The regular season is wrapping up in April, but the Boulders still have a few more games to play before playoffs begin. One of their last away games happens to be against Detroit, which Tye is absolutely ecstatic about.
Their game is on Sunday and the team flies in directly from Cleveland on Saturday. Foregoing check in at the hotel, Tye instead says that he has a friend that he will be staying with while in town. This is normally not allowed during the season, but their spot in the playoffs with home-ice advantage has already been secured, so the coaching staff lets it slide. With that being said, he still needs to be back at the hotel on time for breakfast the next morning.
He only has to knock twice on apartment 304 before it's thrown open with a loud - BANG - as it slams against the wall. Arms quickly grab him and drag him inside. His boyfriend kisses him hungrily while he blindly reaches for the door to shut behind him. Tye's initial surprise immediately morphs into contentedness as he indulges in the sensation brought on by the pair of lips moving eagerly against his own.
Tye shifts them so Moss is trapped against the closed door. Bracketed between Tye's arms, Moss smiles into the heated kiss and feels a sense of relief at finally being reunited with his boyfriend who lives too far away from him for his liking. Eventually, they break apart to catch their breath and properly greet each other.
"Hi," Moss beams up at him. Tye tugs gently at a curl hanging close to Moss' eye. "Missed you, sweets," he responds with a grin of his own. After exchanging one last peck, Tye gets the chance to scan over the space that he's used to seeing exclusively over FaceTime.
Noticing the hockey player looking around, Moss offers to give him a quick tour of the place. "Obviously it's not nearly as grand as your log cabin mansion, but I can still show you around," he teases.
The tour only lasts a total of ten minutes considering how small the apartment is. Tye also had a handful of questions regarding the number of knickknacks and mismatched furniture strewn throughout the place. He spends the most amount of time, however, observing the pictures that Moss has scattered around in various rooms. There are childhood pictures of the Kettler boys in most of the frames. Several exhibit how nurturing and protective Moss was of his little brothers back in the day.
One picture in particular shows eight-year-old Moss with his arm around a crying four-year-old Eli who must've wiped out while skiing down the bunny hill. As Moss comforts his youngest brother, he has a big smile on his face and is extending a thumbs up with his other hand towards six-year-old Shane who looks to be reaching the end of the beginner hill by himself.
Moss then tells him that he prepared a chicken pot pie which is done and warming in the oven until Tye is ready to eat. "How did I get lucky enough to land a chef?" Tye questions and places a quick kiss on his lips before guiding them to the kitchen. After having to fend for himself in the kitchen for the last few weeks, he is excited to be able to eat his boyfriend's cooking once again.
Blissfully scooping out the pot pie on each of their plates, they then eat as Tye tells Moss about an altercation that went down on the flight to Detroit. Apparently, one of their goalies and their top center almost got into a fight over a card game that they had been playing. "Lando is, like, ultra-competitive. That guy was ready to drop the gloves over a dumb fucking game of cards," he says with a mouthful of pot pie.
The two of them shower and head to bed early so they can fool around at their leisure. Unfortunately, Tye will be fined and benched for the game if he fails to show up on time for team breakfast at the hotel the next morning. Knowing that the next day will be chaotic, they try to fully enjoy their night together before having to deal with the craziness that is game day in Hockeytown.
-
Tye tries to sneak out of bed around 6:30 AM so Moss can continue sleeping in peace. He is slipping on the clothes that were hastily discarded next to his side of the bed last night when he hears his boyfriend's tired voice. "It's time for you to go already?"
Leaning over to place a kiss on his forehead, Tye responds, "Sorry, sweets. I need to leave now for breakfast or I'm gonna be late. If I get there even a minute past 7:15, they'll bench me for the night."
"That doesn't sound so bad. You can just stay here with me all day," Moss bargains playfully. Opening his eyes feels impossible at the moment. He tries squinting up at Tye, but his eyelids feel too heavy to function properly.
Pulling his shirt over his head and standing up, Tye smiles down at his sleepy lump attempting to squint up at him from the bed. "Believe me—I'm incredibly tempted, but I think coach would have an aneurysm and never let me leave the hotel during away games ever again if I did that."
Moss lets out a grumpy - humph - at this.
Throwing his backpack over his shoulders, Tye turns back to face the bed before he leaves the room and asks, "Are you still planning on watching the game with your parents tonight?"
"Yeah," Moss replies gloomily, "-but I made reservations for after the game at a restaurant near the arena. I just need to not let my mom pressure me into going back to their house to hang out with them and the boys later."
"Alright...." Tye says hesitantly. "Well, keep me updated if there is a change of plans. I'll check my phone throughout the day in case you need to send out an SOS when your parents start acting the way they usually do."
Moss lazily salutes him, still laying with his curly dark brown hair splayed across his pillow. "Sir, yes, sir," he slurs with his eyes closed. It looks like he's about to fall back asleep any minute now.
Laughing at the sleepy man's dramatics, Tye walks out of the bedroom and orders an Uber. He then heads down to the lobby of the apartment building where he waits for the driver to show up. Thankfully, the Uber arrives at the team's hotel quickly, allowing him to make it to breakfast on time.
Now back with the team and extremely well rested from a night with his boyfriend, Tye mentally prepares himself for the day ahead.
-
Moss was told to meet his parents at the arena by 4:30 PM since the game starts at 6:00 PM today, which is earlier than usual. He puts on a pair of khakis and a white sweater that isn't too heavy so he doesn't overheat when he layers his Martel jersey over top of it.
He wanted to make sure that he would have an acceptable outfit to wear after the game since the restaurant he made reservations for is a tad bit on the classier side. Plus, Tye will be in his game day suit, so he doesn't want to look too casual next to him.
Upon arriving at the arena, he realizes that he got there earlier than expected. He shoots a text to his parents alerting them that he's waiting out front. Then, to pass the time, he proceeds to scroll mindlessly on his phone. The first notification that he notices is from Tye checking in with him to see how everything is going so far.
Tye>:)<3
Have your parents said any BS yet?
To: Tye>:)<3
Still waiting for them out front so no BS yet
"It's a miracle—you actually beat us to a game for once." It seems that Moss spoke too soon when he hears his moms voice right as he hits send on his text to Tye. He immediately spots his parents as they approach him coming from the direction of the nearby parking garage.
"It's not a far walk from my apartment. It only took me, like, fifteen minutes to get here," Moss responds while moving forward to give both of them a hug. His dad pulls away from the hug and holds him at arm's length before turning him around to look at his back. "A Martel jersey? What—were they out of stock on both Kettler's?" He grumbles out in a sarcastic tone.
"Tye gave it to me. I figured I'd wear it since it's the only Boulders jersey I have," he explains. "Plus, I wouldn't want to have to choose between Shane and Eli's jerseys." Truthfully, he's not sure he'd wear either of his brother's jerseys if he even had them in the first place. Neither of them have offered to send him anything and communication in general has pretty much faded completely between the three of them. Tye, on the other hand, snags every new piece of merchandise put out by the team to give to him and is always ecstatic when he sees Moss actually wearing the Boulders-branded apparel.
His mom looks at him with a confused tilt of her head. "I'm wearing Eli's jersey and your father is wearing Shane's. It wouldn't matter which you choose to wear when we have both of them covered, honey."
"I guess you're right," Moss concedes, hoping that they can just move on from the conversation.
They silently walk into the arena to find their seats after that. This time around they are not in a suite, but the very first row at the center line across from the benches.
During warmups, Shane and Eli skate over to the glass where their mom is gesturing wildly indicating that she wants a picture. They stand next to each other, Eli with one arm over Shane's shoulders. It's funny seeing how tall his youngest brother has grown—he's now larger than both he and Shane.
They soon rejoin their team after giving the glass a tap with their sticks once their mom is satisfied with the many pictures that she took of them. She is beaming down at her phone as she shows Moss and his dad the pictures while rambling on about how handsome they look.
Her one-sided conversation fades to the background when Tye skates over, makes eye contact with Moss and snows the glass in front of him and his parents. Moss covers his mouth with his right hand to muffle his laughter. Clearly having done a poor job at masking his amusement, he sees Tye grin as he skates away and takes a slapshot at the empty net where the rest of his team is warming up.
-
The Boulders shut out Detroit 5-0.
Tye gets two goals and two assists, nearly registering a point on each goal. Shane scores as well and Eli records two assists for the night. Needless to say, the team and the Kettler family are in a very good mood after the game.
They were granted permission to wait outside the visitors locker room so they could snag Shane and Eli before the team heads back to the hotel. Moss will be snagging Tye, but his parents don't know this yet.
A flood of hockey players and staff exit the locker room a couple minutes after they arrive. Shane and Eli spot them and make a beeline over to the trio. Eli has a wide smile on his face as he picks up the pace and shouts out an excitable, "Hey, guys!" Meanwhile, Shane takes his time striding over to his family with a neutral look on his face—always trying to keep up his 'cool guy' facade.
"Terrific game, boys! We're so proud of you!" His mom exclaims while hugging the two of them at the same time.
His dad slaps both of them on the back enthusiastically and offers his own commentary. "Hell of a game, you two. There's no doubt in my mind that you're going to breeze your way through the playoffs."
Moss gives them a small smile as well and says, "Detroit didn't stand a chance."
While they talk and get the inside-scoop on some details about the game from Shane and Eli's perspective, Tye makes his way over and stands next to Moss. After a minute, he leans down to whisper in his boyfriend's ear so he doesn't interrupt the conversation, "Are you ready to go soon?" Moss gives him a slight nod before turning to his family. "Hey—we're going to head out now. I wanted to show Tye a restaurant nearby while he's in town."
Giving him a disapproving look, his mom immediately shuts down his plans. "Moss Benjamin Kettler. Your brothers are also in town for a limited amount of time. You're coming back to the house with us for dinner and a movie."
His stomach drops at this.
Logically, he knew that his mom would put up a fight, but it seems that he overestimated his ability to argue with her about his plans for after the game. Despite him being a grown adult who pays bills and has his own place, he never wants to be the reason for tension in the family. This line of thinking probably stems from him being the oldest of three. He's always been the one to have to make sacrifices for the sake of convenience his entire life.
Memories suddenly flash to the forefront of his mind. He remembers celebrating almost all of his past birthdays at his brother's hockey tournaments. Receiving a cupcake and a toy never seemed to compare to the celebrations that Shane and Eli would get after winning a game or moving onto the next round with their championship teams. Additionally, he always had trouble making and keeping friends considering they never stayed at one school district for long. His brothers had consistently gotten better at hockey each year, causing the family to have to move in order for them to play on teams that were on par with their skill level.
"Can Tye come with?" He asks, feeling like a child begging his mom to let a friend stay the night. "I promised him dinner after the game and I don't want to leave him hanging."
Shane gives him an odd look, probably just now realizing that his teammate and his brother are better friends than he previously thought. Moss feels his face heats slightly at this and tries to convince himself that his younger brother isn't suspicious of his request.
"Sure," his mom agrees with a curt nod. "Tye, honey—you had a terrific game as well. I was hoping you'd get the puck at the end there so you could score in the empty net for a hat trick. Great game, though, regardless." Tye smiles tightly and thanks her before falling to the back of the group with Moss as they all begin to migrate out of the arena and toward the parking lot.
In his parents car, the pair are shoved to the very back which gives Tye the ability to discreetly rest his hand on Moss' thigh. The comforting gesture is very much appreciated since dread had already begun to slowly creep up on Moss when they stepped foot inside the minivan. He wants to spend time with his boyfriend, but he has a feeling that the night is going to be an absolute mess. Putting his hand overtop of the one on his thigh, he hopes to God that Tye still wants to be with him after tonight.