#Buy a Home in Vancouver | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

norrisainz33 · 1 month ago

Text

Southern belle || CL16

☆ summary: charles’ and oscar’s rumored girlfriend is the it girl in country music and with the austin grand prix approaching fans wonder if they’ll finally know who she’s with

☆ pairing: charles leclerc x american!singer!reader

☆ fc & warnings: megan moroney and slightly suggestive - you are responsible for the content you consume

☆ requested: yes!! thank you for this request 🤍

ﾟ. ✿ ୨❤︎୧⠀✿ . ﾟ

ynuser has made a post

liked by sabrinacarpenter, charlesleclerc, oscarpiastri, patriciooward, formula1, arianagrande and 301,356 others

ynuser: huge announcement 🚨 i’m singing the national anthem at the austin grand prix!!! i can’t wait to see y’all there but in the meantime, i’m practicing my driving 🏎️🤍

view all 364 comments

user1: ohhhhhh my god yessss

user2: everyone peep both oscar and charles in the likes…..

user22: begging for new music queen 😭

formula1: quick someone get her seat on the grid

ynuser: put me in coach!

scuderiaferrari: you’re always welcome to join us for the weekend 😉

mclarenf1: or you can join us 🧡

user4: taking note of both ferrari and mclaren being here 💀

user3: MY FAV ARTIST AT MY FIRST GP?! IT DOESNT GET BETTER THAN THIS

patriciooward: see you there princessa

ynuser: can’t wait 🤍

user4: and why do none of yall think they’re together??

sabrinacarpenter: prettiest girl in the world

ynuser: says you,, a literal goddess

user6: y/n/n this is huge!!! i’m so excited for you

f1gossip has made a post

liked by user1, user2, user3, user4, user5, and 7,293 others

f1gossip: y/n y/l/n dropped a new song today and all signs say these lyrics could be about our very own charles leclerc. she sang this song for the first time today in atlanta while wearing a shirt that says “i 🤍 my situationship.” this comes after rumors of the pairing secretly seeing each other after being photographed together briefly in a miami nightclub. do we think the man who ‘isn’t from where she’s from and feels like home’ is a certain monegasque ferrari driver?

view all 435 comments

user1: first of all the shirt is absolutely iconic and i will be buying one exactly like it

user1: second of all i honestly hope she is talking abt charles

user2: idk the fact that the song is called tennessee orange makes me think it could be oscar… didn’t he also get rumored to be with her?

user3: omg it could be oscar!

user1: why would you guys think it’s oscar???

user2: user1 i think it’s because of that video mclaren posted where oscar and lando had to guess the lyrics to songs and one of y/n’s songs was played and oscar sang like the entire thing and lando was like umm??? and oscar turned beat red and said he really liked y/n

user1: ohhhhh my goodness ok i didn’t see that video. begging one of you to do a breakdown of all the info we have for oscar vs charles

user2: i got you , lemme make a twitter thread brb

user14: did y’all consider that this song is truly about a man from tennessee

user3: no! hope this helps!!

user4: ever since she dropped the lore that she loves f1 y’all have been grasping at straws to connect her to a driver fr

user34: do we think she could get him to a rodeo? i’d die to see charles at one

user7: praying with everything that i have that we get an answer abt who she is with at cota

user5: obsessed with this level of delulu from you f1gossip

user8: could you imagine the charles leclerc being your situationship???? i mean wow

ynuser has added to their story

view all story replies

user1: why is everything you do so hot

user2: i wish i could see if oscar or charles swiped up

_quinnhughes: how about you come visit me next?

ynuser: i have heard vancouver is nice this time of year

charlesleclerc: oh wow

ynuser: 🤭🤭🤭

charlesleclerc: you’re more than welcome to take me for a ride after you’re done there

oscarpiastri: need some pointers on how to do this myself

ynuser: it’s all in the hips osc

oscarpiastri: noted

user12: i’m obsessed with you

user13: ok! cool girls ride mechanical bulls! taking notes 📝

user14: thank you for being so sweet at the bar this evening and taking a picture with us!! you are literally the nicest person in the world 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

ynuser has posted to their story

view all story replies

user3: IM HERE AND IM READY!! YOU ARE GONNA EAT UP THAT NATIONAL ANTHEM

user6: RAHHHHH AMERICA 🇺🇸 🦅🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸

oscarpiastri: hoping you are my good luck charm y/n

ynuser: wishing you a safe race ossie 🧡

user8: ugh youre in blue you were supposed to be in red or papaya to confirm which boy you’re with

charlesleclerc: i think you’d look amazing in ferrari red

ynuser: you think so?

charlesleclerc: i know so

iamrebeccad: i can’t wait to see you later

ynuser: likewise 🤍

yourbff: you’re living the dream, i miss you bestie

ynuser: i miss you more. please come visit me soon 😭

user13: so excited for you gorgeous girl

f1gossip has made a post

liked by user1, user2, user3, user4, yourbff, user5, user6, and 12,345 others

f1gossip: charles and oscar were stood next to each other during y/n’s rendition of the american national anthem and didn’t even look at each other once during the entire thing. do we think there’s trouble in paradise between the father son pair? could both of them be pining over the same gorgeous american princess?

view all 333 comments

user2: them standing next to each other is diabolical

user8: she IS america’s sweetheart and i just hope whatever boy she’s with is treating her right

user6: the way she was unphased and just pranced right on by them in her little cowgirl boots… iconic

user3: i was praying that she was going to stop and wish one of them good luck

user14: guys have we CONSIDERED that just bc she likes the sport and the drivers know who she is doesn’t necessarily mean she’s with one of them?!

user1: imma hold your hand when i say this

user22: my money is on one of them winning and kissing her in celebration

user33: my money is on them being secretly photographed at an after party

user44: tbh my money is on nothing being confirmed this weekend

user23: you better put some respect on my girls name and at least mention how she NAILED that anthem

charlesleclerc has made a post

liked by scuderiaferrari, landonorris, maxverstappen1, carlossainz55, ynuser, yourbff and 634,910 others

charlesleclerc: thank you austin for a fantastic weekend

view all 999 comments

user7: OHHHH MY GOD

user2: i know that’s my girl y/n!!!!!! that’s y/n!!!!! you can’t convince me otherwise!!!

user1: it’s her 😭😭 war is over 😭😭😭

scuderiaferrari: congratulations on a great weekend ❤️

user3: she put him in a cowboy hat i’m screaming

maxverstappen1: 👀

charlesleclerc: 🥰

carlossainz55: who is that in the last photo? surely not you

charlesleclerc: it is me in the last photo!

carlossainz55: your pants are oddly tight there

user16: i love a cl16 podium

ynuser: who’s that cowboy?

charlesleclerc: your cowboy

user2: STOP IT

f1gossip: and y’all didn’t believe me

user73: someone check on oscar

landonorris: lmfao they’re all friends it’s ok

user2: LANDO IS ALWAYS AT THE WCENE OF THE CRIME

user24: prettiest boy on the podium as always

charlesleclerc has posted to his story

view all story replies

user44: glad she stayed true and is wearing a football shirt and not ferrari merch

maxverstappen1: feeling a little betrayed that i’m finding out with the rest of the world. WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME

charlesleclerc: mate i didn’t tell anyone

maxverstappen1: but i’m not just anyone 😔

yourbff: my beautiful girl - you better be good to her

charlesleclerc: i will be don’t worry!

user2: the confirmation i needed im obsessed with you both

ynuser: will always wear red for you charlie 😘

charlesleclerc: that’s my girl ❤️

user4: who’s this diva

user14: whelp i didn’t see this coming

carlossainz55: get her in a ferrari cap asap! also rebecca says you need to bring her to more races

charlesleclerc: trust me if i had it my way she’d be at all of them

user55: an american princess and a monegasque prince… a perfect match

ynuser has made a post

liked yourbff, scuderiaferrari, sabrinacarpenter, oliviarodrigo, carlossainz55, oscarpiastri and 239,836 others

ynuser: mama i like him a lot 🤭 (p.s i’ve always looked better in red)

view all 867 comments

user6: can the european mind even comprehend texas and college football y/n?

yourbff: well… we’re all about to find out!

user2: brb sobbing this is so cute

landonorris: how did you convince him to put on a cowboy hat???

ynuser: it wasn’t easy that’s for sure

user3: my 2 fav things colliding. y/n and f1 ,,, i used to pray for times like this

charlesleclerc: and i like you a lot

ynuser: 🤭 i’m so glad you do

charlesleclerc: it’s simply impossible not to

user67: mama y papa

user89: i can’t believe you’ve fallen for a vroom vroom that isn’t in nascar

scuderiaferrari: welcome to the family y/n ❤️

ﾟ. ✿ ୨❤︎୧⠀✿ . ﾟ

a/n: thanks for reading!! likes and reblogs appreciated 🫶🏻

ﾟ. ✿ ୨❤︎୧⠀✿ . ﾟ

disclaimer: pictures are not mine and everything i write is fiction

772 notes · View notes

mostlysignssomeportents · 6 months ago

Text

Google is (still) losing the spam wars to zombie news-brands

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TONIGHT (May 3) in CALGARY, then TOMORROW (May 4) in VANCOUVER, then onto Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!

Even Google admits – grudgingly – that it is losing the spam wars. The explosive proliferation of botshit has supercharged the sleazy "search engine optimization" business, such that results to common queries are 50% Google ads to spam sites, and 50% links to spam sites that tricked Google into a high rank (without paying for an ad):

https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2024/03/core-update-spam-policies#site-reputation

It's nice that Google has finally stopped gaslighting the rest of us with claims that its search was still the same bedrock utility that so many of us relied upon as a key piece of internet infrastructure. This not only feels wildly wrong, it is empirically, provably false:

https://downloads.webis.de/publications/papers/bevendorff_2024a.pdf

Not only that, but we know why Google search sucks. Memos released as part of the DOJ's antitrust case against Google reveal that the company deliberately chose to worsen search quality to increase the number of queries you'd have to make (and the number of ads you'd have to see) to find a decent result:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/24/naming-names/#prabhakar-raghavan

Google's antitrust case turns on the idea that the company bought its way to dominance, spending the some of the billions it extracted from advertisers and publishers to buy the default position on every platform, so that no one ever tried another search engine, which meant that no one would invest in another search engine, either.

Google's tacit defense is that its monopoly billions only incidentally fund these kind of anticompetitive deals. Mostly, Google says, it uses its billions to build the greatest search engine, ad platform, mobile OS, etc that the public could dream of. Only a company as big as Google (says Google) can afford to fund the R&D and security to keep its platform useful for the rest of us.

That's the "monopolistic bargain" – let the monopolist become a dictator, and they will be a benevolent dictator. Shriven of "wasteful competition," the monopolist can split their profits with the public by funding public goods and the public interest.

Google has clearly reneged on that bargain. A company experiencing the dramatic security failures and declining quality should be pouring everything it has to righting the ship. Instead, Google repeatedly blew tens of billions of dollars on stock buybacks while doing mass layoffs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/21/im-feeling-unlucky/#not-up-to-the-task

Those layoffs have now reached the company's "core" teams, even as its core services continue to decay:

https://qz.com/google-is-laying-off-hundreds-as-it-moves-core-jobs-abr-1851449528

(Google's antitrust trial was shrouded in secrecy, thanks to the judge's deference to the company's insistence on confidentiality. The case is moving along though, and warrants your continued attention:)

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/the-2-trillion-secret-trial-against

Google wormed its way into so many corners of our lives that its enshittification keeps erupting in odd places, like ordering takeout food:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/24/passive-income/#swiss-cheese-security

Back in February, Housefresh – a rigorous review site for home air purifiers – published a viral, damning account of how Google had allowed itself to be overrun by spammers who purport to provide reviews of air purifiers, but who do little to no testing and often employ AI chatbots to write automated garbage:

https://housefresh.com/david-vs-digital-goliaths/

In the months since, Housefresh's Gisele Navarro has continued to fight for the survival of her high-quality air purifier review site, and has received many tips from insiders at the spam-farms and Google, all of which she recounts in a followup essay:

https://housefresh.com/how-google-decimated-housefresh/

One of the worst offenders in spam wars is Dotdash Meredith, a content-farm that "publishes" multiple websites that recycle parts of each others' content in order to climb to the top search slots for lucrative product review spots, which can be monetized via affiliate links.

A Dotdash Meredith insider told Navarro that the company uses a tactic called "keyword swarming" to push high-quality independent sites off the top of Google and replace them with its own garbage reviews. When Dotdash Meredith finds an independent site that occupies the top results for a lucrative Google result, they "swarm a smaller site’s foothold on one or two articles by essentially publishing 10 articles [on the topic] and beefing up [Dotdash Meredith sites’] authority."

Dotdash Meredith has keyword swarmed a large number of topics. from air purifiers to slow cookers to posture correctors for back-pain:

https://housefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/keyword-swarming-dotdash.jpg

The company isn't shy about this. Its own shareholder communications boast about it. What's more, it has competition.

Take Forbes, an actual news-site, which has a whole shadow-empire of web-pages reviewing products for puppies, dogs, kittens and cats, all of which link to high affiliate-fee-generating pet insurance products. These reviews are not good, but they are treasured by Google's algorithm, which views them as a part of Forbes's legitimate news-publishing operation and lets them draft on Forbes's authority.

This side-hustle for Forbes comes at a cost for the rest of us, though. The reviewers who actually put in the hard work to figure out which pet products are worth your money (and which ones are bad, defective or dangerous) are crowded off the front page of Google and eventually disappear, leaving behind nothing but semi-automated SEO garbage from Forbes:

https://twitter.com/ichbinGisele/status/1642481590524583936

There's a name for this: "site reputation abuse." That's when a site perverts its current – or past – practice of publishing high-quality materials to trick Google into giving the site a high ranking. Think of how Deadspin's private equity grifter owners turned it into a site full of casino affiliate spam:

https://www.404media.co/who-owns-deadspin-now-lineup-publishing/

The same thing happened to the venerable Money magazine:

https://moneygroup.pr/

Money is one of the many sites whose air purifier reviews Google gives preference to, despite the fact that they do no testing. According to Google, Money is also a reliable source of information on reprogramming your garage-door opener, buying a paint-sprayer, etc:

https://money.com/best-paint-sprayer/

All of this is made ten million times worse by AI, which can spray out superficially plausible botshit in superhuman quantities, letting spammers produce thousands of variations on their shitty reviews, flooding the zone with bullshit in classic Steve Bannon style:

https://escapecollective.com/commerce-content-is-breaking-product-reviews/

As Gizmodo, Sports Illustrated and USA Today have learned the hard way, AI can't write factual news pieces. But it can pump out bullshit written for the express purpose of drafting on the good work human journalists have done and tricking Google – the search engine 90% of us rely on – into upranking bullshit at the expense of high-quality information.

A variety of AI service bureaux have popped up to provide AI botshit as a service to news brands. While Navarro doesn't say so, I'm willing to bet that for news bosses, outsourcing your botshit scams to a third party is considered an excellent way of avoiding your journalists' wrath. The biggest botshit-as-a-service company is ASR Group (which also uses the alias Advon Commerce).

Advon claims that its botshit is, in fact, written by humans. But Advon's employees' Linkedin profiles tell a different story, boasting of their mastery of AI tools in the industrial-scale production of botshit:

https://housefresh.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Advon-AI-LinkedIn.jpg

Now, none of this is particularly sophisticated. It doesn't take much discernment to spot when a site is engaged in "site reputation abuse." Presumably, the 12,000 googlers the company fired last year could have been employed to check the top review keyword results manually every couple of days and permaban any site caught cheating this way.

Instead, Google is has announced a change in policy: starting May 5, the company will downrank any site caught engaged in site reputation abuse. However, the company takes a very narrow view of site reputation abuse, limiting punishments to sites that employ third parties to generate or uprank their botshit. Companies that produce their botshit in-house are seemingly not covered by this policy.

As Navarro writes, some sites – like Forbes – have prepared for May 5 by blocking their botshit sections from Google's crawler. This can't be their permanent strategy, though – either they'll have to kill the section or bring it in-house to comply with Google's rules. Bringing things in house isn't that hard: US News and World Report is advertising for an SEO editor who will publish 70-80 posts per month, doubtless each one a masterpiece of high-quality, carefully researched material of great value to Google's users:

https://twitter.com/dannyashton/status/1777408051357585425

As Navarro points out, Google is palpably reluctant to target the largest, best-funded spammers. Its March 2024 update kicked many garbage AI sites out of the index – but only small bottom-feeders, not large, once-respected publications that have been colonized by private equity spam-farmers.

All of this comes at a price, and it's only incidentally paid by legitimate sites like Housefresh. The real price is borne by all of us, who are funneled by the 90%-market-share search engine into "review" sites that push low quality, high-price products. Housefresh's top budget air purifier costs $79. That's hundreds of dollars cheaper than the "budget" pick at other sites, who largely perform no original research.

Google search has a problem. AI botshit is dominating Google's search results, and it's not just in product reviews. Searches for infrastructure code samples are dominated by botshit code generated by Pulumi AI, whose chatbot hallucinates nonexistence AWS features:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/05/01/pulumi_ai_pollution_of_search/

This is hugely consequential: when these "hallucinations" slip through into production code, they create huge vulnerabilities for widespread malicious exploitation:

https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/28/ai_bots_hallucinate_software_packages/

We've put all our eggs in Google's basket, and Google's dropped the basket – but it doesn't matter because they can spend $20b/year bribing Apple to make sure no one ever tries a rival search engine on Ios or Safari:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-payments-apple-reached-20-220947331.html

Google's response – laying off core developers, outsourcing to low-waged territories with weak labor protections and spending billions on stock buybacks – presents a picture of a company that is too big to care:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/04/teach-me-how-to-shruggie/#kagi

Google promised us a quid-pro-quo: let them be the single, authoritative portal ("organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful"), and they will earn that spot by being the best search there is:

https://www.ft.com/content/b9eb3180-2a6e-41eb-91fe-2ab5942d4150

But – like the spammers at the top of its search result pages – Google didn't earn its spot at the center of our digital lives.

It cheated.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/keyword-swarming/#site-reputation-abuse

Image: freezelight (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spam_wall_-_Flickr_-_freezelight.jpg

CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

890 notes · View notes

condoforsalevancouver · 2 years ago

Text

Buy a Home In Vancouver | Condo For Sale Vancouver

Looking to buy a home in Vancouver? We are right there to help you. Condo For Sale Vancouver makes buying and selling more accessible by offering services at reasonable prices. With deep knowledge and connections in the real estate industry, we take care of the details and focus on the essential things in life. For further details, visit our website!

#buy a home in vancouver

0 notes

qrrieterisunnq · 6 months ago

Text

A week without you - Jack Hughes

jack!hughes x fem!reader Summary: Jack's on the roadie and he misses y/n so much, so he's cuddling with a body pillow, pretending that it's y/n… A/N: It's been a while since I posted something that wasn't requested, so enjoy this angst/fluff, and happy rest of the day! And it's not edited, I might edit it in two weeks, 'cause we have three weeks of practice, so I'll have time to do it. requested: yes/no likes are good, reblogs are better <3 gif, not mine word count: 1,65K warning(s): angst?, sad Jack, Luke being a caring young brother, FaceTiming

masterlist | wip's

Just eight days. Just eight days and he’ll be back at home, in the embrace of his lovely girl. Her hands would scratch at his scalp, as she’d listen to his talks about the roadie.

Jack is currently sitting on the bench in Rogers Arena in Vancouver, his breaths are heavy from the intense morning skate before the game against canucks.

“Jack?” Luke’s voice makes Jack jolt in place, his hand rising to his chest, taking in a deep breath.

“Dude, you scared the shit outta me,” he shifts on the bench, making a place for Luke to sit down. “What do you need?” Jack looks over at him, raising eyebrows in question and curiosity.

“Just wanna ask you, if you’re, okay?” there’s a concern in his eyes. He’s been observing Jack for the few days they were away from Jersey, and he can see the change in his mood. He’s been distant a lot and he was playing like shit in the last two games they had. “You’ve been acting weird lately.”

“I’m fine.” Jack tries to sound convincing, but Luke doesn’t buy it. He lets out a deep sigh, hanging his head low, thinking about how to make Jack talk.

“Jack, you know that is a lame, thing to say,” Jack nods his head, knowing damn right, that he can’t get away from this conversation. “Tell me, what is going on, J.”

Jack takes in deep breath, while he’s sorting out his thoughts. “It’s nothing…I just miss y/n you know,” he let out, fiddling with his gloves. “I know I was away from her for longer, but it just hits me hard, you know. In a month we have our year anniversary and I feel like I should be with her, you know.” he looks over at Luke his eyes already on his brother, concern in them.

“I can’t say I know how you feel, but I get it. If I had a girl and our anniversary was coming, I’d wanted to be with her too.” Luke nods understandingly and throws his arm around his shoulders to pull him close. “Come on,” Luke stands up, holding Jack’s hand to help him up. “Practice is over, and I’m sure, y/n is waiting for you to call her.” This seems to bring Jack into reality. He swiftly stood up, moving past Luke to the locker room, leaving Luke standing in the place with nothing more than an amazed expression.

“Wow, that was quick.” He mumbles to himself with an amused smile on his lips and follows his brother into the locker room.

“Lukey?” Jack turns at his younger brother with a plea in his eyes.

“Yeah?” he says bluntly not looking up from his phone as he makes his way into the room dropping his bag on the ground next to Jack’s.

“Could you maybe go to the boys for a while?” Jack starts carefully waiting for Luke’s reaction. His brows raised in confusion before he can ask why, Jack explains. “I want to talk with y/n for a while. You know, in private.”

“Yeah, sure!” he nods his head, opening his bag to pull out a wallet. “I’m sure the boys will head to a restaurant, so I’ll go with them,” he says making his way to the doors. He catches sight of Jack’s expression, chuckling to himself. “And I promise I won’t drink anything!” with a small wave he leaves the room, his phone already glutted to his ear as he’s calling Nico asking where they are.

Jack walks over to his bed popping down, he pulls his phone from his pants. A wide smile spreads across his lips as he sees his wallpaper. It’s him, hugging you tightly to his chest as you both fall asleep in a chair at a bonfire last summer in the lake house.

He finds your contact, dialing your number, waiting impatiently for you to pick up.

With a groan leaving your lips, you reach over the table to get your phone. You’re not in the mood to talk with someone. Your boss was an ass to you, giving you another thing to do, even though your work hours ends in ten minutes. Not looking at the caller ID, you pick it up, groaning. “What is it?”

“Oh, hi. Am I calling too soon? I thought you were done with work.” Jack lets out, scrunching his nose as he looks at the time. It’s 1 pm in Vancouver which means it's 4 pm in Jersey.

“Sorry, baby. No, you’re calling right. It’s my boss. He gave me another thing to do so I’ll be here for another hour or so,” you sigh, getting the call on speaker, placing the phone next to you, focusing back on your work. “Anyway, you excited for today's game?” you say with a smile on your lips. You were supposed to come to that game, but your boss wouldn't give you time off, so you’ll be cheering on them from home.

“Oh, so excited! Another time we’ll be playing against Quinn. It’s always amazing playing against him. Just sucks that you won’t be here.” You can imagine the pout he’s wearing on his lips, together with his sad blue eyes.

“I know my love, I was looking forward to seeing you play all together. I’m sure, there will be other chances I’ll get to see you play. Maybe next season, okay? But don’t think about it, tell me something!” you say in a cheerful voice. You love listening to his voice while you’re working or doing something.

His voice is so angelic. You could listen to his voice forever and you wouldn’t be bored of it.

“Okay, but I don’t know what,” he snorts chuckling.

“Anything! What were you doing today?” you asked, waiting for him to start talking. As soon as his voice sounds through the speaker you start typing on your notebook.

On the other side of the call, Jack is lying in his bed, a pillow pressed to his chest as he talks about his practice, aware that y/n is working and that she probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

“Y/n,” he asks when there’s a long silence.

“Yeah?” she hums bluntly her focus on the task she’s almost done with.

“I miss you,” Jack whispers shyly, his voice soft. You let out a sigh, a pout forming on your lips. “I miss you so much. I don’t know if I’ll make another day without you.” He confesses tears springing in his eyes.

“I miss you too, Jacky, but it's just eight days and you’ll be home. You’ll have four days without any game.” You say cheerfully, trying to ease the moment.

“I can’t sleep without you.” He says as he clutches the pillow to his chest, a single tear running down his cheek, dropping on the pillow.

“Jack you can, just pretend I’m here or something.” You let out a sigh, resting your face in your hands.

“It’s not helping,” he pouts childishly. “The pillow doesn’t smell like you.” y/n sighs closing her eyes. Sure, she misses him and it’s hard to sleep without him in the bed, but she knows how hard it’s for Jack to be apart from her. He’s been like this since university when they were going on short roadies. They always slept with Facetime on during the whole night. “Can I see you?”

“Sure, J,” you nod, waiting for him to turn on the camera. “Hey, my love.” A smile forms on your lips as soon as your eyes meet his.

“You are gorgeous,” he blurs out as soon as your face pops on his screen. “So fucking gorgeous, especially with the glasses on. You look sexy.”

“Thank you, J,” you giggle, your cheeks turning red at his compliment. “But I really need to work, so if you don’t mind I won’t be saying anything for another hour or so?” you cock your head to the side, watching his soft and relaxed features.

“Yeah, that’s okay, love. I’ll probably take a nap. We’re going to meet Quinn in like…” he looks behind his shoulder, searching for something. “Don't you know where my phone is?” he asks his brows furrowed in confusion.

“Love it’s next to you, we’re face-timing through it.” You laugh shaking your head at his…you don’t even know what.

“Oh, right,” he chuckles shaking his head. “Anyway we’re going to meet Quinn in like two hours for a brunch, so, I’ll just take a nap.” He rambles.

“Yeah, fine by me!”

After half an hour, when you’re almost done with your work, you look over at your phone, only to see your beautiful boy, clutching a pillow to his chest, a small smile resting on his lips as he mumbles something under his nose. You’re eyes grow softer at the sight of him.

If you were here with him, you’d probably run your fingers through his hair, massaging his scalp, and reading a book or something while he’ll be napping.

You can’t help the smile growing when you hear him mumbling your name. The boy is your entire life. In a few days, you’ll be celebrating your year anniversary as a couple, and you can’t wait for it. You let your sweet boy sleep as you start finishing the work you have to do again.

When Jack wakes up with a big smile on his face, it even grows wider when sees his girl still at the same place, a focused look on her face as she types something on her computer. He snuggles more into the pillow he’s holding to his chest, a pillow he was pretending was a girl as he was sleeping for a few hours, and lets out a quiet sigh as he watches his beautiful girl working.

#jack hughes #jack hughes x y/n #jack hughes x reader #jack hughes fic #jack hughes imagine #nhl #nhl hockey #nj devils #nhl fanfiction #new jersey devils fic #jack hughes fluff #nhl imagine #nhl fic #hockey

543 notes · View notes

withwritersblock · 6 months ago

Text

Oh! Darling pt. 1

~Oh! Darling by The Beatles~

Author's Note: requested, it didn't fully fill the request as much as I wanted, I apologize but it's a long one :)italics are flashback as always. also insanely unedited I never edit anything I post so Summary: Quinn and Y/N have a suprise pregnancy Warnings: swearing, I think that's all Word Count: 6,236 Quinn Hughes x fm!reader

July

It was normal for her cycle to be inconsistent, ever since her first ever period she was inconsistent. It would be a week early, a week late, nothing more. Except right now she was a week and two days late.

She wasn’t freaking out until Quinn came home with hot chocolate and a pack of tampons. It was normal for him to just casually buy the products for her. They’ve been together since they were fifteen years old, so of course it was a part of their routine. She moved to Vancouver with him his rookie year and they’ve never looked back.

Here they were sitting on their bathroom floor together waiting for the two minute timer to go off. Her head was against her knees as he was staring blankly towards the floor. After a few scares they have had over the years, she’s kept a few pregnancy tests in their bathroom. They weren’t trying to get pregnant but after nine years together, they were becoming less and less careful.

She lifted her head, turning her gaze towards Quinn watching him count on his fingers. She furrowed her eyebrows harshly while taking in a sharp breath. “What are you doing?” she asked barely above a whisper.

He met her eye, before he had a chance to answer the timer went off. Quinn turned it off as he maintained eye contact. He took a deep breath, “Ready?” he asked barely above a whisper. She clenched her jaw as she continued looking into his gaze. She nodded very subtly and Quinn reached towards the counter. He took a hold of the test, keeping it face down.

His hands were shaking, she glanced down and took a hold of his hand holding the pregnancy test. He took a deep breath as she slowly pulled her hand away, he spun it around. Clear as day, it wrote Pregnant. It was impossible to miss. A gasp left her throat.

He lowered the test to the floor as a small smile formed to his lips, he shifted his gaze towards her. He saw the tears starting to fall from her eyes but the smile on her lips. “I didn’t think-” she trailed off while she turned and met his gaze. The smile on his lips and the nervous laughter that left his lips answered the question she had.

He leaned towards her wrapping his arms around her, he swallowed hard before he breathed out, “We’re having a baby.”

After a few seconds she pulled away, a harsh frown on her lips. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his hand delicately placed on her thigh.

“Oh god,” she muttered out, “The baby’s gonna be born right before playoffs, oh no,” she let out. Her breath began to quicken as she stood up from the floor. He watched her walk out of the bathroom. Quinn cleared his throat as he took a hold of the test, he stared towards the positive test. He took a deep breath as he stood up from the floor. He placed the test onto the counter as he followed her out of the bathroom.

“It’ll be fine, we’ll worry about it when it comes,” he expressed as found her pacing their bedroom. He stopped her by stepping in her path. He watched her lips quiver as she scanned his features. A smile formed onto his lips as he took a hold of her hips. “We’re having a baby,” he let out again as he looked deeply into her eyes.

“We’re having a baby,” she repeated as she quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, he lifted her up as he spun her slowly.

October

Their last appointment was too early to tell the sex of the baby and they didn’t want to make a huge deal on the reveal. It didn’t matter to them, they were going to be excited regardless. They were sitting in the lobby, praying that no one would recognize Quinn. They have yet to tell their families as they were worried it would be too early and something would go wrong.

It has been impossible not to say anything to his brothers. He speaks to Jack every day and it has almost slipped out of his mouth multiple times. When he did speak to Luke, he tried to leave him alone during his rookie year, he would nearly let it slip too.

Y/N struggled to keep it quiet from her parents since she called them at least once a day. They would always ask about what’s new in her life but she managed to keep it secret. Her sister on the other hand is the only other person that knows. Her sister, Isabella, was visiting the following week after they found out.

It was too early to mention the pregnancy as she was barely seven weeks along, she found out quite late. She had no idea how she was going to manage to keep it a secret from her sister for five days. Y/N was working the morning Isabella had landed in Vancouver. Which led to Quinn being the one to go pick her up and bring her back to the apartment. Which they were planning on moving out of.

Y/N always expressed how much she loved the apartment she was in. It was a one bedroom apartment with two bathrooms. It was perfect until they found out they were having a baby. They decided on moving into a bigger apartment suited for family life. It was evident that they were moving by the pile of boxes in the trunk of Quinn’s car and by the state of their apartment.

Quinn spent the whole drive avoiding the topic of what the use of the second bedroom would be. He kept saying that they were starting to get more people to visit and that’s why they needed a second bedroom. However, Isabella was completely convinced that Y/N was pregnant.

She was obviously right, but Quinn had explicit instructions to deny, deny, deny. Except Isabella was extremely nosey. Quinn was pulling out the coffee table, prepping the pull-out sofa for her to sleep on; when Isabella walked out of their bathroom.

“Are you going to keep lying to me or just tell me?” she questioned as she was holding the ziplock baggie that held two positive pregnancy tests. Quinn lifted his head, his mouth fell open. He chuckled dryly.

“You went through our drawers?” he let out a smirk on his lips.

“I forgot a toothbrush,” she said as she shook the baggy, “I was looking for a spare one!” she defended. Quinn stood up from the floor as he walked towards Isabella.

“You know, Y/N’s gonna kill me,” he mumbled as he took the baggy from her hand. He stared towards it, an instant smile formed to his lips. “We were going to wait to tell anyone until it was further along in the pregnancy,” he explained. He lifted his gaze as he met Isabella’s eye.

“How far long?” Isabella asked excitedly.

“We don’t know yet, we have a doctor’s appointment in a couple days. We’ve only known for a week,” he explained as the front door opened. Y/N jogged inside excitedly. A frown instantly appeared to her lips seeing Quinn holding the pregnancy tests and her sister standing right there. His eyes widened, “She went snooping!” he accused, childishly pointing a finger towards Isabella.

Isabella gasped as she smacked her hand lightly against Quinn’s arm.

Y/N rested her head nervously on Quinn’s shoulder. He leaned his head against her arm as he reached over and interlocked his hand with hers. “Isabella thinks we’re having a boy,” she whispered. He smiled softly as he ran his thumb across the top of her hand.

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he mumbled, “My mom gave up on having a girl after Lukey,” he let out a soft chuckle.

“My mom gave up on having a boy after Isabella,” she replied.

Before Quinn could reply the ultrasound tech stepped into the lobby with a clipboard in her hand. “Y/N Y/L/N.” the tech lifted her gaze to see Quinn sitting down. Her eyes widened slightly at that moment.

Y/N perked upward as her and Quinn both stood up and walked side by side to the back of the office. It took ten minutes before she was on the table, awaiting the freezing gel and the results of the scan. Quinn sat closely to her as he scanned her features. Y/N was staring towards the empty ultrasound screen as the gel was placed on her skin.

Quinn delicately leaned closer as the screen lit up, showing the gray image of the growing baby. The ultrasound tech smiled excitedly as she pointed towards the screen, “That’s your baby,” she said pointing a manicured finger along the outline of the baby.

Quinn smiled softly as he felt his breath caught in his throat. Your baby. It was still so hard to believe. Y/N kept a small smile as she watched the screen, her heart was beating quickly. It was getting more real every appointment.

Quinn squeezed Y/N’s hand, she shifted her gaze towards him. He winked towards her as she shifted her gaze back towards the screen.

It took another ten minutes before the doctor came in. He quickly sat down, rubbing hand sanitizer all over his hands as he smiled towards the pair.

“We’re just going to do a general check-up on how the baby is doing and are we finding out the sex of the baby today as well?” he asked. They both nodded excitedly. Y/N was always super nervous every time she was at the appointment. “Alright,” he let out as he pulled gloves on his hands as he rolled closer to the table.

Y/N held her breath as the doctor put more of the gel onto her growing bump. It took a few seconds before the screen popped up as the doctor rolled the wand over her stomach. It was silent as they stared towards the screen together. Quinn squeezed her hand as he shifted his gaze towards Y/N. He loved the joy on her face.

“Alright, healthy heartbeat. Healthy size for eighteen weeks and now I’m gonna check for the sex of the baby,” the doctor said while raising his eyebrows. Y/N held her breath as she tried to see what the doctor was seeing. Quinn kept his gaze on Y/N.

“Congratulations you are having a girl,” the doctor said as he shifted his gaze towards the pair. Quinn’s mouth fell open as a nervous laugh left his lips. Y/N pouted her lips as she began to tear up. She turned her head to meet Quinn’s gaze. The doctor quickly wiped the gel from her stomach, “We’ve got a few paperwork things that we have to file, but you guys will be out of here in a moment,” he said before he stepped out of the room.

Once they were alone, Quinn leaned towards her kissing her. He rested his hand onto her cheek, “Oh my god,” he mumbled against her lips.

It was becoming too real and too hard to keep secret from their families. They wanted to wait until his brothers and parents would be in town for the Hughes Bowl but it would be way too long by then.

Telling them over FaceTime was not ideal but they lived in a whole different country and timezone from their families. Y/N’s parents fell in love with Quinn the second she brought him home. Her mom was asking about baby names the second they moved in together. Her dad also loved Quinn because he didn’t have any sons of his own. In a way over the last nine years, he learned to love Quinn like a son.

“Why can’t we just wait until Christmas?” Y/N let out nervously. Quinn took a hold of the chair and pulled it closer to him, he shifted his frame to face her. He rested his hands onto her thighs.

“I think our parents would be sad that we didn’t tell them sooner, You’ll be-what- almost thirty weeks? They’ll be happy no matter how we tell them,” he comforted. She tilted her head to the side as she frowned slightly.

“I can’t hug my mom after telling her,” she mumbled. Quinn pouted as he ran his hand across the fabric of her pants.

“I know but they are all coming for Christmas, you can see her then,” he muttered, trying to be comforting but it was a difficult situation. His laptop began ringing, alerting them of a FaceTime call from her mother. He leaned towards her delicately kissing her cheek before he answered the FaceTime.

Tilted her head back, swallowing hard. “Hi guys! What’s going on?” her mother said excitedly. Her dad was standing behind her mother, resting his hands on the back of the chair. Her mother’s face fell, “Oh no, what’s wrong?”

“Oh nothing, we’re okay-great actually,” Quinn explained, knowing that Y/N was a bit paralyzed to speak. Her mother quite literally let out a sigh of relief. Quinn soothingly ran his hand up and down her lower back. He turned his gaze towards her and she kept staring blankly towards the screen. “Honey,” he whispered.

She blinked rapidly as she looked deeply into his eyes for a few seconds before she looked back towards the computer. Her mouth opened and shut for a few seconds before she met her mom’s gaze through the computer. She knew, she had to know already.

“We’re having a baby,” Y/N blurted out.

Her mother simply smiled as she began to cry, happily. Her dad leaned away from his grip on the chair. A smile on his face, he walked away. “Wow,” her mother let out.

Quinn pulled his lips between his teeth as he held his breath.

“How far long?” her mother questioned. Y/N’s lips quivered.

“Eighteen weeks, we wanted to wait until it was safer to say anything,”

“Oh of course, honey, this is incredible news!” her mother expressed as she covered her mouth with her hands. She stood up and turned around and hugged her husband. Y/N looked towards Quinn, teary eyed.

“Does Bella know?” her father asked as he walked towards the camera, his eyes were teary. She’s never seen her father cry, let alone happy tears.

Quinn started laughing nervously. “Isabella had a hunch when she came to visit and snooped around our apartment until she found proof,” Y/N explained as she stared towards the camera.

Her dad rolled his eyes, “Of course she did!”

They spoke on the phone for several more minutes, leaving out the sex of the baby. They still wanted to have a little announcement during Christmas. It was now Quinn’s turn and he was terrified. His parents loved Y/N and were happy that Quinn was happy. They probably would prefer they waited until they were married. But that was still a year or so down the line, too late now. Y/N didn’t want to get married until she was done with her degrees, she wanted her degrees to have her own last name. She wanted to take Quinn’s last name but she wanted her degrees to have her own name.

He took a hold of her chin, as they waited for his parents to call him. He turned her head towards him. He scanned her features before he leaned towards her, kissing her urgently.

“What was that?” she asked barely above a whisper as he pulled away. The laptop started to ring as his mother was calling him. He took a deep breath before he pecked her lips once more.

“Courage,” he muttered before he answered the call. He forced a smile towards the camera, Y/N smiled softly as she looped her arm around Quinn’s. She ran her fingertips along the inside of his palm. “Hi,” Quinn muttered out.

“You guys okay? This looks like a Zoom meeting,” Ellen let out, a small chuckle leaving her lips. Quinn let out a huff of air as he smiled.

“We’re really good, actually,” he mumbled. Y/N kept her gaze on Quinn, giving him encouragement. He swallowed hard as he took a deep breath.

“Then what’s going on?” she asked, a small smile on her lips. Jim nodded encouragingly as if he knew what the news was.

Quinn looked towards Y/N, she interlocked their fingers together as she nodded. “We’re having a baby,” he choked out as he shifted his gaze towards the screen. His parents' eyes went wide as they looked towards one another. “And we’re happy about it,” Quinn continued as he pressed his lips together.

Ellen quickly shifted her gaze towards her phone, a slow grin forming to her lips, “Why wouldn’t you be? This is amazing!” she let out before she set her phone down, turning and hugging Jim. He laughed excitedly.

“We’re having a grandbaby!” Jim let out excitedly.

Quinn shut his eyes as he let out a sigh of relief. Y/N tilted her head as she rested it onto Quinn’s shoulder. He leaned and kissed the top of her head as he shifted his gaze towards the screen.

“This is incredible, son,” Jim let out, “Have you told your brothers?” he questioned.

Quinn shook his head, “They are next on the list,” he mumbled.

They spoke on the phone for several more minutes before Quinn ended the call, afraid his father would tell his brothers before he got the chance to. Jack and Luke tend to ignore text messages so Quinn decided to simply call them and hope both of them were home.

“I’m a little shocked at how well this is going,” Y/N mumbled as she ran her hand through the ends of his hair while he turned his gaze towards her. “I just thought there would’ve been a lecture alongside the happiness,” she said with a dry laugh. Quinn rolled his eyes playfully.

“I was expecting the get married before the baby comes lecture,” he let out. She nodded along with him. “It’s still a little hard to believe that this is actually happening,” he expressed. She nodded as she rested her hand on her stomach.

“I know,” she mumbled, “She’s growing inside of me and I still feel like it isn’t real,” she let out. He smiled as he leaned towards her kissing her. She pulled away, resting her forehead against his, “Come on let’s tell your brothers,” she whispered.

He took a deep breath as he began calling Jack, who was more likely to pick up over Luke. Jack answered on the fourth ring. “Quinny!” he shouted in a long drawn out sing-song way. “What’s wrong? Oh shit, you guys didn’t break up did you?” Jack questioned as he sat up from his lying position on the couch.

“No, nothing like that. Is Luke home?” Quinn asked as he rested his hand on Y/N’s thigh.

“Lukey! Luke, come here!” Jack shouted. “He’s in his room,” he muttered.

“What?!” Luke asked, his voice rasped as he walked out of the room.

“Quinn and Y/N want to talk to us,” Jack expressed. Luke groaned as he stood behind Jack, getting into the view of the camera. His hair was messy as he was hidden in a hoodie.

“If you woke me up from my nap to tell me that you two are engaged then I’ll fucking kill you,” Luke rasped out as he leaned forward. Y/N laughed as she tilted her head back. Quinn rolled his eyes.

“See I thought they were telling us they broke up, he looked like he saw a ghost,” Jack tilted his head back as he met Luke’s gaze briefly.

“He always looks like that,” Luke pointed towards the screen. Quinn dropped his head as he rolled his eyes playfully.

“Okay, okay will you stop?” Quinn said while laughing. “We’re not engaged, we’re not breaking up. We’re-uh-” he paused as he met Y/N’s gaze for a second, “We’re having a baby,”

Jack’s mouth fell open as his eyes widened. Luke smiled widely as he leaned back, “See now that’s a reason to wake a man up,” he let out while laughing. “How long have you been keeping that a secret?” Luke questioned further.

“Since July,” Y/N let out.

“Quinn sucks at keeping secrets, how did you guys manage not to tell anyone?” Jack asked, laughing.

“How many times did I call you guys over the last few months?” Quinn let out laughing, “What like three times? That’s how I kept it a secret,”

“Can’t wait to be the cool uncle,” Luke muttered as he crossed his arms over his chest. Jack gasped dramatically.

“Yeah, right, that’s my job,” Jack scoffed. Quinn turned his gaze towards Y/N, rolling his eyes.

“What do you mean? You’re boring, man. That kid's gonna love Uncle Luke,” he said while pursing his lips forward.

“Oh please! I’m boring?! Have you heard anything come out of your mouth recently!”

“Quinn, who’s gonna be the cool uncle?” Luke asked as he leaned towards the camera.

“You can’t ask Quinn that, he’s biased, he likes you better than me,” Jack protested, “Y/N who’s the better, more handsome, more cool uncle?”

Y/N barked out a laugh, “I’m not answering that,” she rolled her eyes playfully, “We’ll let our baby decide who she likes better,” she paused, her eyes widened. Quinn shifted his gaze towards Y/N.

“No way, it's a girl?!” Luke asked excitedly.

“You didn’t hear that!” Quinn quickly let out. Luke shook his head while laughing. “Mom and Dad don’t know that part yet, you didn’t hear anything. Keep it to yourselves,” Quinn expressed as he kept his gaze on Y/N. She was on the verge of tears, with her pregnancy her hormones have been all over the place. Which led to her being more emotional than normal.

“Mom’s going to freak the fuck out,” Jack let out excitedly.

March

It was early, their daughter was coming two weeks early. Her parents were planning on flying in next week but here she was in the passenger seat of her best friend’s car, feeling as though she was about to give birth any minute. Which was entirely not true. Her water broke but she was nowhere near dilated where she needed to be. Her doctor told her to come in anyway since she was a little early before the due date.

She wasn’t quite sure on how to contact Quinn, he was in the middle of a game. Quinn gave her the equipment manager’s number in case something like this happened. She wanted to wait until she was at the hospital and actually admitted.

Riley, her best friend, parked the car as close to the entrance of the hospital as she could. She turned her body towards her. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell Quinn right now? It’s intermission, he can be here in like thirty minutes,” she offered, Y/N shook her head as she rested her hand on her large bump. A contraction started as she tilted her head back against the headrest. “Oh god that was like only seven minutes, I feel like that was fast. You should call him,” she expressed.

“Nope, not until I am in a bed,” she groaned as she unbuckled her seatbelt as she pushed the car door open. She carefully climbed out of the car, “This little girl can wait until her daddy is showered and done with his g-game,” she muttered as she started waddling towards the entrance of the hospital.

Riley quickly jumped out of the car and took a hold of the hospital bag. Locking the car she jogged towards Y/N. “Damn, you’re fast for a pregnant girl,” she muttered as she came side by side with her.

“I ran track in high school, what do you expect?” she mumbled out. Her phone began to vibrate in her pocket, it was her mom. She took a sharp breath as she brought her phone to her ear, “Hey Mom,”

“Hi sweetheart, how’s the baby?” her mother asked. She’s gotten to the point where every question is directed towards and about the baby.

“Actually my water broke and I’m at the hospital-” she let out, her mother gasped dramatically, “Quinn doesn’t know, he’s still playing-” she gasped again.

“There are no flights to Vancouver at this hour! Oh god-” her mother let out, teary-eyed.

“It’s okay, I promise we’ll be fine, I’ll call you and keep y-oh god-you posted,”

It had been only ten minutes before Y/N was placed in a room. She had simply sat down when Riley turned on the TV in the room, it showed the Canucks game. They were winning 4-o as they showed a goal that Quinn assisted on. “It’s safe to say that Quinn can leave the game,” Riley pointed towards the TV.

Y/N texted the equipment manager, alerting him of the situation. After a few seconds, the broadcast announced, “It looks like Quinn Hughes is not on the bench, once we get more information on that, we’ll let you know,” the camera showed the equipment manager talking with Quinn and him nodding.

He stared blankly towards the ice in front of him. He took a sharp breath as Tyler beside him nudged him excitedly. Quinn smiled as he spun off the bench and headed down the tunnel.

Y/N stood up from the bed as she walked towards the bathroom, carrying her required hospital gown she had to wear. She struggled to get her shirt and sweatpants off as another contraction was hitting her pretty hard. Another minute went by and she was completely covered in the hospital gown.

“They’re doing good, she wanted to wait until she had a room. She didn’t want to get turned away and then having you leave the game for no reason,” Riley explained on the phone. Y/N smiled towards Riley as she waddled out of the bathroom, “Here she is,” Riley mumbled as she handed the phone over to Y/N.

“Hey?! You alright? I’m showering real fast and I’ll be there or-or I can just leave now,” Quinn ranted, he sounded out of breath.

“I love you, I love you so much, please shower before you get here,” she said while laughing. Riley helped her sit down on the bed. Quinn laughed, “We’re good, we’re just waiting on the doctor, I have to call your parents before the broadcasters announce it,” she explained.

“Okay, yeah, yeah do that. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” he explained, “I love you,” he let out before he hung up the phone. She quickly dialed Ellen. She answered on the second ring.

“Is everything okay? Is the baby okay?” Ellen asked instantly. Y/N let out breath she was holding as she got comfortable on the bed, or at least as comfortable she could get.

“I’m in labor, but everything seems to be fine,” she explained, slightly out of breath.

“Oh my god, okay, we’ll try to get to Vancouver as soon as we can,” she expressed, “This is so exciting!” she expressed.

She shifted her gaze towards the screen, “It looks like Quinn Hughes is okay, great news actually. He had to leave the game early because he’s having a baby. Congratulations Captain!” the broadcasters announced. Y/N felt her heart beat as the words echoed in her mind.

“How are you doing?” she asked, a sob quickly climbed into Y/N’s throat.

She took in a sharp shaky breath as she looked towards Riley, a tear quickly fell on her cheek. “Terrified,” she mumbled out as her lips quivered.

“Oh honey, it’ll be okay. Quinn will be there with you soon, Your parents will be there. Jim and I will be there. You’re not alone, you guys are going to be okay,” Ellen comforted. Y/N nodded as her lower lip quivered.

“O-okay,” she let out.

“We love you, Y/N,” Ellen expressed.

“Love you guys too,” she let out before they ended the call. Riley quickly came to her side. Riley rested her hand on top of Y/N’s.

It took another forty-five minutes before Quinn jogged into the room. “Hey, I’m here, are you okay?” he asked as he quickly went straight to her bedside. She was gripping the side of the hospital bed.

“Yeah, I’m good-” she held her breath. Quinn looked towards Riley.

“The doctor said she’s about five centimeters dilated and that her contractions are getting stronger,” Riley said as she crossed her arms over her chest. Quinn smiled gratefully towards her. They didn’t discuss if Riley was allowed to be there but that was because it wasn’t a discussion. Riley and Y/N have been best friends since they were freshman in high school.

Riley moved to Vancouver after she graduated college, partly for Y/N and her job market.

“What can I do?” he asked Y/N as she slowly loosened her grip and opened her eyes, meeting his gaze. She took a deep breath as her lips quivered.

“Hold me,” she let out barely above a whisper.

“Okay,” he quickly climbed beside her inside the bed, not a single ounce of hesitation. He adjusted carefully not to lie on any wires or in any way that could mess up anything. He pressed his lips against her forehead as he looped his arms around her body, letting her snuggle up against him.

Riley smiled softly as she walked out of the room, giving them their privacy for a while.

He ran his fingers through her hair soothingly, as he periodically pressed his lips against her forehead.

It took twelve hours.

Twelve hours before their daughter was born. Both of their parents were able to be there. Not in the room, but they were there for emotional support. On March 10th at 9:37 AM, their daughter was born.

It was only her and Quinn in the room with all of the doctors and nurses. Their daughter screamed loudly after she was born. She was placed on Y/N’s chest. She was shaking from adrenaline but the second her eyes landed on her daughter it felt like everything was right.

The second she was laid on Y/N’s chest, she had stopped crying. Stirring slightly as Quinn delicately and nervously ran his hand along the small head of his daughter.

It took about an hour after the birth before Quinn even left the room. Y/N was asleep, reluctantly but her body craved it. Their daughter was asleep in the small hospital bed they provided for her. Quinn walked into the lobby to see his parents and her parents. He smiled widely once he met his mom’s eyes.

“She’s here,” he muttered out. Ellen stood up and instantly hugged her son. They all excitedly shot up from their seats. “I was waiting until they fell asleep, Y/N’s exhausted,” he mumbled as he pulled away. He began cycling through hugs between each person.

“How are you doing?” Y/N’s mom asked. Quinn shook his head slowly as he let out a long breath.

“I’m just happy,” he said as he crossed his arms over his chest, “Tired but my girls are more important,” he let out.

Jim engulfed his son in a huge hug. “So proud of you,” he mumbled into his ear. Quinn pulled away as he pressed his lips together.

“Do you guys have a name?” Y/N’s dad asked. Quinn smiled widely as he nodded.

“Elliana, we’re going to call her Ellie,” he explained.

“Oh your brothers are calling!” Ellen said excitedly. She handed her phone over to Quinn quickly. Quinn answered the call. Both Jack and Luke were fighting for more of the camera view. Their eyes lit up once they saw Quinn.

“Can we call you Daddy yet?!” Jack let out. The entire room started laughing, even people who didn't know the family started laughing.

“Please don’t,” he let out, shaking his head. “But yes, your niece is here,” he explained. Both Luke and Jack smiled widely.

“Oh man that’s amazing,” Luke let out, his voice breaking.

“Are you crying?” Jack asked. Luke shook his head while tilting his head back.

“We’ve got a tiny little niece, dude, this is crazy. We can’t even meet her for a while,” Luke let out. Quinn pouted, sad that his brother’s weren’t able to come see him and his beautiful little girl.

“The second the season is done, you boys are coming to meet her,” Quinn said teary eyed.

May

Quinn was exhausted to say the least but he would never change a single thing. His parents and Y/N’s parents were staying at an AirBnB close by to help with the baby when Quinn was away on road games.

Jack was back in Michigan recovering from his surgery while Luke was away on the Men’s World’s tournament. It didn’t stop either of them from calling Y/N every day to see their niece. Neither of them have been able to meet her yet, it was tearing them apart.

“How has it been with playoffs and having a newborn at home?” the interviewer asked. Quinn's eyes lit up at the mention of his daughter.

“It’s been a lot. I would love to be home with her every chance I could get but unfortunately that’s just not how the timing panned out,” he let out a dry chuckle, “She’s still so tiny so it breaks my heart that I can’t be with her all the time. But hopefully things go our way and it’ll all be worth it,” he explained.

“Thanks Quinn,” they all collectively said as they walked away from him with their microphones. Quinn stood up quickly as he began walking out of the locker room, his mind preoccupied with seeing his little girl.

It was hard to manage focusing on the playoffs and the fact that he was a new father. But Y/N was so strong through the whole process.

He drove home quickly. He was fast out of his car and into his apartment building. He cautiously stepped inside, not wanting to wake her if she was asleep. Y/N was sitting on the couch, folding some laundry. “Hey gorgeous,” he mumbled as he quietly locked the door. She smiled towards him as she lifted her gaze.

“Hey captain, how was morning skate?” she asked teasingly. He rolled his eyes playfully as he walked towards the couch and sat down directly behind her. He looped his arm around her waist, pulling her towards him.

“It was good, nothing too crazy,” he whispered as he pressed his lips on her jawline. She giggled as she leaned her body against his chest. “How are you, my love?” he asked as he ran his hand across her stomach.

“I’m okay, napped for a bit while your mom and dad were here this morning, Ellie is still sleeping. I feel like your mom has some magic touch or something,” she explained as she ran her hand across the top of his.

He chuckled as he pressed his lips against her shoulder, “If you want to sleep longer, I can do this while you go sleep,” he offered.

She shook her head as she tilted her head back against his shoulder. “Nope, this is perfect. I miss you,” she mumbled. She tilted her head to the side as Quinn tilted his gaze towards her. He scanned her features, knowing she was exhausted but listened regardless. He leaned towards her, kissing her urgently. He took a hold of her cheek, holding her in place.

Suddenly the baby monitor sounded, Ellie was crying. She pulled away chuckling, “She always has perfect timing,” she mumbled against his lips. He pecked her lips quickly before he slipped away from his grasp on Y/N.

“She does, doesn’t she?” he let out, “I got her,” he mumbled before he wandered down the hall towards the nursery. He slowly pushed inside the room, the loud cries quite literally making his heart break. “Oh darling, it’s okay,” Quinn let out quietly as he walked towards the crib, slowly reaching down and picking her up. As soon as Quinn held her, she was soothed.

Quinn smiled towards his little girl, admiring the light color eyes and soft sound of her breathing. “You just wanted attention, huh?” he let out as he slowly walked towards the rocking chair. He cautiously sat down, staring into his little girl’s eyes. “That’s okay, Momma can wait,” he whispered, a soft laugh leaving his throat.

He slowly continued rocking in the chair, staring down at his little girl. She looked a lot like Y/N but she had his eyes. She was beautiful. “Quinn,” Y/N mumbled from the door. Quinn lifted his gaze, smiling softly towards her. Oblivious to Y/N standing there, he had no idea how long she was there.

“Hi gorgeous,” he whispered. She grinned as she tilted her head against the door frame, “We did a good job, didn’t we?” he asked, shifting his gaze back to his little girl.

725 notes · View notes

cascadiaoffers · 6 months ago

Text

#Home Selling #sell my home for cash #sell my home fast for cash #sell my house fast #sell my house fast Washington #we buy houses Vancouver #sell my house without a realtor #need to sell my house fast

1 note · View note

puckinghischier · 7 months ago

Text

Hat Trick

Nico Hischier x fem!reader, Jack Hughes x platonic!reader, Luke Hughes x platonic!reader

summary: part 4 of the locksmith series! reader attends her first ever devil’s hockey game, and leaves a few pucks richer than when she came

notes: y’all i think this is my favorite part of this lil series so far. i literally wrote this in one sitting. i’m so happy with how it turned out. i hope you are too!! happy reading!! 🫶🏼

[6k]

part 1, part 2, part 3

You’ve been to a lot of Hughes centered hockey games in your life. You’ve been to watch both Quinn and Luke play during their time in Michigan, and you’ve been to watch several of Jack’s minor league games when you were teenagers.

Though somehow, despite how long you’ve been intertwined with the hockey breathing family, you had never been to a professional game. You talked about making a trip to Vancouver with your family at some point to watch Quinn, but it never worked out with your school schedule. You wanted to come watch Jack with the Devils a few times, too, but the plans always fell through.

You wish you’d tried harder right about now, because walking into the Prudential center, red and black everywhere you look, you’re a little overwhelmed.

Jack had told you exactly where to go and who to call if you got lost, but getting there wasn’t the issue. Finally having your car with you helped with that, considering it was delivered just yesterday. The company that you hired to haul your car to you had gotten the date of your move wrong, so you had been depending on Jack and Luke for rides anywhere outside of walking distance.

Today, though, they were needed at the rink far earlier than you would’ve been allowed in. And, in true superstitious hockey player fashion, they claim they can’t ride to the rink together for home games because the last time they did they lost the game. So, you were extremely excited when you got the call that your car had just been parked outside of the apartment complex the day before.

You had found the arena just fine, leaving your car with the valet Jack had told you to go to. You had gone to the entrance designated for friends and family of the players, flashing the locker room pass Jack had given you, and even managed to find your way to the public areas of the arena by yourself.

The issue you had run in to stems from the fact that not only had you never attended an NHL game before, but you had never attended an NHL game alone.

Even though you blended in with the crowd outwardly, donning a devil’s jersey like everyone else, you were way out of your element. Usually at the boys’ games you had Ellen and Jim with you, or your own parents. They always made you feel like you belonged a little more, because they would explain certain fan behavior to you.

You knew all you had to do was simply sit and watch the game, but with the energy being so chaotic leading to the rivalry game, you knew that the fans were going to be absolutely buzzing. People were walking past you, jumping in front of you for high-fives and fist bumps, yelling “GO DEVS!” before walking away like nothing had ever happened. You didn’t miss the occasional dirty look from anyone in a blue Rangers jersey, either.

When you had first made your way to the foyer area at the front of the arena, you had already seen security having to separate a Devils fan and a Rangers fan. They had been screaming at one another over something that you couldn’t make out when the Rangers fan slammed his fist into the Devils fan’s cheek.

The scene made you a little apprehensive about how the game was going to go. You knew this was one of the biggest rivalries that existed in the hockey world, and you had read that the Rangers had a tendency to play extremely physical, so you were nervous for all of the Devils players you were growing fond of.

You eventually make your way to your seat, but not before going full fan mode and buying a foam finger at one of the many merchandise stands you passed on your way. You thought Jack and Luke would get a kick out of it, figuring you’d need all the help you could get after they see what you’re wearing.

You kept your promise to Nico, currently sporting the number 13 on your back. You felt a little silly, honestly. You had never not worn a Hughes jersey to a hockey game before; you always wore the jersey of whatever brother you were watching, even if you had to buy one. But the conversation you had with Nico a few nights prior kept playing on a loop in your mind. The promise of a hat trick was too tempting to miss out on. Plus, even if he didn’t get a hatty, you knew you’d have the chance to make him do anything you wanted him to.

As you walk down the stairs towards your seat, foam finger on display proudly, you take in the pure atmosphere of the place. The arena looked huge from where you stood, lights dimmed and a red shadow cast over everything in sight. Not many people had made their way into the seating area yet, but there were a few fans bunched around the glass, waiting for the players to come out and start their warm ups.

You were pleasantly surprised when you found your seat free of any bodies, being able to settle in and wait for the arrival of the players on the ice. As the minutes ticked by, a few people made their way to your area, smiles and chants of ‘go Devils!’ once again filling the air around you.

You could see why people enjoyed coming to games so much. The sense of community was so strong in this building. Everyone was here to support the same cause, one goal in mind: a Devils win. You started to survey all the signs that fans had brought, setting them up against the glass for the players to see. Some of them had clever saying or riddles on them, some simply reading “puck?” with their favorite player’s number on it.

You also noted how many people were wearing Jack and Luke’s last name on their back. Even as you were driving up to the arena, you noticed the large presence of 86’s and 43’s surrounding you. It was odd, really, to see how many people were supporting your boys. It made your heart swell with pride, a little bit. To physically see the amount of people that believe in them the way you always have was enough to sell you on attending every Devils game from here until the end of time.

The newfound knowledge also further calmed your nerves surrounding your decision of wearing Nico’s jersey tonight. You had seen plenty of number 13’s floating around in the crowd, too, but Jack and Luke clearly had no lack of fan support.

The sound of pucks hitting the ice is what broke your attention from observing the people around you. You instantly clocked Luke’s curls, finding Jack not far from where Luke had settled on the ice. You looked around, trying to find a familiar head of brown hair you hadn’t seen nearly enough. Was he not warming up today? Was he okay? Did Luke actually hurt him the other day and he wasn’t playing today?

You don’t remember either of your roommates mentioning that their captain was hurt. That’s something they would’ve mentioned at least once, right? You continue to scan the ice for any sign of the Swiss man you couldn’t get off of your mind, not paying attention when Jack started skating in your direction. A loud bang on the glass in front of you was what finally broke your investigation.

“You’re here!” Jack yells through the glass at you, ignoring all the shouts of his name from the people standing around you.

“I told you I wasn’t going to miss it!” you shouted back, wondering if he could even hear you in the noisy environment.

Movement behind Jack caught your eye, Luke making his way over to stand next to his brother, causing an entirely new wave of sound to erupt around you.

“Bouy! You made it!” Luke shares his brother’s surprise, eyes flitting down to the jersey you’re wearing, noticing the black C that neither his nor Jack’s jersey had.

“Did you guys really have no faith I would show up tonight? Am I that bad of a friend?” you ask them, wondering why they thought you would be a no-show.

“Know it isn’t your scene, is all,” Jack shouts back, shrugging his shoulders, smile on his face.

“Uh-uh, it is now. Look, I even bought a foam finger! I’m legit, now!” you wave your newest Devils merch around.

They both shake their heads and laugh, your eyes wandering to the ice behind them once again.

“Who ya looking for, huh?” Luke is the one to notice they no longer held your attention, turning his head to look at his teammates warming up behind them.

“Oh, no one. Just, taking it all in,” you try to recover. Luke simply looks at you, the moment he caught you staring at Nico in your living room in the back of his mind.

“It’s awesome, right? I’m telling you, you’ll be wanting to come to every home game by the end of the night. There’s nothing like a Devils home game,” Jack tells you, oblivious to Luke’s implications moments ago.

Jack must have decided it was time to acknowledge some of the fans around you, skating off after he finishes his statement.

“He’ll be out in a minute, just so you know. Got hung up in a pre-game interview,” Luke’s muffled voice travels through the glass.

“Huh? Who? What’re you talking about?” you look at him, confusion taking over your features.

Luke deadpans at you, basically telling you to cut the bullshit. “You know who, Y/N.”

“Really, don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m here for you and Jack, remember?” you remind him.

“Yeah? Then why do you have Cap’s jersey on?” Luke questions, raising an eyebrow at you.

Your head shoots down to look at the jersey you were wearing, cheeks turning red. You had almost forgotten you were even wearing it, too distracted by the atmosphere around you.

“Don’t think you’re getting away with that, by the way. He’ll be getting an earful once he gets out here, don’t you worry. And god help him when Jack finally notices. Might be the first time a player gets a penalty against his own teammate,” Luke continues, looking over to where Jack is chucking pucks over the ice a few feet away.

“It was Nico’s idea. Said he wanted to mess with you guys, is all. Then said if I wore it he would score a hat trick, and if he didn’t he owed me a favor of my choosing. Figured it’d be fun to mess with him and make him do some outrageous task. You know I never miss the opportunity to get under yours and Jack’s skin, either. Couldn’t resist the offer,” you confess.

Luke rolls his eyes, not wanting to call bullshit out here in the open like this, deciding to save the rest of the conversation for when you get home tonight.

You were going to respond, try to further plead your case, when you see a blur of red jump onto the ice from over near the Devils’ bench. Any attention you had granted to Luke was gone, watching a much anticipated head of hair flopping around as Nico does a few circles on the ice. You watch him wave to a few fans around the glass, conversing with a few of his teammates as he made his way around the ice.

Luke watches you follow Nico’s figure glide around on the ice, laughing to himself at how you were just trying to convince him you weren’t looking for anyone.

“I think I’ve proved my point,” you barely hear as Luke starts to skate away, noticing his captain skating over towards your section of the glass.

You’ve tuned out the shouts of Nico’s name around you as he makes eye contact with you, skating towards you with a smile.

“Hey! You’re here!” he winks at you, parroting Jack and Luke’s words. “And I see you chose the right jersey!” he lets his eyes fall to the jersey swallowing your body, eyes a bit bright than they were a few seconds ago.

“Why did no one think I was going to show up?” you huff out, throwing your arms up, foam finger still attached to your hand.

“Jack and Luke were convinced you’d bail because of your aversion to hockey crowds. But I see you’ve made yourself right at home,” he chuckles, nodding towards the foam finger.

“Well, yeah. Had to make myself official, y’know?” you give the foam accessory a small wave.

Nico laughs, sliding his feet back and forth in short strokes, planting his stick on the ice for stability.

“You ready to score that hat trick you promised, Cap?” you shout to him, crossing your arms in a challenging stance.

“Never been more ready in my life, Bouy,” Nico smirks.

“If you keep using that nickname I won’t be so nice in choosing a favor for you to do when you don’t score your hatty,” you threaten, hating that Jack introduced the nickname to Nico in the first place.

“Oh, I’m gonna score that hatty,” he moves closer to the glass, making sure you can hear him. “My good luck charm did exactly what I asked her to do, so I’d say my chances are pretty solid.”

You’re so focused on Nico’s words that you completely miss Jack making his way back over to your area, slapping Nico on the back once he reaches his destination.

“Hey, Cap! ‘Bout time you made it out here. Was starting to wonder if someone was going to have to come and save you.”

Nico removes his eyes from your flushed face, turning to chat with Jack as you’re left speechless.

You miss the rest of their conversation, too caught up in Nico calling you his good luck charm. You were entering very dangerous territory, here. Every conversation you have with the man bringing you farther and farther into a rabbit hole you might not be able to climb back out of.

On top of being stunned, you’re also confused. You’ve overheard Luke and Jack talk about Nico’s interactions with women. The amount of times they’ve poked fun at his obliviousness to women’s advances not forgotten. Or the way they claim he’s too focused on his career to think about anything other than hockey. You remember one story Jack told of Nico completely misreading a conversation with a woman at the bar, begging Jack to take him home after he all but ran away from the woman, claiming a stomach ache when she tried to coax him into an uber.

So, what was different about you? He clearly had no issues with casually sliding in comments that, although you try to convince yourself otherwise, are naturally flirtatious in their nature. When you let your eyes wander you notice Luke watching the interaction. He follows the way Nico’s gaze flicks over to you every few seconds, even though he’s in the middle of a conversation with Jack. Luke meets your eyes and gives you look you can’t decipher.

“Y/N, what the fuck are you wearing?” you hear Jack’s voice, snapping your head to look at his face, his eyes focused on the black C on the upper left side of the jersey you’re wearing.

“A…jersey?” you answer apprehensively.

“Yeah, I can see that. But why do you have on Neeks’ jersey, specifically?” He asks you, but looks at the player standing next to him.

“Guess she decided the better jersey wasn’t even in the Hughes family at all,” Nico references the argument Jack and Luke were having days prior.

Jack looks back at you, expecting an explanation from you. You open your mouth a few times to answer, but the reasoning of ‘I just wore it to get under your skin’ doesn’t seem appropriate when you can see the underlying anger on his face.

“You know what, I don’t have time for this. I need to actually warm up, but this conversation isn’t over,” Jack shoots to two of you a glare before skating away, huffing like a little kid.

“I knew he would get mad!” you point an accusing (foam) finger at Nico.

“Don’t worry, he’ll get over it. It’s just one game.”

“Well I’ll let you handle this then, mr. nonchalant. It was your idea, it’s your bomb to diffuse,” you wipe your hands of the situation.

“Gladly,” Nico flashes you a smile. “By the way, heads up,” he warns you before chucking a puck over the glass, watching it land on the ground beside you. You bend over to pick it up, noticing the writing on the back.

You read the scribble of “hatty” followed by the date and Nico’s signature in silver marker, looking up to see him skating off with a wink.

———————————————————————————

After you watched Jack throw his fit about you wearing Nico’s jersey from afar, earning nothing but a laugh from the jersey owner himself, they both skated away from each other to start actually warming up for the game ahead. You noticed Jack kept glaring at Nico, shoulder checking him a few times for good measure. Jack wouldn’t even look over at you, earning a pout from you when you made eye contact with Luke, begging him to do something to make Jack love you again.

Luke just shrugged at you as if to say “told you so,” choosing to focus on his warm ups instead. As the players left the ice to prepare for puck drop, you watched Jack finally look over to you, sporting a glare and giving a shake of his head before he disappeared from your view.

Even after the game started, you could still feel Jack’s pouting from where you sat. He was hesitant to pass the puck to Nico, costing them a few chances at goals. You cursed him every time, worried that this would’ve happened. You don’t know what was said, but during one of the tv timeouts, Nico skated over to Jack and all you could see was a finger poking out to jab Jack in the chest. Jack’s face grew more and more unimpressed as the conversation went on, but ultimately Jack nodded and skated off, rolling his eyes when he looked over to you.

For the rest of the period, you noticed Jack was better about passing the puck, no longer alienating Nico from his plays. He was still mad, though. You could see it in his body language and how he was playing rougher than he normally does. As soon as the first period was over, you were out of your seat and making your way down to the locker rooms. You flashed your pass and waited patiently after you asked someone to go fetch Jack for you, claiming it was an emergency.

Jack comes walking out of the locker room into the hallway, towel around his neck, jersey left behind.

“Okay, get it all out now, or so help me god I’ll jump onto that ice and beat some sense into you,” you tell him, wanting him to get all of his anger out of his system.

“You always wear one of our jersey’s, Y/N. Always. This is your first time watching me and Luke in a professional game, and you’re wearing someone else’s jersey?” Jack asks you, a small bit of hurt showing on his face.

“Jack, it was a joke. A last minute plan between the two of us. We thought it’d be funny since you and Luke were arguing about it,” you tell him, feeling a little bad that he genuinely seems hurt. “Plus, I didn’t really want to choose between you and Luke. It was hard. I had all three jerseys laying on my bed earlier, and I just couldn’t choose between the two of you.”

“I still don’t like that you wore someone else’s jersey,” Jack grumbles.

“It’s just one game, Jack, it’ll be fine. I promise this isn’t going to become a habit,” you assure him, reaching up to ruffle his hair, regretting your decision when you feel how sweaty it is.

“You sure about that?” Jack asks you, catching you off guard.

“What?”

“Oh c’mon, Y/N,” Jack starts, dropping his arms to his sides. “Don’t act like you haven’t been staring at him the whole game.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” you feel your cheeks heating.

“You can’t lie to me, remember? Know you too well,” he tells you, reminding you he’s always been able to tell when you’re caught in a lie.

“I mean…maybe I’ve been watching him. So what? He’s your friend, Jack. Not to mention our neighbor and the only teammate of yours I really know,” you try to justify.

“Bullshit. You’re into him.”

“No, I’m not!” you say too quickly, your voice going up in pitch, causing you to clear your throat. The sudden change in conversation came out of nowhere, causing your brain to short circuit.

“Oh yeah? Then why do you ask about him every time Luke and I mention practice, or our jobs in general? Why do you always ask us if Nico made it home when we get home from practice? Or when you spent basically the whole night talking to him at the bar your first night here?” Jack asks you, waiting for your answers.

“I- I don’t ask about him that much,” you say, trying to retrace your conversations with Jack and Luke. Maybe you do ask about him more than you thought. “And I spent the night at the bar being shuffled around from table to table, which you did!” you remind him, having felt like you were speed dating, but platonically.

“When I came to get you to leave you were completely alone with him in a dark corner of the bar,” Jack throws back at you.

“He came and found me. I was on the phone with my mom and he decided to come check on me. I had nothing to do with that,” you defend.

Jack still doesn’t look convinced, crossing his arms once again, tilting his head towards you. “Listen, I’m not trying to start an argument. You know how I feel about having a thing for my teammates. But, out of all the guys on the team, I guess you could’ve done worse.”

You open your mouth to respond, trying to defend yourself once again, but Jack interrupts you before you can get a word out.

“Listen, none of this is really important right now. We can talk about it when I’m not in the middle of a game, but I still don’t really like that you wore his jersey instead of mine or Luke’s,” he circles back to the original conversation. “I mean, you’ve known him for like, two weeks. Joke or not. You know what people think when you wear someone’s jersey, right?”

“It’s not like that, I swear. And it’s not like I’m the only one here wearing his jersey, Jack,” you tell him.

“I know, but I’m just telling you to be careful. Nico’s a good guy, but he’s also a professional hockey player. He’s going to have…admirers. And once they see that you’re actually close to the team and his jersey is the one you’re sporting, things could get messy,” Jack warns you.

You stood there for a few moments, trying to figure out how the conversation even led to what it is. You know Jack is just trying to watch out for you, but he’s jumping to conclusions way too soon. It’s one game, and no one even knows who you are. Plus, it’s a harmless joke. It’s not like you’re wearing his jersey for any other reason.

“Thanks, Jack, really. But I assure you, I only wore it because he suggested it. He wanted to pick fun at you and Luke, that’s it. I’m sure he’ll tell the same story if asked about it,” you reiterated, trying to reassure him.

“Wait, he asked you to wear his jersey?”Jack asks you, surprise in his eyes.

“Yeah, he asked me to wear it to poke fun at the two of you. Then told me he’d score a hat trick if I agreed to wear it, so I did. Thought it’d be fun to see,” you shrugged, not seeing the big deal.

“So, he wanted you to wear his jersey and he promised to score a hatty if you did?” You nod at Jack’s echo of your words.

Jack stares at you, looking like he wants to say something but decides against it. The look on his face has you wondering if he knows something you don’t. You decided to let it go, though, and shoo him back into the locker room.

“Alright, talk over. Go back in there and get ready, you have some Rags to beat!” you push him away from you. You hear him laugh as you walk away, thinking about the conversation the whole way back to your seat.

———————————————————————————

Shit. He actually did it. He scored a fucking hat trick. The crowd goes absolutely wild when Nico’s shot sails straight into the goal as the buzzer sounds, signaling the end of the game. You jump up from your seat, screaming as loud as you can with the crowd around you. You bang against the glass, cheering for Nico as he celebrates with his teammates.

Once he breaks away from the group hug, he skates right over to you, pointing a gloved finger in your direction. You flash him a huge smile, not even caring that you lost whatever bet – if you could even call it that – you had going on with Nico. You were too high on the atmosphere. The goal causing the Devils to win in the last second, ego a little inflated at the thought that you could’ve contributed to it.

After the players left the ice and the crowd started to disperse a bit, you slowly made your way back down to the locker room, having been told to wait there after the game by Jack. You took in the sight of the happy fans milling about the arena, soaking in the energy for a little bit longer. You didn’t realize just how much you were soaking it in until you realized the time, figuring the guys would be changed and ready to go any minute.

As you were walking down the hallway to where other friends and family of the team gathered, you felt a harsh contact with your shoulder. It flung your body back, nearly making you lose your balance until you caught yourself at the last second.

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you,” you said, knowing it wasn’t your fault, but apologizing anyways.

“Obviously,” you heard a deep voice say, a man in a blue Rangers jersey standing across from you, rolling his eyes.

“Well, no need to be rude about it. You bumped in to me, y’know,” you grumbled out, a little pissed as the man’s response after you apologized first.

“Watch it, bitch. Just cause your shitshow of a team won tonight doesn’t mean you’re truly better than us. Just wait till next game. We’ll smoke your asses,” he spits out at you, letting you smell the alcohol on his hot breath.

“What the hell does the game have to do with you bumping in to me? The two are completely unrelated,” you question, stepping back and scrunching your nose at the foul smell.

“Keep talking, bitch, and I’ll show you just how bad we can beat the Devils asses,” the man steps forward, stumbling a bit before correcting himself.

“Alright, chill out. It’s just a game, buddy,” you back up against the wall next to you, trying to put some distance between you and him.

“God, why do you puck bunnies never shut the fuck up? I literally told you to stop talking, what part of that don’t you understand?” he backs you up even further, not leaving much room for you to make an escape.

“Technically you told me to keep talking,” you say before you can think better of it.

The man basically growls at you raising his hand back. To do what, you never find out, because a voice brings him back to reality, making him seem to remember he’s in public.

“I suggest you drop your hand and step away.”

The man’s head whips around, looking behind him. Once he steps back from you slightly, you make your escape, removing yourself from the wall.

You see Nico standing a few feet away from you, a grey suit on his body, his hair covered by a cream color beanie.

“Oh, how convenient. Captain to the rescue,” the guy slurs, turning his body to fully face Nico.

“Do I need to call security or are you going to be smart and get the fuck out of my arena?” Nico spits, surprising you with his harshness.

“Whatever. I’m going. Don’t be so dramatic. The puck bunny started it, anyways,” the man waves you off, stumbling away without a glance back.

Nico watches him walk away, stepping towards you the second the man is out of view.

“Are you okay? Did he do anything to you? Do I need to go get security?” He fires off questions, concern present in his brown eyes.

“No, I’m fine. He bumped into me then started spewing some bullshit about the game. I asked him how the two were related and he just kept talking about how he was gonna show me how ‘we can really beat the Devils asses’,” you put up air quotes.

“Are you sure?” his eyes continue to look you up and down, darting across your face to check for any sign showing you weren’t okay.

“Really, it’s fine. He didn’t do anything. Thank you, though. For scaring him away,” you assure him, causing him to relax.

“Of course. Seems to be a pattern, after all. Me running to your rescue,” he references your previous encounters. Letting you into your apartment, getting the bartender’s attention so you could order a drink that same night, his help when you were making dinner just a few nights ago. He really did always show up when you needed help.

You look up at him with a smile. “My very own knight in shining armor.”

He bows dramatically. “M’lady.”

You laugh at the action, causing Nico to join in.

“So I guess I owe you a congratulations, huh?” you ask after your laughter dies down.

Nico beams at you, pulling a stack of three pucks out of the bag slung over his shoulder, the tape they’re held together by reading ‘hat trick”. He holds them out towards you, signaling you to grab them.

“Here, they’re yours. You’re the reason I got them, after all,” he tells you, placing the pucks into your hand.

“I don’t think I had anything to do with it,” you look at your hand before looking back up at Nico.

“Sure you did. I told you if you wore the jersey I’d score one. And you did. And then I scored three goals. I told you, you’re my goodluck charm,” he smiles at you, shrugging like a hat trick was no big deal.

You roll your eyes at him, trying to fight a smile. “Sure, whatever you say, Cap.”

He chuckles at your sarcasm, shaking his head at you.

“Guess I need to pocket that ridiculous favor I had in mind, then,” you tell him, toying with the pucks, thinking about how he gave you four different ones tonight.

“I’m sure you can save it for future use. Think you’ll be able to cash it in sooner than you think,” he tells you, a confused look on your face.

“You won, though. I wore the jersey, you scored three goals. That was the whole thing,” you remind him, not knowing where he was going with his statement.

“You never asked me what I got if I did score a hatty.”

You were taken aback by his words, not realizing that was part of the deal. “Okay…well, what do you get, then?”

“You have to do me a favor,” he tells you, grin on his face.

You furrow your brows, confused. “I thought the whole point of my end of the deal was because I already did you a favor?”

“You did. But now I get to ask you for another one,” he rocks back on his heels, way too giddy about the situation.

You look at him, a little scared at what he has planned. He just continues to look at you, his shit-eating grin still extremely present.

“Okay…what is it?” you ask him, getting impatient.

“Oh, I’m not telling you yet. I’ll cash it in when I’m ready,” He replies, amused at the unamused look on your face.

“Seriously? You’re not going to tell me what cruel fate you’re subjecting me to?”

You hear the voices of Jack and Luke echoing through the hallway on the other end of the room. You turn your head away from Nico, watching the two brothers make their way towards you, lost in their own conversation.

“All in due time, dear Bouy,” Nico says, taking a step back from you.

Your distaste for the nickname shows on your face, causing Nico’s eyes to twinkle, loving how mad you get over the silly name he still hasn’t learned the origin of.

“Whatever. Keep it to yourself, then. I don’t care,” you lie.

“Have a good night. See you soon,” Nico says with a wink, turning to walk in the direction of Jack and Luke, giving them a wave as he passes them. Both of them look up and notice you standing where he just came from, turning to look at each other with raised eyebrows.

You look down at the pucks in your hand once more, looking at the emblem on top noting what game and date they were from. When you look at the bottom of the last puck, you catch a streak of silver reflecting off of the fluorescent lights in the hallway. Turning it completely upside down, you make out the 9 digits of a phone number scribbled along the bottom, matching the handwriting of the words and signature on the first puck Nico gave you that night.

“Hey, ready to go? We’re starving. Luke wants waffles so we’re going to meet a few of the guys at a diner not far from the apartment, you want go?” Jack asks as the two approach you.

You don’t respond, too stuck on the fact that Nico gave you his phone number on the bottom of his hat trick pucks. You’re impressed at how smooth it was, but also freaking out and trying not to jump to conclusions. It’s just a phone number. It could mean nothing. Maybe he just wanted you to have it because you’re neighbors? Or because you’re so close with Jack and Luke. Maybe he wanted you to have it for emergencies.

“Hello, earth to Y/N. You good?” Luke snaps you out of your trance. You bring the pucks down to press the bottom against your leg, hiding the phone number from your roommates.

“What? Yeah. I’m fine. Great. Perfect.”

“Okay…” Jack trails off, giving you a suspicious look. “So, yes or no to the waffles?”

“Oh my god, yes. The answer to waffles is always yes,” you say excitedly.

“Okay then, let’s go. Some of the guys are already there. I’ll drive,” Jack laughs at you, walking towards the exit leading to where the players park.

“Shotgun!” Luke yells out, turning back to see your reaction to the competition that was so fierce when you were kids.

Your mind is once again on the pucks in your hands, and the player that gave them to you. You look at the numbers again, deciding the boys were far enough ahead for you to safely sneak a peek, wanting to make sure they were actually there and you weren’t seeing things. Your earlier conversation with Jack making its way back to the front of your mind, wondering if maybe Jack’s concern is relevant.

Luke just smiles and shakes his head, remembering watching his captain frantically ask around for a sharpie in the locker room, writing something on the exact set of pucks you now have in your hands before bolting from the room like a man on a mission.

662 notes · View notes