#good work jt it held up

[punkeropercyjackson]

Batfanon Jason stans need to suck it up and accept that JT is a super gritty dark character that's a commentary on trauma,poverty and nuanced justice that he's sometimes straight up wrong about on PURPOSE for depth and to truly achive this instead of a white male power fantasy,he needs a diverse cast and he canonically has a fantastic one.This is why the original Rhato run was so awful and the reboot so much better by giving us Artemis and same for Lost Days continuing his and Talia's bond and making Duke and him eachother's Robin and Dick,Stephanie,Damian,Rose and Dana recurring Red Hood lore characters.In addition to multiple disorders and being lower class with a hatred for rich people,Jason has shown countless instinces of most likely being aroace either non-partnering or romance favorable,has the personality of an afro-dominican man with a backstory and following plots that would work as good representation too(that i will link evidence to as an irl one in the notes for any doubters,nonblack and gringo concern trolls especially)and is heavily audhd-coded on multiple levels

Not an infantalized teenage girl-coded adult white man like Roy treated him.Not an uphoalder of pure moral righteosness who's misunderstood because to be fair,you have to have a very high intellect to understand Red Hood.Not a poser asshole who just wants to be held and isn't actually goth punk but a rich daddy's boy.Not a 'fuck away the trauma' type or a bad friend and ESPECIALLY not a bad boyfriend.Not normal,not shallow,not papable.The DC world dosen't revolve around him and contrary to the weirdass text posts i'm always seeing on here he's okay with that and cheers on his loved ones when they get the spotlight-Tim and his legit enemies are the exception to how he feels about other people,not the rule.Jason Todd is NOT just a white boy and he would NEVER even look in other characters general direction just for being white boys(and yeah,this is about Danny Dead Weight and Borky Barnes and Deadlastpool)or horny white girls or whatever neo-trad bullshit y'all got going on

If you actually watched Under The Red Hood or read Jason's comics that aren't og Rhato,you'd start getting scared not because of the extreme brutality and darkness but because you can't even handle a white cishet male protagonist who respects women and poc and prioritizes them over other white males instead of chasing oppressive fantasies.Your projection is showing and it ain't pretty

#jason todd #pro jason todd #latino jason todd #afrolatino jason supremacy #trans jason todd #autistic jason todd #goth punk jason todd #dadhood #roy harper #koriand'r #artemis grace #dick grayson #stephanie brown #damian wayne #rose wilson #dana harlowe #duke thomas #talia al-ghul #antijayroy #anti batcest #pro dickkory #duke and jason #duke is a robin #duke is a batboy #jayrose #jaytemis #jaydana #summerposting #x black!reader #batfanon slander

[harlowsbby]

Angst request: gf yn is on tour with Jack and one of the tour mates is crushing really hard on yn. Jealous Jack. Possessive Jack. Sweetheart yn.

She’s taken

Jack loved you with all his heart he truly did you were the girl of his dreams the sweetheart he’s been manifesting but at the same time he hated the fact that you acted so clueless to when other guys were flirting with you or trying to get at you.

Jack had asked if you wanted to join him on tour and you of course said yes you were beyond thrilled to see everything that went on behind the scenes of everything and seeing your man before every other night was something you wouldn’t wait to see.

You were all in Denver Colorado for Jack’s show that night you were currently sitting with Neelam and Jt just looking at different types of nail designs and hairstyles you all wanted to do for tonight’s show. You were so into the different designs that you didn’t notice one of Jack’s band members trying to get your attention till Jt tapped your shoulder.

“I think he’s trying to talk to you girl.” Looking up you smiled seeing Earl, he was apart of Jack’s live band he was really and always kind to you.

“Oh hi Earl how are you doing? You ready for tonight’s show.”

Neelam and Jt smirked at one another noticing a certain curly headed boyfriend of yours now inspecting Earl and You.

“Yes most definitely I’m always ready to go out there and show out like we always do.” There wasn’t not one mean bone in your body you just loved to spread love and positivity and that was something Jack loved, you always judged by the mind and heart never by how a person looks like or acts like.

“That’s good I’m really excited you do so good on the drums I always wanted to play the drums back in high school.”

“I can always teach you whenever you’re free if you’re down.”

“I’d like that.” He smiled and the two of you continued to talk about anything and everything.

“You just gonna let him sweet talk your girl.?” Nemo came from behind Jack and rubbed on his shoulders. Jack was trying him best to work on being less possessive and protective with you because the last thing he wanted was for you to think he controlled you and controlled who you talked to.

“What am I gonna say Nemo? You know how Y/N is she’ll get mad at me instead of Earl and besides she doesn’t really see the issue I guess.”

“All I’m saying is the way he’s touching up on your girl and being all friendly with her wouldn’t slide with me.” Nemo walked away from Jack leaving him alone in his thoughts as he watched Earl brush his hands on your arms a few times but what did it for Jack was when Earl leaned in to say something in your ear which caused you to start giggling like a fool.

He quickly flung off the couch and started walking towards the two of you.

“Uh oh here comes trouble.” Neelam and Jt both laughed and watched how Jack’s face held a stern and jealousy look.

“May Earl rest easy he lived a good life.” Jt joked the two of them ready for what was about to go down.

“What’s going on over here?” You jumped a bit at the sound of Jack’s voice since you didn’t hear him walking up from behind you.

“Earl was just telling me how he can teach me how to play the drums sometime when we all have downtime that is.” Earl smiled and nodded up at Jack but his smile was quickly replaced by a frown.

Jack rolled his eyes at Earl and held a stern and cold look with him till he felt you tugging on his hoodie, his face softened when he made eye contact with you, something about you always managed to calm him down and he was grateful that you were his light when he had bad days.

“Jack? What’s wrong baby did something happen, did someone say anything to you.” You looked up at him with your big doe eyes your voice sounding so sweet and fragile that Jack almost forgot what he was mad about.

“Uh nothings wrong baby I just came over to see if you wanted to get something to eat before the show?” Jack sighed mentally he knew he should’ve brought up what was bothering him but he wasn’t about to stress the small stuff, he knew you were loyal to him and only him so there was no need to worry.

Smiling you nodded and took his hand in yours before quickly giving Earl a hug goodbye.

“Bye Earl I’ll see you later before the show.” You waved him goodbye and he smiled back before waving bye as well.

“What do you feel like eating Jack?”

“Whatever you want baby.” He brought the back of your hand up to his lips and kissed it before wrapping his left arm around your shoulder and brining you into him.

“This man sure is whipped.” Jt told Neelam as the two of them watched Jack and You leave to go get food.

“He sure is he sure is.”

#jack harlow #jack harlow concepts #jack harlow imagine #jack harlow x reader #jack harlow x y/n

[blueskrugs]

Written in the Sand | Tyson Jost

it’s finally here! I started this fic in September, thinking it would be a cute couple thousand words, and then finally finished it four months and almost 30,000 words later. 

huge thank you to @antoineroussel​ who held my hand through a lot of this and also did the hard work of beta reading and editing all of this. 

recommended listening: Written in the Sand by Old Dominion (where else would I get title and inspo from?), Colder Weather by Zac Brown Band, and The Dance by Garth Brooks.

length: 29.8k words (lol)

this fic has now been broken into chapters for easier reading 

Are we written in the stars, baby, or are we written in the sand?

Tyson never meant to catch feelings. Really. It was supposed to be a one-night stand. Then it happened again, and again, and somewhere along the line it turned into regular hooking up. And, well, anyone would tell you that Tyson wore his heart on his sleeve. It wasn’t long before he was falling fast and hard. 

Tyson looked across the couch at where she was dozing, wearing one of his T-shirts. His birthday was in a few days. He’d already resolved to ask her out for real before then. This stupid not-quite-friends-with-benefits shit was getting old. It needed to end one way or another, for Tyson’s sanity—and his heart. If he was going to get his heart broken anyway, why prolong the inevitable?

But he was getting ahead of himself. 

November

It’s early in the season, too early to be celebrating wins the way they are. But they blew out the Canucks and the Sharks in consecutive games and don’t have another one for four days, so Gabe dragged them all out to a bar. There’s something special about this team, Tyson can feel it, and so can the rest of the guys.

Which is how Tyson finds himself a couple beers and a shot or two deep on a Saturday night in November, with JT squished against his side in the booth. The team is extra loud to account for the fact that they’re in a crowded bar; EJ is across the table chirping Andre about something or other. Tyson settles in and takes another drink of his beer. 

JT elbows him in the ribs. Tyson elbows him back harder on principle. 

“No, idiot, there’s a cute girl over there,” JT says.

“You have a girlfriend,” Tyson says, not following. He tries to figure out which girl JT is talking about, but there’s a lot of girls in the bar. 

“You don’t,” JT points out, and, oh. 

“I’m not really looking for anything,” Tyson says, because it’s true. Especially not some hookup with a girl in a bar. He doesn’t really roll that way. He really wants to focus on having a good season here. He still doesn’t know which girl JT is talking about.

Gabe, the nosy asshole, leans over Cale to give his two cents. “Josty, I think you need another beer.”

Tyson glares at his unfortunately almost-empty beer bottle. He glances over at the bar again. This time, a girl catches his eye and gives him a small smile over her friend’s shoulder. She is kind of cute, Tyson supposes. Tyson heaves a sigh and elbows JT again to force him out of the booth. A small cheer goes up. He flips them off without turning around. 

It’s even more crowded at the bar, but Tyson manages to squeeze in near the girl and lean against the bar while he waits for a bartender. The person on his left leaves with their drink, and then he’s next to the girl. He wishes he knew her name. She smiles at him again. 

He’s about to lean in and introduce himself when a bartender comes over and asks for his order. She’s smirking at him when he turns back.

“All the beers in the world, and you’re drinking Coors?” she asks. She has to lean in close to be heard, and Tyson doesn’t mind it. He makes an outraged noise, which only makes her grin grow. “I’m Madison,” she says. 

“Listen, Madison,” Tyson starts, but he doesn’t actually have a great argument. He’s just not very picky when it comes to beers. He closes his mouth. Madison laughs at him and takes a sip of her drink. “And what’re you drinking, huh?” Something with a lime wedge on it. Red, maybe. The dim lighting makes it extra hard to see colors.

“All beer is gross, first of all,” she says. “Second of all, it’s a vodka cran.”

“Can I buy you another?” Tyson asks. Her glass is less vodka cran and more ice at this point.

On Madison’s other side, her friend groans. Tyson probably deserves that. Madison rolls her eyes at him. He deserves that, too.

“Real smooth,” she says. Tyson winks at her. “I don’t even know your name,” she points out. Oh, yeah.

“I’m Tyson,” he says. He sticks out a hand for handshake, and Madison takes it, though she raises an eyebrow and laughs at him again as she does it. 

“Okay, Tyson,” Madison says, “you can buy me a drink.” Tyson thinks she sounds amused. 

Tyson fist pumps and turns back to catch the attention of one of the bartenders again. 

Drinks procured, Tyson loses track of time as he chats with Madison, as much as they can over the din and constant jostling. By the time they’re both finished, Madison’s pressed close to Tyson’s side. She’s looking up at him expectantly. 

Fuck it, Tyson thinks. He leans close and settles a hand on Madison’s hip. “Can I take you home?” he asks.

Madison slides a hand around the back of his neck. Her nails scratch the curls at the nape of his neck, and Tyson suppresses a shiver in a warm, crowded bar. 

“God, I thought you were never going to ask,” she says. 

Some of the guys are still posted up at tables in the corner. He’d forgotten about them. He hears a few jeers over the din of the crowd, and he flips them off with the hand that’s not clutching one of Madison’s. 

“Friends of yours?” she asks, looking over her shoulder at the cluster of rowdy hockey players, letting Tyson drag her towards the door.

“Unfortunately,” Tyson says, once they’re safely out the door, and he can talk at a normal volume again. “Can I kiss you?” he blurts, pausing in trying to fish his car keys out of his pocket.

Madison laughs again, but it’s not mean. Tyson likes it, the way she already seems comfortable teasing him. She doesn’t answer, instead just slides her hand around Tyson’s neck again and pulls him down to kiss her. Tyson’s dizzy with the feeling of her lips warm against his, there in the middle of the sidewalk. He makes himself pull away.

“Fuck,” he breathes.

Madison lets Tyson keep a hand on her thigh as he drives, edging up under the hem of her shorts. He’s dying to be able to kiss her again. She lets him as soon as she’s out of the car and pressed up against the passenger door. Then again, in the elevator until they’re both breathless, and even more once they’re safely inside Tyson’s apartment. Against the front door, tripping over themselves down the hallway, and, finally, finally, twisted up in Tyson’s sheets. 

Madison stirs next to Tyson, knocking him out of his bask in the afterglow. Her hair, once nicely curled, is a mess. Tyson’s probably doesn’t look much better, actually.

“I should go,” she whispers.

Tyson wants to argue. To tell her she can stay. But that’s too much, too strange. He rolls over to kiss her again, instead. She pushes him away with a soft giggle.

“Not helping,” she says. She sits up. “Can I use your bathroom?”

“Yeah, course,” Tyson says, nodding too hard. Madison slips out of bed and collects her clothes. If Tyson watches her ass as she goes, who’s to blame him?

He’s dozing when she re-emerges, fully dressed and a little less disheveled. 

“Can I get your phone number?” Tyson asks without thinking. That’s not what this was supposed to be. He told JT he wasn’t looking for anything just a few hours ago. He just knows he wants to see Madison again.

She hesitates. Tyson understands. 

“I’d really like to see you again,” Tyson says, maybe too honest for a hookup, but it’s late. He can’t be blamed for the things he says after 1 AM. “And it’s late, I’d sleep better if I know you got home okay.”

Tyson can see the moment she gives in. Madison sighs and steps closer to the bed, but there’s something soft in her eyes when she looks at Tyson. 

“Where’s your phone?” she asks. Tyson reaches for his bedside table out of habit. His phone never made it there in their haste to get into bed. He turns back to face Madison, sheepish.

“I don’t know, actually.” Probably still in the back pocket of his jeans, but he can’t remember if he stopped to take it out and set it somewhere, either. 

Madison sighs at him again and shakes her head. Tyson watches as she scoops his jeans off the floor and digs through them before coming up with his phone. He probably should have done that himself, but Madison tosses it at him before he can push the sheets away from where they’re pooling at his waist. Tyson isn’t expecting it and fumbles the phone. He has to dig it back out before he can unlock it and toss it back to Madison. 

She catches it with ease, and Tyson sticks his tongue out at her. Show-off. She ignores him, thumb swiping idly through his apps until she finds his contacts. She types for a moment, oddly serious. Her own phone vibrates in her other hand. She throws the phone back at Tyson. He doesn’t drop it this time. 

He unlocks his phone to see that Madison’s made herself a contact—just her first name and a smiley face typed out— and texted herself—a little blue bubble that just says, tyson.

She checks her phone again. “I really should go,” she says softly. “My ride’s here,” she adds.

“Wait,” Tyson says. He reaches out a hand, wraps his fingers around her wrist when she steps closer and tugs her down so he can kiss her one last time. “‘Kay, now you can go,” he whispers.

Madison cups his cheek and gives him one quick peck, then she’s out the door.

Tyson’s not quite asleep when his phone vibrates next to him, and she slaps at it, squinting at it in the dark. A text from Madison reads, home x. Tyson falls asleep smiling. 

He almost expects that to be the end of it. He knows he said he wanted to see Madison again, but he’s not sure either of them are going to follow up on it. The Avs’ schedule gets busy—away, then back home, then gone again.

But it happens again. Tyson’s high on another win when he dials Madison’s phone number. It rings long enough that Tyson thinks she’s not going to answer.

“Hello?” Madison says, startling Tyson. 

“Oh,” he says. He didn’t think he’d get this far. 

“Tyson?”

“Are you busy tonight?” he blurts. It’s a Saturday night, he’s expecting her to say that she’s going out with friends or something. Tyson’s just getting home from the game himself. 

He’s surprised when she says, “Not really.”

“Oh,” Tyson says again. He pulls his tie off over his head and tosses it aside. 

“Tyson? This is a booty call, isn’t it?”

“Uh. Maybe?” Tyson says. “Is it working?” Tyson surveys his apartment. He’d cleaned before leaving for Dallas, and he’s barely been home long enough to make a mess again. Though, his unpacked suitcase is exploding in the corner of his room where he dumped it when they got in late the night before. 

“God, you’re so bad at flirting,” Madison says. Unfortunately, she’s endeared by it. “I can be there in like thirty minutes, text me your address.” 

Tyson fist pumps when he hangs up the call. He frantically texts Madison before going to change into sweats. He’s fidgeting restlessly on his couch when Madison calls him again thirty-six minutes later. 

“Can you let me up?” she asks.

“Oh, shit, yeah,” he says. He doesn’t bother with shoes, just swipes his keys from his kitchen island and heads downstairs.

Madison’s waiting awkwardly in his lobby when Tyson steps off the elevator. She spots him and grins when he waves at her. She wants to hug him, for some reason, when he approaches her, but that’s not what they are, so she settles for taking his hand and twining their fingers together when he reaches out for her. 

Tyson doesn’t pin her against the elevator wall to kiss her after the doors close behind them, but Madison can tell he wants to. She squeezes his hand, and Tyson pulls her into his side.

“Little excited, huh?” Madison teases, looking at Tyson’s feet.

He wiggles his socked toes and grins at Madison. 

“Well, duh,” he says. The elevator doors open again. Tyson all but drags Madison towards his apartment. He’s kissing her before the door is shut all the way. They stumble over to Tyson’s couch, and Tyson’s pulling Madison into his lap before he’s even settled. She lets him kiss her for a few minutes before she pulls away.

“Is this going to become a thing every time you guys win?” she gasps. 

“You know who I am?” Tyson doesn’t ask, resting his forehead on Madison’s shoulder to catch his breath. “You watch hockey?” he asks instead. He’s not sure it’s a better question than the one he didn’t ask. 

Madison twists her fingers in the hair at the base of Tyson’s neck. “Not avidly. I really didn’t know who you were the first time, but my friends and I were out the other night, and I saw you on TV.” She tugs a little on his hair, and Tyson tilts his head back to look at her. She’s watching his face closely, waiting for his reaction.

Tyson’s relieved, in a weird way, that she didn’t know who he was when they hooked up the first time. He’s just not sure how he feels now that she’s back in his lap, and evidently knows he plays for the Avalanche. Madison’s unwavering, looking steadily back at Tyson. 

“What, so you’re just fucking me because I’m a hockey player now?” he jokes, or tries to joke. He thinks it falls flat.

Madison laughs. “No, you idiot, I’m fucking you because you’re kinda cute.” She rolls her eyes, and Tyson pouts a little. “I told you, I didn’t know who you were the first time. I’m not chasing anything, Tys. Besides, if I were chasing hockey players, I’m sure there are single Avs players who score more goals,” she teases.

“Hey, I scored a goal tonight!” Tyson protests. 

“I know, baby,” she says, kissing him quickly. 

“Did you look up my stats?” Tyson asks, distracted. 

“I like you, okay?” Madison says, ignoring him. “Wouldn’t be here for any other reason.”

Tyson has to kiss her again. They don’t end up making it to the bedroom. 

“Do you have to go?” Tyson whines, watching Madison sit up and search for her clothes. Tyson thinks her T-shirt ended up behind his couch.

Madison pauses. Tyson’s curls are a disaster, and Madison kind of wants to mess them up more. “And what exactly would we do if I stayed?” she asks, eyebrows raised. She threads her fingers into Tyson’s hair, tugs once, because she can. 

Tyson blushes a little. “I dunno, watch a movie?” Madison makes a face. Tyson’s phone got buried in the couch cushions, and he fishes it out to look at the time. “Okay, I guess it is kinda late.” Tyson’s stomach growls. “Do you want to order pizza?” he asks instead. 

Madison finds her shirt and checks the time on her own phone. “I really should get home,” she says, apologetic. “I hate getting Ubers late at night.” 

“You can spend the night,” Tyson says without thinking. At the look on Madison’s face, he says instead, ”Or, I could drive you home. Whatever.” 

“‘Whatever,’” Madison scoffs, shaking her head. But she grins at Tyson and pulls her shirt over her head. Tyson briefly mourns the loss of her bare chest. “I guess I could go for pizza,” she says. 

“Wait, for real?” Tyson asks. He realizes he probably sounds too eager. 

“Don’t make me change my mind,” Madison warns, but her smile is playful. 

She’s still standing next to the couch, and Tyson has to pull her back into his lap. She giggles as she settles across Tyson’s thighs. He kisses her cheek, the corner of her mouth, before she turns her head and captures his lips with her own. They kiss for long minutes, Tyson doesn’t know, time slowed down and unimportant. That is, until Tyson remembers he’s hungry and has to pull away. 

“Pizza?” he asks, somewhat nonsensically, panting a little. 

Madison kisses him again. Tyson tightens his grip on her hips, but pushes her away. “As long as you order pepperoni.” She slides off Tyson’s lap and slumps onto the couch next to Tyson.

Madison suddenly realizes that she’s tired, her eyes feeling heavy as she watches Tyson order pizza. She considers for a second, before carefully poking him in the ribs with her toes. Tyson doesn’t flinch. Madison stretches and settles with one of her feet across Tyson’s lap. He drops his hand to her ankle without looking down, thumb rubbing small circles across the bone absently. Madison closes her eyes and dozes. 

She’s woken up again by Tyson gripping her foot and shaking it. She’s melted further into the couch cushions, bones heavy with exhaustion. Tyson smiles at her.

“Pizza’s here, babe,” he says softly.

Sure enough, there’s a pizza box resting on the coffee table. It smells enticing enough to rouse Madison the rest of the way. She reaches a hand out, intending for Tyson to give her a piece of pizza, but he wraps his fingers around hers and pulls her to sit up. She leans into Tyson’s side. He laughs quietly and drapes an arm across her shoulders. Madison could probably fall back asleep like this, Tyson warm and solid next to her. Tyson hands her a slice of pizza, and Madison’s actually too hungry to resist. 

Tyson turns on some show on Netflix while they eat. Neither of them are paying much attention, but it fills in the silence nicely. It’s cold and dark outside, the city of Denver sleepy, but inside Tyson’s apartment, it’s cozy and warm. 

It’s dangerous waking up next to Madison the next morning. It’s something Tyson could get used to far too easily. Madison’s still asleep when he rolls over in the early morning light. She’s rolled over to face him in her sleep, face soft and hair a mess. Tyson’s not sure what time it is. He should maybe get up, but he’s not in any rush. 

Madison blinks awake to find Tyson watching her. She rubs at her eyes and rolls onto her back.

“Whatchu lookin’ at?” she mumbles. She turns her head back to look at Tyson. 

Tyson grins lazily back at her. “You, duh.” 

Madison facewashes him. Tyson grabs her wrist and wrenches her hand away, cackling. “You’re the worst,” she says over his laughter. 

Tyson scoots closer and sticks a foot in between Madison’s legs. No ulterior motive, just wanting to be close. Okay, maybe a teeny bit of ulterior motive: Tyson’s toes are cold. He’d wheedled Madison into wearing a pair of his sweatpants and a T-shirt before they’d fallen asleep. She looks like she belongs in Tyson’s bed. 

Madison watches Tyson closely as he settles back in. She tries to read the expression on his face, the small smile on his lips. She’s not sure what any of it means.

“So what next?” she asks softly. Two hook-ups and a sleepover does not a relationship make. 

Tyson knows what she’s asking. He runs through their upcoming schedule in his head. They’re about to leave for a week. That’s about as far as he gets. They can worry about all that later. All he knows that he wants, no, he needs to see Madison again. 

What he says now is, “Breakfast?” 

December

Madison doesn’t hear much from Tyson for a while after that. It’s not like she expected to, really. She knows the Avalanche went on another long road trip, and it’s not like they need to be texting each other constantly. 

Madison finds herself checking the Avalanche box scores after each game. Tyson gets two goals while they’re gone. Not that she’s counting, or anything. 

Tyson means to call. He really does. Or even text some. But in the air somewhere over Canada, he realizes he’s never actually talked much with Madison. He doesn’t know anything about her, unless you count what she’s like in bed. He’s never been good at small talk, or the talking phase. Which, when he thinks about it, is probably why he’s still single. 

It’s not until he’s staring down three and a half weeks of nothing but practices that Tyson picks up his phone again. 

Madison answers faster than he’d expected. “You’re not bored already, are you?” she asks. “It’s only been two days since you had a game.”

It’s only been one day since their last game, actually. Tyson whines into the phone. “Yes, I’m bored, okay?” Madison laughs at him. Tyson makes a face, even though she can’t see it. “We never get this much time off, it’s weird,” he goes on. “What am I supposed to do?”

“You’re a smart boy, Tyson,” Madison teases. “Went to college and everything, I’m sure you’ll figure something out.”

That’s not to say that Tyson doesn’t have ideas, and he thinks Madison knows what he’s angling for because she’s not a fool. She’s really going to make him work for this one. 

“I mean, I guess I could watch some movies or start a new TV show,” Tyson hedges. 

“Watch The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings trilogies,” Madison says absently. “Could get you through a good couple of days.”

Tyson takes his opening. “You could always come over and watch them with me,” he says. 

Madison groans, as if they both didn’t see where this conversation was going. “You’re terrible,” she tells him. 

“No, really, we can just hang out,” Tyson says. And if hanging out leads to other things, well. “Don’t you have teammates you can hang out with or something?” Madison asks, skeptical. 

“I see them literally every day”—Madison laughs again—“and I want to see you,” Tyson adds. “Really.” 

Madison pauses on the other end of the line. “Fine,” she says finally. “Should I pack a bag?” 

Tyson freezes. He hadn’t gotten that far in his scheming. Never considered Madison would even want to spend that much time with him this weekend. He’s quiet long enough that Madison says something.

“Tyson?” she says softly.

Tyson shakes himself, tries to get his brain back online. “I, uh, I mean. I guess? You can, if—if you want?” he stammers. It’s Friday afternoon. He still has some practices over the weekend, but the long break between games suddenly seems less daunting with the prospect of Madison staying over, staying in his bed.

“I’ll be over soon, okay?” Madison says. 

Tyson isn’t sure if he manages to say anything else before she ends the call. Fuck. He’s getting the sense for the first time that he’s in over his head. He isn’t so sure he minds, actually. 

The weekend passes quickly once Madison’s there, though Tyson swears time slows down when he’s with her. They do actually end up watching The Lord of the Rings movies—which Madison had proudly produced from one of her bags, along with several packs of microwave popcorn, which had sent Tyson into a laughing fit— in between falling into bed (or the couch, more than once) and Tyson dragging himself out of the apartment to get to skate. 

“We really should do The Hobbit first, since those come first chronologically, but other than the first one, they’re not as good,” Madison explains at one point, gesturing with a handful of popcorn. Tyson just nods. “And we could have probably had a proper marathon and watched all the movies, but that’s like twenty hours, and I figured you had other plans, anyway.” She looks sidelong at Tyson, one eyebrow raised.

“You’re kind of a nerd, you know that?” Tyson asks later, breathless from making out. He’s pressing Madison into the couch cushions, their legs tangled together underneath a blanket. He’s aiming for light, teasing, but he’s not sure he quite gets there.

Madison tugs on the hair at the nape of Tyson’s neck. “Yeah, but you like me anyway.” Madison’s smirking a little. 

Tyson absolutely does like her anyway. It might make him like her more, actually.

Madison’s standing at the kitchen counter with the last of her coffee on Sunday morning when Tyson comes up and presses himself against her back, pinning her in place. He presses a kiss to the spot where Madison’s neck meets her shoulder. Madison tilts her head to the side some. With better access, Tyson drags a line of kisses down her neck and across the top of her shoulder.

Madison sets her coffee mug down on the counter with shaky hands before she drops it. 

“Are you sure you can’t stay longer?” Tyson mumbles into Madison’s skin. 

From this angle, Tyson can see the hickey on Madison’s collarbone from the day before. He’s got one to match, somewhere. He wants to get his mouth on it again, make it darker, make sure it’s there for days. 

Tyson feels it more than he hears it when Madison laughs. She reaches up and drapes an arm backwards over his shoulder, holding him in place as much as he’s pinning her. 

“Sorry, bud, but some of us have to get back to the real world,” she says. She doesn’t make any effort to move. 

Tyson bites her shoulder, gently, but pulls away. “Same time next week?” he asks next, only half a joke. 

Madison turns around and looks at Tyson. “Tyson, next week is Christmas.”

“Fuck, is it?” Tyson tries to remember what day it is. His family is coming to town this year. He should probably put some effort into decorating his apartment, then. 

Madison just shakes her head at him. Tyson wonders if his mom and Kacey will be able to look at him and know what’s going on in his heart. 

Tyson’s apartment feels empty without Madison in it when he gets back from practice later that afternoon. She’d filled in all the quiet spaces Tyson didn’t realize it had—a spare throw blanket strewn across the couch, her makeup bag overflowing on his bathroom counter, an extra set of dirty dishes in the sink. 

He misses her. More than he should, probably. Huh.

This was never supposed to be anything. Just a hook-up from the bar. Now Madison’s spending weekends at his place, and Tyson wants to see her all the time. He should’ve seen it coming, maybe. He’d never been good at flings. 

He thinks about calling Madison, but that seems like too much. He’s been told he can be too much, sometimes. He puts his phone back down, flops face down onto his couch for a while, instead. 

Tyson spends the next few days doubling down on getting ready for Christmas. He had, in fact, forgotten that it was coming up so soon, and he still needed to get presents for his grandpa and sister. He digs out his meager box of Christmas decorations and sets them up around his apartment. It’s not very much, but it does go a long way towards making the apartment feel a bit more like home. 

He holds off on texting Madison until Wednesday. He shouldn’t have; his family’s flying in later this evening. They’ll be in town all week, and Tyson might actually go insane if he can’t see Madison, get his hands on her again until after the new year. 

If Tyson ends up picking up his family with sex hair, well. They probably didn’t notice. He’d shoved a ball cap on, anyway, though Kacey still raised her eyebrows at him in the rearview as she slid into the backseat next to their mom. He’d flip her off if he could, but his grandpa is right there.

Tyson makes it through the holiday without an interrogation from his mom and sister, but he knows it’s coming. The blanket Madison had left behind is still laying across the couch, and Kacey’s been curled up under it more often than not. Madison texts Tyson on Christmas morning, a simple merry Christmas! with a heart emoji that has Tyson grinning stupidly at his phone. Kacey clears her throat loudly, on the floor next to Tyson. He feels himself blushing as he fumbles to lock his phone and drop it face down next to him. His mom and sister share a look over his head. 

Madison texts again a few days after Christmas, asking if Tyson wants to grab lunch and hangout. Tyson does, obviously, but he has to figure out how to dodge his family for a few hours, first.

“I’m gonna go workout, I think,” Tyson announces. He needs to find his shoes, a water bottle. He is restless, too many days off in a row. 

Kacey looks up from her computer. “Oh, can I come? I’m supposed to be working out over break, too,” she says. 

“Uh,” Tyson says, trying to stall. He should’ve thought this through better. Kacey raises an eyebrow at him. “I was actually hoping for some time alone, y’know?” Kacey’s other eyebrow raises. 

“Are you saying you’re tired of us?” his mom asks, teasing. 

Tyson’s phone vibrates in his pocket. Madison again. He hasn’t had a chance to respond to her yet. He hates lying to his mom, but he still says, “Yes? No?” Tyson’s never been one to need space. “I just—”

“It’s okay, Tys,” his mom says gently. “Have a good workout, sweetheart.” 

Tyson doesn’t linger, grabbing his coat and shoving his feet into the first pair of shoes he sees on his way out the front door. He texts Madison that he’s on his way in the elevator. He does pick up lunch for both of them, too, on his way over to Madison’s place. He’s thoughtful like that. 

It takes just about all of Tyson’s self-control to actually sit next to Madison on her couch and eat first.

“How’d you ditch your mom and sister?” Madison asks eventually, eyes still on the TV, playing some random Hallmark Christmas movie. 

Tyson swallows. “Told them I was working out,” he admits.

Madison turns to smirk at him. “Working out, huh?” she asks, laughter in her voice. 

Tyson nudges her knee with his foot. “It’s not entirely a lie,” he points out. His lunch is practically finished anyway, so he sets it aside and slides closer to Madison. “I think they’re on to me, though.” He never could hide anything from the people he loves. 

Madison swings her feet into Tyson’s lap. She’s still eating, and Tyson’s about fifteen seconds away from taking her lunch from her and just kissing her. His leg bounces—his restless energy has only gotten worse since landing on Madison’s couch—until Madison digs her heel into his thigh, forcing him to stop. 

She’s looking at him carefully. “Would that be such a bad thing?” she asks. “People knowing about us?”

Tyson considers. It’s not like there’s anything to keep a secret, really. He realizes that no one even knows that he and Madison had hooked up more than just that night at the bar. He hadn’t realized how close he’d been keeping them to his chest. 

Madison’s still waiting for an answer. Tyson squeezes her ankle where it’s still draped across his lap. “I guess not, actually,” he says. 

Madison grins at him and, finally, finally, sets aside the remnants of her lunch. Tyson slides his hands up Madison’s legs, underneath her thighs, and drags her into his lap, finally, finally, getting his mouth on hers. 

Kacey and his mom are waiting for Tyson when he sheepishly slips in his front door an hour later. Kacey’s smirking, leaned up against the counter with her arms crossed. Tyson could kill her. He tugs the collar of his hoodie up, hoping it covers the hickey Madison left on his collarbone. 

“Good workout, Tys?” Kacey asks. Tyson flips her off. Even their mom smacks her arm in reprimand. 

“Great, actually,” Tyson says, allowing himself a moment of smugness in spite of his embarrassment. He hopes he’s not blushing. Kacey laughs. 

“If you’ve gotten yourself a girlfriend, Tyson, you know you could always bring her around,” his mom says gently. Tyson winces. He really hates lying to his mom. And he definitely could not just bring Madison around.

“Yeah,” Kacey chimes in, “I want to meet whoever’s got you sneaking around like an idiot.”

“She’s not—it’s not like that,” Tyson rushes to say. “We’re taking it slow, I guess.” He’s definitely blushing now, his face warm under the matching gazes of his mom and sister. He forces himself to shrug, hands shoved in his hoodie pocket. “We’re just…friends,” he finishes lamely. 

Kacey and his mom pin Tyson with matching pitying, yet disbelieving looks. Tyson hunches his shoulders, nervous underneath their gazes. He thinks of Madison telling him that it’s okay if people know about them. Thinks about having to tell his mom and baby sister that he’s just fucking around with a girl he thinks he could fall in love with, given the chance. He decides against it, for now. 

Tyson shrugs again. “I mean it,” he says. “It’s not really anything right now. I don’t know.” 

He escapes to his bedroom for a shower and to bury his head under a pillow for a while, until he feels like he can face his family again.

The days seem to pass more slowly after that. Tyson works out—for real, thank you very much— and watches way too many cooking shows with Kacey, curled up under a mountain of blankets on the couch. Tyson doesn’t know the last time he got to spend this much time with his family during hockey season. It’s nice, even as he starts getting restless again, anxious to be back on the ice with his teammates. 

There’s a team New Year’s Eve party at Gabe’s. It’s pretty chill, especially as far as team gatherings go, but Tyson maybe has a little too much to drink. He’s surrounded by happy teammates with their significant others, and he’s maybe feeling a little alone. He cracks open another beer.

It’s almost midnight when Tyson sinks onto a couch next to JT and slips out his phone. No notifications. He doesn’t know what he expected. Madison had posted on her story earlier in the night that she was celebrating with friends, too. Tyson stares at his phone for a moment. 

miss you, he carefully types out. It takes him longer than it should to get it right, drunk as he is, squinting at his phone and concentrating really hard on hitting the correct keys.

Madison responds quickly, way faster than Tyson had expected her to. The typing bubble appears almost immediately. Tyson waits.

miss you too tys, it says. Then, please drink some water. 

“Who the fuck is Josty texting?” EJ yells from across the room. Tyson realizes that he’s been smiling stupidly down at his phone. He makes to lock it and put it back away, but he’s not fast enough. JT grabs Tyson’s wrist and wrenches it around so he can see his screen. 

“Who’s Madison?” JT asks, quieter than EJ. He lets Tyson lock his phone, finally.

“She’s—” Tyson pauses. He doesn’t want to say that she’s no one, because that’s not really true. He doesn’t have any other word for her, either.

JT’s been watching Tyson’s face carefully. He knows better than anyone that Tyson isn’t good at hiding his emotions, and something must be showing on Tyson’s face now. JT’s eyebrows raise. 

“Is that the girl you brought home from the bar like a month ago?” JT asks. Tyson hesitates, pulling his hand free from JT’s grasp. Tyson’s hesitation is enough. “Oh my God, are you still fucking her?” 

Tyson winces. It sounds crass when JT says it like that. “We’ve hooked up a few more times,” he admits. JT doesn’t need to know about the number of times she’s slept over, too.

JT laughs at him, shaking his head. “‘Not really looking for anything,’ huh?” he teases, echoing Tyson’s own words from that night in the bar. Was it really only a month ago? Feels like Madison’s been in Tyson’s life way longer than that, with how quickly she’s taken over Tyson’s thoughts.

“I wasn’t!” Tyson protests. He shoves JT a little for good measure. He’s so drunk he doesn’t think it has the intended effect. JT just sways back into Tyson, leaning more of his weight on Tyson’s side. 

It’s almost midnight. Around them, teammates are moving around, finding someone to kiss. Someone’s opened champagne, someone else is passing full flutes around. Tyson takes one when it passes in front of him. JT digs his elbow into Tyson’s ribs one last time before getting up to find Sydney. 

Tyson’s left on the couch, alone. He pulls his phone back out as people begin counting down around him. Madison’s text comes through just as everyone starts cheering and the clock strikes midnight. Happy new year Tyson! 🖤 

Tyson closes his eyes and drains his glass of champagne. 

January

Tyson usually dreads January. It’s a long, cold, and dark month. The grind of the season feels like it’s at its…grindiest. The game days and travel days start to run into each other and turn into one exhausting, never-ending blur. Someone’s always getting sick, or injured, 

He’s perfectly happy to throw himself back into hockey when the new year finally rolls around after so many weeks without it, but he hates how quiet his apartment is without Kacey hanging around, being annoying. He leaves his Christmas decorations up, anything to make his apartment feel lived-in.

Tyson lasts until the team gets back from Chicago on the fifth before he calls Madison again. She doesn’t answer. Tyson stares at his phone after it goes through to voicemail, bewildered. That is, until Madison texts him back and reminds him that she has a “normal job with normal hours.” Right.

Madison calls Tyson back on her way home from work. His groggy, mumbled “‘ello?” makes Madison smile when he answers, voice tinny over her car’s speakers.

“Did I wake you?” she teases. 

Tyson scoffs, but says, “...yeah. Sorry for calling you earlier,” he adds. “I’d just gotten home and wasn’t thinking.” “You can’t just call at 10:30 in the morning on a Wednesday, Tyson,” she admonishes. 

“I know, I’m sorry, I was just—” missing you. Tyson dismisses that thought. Too earnest. “I was just bored,” he finishes. Not much better, actually. 

Madison’s quiet for a while, focused on driving. She realizes she should figure out where she’s actually headed. “Were you calling for any particular reason earlier?” she asks. “I was beginning to think you’d forgotten about me.”

“I could never forget you,” Tyson says quickly. “I just wanted to see you,” he admits after another moment. 

Madison turns on her blinker at a red light. She should be turning left, towards her apartment. She turns right, towards Tyson’s place. “Did you want me to come over,” she asks, wanting to hear Tyson say it.

“I mean, obviously, yeah. I can make us dinner.”

Madison laughs. “Oh, sure, you’re gonna make me some toaster waffles, huh?” She had seen the Instagram stories. “You really know how to woo a girl, Tys.”

She can practically feel Tyson’s playful outrage on the other end of the phone. He sputters for a minute before saying, “Okay, I can order us dinner.” 

Madison’s almost to Tyson’s apartment building. She hates that she already knows how to get there so easily. “Are you going to get your ass out of bed and meet me downstairs?” There’s the sound of something hitting the floor, like Tyson actually rolled out of bed.

“I’ll be right there!” Tyson says, before hanging up. The radio cuts back in, music playing softly to fill in the abrupt silence of the call ending. Madison parks and turns her car off, sitting in silence for a minute. She wonders just what the hell she’s doing, what she’s getting herself into. 

Tyson sprawls onto his couch and pulls Madison into his lap almost immediately after they’re both through the door. Madison rolls her eyes, but she goes willingly. Tyson’s perfectly content to just make out for a while, all sense of urgency gone as soon as he gets his hands on Madison. He’s not sure how long they’re there before he realizes something and pulls away.

“Have you ever been to an Avs game?” he asks.

“What?” Madison lost her shirt at some point, and Tyson’s thumb has been fiddling with one of her bra straps for the last several moments. She’s admittedly a little distracted. She processes what Tyson said. “Tyson, are you seriously thinking about hockey right now?” She tries to roll off his lap, but he digs his hands into her thighs and refuses to let her move.

“I’m always thinking about hockey, a little bit,” he defends. Madison rolls her eyes at him again. What Tyson had really been thinking about was introducing Madison to JT, then he’d remembered that she said she didn’t watch much hockey, and somehow that’s what had come out of his mouth. Madison still looks a little bit like she wants to smack him. “I told my best friend about you,” is what he ends up saying next. “He’s actually the one who pointed you out to me at the bar that night, and he wants to meet you for real.”

JT had actually said that, in between chirps about Tyson’s hooking up habits. Some of the other guys had picked it up, too, but Tyson wasn’t ready to subject Madison to them yet. Except maybe, like, Cale. And maybe after a game at the arena wasn’t the best place to introduce Madison to his friends, but Tyson could get tickets for Madison and a friend, ask Mel to introduce herself or something, and then meet Madison after with JT. 

Tyson realizes Madison hasn’t answered him. She’s still in his lap, but she’s tense. Tyson squeezes her thighs again. 

“You don’t have to, obviously,” he says softly. “I dunno, I just thought you might want to meet the guys.”

Madison relaxes a little. “You really want that?” she asks. 

Tyson can’t help but grin at her. He kisses her again, slowly. “I do.”

Later, when they’re sitting at Tyson’s little table eating dinner—that Tyson did actually cook, thank you very much—Madison knocks her ankle into Tyson’s. Tyson swallows his mouthful of food and traps her foot in between both of his. Madison had gotten re-dressed in one of Tyson’s sweatshirts, and Tyson’s doing his best to feel normal about it. 

“So, did you have a day in mind for me to come to a game, or had you not thought that far ahead?” Madison asks. 

Tyson tries to run through their upcoming schedule in his head. “Uh?” They’re home for a lot of January. “Next Friday, maybe? The…14th?” He can’t remember who they’re playing, but that’s not really important. Tyson squints over at the printout of their schedule he keeps on his fridge. “We wouldn’t be able to hang around because we fly out that night, I think.”

Madison looks faintly overwhelmed suddenly. It might be for the best that the guys will only be able to say hi briefly, actually. “Sure? Whatever you want, Tyson.”

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Tyson reminds her. He feels a bit as if he’s thrown her off the deep end, even though she’s the one who pushed Tyson to tell JT in the first place. 

Madison shakes her head. “No, it’s okay, I just didn’t really expect it.” 

Tyson pulls a face. “Maybe I’m tired of keeping you a secret.” He doesn’t know what he was trying so hard to protect, now. 

Madison stares at him for a long moment, face unreadable. Tyson stares back. Finally, Madison drops her fork with a clatter and leans across the table to kiss Tyson. The fierceness of the kiss surprises him, Madison’s lips hard against his, her hand sliding around the back of his neck. Tyson cups her cheek and tries to soften the kiss, but Madison pulls away just as quickly as she’d kissed him. 

Tyson blinks at her, bemused. He’s not sure what just happened. It feels significant somehow, something unspoken changing between them. Tyson turns back to his dinner.

Madison sees Tyson a few more times over the next week and a half before the game. Tyson acts the same, but Madison feels like she’s on edge, counting down the hours until Friday. Tyson doesn’t seem to notice.

“What the hell am I supposed to wear to a hockey game?” Madison complains over the phone to her older sister, Emma, who she’d asked to come with her on Friday. Emma just laughs at her. Madison’s seen what WAGs wear to games—cute outfits with leather pants and heels. Madison doesn’t own that type of shit, and she’s not really a WAG, besides. She doesn’t own a jersey, either, and it would probably be weird to wear a jersey that’s not Tyson’s anyway. Madison’s pixie pants from Old Navy and sensible work shoes aren’t going to cut it.

“What were you wearing when you met Tyson?” Emma asks, as if she doesn’t know they met in a bar.

Madison snorts. “Nothing that’s appropriate for a hockey game.” Madison regards the handful of sweaters she’s pulled from her closet. One of them is close enough to Avalanche burgundy, maybe. Somewhere in her dirty laundry is one of Tyson’s sweatshirts. Madison’s not bold enough to wear it.

Game day is overwhelming, to say the least. Tyson had gotten them good seats, but Madison’s not used to being around so many people, and it’s noisy all around her. It’s easier to follow the pace of the game in person than on TV, she learns, and her eyes follow Tyson whenever he’s on the ice.

Tyson scores a goal late in the first period, and Madison’s probably the one who cheers the loudest for him. 

Madison waits outside the arena for Tyson after the game. Her sister’s waiting in the car, telling Madison it was too cold to stand around. She watches some of the other players make their way past her and onto a waiting bus. It’s cold, and she hates Tyson briefly. It’s only another few minutes until Tyson appears, closely followed by someone. They’re arguing, but Tyson breaks off as soon as he sees Madison waiting for him.

Tyson forgets himself for a moment. He runs over to Madison and wraps his arms around her waist, picking her up and spinning her once. Madison laughs at him. He ignores JT snickering behind him in favor of leaning down and kissing Madison quickly. 

Madison’s blushing when he pulls away, but it might just be from the cold. 

“Nice goal tonight, babe,” Madison tells him. Tyson just shrugs. 

Behind them, JT clears his throat. Tyson kind of forgot about that part. He drapes an arm around JT’s shoulders and drags him closer. “This asshole is JT,” he tells Madison. “He’s one of my best friends.” To JT, he says, “This is Madison, be nice.”

JT scoffs. “I’m always nice.” He grins at Madison. “I’m also the reason Tyson went up to you at the bar, so I guess you could thank me for whatever’s going on here.” Tyson smacks him. 

“You can get on the bus now, actually,” Tyson says. JT’s laughing again as Tyson tries to elbow him out of the way. Madison’s smiling, too, though, amused by their antics. 

JT does leave, then, and Madison and Tyson are alone. Or, as alone as you can be with half of Tyson’s teammates watching them through the bus windows. Tyson steps closer to Madison.

“Thanks for tonight,” she says. Tyson barely did anything, but he’s not going to say that now. Tyson should really get on the bus, but he can’t tear himself away. Madison’s hand finds his, tangling their fingers together and squeezing once before letting go again. “Text me when you get to the hotel, yeah?”

Tyson has to kiss her again. “I will, I promise.” He really needs to go. One last kiss, pressed to Madison’s cheek this time, then Tyson forces himself to step away. Madison’s gone when he turns around as he steps on the bus. Tyson shakes himself and goes to find JT, flopping into the seat left open for him. 

“You’re in deep, bud,” JT says. Tyson glares at him. 

“God, I know.”

February

Tyson should be planning a vacation somewhere warm. That’s what most of his teammates are doing, with the All-Star break coming up in just a few days, everyone ready to escape winter in Colorado. What Tyson’s doing instead is texting Madison, trying to convince her to spend the week with him. 

He doesn’t understand why she’s being so resistant to the idea. She’s spent nights and weekends with him before. She’s spent more time around his friends, even sticking around the other night when JT and Cale crashed their evening. 

Fine I’ll just stay over at yours then, Tyson finally texts as a last resort. 

Madison leaves him on read for, like, two hours. He spends most of that time trying to figure out what he could have said to make her pull away so suddenly. 

Tyson’s this close to actually driving over to Madison’s to finish this conversation-slash-argument in person when she finally texts him back. 

I don’t think that’s a good idea either, Madison has texted. Tyson stares at it. Tries to type a response, deletes it. 

Before he can think much more about it, Tyson’s grabbing his car keys. He ends up driving aimlessly around Denver for a while before he heads towards Madison’s apartment. He’s worried he’s too upset to go straight over, that he’ll just start saying things he doesn’t mean out of frustration. 

He still knocks on Madison’s door a little too hard, maybe. She looks confused when she answers the door. Tyson realizes he probably should have given her a heads up. 

He’d planned what he wanted to say in the car, but what he blurts out instead is, “What, are you sleeping with someone else on the side?” Tyson could play it off as a joke any other time, but right now it comes out too accusing, too hurt. 

Madison’s face does something complicated before she grabs him by the wrist and hauls him inside. 

“What the fuck, no,” she says. “Tyson, what the fuck?” she repeats.

He crosses his arms. “I don’t get why you don’t want to spend the week off with me.” She’s already spent days at a time in his apartment. This week shouldn’t be any different. 

Madison’s always hated cuffing season, is the thing. Maybe it’s just because she usually finds herself lonely through the winter months. She’s not stupid, this thing with Tyson has an expiration date; if she’s being honest with herself; they’ve been pushing it ever since they extended all of this past a one night stand. With every day that passes, Madison feels herself falling just a little more for Tyson, and she feels the impending end creeping closer. She needs to put some space between them before she gets her heart broken.

She just doesn’t know that Tyson’s busy falling, too. 

Madison doesn’t know how to put all of that into words without blowing up her spot, though. She settles for saying, “I just need some space, I think.” It’s not exactly a lie. 

Tyson’s face falls, and Madison immediately wishes she could take the words back.

Tyson’s quiet for a moment before he quietly says, “I didn’t do anything, did I?”

“No, God, of course not,” Madison rushes to assure him. She tries to collect her thoughts. “It’s just that, with Valentine’s Day coming up, and winter ending, I don’t know, I think I need to figure out what I want.”

Tyson forgot about Valentine’s Day. He doesn’t even know their schedule that far out. He supposes they have been hurtling towards something they’ve yet to define lately. But, “Hey, we’ve got a good thing going right now, don’t we?” Madison nods hesitantly. “Who said anything about changing that?” Tyson’s heart has other ideas, but he can worry about that later. 

Madison takes a deep breath. “I guess,” she says, and Tyson grins at her. 

“I’ll drop the All-Star break thing if you want. I just wanted to spend some time with you.” He doesn’t spend a lot of time with people other than teammates. It’s nice to change things up. 

“Like you wouldn’t be calling me all the time to hook up, anyway,” Madison teases. Tyson can’t argue with that. 

He ends up sticking around for a while, sprawled across Madison’s couch with her tucked against his chest between his legs. Madison turns on The Hobbit, even though Tyson doesn’t think they quite managed to make it through The Return of the King the last time they had a Tolkien marathon. 

When he leaves later, pulling Madison in for a chaste kiss in the doorway, he realizes it’s the longest they’ve spent together without it ending in a hook-up. It’s kind of nice. 

Tyson does back off some after that. All-Star break is already upon them, anyway. He can handle winging it solo for a few days. Probably. 

Actually, now that he thinks about it, he hasn’t properly cleaned his apartment since their last long break back in December. The Avs have been home a lot in January, too, and his fridge is looking pretty bare these days.

He considers texting Madison and asking if she wants to tag along for his groceries, but he thinks that might be crossing the line of “too domestic.” He throws himself into cleaning and does his best to not think about texting her, instead.

It’s Madison who breaks the silence first. She lasts two days. She thought time and distance was what she needed, but that was before she realized how much she missed listening to Tyson chattering at her in between falling into bed. 

She texts, i’m coming over, before she can think better of it. She makes the now-familiar drive to Tyson’s apartment on autopilot. Tyson’s seen her text by the time she parks, and he readily buzzes her into the building. Madison doesn’t even have to knock when she gets to his door; Tyson jerks it open like he’s been waiting, beaming.

“Burky’s here,” he says, pulling Madison in for a kiss. Madison peers around Tyson. She hasn’t met Burky yet, but she vaguely recognizes the guy standing in the middle of Tyson’s living room as another teammate. 

“Hi,” he says. Awkward. Madison likes him.

“This is Madison,” Tyson announces, somewhat needlessly. His brain shorts out a bit after that, unsure what he can call Madison. ‘Friend’? ‘Hookup’? Definitely not ‘girlfriend’.

“Tyson hasn’t stopped talking about you since you came to the game a few weeks ago,” Burky tells Madison, interrupting Tyson’s runaway train of thought.

“Hey,” Tyson whines. “You don’t need to tell her that part.” 

Madison laughs. “Nah, it’s okay, JT’s already told me.”

Tyson’s busy trying to come up with a sufficient way to threaten JT whenever he sees him again as Burky slips out the front door, and suddenly he and Madison are alone. 

Madison starts to apologize for showing up with little warning, but Tyson cuts her off, pushing her—as gently as he can—against the nearest wall and kissing her. 

“Hi,” he breathes when Madison ducks her head to pull away. He kisses her again before he can admit how much he missed her.

“I missed you,” Madison says, which. Tyson can handle that.

“God, me too.” Before, he might have felt overexposed by telling her that, but, now, it’s just comforting to know she misses him the same way he misses her. “I was actually about to make dinner, if you’re hungry?”

He starts to head towards his kitchen, not waiting for Madison to follow. He hadn’t really planned much further than deciding to cook, but he can probably figure out enough to make for two people. Madison leans against the counter as Tyson opens his fridge and peers inside. He could make chicken, but that’s boring.

“I did just buy burger patties,” he says, sort of thinking out loud.

“Tys, make whatever you want,” Madison tells him, laughing a little. “I’ll eat it.”

Tyson twists around to grin at Madison. “Be careful, you haven’t actually seen me cook yet.” 

He’s a passable cook, actually—his mom wouldn’t let him leave for North Dakota before he knew the basics, and he’s only learned more since then. He plucks the burger patties out of the fridge.

Tyson talks while he cooks. He’s not even sure what he’s chatting about after a while, but Madison listens intently to everything he says. She winds up sitting on the counter near him, and he keeps stepping away from the stove to steal kisses in between sentences. He roasts up some red potatoes, too, and digs his hamburger buns out of the freezer. “They last longer,” he tells Madison, sticking two buns in his toaster. “Also, don’t tell Nate I’m eating white bread.”

Madison has not yet met Nathan MacKinnon, and she doesn’t think she’d be telling him what Tyson’s eating for dinner on a night off when she does meet him, either.

Tyson spends almost as much time dramatically plating the food as he did cooking it. Madison pours them both glasses of wine. He finally slides a plate in front of her but whips out his phone before she can take a bite.

Madison groans. “Tyson, oh my God.” She hides behind her wine glass while Tyson takes a picture of their plates.

Tyson reaches across the table to pull Madison’s hand away from her face. “Relax, I’m just sending it to JT.”

Madison scoffs, “Sure, just JT,” but she sets her wine back down.

Tyson tries to sneak another picture of her, but she catches him. The artificial shutter clicks just as she smiles sweetly at Tyson and flips him off.

“Delete that,” she whines.

“Absolutely not.”

They continue to chat over dinner. Tyson drips ketchup on his shirt, and Madison laughs so hard she chokes on her wine, which sets Tyson off, too. It’s several minutes before they can collect themselves again. Until Madison meets Tyson’s eyes across the table and bursts into laughter again.

“What’s so funny?” Tyson whines, still dabbing futilely at the stain on his shirt.

Madison wipes at her eyes, trying to catch her breath. “Nothing, nothing.” It really wasn’t that funny. “I think I’m just over-tired.” She doesn’t tell Tyson that she’s been worrying about him, about their relationship, so much that she hasn’t been able to sleep well.

Tyson frowns at her, anyway, like he knows what she’s not saying. He glances at the time. 

“Do you want to take a nap or something? It’s still early enough.”

Madison knows that if she falls asleep in Tyson’s bed now, she will not be getting out of it until morning at least, and, “I didn’t pack anything.” 

She doesn’t know why she was half-expecting Tyson to shut the door in her face when she arrived. She definitely hadn’t been planning on staying the night. 

Tyson frowns harder. “You can always wear something of mine. Unless…you don’t wanna stay?”

Madison pushes a piece of potato around her plate with her fork for a moment before answering.

“I wasn’t sure you’d want me to stay,” she says quietly.

“What?” Tyson’s so surprised he drops his fork. He snatches it back up and points it accusingly at Madison. “Don’t be ridiculous, of course I want you to stay. I literally always want you to stay.”

Madison can feel herself blushing and she ducks her head so Tyson can’t see.

Tyson goes on. “Plus, it’s a Friday night, we can stay up late and watch a movie, then sleep in tomorrow. I’ll even make you breakfast!”

He’ll probably actually persuade Madison into going out for breakfast, but that’s an argument he’ll save until the morning. Tyson decides he’s done eating and pushes back from the table. He tries to clear Madison’s plate, but she glares at him and swipes her plate away. Tyson makes grabby hands for it.

“C’mon, I’m not making you clean up after yourself, you don’t have to.”

Madison shakes her head and holds her empty plate farther out of Tyson’s reach. “You cooked, I clean, baby.”

“That’s not—” Tyson’s so distracted that Madison snatches his plate and darts towards the kitchen. “Hey!”

He chases after Madison, who’s laughing again. Tyson loves the sound of Madison’s laugh, the way it fills his apartment. He waits until the plates have clattered into the sink to press up behind her. He kisses her shoulder, her neck, before burying his face in the crook of her neck. Madison shudders and leans back into Tyson.

“How about neither of us clean up, and we go watch a movie instead?” Tyson mumbles into Madison’s skin.

Dishes can wait; Tyson needs Madison on top of him, like, five minutes ago. He doesn’t wait for her to respond before he loops an arm around her waist and drags her over to the couch. She grunts when he pulls her on top of him, but she’s pliant as he arranges both of them until they’re comfortable. He even pulls the blanket off the back of the couch and drapes it over Madison’s back.

Madison snuggles in, the top of her head nestled perfectly under Tyson’s chin. He had intended for some making out, but now that they’re there, he’s fine with actually turning on a movie. He’s pretty sure Madison’s eyes are closed already, anyway, her breathing already starting to slow down and even out. Tyson scrolls for a while aimlessly before he settles on something stupid he’s probably seen before. He keeps the volume low. He dozes a little himself, absently rubbing Madison’s back underneath her shirt. She mumbles in her sleep and shifts closer.

It’s late by the time the movie ends, and Tyson rouses himself. They should both move to the bed, but he’s loath to wake Madison. She’s cute when she sleeps.

Tyson nudges Madison gently in the ribs. She stirs and blinks blearily up at Tyson.

“Hm?”

“Let’s get you to bed, baby,” Tyson whispers. He starts to move, and Madison makes a grumpy noise and snuggles back in. “C’mon, c’mon, it’s more comfy, I promise.”

He gets Madison up with quite a bit more poking and prodding. She’s unhappy with being woken up, and Tyson’s doing his best not to laugh at her. He nudges her towards the bathroom and gets a glare for his troubles, but she does dig out her toothbrush. 

Tyson roots around for an old shirt for Madison to wear. He holds it out to her when she emerges from the bathroom, but Madison bypasses the shirt and kisses Tyson instead. He tries to keep it gentle, but Madison whines and presses closer. Tyson drops the shirt in favor of sliding his hands along Madison’s shoulders, her ribs, down her hips. They’re not very coordinated as they fall backwards onto Tyson’s bed. Their feet tangle as Tyson tries to push even closer, pinning Madison to the bed as they continue to kiss.

Madison breaks the kiss to yawn in Tyson’s face.

He huffs out a laugh, and Madison whines again. “No more, or you’re gonna fall asleep on me.”

He watches as Madison squirms around until her head is on her pillow. She’s already half-asleep again. Tyson leans over the foot of the bed and fishes around for the sleep shirt he dropped. He tosses it to Madison, and it lands on her face. She tears it away to glare at him.

Tyson’s even polite and doesn’t stare at Madison’s chest as she strips off the shirt she had been wearing and shimmies into his shirt.

He also wins the argument over breakfast the next morning, and triumphantly takes Madison to breakfast at Snooze. Madison’s grouchiness only lasts until a plate of French toast lands in front of her. 

They’re out of town the day before Valentine’s Day. It’s just Dallas, and they’ll fly home after the game, but Tyson’s not actually sure where the line is between him and Madison and February 14th. Romantic dinner is absolutely out of the question. So are roses, probably. Tyson still wants to do something though, which is how he ends up on the website for a local flower shop while he’s supposed to be napping after skate. He scrolls for a few minutes before he remembers that he’s colorblind, and he should probably enlist some help.

JT and his judgmental eyebrows are at Tyson’s hotel room door seven minutes later. He shoulders his way past Tyson without a word, settles next to Tyson’s laptop on the bed.

“Flowers?” JT asks. “For your not-girlfriend?” He’s still being judgy, but Tyson knows he’s amused a little, too.

“Shut up, at least I’m not sending her roses,” Tyson says, trying to defend himself. He flops down on the bed next to JT. JT’s already busy scrolling. ”You need help picking the right colors, don’t you,” he says, teasing.

“Maybe.” Tyson’s never really understood flowers—they all sort of look the same to him—but girls are supposed to like them. Tyson’s never claimed to understand girls, either. 

JT clicks around a few times before he punches Tyson in the shoulder.

“Ow,” he complains, sitting up and peering over JT’s shoulder. “...What am I looking at?”

JT sighs. “I don’t know, some pink and purple flowers.”

Tyson squints closer at the photo of the arrangement JT picked. “Wait, is that a rose? I said no roses.”

“It’s pink, it’s fine.” JT tilts the screen away for a second. “You’re adding on a stuffed animal.”

“I am?” JT gives him a look. “I mean, sure.” JT turns the laptop back towards Tyson, and he dutifully fills in his credit card information. He has to hunt for Madison’s address in his phone, but then he’s pressing the confirmation button, and that’s it. “That’s it? That was easy.” 

JT snorts and shuts Tyson’s laptop. “Sure, easy after you asked me for help.” He facewashes Tyson. “You’re welcome.” 

“I’ll buy your coffee before the game,” Tyson offers, ignoring JT’s sarcasm. “Besides, you’re the one of us in a cute, long-term relationship.”

JT smirks at Tyson over his shoulder, heading for the door. “You could change that for yourself, you know.” 

“Working on it!” Tyson yells as the door shuts behind JT.

Tyson mostly forgets about the flowers after that, with the game, and the flight home, and crashing into bed and sleeping for almost ten hours. He hopes Madison likes them, hopes he isn’t pushing it too far.

Madison isn’t expecting the knock she gets on her door the next morning. She’s even more surprised when she opens her door and finds a small vase of flowers waiting on her doormat. There’s a teddy bear propped up next to the flowers; she hugs it to her chest as she carries the flowers inside. She has to set the teddy back down with the flowers to take a picture to send to Tyson.

She sends, should I be worried about a secret admirer? Tyson, eternal dork that he is, sends back the smirking emoji and the emoji blowing a kiss. Madison adds a selfie of herself hugging the bear and says, come cuddle?

Tyson probably, maybe, goes a little over the speed limit on his way to Madison’s. 

March

Fucking Calgary. Tyson’s face hurts. He gingerly sticks his tongue through the gap where his front teeth used to be, but moving hurts too much. He sits back in the passenger seat of JT’s car with a quiet groan. The training staff had been adamant that Tyson couldn’t drive himself home, and Tyson wasn’t really in any shape to put up a fight. JT looks at him sideways, something amused in the tilt of his eyebrows.

All this and they didn’t even fucking win. 

“Want me to call your mom?” JT asks. 

Tyson groans again. He really should call her. He knows she’s worried, and if he doesn’t tell her he’s fine—mostly— she’ll probably take the next flight into Denver to check on him herself. She’s pretty great like that. 

He should probably text Madison, too. 

What Tyson really wants to do is go home and pass out for about twelve hours. He’s already scheduled for emergency dental work in the morning, though, and then Tyson’s going to have to beg the training staff to let him play on the road trip they’re about to head on. He hasn’t even packed yet. 

JT holds his hand out for Tyson’s phone. Tyson fishes it out of his hoodie pocket and slaps it into JT’s hand. JT waves it at him.

“Unlock it, dumbass,” JT says. Tyson could grumble about how JT definitely knows his passcode, but he just takes his phone back. “And dial your mom while you’re at it, I can’t do it while driving.” Tyson settles for a disgruntled huff and does as he’s told. 

He only half-listens, eyes closed, as JT talks to his mom, repeated reassurances that he’s fine, and, no, she doesn’t need to come down, and, yes, JT will keep an eye on him. 

They’re almost to Tyson’s apartment by the time JT hangs up. He doesn’t hand Tyson’s phone back. Tyson cracks open his eyes to squint at JT.

“Need me to call your little girlfriend, too?” he asks. The way he says it isn’t mean, but Tyson bristles anyway.

“Not my girlfriend,” he manages, swiping for his phone. Not yet, anyway, or maybe not ever. Tyson’s working on it. JT lets him take it, but Tyson doesn’t miss the raised eyebrow he gets before JT turns back to the road.

JT insists on walking Tyson to his front door, then following him inside. Tyson’s too tired to begrudge the fussing. Plus, he does feel like shit, and it’s kind of nice, even if he’ll never, ever tell JT that. JT hovers in the bedroom doorway as Tyson kicks off his slides and faceplants into his pillow.

“Ow,” he says, gingerly turning back over.

JT snorts at him. “Need anything?” The trainers gave Tyson painkillers after the game, and it’s not like he can brush his teeth—or what’s left of them, anyway. He settles for flipping off JT. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll lock the door on my way out.” Tyson probably owes him one after this. 

He barely remembers to text Madison a thumbs up emoji before he falls asleep.

Tyson grimaces when he sees himself in the mirror the next morning. His jaw is swollen and bruised, and he can barely open his mouth. He’s not sure he wants to see the state of his teeth, anyway. A knock on his door drags him away from his mirror.

Madison knocks again, unsure if Tyson’s awake. She should’ve called, or texted, before she showed up. She shifts anxiously from foot to foot while she waits for Tyson to answer. It’s only another few seconds before the door swings open, and Tyson appears. He looks miserable as he leans against the door. 

“You look like shit,” Madison says. She waits until he steps back before pushing past him and inside his apartment. 

“Thanks,” Tyson mumbles, following Madison to the kitchen. 

She hops up onto the counter and thrusts one of the smoothies in her hand at Tyson. “Breakfast,” she says.

Tyson takes it and takes a wary sip. It’s his favorite flavor, and he takes a bigger drink. He’s halfway through slurping his smoothie before he remembers to say anything else.

“I’ve, uh, got the dentist this morning, then I’ve gotta meet the team to fly to New York,” he tells Madison. He talks carefully around his swollen gums. 

Madison shrugs. “Just wanted to check on you, bud,” she says. She sets her smoothie aside and holds her arms out to Tyson. He steps into her arms and lets her hold him. He wraps his arms around her waist and buries his face in the crook of her neck. “Looked pretty rough out there last night.”

Tyson grunts. Madison pokes him in the ribs until he squirms away. He takes a petulant drink of his smoothie.

“Do you need any help with anything?” she asks. 

Tyson still hasn’t packed. His dirty laundry has piled up. He should really clean his apartment. 

Instead, he shakes his head, muttering, “You don’t have to.”

“That’s not what I asked, Tys,” she says, crossing her arms. She stares him down. 

Tyson cracks. “I’ve just got a bunch of cleaning to do, is all.” It hurts to talk too much. He forces himself to shrug, tries to do the math on how much time he has before the dentist and before heading to the airport to get everything done. 

Madison doesn’t seem concerned. “Okay, where do you want to start?”

“You don’t-” Tyson starts. You should just leave, he wants to say, but doesn’t. 

“Shut up and drink your smoothie, Jost,” Madison tells him. 

Tyson shuts up and drinks his smoothie. 

He goes to start a load of laundry while Madison tackles his kitchen. He’d run the dishwasher the day before, but what hadn’t fit had piled up in the sink, and he had never exactly gotten around to emptying it. More dirty dishes piled up in the sink. Tyson stands in his bedroom for a moment, listening to the sounds of Madison putting things away in his cabinets.

He doesn’t know when she learned where everything goes.

They work around each other in silence for a while. Tyson stops a few times and watches the confidence and comfort with which Madison moves around his apartment. He likes it more than he should, probably. 

He’s got clothes in the dryer when he realizes he should’ve left already. He’d gotten a lot of work done the night before, and he’s got more appointments for when they get back to Denver at the end of the week.

He looks around his half-cleaned apartment in despair. He’d managed to pack enough to get by, he thinks. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s had to borrow socks from JT on a road trip, anyway. Madison must see the look on his face, because she walks over to Tyson. He looks down at her as she places her hands on his hips.

“Go, I can handle the rest of this,” she says. They’d made good progress, but most of Tyson’s laundry—anything that hadn’t gotten immediately packed—still needs to be folded. “Just leave me the apartment key. I’ll finish up, and make sure everything’s locked up. Promise,” she tells him.

Tyson can’t ask her to do that, and he tells her as much. That’s like. Girlfriend shit. He doesn’t say that part. 

What he ends up saying is, “Are you sure? You really don’t have to.” 

Madison leans up on tiptoes to press a quick close-mouthed kiss to Tyson’s lips. “I know. But I want to help you, babe. Let me help you.” 

Tyson sighs. This isn’t a fight he’s going to win. Madison watches him with something like satisfaction on her face as he finds his keys, carefully unhooks his apartment key and hands it over, but there’s something soft in her eyes, too. Tyson can’t bear to think too hard about what that look means, so he steps around Madison and goes to grab his bags.

Tyson gives her a quick kiss on his way past. He wants nothing more than to kiss her properly, like she deserves, but he doesn’t think his jaw could handle that. Madison grabs Tyson’s wrist before he can get far. He turns to look at her again, a question on the tip of his tongue, when she slips a hand around the back of his neck and pulls him down to kiss him again. It’s almost desperate, but slow and gentle. Tyson lets himself get lost in it for a second. Madison squeezes his neck once before she pulls away. She gives him a soft smile. Tyson presses his forehead to hers for another second before he regretfully pulls away. 

“See you in a few days,” she whispers. 

Tyson deserves all the chirps he gets for being late.

The road trip fucking sucks, to say the least. Tyson’s jaw hurts more often than it doesn’t, and he ends up with more penalty minutes than points. He’s looking forward to going home and sleeping in his own bed for a minimum of twelve hours.

He panics, too, a little. It’s become startlingly obvious that he’s fucking head over heels for Madison, and he has no clue what to do about it. They’ve got a good thing going, he thinks, and he doesn’t want to mess with it, really. He doesn’t really want things to stay how they are, either. 

So, panic. He thinks about JT calling Madison his girlfriend, just a few days before. He thinks of his own realization that the lines between hooking up and relationship have become blurred. What he needs is distance, some clarity. The time difference between Denver and the East Coast is an easy enough excuse to start; they’re busy, and it’s easy to let texts from Madison go unanswered for a few hours, or a few hours longer than a few hours. 

Madison must get the hint, because her texts peter out after a few days. 

Tyson is trying to find his keys in his carry-on bag as they step off the plane when he remembers that he left them with Madison so she could lock up his apartment for him. He’s locked out of his apartment and being iced out by Madison, and all he really wants is to go to sleep and not talk to anyone.

He sheepishly calls Madison as he leaves the airport. She sounds normal when she answers, and she doesn’t hesitate to say, “Sure,” when he asks if he can pick up his keys. Tyson climbs into his car tiredly and puts Madison’s address into his phone GPS.

Tyson’s only been to Madison’s place a few times. He hasn’t realized until now that he usually prefers having her over at his apartment. He likes seeing her there, forcing him to make room for herself in his life, at ease in his bed. He shakes those thoughts off. 

Madison makes him wait when he knocks on her apartment door. He stands awkwardly with his hands in his pockets. Finally, after what feels like forever, Madison swings the door open. She doesn’t move back to let Tyson in, keys already in her hand. 

“Hi,” Tyson breathes. Madison raises an eyebrow at him. Tyson gets the sudden urge to apologize. He rubs the back of his neck nervously. “Thanks again, uh, for helping me with everything,” he says eventually. “I owe you.” He hasn’t seen his apartment yet, obviously, but he knows Madison left it cleaner than it’s been since he moved in, probably. Madison’s breath catches. That was the wrong thing to say. “No, you don’t, Tyson,” she says shortly. She tosses Tyson his keys. He’s not expecting it and fumbles them. The sound of them hitting the ground is deafening. Tyson’s exhausted, and he’s only so strong.

“Can I come in?” he asks. “Please?”

Madison regards him. Tyson looks pathetic, if she’s being honest with herself, worn-out and worn-down. His swelling has gone down since she last saw him, but he looks uncomfortable. She gets the feeling it’s not just about his jaw. She, too, is only so strong. “C’mere,” she says, finally stepping back and opening the door wider. Tyson’s so relieved he could cry.

Tyson ends up collapsing in Madison’s bed and sleeps for twelve hours, face buried in a pillow that smells like her. So much for getting some distance. 

Madison’s waiting outside Tyson’s apartment door when he gets home after beating Calgary a few nights later. Tyson’s tired, and cold, but he feels himself grinning when he sees her. She’s leaning casually against his door frame, playing idly on her phone, but she’s wearing one of Tyson’s hoodies. He wants nothing more than to kiss her right there, but he settles for bumping her out of the way with his hip so he can unlock his front door.

“What if JT had come home with me, huh? Or Cale?” Tyson asks instead of saying hello. She follows him inside and locks the door behind her. Tyson busies himself with his coat so he doesn’t blurt out something dumb. He and JT weren’t quite as inseparable as they used to be, but it could happen. And Cale only lived a few floors away. Though, now that Tyson thought of it, he hadn’t been inviting teammates over after games very much lately, not when there was usually someone else waiting for him.

He’s seen Madison since they got back from their road trip, but he misses her so much when she’s not around now. He can’t get enough of her. That probably means something. He’s working on it. Sort of. 

“Hello to you, too, Tys,” she scoffs, kicking off her shoes. She carefully aims one at Tyson’s shin.

“Hey, hey, watch the suit pants,” he protests. He gives in and steps closer to her, looping an arm around her waist and pulling her into him. He allows himself a quick kiss, just a chaste one, forcing himself to pull away before either of them can deepen it.

She pouts at him. Tyson allows himself one more kiss. He is beginning to realize that he is so, so fucked.

Tyson strips off his suit jacket as he heads towards the kitchen. She trails after him. Tyson swings around to walk backwards so he can face her. He immediately bumps into the doorway to the kitchen and stumbles. He doesn’t turn back around.

“Snack first,” he says. He doesn’t say what comes next, but he’s pretty sure they both know.

“Didn’t you eat after the game at the Can?” she asks. Tyson drops his suit jacket on one of his kitchen chairs. She picks it up with a sigh and a small smile before draping it nicely over the back of the chair instead. 

Tyson turns back around, intent on digging through his fridge. “Well, yeah, but—” He freezes. Blinks. There are balloons tied to the faucet of his sink. Next to them, a cookie cake and two wrapped presents. Tyson peers closer at the cookie cake. Happy birthday, Tys! It reads, in looping cursive. 

Tyson turns slowly back to face her. She looks shy, biting her lip and watching Tyson with something like nervousness written across her face. Tyson feels guilty, suddenly, for the way he tried to put distance between them just a few days before. 

“How did you—When?” Tyson gets out. She doesn’t look any less nervous, he realizes, and he rushes over to hug her.

She holds up a familiar key when he lets her go, the beginnings of a smile on her face, now. “Cale slipped me your spare key,” she explains. “I snuck in after you left for the game this afternoon, after I got off work.” 

Tyson had completely forgotten that he and Cale had swapped spares when they ended up living in the same building. The idea was to save them from the potential embarrassment of locking your keys in your apartment, but apparently Cale was using his for more nefarious purposes now. 

Madison had been surprised at how easy it had all been. She doesn’t even remember when she got Cale’s number, but he had readily agreed to help her out some. She’d even considered sticking around and surprising Tyson when he got home, but she still wasn’t quite sure how he’d react. She couldn’t tell with him sometimes.

Tyson has to kiss her. She giggles, breathless, when he pulls away.

“Well, now I know what we’re eating for a snack,” Tyson says, taking her hand and dragging her towards the island. He only lets go long enough to dig through a drawer for a knife and to tear off two paper towels. He cuts two large slices and hands one to her. He shoves a bite of cookie cake in his mouth before he says, I love you.

She hops up on the counter when they’ve both finished their slices, swinging her feet into the cabinets. Tyson steps between her legs and kisses her again, because he can. He reaches behind her and picks up one of the wrapped packages. It’s small, light. He flips it over once in his hands. “Hey, your birthday isn’t until tomorrow,” she says, swiping for the present. 

Tyson holds it out of her reach, and she wraps her legs around his waist, pressing him close against her. Tyson takes a deep breath.

“You didn’t have to get me anything,” he says. He sticks a finger underneath a flap in the wrapping paper. He really hadn’t been expecting anything.

She shrugs. “It’s stupid,” she says. 

“Good thing I like stupid,” Tyson counters. He tears into the wrapping paper properly, letting it drop carelessly to the ground. He’s left with a small book. “It’s a ukulele book?” 

“It’s sheet music, so you can finally stop playing the same three songs all the time,” she says.

Tyson realizes he hasn’t said anything else. He stops staring and sets the book aside. “It’s perfect, not stupid,” he says. She tilts her chin for another kiss. Who is he to say no? “Thank you,” he murmurs against her lips. He reaches for the second present, still kissing her. She groans at him.

Tyson tears into the second present just as eagerly as the first. She’s laughing at him, and this time he crumples the wrapping paper up and tosses it at her face. It’s just a case of beer, Tyson’s favorite. He hadn’t realized she noticed it was always stocked in his fridge. 

Her legs are still wrapped around his waist, and Tyson presses closer, as close as he can get. The counter digs into the tops of his thighs, but he’s too busy making out to care. She slides her hands into his hair. She tastes like cookie cake and peppermint Chapstick; Tyson would kiss her forever if he could. 

Speaking of. They fell over the last time Tyson tried to carry her to his bedroom, but he slides his hands underneath her thighs, anyway, tugging her off the counter. She slips down, still pinned between Tyson and the countertop, still kissing him languidly. 

“Gonna actually move at any point?” she eventually asks, pulling away to press her forehead to Tyson’s. 

Tyson pretends to think about it. “I mean, we don’t have to go to bed,” he says. Not being on a bed hadn’t stopped them before.

She pushes on Tyson’s chest, and he goes, laughing. She lets herself be dragged to Tyson’s room, kicking the door shut behind her. 

It’s late by the time they tumble into bed for real. She’s in one of Tyson’s shirts, and nothing else. If Tyson weren’t actually exhausted, he’d be considering round two. He had nearly gotten caught while they were cleaning up in the bathroom after round one, sleepily staring as she took off her makeup and brushed her teeth—a bottle of her makeup remover and her toothbrush live on Tyson’s sink, and have for months. Tyson tries not to look into it too much. 

“What?” she’d asked, catching Tyson’s eye in the mirror.

He had shaken himself. “Nothing,” he said, giving her a sleepy grin. He pressed a kiss to her temple as he slipped out of the bathroom.

Madison watches him go. She’s trying to decipher that look in his eyes. His face was soft, fond behind drowsy eyes. She realizes she’s frozen with her toothbrush still in her mouth. Tyson’s waiting for her. 

He’s staring up at the ceiling fan, rotating slowly above him, when she emerges and slips under the covers next to him. Her toes are cold where she presses them to Tyson’s leg, and he swears under his breath, even as he reaches across the bed to pull her closer. He presses a kiss to her hair and rests his chin on top of her head. Madison hides a smile in his chest. 

Tyson wakes up slowly the next morning. It’s still early, the sunlight filtering through his curtains the hazy grey of dawn. Madison’s still asleep next to him when he rolls over. Tyson dares to pull her closer until she’s tucked underneath his chin again. Madison stirs a little, making a soft noise and pressing closer. She pulls back and blinks sleepily up at Tyson.

“Happy birthday, Tyson,” she murmurs. 

Tyson grins at her and brushes a stray piece of hair out of her eyes. He kisses her quickly, and she makes a soft noise and leans into it before yawning. “Thank you,” Tyson whispers back. “Now go back to sleep.” 

Madison grumbles, but snuggles back in, pressing her nose to Tyson’s collarbone. 

It’s brighter out when Tyson next blinks himself awake. Madison’s already awake this time, scrolling quietly on her phone, but she sets it aside when she sees Tyson look at her. He rolls so he can prop himself up on one hand, leaning over Madison. She grins up at him, reaches to slide her fingers into Tyson’s hair.

Tyson has practice today, and then they’re leaving again. Those things aren’t important right now, though. What’s important is Madison’s mouth opening up to his, the pressure of her knee against his hip, the feel of her skin underneath his fingers when he slips a hand below her shirt. 

It takes them a while to get out of bed. 

Madison moves easily around Tyson when they finally make it into the kitchen. Tyson makes Madison coffee the way she likes it and mans the toaster while Madison makes them both eggs. She showers—Tyson bought all of her shower products weeks ago—while Tyson gets dressed. Tyson perches on the bathroom counter and watches while she does her makeup. She catches him looking at her.

“What?” she asks. She pushes her hair out of her face nervously. 

“Uh,” Tyson says. He had gotten caught up, wasn’t really thinking about anything, distracted by thoughts of how easily Madison moves through his space, by his side.

“Tyson,” Madison says, impatient.

“Do you, uh, maybe wanna go on a date with me?” Tyson manages. 

“Tys, you’re leaving on a road trip in,” she checks the time on her phone, “like four hours.”

Tyson rolls his eyes. “Okay, but we’ll be back in a few days. What about then?”

Madison smiles. “We’ll see, ask me when you get back.” 

“That’s not a real answer,” Tyson says. He can hear himself whining. He needs this answer before he can board a plane, though. He grabs her wrist and tugs her closer. “C’mon, am I really that bad?”

She goes easily into Tyson’s side. She pretends to think about it for a moment—too long for Tyson’s nerves—before relenting. “When you get back,” she says. She goes up on her toes to kiss Tyson’s cheek. “Now get out of here before you’re late to practice.”

They don’t get to go on that date.

He’s in California when he gets the call. Minnesota. It’s not like he didn’t see it coming. The deadline’s coming up in, like, a week, and besides. He’d asked for a trade, hadn’t he? He doesn’t say goodbye to anyone before he’s back on a plane, this time to St. Paul. 

He calls his mom first, asks if she’ll pack him some shit from his apartment in Denver. He was supposed to be back in just a few days. 

“I don’t have any clothes for fucking Minnesota,” he complains, his one moment of self-appointed wallowing. He’ll be happy about this, probably, he just needs to process it.

He doesn’t think about it when he turns his phone off before getting on the plane. He’s met by some people from the Wild—the team, his team, now—at the airport in St. Paul, hustled to a hotel near Xcel Center with his meager belongings and left to “settle in.” He’s expected at morning skate tomorrow; his jaw aches.

They’ve put him up in a nice hotel downtown. He can see a river—the Mississippi, he thinks— out his window. His phone’s still off, tossed on the bed when he came in. He swipes it off the comforter and powers it back on, shoving it and a room key in his pocket on his way out the door. 

His hotel room is too stuffy, too small. He takes the stairs and pushes his way outside. He can see the Xcel Center a few blocks away, and he turns his back to it, starts walking. He has no idea where he is or where he’s going. He hopes no one recognizes him. 

It’s not long before he finds himself in a park alongside the river. It’s quiet, and no one looks twice at him as he finds an empty bench and finally pulls out his phone. He scrolls through his notifications: texts from Kacey and his grandpa—he’ll have to respond to them—dozens from his—former—teammates on the Avs that he ignores, a handful from numbers he doesn’t have saved, Wild players introducing themselves and welcoming him to the team—he’ll have to make some new contacts. He swipes everything away to deal with later, once his head stops spinning. He pauses on one text, the only one he’d really been looking for.

So much for that date, huh. it says. She’s added a broken heart emoji to soften the blow. Then, an hour later, call me when you get the chance. Another emoji at the end, a black heart, even though Tyson’s told her repeatedly that he can mostly tell colors apart.

He already knows what she’s going to say. Can you get broken up with before you’re even dating? How do you make friends-with-benefits work long-distance? Tyson’s not in the mood for that conversation, doesn’t know if he ever will be. He swipes away her notifications, too. 

Minnesota is chilly, and Tyson’s fingertips are a little numb by the time his hotel room door slams behind him later. It’s getting dark. He should order dinner. He should do a lot of things, actually. He lets himself wallow for a few more minutes, flopped on his back in the center of the bed, staring up at the dark ceiling.

He halfheartedly peruses the room service menu on his nightstand before calling something in. He’s not even sure what he ordered. 

Tyson’s woken up by knocking on his door. He blinks awake and stumbles blearily out of bed. It’s fully dark in his room now. Room service knocks on his door again. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Tyson grumbles, not even loud enough to be heard, probably. 

His food is lukewarm at best by the time he gets everything spread out on the little desk in his room. Tyson picks at it more than he eats it.

Back in Denver, Madison’s phone doesn’t ring. She figured Tyson would be busy and exhausted by the time he made it to Minnesota. She wants to check in, but her messages show that they’ve been read. He’s made it clear that he’s not in the mood to chat. 

It’s fine. He’s allowed to be upset over all this. Madison had just thought that they’d made it far enough in their relationship—whatever that relationship was—that she wouldn’t get stonewalled the second something serious happened. 

She hasn’t had a chance to return Tyson’s spare key to Cale yet. She’d stayed behind after Tyson left for the airport on his birthday to clean up some of the disaster they’d left behind the night before. She was going to give it back when they got home. Except now Tyson’s not coming home, and she isn’t sure he’ll speak to her again, either. 

She tries to convince herself she’s not hurt by it. 

Madison sneaks back into Tyson’s apartment the day after the trade. She’s collected some of Tyson’s clothes over the last few months, and she should pick up her own belongings that have become scattered across his apartment. She’s not sure how Tyson’s going to get the rest of his stuff to Minnesota, but she knows it’s not her problem. Tyson’s made that clear. 

She opens the text thread with Tys 🖤 again anyway. No new messages. She starts to type, to ask how Tyson’s doing, if he wants to talk, but she deletes it all. She closes her text thread with him again.

Madison wanders around the apartment, collecting things she recognizes as her own: her toothbrush, a half dozen ponytail holders that Tyson delights in tearing out of her hair to make out, the makeup remover that Tyson bought after she fell asleep there the first time and left makeup all over his pillowcase. She leaves the clothes she dug out of her closet and drawers folded on the end of his bed. She keeps one of his hoodies, because it’s comfy and it smells like him. It’s an Avs hoodie, anyway; it’s not like he’ll need it. The cookie cake she bought for his birthday is still sitting on the counter. They’d eaten it with breakfast on his actual birthday, but it was otherwise untouched. She figures someone will be by soon to pack up his apartment. She leaves it on the counter for them, whoever it is.

She locks the door behind her. It feels final in a way that she hates. 

Tyson drags himself to morning skate early the next morning. He doesn’t feel like he slept much, though he fell asleep before he ever got around to responding to anyone’s texts. He makes no less than four wrong turns trying to find the home locker room in Xcel Center. The equipment staff has a locker set up for him already, all of his new gear waiting for him when he finds it. Tyson stares at the white practice jersey for a long moment, the green helmet already fitted with his full face shield and new number. He’s the only one in the locker room so far.

Tyson feels himself smile for the first time in what feels like days. 

Skate passes in a blur. Tyson throws himself into everything the coaches ask of him, trying his best to learn a new team on the fly. His muscles ache from all the travel in the last few days and the lack of sleep, but he leans into the pain with a grin. It’s fun, in a weird way, and everyone’s quick to chirp Tyson, make him feel like he’s already a real part of the team. 

Madison watches the Wild’s game that night. Tyson’s still in his little fishbowl after the broken jaw, and Madison winces every time he takes a check, even though she knows he’s fine, really. Minnesota wins. She doesn’t watch any of their other games, or follow Minnesota on any socials. She considers blocking Tyson’s phone number, the last message she sent to him still sitting open and unreplied to. 

She can’t bring herself to do it. 

Tyson’s mom, ever the lifesaver, arrives a few days later with most of the contents of his closet in tow. She’s also brought the cookie cake Madison had bought him for his birthday. It’s half-eaten and stale, now, reading only “-hday, Tys!” He eats a piece, anyway, and his mom doesn’t ask who bought it for him. She doesn’t ask any questions, actually, which Tyson is grateful for. He’s told her bits and pieces about Madison over the last few months, but he hasn’t told her how he’s fallen in love. It doesn’t matter now.

Tyson’s trying to unpack, give himself some semblance of “home” in his stale hotel room, when a piece of paper falls out of the pocket of one of his suit jackets. He picks it up and carefully unfolds it, though he already knows what it says. good luck tonight! ♡ in Madison’s pretty cursive. She’d tucked it into his suit before a game in January, and Tyson had scored a goal that night. He slipped it back in the inside pocket of the suit jacket. Maybe it’ll bring him luck in Minnesota, too. 

Madison’s phone rings late one night, a few weeks after Tyson’s been traded. It’s the first time she’s heard from him since he left Denver. She squints at her phone screen in the dark, debating ignoring it. Tyson’s face grins up at her, a stupid selfie he had taken ages ago. She swipes to answer with a sigh.

“Tyson, if you’re just calling because you’re drunk or something, I swear—” she starts. She’s not really sure what she’ll do to Tyson, actually, so she trails off. 

Tyson’s quiet on the other end of the line. Madison hears him take a shaky breath, but he still doesn’t speak for a long moment. “The Avs are in town,” he says finally. “Game’s tomorrow night,” he adds. 

Madison hasn’t really been paying attention to either team’s schedule lately. She hasn’t had much reason to. She’s not sure what she’s supposed to say here, what’s the right answer to comfort Tyson. She might’ve once, but she feels wrong-footed now, unsure of where they stand.

“You gonna see anyone?” she asks.

Tyson huffs. “Yeah, I got dinner with some of them tonight.” He pauses. “They’re still my friends, y’know, it’s not like they’re the ones who traded me.”

Madison hums, something like agreement. She thinks she can hear the hurt in Tyson’s voice, even though he’s trying to hide it. He’s still talking. “I’ve just…never had to play against my best friends like this before.”

“Oh, Tys,” Madison says softly. “That sucks, babe.” The familiar endearment slips out before she can stop herself. 

“Yeah, it sucks alright,” Tyson agrees. He’s quiet again. “Wish you could be here, too. Miss you.”

“You don’t mean that,” Madison says. With the game tomorrow, Tyson might not be drunk, but it’s late, and he’s wallowing in missing his friends. She doesn’t think she really qualifies as that anymore.

“What do you mean?” Tyson asks, indignant. “Of course I mean it.”

“Is that why this is the first time we’ve spoken since you got traded? Two weeks ago?” Madison’s angry, suddenly; that small spark of hurt she’s been trying to bury flares into fury. 

She can practically hear Tyson’s wince on the other end of the line. It’s too late to be arguing, but this is where they’re at now. 

“Sorry for not wanting to get dumped hours after I got shipped off to fucking Minnesota,” Tyson snaps back, but he sounds tired. The fight leaves Madison just as quickly as it appeared. “Who said anything about breaking up?”

Tyson’s quiet. Madison can picture the way his eyebrows furrow when he’s thinking too hard. “You asked me to call you!”

“I asked you to call me because I wanted to check on you, dumbass.” Madison rubs at her eyes. They should both be asleep, but now she feels too awake to hang up, to end this conversation. She might be annoyed, but it’s the first time she’s heard Tyson’s voice in weeks. She’s missed it, though she’s not about to admit that right now. “How can I even break up with a guy I’ve never been on a real date with?” she asks.

“Oh.” 

“It’s been a wild fucking month for you, Tys, I wanted to talk to you and see how you were handling shit,” Madison continues.

Tyson realizes now might not be the best time to admit that he’d requested a trade. This had still blindsided him, somehow. He considers switching to a FaceTime call. He desperately wants to see Madison’s face, the next best thing to being with her right now, getting to touch her. He winces again when she sniffles on the other end of the line. He’d been lonely when he called her, expecting some sympathy, not the anger he was met with. 

He guesses he probably should’ve considered she’d be mad at him after moving over 900 miles away and then giving her radio silence for two weeks, actually. He taps the FaceTime button a little harder than necessary. He’s almost surprised when Madison accepts the request.

He runs a hand through his hair. “I’ve been busy,” he says weakly. “I didn’t think—I just figured you were wanting to tell me that we couldn’t keep doing this.” It seems obvious given the distance, but Tyson really hadn’t been in the mood to get effectively broken up with twice in one day. 

Madison’s eyes burn as she swipes at them, and she’s not sure if it’s because of the late hour, or if she’s about to cry. 

Tyson realizes something. “Besides, you had just gotten spooked and tried to slow things down, I didn’t think you’d want to jump from just hooking up to long-distance.” It’s too dark for him to tell if she’s crying. He hopes she isn’t. 

“That was—” Madison starts to protest. But Tyson’s right. It had only been a few weeks since she’d panicked about how fast they were headed towards a real relationship. That had been before the broken jaw, before Tyson’s birthday, before he got traded. Before Madison had the chance to realize just how much she cared about Tyson, and liked Tyson, and how much she missed him when he wasn’t just a text away.

“I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend for real, you know? On that date? But then I was in Minnesota, and I hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye to anyone, and I wasn’t ready to talk about anything.” Madison opens her mouth to argue more, but Tyson cuts her off. “You want to know how I’m handling shit? Not well,” he admits.

Hockey is hockey, but he’s not sure Minnesota will ever feel like home the way Denver still does. 

“The fuck is wrong with you?” Madison blurts.

Tyson laughs in spite of himself. “So many things,” he says. It’s easy, for a second, to forget they’re arguing. Fuck, he wishes Madison were with him, and not for the first, or the third, or the tenth time since he’s been in Minnesota. “I guess I should’ve texted instead of shutting you out, huh? I just never knew what to say.”

“You’re an idiot,” Madison says softly. “I really did just want to check on you. But you left me on read, and then a few days had passed, so I guess you’d made it pretty clear that you didn’t want to talk. I didn’t even think about worrying about our future then.” 

Tyson squeezes his eyes shut. He’s blurry on Madison’s phone screen, but she can tell his hair is a disaster, like he’s been anxiously pulling on his curls.

“Did I accidentally break up with you to avoid being broken up with?” he asks. He sounds like he’s on the verge of laughter. Or maybe tears. Madison can’t quite tell, actually. 

“Mmm, I think so, babe,” Madison says. She rolls over in bed, stifling a yawn. It’s late in Denver, but it’s even later in St. Paul, she thinks. “Hey, you need to sleep. “You’ve gotta beat the Avs tomorrow.” She glances at the clock in the corner of her screen. “Well. Today, I guess.”

Tyson sticks his tongue out at her, but he snuggles deeper into his pillows. “Can I call you later?” His voice is small.

“Yeah, Tys.” They’ve got a lot more to talk about. “Say hi to JT and Cale for me, yeah?” she says.

Tyson grins at her. He stops himself from saying, “I love you,” before he hangs up, but only barely, settling on, “Good night,” instead. There’s still time for the other one, he thinks

The game is…fine. They slap a microphone on Tyson before he goes out on the ice, and it’s definitely weird facing off against some of his best friends, but he gets through it. He doesn’t score, but he doesn’t land in the penalty box either, so. He spends some time attempting to chirp an exasperated EJ that he’ll probably get made fun of for later. Oh, and the Wild win. Tyson guesses it���s an okay night, after all. 

Tyson misses Denver, misses playing at the Can, but after facing off against his friends on the still-unfamiliar ice in Minnesota, he’s not sure he can handle returning. 

Madison finds herself watching the Avs game for the first time in weeks, but she’s not watching for them. She’s paying attention to all of Tyson’s shifts, and she realizes halfway through the game that she’s completely rooting against the Avs. 

The final buzzer has barely blown when she’s pulling out her phone to text Tyson. She hesitates for a moment, unsure of the right thing to say. She feels like they finally made progress last night after Tyson stonewalled her for weeks, but they’re still a half dozen steps behind where they were in the beginning of March. She somehow knows more than she did before Tyson called her, but she feels like she understands their relationship even less now. 

She must type four or five messages before she settles on, great win :) 🖤. She kind of hates it as soon as she sends it, but she can’t take it back. She tosses her phone to the other end of the couch before she can obsess over waiting for Tyson to text her back. She doesn’t have to wait long, though, before her phone is vibrating near her feet. She takes one breath, then another, before scrambling for her phone again. Tyson’s texted back, thanks babe. Then, less than a minute later, wish you were here. 

Madison stares at her phone, chewing on her bottom lip. She doesn’t know the right thing to say once again. ‘Me too’ feels too earnest, ‘wish you were still here instead’ feels mean somehow. She still doesn’t know when she’ll see Tyson again, if she’ll see Tyson again. All she has is a version of Tyson through a screen. Her thumb hovers over the call button. Tyson’s probably busy with post-game stuff, Madison reminds herself. She misses his voice, though.

She finally settles on: :). She waits anxiously until Tyson has read it before sending: Call me later?

She checked the Wild’s schedule already; they’re in town for a few more days. Tyson will probably be heading straight home—wherever “home” is these days— after the game. She spares a moment to wonder about the future of Tyson’s old apartment in Denver. She wonders if it’s been emptied out yet, wiped clean of all traces of Tyson, of them. That had been home to Tyson, and it had almost started to feel like home to Madison, too. 

Tyson sends her back a thumbs up emoji and an emoji with its tongue sticking out. Madison rolls her eyes fondly and tosses her phone back to the end of her couch. 

She’s dozing when her phone rings. Half-asleep, she fumbles for it before answering. “‘Lo?” she mumbles. 

Tyson chuckles softly at her. “You asked me to call you and then fell asleep,” he says, tsk-ing. 

Madison sticks her tongue out at him, even though he can’t see her. “Shut up, it’s late,” she whines. 

“Then go to bed, Mads,” Tyson tells her. She can tell he’s trying not to laugh at her.

Madison feels like a toddler protesting bedtime, but she says, “No! I wanna talk to you.”

Tyson laughs again. “Okay, are you at least in bed already?”

“...No.”

“Go brush your teeth, and get in bed, yeah? We can keep talking then.”

Madison sighs but heaves herself off her couch and into her bathroom. Tyson starts chatting as she walks, mindless stuff, like the weather in St. Paul, or how bored he is of living in a hotel room still. Madison puts him on speaker and sets her phone next to the sink so she can keep listening while she washes her face and brushes her teeth. It almost feels like getting ready for bed alongside Tyson again, elbowing each other for space in front of his bathroom mirror. 

He falls quiet as she crawls underneath her blankets. Madison stifles a yawn.

“How was it?” she asks.

“The game?” Madison nods, forgetting again that Tyson can’t see her. Tyson continues anyway. “I mean, it was fine, I guess. We won, so.”

“Just fine?” Madison prods.

Tyson hesitates. “Weird,” he says after a few seconds. “It was weird. Feels like a Twilight Zone episode, honestly. Like I woke up one day in some other life that everyone else swears didn’t happen. Like, you get traded, and everyone expects you to immediately fit in with this new locker room, and be all in with your new team. As if all the games played with your friends never even happened.”

Madison doesn’t know what to say to that. It must be weird to have to effectively sever all ties with your best friends. To know and trust the face across the faceoff dot from you. She probably couldn’t handle it if she were in Tyson’s place,

“I’m sorry, Tys,” she murmurs, for lack of anything better to say. “It’s business, but business is shitty.” 

Tyson huffs in agreement. Madison’s wearing the hoodie she stole from Tyson, and she tucks her nose underneath the collar. It doesn’t smell like Tyson any more. 

“Hey, is now a bad time to ask if we can have phone sex?” Tyson asks.

Madison bursts out laughing. “Yes, Tyson, it’s a terrible time.” Tyson whines a little at her. “Though,” she adds, “I am wearing one of your hoodies.”

Tyson groans. The few times Madison had worn something of his around him, it usually wasn’t long before the clothes ended up back on the floor.

“Now you’re just being mean,” he says. His voice is muffled like he’s buried his head underneath a pillow.

Madison yawns again.

“You need to go to sleep,” Tyson tells her gently.

“No,” Madison protests again. “Tell me more about Minnesota,” she pleads. “I’ve missed listening to you.”

Madison can’t read Tyson’s moment of silence, but he starts doing as he’s told, telling Madison more about his hotel, about the food in the locker room after games at Xcel Center and how different it is from Denver, about all the different personalities on the team, until Madison falls asleep. 

Madison wakes up to a dead phone. She plugs it in while she showers, and she immediately checks her call log. Tyson had kept talking for well over an hour. He texted her, too, after he’d hung up. Miss you, promise we’ll talk more soon.

Madison responds the only way she knows how: 🖤.

April

The end of the season passes in a blur after that. Tyson settles in as best he can, but he feels like he barely has time to catch his breath. With the end of the season and the playoffs looming, there’s no time for Tyson to find a real place to live, so he’s still holed up in the hotel, living out of suitcases.

Time moves differently in hotels, he swears, the days blurring into one another. Tyson no longer knows what day it is; it’s only travel day, or game day, or rarely, a day off. 

The Wild are winning more than they lose, and Tyson manages to pick up some points here and there. It could be worse. At least it’s not, like, Buffalo. 

The team goes on the road for the first time since he got there, and it’s a good chance for Tyson to get to know everyone a little better, spend some time out of his generic hotel room—even if he goes back to another generic hotel room after each dinner out with the guys. He makes a point to call Madison as much as he can, which is almost every night after he crashes into bed and turns on some shitty TV. 

Their phone calls end up lasting for hours. Tyson realizes that he and Madison spent more time hooking up than really getting to know each other. It’s nice to take the time to just talk and learn things about Madison. Tyson feels himself falling in love more with each phone call.

Tyson talks about his family—his sister, his mom, his grandparents. How much he misses them with the long seasons away. How much he’s looking forward to going home to Alberta when the season ends. He doesn’t tell Madison that he wants to bring her home with him this summer, not yet. 

Madison tells Tyson about everything: her job (graphic design and marketing for a local business Tyson vaguely thinks he recognizes), her family (two sisters, one of whom Tyson briefly met), and her favorite movies (Lord of the Rings, but Tyson could have guessed that). When she tells him she likes to bake, Tyson immediately demands that she sends him some. He’s not even sure if he can get mail at the hotel, actually. Not important.

Tyson throws himself into hockey, though he’s not sure how much it shows. He’s determined to make this work, to stick and make a difference in Minnesota the way he never quite could in Colorado. He tells Madison this, too, voicing fears about his future in hockey that he’s never even let himself think about too much. 

The Wild plays the Avalanche again in St. Paul on the last day of the season. Tyson’s dreading it. He’s privately more than a little glad that they’re not playing the Avs in the first round, but he still can’t help but feel like he should be there instead, still on a powerhouse team poised to take on the postseason, not the underdogs.

Tyson calls Madison a week before the game, laying in bed, fresh off a single assist in back to back wins against Vancouver and Seattle. Tyson can hear the smile in Madison’s voice when she answers. Tyson’s chest hurts with how much he misses her.

Which is probably why he blurts, “Can you come to Minnesota?” 

Madison’s quiet for so long Tyson pulls his phone away from his ear to make sure the call didn’t disconnect. 

Finally, she says, “Tyson, I can’t just drop everything and fly to Minnesota.” “No, I know, I just meant next week,” he says. “We play the Avs again.”

Madison knows that, this time. She’s actually started paying attention to the Wild—mostly just Tyson, though—since April started.

“That’s a Friday night, Tys,” she tells him. “I’d have to take off work for the day.” She could, probably, without too much fuss. She just wants to hear Tyson beg a little. She’s still a tiny bit hurt by the way he stonewalled her after the trade. 

“I’ll pay for your plane ticket!” Tyson adds. That wasn’t really Madison’s point. “I really want you to be there, I need to see you again.” 

Madison already knows she can’t tell Tyson no. She sighs and drags her laptop towards her. She starts searching for plane tickets. “Just for the game on Friday, or am I allowed to stay the whole weekend?” she asks.

Tyson scoffs. “Like I’d let you leave after one night when I haven’t seen you in two like two months.” He’s already planning on only leaving the hotel room except for practice and maybe to finally take Madison on an actual date. Actually: “Hey, pack something nice to wear. I still owe you a date.”

Madison laughs. “How nice are we talking?”

“Oh, baby, I’m gonna wine and dine you so hard,” Tyson says, breaking off into laughter before he can even finish the sentence. 

Madison spends the next week, alternating between excited and anxious. Excited because she hasn’t seen Tyson in weeks, and she can’t wait to be able to kiss him again. She’s not sure why she’s even worried. She and Tyson have already spent months doing almost everything couples do, just without the label. They already know they work well together. Adding a label shouldn’t change things. 

She goes out and buys a new dress the day before her flight, after frantically deciding that nothing in her closet was good enough for a first date.

“He already knows what you look like,” her sister Emma points out. “It’s not like you have to worry about him liking you. Also, he’s colorblind.”

Madison ignores her (annoyingly correct) sister and spends almost over an hour in the mall. She carefully packs the new dress at the top of her suitcase before zipping it up and leaving it by her front door. She’s so excited she can hardly sleep.

It’s not a long flight from Denver to Minnesota, but Madison’s not used to flying, and the whole affair has her stressed beyond belief. It takes her unbelievably long to find her gate, and even though she got to KDEN plenty early, she still worries that she’ll be late. It’s a relief when she can finally settle in her seat. She turns on a Disney movie she doesn’t really watch and counts the minutes until she can see Tyson again.

Except then she can’t find her luggage, and Tyson’s supposed to be picking her up and isn’t answering her texts. It takes her twenty minutes to find out that another passenger mistakenly took her suitcase and has brought it back, and Tyson still hasn’t responded to tell her that he’s waiting.

She makes her way outside anyway, following the signs towards parking. Her hands are too full with her carry-on and suitcase to reach for her phone to call Tyson, but when she steps outside her terminal, she recognizes the person behind the wheel of a car just pulling up to the curb.

Tyson has the car in park and is jumping out before Madison can take another step. She’s so overwhelmed she bursts into tears.

She drops her bags to launch herself at Tyson, wrapping her arms around his neck. He doesn’t stumble, just slides his arms around her waist and hugs her back.

“Whoa, whoa, why the tears?” he asks, wiping one away with his thumb. 

“I just really missed you,” Madison mumbles into his shirt.

Tyson presses a kiss to her hair. He unwraps one hand and reaches for the handle of Madison’s suitcase. “Well, let’s get you in the car, and then we can talk, yeah?” he says. He doesn’t wait for an answer, letting go of Madison fully to swing her suitcase into the trunk. Madison slips into the passenger seat while he throws her carry-on in, too, before he’s jogging back to the driver’s side. He leans across the console to kiss Madison’s cheek.

“Missed you, too, by the way,” he says.

Madison feels silly for crying now. Everything always seems better when Tyson’s around, and right now is no exception, with the windows rolled down and Tyson singing loudly—and badly—to the song on the radio. Tyson reaches for Madison’s hand, and she lets him slip his fingers between hers. Something restless in Madison’s chest settles when he touches her. 

They don’t much as Tyson drives, the city flashing by out the car windows. It’s been ages since they saw each other, but they talk almost every day; there’s not much to catch up on. Madison likes it, the comfortable quiet between two people who know each other well. 

Tyson apologizes for the fact that he’s still living in a hotel on the elevator ride up to his room. 

“Tyson, I don’t care where you’re living, I’m just glad to be able to see you again,” she tells him.

Tyson blushes, but he also boxes her in against the elevator wall to kiss her properly for the first time since she got off the plane. Madison trails after him as he heads down the hallway and pushes open his hotel room door with a dorky sweep of his arm. 

The room’s bigger than Madison expected, with a kitchenette that doesn’t look like it’s been used at all, and a little couch and desk near the TV. Madison can see the bed, sheets rumpled and twisted like Tyson has never bothered to make it in the weeks he’s been here. Tyson’s watching Madison survey the room like he’s nervous. 

“So, what’s next?” Madison asks. 

With the game last night, Tyson didn’t have skate today, but she’s familiar enough with his game day routine to know he should probably be napping soon. She could go for a nap herself. Madison doesn’t wait for an answer, just dumps her carry-on bag on the couch and wanders over to the bed. Tyson follows, still rolling Madison’s suitcase behind him. Madison flops backwards onto the bed. The sheets smell like Tyson.

“Well?” she asks, raising one eyebrow at him.

Tyson scrambles onto the bed after her. He drops to his elbows above Madison and leans down to kiss her, eager and not exactly gentle. Madison reaches up to thread her fingers into his curls. She runs her fingers through his hair once, twice, before closing her hand and tugging. Tyson groans into her mouth, but he gentles the kiss. They make out until they’re both breathless, and Tyson has to pull away. 

“I really should nap,” he says once he catches his breath. Madison tilts her chin up for another kiss. Tyson rolls his eyes but obliges, just a quick peck. He shifts his weight to one hand and pinches the outside of Madison’s thigh with the other. “C’mon, I wanna cuddle.”

They both clamber up the bed until Madison can collapse onto the pillows. Tyson collapses on top of her. 

“Oof, bud, what the hell,” she manages. Tyson’s heavy, and it’s hard to breathe. 

“Told you I wanted to cuddle,” Tyson says back, face smushed into Madison’s collarbone.

Madison pokes Tyson in the ribs, then again, harder, when he doesn’t react, until he sighs and squirms off her. Her reprieve doesn’t long, though, because Tyson immediately reaches out for Madison and pulls her close. She rolls onto her side to face him, and he grins at her. 

“You’re an idiot,” she tells him.

Tyson’s grin only grows. “Yeah, but you like me.”

Madison slides a hand around the back of Tyson’s neck and kisses him. 

When Tyson's alarm goes off later, they’ve shifted in their sleep, and Tyson’s half-laying on top of Madison again. He slaps at his phone without moving and somehow manages to snooze the alarm. 

“Not ready yet,” Madison mumbles, wrapping an arm around Tyson and keeping him close. He huffs a laugh against Madison’s skin. 

“I’ve gotta get ready, baby,” he says. He kisses Madison’s shoulder.

Madison should probably get up, too. She wants to shower the plane funk off and make herself presentable for the game. But Tyson’s bed is really comfy. Tyson rolls off of her, and Madison whines at the loss of her human blanket.

Tyson shoots her an amused look. He leans back over Madison to kiss her one more time, but he avoids her attempts at dragging him back to bed. Madison pouts up at him. It doesn’t work. She watches from the bed as Tyson gets dressed in his gameday suit. He kisses her goodbye before he leaves. 

Left alone in the eerie silence of the hotel, Madison forces herself out of bed and into the shower. She brings her Bluetooth speaker with her, blasting one of her playlists loud enough to be heard over the water. She emerges in a cloud of steam to dig through her suitcase for the outfit she’d packed for tonight. She doesn’t own anything Wild-branded, and she doesn’t think wearing Tyson’s old Avalanche hoodie would go over too well. She’d had to buy something new for this, too: an amazing fleece-lined green corduroy jacket that she’d probably live in come fall. 

She takes the opportunity to poke around the hotel room a little, looking for traces of Tyson in the unfamiliar space. One of the blankets from his apartment was thrown carelessly across the foot of the bed. His ukulele sits on top of the desk. Madison hangs her date-night dress up in the little closet and finds her own good luck note to Tyson taped to the door. The kitchenette is full of Tyson’s snacks, including some of Madison’s favorites. It’s not much, but it’s enough. 

Madison eventually makes her way to the Xcel Center. She’s met by someone’s significant other outside—it’s a blur of faces and names she can hardly keep track of—before they head to their seats. She’d gotten used to the atmosphere at The Can, and Xcel Center is different but the same. It’s easy enough to settle into the rhythm of the game and the crowd. The game is wild from puck drop, but Minnesota manages to pull out a win. Tyson even scores the game winning goal. 

She follows the rest of the girls downstairs to the family room after the game. She’s restless, full of energy after the game, with no outlet for it. She all but tackles Tyson when he pokes his head in, stripped down to his base layers, but his curls still plastered to his head with sweat. 

“Whoa,” he says, steadying her as they tumble out into the hallway. He’s grinning at her, cheeks pink. He lets Madison pin him up against the wall opposite them. “Hi.”

Madison kisses him, before she can blurt something embarrassing, like, “I love you,” or, “That goal was hot.” Tyson makes a surprised noise into her mouth but kisses back easily, his hands tightening on her hips. He pulls away after a minute.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish,” he whispers, kissing her temple. Louder, he says, “JT has requested to see you.”

Madison’s a little surprised, but pleased, to hear that. She’s hung out with JT a handful of times since she met him back in January, but she doesn’t think she’s talked to him since Tyson got traded. It had always felt more like JT was just a friend of a friend she got along with.

Tyson drags her down the halls towards the visitors’ locker room, JT’s already waiting for them, leaning against the door frame and messing around on his phone. Unlike Tyson, he’s dressed in clean clothes. He looks up as they approach and grins at them. Tyson doesn’t let go of Madison’s hand. 

JT ropes Madison into a one-armed hug. “Think you’re Josty’s good luck charm. He’s scored twice now at games you’ve been to.” Tyson sticks his tongue out at JT.

Someone from inside the locker room yells Tyson’s name, and he’s momentarily distracted. JT leans in closer to Madison.

“Take care of our boy, yeah?” he says, quietly so Tyson, who’s still talking to someone else, won’t hear. “He needs you.” 

Madison’s not sure how to respond to that. She’s saved by Tyson remembering they’re there. JT smacks a kiss to Madison’s cheek and nudges her back towards Tyson. 

“See you around?” he asks Tyson.

“C’mon, you know you can’t get rid of me that easily.”

Madison watches them hug, and then Tyson’s leading her back down the maze of hallways. He says something to her before dropping her off outside the family room, but she doesn’t really hear it, lost in her own thoughts, thinking about JT’s words.

She’s still thinking about what JT said when Tyson rejoins her, as they make their way back to the hotel, up the elevator and into Tyson’s hotel room. She and Tyson move quietly, easily, around each other as they start to change out of their game-day clothes. She’s still lost in her thoughts when Tyson hooks his chin over her shoulder, startling her as she’s taking her makeup off. 

“What’s wrong?” he asks. He looks worried. “You’ve been quiet all night.”

Madison shrugs. “Nothing.”

Madison watches in the mirror as Tyson’s brow furrows further. “Did something happen?” Madison knows he’d been worried about how the Wild WAGs would receive her.

She shrugs Tyson’s chin off her shoulder, suddenly annoyed. “No, Tys, nothing happened.”

Nothing did happen, unless you count JT Compher’s casual words sending Madison into a spiral. 

Tyson slides between Madison and the sink. He crosses his arms. “I don’t believe you.”

Madison rolls her eyes, but gives Tyson a quick peck, before hip checking him out of the way so she can brush her teeth. Tyson watches, still suspicious. Madison ushers him towards the bed. He sits and drags Madison into his lap. He frowns up at her.

“Tys, really. Everything was just overwhelming, I guess.” Also not a lie; she’d never been to a hockey game as Tyson’s girlfriend—or, almost-girlfriend—and everything had been overwhelming in a way she hadn’t expected. Most things had been the same, but sitting with the rest of the wives and girlfriends and listening to them ask her questions about her life and job had almost felt like a well-meaning interrogation. 

“Promise?”

Madison kisses Tyson, slow and gentle. “Promise.”

She yelps when Tyson flips them suddenly. He rolls on top of her, propping himself up on his hands. Madison can tell that he’s not letting this go.

“Then what’s wrong?” He chews nervously on his lower lip for a moment. “And don’t say nothing, I know you’re lying.” 

Madison huffs. “Just something JT said.” She shoves at Tyson’s shoulders, but he doesn’t budge. His glasses are crooked from his acrobatics, and Madison reaches up to adjust those next. He swats at her hand.

“I’ll kill him,” he says confidently.

“First, I think JT would beat you in a fight,” Madison says. Tyson makes a noise of protest, and Madison slaps a hand over his mouth. “Second, it wasn’t anything bad, I don’t know, just made me think.”

Tyson pries Madison’s hand away. “Tell me, tell me, tell me,” he says.

He’s distracted enough that Madison can hook a leg over his hips and flip them back over. She settles across his lap as Tyson blinks dazedly up at her.

“He asked me to take care of you, said you need me, whatever.” Madison’s trying to brush it off, as if she hadn’t spent hours thinking about it, as if she doesn’t feel uncomfortably seen. Far too vulnerable for something that was supposed to just be a hook-up way back in November. 

They’ve come a long way since November.

Tyson’s face clears. “What do you mean, ‘whatever?’” He surges up to kiss Madison before he continues. “Of course I need you. I fucking miss you constantly. I’ve wanted literally nothing but to be around you, like, all the time since, like, December.”

“Oh.” Madison should have realized that, maybe. It’s different to hear Tyson lay it out like that. “I didn’t realize,” she whispers. Tyson grins up at her. “You did kinda ghost me for a while there,” she points out.

Tyson groans. “I am never gonna hear the end of that, am I?” He runs his fingers through Madison’s hair, tugs a little at the ends. “I panicked because I was terrified of losing you, remember?” He punctuates his sentence with another gentle kiss. His hand slips from Madison’s hair to her waist, underneath her T-shirt. He’s missed the feeling of her underneath his hands. An emotion Madison can’t read crosses his face for a second before he says, “Do you—do you not—?” Feel the same way, is what he means to say, but can’t quite get out.

Madison understands him, anyway. “No, God, Tyson, no.” She hesitates; she supposes they’re laying it all on the line here. “I think I’m in love with you.”

Tyson surprises her by bursting out laughing. Hurt, Madison tries to squirm out of Tyson’s lap, but he reels her in and kisses her until she melts into his hands.

“Baby, I’ve been in love with you since you showed up at my door for a Lord of the Rings marathon.” He giggles a little and kisses Madison’s nose. “We’ve done this all backwards, haven’t we?” 

Madison giggles a little too and nods. “I don’t think we’re very good at all this,” she whispers.

Tyson shakes his head, still laughing. “We’ll get better. I mean, look at us, we’re already communicating more!”

Madison kissed him again to shut him up, but by then they were both too busy laughing to take it much farther. Madison collapses to the sheets next to Tyson, letting herself dissolve into giggles. It feels good to laugh like this with Tyson, the last bit of uneasy tension Madison didn’t even know existed disappearing at last. Madison feels delirious with it: the stress of the last few weeks, the long day of travel and hockey, the raw vulnerability of finally being honest with Tyson.

They laugh for longer than the situation warrants. Tyson eventually heaves a sigh and turns his head on his pillow to look at Madison, eyes uncharacteristically serious. Madison sucks in a breath and forces herself to stop laughing.

“I mean it, you know,” Tyson says. “I’ve been falling for you for a long time.” He looks thoughtful for a moment, props himself up on an elbow. “I guess this means you’re officially my girlfriend now, huh?”

“Huh, guess so.” Tyson beams at her. “Don’t think this gets you out of wining and dining me tomorrow, though,” she threatens. 

Tyson leans down to kiss Madison. “I don’t put out on the first date,” he murmurs.

Madison drags him closer, slots her mouth against his again. “Bit late for that, babe.”

Madison wakes up late the next morning, bright sunlight streaming through a gap in the curtains. Tyson’s already awake, sitting up against the headboard and fucking around on his phone. He never got dressed besides finding his boxers, and his glasses are slipping down his nose. He grins down at her when he realizes she’s awake. 

“You’re a dork,” Madison says, rolling over to bury her face in a pillow again. Tyson pokes her shoulder blade, and she turns her head enough to glare at him. 

“Brunch in bed, or go somewhere?” Tyson asks, poking Madison again.

Madison’s not wearing anything, either, and she’d have to shower and fix her hair before they could leave the hotel room. “Bed,” she says, burrowing back into her pillow. Actually, it might be one of Tyson’s pillows. It’s hers now.

Tyson chuckles and rolls out of bed to hunt down the room service menu. He orders a bunch of stuff that they can share, but makes sure to include an omelet for Madison. He learned a while ago that she always has to have an omelet with breakfast. He’s also learned not to question it. He jumps back onto the bed. Madison bounces with it, and turns once more to glare at him. 

Her hair’s a disaster, and Tyson thinks he can see a hickey he left low on her neck. He loves her so much. He remembers he can tell her that now.

“I love you,” he blurts. Madison’s face softens. “Also, breakfast in thirty.” He tugs a little on the sheet where it’s slipping down Madison’s shoulders. “Plenty of time for…”

“For what, Tyson?” Madison asks. She’s laughing, now, and she rolls over, letting Tyson slide between her thighs and kiss her, slow and easy. 

He has to fish his boxers out of the sheets again when room service knocks on the door, but it’s worth it.

Madison drags herself out of bed after they eat. Tyson’s promised her plans all day, so she and Tyson take turns showering and making themselves presentable. Tyson holds Madison’s hand from the door of the hotel room until they reach his car, and even then, he only lets go after he opens the door for her and kisses her on the cheek.

It’s a warm spring day, and Tyson drives with the windows down through downtown St. Paul. He refuses to tell Madison where he’s taking her.

“Can we at least get coffee if you’re going to kidnap me?” Madison whines.

“I don’t think it’s kidnapping if you willingly got in the car,” Tyson points out mildly. He pulls into the next Starbucks drive-thru he sees, though, so Madison’s pretty sure she wins the argument.

Placated with caffeine, she stops pestering Tyson for details, but it’s only another few minutes before he’s turning into a parking lot for Como Park Zoo.

“Oh my God, are you serious?” Madison asks. She’d idly mentioned, a while ago, that she wanted to visit the Denver Zoo when it got warmer. She had no idea that Tyson would remember that.

Tyson smirks at her. “I think it’s a little smaller than Denver Zoo—”

Madison cuts him off. “Shut up, it’s gonna be great.”

And it is great. Madison all but runs between animal exhibits, and Tyson’s more than happy to be dragged along by the hand, even though he thinks his nose is getting sunburned. They entertain themselves by naming the animals after his old teammates.

“You can’t name them all EJ,” Madison says at one point. 

“Well, why not?” Tyson argues. Madison…doesn’t have a good argument for that, actually.

There’s gardens, too, and they wander through those after they’ve looped around the zoo, holding hands the whole time. Madison’s pretty sure she enjoys the flowers more than Tyson, but he waits good-naturedly when she stops to point out a pretty flower or to take some pictures. It all feels like a date, which Madison supposes it is, actually.

“Hey, wait,” Tyson says suddenly, after Madison stands back up from taking a photo. “We should get a picture of us.” He snatches Madison’s phone from her hand. 

There’s an older couple nearby, and Tyson approaches them with a smile. Madison can hear him asking if one of them would mind, “taking a picture of me and my girlfriend?” She’s sure she’s blushing when Tyson comes back over and winds an arm around her waist. She smiles obligingly at the camera next to Tyson, and doesn’t even flinch when he turns and smacks a kiss to her cheek for the last one.

Tyson’s gracious and sweet as he takes Madison’s phone back, but he turns on Madison with an evil glint in his eye.

“Shut up,” Madison says, turning and walking away from Tyson so he can’t see that she’s still blushing.

Tyson jogs to keep up, spinning around and walking backwards so he can keep smirking at Madison. “You liked hearing me call you my girlfriend, huh?”

“Shut up,” Madison says again.

Tyson steps in front of Madison suddenly, blocking her path completely. She bumps into him. He’s still grinning. “Get used to it fast, because I can’t wait to tell everyone you’re my girlfriend.” Madison claps a hand over his mouth before he can literally start yelling about it. Tyson pries her hand away and uses it to pull her in for a kiss.

“I love you,” he murmurs. The novelty of hearing that from Tyson hasn’t worn off, either.

Madison kisses him again because she can. 

They head out not long after that. Tyson starts insisting that they can’t be late for their dinner reservation, even though it’s still early afternoon. Madison lets him take her by the hand again and all but drag her back to the car. 

She’s suddenly tired once she’s sitting back in the passenger seat, the sun and the walking catching up to her. She rests her head on the window while Tyson drives, fighting back a yawn. Tyson still catches her, and he reaches across to poke her in the thigh. She swats half-heartedly at his hand.

“Do I have time to take a nap?” Madison murmurs.

“What? No way!” He pokes Madison harder. “I’m supposed to be wining and dining you, remember?” 

“But I’m sleepy,” Madison whines. She’ll rally, probably; she needs to complain a little first. Tyson pokes her harder.

“That’s not allowed,” Tyson says. It’s not a long drive back to the hotel, and they’re most of the way back there already. Tyson checks the time on the dashboard. There’s still a few hours before their dinner reservation. “Okay, how about a mini nap?” he allows. “But we’re setting like three alarms.” 

It’s important to him that he still gets this first date right, even if they have done their entire relationship backwards. They got to the right place in the end, though, right?

Madison crashes into bed as soon as they’re back in the room. Tyson considers her for a moment. She’s already wriggled under the sheets, but she’s lying directly in the middle of the bed.

Tyson collapses on top of Madison. He catches himself at the last second so he doesn’t completely crush her, because he’s nice like that. Madison giggles, but she squirms and tries to elbow Tyson.

Her voice is muffled into the pillow as she tries to say, “Get off me.”

Tyson lets his weight press her further into the mattress. “Nope, ‘m comfy.” He does fish his phone out of his pocket to set an alarm and roll off Madison. He pulls Madison close as soon as he lands on his side next to her. “Shh, sleep now.”

They’re both jolted awake half an hour later when Tyson’s alarm goes off. Madison whines and presses closer. Tyson kisses the top of her head where she’s tucked under his chin.

“We need to get up,” Tyson whispers. Madison blinks sleepily up at him. 

Tyson forces himself to disentangle himself from Madison. When she doesn’t get up after him, he grabs her by the ankles and drags her to the end of the bed, ignoring her laughter and shrieks.

Tyson follows Madison into the bathroom after she digs her makeup bag and curling iron out of her suitcase, plops himself down on the marble countertop of the sink. Madison raises her eyebrow at him as she plugs the curling iron in and turns it on. Tyson beams at her.

“I wanna watch,” Tyson says simply, still smiling innocently.

He does watch, intent on Madison as she starts to section her hair.

“What’s that for?” he asks. He hands Madison a hair clip.

She brandishes the curling iron at him. “So it’s easier to curl.” 

Tyson’s quiet for a few more minutes before he slides Madison’s makeup bag closer and starts pawing through it. He pulls items out one by one and starts asking questions, mostly more of, “What’s this for?”—a makeup sponge, eyeliner, one of those jumbo eyeshadow crayons—until most of the contents of Madison’s makeup bag are strewn across the counter around Tyson. 

“Are you proud of yourself?” Madison teases. Tyson snaps a compact of blush shut, surveys the damage he’s done. Madison’s momentarily distracted by Tyson’s shenanigans, and one of her fingers brushes across the hot barrel of the curling iron. “Ah, shit,” she hisses.

Tyson’s immediately serious. “Are you okay?” He grabs at Madison’s hand, bringing it close to his face to inspect her finger. Madison bites her lip to keep from laughing. Tyson frowns before carefully pulling Madison’s finger to his lips, kissing it gently. “There. All better.” 

“I love you,” Madison hears herself saying. She’s not used to being able to just say it. Tyson beams at her again.

Tyson behaves himself while Madison finishes her hair and makeup, though he does giggle at the faces Madison pulls while she’s trying to apply mascara. He even helps put away all the makeup he got out. He finally hops off the counter to start getting ready himself.

Madison grabs his wrist when he reaches for the bottle of hair gel. “Nope, I’m rescinding your gel privileges.” She dies a little inside every time she sees a new photo of Tyson and his curls smothered in gel. Tyson squirms, trying to free his hand; Madison tightens her grip.

“Just a little?” Tyson pleads. 

“No, I like your curls!” For emphasis, Madison cards her free hand through Tyson’s curls.

Tyson grumbles at her and tries to tamp his hair back down. “You’re gonna make it frizzy,” he complains. Madison is still tightly holding onto his wrist. “Ugh, fine, but just for tonight.” 

Madison releases his wrist and kisses Tyson’s cheek as she steps past him out of the bathroom. Tyson blinks at himself in the mirror, wondering what the hell just happened.

Madison’s changed into a dress when Tyson finally makes his way out of the bathroom, too, sitting on the edge of the bed to slide on a pair of heels. She watches Tyson change with a small smile on her face. Tyson takes Madison’s hand and pulls her to her feet, twirling her once before pulling her close for a kiss.

“Let’s fucking do this,” Tyson says, and Madison has to laugh.

Dinner is pretty nice, as first dates go. Tyson picked a good restaurant—good food, nice environment, but not so fancy Madison feels out of her depth—and Madison already knows that he’s good for conversation. The good thing about falling in love before you actually start dating is that you’ve already gotten the awkwardness and discomfort out of the way already, Madison supposes.

She’s even mostly immune to the sad eyes Tyson directs at her as he pleads his case for getting dessert. Mostly. (They end up splitting a slice of tiramisu.)

The weekend passes too quickly. Madison blinks and suddenly she’s standing in the middle of Tyson’s hotel room, trying to figure out if she’s forgotten to re-pack anything. 

“Stay,” Tyson begs. “A few more days, through the beginning of the series.”

“Tyson, I can’t, I have to get back to Denver for work, you know that.”

Tyson does know that, but he also hates coming back to a dark and empty hotel room every night after games. He tries to tackle Madison to the bed, but she side-steps Tyson and crosses her arms at him, disapproval in her eyes. Tyson feels a bit like a scolded child for a moment. 

“What if I refuse to drive you to the airport, huh? Then you’ll have to stay.” Tyson knows it’s a weak argument, but he’s desperate here. 

Madison’s glare softens. She cups Tyson’s face in her hands. “I’m sorry, Tyson, but I really have to go. I’ll see you soon, okay? We’ll figure something out.” She punctuates this with a kiss. Tyson leans into it, his hands tight on Madison’s waist. 

“Soon,” Tyson repeats. “I love you,” he adds.

Madison kisses him again, and Tyson slips a hand beneath her shirt, her skin warm beneath his hand. She shudders and kisses him harder. They both startle when the alarm Madison set to make sure they leave for the airport on time goes off. Tyson tries to follow her when she pulls away to silence it.

“Time to go,” Madison says sadly.

After Tyson drops Madison off at Departures, he’s grateful that she’s not there to see him wipe away some tears. 

May

Madison sees the Avs’ WAG jackets on Instagram the night they start the first round. The WIld had played the night before, an ugly loss Madison hadn’t been able to tear her attention away from. She could have had one of those jackets, sitting next to Syd and all the other girls. Instead, she’s back in her apartment in Denver, alone. 

She wishes she could have stayed in Minnesota with Tyson for the first two games of the series. She gets a text from Tyson after the game that’s just a thumbs down emoji. Madison “dislikes” it out of solidarity. Tyson doesn’t call her that night. Madison has to remind herself that it’s okay, that they don’t have to talk all the time.

She watches anxiously two nights later as the Wild drag out a win, clutching a glass of wine for emotional support the whole time. 

Before she can think too hard about it, Madison’s opening her laptop. She’s in the middle of searching flights to St. Louis when her phone rings. It’s Tyson, and Madison doesn’t hesitate to answer.

“I miss you,” she says, before Tyson can get a greeting out. She has perhaps had a little too much wine. 

He chuckles. “It’s been less than a week, baby.” But then he adds, “I miss you, too.”

Madison shoves her laptop away and flops backwards on her bed. Last minute plane tickets are so expensive. So are playoff hockey tickets, apparently. She wonders if it would be easier to just drive to St. Louis.

“Wish I could be there,” she says next, even though she had just turned down Tyson when he’d asked her to stay. 

“Yeah, me too,” Tyson says after a beat. He doesn’t offer to fly Madison out again, though Madison can tell he wants to.

She doesn’t tell him that she’s only a few clicks away from buying herself tickets and meeting him in Missouri. Though she should probably do it while she’s not sober, before she can talk herself out of it in the morning. 

“Oh, good game, by the way,” Madison remembers to say.

Tyson huffs. “Are you already in bed?” Tyson asks. Madison can hear him banging around his hotel room, tinny and muffled where her phone has slid off her pillow. 

“Sorta,” Madison tells him. She pulls her laptop closer again. She could fly out after work and make it to the arena without missing too much of the game, probably. She winces again at the outrageous prices for the game. There aren’t even any good seats left.

Tyson speaks again. “Go to sleep, we can talk in the morning. I just wanted to say good night to you.” 

“In a minute,” she whines. She’s trying to remember her credit card number without having to get up and dig it out of her purse.

Tyson must hear her keyboard clacking. “What are you still doing on your computer?”

“Online shopping,” Madison lies. Well, half-lies. She is spending plenty of money right now. She triple-checks that her flight is booked correctly and that she purchased the ticket for the game before she finally slams her laptop shut and tosses it aside. “There, I’m done,” she tells Tyson.

“Buy anything good?” Tyson asks through a yawn. 

“Hope so, we’ll see.”

On Friday, Madison rushes off the plane, rushes through baggage claim, and rushes through renting a car. She’s cutting it close on time, with less than half an hour until puck drop. She drives as carefully and quickly as she can on the unfamiliar roads to the arena, one eye on the clock the whole time. The streets and parking around Enterprise Center are a fucking nightmare, but when she finally parks and makes it to the front doors, there’s still lines of people milling about, waiting to get in, too.

Madison checks her watch. Puck dropped five minutes ago. She pushes around a group of people who are somehow already drunk and towards the front of a line. All hockey arenas are the same, in a way, but Madison is immediately overwhelmed and disoriented. The first period is half over by the time she manages to get to the upper level and settle in her seat, but at least she finally made it. 

Madison takes a photo of the ice and texts it to Tyson with her usual black heart emoji. He’ll see it eventually. 

Madison has to keep herself from cheering too loudly for every Wild goal, surrounded by Blues fans as she is, and she’s probably one of the only people in the arena who’s happy when the Wild manage a neat win. 

She follows the throngs of people outside and back to her rental car. She has a text from Tyson waiting for her, just a string of exclamation marks. Another text comes through while she’s waiting for traffic to thin out, a request for Madison to call Tyson in all capital letters. Tyson’s breathless when he answers Madison’s call. “What the hell are you doing in St. Louis?” 

“Surprise?” Madison says weakly. 

Tyson laughs. “Hell of a surprise, babe.” He must pull his phone away from his ear, because Madison can still hear him speaking, but distantly. “Hang on, I’m trying to get you the address of the hotel, you can meet me there, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Madison says. Tyson’s gone again, not really listening.

“Hey, I’ve gotta go, I’ll text you where to go, and I’ll see you soon, okay?” He hangs up without letting Madison reply, but he texts again seconds later with the name and address of the team hotel. 

Madison is anxiously idling in the hotel driveway when the team bus pulls in behind her. Tyson bounds off the bus almost before it comes to a full stop, and he races over to Madison’s car door and taps on the window.

Madison rolls down the window. “And what if it hadn’t been me in the car?” she teases.

Tyson is reaching through the now-open window to try and unlock the door, his tongue sticking out the way it does when he’s focusing on the ice. “I would have apologized. A lot.” He successfully presses the unlock button and yanks the car door open. “Come here, come here,” he says.

Madison laughs and climbs out of the car. Both of her feet aren’t even out of the car before Tyson’s sweeping her up in a hug so tight she swears she can feel her ribs shift. He sets her down and immediately cups her face.

“You’re here, I can’t believe you’re here.” Tyson narrows his eyes, and he squishes Madison’s cheeks where he’s still holding her face. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you were coming.” 

Madison pries Tyson’s hands away enough to talk. “I wanted to surprise you.” Tyson’s teammates are still filtering off the bus, and they should probably move inside, too. “Can you let go of me so I can get my bag out of the trunk?” she asks.

Tyson considers this. He slides one hand down Madison’s arm until he can tangle their fingers together. He also leans into the car and deftly turns it off, holding the keys up with a grin. He nudges the door shut. “We can get your bag out of the trunk.” He proceeds to drag Madison around to the back of the car and drags her suitcase out of the back with his free hand. He stares between the suitcase in his hand and the open trunk before Madison takes pity on him and slams the trunk shut.

Madison hangs back while Tyson hands the car keys off to a valet, and then he’s dragging her towards the elevators, happily rolling Madison’s suitcase in front of him. At least the rest of the Wild players have all disappeared, sparing Madison from their stares and jeers. She tucks herself closer to Tyson in the elevator, suddenly self-conscious. Tyson kisses her temple.

Madison is suddenly exhausted as soon as they enter Tyson’s room. Tyson flips the light on as Madison kicks off her shoes. Tyson left the curtains open earlier, and Madison can see the Arch, lit up above the river, through the window. She’s too tired to give it more than a half-hearted glance on her way to face-planting into the pillows. 

Tyson’s laughing when she rolls over and brushes her hair out of her face. “I’m so fucking happy you’re here,” he says, jumping onto the bed next to Madison, and, really, that’s all that matters.

The Wild lose the next game at Enterprise, and Madison holds Tyson tightly for a long time in the hall outside the locker room before he has to get on a plane. They lose again at home, then yet again back in St. Louis. 

Just like that, hockey season is over. 

Tyson calls Madison after the last game. He sounds like he’s been crying, but he tries to be cheerful for Madison. She just wishes she could hug him, but she’s back in Denver. She knows the Avs swept the Predators already, and they’ll be facing St. Louis next. It’s not difficult to imagine how Tyson feels about that. 

“Come home with me,” Tyson blurts. He’s on the phone with Madison, getting ready to leave his Minnesota hotel room behind. He survived locker cleanout and exit interviews, and now he’s ready to sleep for about a week.

Madison, in the middle of complaining at work, freezes. “I—what?” She takes another moment to process. “Aren’t you coming back to Denver first?” Madison knows his apartment sits half-abandoned, filled with things too difficult or unnecessary to move after the trade. 

“Well, yeah, but like, after. You should come home with me,” Tyson repeats. He’s been dying to introduce her to his mom for months. He hopes his mom likes Madison as much as he does. He is a little worried about his sanity if Madison and Kacey get along as well as he thinks they will, though. 

“I’ve never been to Canada before,” Madison says thoughtfully. She’s barely travelled abroad at all, except for one trip to the UK after she graduated high school. Her passport has been collecting dust since then. 

“So you’ll come?” Tyson asks. 

“Is there even anything to do in Edmonton?” Madison teases.

“There’s so much to do, like—” Tyson pauses. It’s been a while since he’s had to play tourist back home. Madison is giggling on the other end of the line. “Shut up, we’ll figure something out.”

Tyson feels like he can breathe properly for the first time in months when he steps out of the airport in Denver. He wonders if any place will ever feel like home the way Denver does.

Tyson had managed to wheedle JT into picking him up, and he even brought coffee. Tyson ignores the way it almost feels like an apology. JT has nothing to be apologizing for, but Tyson just sips his coffee. 

The apartment smells stale when they walk in. Tyson’s mom had done a good job of cleaning for him, at least, and there aren’t any dirty dishes still stacked in the sink. He and JT are quiet as they walk through the apartment, opening windows. Tyson feels like he’s walking through someone else’s life. He stares for too long at his bed, freshly made and untouched for weeks. 

He shakes it off and goes to find the moving boxes.

“So, this is it, huh?” JT says.

He could be talking about all the boxes they’ve spent the last few hours filling boxes and separating them into piles to be shipped off to Minnesota—Tyson finally signed a lease for an apartment there—or to be sent back home for his family to deal with. An alarming amount of Tyson’s clothes is Avalanche-branded gear, and more of it got packed away to keep than Tyson is willing to admit. 

He could also be talking about the end of everything they’ve known together in Denver. Tyson’s spent years accepting the fact that hockey is a business before everything else, has gotten used to the revolving door of teammates each season. It’s been a long time since Rookie House days with Kerf. Tyson is going to walk out that apartment door, and he’s never going to be able to go back. A chapter—or book, really—in the story of his life ended for good. 

Tyson sighs. “This is it.”

The apartment is stripped bare when Madison steps through the door, left unlocked by JT and Tyson.

She drops her laptop bag and kicks off her shoes, saying, “You should be more careful, anybody could just walk in here.”

Tyson drops the box he’s holding and whirls around. Madison winces as its contents rattle. There’s no time to say anything else before Tyson is bounding across the room and wrapping her in a huge hug. 

“What, no hug for me?” JT asks from somewhere behind them. Tyson turns to glare at him, but Madison shoots him a smile.

“Hey, JT,” she says. She lets JT drape an arm around her in a half-hug.

“Betrayal,” Tyson says. He is ignored. 

They leave most of the boxes for the moving company to deal with. Madison bundles Tyson into her car with his bags of clothes, complaining the whole time about wanting dinner. She lets Tyson hold her hand across the console as she drives him to her apartment. 

It’s not the first time Tyson’s been to Madison’s apartment, but it still feels strange to be there instead of his own. They’ve spent so much time there the past few months, watching movies on the couch, doing things other than sleeping in the bed. He misses it already, all the memories they made as they fumbled their way into a relationship. 

He says as much to Madison, expecting her to tease him for something so objectively dumb—to miss an apartment he lived in half of the time for like six months—but the look she gives him is almost sad.

“That’s a bit dramatic,” she says. Tyson pulls her in by the hips, letting her lean her weight on him. “But I guess we’ll just have to keep making more memories, yeah?” 

Later that night, tangled up in Madison’s sheets, Tyson stares at the dark ceiling. He can feel Madison, looking rumpled and in his shirt, watching him. She nudges his calf with her toes. He doesn’t look at her, focused on keeping his eyes from welling up. Then Madison’s hand is on his cheek, turning his head towards her.

“How you doin’, bud?” 

Tyson lets Madison pull him close and hold him tightly. He slides a hand under her shirt and to the bare skin of her hip, just feeling the comforting warmth of her skin. 

“What if it’s never like this again?” Tyson whispers back. This—Denver and the Avalanche, friends who become family; Madison in bed next to him, loving him and wearing his clothes. Minnesota had been okay, but Tyson worked his ass off and never felt settled. Maybe it was the endless hotel life, maybe it was the team, maybe it was him. He feels like a child, begging his mom to tell him everything was going to be okay. 

Madison doesn’t know how to comfort Tyson. It probably never will be like this again. Madison can’t see the future, and she can’t promise Tyson anything, either. “I don’t know, baby,” Madison admits. “I don’t know.” 

Tyson doesn’t cry, but they both lay awake for a long time. 

June

They fly into Edmonton together on Friday. Tyson seems nervous the whole flight and all the way through the airport. At baggage claim, as they wait for their suitcases, Madison turns on him.

“What’s up with you?” she asks. Tyson blinks at her like he forgot she was there. “You’re not seriously this worried about me meeting your family, are you?”

“No. Maybe. I don’t know!” Tyson crosses his arms. He’s pretty sure his suitcase just spun past them on the carousel. He lowers his voice. “I don’t really bring girls home, I don’t know. I don’t know how this is supposed to go.”

“Oh, Tys. It’s going to be fine, I promise.” Madison tosses her hair, and Tyson manages a weak smile. “Your family is going to love me so much they’ll forget you even exist.”

“Hey!”

Tyson had lobbied hard for taking an Uber from the airport, to give Madison and himself a few last moments of peace before a week with his family, but his mom had put her foot down and insisted on picking them up. She’s already idling at the curb when they step out of the airport.

Madison calls shotgun, leaving Tyson to throw their suitcases in the trunk and slide into the backseat. His mom is in the middle of telling Madison, “Call me Laura, please!” Madison turns in her seat to grin at Tyson as his mom pulls away and starts driving out of the airport. She refrains from grilling Madison on the short drive home, something Tyson is grateful for. He zones out while Madison explains where she grew up and what she does and lets himself relax back into his seat.

Before he knows it, they’re pulling up to the house, and Kacey is sprinting out the front door to greet them. Tyson groans, but he eagerly shoves his car door open before the car is in park and lets Kacey jump on him. 

Madison gets out of the car at a more leisurely—and sane—pace, and Kacey turns to wrap her in a hug as soon as she lets go of Tyson.

“I’m Kacey,” she says, pulling away and gripping Madison by the shoulders. “The better Jost sibling.”

Tyson pulls on Kacey’s ponytail. She smacks him in the chest without turning around. Tyson’s about to lunge and get Kacey in a headlock when their mom yells, “Behave,” at them from the front door.

Madison’s looking faintly overwhelmed. Tyson mouths “You okay?” at her over Kacey’s shoulder. Madison just grins and lets Kacey grab her by the hand and drag her inside. He’s pretty sure he hears Kacey telling her how much their grandparents can’t wait to meet her as they go. He shakes his head and retrieves their luggage from the trunk.

He’s missed all the introductions by the time he makes it inside. Madison sits on the couch next to Kacey, the spot on Madison’s other side left conspicuously open. Tyson ignores Kacey’s smirk and plops himself down next to Madison. 

“So, how did you two meet?” Tyson’s grandpa asks.

Tyson refrains from glaring at him. Madison laughs next to him.

“He picked me up in a bar, and I had no idea he was a hockey player,” she says. Tyson had almost forgotten about that part. “We kinda just…kept seeing each other after that.” 

That’s a delicate way of putting it.

“So you’re the reason Tyson ditched us over Christmas, huh?” Kacey asks next. She’s smirking again, directed straight at Tyson over Madison’s head. Tyson has not forgotten that part, struggling to lie to Kacey and his mom.

“Kacey!” Tyson and his mom both protest, but Madison just laughs again. Something about the question melts all of the tension out of her shoulders. She turns a little to lean against Tyson.

“Yeah, that was me,” Madison says. Tyson can’t see her face, but she doesn’t sound very sheepish. She tilts her chin to look up at Tyson. “I should’ve known something was up when he couldn’t go more than a few days without seeing me.” “Hey,” Tyson protests again, weakly. She’s right, though. They really should have figured out their shit sooner, but they got to the right place eventually. 

Conversation drifts away from the topic of their relationship after that. Tyson drapes an arm across Madison’s shoulders. After a while of catching up—Tyson and hockey season, or Kacey and her school year—mixed in with his family asking Madison questions to get to know her better, Tyson’s mom and grandma head to the kitchen to start preparing dinner.

Madison tries to follow and offer to help, but Tyson tightens his arm around her. He kisses her forehead, whispering, “Stay here,” into her hair. Madison stays.

They’re getting ready for bed later—banished to separate rooms, of course—when Madison notices Tyson getting nervous again.

“What’s up?” Madison asks, sliding between him and the bathroom sink. They’re pushing it, probably, spending this long in the bathroom with the door closed. 

Tyson shrugs. “Worried about you and Kacey spending all night gossiping.” They’d really hit it off over dinner, which Tyson is simultaneously grateful for and horrified by. From the look Madison gives him, she’s not buying it. “It’s just…the Avs are in town tomorrow night, and I got tickets, and you don’t have to come with me if you don’t want to, but I want to go, and—”

Madison cuts him off with a hand over his mouth. “Tyson, I’d love to go to the game with you.”

Tyson relaxes again, and Madison moves her hand. Tyson takes the opportunity to bully her up against the sink and kiss her. Tyson’s just getting into it when Kacey bangs on the bathroom door. He’s pretty sure he accidentally bites Madison’s lip when he jerks away. Madison grumbles at him, but she ducks around him to open the door. Tyson tries not to whine about it.

Going to the game together the next night is strange. Tyson hasn’t been to Rogers Place and not been playing a game since he was a kid, probably. Madison had never really been to a hockey game before she’d met Tyson, and she’s definitely never gone to a game with Tyson. 

They mostly go unnoticed, except for a handful of people who stop Tyson and ask for a picture. Madison hangs back while he politely smiles at the camera. It’s easy to fade into the crush of the crowd, and Tyson keeps a tight hold and Madison’s hand as they make their way through the concourse and to their seats.

After that, it’s just like any other hockey game. Cheering for the Avalanche is familiar, even if the way Tyson is squeezing Madison’s hand at every single scoring chance is not. She’d tease him for his nervousness, especially because the Avalanche are winning easily, except for the fact that she knows it had to be hard for him to come out tonight. To cheer for his old team, his friends, knowing that with every win they’re one step closer to something he can’t be a part of. 

So she lets him hold her hand as tightly as he wants. It’s the best she can offer. 

They don’t linger after the game. Tyson seems eager to escape the arena, and Madison lets him lead her back to the car. He puts on a Spotify playlist and turns the volume up loud, but he’s mostly quiet on the drive to the house, one hand on the wheel, one hand on Madison’s thigh.

Madison gets caught up talking to Laura when they get to the house, and she loses track of Tyson for a while. He’s not upstairs in his old bedroom, or even bugging Kacey in her bedroom. Madison ventures outside. Tyson has dragged a lawn chair out to the driveway, but he’s laying on his back on the cold concrete, staring up at the dim stars. The moon is just a sliver in the sky. 

Madison nudges him with her foot. He wraps a hand around her ankle, squeezes once.

“You alive down there?”

Tyson makes a sound that almost passes for a laugh. Madison is pretty sure his eyes are wet, shiny in the dark. Madison lays down next to him. The concrete is hard against her shoulder blades, and it feels damp through her thin T-shirt. 

“This fucking sucks,” Tyson says. It’s too loud for how late it is, and his voice echoes a little around the quiet street. He rubs a hand angrily across his face. “I want to be out there, playing for the Cup, not fucking sitting in the arena watching them. I guess I should be happy for them because they’re my friends, you know? But I kinda want to hate them, too.” He’s quiet for a moment. He reaches for Madison’s hand, brings it to his mouth to press a kiss to her palm, before settling their clasped hands on his chest. “I might not have asked for a trade if I had known it would be this shitty,” he admits.

“It’s okay to be mad, Tyson,” Madison says gently.

“It’s not—I don’t know if I’m mad. I wish I could be.”

“It’s okay to be sad, too,” she says.

“Yeah,” Tyson says, voice thick. 

They’re both quiet for so long, Madison’s half-certain Tyson’s fallen asleep, if not for his occasional sniffle. He sits up after a while, still holding Madison’s hand. Even in the dark, Madison can see him yawn.

“Ready for bed?” Madison asks.

Tyson nods. “D’you think I can sneak you into my bed?”

He pulls Madison to her feet as she lets out a startled laugh. Tyson kisses her quiet. “I’m willing to get in trouble if you are.”

The house is dark when they slip back inside. They giggle their way through brushing their teeth, close together at the bathroom sink, elbows bumping. Tyson shushes her loudly as they tiptoe carefully down the hall. Madison’s pretty sure he’s being louder than her, but whatever.

Madison wakes to an empty bed and late morning sunlight. She can hear Tyson’s voice drifting up the stairs. That boy truly does not know how to be quiet. Madison has an Instagram notification when she swipes her phone off the bedside table: josty17 has tagged you in a post. Madison frowns and unlocks her phone, wondering what unflattering photo of her Tyson took. Instead, it’s a photo Kacey or Laura must have taken the morning before. Madison’s laying on top of Tyson on the couch, Tyson visibly complaining that he’s being squished, despite the fact that he had pulled Madison on top of him. He captioned it with a black heart emoji. 

Madison makes her way downstairs. Tyson sits at the kitchen table, arguing with Kacey over something stupid. He reaches a hand out for Madison without stopping whatever he’s ranting about. There’s a fresh mug of coffee in his hand, already doctored the way Madison likes it. Tyson uses his now-free hand to loop around Madison’s waist and tug her onto his lap. She hooks her arms around Tyson’s neck and sips her coffee, content to listen to this argument, even though she’s still not sure what they’re arguing about. She thinks she hears something about which fruit would make the best weapon. 

It might not be easy, but Madison thinks they’ll be just fine.

#cait writes things #tyson jost fic #tyson jost imagine #colorado avalanche fic #minnesota wild fic #buffalo sabres fic #nhl fic #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagine #hockey fic #hockey fanfiction #hockey imagine #tyson jost fanfiction

[romantichomicide95]

hi i don't know if you are getting request but was going to make a writing request from you. 👉👈

Levi is a valuable person to Y/n, since he saved Y/n in the past, Y/n is very attached to him (and in love) and he never wants to leave his side all his life.

One day Levi asks her what am I to you and asks why you are so attached to him.

I'll leave the Yn's answer to you.

I wonder if you can write such a fic, you can make changes in the article as you like

Levi x fem!Reader

summary: Levi confronts reader on her devotion to him. Warnings : None just fluff

I’m sorry I suck at endings and also wrote this super quick!

"Hey Y/N can I talk to you in my office after training?" Levi asks you as you're headed to training with Hange and the rest of your squad.

"Sure Captain Levi sir. I will be there right after." you say before running off to catch up with Hange.

What did he want to see you for? You wonder. You didn't think you were in trouble, you hadn’t don’t anything wrong.

You were part of his squad, although it took you awhile to get there. You had wished for it for so long, with ever fiber of you're being. But his squad was handpicked, only the best of the best…Don't get me wrong you were a good soldier, in your own right, but you certainly were not the best. The road to becoming someone he wanted around him wasn't easy, and it took him saving your life to get there.

You could remember it like it was yesterday, that fateful expedition. You were new at the time, a late join to the scouts. Much older than the rest of the cadets; you'd been an MP but you wanted in on the action, you wanted in on giving humanity a chance. You looked up to the Scouts, every last one of them. They gave their lives for you and everyone else in Paradis. Being one of them was a dream.

So here you were, the first time outside the walls, frozen in fear at the sight of this monster. It was so tall, so big and so...ugly. It looked almost human, which somehow scared you even more. Something that looked so human being so evil, being so devoid of any human characteristics. Driven by it’s desire to kill. It was terrifying.

You could remember how tight your chest got when it held you in its hand, the feel of its saliva dripping down on you like sticky wet rain. Being almost crushed in its palm, thinking this was jt, you were about to die. Than you heard it cry out, a sound so deafening and so loud. You still heard that sound in your nightmares. Than all of a sudden you were on the ground, and you could feel the grass underneath your hands. The smell of dirt and blood and sweat filling your nostrils, than a hand was reaching out to you, you heard “Get up" from a voice that now you found so calming and so warm. You looked him in his eyes, his face covered in blood, yet somehow he looked as handsome as ever. It was Captain Levi and those were the first words he ever spoke to you. You knew of him and his reputation, hell everyone did. You also knew how good looking he was since you'd seen him around; to be honest you always harbored a crush from afar. Now here he was, having just sliced the Titan that had held you in its grasp moments ago.Captain Levi saved you.

Ever since that day you felt like you owed him your life. You started trying to get to know him better, which as Hange would later tell you was hard for anyone. He was closed off, rude, and sarcastic. But that didn't stop you. You insisted, you insisted on helping him with his paperwork. You insisted on helping him clean whenever he needed. You insisted on doing whatever he needed, whenever he needed no questions asked until finally he put you on his squad, out of mere convenience. Because you were loyal, and you worked hard to be a stronger soldier. And that work paid off, you were stronger and you were determined.

Spending all that time around him made it so you felt like you knew him. Really knew him. You knew his devotion to humanity, his will to keep fighting despite the loss he suffered, the tragedy of his childhood and how it shaped him into caring so much about others. You saw the person he was under his rough exterior, and you fell in love with him for it.

______

Training had dragged on. You were so anxious for whatever Levi wanted to talk to you about. It could be something as simple as you're dusting of the bookshelves this morning was subpar. But that didn't do much to shelve the feeling in your gut. So now here you were in front of his office door. You gulp, as the pit starts to burrow in your stomach, your hands are sweaty and shaking and you feel like the whole world can hear the thunder of your heart beating in your chest.

You knock, three times, like you always did to let him know it was you. "Come in." You walk in to see him sitting at his desk, he was dressed more casual than usual with just a grey shirt and dark pants. His hair was more messy than usual. But he looked good, he always did.

"Sit." he says motioning to the chair opposite his own across from his desk. You cautiously sit down, he seemed more serious than usual, if that was possible. He ran his fingers through his hair almost nervously, which was odd for him but it explained the state of it.

"So you wanted to talk to me Captain?" your voice almost sounds shaky. You hated how much of a mess you became around him.

"Yes. You've been a pretty loyal soldier Y/N, specifically to me. It's been a few months you've been on my squad, but even before that..." he clears his throat and shifts in his seat, "you uhh, you've always been loyal. Can I ask you why that is?"

What did he mean why? Wasn't it obvious?

"You saved my life sir. I-I feel like I owe you my life."

"You don't owe me anything..." he lets out a deep breathe. "It seems more than that though, your close with Hange yet you don't seem to have the same devotion."

What exactly was he asking? Did he know, did he know how head over heels in love with him you were? Surely he didn't. Levi didn't seem the type to think about these things. He was purely focused on saving the world. Surely he didn't know. If you told him now, what would that accomplish.

"I guess I'm not sure what you're asking sir. I-I Idk how to answer that. Are you asking why I help you out so much? I mean, shit Captain. Excuse my language...sorry I-I just don't know what you are asking me." Damnit. You hated how flustered he could make you. The pit in your stomach was growing and growing. What if he did know? What if he was trying to dig for the answer because he wanted to throw you off his squad? What if your obsession, your devotion, your love for him was a hindrance and he hated it.

"You seem completely devoted to me and me alone Y/N, I guess I just want to understand." He was looking at you directly. You wanted to shift your eyes from his gaze, but the way those perfect grey-blue eyes were sparkling your way, it was hard to look away. “Why do you care so much and why do you always want to spend your time with me?”

"I-Idk Captain." You pause. At this point you just wanted to blurt it out. I fucking love you Levi you dumb idiot. What was the harm, he was fishing it out of you and there wasn't anything else you could do. "Fuck it. I like you. More than that actually, I love you Captain Levi. I know it's stupid, I know I shouldn't have feelings for my superior. I know I am so dumb. But I do, and it's not because you saved me. Although I do owe you my life, it's because you're you and idk I can't help it and I know I am rambling at this point but..."

"You love me?" he cuts you off, one eyebrow raised. He looks bewildered is the only way you could describe his facial expression. Like he's just heard the most outrageous thing. You gulp, why did you blurt it out like that. Why did have to be so stupid.

"Uhmm, yes." you say sheepishly, looking down at the ground.

"Fuck." he says. And there is a long pause. A long moment of silence, and all you can hear is your beating heart. "I-I love you to."

Did you hear that right? Did he just say he loved you to? Surely you are imagining things.

"Wait, what?"

"I said I love you too idiot." You look up, he's standing now. Above you, one hand on each arm of your chair. Your heart beats even faster than before. You think it might fall out at any moment, just a bloody mess on the floor. You look up at him, his face looks almost softer? Less stoic, less angry.

"You love me?"

"Yes. That's what I said."

"Okay, but...Wait. Is this why you asked me? Why I was so loyal to you, because you knew how I felt?" it had to be, you thought. This had to be the reason why. He loved you back, for some reason you certainly couldn't explain. Captain Levi loved you to. You could feel the rush of heat come to your cheeks. The pit in your stomach turned to butterflies fluttering, and your sweaty palms dissipated. He loved you too.

"I suspected. It wasn't that hard to guess." he chuckles. A rare chuckle you've probably only heard once.

"Hmm. Okay, so what do we do now Captain?"

"You can just call me Levi for one."

"Okay...Levi. That sounds funny." you giggle "What do we do now?"

Suddenly he pulls you up from your chair until your standing face to face with him. So close you can feel the warmth of his breathe and see the little lines around his eyes. Than he kisses you, pulling you in closer, putting one hand on the small of your back. Levi kisses you, and you don't want it to end. Ever. You want to stay in this moment forever. This perfect moment, this perfect kiss. But than it's over, its ended. Too quickly. Before it even had a chance to begin.

He straightens his posture. Still looking at you with those beautiful eyes. "Wow." you exclaim "That was...wow."

"Yeah." he takes a step back, clearing his throat. “Do you wanna eat dinner in here with me?"

"Yeah of course I do. Do you want me to come back at dinner time or something?”

"No." he says, stepping closer to you again. "I'd rather you stay here and do more of this until than." he says, pulling you closer in to kiss you again. This time more passionate, more intense.

This time it doesn't end as quickly. This time his hands are on your waist, holding you close to him. Your hands laced in his hair. The only thought you could muster in your head was I could really get used to this.

#levi ackerman #attack on titan #captain levi #aot #levi aot #levi x reader #aot fandom #levi attack on titan #snk levi #levi headcanon #levi x y/n #levi x fem!reader #Levi ackermann #levi ackerman fluff #Levi fluff #levi fanfiction #Levi fanfic #Levi Ackerman fanfic #Levi Ackerman fic #a

[kitsune024]

Crossovers

Danny Phantom

The Boy King and the Dark Knights by @imjustkindaherelove | Chapters: 29/? | Danny & Jason, Age Regression/De-Aging, ghost king-more like prince, good parent Jason, funny misunderstandings, Identity reveal How Light Carries On (Endlessly, Even After Death) by BumblingBeesAndWillowTrees I Chapters 3/3 I Completed Eldritch Danny, Danny Adopts Jason Todd, Haunted House Dig Three Graves in Apartment 31c by @faeriekit I Chapter's 6/6 I Completed Danny has the role of Willis Todd, halfa Jason The Red Hood's Big Bad Guard Demon by @the-stove-is-on-fire I Chapters 1/? I Danny/Jason, Ice Sculptor Danny, Danny freaks Jason out here lol, High and unhinged Danny, Scarecrow's Fear Toxin oh lazarus, how did your debts get paid by @hollowmashiro I Chapters 1/1 I one shot Danny/Jason, Pre-Slash, Codependency, Soul Bond, Mind the Tags

Star Wars

When Sanity Runs Out by heretoday898 I Chapters 30/30 I Completed Roy & Jason, Bamf Jason, Canon Divergence, Fix it

Supernatural

Two Lives, One Soul by Spnfandom8 I Chapters 10/10 I Completed Dean & Jason are twin brothers, Bamf Dean, Bamf Jason

Jason's Favorite Vacation Spot: Death by @super-sock | Chapters: 18/18 | Completed Basically Jason dies again and comes back again and it keeps happening, Crack and Angst, Lazarus Pit

The first time was a fluke. The second time, okay, there were extenuating circumstances. However, a third time? This was getting suspicious. --- Jason keeps dying. He becomes more acquainted with the other side. Nobody really knows what's going on.

ghost story by @envysparkler | Chapters: 7/7 | Ghost Jason Todd, Fix-It, Whump, Batfamily, Grief/Mourning

Jason Todd dies in Ethiopia. Well. Kind of.

The Wayward Boy by @zootopon I Chapters 3/3 I soldier!jason, Jason Todd Grows Up, BAMF Jason Todd, Maturity, Personal Growth, Jason runs away from home

Jason’s 15. Not old enough to drink but still knows enough to break a man 10 different ways before they could blink. If that doesn’t make people question Bruce’s psychological state as a person, let alone a parent, then he doesn’t know what will. He runs because he's not needed anymore. Because Bruce took away everything that ever meant anything to him, leaving him as just plain old Jason Todd. He runs because at least he can keep his head held high.

Who I am. Who I’ll Never Be by @zootopon I Chapters: 32/? I Jason Wages War, Bamf Jason, Artemis/Jason

On the run from the Justice League and the Bats, Jason prepares to wage war on those he once considered family. They took something from him, he intends to take it back.

JT's Auto Shop foxykyuu15 I Chapters 28/28 I Jason Todd is a Member of the Suicide Squad, Time Travel, Alternate Universe, bamf Jason

There are two locations in Crime Alley that everyone knows are neutral territory: JT's Garage, and Flag's Bar situated two blocks over. The Alley's run by a Ghost story who goes by that very name and lives up to every rumor told about him. Whether this be the blood running down the streets of the Narrows during the gang war waged for the Alley or Ghost's merciless hits against those who defy his order. Even the kind smiles and open rooms without strings attached offered to the citizens of the Alley are true. Its been this way for three years now. Ghost has taken over Mask's territory, ran Penguin out, and shut down Two Face's operations. He has worked long and hard enough to secure a foothold & establish a system under his Code. And it works. It does. Three years is also enough time that Spoiler and Signal, the two newest Bats, begin to get a little too curious to see who the elusive Ghost really is. (Jason hadn't wanted to get involved with the Bats this time around. He wanted to clean up the Alley, work on cars with Santana, and maybe smoke some weed and drink some beer on the weekends when he wasn't out doing crime-lord shit. Fuck.)

Totentanz (La Danse Macabre) by Balrog_Roike | Chapters 1/1 | one shot Lazarus Pit, Possession, Dark fic, Horror, Ghosts

"Vengeance is nothing but justice long overdue..." The Lazarus Pit thinks so, too.

The Daughter of the Water by @chucklesbuckles I Chapters: 1/1 I one shot Lazarus Pit, White Haired Jason, Eldritch Jason-of a sort, doesn't say in tags - Possession, Dead Jason?

“To walk the world!” it croons, bright gold spilling over it’s cheeks, highlighting the springy white curls crowning it’s head. It bends, cold wet hands cradling Talia’s face, wiping her tears away. It places a soft kiss to her forehead, tucking a loose curl of hair behind her ear, torchlight eyes burning. “Thank you for the body.”

Call on Me by @wellthatjusthappend I Chapters 3/? I Clark & Jason, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Clark accidentally end up parenting, AU - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence

It wasn’t that Clark had never thought about having kids, but when he did it hadn't been like this. "Clark... Superman, help."

Bookmark Series

The Phoenix Never Dies by ForceMage56 I Part 1-4 I BAMF Jason Todd, Jason's in Arkham, Talia al Ghul/Selina Kyle, Torture, Psychological Torture, angry Jason, Angst, Jason's had enough

#jason todd #fic rec #fanfic rec #red hood #jason todd fanfiction #dcu #ao3 fanfic #star wars #jason todd fics #jason peter todd #dc fanfic #batman #red hood fanfiction #dc fanfiction #dp crossover #spn

[apple-grass-and-smiles]

i get along without you some nights

Summary: Spending the holidays without someone you love is a strange, surreal, scary situation. Everyone handles it differently, everyone wonders about a different world, and, eventually, everyone makes it through the holiday. And then the next. And the one after that. And so on and so forth until things get at least a little better.

Six different characters, six different holidays, and six different ways of approaching not having someone they love to celebrate with.

OR: A Secret Santa gift for @y3ll0w-b3ntl3y! I hope this piece brings you some happiness/joy/laughter. You can either use the AO3 link above or read the fic below the read more!

A/N: Hello, my friends! Long time no see! This is a piece for y3ll0w-b3ntl3y as part of the Prodigal Son Secret Santa that whats-a-terrarium organized. Hopefully it’s a good gift! The title is adapted from “Almost (Sweet Music)” by Hozier because I was so desperate for a title that I actually googled “Hozier lyrics loss”. 

This idea has been floating through my head since mid-November and has had a few different iterations. I lost a very, very close family friend this summer and have been thinking a lot about how people get through their first holidays without someone they love and this was born from that. The vignettes are roughly saddest first and they get more hopeful from there. JT’s vignette is just texts, which will hopefully be clear but if not, now you know.

TW: Mostly canon-typical things. Alcoholism, some depression. Jessica���s is the most graphic/intense and can be skipped as needed.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Christmas tree was already up when Martin was… (Jessica was still trying to find the polite term for it, trying different ones on) taken away. Normally Jessica insisted on no hints of Christmas in the home until the Thanksgiving dinner had been cleared from the table, but Malcolm had campaigned valiantly to put it up early. As per usual, Ainsley had joined in, asking Jessica to make an exception to her rule and then Martin had given Jessica that look, the one that had been crumbling her resolve since the day they met. 

The tree was decorated as part of Malcolm’s family birthday party. Great aunt Mildred and Birdie and all the other Miltons covered the tree in ornaments from Chanel and Tiffany and made snide comments at the humble Hallmark ornaments Martin produced from his own meager collection. (Jessica had joked to Martin as he held her in his arms that it was not worth it to use an ornament hook to kill her family members. The irony was not lost on Jessica, no matter how much wine she drank.) The final result had been the definition of a Milton Tree. Nothing but matching ornaments, the kids’ handmade ornaments hidden in the back of the tree or so close to the trunk so as to appear invisible. The tree was perfect from the gold star to the Hermes tree skirt.

Jess hated it. 

So she and Martin let the kids stay up well past their bedtime so as to un-decorate and re-decorate the tree, making it their own. Laughter had filled the home as Martin lifted Malcolm to put ornaments at the top of the tree and Ainsley skipped around the room with her fourth (fifth?) cookie, singing “Jingle Bells” at the top of her lungs. Jessica tried to capture the moment, to bottle it so she could reminisce on and sip at it like a fine wine.

Two days later, Jessica Whitly stood next to the tree while officers asked her questions and her husband became a stranger to her and she watched her children’s childhoods begin to melt away and all she could do was say no, I didn’t know anything over and over and over. The whole time the Christmas lights her husband had strung so lovingly around the tree with the precision of a surgeon (and The Surgeon) shone just to the right of her face. 

Two weeks after the arrest and eight days before Christmas, Jessica was drunk because that was all that was left to do. Her kids were broken, her husband was the monster who broke them, she was the useless maiden who watched as it all happened and did nothing, and now she was spending more money on alcohol than anything else. Every happy moment she’d bottled up of her time with Martin and her children was ruined. And standing there, completely unchanged despite Jessica’s life having crumbled to ash, was the Christmas tree. It mocked her. Mocked her desire for a family, a partner, a happy life. It had to go. And her cocktail provided insight into what to do with the stupid tree. 

It was only midmorning when Jessica began her drunken battle against the tree. Ornaments were thrown to the ground and shattered. She rubbed her hands raw trying to get all the pine needles off of the branches. She took a pair of scissors to the tree skirt until there was no hope of ever saving it. Custom ornaments celebrating her engagement, her wedding, Malcolm’s birth, her 5th anniversary, Ainsley’s birth were all crushed under high heels. For the grand finale, she pushed the tree to the ground and poured a generous helping of liquor for herself before dumping the rest on the tree. She had the lighter in her hand when Malcolm’s trembling voice cut through the haze, “Mom, don’t; not in the house.”

Jessica turned to see her children huddled together on the stairs, watching her. Ainsely was mostly hidden behind her brother but both looked at her with expressions she recognized from that horrible night. Expressions that showed surprise to discover that their parents were capable of such violence and destruction. And part of Jessica was broken that they would think that of her and another part was furious because how dare they compare her to the man sitting in a cell with more pending charges than she cared to count. Martin had always been the fun parent, the one who encouraged them to pester Jessica about breaking perfectly good traditions, like waiting to set the tree up until December first, and now, right before Christmas when there was supposed to be joy and peace in the world and her children were supposed to have not a care in the world, he was the lowlife who left Jessica to clean up after him. 

She’d clean up after Martin, make the kids go to school in January, be sure their clothes fit, tell the chef what to make for dinner, go to the charity events so it was clear her family was thriving. She would get along just fine and make sure her children did too. But first, the tree had to go. 

Jessica sent her children to their rooms. Then she set the tree and everything it symbolized ablaze. 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dani’s 17th birthday was on the three-month anniversary of her dad’s death. She had just started to get to the point where she could go a day or two without crying and she had finally stopped setting the dinner table for the whole family. She had even remembered to ask for four tickets at the movies instead of five. Her heart was still a gaping wound but it wasn’t as raw. 

Then her birthday rolled around, bringing with it a promise that her father would never be able to keep. 

Her father had been taking her and her sisters on special father-daughter dates for their birthday for as long as she could remember. According to him, gifts were good but experiences were excellent. When she was five, he’d taken Dani to a carnival and let her ride the carousel as many times as she wanted. For her 10th birthday, he took her to get her ears pierced and let her pick out earrings that she knew were above her family’s price range, revealing the extra cash he’d been saving just for that occasion. For her 16th birthday, her last ever one with him, they dressed up in their nicest suit and dress, washed his dingy old car until it shined, and drove to the fanciest place they could find. They hadn’t even ordered appetizers before they decided that no place had a right to charge $100 for a house salad and snuck out to eat at the greasy spoon a couple miles away. Dani had spilled ketchup on her pale purple prom dress and she, her dad, their waitress, and the cook had spent 15 minutes getting it out. It had been perfect, an absolutely fitting end to a tradition Dani looked forward to throughout the whole year. 

This birthday there wouldn’t be a father-daughter outing to the beach like Dani had planned. Instead she sat through a calc test where she knew none of the answers, ate a truly pitiful cafeteria attempt at spaghetti and meatballs, and hid in bathroom stalls to cry. When Dani had been out of her fifth period class for far longer than her bathroom hall pass allowed, the school counselor was dispatched to find her. Dani had never spoken to the counselor before her dad died but at this point they were on a first name basis. (Dani saw it as a good sign when the older woman introduced herself as Elle, short for Danielle. Something about their names fitting together like puzzle pieces made her feel safe.) Dani finished the day in Elle’s office, completing work that could have been written in Greek for all Dani knew. 

Before her dad died, going home after school was usually a relief. Now it felt like walking into his funeral over and over. Her mom had tried her hardest to bring the Powell house back to life, adding colorful art with motivational messages and insisting on opening the windows to let in fresh air, even when it was raining and the humidity made Dani’s hair resemble a lion’s mane. But she had to go home, couldn’t dream of scaring her mom by being late, and at least at home she could sleep until tomorrow rolled around and it wasn’t her birthday anymore. 

Even 10 years after her 17th birthday, Dani won’t be able to remember what happened after school that day. Pictures indicate that she had cupcakes and she had sat through her sisters and mom singing “Happy Birthday”. She doesn’t remember anything else. In fact, the rest of that school year and most of that summer are lost to Dani. Her therapist will say it’s a common way for people to manage grief, that the depression will ease with time, that all of it is completely and utterly normal. Dani figures it was her brain’s way of ignoring that her dad wasn’t there. Dad couldn’t be missing from her memories of her birthday if she had none. 

Every birthday after that one hurts in some way, sometimes for the full 24 hours and other times for only a split second. Her 18th is full of anger at her dad for not being there. Her 21st involves her bawling while drunk in some random bar about how she wishes she could be with her dad, even if it meant not being around anymore. She writes a seven-page letter to her dad on her 27th, updating him on every detail of the last decade as if he were still alive. Her 32nd brings a sense of acceptance, of knowing that as much as she misses him and wishes he could be there as she blows out her birthday candles, she wouldn’t trade the life she has for anything.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edrisa had never spent the Fourth of July in the US until she was 26. Summer was the ideal season for her parents to do research in far off lands, which meant it was the season where Edrisa packed a couple bags and left home to follow them on their travels. But this year she couldn’t make the trip. Or, more accurately, she was purposely not invited on the trip. It wasn’t surprising that she had been excluded, but it still hurt.

She had always been closer to her parents than anyone else in the world. Friends were few and far between and even when she did manage to make one, she never felt as comfortable in her skin with them as she did in a hut in a random country with her parents. (And, yes, maybe she wasn’t giving her friends a chance to get close to her and, yes, maybe she wasn’t trying her hardest to make connections, but still.) The comfort meant she kept going on research trips long after she turned 18, kept running back to the safety of the trio that made up her family. 

But then she told her parents she was hoping to be a medical examiner instead of pursuing internal medicine like she had originally planned. She hadn’t realized how much that original plan meant to her parents but her announcement led to a debate that grew into an argument before becoming a full-blown, knock-down, drag-out fight. That had been over her spring break in April and she and her parents hadn’t spoken since and it was tearing her apart. 

Edrisa prided herself on her resilience though and so she planned to make the most of this first Independence Day in her home country. And if that distracted her from her parents’ radio silence, then that was a nice bonus. Edrisa had accepted every invite she got from various colleagues and coworkers, crammed her schedule full of pancake breakfasts, barbeques, block parties, and firework shows. She saw the same few scenes of Independence Day in four different places. She ate no less than five hot dogs throughout the day. By the end of the day, she had spent a total of 160 minutes watching fireworks. But no amount of hot dogs or fireworks or dramatic speeches could dull the voice in the back of her head that was wondering what her mom and dad were doing.

Had Dad gotten sick from sketchy water yet because he didn’t let it boil long enough? Had Mom found the scarf she wanted to buy to add to her collection? Were they seeing souvenirs and thinking of her? Which coworkers were they with? Darrell? Synthia? Nasir? That guy with the cool tattoo sleeves whose name Edrisa could never remember? Did they remember that it was the Fourth of July?

Edrisa arrived back at her tiny apartment far past her usual bedtime, Edrisa curled up on her couch, skipping between TV channels for something she could fall asleep to. By the time she stumbled on the fifth channel playing Independence Day (always that one speech; surely there was more to this movie than this one speech), she had accepted that the universe had clearly determined her entertainment for the night. 

Edrisa settled in to see how the movie ended as one guy (the President? He was in a suit giving a speech and that seemed like enough of a context clue for Edrisa) delivered his, admittedly very moving, speech. “And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice, we will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight.”

Maybe it was the actor’s delivery or the music or fate, but Edrisa found herself ruminating on the same line over and over: “We will not vanish without a fight.” It seemed absurd to compare her fight with her parents to humanity fighting off aliens, but good advice was good advice. Edrisa didn’t want to give up on her family. If she wanted to patch things up, to help her parents see why she didn’t want to work with living patients, to not have to suffer through another Fourth of July block party where she didn’t know anyone, she was going to have to put up a fight. And so she pulled up her e-mail as Will Smith did heroic things and wrote to her parents. She poured all the feelings she’d felt that day, all the melancholy and anger and grief and longing, into the e-mail, took a deep breath, hit send, and turned off her TV. (Edrisa will be well into her 60s before she actually sees Independence Day all the way through. She did have the President’s speech memorized more than 25 years before that.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 14th, 2010-

Tally: Happy Valentines babe <3 <3

JT: Love you!

Tally: How likely is it that your sergeant is gonna let you off early today?

JT: -1000%

Tally: Did you try the “it’s my first valentines with my wife” angel?

Tally: Angle!

JT: Salazar isn’t going to budge. No seniority, no chance of going home early

Tally: But you’ll try anyway right…? (: 

JT: Only because I love you. If you don’t hear back from me it’s because Salazar has sentenced me to work overtime for the next month.

Tally: Fingers crossed!

Tally: Anything?

Tally: It’s been 10 minutes, are you alive?

Tally: JT ANSWER ME OR I’M POSTING YOUR FULL NAME ON FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!

JT: He laughed me out of the room

JT: And now I’m on parking violation duty for the day

Tally: Sorry babe…

JT: Wish I could be with you ):

Tally: Maybe I could go and violate some parking laws…? What do you say, Officer Tarmel?

JT: This is why I married you

Tally: That and the fact that I’m nice enough to wear those heels you love to go and get a parking ticket

JT: your my dream girl ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanksgiving had always been Jackie’s holiday. Ever since their first Thanksgiving together, Gil and Jackie had agreed she would handle Thanksgiving and he would put together Christmas dinner. Jackie had taken immense joy in her perfect Thanksgiving dinners. As if by magic, she made sure the food was done cooking all at the same time, the turkey was never dry, and she had an apple pie so good she would print the recipe to hand out to guests. 

The last two Thanksgivings before Jackie had passed away had been pale imitations of the ones they used to have. The first one, Gil ate some Chinese food while Jackie curled on the couch and nibbled at saltines because the chemo made her too nauseous for anything else. The second was spent in the hospital, discussing funeral plans because Jackie wanted to make sure Gil knew exactly what she wanted. The first Thanksgiving after Jackie died, Gil offered to work so another officer who had just had a baby could be home for the holiday. Gil worked a 13-hour shift, finding reasons to stick around long after he could have gone home. The second Thanksgiving, he went to DC to see Bright, hoping that being in an unfamiliar city would help stave off the sadness that he would never have a Thanksgiving with Jackie again. Bright had gotten called in for an emergency and Gil had spent the day wandering through the city by himself. 

Gil runs out of ways to avoid Thanksgiving the third year. He has too much overtime so work is a no-go. Bright is back in New York. Gil doesn’t particularly want to travel at Thanksgiving again and definitely not by himself. He considered helping at a shelter but apparently the rest of the city has had the same idea because Gil was informed that no additional volunteers were needed. 

He plans to approach the dreaded Thursday like any other. He’ll make a normal meal. He’ll watch a football game he had missed earlier in the week instead of the Thanksgiving games. He will close his curtains so that if a balloon from the parade somehow magically makes its way to his part of town, he won’t see it. 

Gil’s in the middle of heating up canned tomato soup and making a grilled cheese when there’s a knock at the door. He opens it without looking through the peephole, hoping it’s the turtleneck he ordered to replace one that Bright destroyed earlier in the week. The shipping e-mail had said it should be arriving that day. Instead, he finds JT and Tally with four food containers. “It’s just the sides. We were going to bring some turkey but Tally says it’s inedible so…” JT shrugs as he places the food on the table and explains what is what. There’s creamed corn and mashed potatoes and Gil’s stomach rumbles despite his best efforts. The visit is very brief (Tally’s family is headed to their apartment and they need to clean up before anyone gets there) and the food is wonderful. It’s not Jackie’s, not by a long shot, but it’s different enough that it feels odd to compare them and that’s a blessing. 

Gil has just gotten through half of his mashed potatoes when there’s another knock at the door. Again, he hops up, hoping to find his turtleneck on the other side. Instead, he finds Bright, smiling, with Ainsley and Jessica standing behind him. Gil has experienced a Whitly Thanksgiving once, many years ago. It’s just one step down from a black tie affair and Gil had spent most of the four-hour meal prepping to break up a domestic dispute between the various Milton relatives. It had been one of the most unpleasant holidays he had ever experienced and he had spent dozens of holidays working as a police officer, which always promised at least one tragedy. 

Thrown off by seeing the Whitly crew instead of a FedEx employee, it took Gil a moment to realize that Bright was holding an entire turkey. His confusion must have shown on his face because Bright leaned towards Gil and, in a rather loud stage whisper, said, “I told Mother it made no sense to bring a whole turkey, but you know how she gets when she sets her mind on something.” Ainsley chuckled behind Bright and Jessica looked between both her children with a look of overexaggerated offense. 

Gil’s manners kicked in after a moment. “Do you want to come in? I can’t eat a whole turkey alone,” he gestured with his hand to invite them in, but all three responded by shaking their heads.

“Thank you, Gil, but we can’t impose,” Jessica said in her tone that indicated there was no room for disagreement. “There’s no need to play host on today of all days.” The subtext was clear: I wouldn’t want to have to pretend to be okay on a hard day; I won’t make you. It was a kind thought but as he watched the little family walk back to the car, Ainsley and Bright joking with each other, Gil wasn’t sure if he would rather them stay or leave. 

The turkey was delicious and Gil was nodding off in his favorite chair when the third and final knock of the evening came. Gil got up, again feeling the excitement of getting his new turtleneck because surely that’s the only reason someone would be at his door at 9:00 PM on Thanksgiving. 

“You’re not my turtleneck,” Gil bemoaned as he opened the door to see Dani. 

She scoffed, “Nice to see you too.”

“Sorry, I’ve just been waiting for the turtleneck-”

“You ordered to replace the one that got ruined in that fire Bright set?” Dani raised her eyebrows, proud of finishing his sentence. 

Gil chuckled, “You and I may spend too much time together.” 

Dani made her way into Gil’s living room, comfortable enough to not wait for permission. “I brought you something,” Dani said while extending her hand that held an opaque Tupperware. Her voice was tinged with nervousness; it reminded Gil of a kid handing in a test they thought they might fail. “It’s definitely not perfect and I don’t think I baked it long enough but hopefully it’s okay.”

As Dani spoke, Gil opened the container and was met by a smell so familiar and beloved that it brought a tear to his eyes. The smell was the perfect mix of apple, cinnamon, and nutmeg; a smell so connected to Jackie that Gil could have sworn she was in the room. He couldn’t resist tasting it, even though he suspected that Dani might still be talking, unaware that he had been transported to happier years. She was right, the pie could have done with another minute or two but besides that it was perfect. No one else had ever gotten it this perfect. He couldn’t even get it this perfect and he helped Jackie make her pie at least a dozen times. 

“Dani,” Gil was fighting back the emotions that were threatening to overwhelm him. “This is just right. How… How did you get it just right?”

Pulling a stained and folded piece of paper from her back pocket, with a look of surprise on her face, Dani responded, “Jackie gave me the recipe that first Thanksgiving, right before she got…” Right before she got sick hung in the air, unsaid. How many times had Gil seen Jackie pass out this recipe? And yet no one had ever made the pie correctly. What made Dani different? He unfolded the recipe like it was a precious artifact. Scrawled in Jackie’s messy handwriting in the corner was a note: Top secret! To make this correctly add apple cider syrup (about ½ cup). Love, Jackie.

Gil didn’t even try to contain his laugh. Of course, Jackie, his Jackie who was so competitive and always up to something mischievous, would never give out her full recipe, not even to him. And of course, Jackie, his Jackie who was endlessly compassionate and always looking out for people, would have the foresight to see that Dani would be the type of person to bring him pie when Jackie was gone. Even now, his wife was amazing him and making sure he had a proper Thanksgiving. 

As Gil fell asleep that night, his phone buzzed. More out of habit than anything, he reached for it and found an e-mail. The subject line? “Men’s gray turtleneck delivery delayed to 1/31”. Gil groaned. Now if only one of his team members would show up with a turtleneck!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Logically, Bright gets the value of New Year’s. It's a clear chance for a new beginning, a perfect time to reflect on the past, and, of course, an opportunity for one more party before the holiday season ends and everyone returns to their normal lives. It all makes sense in theory. 

Theory isn’t reality and the reality of New Year’s has never met Bright’s expectations. New York on December 31st is always brimming with tourists who want to see the ball drop and make the city claustrophobic. Reflecting on the past year usually includes remembering a laundry list of mistakes and horror. Planning for the new year just results in people expecting something that never comes. And, to be completely honest, he has yet to attend a New Year’s Eve party that he didn’t regret the next morning. Nothing about midnight on January first makes anyone a new person. 

Despite all of that, Bright’s loft was decked out for a New Year’s Eve party thanks to a bet. He had been so confident the janitor had killed their victim and JT had been equally confident Bright was wrong. So the bet was made: if Bright was right JT had to reveal the letter that came after the J in his name; if JT won, Bright had to throw a New Year’s Eve party. It had not been the janitor, but the janitor’s identical twin brother who killed the victim. Despite his best efforts to convince him otherwise, Gil ruled in favor of JT and now Bright had a party to throw.

Mother had, of course, taken matters into her own hands, insisting that there was no way Bright could throw a New Year’s party as well as her event planner could. He had tried to convince her that this would be a small party with just a few people from work and that it truly did not require an event planner who would charge at least $4,000. His efforts were in vain and now he could barely recognize his own home through the catered food, the enormous number of gold and silver decorations, and the pièce de résistance: a disco ball that was far too big for his apartment. 

Perhaps it was fitting that he couldn’t recognize his home under the decorations. Life had become increasingly unrecognizable since that day in Vermont with Martin and the Woodsman. The day his father had tried to kill him and Bright had instead murde– killed his father. (His army of therapists had been working diligently to help Bright change the way he spoke about the event; shifting from Bright murdering Martin to Bright having defended himself. It was a very slow process.) Bright didn’t recognize himself most days and his safe spaces had dwindled rapidly. There was court and mandatory time off and 72-hour holds and so much therapy. There were hard conversations to be had and confessions to be made and apologies to be given by the dozens. Now, still far from okay but no longer on the edge of insanity, Bright was facing a completely foreign idea: a new year without his father. 

Martin Whitly would not see a single second of 2022. 

Malcolm Bright would get to see all of them. 

Malcolm had never had a year without his father. Never had a chance to see what he could be without Martin. Never even considered that one day he wouldn’t feel torn between Claremont and the real world where people were sometimes cruel but mostly kind. Maybe Bright didn’t buy into the idea of New Year’s because he’d still be carrying his trauma and demons and flaws whether it was December 31st, 2021 or January 1st, 2022, but it did seem worth celebrating a year where he would only carry the ghost of his father, instead of the real thing. 

So, despite the party being entirely over-the-top, Bright made the most of it. He laughed with his friends, played party games and lost at all of them in spectacular fashion. He ate some food that wasn’t licorice and Dani literally applauded him for it. He got to hold JT’s baby who smiled at Bright and for a moment he enjoyed being with someone who did not find him strange or odd or shattered through with trauma. Kisses and hugs were shared at midnight and it felt like maybe beautiful things were beginning. 

By the time 2:00 AM rolled around, it was just Bright, sitting on the floor, his back against his front door. The loft was a disaster and Bright was certain it would take years to de-glitter the space. The sirens outside were loud and more frequent than normal and if he squinted, Bright could see snow falling lightly outside. He leaned his head back against the door and released a long breath, thinking about how this year, as ridiculous as it was, felt different, felt lighter. It was enough to make him laugh. The noise bubbled up out of his mouth involuntarily and startled Sunshine awake from her perch just a bit above Bright’s head. She chirped indignantly, as if scolding him for waking her up. It made him laugh even more. He apologized to her and pulled himself up to start heading to bed. 

“Happy new year, Sunshine. I think it’ll be a good one.”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A/N: For a person who has only just started using emojis in the year 2023, not using them in Tally and JT’s text was shockingly difficult. I hope you enjoyed seeing me flex my very limited memory of emoticons. Also, I googled secret ingredients for apple pie so if you make one with apple cider syrup and it’s bad, it’s not my fault.

 Also, I’m sorry to all my Ainsley fans; on hour six of writing so she did not get a vignette. (Though there’s totally something to be said for a piece about Ainsley at Halloween.) Sorry that she’s the only main cast member who didn’t get some love. 

Thank you for reading! If you’re someone who is going through holidays without their loved one, I’m sending you hugs, warm blankets, and your favorite beverage. I hope this maybe brought a bit of catharsis or hope. May all of you have a wonderful 2024, full of loved ones, good food, and lots of pleasant surprises. And most importantly, may 2024 bring us the miracle of a season 3!

#psonsecretsanta23 #prodigal son #and I am not tagging all the characters that are in this but they're mostly all there #didn't Tumblr use to have a horizontal line you could put in your text so you don't have to type ----- to separate sections? #did I imagine that? #silence emily #have fun with this; I wrote it in 6 hours with no breaks after thinking about it for at least 2 months #grief man. it's crazy

[maya-matlin]

Hi! It's your devoted Degrassi anon again. I just sent you my first ask since joining this site and now you're also getting my second :) I like how you analyze characters so am asking more about similar and different traits like I did about Zig x Maya in my last ask! What do you think are a few similarities and differences between...Jay and Manny? Between Spinner and Paige? Between Cam and Maya? Between JT and Liberty (good luck finding similarities!) I hope you have fun answering!

I appreciate you continuing to send me asks. I'll do my best with some of these because to be honest, I typically don't think to compare and contrast the characters.

Jay and Manny are interesting because they're both extremely different and yet oddly similar. In spite of having a questionable past involving pursuing guys and not being entirely fair to other girls in the process, Manny is overall an extremely loving, loyal, supportive person who is more likely to help someone make the right decision than destroy their own life. This is particularly true from season 5 on. Jay, on the other hand, is a chaos demon. He's rarely ever the focus of a story line, so for that reason his exact motives are unclear. Maybe he's bored. Maybe he's being malicious. Maybe he legitimately thinks that his underhanded methods are the ideal way to get the outcome he wants. Personally, I lean towards the latter. I think his entire grasp on morality is skewed. For this reason, he rarely ever gives the best advice in a situation, almost always making things worse for the people around him. At least prior to his character development, as much as you can call it that. Manny's a dreamer who is determined to make her acting dreams come true. Jay's more pessimistic and doesn't seem to aim very high. While he eventually settles down with a stable job as a mechanic, it never seems like this is his dream. He's good with cars and has developed enough as person where he's willing to work a legitimate job to make money rather than stealing or like.. being drug dealer adjacent? Whatever you want to call his involvement in JT's dealing back in season 5. But ultimately, both love life and enjoy a good scheme. They're not afraid to lie or stretch the truth to get the outcome they want. While Jay typically does this for "evil" reasons, for Manny it's mostly so that she can live her life freely without judgment or being held back. Also, in spite of everything negative I've said about Jay, he's actually a very loyal person in his own way. Once he truly cares about someone, he never gives up on them. He misses Sean after he moves back to Wasaga Beach and quickly resumes their friendship when Sean returns to town. After Alex dumps him, he repeatedly pursues her. Initially, he only wants Alex as a girlfriend and even attempts to undermine her newfound feelings for Paige so that he can get what he wants. But once Alex comes out and he accepts that there's no future for them, he seems content to be in her life as a friend. Spinner and Jay have lots of ups and downs before forming a firm friendship, but Jay consistently tries to help Spinner even it leads to toxic results. Once Manny enters Jay's life, he basically never considers another girl after that. Manny kind of speaks for herself. Manny's a consistently great friend throughout the series. We see this most notably with Emma. No matter how many periods of estrangement they go through or whatever shitty things Emma says or does to Manny, she always quickly forgives. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a single Manny friendship that she ever permanently left behind other than when she was briefly friends with Paige? Unlike Jay who has very few personal connections, Manny has several. And lastly, neither is particularly judgmental. Jay has his own moral compass, and Manny learned through multiple mistakes that everyone fucks up and deserves compassion.

As for Spinner and Paige, I think they're mostly opposites. Both wanting different things out of life is the reason things never worked out between them. Initially, Spinner and Paige had shallow similarities. Both valued popularity and kind of "ruled" over the school through fear and intimidation rather than compassion. While Spinner intimidated others by using his muscles, Paige connived and hurt others using her words. As the years went on, both eventually grew out of these traits. Paige's growth came first. Following her rape, she gradually became a kinder, wiser person. She underwent another dramatic change following her trial. Facing off against Dean and getting closure over her rape seemed to put things into perspective for Paige. Other than during her feud with Manny at the end of the season, she mostly starts looking towards her future and moving past her previous mean girl characterization in favor of being someone grown up. This is very apparent in the way Paige handles Rick following the paint and feathers humiliation in contrast to Spinner, who basically kicks Rick while he's down. We see that Paige is a very ambitious person with goals to attend Banting and later, to have some sort of role in the fashion industry. Spinner's the opposite. He doesn't seem to know what he wants for his life for a long time. We're supposed to be happy that he decides to be a cop mostly because he wants to play the hero and participate in what no one will call police brutality. Thankfully, he just sticks with running The Dot. By the end of Spinner's run on the show, he's become a much wiser, kinder person. Just not in the same way as Paige. Paige can be extremely judgmental and particular about the people around her making the "right" decisions for their lives. This is typically rooted in classism. Within reason, Spinner is very supportive of all walks of life. It's telling that unlike Paige, Spinner seems to come from a working class background. As soon as he's old enough to get a job, he finds one. Paige only gets a job specifically because she has to pay Spinner back for wrecking his car. I guess because of the differences, Spinner is fine with wanting "humbler" things? I'm not sure how else to describe it. As Spinner tells Emma in their final regular appearance, he's happy with his life. He doesn't want fame and doesn't care about being rich. He seems completely content where he is and simply wants a partner to share that with him. Paige's lack of being able to do this is the reason things didn't work out not only with Spinner, but with Alex.

Sigh. Here's the thing about Cam. I always struggle to say much of anything about Cam or the kind of person he was. I don't think he had a very well defined character. So much of Cam's personality and the way he interacted with others was wrapped up in the fact he was suicidal, depressed, anxious and overall in a miserable headspace during his time on the show. What did he want? All I really know is that he didn't want to play hockey, desired happiness, and liked being around Maya. Cam showed somewhat of a talent for singing, but nothing was ever done with that and it didn't seem to be something he took seriously. He was angry and jealous over the clear vibes between Zig and Maya and perceived Zig as a threat. That's about it? Maya was much more layered than Cam ever was, even during her own depression arc. So, I kind of feel like it's unfair for me to say things like Maya was more outgoing than Cam, was more interested in exploring a physical relationship, or that she navigated social situations better than he did. Or, even that Maya was more ambitious than Cam because she was committed to making her music happen during seven out of her eight seasons. Who's to say what Cam was like prior to arriving at Degrassi? Did he always hate and resent the thing he was best at, or did his mental health lead him there? What if he'd survived or never attempted suicide in the first place? I'd have a lot more to say. But unfortunately, it comes back to the fact Cam was a pretty straightforward character who only existed for one purpose. Sorry. I know this is a disappointing answer. What I can say is that both Cam and Maya at different points were hurt kids who were crying out for help. Their red flags weren't taken seriously or noticed until it was too late. Thankfully for Maya, she got a second chance and was able to get the happy ending she deserved. Cam was literally created and killed to be the personification of Maya's trauma. Otherwise, you could say they were both awkward, insecure kids in their first relationship just trying to figure things out.

I feel like it's going to be pretty impossible for me to come up with similarities between JT and Liberty. They're polar opposites that attract. Liberty is logical. JT thinks and acts based on emotion. Liberty aims to find a stable career. She eventually attends law school. JT wanted to go into the entertainment industry. He was happy working on a basic cable show for kids. I guess if I had to list a similarity, it's that both are willing to stand up for what's right? It's the thing that leads to their relationship upgrade in season 4. But surprisingly, Liberty is braver than JT in many ways. Even though she's the more logical one who tends to play by the rules, it's JT who backs down and is prepared to play along while Liberty is adamant that the recent tragic events shouldn't be ignored by Raditch. But honestly, it's all their very opposite traits that seem to complement one another. This allows them to meet in the middle. At their best, Liberty is happier, lighter, and more daring with JT while JT becomes more sensitive and practical (at least somewhat). It's honestly a shame that their relationship was destroyed so quickly thanks to the pregnancy. Had they been allowed to continue growing without Liberty getting pregnant, I think the rest of their relationship would have played out much differently.

#Anonymous #suicide tw #Long post #These will definitely be published late because my brain has been in a fog lately #There's no in between #Either I have a lot to say or can't string two sentences together

[georgiapeach30513]

Hi Peach! Mrs. Pasta checking in <3

Oh silly silly Justin Timberlake. You know, I grew up with NSYNC and always for some reason did not like JT. All the girls in my grade were obsessed with him but I was actually team JC.

I don't care enough about the man to have any hate for him but I do think...his ego clearly cannot deal and it's finally catching up to him though it should have caught up back when he left Janet Jackson out to dry all those years ago. She was embarrassed and disgraced and he got to go on and be Mr. Sexyback. I'm glad BRITNEY of all people gets to serve him his humble pie. YAS Queen!

Sidenote: Jessica Biel Timberlake. I used to watch this woman in her prime during 7th Heaven and then her solo movie career days. Ironically I never knew she dated Ramen for that long but she was THEE It girl back then. Wow. And now....damn. She must really love this noodle haired nasal voiced man child that much to be still up his ass after all that's happened. Anyone remember the Alisha Wainwright drama? Ride or die I guess...SMH

Lastly, I'm actually really glad Ramen eventually got famous on his own and without the help from his much more famous gf at the time. GOOD for him! It took him quite some time because my first ideation of him was in 2004 in FF and then I forgot he existed until 2019. And then boom - he was suddenly everywhere. For someone who did not follow the MCU - he never really made it on my radar so even though I was always aware he played Cap I continuously forgot about him. Sorry Ramen! I was actually surprised he appeared to blow up after he stopped being Steve - for the general public. Between 2019-2022 it was something else. That and counting his own (at the time) extremely passionate fanbase, it really felt cool to see someone come up this far. A friend of mine actually mentioned last year "he got so much hotter now, way more than he used to be." I feel like he's a late bloomer in Hollywood terms. Contrary to some naysayers and "tarot readers" I don't think a resurgence is out of the question. And I DO hope he gets more work.

I wish him - and you and your followers - the best! Stay safe y'all!

Hey, Mrs. Pasta! Glad you ventured back here.

I gotta tell you, I’m tired of Mr. JT. I was a huge NSYNC fan and he was my top favorite. That shine faded quickly after his debut album, and with the second album he was still singing about what Britney did. That man has just always wanted attention and he didn’t mind which woman he stepped on as a rung on that ladder.

As far as top Ramen goes, we know he can act and act well and get praise outside of Marvel, Knives Out. But it’s a shame to see him deduced to a meathead action star and a husband that never smiles unless he’s alone. But I digress, that’s neither here nor there. It was refreshing to see him laugh, be goofy, and even walk with his head held high with politicians, even the President. Guess he wasn’t too afraid of meanies to meet with fans.

I’m very happy about Honey Don’t, and I’m excited to see what else is in store for him. I have a feeling he’s going to have a very busy year. And he started off January with a movie announcement and working back with ASP. It’s good to see him in his element and not to see him so stern or miserable.

#Mrs. Pasta

[coradelsol]

Justin Timberlake Karmic Numerology ⚖️

For our yearly cycle we take our month and day of birth, excluding our year of birth. Instead we add the yearly vibration of the current year to our month and day.

Justin Timberlake 2023 yearly cycle:

Born: January 31st

Current year is 2023; when added down to estimate the vibration it is (2+0+2+3 = 7). Seven is the vibration of this year, which we will add to Justin’s birthday.

JT is in a Personal Year of 3

1 + 31 + (2023= 7)

1 + 31 + 7 = 39

39 = (3 + 9) = 12

12 (Hanged Man in the tarot)

Hanged man: Pisces/Neptune

12 = (1 + 2) = 3

3 (Empress)

Taurus, Libra/Venus

Why are these numbers and tarot cards important?

According to his numerology Justin Timberlake is in a personal year of 3. Unfortunately for him before it’s added down we find that he is in the Hanged Man position within the tree of life. The hanged man is the card right after Justice! The archetypes tied to these numbers demonstrate that Justin Timberlake is going through spiritual trial. It is his time to reap the karma of his past actions, whether good or bad when someone is within the year of the hanged man the scales of Justice has balanced in the previous year and now it is up to the universe to trial the person in question and therefore he is left hanging until deliberation. Guilty or not guilty? Britney Spears on the other hand is in a personal year of 3 as well, YET her numbers add down to 21. Twenty-one is the World in tarot, completion of cycles, victory, etc. This year of 2023 is for Britney to shine like the star that she is. I even feel she will get back to work and actually enjoy it. She will come to an understanding that it’s actually pleasing to work without being controlled.

#tarot #tarotcards #tarotreading #tarotreadersoftikttok #tarotreader #astrology #numerology #tarotreadings #tarotreadersofinstagram #tarotreadersofyoutube #tarot2023 #britneyspears #justintimberlake #justintimberlake? #etsyreader #etsyseller

https://linktr.ee/coradelsol

Gmail: [email protected]

(I am very busy, and I do not approach the public to offer readings. All business is via my Etsy shop, thank you.)

**** ETSY: CoraDelSolByRose ****

PayPal: [email protected]

Venmo: @Coradelsol

Cash App: $CoraDelSol

Tumblr: CoraDelSol

TikTok: @coradelsol

Twitter(X): MiCoraDelSol

Instagram: @coradelsol

https://linktr.ee/coradelsol

Legally & according to law I am obligated to say this is for entertainment purposes only; 100% accuracy in predictions & timeframes are not promised as energy is changing constantly, time is fluid & timeless in the spiritual realm. I am not held liable for any actions taken from my readings, public or private.

https://linktr.ee/coradelsol

When purchasing a reading from my shop you agree to be of legal age, 18 and over. I do not read for questions based on: death, legal matters, the afterlife, those who have passed on, health, pregnancy, or medical. If and when I do not feel comfortable completing a reading, I will issue a full refund.

https://linktr.ee/coradelsol

#etsyusa #daily tarot #numerology #astrology #tarotonline #tarot reading #numerologychart #life path number #numerologist #justin timberlake #britney spears #youtube #youtumblr #etsysale #etsylove #etsystore #etsyfinds #etsysmallbusiness #etsyshop #tiktok #tarot cards #tarotcommunity

[merrock]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

face claim: Zoe Kravitz

full name: Lennon Bowie Reed

nickname(s): Lenny

pronouns & gender: she/her & cis woman

sexuality: bisexual

birth date: August 2, 1990

birth place: Manhattan

time in town: one week

housing: Historical Downtown

occupation: Clerk at the Vinyl Hub

family: her dad grew up in Merrock and though she rarely speaks to him, he was known around town back in the day.

personality: Lenny can seem tough as nails, at first. She has built up a strong resolve and is scared to let it fade away. But she’s also a huge softie at heart and hides behind her fear. She loves music deeply and holistically and can talk your ear off about it. When she decides someone is worth letting in, she is loyal for life. But she’s scared to trust, for now. For now, you get sarcastic quips and flirtatious indifference.

BACKGROUND / BIO

TW: Abandonment, divorce, drugs, alcohol

It was a bright, sunny day when Lenny was brought into this world. The Turn of the Century was around the corner, and Alicia Kelly was trying her best. She was a waitress, born and raised in Brooklyn, who fell a little too hard and too fast for one former Merrockite, George Reed. George wasn’t a bad guy; not really. But he was unreliable, and couldn’t sweat staying in one place for too long. He was the guitarist in a touring band, and he was always on the road. But bills had to be paid, so Alicia held down the fort in a small apartment on Houston.

Lennon Bowie was named after musicians, and came from musical blood. It surprised no one that she took after her father’s musical obsessions. She also took after his fickle nature and need to move, but she also held her mother’s fortitude and strength.

Much of the time, it was Alicia and Lenny against the world. But Lenny grew to love their shared space, their bodega cat ‘round the corner, the guitar shops that beckoned to her and the ice cream truck that always stopped just so she could grab a firecracker after school. She especially loved the record store down the block, and spent as much time browsing the aisles as she could get away with.

School was tough… she was sharper than most gave her credit for, but couldn’t sit still. Her grades fluctuated, but she made it through until junior year. Her father and mother got into a huge fight and he took off for good. Lenny was crushed, and her fear of abandonment bloomed into an ugly spiral. She turned to anything that would dull her pain and fill the father shaped hole in her heart; drugs, alcohol, sex. This did not bode well for her. She and her mother grew apart in many ways during this time- her mother thought she was throwing everything away for cheap thrills; but Lenny felt alone and didn’t know how to communicate.

She barely eked by, but somehow got into the Music, Sound and Culture major at Tufts in Boston. She was high much of the time, and her grades weren’t stellar. But she had a deep and vicious love of music, and that knowledge and passion powered her through. At the end of school, she contemplated going back to New York to stay with her mother. But she couldn’t - she caught a flight to Portland, and over the course of five years, went from job to job in many states - even hitting Berlin, Germany for a spell, just to try and find herself in the process.

She ended up in DC, working shifts at a bar when she met JT Rhodes, a novelist. After years of affairs and situations and heartbreaks, something in her fell head over heels. She was undone - this man with a sharp wit absolutely wooed her. They shared music, words, time and money and eventually a house. He was her everything for five whole years - and she was in it for the long haul. After years of fearing this abandonment, resisting the idea of comfort and marriage and lifetimes, she was all in. But everything comes out in the wash.

JT was just like the rest of them, with three other women on the side. She was… crushed wasn’t even a word to describe the impact. She fell apart - and needed to go back to the beginning. Merrock, Maine.

Her dad had been from there - and though she barely knew him any longer, she had to start from square one. She found a spot open for a clerk at the Vinyl Hub, and she thought this slower beach town with a job in music was as good a place as any to start over.

#merrockbio #lennonreed

[quickbanana]

1984 honda v30 magna 500

#1984 HONDA V30 MAGNA 500 INSTALL#

#1984 HONDA V30 MAGNA 500 PRO#

#1984 HONDA V30 MAGNA 500 PROFESSIONAL#

The kit includes the best quality sprockets from JT Sprockets, ESJOT GmbH, AFAM Belgium, ZF Poland, the largest manufacturers in the world.Buying a bike begins at Bikez Compare the strengths and weaknesses of this bike with others before you decide on your future bike. Below is the riders rating of the 1984 Honda V30 Magna motorcycle.

#1984 HONDA V30 MAGNA 500 INSTALL#

REMEMBER THAT IF YOU CHOOSE AN ENDLESS CHAIN, YOU WILL HAVE TO REMOVE THE SWINGARM TO INSTALL IT 1984 Honda V30 Magna rated as 69.8 out of 100.0 based on 5 ratings. If you wish an endless chain, please contact us.

#1984 HONDA V30 MAGNA 500 PRO#

Motion Pro Black Vinyl Speedo Cable for 1987-07 Honda VT1100C Shadow - 02-0111. (Remember that the spring clip open end, always must be facing in the opposite direction of the chain drive direction!) 1984 Honda V30 Magna VF500 VF 500 OEM SPEEDOMETER CABLE SPEEDO LINE.

If you prefer a CLIP-type Link, you can consider ordering a motorcycle chain master link pliers with this kit, which make easier to close/remove the connecting (joining) link. Fits your Honda VF500C V30 Magna 1984 Jet Kit for 1984 Honda V-30 Magna.

(Specially on mid and large displacement bikes, for security reasons)

We strongly recommend to install any of the mentioned rivet type master links with this kit.

If you choose a SOLID RIVET type link, you will need a riveter or you can order a Solid Rivet Tool in our website. Great condition and fun bike to ride, starts and runs very well -chain drive, V4 engine -New Yuasa battery 2020 -powder coated frame -low mileage -includes a bottle of Kendall oil 10w-40 and Oxford 1 magnetic tank bag -some upkeep required, (exhaust pipes have some rust underneath, some cracks in front tire, needs a tuneup, etc) -selling as I no longer have time to ride it.

#1984 HONDA V30 MAGNA 500 PROFESSIONAL#

You can order in our website the inexpensive AFAM EASY RIV, a great value tool (NOT for professional use)

This kit includes an open sealed chain with a hollow nose master link RIVET type and requires a chain-press rivet tool to be properly installed.

We will cut to length the chain in accordance with your sprockets choice.

This chain & sprockets set for HONDA VF 500 C V30 Magna is a good option to replace the original kit, with an great quality/price ratio.

Optionally you can choose master links, brake pads, nuts, bolts, cush drives, etc for your HONDA VF 500 C V30 Magna.

You can choose different front & rear sprockets.

- DID Chain Spain offers customizable chain & sprockets kit for HONDA VF 500 C V30 Magna.

The bike also featured a hydraulic clutch, twin horns, and engine temperature gauge. But the shaft drive also decreased the power during in-town or lower speed driving. There was a shaft drive, which means it had almost no maintenance required. This was perfect for good economy at highway speeds. The Honda Magna also was a water-cooled, six-speed transmission. The four cylinders gave a smooth delivery of power. In the 80's the Honda Magna had a V4 engine with a 90-degree layout. Doris Maron was bold enough to tour solo and without a support crew. Other than the carbs, the rest of the bike should be pretty straightforward to work on. The Magna carbs have to be lifted up then slid out the side. This cruising bike found fame when a grandmother used it to tour the world. V4 carb removal and installation is bad enough even with a straight shot (removing them straight up and off the bike). Yet it made a comeback in 1994 and was on the market until 2003. The boom of the ‘70s reached its peak and Honda held on for as long as possible. There was a decline in motorcycle sales at that time. The engine on the Magna contributed to the evolution of the motorcycle. The Honda Magna was a cruising bike made by Honda in 1982 to 1988.

#1984 honda v30 magna 500

[harlowsbby]

I posted 13,827 times in 2022

That's 13,635 more posts than 2021!

8,736 posts created (63%)

5,091 posts reblogged (37%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@harlowsbby

@jacksmoviestar

@a-moment-captured

@lcandothisallday

I tagged 3,384 of my posts in 2022

#jack harlow - 1,390 posts

#jack harlow concepts - 816 posts

#🌸 anon - 260 posts

#jack harlow imagine - 237 posts

#🧁 anon - 192 posts

#urban - 189 posts

#jack harlow x reader - 181 posts

#🍉anon - 119 posts

#🌎anon - 113 posts

#💕 anon - 90 posts

Longest Tag: 127 characters

#my classmate asked for a ride to school and i was iffy at first but she said she’ll give me gas money so i said alright fuck it

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Heated

710 notes - Posted August 6, 2022

#4

Angst request: gf yn is on tour with Jack and one of the tour mates is crushing really hard on yn. Jealous Jack. Possessive Jack. Sweetheart yn.

She’s taken

Jack loved you with all his heart he truly did you were the girl of his dreams the sweetheart he’s been manifesting but at the same time he hated the fact that you acted so clueless to when other guys were flirting with you or trying to get at you.

Jack had asked if you wanted to join him on tour and you of course said yes you were beyond thrilled to see everything that went on behind the scenes of everything and seeing your man before every other night was something you wouldn’t wait to see.

You were all in Denver Colorado for Jack’s show that night you were currently sitting with Neelam and Jt just looking at different types of nail designs and hairstyles you all wanted to do for tonight’s show. You were so into the different designs that you didn’t notice one of Jack’s band members trying to get your attention till Jt tapped your shoulder.

“I think he’s trying to talk to you girl.” Looking up you smiled seeing Earl, he was apart of Jack’s live band he was really and always kind to you.

“Oh hi Earl how are you doing? You ready for tonight’s show.”

Neelam and Jt smirked at one another noticing a certain curly headed boyfriend of yours now inspecting Earl and You.

“Yes most definitely I’m always ready to go out there and show out like we always do.” There wasn’t not one mean bone in your body you just loved to spread love and positivity and that was something Jack loved, you always judged by the mind and heart never by how a person looks like or acts like.

“That’s good I’m really excited you do so good on the drums I always wanted to play the drums back in high school.”

“I can always teach you whenever you’re free if you’re down.”

“I’d like that.” He smiled and the two of you continued to talk about anything and everything.

“You just gonna let him sweet talk your girl.?” Nemo came from behind Jack and rubbed on his shoulders. Jack was trying him best to work on being less possessive and protective with you because the last thing he wanted was for you to think he controlled you and controlled who you talked to.

“What am I gonna say Nemo? You know how Y/N is she’ll get mad at me instead of Earl and besides she doesn’t really see the issue I guess.”

“All I’m saying is the way he’s touching up on your girl and being all friendly with her wouldn’t slide with me.” Nemo walked away from Jack leaving him alone in his thoughts as he watched Earl brush his hands on your arms a few times but what did it for Jack was when Earl leaned in to say something in your ear which caused you to start giggling like a fool.

He quickly flung off the couch and started walking towards the two of you.

“Uh oh here comes trouble.” Neelam and Jt both laughed and watched how Jack’s face held a stern and jealousy look.

“May Earl rest easy he lived a good life.” Jt joked the two of them ready for what was about to go down.

“What’s going on over here?” You jumped a bit at the sound of Jack’s voice since you didn’t hear him walking up from behind you.

“Earl was just telling me how he can teach me how to play the drums sometime when we all have downtime that is.” Earl smiled and nodded up at Jack but his smile was quickly replaced by a frown.

Jack rolled his eyes at Earl and held a stern and cold look with him till he felt you tugging on his hoodie, his face softened when he made eye contact with you, something about you always managed to calm him down and he was grateful that you were his light when he had bad days.

“Jack? What’s wrong baby did something happen, did someone say anything to you.” You looked up at him with your big doe eyes your voice sounding so sweet and fragile that Jack almost forgot what he was mad about.

“Uh nothings wrong baby I just came over to see if you wanted to get something to eat before the show?” Jack sighed mentally he knew he should’ve brought up what was bothering him but he wasn’t about to stress the small stuff, he knew you were loyal to him and only him so there was no need to worry.

Smiling you nodded and took his hand in yours before quickly giving Earl a hug goodbye.

“Bye Earl I’ll see you later before the show.” You waved him goodbye and he smiled back before waving bye as well.

“What do you feel like eating Jack?”

“Whatever you want baby.” He brought the back of your hand up to his lips and kissed it before wrapping his left arm around your shoulder and brining you into him.

“This man sure is whipped.” Jt told Neelam as the two of them watched Jack and You leave to go get food.

“He sure is he sure is.”

730 notes - Posted September 10, 2022

#3

concept: smacking jacks ass

but in front of his friends...

“Y/N I swear on everything if you smack my ass in front of the boys ima hurt you baby.” Jack playfully threatened making you pout and hide your hands behind your back.

“Like I’d ever do something like that Jack you know I’d never embarrass you like that.” You lied perfectly straight through your teeth. He nodded scratching his beard and glaring at you slightly.

“For some reason I don’t believe you, if you slap my ass baby I won’t talk to you till next year.” He said before making his way downstairs to where everyone was at.

You smirked knowing full on well you were going to slap his ass in front of them but I mean you couldn’t resist it especially when it looked so round like a peach.

“Damn took y’all long enough I thought y’all was up there fucking like rabbits.” Druski said making everyone laugh meanwhile Jack flipped him off and stood in front of the tv watching the football game.

You couldn’t resist it just seeing how good his ass looked in those gray sweats it was hard not to slap it. Druski looked at you with his eyebrows furrowed as well as Clay and Urban till they saw your right hand lean back and slap Jack’s ass.

Jack yelped at how hard you actually slapped it and turned around quickly and covered his ass.

“Yo what the fuck your girlfriend slaps your ass? I knew your ass was freaky but shit.” Druski laughed making Urban and Clay almost spit out their drinks.

“Shit I didn’t know Y/N was the man of the relationship now.” Urban said making Jack flip him off.

“I just couldn’t help it your ass looked so good in those sweats ba-.” You squealed being lifted up and tossed onto Jack’s shoulder as he carried you upstairs.

“Ima show you who’s the man of this relationship baby I told you that you’d regret it.” Your eyes widened knowing you’d be on bed rest tomorrow.

“Yeah it’s time to head out, y’all want chic-fil-a?” Druski asked Urban and Clay who nodded their heads quickly before heading out.

734 notes - Posted May 25, 2022

#2

imagine jack and reader sitting courtside and the basketball players giving reader all the attention and jack getting fed up😭🤍

Enough is enough

“What’s wrong Jack? Are you not having any fun.” You teased as the grouch next to you groaned and huffed watching all the basketball players come up to you and flirt.

“No I’m not having any fun actually and I’d rather go back home.” He crossed his arms over his chest and pouted like a five year old child.

Tonight Jack wanted to take you on a little date night which consisted of the two of you sitting courtside side at the Golden State Warriors game but the minute the two of you arrived Jack instantly regretted it.

Your outfit was pretty simple nothing too over the top, Jack thought it would be cute if the two of you matched tonight, he wore a Golden State Jersey with his black cargos while you wore a very short short skirt in Jack’s eyes with a crop Golden State t-shirt.

“Jack you don’t see me getting upset when thousands of girls are thirsting over you and throwing themselves at you everyday, besides now you know how it feels.” You mumbled the last part but he heard you loud and clear.

“That’s different though baby, I don’t pay attention to any of them I only pay attention to you and half the time all they want is pictures, but these basketball players they want more then just pictures.”

“Yeah they wanna get between them thighs.” Urban joked from behind the two of you, Sunni chuckled but immediately stop when Jack flared at the two.

“Watch, I bet you one of them comes up to you and tries asking you out as if they don’t know you’re with me.” Jack soon regretted those words because just like magic one of the players known as Jordan Poole came strolling over to where you were all seated.

“Uh oh.” Sunni laughed and watched how Jack’s jaw clenched and unclenched, eyeing Jordan up and down.

“You know this whole time I’ve been trying to focus on the game but your beauty has honestly been distracting me so much.” Jordan grinned and sure you should’ve told him that Jack was your man but where was the fun in that.

“Why thank you Jordan you know I’ve honestly been only watching you all night.” Jack’s head whipped to the side, you stiffed a laugh at how his mouth flung open the shock and hurt evident on his face.

“Is that so pretty lady? Well if you don’t mind would you like to go out or something after the game?” You we’re going to continue teasing Jack and entertaining Jordan but based on the sour look placed on Jack’s face it was best you didn’t.

“I’m sorry Jordan but I do have a boyfriend, he’s right next to me actually.” His smile fell while Jack rolled his eyes, Urban and Sunni laughing like hyenas behind you.

“Oh shit my bad Jack I didn’t even know you had a girl.” Scratching the back of his head awkwardly, Jack shrugged his shoulders and turned to the side.

“I’m sorry.” You mouthed to Jordan as he walked off.

“Damn Y/N just out here pulling all the men tonight.” Sunni laughed but Jack sat there with a irritated expression his face.

“What’s wrong Jack? You know I was only playing with you.”

“Go date your little basketball player I’m sure he’ll show you all around the city.” He huffed and you frowned, when Jack got jealous he tended to take it too far and get in these mood swings.

“Alright ladies and gentlemen who’s ready for the kiss cam?” One of the announcers in the stadium announced over the loud speaker. Everyone laughed and aww’d at all the couples that made it on the kiss cam.

Before you knew it you were looking at your face and as well as Jack’s on the big screen.

“Uh oh is there trouble of paradise or is Jack Harlow always this grumpy?” The announcer asked making everyone in the room laugh.

“Come here Jack.” Grabbing Jack by his chin you smashed your lips onto his, him being petty didn’t kiss back at first but eventually he did and grabbed the side of your face deepening the kiss before pulling away.

“Well damn I thought a porno or something was for-sure going to happen.”

“Shut up Urban!” Jack and You said together.

“I’m sorry Jack, I shouldn’t have flirted with Jordan, can you forgive me?”

“I forgive you baby girl besides I know many ways you can make it up to me tonight.” He grinned and sure enough that night you made sure to make it up to him in many ways with many rounds.

749 notes - Posted October 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Master List

962 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #I fuck with it 💀😭 but shit not be rebloging from my page the post

[yourlocalnews]

#YourLocal.Me

[bike42]

Banff / Calgary July 2022

Sunday, 10 July 2022

 We learned the only real way to visit Lake Moraine and Lake Louise was by shuttle bus, as parking was limited to about 50 spots and people lined up for those spots before sunrise!   The shuttle system is new this year, and we were skeptical about getting tickets for that as they said reservations had opened in April and filled up right away!  When I checked last night, there were two openings for today’s 8:10-9am shuttle window. We were up early, and drove the 50 minutes to the Lake Louise ski area “Park and Ride,” just in time for our shuttle to Lake Moraine.

 It was chilly when we got out of the car.  It had been sunny in Banff, but clouded over on our way north.  We already have seen that the weather changes rapidly here, but we felt prepared for anything!  I put my down vest over two long-sleeved shirts, and added a hat and Smartwool gloves (always in my pack for days like today!).  I also found some handwarmers in my pack – didn’t use them, but good to know they were there if we needed them!!

  We had the worse driver ever driving the bus to Lake Moraine – it was as scary of a drive as when we drove along the road in Peru that was part of a landslide and in danger of sliding very far down to the river.  This guy was not confident, stayed too far to the right, and surged with the gas pedal.  We were glad when the ride was done and doubly glad that we had better drivers the rest of our trip (almost all the bus and Uber drivers we interacted with on this trip were Asian – Canada must have a been immigration system than we currently do)!

 At Lake Moraine, we joined the tourists heading down the short path and the first thing we saw was a poster warning of bear presence.  At the lake overlook, all we saw besides dozens of tourists, were chipmunks – and several canoes out on what looked like a chilly lake.  The sun poked out, illuminating the beautiful blue-green color of all the lakes and rivers here.  The glacial-fed alpine lakes in the Rocky Mountains are among the clearest (and the coldest) in the world. Fine rock dust, produced by massive glaciers rubbing against bedrock, stays suspended in the water, reflecting light and creating the turquoise colors.

 Once we’d done the overlook, our options were (1) gift and coffee shop and the lodge, (2) Consolation Lake – about 4 miles out and back, or (3) serious hikes into Paradise Valley – about 20 miles of connected trails could get us over to Lake Louise, more than we knew we could do today.

 As we started on the trail to Consolation Lake, there was a more serious bear warning – saying “Group Access is Recommended,” … it didn’t say “Mandatory,” but suggested that hikers travel in tight, loud groups of at least 4 people.  I thought there would be enough people on the trail to constitute a “group,” but Jeff was hesitant.  As I sat on a rock and tightened my boots, a pair of women walked by and entered the trail. Not only were they armed with bear spray, I whispered to Jeff that we could outrun them if we needed to, so I persuaded him to follow the ladies.  We didn’t get far and there was a rock scramble across an old avalanche wash / stream.  The ladies turned back, but others were coming down the trail from both directions so we felt ok on our own (just a little weary, walking the trail talking louder than we normally would).  We got to a swampy section of the trail and I noticed the blueberry bushes weren’t in bloom yet, so I felt better knowing there would be no reason for bears to be there today!

 As we neared the lake, something moving in the woods caught my eye and a marmot hopped along the rocks and crossed the trail fairly close to me.  Moved like a cat!

 At the lake, there were large rocks that had to be scaled – lots of climbing and jumping.  JT held back and I went forward another 100 yards or so, but it was tiring work! There were about a half dozen people hanging out there, and we encountered about another 10 or so on our 2-mile hike back, so we weren’t entirely alone.

 Perfect timing, we caught the shuttle between the lakes – a smaller bus with a competent driver.  We had a snack on the bus, and it started to rain so we covered our packs and traded rain jackets for our top layers.  I have a really nice Gore-Tex Arcteryx rain jacket that I bought for Kilimanjaro, but until today – hadn’t worn it in the rain!!  Its quite warm, so usually I just hike with a poncho and umbrella in the rain.  Today I got a chance to test it out and it was wonderful – water just ran off like on a duck’s back!!

 We got off the bus in Lake Louise, and entered pandemonium.  Hundreds of people just milling about on the shore of the beautiful lake, with the iconic Fairmont chateau gracing its shoreline.  We started walking toward the Lake Agnes trailhead, and there was a trail behind the hotel with a serious bear warning – not just yellow (caution), but red!  We joined the throng of people heading up the trail to the Lake Agnes tea house – the trail was as wide as a road, and fairly smooth – which was good with the number of people going up and down.  My mind went away from bears as I was so preoccupied with people watching!!  It was quite a multicultural scene – many languages heard, and many people not really dressed for a wilderness hike!

 At one point, we were standing still for some reason, and we heard an avalanche occurring somewhere - we couldn’t see anything though and it wasn’t close by.  We’d heard them before in the fog in New Zealand, which was really unsettling, even though the guide said “that’s across the valley – won’t happen here!”

 It was a pretty hike, with views of the lake getting more awesome as we climbed.  There was a cascade running from Lake Agnes into Mirror Lake – stunning scenery.   Although the sun had poked out, the clouds were swirling as we reached Lake Agnes. We stood in the “take out” line at the Tea House and ordered tuna sandwiches, soup, tea for me and hot chocolate for Jeff.   I waited for the food while Jeff went off to make new friends at a table near the lake we shared with a couple from Boston.  We ate our lunch and chatted with them.  They’ve been here more than a dozen times, and were knowledgeable about the trails – I’d wanted to take an alternative, longer way back … but Jeff was skeptical.

 Just as we finished eating, a storm blew in – the temperature dropped and we had real rain, not just the drizzle we’d experienced earlier today.  People scrambled – some back down the trail, some packed into the Tea House, and others huddled together under the roof awning.  

 We packed up and walked across the bridge to snap a few photos.  My hands, even in gloves, were absolutely freezing – shocking, to go from lunch in a t-shirt to freezing in 10 minutes!

 We started out down the alternative route, down about a hundred steps and then down a steep slope, now muddy and slippery. Jeff had the good sense to say we needed to turn back and take the main trail down, thankful for that!!  We were at about 7000 ft, and heading back up those stairs was tough!  But we went up and back down the trail and by Mirror Lake, the rain had nearly stopped.

 We had a great walk down with fewer people, and were surprised to see dozens of people heading back up the trail!  We sat by the lake for a few minutes, then headed out to find our shuttle.  The shuttle worked well, with just about a 10-minute wait for our ride back to the Park and Ride.

 We headed back to Banff, with a stop at the IGA grocery store (pandemonium!), to buy stuff for sandwiches and more yogurt and bananas for our breakfasts.  We cleaned up, and had a glass of wine on our balcony, watching the wedding that we’d seen the rehearsal for yesterday (its not like we were being voyeurs, they rehearsed right below our balcony!).  

 We went to Prow for burgers and beer, then back for cribbage – another split tonight, but I’m getting discouraged!!

 Total hike was 9.23 miles today with 1847 ft of elevation

  Monday, 11 July 2022

 We slept in this morning.  I got up, did yoga, ate breakfast and took a nap.  I guess we’re getting pretty good a relaxing!! There is a group from Backroads staying here as their van is parked near our room.  Every morning, they’re gone early – off on some adventure.  While we’re still disappointed that we’re not in the Yukon, we’re sure making the most of this!

 We ate lunch on our balcony, then walked into town to see about renting a canoe.  We’d stopped in on Saturday, and learned all the details then.  We couldn’t paddle the Bow River, as it was at its banks and moving fast.  Instead, they directed us to go up the creek to Vermilion Lake. We came to a fork and I directed Jeff to stay with the larger creek.  Of course, it was a wrong turn.  The guy at the rental place told us we’d have to portage over two beaver dams in order to get to the lake.  We came to a downed pine tree, and figured we’d gone the right way, but true to form for us – we decided to see where it’d go!  We both had to get out on the tree to drag the canoe over, fun challenge for us!! Then we came to two downed trees, one from each bank.  It was a tricky maneuver, but Jeff steered us between the two trees – using our paddles to push off the tree, and branches to pull us along.  We were high enough in the stable canoe that I wasn’t afraid of being sucked under the tree and into a strainer … but a kayak might have felt different!

 We saw another series of downed trees and decided to give up.  There had been a path along the side of the river, so we thought we’d portage the canoe back around to before the first tree.  Jeff went to scout the portage while I stayed with the canoe.  He was gone a long time and I became worried – he was talking to another couple that had also come down the wrong creek!  We portaged the canoe – it was heavy and Jeff still has a bum shoulder from a fall in Greece.

 I took over the stern after our portage – it had been a long time since we’d paddled a canoe and it was so much fun!  The strokes I learned as a kid at Camp U-Nah-Li-Ya are burned into my memory!!  Up the right creek, we easy hauled the canoe over the two beaver dams – nothing like we’d seen on the Mississippi!!

 When we reached the lake, it was reminiscent of our Mississippi River trip with the multi channels and grass / wild rice.  We carefully studied the landmarks so we’d find the right channel when we were ready to go back!  The trip back was with the current, so much faster!  We had wanted to take single kayaks instead of the canoe, but felt great to be working together and we enjoyed our time.  I’d be lying if I didn’t also feel sad that we weren’t paddling on the Yukon River though!!

 We walked back to the cascade gardens and explored the back gardens – interesting patterns of annuals, probably not enough of a growing season for many perennials!  The lilacs are just staring to bloom, and peonies will bloom soon (they bloom in May for us).

 We walked down the main street, and found a sports bar.  There we ordered pizza, salad and beer and watched some of the Calgary Stampede rodeo on the large screen TV – amazing!!

 We walked back up to our resort, cleaned up and relaxed.  Jeff suggested we head to Prow for dessert, and we sat at the bar and tried to order a Brandy Alexander.  The bartender wasn’t very experience (he was consulting the book for simple drinks), and we looked it up for him.  He said they have a drink just like that (with coffee infused vodka, bailey’s, Kahlua, and some other stuff plus ice cream).  We called in a “fail,” but it was interesting.  We also had a slice of cheesecake, which wasn’t as good as their lava cake!  Another cribbage split again!

 Tuesday, 12 July 2022

 Jeff had Googled “best hikes in Banff” and came up with a list of the top ten.  From those, we selected the ones that would top out around 7000 feet, as above that is the avalanche threat zone with the level of snow still in the mountains.  

 On our drive to Lake Louise on Sunday, I spotted the Bourgeau Lake trailhead just about 10 km north of Banff, and that hike met our criteria: on the top ten list and 7000 ft at the top.  The description in the Canadian Rockies Trial Guide we bought in Vancouver confirmed it was a good choice for us too.

 The parking lot was nearly full when we arrived, confirming we wouldn’t be alone on the trail.  We set out about 10am.  The trail was wonderfully soft pine needle bed, with occasional rocks and roots – but mainly delightful to walk on.  We didn’t have to get very far before the din of the highway was drowned out by the sound of moving water and the wind in the trees.

We arrived at a clearing with lots of broken trees, and I realized that a fairly recent avalanche or landslide had taken down the trees!  I was long enough ago that the sunlight brought different flowers, but the way the rocks were arranged, you could still see how tough it was to reclaim the trail through there!

 We were treated to numerous waterfalls and river crossings.  There were several people going down, and others starting up with us, but just the right amount of people after the loads of them at Lake Louise a few days ago!

 We climbed to about 7000 feet, and the trail opened into an alpine meadow that was just starting to bloom with glacier lilies and marsh marigolds - soon to be lots of berries.  There were patches of snow here and there, and the trail was muddy in spots.  We got to the lake, rock hopped across the river again and sat on a large rock to enjoy the view while eating our sandwiches.  There was a little chipmuck that sniffed us out and same over.  For some reason, he was chewing on the bottom of my mud-caked pole!!  

 It was three hours up for us, and just two hours down – we both felt good and were able to walk down at a faster pace than we generally do, and only took one break!  We felt terrific, but were exhausted when we arrived back at the car.

 It was a warmer day today.  We expected coolness up at the lake, but didn’t need to put on layers today.

 We drove back to resort, arriving by 4pm. We grabbed some beers from our fridge and hit the hot tub.  There was a couple from Scotland in the hot tub, they’d just arrived but had spent the last two days at the Stampede so it was good to get their take on that.  They own a horse farm, so had a particular interest in the Stampede!  He was really hard for us to understand – she did a lot of translating for us!  I didn’t have my glasses on and Jeff didn’t have his hearing aids in – funny how one sense being dulled affects the others! Soon two other (unrelated) ladies from Scotland joined us and filled us with tales of what they’d done (Rocky Mountaineer to Jasper).  After an hour, we were all pruned up so we said goodbye and headed back to the room to get ready for dinner.  We drove to town as we weren’t sure we’d be able to climb back up afterwards!

 Since we had the car, we took the long way back which went by A&W since Jeff had been dreaming of a root beer float all day! Disappointing result, but a beautiful drive where we came upon a small heard of elk grazing along the road.

 Beautiful evening, played cribbage on our balcony until it got too dark to see the pegs (split again).

 Total hike was 10 miles today with 2326 ft of elevation

  Wednesday, 12 July 2022

 Another lazy morning, finished up breakfast about 10am, and walked down the hill to town to rent bikes.  We’d stopped in last night to check it out, and today a helpful clerk gave us great suggestions on possible rides.

 We headed out of town towards Lake Minnewanka (a huge reservoir with two dams).  Along the way, we stopped at Two Jack Lake, where many people were out on the water in kayaks and SUPs.  We rode a nice bike trail out of town, and highway around the lakes – traffic was light and respectful, and the road surface was good but hilly!  There were a number of bus tours, and the tourists would jump out for a few photos at a viewpoint, and back in to speed off to the next stop.  Much better to be enjoying it from the seat of a bicycle!!

 We’d stopped once for me to adjust the height of my bike seat and Jeff noted a large herd of elk across the meadow.  Might have missed them if we hadn’t stopped. As we approached the Lake Minnewanka dam, cars were pulling over suddenly in the way that generally signals an animal sighting.  I was praying it wasn’t a bear!  Turned out to be a mountain goat, running along the shoulder towards us.  I grabbed my phone and started recording a movie. I figured if he/she attacked me, at least I’d get a recording of it.  He ran right past me, and past Jeff too – its still a great recording and I’m glad there was no attack!!

 I was surprised to see a boat concession and snack shop as we neared Lake Minnewanka.  There were a lot of people there, and we sat on a bench and ate our sandwiches and watched tourists trying to kayak against the wind, and others doing donuts in rented little boats?!

 We rode back to Banff, mostly downhill and fun – with the exception of melting snow creating a river across the road – so cold when that water hit my back!!  We locked up the bikes and walked to an ice cream shop, then back for another 10 miles on the golf course loop.  That route brought us through a really cool path along the lake with local art in nature exhibits, and to the Bow River rapids and waterfall – whoa!  Made me glad we didn’t paddle our canoe down this way the other day!!

 We turned the bikes in and walked back to our resort for showers and a rest, the we drove back to town for dinner at a chaotic Greek restaurant, but good food.  We ended our dinner with baklava and Metaxa.

Back to our room for cribbage - my slump continues, JT won both games with a skunk the second game, puts him up 9 to 4 for the series!

 Total mileage today = 27.5 miles, 919 feet of elevation gain (4956 max)

 Thursday, 13 July 2022

 Another lazy morning, yoga and breakfast in the room. We researched how to run the Roam shuttle bus to Banff Upper Hot Springs, and downloaded the app with tickets to Jeff’s phone.  We were headed to another hike that met our criteria:  on the list, and tops out at the snow line!

 We got on the bus early, and before we left downtown Banff, it was packed with standing room early.  About half of the bus got off at the Hot Springs stop – a few of us to hike, the rest headed to the Hot Springs.  The rest were likely riding to the next stop to take the gondola to the top ($70 round trip!).

 We headed out on the Sulphur Mountain trail, zigzagging under the gondola. Two German couples started out just after us, and passed us moving pretty fast.  A few switchbacks later, we found the two ladies sitting down and gasping, and the two guys trying to decide what to do.  The ladies and one guy turned back, the other guy set off again at a quick pace, but after about 15 minutes we saw him heading down too.

 It was a fairly steep incline, and a hot day - more work than I had anticipated it would be!

When we got to the top, it was a bit of a surreal environment with hundreds of families that had ridden to the top! At the top was a multistory facility with a restaurant, cafe, gift shop, and interactive displays including a small theatre.

 We sat on the deck and ate our sandwiches and fruit, enjoying the scenery and people watching. After our lunch, we hiked the 0.6 km boardwalk hike to Sanson Peak (7500 ft), along with the gondola throngs! Our book calls this the “most lavish alpine trail in Canada,” an apt description!!People of all nationalities and body types! We’d hoped to take an alternative path (old road that serviced a former astronomical lab, now called the “Westside Trail”), but were disappointed to see it blocked off with a threat of $25,000 fine for entering the area. The road would have been longer, and less steep than what we’d hiked up, ending at Cave in Basin where we’d have caught another Roam shuttle.  Jeff didn’t want to risk his knees going down the steep incline, so we popped the $78 for two one-way tickets down – 8 minutes!!

 At the bottom, they have you exit past the photo shop (they take a photo of you as you’re loading at the top), through the gift shop, past the Starbucks… felt like a Disney ride!  We went out to the bus stop and waited 20-minutes for a super packed bus.  We jammed into the bus anyway.  COVID be dammed!!

 We got off the bus below our hill, and walked up to our resort.  We hit the hot tub again, all to ourselves this time.  When we got back to our room, another small wedding was happening!  We cleaned up and went to our last dinner at the Prow.  They know us there now!!

 Evening cribbage on the balcony- split again. After cribbage, we walked down to the meadow to see if the elk were out.  They weren’t but we found a sign with the roster of wedding rentals!  Back to our room, we packed up to get ready for early departure tomorrow morning.

 Total hike was 7.88 miles today with 2437 ft of elevation

  Friday, 14 July 2022

 We left Banff about 8am, with a final drive through the town we’ve come to know so well. It was really an amazing week to immerse ourselves into Banff without a tight itinerary.

 Leaving the mountains and seeing them in the rear-view mirror always makes me sad, but we’ll be back in the Colorado Rockies next month!

 We drove to the airport and dropped the car, then walked across the street to the airport Marriott where I’d reserved an expensive room, but we know we’ll be out late and have a 6:30am departure tomorrow morning!!  We were happy they let us check is, as it was about 10am.  We got stuff laid out for tonight and tomorrow, then headed out to find the bus to downtown.  I was in my new cowboy boots and we both had our new hats on – but we would have looked odd in Calgary if we hadn’t been dressed like that!

 We misjudged the stop for bus 300 to downtown, so after it went past, we ran after it, caught it, and the driver was patient enough for us to figure out the ticket machine and we were able to board the waiting bus.  We didn’t exactly know where we were going, so after about 30 minutes we were downtown and I was following the map on my phone and it seemed like we were heading in the opposite direction we wanted to go, so we got off and started walking. That was awesome, as we came upon a street that was blocked off for 4 blocks with a Stampede party going on! Reminded us of the Kentucky Derby as people greeted you in Louisville with “Happy Derby Day,” today they were saying “Happy Stampede!”  Some ladies at an information booth gave us a map and schedule of today’s events at the Stampede, and a brochure on transportation so maybe we could find bus 300 after its over tonight?!

 We walked down there street, stopped for a parade of people on horses, past the Olympic Plaza where a concert was going on, and followed the crowd into the Stampede Grounds.  It was a hot day – not quite noon.  The process at the gate was casual, and they didn’t much care that Jeff had a backpack with water bottles.

 It took us awhile to get the layout of the grounds.  We went into one of the pavilions and watched the “Canadian National Miniature Horse Show,” which was a little on the creepy side to me.  Full sized adults being pulled in carts by miniature horses.  But it felt good to sit out of the heat for a bit!

 Next, we walked to the “Elbow River Camp,” where we sat in the sun and watched a spectacular “Powwow Demo.”  Great drumming / chanting / dancing.  Most enjoyable was a young man doing a “hoop dance,” technique that had been passed on from his grandfather.

 From there, we headed back inside to the largest building, the “BMO Market, Western Oasis and Wine Garden.”  We’d hoped to catch the Canine Stars “Dog Bowl,” but that showing was up to capacity.  We bought fresh squeezed lemonade and sat and watched some of the presentations going on in the Market.  Then we wandered to the back of the building where we found a fantastic nature photography display, a small stage with a talented singer, and the wine garden.  We sat and had a glass of wine, then went to line up for the next Canine Star show (which did not disappoint) – rescued dogs taught to jump, catch frisbees, etc.

 Back outside, we grabbed some dinner from food carts and found a small spot to sit on the grass in the shade while we ate. Then we headed to “Nashville North,” which was a large tent with musical acts, expensive drinks, and people watching that was out of this world!  Pretty, young, scantily clad ladies mixing with rodeo guys.  We stayed there until it was time to go to the evening show at the grandstand.  The show started with Chuckwagon Races, which were really fun to watch, Indian bareback relay races (my favorite), several musical acts, the Young Canadian dancers, and a firework finale, the likes of which we’d never seen – it left us breathless.

 We didn’t intend to stay for the whole show, but we were glued to our seats and didn’t want to leave.  Of course, we felt differently about that when we joined the thousands of attendees streaming out!  We got on a bus headed toward downtown, but it was so mired in traffic we went nowhere for thirty minutes or so.  Downtown, we decided to get off and maybe walk to find the bus back to the airport. but it was already after midnight!  A check of Uber showed about a 10-minute wait, so we called the Uber and a nice driver deposited us at the Airport Marriott about 1am.  We took quick showers to wash the grime of the day off, and fell into bed.

 4am alarm was painful, and by 4:30a we were waiting to check into our Delta flight.  There was only one gate agent and we were 45 minutes there!  The security line was long, but we got through without issue and had time to grab breakfast before our 6am flight to Minneapolis.  We hadn’t had much to drink at the Stampede, but we felt hungover just the same!!

 Throughout this trip, I really couldn’t shake the disappointment of not doing our Yukon adventure.  We did a lot of great stuff and saw some spectacular sites.  The Stampede adventure was one of the highlights for me – especially since I’d never heard of it!!  The First Nation performances were moving, yet sad when you think of what the white man did to dissemble their culture.  Its great that they’re able to share it with us in this way.

#calgarystampede2022 banffhiking

[kobunnie]

first dates with them

ft. inumaki + megumi + gojo

⤻ summary ; in which the jjk boys take you out on a first date

⤻ word count ; 1.5k

⤻ genre ; fluff

⤻ warnings ; mild cursing, lowercase intended

⤻ pronouns ; none mentioned

⤻ a/n ; i did it, i folded snd said fuck it lets write for jjk too

ও enjoy <3

ও INUMAKI TOGE

since he cant talk freely, hell take you on a date where you can be entertained without having to talk too much

so most likely not dinner or dates where youd have to eat together

at least not until the both of you are more comfortable with each other

since he wouldnt want to subject you to a boring date or anything, or have you awkwardly talking while he can only respond with ingredients

so expect a date like an aquarium, a zoo, a cherry blossom festival, or something where there wont be a whole lot of awkward silence / one sided conversations

he wants you to be comfortable and doesnt want the first date to be awkward, which is why he takes you to something entertaining and most likely high energy

would probably spend the date watching you marvel at whatever it was where he took you

ends with you dragging him for ice cream and telling him you had fun and a good time and would like to see him again

and hed be beyond happy and would give you the prettiest smile ever

“so where are we going, inumaki?” you asked, smiling nervously.

“salmon,” he replied

you blinked, allowing the word to process. he held out two tickets and you grabbed them. “oh, an aquarium?”

he nodded and you smiled in response. “sounds fun! i cant wait!”

inumaki was immediately grateful that he had a mask attached to his uniform, as jt covered the light blush that spread across his face as you said those words

having cursed speech, inumaki knew better than anyone that words held power. and honestly, he was scared you wouldnt like his idea of a first date. but you saying that you “couldnt wait” so happily made him unbelievably happy. and he could tell by the smile on your face and the eager bounce in your steps, you really couldnt wait

as the two of you arrived, you grabbed inumakis hand and smiled, a beautiful action that had inumakis heart racing in his chest. as the two of you walked through the aquarium, inumaki couldnt keep his eyes off of you

you were so interested in everything, staring at the sea creatures with stars in your eyes and reading aloud the fun facts and names of each animal you saw

inumaki was glad hed chosen to go to the aquarium with you. seeing your face as it lit up with surprise and interest at a certain sea creature made his day

when the two of you had finished your walkthrough, the both of you got ice cream and sat side by side one another on a bench

you smiled at him “i really loved today.”

inumaki blinked and you leaned forward. you pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek, just barely brushing his face tattoo

“could we perhaps have another date?”

a blush spread across his face. he nodded “rice balls”

“thank you for a wonderful date”

ও FUSHIGURO MEGUMI

definitely would take you on a chill, laidback date

either a picnic or a walk on the beach or through a cherry blossom festival

doesnt like it to be too high energy and exciting because it drains him

hed also just rather be able to enjoy a chill day with you, the person he likes

would definitely be very shy, though

like you tell him that he chose a wonderful spot for a picnic?

combustion

you tell him that you love the beach and that the walk is kinda romantic?

combustion

you tell him that hes pretty like the cherry blossoms the two of you are walking through?

megumi.exe has stopped working

whatever the situation is, whatever compliment you give him, hell stop working

megumi wouldnt want to admit it, but he was nervous that you wouldnt like the date hed set up

“so, whatre we doing?” you asked excitedly, rubbing your hands on your thighs

“how do you feel about cherry blossoms?” megumi responded after a moment

the car stopped and you blinked at the sight in front of you. before you, a beautiful arched tunnel of cherry blossom trees expanded as far as you could see

vendors with carts of cotton candy, ice cream, candied fruits, meat skewers, and all sorts of foods lined the sidewalk as families, couples, and groups of friends walked along under the trees

“woah,” you breathed, stepping out of the car. your eyes couldnt seem to look away from the sight in front of you

it was so beautiful, so pretty that words could hardly describe it. you turned back to megumi who shifted uneasily. “how . . . do you like it?” he wondered

“its beautiful!” you exclaimed, rushing forward, a smile on your face. “c’mon, fushiguro, lets go enjoy this!”

“megumi is fine . . .” he murmured

you turned and smiled, reaching your hand out. “okay, then lets go, megumi”

his heart mightve melted right then and there, as you said his name and grabbed his hand in yours, dragging him through the cherry blossoms

the two of you spent the day hopping from various carts and taking pictures (pictures courtesy of you, of course)

throughout the whole day, your hand stayed firm in megumi’s. he didnt usually like pda, but at the same time, in the moment he didnt mind it. he was too caught up in how happy and beautiful you were

“hey, megumi, can i say something kinda cheesy?”

megumi grabbed a chunk of cotton candy from your hand. “uh, yeah, sure. what is it?”

you gulped and faced him, smiling nervously. “i think . . . that youre even prettier than the cherry blossoms.”

aaaand r.i.p here lies fushiguro megumi, cause of death: being called pretty by his crush

he didnt respond and you shifted nervously. “uhh, im sorry! do you prefer handsome? i—ah, man i ruined it didnt i?”

“would you like to go on another date with me?” megumi blurted.

you froze, the fear that youd messed everything up dissipating. “id love that”

ও GOJO SATORU

takes you to a club as a first date

kidding, though hes not above that

i see him as the type of guy to take you to an arcade for a first date

mostly because i see him being ridiculously good at claw machine games like how the fuck

would totally propose a little bet

for example, each game you two play would be a competition to get the highest score or something

and whoever got the most high scores would win

like if he won youd go on another date with him

if you won hell do anything—absolutely anything—you ask of him

and like, thats a pretty damn good deal

also takes this as a chance to show you just how good at everything he js

like

he js good at everything

its not fair

especially in the claw games

hell have won like five things and youd have won zero

also gets a ton of tickets so he gets one of those giant bears at the prize stand

and you think hes gonna give jt to you?

lol nope its for him

“youve got to be kidding me,” you groaned as gojo knocked the air hockey puck into your goal for what seemed like the millionth time

“i win!” he exclaimed happily, grinning cheekily at you. “how do you like that, y/n?”

“c’mon, another round, gojo,” you pleaded

gojo rolled his eyes though you couldnt see the action behind his sunglasses. “that was our fourth game, y/n. how about we move on? youre never going to win anyway”

you glared at him and crossed your arms “that was unnecessarily rude, jerk”

“awee, cmon, you loved it”

“lets go to skee ball—im sure to beat you in that”

“uhuh,” gojo mused. “and even if you were to beat me, youd have to win at least seven more times to even catch up to my score in our little bet . . . do you think you can do that?”

“oh i will,” you said, your voice full of determination

gojo smirked and grabbed your arm, leading you towards skee ball. “then shall we play?”

unfortunately for you, you lost over half of the games, meaning that gojo finished with a higher overall score than you. so he won the bet (and like, three thousand tickets . . . yeah yall really wasted lots of money)

“i guess i have to go on another date with you then,” you grumbled

“hmm LOOK A GIANT UNICORN”

you turned in the direction of gojos voice, finding that he had disappeared from your side and was already at the prize stand, handing over his tickets for a giant unicorn

you sidled next to him as he pulled the unicorn into his arms. “here”

“is this for me?” you asked, your eyes wide. it was actually kinda of sweet

“what? no, youre holding it while i tie my shoes”

“UGH DO I REALLY HAVE TO GO ON ANOTHER DATE WITH YOU?”

“a bets a bet, darling. AHAHAH”

you threw the unicorn at his head and stuck your tongue out. “so where are we going next time?”

“you get to choose, darling”

#; she writes. #animehorizons #hanimehub #anime #anime fanfic #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #inumaki #inumaki toge #toge #inumaki x reader #inumaki fluff #jjk fluff #megumi fushiguro #fushiguro megumi #fushiguro x reader #megumi x reader #megumi fluff #megumi #gojo satoru #gojo #gojo x reader #satoru #gojo fluff #jjk hcs #gojo hcs #megumi hcs #inumaki hcs

[rebelwrites]

Restoration

Jax Teller x Daughter Reader

“You gonna actually behave for your father this week?” You mum asked as you packed your bag.

“Maybe, depends if he pisses me off or not” you shrugged.

The thing was your mum and dad split about 4 years ago, a year after Abel was born. They had you at a young age, at 15 to be precise, you was now 18 and had seen their relationship completely fall apart, you saw how he treated your mum towards the end of the relationship and you hated it, you hated how he made your mum feel, how you saw the whole thing. However you were grateful Abel was still too young to understand what was going on.

“Y/N please, I know you don’t get along with him but he is your dad at the end of the day” mum sighed.

“Not gonna change my opinion on him” you laughed.

Even though your parents weren’t together anymore they never actually filed for a divorce.

“Just try” mum said placing her hand on your shoulder “for Abel at least, it’s hard enough on him as it is”

“And it’s not hard for me mum” you spat “try going through school where everyone is obsessed with the sons, constantly badgering me about them, about dad, asking if the fucking rumours are true”

You knew that your mum wasn’t completely innocent in the whole relationship break down. So you had an attitude with them both.

The drive to Teller-Morrow was silent, neither you or your mum spoke because you were your father’s daughter at the end of day, your mum always said it was like having a female Jax in the house, the way you held yourself, your attitude, your temper. So no words were spoken just for Abel’s sake, he didn’t need to see his sister and mum biting each other’s heads off.

Climbing out of the car, you grabbed your bag from the boot, before wandering off to find your uncles, at least you had a good relationship with them, it was just the relationship with your dad that was rocky.

You didn’t get it, he was such a good father to Abel, but with you it was a different story, one of his biggest regrets was you seeing the breakdown happen, all the arguments that happened when you were younger. Since then you saw the man that you once saw as your hero as the bad guy.

“Hey kiddo” Jax grinned, opening his arms to you.

“Whatever dad” you huffed walking by him, dumping your bag on the picnic bench before placing a cigarette in your mouth.

“She’s in a mood, sorry Jax” you heard mum say, making you roll your eyes. “Give her a couple of days and she should calm down”

“She’s so much like me it’s scary” he sighed as he watched you laugh with Tig and Happy.

“If you’re gonna talk about me can you at least go somewhere where I can’t bloody hear you” you snapped not looking at them.

Jax knew that with both his kids being here with him for the week, he was going to try his hardest to mend the bridges that had once been burnt. He wanted nothing more than getting his little girl back.

“I will speak with her” Jax nodded as he took Abel into his arms, who was grinning at the sight of his daddy.

At least one of his kids didn’t hate him.

However he had a plan, he knew you loved bikes, so he had one sat in the garage waiting to be restored and he was hoping it was something you could do together and then he could teach you to ride. He knew it wouldn’t magically fix the relationship but at least it would give you a memory that wasn’t bad.

Your mum had now left, which meant you were stuck with your dad for the next week, no doubt it would be a week of you looking after Abel, it always was when you were here, the club came before you. It always had and always would.

“Table in 5” Jax shouted as he walked into the club, he didn’t miss the eye roll that came from you, he knew what you thought, you had only been here 10 minutes and he was putting the club before you. But this time would be different.

“Okay so everyone knows my relationship with Y/N is very much on the rocks right now” Jax sighed running his hand over his face. “And I know it’s my fault and I want to fix that, so this week I only want to be involved in club business if the shit has hit the fan. Anything else speak to Chibs, I need to fix things with my little girl before it is too late”

Everyone nodded, they knew how much Jax loved you, you was his first born at the end of the day and it killed him knowing that you hated him.

“Anything we can do to help we are here” Happy nodded.

“Thanks Hap but this is something I need to do on my own, I created this mess so I need to fix it” Jax sighed “If it can be fixed”

It was now Wednesday and Jax still hadn’t made any progress, the bike lay untouched in the garage, and you hadn’t spoken more than a few words a day to him.

“Uncle Hap am I being a bitch?” You sighed looking up at him as you lit a smoke.

“Honestly kiddo, I know where you are coming from but he is the only dad you are gonna get” Happy said placing his hand on yours. “I know the reasons you have for hating Jax but he misses his little girl, I’m not saying forgive him straight away but stop shutting him out”

“I miss my dad” you sighed “but you didn’t hear me say that”

“My lips are sealed” Happy nodded “you know he took a step back from the club this week to spend time with you and Abel”

“I didn’t know” you sighed running your hand over your face.

“I think he wants to restore a bike or something with you” Hap smiled kissing your head “he’s in the garage”

Trudging into the garage with your head hung low, you felt guilty about how you went off at dad this morning.

“I’m sorry” you mumbled, not looking up.

You heard him sigh and his footsteps getting closer to you.

Talk about irony, the radio had started playing bad husband, scoffing as dad placed his hand on your shoulder.

You can be a liar and a good father A good dad, but a bad husband

“Guess the song is 90% right” you sighed “you are a good father to Abel at least”

“Hey look at me kiddo” Dad said lifting your chin. “My biggest regret in life was letting you see all the fights between me and your mum. I know that has done so much damage to our relationship but I never stopped loving your or your mum okay”

You stayed silent, you didn’t know what to say.

Forever be a hero in my eyes, But there’s always another side. To a good father. A great dad, but a bad husband

“Look me and your mum still love each other and we probably always will” he sighed “we just don’t work well together okay but that doesn’t mean I stopped loving you”

All I want is for us not to hurt. And it’s been an exhaustive search to find the words

The song was basically saying everything you couldn’t.

But I’m not so sure how to close this. I just don’t know how some people can be so good At one thing and so fucked at a whole ‘nother, shit, it’s no wonder

You both just stood there not saying a word as Jax pulled you into his arms holding you tight.

“I’m not saying we have to go back to being as close as we once were but I want a chance, a chance to mend the bridges I burnt, I want to be in your life and not as someone you hate” Jax whispered.

Nodding your head, you sniffed as a tear fell down your cheek, this was the most you had talked in a year. All you wanted to hear over the past year was that your dad still loved you.

“You don’t have to say anything yet sweetheart” dad whispered kissing your head “now what do you say to helping your old man fix this bike up and then I would like it if you let your old man teach you how to ride”

“I’d like that” you mumbled.

The next few days flew by and your mum had arrived to pick you and Abel up. Pushing yourself off the bench you walked over to her with a slight smile on your face.

“Come on, let’s get you home” mum said.

Glancing over to your dad you smiled softly before turning back to your mum.

“Actually mum, I think I’m gonna stick around here a bit longer” you nodded feeling Jax place his hand on your shoulder squeezing it softly. “I wanna stay with dad, we still have a bike to finish”

-

Your mum stood staring at you, confusion spread all over her face.

“You want to willingly stay?” She questioned

“Yup” you nodded.

“Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?” She laughed before turning to Jax “you okay with her staying?”

“Course I am” he beamed at the fact you wanted to stay with him longer.

As soon as you said bye to your mum, you headed back into the garage leaving Jax stood there in his own world.

“Come on dad the bike isn’t gonna fix its self” you laughed rolling your sleeves up.

The hours flew by and you was both covered in grease, Chibs walked outside hearing all the laughter coming from the garage, a smile formed on his face as he snapped a photo of the two of you before walking back into the club house.

“Okay a know normally a would bring this ta table but no one is to disturb Jackie Boy, a don’t care wha it is, if it’s club business, Ye arms fallen off or Ye are on fire, ye come ta me” Chibs smiled leaning against the bar. “Tha is until further notice, this is wha they both need”

Everyone nodded in agreement, it was nice to see you and Jax not at each other’s throats and they knew that the fact you wanted to stay here meant you really wanted to rebuild the relationship

Standing back from the bike something clicked.

“Why does this bike look so familiar?” You asked.

“Well princess it was your grandads” Jax grinned draping his arm around your shoulder.

“JT’s” you said looking up and he nodded. “Wait and you are just letting me have once we have fixed her up?”

“That’s the plan” Jax laughed “he would have wanted you to have it and it’s better than it sitting gathering dust”

You were in awe, you knew how much this bike meant to him. Wrapping your arms around him you gave him a tight hug.  

Neither of you talked about much other than the bike, outside of the garage you were slowly building things back up, you both knew it would take longer than a week but it was a start.

“So your mum says you’ve been getting into trouble at college?” He asked as you were packing the tools up.

“Meh” you shrugged “someone said something, I didn’t like it so I fucking punched them and broke there nose. No biggie”

Jax couldn’t help but smirk, you were exactly like him, in so many ways.

“You can’t say anything dad you taught me talking was boring when you can fight it out” just as you said it an idea popped into your head. Spinning round on the balls of your feet you grinned at your dad.

“No, nope happening” He laughed when he realised what you was thinking “me and you aren’t going at it in the ring” he chuckled.

“Why do you think you will lose old man” you taunted.

“Nope it’s not that” he said looking up “I am not boxing with my daughter”

“You’re just scared because you know I’m gonna beat your ass” you giggled squaring up to him.

He knew you weren’t gonna back down. You was a Teller at the end of the day.

“Fine but if you get hurt you are telling your mum it was your idea” Jax sighed in defeat.

And with that you ran off into the clubhouse to tell everyone.

It was now 7pm and Tig was wrapping your fists.

“You sure about fighting your dad kiddo?” He asked.

“Uncle Tiggy I’m sure” you nodded “we need this, well I need this. If I’m gonna let go of the past I need to do this”

“Okay then” he smiled kissing your fist “beat the shit out of your old man”

You were now standing face to face with your dad in the ring. He knew what was happening, and he wasn’t going to fight back, he had overheard what you said to Tig. So if beating the shit out of him was what you needed to forgive him then that is what he was going to let you do.

Punch after punch, you felt the anger flow through your fists, you were fuelled by every bad memory, everything he did and he just let the punches keep coming.

Your emotions got the better of you as you scream, pounding your fists against his chest as you burst into tears. As soon as this happened Jax wrapped his arms around you, dropping to his knees holding you tight.

“That’s it princess let it all out, all the anger, all the pain” he whispered rubbing your back. “I’m never gonna leave you okay, no matter what happens with me and your mum, you will always have your old man in your corner. My biggest regret is you saw everything happen, I never wanted you to feel like I loved Abel more than you, you are my little girl, my princess and I love you”

Once you had calmed down, you felt a weight had been lifted off your shoulders, you no longer felt an immense hatred towards your dad.

It had been a couple of days after the ‘fight’ and you had actually started to open up. The bike was finished and you were just putting the tools away.

“I want to drop out of college” you said “it’s really not for me, I struggle with the exams and coursework”

“You know whatever you decide I will support you” Jax smiled softly at you, hee knew where you was coming from, he was exactly the same when it came to tests and the theory behind things. “If you did drop out what would you do?”

“Actually I wanna be a mechanic” you said looking up. “Maybe I could work here”

“Why don’t you sleep on the idea and if you really want to drop out then we will get it all sorted” he said kissing your head. “Now what do you say we take her for a spin?”

“You think I’m ready for the roads” you laughed.

“You are a natural” he grinned tossing you your helmet “it’s in your blood”

The rest of the day was spent riding round the streets charming, a smile on your face and your relationship with your dad well on the road to being what it once was. Never in a million years you would have thought that restoring JT’s bike would actually restore your relationship as well.

#Jax Teller #jax teller x reader #sons of anarchy #sons of anarchy x reader