“Yeah, I heard you.”
“You said you miss me, too.”
“Yeah, I said that.”
Blake hums, because he was going to say something else, but now he can’t remember. “I’ll call you.”
“Okay.”
“Tomorrow.”
“Whenever you have time.”
“Yeah. Tomorrow.”
“Blake.”
“Maybe the day after tomorrow.”
“That’s probably more realistic,” Elliot says.
“Are you smiling?” Blake asks.
“Maybe.”
“Knew it.”
“Drink some water.”
“Wow,” Blake says. “Wow.”
“That was probably good advice.”
“Yeah, not my fault you didn’t take it.”
Elliot laughs. It’s Blake’s favorite sound.
“You should go back to sleep,” Blake says. “I’m sorry I woke you up.”
“You’re still not sorry,” Elliot mumbles, “but that’s okay. Have fun, eh?”
“Yeah,” Blake says, and, “Sleep well,” and then he hangs up.
“Fish, did you hide in the bathroom to call your… whoever that was?”
Blake opens the door of his bathroom stall and finds Paulie by the sinks, drying his hands. Right. There are other people in the world. He’s not the only one. He tries to remember if he said Elliot’s name. He doesn’t think he did.
“It’s okay,” Paulie says. “Why’s your… whoever… not here?”
“Because,” Blake says, and leaves it at that, because Paulie is one of the guys who’s been around for a while, got drafted two years before Blake, and he’s one of those guys who has probably realized that Blake has never brought a girlfriend to any of their team events and who stopped asking at some point.
Paulie gives him a hug for some reason.
Blake returns to the rest of the team, most of which look like they’re about ready to go to bed. He’s tired, too, and if he sat down right now, he’d probably fall asleep immediately.
“Okay,” Kells shouts over the music, “I’m taking Bram. Blake, you don’t look as wasted as some of these idiots, can you grab Choo Choo?”
Blake grabs Charlie, nearly falling over with him when Charlie leans against him.
He’s not sure how they make it back to the hotel and he’s even less sure how he manages to drag Charlie all the way to his room, Charlie giggling as he tries to get his wallet out of his pocket.
“There, there…” Charlie says and holds up the wallet, triumphant.
“Okay, here, let me…”
Blake swipes the card for him and ushers Charlie inside, catching him by the arm before he can trip over a pair of sneakers by the door.
“Whoops,” Charlie says and stumbles against Blake. “Sorry. I’m not that drunk, I swear.”
“Right,” Blake says.
Charlie grins at him, eyes fixed on Blake’s face, dipping down to his lips, then back up again. Charlie’s eyes are the deepest, darkest brown, warm and soft. Kind. He’s definitely staring right now, in a way that you usually wouldn’t stare at a teammate, but the rules don’t apply when you’re wasted because you just won the Cup. Since Blake is marginally less wasted, he knows that something’s up here, but his brain is too slow to figure it out.
He’s too slow when Charlie leans in and kisses him. Blake kisses him back, only for a split-second, before he gently pushes Charlie away.
“Time for bed,” Blake says and nudges Charlie over to his bed.
“I…”
“It’s okay.”
“Blake.”
“It’s okay,” Blake says again and decides that Charlie is not too drunk to figure out how to put his own ass in his bed and maybe even take off some of his clothes. He quickly bids him a good night and gets the hell out of his room.
Blake’s own room is three doors down and he has just opened the door when a handful of his teammates come tumbling out of the elevator, laughing, shushing each other as they loudly sneak down the hallway.
Blake grins at them and Sasha waves at him, nearly tripping over his own feet.
They’re all going to be close to death on the flight home in the morning.
#
They fly home and Charlie sits next to Kells on the plane, so Blake hovers next to Mattie until Mattie offers him the empty seat next to him. There’s food on the flight that Blake considers, since he does need to eat something at some point, but his stomach seems to be unsure if it wants him to eat food ever again.
He eventually goes to sleep. It’s a long flight and he’s exhausted. He doesn’t have to worry about anyone drawing dicks on his face, because the rest of the team is fucking exhausted, too. Everyone’s hungover and Bram looks a little green in the face, like he’s about to throw up all over the plane. Brammer’s never been this quiet in his life. Kells seems concerned, shooting glances his way until he passes out.
Blake wakes up at some point halfway through the flight and decides to finally eat something, the plane less quiet now. At least Bram is still asleep, which means he probably hasn’t made another attempt to lick the Cup.
Blake goes and sits with the guys that are awake, somehow ending up getting shoved into Kells’s lap. Kells doesn’t seem to mind as long as Blake lets him steal food off his plate, grumbling about being an old man and then sending Blake back to the buffet to get more food. Charlie is still sitting next to Kells, at first asleep, then avoiding Blake’s eyes.
By the time they land in Newark, the boys are all awake and back to partying – as much as they can on a plane. There’ll be a lot of that, interviews with the local media, too, and the parade, and then their Cup days in the summer. They’re all going to head out again tonight, to celebrate at home. They do all head back to their respective houses and apartments first, though, which means that Charlie has to stop avoiding Blake, because Blake gave him a ride to the airport and
