As time had gone on, the parochial house had found a rhythm, a way of working in this weird world that gave them some kind of normality. In truth, it was their faith that had given them the structure they were looking for. Ted went back to praying the rosary, which he did every day, unearthing his beads from his bedside table where they had been long forgotten. He lent into his pre-recorded sermons, taking care to choose passages that he knew would help those watching.

Dougal, on the other hand, had challenged Mrs Doyle to experiment with her cooking, giving her many random ingredients to try and get into a dish. Ted had gone along with it at first but refused to enable Mrs Doyle further when she produced seafood and Nutella stew. Ted had happily made himself beans on toast for the rest of the week.

One morning, Ted sat up in bed, sipping on his morning coffee, delving his hand into the biscuit packet on his bedside table.

"What shall we do today, Ted?" Dougal asked him. He stood by the wardrobe on his side of the bedroom, entirely naked. It wasn't usual for Dougal to be naked in front of Ted. They shared a room after all, but ever since Dougal had told Ted about what he got up to with Father Damo, the idea of it made him hot under the collar. Just the idea of Dougal's hands, working them up and down, brought a flush to Ted's cheeks.

Ted shook the thoughts from his mind.

"Dougal, we're in lockdown, there's nothing to do," he replied, dunking his biscuit into his tea.

"We could watch something on Netflix," suggested Dougal, pulling on a pair of boxers.

"We finished everything on Netflix last week."

"Oh yes," nodded Dougal. "We could play a game."

"We are not playing Hide and Seek. I don't want to have to explain to you that I wasn't actually gone, Dougal, I was just hiding."

"I was so scared, Ted," whined Dougal, genuine fear in his eyes at the memory. "I really thought you'd gone."

"I was just hiding, Dougal, that's the point."

"I was looking for you everywhere," Dougal cried, as he pulled on his socks.

"I know," sighed Ted. "I know. And we can't play Monopoly – you get too competitive."

"I just want all the houses!" grinned Dougal. "All of them."

Ted smiled. "Maybe Scrabble?"

"But you always win at Scrabble."

"I know," smirked Ted. "It's why it's my favourite."

Dougal took a pair of trousers off their hanger and stepped into them, pulling them up around his hips. It was at this point, Dougal began to wrestle with the fabric, trying to draw the zip higher but found he couldn't.

"Ted… Ted!" said Dougal, starting to panic. "Ted, my trousers won't fit."

Ted looked up, watching him try to close the button into its hold, wriggling, almost dancing and sucking in.

"What's happened, Ted?"

"I think you've just put on a bit of weight, Dougal," said Ted.

"Why has that happened, Ted?"

Ted admired Dougal's little pouch he had grown over the past few weeks in lockdown. It was nothing that wouldn't shift eventually. "Don't worry about it, Dougal," said Ted, getting out of bed. "We're in a pandemic. Your body is just trying to do what it needs to."

Dougal looked around to Ted, seemingly placated by Ted's words. "A pandemic?" he smirked. "I don't think you've got that right, Ted."

"No, Dougal, I am right. We're in a pandemic."

"No, Ted," laughed Dougal. "You are silly," he said, ruffling the older man's hair. "Pandemic is the people who made our stereo downstairs."

Ted looked at him for a second. "Panasonic, Dougal. That's what you mean. The people who make the stereos are Panasonic."

"Oh, right," replied Dougal, pulling on a shirt, and buttoning it up. Ted walked over to Dougal's bedside drawer and picked out his white dog collar. He walked back over and placed it in the stiff fabric around Dougal's neck, stepping back to admire it. He found himself admiring Dougal.

"What are you looking at me like that for, Ted?" asked Dougal.

Ted gulped. "You're very handsome, you know that?" said Ted, almost a whisper.

"Thanks, Ted," said Dougal, coyly. "But what am I going to do about my trousers?"

"Put some of mine on," said Ted, walking over to his own wardrobe. "I'm a bit bigger than you."

Dougal whipped off his own and took the pair that Ted held out for him. "Much better," he said, pulling up the zip and doing up the button.

Once both men were dressed, they descended to the living room, where they found Mrs Doyle sitting in front of the TV watching Joe Wicks doing one of his morning workouts. She was eating from a large bowl of popcorn.

"Hey, Mrs Doyle, that looks fun!" announced Dougal, imitating some of the workout moves that Joe was demonstrating on TV.

"Mrs Doyle, you know that the idea is that you join in as well for the workout?" asked Ted, gesturing to the TV.

"Who says I'm watching it to do a workout?" said Mrs Doyle, smugly, shovelling another fist of popcorn into her mouth.