Chapter Text
32. Denver
Somehow, amidst the chaos of playoffs last season, Nate hadn’t managed to plan a real thing for Denver. Sure, he’d taken Cale on date nights and to do fun things, but none of them were the monumental activity he’d hoped for. After another disappointing playoff run, they’d vacationed in Hawaii, laying on the beach at a nice resort and relaxing. After that, they spent the rest of the summer in Calgary and Nova Scotia. Nate had loved being in both places - he loved seeing the way Cale brightened in his hometown, eagerly showing off his favorite spots to Nate, and of course, Nova Scotia is still one of Nate’s favorite places in the world.
Now, they’ve returned to Denver for training camp and the start of the next season, and Nate feels overwhelming guilt for not having planned their Denver thing when he was supposed to five months ago. He’s lived in Denver for well over a decade at this point, and he still has no idea what they should do. Plus, he needs the perfect activity to give Cale the gift he’d made.
He scrolls through activities as he searches online, and he keeps finding more excuses to rule them out. There are plenty of hiking opportunities around, but those don’t feel quite right. They’ve gone to see the Rockies and Nuggets dozens of times, so that’s not exactly special. There are plenty of museums around, but that’s not Nate’s thing. After the experience in Pittsburgh, Nate isn’t exactly rushing to take Cale to the Denver Botanic Gardens. He doesn’t think either of them would appreciate something called ‘The International Church of Cannabis’. He snorts when he sees Union Station on the list - sure, the outside is pretty, but it’s literally a train station, it’s not exactly a fun activity. Also, he basically lives there.
And then, Nate gets the perfect idea. The perfect Denver activity. He’s on his feet, rushing to the nearest place who can get him the thing he needs before calling Cale to see if he’s free. Cale confirms he is, so Nate meets Cale at his place.
“We never did our Denver thing,” Nate says after Cale opens the door.
“We live here,” Cale says. “We do things here all the time.”
“Right,” Nate says impatiently, “but I was supposed to plan a specific thing like for all of the other cities. I told you I would, and then the playoffs got kind of crazy.”
“Ok…”
“It took me a while to figure out what we should do here. Like, way too long. It probably wouldn’t have worked back in April, but I think it’s perfect for now.”
“Sounds good,” Cale grins. “What are we doing?”
Nate digs in his pocket and pulls out the small box, wrapped clumsily in wrapping paper and topped with a bow. He’d had to do it himself, and he’d gotten frustrated halfway through that it wasn’t turning out nice and sort of gave up and got a giant bow to put on it to hide his inability to wrap a small, rectangular box.
Cale grabs it, confused. “This is the activity?”
“Sort of,” Nate says. “Open it.”
Cale struggles to break through too many layers of tape before revealing a nondescript black box inside. He looks down at the box and then back up at Nate. Nate indicates to him to open the box, so Cale lifts the lid off, revealing the contents: two keys attached to the most obnoxious Avs keychain Nate could find on short notice, a huge 3D Bernie holding a flag with the Avs logo on it.
“Those are the keys to my place,” Nate explains. “Move in with me?”
Cale puts the box down carefully and throws himself at Nate, hugging him tightly. Nate holds him close for a long time before putting a finger under Cale’s chin and lifting it up from where it’s tucked into Nate’s neck. He kisses Cale deeply, and it doesn’t take long for him to feel Cale get hard, grinding slightly into Nate’s thigh. Cale’s wearing workout shorts that don’t leave much to the imagination, and Nate starts walking them in the direction of Cale’s bedroom.
“Wait,” Cale gasps out. “Shouldn’t we go to your place and christen it?”
“First off all,” Nate says, pushing Cale onto the bed, “it’s our place, not my place.” He climbs on top of Cale, straddling him and grinding them together, making them both moan. “Second of all, we’ve had a lot of sex there already.”
“Is there a third of all?” Cale asks as he gets his hands on Nate’s hips and pulls him closer.
“Third of all,” Nate continues, “I’m way too impatient to wait and I don’t want to get arrested for public indecency by blowing you on a street corner in Denver.”
“Bednar and CMac would be so pissed,” Cale agrees.
“Can we not talk about our coach and GM in bed when I’m about to go down on you?” Nate says, grinning.
“Whatever you want,” Cale says, shoving at Nate to get to it. Nate settles himself between Cale’s legs and rips off his shorts. He jerks Cale slowly, until Cale impatiently starts kicking at him to speed things along.
“In a hurry?” Nate asks.
“Stop being a tease,” Cale complains.
Nate licks a stripe up the bottom of Cale’s dick from the base to the tip and Cale groans loudly. Nate takes him into his mouth, sucking at the head and swirling his tongue before getting Cale deep into his throat. Cale whimpers, fingers gripping his sheets as he does his best not to fuck up into Nate’s mouth. Nate bobs his head, slowly at first, hollowing his cheeks. Cale arches his back when he does, crying out in pleasure as his grip on the sheets tightens further. Nate grabs one of Cale’s hands and loosens his hold on the sheets before putting Cale’s hand on his own head. Cale threads his fingers through Nate’s short hair, and when Nate starts moving with more purpose, Cale tugs at the strands.
God, Nate loves having his hair pulled. He’d grown it out a little, just a tiny bit longer than it used to be, just so it would be easier for Cale to pull. Nate is so hard in his jeans, grinding himself down slightly on Cale’s bed. He’s always enjoyed giving head, but with Cale it’s one of his favorite things in the universe. He loves how reactive Cale is, how he tries to be polite but can never quite manage to stay there the whole time. He knows that traditionally, the person giving head is always seen as the one not in control, but he’s always felt a huge sense of power when giving a blowjob - like Nate’s partner is experiencing this amazing pleasure and it’s all because of him.
Cale’s hips jump up slightly, choking Nate a little, and Nate groans around Cale’s dick. He fucking loves this, the salty taste of precome telling him he’s doing a good job, the noises Cale makes - little whimpers giving way to louder moans, the way Cale can’t manage to stay still. He’s looking up at Cale through his lashes, which are slightly clumped together from tears after Cale accidentally choked him a third time, and Cale groans out Nate’s name. He’s close, Nate can tell, dick getting a little harder and hand more forcefully yanking at Nate’s hair, putting him where he wants him. Nate’s hips are stuttering into the bed without his input, desperate for some friction, and he realizes too late that he’s closer to the edge than he thought. He can’t stop moving though, not for anything, not when Cale is losing his mind above Nate, and Nate grinds himself into the mattress again and again as he takes Cale even deeper.
“Oh, god, Nate,” Cale groans. “I’m so close, fuck, don’t stop.” He pulls Nate’s hair hard, and Nate loses it, moaning around Cale’s dick as he comes in his jeans. Cale cries out in pleasure a moment later, pulsing thick ropes of come down Nate’s throat and Nate works to swallow it all as he works both himself and Cale through their orgasms. When Cale starts whimpering from overstimulation, Nate pulls off slowly, licking his lips and wiping at his eyes.
“You are too fucking good at that,” Cale says breathlessly. “Come here, I’ll get you back.”
Nate feels himself turn bright red. “Uh,” he says eloquently, glancing down at the rapidly-spreading wet spot on his jeans.
Cale follows Nate’s gaze, taking a second to understand, before pulling at Nate’s arm so he can kiss Nate. “You got off on sucking my dick?” he whispers to Nate as he breaks the kiss.
“Sorry,” Nate says, a little embarrassed.
“First of all,” Cale says, mimicking Nate from earlier, “I know for a fact you can get it up again.”
“True,” Nate says, “just give me ten.”
“And second of all, that’s the hottest thing ever, holy shit, Nate. Don’t fucking apologize, you literally got off because you love choking on my dick. Was it good?”
“So good,” Nate admits. “Kinda gross, now, though.”
Cale laughs. “Let’s go shower and then we can see about round 2, eh?”
*************
“Use your key!” Nate says excitedly. Cale giggles, inserting the key into the lock and turning, delighting as it clicks open. After their shower and a very memorable second round during which Cale had ridden Nate, Nate had insisted they’d go back to their place - because it’s their place, now, not his place, and he won’t ever stop delighting in that.
“You know,” Cale says, “the activity for Denver is me having to move. Not the greatest, maybe.” He’s smirking at Nate.
“Shut up, I’ll hire movers,” Nate says as he shoves Cale through the entryway.
“Aren’t you supposed to carry me over the doorway, not push me through it?”
“That’s what the groom does with the bride. We’re not married, and even if we were, neither of us is the bride.”
“I’m just saying, Nathan-” Cale says, but he’s cut off by Nate picking him up and throwing him over his shoulder in the least romantic way possible.
“You want me to carry you? Fine,” Nate says, heaving a wriggling Cale to the couch before depositing him on it roughly.
“It’s supposed to be sweet and romantic,” Cale complains. Nate collapses next to him, pointedly rolling his eyes. Cale glances at the coffee table in front of him, finally seeing the part of the gift that had taken Nate forever to work on, much longer than getting his key copied. “What is this?” Cale says, picking up the book and examining the cover - ‘A Brief Collection of NHL Cities’. Nate doesn’t immediately respond as Cale flips it open. The first page is a selfie of them on the Ferris wheel in Vegas, with ‘Las Vegas, Nevada - October 8, 2024’ printed at bottom of the page. Next up is a collection of pictures from the Monterey Bay Aquarium - Cale posing with a shark, Nate posing with a seal, a selfie in front of the aquarium itself, with ‘San Jose, California - October 19, 2024’ printed below.
Cale flips through slowly as every city they visited, in order, with a picture or several from the activity they did pops up. “I put the date we actually did the activity, not the dates of our games there,” Nate explains as Cale keeps looking through the pages. Cale doesn’t say anything, too focused on the book. He spends a long time looking at the picture their tour guide had taken of them at Fenway, and an equally long time looking at the picture their pilot had snapped in front of the small plane before they boarded it to see the Northern Lights.
The last page in the book is for Denver, and while the city and state are listed, the date isn’t. It’s a collection of Nate’s four favorite pictures of him and Cale in various places in the city. The first is the two of them lifting the Cup together in front of City Hall during the parade in 2022. Next to that one is a picture of the two of them cuddled together sleeping on Nate’s couch; Gabe had taken that picture a week ago when Nate had invited some of the team over to watch movies. Below the first picture is a shot of them from a game at Ball Arena cellying a goal - Cale’s first ever NHL goal, assisted by Nate. The final picture is a selfie they’d taken in Nate’s kitchen while trying to cook a meal together back in May. Cale spends the longest time on that page, staring down at the photographs, occasionally tracing part of them lightly with one of his fingers. He still hasn’t said anything.
“Do you like it?” Nate asks quietly.
Cale nods before bringing his hand up to rub away the extra tears that had gathered in his eyes. “I don’t have words, Nate. Thank you.”
Nate puts an arm around Cale, pulling him close. “I love you,” he says to Cale.
“I love you, too,” Cale replies. Cale kisses him gently, before pulling away and cuddling his face into Nate’s neck.
“Wanna watch something?” Nate asks after a few moments.
Cale nods, face still buried in Nate. “You pick,” he says, voice muffled.
“Nah, you pick,” Nate says. “It’s your TV.”
“It’s our TV,” Cale says, as he takes his face out of Nate’s neck.
“True,” Nate agrees, handing Cale the remote anyway.
He thinks about all of the adventures he and Cale had last season - from curling in Winnipeg to the beach in Florida, from Disneyland in Anaheim to the ridiculous distillery tour in Nashville, from their first kiss and first fight at the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh to Cale kissing him in Boston. Cale had asked a few times which Nate’s favorite city was, his favorite activity, but Nate couldn’t pick between them. Now, though, Nate knows which one is his favorite by far: Denver. It’s the city where he and Cale met and fell in love, and it’s also the city where he and Cale can curl up on their couch in their condo and watch something on their TV because they live together now.
“This one’s my favorite,” Nate murmurs to Cale as Cale scrolls through Netflix. “Denver.”
Cale stops scrolling to look at Nate instead. “Mine, too,” he says, grinning, before turning his attention back to the TV to pick out a movie for them to watch.
Nate smiles as he thinks about the endless nights stretching in front of them that they’ll spend the exact same way.