Archive of Our Own ^beta

They had been staying at a hotel in Sacramento for nearly a week when Tim answered that question Hawk had asked him a few short weeks ago. It felt more like a lifetime away, sitting in that diner, antsy and delirious. Then, some days on the road where they lazily made love in motel rooms and, on one night, parked off a deserted road in Wyoming in the cluttered back of Hawk’s car. 

They'd shoved the paper bags to the floor and tossed a briefcase to the front seat before laying out the quilts and tearing their clothes off. There hadn't been a motel nearby–really–and they were both more asleep than awake–honestly. It would've been dangerous to drive any further…

They laughed at the bruise on Hawk’s shoulder the next morning. The car door handle gave a mean punch.

After cleaning themselves up in a watering hole, they spent a weekend outside Salt Lake City where they posed as uncle and nephew on their annual ski trip. Hawk even coaxed Tim onto the slopes fit in skis and thick gloves. They'd only gotten one run in before Tim was sneezing and shivering under his rented parka from falling face-first into the snow. 

Hawk had gotten to hold him under a pile of quilts and spoon-feed soup into his mouth while they listened to staticky news on the radio. 

He couldn’t remember the last time he had been that happy. Truly and unguardedly happy. Nothing could compare, he thought.

They hoofed it the rest of the way to California before stopping in Sacramento to phone Hawk's mother. She would be mailing the check for his apartment when it came through.

Hawk had set up a box at a post office on their drive into town and gave her the address. After the long pause of her writing it down, she said, “I’ve collected a few items from your apartment, some documents and what have you. I don’t think you would’ve purposefully left them there… When would you like me to send them?”

“I’ll let you know when I have a more permanent address.”

“Okay,” She paused as if collecting her thoughts. “If you’ll let me, I’d like to visit you.”

Hawk turned the speaker away so he could sigh, shoulders jutting against the tight walls of the phone booth. He brought the phone back to his ear. “In a few months, after I get settled.”

“We,” His mother corrected.

“We?”

“You and your someone,” She clarified.

His someone. The someone he had found.

“Yes.” He swallowed, looking up from the dial to glance out to his parked car. Tim was in the passenger seat reading one of the books he insisted he hadn’t wanted to bring. Somehow sensing eyes on him, Tim lifted his head and smiled at him. Hawk smiled back. “After we get settled.”

Her soft exhale crackled over the line. “I know I already said this but I’m glad. This is a good thing.”

There was more to say. Much longer conversations that they had skipped over in silent understanding.

“Thank you.” His voice was tight, barely being held together.

“I hope that I’ll get to meet him.”

“In a few months,” Hawk repeated softly before they exchanged goodbyes and he hung the phone up. They needed to stop for gas and pick up groceries.

Hawk yawned and flipped the page of a magazine he had picked up from the corner store a few blocks from their hotel as the shower faucet turned off. A few minutes later, Tim called from the bathroom, “I've been thinking…”

“Hm?” Hawk grunted and dog-eared a coupon page before turning to skim an editorial. They’d need to purchase liquid detergent and bathroom cleaner at some point. 

Tim peeked his head around the corner, arm raised as he toweled his hair dry. “Were you actually considering a house in the suburbs?”

Hawk laughed and set the magazine aside, gesturing Tim over. He padded over and perched at the foot of the bed, naked under the white plush towel around his waist. “Not particularly, but if that’s what you want.” He motioned Tim closer and groaned when he settled over his lap, towel falling open in invitation.

Tim shook his head around a grin, water droplets raining down from his hair and onto Hawk’s undershirt. “No, that would be…” He interrupted himself with a low whine as Hawk took him in hand. “That would be… Ba-” His voice pitched when Hawk teased his thumb over the tip. “ Bad. ”

“Bad?” Hawk raised his eyebrows, amused with how easily he’d broken down to such poor articulation.

“Unorthodox and I don’t think the neighbors would like… Mm, feels good… Two men living in the house next door.” Tim panted out a breath and rested his hand on Hawk’s shoulder to steady himself.

“Oh, I don’t know.” Hawk twisted his wrist and bit down on his bottom lip as Tim dug his nails into his shoulder. “I’m sure we could be quite neighborly. I’ll work a nine-to-five and you’ll tend to a garden…” He ducked his hand down to palm at his balls, smearing some precum along his fingers before moving back further. Tim lifted his hips and started kicking at the bedspread to get closer to Hawk. “Grow some parsley and a patch of tomatoes… I’m sure the housewives would love you.”

Hawk rolled him onto his back and trapped his mouth in a kiss to muffle the desperate moans as he worked a finger inside him.

They lay together afterward, catching their breaths and tangled in the sheets. Tim drew his fingers lazily across Hawk’s chest, cheeks flushed and hair wet with a mixture of sweat and shower water. God, Hawk loved him .

He turned onto his side and pressed a kiss to Tim’s cheek, smiling when warm brown eyes blinked down at him and a hand combed through his hair.

“I want to live in the city,” Tim told him softly, musing with the short hairs on his nape. “Not here. I want to see the water. I miss seeing the water.”

“We can do that.”

Whatever Tim wanted.

“San Francisco maybe,” Tim suggested around a yawn. “Or Los Angeles.”

“Let’s try San Francisco first. It’s closer.”

“It is,” Tim mumbled before pushing the sheets off and complaining, “I don’t want to shower again.”

“Then I think a towel bath is calling your name- Be right back.” Hawk kissed his cheek once more before worming out of his hold and picking the previously disposed of towel off of the carpeted floor.

He returned back to Tim’s side after wetting a corner of the towel and gently wiped down his front before coaxing him onto his stomach to get his backside.

“I hope you’re not actually expecting me to stay at home with a garden,” Tim said when Hawk had tossed the towel in the vague direction of the bathroom and climbed back up next to him.

Hawk chuckled. “No. I know you wouldn’t enjoy that.”

Tim pulled the blankets up around them. “I mean, I would, but I’d also like to work. With both of our salaries, we could probably live somewhere nice. Or travel frequently.”

“You’ve never been to Europe,” Hawk commented into Tim’s neck.

“I haven’t.”

“I’ll need to show you Italy. And France.”

It was like something out of a dream.

But Tim’s content hum was real right next to his ear.

Sometime later, when Hawk was on the precipice of sleep and he was sure Tim had already nodded off, a whisper came from beside him, “Maybe we can have a garden one day.”

Hawk smiled. “Can we grow mint?”

A hand came to pet down his face. “Sure.”