#Lydia’s friends: Celly

[puckmaidens]

Lydia 🤝 Celly

Reblogging the same ask memes because we’re bored

[puckmaidens]

And now I’m in tears 😭 gm everyone

;; Drops of Jupiter 500 Follower Celebration

Summary: Jake struggles through your absence as you are out on a journey of self-discovery. Word Count: 1.3k+

Was it everything you wanted to find, and did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?

Home had been many places for Jake Oettinger. It had been Lakeville, Minnesota, the city where he had been born. It had been Boston, where he had spent his college hockey career. Now, it was Dallas, in a house - no, mansion - bigger than he had ever imagined. Yet, it didn’t feel like home, and it hadn’t been for a long time. Not since the day you had left. 

It had been before the preseason when you had made the decision that you needed to take a break. And it had taken him all of those 7 games to even think about coming to terms with not going home to you after a game or a road trip. He struggled through every loss alone and craved nothing more than to celebrate the few victories with you. Yet, his house was empty. Jake only had the mere memories of you - not even the scent of your skin on the pillow remained. 

While he missed you and longed for you to come home, Jake did the only thing he could do. He threw himself into the game he loved. Each game was a welcomed distraction, especially when it came to long road trips that took him from one city to the next. But coming home was never easy. 

Especially as his schedule cleared for the All-Star break. He had no games to play and had no real travel plans. It left him to sit alone in a house that felt empty without you there, and Jake couldn’t help but reminisce. 

Legs stretched out on the chaise of his sectional, he leaned his head back and held his phone out lazily in front of his face. Even in dark mode, the light was harsh on his eyes as his thumb dragged over the screen. He scrolled through your Twitter first, but you hadn’t posted there since the day you left. So he went to Instagram, and to your story highlights at the top of your page that were marked with the emoji of an airplane. You had been travelling from one country to the next, posting your voyage along the way as you searched for whatever it was you left intending to find. Whatever it was, Jake didn’t know. But he still sat back and watched as you shared the food you ate and the sighs you saw as if he were just seeing it for the first time. And then he scrolled down to the depths of your page, where the pictures of the two of you remained. 

His heart swelled in his chest. Those pictures told him you still loved him, and he feared the day that he may one day look at your page and find them gone. 

Leaning his head back, Jake let his sweaty hand flex around his phone as he contemplated messaging you. He would say something quick. Something sweet. Maybe even leave a comment on one of your most recent posts just to let you know he was thinking about you. But as his fingers hovered over the keyboard, he decided against it. The last thing he wanted was for you to feel like he was pressuring you to come home - to push you away. 

A sigh trembled through his body as he lowered his phone until it rested face down on the arm of the couch. Resting his hand on it, Jake felt the warmth of it against his skin as he choked on his shaking breath. His eyes shut slowly, blocking out the living room around him. He needed to get out of this house and away from every reminder of you. 

Jake couldn’t take staying there for an entire week alone. Not when he had no plans while his teammates headed to the All-Star game or on vacation with their wives and girlfriends. He would have no distractions without them. He would need to take a vacation himself. Go home to Alaska or fly up to Massachusetts to visit the state that had been his home for so long when he played at the college level. But he didn’t need to decide that now. He could just pick the next available fight when he was ready to go. First, he would need to pack. 

Pushing up from the couch, Jake’s head hung low and his shoulders slouched as he took his first initial stride towards the bedroom. But something stopped him before he could take another. It was the bright light of headlights dancing across the wall that had caught his attention. The light refracted off the mirrors that hung on his walls and lit up his dark and empty home. It drew his gaze to the large windows, his sweet brown eyes falling on a taxi as it came to a halt at the end of his drive. 

A large hand grasped at the cream-coloured curtain that framed his window, drawing it back to look at the houses to the left and to the right. Their porch lights were dark. They hadn’t been expecting anyone, but neither was he. 

Jake shrugged on his hooded sweatshirt on the way to the door. He pulled the hood up over his head and his hands buried into the front pocket to keep him from the chill that was a Texas kind of cold. The cold concrete of his sidewalk greeted his bare feet, but it didn’t send him retreating inside. Any other time, maybe it would have, but no amount of cold could have stopped him after his eyes fell on the all too familiar figure of your body leaning over the passenger side door as you spoke to the driver. 

Your name left his lips in a breath lost in the wind only for him to say it louder, stronger, the last syllable spoken almost as if it were a question. He couldn’t believe it, and he didn’t until you were running up the sidewalk to him. 

Jake met you halfway, his arms wrapping around you so effortlessly. Even while holding you in his embrace, Jake didn’t quite believe it. He could feel your warmth and breathed in that smell that was uniquely you as he buried his face in your hair. It should have been enough to assure him it wasn’t just a dream, but he nearly trembled at the thought that it might be. That he had fallen asleep back on the sofa and would soon awaken to the harsh reality that was you being gone. 

Tears stung at his eyes as he held you, so firmly, so desperately, scared that you would fade away into nothingness. But you clung to him, your hands clutching his sweatshirt as your cheek pressed against the strength of his chest. Your body anchored him to the truth, to the reassurance. You had come home. 

“Did you find what you were looking for?” His voice broke as he drew back just enough to look down at you - he didn’t dare consider letting you go. 

“It’s been here the whole time,” you answered, the glimmer of tears in your eyes like diamonds as they spilled down your cheeks. 

Jake didn’t know exactly what you were feeling. If it was regret or sorrow or relief, but he saw your tears and he knew he needed to make you feel better. There was no reason for tears, no matter the reason, because all that mattered to Jake was that you came back to him. And he needed to assure you that the time you took for yourself was okay. So he didn’t let you speak when your lips parted to mutter whatever it was you wanted to say. Instead, he lifted you up by the waist and guided your legs around his hips with the careful stroke of one hand over your thigh. And with you wrapped around him, he leaned in and kissed you so deeply he could feel you shudder against him. Yet, it would only begin to make up for the number of kisses he could have given you while you were away. 

[burlveneer-music]

Pablo Held - Adventures - another Killian Eng album cover, this one for a jazz piano quartet plus chamber orchestra - very nice!

Interactive interplay meets chamber orchestra - how does that work? On his 15th album, Pablo Held embarks on a journey deep into the parallel universe between improvisation & composition. He is joined by his longtime trio, Brazilian guitarist Nelson Veras and the EOS Chamber Orchestra conducted by Susanne Blumenthal. Held’s compositions, arranged by his longtime friend and collaborator Niels Klein, shine in a new light and take the listener on an expedition into the unknown. Pablo Held • piano Robert Landfermann • bass Jonas Burgwinkel • drums Nelson Veras • guitar EOS Chamber Orchestra ••• conducted by Susanne Blumenthal Carolin Pook, Katharina Vogt, Ségolène de Beaufond, Terese Pletkute Volha Hanchar, Christine Schäfer, Èva Csizmadia, Demian Agne • violins Pauline Buss, Lydia Haurenherm, Simon Pühn • violas Mateusz Kwiatkowski, Tom Verbeke • celli Matthias Akeo Nowak • bass Roland Meschede • flute Augustin Gorisse • oboe Kristof Dömötör • clarinet Eugenie Ricard • bassoon Susanne Knoop • trumpet Bert Bürgers • french horn Karsten Süßmilch • trombone Veronika Morscher • voice on ASCENT compositions by Pablo Held arrangements by Niels Klein cover artwork by Kilian Eng

[bqstqnbruin]

2. “You have a nice voice” with Jake DeBrusk

2. “You have a nice voice.”

Happy blurb weekend!

_____________________

“We just signed you up for the karaoke thing,” Emily told you, drunk and giddy at the humiliation you were about to face. You look over to the small stage in the corner of the bar, two sloppily drunk girls belting out a song you didn’t recognize slightly off key. 

“You did what?” you ask, panic washing over you. You down the rest of your drink, hoping that the alcohol in your system would calm you down at least a little. Sadly, it did not. 

“Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood,” Lydia tells you, a stupid grin on her face.

“Why would you do that?”

“Oh, come on!” Emily practically screams, clearly too far gone to be making good decisions on her own, “We scream that song all the time in the car, this is no different.”

“In the car it’s just the three of us and sometimes a fourth passenger who either screams with us or sits there awkwardly while we scream. This is in front of a bunch of strangers who are going to judge me.”

“Everyone is drunk. No one’s going to judge you! Go! It’s your turn!” Lydia says, pushing you forward once the DJ calls your name. 

You were shaking, the song starting and the lyrics flashing on the screen in front of you. You start singing, everyone staring at you. You see Lydia and Emily with their phones in the air, probably recording to mock you if you miss a note or mess up the lyrics. Someone near the entrance starts making their way towards the stage. You swear you knew him from somewhere, not sure why you recognized their face.

He was handsome, a boyish grin covering his face while he was fixated on you. He kept looking between Emily and Lydia, eventually going up to your friends and talking to them, staying there until you join them once the song was over. 

“I can’t believe you made me do that,” you scold them, a smile on your face nonetheless.

“You were amazing!”

“You think if we post this, it’ll go viral?” 

“You two are doing nothing with those videos,” you say to them, turning to the mystery man that was standing with them. “I’m sorry, they’re annoying.”

Emily and Lydia scoff, leaving you alone with the guy. “You have a nice voice,” he saws, extending his hand out, “I’m Jake.” 

You introduce yourself, still trying to figure out why you know him. “What do you do?”

“I, uh, play for the Bruins.”

That’s when it clicked. You nod, “Yep, celly season.” 

The smile on his face grows, the space between you shrinking as he gets closer to you. “You know who I am?”

“One of my coworkers is obsessed with you. And understandably so.” 

He bites his bottom lip, the grin still on his face. “How about I buy you a drink, and you can explain why it’s understandable.”