Work Text:
Biz actually did work out during the summer, at least for certain values of working out. Having a lot of sex with his new husband totally counts, right? And Taylor's responsible enough that they do maintain something closely approximating an actual workout schedule, too, and even eat fairly healthily once they get the first "it's offseason let's eat junk" urges taken care of. They end up splitting most of the summer between Thunder Bay and Welland, which maybe isn't the most stealthy thing ever when they just got married, but nobody calls them on it who didn't already know so fuck it. He spends enough time a long-distance call away from Taylor during the season to not want to spend more when they don't have to.
He's got a Google alert set up for Taylor's name and any combination of theirs together. He's really amazed they haven't ended up on Deadspin yet. Yeah, their justice of the peace was totally cool about the whole thing despite telling them up front she knew who they were, the clerks when they took Tom along to get their license were that special level of bureaucratically bored and just asked for documentation and cash, and nobody who was actually at their ceremony is liable to talk considering they just invited their immediate families and a couple close friends, but still...
They actually thought seriously about getting married in one of their hometowns, but they weren't 100% sure their marriage wouldn't at least be local news if they did. So they did the highly scientific method of getting drunk and throwing darts at a United States map with the states that would let them actually get married highlighted while blindfolded. Biz is still a little embarrassed he hit the Gulf of Mexico. Taylor didn't exactly hit a highlighted state either, but they decided that Nebraska near the Iowa border counted as Iowa. From there they just picked the biggest city, googled Iowa's paperwork requirements, and got plane tickets and rooms for the people they invited.
Biz has very fond memories of their honeymoon. They didn't see much of Vegas beyond their suite, but it's not like Biz can't go check out shows or whatever some other time and room service is an awesome invention as far as he's concerned. He still kind of wishes they could have done the Elvis thing or something else equally Vegas-style cheesy for the ceremony instead of a Des Moines JP's office, but he figures Taylor wanting to actually be married and not civilly united or domestic partners since their license basically outs him anyway is reasonable.
Taylor's a little old-fashioned about the whole marriage thing, down to actually exchanging rings even if they aren't going to be able to wear them that much once the season starts back up. Biz suspects he loses a lot of romance points for picking Taylor's ring off the Internet, but he wouldn't be too surprised if Taylor did the same thing. Not like Biz cares, though--Taylor picked it out, the blue stripes are almost the color of Taylor's eyes, and he didn't exactly want a rock anyway so it's all good.
He's expecting to get at least a few questions when he shows up at training camp with a ring because he isn't planning to do the more discreet thing and wear it on his right hand. He still isn't ready to be a poster child for You Can Play, but if his teammates ask he isn't going to lie either. Most of the vets already know about him and Taylor, and they've all been at least okay with it. Hell, he thinks Doaner and Yands had a bet on them getting together.
He's going to have to break it to his agent and probably Coyotes PR, though. Which is likely to be interesting to say the least. It could be worse, though. Marriage isn't a sex tape or something equally damaging, and pretty much by definition means that he's serious about Taylor, which might get him a few points. Plus, thanks to Hall and Eberle, along with Jamie Benn from Dallas and a handful of other players, even if they do get outed they aren't going to be the first.
Biz just really, really doesn't want to be answering the kind of questions that people are liable to ask him, and he's even more worried about the kind of questions they're liable to ask Taylor. Him, well, he's got a party boy rep, he can probably get away with "yeah, I like women too, but I fell hard enough for my best friend to get married to a guy" or something along those lines. He might get some shit about overcompensation, but he can live with that if he has to.
Taylor, though...Taylor's got a very public, very long-standing, very serious relationship with Carly in his past, and the thought of someone asking Taylor whether she was his beard makes him want to punch that hypothetical reporter. Because he was there when Taylor was barely keeping it together right after her death, he's been there to see as many of their anniversaries as he could, and he knows how much Taylor loved her. He knows that some of him still does, even. And maybe that should bother him more than it does, but it's not like he didn't know that some part of Taylor was always going to be hers before they ever crossed the line into more-than-friends. If he wasn't okay with that he would never have gone there in the first place.
Sometimes in his sappier moments he thinks it's a good thing one of them had some actual relationship experience before they got together, because he sure as hell didn't. There's a lot of work that goes into maintaining a long-term relationship that isn't immediately obvious. Especially one that's been long-distance for a lot of it. Biz understands why Taylor took New York up on their offer, but that doesn't mean he has to actually like it.
But hey, they survived two years of New York-Phoenix, and LA's a lot closer. Still not the same city, but Vegas hookups are a decent compromise. Getting to see Taylor more helps a lot with Biz having made the choice to go exclusive. Biz isn't completely sure that his sleeping with other people would have been a deal-breaker, but he knows the thought of Taylor doing the same thing makes him feel a lot of things he doesn't even like acknowledging to himself.
None of which are that's okay as long as I'm still the one you're serious about. And getting married only solidified those feelings. Biz has played with guys with "on the road" exceptions whose marriages seem to work okay, but part of the reason he never wanted to get married while playing is he's never really wanted to be one. Hooking up when he's not coming home to anyone is one thing, but apparently he's just traditional enough to want "forsaking all others" to be true for them.
So maybe this isn't what most people would have expected of him, but Biz has a ring and a license as proof that he's finally settled down as much as he's going to, and right now he's nothing but happy about that.
Fin