Summary: Remember Ethans dad offering Ethan hockey tickets when he thought Ethan was gay? Well here he knows Ethans dating Rory and thus offers hockey tickets once again!
“Hey Ethan?”
“Yeah?” Ethan called back to his dad from the living room, him and Jane were watching a movie while their parents made dinner together.
“Can you come here?”
Ethan stood and furrowed his eyebrows, had he done something? Had Jane? Had Benny?
He had no clue.
His dad was setting up the table for dinner and there were two hockey tickets on the table.
“Woah, nice! You got hockey tickets for us? When?” He picked up the tickets and looked at them. “Front row too?”
Smiling, he looked back up at his dad, who was also smiling. But he looked a bit nervous.
“So, I know that I tried to do this before, but you turned the tickets down. But well, now that you are, dating someone. I thought you could take ‘em to a game and have some fun.”
“Oh.”
The tickets were for him and Rory. That was sweet of his dad? Kinda? It was a little weird that his dad basically paid for a date for him and Rory but his dad was being supportive of it. So.
“Thanks.”
He smiled at his dad and saw the relief spread across his face.
“Okay, great. So, it's for 2 weeks from now. Enough time to get his parents permission and organize everything. Um, which I'm totally up for helping you out, unless you want to do that on your own that is.”
“Dad, thanks. I'm uh, gonna go put these in my room, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah of course. But come right back down, dinners done.”
“I will.”
He turned around and ignored that Jane had been listening in, he rolled his eyes at her and she stuck her tongue back out. Nosy little sister as ever.
—
It wasn't hard at all to get Rory's parents to allow him to go to a hockey game in another town on a weekday. Surprisingly easy in fact.
Rory said it was because when his parents heard that he was invited to a hockey game and wanted to go they were excited about it.
He was pretty sure his parents would be the same level of excitement about him wanting to do an improve dance competition.
Ethan's mom was driving them to the game and back, she was meeting with a friend for some shopping while they were at the game. The plan worked out and now they just had to go and have fun.
“And you remember I'm not a hockey expert?”
Ethan laughed and rolled his eyes, “yeah I remember. I'll be the hockey expert for the two of us.”
“Good.”
They couldn't hold hands in the line but they had their shoulders pressed against each other and it was enough.
“Didn’t you almost die because of that?”
“Oh yeah, Coach Steiner, that was very not good.”
“How did he know that you know all about hockey?”
“Rory I was on the hockey team, he knew.”
“I would hope he knew he was the coach!”
“No that’s-” Laughing at his boyfriend Ethan kept them moving forward in the line. “I told him that I knew all about hockey when I was at try outs. He needed 2 other people to be benchwarmers and me and Benny got it because of my hockey knowledge.”
“Why did Benny even want to be on the hockey team? I didn’t get it.”
“So girls would like him.”
“Ohhhh, maybe I should have been a benchwarmer too!” Rory winked at Ethan.
Ethan rolled his eyes, “I don’t think you're warm enough to be a benchwarmer. You’re always so cold.”
“Perks of being the Ror-ster! But I so could of warmed a bench!” He leaned forward to Ethan and whispered almost too quietly for Ethan to make out. “I’d just flirt with you and you’d warm the bench plenty.”
Embarrassed Ethan stuttered and blushed.
“Rory!”
Rory grinned at him and took a few steps forward with the line, Ethan followed.
“You can’t just say that!”
“And why not dear Ethan?”
“You-you just can’t!”
“Your complaint has been noted, I’ll file it with the council.”
“The council? Which council?”
“Why the best council to have ever counseled of course! Yoda, Thor, Kirk and Spock, Ironman, and Wonder Woman!”
“I could hear the lack of comment you know.”
“No clue what you’re talking about!” Rory started to whistle innocence, it was always very comedic when he did that.
“It’s Kirk, and Spock! Not Kirk and Spock! They are separate people!”
“Would you say their “people”, they aren’t human.”
“Okay, you’re fucking with me, Kirk is actually human so it definitely applies to at least him. But! But! Aliens can definitely have the word “people” apply to them in certain contexts.”
“Well I think neither of them are to be classified “people” that’d be uhm. Stupid, no, what’s that other word?”
“Bizarre?”
“No.”
“Insane?”
“No, hey do they sell food?”
“They do, I have some money my dad gave me for some don’t worry. Wait, are you, hungry?”
“Nope, just wanted to make sure you weren’t.”
“Oh, okay. Was the word preposterous?”
“Ga-zoom-tight.”
“Absurd?”
“Yes! That one! It would be Absurd to classify them as “people”, you just simply can’t do that!”
“No you can-”
“Tickets.”
“Oh, uh.” Ethan blinked and realized they were at the front of the line. A grumpy looking 20 year old dude with a very bad haircut stared at him.
“You two do have tickets already, don’t you? We don’t sell them here, you were in the wrong line.”
“No, hold on, here.” Handing the tickets over the attendee checked them.
Then he realized.
“Hey hold on when I said preposterous what did you say?”
“What, uhm. Oh! Ga-zoom-tight.”
“Why are you adding an m?”
The ticket stub was handed to him and they were waved through to the entrance. He knew exactly where to go for seats, his dad had favorite ones.
“Cause that's how it's said, duh!”
“Okay, spell it out.”
“No! It's not one of the words you spell, it's like, like special comic book words but for the ears.”
“Okay no, it's a real word and it has an actual spelling.”
“Well then you spell it!”
“I don't know how, and anyways-”
Ethan could feel Rorys hand brush against right before the vision swam his mind.
Rory cheering and screaming and jumping back as someone was slammed against the barrier
Rory buying him a hotdog
A puck being tossed over the barrier and Rory missing catching and it landing right on his nose
Ethan came back to Rory looking concerningly at him. He had grabbed Ethans shoulder and there was a concerned lady looking at the two of them.
“Ethan?”
“Uh, sorry. The, the thing.”
“A Bad thing?”
Was it bad?
No, it wasn't. It just showed a fun time.
“No, c'mon let's go sit down.” He smiled at his boyfriend reassuringly.
“Okay!” Rory smiled back, accepting the truth and ready to have fun.
Summary: Rory doesn't sleep at night anymore, so on a snowy Friday night he goes out to make some snow things for him and Ethan to enjoy tommorow!
Rory was bored. He had finished his homework for the weekend, and had eaten an early leftover dinner with his mom. She had a headache and wanted to turn in early, but she still sat down and watched Ratatouille with him to spend time with him. But after that, there was nothing to do.
He could definitely go and see if he could crash one of his friends' hang out sessions. Well Erica and Sarah were hanging out and his boyfriend and Benny were hanging out. They were doing something together and Rory hadn't been interested in joining when he'd been told, besides Friday's always seemed to be Benny and Ethans day.
So Rory had looked around his house for things to do when he saw a curtain still partly open, he went to close it and saw the snow outside.
It was a good amount, enough to do a lot of things with if he wanted.
Did Rory want to? Spend a bit of the night making things in the snow alone?
Rory smiled to himself, it would kill some time. And he could try and make an igloo for a cool date for him and Ethan!
Rory grabbed his phone and put it in a bag and then a glove so it wouldn't get too cold. He also grabbed 2 flashlights and the bag of snow tools from the garage. He really didn't know how long he'd take and it was better to be prepared.
He locked the door behind him and took to the skies to find a secluded place to mess around so no one would see and yell at him.
—
It was only when his morning alarm chimed on his phone that he realized how long he had been working on this. Thankfully his alarm was set pretty early, he didn’t need sleep anymore so sometimes he would spend his nights out of the house. But he needed to get home so his mom wouldn’t worry.
He looked at what he had done and still felt himself smiling. It had been hard work but the different tools that he had needed to build all of this had been in his garage and it wasn’t hard to sneak in there now, he had practice.
The main thing was the igloo made of snow blocks that he had made in a few hours, but before the alarm he had been doing a few touches on some snowmen. He also wanted to try and work on his snowball making but he seemed to be out of time.
Making sure he had everything he came with, tools and flashlights and phone, he flew home and peaked into his moms window to see how quiet he needed to be. But she wasn't there.
Shit, that was bad.
He peeked into his window to see if the door was open, and surprisingly it wasn’t. Huh. Maybe she hadn’t checked on him yet.
He climbed inside into his room and tried to listen for her heartbeat in the house, but, he couldn’t hear her.
Shit.
Running out of his room and down the stairs he tried to find where she was. Did she leave? Did she leave a note?
Had she thought he was out of the house and went to go find him?
He looked on the fridge and counter and sighed when he saw a note reading “Good morning sweetie, I got a call from work saying they needed me in as soon as possible. I didn’t want to wake you, make sure to eat something before I get back! Love you <3”
She was at work, and probably thought Rory was still in bed. Perfect! Crisis averted!
Rory put the note back and wrote one of his own “Hanging out with Ethan, love you mom!” Just in case she came home before he did.
He grabbed the bag of snow tools from his room and put them in the garage and grabbed an apple to pretend to eat. Then he left the house and headed to Ethan’s.
Rory had a surprise for him and he wanted Ethan to see it immediately!
—
Ethan had gotten up early because his dad had wanted him to help shovel the driveway the sidewalk to Benny’s house. Apparently his grandma was coming over to ‘watch’ Jane. He was pretty sure she was teaching his sister how to do more magic.
But it gave his parents the freedom to go and do the normal shopping and out of house tasks, and he was free to do whatever he wanted for the rest of the day. It was a win.
So he was awake when there was a knock at his window, he smiled to himself and went to let his boyfriend inside.
He pulled back the curtains to find Rory as anticipated flying outside his window.
What he hadn’t expected was to see that Rory was covered with chunks of snow and ice all over him.
“Rory!”
Ethan quickly opened his window and shivered at the cold air. Quickly he closed it behind his boyfriend and looked him up and down.
Rory looked absolutely soaked from head to toe and there was so much ice and snow over him it looked uncomfortable.
“Ethan! Good morning! I have a surprise for you!”
“Is the surprise you found out how much cold a vampire can handle? Cause I don’t think you needed to do that.”
“What?”
Ethan gestured to Rory's appearance, “your covered in snow and ice, how long were you outside?”
“Oh, I didn’t notice.”
“Clearly.” Rolling his eyes he considered what he was going to do about this. “C’mon, you need to take a shower to warm up and get new clothes. Before my mom sees you.”
“Do I really? I want to show you what I did!”
“Rory, you look crazy cold. My mom will freak out if she sees you, she hasn’t left yet.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, c’mon before she sees.”
Ethan grabbed Rory’s arm, it was colder than he thought it was going to be, and dragged him towards the bathroom.
“Leave your clothes by the door and I’ll go throw them in the dryer. When it’s done you can show me whatever it is you want.”
“Promise?” Rory was giving him cute puppy dog eyes.
“Promise.”
Rory allowed himself to be instructed on how the shower works and was given a towel.
“I’ll give you a set of clothes when I take yours, okay?”
“Okay!”
Thankfully Rory waited for Ethan to leave before he started to take his clothes off to get in.
Ethan left and went downstairs to tell his mom that Rory was here.
“Did I hear Rory?”
“What? Yeah, how did you know?”
“Mom ears Ethan. Did he somehow sneak over last night?”
“No but he came in before dad woke me up, he uh, well he couldn’t sleep?”
“Uh huh.”
“Hey that’s why I came down here! To tell you he was here, and is also showering. He’s going to borrow some of my clothes and we're going out.”
“Where are you going?”
“He said he had a surprise for me? So maybe his house? I’ll let you know when we get there.”
“Alright, just be safe honey.” She winked at him conspiratorially.
“I will, okay thanks-bye.” He ran back upstairs to his room, another task to do.
—
They decided to walk to the end of the neighborhood before flying to wherever Rory had the surprise. Rory was practically jumping up and down ready to show Ethan whatever he was so excited for.
“Okay!” Without warning Rory grabbed Ethan and picked him up bridal style and took off into the sky.
“Woah! A little warning!!” Ethan grabbed a hold around Rory’s neck in panic, really not wanting to let go or look down.
“Sorry Ethan!” Rory didn’t look very sorry to Ethan, but he would let it slide.
Ethan huffed and waited, if it was Rory’s house they were going to it would only be thirty seconds. Counting in his head past 40 he spoke again.
“Will you tell me now where we are going?”
“To the woods, I spent all night making something.”
"The woods? Rory, are you planning to murder me and bury my body in the snow? Because my mom knows its you, you won’t get away with it.”
Rory rolled his eyes, catching Ethan’s joking tone. “Never.”
Ethan tried to think of a comeback but it was hardly a minute later when they landed and Rory gently set him down.
“And we’re here!”
Ethan let go of Rory’s neck and looked around the area.
“Woah! You built an igloo and snowmen?”
“Yeah! C’mon come inside. Trust me I stood on it earlier and nothing moved!”
“If it collapses on me, you’ll get me out right?”
“Of course, but it won’t do that.”
Rory grabbed and held his hand and pulled him along.
Oh, yeah. They could hold hands out here! Ethan blushed and let himself be pulled into the igloo.
It was really nice and the two spent hours together hanging out there. Sitting side by side and talking about anything. There was a few flirtatious remarks exchanged that got both of them blushing a bit too.
It was a good time, they went back to Ethan’s house for lunch and so Ethan could warm up again. And then after they went back to build a snowman together.
It was a really nice day, Ethan was glad his boyfriend put in all that effort to make this little place.
Summary: Ethan feels a but insecure that he's not Rorys 'type' so he decides to fix it. But Rory reacts different to how he expected.
Ethan had never thought that he was jealous over Rory gushing over fictional characters or famous people. They weren’t real or they would never date Rory, so he told himself that he wasn't jealous of them at all.
Rory had even asked if Ethan was jealous or wanted him to stop talking about the characters or famous people, and he had told Rory that he didn’t mind. That he knew that they were just fantasies or impossible celebrity crushes. And they were, he had some too.
But Ethan would hear Rory talk about these little impossible crushes and would be upset, and jealous. He didn’t want to be jealous though! He wanted to be an understanding boyfriend who didn’t get jealous over that kind of thing.
Ethan realized that wasn’t the only thing that he felt either though. He would hear about or see the people Rory gushed over and, well.
None looked like Ethan and none quite had the personality of Ethan.
But Rory liked these characters and people.
The ones Ethan wasn’t like.
And Ethan wasn’t going to change his personality for Rory, but, well, he could change his appearance for him.
He gathered some money and asked his mom to take him clothes shopping the next day. She had been surprised and had jumped at the chance, even denying taking Jane even though Jane loved shopping.
She had been helpful when they went through thrift stores and other stores, asking him the kinds of things that he wanted and helping him know what would fit when the sizes of things were confusing. There were moments where he had been annoyed at her, but she had bought a few things for him that she said were “cute” on him, so it had still been a good time. They went and got fast food together, with the promise that they wouldn’t tell dad or Jane.
And when he got home he washed everything, staying up until 3 am to make sure the last load was in the dryer and on and collapsed into bed after the long day.
The next day was school and so he picked out an outfit, new shoes, new pants, new shirt, new jacket. He felt like it was halloween and he was Jakeward again. Although he did think he looked cool, he felt a little awkward in it.
Looking in the mirror was strange, but he pushed that aside. He just had to get used to it, and it was for Rory anyway.
-
Rory had acknowledged that Ethan was dressed differently, but he also hadn’t.
Erica had acknowledged how differently Ethan was dressed. Although she seemed to both hate and like it at the same time at first, she landed on the opinion that he needed to go back to “looking like a true nerd, nerd.”
Benny had known he had gone shopping but hadn’t expected for Ethan to show up looking so different. He immediately asked to see if the jacket fit him so he could borrow it some time, it was a little bit loose on Ethan. But it was by design. Ethan shrugged and let Benny try it on. It looked out of place on him too, like the jacket that Evil Benny wore had looked on him. Nice, but out of place almost. Benny seemed to still like it and gave it back to Ethan with the warning that it might be stolen.
Sarah had taken a few moments to properly comment on Ethan’s new outfit but had complimented the shoes and teased him about how different he looked. She did clarify that she didn’t think it looked bad though.
Rory, which was who Ethan was doing this for, had stopped in his tracks as he greeted Ethan in the morning and had stared Ethan up and down several times before pretending nothing was wrong. Then he ran off saying that he was meeting a teacher for some help with the homework while the others started talking about Ethan’s outfit.
Which wasn’t the reaction Ethan wanted. Maybe Rory had been checking him out, but Rory hadn’t blushed or looked flustered? And then he ran off without actually saying anything about the outfit.
Other people throughout the day had mentioned the outfit, a few students and teachers. Ethan was sure some of the bullies had been laughing at him too but they hadn’t come up to say anything to him.
Rory had been at lunch but had spent the entire time talking about Ocarina of Time, which he had spent the weekend playing on his fixed up gamecube. Sarah and Erica had been engaged in their own topic of conversation and Benny had been idly doing homework for his next class, occasionally looking up when Rory said something he found interesting.
Ethan admitted to himself as Rory had stood up to go to class early that he was disappointed his boyfriend didn’t seem interested in the way Ethan was dressed.
Throughout the rest of the school day he was quiet, stuck in his head as he thought about Rory’s reaction. His teachers tried to get him to pay attention but it didn’t work. When class was dismissed he slowly packed his bag and went to go find Rory.
They needed to talk and if they walked home together it would give Ethan the time to do it. He’d just tell Benny to walk home alone or go bug Erica and Sarah.
The group met up in front of Sarah’s locker, usually to complain about class and the other students, it was the only locker Erica was fine with standing in front of with the “nerdy losers”.
Ethan let the conversation happen for a bit until he said something to Benny.
“Hey I’m going to walk home with Rory today, sorry.”
“ Bro, really? Abandoning me again?”
“Yeah.”
“Fine, but are we still on for Halo tonight?”
“Should be. Alright, cmon Rory.” He felt a bit bad not giving Rory a chance to say no, but they needed to talk.
Rory blinked at Ethan for a moment but then broke out into a grin, “Let’s go!”
The two started walking side by side. Ethan waited for Rory to start breaking into conversation but was surprised when his boyfriend was still silent even when they got out of the crowd of people walking home from school.
Ethan was a bit unsure how to start the conversation though, but it needed to happen. Rory spoke first though.
“Why did you decide to change your style?”
“What?’’
“Your style, it’s really different today.”
“Oh, you don’t like it?”
“Hey, I asked a question first!” Rory teasingly protested, but Ethan could tell that there was something a bit strange going on from his voice. It wasn’t an actual protest but it still felt strange.
“I wanted to, now answer my question.”
Rory blinked at him and Ethan couldn’t tell why Rory was reacting this way at all.
“I like the outfit.”
That was worse actually. Rory said it in such a monotone voice it was unsettling. Ethan stopped walking and crossed his arms.
“It doesn’t seem like it.
Rory stopped and just frowned and stared at Ethan more.
“Why did you get new clothes? They…”
“They what?”
“They look different.”
“They're new Rory.” It was a bit harsh sounding to Ethan’s ear and he saw Rory recoil a bit.
“I’m sorry. I like it Ethan, I do like the outfit. It looks good on you.”
“But? You haven’t reacted like you like it.”
“But, but, it doesn’t look like you. You don’t look like you. Ethan, if you like this outfit, wear it. But I was just surprised that you drastically changed your outfit like this.”
Ethan felt like stomping his foot, a very childish action he felt like. Was he supposed to tell Rory why he got new clothes? Would that be stupid? It felt like something that people would make fun of him for, but well.
Rory wasn’t like most people though. He was his weird vampire boyfriend who at lunch spent the entire time talking about a game that came out a decade ago. He ranted over and over again about the different Lord of the Rings movies, comic books, and Star Wars. He was unabashedly himself, and he never made fun of Ethan.
The bandage was ripped off and he wanted it back on immediately. Is that why it’s a turn of phrase, because you rip off the bandage and leave some part of the truth exposed? Some vulnerable piece of yourself exposed? Like leaving an injury to possible bacteria? That’s what it felt like.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Well, well don’t think that! I, well” Rory paused for a moment and grinned, like he figured something out and was very proud of himself. “You do have something in common with all of them!”
“What? No I don’t.”
“Yes you do!”
“No I don’t!”
“Do!”
“Don’t!”
“So do! Just ask what it is.”
“What is it? What do I have in common with the characters you like?”
“Exactly! I like them. That’s what you have in common Ethan!”
Rory took a step closer.
“I like them, and I like you. You don’t have to look like any of them, because that’s not what matters, it’s how I feel. And well, I feel a lot more for you that I do for any of them. So, it’s like you win anyways. No need to dress a certain way so I’ll like you more.”
Rory really looked proud of himself.
Ethan felt his face heating up and he let his arm fall to his side as he put the other one on his face.
“Sooo! You don’t have to dress like that for me, but if you like it then I’ll support you! Cause I’ll like you either way!”
“Oh.”
“Yep! But I do think you should keep the shoes, I can see you wearing them much better than that jacket!”
“Okay, … thanks Rory.” Ethan breathed out and smiled at his boyfriend.
His thought process had been a bit skewed, he really should have just asked Rory instead of spending all of the money for some new clothes. He didn’t know the return policy on some of it.
He’d save that for tomorrow, maybe even the weekend. Right now he wanted to walk home with his boyfriend and talk about something with him. Anything with him.
Ethan bumped Rory’s shoulder and started the walk home again.
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