#all of my feelings about jack building a new life after hockey just spilled onto the paper I'm so sorry

[parvuls]

jack retires because of a leg injury and takes off to a small massachusetts town, still recovering physically and mentally. he spends his first few months in town getting accustomed to life without hockey, to bi-weekly therapy sessions, to walking with a cane. he spends most of those months angry - at the pain, at his limited mobility, at the world. he doesn't have much patience for others, and puts very little energy towards socializing with the locals.

by the time the next fall comes around, he's been through enough therapy, physical and otherwise, and actually looks forward to being home all halloween for the first time in years. to see the kids go trick or treating, maybe unearth his camera and take pictures of the festivities. maybe even participate in something. start feeling like part of a community again.

but when halloween comes, jack spends all night on his couch, alone, holding a full-to-the-brim bowl of handmade candy. no one comes to knock on his door. because kids judge quickly, and parents are slow to trust, and his first few months in town were enough to establish a reputation as someone to be avoided.

he stays up later than he has since he was a teenager, but when it becomes clear that no one is going to stop at his house he dumps all three bags of the halloween treats he ordered special - none of that chemically manufactured shit that's so bad for kids - and puts them out front, to be picked up with his garbage. and then he goes to bed, and tries very hard not to think.

bitty opens his bakery early. he happens to walk past jack's house on his way to work, and recognizes the bags sitting out front; it's hard to forget that order, from the man who asked him question after question about the ingredients of the candy he'd be giving to kids on halloween. bitty made him a candy-cane inspired sweet in the form of a hockey stick, and watched the man crack the first smile bitty's seen from him since he moved to town.

but the bags are all full out here on the sidewalk. and although bitty wishes he didn't know why, he can make a pretty good guess. he was new to town, once, too.

it's hard to purposely bump into someone who keeps to himself as much as mr. zimmermann does, but bitty is nothing if not determined. he stops by mr. zimmermann's cart when they're both out grocery shopping and makes sure to exchange small talk with him, just loudly enough for others to overhear. he moves his daily run from the evening to the early morning, although it's torture to get up even earlier than he already does, so the jogging crowd spots him running into mr. zimmermann and waving cheerfully. it's the little things. and if bitty can make one of his neighbors feel more at home, then he darn well will.

gradually, little by little, mr. zimmermann starts opening up. insists that bitty call him jack. keeps walking with bitty all the way to the register when they're both out grocery shopping, while gravely telling him about the importance of eating clean. changes his running route so bitty and he start their loop around the park at the same time, and when it gets colder, brings another set of gloves along because bitty always forgets his. bitty's not even sure how jack figured that out.

and it's other things, too. one day mrs. sylvester who lives down the street tells bitty that jack joined the book club, and while he never says much, she swears he reads all the books. ms. bishop, who works at city hall and can't keep a secret to save her life, leans over to bitty during their shared pilates class and whispers that she's not supposed to tell, but someone made a big donation to the town's community center. principal stacy announces the annual career day at the elementary school, and unsubtly suggests that perhaps new residents with unusual career paths may like to sign up.

the next halloween, jack spends all night on his front porch, wearing cat ears and whiskers drawn in eyeliner, with his arm around bitty's shoulders and a constantly emptying bowl of handmade candy in his lap.

[omgpoindexter]

imagine on Valentine's Day,,aka Derek Malik Nurse's (loml) birthday, and everyone is super focused on their SO (Derek isn't mad, he's used to it) he goes the whole day thinking everyone forgot until he gets invited over to the haus for team dinner and is surprised w a birthday party, and this boy is so overwhelmed he's like lowkey almost in tears. he asks who planned it and everyone looks at dex, who had the date circled w hearts all year. This is pre-relationship but they're Screwed

this is the cutest prompt ever and it jumped right to the top of my list ooops hehe. this starts off kind of boring because nursey’s day also starts off boring, so stick in there lmao. i liked writing this a lot, so enjoy!

“Do you think roses are okay?” Chowder asks from the couch, where he’s lying down staring at the ceiling, throwing Nursey’s eraser up into the air and catching it repeatedly. “Too cliche?”

Nursey smiles and shakes his head, but doesn’t stop writing. “Roses sound perfect, C. She’ll love them.”

The room falls silent and Nursey scribbles down some more notes in his essay plan. He’s sitting cross legged by the coffee table with his notebooks spread over it, three empty mugs resting on a copy of King Lear.

“How about chocolates?” Chowder says again after a minute.

Nursey sighs and drops his pen onto his notes. “Chris.”

“Yes?” Chowder catches the eraser and sits up. 

“You could buy Farmer literally anything for Valentine’s Day and she’d love it,” Nursey says earnestly.

Chowder grins. “Thanks, Nursey,” he says and vaults over the back of the couch. “I’m off to get some roses. Be back in ten!”

“Should I be fining you for this?” Nursey laughs. Chowder just sticks his tongue out and skips out of the door backwards.

Nursey sighs to himself once Chowder has left and picks his pen back up.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. The Samwell campus has been swamped with hearts and red streamers for at least a fortnight. Valentine’s Day has never been Nursey’s favourite holiday, mostly because it falls on his birthday.

Bitty’s voice drifts from the kitchen, his conversation rife with pet names. Nursey smiles to himself. He assumes that fines don’t really count on a day dedicated entirely to romance. 

Nursey wakes up on his birthday to his phone ringing and several birthday messages from friends back home. He chats to his moms as he makes his way to the Haus at 09:00.

“Happy birthday, bro,” Whiskey shouts at him on his way out of the door, clutching a bouquet of flowers and seemingly in quite a bit of a hurry.

“Thanks!” Nursey yells at his retreating back.

“Good morning, Nursey!” Bitty sings as he walks into the kitchen. “Happy birthday! I’m off and I think most people have gone out, but there’s some breakfast in the oven just heatin’ up.”

Nursey blinks at him. “Oh,” he says. “Alright.”

His phone buzzes again his pocket and he pulls it out to check the screen. 

Dex: Happy birthday, Nurse! Have a good day

Dex: I’ll probably see you later.

Nursey smiles to himself, replying with a quick thank you and shoving it back into his pocket. For some reason his heart beats twice as fast as usual but he ignores it in favour of making his way over to the oven.

He pulls his breakfast from the oven, walks into the lounge and takes a seat on the couch. He turns on the TV and settles on watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Then, he sinks low on the couch and sighs.

For some reason, he’d thought this birthday would be different. His moms both worked every year, so they’d give him his presents and quickly get in the car before 8:30, leaving Nursey to spend his birthday at school. 

Samwell had been different. The hockey team are a new kind of family; even at Andover the hockey team were nowhere near as close. He’d been expecting something a bit less underwhelming for his birthday this year.

“Just you and me today, then,” he says to his breakfast.

But then he finishes his breakfast and his day sucks again. He sighs deeply and stretches himself out on the sofa, his mind drifting to the pile of schoolwork on his desk.

“Well, I’ve got nothing better to do,” he says to Andy Samberg before switching off the television.

The same evening, Nursey’s phone buzzes again on his desk, waking him up. He lifts his head up from his desk and holds his phone up to check the screen. 

Bitty: complusory haus team dinner, ten minutes :)

Nursey groans. Despite the members of Samwell Men’s Hockey being some of the best friends he’s ever had, he’s not feeling particularly friendly after spending the entire day with this nose in his textbooks, by himself.

He shoves his shoes and sweatshirt on anyway. It’s probably about a million dollars in the Sin Bin for missing a Haus dinner. 

When Nursey opens the Haus door, the building is uncharacteristically silent. 

“Bits?” he yells. Nothing.

“…Dex?” he tries after a moment, ignoring the way his heart speeds up.

Somebody giggles, and Nursey frowns. The kitchen door is never closed, but for some reason today he’s finding out what it looks like. He grabs the door handle and twists it.

“Happy birthday!”

Nursey lets out a yell of surprise and claps his hand over his mouth.

The entirety of the hockey team, plus Lardo, Farmer, Jack and Shitty, are gathered around the table, on which sits a birthday cake with sparklers alight.

Tears prick his eyes.

Never before in his life has Nursey had a group of friends that cared this much, so much that they would choose him over their significant others. Chowder and Farmer were even here together, despite Chowder being so excited about his Valentine’s Day date rest and constantly telling the rest of the team about it. 

“Is he crying?” Ransom whispers very loudly, pausing mid-banner wave.

“Nurse…” Dex says uncertainly, “are you okay?”

Nursey nods as his tears start to spill over. “Yeah,” he says hoarsely.

“Aww, Nursey, honey!” Bitty croons, making his way over to Nursey with his arms open wide. Nursey steps into his embrace and begins to cry properly as the rest of the team join in for a group hug.

“Thank you guys, so much,” he says. “Really. Nobody’s ever done anything like this for me before. I love you all.”

More awwing and crooning follows his words, and Nursey finds a plate shoved into his hands with the famous Haus dinner. 

“It’s Dex you should thank, Nursey,” Shitty says with a wink as Jack hands him a plate. “He planned all this.”

Nursey blushes; somehow, Shitty always knows what Nursey’s thinking, so he of course knows about Nursey’s growing crush on Dex. Nursey ignores him.

But when everyone’s getting their plates, chatting and laughing amongst themselves, Nursey approaches Dex with flushed cheeks and a grin.

“Thank you so much, Dex,” he says, hoping he sounds at least half as chill as he’s trying to be. “I mean it. I didn’t realise I was worth all this.”

Dex scoffs and grins back. “Of course you are. Happy birthday, Nursey.”

Nursey’s insides light up and if he spends the rest of the night looking at Dex in some sort of enraptured adoration, nobody mentions it. They definitely notice, though.

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