Ty has a dilemma. A quandary, even. A predicament.
See, there’s this thing that happens when the hockey season ends — people go home. To their native lands. In Johnny’s case, that’d be some podunk ass town in Ontario that’s pretty much just famous for producing four very large men who are good at hockey and being evil. Except Johnny. Well, no, including Johnny, Ty’s not completely blinded by the fact he’s gone for him. Johnny is great at hockey and also pretty evil, it’s just that Ty is very fond of his pretty evil ass.
And when people go to their native lands during the offseason, they are no longer in Ty’s space all the time, not in his apartment, or his bed, or his arms, and then Ty misses those people. Okay, one people. Ty misses that one people. And texts and face chatting and all that isn’t the same, especially because half the time Ty’s out at a cottage that’s even more remote than his tiny town to train and fuck around on the lake with his brothers, and the reception there? Fucking sucks. Wifi? Pathetic. So Ty frequently doesn’t even get to have that.
And then, driven to distraction by missing his boyfriend, Ty agrees to go to the middle of rural Ontario because that Johnny asked him to come up, and Ty missed him so much that the word ‘sure’ left his mouth before he could say something like ‘oh no, why don’t you come down to me?’ or ‘hey, let’s go on vacation somewhere we can be alone instead’ or ‘your brothers are actively out for my blood so this is probably not the best of ideas, my man’.
And now Ty is at the airport watching the time tick down to his departure and also his doom. Because here’s the thing: Johnny’s brothers fucking hate Ty. It’s not logical, it’s not fair, but it is undoubtedly the truth. And now Ty is going to a remote location with crappy wifi and spotty cell reception to spend time with Johnny’s brothers. Who hate him. And have literally threatened to kill him before. Just because his boyfriend asked him to visit.
Well, Ty can pretty well confirm he’s in love with the dude. This is definitely not something Ty would do for someone he just likes a lot. Walking into your doom is full on dumbass in love level.
Pray for me., Ty texts his brother — who is not evil and likes Johnny, so Ty can confirm that this is a Wilson brother specific dynamic — and then turns his phone onto airplane mode so he doesn’t get nailed with roaming fees. Though honestly that is the least of his concerns right now.
Ty feels dread through the flight. Feels dread as he disembarks and then has to wait an hour for the flight from Toronto to the closest thing to a city near the Wilsons. He gets a nice distraction from the dread to be absolutely terrified by how small the next plane is — it’s like half the size of the freaking private jet Ty’s used to flying on and does not look airworthy, and then turbulence distracts him the rest of the way, so that’s good. Thanks terrifying turbulence.
Ty is very grateful to get back on solid earth when they land, even if that land is much closer to Johnny’s brothers than he’d like it to be, even more grateful when he gets out of the tiny airport to find Johnny waiting for him.
“Hey,” Johnny says. He looks good. Big. Got that summer tan that’s probably a hilarious farmer’s one if he takes his shirt off. Ty wants to bite him right at the tan line, but biting’s probably not a good idea. Fuck knows what Johnny’s brothers would do if there was physical evidence Ty was having sex with their baby bro.
Fuck, is Ty not going to be able to have sex with him? Are they going to have to sneak around like teenagers? This was so poorly thought out in so many ways.
“What is your face doing?” Johnny asks.
“Nothing,” Ty says. “Hi.”
“You gonna give me a hug, or?”
The hug Ty gives him is probably not very platonic buds who haven’t seen each other in a bit, but whatever.
“Get in the car, loser,” Johnny says when Ty can bring himself to let go.
“Can’t believe I came all this way,” Ty mutters, and Johnny makes a dismissive noise, popping the trunk for Ty’s suitcase and then making Ty put it in himself even though he’s been travelling all day. Jerk.
Ty missed him so much.
“So who all is there right now?” Ty asks when Johnny pulls onto the highway.
“Jack, Jase, Jere,” Johnny says. “The usual.”
“And their girlfriends, or—” Ty says. He feels like they might be more likely to behave in front of girlfriends? You probably don’t want your girlfriend to know you’re an evil person. That’s usually a deal breaker.
“Nah, they’re all single right now,” Johnny says.
Ty bets that’s because them being evil was a deal breaker for whichever poor women dated them.
“Your folks?” Ty asks.
“It’s their anniversary this week so we all sprung for that killer AirBnB for them,” Johnny says. “Remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” Ty says. “So it’s just me and you. And your brothers.”
“Yup,” Johnny says.
“Okay,” Ty says faintly. “Okay, that’s good.”
“Yeah, it’ll be chill,” Johnny says.
Ty suspects it will not, in fact, be chill. He suspects it will be the opposite of chill.
“You wanna pick the music?” Johnny asks.
“Sure,” Ty says, and scrolls through his phone to see if he can find something ominous enough to match his mood.
