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raysofcrosby · 2 years

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ENOUGH FOR YOU – j. debrusk

warning(s): small amounts of angst and overall sickeningly soft fluff.

summary: love and relationships– something you so desperately craved and wanted, but wouldn’t allow yourself to have thanks to a fear of vulnerability and a past heartbreak. after the end of a fling, you notice a pattern across all of your past flings that makes you feel as if you’re unloveable. a rant to your best friend gives him that push to finally take the step in confronting his feelings for you and his chance at showing you that you’re worth everything and more.

word count: 8.907

an: yikes this one’s been a long time coming. literally this has been sitting half finished in my drafts for who knows how long– it started out as a self-indulgent fic bc those are some of the best ones lol but anyway, the twin brother of the reader is a made up player for the bruins and ya well, enjoy!

“Peter, I’m sorry. But I can’t give you this rose.”

“Good choice!” You mumble through the bite of your chipotle bowl, pointing your fork at the flat screen. “He was a dick anyway.”

You were sitting in your best friend Jake’s apartment, sitting on his couch with the Boston Bruins fleece blanket you’d made him for Christmas last year. The lights off everywhere but the living room, leaving you sitting in the dimmed room. Jake was out with your twin brother and the rest of the team, celebrating a big Saturday win. Why they decided to go out on a Monday night when they could’ve just celebrated yesterday on Sunday was beyond you.

Normally on Monday nights, you would be sitting right here on Jake’s couch with him beside you, the two of you munching on chipotle bowls, though his was always heavier on protein than yours, and watching the new episode of The Bachelorette. But tonight, tonight it was just you, your chipotle bowl with extra of everything, a side of queso, chips, a mixed drink, and your feelings. Oh, and Michelle, the new Bachelorette.

This wasn’t your original plan, no way. Originally, you were supposed to meet Lucas– a boy you met in undergrad and for the last two years, had an on and off fling with– at Panera for lunch. As a matter of fact, he had sent you a text earlier that morning– “hey, wanna meet up? lunch at Panera on me @ 1?” Immediately, you said yes. It’d been a little over three weeks since the last time the two of you had hooked up and you needed a release. So that morning, you showered, shaved completely, canceled your Bachelorette night plans with Jake, which he was okay with since that meant he could go hang out with the guys, went to work, and met Lucas up for lunch.

You already planned on what you were going to get– just a greek salad. You weren’t wanting to eat too much before you guys went back to his apartment. Having a full stomach wasn’t exactly ideal for a dick appointment.

Turns out...you got way, way ahead of yourself.

Lucas didn’t text you for a ‘let’s grab lunch and then go back to my place and have sex all over my apartment’ meet-up. He texted you for a ‘hey, we can’t hook-up anymore. I met someone and I really like her’ meet-up. His word-for-word verbatim was– “I met her that morning after our last hook-up. Remember how we both woke up super early? I couldn’t go back to sleep and I actually had time to stop and get coffee before work. Turns out we both ordered the same thing and went to reach for our drink at the same time. She does graphic design like you, but for BU and she’s a first-year grad student. This was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed getting to know you and you’re great, but...I really like her and we’ve been sort of dating the last three weeks.”

Thankfully, you didn’t have to sit through that lunch, Lucas receiving a text from his boss saying he needed him to come back and run through an assignment real quick. So, the two of you grabbed your orders to-go and went your separate ways for good. Him back to a law firm downtown and you, well...you went back to TD Garden and went back to work.

Work, being your last year of your internship with the Bruins creative services department doing graphic design. An internship that your twin brother had suggested you apply for after graduation. One that after your interview, you had them promise that they wouldn’t hire you just because of who he was. And when they assured you that they’d put your skills and knowledge way above your connections, you were much happier to accept the job.

Logan Wynn may have had a lot of connections, and one connection got you a foot in the door of applying for that internship, but it was your skills in graphic design that had them bring you back for a second year– a second year, that if everything went smoothly...you’d be finding yourself in a full-time position in the department. News you were told today, just before lunch in fact.

None of that mattered now, since all you could focus on was your dumping in the middle of waiting for your Panera order. And it wasn’t even the dumping that bothered you. Lucas was nice, sure. Was he good in bed? Yeah, but not your best. He wasn’t someone you saw yourself ending up walking down an aisle to either.

It was how he said it and why that really bothered you...because it wasn’t the first time a guy had dumped you for someone else he had in mind. Nor was it the first time a relationship had ended on a friendly note like that. It wasn’t even the first time that a guy had said you were great and nothing was wrong with you, it was just that he found someone he liked better– but reiterated that you were still great.

Dating back to your freshman year of high school, that seemed to be the way your relationships ended— if you could even call them that. Logan liked to call them your “almost” relationships— close to being official, but something always stopped it from happening:

The guy always found another girl he liked better.

But even worse? You were the reason why they did. No matter how many compliments they showered you with— ‘you’re great, ‘I do like you, ‘you’re beautiful’, ‘any guy would be lucky to have you’— or how many times before they walked away, they tried to convince you that it wasn’t your fault they wanted to end it…it was. You were the reason why they always ended it.

And you’ve always known that things would end the same, even from the very beginning, you knew. But that didn’t mean that watching every failed attempt at a relationship end, hurt any less.

It wasn’t like you had some severe background family trauma either. Your parents had an amazing, practical fairytale romance— sickeningly adorable and married for almost 30 years — you grew up in a loving household and surrounded by perfect examples of just how great love could and should be.

But when it came to your own relationships...you were scared.

Scared of fully giving yourself to someone beyond just that physical level, but actually opening up to them and letting them know your hopes and dreams, what keeps you up at night and learn about your childhood. Scared of letting yourself be vulnerable with them, always wondering if there’s something that would scare them away– even if you’ve been told time and time again that there was nothing wrong with you. Ultimately, you were scared that you’d finally open up to someone and get comfortable with the vulnerable, only for something to go wrong and they leave– leaving you beyond heartbroken.

You’ve seen the breakups in movies and shows, you’ve read them in books, you’ve witnessed your closest friends go through the most heart-wrenching moments that caused you to cry along with them, always wondering how someone could ever risk or be okay with breaking such pure and loving hearts.

It scared you because you never wanted to find yourself feeling that way again. Your parents always used to say that sure, thanks to growing up with Logan and another older brother, you knew how to hold your own ground and never let anything show– but even then, you were still sensitive on the inside. And no matter how much you hated showing that vulnerability, it was still there and it was never going away.

And it wasn’t like you haven’t tried to get past those feelings, because you have. Hell, even Logan has tried and set you up with some of his teammates while the two of you were in high school– of course, you trusted him because he wouldn’t set you up with a total ass– and there was one guy where you thought that maybe being vulnerable wasn’t so scary.

His name was Casey and he and Logan had been teammates the moment Logan started playing with the Junior Terriers– both even going on and committing to BU and playing their freshman year together before deciding to go off into the draft.

Normally, you were wary of showing any kind of interest in your brother’s teammates and friends because you never wanted to cross that line or risk ruining a friendship of your brothers– but Logan was the one who actually suggested that the two of you start talking. And he did it by inviting the two of you to join him on a double date with his now fiancé Francesca. It was about as innocent as a first date at 16 could go– the four of you playing mini-golf before ending the night walking around a nearby park and eating ice cream.

Casey was everything that you thought he wouldn’t be– and by the end of the night when the two of you let Francesca and Logan have some space ahead of you on the walk back to his car, Casey had not only offered you his jacket but had asked if it was okay if he held your hand. You said yes, he told you to keep the jacket until your next date and the two of you exchanged numbers before he kissed you on the cheek and helped you into your brother's car before getting into his own and driving away.

It was easy to say that based on that first night alone, you’d become hooked on Casey Wells. The two of you snapchatting every day, texting every day. You already went to your brother's games before, but now it wasn’t just Logan you were cheering on. The two of you went on your own separate dates while still joining Logan and Francesca every once in a while. He wasn’t your first kiss, but he was your first time and you knew that you felt deeply for him due to the way he went out of his own way to make sure you were comfortable and safe, all while trying to make his bedroom as romantic of a room as possible with a 16-year-old hockey boys room could be.

You didn’t want to seem like such a cliche– fall in love with the boy who took your virginity– but you couldn’t help it. Casey was everything all those different boys in those YA books you loved to read so much were but wrapped up in one person. He was kind, caring, he yearned to learn your likes and dislikes, he surprised you with your favorite things, he would listen to you rant about your bad days or rave about your good ones. He joined your family vacations and you his.

He was the first boy you ever loved and had ever dropped those stone-cold walls you kept so high for. The first boy to ever make you feel comfortable being vulnerable around– even going as far as to saying ‘I love you’ for the first time in your life after that first year of dating.

And then freshman year at BU...you saw the Snapchat.

It was after a big win and there was a party on campus. You had gone to the game to support Logan and Casey, bundled up as warm as you could be since you had been feeling under the weather for the last two days. You congratulated them both before wishing them a good night and going back to your dorm, skipping the party so you could get some extra sleep. When you woke up Saturday morning, you felt a lot better than you had been feeling the previous few days...until your roommate walked in with coffee and breakfast for the both of you, the look on her face saying that things weren’t all that great.

It was from another one of Logan and Casey’s teammates' stories of a group of people playing beer pong and in the background, you could see a couple all wrapped up in each other, laughing and smiling. You didn’t want to believe it was Casey– it could’ve been one of the other teammates. But when the story continued on into the next snap, the couple turned and you were hit with the crushing reality that it was Casey, only able to see his face for a few seconds before the brunette in his arms (who you recognized as a member of the women’s hockey team) pressed her lips against his and the two were locked in a kiss that lasted one second too long for your liking.

Two years of your life had come tumbling down in a mere matter of seconds, your heart crushed in shambles from the aftermath of his actions.

And everything you didn’t want to happen...happened. You confronted Casey about it, crying more than you had ever done before and while he admitted his guilt, the fact that he wasn’t sad about what he had done, only made it worse. Logan found out after walking into their shared dorm room coming back from lunch with Francesca, therefore walking in on your argument.

Their friendship was in ruins, your relationship was done, your heart shattered, and later that night when Casey asked if he could stop by to exchange your things you had managed to gather up the courage to ask him why he did it. He didn’t blame it on being drunk, he never once didn’t own up to his actions– that much you were thankful for. However, it was when he told you “Riley and I get along great...we have more things in common, the chemistry was better. I swear it’s nothing you did because I love you, I really do. But, it’s easier with her” that ultimately shattered the remaining pieces of your heart.

“I swear it’s nothing you did.” “I love you.” “It’s easier with her.”

Perhaps those were the phrases that kept you on the path you’d been on from the moment your relationship with Casey had ended. Before him, you were barely teetering the line of only keeping a man at bay in fear of him breaking your heart, but after the one guy who did– it was like he himself had shoved you over it and you’ve been walking down that road ever since.

It was easier to move on post-breakup when Casey got drafted to the Kings and went out west. It was even easier when Logan got drafted and became a hometown boy on the team he’d grown up idolizing– the Boston Bruins. You had your friends and your family to help you move on from the crushing heartbreak, but more importantly–and maybe a little bit self-destructive– once you were ready to step back out into the dating world, you did.

Initially, it really only started as flings. You talked with the guy, got to know him, you were each other’s main hookup– that’s pretty much how it went your next two years of college. But senior year was when it changed and you found yourself slowly entertaining the idea of a relationship. Maybe it was because your brother was engaged, maybe it was being surrounded by the loving relationships of his teammates, or maybe it was because your heart was telling you that you were ready to take another leap of faith.

Though you never let it get the chance, nor did it ever seem to have the chance.

Because everything always ended the same– you kept them at arm's length and they found someone who didn’t.

You heard the front door open and looked away from the tv long enough to spot Jake walking into the apartment before focusing your attention back to the screen where Michelle was having a one on one date with Clayton, continuing to eat your chipotle bowl.

“Hey,” Jake said, walking towards the kitchen island and dropping his keys onto the counter before walking beside the couch, looking at the tv. “What are you watch– oh shit, it’s Monday.”

“It’s fine,” you replied, shrugging your shoulders before pausing the tv. “We were gonna watch it tomorrow, remember?”

Jake looked at you, eyebrows furrowed. “Not that I’m bothered or anything, but if that’s the case...you’re sitting alone in my apartment...on my couch and watching it without me, why exactly?”

“Plans changed,” you shrugged again, moving the blanket off the empty spot beside you. “Didn’t feel like sitting in my apartment alone. I could’ve gone to Logan and Fran’s, but you know how gross they get when they’re trashed. Besides, I knew you’d come home eventually.”

He walked around the couch and sat down next to you, reaching forward and grabbing the chips and queso you’d ordered before draping the other side of the blanket over his legs and propping his feet up on the table. “What makes you think I was coming back home alone though? Totally could’ve cockblocked me if I brought a girl home and she sees another girl on my couch shoving chipotle into her mouth and downing a vodka cran.”

“You don’t know it’s vodka cran,” you replied, rolling your eyes. “Besides, I’ve been out with you guys multiple times, and even when the opportunity presents itself, you never take a girl home– hell, you don’t even go to their place.”

“Doesn’t mean I couldn’t have done it tonight,” he replied, munching on a chip. “And I know it’s a vodka cran because I know you, Y/N.” He grabbed another chip, this time dipping it into your bowl and scooping some of the contents out.

“Yeah?”

“Mhhm. Which means I also know that you’d never go against our friendship pact by watching the Bachelorette without me. And I also know that you only drink while watching it when you need to drown yourself in your feelings...not to mention your bowl is pretty packed– or was.” He grabbed another chip, dipping it in queso and looking at you. “So, are you going to tell me what happened? Because last time I heard, you canceled our Bachelorette date for plans.”

You moved some of the contents of your burrito bowl around with your fork, feeling Jake’s gaze on you continue to linger as he waited for a reply. “The plans weren’t what I thought they were.”

“Did something happen?” He asked, turning towards you on the couch. “Did what’s his face do something? That’s what your plans were right? Lunch with what’s the guy–”

“Lucas.”

“Sure, Lucas.” Jake waved off, moving the chips and queso back onto the table. “Did he do something to make you–”

“No, no, it wasn’t that,” you replied, shaking your head and sighing. “He was fine, it was fine...it just wasn’t what I thought the plans were going to be is all.”

“I’m confused…” Jake said, tilting his head to the right. “What exactly were the plans?”

“He texted asking to meet for lunch, and in previous encounters...lunch was grab something to go and then go back to his place and–”

“Yeah, yeah, I get the picture, please don’t go any further,” he replied, cutting you off as his face twisted up into disgust. “So what? You meet up, grab food, go back to his place and hook up...is that it? What was so bad? Did you throw up on him or something?”

“God, no, shut up,” you groaned, shoving at him with your foot before looking back down at your bowl. “We never went to his apartment...we didn’t even get lunch together.”

“So...what happened then?”

You leaned back into the couch, sighing heavily. “He basically broke up with me–not like we were dating anyway. Said he met some first-year grad student in the cafe and they both ordered the same thing and it was basically true love at first sight or something.” You laughed sarcastically, shaking your head. “Funnily enough, he met her the morning after we had last hooked up, she does graphic design and according to him, I’m great and he enjoyed getting to know me, but he really likes her and they’ve basically been dating the last three weeks.”

It was silent as you felt Jake’s gaze still on you and when you looked over at him, you felt relieved. Normally in this situation, whether it be with your friends or your brothers, you’d always get the same look of pity or sympathy on their face. That was the last thing you wanted. You already felt bad enough and you didn’t need someone else feeling bad for you. But not Jake, never with Jake.

“Are you sad about it?” Jake asked, resting his right elbow on top of the pillow cushion and propping his head against his fist. “I mean like...did you want something to happen with him?”

“I don’t think I’m sad about him ending it...he was just a fling, you know?” You replied, stabbing at the veggies in your bowl with your fork. “It’s just...it always happens to me. The stupid ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ bullshit. I mean, I know I’m not the easiest person to get close to...but at this point, it’s just...it’s exhausting.”

Jake leaned forward and grabbed your glass, handing it to you before taking the burrito bowl off of your lap and putting it on the table. “What’s exhausting?”

“Everything,” you laughed dryly, shaking your head before you took a sip of your vodka cran and sighed, looking down at the glass. “I’m starting to think I’m doomed to be single for the rest of my life, you know? That I’m totally unlovable and maybe it’s my fault because I’m too scared to let someone close to me or maybe I’m just meant to be that girl that makes guys realize what they want in someone, but don’t want me.”

“And I know I can do it, be vulnerable with someone because I did it before. But I’m just so terrified of letting someone in like that again, because the last time it broke my heart,” you spoke softly, tracing your finger around the rim of the glass. “And I’m starting to think that I’d rather have that than to continually have men tell me that I’m great and cool, but I’m not what they want.”

You took another deep breath, exhaling before finishing off the vodka cran and handing the glass to Jake. “Sorry for venting, I know you’re probably not interested in my woes. But besides Logan, you’re the only guy in my life who I can be this vulnerable with and that I know will never judge me for it. I mean hell, you watch me stress over a fake reality dating show every week.”

“It’s a good show,” he smiled softly, holding the glass in his hands. “But you’re right, Y/N. I’ll never judge you for being vulnerable with me, ever. And that Lucas guy? It’s his loss for breaking/not breaking up with you. Every guy who’s ever done that, it’s their loss because as far as I’m concerned, you’re the coolest girl to get to know.”

“Thanks, Jake,” you smiled.

“Anytime,” he nodded, pointing at the tv. “I’ll get you a refill only if you fill me in on what I missed...and share your chips and queso.”

“Deal, because you’ve missed a lot.”

He walked into the kitchen to make you another drink, turning the lights on and ruining the dimmed living room. When he came walking back a few moments later, he took his spot right back next to you and handed you your glass, you handing him the chips and queso before grabbing the remote.

“We can just start it over, I don’t mind,” you said, rewinding the program.

“You’re already 30 minutes in, you don’t have to–”

“Seriously, Jake...I don’t mind,” you replied, pressing play once it was back at the start. “Besides, watching the Bachelorette without you isn’t the same. I missed your usual banter.”

Jake propped his feet up onto the table and scooted closer to you so the blanket wouldn’t need to move far before resting the chips between you and the queso in his lap. “This good?”

“Mhhm, you can have some of my bowl too,” you replied, scooting the bowl closer towards him.

“Good, cause I brought a fork,” he smiled, pulling a fork out from beside his leg before reaching into your bowl. “Hmm...could use more protein.”

“Just shut up and watch the show,” you laughed, taking a bite from your own bowl before scooting closer and closing the distance between your bodies.

You looked at Jake as he focused on the show and smiled, already feeling a million times better simply from his presence. He really was your best friend and you didn’t know what you would do without him. You leaned your head against his shoulder, watching the show and silently praying to yourself that you’d never have to go back to living in a world without Jake Debrusk by your side.

It wasn’t an odd occurrence for Jake to wake up with you. The two of you always had sleepovers, so many in fact, that he spent the better part of last season trying to convince you to just move in with him. You guys were best friends, he lived right by the arena so the two of you could carpool to work and when he was on roadies, he didn’t need to worry about his empty apartment. He didn’t mind the idea of living with you either. You guys were best friends after all.

Oh, and there’s always the fact that he’s harbored a major crush on you from the moment he met you.

But crush aside, he deeply cared for you– you were his best friend outside of his hockey teammates or friends from home. The two of you could have fun going out to bars and clubs and have the same amount of fun just chilling on a couch watching movies and tv shows.

He’s tried within the last year to tell you how he feels about you or hell, at least to kind of nudge you with the idea that he liked you as more than a friend, but it’s never been the right time. You were in your last year of grad school and working hard to try and earn a full-time job working with the Bruins– which would be your childhood dream come true. Add in the fact that you were still seeing this Lucas guy and Jake was pretty held back from ever attempting to pursue something with you.

At least until last night, last night was like the universe finally giving him that opportunity to take his shot. He hated seeing you so upset and he could never understand why you thought you were less than what you were worth. He could barely understand how these guys could even say that you were great, but they had found someone better– as far as he knew it, you were the best.

You were practically everything he wanted in a girlfriend and it was even better that you were already his best friend.

Which is why he was so nervous today. Because this morning when he woke up– waking you up next to him on the couch as well so you could have the first shower and get ready for work– he had it set in his mind that he was going to try and take that first step to tell you how he really felt.

Which meant he was going to talk to Logan first to see if it was okay that Jake planned on asking you on a date.

“Hey Logan, wait up!” He called out, jogging down the hall once he walked out of the locker room.

“What’s up? Aren’t you taking Y/N out to lunch today?” Logan asked, looking down at his phone. “Might not want to be late, you know how she gets when she’s hangry.”

“Yeah, but I actually wanted to talk to you about something first,” Jake replied, feeling nervous as they kept walking towards the door that would eventually lead them to the parking garage.

“Okay? What’s up?”

“I was wondering if you’d um,” Jake huffed, scratching the back of his beanie as he looked at Logan. “Would you be okay with me asking Y/N on a date?”

“Is that it?”

“...Yes?”

Logan laughed, shaking his head. “Dude I thought it was something super serious.”

“I mean...it kind of is?”

“I’m fine with it, Jakey. I know you’re a good dude and you guys are best friends,” Logan said, stuffing his hands in his winter coat pockets. “But Y/N might be a little hesitant about it.”

Jake felt his heart drop all the way down into his feet, the empty feeling it left behind making it almost hard to breathe. “Why? I-I mean...does she not–”

“No, no it’s nothing against you, I promise. I’ve actually teased her a few times about how close the two of you are, you know that. It’s just well...the last time she dated one of my teammates, he ended up cheating on her and it...well it kind of messed her up for a bit.”

“Casey Wells, yeah I know,” Jake nodded, stuffing his hands in his own pockets. “We talked about it one night after a bar.”

“Yeah well, he kind of put her on that whole ‘I don’t want to let anyone get close to me’ path she’s on.” Logan sighed, shaking his head. “You can try to ask her on a date, I can’t promise she’ll say yes. Just know that if she says no, it’s not because of you, okay?”

Jake nodded as they stopped just outside of the door of the parking garage, the elevator at the end of the hall dinging and the doors opening, with you walking out of them and into the hallway. “I was going to wait for you to come and get me, but I’m super hungry and couldn’t wait any longer.”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t ask, because you never know...she could say yes,” Logan spoke softly, patting Jake’s shoulder. “And if she does say yes...don’t be a dick, okay?”

Jake just nodded before Logan nodded at you and walked through the doors into the parking garage, leaving him standing alone in the hallway as you walked up to him. “What were you guys talking about?” You asked.

“Just stuff from practice,” Jake nodded, opening the door for you and letting you walk into the garage. “Where did you want to go to lunch?”

“I was thinking we could pick something up from that sub shop down the street and just go back to your apartment and eat it. Is that okay with you?”

“It’s perfect.” He replied, walking with you to his car and opening your door for you before walking around, hesitating to get in. He could have this conversation now or he could wait until you guys were at lunch. Either way, he was asking you on a date today.

And he was hoping to God that you’d say yes.

Only he didn’t ask while the two of you were sitting at his kitchen table and eating your sandwiches. He didn’t ask when you asked him what he was thinking about– you– and he didn’t ask when he drove you back to the arena to drop you back off to work. Well...he didn’t ask on the car ride.

Plainly speaking? He panicked. He saw his moment slowly slipping through his fingers as he pulled out front of the arena and he just blurted it out.

“Go on a date with me!”

You stopped, one leg out of his car but your body still in the passenger seat as you turned to look at him. “What?”

“Shit I mean, ugh,” he groaned, rubbing a hand down his face. “Can I take you out on a date?”

He saw the way your eyes had widened when hearing his request and he watched them soften as you sighed and frowned. “Jake, you don’t have to.”

“Have to what?”

“I know you feel bad for me– but really, I’m fine, okay?” You asked, starting to feel slightly embarrassed at the fact he was starting to feel bad for you after what happened yesterday.

“I’m not asking you on a date because I feel bad for you, Y/N,” he laughed, shaking his head. “I’m asking you on a date because I…” he hesitated, the words stuck in his throat before he sighed. “Listen, we don’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want to. We can just do a date staying in...just, please say yes?”

His heart thumped against his chest with every passing second that you looked at him and didn’t tell him your answer. He was starting to feel embarrassed himself and like maybe he just ruined your guys’ friendship and right when he was about to tell you nevermind, that it was okay...you brought your foot back into the car and closed the door, turning towards him fully.

“This isn’t a pity date?” You asked, the small frown still on your face.

“No, absolutely not,” he replied, shaking his head. “I would never–”

“Okay,” you nodded, swallowing heavily. “What time should I be ready?”

“Is 6 okay? Just stop by and we can leave from there, okay?”

You nodded, adjusting your purse over your shoulder. “I guess I’ll see you at 6.” You opened the door again and got out, closing it before turning back and knocking on the passenger window and ducking down into his view, waiting as he rolled the window down. “You swear on–”

“Yes, yes, I swear this isn’t a pity date, Y/N,” he laughed, waving you off. “Have a good day at work, I’ll see you at six. Love you, bye.” He replied, rolling the window back up and waiting for you to walk into the arena before driving off.

It wasn’t until he was driving back to his apartment that he realized what he had said. “Love you.” It shouldn’t have been a big deal, the two of you had said ‘Love you’ to each other all the time in your years of friendship.

But he had also just asked you on a date. A date you were hesitant to take, just like Logan had said you would be. And now, his dumbass went ahead and said that he loved you and if he knew you as well as he thinks he does, then he knows you’re going to analyze his words way more than you need to.

He meant it in a friendly way– like the two of you had always said it.

But he would be lying if he said that he didn’t love you in the romantic way either.

You couldn’t focus the rest of the day at work, it was hard to keep your mind on a single-track focus when all you could think about was the fact that your best friend had just asked you on a date. You had texted Francesca the moment you stepped into the arena, but she was no help because all she said was “finally! You two have been oblivious for ages.”

So you spent most of your day thinking back on your four-year friendship with Jake. He and your brother had made their NHL debuts in the same season. Your family was like his second family since you were local and he came all the way from Edmonton. You were just at the end of getting over your break-up with Casey when Logan brought Jake home with him one weekend during training camp.

It was totally against your will and Logan wanted to show Jake around, so he dragged you along with them and Francesca to go play laser tag. And it was being teamed up with Jake and the competitiveness of wanting to beat your brother, that started your guys’ friendship. It didn't help that he was also really kind and even a little cute– but it was him letting you take the winning shot on your brother that sealed the friendship deal.

If you weren’t totally heartbroken from Casey cheating on you and you were just some single girl, then you definitely could see yourself possibly having something with Jake. You guys got along great, had similar interests and he even indulged in the cheesy shows that only your closest girlfriends would watch. Yet thinking back, you could never name or even think about a moment where you thought that Jake might even slightly like you.

When you got off of work, you took an Uber to your brother and Francesca’s, pounding on the door until one of them answered before you stormed in to rant about the fact that your best friend had just asked you on a date. They listened to you rant and talk and stress and in the end, Francesca reiterated how she thought this was a long time coming, while Logan just walked you to the door, nudged you out into the hall, and said “Don’t fuck it up, he really likes you,” and shut the door in your face.

So you went back to your apartment, took a shower, and got ready for your...date, maybe not date with Jake.

You were nervous taking the uber to his apartment and were even outside of his apartment door at 5:50, contemplating whether or not you should knock and arrive early or just hang out in the lobby until six. It wasn’t like you didn’t know the people who worked at the front desk. Instead, you knocked on the door taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly, waiting for him to answer.

And when he did, you half expected him to be dressed in sweatpants and a hoodie– knowing that he was always the one to get ready at the last minute and yet still be on time. But instead, he was dressed up in a pair of dark wash jeans and a maroon sweater, his beard was trimmed and it looked like he had even gone and trimmed his hair a bit– he looked really...well...really good.

“Sorry I’m early, I just got dressed a lot faster than I thought I would, so I figured I’d just come over,” you rambled, pointing down the hall. “I was kind of thinking you wouldn’t be ready yet and I could just sit in the living room.”

“It’s fine,” he replied, shaking his head. “Actually, I just need to grab my coat but we can head out now if you want.”

“Okay, sure,” you nodded, hugging your own jacket tightly around you as he grabbed his coat from the side table by the inside of the door and walked out to join you in the hall. “So, care to tell me what we’re doing tonight?”

“Nope,” he smiled, tugging the jacket on and walking with you down the hall. “It’s a total surprise.”

The two of you walked side by side as you left the familiarity of his apartment and down to the parking garage where he parked his car, the silence evident between you both...but it was comfortable and you weren’t surprised because there had never been a time where you were ever uncomfortable about Jake.

He opened the car door for you, letting you get inside before he closed the door and walked around the front to get into the car himself. You looked out the window, trying to figure out which direction you were going and where exactly he was taking you for the night– but there were a lot of possibilities and you weren’t able to limit them unless he gave you some kind of clue.

But that’s not what you were more curious about.

“Real talk?” You asked, turning towards him as he came to a stop at the red light.

“Always,” he replied, keeping his eyes on the streetlights ahead of him, but you weren’t oblivious to how he had nervously squeezed his steering wheel a little tighter.

‘Real Talk’ was always something the two of you said when you wanted a pure and honest conversation. It was something you and your brothers had done while growing up and it spread into your friendship with Jake as well.

“Why?” You shifted comfortably in your seat, keeping your focus on him. “I-I mean if this isn’t some pity date because you feel bad that another guy basically said I wasn’t good enough for him...then what is it? Why ask me out on a date now?”

“Well one, it’s most definitely not a pity date,” he laughed, shaking his head and moving forward as the light turned green. “And two...the timing was just never right before.”

“There’s never been good timing in the four years we’ve known each other?”

“No. You were coming off of a break-up when we first met, then you just kind of went off and did your own thing to help yourself heal. It’d be kind of a dick move for me to interrupt that when you were getting over what that asshole did.” He shrugged. “I guess I’ve just been playing the long game, you know?”

“The long game?” You laughed, leaning your head against the headrest. “So you’ve been what? Supposedly harboring this crush on me for the last four years and you just now decide to make a move? I find that hard to believe, Jakey...no offense.”

Jake sighed and pulled off into a CVS parking lot, stopping in a space and putting the car in park before turning to her. “Why? Why is it so hard to believe that I’ve liked you since I met you?”

“Because…” you wavered off, realizing that you really didn’t have a reason besides the fact you just couldn’t believe it. So you went with the usual excuse. “If none of these other guys think I’m good enough for them or they find someone better for them, then why shouldn’t I think that’ll happen with you?”

“Because I’m not those other guys and they were never good enough for you, Y/N.” He unbuckled his seatbelt, turning more in his seat. “I don’t think you understand how hard it’s been to see you start to believe that you’re not worth even the tiniest bit of love. There’s nothing you can say to convince me that if any of those guys ever gave even the slightest bit of a damn for you, that they wouldn’t have let your fear of being vulnerable affect your relationship with them.”

You sat there stunned in your seat, watching him as he spoke and only blinking in response to his words as you tried to let his words sink in.

“You say you can’t be vulnerable with anyone after Casey, but you can, Y/N. You can because you’ve been vulnerable with me. I’ve seen you ugly cry to the Notebook, or all spaesque in a facemask and in a robe. We’ve had those hard and heartfelt conversations after long nights at the bar. You’ve cried in my arms. I know your biggest dreams and your fears, I know your favorite foods and movies. And that’s not because I’ve been around for so long or that just cause we’re friends– it’s because you let yourself open up to me just like I’ve opened up to you.”

“So yeah, it took me four years and me asking your brother if it was okay to finally ask you on a date, because quite frankly Y/N, seeing you upset on my couch last night was like the final straw. I’m so tired of you giving these guys every chance to hurt you because you don’t deserve that. You deserve someone who is willing to fight to get past those fears you have. Someone who’s not willing to throw you aside because things aren’t easy. So let me be that person for you.”

For the life of you, you could never find a single moment in your memory that ever showed that Jake was interested in you beyond friendship. But when he looked at you and you saw his blue eyes soften as he spoke, you felt a chill go down your spine...because you have seen that look before and you never realized how you missed it.

It was always in the moments when you’d sneak a look at him during whatever you guys were doing– whether it was watching a movie, a game, playing video games, or doing something on vacation– Jake was never slick and you always caught him looking, but you would always just tease him about it and leave it at that.

Little did he know though, too caught up in his own embarrassment, you would always look back at him as soon as he looked away and admire him. Jake was cute, he was your type and he was your best friend– what was there not to like? And maybe you never allowed yourself to cross that thought because of what happened with Casey. Maybe you shoved that small thought and the feelings that came with it so far into the back of your mind that it was something you forgot.

But hearing him talk like this, hearing him speak from the heart about how much he cared for you and what you deserved– it brought you back to the one night where you realized that you had feelings for him that you couldn’t let yourself feel because the pain from Casey was too fresh.

“That summer when you stayed with us a bit after that first season and we went to Cape Cod, do you remember when we snuck out with Logan and Fran and went onto the beach?” You asked, sitting yourself up.

“The first night there?” He asked, furrowing his brows. “Yeah, what about it?”

You swallowed heavily as you played with your hands in your lap, twirling the matching friendship ring you and Fran both wore on your index fingers. “Logan was being an ass and did that whole Jaws scene because he knows how much I hated that movie and how I didn’t want to go out into the water in the first place and I swam back up to the sand and sat there.”

“You followed right behind me and let me use your towel since Logan had rushed us out and I forgot to grab one.” You looked up at him, your heart racing against your chest. “You could’ve gone back into the water, but you stayed up there with me and calmed me down. It’s nothing big, I know...but that was when I realized that I liked you as more than a friend. But I was scared and you...well you’re in the NHL. What could I possibly have to offer you?”

“You don’t need to offer me anything, Y/N,” he spoke softly, reaching out and grabbing onto your right hand. “You’re perfect just the way you are...soaked hair from Logan pulling you down beneath the water and all.”

The both of you laughed as you looked up from your lap, nodding your head. “I guess what I’m saying is that a part of me, well...I’ve liked you too for a long time and I just think I was too scared to let myself feel those feelings because of everything.”

“I don’t want you to be scared with me,” he frowned, shaking his head. “Like I said, Y/N. You’ve been vulnerable with me from the start. And if you decide you want to take this offer and go on more dates and eventually start officially dating, I just want you to know that I won’t give up on you when things get hard and that you can always open up to me, because I’ll never judge you or hurt you. You’re my best friend and I love you.”

Your heart thumped against your chest. You two had said I love you to each other before, but now it was distinguishing which one he meant– as a friend or as something else. “I might need some detail there…”

He tucked his chin down into his chest, something he always did to try and hide the fact he was blushing. “Yeah, I kind of stumbled on that earlier today didn’t I.”

“Yeah,” you blushed, nodding your head.

“I mean, I do...love you, you know? As a friend and...potentially more. I know we’re not dating and we’ve never done anything like that before, but I do have heavy feelings for you. So yeah, I do love you.”

Besides to your family, you’ve only ever said that to one other person in your life before– and it never felt like this. Hearing him say those words made you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It calmed the nerves you felt running through your body. It brought a natural smile and blush to your face.

This was so much different than the feelings you felt the first time you were in love– it wasn’t a feeling you felt like you needed to constantly chase to be able to feel. It was stable, it was comforting…

It was Jake and he was there all along, right in front of you for the last four years.

“I love you too,” you spoke softly, fighting the blush on your cheeks as you looked at him, watching his eyes widen for a split second as he registered your words before the smile grew on his face and he squeezed your hand. “We kind of did this backward, didn’t we?”

“What do you mean?” He asked, furrowing his brows.

“We just said I love you to each other and we haven’t even gone on our first date yet...let alone kiss. Kind of backward, don’t you think?”

“We’re on our first date now, kind of,” he replied, looking around them. “As for the kiss, that’s an easy fix.”

Before you could say a single word, his left hand cupped the right side of your face as he leaned across the center console and pressed his lips softly against yours, the feeling of his beard scratching against your skin something you never thought you would become addicted to in such a short moment or the aroma of the coconut shampoo and conditioner you convinced him to buy would become your favorite scent.

Kissing Jake was everything you never knew you were missing– and all it was, was a simple kiss.

When he pulled away, you could smell the mint from his toothpaste on his breath and you smiled, reaching up and brushing your left thumb across his jaw. “I knew you’d be a good kisser.”

“Oh, you did?” He laughed, kissing your forehead before leaning back into his seat.

“Mhhm, just an intuition.” You shrugged, putting your seatbelt back on as he did the same and put the car into reverse. “So, are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Figured we could go play some laser tag.” He shrugged, smiling at you as he started to drive again.

“Ooh, taking us back to our roots huh?” You smiled, looking at him. “Back to where it all began?”

“Makes sense, doesn’t it?” He asked. “It’s where we first became friends and it’s now going to be where we went on our first date.”

“Just tell me this,” you said, shifting in your seat and turning to him. “Are we on the same team or not?”

“Divide and conquer? Absolutely not,” he laughed, shaking his head. “I’d rather not play against my girlfriend, thanks.”

“Girlfriend, hm?” You asked, raising an eyebrow. “I never said I agreed to be your girlfriend. Besides, you never asked.”

Jake turned to you with wide eyes before pouting. “I just poured my heart and soul out to you…”

“How about this,” you smiled, leaning against the center console. “We play on different teams. You win and I’ll be your girlfriend.”

“And if you win?” He asked, looking at you with an intrigued smile at your competitive proposition.

“Then I’ll be your girlfriend...and you get me a jersey to wear to the games.”

He laughed, reaching out and resting his hand on your left leg, squeezing it softly. “Deal.”

“May the best win.” You smiled, resting your hand on top of his and leaning back into your seat.

As you continued the drive to laser tag, you caught yourself looking over at Jake more than a few times and not being ashamed whenever he looked back with a smile on his face. You were scared, yes. There was something unknown about crossing over the boundary of your friendship with Jake...but there was also a sense of comfort you felt because it was Jake. You believed everything he said to you about what you deserved and how he felt.

And yeah, you were scared, and even after all of that you were still feeling a little undeserving of the heartfelt words that Jake had spoken to you, but then he’d look at you and you would see that soft look in his eyes and it all went away.

Jake was everything you’d been missing without knowing you were missing it– and now that you’ve found it, you didn’t want to let it go.

You finally felt loved.

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emmys-main · 4 years

Text

Intro (Part 1 of Love Me Good)

Summary: When you mention that you’ve never been satisfied by a man in bed, your older friend Chris makes you an offer you can’t refuse. Part II: Closer

Pairing: Chris Evans x female reader

Warnings: SMUT. Implied age gap, graphic oral sex (performed on a female). Do not interact if you are not 18+.

Title Inspiration: Intro by the XX

You didn’t know quite how the conversation of sexual satisfaction came up, but you weren’t mad that it was happening. Maybe it was because you were drunk off vodka and pink lemonade. Maybe it was because you were with a group of friends you trusted. Maybe it was because you were just having fun.

You were in a quiet suburb of Boston with a group of friends who were filming a movie there. You had been working for Chris’s mom’s theater for about three yeas after college, which was how you met Chris, and he’d introduced you to his friends, and then you’d taken a job on a TV show that Chris was filming back in Boston. It had been a wild couple of years, but you wouldn’t trade it for the world. Chris was, without a doubt, one of your best friends. Most of your friends in the area had scattered after college, allowing you to get closer to your employer’s son.

You’d been playing stupid games for most of the night after the Bruins game ended and you didn’t feel like going home quite yet; Chris was your ride, anyway, because he didn’t want you going back yourself so late. Somehow the game had turned to truth or dare, the real version of truth or dare - tell the truth or do whatever the other person says. Of course, in a room full of adults who were full of home-made chips and dip and alcohol, it turned dirty.

“I’m serious, answer it!” Your friend Janie said, nudging you with her elbow. “Come on, you have to! Or I’ll dare you to answer it!”

“Fine!” You sighed. You felt heat on your cheeks, starting to sweat a little more than you had been. “Never. I’ve never had an orgasm with a guy, okay?” Janie and another friend, Will, let their jaws drop before falling into a fit of laughter that you knew would happen. Even Chris, who was sitting there, laughed a little bit as he took another sip of his beer. He was probably the most sober of all of you - he was your ride, after all.

“What about Jay?” Will asked. “You dated him for two years in college.”

“I lied! He tried, and I almost got there, but I never did unless I was on my own,” you said, pulling your cardigan a little closer to you like it would guard your secret that was already out. “There’s your answer, okay? Now take the conversation away from me.” You took a sip from the pink-rimmed steel straw you were drinking out of, the lemonade and vodka mix stinging your lips like it had been all night.

“Chris, your turn! Same question or dare!” Janie turned her attention to Chris, who immediately looked like a deer in the headlights. The look on his face faded and suddenly he was chuckling, his cheeks slightly flushed.

“My record is five in one night. But I don’t remember the last time, so you’re not getting an answer to that.”

“Oh bullshit! There’s no way you don’t remember.” Chris shrugged, putting his hands in his sweatshirt. You secretly loved when Chris dressed like he was that night - in jeans and a sweatshirt and a Bruins hat, not concerned with anyone who might be taking pictures or spreading rumors about what he said. You knew he trusted you the first time he came over to watch a movie and told you some secrets from the set, not even worried about whether you would say something. He looked like any other guy, not Chris Evans. He looked like the guy who was easily your closest and most trusted friend.

“I don’t remember!” He insisted. “But at least I know it happened.” He looked over at you, winking, and you just rolled your eyes. Chris was a flirt. A hardcore flirt. And nothing ever came of it because you figured he just wasn’t into you. Tonight had been different, though, because as soon as the alcohol started flowing he was all touchy-feely and flirty and was just overall different. You’d be lying if you said you didn’t notice it.

You went a few more rounds of the game, ending up revealing that the craziest place you’d ever done it was in the communal showers sophomore year. Chris’s answer was an awards show green room, a much better answer, but he tried to play it off, saying it was too hot and he was worried about getting anything on his date’s dress, making excuses to play it down so it wouldn’t seem like anyone was missing out on anything.

You helped clean up before you walked across the street and climbed in Chris’s car. He turned the air conditioning vents toward you, making sure you were cool because you were sweating from all of the alcohol. He put on some 80′s music you didn’t quite recognize and started driving back toward your apartment. You grabbed a water bottle from the cupholder in the console, drinking a little bit of it before remembering it had been there since you got out of the car and that the water inside of it was hot.

“You can't be fucking serious about that,” Chris remarked when you were reflecting on the night. “You had to have had at least one. Maybe you didn’t notice it, but you had to!”

“I think I just put too much pressure on myself,” you admitted, “because I almost always get there but I never fully just...” You clenched your fists, looking for a good word, and let your voice trail off when you couldn’t find one in your vocabulary. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not satisfied with it. It’s fine. I’ve just kind of come to know I’m not going to and it’s whatever, you know? As long as I have fun otherwise.”

“Oh, that’s such bullshit. I’ll admit it’s not everything, but come on! It’s kind of the end goal there.” Chris stopped at a red light, looking over at you to make sure you were okay. You could see that his cheeks were returning to their normal color, even in the bright red light from the truck ahead of you’s brake. He was definitely sober. And this wasn’t a conversation you’d ever even think to have if you were sober, too.

“Yeah, but... I don’t know.”

“You’ve never been with a good guy, then,” Chris said after a second. He crossed his arms against his chest as he waited for the truck to go, then gently took his brake off and put his hands back on the wheel and the gear shift where he always rested his right fist.

“Then fucking tell me where they are because obviously I don’t know how to look for them, either.” Chris scoffed. “And, besides, I’m pretty enough to fuck and that’s all. No guy ever wants to stick around to learn how to make me feel good and it’s fucking annoying.”

“That’s just about the biggest lie I’ve ever heard. But maybe you need to look for a friends with benefits thing instead of anything else. At least at first. I hate hooking up with people because you don’t know them, you don’t know what they like or what they want to try or anything. You just know them for two hours and then they fuckin’ leave. But a friends with benefits, at least you know them and you can be idiots with each other.”

“Knowing me I’d probably catch feelings,” you scoffed, rubbing your hair a little when it hit a spot on your ear and started itching.

“Take me, for example,” he said. You sat up, giggling.

“What? You?”

“Exactly! You love me as a friend and nothing else. I wouldn’t even think twice about doin’ something because i know you and I care about you, but I also know that it wouldn’t be weird.”

“You think you and me wouldn’t be weird?”

“At first, maybe, but...” He looked over at you. “You’re hot and we can act like adults, is all I’m saying. That’s what I mean. You don’t want to get with someone you can’t act like an adult with. Literally and metaphorically.”

“Are you offering?” You asked after a second of silence, having been biting your tongue. The words came out of your mouth before you could stop them. Damn being drunk, even a little bit. it just made the part of you always afraid to step on someone’s toes go away. Chris shrugged in response and took a turn, and you noticed that you were almost back to your apartment.

“Maybe,” he said. “Depends on if you’re accepting. I just can’t stand the fact that no one’s ever made you cum, it’s fucking ridiculous. And if you’re into it...” His voice faded out when he realized you were looking at him.

“Sure,” you said in response, trying to be nonchalant about it. Inside, your heart was starting to race. Secretly, you’d always wondered what was inside of the gray sweatpants he would wear to set every morning, what was underneath the sweatshirt he would wear when it was cold outside, how his hair would feel running through your fingers... but you’d always been against it, thinking it was just empty flirting. He was so much older than you, he could have any woman he wanted, and he was so damn out of your league. But maybe, if this was one way you could have him, you wanted to.

“Really?” He asked, looking over at you. You were at the stop sign right before your apartment. It was now or never.

“Really,” you responded. His lips teased at a smile in the light of the street lamps and he pressed on the gas pedal, riding the short distance to your apartment before pulling into the driveway. “Do you want to come in?”

“Yeah.” He sniffled and turned off the car, then got out. You waited for him to cross over to you, looking in the darkness to make sure nothing was coming, before walking you up the stairs. You started sweating as you fiddled with your keys, trying to find the right one.

“You wanna just watch a movie or something? You know, we don’t have to get into anything,” he suggested. You found the key with blue duct tape on it, labeled with your apartment number, and nodded as you stuck it in the door.

“Sounds good.” You walked into the apartment and turned on the light, your head taking a minute to adjust to the light. “You know where the bedroom is, pick a movie. I’m going to use the bathroom.” He nodded and looked you up and down, smiling to himself, and the feeling of being checked out by him like a piece of meat sent shivers up and down your spine. The shivers stayed until you were in the bathroom, looking in the mirror, rolling up your cardigan in your hands. You weren’t wearing any makeup, but it didn’t really matter. You just made sure that you didn’t have any toilet paper or anything stuck down there, sighing, knowing you didn’t do that well when you'd shaved that morning. But Chris was your friend - if he wanted you, he wanted you. He wouldn’t care whether you had razor bumps or not.

You sighed, looking at yourself for a minute, and left the room. You walked into the bedroom to see Chris on the bed, shoes already off, hoodie off to reveal a white t-shirt, and his hat was on the nightstand. You sat down on the bed beside him, kicking your shoes off, and he turned on some movie that you knew you weren’t going to be able to watch. You looked at him in the dim lighting of the room before laying your head on his shoulder. He leaned back against the wall and the two of you sat like that for a few minutes, laughing at the TV when you realized he’d put on Forgetting Sarah Marshall, one of your favorites.

“This fucking movie,” you giggled. He laughed, too, but soon you were calm again. He must have been able to feel it because he pressed a kiss to your head. Did he want to start something now? You wondered. You looked up at him to see that he did, and before you could say anything or do anything his lips were on yours.

You’d always suspected he was a good kisser, but you didn’t know how right you were until that moment. He nearly tackled you right off the bat, swinging one of his legs over your torso until you were trapped underneath him. He gave you what felt like a million kisses before coming up for air.

“You like it rough?” He asked you in a low, husky voice. You were so close to him that you could see his pretty eyelashes up close for the first time. His pupils, those gorgeous eyes, were blown up with pure lust and a sick smile came over his face when you started nodding your head. He was the predator now, and you were the prey, and you didn’t even want to try to run away from it.

“I need to hear you, princess, do you like it rough?” He asked.

“Y-yes,” you said. It came out more like a whimper, your voice dry from the soul-sucking kiss he’d given you. As soon as you spoke a soft smile came over his face, replacing the almost grinch-like grin he’d had a moment ago.

“Good girl. We’re not gonna do the main event tonight, but I want to make you happy, is that okay?”

“Okay,” you whined. You could feel heat between your legs, soaking your underwear and your tight jeans. How could he make you like that with just a few words and a kiss? You were met with another searing kiss, Chris’s hand moving up to your throat. He rest his hand right above your collarbone, right where you were the most vulnerable. His fingers pressed into your skin, a hang-nail on his thumb scratching at it. You could barely think because of the way he was shoving your tongue down his throat, giving you no opportunity to breathe between the body on top of you and the warmth in your mouth. His tongue slid past your lips so easily, inviting you to go to war with his, and you took it. His kisses alone were like fire burning you from the inside out.

After what felt like minutes of just being there, kissing him with his hand on your throat, he pulled away. You wondered what he was going to do but he took his hands and put them down to your jeans, un-fastening the button. A limp, slightly greasy curl fell from behind his ear and with no hesitation, you tucked it back there. He gave you another sweet smile. His fingers fiddled with your button for a second before he started to pull the high-waisted jeans down. He chuckled when he saw that you were wearing underwear that matched your t-shirt. It was strange - you were always so afraid of your own body, looking down and seeing how close your stomach was to overlapping your toes, grabbing at your thighs wishing they would just disappear. But with Chris, you’d known him for so long and felt so comfortable with him that you didn’t even care he could see all of the stretch marks and the baby fat that had never left your stomach.

“If I’d known you were this god damn beautiful,” he muttered under his breath as he pulled your jeans over your ankles, discarding them to the floor. You sat up in a moment of bravery, pulling your t-shirt off to reveal your bra. Chris’s eyes had starts in them - you never once recalled feeling that way with anyone. You’d only ever been a bundle of nerves before. Now, that bundle was unraveling swiftly. Chris took the time to pull his own shirt off, allowing you to see every dip and curve in his skin. You couldn’t help but grin. God, he was amazing. Your hands went to his waist, breathless at how the man in front of you was actually real.

“You gonna let me take these off too?” He asked. “You wanna let me eat you out?”

“Yeah,” you responded. You felt a chill run up and down your spine and then to your hips as Chris’s thumbs hooked in your underwear and pulled them down, revealing you to the cold air of your room. Your legs came open without a command to, and when you did Chris’s eyes turned black again. You’d shaved that morning, not even thinking you’d get any that night, just because you liked to keep it shaved. So your pussy was as open as a flower, right in front of him, pink and perfect and glistening with wetness that you couldn’t control. It was freezing, making you want to close your legs, but you didn’t. You laid there, breathless, and watched as Chris laid down on the bed. He laid in between your legs on his stomach, just for a second, looking. You felt the heat on your cheeks, the aching in your bones for even just a little bit of his air against you.

The silence of the room was interrupted by Chris again, this time as he spat on your open pussy. It hit your bundle of nerves and you squirmed, earning hands on your hips once again. You jumped when you felt his cold fingers on them, rubbing your juices together. You’d never thought about how hot that was until then - fuck, you could’ve watched him do that all day.

“That feel good?” He asked in a dark voice.

“So good,” your lust-filled voice groaned back at him. You moved a piece of hair out of his eyes again, and as if to thank you, he moved to kiss your thighs. He said he was going to tease you, and tease he did - he kissed everywhere but the part of you he’d wet. You gasped at the feeling of his teeth on the thin, sensitive skin of your thighs, sucking little bruises into them. You were suddenly grateful that it was November and you weren’t wearing shorts anymore, otherwise the entire world would have been able to see what Chris had done to you.

“Fuck, you’ve got the most perfect pussy I’ve ever fuckin’ seen,” Chris said. It almost sounded like a dream when he said it. Faraway and unreal. And then he made it real by stopping the teasing and going straight to the source. You threw a hand over your mouth, not wanting to make too much noise but still too surprised to stop it from happening. You let out a small, high-pitched yelp as his tongue hit your clit first. He sucked it right into his mouth first, as if all of the teasing was over, and just as you let out another moan he let it go. You could hear a chuckle and at the same time, more of your wetness fell out of you. He lapped it up with his tongue, licking a stripe up and then back down, and then around. He was slow and careful with his movements, but it felt like the times you’d been eaten out before - like his tongue was everywhere and nowhere at once.

This was different, though. This was Chris. This was your best friend, eating you out in the darkness, trying to prove a point that had blown out of proportion. You had to stop another moan from leaving your lips when he sucked you into him, pressing his nose onto your clit by just an accident.

“No, I wanna hear those pretty sounds,” he cooed. “Tell me when you start getting close, but don’t put any pressure on yourself, alright?” You nodded, your head falling back onto the pillow. “Just sit back and relax, baby girl, I got you.”

You felt a finger probe at your entrance, and then two, and suddenly he was only rubbing his tongue against your clit and his fingers were inside of you. Your own fingers never felt this good, you thought, ever. He thrust them in and out of you and you could hear the lewd noises of everything going on over the movie. You were whimpering and whining and egging Chris on as he continued to eat you out. Your body was getting hotter and hotter and you were on the brink, but... what if you couldn’t? What if this was just like every other time when you got so close but never could? What if... Chris stopped what he was doing and looked up at you, pulling his fingers from you to grab at your hands.

“It’s okay. It’s okay. You want me to stop?”

“No,” you said loudly. “Please don’t stop.”

“Okay, then, you gotta relax for me, sweetheart. Just cum when you want to, it’s okay.” You calmed down before he went back to work, sucking and lapping at you. It felt so good, even the sweat on your back felt good, that your legs started to close. He didn’t protest. He just let it happen, and suddenly you could hear him gasp for air before returning right to your wet, now swollen pussy. That was finally what tipped you over the edge.

“Fuck!” You sobbed out, gasping for air as you felt at your highest. Chris took his mouth away from you and replaced it with his fingers, rubbing at your clit as your legs jerked and threatened to kick him. If you’d been looking at him you could see that he was smiling, that his beard was literally shining in the darkness with your wetness on him.

“Okay, I’m gonna go slow now,” he said softly, more to himself than you, and his fingers slowed on your clit. When you finally stopped moving, still gasping for air, he disappeared. You didn’t know where he went at first, but after a minute of stillness he returned with your steel water bottle and a washcloth from your closet, one you rarely used. It was wet with warm water.

“Thanks,” you managed to say, sitting up a little to drink. You twisted the lid off and your hands were shaking, but you drank the cold water. It breathed the life back to you, pulling you down from the highest of the highs you’d ever experienced. And then there was the heat of the cloth against you, and Chris’s soft sh, it’s okay, and then it was all over. He took the bottle and put it on your nightstand, then pulled your blankets out from underneath you. You were naked, still, but he didn’t seem to care. He tucked you in and started getting dressed, noticing that you were tired.

“I’m gonna let you get some rest, okay?” He said. “Sound good?”

“Okay.” He leaned down and kissed your temple, putting the TV remote over on the bed beside you.

“Good night, gorgeous. Call me tomorrow morning and we’ll get some coffee, alright?”

“Okay.” You shut your eyes and fell asleep without a single care in the world.

The next morning you woke up, noticing that you were naked above anything else. Normally you didn’t sleep naked, but you could feel your bare skin against your comforter and snuggled back into your blankets. You turned to your side, pulling the head of your phone charger out of the port and letting the cord fall to the ground. There was a single text.

Chris: Just woke up. Coffee at Sam’s?

Just woke up too. Sounds good. Just as you stopped typing, he started, and within a second he sent another text saying he’d be there to pick you up in half an hour. You pulled the covers off you only to realize that your legs were covered in little bruises and nibble marks from Chris. And then you realized the night before, but you didn’t freak out like you normally did. It felt good. You didn’t feel gross or dirty. You felt safe. Cared for. Satisfied. It was a change from the normal shame you felt after hooking up with someone. It was Chris, you realized. It was all him.

You pulled on some sweats, knowing he would be wearing the same thing, and emerged from your apartment to see that his car was already out there. You smiled to yourself as you got in, seeing that he’d obviously slept well.

“Well?” He asked. “How do you feel?”

“Like I just lost my god damn virginity,” you answered, only half joking. “Good. I feel really good.” He gave you a smile back, but it was a little hard to see underneath his famous Red Sox hat.

“Good. I’m glad.” He drove over to the coffee shop the two of you frequented and you paid for your coffee and sat down where you could people-watch through the streets.

“So last night was fine?” He asked.

“Chris, that was the most... I’ve never done that with a guy before and come out feeling not dirty. I’ve also never fallen asleep like that.” He chuckled.

“You deserved it. I wish I could've stayed, but the dog needed out. So would you want to do that again? Keep up this... thing?”

“Yeah,” you answered with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. “If you’re okay with it, yeah. Maybe this time I can suck out your soul instead.” “I wouldn't say I sucked out your soul,” he rolled his eyes. “There’s much more where that came from.”

“Good. I want it.” You were only half joking there, too. “Friends with benefits?” He lifted up his coffee cup and you did yours, fake clinking them together like glasses.

“Friends with benefits,” he answered back. “What are you doing tomorrow after those courtroom scenes? We could go to that bar you’ve been wanting to check out.”

“Yeah, I’d like that.” The two of you talked about more mundane things before finally parting ways with a see you later, princess. He drove you back to your apartment and watched you get in, then left probably to go hang out with his family like he usually did on the weekends. You shut the door to your apartment, sighing dreamily as you decided to lay in bed for most of the day and think about how Chris felt the night before.

You wondered if you’d ever be able to get him out of your head, or if he’d live there rent free, like the image of him eating your pussy out spread across your bed.

A/N: This is my first time writing any kind of smut whatsoever, so I hope I did it justice! If anyone wants it, I have a full series for this prepared for this.

#chris evans x female reader #chris evans smut #chris evans imagine #chris evans x reader

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slapshot-to-the-heart · 4 years

Text

road less travelled - m. tkachuk

I was throwing together a list of ideas yesterday, and this one stuck out to me for some reason. So I started writing, thankfully had a pretty free weekend, and finished today! It was a fun piece to right, I hope you all enjoy it! As always, I read all my tags, so reblogs are a writer’s best friend! You’re also more than welcome to come into my inbox and yell at me if that’s more your speed.

word count: 4.5k+

March 18 (thurs)

Elsie couldn’t believe she had gotten herself in this situation again. Every time she woke up in his bed she swore it was the last time, but one drunken mistake turned into another, which turned into a threepeat, and now she wasn’t so sure it had been a mistake in the first place. There was just something about Matthew Tkachuk, something so intoxicating that she was able to ignore the every fiber of her being that was screaming at her to stop this, stop things before it turned sour. Stop it before her brother found out.

It had been easy enough to keep things from Johnny when they first started hooking up; they’d meet at a crowded bar, somewhere where the cover of anonymity was all but guaranteed, or a late-night text, a few words by the other communicating everything they needed to know. He was lonely. And Elsie Gaudreau was the only one who could help. It had been easy enough to keep things from Johnny at the start, but then they started texting before 11 PM, and then they decided they were exclusive, and then, Matty decided that it was about time that they put a label on it. And suddenly it wasn’t so easy to keep their secret anymore.

The team knew that he was seeing someone, but much to everyone’s surprise, he had said precious little about their relationship. He called her Leigh in the locker room, or out with the boys — her grandmother’s middle name, one he felt toed the line as well as possible between complete fabrication and some semblance of the truth — and they knew the couple had been together for a few months, that she made him laugh, and that he was more into her than they had seen him act with anyone in recent memory. She didn’t come to events because she was shy, Matthew said, and he didn’t want to subject her to the kind of spotlight he knew she might be scrutinized under the moment they went public. He wasn’t lying when he said she’d been to games — Elsie usually made it to a few a month, usually on Johnny’s invitation — but left out the part where she wore the number 13 in the stands instead of 19, or where she caught a ride home with her brother after media availability instead of her boyfriend, the man she’d been sleeping with for the past five months.

“Leaving already?” Matty mumbled, slinging one arm over her waist as Elsie tried to sit up.

She twisted over, kissing him softly. His stubble tickled her cheek. “Got class, remember?” Of course he remembered. Class was the whole reason she was in Alberta; most of it, at least. She had done her undergrad in astrophysics at Wellesley in Massachusetts, and when the time had come for her to decide where to do her graduate studies, Johnny had been all too quick to offer up Calgary. “It’s a great program!” he had said. And it was, but Elsie also had her doubts that her brother knew much about astronomy beyond the ability to find the Great Dipper on a clear day. They had always been close, even when he went to go play in Dubuque when she was 13, but their time together had naturally been more than a little limited ever since he turned pro. So when the opportunity arose for them to be in the same city full-time for the first time in a decade, he was jumping at the prospect of being able to look after his younger sister again. And, especially after he offered to pay her tuition, she wasn’t about to say no. International fees didn’t come cheap.

Matty groaned, pawing at her hand as she got up from the bed, throwing the covers back over him. “Do you have to go?” he whined.

Elsie rolled her eyes. “It’s an 8 AM, and it’s,” she glanced at her watch, “already 7. I’d love to stay in bed with you, babe, but I’ve still got to eat and get dressed and grab all my stuff. Plus, it’s at least fifteen minutes to drive and find a place to park, so I’ve got to build that in too.”

“I still think it’s dumb that they make you pay to park at your own school. You’re already paying tuition, plus you TA that one course, so it’s not like you’re doing nothing for them,” he said.

“It’s dumb,” she agreed.

Matthew clicked his tongue. “It’s highway robbery, is what it is, Els.”

She laughed, bending over the bed to run a hand through his curls. She loved those curls. “Be that as it may, Matty dear, I’ve still got to get there on time. Experimental space physics waits for no man.”

He pouted. “Fine.”

Elsie shot him a sympathetic look. “I’ll try to swing by after my classes let out, how does that sound?”

“Can’t. Johnny and some of the guys are going to be over after morning skate, we’re going out to lunch then they’re coming back here. I’ll call you if they don’t stay too late?” he proposed, looking over at her.

She gave a tight smile. “Works for me.”

---

Matthew couldn’t believe he had managed to keep things from Johnny for as long as he had. As pretty much anyone could tell you, he was the world’s worst secret-keeper off the ice, and even more so when it came to his friends. And every time Johnny would lean over to him in the locker room, showing him a picture Elsie had posted on Instagram, or recount a story from the intro astronomy class she TA’d, he had to bite his lip and pretend like he hadn’t been the one to take the picture, or he hadn’t been the first to hear about the kid who didn’t believe you couldn’t see the Southern Cross from Alberta. As much as Matthew hated it, he knew that part of what made his relationship with Elsie so exhilarating was the illicit nature of the whole thing. Something about sneaking around with your best friend’s little sister made everything that much more exciting.

The first time they hooked up hadn’t been a mistake, but it hadn’t been planned in any possible sense of the word. Elsie had moved to Calgary in August, a few weeks before everyone had stated trickling back into Alberta for training camp. Matthew was pretty sure it was mostly Johnny not wanting her to only be surrounded by “space nerds” — his words, not Matty’s, because while he had endless admiration for his sister’s dedication and academic skill, he understood approximateky 0.2% of what she was studying — all day, so by late September or so, she had established herself as a core member of the Flames’ “going-out” group. Which led to one particular night at a bar in October, with Johnny having already headed home thanks to an early breakfast with his fiancée and most of the rest of the group leaving around midnight. And it was a Friday, so Elsie had let herself have a few more drinks than usual; the team didn’t have practice until noon, so Matthew let himself shrug off any worry of a hangover. And Matty and Elsie already knew each other, so they got to talking, then they got to drinking, then they got to kissing. And then Elsie cancelled her Uber to get into Matthew’s, and before she knew it they were stumbling through his doorway, her fingers tangled in his curls and her legs wrapped around his waist as he walked her back to his bedroom.

There were a few people who knew the truth, and only a few people. Matthew had Brady and his mom. His logic being, as soon as Brady knew he was even vaguely interested in someone, he never took no for an answer and would have annoyed her name out of him regardless of whether or not he was being particularly forthcoming with any personal information. His mom because if he needed any advice, if he needed someone to turn to that wasn’t the incredibly vague commentary he gave the boys in the locker room, he wanted to have someone there who wouldn’t judge him and would have his best interests at heart. Okay, scratch that. Chantal definitely judged him, lifting her eyebrows over FaceTime as he called to break the news. She knew Elsie from the one trip with Johnny she’d made out to St. Louis and the times the Tkachuks had travelled up to Canada to visit the boys, and as much as she told Matthew that keeping it a secret was just about the worst thing he could do to his friend, she couldn’t say she was exactly surprised he had fallen for Elsie.

Elsie had Ines, her best friend from college. It was easier with her, much more straightforward with a lot fewer of the conflicts of interest she felt she got with talking with anyone in the “hockey world.” Ines knew hockey, she obviously had met Johnny and some of the other boys before. Wellesley was only a twenty-five minute drive away from the Boston city center, so the one time a year the Bruins played Calgary at home she’d go with Elsie. But Ines was compassionate, objective, and one of the smartest people Elsie had ever met in her life. She didn’t have any stake in the matter that wasn’t named Elsie Gaudreau, and she wasn’t about to mince her words because she was afraid of what Matty — or Johnny for that matter — would think. So there were people who knew, but the list was very short and, at least for the time being, they wanted to keep it that way.

For anyone on the outside looking in, who didn’t know them as well, they might have said that it was a long time coming. “It” being Matthew and Elsie’s relationship. And, if she was being honest, Elsie might have agreed. She knew Matty since he joined the team; he and her brother were thick as thieves from the beginning, and he’d visited them on the East Coast pretty much every summer since his rookie year. Visited Johnny. Not her. Johnny had made it crystal-clear from the beginning that under no circumstances was their relationship ever allowed to proceed beyond friendly.

And it didn’t. For four years, almost, it didn’t. Sure, Elsie may have carried a torch for him from the moment they were introduced, but she was far too concerned about Matty’s physical and mental well-being to pursue anything. Even if, once or twice, she could have sworn that he felt something too. But then she moved to Calgary for grad school, and Johnny started bringing her out with the boys, and she finally got to see him in his element, really in his element. She got to see Alternate Captain Matthew Tkachuk, the one who’d go to the ends of the earth for his team, who would score goals and drop gloves and do whatever needed to be done whenever it needed to be done. And it didn’t hurt that Matty looked hot as fuck whenever he got into fights, his curls flying as he stuffed his helmet under an arm, skating over to the penalty box. It only hurt that she had let herself fall for him.

March 22 (mon)

Johnny was over at Matthew’s apartment; he had come over under a pretense of going over some tape from their last road trip, but it had quickly devolved into a very heated game of Super Smash Bros before the pair took a break for dinner. “Dude, your laundry’s in the way,” Johnny said as he made his way to the bathroom, Matthew staring at the half-cooked pot of pasta on his stove.

“It’s clean, you can just dump it in my room,” he called down the hall. He didn’t hear the tell-tale click of the bathroom door, so he looked down the hallway, only to be greeted by a site he hoped he’d never have to see.

A conspiratorial grin on his face, Johnny held a black, lacy pair of panties between two fingers. His sister’s panties. The half-second it took for Matthew to reach, jumping forward and grabbing them out of his hands, unfortunately wasn’t enough. He held them behind his back, almost as if he was hoping that if Johnny couldn’t see them, they weren’t really there.

“Leigh’s?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.

Matthew rubbed his temples with the hand that wasn’t holding the panties. “Yeah. Just...Pretend you never saw those, okay?”

Johnny rolled his eyes. “Who would I tell? The boys? They wouldn’t care. You? You already know. Elsie?” Matthew froze. “She’d just slap me and get mad at invading your privacy.”

“And you are,” Matthew mumbles, stuffing the panties into his back pocket.

Johnny’s brow furrowed; he leaned up against the doorframe. “Seriously, though, Chucky. What’s going on with you and this girl? You know everyone respects your decision to keep things quiet and private, but I’m your best friend on the team.” The look on his face betrayed the hurt he felt inside. “I would have thought you’d say something, to me at least.”

Matthew let out a deep breath. How was he going to talk his way out of this one? “I know, and I feel bad that it seems like I’ve been keeping things from you.” But he was keeping things. Very important things. “I think with Leigh and I, we just want to take things slow, make sure what we have is real. And I think it is,” he said, hazarding a glance at his friend. “I don’t know if it’s love, yet, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about a girl before. But we both agree that we need to know before we open it up to the opinions of the rest of the world, before she gets shoved into the public eye. And she understands what that’s like better than most, but it’s still not fair.”

Johnny’s ears perked. “Better than most?” Matthew froze. “What is she, like an Instagram model or something?”

He smirked, pushing him with one hand. “No, she’s not.”

Johnny realized quickly that he wasn’t going to be getting any more information out of Matthew anytime soon, so much to his chagrin, he dropped it. Johnny left Matthew’s apartment that night with a weird taste in his mouth, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. And he didn’t like that.

April 3 (sat)

Everyone was at Gio’s house, one of his quarterly team barbecues that had quickly become one of Matthew’s favorite things as soon as he joined the team. By “everyone,” that meant the players and their families, kids, partners, parents if they were in town. Johnny hadn’t invited Elsie — he assumed she’d be getting ready for finals, which was true, but Matthew knew she could have spared an afternoon — and Matthew couldn’t think of a way to invite her himself without arousing suspicion, so she was back in her downtown apartment while the boys were busy grilling up an inhuman amount of meat for dinner.

After everyone ate and the dishwasher had been loaded, someone decided to light the fire pit, and the conversation turned to relationships. For once, Matty didn’t tune out.“It’s the little things, you know?” Gio said, tipping back his beer. “When I see Lauren in my jersey at the games, or when she’s fallen asleep on the couch waiting for us to get back from a road trip. Makes you realize that what really matters isn’t so much how many goals you score or how big a contract you have. It boils down to the quality of people in your life, and we’ve got some good ones.”

“It’s the same thing with Leigh and I,” Matthew said. His words caused everyone to listen. There were precious few times Matthew willingly volunteered information about his relationship, and as much as his teammates genuinely did respect their penchant for privacy, that didn’t mean they wanted any fewer details. “Sometimes when she stays over and doesn’t have anywhere to be the next day, I’ll walk out to the kitchen and she’ll just be dancing around the stove, making pancakes and singing along to a Fleetwood Mac song. Usually takes her a minute or two to notice me.”

The guys laughed, and Matty took a long pull of his beer. He wasn’t really risking anything by saying that. Plenty of people liked Fleetwood Mac. “And she’s got this little scar behind her right ear, got it from falling out of a tree as a kid. She always tries to cover it up, but I like it better when she lets it show.” Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe it was Matty’s frustration about not being able to say anything about the woman he was falling in love with finally coming to a head, that made him say something he maybe shouldn’t have.

He realized, as he hesitantly met Johnny’s eyes, and could see the gears in his head turning, that he definitely shouldn’t have said anything. Johnny was looking in between his beer and Matthew, then Matthew and his beer, then his hands and Matthew’s, which were tapping nervously on the arm of his deck chair. And then he started to put things together. The orange blossom soap at Matthew’s apartment — Elsie’s favorite scents were citrus. Fleetwood Mac was one of her favorite bands. Their maternal grandma’s middle name was Leigh. And the scar. He remembered the day she got it, falling off an oak tree in their backyard in New Jersey, running into the house to get their mom and then in the car to the emergency room with a six-year-old Elsie who needed four stitches from the accident. And with an extremely uncomfortable feeling, he realized that that more likely than not, that meant the pair of panties he had picked up that one afternoon in Matthew’s apartment had been hers. He wanted to throw up.

Matthew was sweating as Johnny finally looked him in the eyes, realizing that the secret he and Elsie had tried so hard to keep for so long wasn’t going to be a secret much longer. “Matthew,” he began, his voice dangerously low. Matthew winced. He couldn’t remember the last time Johnny had called him by his first name. “Her name’s not Leigh, is it.” He said it like a statement, because, well, it was. He knew the answer, he just needed to hear it from someone other than himself, that the one thing he had asked of his best friend had apparently proven too much.

Matthew shook his head slowly. “No.” Everyone else’s eyes flitted between the pair, Markstrom and Gio and Andersson and everyone else very clearly confused.

“Something going on here?” Gio asked carefully.

“Tell them what her name is, Matthew.” Matthew squeezed his eyes shut. If he didn’t see everyone’s reactions, everyone’s disappointed faces, maybe they wouldn’t happen.

“Elsie.”

“Elsie what?” he prompted.

“Elsie Gaudreau,” Matthew finished. You could have heard a pin drop, the backyard was so silent.

“Dude, you’re dating his sister?” Noah asked.

Matthew nodded, one hand still tightly gripping his bottle.

“How long?” Johnny asked, looking him straight in the eyes.

“Just under six months,” Matthew admitted.

He sucked a breath in. “You’ve been dating my sister for six fucking months and nobody ever thought to maybe, I don’t know, tell me?”

“It didn’t start as dating, we were just—”

Johnny cut him off. “I can see where that’s going, and I don’t want to fucking hear it, Matthew. This was the one thing I asked you to not do. You’re a fucking All-Star NHL player, Matt. You could have any girl you wanted, you could wheel half of Calgary and I wouldn’t care as long as everyone was into it. But my little sister? The one person I told you years ago was off-limits? You had to fall for Elsie?”

“I—” Matthew stammered as he set his drink down. “I didn’t expect anything to happen. Neither of us did. But then it did, and I fell for her, and for some ungodly reason she’s decided to stay with me, and I don’t know, Johnny,” he finished weakly. “I felt terrible about keeping it from you, and for what it’s worth, Elsie does too. I feel awful about how you found out, you deserved better than this. But I won’t apologize for my feelings.”

Johnny scoffed, standing up and grabbing his keys. “She deserves better.”

April 4 (sun)

The first thing Matthew did the next day was go over to Elsie’s house. He had already called her the night before to tell her what happened; even if he didn’t, she had the numbers of half the guys on the team and more than one had texted her to check in after seeing how Johnny left things. When he opened the door, Elsie wasn’t doing well, to put it mildly. She was sitting on her couch, wrapped up in a blanket with a barely-touched mug of tea on the coffee table in front of her. She gave him a weak smile as he walked over. “Hey.”

He bent down, kissing the top of her head. “Hey, Els. How are you doing?”

“Not great.” At least she didn’t try to hide, not like it would have been any use with Matthew. He could read her almost as well as her own parents could. “I tried to call him last night and this morning, sent a few texts, just trying to explain. Asking to talk. But he hasn’t responded to anything, I called my mom and she said she hasn’t heard anything either.”

Matthew sat on the couch beside her. “He hasn’t talked to Gio either.”

She rested her head on his shoulder; his fingers carded through the soft hair at the base of her neck. “I feel like it’s my fault,” Elsie said despondently. Coming in between her brother and one of his best friends was the last thing she would have wanted, and she was starting to feel like everything was falling apart because of her. “It never would have happened if I wasn’t there,” she mumbled into Matty’s shoulder.

Matthew immediately shook his head. “No, no, don’t say things like that, babe. It’s not your fault, don’t put all the blame on you. Everyone dropped the ball on this one, and you shouldn’t have to take responsibility for how your brother decided to react.”

They were jolted out of their relative peace by a frantic knocking on the door. Elsie furrowed her brow. “I’m not expecting anyone?” she questioned as she threw the blanket off of her lap, She opened the door to see Johnny, staring bashfully down at his hands, an apologetic look on his face.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Elsie raised her eyebrows. “You should be.” After a moment, she stood aside to let him in the door.

He scratched the back of his neck, avoiding Matthew’s eyes. “I talked to Mom, she kind of chewed me out about the whole thing. Not talking to you when you called or texted, the way I kind of blew up at you yesterday,” he nodded at Matthew, “but mostly the leaving. Neither of you deserved that. You deserved to have a chance to sit down, explain yourselves, and have an adult conversation.” A flash of regret shot through his eyes, which steeled again as soon as he saw Matthew’s arms around Elsie, who had returned to the couch. “But that doesn’t mean I like it. I’m still pissed that you went behind my back, and that you two decided to do the one thing I asked you not to do, and how you blindsided me—”

“You’re not my dad, Johnny. You don’t get to decide how I live my life,” Elsie said sharply.

He screwed his eyes shut. “I know, but I love you and I don’t want anything bad to happen to you, and—”

“No more ‘ands.’ I know you don’t like it, Johnny. You’ve made that much very clear,” Elsie said in frustration. “Pretty much everyone knows that if you could make a list of guys you wanted to date your little sister, Matthew Tkachuk would be in last place. But just think,” she paused, looking up at her brother. “Think about all the things you said to look for in a guy when I started getting old enough to date. Divorce who Matty is from your feelings about us being together. You always gave me three things. Someone who cares about me. Someone who respects me. And someone who’s honest.” Johnny nodded, his hands in his pockets. “Matty is all of that and more, Johnny. He treats me better than anyone I’ve ever been with, and I love him. And that’s what you’ve always wanted for me. Nothing more and nothing less.”

Johnny leaned up against the bookshelf. “I guess you’re right.”

Elsie cracked a tiny grin. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

He groaned in response. “Don’t make me say it again, I’m not going to.” She shrugged. He looked between her and Matthew, sighing. “I overreacted, and I’m sorry about that. If you love him,” Elsie smiled, “and he cares about you,” Matthew frantically nodded, “then there’s really nothing more I could ask for. I think it just hurt that you two felt like you couldn’t come to me as soon as things progressed, as soon as you got together.”

“We were afraid you’d react like you did,” Elsie said, reaching over to grab Matty’s hand. “We never wanted to hurt you, and I might only be speaking for myself, but I think I was worried you’d try to come between us, or say something about the relationship, or…” She trailed off. “I don’t know. Sure, you shouldn’t have reacted that way, but you’re not the only one to blame. We shouldn’t have kept things from you, or from Mom and Dad for that matter.”

Johnny laughed. “Honestly? I’m pretty sure Mom called it from the beginning.” Elsie frowned. “What do you mean?” “You know when Matty came over to Jersey in the summer when you guys were about 20, and we all took that vacation on the beach?” She nodded. “There was one time when she saw you together, running into the ocean together. You were laughing as hard as I’ve ever seen you, Matthew was splashing water back at you, and you kept trying to tackle him into the waves. Mom, Dad, and I were back up on the beach. She just looked at you two, looked at me, and smiled.”

Matthew rubbed his thumb over the back of Elsie’s hand. “You think she knew?” he asked curiously.

Johnny nodded. “I think she knew even before you guys figured it out for yourselves.”

“How could she tell?” Elsie asked.

Johnny gave a soft smile, looking over towards the couple. “You’ve never been a good liar, Elsie. And you can’t hide love.”

#hockey imagines #hockey smut #hockey writing #hockey imagine #hockey #nhl imagines #nhl imagine #nhl smut #nhl writing #nhl #Matthew Tkachuk #matthew tkachuk writing #rat king

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patagucci34 · 4 years

Text

I hate you I love you ~ Matthew Tkachuk

A/N: threw this together pretty quickly

Warnings: mentions of sex, swearing, drinking

Word count: 9k

You and Matthew had a complicated relationship. It’s the classic story of enemies to lovers. You wanted nothing more than to remain enemies...but you couldn’t. The little rat, weaseled his way into your heart.

Thankfully for you, you spent most of the year apart- him in Calgary for hockey, you in Boston for school. But you had grown up together in St. Louis. You lived down the street from him, your parents were good friends, and you shared the same friends in school. But that certainly didn’t make you like him. For as long as you could remember, you guys never got along. Constantly arguing and bickering about everything under the sun. Your parents, siblings, and friends all tried to play peacekeeper, but it never worked. His cocky attitude and your quiet demeanor never mixed well with each other.

It still doesn’t--at least that is what you tell yourself to try and stop the strong feelings from consuming you.

Things had started to change when Brady played for BU. You were a junior, had tried your best to stay away from the hockey team during your time there, and were pretty successful until Brady joined the team. He had convinced you to come out with them a few times, attend a few parties, and before you knew it, you were hooking up with one of his teammates. You knew what you were getting into, that’s why you had tried to avoid it for so long, but he was so hot and not a complete douche so you let it happen.

The guys had just won an important game and you were going out and celebrating with them. You walked into the bar with a few of your friends and were already pretty buzzed. Once you grabbed some drinks, you made your way over to everyone and your face fell when you saw the one person who would turn this night sour for you, Matthew Tkachuk. Of course, the Flames had been in town playing the Bruins but that had completely slipped your mind. You were hoping to avoid him the whole night, but as soon as Brady saw you he called your name and pulled you in for a hug. Once he let go, Matthew stepped up to you, put his arm around your neck and gave you a noogie. You rolled your eyes at his childish antics and pushed him off of you. “God, Matt. Will you ever grow up?” You sneered at him. “Not when it comes to you, grace.” You rolled your eyes at his nickname for you, he had coined that term for you after you fell down the stairs at school and broke your leg. That was back in 6th grade and he had been calling you that ever since. “Whatever.” You said waving him off and turning back to Brady. “Brady, have you seen Ry?”

“He’s around here somewhere…” Brady told you looking around trying to locate him.

“It’s alright, just wondering if you had seen him yet.”

“Ryan?” Matthew asked with a quirked eyebrow.

“What about him?” You asked incredulously.

“Just surprised is all...I thought ‘you would never get involved with a hockey player because we’re all just big, dumb, assholes’.”

You scoffed at his imitation of you, “yeah, well I was wrong to base my opinion of all hockey players on you. The biggest, dumbest, douchiest of them all.”

Before he could get a retort in, Brady cut you guys off. “Alright, you two. Can you please be civil for just one night?”

“She started it.”

“I did?! You gave me a noogie!”

“Enough!” Brady yelled. The two of you backed off each other and you went off to try and find Ryan.

You spotted him coming out of the bathroom and started to make your way over to him but then you saw another girl approach him. You stopped short when she wrapped her hand around his bicep and stood on her tiptoes to whisper in his ear. He leaned into her words and a little smirk came across his face. Your heart sank at the action, you had no idea what she said but the moment looked very intimate. You quickly back tracked and went to find your friends. It's not like you and Ryan were dating or anything, he wasn't 'yours', but he had texted you making sure you were coming out with him tonight so you weren't impressed about this other girl.

You hadn't been with your friends for more than a few minutes before you felt familiar arms wrap around your shoulders. "Hey, babe!" Ryan greeted as he kissed the side of your head. You just smiled up at him in return, still being a little upset about what you saw earlier.

"Want another?" He asked, pointing to the empty glass in your hand.

"Oh, um, sure." He gave you an unsure look but that didn't stop him from heading off to the bar to grab some more drinks.

Your friends tried to boost your mood by dragging you onto the dance floor. It worked for a while, Ryan had brought you your drink and danced with you for a bit before meeting back up with the guys. And after a few more drinks, thoughts of that girl with Ryan had completely left your mind.

Until of course, you were in line for the bathroom. You were checking your phone, but looked up when you heard the door open and you were in shock. Ryan and that same girl were the people holding up the line. Ryan's eyes widened when he saw you standing there. He called your name but you had bolted to get out of the club. You checked behind you and you didn't see him following you. You shook your head, of course he wouldn't follow you. Once you reached the cold, brisk air, you exhaled. You looked around and took a seat on the curb. You wrapped your arms around yourself in an attempt to keep yourself warm and you tried not to cry. You didn't want to. You shouldn't. You knew something like this was going to happen and you were cursing yourself for not being prepared for it.

After a few minutes, someone sat down next to you. You looked over and rolled your eyes. "Now is really not the time, Matt. Please just leave me alone."

He put his jacket around your shoulders and rolled his eyes right back. "Relax. I'm not here to give you a hard time. I saw what happened in there and I figured you'd be freezing out here."

"Oh, well, thank you." You said quietly and looked back at the ground.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked softly.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

He chuckled at your tone, "look, as much as we bicker and fight, I do still care about you." You raised your eyebrows at his admission and he rolled his eyes.

"Remember in middle school when that little punk kept putting trash in your locker? I was the reason he stopped. I threatened to punch him and he got all scared and promised not to do it again."

"Wait, really?"

"Yeah, and that time in 10th grade when that guy was making fun of you for not having a date to homecoming? I was the one who told everyone that he had lice so that his date would ditch him."

"Oh my god, Matt, seriously?!" You asked with a smile creeping on your face. "And that time that you had a--"

You laughed and cut him off. "Okay, Matt. I get it. But how come I never knew you did those things?"

"Well, I couldn't have people thinking I actually liked you…" He teased with a smirk and you gave him a small push. "But seriously, you alright?"

You sighed and sat up a little straighter. "I guess. We weren't dating or anything…he's free to do whatever he wants. It was just shitty because I'm pretty sure I was going home with him tonight and I just can't believe he'd fuck a girl in the bathroom and then take me home like nothing happened."

"That would have been very shitty of him, y/n/n. I'm really sorry. No one should make you feel this way."

"Yeah, well, it's not the first time and I'm sure it won't be the last." Matt let out a soft sigh, "unfortunately, you're probably right."

You sat in silence for a few moments before you stood up. "I think I'm just gonna head home. Thank you for sitting with me, Matt."

"I'll take you home. It's late and you shouldn't be walking alone."

You thought about protesting but figured you wouldn't win that fight so you nodded and led the way.

You caught up on each other's lives on the walk home and as soon as you walked through the door you grabbed his hand and led him to your bedroom. You were making out on the bed and he stopped for a second.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, just kiss me, please."

With that, he pushed you back on the bed and crawled on top of you.

You woke up the next morning and saw Matt snoring softly next to you. Although you had had quite a bit to drink, the whole incident with Ryan had sobered you up and you remembered every part of it with Matt. You weren't feeling regret necessarily, but you did wonder what this was going to mean. He was leaving to go back to Calgary so you didn't have to worry about it happening again soon, and you were fine with just going back to how things were. This was just a one night stand.

He had agreed, you had a brief talk about it before he left and that was that.

~~~~~~

You hadn't seen or talked to each other until you both were back in St. Louis for the summer. You had reverted back to your bickering, but you were glad that hooking up hadn't made things weird.

It didn't take long for the two of you to hook up again though. You were at a party with some of your friends, and because you lived on the same street, you walked back home together and ended up hooking up in your pool house in the backyard.

After that you had started hooking up more frequently. It wasn't that you were trying to keep it a secret on purpose, but no one really knew and you both decided it was probably for the best. You still argued in front of everyone so no one expected that anything had changed between you two.

For the 4th of July, both of your families went to the Tkachuk’s place on the Cape. With it being just your families, it was going to be hard to try and sneak off to have sex. It was a big place, but with an extra family, neither of you had your own room for the week. You kind of felt like teenagers again, sneaking around, jumping on the opportunity when you had a few minutes alone. It was fun, and although there were still so many things you disliked about Matthew, you were slowly starting to find things you liked.

On the night of the 4th, after a long, fun, alcohol filled day, everyone retired to bed after watching the fireworks. You and Matt had snuck onto the roof and were sitting side by side watching the stars. You identified as many constellations as you could. That not actually being many as the two of you really knew nothing about space. You argued about the big dipper and the little dipper for a little but the argument ended when Matthew kissed you to shut you up. You made out for a few minutes before Matt's hands started to go down south.

"Matt, I'm not having sex with you on a roof."

"Why not?"

"What if we fall?!"

"You think I'd let you fall?"

"No, but I don't think you’d have complete control over it…"

"Okay, fair. Where are we going to do it then?"

You thought for a minute, then an idea popped into your head. "What if we go down to the beach…"

"It's midnight, y/n/n."

"Exactly, no one will be there…"

"I don't know…"

"Please?! I've never had sex on a beach before."

"It's gonna be sandy…"

"Fine, then I guess we won't have sex tonight…"

Matt groaned at your comment, "okay, fine." He stood up and reached a hand out for you to take.

"We'll bring a bunch of blankets, it will be fine." You said as you took his hand and followed him back inside.

You quietly gathered up some blankets while Matt grabbed some wine and cups and to bring.

"We're going to be drinking?" You whispered.

"You don't want to?"

"I just thought you wanted to have sex."

"We don't have to, I just thought it would be nice."

"No we can, it's just up on the roof you seemed pretty eager…" You teased.

"Well the moment has passed…come on, let's go."

You made the short walk down to the beach and set up all of the blankets before sitting down and pouring some wine. You had put on leggings and a sweatshirt, it was a little chilly despite it being July, but when Matt pulled you close to him it wasn't too bad.

You talked for a bit while you drank your wine. He was telling you stories about his teammates that had you laughing so hard you were afraid you were going to pee your pants. Once you had finished the bottle, the kissing resumed and the sex had begun.

You hadn't even realized you fell asleep until you were waking up to the sounds of waves crashing and seagulls gawking. You opened your eyes and looked around you, the sun was just coming up so it was still pretty early, but regardless, you shouldn't have fallen asleep out here.

"Matt…" you shook him gently. "Matt, wake up."

"Mmm, what?" He asked sleepily, not even opening his eyes.

"Matt we fell asleep on the beach. We need to get back to the house before everyone wakes up."

"What time is it?"

"6:00."

"No one will be up until like 8, we have plenty of time, go back to sleep."

"But what if someone does?"

"Y/N, go to sleep. It'll be fine."

You sighed, but complied. He wrapped his arms around you and pulled you into his chest and you were back asleep in a few minutes.

This time, it was Matt waking you up in a panic. "Don't be mad, but it's a little past 9…"

You shot right up and started gathering your things. "Are you kidding me, Matt? 'It'll be fine, y/n.' 'Go to back to sleep, y/n/n.'" You imitated in his voice.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think we’d sleep that long!"

"Well if we had just gone back up when I woke you up earlier we wouldn't have this problem. What are we going to say?!"

"I don't think it's as big of a deal as you're making it."

"Matt, we're walking in together with a bundle of blankets and an empty wine bottle looking like we just woke up."

"Well, we did just wake up…"

"Matthew!"

"We just say that we fell asleep on the beach!"

"Doing what?! Matt, everyone thinks we can't stand each other."

"We'll hide the bottle of wine outside, you go in and say you wanted to see the sunrise on the beach and I'll sneak in the back and go upstairs."

"Do you really think that will work?"

"I don't see why not, you'd do something weird like that."

You narrowed your eyes at him, "asshole."

He smirked and kissed you before leading the way back to the house.

When you walked through the door you were greeted by yours and Matt's parents along with your brother, Brady, and Taryn.

"There you are, sweetie! Where have you been?" Your mom asked you.

"Oh, I went down to the beach to see the sunrise."

Your brother, Brady, and Taryn all looked at each other but before you could go over and talk to them Keith spoke up.

"Well, we found one, now we need to find Matthew."

"I'm right here!" He said jogging into the kitchen from the stairs.

"Where have you been?" Chantal asked.

"I went for a run."

Your brother, Brady, and Taryn all looked at each other again and then looked at the both of you.

"We'll have breakfast ready in a few minutes. Why don't you kids set the table." Chantal said.

You went and put all of the blankets away and then helped everyone finish setting the table. Neither you or Matt said anything but you both could feel 3 sets of eyes staring at you.

"So, where were you actually, Matt?" Brady asked.

"What do you mean, I went for a run."

"Please, you never came to bed last night." Your brother replied.

"Neither did you, y/n…" Taryn added.

"You both were passed out when I went to bed last night, you just didn't hear me." Matt lied.

Brady scoffed but didn't say anything more.

"So then where were you, y/n/n?" Your brother asked.

"I, um, fell asleep in the hammock." You stammered out, never having been very good at lying.

"Why were you in the hammock?"

"I don't know, I just wasn't ready to go to bed yet."

"You both are so full of shit. We know you were together last night." Brady stated. Matt looked over at you but you kept your focus on putting the plates down.

"You both have been acting weird this week. Just say it." Your brother added.

"Say what?" Matt asked.

"Just say that you two are hooking up!" Taryn said. Everyone stopped and stared at Taryn, not really thinking she would ever say something like that. "What? I'm 15, not 5. I know what hooking up is."

"Well, we're not hooking up. Y/n slept in the hammock and I slept in my bed. You guys are crazy." Matt forced out, glaring at everyone in the room.

You were thankful he squashed the rumor but a part of you was a little upset that it was so easy for him to say that you weren't hooking up. But as soon as that feeling came over you, you forced it out because you didn't want to be catching any feelings.

Thankfully, your parents all came in the room with breakfast so the discussion was put to rest.

Just to be safe, you and Matt didn't do anything for the rest of the week. But he made sure to text you how much he wished you could. So much to the point where you had to remind him that it would be weird if anyone found out that you two were texting so much.

Once you were back in St. Louis things went back to normal. You were currently lying in bed with Matt in your pool house.

"I'm so glad to be back. It was torture not being able to touch you in the Cape."

"Jeez, Matt. That was 3 days. What are you going to do when you go back to Calgary?" As soon as you said it, you regretted it. You hadn't talked about the end of summer and you didn't really want to. If it really was just sex then there shouldn't need to be a conversation. But you just opened that door.

"I haven't really thought about it to be honest. Just trying to enjoy it while I can. So please, don't remind me."

You were surprised at his response. It was definitely Matt's weird way of saying he'll miss you without actually having to say it. But you were glad it didn't turn into a long conversation.

The rest of summer went quickly, you were getting ready to go back to Boston and Matt was getting ready to go back to Calgary. You spent the night before he left together, not really doing a lot of talking… ;). But neither of you wanted to talk. And you didn't. When you woke up the next day, you wished him luck in the season and he wished you a good semester and you said goodbye like it was another day.

~~~~~~~~

You had texted a little bit here and there throughout your time apart, but the first time you saw him was Christmas. He miraculously was able to go home for a few days and you saw him at your parents Christmas Eve party. He hadn't told you that he was going to be home, not that he had to or anything but you were surprised when you saw him walk in with the rest of his family.

He smirked at you when you made eye contact and sent you a quick wink. You blushed a bit before taking another sip of your drink and bringing your attention back to your friends.

It was a little bit before you found each other again. You had gone upstairs to use the bathroom and he had slipped behind you and was waiting outside the door.

"Jesus, Matt. You scared me."

"Sorry, babe." He said as he kissed you. "God, I've missed those lips."

"Matt, we need to be careful, someone could come up here."

"Should we move to your room then?"

You gave him a pointed look, "Matt, there are tons of people here…our families included."

"Didn't stop us before…"

"Yeah and we almost got caught."

"Fine, later?"

"Yeah, we can use the pool house after everyone has gone to bed."

"Good. I've missed you."

"You said that already."

"I said I've missed your lips…but I also miss you."

You smiled at him, "you're weird."

"I believe that would be you."

"Whatever, Matty," you said, patting his shoulder, "I'll see you later."

The rest of the night flew by and as soon as your parents had said goodnight you were texting Matt. You met him in the pool house 20 minutes later and you barely said hello before his lips crashed into yours and the fun began.

A few rounds later you were lying next to each other under the covers. You caught up on what you missed in each other's lives and you didn't realize how long you'd been talking until you looked at your phone and it was 4am.

"Holy shit, Matt. It's really late."

"Jesus," he murmured looking at his phone. "I have to be up in a few hours…" he groaned.

"You're not going to walk home now, are you?"

"No way, I want as much time with you as possible. But we should probably go to sleep."

He pulled you close and within a few minutes you both were out.

You learned from your past mistakes and you had set an alarm this time. Your phone started going off at 7:45 as Matt wanted to be back a little before 8. He groaned and mumbled for you to turn it off but you weren't going down that road again.

"Matt, you need to get going."

He sat up slowly and groaned. "I know…will I be seeing you later?"

"If you want…"

"I do. I'll text you later." You nodded as he headed out the door. "Wait…" he said, turning back around. "Merry Christmas." He gave you a kiss and walked out the door for real.

You smiled as you made your way back in the house. Thankfully, your family didn't have stuff to do too early today so everyone was still asleep. You creeped back into your room and went back to sleep for a bit.

Meanwhile, at Matthew's, he was met by his siblings at the door. He rolled his eyes at the sight of them standing there with their arms crossed and eyebrows raised.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," he mumbled, "move out of my way please."

"Not until you tell us where you were last night." Brady said.

"And don't even think about saying you were out for a run." Taryn added.

"It's none of your business, I'm 21 years old. Now get out of my way."

"Seems like someone didn't get much sleep last night…" Brady teased.

"Shut up, Brady." Matt said as he pushed past his siblings and went to his room.

You woke up surprised to see a few texts from Matt. You didn't expect to hear from him until much later.

Matt: Brady and Taryn are onto us again

Matt: I barely stepped into the house and they were on me about where I was

Matt: Maybe we shouldn't be so secretive?

Matt: Unless of course you're embarrassed of me ;)

You: Hmmm…I don't know if my reputation would uphold if people knew.

Matt: What about my reputation?

You: You're the one that suggested it…

Matt: We don't have to…

You: Calm down, I'm just messing with you. But everyone might go crazy when we tell them…are you ready for that?

Matt: Baby, I was born ready…are you?

You: I don't know…are we talking about our parents knowing???

Matt: Well, they don't need to know that we're fucking…but they'll know that we're hanging out more. I'm sure they'll figure it out.

You: Yeah I guess you're right. I just don't want people to have expectations once they know we can actually tolerate each other.

Matt: What kind of expectations?

You: I don't know…do you think our parents will want us to fall in love?

Matt: Our moms have always wanted that…

You: Exactly. Are they going to be disappointed when that doesn’t happen?

Matt: Who says it's not going to?

You: Matt…

Matt: We'll talk tonight, babe.

You sighed and flopped back onto your bed. What the hell does he mean, 'who says it's not going to?'

You heard some movement downstairs so you pulled yourself out of bed and went down there. Hopefully your day will be busy enough to take your mind off of things. You were greeted with the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls. A Christmas tradition that you really don't know what you would do without. Your brother had the same idea as you and walked into the kitchen just moments after you. He reached for one but your mom swatted his hand away.

"Not yet, we're going to eat at the table." She scolded. He whined in response but walked away.

After a delicious breakfast, you opened presents and then headed over to your grandparents. Your family was huge. You had so many cousins, a lot of being young so you had lots to do to keep your mind off of things with Matt.

Once you had eaten dinner, everyone opened gifts and you were roped into playing one of the games your little cousins had received. Before you knew it, everyone was getting ready to leave and you had a text from Matt.

Matt: Hey, text me when you're home. We're all done for the day.

You: Leaving my grandparents now. Meet in the park in 30?

Matt: Sounds good

Once you got home, you quickly changed into something more comfy and told your parents you were going for a walk. As you approached the little park in your neighborhood you saw Matt sitting on the bench. He stood up to greet you and then you both sat down.

"I guess we have some stuff to talk about, huh…" He started.

"What did you mean by 'who says it's not going to happen?' do you want it to happen?"

"I don't know y/n/n. I didn't mean to make things weird, I guess I just meant to say would it really be that bad if it did?"

"I mean, no, I guess not. But Matt, we barely spoke for the past few months. Which is fine, we have fun having sex when we're together, but that's all it is. If there was something more here I feel like we would have kept more in touch while we were apart."

"But we don't have to not talk…"

"Did you want to? Because I'm pretty sure you could have reached out to me too."

"No, I know. I'm not saying anyone is to blame, I'm just saying that in the future, we don't have to go radio silent when we're not in the same place. I really did miss you…no matter how much you annoy me…"

You smirked at his teasing, "I missed you too, Matty. But we still haven't solved the problem."

"I think the biggest thing is we're going to get shit for actually wanting to spend time together. And we don't have to say that we're fucking. I'm sure our friends and siblings will figure it out and maybe our parents too, but I'm sure they're just going to be happy we're getting along."

You sighed, "yeah, I guess you're right. I already get shit from my mom about how she wants us to get along because we 'would be sooo good together'."

"She says that, eh?"

"Listen to you, mister Canadian…"

"Oh shut up.…" He said with a smile and light nudge to your arm. "Do you think it's safe to take things back to the pool house???"

"I thought we were going to tell people we were friends now…"

"Oh, well yeah, is it going to be weird if we go into your room? Your parents aren't stupid…"

"Oh my god, Matt, well which is it?!"

Matt chuckled at your annoyance. "Relax, we can go and hang out for a bit then take things to the pool house."

"Okay, fine."

"Come on, let's go." He said standing up and grabbing your hands to pull you up.

You made the short walk back to your house and you were getting pretty nervous. Your parents obviously already knew Matt, and they liked Matt, and you were going to do your best to keep them from knowing of your actual relationship, but you were still nervous to show up with Matt.

You heard voices in the living room when you walked inside but there were definitely more than just your parents and brother. You and Matt both stopped when you saw his family in addition to yours.

"Well, two birds one stone I guess…" You shrugged as you walked into the living.

"Oh, Y/N, Matthew…what are you two doing?" Your mom asked.

"We, um, just got back from the park." You answered softly.

"The park? What were you doing there?" Chantal asked.

"We were just hanging out." Matt answered.

"Hanging out? Since when do you two 'hang out'?" Keith asked.

"We've called a truce. We're friends now." Matt defended.

"Oh, I'm so glad! We've been wondering when you two would quit bickering!" Your mom gushed.

"Well, come sit down! We're watching It's A Wonderful Life." Chantal said.

You and Matt sat down. There weren't two open seats next to each other so you sat next to your dad and he sat next to Brady. Your brother, Brady, and Taryn all had smug looks on their face, finally finding out that they were right all along.

After the movie was done, everyone sat in the living room drinking and talking. Matthew kept stealing glances your way but there was no way you two could sneak off. They would know exactly what you were doing. So you just avoided his gaze until his family decided to leave. After that of course, he snuck back out and met you at the pool house.

Thankfully, he didn't have to jet off super early in the morning, so this goodbye was a little more meaningful. You both promised each other you'd talk more, he wished you the best for your last semester of college and he was off.

~~~~~~~

You both had kept your promises, you talked once or twice a week. One of them being for some FaceTime sex…but it still counted.

It did feel so much better now that people knew that you two got along. It made your whole relationship feel less scandalous. Although you were still worried about the feelings part. After Christmas, you were having a much harder time stowing them away, even being over 2,000 miles away. You were finding yourself liking Matthew as a person more and more, but there was a part of you that still felt like you could never be with him.

Things really had started to change at your graduation. You hadn't seen your family before the ceremony, so when you spotted them in the crowd, you were surprised to see Matthew sitting with them. You started to panic a bit, having been caught off guard and not understanding why he was there. Sure, you had been talking more but you were still just friends with benefits. This certainly wasn't something Matthew Tkachuk would have done a few months ago, and now you were unsure about everything.

After the ceremony you found your family and gave them all hugs. And then you turned to Matthew.

"Matthew Tkachuk, what are you doing here?!" You asked, giving him a hug.

"I just thought I'd surprise you. I know how hard you worked this semester…"

"Thank you, Matty, it means a lot that you came." You whispered in his ear before letting go.

You went back to your apartment with your family and your roommate’s family to pop some champagne and celebrate before going out to dinner. You waited for a free moment to sneak Matt away to your room.

"Sooo, where are you staying this weekend?" You asked sneakily.

"Well, I'm rooming with your brother this weekend. We're gonna have so many babes over it's gonna be awesome." You pouted at him, knowing he was messing with you. "Do you want in? I've always wanted to be part of an orgy."

"Ew, Matt! Not with my brother you, pig!"

Matt laughed at your disgust and raised his arms in surrender. "I'm just kidding, relax. I will be here tonight."

"Okay, good. I'm excited for some celebratory head."

Matthew hummed at that comment, "oh you have no idea what you're in for tonight, princess."

"Ooo, princess?"

"Or should I say Y/N Y/L/N, RN, BSN…" You smiled at his use of your newly acquired title.

"That does sound pretty good…but not yet. I still have to pass my NCLEX."

"Oh please, you'll pass with no problem. Easy peasy."

You rolled your eyes, "yeah, we'll see. I really do appreciate you coming, Matthew. I really didn't expect it."

"Good, then my surprise was a success. I'm just glad to be here to celebrate with you."

You smiled and gave him a kiss, which he returned, but you pulled away after a few minutes needing to get back to everyone else.

You were starting to feel pretty buzzed from all of the champagne you were drinking so you forced yourself to stop knowing that you needed to make it to dinner. Which you did, and dinner was very nice. But your brother was feeding you drinks so by the end of dinner, you were pretty drunk. Your parents went back to the hotel, and your brother and Matt came back to your apartment to party some more.

Later on in the night, your brother was occupied talking to a few girls on the couch so you took that as your opportunity to go to bed with Matt. He kept his word from earlier and you had some of the best sex you'd ever had. That mixed with all of the alcohol you had drank had you falling asleep as soon as you guys laid down.

You woke up the next morning and immediately felt the effects of the alcohol you had consumed. You reluctantly moved to get up to grab some water and Advil but were met with some resistance.

"Please. This is the one morning we actually get to just lay here and cuddle. Don't leave me."

"Relax, I'll be right back. I need to pee and I need water and drugs."

"Ugh, fine." He said and let go of you so you could get up.

"Do you want anything?" You asked.

"I'll take some water, please."

You walked down the hallway and saw your brother passed out on the couch with some girl on top of him. You shook your head at the sight but kept going to the kitchen. By the time you walked back into your room, Matthew had fallen back asleep. You carefully climbed back in bed and as soon as you laid down his arms wrapped around you and tugged you to his side. You fell back asleep for a little bit but woke up to Matt getting up this time.

"Please. This is the one morning we get to cuddle…" You imitated him.

He made a face at you and chugged some water. "relax, I need to pee, I'll be right back." he imitated right back.

True to his word, he came right back but this time you didn't go back to sleep.

"How ya feeling this morning?" He asked you.

"Not great…"

Matt chuckled at the grimace on your face. "Well, I'm sure breakfast will cure that."

"Mmm, yeah I can't wait actually."

You sat in silence for a few moments before Matt spoke back up.

"So, don't kill me for asking you this question but, what are your plans now?"

"Well, I'm not really sure…I'm going back to St. Louis, studying for the NCLEX and then I guess I'll go from there…"

"So I get you for the summer…?"

"Yes, Matthew…"

"Good. I think this is going to be a fun summer."

"Why?"

"Well, we’re not in hiding anymore so we don't have to sneak around."

"That's true. I am really glad we don't have to do that anymore."

"Although the Cape might still be tricky…"

You laughed at the memory of last summer. "Yeah, but at least it won't be weird for everyone to see us hanging out."

"What time are we doing brunch again?"

"11 I think…what time is it now?"

Matt checked his phone, "it's 9:30."

You sighed, "okay, we have a little time. Jamie is passed out on the couch with some girl…did my parents know that he was staying here?"

Matt laughed at your brother's state, "I think he told them that we might crash here, so I'm sure they assumed we wouldn't be back."

"Yeah you're probably right. Do you guys need to go back to the hotel before brunch?"

"Yeah, all of our stuff is there. I'll get up in a few minutes and we can wake him up."

"Sounds good." You said and you cuddled up next to him.

By the end of the weekend you had all of your stuff packed up and you were headed back to St. Louis. There was no goodbye with Matthew this time because when you were packing up your apartment you figured out that there was no way you could fit it all, so your parents rented a car and you, your brother, and Matthew drove it back to Missouri.

Matthew was right when he said that this summer would be really fun. It was a blast. Although you were studying hard for your NCLEX, you and all of your friends were celebrating all of your graduations…all summer. You were going hard for your last summer before you all got "real jobs".

You still had to sneak around when you went to the Cape for the 4th of July, but it was a little easier now that your siblings knew so it was easier to sneak around at night. You were also much more relaxed, having just taken the NCLEX the week before, which Matthew was glad about because you had become pretty grumpy from all of the studying you were doing.

The month of July went by pretty fast, which you were glad for because you were getting anxious for your results. You had begun to look for some jobs, but you were still unsure about what you wanted to do. Part of you wanted to stay St. Louis, but another part of you wanted to move away to a new place. Your parents encouraged you to do whatever you wanted, though of course they would prefer for you to stick around. A few of your friends were moving to New York City and wanted to go with them. A few of your friends from BU were moving to Denver and wanted you to go with them. But what you didn't expect was for Matt to ask you to go to Calgary.

"What?!" You choked on the water you had been drinking.

"I mean, you don't have any plans so why not?"

"Why not? Wouldn't that be a little weird?"

"What do you mean? We've known each other forever, you could easily get a job there, I'll be there…"

"Yeah but, it's not like we're dating, won't people talk?"

"What does that matter? You can have your own room. You're thinking about moving with other friends of yours so how is it different?"

"Well, I'm not having sex with them for starters…"

"Another great bonus of moving in with me-sex all the time."

You gave him a pointed look, "I don't know, Matty…it's just a lot. What about all of your other girls? I'm not gonna sit around in my room on nights you want to be with other women."

"Why would I want to be with other women when I have you?"

"We're not dating, Matthew."

"I know, but I wouldn’t need to sleep with other girls while you're living with me."

"That sounds like it could get complicated."

"How?"

"We'd be friends with benefits but just with each other…"

"So?"

"Sooo, that never ends well!"

"How is it different from what we're doing now?"

"We're not living together!"

"We basically do during the summer. I haven't been sleeping with anyone else but you…"

"Well neither have I but--"

"Look, you don't have to come to Calgary if you don't want to. I just thought it would be fun. I'm sorry for bringing it up."

"It's not that I don't want to, I'm just nervous…"

"About what? Y/n/n, nothing needs to change about our relationship. It'll be like an endless summer."

"That's what they all say…before things go south."

"Why would they go south?"

"What if you meet someone you fall in love with? Or what if I do?"

"We'll deal with that when it happens. We're young, we can do whatever we want, so why not just try this out? If things aren't working you can move. We've hated each other most of our lives, so what's the worst that could happen?" He asked with a smirk.

You rolled your eyes playfully and sighed. "Alright…"

"Alright?"

"Alright, I'll come to Calgary."

Matt beamed at your decision and gave you a kiss. "It's gonna be good, y/n/n. I promise."

A few days later you were chilling on the couch watching TV when your brother came into the room and had his hands behind his back.

"Guess what caaaame?!"

"Oh my god, give me!!!" You demanded, knowing exactly what it was. You ripped it open and screamed when you saw that you passed. "Oh my god, oh my god, I passed!!!!"

Your brother gave you a hug and congratulated you before you started texting all of your friends.

You had sent Matt a text and a few minutes later you received a call from him.

"Hey!"

"Congrats, babe!! I knew you could do it!"

"Thanks, Matty!"

"What are you doing tonight?"

"I don't know, I don't have any plans."

"Let me take you to dinner, to celebrate."

"Dinner?"

Matt chuckled, "yes, dinner."

"Just the two of us?"

"I mean, we can invite other people if you want, but I thought it would be nice for it to be just the two of us…"

"No, yeah. That sounds like fun."

"Alright, I'll pick you up around 7."

"Okay, bye Matty."

You hung up and sank back on the couch. You hated that you were constantly overthinking everything with Matthew. Sure, you had been to dinner with your family and friends, but you had never been out with just Matt. First, he asks you to move to Calgary, now he wants to take you to dinner? You've been trying so hard to not catch feelings but he's making it very difficult. But maybe this is also a good thing. Things will definitely change when you get to Calgary whether he knows it or not, and you're bound to do more things just the two of you.

That didn't stop your nerves from settling in when you started getting ready. It's not like you barely knew each other and this was a first date, you didn't even know if he thought of this as a date or just two friends celebrating an accomplishment. That's how you were trying to see it as but you just couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking.

Thankfully, your worries washed away when you saw Matthew. He came to the door and for the first time, you found comfort in that cocky little smirk.

"You look good." He complimented.

"Thank you. You don't look so bad yourself."

"I aim to please…you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

You had just adjusted the radio and sat back and looked over at him.

"So, where are we going?"

"That is for me to know, and you to find out."

You rolled your eyes, "I really don't like surprises."

"Sucks for you, then, doesn't it?"

"You're an ass…"

"Relax, I think you'll like this place."

A few minutes later you pulled up to one of your favorite restaurants.

"How did you know?!"

"I have my ways…we do have the same friends you know…" he teased, squeezing your thigh.

"Ugh, I'm so excited, I haven't been here in forever!"

"Good, let's go in."

Dinner had been really nice. It felt normal. You weren't sure if it was date-like or just two friends having dinner but whatever it was you liked it. After dinner you went back to your house and talked with your parents for a bit. They had bought some champagne to celebrate. After that you and Matt finished the night in the pool house. You were going to miss nights in the pool house. At first, you hated it. It made you feel like you were in high school again, but it quickly became yours and Matt's "spot".

~~~~~~

The move to Calgary had gone very well. And despite your reservations, things had been going really well. As much as you hated to admit it, Matt had been right and it really did feel like an endless summer. You had been getting along really well, things weren't weird, it was actually kind of nice when he would leave for a road trip because it gave you some space. You had been worried about making friends, but you were friends with a few of the WAGs and once you started a job at the hospital you had made some friends through there.

The only thing was your feelings for Matt were becoming stronger and stronger. He was FaceTiming you almost every day he was gone. He would send flowers when he was on a longer road trip. He'd have dinner waiting for you when you had a particularly rough day at work. You knew that you were the only girl he was sleeping with in Calgary…at least you hoped that was the case. But you were unsure about what he was doing on road trips. Athletes are notorious for having girls in every city and you couldn't help but feel a little jealous. But you also didn't want to bring it up because you didn't want to cause any unnecessary tension.

You decided to put some feelers out, and you asked Brittany, Sean’s girlfriend when you were out to dinner one night.

"So, how crazy am I to think that Matt isn't sleeping with other girls when they're on the road?"

"Not that crazy, babe. Sean said he hasn't been hooking up with anyone since you moved here…"

"Wait, what?"

"Yeah, the whole team is convinced you guys are dating and just not telling anyone. No one believes you guys when you say you're just friends."

"Oh.…"

"I tried telling him you really are just friends, but no one buys it…have you slept with anyone else?"

"No, it just feels weird. Even though we're not together, I live with him, and I'm here because of him…"

"Well, I think he feels the same way. Do you want to be more than friends?"

"I don't know…I mean I like where we're at. I've been feeling more insecure about him going on the road lately, I don't really want him to sleep with other people but I don't know if I'm ready for a relationship with him."

"Why not?"

"This is going to sound really immature…but we hated each other for so long, I never saw myself liking Matt, let alone loving him…"

"Do you? Love him?"

"I don't know, maybe not yet, but I'm definitely falling…"

"I think you should just let it happen. You guys are really good for each other. I know I haven't known you for that long, but I've seen a big change in Matt since you moved here. Everyone has. He seems happier, more focused, more mature… Don't force things if you're not feeling it, but I think you are. And he is too."

You took Brittany's advice. You didn't just come out and talk to Matt about your feelings but you stopped suppressing them and you were just letting whatever happened happen.

Things really started to pick up after Christmas. You had gone home to St. Louis, but Matthew hadn't been able to so you were apart for the holidays. Although it really wasn't much different than him leaving for a road trip, you were only gone for a week, it had a different feeling to it. When you got back, Matt was extra clingy and kept commenting on how he didn't want you to leave again.

"Matt, you leave all the time…"

"I know, I'm sorry. It's not fair of me to say that, but I can't help it. It was just weird not having you around. You're used to me leaving, but I'm not used to you leaving. I missed you."

"Well, I'll do my best to stick around. Can't have you upset…" you teased.

"Good." He said with a small pout and he gave you a kiss.

A week later, Matt had come from practice and you were in the kitchen making dinner. He was acting a little funny, and you got nervous when he sat at the island across from you and asked if you could talk.

"Um, yeah, is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I just think we've needed to have this conversation for a while."

You gave him a sideways look, "you're making me kind of nervous, Matt…"

"It's nothing bad. We can talk after we eat."

"Seriously."

"What?"

"You drop that bomb on me and then make me wait?!"

"Well, I want your full attention." He said walking around to stand next to you.

"Matthew…."

"Don't stress, babe." He said as he kissed your forehead and walked down the hall.

You shook your head, he is going to be the death of me.

You hurried to finish dinner because you were really curious what Matt wanted to talk about. It certainly didn't sound bad, but you didn't understand why he was being so weird about it.

Finally, you had finished up dinner and you and Matt were sitting at the table. You were looking at him expectantly but he was more occupied with taking a bite of the lasagna you made. You cleared your throat and he chuckled.

"Matt, this isn't funny. Please, just tell me what you want to talk about."

"Okay, I think we should talk about what we're doing."

"Okay…" you said slowly, now unsure of where this was going.

"Relax, y/n/n. It's not a bad thing. I really like you. A lot. Our relationship has grown so much in the past few years and I've never been more thankful for anything in my life. I love that you're here for me after a bad game, I love being able to celebrate with you after a good game… I just love coming home to you. I want us to be together. Not just friends, or friends with benefits or whatever the hell we're doing. I want you to be mine and I want to be yours."

"I want that too, Matty. I've wanted it for a while, I just didn't know how you felt and I didn't want to mess things up."

"Well, that's exactly why we're talking about it, babe. I'm really glad you feel the same way. I was nervous you wouldn't be able to get over your hatred of me." he said with a smirk.

"I do hate you…"

"No, you love me."

"I hate that I love you."

"But you love me…"

"Unfortunately, yes." You teased.

"I'll take it. Now let me enjoy this wonderful creation of yours."

You laughed at his description of your dinner, "okay, well don't get your hopes up."

He took a bite and moaned, "it's perfect. Just like you," and squeezed your cheeks.

"You're so weird…"

"Please, just let me have my moment."

You threw hands up in defense, "alright, sorry. You do you."

"I will be doing you later."

You rolled your eyes and shook your head but cracked a smile at his antics.

You both cleaned up after dinner and then cuddled on the couch to watch a movie. Your head rested on his shoulder and he was tracing patterns on your side with his fingers. You looked up at him and in turn he looked back at you.

"What?"

"Nothing, I'm just really happy."

#nhl imagines #matthew tkachuk imagines #nhl imagine #matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagine #nhl fanfiction

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myhockeyworld87 · 4 years

Text

Bubble Wrapped - Part 1

Word Count: 2,683

POV: Reader

Warnings: Language

Notes: Ok so here is basically our introduction to the Bubble Wrapped story. I have no timeline for this thing or even if it will continue, you guys let me know. As a background, this story will be about life inside Hotel X. In case you don’t know the teams inside Hotel X are the Bruins, Capitals, Flyers, Penguins and Lightning. So here we go, Happy Reading!

You'd been shocked when Hotel X had been picked as one of the hotels for the NHL to stay at when they resumed play in Toronto. Even more so when you were asked if you would take over the management of the place over the next several weeks. "Listen (Y/N) we know we are asking a lot. You'll have to live at the hotel with all the players as the NHL is really trying to keep everyone in this little bubble."

"I understand. I've already talked to Carly about putting different measures in place when the Maple Leafs came to us before submitting their proposal." Carly was another member of the hotel staff, that served as one of their concierges. She knew the ins and outs of the city and could get tickets or dinner reservations on the drop of a dime. That was all before COVID though. Now, some restaurants were still closed and shows hadn't resumed yet. What once was a bustling city, had come to a dead stop over the last several months, though things were starting to get back to normal; well the new normal that is.

"So we heard." You hoped the blush that crept up your cheeks couldn't be seen on the zoom call as that had become their new form of communication with you. "You've dealt with the players before, we know you can handle it. Though this time it'll be completely different with five or six teams staying there." Most of the players had always been super nice to the staff, though there were a few that could be demanding at times. You prayed they'd all push their egos aside, at least while in the hotel, though somehow you doubted that. "I think you're familiar with the NHL's protocol on their reopening, but we'll email you everything once we get it. Start putting together the staff that you want. Just some core people that you'll need."

"I've got the right people in mind, don't worry."

The call went for a bit longer going over specifics. The only benefit out of the whole thing was that they were giving you the Presidential Suite to stay in. Honestly, it was the least they could do; you thought. Of course, the called ending with them saying, "Don't let us down."

As soon as it ended you called Carly making sure she was on board. "I'm just saying Car that many hockey players in the hotel; the testosterone is going to be flying around."

"So what you're telling me is you've already packed an extra-large box of condoms."

"Carly!" You shouted at your friend. "That's not what I was saying at all."

"Come on (Y/N), I know you're one of Seguin's regulars when he's in Toronto."

"I'm one of them because I can keep my mouth shut." It was true that when Tyler was in town during the summer or on a road trip the two of you always hooked up. Sort of a no strings attached relationship, though you did talk from time to time. "Besides he's not even going to be in Toronto. He's in the Edmonton bubble."

"Oh, I didn't realize." Carly despite being from Canada was not a hockey lover, though she did appreciate the men who played the sport. "Well, maybe you should call him and get the scoop. You know find out who we need to be aware of."

It wasn't a bad idea, not that you were going to ask him who to sleep with, but maybe it would help get a handle on who was going to be problematic, as there was no way you wanted to let the owners of the hotel down. You had a lot riding on this and after all, you couldn't put bitter rivals in one hotel and not expect some drama. "You're right. I am going to call him."

"Ooo good, let me know what he says and if we should get more than one box of those condoms."

You shook your head at your friend before hanging up and dialing Tyler's number. "Hey beautiful, long time no talk," Tyler said and you could almost hear the smile in his voice.

"Hey Ty, how's quarantine life going?"

"Ugh, don't get me started. I was not meant to be locked in my house without hockey for this long." Tyler wasn't meant to stay put anywhere too long, including relationships.

"Well, hockey's almost back so there's that."

"Yeah, I'm pumped about it, though I wish I was staying in Toronto instead. I know some fun that we could get up to since I have to stay in the bubble." He paused and you could clearly tell he was running different sex scenarios in his head. "I'm assuming your working at the hotel."

"Yeah, it's kind of why I called. I'm one of the ones trapped in the bubble with you guys."

Tyler groaned. "So, you called to ask me who you should hook up with? Cause babe, I'm not sure I'm willing to share you like that."

"Shut up Ty, you know we're not like that. You couldn't stay faithful to one woman if you tried." Part of the reason the two of you got along so good, was the fact that you called him out on his bullshit.

"I might if I could drag you with me everywhere." You giggled at the insinuation of being taken everywhere just so you could keep him satisfied. "You're definitely gifted with many talents (Y/N)."

"You're not so bad yourself, but we're getting away from why I called."

"You mean you didn't call to have phone sex with me," and you could hear his pout.

"No, I didn't call for that. I was just curious if you had any idea who was going to give me problems while we're in this so-called bubble. I'm trying to be preemptive here."

"Ok, but if I give you some information you at least have to promise to send me a pic of your tits." You mentally rolled your eyes at him; the boy was a horndog.

"Fine, now spill some tea."

"Spill some tea, what is this a gossip blog or something."

"You're avoiding the question Ty, and I'm putting on a sweatshirt." He groaned.

"Alright, don't get your panties in a bunch…or maybe do." It never ended with him. "I don't know a lot about some of the younger guys that are newer in the league, but my guess is they're all horny little bastards. Hell, I was when I first got in the league."

"You still are."

"Touché." He answered before continuing on. "So, like I probably don't have to mention the rivalries to you, but like Caps and Pens hate each other, the Flyers and Pens hate each other. Doesn't everyone just hate the Pens?"

"I think you either love them or hate them."

"That's true," he agreed with your statement. "The Flyers and the Caps hate each other as well and don't get me started with who hates the Bruins. Wow, who really put them all in your hotel?"

"I'd like to know that as well." It seemed like whoever did, had a warped sense of humor and you were now going to be stuck handling the mess that they'd made. "So, basically what you're saying is that it'll be an all-out brawl at times that I'll have to clean up after."

"Sorry babe, but I think it could be. On the bright side, we're supposed to stay on our own floors."

"Like that's going to happen." Maybe you should designate elevators or something because you could just see Alex Ovechkin and Claude Giroux getting in one at the same time and by the time, they got to your lobby they'd both be bloody and beaten. "Anything else I should know?"

"You seriously want me to go there?"

"I mean...if you want to." You certainly weren't going to ask but if he offered the information you'd tuck it away for later that's for sure.

He sighed heavily, "You know I hate this, but like Tom Wilson gets around that's for sure and I've heard that Travis Konecny does as well. If I'm being honest there's maybe been a girl or two that's compared us."

"Really?"

"That doesn't mean you have to be one of them, though if you are…you better tell them I'm better."

"Don't worry Ty, I'll sing your praises. I promise." Obviously, you wouldn't be doing that but it didn't hurt to stroke his ego a bit. "Anyone, to avoid?"

"Marchy!"

"Dude, he was like one of your best friends. Why would you say that?"

"Because I know him. Stay away he's trouble." The fact that you could almost see the look on his face as he was telling you was comical.

"Fine."

"Oh and stay away from Carter Hart." The name sounded familiar.

"The goalie from Philly? Why?"

"Because you'll corrupt him." You burst out laughing and Ty joined you. "He's too innocent for you."

"Dually noted, as I do not want to be known as the corruptor of innocents." You searched your mind thinking of anything else you could ask since you had him on the phone. "What about Crosby?"

"Sid?" and he just couldn't stop laughing; you could even hear him try to catch his breath.

"Why is that so funny? The man is hot Tyler, whether you want to admit it or not."

He got serious as he asked, "Who's hotter him or me?"

Thank god you weren't on FaceTime, so you could answer him without your features giving you away. "You are Ty, of course."

"I thought so, but like the guy is hockey twenty-four seven. There's no way he's going to be thinking about getting laid."

"That's disappointing."

"He's about the only one that I'd give you permission to fuck, only because I know it would be impossible for you to accomplish, even given all your talents." You could hear the mischievous tone in his voice.

"Hmmm, are you willing to bet on that?"

"What? Like bet, you'll fuck Crosby in the bubble?"

"Yeah." Did it really sound like such an unattainable accomplishment?

"What's the wager?"

"Winner flies out when this whole COVID shit is done and is the other's sex slave for twenty-four hours."

"Oh, you are on, baby. I can already see you handcuffed to my bed in some skimpy lingerie." He cackled at the thought and it fueled your resolve to win this bet.

"Don't be so sure about that."

"And how am I to know that you actually slept with him?"

Well, this would be tricky. "Well, it's not like I'm videoing it."

"No, but that gives me ideas for when I win." Maybe you should be rethinking this gamble.

"What do you want his underwear?"

"Nah, you could get that in the laundry. But I'm sure you could sneak a pic of him sleeping." God that sounded creepy but if it meant you had Ty as your slave for a day, it'd be worth it and you'd never show it to anyone else but him and even then you weren't going to send it to him, though he didn't need to know that now.

"Ok, it's a bet then."

"Too bad we can't kiss on it."

"Oh, you'll be doing more than kissing when I win, Seguin." Mentally you started packing sexy outfits to take into the bubble with you while thinking of all the things you'd have Tyler do the next time you saw him. "On that note, I better get my ass to work and make this hotel ready for these guys."

"Fine, I'll let you go as long as you promise to FaceTime me at some point during this bubble thing."

"I'm sure I'll have a night open for you at some point." You teased.

"Woman, you better."

"No worries Ty, you're still my main man; when you're in town."

"That's right baby, good luck."

"Thanks for all the info, Ty. We'll catch up soon and good luck in the playoffs."

You were just about to hang up when you heard him yell. "Don't forget my titty picture."

All you could do was shake your head and click end call, though you being a woman of your word, you snapped a quick pic and sent it off to him; to which he responded with a drool face emoji.

The next couple of weeks were a literal whirlwind as you moved into the hotel's presidential suite and got things ready. Beds were moved out so that some rooms that had two queens now had one king in them. The hotel was disinfected from top to bottom. If felt like you were wearing a hazmat suit all the time during this process. A week before the players arrived the NHL staff did, making sure everything was in order and making sure you had things set up for daily COVID testing. Of course, you had everything well in hand and organized per their instructions, though with a few tweaks that made the process more efficient. Overall, they seemed impressed with everything that you had done.

All that preparation lead up to the big day, July 26th, when the teams moved in. The league had them spread out so that no two teams were checking in at that same time. Tampa Bay was the first in as they traveled the furthest. "You look nervous. Why are you nervous?" Carly's voice came up from behind you as you saw the bus pulling in through the gates.

"There's a lot riding on this Car, and if anything goes wrong; you know it's going to be my head that rolls."

"You're going to do great; this whole thing is going to be smooth like a bubble." She started to giggle. "See what I did there…bubble." You rolled your eyes at your friend but did let out a little snort of laughter at her pun. "Well, here they come."

You straightened your jacket and smoothed down your skirt, before throwing your mask up to go meet your first arrivals. "Gentlemen, welcome to Hotel X." You tried to speak a little louder than normal hoping the mask didn't muffle your words. "We're excited to have you all here. I'm (Y/N) manager here during your stay, anything you need, feel free to call me any time of day." More of the guys filtered in while you spoke to Coach Cooper and a few of the players.

"Anytime huh?" you heard someone mumble in the background and a couple of the guys snickered. It was hard not to roll your eyes as you knew they were focusing on them with your face partially covered. Someone else said, "She can manage me anytime." That was until someone cleared their throat, effectively silencing them.

"Now if you'll follow me, let's get you all checked in." Tables lined with a welcome packet and lanyard with their ID on it, were off to the side and you were able to shuffle them through with pretty good speed, then sent them off to their rooms before they had to head to testing. Your information was inside every packet, in case you were needed at any point during their stay. It seemed like you no sooner got them in and the area disinfected then the next team, the Capitals, were pulling in, and so the day went on until all five teams were safely ensconced in the hotel. Thankfully you made it through that process without any problems, even though the Bruins flight was late and the Flyers were pulling in right as you got the last players through.

It wasn't until dinner, that you encountered your first dilemma, getting a text message from Alexis, who was coordinating the meals. It was a simple message, Get to conference room 3. NOW! As fast as your heels could take you, you headed down to where the Capitals were supposed to be having dinner if you remembered the schedule correctly. You never expected to see what you did though when you entered.

#bubble wrapped series #Pittsburgh Penguins fanfiction #Pittsburgh Penguins imagines #Pittsburgh Penguins imagine #Washington Capitals imagine #Boston Bruins imagine #Boston Bruins imagines #Washington Capitals imagines #Philadephia Flyers imagine #Philadephia Flyers imagines #Tampa Bay Lightning imagine #Tampa Bay Lightning imagines

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intoafandom · 3 years

Text

Why I like Kevan Miller, Steven Kampfer, Trent Frederic, Torey Krug, Tuukka Rask etc and why I will continue to like them.

(Sorry this is soooo long but it’s the only way I can explain)

So last night I got an anon ask and the person was asking why I like Kevan Miller when he’s a republican and I mentioned how I would make a separate post explaining my reasoning better and now that I have the time and its no longer 3 am, now seems like a good time lol.

So I’m gunna give a backstory about the players above that I mentioned and why a lot of bruinsblr doesn’t like them (so people that may not be aware know the context of why people are upset/dont like them). Most of bruinsblr doesn’t like Miller or Kampfer because they’re republicans. Everyone on bruinsblr is allowed to dislike them if they choose to. I recognize I’m in the minority on this app when I say I like and support Kevan Miller and Steven Kampfer. People on here also don’t like Torey Krug for the same reason and because he follows/followed Trump’s twitter account (since trumps account got deleted, torey now follows the “trump archives” account). People on here don’t like Tuukka anymore because over the summer, during all the blm stuff in the bubble, Tuukka went on tv in the bubble for an interview with a hat that said “Boston police” on it (the interview also aired right after the Bruins Organization posted about how they stand against racism, so people ended up calling Tuukka a racist hypocrite.) Last night, people on here found out that Trent Frederic follows Trump supporters and republicans on social media, which is why he’s losing some fans on this app. There are probably more stories about other players that I’m not aware of as well but these will be the ones I’m focusing on for now.

I am NOT going to start talking about my political opinions or my position on social issues. My account is called IntoAFandom for a REASON. So I can escape the real world and go “into a fandom” and have some peace. That’s why i never reblog or like or post about any real world events or issues. I want my blog to be solely about things, fandoms, and people that I love and care about. I don’t wanna come on my blog and see how a bombing happened or if someone got shot or this president signed this executive order etc etc. i wanna come on my blog and fangirl about Bucky Barnes being a sweetheart with kids or how amazing Matt Grzelcyk is at “tight turns” etc etc. Hence the name “IntoAFandom.”

I’m getting a lot of questions as to why I still support these players and I’ll definitely answer those questions in this post. Just so my mutuals know where I stand on this.

Now obviously it would be super easy for me to just go “well the player is super nice so i dont care about their political views.” And while that’s partially true for me, its not the only reason. For me, the reason is much deeper than that. I’ve never mentioned or talked about or even said it out loud. I touched upon what I’m about to say in that anon ask I got last night, but I’m going to go into detail now. It’s kind of hard to explain and the only way I can describe it is to tell you about my hockey journey up until this point, and specifically the 2018-19 season.

So one day in April in 2018, I was on school vacation and I was very bored. There was literally nothing on tv. However, as I was scrolling through the channels, I saw that a bruins game was on. I had never really watched hockey before in my life and the only experience I could remember having with it was when my mom was obsessed with them in like 2013 and how she set up this whole contraption to try and watch a game when a snowstorm made us lose connection. So with nothing else on the tv, crippling boredom, and being a Massachusetts native, I put the game on. It was literally just starting and the national anthem was about to start. We were playing the leafs lmao and it was game five or six of the series probably. I cant really remember because I didn’t think I would care this much about hockey at the time of watching it. But what I do remember was how CREEPY Tuukka looked😂 He was just standing there alone with a huge spotlight on him, head down, wearing these huge pads and looking straight up terrifying. I literally started laughing because of how creepy he looked. And then he put his cool ass mask on and right there I knew he was my favorite player. And to this day he is still my favorite. Tuukka was the first hockey player I EVER knew and could remember by name. I gotta admit, at first I thought his name was “Tuuk Arask” because that’s what it sounded like whenever the announcers would say it, specifically Jack Edwards lol. But then I was like “wait is it Arask or Rask” and after looking at his jersey like 3 games later I finally realized it was actually Rask lol. And I was like “Tuukka Rask. So freaking creepy lol. He’s my favorite.” I also have to mention that I’ve always been a sucker for people that play positions that no one else wants to play. Like for example, when I first started watching football in like 2014, my first ever favorite player was Stephen Gostkowski because he was the kicker. He was super good and he was instantly my fav. That’s what Tuukka was like for me. This huge, tall ass, creepy ass, goalie who was playing super well. How could i NOT like him. I didn’t really bother to learn any other players on the bruins team since they got eliminated in the second round. I remember saying to my mom “I don’t want them to be out. I wanna learn more.” I wanted to know more about the game and 6 games, or however many it was, wasn’t enough. So for some reason, I followed them throughout the offseason and in late September/early October I started watching a ton of their older games on YouTube. Not super old obviously, but games from like 2013-2017 ish. Just whatever I could find. And it was so interesting. I tried to only watch games where they actually won so I wasn’t wasting my time lol, but not having to worry about the score helped me start learning the game and some of the rules, like what an icing was for example. So then preseason games started and I got more into it. And then the beginning of the 2018-19 season started. I still didn’t really know any players besides Tuukka, even though I was watching YouTube games. The YouTube ones were more for me to learn the game and the rules rather than players (however, looking back, I did notice that Kevan Miller was a freaking beast, but I just didn’t acknowledge who he actually was. I just saw a player going absolute sicko mode and being like YEEEEAAAAH). The second player I could actually remember by name was Danton Heinen. I noticed he was playing really well and I was like omg who is that and I learned his name and he became one of my favorites with Tuukka. Next was Anders Bjork. I remember I was texting my friends and was trying to make it seem like I wasn’t a complete amateur at hockey knowledge, so I was like “hey guys, Bjork is back in the line up😃” and so I always remembered his name. Next was Ryan Donato because he was literally AWAYS smiling. Every time he was on camera he was SMILING. I loved it so much he was like a little bean. And so he was one of my favorites and i had a top three with him, heino and tuuks.

Now I was watching games and slowly learning important names like Chara, Bergeron, Marchand etc but it wasn’t really on my radar to actually learn all the players because I hadn’t even done that with the patriots who I had been watching and loving for yeeeears. But that was until I decided to watch a behind the b episode. And I was HOOKED. I instantly began to love and care about every single player on the roster. This was in like February of 2019. And that’s when I started trying to name everyone on the team, including their numbers. I made it a mission. I remember writing out lists in math class because I was so bored and would rather try to memorize hockey players. And that’s when I found bruinsblr. It was march by the time I started to post hockey stuff. And i made an instagram account so I could started editing them. I’ve had this blog since 2014 and its seen many phases, but march of 2019 was when I changed it into a mainly bruins blog. And I remember not knowing what “bruins lb” was and i never wanted to tag it because I thought it was like a club or something that I would be intruding on😂 So I started posting and reblogging bruins stuff and posting sucky bruins edits on here and on my insta account. And I started watching every single behind the b episode from every season and I was literally obsessed with the team. And then Donato got traded and i was heartbroken cuz I loved him and I was like Coyle is gunna have to wow me to get me to like him and he DID and i LOVE HIM. But then I decided to have a top five instead of a top three. And it was Tuukka, Krug, DeBrusk, Pasta, and Marchy. They were the players I noticed the most. And Marchy started LICKING people how could i not choose him😂 So then the playoffs come and we beat the leafs in game 7 AGAIN (and I literally missed the first two periods because I was at my confirmation) But I finally understood all the memes about the leafs and I finally understood hockey and hockey culture by this point. I knew the rules, the players, the memes, literally everything. And then we make it to the finals and get lil nas x singing old town road before game 1 and we get JD wearing that stupid hat😂 and the two people from The Office (one of them wanted the bruins to win and the other wanted the blues) and it was all just amazing for me. Then we lost and i was devastated. And we had to see pictures of CMac sobbing on the ice and JD sitting alone in his stall crying and all of them were so sad and after that journey we just went through i was fvcking crying too. We didn’t win, but that 2018-19 season is SO special for me.

The people on this roster (minus gemel smith and lee stempniak) are EXTREMELY special to me. They TAUGHT me hockey. They turned me on to an entirely new culture. I got to experience my first real bit of hockey. I got to experience EVERYTHING about hockey with them (besides the cup) in this ONE season of hockey. I saw the preseason games in china, the halloween visit to to the hospital, Chara bringing pies to the homeless, them buying toys for kids in the hospital at Christmas then visiting them, the new years game outside against the hawks, trade deadline crushing my heart, every round of the playoffs, players pushing through crazy injuries, loving players, despising other teams, all the memes, all the jokes, all the players. Everything. The 2018-19 season is SO incredibly special for me because it’s the first time I ever experienced real hockey and watched an entire season. The people on that roster mean so much to me because of that. Now take a look at the names on that roster. Rask. Krug. Miller. Kampfer. Frederic. They all helped me experience my first year of hockey. Freddy in his first freaking game, getting into a fight😂 Miller and Kampfer were BEASTS on the ice. Krug being a SPECTACULAR little defenseman, quarterbacking the pp and sticking up for himself and SLAMMING thomas. Tuukka Rask being the brick wall. There is no way that I could ever dislike the people on that roster unless the did something suuuuuper bad. I don’t know if you would call it hero worship or whatever, but those people on that roster are so fucking special to me. Even ones like JFK and Vaak and Colby that didn’t play that many games. They still made an impact for me as a hockey fan. THAT is the main reason why I will never stop liking and supporting tuuks, krugger, kampfs, millsy, or freddy. Everyone on that roster has a special place in my heart and I’m not going to let their political views change or tamper with the incredible experience they gave me during that 2018-19 season. I wont ever love another team as much as I loved that specific roster. And no one is going to change that for me. I dont care about their political views or whatever. For me, the experience and the feelings they gave me trump anything i may or may not disagree with. That roster is so special to me, I cant bring myself to dislike any of those people. I will always like those players, no matter how republican or democrat or whatever. Political views dont matter to me when it comes to those players.

Now besides all of that and the experience they gave me, I do believe that they’re still good people even tho they may be republican. I wanna start with Tuukka because it literally doesn’t make sense to me. Tuukka is not even AMERICAN. I dont think he cares that much about American politics since im pretty sure most his family lives in Finland. People got mad at him for wearing a Boston police hat. But I think those people are forgetting that Tuukka has been in boston for soooo long. There have probably been multiple occasions where the police had to help him or the team for some reason or another (they are technically famous after all). Tuukka wearing a hat that says Boston Police doesn’t make him a bad person. He was probably just showing support to the people that helped support HIM as well as his family and teammates. I follow Tuukka on insta and he literally NEVER posts anything political. Probably because NEVER actually posts ANYTHING at all lol. Tuukka had been my favorite from the start and theres almost nothing he could ever do that would make me dislike him.

As for the other 4, and any other players on the team that may be republican (honestly i bet most of them are because 1) most hockey players are and 2) a lot of the guys are christian/catholic and most christian/catholic people are republican as well) I choose to believe that political opinions dont make you a bad person. I like to believe that it depends on the circumstances for every individual. Now I’m not gay or black or anything. Im an 18 year old, straight white girl. So obviously i dont know what its really like for someone to hate or disagree with my race, sexuality, etc. I saw someone say (sorry I forget who it was) that they keep thinking “well what would that player say about me because im gay. What would they actually think about me. I cant support them.” And honestly that’s extremely valid. I never thought about it that way before. So if Kevan Miller for example was out here posting a bunch of homophobic stuff like “i hate gays” or “gays are all stupid” or anything like that, then yeah my opinions on him would probably change in some way. But I follow him on insta and i know the stuff he post about. I have NEVER seen him say anything like that. Ive never heard any bruin say anything like that. From what I’ve seen, they all seem like super nice, sweet, supportive people when they’re off the ice. (I think it’s also important to mention that I follow EVERYONE on the 2018-19 roster. I follow all of their instas. Most of them dont have twitter, but I follow all the ones that do. It’s part of the whole “that roster is incredibly special to me” thing). I choose to believe that following republicans or being one yourself doesn’t automatically make you a bad person, especially when you consider the different circumstances that every individual is under as humans. We all experience different things and that always plays a role in how you act or the opinions you have or the people you support. Someone’s political opinions have never stopped me from liking people. Ive clearly shown that I don’t mind republicans at all, but that doesn’t mean im going to dislike democrats either. Most of the actors/ singers that i like are democrats. And it just happens that most of the athletes i like are republicans. The political stuff doesn’t matter to me. I just dont want it being slapped in my face 24/7. I dont care if you’re a republican or democrat as long as you aren’t constantly talking to me about politics or social issues or trying to change my mind on stuff. Hopefully you can try to see my point of view on this and UNDERSTAND why I like them. Again, I’ve never told my hockey story to anyone so please don’t try and invalid my feelings about the season or the players.

Please, I beg, please don’t comment on this calling racist or something. Please dont try and change me mind. Please dont tell me i need to educate myself. I know WHY i like these players. I know where they stand politically and who they support. But these players are too special to ME for me to actually give a sht about if they like trump or not. Honestly tho, feel free to give your opinion (especially if you’re gay or black or anything) cuz i dont mind hearing other standpoints as long as you aren’t mean about it or try to change my mind. If i change my mind, which i probably wont, I want it to be on my own terms. Please remember that we ARE still a hockey family 💛🖤💛

(Also I’m NEVER talking about this again. If anyone ever asks or something like this comes up again im just gunna link/ reblog this post)

(Also, thank you to whoever made it this far and actually read all of that. ESPECIALLY if you’re someone that doesn’t agree with me. Its good to hear multiple standpoints on this stuff.)

#boston bruins #bruins #torey krug #brad marchand #tuukka rask #jake debrusk #charlie mcavoy #patrice bergeron #zdeno chara #matt grzelcyk #kevan miller #steven kampfer #trent frederic

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hobeymakar · 4 years

Text

Unapologetically | C. Makar Part 2

Previous parts: Part 1

Chapter word count: 3,673 words

A/N: This chapter was so much fun to write! I will be working on the next one ASAP, but it may take me a little longer to write it! Please like and reblog if you enjoyed it as it lets me know that you enjoyed it. Any and all feedback is always greatly appreciated

Shoutouts: @pizzasloot @hockey-and-wine and @grenawitka for being my cheerleaders in the gc! I love you girls with all my heart

Warnings: explicit language

Taty wakes up on the morning of February 5th and feels the nerves start to hit her. Today, she'll be meeting Cale in person and interviewing him for the podcast. A part of her is afraid things will go wrong once they meet and he won't be interested in her anymore. While the other part of her knows that Cale is too nice of a person to ever break her heart like that. If things don't work out, he'll be nice and respectful about it.

In preparation of meeting Cale, she self-isolated from her family for a couple days and got tested for COVID-19. She tested negative thankfully so she can go meet Cale without putting him in danger.

She brushes her teeth and has breakfast as she prepares herself mentally for the podcast. She writes down her questions and her intro, so that she doesn't forget anything that she wants to say and ask. After breakfast she showers and changes into a comfy, warm outfit to withstand the cold of New England winter. She knows the high is only gonna be 37 and with the wind in the city of Boston, it's gonna be way worse.

She loads her car up with all her equipment and starts making the trip towards Boston. She decides to make a trip to her Aunt's apartment in Roxbury, which is on the outskirts of the city. She parks her car inside the community and makes her way into the apartment, since her Aunt always leaves her door open.

"'Cion Tia! (Blessings, Auntie)" she smiles, greeting her Aunt Leo who's in the kitchen making food.

"Dios te bendiga, mi'ja! Que haces aqui? (May God bless you, honey! What are you doing here?) " her aunt asks, as she stands in front of the stove.

"Voy hacer una entrevista con un jugador de hockey (I'm interviewing a hockey player)" she explains, not wanting to mention that she's sort of seeing that player.

"Que bueno mi'ja! ¡Me alegro! Yo se que todo va salir bien porque tu eres una mujer seria y muy inteligente! (That's amazing honey! I'm glad! I know that everything is gonna go great because you're a serious and intelligent woman!" her aunt cries out.

"Gracias Tia! Y Cola y Nine? Thank you Auntie! Where's Cola and Nine?" she asks, referring to another aunt and uncle.

"Nine está trabajando y Cola salió con Frank y Bernardo a ayudar alguien con un trabajito. (Nine's working and Cola went out with Frank and Bernardo to help someone out with a small job," her aunt explains.

"Bueno, yo vine aquí solamente para verte y saludarte. Me voy a quedar en un hotel esta noche y voy a regresar a casa mañana. (Well, I came here only to see you and greet you. I'm staying at a hotel tonight and I'm going back home tomorrow)" she explains.

"Quédate aquí por un rato más. Ya la comida está lista como en 15 minutos. (Stay here for a little longer. The food will be ready in like 15 minutes)" her aunt explains.

"Tengo planes con el jugador pero no diga nada a Mami por favor (I have plans with the player but don't say anything to Mami please)" she pleads.

"Oh ya veo. No le digo nada, mi'ja (Oh, now I see. I won't tell her anything, honey)" her aunt replies, nodding her head.

"Gracias Tia! Dale saludos a Cola, Nine, Frank y Bernardo. Ojala los veo mañana (Thank you, Auntie! Say hi to Cola, Nine, Frank and Bernardo. Hopefully I'll see them tomorrow)" she smiles, hugging her Aunt.

"Con dios, mi'ja. Tengas cuidado, pero lo disfrutas (Take care, honey. Be careful, but have fun)" her Aunt smiles back, kissing her cheek.

Taty leaves the apartment and gets back into her car to make the trip to a hotel right across the street from the TD Garden. During the drive, she hits some traffic because the city of Boston has awful traffic, but arrives at the hotel in 20 minutes. Workers help her get her stuff out of the car and she gets her car parked by the valet. She makes her way inside the hotel and checks in. The workers help her bring her stuff to her room on the 7th floor. She makes her way inside and unpacks her things, putting them out. She puts her recording equipment out on the table and then heads to the windows to take a picture of her view of the Bunker Hill Bridge and TD Garden. She sends the picture to Cale

To: Cale 🥰

Nice choice for the room. You remembered how I like my city view and bath tubs to take baths in

From: Cale 🥰

Of course I remembered! I remember every single thing you've told me

To: Cale 🥰

How quickly can you get your butt up to my room?

From: Cale 🥰

I'm in Mikko's room rn with the guys but I can make up an excuse and disappear

To: Cale 🥰

I want to order room service and then interview you

From: Cale 🥰

Alright I'll be there in a few

She looks at herself in the mirror, making sure she looks good. She realizes how dumb it is for her to stress over her looks when Cale has literally seen her looking gross with no makeup on and her hair looking a whole ass mess.

She goes on her phone and tries to calm down her nerves. After a few minutes, she hears a knock on her door. She goes up to the door and opens it, meeting Cale who's dressed in an Avs sweatshirt and sweatpants. She pulls him in and closes the door shut right away, so that no one can see.

He lifts her up for a hug and she wraps her legs around him, her tiny frame wrapping around him tightly. They embrace each other for a few moments before putting her back down.

"So you like the room I picked out for you?" he asks, as she leads him further inside the room.

"Yes! It's perfect! It's honestly way too big for just me," she smiles.

She gives him a quick tour of the room and bathroom and he sits down on the bed while she opens the room service menu.

"Do you want anything?" she asks him.

"No, I already had lunch with the team," he informs her.

"Alright," she nods, looking back at the menu.

"Order anything you want regardless of price. It's on me," he informs her.

"Cale, I can't make you spend all this money on me. You're paying for my room and the valet parking, the least I can do is pay you back for the food," she protests.

"I appreciate your concern, but this is nothing to me. Let me treat you," he replies, trying to convince her to let him spoil her.

"You're lucky you're cute," she sighs, giving in.

She calls room service and places her order. As she waits for her order, she turns on the TV and gets on the bed, snuggling into Cale's side. She puts on NHL Network and they watch highlights from the night before, while talking about certain plays and players.

"You know I've never met a girl that I could talk about hockey with like this. Like you actually understand the sport and everything," he comments.

"Well I've been a fan for so long and I've always been obsessed with sports since I was a little kid. It's the reason why I was always one of the guys growing up," she explains.

"And I think it's the coolest thing about you! You're so passionate about sports and sports stats! You're passionate about diversity and inclusion in sports too!" he smiles, running his fingers through her hair.

She feels the heat rise in her cheeks and she wishes he would just kiss her already, but she's too shy to do it herself.

"Well thank you. For a long time, I was embarrassed about how nerdy it is. It's probably why guys never saw me as anything more than a tomboy," she explains sheepishly.

"Yeah well it's their loss. They never got to see how incredible you really are," he smiles, kissing her forehead.

If she could die in his arms right now, she wouldn't mind honestly. She's never felt this sort of warmth and such intense butterflies in her stomach. Her heart feels so full and she finally realizes that this is what falling in love feels like. She had never felt it before but she loves the feeling so much that she doesn't want it to end.

The room service arrives and she brings the tray full of food inside. She sits down on the bed and starts eating as they watch TV and make small talk.

"What did you and the boys do today?" she asks.

"Well we got here late last night, so none of us woke up til like 10am. We all got ready and had lunch in the restaurant. Then we went to Mikko's room to play video games. It's been pretty boring so far, but we're not doing much because of COVID. We can't be going out like we used to," he explains.

"Yeah this virus has really fucked things up here. The governor of Massachusetts still hasn't allowed any fans to attend Celtics or Bruins games at the Garden and I don't know if he will for the rest of the season. Maybe he will for playoffs but I don't expect him to," she explains.

"I get that though. We have to keep people safe as much as possible until we eliminate this virus," he adds.

They switch the subject after that and keep the light conversation flowing until she finishes eating. She then sets her empty tray outside the room and starts setting everything up for the podcast, handing Cale a mic. She grabs her mic and sets it up, hooking everything up to her laptop. She checks the audio, making sure it's all good before starting the recording on her laptop.

"Our next guest is the biggest we've had so far. He was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta and was named after a Flames player. He grew up a Flames fan and made a name for himself in the AJHL playing for the Brooks Bandits, where he was named AJHL player of the year. He quickly became a top prospect and was selected 4th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 2017. He played two seasons at UMass Amherst with the Minutemen, setting school records. He won the 2019 Hobey Baker Award and led the Minutemen to the Frozen Four, where they lost to the Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs in the championship game. He signed with the Avalanche immediately after the loss, ending his collegiate career and made his debut in Game 4 of the 1st round of the Stanley Cup playoffs with Colorado in his hometown of Calgary. With family and friends in attendance, he scored his first ever goal in the game. He recently won the 2020 Calder Trophy given to the league's top rookie. Welcome to the Ace of Hockey podcast, Cale Makar," she introduces, absolutely nailing the intro.

"Wow, that has to be the longest intro I've ever gotten for an interview, so thank you," he smiles.

"Well you're a young superstar now, so I gotta have the intro reflect that," she replies.

"I don't know if I'm worthy of such an intro, but I appreciate it though," he smiles.

She starts asking him questions about his childhood and what it was like growing up in Alberta, how he ended up playing Junior A instead of Major Junior, what made him go to the college hockey route, as well as what his draft day experience was like. She also asks him what his experience was like at UMass Amherst, and what it was like playing in the National Championship game and winning the Hobey Baker. She then asks him about signing his ELC and what it was like making his debut in the playoffs in his hometown and scoring a goal in his debut. She then asks him about his rookie year and what it was like in his first full season in Colorado.

He also explains how Nate took him under his wing this season and really helped show him the ropes on how to be a pro. He also talks about how great of a captain Gabe is and who are the funniest guys on the team, as well as the pranksters. He also explains how it was like for him personally in the bubble. He also mentions everything players have said and done about social justice change and how important it is to listen and be an ally for minority groups.

They finish up the interview and he helps her clean everything up.

"So, I have a team dinner in like half an hour that I need to get ready for. I promise I will come back afterwards so we can hang out," he explains.

"That's fine, Cale. I'll probably just take a nice bath and relax, maybe listen to our interview. I'll send you the audio and if you want anything edited out, just let me know," she explains.

"Of course, love. I'm not concerned about that honestly," he assures her.

"Go get ready before you're late. Afterwards, you know where to find me," she smiles, pushing him lightly to the door.

"Alright fine. No need to kick me out," he teases, walking towards the door.

As soon as he gets to the door, he turns around and brings her in for a hug, lifting her from the ground. He sets her back down after a few moments.

"Bye Cale. Have fun at dinner," she smiles, kissing his cheek.

"Bye love," he smiles, walking out.

She shuts the door immediately and heads to the bathroom to take a nice relaxing bath in the tub. She turns on the water and gets undressed. Once the tub is filled, she stops the water and throws in a bath bomb. She gets in and immediately soaks in the warmth of the water. She sends a selfie of her in the bath and sends it to her sisters in their Ventura Rodriguez sisters group chat.

From: Katie

Damn how tf did you get a sugar daddy?

From: Kiana

I thought you were interviewing a player today? Is the player your sugar daddy?

To: The Ventura Rodriguez sisters

I don't have a sugar daddy and yes I interviewed the player today. He was nice enough to book me a room at the hotel he's staying at

From: Katie

No way he booked you a hotel if it's just a professional relationship. He definitely likes you

From: Kiana

So who's the player you're talking to

To: The Ventura Rodriguez Sisters

Nope not telling y'all. He's not my boyfriend so y'all don't got to know

She puts on some soft R&B and lets the music relax her. Before she knows it, she's been in there for an hour and gets out. She wraps her body in a towel and unplugs the drain. She dries herself off and changes into a faded URI basketball t-shirt and boyshorts. She dries her hair with a blowdryer and gets into bed, opening her laptop.

She listens to the 40 minute long audio clip of the interview and loves the interview. The conversation just flows between them and she thinks that her listeners are going to really love it, even though they didn't talk so much about social activism, like she has with other guests on the podcast. Her stomach starts to grumble and she realizes she hasn't had dinner yet. She grabs the room service menu and starts looking, as she's about to call to place her order, she hears a knock on the door.

She gets up and goes to the door. Unfortunately because of her lack of height, she can't see through the peephole who it is. She opens the door and internally sighs in relief when she sees it's Cale dressed in a UMass sweatshirt and shorts. He walks in and hugs her, lifting her up again.

"Do you have a thing for lifting me up?" she asks, as she wraps her legs around him.

"You're just so tiny that it's hard for me not to do it," he teases, referring to her 4'9 height.

“No, I think you have a thing for lifting me up, bud,” she teases back, moving her hands up to his hair.

“Just for that I’m putting you back down,” he replies playfully, setting her back down.

“Well you’re just in time to watch me order dinner,” she informs him, leading him towards the bed.

“I wish I could take you out to a nice dinner for a date,” he sighs, wishing he didn’t have to deal with the league’s COVID restrictions that prevent him from leaving the hotel except for practice and the game.

“It’s okay. You’ll just make it up to me some other time. We can just watch TV while I eat. That sounds like a pretty nice date to me,” she explains, grabbing the phone to call room service.

She calls room service and places her order. She decides to get comfortable and get under the sheets.

“Are you gonna join me?” she asks, referring to the spot right beside her under the sheets.

He quickly gets under the sheets with her and she rests her head on his shoulder. He turns on the TV and puts on NBCSN to watch the Flames play the Sabres in Buffalo.

“Is it cool if we watch the game?” he asks.

“Of course! I love watching hockey even if it doesn’t involve teams I cheer for,” she smiles, resting her head on his chest.

He strokes her back up and down with his fingers, causing sparks of heat to roll up her spine from his touch.

“Who are you rooting for?” she asks him.

“Calgary. I’m always gonna have a soft spot for my hometown team, even though they’re a conference rival,” he explains.

“I like Calgary. They have really sick players, like Monahan, Gaudreau, Lindholm and don’t even get me started on Tkachuk!: she gushes, causing him to stiffen up.

“I didn’t know you liked Tkachuk,” he replies, his voice getting deeper than it already is.

“I mean what’s there not to like? He’s a strong power forward with great hands! I mean that between-the-legs goal last year proved how skilled he is!” she gushes.

“Yeah he’s a great player but I didn’t think you liked him that much,” he replies, sounding bitter.

“No need to be jealous, babes! Tkachuk’s cool and all but he doesn’t compare to you,” she assures him, kissing his cheek.

The food arrives and she goes outside to pick it up. She brings the tray inside and starts eating, while watching the game.

“You want some?” she asks, referring to her pasta.

“No, I can’t eat that. The trainers will kill me,” he replies.

“Who cares! It’s just one bite,” she replies, bringing the forkful of pasta closer to his mouth

“Babe, I’m serious! I can’t eat that,” he groans, moving his face away further.

“Fine, more for me,” she scoffs, shrugging her shoulders.

She finishes eating her pasta and Cale stares at her for a moment.

“You got a little something,” he trails off, pointing to her face.

Her eyes go wide and she takes a napkin, wiping her mouth. She removes the bit of sauce from her lip and puts the napkin down on the tray. He lowers down the volume on the TV and takes her hands in his.

“Can I tell you something?” he asks.

“You can tell me anything,” she replies, feeling her heartbeat start to accelerate.

“I really like you. For the past 5 months I’ve been getting to know you and I believe you’re the most intelligent, beautiful, and caring girl I’ve ever met. I know things aren’t easy with the season going on and you living in Rhode Island, but I wanna try and make things work between us. Will you officially be my girlfriend?” he asks, looking directly into her eyes.

“Yes!” she nods, feeling like her heart might just explode.

“Can I kiss you?” he asks.

“I’ve been wanting you to kiss me all day!” she replies, getting a little chuckle out of him in response.

He cups her face and presses his lips gently onto hers and Taty swears she feels those cliché sparks everyone always talks about. She kisses back almost immediately, not holding back. The kiss quickly becomes more passionate and she’s reciprocating each kiss enthusiastically. After a couple minutes, they break apart.

“You know how I told you I’ve never done this before? Well, I want us to take it slow and I hope that’s okay with you,” she says sheepishly, afraid of rejection.

“We can take it as slow as you want. You control how this goes. I will never push you to do anything you don’t want to do. I like you for you,” he assures her, kissing her knuckles.

She had never known what falling in love is like, but now she does because she’s definitely falling in love with Cale Douglas Makar. She never wants this feeling and she prays to God she never finds a way to fuck this up.

They spend a few more hours wrapped in each other’s arms before Cale announces he has to leave because it’s getting late and he has practice in the morning.

“Bye babe,” she smiles, leading him towards the door.

“Bye princess. Sweet dreams,” he kisses her.

He walks out the door and she shuts the door behind him. She pinches herself, thinking it might be a dream. She’s relieved to find out it isn’t a dream and she finally has a boyfriend for the first time in her life.

#cale makar #colorado avalanche #hockey #nhl writing #nhl fanfiction #cale makar fanfic #hockey fanfiction #nhl #nhl players #nhl imagines #cale makar imagine

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hockeylvr59 · 4 years

Text

Life Changes Part 8 || Paul Bissonnette

Summary: It’s crazy how quickly your life can change...one minute you’re a struggling personal injury lawyer and the next you’re working for one of the hottest sports podcasts to supplement your income. A new job and the end of a long-term relationship was just the beginning for Leigh Thompson when it comes to life changes. Thankfully she has the one and only Paul Bissonnette at her side to help her handle them all.

Authors Note: Woooo!!! I finally got past my writer’s block and cranked this part out. I had been stuck on it for the past month and now we can move onto some more fun stuff but I needed to establish some connections and such here first for down the road.

Requested: [ ] yes [x] no Word Count: 2,654

Warnings: none really, some alcohol consumption (on Paul’s part)

________

“If nothing ever changed there’d be no butterflies.”

It was a short drive from the hotel to the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Though Paul’s fingers were entwined with mine during the drive, even his touch couldn’t quell the anxiety I felt as the limo slowed to a halt and the door opened. Paul carefully helped me out of the vehicle and his hand rested low on my back as we started toward the red carpet. The moment we stepped onto the red carpet, however, my anxiety reached its peak and I felt my body freeze in terror. The second Paul saw the look on my face he murmured for Brie to take me inside and that they would meet us there.

By the time the guys rejoined us, Brie had managed to get a glass of water into my hands and she was assuring me that everything was okay. Deep down I knew that we had breezed by the media so quickly and casually that the odds of anyone talking about us were slim. At the same time, I felt guilty that I couldn’t handle the few minutes of formalities of being Paul’s date without feeling like I was going to have a panic attack.

Paul’s arm rested along the curve of my lower back when he approached and he rubbed up and down soothingly.

“Sorry that took so long ladies.” He declared like he wasn’t at all fazed by what had happened. Opening my mouth to try and apologize, I was immediately silenced as he leaned down to whisper in my ear. “Don’t. You’re fine. I get it...the media is a lot.” My second attempt at apologizing was also shut down when he declared out loud that we should head down to the floor and take our seats.

Though he hadn’t said it, I knew Paul was trying to get me to forget about the red carpet so that it didn’t dampen the rest of the evening. After all, we still had the awards themselves as well as the after-party ahead of us. As we made our way to our seats, Paul occasionally stopped to talk to someone he knew, taking a moment to introduce me as his favorite business manager and date for the evening to each person. The more introductions we got through with no one even noticing my baby bump, the more relaxed I became at the thought that maybe it wasn’t as noticeable as I feared. As Paul had assured me through his texts when he invited me, even if it was noticeable, now that we were mostly away from the media, no one seemed likely to bring it up.

Settled into my seat next to Paul as the awards started I couldn’t help but feel my natural smile returning, the forced smile I had plastered on in the car slowly leaving my face. The first trophy presented was the Calder and it was no surprise when Elias Pettersson was announced as the winner. He’d had such a stellar season and it was really cool getting to see someone so young experience their first career award knowing that it was likely to be the first of many.

Next came the Lady Byng award, and I couldn’t help the laugh that spilled out of me when Aleksander Barkov commented on there being more fans from Finland than from Florida present. It was a classic hockey chirp and I peeked over at Paul to find that he was looking over at me, a lazy grin on his face.

The GM of the year award was given to Don Sweeney from the Bruins and I felt Paul squeeze my hand a little tighter as he talked about his premature sons being his inspiration in his acceptance speech. The moment was heavy for me personally and it was clear that it was for Paul as well by the change in his breathing. As soon as Jason Zucker finished his speech for the King Clancy Award, Paul and Whit moved to slip backstage to prepare for their presentation and Brie slid over a few chairs to sit next to me.

The Norris was given to Mark Giordano of the Calgary Flames and I smiled as he thanked his wife and kids for always putting a smile on his face after a rough night. Hockey is about family after all and it’s always nice to see more of the behind the scenes people get the credit they deserve. Following the presentation of the Norris, Auston Matthews was named as the cover athlete for NHL20 and I couldn’t help but cringe at the fact that he had sweat through his suit.

Paul and Whit presented the Masterton Trophy, and knowing the struggles that Paul had with depression toward the end of his own career it seemed fitting. The award was given to Robin Lehner and his quote on the fact that being mentally ill doesn’t mean you’re mentally weak stuck with me because it was something that could apply to all of us at times. I could see Paul almost getting emotional on stage and it made it hard for me to fight back my own hormonal tears.

The Selke was awarded to O’Reilly and the Jack Adams to Trotz while we waited for the guys to return to their seats, Brie sliding back to her own after sending me a smile and squeezing my hand gently. As Paul settled back in beside me I felt the baby shift, a soft flutter followed by pressure against my bladder. Thankfully the show was more than halfway over and while I wished the baby would shift off of my bladder it wasn’t something I couldn’t handle.

Any thoughts of my bladder were quickly silenced as a discussion about Anderson Whitehouse’s prior meeting with Carey Price was brought up as the next segment for the NHL Fan Choice Feel Good Moment. I remembered having cried the first time I saw it and it was clear that I was going to cry again as tears filled my eyes when Anderson was brought onto the stage and the presenter cued up a video from Carey Price himself.

“Carey is here.” I leaned over and whispered to Biz who looked at me like I was crazy until the man himself appeared on the stage to surprise his biggest fan. The second the two embraced the tears poured and Paul had to reach over with his pocket square in an attempt to prevent me from completely ruining my makeup. At the same time, he was openly crying as well and my heart panged once more knowing that this was affecting him as much as it did me. Men not being afraid of showing emotion was something I loved and was clearly just another factor that drew me to appreciate Paul as a coworker and friend. As the whole audience gave them a standing ovation, Paul’s hand drifted once more to my back rubbing gently.

The Vezina, Messier, and Willie O’Ree awards were some of the last of the night and as each was presented, my growing need to use the bathroom lingered in the back of my mind, slowly becoming more urgent.

It wasn’t at all surprising that Nikita Kucherov won both the Hart and Ted Lindsay trophies for MVP after the season he’d had and I laughed softly as Paul whispered that they were working on scoring him for an interview at some point. As the award show concluded, we lingered in our seats for a moment before Paul moved to track down more people to talk to. He was such an extrovert that it honestly made me cringe sometimes and as he engaged himself in another conversation I moved to steal Brie from Ryan.

“I need to use the bathroom asap. Come find it with me?” I requested. With Ryan aware of where we were, the two of us headed off and by the time I finished using the bathroom given the bump and the dress, Ryan had texted that the guys were waiting for us in the lobby so that we could head to the after-party.

___

By the time we got through Vegas traffic to the after-party, music was already playing on the rooftop bar, alcohol was flowing, and trays of food were being passed around. Leaving me with Ryan and Brie, Paul went to grab drinks for the four of us and when he returned he passed me a cup murmuring that I should just trust him. There was never a doubt that I trusted him so while I had expected to be drinking water all night, I tried the drink Paul had provided and immediately I was hooked as a sweet fruity tang hit my tongue. Chatting with Ryan and Brie for a few minutes about the awards, it wasn’t long until someone approached to chat with the guys. For almost an hour I just stood, tucked into Paul’s side as he chatted with various players about the podcast, hockey, and any shared histories.

Eventually though, my back started to ache and my feet hurt. I didn’t want to interrupt so I didn’t say anything at first, but eventually, Paul leaned down to whisper in my ear that I should go sit on one of the many couches for a bit and just rest. Nodding, I sent him a soft smile before bowing out of the conversation and heading across the room toward an unoccupied couch.

I’d been just people watching for about ten or fifteen minutes when another woman approached.

“Mind if I join you?” She questioned and after assuring her she could my brain finally pieced together who it was that had joined me. Vero Fleury. While Flower hadn’t been nominated for any awards tonight, clearly they had decided to take advantage of their residence in Vegas to come hang out with friends and enjoy the party the NHL put on.

Though I knew who she was, she introduced herself after a moment.

“Leigh Thompson,” I replied. “I’m here with Biz.” I clarified knowing that she was probably wondering how I made my way into a private party.

“Biz’s date...how’d you get wrapped into that?” She teased and I laughed in response knowing that question was beyond accurate.

“I’m the business manager for the podcast and he knows I owe him,” I responded my tone light. “I just don’t owe him enough to endure a sore back and achy feet the entire night,” I added, causing her to laugh softly. For a moment I could feel her eyes on me and she shifted a bit closer so she didn’t have to speak as loudly.

“I remember those days.” She murmured. “It’s all so worth it though.” She assured me and realizing that she had noticed my bump I nodded.

“I sure hope so. Because this little one is wreaking havoc on my body already.” I replied. “Don’t get me wrong...I love them. But single parenthood is hard.” For just a moment I let my hand brush over my bump before resting it at my side again.

“I can only imagine.” Vero murmured and instead of dwelling on that she pulled her phone out of her clutch, opening it to pictures of her girls and their newborn son. For the next little bit, I chatted with her about what to expect with a newborn, the joys and hardships that being a parent brought. I mentioned having to figure out how to make a nursery look like a nursery without being able to paint or hang more than a few things on the walls and Vero immediately jumped into suggestions.

Eventually, Marc-Andre came over to join her and after pushing back my star-struck expression, he chatted about his son and daughters before diving into some stories I could use against Paul if I ever needed them. It wasn’t long before I was laughing with the two of them and had lost track of time. It had been nearly an hour since I had sat down before Paul appeared beside me, his brown eyes just a little glassy from the alcohol he’d consumed so far.

With Paul insisting that there was someone he wanted to introduce me to, I was pulled away from the couch...but not before exchanging cell info with Vero who had insisted that I reach out if I had any questions or just needed someone else to talk to about everything that was rapidly changing in my life. She added that she would send me product suggestions and ideas for the nursery once she was home and had more time to check some things out. I was absolutely interested in whatever advice she had to give because it had been almost two decades since my mom had my sisters and having a baby was certainly different now than it had been then.

With Paul’s guiding hand on my back again, any unease I’d been feeling from being by myself vanished. Crossing the room, Paul immediately butted his way into a conversation.

“Sid...this is who I wanted you to meet.” He declared and instantly a flush crossed my cheeks as I realized that I was now standing in front of the first player I’d ever had a crush on. “Sid. This is our business manager Leigh. She’s a lifelong pens fan.” A million different thoughts flooded through my body, the first of which being that I needed to kill Paul for not giving a girl some warning. Instead, though I did my best to compose myself, reaching out a hand to shake Sid’s outstretched one.

Sid was gracious as always, immediately inquiring about how I’d picked the pens as a team and after responding that it was just kind of what happens when you’re born in Pittsburgh he laughed and nodded, his familiar giggles even better in person than they are on video. Pausing, I commented on how I needed to thank him because it was his being drafted that had gotten me through some of the hardest times in my life and while the rest of the conversation was honestly a bit of a blur, at the end of it, Paul insisted that I take a picture with Sid for posterity's sake.

Sid was subsequently pulled away and immediately I leaned into Paul’s chest, trying to quell the rapid beating of my heart.

“I hate you. Give a girl some warning next time.” I mumbled, causing Paul to laugh.

“Do you hate me too much to dance with me?” He inquired, his gaze soft as he looked down at me. The song had just switched to something slow and without even really thinking about it, my hand accepted Paul’s extended one letting him lead me out to the dance floor.

Swaying softly, his hands fell to my waist and mine drifted to link behind his neck.

“Did you have fun tonight?” He questioned softly. Nodding in response, I bit back a yawn. “Good I’m glad.” He added. “Thank you for tonight. I know this isn’t really your scene but it means the world to me that you agreed to come.” We danced until the song came to a close and after talking with a few more people Paul asked if I was ready to head out.

Back at the hotel, Paul helped me with the zipper on my dress before disappearing into the bathroom to change from his suit. After changing, we readied for bed in a comfortable silence and then slid into bed together, Paul’s arms wrapping back around me, his hands stroking over my belly until my eyes couldn’t stay open any longer. Even more so than before, I felt safe, warm, and cared about while cuddled against his 6’2” frame. It was a feeling that was welcome but terrifying all at the same time.

Chapter 8 Social Media:

#paul bissonnette #paul bissonnette imagine #arizona coyotes imagine #arizona coyotes #nhl imagine #nhl imagines #hockey imagine #hockey imagines #former player #former player imagine #014.1 #gif courtesy of dougiesflow

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criminalminds-hc-hq · 4 years

Text

Sweater Weather

Word Count: 1,408

Warnings: None that I can think of off the top of my head. Spencer and an OC go to a hockey game.

Author’s Note: I love Spencer Reid and hockey so I made this fic. I am so worried that either/both of them are going to come across as OOC, but if I keep editing it at this point I know they will. Please be kind as this is my first fic over 1,000 words.

Laura had only been dating Spencer for seven months but she had a pretty good feeling about him. He was so sweet and thoughtful. And that smile of his takes her breath away. His early Christmas present to her was a clear indication of how well he knew her already. There’s a knock on her door as she slips the sweater over her head. The excitement is bubbling over as she opens the door.

“You wore a jacket! Great,” she says while grabbing her wallet and keys. “I don’t know if you know this, but it can get pretty cold even if you aren’t in the lower bowl.” He stops her for a moment with a gentle kiss. She savors the feeling of his lips on hers for a second longer. “Hello,” Spencer says after they break apart. “And, yes, the ambient air temperature is typically between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit while the ice temperature is around 24 degrees.”

“Let me guess...the NHL website? Or Wikipedia?” she laughs to herself at the fact that Spencer Reid studied for a hockey game. “Neither. There was a helpful blog where they told me what to wear. Though, it was supported by both.” Spencer takes a second to look her over before frowning. “Are you going to be warm enough though? A hockey jersey probably won’t cut it.” She looks down at the well loved Pittsburgh Penguins logo stitched and stained on the front of her sweater with a smile. “I have a hoodie underneath and I’m grabbing my jacket before we leave. Oh, and you do know they’re called sweaters, don’t you? Jeez what a newbie.”

At that Spencer starts to pull the concerned face she hates to see him wear whenever he’s nervous about doing something wrong. “I’m joking,” she clarifies and caresses his face softly. “Believe me if you wanted me to go watch chess with you I’d be just as lost. Probably more so.” Searching his eyes to make sure he knows that she has zero expectations of Spencer becoming a hockey expert, she asks, “so, are you ready to go?”

“Let’s go,” Spencer says with a smile and grabs her coat from the hook next to the door. “You’re probably going to be shouting that a lot tonight. Just remember: we’re rooting for the away team. Which means we probably aren’t going to be super popular tonight.” She locks up and follows him out toward what she expects will be her best Christmas present ever.

----------------------------

Spencer leads the way down the row to their seats while noting his girlfriend’s silence. She stares around in awe before finally breaking it. “I’ve never sat in the lower bowl before! This is awesome. You’re awesome,” she rambles before sitting down next to him. He chuckles and wraps his arm around her. “This is supposed to be one of the best places to sit according to the Internet. Apparently, if you sit too low you have trouble seeing what’s happening at the other end.” She bounces in her seat a little from her excitement.

“And you don’t mind getting here early for warm ups?” She had asked him about it when he called about his Christmas present on the way back from a case a few days ago. It was a tradition she picked up from her father when they used to go to games and it’s something that people who aren’t hockey fans didn’t seem to understand. “It’s your Christmas present,” he reminds her. “We’ll do whatever you want.” Her more reptilian brain as she likes to call it comes up with a quick response to that, but she pushes it to the back of her mind. Tonight was all about the hockey. Instead, she gives him a soft, quick peck on the lips knowing he isn’t a huge fan of PDA. “This has to be the best present I’ve ever gotten.”

The players take to the ice just as Reid begins giving her a better idea of the depth of the studying he put in on his way to her place. “Currently, Connor McDavid from the Edmonton Oilers is the points leader of the league with 55 points while the goal leader is David Pastrnak from the Boston Bruins with 26 goals,” he says as if this was information everyone should already know. “Is that how you say his name?” Laura asks about the Boston player. “I hate Boston. Almost as much as I hate the Caps. I really hope we win tonight.”

“They’re number one in the league, but according to the Penguin’s Twitter page you’re starting Tristan Jarry and he’s got both the best goals against average at 1.92 and the best save percentage at .938,” Spencer spouts off as if that’s not the hottest thing Laura’s ever heard him say. “I have never been more attracted to you than I am right now,” she deadpans. Spencer takes it for the joke it is and laughs loudly.

------------------------

The first period flies by pretty quickly and thankfully Spencer had looked up most of the rules before hand so she doesn’t have to explain many to him as the game progresses. But the darkside comes out to play when the referee (read: zebra) calls a penalty against one of her favorite players, Jake Guentzel, with 5 minutes left in the period.

“You call that hooking?! Your mother’s done more hooking than that, ref! What the fuck?!” she shouts unabashedly before remembering who she came with. Her cheeks redden as she turns to look at him with wide eyes. “Oh my god. I am so sorry,” she says quietly. “You know, I have seen you watch a game on television before,” Spencer says grinning at her with a gleam in his eye. “I know you get foul mouthed when you’re watching your team. None of this is a surprise.” Spencer leans over and kisses her warm and still red cheek. “I’m still a little sorry you had to see that,” she jokes before turning back to the game.

------------------------

For the first two periods of the game, the Penguins are losing, but as they are want to do they start making a comeback in the third. She spends more time jumping out of her seat for goals than in it. Spencer seems to be having a good time at the game despite him not being a big sports guy. With 2:25 left in the third, Guentzel gets a breakaway and goes high glove side and scores. Again, she jumps to her feet screaming like a banshee, but quickly quiets as she sits back down and grabs Spencer’s hand.

“What’s wrong?” he asks reading the look on her face. “In hockey, you can pull your goalie and put another attacker on towards the end of the game. Now that we’re up by one they’ll probably have Holtby do that so they can try to tie it up.” Laura nervously starts biting her lip.

The Capitals do just that and her grip on Spencer’s hand could not get any tighter. Nor could she be hanging on the edge of her seat any more than she already is. To her, the clock feels like it’s going twice as slow as normal. It looks like Ovechkin’s going to score until Reese steals the puck. With just 52 seconds left, he passes it to McCann who’s further up the ice and he scores an easy one on the empty net.

Laura drops Spencer’s hand in her excitement. She jumps up from her seat and shouts herself nearly hoarse. She was able to see her team win and she got to see it with Spencer. She truly feels like her night cannot get any better. Sitting back down at the puck drop, she turns to see Spencer with a giant smile on his face just staring at her. “I love you,” he says. He says it with confidence and without a trace of doubt in his voice. She feels like her heart is in her throat and feels her cheeks darkening for the second time that night. “I love you too,” she says just as the buzzer goes off for the end of the game.

As the Capitals fans start leaving, Spencer leans over and kisses her without his usual fear of PDA or a thought for anyone else. She was wrong. Her night could definitely get better than a hockey game.

#criminal minds #spencer reid #criminal minds hc hq #fic #spencer x OC #hockey #hockey fic #kind of #doctor Spencer reid #show hiatus equals writing time #please be nice #I am so freaking nervous about posting this one

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onceuponaprincessworld · 6 years

Text

CaptainSwan Neighbors Au

Hello CS fandom! I made a new list and it’s a long one because there are so many great stories with that trope. It includes stories where our favorite couple are neighbors. Hope you enjoy!

If you are intrested you can find my other lists here.

Multichapter Complete

With Affection, @phiralovesloki

Emma Swan isn't a middle schooler. So why is she receiving notes from a secret admirer? She's also definitely not a romantic person. So why is she writing back? Modern!AU Captain Swan, with side orders of Snowing and Frankenwolf. Updated with second epilogue.

Knock, Knock, @charmingturkeysandwich

Emma Swan has made the best of her crappy apartment ever since she became best friends with her neighbor, Ruby. But when Ruby moves out and a loud Brit takes her place, the thin walls and lack of space are suddenly not so endearing. After a particularly stressful day, Emma decides to confront the nightmare next door, and entirely against her better judgment, she might just be making a friend.

The Pirate Next Door , @the-captains-ayebrows

A handsome stranger moves into the apartment right next to Emma Swan's. Emma isn't ready for romance, but what harm could come of making friends with the charming self-proclaimed "pirate" whose bedroom shares a wall with hers?

Unbreakable, @xemmaloveskillianx

What if Hook was able to go with Emma and Henry when they left to escape Pan’s curse? With no memory of each other or Storybrooke, Emma and Killian meet in New York as complete strangers, both with broken pasts, and both with clean slates for their future.

Sign of Attraction, @hooklineandswan

Some day she was going to find a way to kill him without leaving a trace. Hopefully it would happen before he drove her insane.

In the Name of the Brother, @tnlph

Killian Jones not only finds out about his father's death, but about the brother he never knew he had. Rather than let another Jones boy grow up without a father, Killian takes the boy into his life. He'll do all he can to be the man for his younger brother that his older brother had been for him.

Lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor, @kittennharington

Killian and Emma knew each other in middle school before she was taken away to a new foster home. They meet each other again years later as neighbors in an apartment complex. Contains smut.

Can You Feel it Right Now?, @cutieodonoghue

When Emma Swan agrees to let her annoying neighbor Killian Jones join her to go to the grocery store, the last thing she could have ever anticipated is becoming his wife over the course of a conversation with some people from his past.

Some Sort of Neighborly, @shipping-goggles

They're not neighbors, not exactly, and they're not friends either. It's pretty hard to find reasons to bump into the woman who lives next door to your best friend, especially after your only interaction with her has been waking up on her couch one Saturday morning. Sequel to Rude Awakening.

Look What the Cat Dragged In, @athenascarlet

There are only a couple things Killian Jones knows about his neighbor, Emma Swan. She's a bail bonds person and she's attractive. Also, she apparently has a cat. And he apparently is now her cat sitter.

The Reason, @xemmaloveskillianx

he three of them share a laugh before they all look to Emma. She has yet to comment on the new addition because she isn’t sure what to say. She usually doesn’t like change, they have a good thing going there, just the four of them. Plus, they all know him and she doesn’t, but she trusts their judgement, and she’s sure any brother of Liam can’t be all that bad.

So, with a shrug and a smile she says, “Welcome to Storybrooke, Killian Jones.”

Make Some Noise, @fyeahcaptn

Emma doesn't hate her neighbour per say, she barely knows him. Killian Jones an irritating, insufferable ass who's far too cocky and confident for his own good but seriously, would it hurt him to keep the shower to a normal time like an actual human being? Before she kills him. Modern!AU.

Pay It Forward, @acrobat-elle

Breaking your ankle is one thing. Breaking your ankle three days after you moved into a fifth-floor walkup is something else entirely.

Wip

A Helping Hand, @hookedonapirate

My girlfriend just dumped me and I've gotten piss drunk and somehow managed to get into your apartment instead of my own. I'm trying to masturbate my feelings away and boy were you surprised.

Breaking the Hinges, @piratesails

When Killian Jones decides to spend his night off relaxing in his apartment, the last thing he expects is a beautiful blonde woman bursting through his front door.

Neighborly Affection, @hookslovelyswan

Emma Swan's new neighbor, Killian Jones, is the talk of the neighborhood, and living next door to him is almost more than she can stand, especially since the man doesn't seem to own a shirt! But the tug she feels toward him is inexorable, and the genuine feelings that develop between them...quite unexpected.

One-shot

Transatlanticism, @mahstatins

Emma Swan went to Britain looking for family. It should have been a Hallmark movie, a Christmas miracle waiting to happen. Instead she’s stuck in a grimy London ‘flat’, with the worst next door neighbor in the world.

Well, maybe not the worst.

What a Year (for a New Year), @high-seas-swan

Killian Jones, Boston Bruins right winger, needs a break from the questions and concerns over his career-threatening injury. He thought Storybrooke would be the perfect place to escape to. What he didn't expect was Emma Swan, her kid and a holiday season he never knew he needed.

Subtle and Nuanced, @phiralovesloki

Killian Jones has an unusual relationship with a neighbor in which they exchange notes via cat. He’s also slowly falling for his flower shop’s newest customer. Surely these two things are unrelated.

Tim Finnegan's Wake, @icecubelotr44

"You live in the apartment next to mine and you're always blasting music while I'm trying to sleep but you've been silent for the last two days, are you all right?"

Emma Swan never minded the music. Not until she broke her ankle and her shift moved to days. Now she just wants to sleep. But Killian Jones doesn't seem to notice. So when the condo next door goes silent, she's understandably concerned. When she finds Killian after he got the phone call about his brother he never expected, they'll have to figure out if everything is as it seems.

Smoke and Mirrors, @lifeinahole27

I was burning scented candles and fell asleep. You’re my neighbour who bashed the door down when my smoke alarm went off.

The Perils of Firemen and the Food Network, @shireness-says

Emma Swan is not a cook. But maybe, with the help of her upstairs neighbor, she could be - if her feelings don't get in the way.

Keep On Fallin' , @resident-of-storybrooke

Emma Swan may be a successful bail bondsperson, but when it comes to her love life not so much. After several failed blind dates Emma is ready to give up, but Mary Margaret convinces her to give it one more shot. Is Mr. One Shot going to be the one? Or is she willing to risk taking a chance with her blue eyed gorgeous neighbor?

For the Story, nothandlingit

If there's one thing Killian Jones is ruthlessly stubborn on, it's not letting Emma Swan know how many coffee/hot chocolate/bear claw combinations he's had to gift on to unsuspecting strangers when she doesn't show up at the little bakery near their apartment building. Turns out accidentally running into each other costs some money. A CS AU week submission - beloved tropes.

The Worst/Best Christmas Ever, @captainhookcaptainfreedom

When their flight home is cancelled, Emma is convinced that she and Henry are going to have the worst Christmas ever. However, their next door neighbor, Killian Jones, has different ideas.

That Guy Next Door, @a-fictional-life

M-rated AU one shot just cos it’s Saturday…

You Make Me Better, @ilovemesomekillianjones

CS Neighbors AU where Emma is a nurse and Killian is her definitely-faking-it hypochondriac neighbor who uses illnesses and injuries as an excuse to talk to her.

walking the high line, @losttalongthewayy

Captain Swan NYC neighbors AU – It’s Emma Swan’s 28th birthday and she finds herself stuck helping her upstairs neighbor —the very one she’s sure she hates.

seven for all mankind, @arexnna

“we’re neighbours and we do everything together and spend all our time together and that’s normal, but someone pointed out how we’re essentially dating, but we aren’t, are we?”

Postcards and Shower Songs, @nightships

Emma often finds herself wondering whether it's possible to hate a stranger. Despite never having met or seen him before in her life, she knows exactly two things about Mr. K. Jones — he gets a ton of mail from all over the world and he plays extremely loud music when he wakes up in the morning.

Too Hot (Hot Damn), @this-too-too-sullied-flesh

Emma just doesn’t know what’s hotter--the weather and the fact that the air conditioning is out in her building, or her neighbor.

The Savior's Spatula, @imhookedonaswan

Killian Jones hears his neighbor Emma screaming from her apartment, being the gentleman he is he grabs the first thing he can find to go try to save her.

how not to meet your neighbor…, @startswithhope

Here’s a bit of modern AU nonsense, starring Killian and Emma…

The Sabbatical (or how Emma Swan brought Valentine’s Day back), @lenfaz

Killian Jones abhors his neighbors. He really does.

Two-Shots

The Favor, @madjm

AU. Emma Swan doesn't do relationships, but her annoyingly attractive neighbor, Killian Jones, might change her views. Captain Swan. Previously on ffnet.

The Not So Neighborly Noise, @optomisticgirl

After an exhausting day, one which started with her annoying neighbor waking her up with his singing, all Emma Swan wanted to do was sleep. Little did she know when she crawled into bed that night that everything she thought she knew was going to shift dramatically. Can a closed off woman give a man a chance to prove her wrong?

Ten Minutes, @hookedonapirate

“The game's simple, really. In fact you, my love, don’t have to do a thing,” he ends with a click of his tongue, his silky accent sending shivers down her spine.

“Don’t call me that,” Emma warns him, but honestly her heart is thumping and her interest is highly piqued, “but please do go on.”

“It’s called Ten Minutes. You give me ten minutes to do anything I want to you—touching, teasing, kissing, biting, whatever I want. You so much as moan or make any sound of pleasure, you lose.”

Emma bites her lip at the idea of him doing all those things to her and feels heat creeping into her cheeks. “And if I win? What do I get out of this?”

“If you win, I will never bother you again.”

A grin spreads across her lips. “Okay, you totally made this game up, but sure, I’ll play along,” she decides confidently. She has no doubt she’ll win, so why not? Emma sits up and places the bottle on the floor, glancing over at him again. “You’re on, Jones.”

We Can Feel So Far (From So Close), @once-uponacaptain

Waiting until your best friend left for a cross country tour was a fine time to realize you're in love with him. Captain Swan.

Stray Hearts, @piratesails

He’s insufferable, and nothing, not even the fact that he’s laughing with childlike glee as he cuddles a litter of stray kittens, will change Emma’s mind about Killian Jones. Or, that’s what she thought, anyway.

Three-Shots

Please, Please, Say You Feel it Too, @cutieodonoghue

modern au; Emma pawns her son off to her neighbor Killian. Romance ensues. (Daddy!Killian feels abound!)

Spider Slayer, @startswithhope

"This is totally awkward considering before this the only interactions we've ever had have been casual nods to each other in the hallway but there's a huge fucking spider in my bath tub and you seem like the friendly neighbor type please help me."

#cs ff #cs rec fic #cs rec ff #cs recs #cs fanfiction #cs fics #cs rec list #my rec list #fic rec #rec list #cs recs ff #cs ff rec #captain swan

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thethoughtreport · 11 years

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Interview: Jarrell Perry

Jarell Perry’s voice recently caught my attention when I heard him on Locksmith’s album ‘The Green Box’ and the beauty of his RnB tones immediately made me want to hear more from him. Luckily, his ‘Simple Things’ LP was available and my wish was fulfilled. With the album still on repeat, I caught up with the singer who hails from Orange, CA, to find out more about the incredible artist. He tells me he is, “Hungover, but happy,” and lets me know about the Locksmith collaboration. “My management introduced us and Lock sent over a few tracks. The first hook I wrote was ‘You Never Know.’ Today that’s still one of my favorite records.”

Jarell is no stranger to the music game as he explains, “I started writing and performing in bands as a freshman in college, but I had been singing in school and church since I was 12. It’s been a while, needless to say,” he smiles. In 3 words he describes his sound as, “Bright, introspective and awkward.” I would definitely add beautiful to that list. You should really need no reason to go and download ‘Simple Things’ other than to hear Jarell’s harmonious vocals but in case you do, he has 3 reasons for you, “1) It’s free music, don’t you like free music? 2) It’s different, don’t you want to hear something different? 3) It’s free music, don’t you like free music?” he laughs. That should be enough to convince you so be sure to head to www.jarellperry.com to grab your copy.

Just being from a place called Orange is pretty interesting but there are definitely things in particular that Jarell loves and hates about his hometown, “Orange is a cool place because I have family and friends still there. It’s safe but it’s also boring as hell and worlds away from LA, culturally speaking. I guess growing up with Disneyland in your backyard isn’t that bad though!” It’s going to be a busy year for the singer who tells me he is planning some big shows to support the album and he is also working on a new project that should be out in the summer.

I could already tell Jarell had a good sense of humor but I was certain when I asked him to tell me a strange fact about himself, “One time I recorded a demo song in full Mandarin Chinese. They said I could do it in English, but where’s the fun in that?” he grinned. Not a huge sports fan but he says, “I do make time for post-season NBA, the Lakers and anything UCLA. Go Bruins!” He’s got James Blake and Daft Punk on repeat at the moment and if he could perform anywhere, he would choose an outdoor music festival in the UK, “Glastonbury. I’ve only seen it on TV, but I have this vision of hundreds of thousands of white people rocking to my songs there that I can’t get rid of,” he laughs.

A beautiful singing voice and an attractive guy, Jarell certainly ticks the boxes for more than a few ladies out there but is he single and what does he look for in a woman? “I’m taking time off from serious situations for a while, just kinda getting out of one (rebound?). Right now I just wanna see what else is out there and make some good times. I’m attracted to really strong independent women, love a girl who can talk back and challenge me, who has some kind of brain and looks hella good in yoga pants,” he beams.

The best piece of advice Jarell was ever given is directly linked to music, “Someone once told me when I was young and shy, that if I really was a singer, I’d take every opportunity to sing publicly when given. I always remember that when I get put on the spot and want to run for the hills.” He lives by the motto, “Perception is reality,” and to his critics and fans he says, “To the critics, I’m waiting for you. To the fans, we’re in this thing together and I can’t wait for the day I can say “WE made it.”

There’s only one more thing to ask Jarell and that is, what’s been the best musical moment of his career so far, “It’s hard to say because I’m always in the middle of making a moment, and who knows if this moment right now is really just a part of the best moment so far? I don’t want to discriminate against any of the other moments, because in the end it’s all about the journey, right? A journey is just a bunch of moments strung together on this abstract thing called time. Does that answer the question? Try me again a few months from now,” he insists. I’m going to hold Jarell to that and by that time, I think he will be well on the way to saying, “WE made it.”

#interview #music #jarrell perry #hiphop #rnb

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welllpthisishappening · 6 years

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Dropping Gloves...in the Name of Festive Fashion

It’s probably one of the more ridiculous things any of them have ever done. It’s also one of the better ideas any of them has ever had – it’s festive and in the spirit and the fans will love it. And maybe it’s kind of fun because it ends with another win and some positive press before the break and Phillip’s jacket is really just...a work of fashion art.

The way Emma laughs at his jacket and sweater combination a few hours before puck drop is just a bonus.

AN: Once again, I have no excuse for this. I am...vaguely stressed out in the real world side of my life and the Rangers keep winning games, which makes me want to write Blue Line things and steal ideas from the Boston Bruins. I definitely stole this from the Boston Bruins. Anyway, here’s 3K’ish worth of vaguely festive words and everyone sassing each other and Emma and Killian making out in other hockey arenas that aren’t the Garden. Also. More Insta art under the cut.

It was Scarlet’s idea.

Of course it was. It was insane. The only person who would think it was a good idea was Scarlet. That was, however, until Ruby heard about it. And promptly let out a screech so loud that Killian was momentarily concerned she was going to, somehow, do damage to the paint on the locker room wall. “God, Lucas,” he mumbled, dropping back into the bench behind him and Emma shot him a look. Killian grinned in response, a flash of teeth and his tongue pressed into the corner of his mouth and she rolled her eyes.

“You’re an idiot,” Emma mumbled, but there was a note of something just on the edge of her voice and she didn’t say anything before she walked towards him, fingers finding the bottom of his hair.

Ruby glared at both of them. “I don’t want to hear it, Cap,” she said, crossing her arms like that would, somehow, make it all sound more official. “This is a good idea. We could get picked up by a shit ton of sites.”

“Is that the goal?”

Will laughed from some unseen corner of the locker room, the sound bouncing off the walls and, somehow, mixing with Ruby’s glare and the effect left Killian without much of an argument or a metaphorical leg to stand out.

“Would we classify that as a cliché?” Robin asked, walking back into the main room with ice taped to his shoulder and a pair of questionably adorable kids wearing jerseys behind him. “Or just like...a really bad joke?” “The second one,” Emma mumbled and Will cackled from wherever he was. Probably getting his leg checked after he blocked that shot in the second period and he was going to talk about that for, at least, a week.

Killian glanced up, eyeing Emma with something that felt a bit like stunned and impressed and maybe just like she was the center of the universe or something. The specifics weren’t important. “You wound me, Swan,” he said, but Will was still laughing and even Ruby was trying to turn whatever sound she was making into something that was almost a cough.

“Yeah, definitely the second one,” Robin agreed. “It’s because he thinks we’re all going to look better than him.” “That’s because we are,” Will shouted and Killian rolled his eyes, letting his head fall back against Emma’s side. She smiled.

“You know you don’t have to wear anything too ridiculous, Cap. We’re not even going to be here so the odds of The Post picking it up first is like...slim to none. Just you know, wear a hat or something.” “I mean, that’s not totally true,” Ruby muttered. “It’s not like the journalism industry is so hard up that they don’t send beat reporters on the road. It’s Boston, it’s not the western swing. And Cap, if we do this, you absolutely cannot only wear a hat. That’ll just be embarrassing for everyone and ruin the theme completely.” “You’re really selling it, Lucas,” Will said. His bag of ice was taped to his knee, a slight limp to his walk that he’d probably milk until the Christmas break.

“I am fine-tuning your idea, Scarlet. Or at least your idea theft.” “Theft?” Killian repeated and it couldn’t have been good for his neck to keep twisting up towards Emma. Or whatever happened to his entire body when Roland jumped up onto him, knee landing on, what felt like, half a dozen different internal organs.

He was already shouting about Christmas plans and snow and Henry had, finally, retired the original Jones jersey, but had recently started sporting a Stanley Cup champions version that was looking a little worse for wear as well.

“Are you going to get dressed up, Hook?” Roland asked, shouting the question in Killian's ear. “Henry and I are going to!” Killian glanced at the teenager in question, eyebrows lifted and Henry shrugged like it was the end of the goddamn world. “Scarlet thinks it’d be funny. Even if it is kind of unoriginal, but usually you guys don’t do stuff like this.” “I’m still not entirely sure what it is we’re doing,” Emma admitted, gaping at Will when he made some kind of noise in the back of his throat.

“Em, seriously?” he asked. “I told Cap about this, like, two days ago at least. He really didn’t say anything?” Emma shook her head and Will might have actually growled. “C’mon, Cap, what the hell? Sorry Rol. I’m not sorry, Henry though because you insulted my idea.”

“Ok, well, you’re not really making any of us want to do this, Scarlet,” Robin muttered, grabbing a stick out of his locket to hit at the back of Will’s legs.

“I am injured, Locksley!” “You blocked one shot. You’re a defenseman. That is literally your job.”

“I’m going to make you wear the ugliest sweater of all.” Robin brandished the stick again and Killian was never sure who moved first – him or Emma or Ruby, but they were a mess of voices and raised hands and pleas to relax, guys, seriously and both Robin and Will made hand gestures that were decidedly out of place several days before Christmas.

“It is some kind of miracle Gina isn’t here to see that,” Killian muttered, falling back on the bench and, that time, he tugged Emma down with him, a vaguely uncomfortable pretzel that also included Roland Locksley.

“If you tell Gina about that, I will find actual coal and give it to you, Cap,” Robin said. It sounded like a promise.

Or, possibly, a warning.

“Scarlet you want to tell me what your idea is now?” Emma asked, a blatantly obvious attempt to redirect the conversation.

Killian tried to bite back his smile.

It didn’t work.

Ruby rolled her eyes.

“We’re going to dress up,” Scarlet said simply. He nodded once – as if that explained anything – and Emma shrugged again when there weren’t more words. “You know...festive like.” “What?”

Killian made a noise, somewhere between amusement and disbelief that any of them were even considering this ridiculous thought, hooking his chin over Emma’s shoulder. And he didn’t expect Roland to explain it. “The Canadiens did it last year, Emma,” he yelled, leaping off the bench to start bouncing on the balls of his feet instead. “They all got dressed up and they wore funny suits and Santa hats and it was on SportsCenter and all over the internet and now Uncle Will wants to do the same thing here and Henry and I are going to wear hats.” “Bring up that SportsCenter fact again,” Ruby grinned. She leaned forward, wrapping an arm around Roland’s shoulders to tug him against her side and they both looked like they wanted to start bouncing up and down. “This is...it’s a great idea. Don’t say a word, Scarlet.” “I didn’t say anything, Lucas,” Will promised, but the grin on his face looked triumphant and Killian knew he was outnumbered.

“So we’re just going to steal festive-type ideas from the Canadiens now?” he asked. “I feel like we’re better than that.” Will nodded enthusiastically, eyes wide and it was like someone had just turned on an extravagant light display in the middle of the New York Rangers locker room. Everything felt a bit brighter. That was a cliché. “Exactly,” Will shouted. “That’s exactly what I’m saying, Cap. We’ve been officially screwed over by this schedule. Sorry, Rol. So we’re taking back some of the fun of the game. We’re going to look like idiots and the fans are going to love it.”

“I never agreed to look like an idiot,” Robin muttered. “I’ll dress up. I’ll wear a hat to match my kids, but I won’t look like an idiot when Lucas is already plotting some kind of social media strategy for the whole thing.” “How do you know I’m doing that?” Ruby asked and the entire locker room exploded in a general state of hysterics.

“Lucas, please. Don’t insult my intelligence like that.” “You can almost hear the gears moving, Rubes,” Emma added, a smile on her face and her fingers still tracing across Killian’s neck and it felt decidedly festive even if they were all going to look like idiots in Boston.

They were absolutely all going to look like idiots in Boston.

“Whatever,” Ruby grumbled. “This is good pub. I bet The Post runs a sidebar about it and we all get some positive ink before the break.” “All of those phrases were incredibly old sounding,” Will laughed.

“Locksley, hit Scarlet with that stick again.” Robin hummed, flashing a conspiratorial grin Killian’s direction and Will nearly tripped over his own feet trying to jump back. Ariel looked scandalized when she turned the corner, the heel of her hand pressed into her lower back.

“Are you guys serious?” she yelled and her hair seemed to get redder. Like it was gaining power. Or frustration. Merry Christmas. “Scarlet, sit down. Locksley, put the stick away. We won already. Cap, control your team better.”

“That was good, Red,” Killian grinned. “I feel like I’m about to get grounded.” She stuck her tongue out at him. And he couldn’t turn his laugh into a convincing cough quickly enough. “I will...tell Arthur on you. And pick out a garbage outfit for you to wear in Boston.” “What are you going to say to Arthur? Also have we considered Arthur in this whole dress like a Christmas tree kick we are on, because I can’t imagine a situation where he’s even remotely into any of that.”

“Cap,” Will sighed. “That is not the name. Festive forecheck. You’ve got to go for alliteration. Obviously. Someone back me up on this.” “I mean that’s not bad,” Emma said. “It just doesn’t really make sense. Give me, like, twelve hours to come up with something better.” “Deal. And Arthur thinks it’s a great idea because, surprisingly enough, some kind of win streak makes Arthur an almost bearable human being and front office thought it was genius.”

“No one said that,” Robin mumbled. “The word genius was never used.”

“Anyway,” Will continued sharply, talking louder like that would drown out any festive detractors. “Front office really does think it’s a good idea and in the spirit, that was an actual phrase, right Lucas?” Ruby nodded – even though it looked like it physically pained her to do so. “Right, right, in the spirit and fun and the fans will love it. So, you know... get all the Grinch’ing out now because we’re doing this.” “Can we make Grinch references when there are still a couple of days before Christmas?” Emma asked. “Also is there a dress code? How do you guys pick outfits?” Will’s eyes widened at the barrage of questions, but Killian felt something spark in the center of his being that was oddly similar to several lit fireplaces and hot chocolate and, probably, a bread pudding that was somewhere in the realm of edible.

They were going to the brownstone together again.

And Emma was still asking questions.

They stayed in the locker room for another forty-five minutes and, at some point, Emma actually found a notebook and started writing down rules and festive regulations and Will promised that they could all get outfits within the next forty-eight hours and, two days later, by the time they walked into TD Garden, the New York Rangers entire roster looked as if Christmas had exploded.

But, like, in a good way.

“You know,” Emma said, just inside the doors of the Garden with her own hat on her head because Gina took everything way too seriously. “I think you might just win the best dressed competition, Jones.”

He grinned, any sense of exhaustion from an absurd just-before-Christmas schedule that wasn’t quite over yet disappearing as soon as Emma pressed up on her toes and they should probably stop kissing in arenas.

Killian couldn’t really bring himself to care. There was some Christmas excuse, probably. And he loved his girlfriend a lot.

“Can you vote, love?” he asked, mumbling the words against the curve of her jaw and his heart grew three sizes when she laughed in response. The Grinch looked pretty damn good in his festive suit – even while wearing the single most absurd Christmas sweater he could find.

“That seems like cheating, doesn’t it?” Emma asked. “Do you not trust the fans’ judgement?” “I’m not entirely concerned with that.” “That was almost romantic.” “Almost.” “Win another game and I’ll reconsider.” “No goal?” “Didn’t want to be greedy.” Killian smiled again – what felt like the entire goddamn Yule Log burning in the pit of his stomach and that probably wouldn’t be good once he got on the ice. “A goal and an assist and you walk out of the arena wearing this absurd jacket.” “I think you just want me to wear your jacket,” Emma muttered, tugging on lapels and Killian was surprised the entire thing didn’t rip apart in her hand. The Christmas-patterned jacket, it seemed, was not very well made.

Killian shook his head, hands landing on her hips and they should have found a more private corner. Scarlet was shouting for him. “Putting words in my mouth, Swan,” he muttered. “A goal and an assist, love.”

“And what happens if you don’t actually win the best dressed voting contest?”

“I’ll wear the hat. We’ll just...swap.” “Those are lame stakes.” “Best I can do on short notice.” She laughed and the sound seemed to echo in between his ears and his rib cage and this season was different in all the ways he’d always hoped for. That was almost another cliché. He’d have to tell Mrs. Vankald later that week. “Yeah, ok,” Emma said. “Also. Arthur dressed up.”

Killian gaped at her, eyes wide and jaw hanging open and Will couldn’t seem to stop laughing, even as they walked towards the visitor’s locker room to the sound of shutter snaps and flashes.

“You look good, Cap,” Will grinned. “I mean...not Phillip good. But, you know, festive.” He tried to glare at him. He did, but there was something about the season, Christmas or otherwise, and kissing Emma, even without mistletoe, and he couldn't quite summon up the frustration. He probably wouldn’t even check anyone later. “Yeah and you look ridiculous. I don’t remember that jacket being so….bright.”

“‘Tis the season, Cap.” “I don’t think that’s the phrase you’re looking for. Was it really that bright when we ordered it? Why did you agree to this?”

There wasn’t really time between games to actually shop, but the internet existed – or so Regina was quick to point out when they explained the idea in the restaurant and Eric was only too happy to offer up several plates of food they probably shouldn’t be eating in the middle of the season while she pulled out a tablet and started hitting buttons and it all got fairly ridiculous fairly quickly.

Killian tugged on the side of Will’s sleeve, certain he could hear something rip and he groaned when the move earned him a punch to the arm. “Leave my jacket alone,” Will growled. “And I picked this suit because Rol liked it.” “You’re a pushover.”

Will shrugged, making a dismissive noise in the back of his throat and Killian couldn’t argue with that either. His own fashion choices were equally dictated by how much Emma laughed at the pattern of the jacket when Regina found it in some dark, holiday-themed corner of Amazon and if it managed to work a smile out of Henry.

“Whatever, Cap,” Will grumbled, kicking open the door to the locker room. “Lucas told me I’m already winning this best dressed thing we’re staging.”

“We’re a weirdly competitive group, aren’t we?”

“It’s an outlet.”

Killian hummed, shrugging out of his jacket and there were more cameras and Mulan was there and this whole thing was going to end up as a photo gallery on the site and sent to season tickets. “What’d you come up with for your title of you well executed event, Scarlet?”

“Was that a compliment? Also didn’t Emma tell you? It was her idea.” “We’ve got some other things going on,” Killian said evasively, waving his hand through the air when Will narrowed his eyes. “What’s the name?”

“Dropping gloves...in the name of festive fashion.” Robin guffawed from his locker, Phillip a few feet away and sporting a jacket that could give several disco balls a run for their money and Jeff’s tie was the same exact pattern as his jacket and his pants.

They all looked like idiots.

“We’re going to raise a ton of money though,” Phillip said, tugging on his jacket because it was covered in sequins and far too small. He was totally going to win best dressed.

“What?” Killian asked.

“Cap, seriously,” Will groaned. “Do you not even talk to your girlfriend? You live together.” Killian made a noise in the back of his throat, something he hoped sounded appropriately dismissive and he was fairly certain it didn’t work when he met Robin’s gaze. “Emma thought it’d be a good idea to auction off our jackets and we’re all going to sign the hats and we’re going to make a ton of very festive money for Garden of Dreams. Aurora was thrilled, right Phillip?” “She was,” Phillip nodded. “I think the word overjoyed was used several times.”

Killian nodded, pride joining whatever Yule Log was still burning in the very center of him and he’d probably score two goals that night. “Ah, well, it might not have been a bad idea, Scarlet,” he said, clapping Will on the shoulder and the crowd was louder than usual when they took the ice half an hour later.

They won the game, the lead story on SportsCenter and, per text message updates from David, the top post on the subReddit with some sort of absurd number of comments, and Killian walked out of TD Garden with a Santa hat on his head and a smile on his face and Emma had to push the sleeves of the jacket up to hold his hand.

#cs ff #captain swan #captain swan ff #cs manip #blue line one shots #blue line art #there is no excuse for this #the rangers played the bruins last weekend and they showed the bruins walking in dressed up #and my husband was like...you're going to write about that aren't you?#so he knows what's up

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carey-pricemas · 7 years

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First Kiss- Charlie McAvoy

Ok so after my whine fest about sucking at writing, I've liked the way the next few turned out. Le sigh. Maybe I need to do that more often! Oh and by the way Charlie is so adorable with his little cheeks and he still looks like a baby but played like a freaking champ! Anyway! Enjoy!

Warning: mentions of hockey fight

Anon Request: If requests are open, could I request a charlie mcavoy imagine where he's playing against Dallas and seguin tries hitting on you where Charlie's right there so during the game, seguin talks shit about mcavoy and they start fighting, and when u get home, u like thank him (idk??) And u make out.. thank u!!

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It was your best friend's hockey game and you were not going to miss it for the world.

The fact that it was against your hometown team really meant nothing (ok maybe a little).

You had met Charlie your first year at BU when you were both lost little freshmen and had hit it off. Charlie at the time hadn't wanted a relationship because of his hockey and you had understood, becoming his best friend instead.

That didn't stop you from falling head over heels in love with him anyway.

When he was called up to the Bruins, you were ecstatic. You made the time to see him play (in the playoffs no less) and even invested in his jersey. He had told you not to do it, but you could tell he was secretly pleased.

This year he made starting lineup out of the gate and hadn't looked back. You tried to see as many games as you could, but this was one you definitely didn't want to miss. Charlie had hooked you up with some great tickets and even got you a pass to get down by the locker rooms.

To see him of course, not that you didn't want to run into Jamie Benn or Cody Eakin.

Before you had left, Charlie had asked you to come down before the game, wanting to talk to you about something. You couldn't figure out what was so important that he had to talk to you beforehand, but here you were, waiting on Charlie to come out and say whatever he needed to say.

"You'd look better in a Seguin jersey." You looked down the hall and saw the Tyler Seguin smirking at you.

"Sorry" you said, unapologetically. "I only own a Jamie Benn jersey." Tyler chuckled and came closer, setting his hand over his heart dramatically.

"You wound me."

"I'm sure there will be plenty of other girls tonight screaming your name."

"Will one of them be you?" He winked at you and you rolled your eyes. You attention was drawn away from the Stars player in front of you to where Charlie had just exited the locker room. "Is this your boyfriend?"

"Just friends" you said, the phrase slipping out as easily as saying you were fine. "Maybe you should go warm up."

"McAvoy, right?" Seguin asked, straightening.

"That's me."

"Nice meeting you" Seguin said. "And if you don't snatch this girl up, someone else surely will." Tyler winked at you before heading back in the direction of his locker room. You gave Charlie an exasperated look before shaking your head.

"He thinks he's god's gift to women. Gag me." Charlie chuckled and leaned against the wall next to you.

"Thanks for coming" he said.

"You wanted to talk about something?" you prompted, curious.

"I um..." Charlie trailed off and shook his head. "You know what? It's not important. I just wanted to make sure you were wearing the right jersey." You gave him an offended look.

"Excuse you, but the only jersey I wear in this arena is yours. And even if Jamie Benn asked to jump my bones, I will not wear victory green in this building." Charlie laughed as he gave you a side hug. You felt your heart shatter at his friendly gesture.

Just friends. You were just friends.

"Good luck Charlie Bear" you said. You stood on your tip toes and wrapped your arms around his shoulders, hugging him tightly. "Whoop some Texas butt." Charlie laughed.

"Will do."

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"I didn't mean a fight Charlie" you said angrily as you entered the apartment you shared with Charlie. "You got into a fight with a guy who has a hell of a lot more experience on you."

"I went after Seguin" he said, rolling his eyes. "It's not even like I went after Chara."

"That's only because Chara's on your team, you idiot" you hissed. Charlie sat down on the couch and you moved to the freezer, grabbing one of the ice packs and bringing it to him. "Why did you even fight him? You're not usually a fighter."

"He said some stuff and I was tired of it" Charlie answered, flipping through the TV channels.

"Oh no" you said, grabbing the remote from his hand and turning the TV off. "You need to talk. That answer isn't going to fly." Charlie sighed and leaned into the couch, putting the ice pack on his swollen eye. "Charlie..."

"He was talking about you. Said some derogatory things I didn't like. I dropped the gloves. He learned a lesson."

"Wait... what?" You were stunned by what he said. "He said things... about me?"

"Yeah (Y/N). I don't know if you've noticed or not, but you're hot. Guys like it."

"Who says I don't want them to like it?" you asked. Charlie muttered something. "I can't hear you Charlie." He mumbled a little louder, but you still couldn't hear what he said. "Charlie..."

"Me, ok?" he blurted. You blinked at him in surprise. "Ever since that first day of college I just wanted to kiss the hell out of you, but then I made stupid walls because of hockey and you just seemed so eager to say we were friends that when I fell in love with you," Charlie paused. "I was afraid to tell you." You sat there gaping at him. "See? I shouldn't have said anything. I'm just going to-" Charlie had stood to leave, but you grabbed his tie and yanked him back down to the couch.

"Oh no buddy. I've waited two years for this. I'm getting that kiss." You moved to straddle Charlie as he leaned back. He cupped your face in his hands and brought your face down for a kiss. It was long and slow and soon you were both needing air.

"Finally" Charlie muttered.

"Shut up" you whispered as you kissed him again.

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Ok there you go! Let me know what you guys thought! Up next: Auston Matthews!

#charlie mcavoy #mac #boston bruins #nhl imagines #nhl imagine

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andrewuttaro · 5 years

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New Look Sabres: GM 81 - OTT - State of the Fanbase

Fan Appreciation Night takes on an angry, comedic tone lately doesn’t it? The Buffalo Sabres Marketing Department reaches out with a trivial and unexciting toy in an attempt at saying “thank you for giving us money”; and the fanbase collective bats it out of their outstretch arms in anger. I don’t know if there was a time we weren’t so cynical and angry at Fan Appreciation Night but mind you, the first full season I paid attention to was 2011-2012 so… yeah… it always sucks. This is the second to last game and it’s the very last home game. Since it’s Fan Appreciation Night and I fancy this blog a “Fan Reaction Blog” over descriptors like “smart” and “thoughtful”, I thought this would be the best game to really dive into the state of Sabres fandom. I am also going to shoot a little higher than “it’s shit.” I understand that it is pretty shitty right now but let’s all take a step back and remember we love this team like a pet. If God forbid your pet died then you would eventually get over it, but you’d be pretty broken up about it for a while I imagine. When your pet is sick you don’t say “Fuck this animal for making me feel sad!” No, you try and figure out what’s wrong with it, bring it to the vet and what not. The obvious difference here is that pets don’t make millions of dollars off of your affection for them… well most don’t. The other big difference is you don’t trade out parts of your dog to make it better. Okay, that metaphor has gone too far. I think you get the point. On Fan Appreciation Night we take on the Ottawa Senators. Their fanbase is a good comparison for our State of the Fanbase but we’ll get back to that later. The Ottawa Senators are the only team left in the National Hockey League that are so shitty that no matter how shitty the Sabres finish they will not be able to reach the depth of Sens shittiness. The Sens had 64 points in the standings going into this game while the Sabres had 72. Ottawa also started their rookie goaltender, Joey Daccord. This was a winnable game and for the first time in what feels like forever it was just that: a win.

When Anthony Duclair scored a shade over two minutes in it felt like what we have come to expect from the Sabres recently: a rout, even against some of the worst teams in the NHL. Ottawa had just demolished the Sabres 4-0 last week! Luckily that was not the story tonight. Jake McCabe drew a hooking penalty and the best Sabres 7th round pick… ever(?) Victor Olofsson smacked in a rocket from the circle 8:40 into the first period. Unfortunately, Sabres got to Sabre and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored a response goal for the Sens a mere 30 seconds later. The score was 2-1 in favor of the visitors going into the second but now was the time for the Sabres to take over. This time Conor Sheary drew a hooking penalty and Kyle Okposo tapped in a rebound on the ensuing powerplay to even up the score a little over six minutes into the middle period. The home team was now out-shooting the opposition and the go-ahead goal came for Buffalo within three minutes. Shortly after blowing a point blank shot himself Sam Reinhart received the toughest pass possible from good buddy Jack Eichel and snuck it past the rookie netminder. Reinhart looked like all the troubles of this season melted away in giddy celebration. I’m sure he congratulated Eichel on his team-voted MVP award and one of his all-time best assists. There would be some more bullshit and penalties through the rest of the second, but this is game 81 and haven’t we discussed all the crap enough? The Sabres ran away with the game in the third. Jack Eichel got a goal of his own and it was beautiful. As if a tribute to the fun and growth we’ve seen out of the Captain this season, he got the puck from an Olofsson rebound and just outmaneuvered the Sens goalie. It was like he was going for a walk, the long way, around the crease. It was like a reverse wrap-around if that makes any sense. Eichel’s 28th of the season made it 4-2 Sabres but the Fan Appreciation festivities were not done yet. There are some goals that stand above the rest: sometimes its for how they were scored or when they were scored. Sometimes goals are special because of who scored them. Jason Pominville, Buffalo’s favorite adopted son, benefited from a poor clearance of the puck by the Sens goalie and shot it home from the boards. 5-2 Sabres and an applause for the season highlight reel. A standing ovation through another play and a commercial break from the population of Pominville for what maybe the very last time in Buffalo. The place was ripe for feels, even through the TV, and for the remainder of the game the cynicism and anger melted away off all of us. The last Sabres home game of 2018-2019 ended 5-2 for the home team.

As fun as this game was it was followed in short order by what we were expecting no matter how the game itself turned out. The Carolina Hurricanes clinched a playoff spot with their win over New Jersey. Their ten-year playoff drought is over. That means your Buffalo Sabres are now in sole possession of the longest active postseason drought in the NHL at 8 Seasons. That stat alone is worth a rant. There are lots of ways to go with such a rant on the occasion of fan appreciation night from right at the players like the idiots who ran O’Reilly out of town and now lock onto MVP Eichel, to the coaching, to the General Manager, hell some go right on up to Terry and Kim Pegula. Rant away my friends, Jeremy White let a legendary rant rip live on the air on WGR550 last week. It’s ok. It doesn’t make you a bad fan and frankly: it’s healthy. @MattyRenn on twitter wrote an open letter aimed right at the Pegulas on Tuesday and I think that about sums up that whole vein of rants pretty well. That’s worth a read if you got some frustrations to vent over at deargodwhyussports.com. Look, I’ll be writing an extensive season retrospective bonanza after this season is over and certainly there will be some reflection after Saturday’s game in Detroit but there was a quiet lesson for all of us tonight on frustration. The fan of the year wasn’t just some dude again this season: it was a 95-year-old woman named Anna Marie Szczepanski. I think that’s a very appropriate choice given the season that the Sabres are going to finish on Saturday. Anna was born in 1924. She was 46 when the Sabres came about in this chilly industrial city on the Great Lakes. She was 49 when the Sabres reached their first Stanley Cup Final. She turned 60 in the awful 1980s of Sabres history. She was 73 when Brad May scored his incredible Mayday goal to eliminate the hated rival Boston Bruins in the 1993 Playoffs. She was 75 when Buffalo made their second Stanley Cup Final in 1999 and got robbed by a team from fucking Dallas! She turned 90 during the tank years and 91 when we drafted Jack Eichel. Guess what she still is today: the Buffalo Sabres fan of the year! Apart from simply having the longevity to live to 95, Anna represents the loyalty of Sabres fans.

Yes, we don’t want to be jobbed by incompetent management, but she lived through the Scotty Bowman stint in Buffalo when a Hall of Fame Coach and Manager couldn’t even get a Cup for the Sabres! Shit sucks right now as a Sabres fan and we can debate where we are right now in the grand scheme of franchise history until the Bills win a Superbowl; but I don’t care to debate that point because through thick and thin this is our team and no degree of shittiness can stop us from the love of the Blue and Gold. The State of the Fans of the Buffalo Sabres is rough right now, probably the roughest its been in my lifetime, but there is too much promise in this core and too much skill coming down the pipeline to hibernate your Sabres support. I know Ottawa Senators fans who are more strident than ever in their support. In case you’ve missed it: just about every imaginable thing that go wrong with an NHL team short of losing the franchise has happened in Ottawa. Their owner is still carrying out toxic policies and restricting his front office to the point of uselessness. If there are fans of that franchise losing their shit day in and day out when everything possible is going wrong then I think we can manage another season out of the playoff picture. There is a lot of work to be done but we’re better than running out on these guys now. Don’t worry, I don’t think any of us ever were going to.

I tweeted at Matt Bove how can us Sabres fans go on? The snapback of other Sabres fans proclaiming loyalty made me smile. We rant our heads off, but this is home and we know it. I tweeted that expecting that kind of response. As long as we can all agree those suburban hockey dads hating on Eichel and Dahlin can eat it I think we’ll all be here again in October. That said, timing in this crazy world of hockey can surprise you sometimes. Old buried friend Matt Moulson did an interview recently talking about how the Murray-Blysma regime ruined him with no explanation. Whatever you think of Matt Moulson aside, at least we can look back on the 2017 regime change with some relief. Speaking of timing, late last week those comments Rob Ray made a decade ago about Phil Housley resurfaced; you know, the ones about Housley being a selfish jackass? I think its clear Housley has got to go but we don’t need to kick him while he’s down too. Like, comment and share this blog. I’m going to Detroit for the last game on Saturday, but no matter what I do I won’t be able to top the sign some fans hung in the 300 level at tonight’s game that read Fire Housley. That kind of plain and simple messaging is what you really dream of for a good banner/poster at a hockey game. That’s it for the Fan Appreciation Night blog: one more game left and I might just enjoy this one better than all the rest in spite of everything. Let’s Go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Carter Hutton getting the Unsung Hero 2019 Player Award is some kind of irony. Both goalies fell off a cliff in January but evidently Hutton is really the locker room magic he was advertised as. My brother wants a Hutton Shirsey.

#buffalo sabres #hockey #blog #nhl

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