I Own Nothing

AN: I know that Worlds for Jigsaw Puzzle competition in San Fransisco is usually in March. It's near my birthday. However, for this story I changed it lol. They just had Worlds in Spain this past week which this year I forgot about so didn't watch live. One my favorite puzzlers Karen Puzzles is there. I love jigsaw puzzles myself so I put this together when I was taking one of my 2000 piece puzzles apart that I did. Going to try a Halloween puzzle for October and I got a day of the dead Cat puzzle as well.

AN2: I also thought what if Rocker on the side does paintings that a puzzle company bought because they loved the artwork and saw it. So this is what came of the idea while I was just taking apart my puzzle and I've been trying my best to come up with a new story for a while now. I hope that you all enjoy it.

AN3: I'm putting this in Dating And Married To Twins series, but it is kind of an AU maybe since I just thought of it and it's not mentioned in any of the other stories.

Summary: Eddie loves Jigsaw Puzzles and he does speed puzzling. He just hasn't told Rocker that since they only been dating for little over a month. Rocker doesn't just paint for fun or sale to little shops. They find out about each other's enjoyment.

Title: Artist And Puzzler

Besides Christopher, Buck, and the ones on the 118 knew about Eddie's love for Jigsaw Puzzles. None of his exes had thought much of it, especially the part where he liked doing the speed puzzling competitions. He hadn't done them when he'd been with Shannon because he hadn't gotten into them until Covid happened and he'd joined a few via Zoom because on his days off he'd been so bored. He'd tried reading some and he hadn't been able to find anything.

However, he'd found some jigsaw puzzles when he'd been on a grocery run one day. He'd gotten three of them and worked them when he wasn't on shift. Buck had helped with the one he'd found that was two-thousand pieces because it had been something that Buck had liked too. His love for speed puzzling had been built after he'd been flipping through YouTube one day looking for something to watch. He'd watched every video he could getting sucked into a rabbit hole with them.

He'd then found that one of the local libraries did them on certain days. He had started going to them once a month when his days off were aligned with them. It was mostly weekends, so he'd gotten Christopher to go with him since the library had kids, pre-teens, and teen things to do as well. Some Saturdays they called it Caturdays because they'd let people sign up to read to cats. So Christopher had done that while he'd spent four- or five-hours doing jigsaw puzzles. If Christopher hadn't wanted to spend that long there Buck had picked him up and done something with him after the reading to the cats' time or just got him beforehand.

Eddie had a lot of fun and the library competitions were mostly for candy or another treat. A couple times they had gotten coupons or gift cards to the café inside the main library branch. He always went to one of the other branches. Though since Hen and Karen lived closer to the other one he always gave them the gift cards and coupons. They enjoyed them and went to the library with Denny and Mari, so it worked out.

The thing was Eddie had just started dating someone knew and well he wasn't sure how well they would take the speed puzzling. He had put money aside so he could go to Nationals because it costed a little to get in. Then there was the hotel room, but he wanted to drive up. He'd been saving it since the year before when Christopher had told him he should go. He loved it and he usually got between first and third in the local ones. He'd entered one once that was in the entire state of California that was held in LA. He'd come in fifth place, but it had been so much fun. Buck and Christopher had gone with him to that one. It had only cost the entry fee since it wasn't far from where they lived.

This year he had signed up for Nationals right before he started dating Rocker. He knew that Rocker wouldn't ever put him down for anything. It was just him being in his own head. They had sex two weeks ago for the first time. They had talked a ton before that, and they knew a lot about each other. However, he hadn't mentioned his love for speed puzzling yet. Things had been crazy and the days he'd had off he'd spent a lot of time with Rocker.

The days that they'd been on opposite shifts was when he'd done the speed puzzling training. He had a fold up card table with a board on it and everything measured off on the board. He kept all that stored until he brought it out. It wasn't like Rocker would have stumbled onto it. He wasn't sure how to bring it up though. Rocker knew he did puzzles, that wasn't a secret. Just the competition part he'd left out.

"What's got you looking worried?" Rocker asked wrapping his arms around Eddie when he walked into the bathroom. He could see Eddie's face in the mirror and his boyfriend had that look he got when he was worried about something. "Bad shift?" He asked.

"No, I got something this weekend coming up that I signed up for before we started dating." Eddie said. "You are off and you asked if I wanted to go on a weekend trip, but I forgot until Christopher reminded me this morning." Eddie sighed. How on earth he'd forgotten he didn't know. He'd been looking forward to this since last year.

"That's okay, babe." Rocker said. "The world isn't going to end because we can't be together this weekend." It would have been fun to show Eddie, but he understood.

He really should just tell him about selling his artwork to a couple puzzle companies. He had the perfect chance the day he'd found out Eddie liked doing puzzles. It wasn't that he didn't want to. He couldn't wait to tell Eddie. Tommy was the only one that knew he did it besides Mumford and Hicks. He'd had to get a few days off once a year to go to the National puzzle competitions if one of his puzzles came up. His shifts didn't always line up. Tommy was the one that encouraged him to try it. It was two years ago when he'd been healing up after the accident. He hadn't had anything to do so, Tommy had given him the idea.

He'd sent the art to them and two companies had wanted to work with him. One being Buffalo Games inside the USA and then Ravensburger. Which he thought Tommy had sent his work to them because he hadn't remembered sending it there. He did two a year for each company since he liked doing other things. This year Ravensburger was featuring one of his puzzles at National Jigsaw Puzzle Competition. He had a puzzle featured at Worlds once, but he hadn't been able to go to that one. He'd taken the video interview however for it.

"I know, but you seemed so excited." Eddie sighed. "The thing is, I'm, well, I'm going to San Fransisco. Christopher talked me into entering the National Jigsaw Puzzle competition since I speed puzzle at the library a lot. Buck and he said I would do awesome there. I usually come in between first and third at the library ones. I came in fifth at the one the state put on." Eddie said rambling all of that out at once. "Please don't think I'm a huge loser for liking that."

"First off, I would never think you are a loser for anything you like. I already know you enjoying puzzling." Rocker said turning Eddie to face him. "Second, that's where I'm going too." He smiled. "I'm one of the artists they're featuring for a puzzle."

"Are you serious?" Eddie asked a little shocked. "Oh my god, D.R. Kinard. Why the hell didn't I put it together?" He asked out loud. "I'm dating a jigsaw puzzle artist. I know D.R. Kinard. I may faint." He couldn't believe it. "Ow." He said rubbing his arm. "You didn't have to pinch me." Though he didn't stop smiling. He leaned in pulling Rocker to him kissing his boyfriend. "I love you so so so much." He said once they broke the kiss for air.

"I don't know why I was nervous to tell you. I just don't really say much about that. The art was submitted before we started dating so you wouldn't have seen it." Rocker said. He didn't want Eddie to think he might have seen it and feel like could be somehow cheating.

"They have different puzzles for semi-finals and finals. If I thought I could end up with yours I'd ask for a different puzzle round than yours was in." Eddie said. "This is so exciting. Wait, we can go together after all." His smile getting bigger. "So that's why Tommy was busy this weekend. He's going with you." He stated.

"Yeah, he doesn't speed puzzle, but the two of us have gone up the last two years when they're having it. He's got a friend that does the competition and their brother as well. We've been their camera persons since they tape it. This is the first year I've had a puzzle at nationals. I had one at worlds the first year I signed with Ravensburger." Rocker said.

"Wow, this is so cool. My boyfriend is in the puzzle scene like I am." Eddie said wrapping his arms around Rocker's neck and kissing him again. "This requires a trip to the store now." Eddie said when he broke apart again. "We're getting shirts made. I already got ones for my individual and pairs session. I need one for going out." He took hold of Rocker's hand and started leading him toward the door.

"What are you going to put on it?" Rocker asked. He'd follow Eddie anywhere; he already knew that.

"I'm thinking about My Boyfriend's Puzzle Artist. Then yours could say My Boyfriend's A Puzzler." Eddie said grabbing his keys and wallet. "Text Buck that we'll pick Christopher up on the way back. I don't want to wait because usually takes a day for shirts to get made. I have to leave the day after tomorrow."

"We both have to leave." Rocker said. "You can always fly up with me and Tommy." He offered. He sent the message to Buck and Tommy both in the group chat in case one or the other didn't see it. He also added that he finally told Eddie about the weekend. "Buck says okay, and Tommy said about time you told him. Christopher said to get one for him too." He smiled at that one. "Son of Artist and Puzzler."

"I like." Eddie said handing Rocker the keys. "Here, I need to make rough design of shirt while you drive." He kissed Rocker before going around to the passenger side of the truck. He brought up the app on his phone once he was buckled it. "You're the best boyfriend in the world, baby." Eddie said.

"Nope, that would be you." Rocker said back as he started driving.

He couldn't wait to watch Eddie compete. It was already fun watching him get lost in puzzles. When they got back, he might pull out one of the puzzles that Eddie had and get him to do a practice run. He'd seen videos online and been there in person. He knew that they practiced like crazy leading up to the time they'd leave. He wondered if Eddie had thought about going to Worlds. He could always ask Hicks if the S.W.A.T. team in Spain needed any training or something. Though he wasn't sure if that would work well. Maybe if he got Eddie a sponsor, he could go to the Worlds competition later this years. He was going to look into that. If not this year, then maybe next year. A once in a lifetime kind of thing and Eddie deserved to have the chance to go.

THE END

EN: Okay so if you all want a sequel to this with Eddie going to Nationals or Worlds even let me know. I just wanted to do the reveal in this story, cute one-shot. I'm kind of obsessed with Jigsaw Puzzles. I got over 200 or 300 of them lol. I am also into writing and reading a lot as well. It's sometimes hard to balance my hobbies out. October is going to be crazy for me because I have a 1000 piece Halloween puzzle want to do. A stack of spooky books I want to read, plus 911s will be back and I want to write. I do have two stories ready to go for October so we'll see. Have an awesome weekend and last full week of September.