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They didn't win the Champions League, but no one had really thought they would either. Just qualifying for it and doing their very best had been good enough. It had been Roy's mission to make sure they actually enjoyed it, that the team had some good solid time to be proud and look around at what they built. From relegation to the top in just over a year. That was something special and Roy felt it every time he walked through that locker room.
With his new Head Coach duties and the gruelling game schedule during what would have been their summer break, he didn't get to see as much of Jamie. It was too hot for three trainings a day anyway, he had to make sure he didn't work Jamie into a heat collapse.
With their regular early-morning touch points slightly diminished, Roy had thought Jamie would gradually fade from his life when they actually got around to their break, only to re-emerge when regular training for the next season picked back up.
He had been dead wrong. The first day off, Jamie had showed up at his house with a six pack of beers and the pizzas he had been daydreaming out loud about for weeks. Neither of them really talked about it, but after that day ... they just spent their break together. Jamie had some brand deals and photoshoots to travel to, so it wasn't every single day, but more often than not Jamie was at Roy's. And equally, more often than not, Phoebe was too. She was on her summer break, her mum could only take so much time off and while Phoebe was getting bigger and was generally great at entertaining herself, his sister preferred not to leave her home alone.
Roy fucking loved it.
Jamie and Phoebe got on like a house on fire. He didn't entertain her in that condescending tone some adults took with kids, he was genuinely having a blast with her. Roy was pretty used to getting ganged up on by his sister and Phoebe, but it was a different tone with Jamie. The two of them would start whispering while Roy cooked, and two hours later there'd be a new painting of Phoebe's mounted on his wall (Jamie had commissioned his own weeks ago, Phoebe's paintings of nude women were getting damn good, she could probably make some money off them if she really put her head to it). Other times, Jamie would sneak out and return with enough ice cream to spoil their appetite for dinner, claiming it was to make the most of his time off his meal plan.
Jamie fit into his family in a way that Roy didn't quite know what to do with. He just belonged. A few weeks into their increased proximity, it didn't even occur to Roy not to invite Jamie along on the beach trip he had promised his sister. She worked too much and didn't get enough of a proper break even when she wasn't working either, so Roy had booked them a house in Brighton, right by the waterfront. Four days of nothing but summer, sun and swimming. He hadn't even questioned if Jamie would come along, which had been quite a shift for him. In just three weeks, Jamie had wormed himself into the very fabric of Roy's life... well, then again, he had started the process almost a year ago now, so maybe it wasn't that rapid after all.
Phoebe had chosen a new swimsuit for the occasion. It made her look like a drowned Victorian ghost child, but it was adorable and she was happy. Roy had taught her how to swim when she had been three years old and she was bloody fast in the water now. He loved swimming out along the coastline with her, never too far off shore just for safety. In the water, he could keep up in a way his knee no longer allowed him on land. His sister joined them, but Roy had booked her into daily spa treatments too. By the third day, her ever tight shoulders had dropped into a more comfortable looking position and she was soaking up the peace. To Jamie's credit, he hadn't made a single comment about her looking good in a bikini.
Their days passed were passed in the water, diving for shells and playing in the waves. It made Roy feel like he was a child again. Some of his happiest memories had been at the beach at Sunderland, but he had never been in company this good.
In the late afternoon of their third day, when the tide was high and the waves were coming high and fast, Roy found himself in waist deep water with Jamie and Phoebe. The two men took turns picking Phoebe up and tossing her into a big wave. Squeals of joy and calls for 'again' were answered with encouragement and ever increasing efforts to toss her higher. At some point Roy had her by her ankles and Jamie had her by the wrists, swinging her between them. He couldn't take his eyes off Jamie's beaming face as they swung her back and forth to build momentum, cheerfully counting down from 3 to 0 to let her know when they were going to toss her. Phoebe went flying, emerging breathless and happy from the waves, but clearly tired out. They had been out here for what had to be hours.
"What do you say we get dried off and see if your mum wants some ice cream with her audiobook?" Jamie suggested, one arm out to steady Phoebe in case the next wave knocked her over. It didn't, but it was fucking adorable to see him looking out for her. He wasn't even thinking about it either, that much was clear, just in the moment, great with her, great with all of them.
"Yes please!" Phoebe answered, excited again, energy immediately returning at the prospect of ice cream. They would be in real trouble, the day she figured out she could ask them for anything and they'd probably make it happen. For now though, Phoebe was an easy customer.
"Fuuuck.." He said softly to himself, quiet enough for it to get lost in the sound of the waves as he followed them out. Jamie was faster out of the water, where gravity was making Roy feel the effects of hours of swimming on his knees. It was a good kind of ache, the effort good for his muscles and the overall stability of his knee, but he sure felt it. Being slower also meant that he got to watch Jamie wrap the big beach towel around Phoebe and give her water. It meant that Roy could watch his muscles shift and flex as he went through their beach bag, the way the water glistened on his skin. It had been days of being confronted with how fucking objectively hot Jamie looked in swim trunks. Yes, he was fit, most guys Roy saw shirtless were though, it wasn't that. It was the fact that he could see the effort they had put in together written all over Jamie's body, and the ease with which he leaned it into Roy when they were close, the confidence, the lightness to his movements. Roy didn't think he had ever inhabited his own body the way Jamie did his. It was a thing of beauty, and he was having a hard time explaining to himself what it was that made his chest feel so tight when Roy looked at him.
"...-ice cream again?" He could hear his sister's amused voice carry from where she was laid out in her sun lounger under an umbrella, one airpod out of her ear and laughing when Jamie argued that they hadn't had any today yet. "Alright then, I'll have pistachio if they have it, and vanilla if they don't." She said.
"Cookies and cream." He answered before Jamie could even ask him.
"Knew it." Jamie grinned. "Alright Pheebs, wanna come with?" He asked. Phoebe was already putting on her shoes though, so it was a rather rhetorical question. Roy watched as Jamie pulled a shirt on and slipped into his ridiculous crocs, offering Phoebe his hand to take her across the street to the ice cream shop.
Roy sank into the sun lounger next to his sister's, groaning with relief and exhaustion, but utterly content.
"You should keep him."
He looked over at her, but she already had her airpods back in, eyes closed.
"Fuck."
A couple of hours later, Roy had Phoebe's sleeping body slung over his shoulder, carrying her home to bed while Jamie carried all their supplies. Phoebe had gone out like a light, the sun and endless swimming and diving finally exhausting her. As far as days went, this had to have been one of the best of his life, though he wasn't sure he would admit it. It was rare that anything felt this right. Roy felt like he was existing in a bubble outside of space and time. Nothing mattered except that everyone was happy. He was just himself, and no one wanted anything from him, there was no pressure for a few precious hours.
He tucked Phoebe in under just a sheet because it was far too warm for a blanket, kissing her salty hair before leaving her in her room to sleep. When he looked up, Jamie was leaning in the doorframe and they simultaneously lifted fingers to their lips to remind each other to stay quiet before smiling when they realised they had both had the same impulse to preserve her peace.
Roy closed the door quietly behind himself, leaving the two of them alone in the hallway. Jamie was so close, Roy could smell the salty water and sunscreen on him.
"I just wanted to say thanks, for inviting me." Jamie told him quietly, making sure his voice wouldn't carry through the door.
Roy looked at his face, the laugh lines from a day of fun more pronounced than usual, a soft tan on him and a warmth in his expression that made Roy's heart beat too fast.
"I'm glad you came along." Roy told him honestly. "It's good." He couldn't quite say what he wanted to say, that it was so much better being here with Jamie, that it couldn't have possibly been this good if he hadn't been here. He couldn't tell Jamie that his family loved him and that Roy had no idea how he would ever have a holiday this good again if Jamie wasn't along for the ride. His eyes had drifted to Jamie's lips and...
Jamie leaned in and kissed him. It was so soft and so quick Roy wasn't sure if it had happened for a moment. He stared at Jamie, stunned.
"Good?" Jamie asked, somewhere between teasing and nervous.
Roy could only nod. "Yeah. Good." He confirmed, voice coming out breathless. It felt oddly safe, leaning in to kiss Jamie again. A sure thing, the same kind of certainty with which he had known Jamie would come here with him.
"Come on." He patted Jamie's hip, nodding towards their adjacent rooms.
They had a lot to figure out, but Roy wasn't up for much thinking right now. He knew all he needed to know. They had come here together and they would leave tomorrow, a different kind of together.