest. “Yeah?"
Finn’s hand reached down to grip Logan’s wrist as Leo brushed inside of him again, a strangled breath punching out of him.
Leo bent once again to suck him gently. He himself was aching and trying to starve off thoughts of pressing inside of Finn, just to calm down. Finn was panting, mouth open. He had planted his feet on the blankets and pushed back when Leo added a second finger. His cock drooled a sticky strand down his chest.
“Merde,” Logan said faintly. He reached out with his finger tip to trace along a vein in Finn’s cock and Finn jolted. “Do you like it, Harzy?”
Finn’s laugh tumbled out of him. “I guess. Leo—”
Leo had added a second finger. Finn laughed again, throwing an arm over his eyes. “Oh, fuck.”
“I didn’t know you would laugh through this,” Logan said.
“I didn’t know it would feel like this.”
“So you’re laughing?”
Finn tilted his head back to look up at Logan. “I’m between my boys who are all naked and pretty and warm. I’m happy. Fuck, Leo…”
Leo smiled. “Aw, Harzy. Can I add another? Is it okay?”
Finn nodded. “Okay, okay. What’s that, three?”
“Three, sweetheart,” Leo smiled, leaning down to kiss his hip, then the base of his cock.
“Sweetheart,” Finn breathed nonsensically, smile still on his face even though his eyes had slipped shut. “Yeah, yeah, there…”
Leo looked up at Logan and they smiled at each other. Logan’s cheeks were flushed, hair curlier than Leo had ever seen it from the salt water. His eyes were hooded and he was holding Finn against him, hips rocking forward gently.
“Still okay?” Leo said. “I think you’re ready, what do you think?”
Logan ducked down to kiss Finn’s cheek. “Want Leo, mon rouge?”
Finn nodded. “Yeah. I want Leo.”
Leo tilted his head as he gave Finn one last push, crooking his fingers up to make him groan.
“Okay, Harz,” Leo said and leaned forward to kiss him, licking into his mouth. He pulled back just enough to see Finn, eyes closed and waiting for another kiss. “This makes us feel so good,” Leo mumbled, and kissed him again. “We love you like this.”
Finn made a soft noise, eyes opening. “Good.”
Leo nipped his lip gently and pulled back, reaching for the lube again.
He pushed into Finn careful, so slowly, stopping at the first press.
“Fuck,” Finn’s palms pressed into the blankets, fingers curling for something to hold onto. He pushed back against Logan. “Fuck, fuck.”
Leo went to pull back.
“No, no, no, no,” Finn said. “Go, go, go.”
Leo took a shaky breath and pushed forward again. He watched himself sink into Finn and then had to stop, half way into the tight heat and breathing hard. His cock pulsed with the feeling, with the visual and the knowledge that this was Finn.
“Okay, Harzy?” Logan said.
Leo could hear the waves lapping at the boat as Finn nodded. Finn reached forward for Leo’s hip, guiding him the rest of the way.
Leo rocked forward and the boat seemed to rock with them. Finn’s heels slipped against the blankets and he let out a low whine that Leo had never heard before. Finn wasn’t loud.
“Shit,” Leo closed his eyes and then looked at Logan, who was practically holding Finn up. He pressed in harder, making sure he pulled all the way out before sinking in again. Finn wasn’t like Logan, who pushed back as good as he got. Finn went a little boneless, head thrown back against Logan’s shoulder and his eyes closed. Leo clutched his thighs for leverage and fucked him.
“Yes, yes…” Finn kept saying, words slurred together.
Logan whimpered and his head tilted back in a way Leo knew all too well. He was coming, hidden behind Finn, probably from the pressure of Finn’s back rubbing against him—probably from Finn’s harsh breathing.
Finn’s eyes flashed open when he felt Logan’s heat streak his back, and his cock jumped.
“Leo,” Finn said. “Logan—”
“I know, sweetheart,” Leo fucked in faster. “Lo?”
Logan just bent to mouth along Finn’s neck. Leo could see his hips fucking forward as he rode out his high, clutching Finn against him. When he stilled, he turned Finn’s head to press a lingering kiss to his mouth.
“Lay back now, Harzy,” he said, and slid carefully from behind him.
Leo smiled into the kiss that Logan knelt to give him, palms smoothing over his shoulders. Logan looked soft and sated in the lantern light, all gentle curves and broad muscles.
“J’adore,” Logan murmured.
“Tremz…”
“Guys,” Finn panted.
Leo leaned forward and kissed him where he was against the pillows, red hair wild and splayed out. Logan stretched out beside them, hand looping around Finn’s cock.
“How does it feel?” Logan said. “Knutty’s so good.”
Leo groaned, the words spreading heat right through him. He had been feeling strange lately, being home after so much change had been getting to him. But seeing them, stretched out in front of him, and feeling Finn around him—Finn, who had always taken care of him… Leo knew he had changed. And not even being home, something he loved so much and was so comfortable with, could change him back.
“Does it always feel like this?” Finn murmured, then looked from Logan to Leo. “Do I feel like this?”
He pushed into Finn again, grinding close. “Yeah, Harzy. This is how you make us feel.”
Leo pushed in twice more, and then Finn was coming, seizing up around Leo and dripping over Logan’s fingers in hot waves.
“Fuck,” Logan’s voice broke. “You always come so…”
Finn just made a soft sound, the tendons of his neck going tight as he let out a breath. “Keep—”
Logan’s hand sped up around him, Leo pushing into him at a steady pace. Finn let Logan run a hand through his hair, coaxing him through it. Then Logan looked back at Leo, reaching a hand down to feel where Leo was pushing into Finn one last time until he stilled when Finn’s breathing seemed to calm. Together, Logan and Leo smoothed their hands over Finn’s hips as Leo pulled out carefully, shiny from the lube and his own precome. Leo ached with the loss, but Finn was twitching away now, sated and oversensitive.
“So?” Leo said.
“Huh,” Finn sighed, eyes shut. He cupped a hand over his cock, opened his eyes, and smiled sleepily. “I see now.”
“Is this a new thing?” Logan asked.
“Yeah,” Finn said, then bit his lip. “But I think I like doing it to you guys more.”
Leo tilted his head against Logan, enjoying the way Finn was looking at them. Like they were his. Like he was theirs.
They pressed Leo back into the blankets and got him off slowly, and Leo felt like it was forever before his sweat was cooling on his skin, and he came to with his hands in their hair, their mouths kissing along his chest and shoulders.
The night was cooler now, too, and Finn brought the blankets up over them. He was propped on one elbow and Leo watched him stroke light fingers down Logan’s arm, then reach to brush Leo’s hair back.
“I love you guys, you know?” Finn said. “I didn’t really think I’d ever want that…but I don’t think it was actually that, I think it was more…”
“Trust?” Leo finished when he trailed off.
“Yeah,” Finn said softly.
Logan nodded. “Knutty, you’re…”
“You make us trust,” Finn said, and Logan nodded again. “Trust ourselves, trust each other. Trust the world.”
Leo opened his mouth to say something, but he didn’t know what. The boat rocked beneath them from some unseen wave. It brushed them closer, all soft, sunned skin.
Logan saved Leo the trouble. He seemed to just know and cuddled himself closer beneath the blankets. They would leave for Canada soon, for a last, wild ride with the Cup. Then, they would spend the remainder of the summer in Gryffindor. But it didn’t feel like a remainder. None of it did. It felt like the rest of Leo’s life.
Leo looked at them, and looked at the stars. He didn’t need the far away things anymore to feel like he was home.
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