Roy’s first month of managing Richmond, he still wakes up at 4 a.m. every morning.
There’s no reason for it; work doesn’t start until 8 and he doesn't need to do extra training sessions with Jamie any more. But his body can’t break the habit, so he lies in bed and stares at the ceiling.
4 a.m. is when night is over but morning has not quite begun, when the world is quiet and distant and there is room for thoughts which would otherwise be unthought and feelings which would otherwise be unfelt.
-
4 a.m. is Jamie flinging open his front door with a big grin and a stupid head torch, saying, “Morning coach!” and bounding off with such enthusiasm that Roy has to scramble to keep up with him.
-
4 a.m. is the team finally calling it a night after celebrating a tough win, Isaac and Colin with an exhausted Sam between them, Jan Maas giggling, and Dani coming tearing out of the club yelling “Back to the hoteeeeeeeeeel!” and everyone running joyfully after him. Everyone except Jamie, who is leaning against the wall of the club and watching Roy with a hint of a smile.
“Fucking what?” Roy growls.
“You’re doing good. At this manager thing, I mean. The boys like it when you come celebrate with us.”
-
4 a.m. is sunrise over Richmond Park, the trees swaying in the breeze, deer leaping away in the distance, a blanket of silence muffling London’s ever-present hum of traffic. It is Jamie’s contentment as he runs, the way he springs forward to meet every step, with the rays of the rising sun painting streaks of red and gold through his hair.
-
4 a.m. is the time the team bus breaks down and strands them in a field in the middle of nowhere, and most of the lads are asleep in their seats but Roy finds Jamie sitting a little distance away on a grassy bank, looking up at the sky.
“Proper good view of the stars here, innit?”
Roy cranes his neck to take in the view of bright white points splashed across the darkness. He hums and lowers himself to sit next to Jamie.
“That one’s Rigel.” Jamie points. “And over there, that’s Betelgeuse. About to go supernova and everything. It’s gonna explode and take out everything around it, but after that, it’ll leave behind a cloud of dust n shit which’ll make new stars. Mental, right?”
Roy glances at him sideways. “How d’you know all this shit?”
Jamie shrugs one shoulder. “Me mum used to take me to the observatory as a kid. Said it was good for my cultural development. But I think I just liked the view.”
Jamie is staring up at the stars, but Roy is looking at Jamie’s face, soft, open, and full of wonder.
-
4 a.m. is a stupid time to be doing this. Roy stands in front of Jamie’s door and hesitates before knocking. Who the fuck shows up out of the blue at someone’s house at this hour? But he’d woken up early again and the world had seemed grating, like something important was missing, and almost against his will his feet had carried him here.
He knocks and, much quicker than he expects, the hallway light flicks on and footsteps thump down the stairs. Jamie opens the door fully dressed and wide awake, and beams.
“Morning coach! You want a cup of coffee?”
Roy blinks. “Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m here at this ridiculous time?”
Jamie's forehead wrinkles. "I'm sure you've got a good reason."
“I couldn’t sleep. Can’t sleep, I mean. I still wake up at 4 a.m. every morning."
Jamie nods. “Yeah. Me too.”
"I -" Roy squirms, hating feeling so visible. "I miss this."
Jamie looks up at him, surprised.
"I miss you."
Jamie blushes, then fidgets with his sleeves. "You see me every day."
"It's not the same though. I miss starting my day with you."
"Oh." Jamie's cheeks are blotched with pink. "We could go for a run together? Do some training?'
It's tempting. Roy could say yes, and they could jog around the park, and it could be like it was before. A little piece of familiarity in a season of changes.
But that's not what Roy is here for.
"I don't want to train," he says, and Jamie's face falls.
He steps closer, right up to the doorway, a mere few inches between them. He reaches out, stopping himself just before his hand lands on Jamie's chest.
He looks up, meets Jamie's eye, makes sure he knows what Roy is offering. His hand meets Jamie's chest, solid and warm. "I want something else."
"Oh." Jamie scarcely moves, has to remind himself to breathe by the looks of it, and then one of those soft, beautiful 4 a.m. smiles spreads across his face and he steps back to open the door. "Then I guess you'd better come in."
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/13
Fandom: Ted Lasso (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Roy Kent/Jamie Tartt
Characters: Jamie Tartt, Roy Kent, Phoebe (Ted Lasso), Georgie | Jamie Tartt’s Mother, Original Characters
Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, untitled spanish sun fic on tumblr
Summary:
Jamie sees more people who remind him of him and his mum here than in other cities: working class people whose perpetually stressed faces melt into something softer in the heat of the Spanish sun. A pang of guilt tugs at him as it does so often, the idea he’d given up a secure life not only for himself, but one that also would have meant Mummy never had to work another day in her life. As always, Georgie’s voice in his head shuts it down quickly. “Follow your bliss, baby,” she’d said, and while he doesn’t know if that’s what this is, for the first time in a very long time, something like peace has settled and made a home under Jamie’s skin.
—
When Keeley breaks up with Roy after his spontaneous plans to whisk her away to Marbella for the summer, he makes the trip by himself, intent on forgetting about the break up as best he can through as much booze, tapas, and sunshine during one miserable summer as one person can manage. The last thing he expects is for his car to break down during a road trip up the Spanish coast, where he finds none other than Jamie fucking Tartt - who fell off the face of the Earth after his stint on Lust Conquers All - working in a seaside bar.
"if there is any man left alive here, speak up and tell me: who killed all this mighty force?"
and the dead replied: "child, it was you."
Finally, some art?! Yes well actually I drew this one all the way back in May for The History Between Us, a fanzine, which is being organised by the fabulous @77yearsteam! It's going to be included as a print to go with the special edition of the zine, along with a ton of other fantastic merch - and if that wasn't enough, the zine itself is going to be SO incredible! I've already had a sneak preview and it's full of a ton of incredible stories and artwork from some, following these two disaster timelords throughout their long and complicated history. Pre-orders open on 7th October, so make sure you check it out!
It begins, innocently enough, with a carton of orange juice.
Roy has never cared for the stuff, but Jamie is round at his house at 6am every morning after training, and he loves it. Roy figures he might as well make breakfast for them both while they're there, so the next time he's at the supermarket he picks up a carton and shoves it into the fridge.
And there's really no point in Jamie going home to shower before team training, is there? That would be a waste of everyone's time, so he showers at Roy's. Soon enough Roy's bathroom is full of expensive hair conditioner and elaborate skincare products and the inevitable cans of Lynx which start to crowd his shelves, but whatever.
And then Jamie starts turning up for weekly Lust Conquers All watch parties, and it's not quite clear how that happened. Roy wouldn't admit it on pain of death, but he likes having an excuse to watch the show and having someone to bitch about the terrible contestants and the unfair eliminations with.
And Jamie is right there, so it would be rude not to offer him dinner, wouldn't it? Roy likes to cook, and it's just as easy to cook for two as for one. Then suddenly Roy's kitchen cupboards are full of Jamie's favourite brands of soy sauce and Tabasco and rice cakes, but that's okay because at least now Roy can keep an eye on his diet.
And when Jamie is round and it's getting late and they've got 4am training tomorrow, he might as well stay the night. So what was Roy's guest room becomes Jamie's room. And if, on occasion, when they're both knackered from a hard match and ready to pass out, Jamie collapses into Roy's bed, tucked up next to him, snuffling and cuddly and infuriatingly, wonderfully Jamie, then that's no one's business but theirs.
Roy keeps finding bright orange joggers and graffiti-covered hoodies in his laundry pile, but Jamie still complains of having nothing to wear, so Roy tosses him one of his old Chelsea shirts. Then somehow Roy's entire cupboard full of old kits becomes Jamie's wardrobe, and Roy gets kind of used to waking up to find Jamie in the kitchen, making coffee, with KENT printed across his back.
At some point it's been weeks since Jamie was at his place, and Roy caved ages ago and gave Jamie his own set of keys, and it would be odd, frankly, for him not to be here, in Roy's space, sprawling on Roy's sofa and eating Roy's leftovers, and dropping his feet into Roy's lap with that ridiculous grin that makes the corners of Roy's mouth twitch upwards involuntarily.
"Marry me." Roy blurts it out, some instinct rising up directly from the very centre of his chest and exiting via his mouth with no input whatsoever from his brain.
"The fuck?" Jamie blinks at him, slowly, like he's approaching a wounded animal.
"Oh." Roy thinks fast. "It's a joke. Because you're always here, right, and we spend all this time together, and we're practically married." He forces what he hopes is a jovial smile. "Haha?"
Jamie gives him an odd look. "Riiiight."
Roy fiddles with the TV remote, then glances over at Jamie, then looks away again, then looks back. Jamie is still staring at him, a look of utter bafflement on his face. "I mean." Roy's leg bounces anxiously. "Unless... ?"
