#the last part of the last line is a riff on lorrie moore’s

[thetarttfuldickhead]

He slips in after midnight and it’s a dick move, yeah, ’cause he knows they’ll be asleep, Keeley’s got meetings in the morning, she’s always got meeting ‘cause she’s a proper super star, and Roy hasn’t got meetings, it’s an off day for the coaches too, but he’s an old grump and he needs his eight hours or he’s a worse fucking grump and Jamie doesn’t need him to be a grump tomorrow.

So, yeah. Should go back to his own place, probably. Kip there, head over in the morning. Only, he’s been gone for a week, and with Keeley’s meetings and Roy being the head coach, they’ve none of them had the chance to come the qualifiers, and it’s been brilliant, of course it has, he has, and there’s been texts and phone calls and video calls, but it’s not the same is it, and he’s missed them, and so.

He unlocks the door quietly and takes his shoes off quietly and pads up the stairs quietly, but when he pushes open the door to the master bedroom – quietly – the bed lights are on and there’s Keeley sat with an Ipad in her lap and her back against the padded headboard. On the other side of the bed Roy’s spread out and out like a light, snoring gently.

“Hey,” Jamie says, lingering in the doorway. “Sorry, I didn’t— I mean, thought you’d be asleep.”

“I was waiting for you,” Keeley says, as easily as if it’s nothing, as she puts the tablet away. “Roy was too, but he’s had Phoebe all day, didn’t last two minutes.” And she pauses, eyeing him like she expects him to crack a joke, Roy’s so fucking old something something no fucking wonder he’s tired, but when he doesn’t speak and he doesn’t move she cocks her head to the side. “Come here?”

And he doesn’t need asking twice, does he. He crosses the floor, shedding his clothes as he sheds everything that isn’t them and here and now, and he slips into the middle of the bed, into the space they’ve made for him, and Keeley settles around him and he around her, and at his back Roy is solid and warm, a constant, and Jamie closes his eyes, presses against him and pulls her closer, and the scent of them both is everywhere and her whispered welcome home is the warmth of her smile is the heat of Roy’s body and if this isn’t home he is homeless.