For as long as he can remember, Jamie has not been good with words. He fumbles over what he's saying, babbles uselessly without saying anything of value, and never knows the right thing to say. So when he started dating Mason, he found a way to express his love without meaningful, fancy words of affection.
Gifts
It started small.
A cup of coffee he bought on his way to pick up Mason. A sweater he liked at a store. A book he was looking forward to reading.
As they started college together and their relationship grew deeper and more serious, the things he bought for Mason became more thoughtful gifts and less 'something he happened to pick up.'
A leather-bound notebook after Mason's old one was filled. A mug warmer after one too many cups of tea went cold. A mini projector so they can cuddle in the dorm's twin-sized bed to watch movies without having to worry about knowing one of their laptops off the edge.
When they moved into an apartment together during their second year of college, Mason went to assemble some of the furniture they got but realized he didn't have any tools. It put him in a sour mood when he remembered his father always told him he'd buy Mason his own toolkit soon and to just use his for now. He never bought him that toolkit. Jamie went to the grocery store that afternoon and made a side trip to the hardware store, buying the best reasonably priced toolkit they had. As soon as they finished putting together the bedframe and put on the sheets, Mason tugged him onto the mattress to thank him thoroughly.
He's bought him a massage candle to rub soothing amber and cedar leaf into his muscles after a good workout. For an anniversary, he gave him a locket for his keys with pictures of the two of them. He gave Mason numerous amount of art projects made special for him- drawings, paintings, and little pottery pots he made in class. When Mason started cooking more and wanted fresh herbs, but they didn't have room for a garden, and the windowsills were already occupied by Mason's other plants, Jamie got him one of those indoor grow kits with a 'grow light' and kept the plants watered.
With Jamie's first paycheque at a real, adult-paying job, he bought them (read; Mason) a dual-heated mattress pad, which he found him cuddled up on for naps most weekends. Just like a cat basking in the summer sun's heat, Mason dozed in the middle of the heated pad, both sides of the pad set to his ideal temperature.
He gets him silly things, too, like the Screaming Goat figurine, dinosaur-shaped flower pots, and tiny animal squishies just to make him smile.
When they bought their first house, there was one room they decided to turn into a rec room. The TV and game consoles went in there, as did one of the couches- its match was put in the living room. There was extra space for something else; they weren't sure what. Until Jamie found a table designed for jigsaw puzzles. It had a lip around the edge to keep pieces from falling off and little drawers underneath to sort and store the extra pieces. Mason loved it and worked on his puzzles more now that he had a designated space for them where he didn't have to worry about clearing a space or putting it away half-finished.
When Mason got a better job, which came with an earlier start, he had less time to eat. Instead of his usual breakfasts of oatmeal with fruit, omelettes, and smoothies, he was buttering overcooked toast and grumbling about the burned parts ruining it. Somedays, he remembered to slather the toast in peanut butter, but when he felt rushed, he never remembered the jar in the cupboard. When he was in the kitchen first and thought of it, Jamie brought it out so Mason could have some.
Then he found the toaster. It was pricy for a toaster, but it had a touch screen on the front that showed the different levels of toast, along with different types of bread. Not only that, it had a countdown until it was done, as well as a clock. Mason's jaw dropped when he saw it, and now utters praises to it while waiting for his coffee to kick in and his toast to finish.
Jamie likes spending money on his husband. He likes giving him things that make him laugh, smile, relax, and enjoy life a little more. He liked knowing he helped make things easier, helped him achieve what he wanted, and brought him comfort. He'd bottle the sweetest flowers so Mason could smell them whenever he wanted and capture the moon so it'd shine just for him. He'd do anything for Mason. Anything if it meant making him smile.