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troubatrain · 4 years ago

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together by this christmas tree - p.l. dubois

a/n: happy december, so because The Maine’s Ho Ho Hopefully is a god tier Christmas song and I forgot how to write anything else heres like 5 words of just fluff. big shoutout to @prettyboybarzal for letting me just dump this fic on her for a few days so i could fuck around with the plot you are a queen!!

Pierre was in Los Angeles.

At any other time, he’d be pretty happy. The long West Coast road trip was one of Pierre’s favorites, he got to spend some time with his teammate’s, enjoy the warm weather, and play a few games that would hopefully end in a win. This time, however, he was sulking in his hotel room because he wished he was in Columbus. It was the first day of December, and Pierre knew that meant one thing - You were undoubtedly getting ready for the holiday season in whatever ways you knew how.

You stumbled into Pierre’s life by accident - literally. When Phillip was just a puppy, Pierre had taken him on a run. The French Bulldog pulled him with all his strength, causing you, who’d been looking at your phone to trip right over his leash. You assured Pierre it was fine, but while you were explaining to him that you had dogs growing up and sometimes shit happens your elbow had been bleeding before you could finish your sentence. Pierre offered to help you out, given his own apartment was barely a block away, and you’d been friends ever since. Friends. Just friends.

“Just tell her,” Tex says from the bed next to him, his road roommate having enough of watching Pierre sulk around their hotel room, “I’m tired of this.”

“Tired of what?” Pierre asks, his eyebrows raising.

“This, the thinking about Y/N all the time,” Tex exasperates dramatically, he sighs, putting on his best impersonation of his teammate, “Y/N’s watching the dogs while I’m away. Y/N and I are trying that new French restaurant downtown. Y/N’s favorite holiday is Christmas and I’m not decorating with her. Dude, you’re in love with her, just tell her. I’m sure she feels the same way.”

“What if she doesn’t?” Pierre asks, finally admitting the real reason he’s yet to say anything. Pierre had been rejected a few times in his life, but he never let it get to him. That was because those people didn’t matter the way you did. You knew everything about him. You knew the way he took his coffee and the way he hated being woken up. You knew Pierre better than you knew yourself, and losing that was the first thing that’s ever really scared him.

“Well you won’t know if you don’t do something about it,” Tex sighs, frustrated with his two friends, “Or you’ve got to let her go.”

Tex walked out of their hotel room after he spoke, undoubtedly to get away from Pierre’s energy that was clouding the room. Pierre sighs, rolling over to the otherside of his bed and pulling up your contact. He did the math internally in his head for a moment, trying to figure out if you’d be asleep or not - smiling to himself when he realized you were probably still up.

“Shouldn’t you be at some fancy LA restaurant?” You chirp, smiling on the other side of the phone when you pick up the Facetime call. You were home, but Pierre could see two familiar figures snuggled together on her couch. You had become Pierre’s accidental dog sitter at the beginning of the season. He put finding one on the backburner, and when it came close to the start of the season, he was coming up empty. You offered three different times before Pierre finally came to his senses and said yes, not because he didn’t trust you, it was because if he had to watch his dogs love you as much as he does - he was never going to recover.

“Shouldn’t you be decorating for Christmas?” Pierre smirks, knowing exactly what the first day of December meant to his friend.

You loved Christmas, like in the type of way that made Pierre envious that anyone could be that happy from a holiday, and the first day of December was the day you went all out. A tree got put up in your apartment, a fake one because hauling a real one up to her place seemed like it would be too much, decorated elaborately in gold and white. You’d get dressed up in a set of Christmas pajamas, one’s that Pierre would scrunch his nose at but he secretly adored, and when he’d make fun of you for it - you’d just pout and call him a grinch.

“I thought I’d wait for you this year,” You mumble, hoping the lighting in your living room would hide the blush on your cheeks, “Speaking of Christmas…”

“I told you three times I don’t want anything,” Pierre reminds you, the argument sprung up twice a year, on Pierre’s birthday and the second the holiday season started. Pierre really had all he could want, his family and his friends were healthy, the team was doing well, and he could buy any material thing he wanted. His answer wasn’t a total lie, because he couldn’t think of anything he wanted besides you.

“You’re the worst,” You whine, throwing yourself back on the couch dramatically, Pierre watched Georgia spring up from next to you, the puppy dropping sloppy kisses all over your face. He thought about what Tex had rambled on about just before he called, that he had to just tell you, but you deserved it to be perfect. So he made a decision, he would tell you by Christmas and he’d spend every moment before that proving to you that he could be the man you deserved.

***

Pierre sighed, stepping back and looking at all of the pine needles that were scattered through his freshly washed BMW. He was going to have to get it cleaned, but the smile on your face would be worth it once he lugged that tree through your apartment building. It was part of his plan, one Tex had called stupid just three hours prior, but Pierre knew it wasn’t. You loved Christmas, and as much as you tried to never show it, you did always get a little bummed out that the tree in your apartment wasn’t real - something that not even the prettiest decorations could fix. So, Pierre decided he was going to fix it, and he was going to give you the best holiday you could ask for.

Pierre buzzed up to your apartment, the tree in his hands while he made his way up to your floor, holding up on his end of the promise he made to stop being a Grinch and help you decorate, “Special delivery.”

The snowman mug, undoubtedly filled with coffee and a tiny bit of sugar because that’s how you always drank it, slipping right out of your hands and onto the floor. The handle snapped off, but that seemed to take second place to the scene in front of you, “Is that-”

“A real tree? Uh yeah,” Pierre nods slowly, trying to not let the grin growing on his face show, “I know you say it’s not a big deal for your tree to be fake but-”

In all of the time you’d known Pierre, you were always his softer side. To the rest of the world, you almost seemed too sweet for the tattooed hockey player who wasn’t afraid to back down from a fight, but it wasn’t entirely true. Pierre had a softer side, one you’d seen shine through when he saw his mom or when a kid could stop him for an autograph, but they were never just random acts of kindness. You wrap your arms around his waist, taking a big sniff of the fresh pine scent that was sweeping through your apartment, “This might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

“This is the nicest thing I’ve ever done for someone,” Pierre jokes, pressing a kiss to the side of your head, “Where are we putting this thing?”

Once you had the tree in the stand, it was time to get to work. The real reason you waited for Pierre wasn’t because his lack of holiday cheer was a crime, even though it was, it was because then you could hang up decorations using a ladder. Pierre was keeping the smile on his face, not because he was happy that he had a Santa hat hanging from his head or that he was untangling string lights for you while he wrapped them around the tree, but because you would show him every ornament you had with some sort of story as to why you bought it.

“Do you have a favorite ornament?” You ask, snapping a picture of Pierre’s confused face while he untangled the lights. He looked silly, the hat that you placed on his head was hanging off, his tongue poking out the side of his mouth while he tried to untangle the lights. He looked up at you, and you could see him thinking for a moment before he answered you.

“I do actually, I had this little Canadians skate that I used to steal off the tree to play with as a kid,” Pierre finally settled on, smiling to himself when he could practically see himself at seven trying to steal that ornament off the tree. His mother would scold him, and tell him there’s a million other things to play with but it just wasn’t that stupid plastic skate, “My mom used to get so mad at me for taking it but, I loved it.”

“So you didn’t always hate Christmas?” You tease, a giggle escaping through your lips.

“I don’t hate Christmas, I’m just not obsessed with it,” Pierre defends, “But maybe I liked it more when I was a kid.”

“Well be more like seven year old Luc, and get decorating,” You joke, tossing an ornament at him.

Three hours and two broken decorations later, the tree was propped up in the corner of your living room. It looked perfect, because there was nothing that could stop you from decorating that tree flawlessly, but Pierre was sincerely proud of himself for how much he’d actually helped. You were happy, standing in front of it with the gold star that went on top in your hand, “Well put it on.”

“Shouldn’t you do that?” Pierre asks before you shake your head no and try to hand him the topper. Pierre stays planted in his spot, knowing if he looked at you for just another minute you’d explain yourself.

“I’m too short to get up there and I don’t feel like getting out a ladder-” Pierre scoffed before you could finish your sentence, ducking down and hooking your legs over his shoulders without a second thought. You squeal, latching your hands on any part of him you could to stop yourself from losing your balance, “You could’ve just done it.”

“Hang up the star before I drop you,” Pierre teases, loosening his grip on your thighs like he was going to let you fall. Your laugh filled your apartment, and Pierre knew that had to be his favorite sound in the world. You place the star on top of the tree, Pierre stepping back so you could admire your work.

“Perfect?” You ask, your eyes scanning over the twinkling lights that seemed to just hang from the tree flawlessly. Pierre didn’t look at the tree before he answered, his eyes still trained on you.

“Yeah it’s perfect.”

***

The first snow in Columbus could not have come at a better time. Pierre had an afternoon game, and by the time he’d been out of the arena on his way back to his place, the snow was starting to just cover the ground. You had been at his place all afternoon, baking away pieces for a gingerbread house because you told Pierre buying one was unacceptable. You practically destroyed his kitchen, the counters covered in flour and pieces of gingerbread dough. You had Christmas music blasting over the speaker, lost in your own little world until you heard the door open.

“What happened in here?” Pierre asks, his suit jacket slipping off of his shoulders while he took in the sight in front of him. His kitchen was a mess, the dishes piled high in the sink while the entire place was flooded with the smell of gingerbread, “Did you rob a bakery?”

Pierre picked up the candy that was neatly placed in different cups on the counter. He looked at you with an amused smile on his face, “I didn’t come here to fuck around, and neither did you.”

With your words came a bright green apron for Pierre, he unrolled the fabric taking a deep breath and reminding himself that if he wanted you to know he cared about you, he was going to have to suck it up and build the damn house.

As it turns out, building the damn house was harder than Pierre thought. The cookie kept crumbling, the house kept sliding apart and Pierre couldn’t construct a roof to save his life. You, on the other hand, were working tireless at the most well constructed gingerbread house he’d ever seen. You were lost in your own little world, mouthing along to the Christmas music playing in the background. It would have been cute, and at any other time Pierre probably thought you were downright adorable, but not while another cookie broke in his hands.

“I can’t do this anymore,” Pierre growls, a pout on his face while he swiped the cookie crumbs from his hands.

You laugh at his disgruntled state, his back was hunched and his face was red. It was what he looked like after a bad game, except your friend who prided himself on acting like a tough guy was absolutely defeated by a simple gingerbread house. You drop the pastry bag that was in your hands, “You need to relax.”

“I am relaxed!” Pierre yells, stepping back in frustration, “It’s the house it won’t-”

“Luc, listen to yourself for a minute, it’s not the house’s fault,” You explain gently, you walk behind him and place both of your hands on each of his arms, “Try again and calm down.”

Pierre didn’t want to finish the house, but if your hands were on him he wasn’t going to tell you to take them off anytime soon. Your hands were wrapped around his arms lightly, your chin resting on his back while you peeked around his arm. He grabbed the bag and you rolled your eyes at how tense he was, “Do you hold hockey sticks that tightly, jeez.”

Pierre turns around, giving you a glare and raising his eyebrows. You stifle a laugh, trying your best to keep it together despite how hilarious you found his mood to be, “Quit making fun of me and help me.”

“Okay, okay,” You nod, running your arm along Pierre’s arm while you watched him try and squeeze the frosting out of the bag, “Slower Luc.”

Don’t get a boner. Don’t get a boner. Don’t get a boner.

Pierre’s mind was racing, trying to drive his focus in the direction of the house, and not the fact that you were standing behind him. The air in the kitchen was thick, the same weird sexual tension that seemed to creep up when the two of you were alone for too long was back and stronger than ever. Your fingers ran along Pierre’s tattoos absentmindedly while you whispered simple directions that were turning Pierre’s brain to mush. He couldn’t think of anything else beside the fact that all he wanted was turn around and press his lips to yours, but he couldn’t just do that.

Your heart was beating out of your chest, while your logical side told you that you were simply telling Pierre how to build the silly little house and this shouldn’t feel so sexual - but it did. Pierre touched you all the time, a hand on your back while you guys were out, a kiss on the forehead whenever he hugged you and you never thought anything of it until you realized he didn’t do that with everyone. So you panicked, ignoring the little voice in the back of your head that reminded you that you wanted him, and pretending like it never happened. That wasn’t easy, and every minute you spent with Pierre you could feel yourself falling into him like it was the easiest thing in the world.

The moment was ruined by the sound of a cookie sheet hitting the floor, and the sound of a scared puppy’s feet running away in fear. You both jumped, your hands flying off of Pierre when the realization that you were doing it again washed over you. You were letting yourself pretend like this could lead somewhere and that one day Pierre would choose you and it would all work itself out. Except that was just hope and hope wasn’t going to stop your heart from getting broken.

“You should shower, I’ll start cleaning,” You offer, moving around the kitchen to clean so you could hide the blush on your cheeks.

And a cold shower was probably what Pierre needed.

***

This wasn’t part of my Christmas activities.

You were whining while Pierre drove down to the arena, the Blue Jackets family skate was that afternoon and he insisted you went. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to go, but you couldn’t stop yourself from reading into things. He’d never brought you to the skate before, so why now?

“Isn’t this on that silly list of Christmas activities?” Pierre reminds you, tapping your leg lightly with his free hand, “Or do you just not know how to skate or something?”

“Well…” You start, Pierre’s eyebrows raising while he focused on the road ahead of you, “I don’t-”

“You eat Christmas cheer for the entire month of December but you don’t know how to ice skate? When were you going to tell me?” Pierre teases, chuckling while he shook his head at you.

“It never came up!” You defend, crossing your arms at him for teasing you, “And I didn’t tell you for this exact reason.”

Pierre made fun of you for the rest of the ride, teasing you that you should skate with his teammate’s kids who were practically toddlers and were probably better than you were. You walked into the arena behind Pierre, immediately smiling at the familiar faces of his teammates and their families. You made your way to his stall, Pierre telling you to sit he could get your skates laced up. You bit your lip, watching his hands work at the laces as delicately as he could. You were sure he was rougher with his own, but Pierre’s touch was always light as a feather with you.

“Too tight?” Pierre asks, breaking out of your trance from his too big veiny hands.

“No it’s fine,” You squeak out, and you could hear Tex snickering to himself next to you.

Pierre wasn’t a bad teacher for someone who almost tossed a gingerbread house across his apartment just a week prior. He was slow, his fingers laced with yours while he pulled you along and tried to help you skate on your own. It was a failure, and you looked like a baby deer trying to walk for the first time, but Pierre refused to believe you couldn’t get better.

“You guys disgust me,” Tex chirps, hopping onto the bench next to you while you watch Pierre play tag with Savvy’s kids. You raise your eyebrows, waiting for an explanation, “You’re both so disgustingly in love with each other why won’t you just admit it?”

“Because Pierre’s going to find someone else who won’t be me,” You sigh, picking at your nails. You told Tex this once before, when you were wine drunk and sad about the date Pierre was on, “He’s just my friend.”

Tex wanted to scream, lock you both into a room and force you to talk about your feelings. He wasn’t going to do that, because he didn’t want to be the demise of what he thought might actually be something, but god did he want to. You both were frustrating the hell out of him, and if Pierre didn’t nut up soon he was going to take matters into his own hands by New Years.

“You don’t know that, if you told him-” Tex tries his hardest to reason with you, make you see that it’s worth the jump because Pierre was on the other side waiting for you.

“So he can flat out reject me and never speak to me again? Really I’m good,” You huff out, swinging your leg over the boards to get back onto the ice. You were doing okay, until you started to push yourself forward. Two steps later, you were on your way to face plant into the ice until you felt two arms wrap around your waist.

“Easy there,” Pierre laughs, stopping you just before you fell, “You’re not an expert now.”

“You’re such a bully,” You tease, avoiding Tex’s gaze when Pierre intertwined your fingers to pull you across the ice. Tex watched you both, the shared laughs and longing stares were just proof to him that if people did have one person for them, you were it for each other.

Only if you could get it through your heads.

***

The Savard’s threw a bigger Christmas party than you’d ever seen before in your life. You loved David and his wife, given Pierre introduced you to them as his adoptive parents the first time you ever came over for dinner with him. It was your favorite version of Pierre, the one who let David’s kids paint his nails and color the black and white ink on his arms. You walked up the well decorated driveway, your heels clicking against the pavement while you made your way inside.

“You need to go see your boy in the kitchen,” You hear Seth call over to you, grabbing your attention as soon as you walk into the house. You wave hello first, making your way into the kitchen to see a sight that you were most definitely not expecting.

Pierre was sitting on a candy cane throne, a big Santa hat on his head and equally as red suit to match. He had one of Nick’s kids on his lap, listening to the little boy about the train set he’d been writing to Santa about since Thanksgiving. Your heart grew about four sizes at the sight, you walked over and tapped Pierre on the shoulder, “Can I borrow Santa for a minute?”

“Are you Mrs. Claus?” The question was a simple one, and the two big brown eyes that were looking up at you were the only thing that didn’t stop you from saying yes.

“Mrs. Claus huh?” Pierre teases, pulling you onto his lap while you watched Nick’s son make his way back to his mother.

“I wasn’t about to ruin his Christmas,” You shook your head, running a hand over the white fur on the jacket Pierre was wearing, “How’d you get sucked into this?”

“I was going to say no, but then I knew you’d at least laugh at me,” Pierre admits, a blush creeping up his neck. His hands were wrapped securely around your waist like for a moment he could just pretend like he had you, “Wanna tell the big guy what you want for you Christmas.”

“Hmm, nothing,” You settle on, “And you won’t know until you finally tell me what you want.”

The sound of cheers flooded the kitchen, and when you went to look at what all of the ruckus was about you realized that you were the ruckus. Seth had a shit eating grin on his face while he held the mistletoe above your heads. You knew you were flush, the heat on your cheeks made it clear while Pierre looked like he was a pale as a ghost. He planted a kiss on your cheek, telling Seth to fuck off before you pushed yourself off of him, muttering an excuse about needed to use the bathroom.

You had your palms against the sink while you tried to catch your own breath. This was the reason you never made a move, because you knew it wouldn’t end in some sort of heartbreak. It was clear Pierre didn’t want to kiss you, and that was enough for you to let him go forever. You wiped the tears that were welling up in your eyes, deciding that when you walked out that door Pierre was your friend and your friend only.

“Where are you going?” Pierre caught your arm when you tried to leave the party, the idea of going home for a good cry was far better than a rowdy holiday party. He looked insane, his eyes wild while he panted to catch his breath after he searched the house in a panic for you.

“Home, I’m just not feeling well-” You come up with an excuse fast, hoping the quicker you spoke the quicker you could get out of there.

“Is this about Seth? I’ll kick the shit out of him,” Pierre promises, latching onto anything that would fix your mood.

Your feelings were something Pierre was an expert at, probably because he never seemed to take his eyes off of you. He knew when you were upset just from your body language alone and you were definitely not happy. Was it from Seth trying to force the idea that you should be together or was it that he didn’t kiss you? It had to be the first, because if it was the latter then Pierre fucked up his entire plan to make you see that he loved you.

“No it’s fine, really I just think I should go,” You were begging Pierre not to fight you on this, so he wasn’t going but he was going to be damned if he let you slip through his fingers.

“Stay, Tex and I were about to sing Christmas karaoke,” Pierre offers, dragging out his words, “I’ll let you pick the song.”

Pierre and Tex ended up serenading you with the worst rendition of All I Want For Christmas Is You you’d ever heard. Their dance moves were a crime, and they were definitely the two most tone deaf people you have ever met, but their heart was in the right place. The mistletoe incident was forgotten for the moment, your attention directed at the silly drinking games you were playing with your friends. You sat on the kitchen counter in the Savard’s home, your head leaning on Pierre’s shoulder after you’d taken your fourth shot in the span of an hour. A hangover was definitely on the horizon, but for the time it wasn’t going to kill your buzz.

“I hate when you do that you know?” You poke Pierre’s side, grabbing his attention from the crowd of people in the kitchen.

“Do what?” Pierre asks, a bold hand landing on your thigh.

“Make everything better somehow, it’s pretty fucking annoying Luc,” You tease, taking a look at his face for a moment. Pierre smiled before he answered you, the kind where his teeth would show and you could see his little vampire teeth you loved so much.

“I’ll always make it better Y/N.”

***

You’re coming over right?

Pierre sighs at your question, your voice flooding the speaker in his car while he drove home from his game. It was December 23rd, and he wanted to sneak in a nap before his middle of the night flight to Montreal to see his parents for Christmas. He’d just finished an afternoon game, one where the team lost and Torts lost his mind on them before he shipped them off to Christmas break tired and angry, but he wasn’t going to miss out on seeing you before Christmas. He made a promise to himself he’d tell, come clean once he felt like you knew he loved you. Maybe you did, and if you didn’t you were in for one hell of a surprise.

Pierre took a quick right in the direction of your place, deciding you couldn’t wait any longer. His brain was switched to autopilot and when he opened your apartment door with the key you gave him forever ago, he realized what this was. You were sitting on the couch, a gift box in your hand that was undoubtedly for him and it hit Pierre like a freight train.

He didn’t get you anything.

Pierre could’ve punched himself, calling out every name in the book because he was an idiot. He spent so much time focusing on spending time with you, and going along with all of your silly little Christmas things that he didn’t even realize he forgot to get you a gift at all. Pierre just knew whatever was in that bag was thoughtful and perfect, and he was walking in empty handed.

“Open it!” You exclaim, your excitement couldn’t be contained. Honestly, you were surprised you made it this far without spilling the beans about the gift.

You hand Pierre the box, and he opens it slowly, pulling the top of the box off and gasping at what was inside. The skate ornament was the same as the one he mentioned when you were decorating your tree, the blue and red Canadians logo faded a bit, “Is this…?”

“I called your mom and asked her for it,” You admit sheepishly, a little embarrassed to admit just how often you did talk to Pierre’s parents. He didn’t call often, mostly because he simply would forget, so his mother would start just calling you instead, “I know it’s silly but I thought maybe it’d remind you that the holidays aren’t all bad-”

“I love it, it’s perfect,” Pierre whispers, letting the ornament dangle from his large hand, “I fucked up, I uh, shit, I forgot to get you something.”

You laugh, practically falling to the floor while the giggles take over your body, “Luc, you sucked it up all month for me that’s enough.”

“It’s not, I did all of this so you’d know that I loved you and when I told you it would make sense,” Pierre starts to ramble, pacing around your apartment, “And I couldn’t even be bothered to remember to get you a damn gift.”

“You love me?” You repeat, just to make sure you’d gotten clear what’s been up with him since the start of the month. You felt the shift, the extra acts of kindness that just weren’t normal for him, but you knew if you read into it you might end up disappointed.

“I’m hopelessly in love with you, like one of those romantic Christmas movies you love so much,” Pierre admits, looking at you with the softest eyes you’d ever seen. You stood in front of him, dumbfounded that your best friend just told you he loved you, “Please say something.”

“Do you know what I want for Christmas?” You ask, taking a bold step forward and wrapping your arms around Pierre’s neck, “This year I want you alone.”

Pierre closed the gap between the two of you, and it felt like the entire world had stopped. The bustling city outside didn’t matter, Pierre’s flight in a few hours didn’t matter, and the brutal loss he’d taken hours later was on the backburner. Right now, Pierre’s hands were wrapped around your waist while your lips were pressed against his and he would have rather died than let go of you in that moment.

“So I don’t have to get you a gift right?”

“No you still do, but you can kiss me again first.”

#pierre luc dubois #pierre luc dubois imagine #my writing #nhl imagine #nhl imagines

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imagines-r-s · 4 years ago

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sticking it - j. farabee

chapter 6

a/n: now you’ll all see why i said be excited for ch. 6 lmao. (also, with ch. 5 not showing up in the tags for a minute, some might not have seen it, so i’ll link it here) but anyways, this chapter was difficult to write bc i’m not used to writing anything but angst lmao. and huge shoutout to my baby gracie for helping me out with this chapter. please enjoy and i’d love to hear feedback

also, like i told an anon, this is in memory of bee’s hair :(( (he still looks good with the new hair, don’t get me wrong)

taglist: @butgilinsky @barbienoturbby @sunsetholland @lovenhlboys @sortagaysortahigh @hockey-racing-fubol @oopsiedoopsie23 @iwantahockeyhimbo @dreamsndior

warnings: (2) your mom jokes, jealous!joel?, once again simp nation for the both of them, swearing (it’s a problem ngl), idiocy

sticking it masterlist

wc: 4.1k

(gif not mine)

When you told Marcus and Michelle that you had to be out for a month, they advised you to only come to the gym three times a week for two hours for the first two weeks and you’d figure out a plan for the two weeks after, that way you could take a much needed break out of the gym. The thing stressing you out the most was gym and they obviously realized it, so they were hopeful it would give you a chance to breathe.

You planned to go to the gym Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays from 6-8am and then you would spend the rest of your day at home doing whatever you needed to do that day. The first Monday you spent those two hours doing ab workouts and helping the other girls around the gym, then you went home and stayed in your room for the rest of the day. You put your phone on do not disturb, so no one heard from you, which caused Kevin to come to your apartment to make sure you were okay.

Tuesday played out the exact same way, early practice, then going home and staying in bed, and Kevin coming to make sure you were alright. Kevin even invited you to come out with him and some of the boys, which you politely declined saying they should have their time together. Wednesday, you simply stayed in bed, choosing to actually keep your phone on today, you were just tired and felt drained from everything going on right now that you couldn’t really muster up the energy to talk to anyone.

Wednesday night, as you were rewatching Marvel movies, your phone started ringing with a call from Ryanne. Quickly answering it, “hey Ry.”

“Hey babes, how’re you doing?”

“I’ve been better, I’ve also been worse, so.”

“Me and Claude were wondering if you’d want to come over and hang out with us and Gav for some of the day, we’ll provide food and such, but we miss you, babe. So, we figured we’d ask while you have a chance.”

In reality, Ryanne had heard from Claude that you wouldn’t be able to do extensive training for at least a month. She might not have known much about gymnastics, but she knew you well enough to know that you were always constantly training - she was well aware that if that ever got taken from Claude that he would be devastated if he was out for that long and with two weeks to prepare for a big game.

She had checked in to see how you were with Kevin one day after practice and when he mentioned everything that was going on, she was worried about you. She knew that she likely wouldn’t be able to help much, but she did know that there was one part of the equation she could help. Knowing that she already had a plan to have a send off party before the boys went on a roadie and also knowing that everyone on the team would be there, she somehow conveniently planned to invite you over a few hours before it started.

“Oh, yeah, I’d love to, honestly. What time do you want me over?”

“Anytime after three is fine. I’ll see you then, hun. Oh, and wear something cute.”

“Why exactly?”

“Just do it,” Ryanne said, not having time to think of an excuse, “bye.”

As you were about to say something else, the ring that told you she had hung up rang out.

…..

Joel wasn’t doing as good as he wanted to be recently and with an upcoming roadie, he knew he needed to spend more time on the ice before the game. Having asked a few of the guys to work with him during an unscheduled morning skate, he was able to work on what he needed to.

“Wait, so she’s out how long?” Joel overheard Travis ask Kevin as he made his way into the locker room.

“Like four weeks, but two weeks with the brace and basically no training, then two weeks with athletic tape on her knee and no hard landings. But she’ll only have two weeks before Championships, so she's not feeling too great about it. Plus, she has to use her brace and crutches again and she didn’t enjoy that the first time,” Kevin replied.

“Is she going to be okay?” Joel hadn’t meant to ask his question aloud, but as soon as Kevin heard his voice a smile grew on his face.

“Yeah, Lover Boy, she’ll be fine. She hasn’t really been up to do anything recently, but other than that I think she’ll be okay. She has to use her crutches again, which is honestly very entertaining,” Kevin stated before turning to leave the locker room, turning right as he got to the doorway, “random question, are you planning on going to G’s for the send off party tomorrow night?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Just wondering,” and with that Kevin was gone, leaving a confused Joel behind.

Kevin knew that you had a lot on your plate right now and that you wouldn’t want to go to anyone about your problems. He also knew that the both you and Joel, were simply too stubborn to fix the problem going on between you on your own, hence why he had mentioned something to Ryanne. He knew that Ryanne would jump at the chance to be able to help you feel better and as soon as she mentioned the party set-up idea, he was in. The plan was then mentioned to most of the team, knowing that the help of many was needed in order to help the two idiots.

…..

After sending Kevin a quick text that you were leaving, you left your apartment and made your way to Ryanne and Claude’s house. Gently knocking on the door, you smiled when Ryanne opened the door, “awe, babe, I’m so happy you’re here, I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too. Not to be rude, but where is the tiny human?” you asked, looking past Ryanne to see Gavin walking towards you, “hi, bub. Oh my god, you’re getting so big.”

“Well if you came around more often, you’d get to see him more,” Ryanne mumbled, watching you play with the boy in front of you.

“I heard that,” you said, in a sing-song voice.

“You were supposed to,” she replied, mocking your tone, “anyways, Claude is on his way back from the store, so he’ll be here soon, but I haven’t talked to you in forever, how’s everything? How’s gym?”

“Oh, well. I’ve been better, this last meet definitely wasn’t all that great and not being able to train doesn’t really help my case either, but I’m making the most of it,” you said, shrugging.

“And you’re actually having to listen to Adrian this time around?” she said, pointedly, causing you to chuckle.

“Yeah, I have to actually listen to Adrian this time,” you smiled, “I hate that I have to actually wear my knee brace, though. And I have to use crutches. Can you believe that?”

“Considering it’s you, I’m more shocked that you’re actually using them.”

“Ry, shh, let’s not call me out too much today,” you replied.

It wasn’t too long before you heard the front door open, Claude walking in a few seconds later, “awe, it’s my favorite babysitter. Come on, babe, let’s leave while we can.”

“Haha, I almost forgot how funny you are, G,” you said, sarcastically.

“I’m sure, I’m sure. You know what would be nice though?”

“What?”

“Helping me put the groceries up,” he said, smiling sweetly causing you to groan.

“Are chores and babysitting all I’m good for to you?”

“Well,” he looked up to the ceiling, as if he were thinking for another answer,”hm, nothing comes to mind, y/n/n.”

“Oh, that was mean,” Ryanne said, playfully elbowing Claude.

“Thank-”

“She’ll never babysit again if we’re mean to her,” Ryanne smirked.

“Oh, wow, I see how it is, don’t worry,” you said, the three of you laughing.

As the three of you were setting out groceries - you mostly sitting on the kitchen island, taking things out of the bag - the three of you caught up. Claude talking about his hopes for these next few games, Ryanne talking about how Gavin was doing - not missing the few times Gav ran through the kitchen -, and you talking about whatever you could.

“Ok, so we haven’t brought this up yet, but I was just wondering if you had any idea what’s going on with Beezer? I know you guys had gotten closer recently and he’s just not himself, so I’m asking if you know anything,” Claude asked, closing the fridge before turning back to you. Both him and Ryanne had a pretty good idea of what happened, but if they were missing something, they wanted to know.

“Oh, um, well, about that one,” you sighed, gathering your thoughts, “me and him kinda haven’t talked since I told him I only wanted to be friends.”

“Ok, but from the looks of it, it looked like both of you wanted to be more than friends?”

“Yeah, but, there’s a lot more to it, you know.”

“No, actually, I’m a tad bit lost, y/n/n.”

“Look, I can’t have any distractions right now and I was worried about it affecting gymnastics, so I told him I only want to be friends.”

“That’s dumb,” Claude replied, quickly.

“Thank you, many people have mentioned that.”

“He has no place to talk in a situation like this,” Ryanne finally spoke up, causing you to look between the pair confused, “when his life was just hockey, hockey, and hockey, nothing could fill those spots. So, when our relationship was first starting he did the same thing to me that you’re doing to Bee.”

“This was supposed to be a philosophical moment and you messed it up,” Claude replied.

“I didn’t mess it up, you’re just mad because you basically called yourself dumb. But pushing him away isn’t a smart option and it just hurts both of you in the process,” Ryanne said before walking back to where Gavin was.

“Look, I know you said you didn’t want distractions, but this seems to be having a worse effect on you than you hoped. From the looks of it, when you started pushing him away, it affected your performance. Just pointing that out for you.”

“Yeah, I know. You didn’t have to point it out, you know.”

“Yeah, but you would have continued to ignore the obvious fact that you were just scared of a relationship in general,” he shrugged.

“I don’t even know how to talk to him about it or at least how to start the conversation.”

“Well, lucky for you,” he looked down to check his watch, “the guys are all coming over in like 10 minutes, so you’ll see him then.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, it’s a send off party for the roadie this weekend, why do you think we got so many groceries?” and with that he left you in the kitchen by yourself.

…..

Joel sat in the backseat of Kevin’s car, Nolan in the passenger seat, as they made their way to G’s house. By the time they got there, most of the guys had already gotten there, seeing a few familiar cars in the driveway, but one stood out in particular. He knew that it was yours from some of the times he had seen you driving, “what’s y/n/n doing here?”

Nolan and Kevin both chuckled at that, “she came over here earlier to watch Gavin, I think,” Kevin said.

“Oh, cool,” Joel replied, attempting to sound nonchalant as possible

“Don’t try to act like you’re not freaking out. You aren’t slick, dude,” Nolan added, shaking his head, “you two better talk, too. Because everyone is tired of the two of you being idiots and not talking shit out.”

“We’re not idiots.”

“You are,” the other two said in unison. Joel didn’t try to argue as he followed the pair inside their captain’s house.

As soon as he entered the house, he took note that almost all the team was here, most of the team was outside, but he immediately found you sitting on one of the barstools with Gavin sitting on your lap as you talked with Ryanne. “Go talk to her,” Nolan whispered, causing him to jump.

“God, Pat. What the fuck?” Joel said turning around.

“I said what I said. You’ll have to talk at some point, might as well just do it. Plus, she’s on crutches, so like, if she wants to run away it will take her a while.”

“Um, that’s- I mean, that’s valid, but-”

“At some point today, you should talk to her. I obviously can’t make you and it’s up to you, but I think it would help fix things,” Nolan said, shrugging.

“Yeah, I know, I know. I plan on it.”

You and Ryanne had stayed inside with Gav since the boys were grilling outside, so when Nolan, Kevin, and Joel walked in, you were one of the first people to notice. Kevin made his way over to you almost as soon as he came in, “so, you enjoying the party?”

“Considering I didn’t know it was happening, sure I’m having a great time, Kev.”

“Well, I guess it’s a surprise party then,” you quickly shot him a glare, “surprise.”

As you heard the back door open, you looked up to see Joel already looking at you, shooting you a quick smile as he followed his teammate to go outside. “I swear, if all you guys do tonight is spare glances at each other and don’t talk, I’m going to lose it,” Ryanne said from beside you.

“I think everyone will, to be honest,” Kevin added, “well, I’m going outside. If you need any help, just let me know.”

The boys had a few different plans in place to get the two of you to talk; conveniently sending Joel in to help while you were inside, telling Joel to go help out inside, asking Joel to get Gavin, and as a last resort, make Joel jealous.

When everyone had been done eating, Claude asked some of the younger guys to help him clean up and bring out the cooler with drinks that was still inside. Joel had somehow conveniently avoided going inside while helping and when he did, he went straight to the kitchen and right back out. He wasn’t wanting to avoid you all night, but he didn’t know what to do. Shortly after, Claude had asked Joel to go in and get Gavin, somehow right as you had left Gavin with Ryanne, which also ruined that plan.

Ryanne knew that it would be suspicious if they kept trying those same plans. So instead, she basically forced you to go outside with her. She helped you get outside, Kevin shooting up from his chair to help you get down the stairs of the deck, “you don’t have to help me out, Kev.”

“Knowing you, you would trip and break something. You’re already hurt enough,” he said, causing you to roll your eyes. As Kevin looked up, he didn’t miss the way Joel lit up as he saw you, “hey, your boy is looking over here.”

Looking up, your eyes once again met his, to which you sent him a light smile, “yeah, he’s been watching me since I stepped out here.”

“y/n/n, you would only know that if you were looking at him, too.”

“Yeah, I never said that I wasn’t though.”

“You know, it’s obvious the two of you aren’t mad at each other or anything like that. So, why the fuck haven’t you talked yet?”

“Oh, um. Words are hard,” you said, walking away towards Travis and Nolan on your crutches.

“You’re literally on crutches, you aren’t moving that fast.”

“You know who else isn’t moving that fast?”

“y/n. I swear, if this is another your-”

“Your mom,” you yelled back to him.

“What is up with you and making your mom jokes?” Nolan asked as you got closer to them.

“They’re funny?”

“y/n/n just has the sense of humor of a middle school boy, that’s why her and Beezer got along so well,” Travis added, helping you move your crutches so you could sit down at the table they were at, “how are the crutches?”

“How’s your mom?” you laughed, causing the two of them to groan, “nah, they’re not fun. In any way shape or form.”

As you were talking to Nolan and Teeks, Kevin and Ryanne realized that none of the plans they had tried were working. Both of them knew that the only plan that would probably work was to make Joel jealous, so Kevin texted Carter, Morgan, Nolan, and Teeks to let them know that was the plan that they were going with.

“y/n looks really good today,” Carter said, causing Joel to spit out his drink.

“Better watch yourself, Hartsy,” Joel replied, shooting a glare towards his friend.

“I was just being honest, she really does. There’s nothing going on between you guys anymore, right?” Carter watched as Joel visibly tensed at the mention of what was happening between the two of you, knowing that the plan was working he continued, “I mean, if nothings going on between you two, then she’s single, right?”

“Well, I mean-” Joel stuttered out, “we haven’t talked in a while, but that doesn’t mean-”

“I’ll be right back, okay?” Carter said, making his way over to the table you were at, causing Nolan and TK to chuckle as they saw Joel’s face drop, “hey, y/n/n.”

“Hey, Hartsy, it’s been a minute. How is everything?” you smiled. You kept talking to the group around you for a while, not noticing the way Joel was becoming visibly angry. He didn’t want to seem jealous, but he assumed that Carter had been flirting with you this whole time, so he made the executive decision to talk to you now.

Since your back was facing him, you didn’t see him coming, but the three boys around you did, only trying to hide their smiles since the plan was actually working. “Hey y/n, can we talk?” he asked.

You turned around to finally face the boy you had been avoiding, “yeah, hold on a sec.” As you continued some of your conversation, Joel was getting more and more irritated, mostly because Carter was sending looks his way that he couldn’t exactly read. Joel, being the impatient person he was, pulled the chair you were sitting at away from the table, pulling you up to stand before lifting you up over his shoulder, “Bee, what the fuck?”

He simply ignored you as he carried you up the stairs and back inside his captain’s house. You tried pushing yourself off as he made his way up the stairs, but it was deemed useless when he just tightened his grip, “Farabee, I swear to god. I will hurt you.”

Eventually, he opened the door to the guest bathroom and gently set you down on the counter before locking the door, “what the fuck was that for? If you want to talk, you could have just waited a second. But no, you had to be all dramatic about it,” you said, rolling your eyes.

“Are you done?” Joel asked, crossing his arms and leaning back against the door.

“I mean, yeah. Are you?”

“Yeah, but I’m tired of us ignoring each other and I miss you, so we need to figure stuff out.”

“Awe, you miss me? That’s cute,” you smiled.

“y/n/n, I swear, now is not the time for that one.”

“Ok, sorry. I’ll be serious now,” you said, crossing your arms to mock him.

“I just want to know what happened at the lake?”

“Oh, we’re going straight to the point, alright,” you sighed, “look, what I said at the lake wasn’t true. I got this idea in my head that if you were in my life, you were a distraction from what I wanted.”

“How’d that work out for you?” he said, smirking.

“Oh, no, see that’s what we’re not going to do. No need for the attitude. Anyways, I had this idea that if anything happened between us, that I would mess it up and it would mess everything in my life up. So, pushing you away was the safest option.”

Joel took a moment to gather his thoughts before pushing himself off the door and made his way closer to you, ending up standing between your legs with his hands on either side of you, “look, I’m saying this and I mean it. I understand where you’re coming from with the fear of distractions thing, but I want you to know that I would never intentionally keep you from your goals and dreams. I’m just extra support, you know.”

“Yeah, I realized that after you ran from the lake house. We could have had this figured out by now, if you had stayed,” you said, sarcastically. Rolling your eyes for added dramatic effect.

“Oh, shut up. You have no place to talk, babe,” he said, smiling when he heard you giggle, “what was that for?”

“I kinda missed you calling me babe, I guess. Kinda crazy, dude.”

“Awe, so you did miss me?”

“I never said I didn’t,” you said, quietly reaching up to wrap your arms around his neck. You saw the way that his eyes went from your eyes to your lips, “I also missed this,” and with that you pulled him closer until your lips met in a long awaited kiss.

As the two of you broke away, your foreheads were still together, “hey, Bee?”

“Yeah?”

“You know who else I missed? Your mom,” you laughed.

“Way to ruin the moment, babe,” he smiled, “That was funny though, so I respect it.”

“Dude, I’m so funny sometimes.”

“Looks aren’t everything, babe,” he said, laughing at the gasp you responded with.

“Oh, that was rude. I’ll get you back one day though,” you watched as he went to leave the bathroom, “hey, Bee. I’m not supposed to walk without crutches, hate to break it to you.”

Rolling his eyes, he made his way back to you, turning around right in front of you, “here.” You leaned a little bit forward, wrapping your arms around his neck once again as he readjusted his grip on the back of your legs, so he could give you a piggyback ride on the way back outside.

“You know, they didn’t tell me there was a party,” you spoke as he made his way back towards the door.

“Oh, they said it was teammates only and then I saw your car,” he replied, pausing a moment as the two of you realized what had happened at the same time, “so, this was-”

“Yep.”

“And Hartsy saying he was going to ask you out was part of it?”

“Hartsy said he was going to do that,” you started cackling. “Wait, were you jealous of him?” you asked laughing even harder.

“It’s not funny.”

“Oh, yeah. I know, it’s hilarious.”

“I will drop you right now,” he said, as he opened the door for outside, “and you’ll stuck right here, Ms. ‘I can’t walk down stairs right now’.”

“That’s a low blow,” you said, as the two of you made your way back to the table you were at.

“Oops, sorry, babe,” he set you down close to your chair, but sat down before you could.

“Oh, so now you steal my chair, too?”

“Oh, shut up, you’re fine,” he said, pulling you to sit in his lap, “there you go.”

“So, I see the two of you made up?” Nolan asked, pointing at the two of you.

“We also made out, in case you were wondering,” Joel replied, earning an elbow to the stomach, “ow, that hurt.”

“Sucks to suck, babe,” you replied, causing the smile on his face to grow even more.

When Kevin and Ryanne watched the two of you walk back outside, they were happy to see that the plan worked. Ryanne simply laughed and shook her head as she heard the exchange between the two of you, “they are so in love and I don’t even think they realize it.”

“Ryanne, that is a big word, that I’m not prepared for. So, please, let’s not do that today,” Kevin replied, earning a laugh from Ryanne, “they’re happy though, that’s all that matters to me.”

#sticking it #joel farabee #nhl imagines #nhl imagine #philadelphia flyers #joel farabee x reader #joel farabee imagines #hockey imagines #hockey imagine #beezer #joel farabee x gymnast!reader

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house-of-cakes · 4 years ago

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Jamais Vu

Masterlist || Series Masterlist

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Chapter 17: Gimme! Gimme! Gimme

Jungkook x Reader: enemy to lovers AU

Word count: 2164

Warnings: Swearing and mentions of slight bullying

Premise: “There’s an opposite to déjà vu. They call it jamais vu. It’s when you meet the same people or visit places, again and again, but each time is the first. Everybody is always a stranger… Nothing is ever familiar” – Chuck Palahniuk, Choke

AKA Jungkook goes in search of the girl who got him expelled.

I feel so bad posting late that I wrote a bonus chapter 😅 the extra chapter will be out this weekend.

If you would like to give feedback or be tagged in this story please send me an ask/message 😊

Tagged list: @inspinkyring @betysotelo18 @kardia-apo-marmelada @casspirit0705 @preciouschimine @therealsugababe @lucedelsole97 @deolly @lexy9716 @thesweetest-peas @sannsia

Bright flashing lights…catchy retro theme songs…the loud cheers of victory from teenage boys and girls defeating their opponents – these were the ingredients that made up Y/N’s favourite place in the world. While Namjoon found comfort on the stage, she felt most at home under the glowing neon lights of Reload.

A few years ago, Y/N had found the arcade a by chance after she had “run away” from home. She had just had an argument with her mother about her appearance and after countless moments of nagging and insults she had finally snapped and left home without permission…it was her first act of rebellion.

Y/N’s mother was fixated on looks and how a “lady” should behave and present themselves. She always claimed that Y/N she be focusing on her physical imagine instead of having her face hidden behind a computer screen. It killed her mother that her youngest child spent all of her free time working in a place she deemed to be so juvenile. Y/N knew this for a fact and if she was being honest it only added to the appeal of working there. The job didn’t pay much nonetheless she loved it just as much as she did the Magic Shop.

A young boy runs through the arcade and finds Y/N sat on top of an air hockey table (a privilege that only she was allowed). Her attention is focused on her phone, trying to keep tabs on her best friends who are working a job without her. It was not very often that she could not attend an appointment however her elderly boss had caught a cold and there was no one else to cover the busy Friday night shift.

“Noona.” The soft whimper of the young boy catches her attention. “What’s wrong, buddy?” She jumps off the table and kneels so that she is eye level with the child “A-an older-r b-boy…” his words are choppy as his small body shakes with sobs “Stole my game.” “That wasn’t very nice of him. Can you point him out so Noona can have a chat with him.” The little boy continues to whimper but with some comforting words of reassurance and 5 free game tokens, she is able to convince him to point in the direction of the most popular first-person shooter game towards the back of the arcade.

“Thank buddy, that was very brave of you. I promise you in 10 minutes the game will be free for you to play.” She wipes the last of his tears and ruffles his hair for good measure “Come find me soon, ok?” The boy sniffling boy nods as Y/N quickly makes her way to the other side of the room.

At the game Y/N stands off to the side of the machine and pauses to analyse the teenage boy and his skill. The teen would get easily flustered each time a surge of villains would rush after his character and he would frequently let out a string of cuss words whenever he missed his mark, he was an amateur and it showed.

Suddenly his life bar at the top right of he screen started flashing, indicating that his game would soon end if he was not careful with his energy. This must have been enough motivation for him to focus better because his kill streak went from 3 to 9 in almost an instance. A wicked plan formed in Y/N’s head as she he went in for the last shot of the level.

“Hey!” she called out to him causing him to flinch and miss his target. This caused a fatal error as the enemy on screen took the opportunity to shoot his character right in the face. The teen let out a sound of frustration as the screen read ‘Game Over’ in giant letters and request more tokens to continue. Y/N waited for him to insert the coins before making her presence known in front of him.

“You stupid bitch! You made me lose my game.” He grumbled and lift his gun to continue playing. Y/N reached over to the power point behind the game and switched it off.

“Get the fuck out of my arcade.” She spat and point towards the exit “Reload has a strict no bullying policy so don’t think for a second you’re getting a refund on those tokens.” The teen didn’t bother arguing, he has realised his mistake when he figured out who she was and walked away looking rather embarrassed he had been called out in front of everyone on a busy Friday night. He was sure his class mates would all be talking about it come Monday morning.

The screen of the machine flickered back to life as Y/N switched the power back on, she waited to make sure that the unexpected reboot did not affect the game. The download bar reached the end of the bar and loaded the high score screen. She read over the listed and frowned when she got to a name that had been annoying her lately – Nochu.

This Nochu person had climb two positions high on the leader board since the last time she had checked this game and the achievement displeased her. That name was popping up on the leader boards of many games recently and while she did not feel her abilities were being threatened, she was annoyed that she could not put a face to this person.

Hours later back at the Kim residence, the two cousins enjoy the cooling weather on their porch as Jin attempts to tune his guitar by ear.

“The Basement wasn’t closed tonight.” Jungkook states when he scrolls through his Instagram feed and comes across a new post by the club “I never said it was.” Jin pays no attention to his cousin, instead he fiddles with the knobs at the head of guitar and plucks at a string once he believes he’s tightened the key enough. The sound rings out and the pitch is too high. “So why did we go to Reload instead?” Jin repeats the process with the chord again, the pitch is closer to where its supposed to be however the sound is still off. “None of the guys had a battle or a performance tonight.” He explained as he plucked at the string again and again, trying to pin point why it sounded wrong “And Y/N had to work, so we decided to hang with her instead.” “So we went for Y/N?” Jungkook tone was accusatory “No one forced you to tag along.” Jin fired back, he had stopped trying to tune the guitar to face him “She’s always supports the guys at the Basement, sometimes we repay the favour by making an appearance there to help drum up business.” Jungkook scoffed “You told me Reload was popular because she attracts people with her skills…if that’s the case why would she need you guys?” “She doesn’t need us at all.” Jin moved his guitar from his lap and lent it against his seat. He was frustrated with it and this conversation was adding to the stress. “That’s the thing about having a good relationship with people…you do things to support them, even when they don’t ask.” “Oh yeah? If she’s so good why is she only ranked second on all the high scores.” Jin rolled his eyes at his cousin, he was being petty again and completely missed the point he was trying to make. “Mr S.K?” Jungkook nodded in confirmation.

Jungkook was becoming a regular at Reload and it was evident to him that Mr S.K was clearly the real champion of the joint. The guy had dominated every game of the arcade by holding highest score and while Y/N’s name always sat below his, her score was always miles away from meeting his. To Jungkook this was clearly another instance of Y/N receiving praise and adoration where it was not merited… it was Mr S.K who deserved to celebrated and yet it was Y/N who stole his popularity. If he had to come up with an explanation as to how this occurred, he would bet all his money it was because Y/N was considered to be “beautiful”.

“Mr S.K has held the top for as long as anyone can remember. There’s no mystery to who he is…He’s obviously the owner of the arcade.” Jin windshield wiper boomed out and filled the stillness of the night as his cousin’s face fell.

Jungkook pondered on the last few weeks, there was so much background information he didn’t know and for some reason his brain chose to fill in the gaps by somehow hating on Y/N.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a car blaring loud music as it sped up and down the street.

“What the fuck is going?!” Jungkook exclaimed as he stood from his seat and made his way to the top of the porch stairs to get a better look at car. “Ah my Angel is home!” Jin jumped up and went to stand next to Jungkook. “Does she always carry on like this? She drives like a dipshit.” “Nah, that’s not even her driving. You see a while back she got caught at the illegal races, her parents made her sell her car as punishment... She must have gotten into a fight with her mother, this is how she always gets back her.”

The car finally stopped doing laps down the street and pulled up into Y/N’s drive away. The pair watched as Y/N jumped out of the passenger side of the car and wave to the driver as they pulled away from the house. She was still unaware that she was being watched by them

“Hey Brat!” Jin called out, capturing her attention “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not take rides from strangers?”

Jungkook’s breathe hitched at the thought of Y/N allowing herself to be in a car with a stranger, especially someone who drove like a lunatic. He didn’t catch a glimpse of the driver but surely, she wasn’t reckless enough to put herself in such a dangerous situation…was she?

“She did, that’s what make’s it all the better.” Y/N bantered on smugly, Jungkook couldn’t figure out if she was joking or not. “Well it’s past your bed time young lady, you march right on inside and get right to bed.” Y/N let out a sound of fake indignation and clutch her hand to her check overdramatically. “To think I raced all the way here with a surprise and this is how you treat me? You really are such a punk!” “A surprise?!” Jin’s eyebrows shot up in excitement, the façade dropped immediately. Everyone knew she gave the best surprises. “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!” he demanded and waved her over to them. Y/N laughed at his eagerness and rummaged through her bag as she closed the distance between them.

“Sorry I didn’t have time to wrap it.” She purposely handed him a grey game cartridge face down so there was some kind of element of surprise to the gift. His eyes widen comically when he turned it over and read the title of the game. “Y/N…is this…??” For the first time in Jungkook’s life he had seen his loud mouth cousin speechless. “Yah! Don’t make a big deal of it.” She tried to brush it off “Consider it an extremely late birthday gift.” “Not a big deal? This is the original Super Mario Bros 3! I played this game every day as a kid then this idiot blew it up somehow.” He nodded his head in Jungkook’s direction who rolled his eyes in response.

The incident happened years ago and he still hadn’t heard the end of it, he pretended like it didn’t bother him but deep down he felt so bad for accidentally destroying something his cousin held so dear to him.

“I’ve been trying to find it ever since! This must have cost you a fortune.” “Like I said…it’s no big deal. I was cleaning out storage at work and found it packed away, we never got round to fixing game console for it so the boss-man was nice enough to let me have it.”

That was a bold-faced lie.

Y/N had known about the sentimental significance this game had to Jin and went in search for it many months before his birthday. She only managed to get the game after she traded a set of mint condition baseball cards, she had acquired as collateral when a client fell through their end of a deal.

“Y/NIEEE this is why you’re my angel! Thank you so much.” He pulled her towards him and wrapped her up in a big bear hug. Jungkook felt out of place as he watched Y/N shriek and attempt to struggle out of his grip as he showered her with love…he could help but feel jealous of the fact that she could fix a mistake that he had made so long ago.

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housewarningparty · 3 years ago

Note

how to live here!

here's a special deleted scene that was supposed to go in one of the chapters after rachel and chloe start fighting, but i never really found a place where it made sense. but i always liked it too much to delete it.

The first time Chloe had talked about hanging out in a junkyard, Max had kind of assumed she’d been joking.

She’s been here a few times already since her return to Arcadia Bay, but the novelty of it still hasn’t worn off. Chloe doesn’t seem to mind, letting her wander off, camera in hand, to explore and take photos by herself until she’s halfway through a roll of film and finally satisfied.

Max lets the sound of breaking glass lead her back to Chloe and snaps one more picture. Chloe, broken off hockey stick poised at the highest arc of a big swing, aimed at the sun-bleached head of a mannequin perched atop a splintered milk crate like a fucked up golf ball on a tee.

The arc of the swing is completed. The head goes flying with a sharp crack, landing in a pile of scrap a few feet away. Chloe holds the stick up over her head and cheers.

“You get that, Max?” she calls over her shoulder. “One for the highlight reel.”

“Got it,” Max confirms, reaching up to withdraw the Polaroid as it’s ejected from the camera. She closes the distance between them to show Chloe the shot.

“Sick,” Chloe says, and then twirls the stick in her fingers. “Y’know, I never used to allow press in here before, but maybe that was a mistake. A few more like that and maybe I can finally catch some attention from the big leagues.”

“I can’t imagine they can ignore skills like yours for very long,” Max grins, leaning up on her tiptoes and craning her neck to try to spot the mannequin head in the garbage.

Chloe grins again and mimes another swing. “Wanna take a shot? Ride out my hot streak?”

“I’m good,” Max says.

Chloe nods and shrugs and swings again abruptly, for real, putting the end of the hockey stick through the screen of a boxy old TV on the ground suddenly and loudly enough to make Max jump.

“You sure?” She props a boot on the corner of the TV to hold it in place as she yanks the stick loose. “It’s hella cathartic. You’ve always struck me as having more rage than you’re willing to own up to.”

“Do I really?” Max asks, a little alarmed.

“Maybe I’m projecting,” Chloe concedes.

They wander further, Max trailing behind as Chloe beats the ever-loving shit out of anything even vaguely breakable in her path.

“Remember when you actually played?” Max asks, after the fifteenth minute of uninterrupted smashing.

Chloe pauses, turning on her heel and drawing the bandage on her arm across her forehead to wipe away a bead of sweat. “Oh hell yeah. They called me The Destroyer.”

“No they didn’t,” Max rolls her eyes. “Only you called yourself that.”

“Me and both our dads,” Chloe points out. “Yours even made a sign.”

“Oh yeah,” Max laughs. “Y’know, I think you were the hockey hooligan kid he always wanted. I couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or relieved when I quit the team.”

Her dad was a huge hockey fan and had been elated when she and Chloe had agreed when he showed them the newspaper ad he’d found seeking players for the local youth hockey team. William and their mothers had been a little more hesitant, Max remembered, but no one enough to really object to their joining.

Chloe took to it immediately, aggressive, competitive, and already more naturally athletic than Max had ever been. Max’s tenure was only a week long, but she’d remained a devoted fan of the team long after, going along with her parents to every game, home and away.

“Relieved, I think,” Chloe speculates. “You were a really small twelve year old.”

“I was appropriately sized for twelve,” Max protests. “You were tall.”

“Pint-sized,” Chloe teases. “Microscopic. Besides, you never had the heart for it. The bloodlust.”

“I liked the skating part. But yeah, you always had more fun with it than me. Did you ever get back to sports?”

Chloe shakes her head, quick and jerky, almost offended. “I never liked sports. I liked hockey ‘cause you guys would always come to my games and stuff. But then…after…”

Chloe missed the first couple weeks of practice, after William had died. It was Max’s dad that got her to go back, at Joyce’s insistence, hoping that the sport could be an outlet, that trying to preserve as much normalcy as possible would help Chloe deal with her grief.

Max and her dad had stayed in the bleachers through that first practice without William. Chloe’s play had been sloppier, and she’d left the ice early, face splotchy and red, thick hot tears running down her face into her jersey. It hadn’t gotten easier from there. It made sense that Chloe had stopped going entirely once Max’s family had moved.

“Anyway, can you even imagine me playing for Blackwell?” Chloe scoffs, brings the hockey stick down on the windshield of an old beat up car. The first blow sends a spiderweb of cracks all through the glass. The second penetrates, a small, fist-sized hole. The third, fourth, and fifth obliterate it completely.

Max closes her eyes, chases the images of a young, grief-stricken Chloe from her mind with this new fantasy. Chloe, hair undyed, strutting through the halls in a red and white letterman jacket. Chloe doing keg stands with Logan and Zach. Chloe with girls like Victoria and Juliet hanging off her arms. Chloe completely and totally ignoring a nerd like her.

“Okay, it’s a little weird,” Max admits, feeling a little embarrassed for the irrational churning in her gut. “You’ve never really been a joiner, huh?”

“Organized sports are so not punk rock,” Chloe says obnoxiously.

“It’s kind of hard to imagine you at Blackwell at all,” Max admits. “I wish I’d come back sooner. Y’know, before you left.”

Chloe’s quiet and Max knew it was a risk to go there at all, but it feels too true to keep to herself so she keeps speaking.

“I didn’t choose to be gone, but,” is it brave or stupid to do this now, actually? Has Chloe been waiting for an apology or will this just make things needlessly awkward and uncomfortable and painful? “I mean I wish I’d handled it differently. That we’d talked more while I’d been away.”

“Yeah,” Chloe shrugs. It feels like Max is on the verge of losing her, so she hurries on before the silence between them stretches too far.

“Can I be honest with you?” Max asks, stomach twisting in knots.

Chloe raises an eyebrow and nods for her to continue.

“I kind of thought,” she pauses and winces. “I mean, I was a little afraid that after I left you just. Wouldn’t want anything to do with me. That you’d replace me.”

“Max, what the fuck?” Chloe lets the words out in a harsh exhale and Max knows that tone of voice. Knows she’s pissed off for real, now.

“I know,” Max cringes, scrubbing a hand down her face. “But, I mean, you were always the cool one, right? And you were going into high school and I was still sleeping with a teddy bear and—”

“This is such bullshit,” Chloe’s voice cracks and Max was not expecting that. “You’re not just— You can’t just replace a best friend! I fucking needed you. I was so… I needed you so much and you hung me out to dry because you were scared I’d stop thinking you were cool?”

“No,” Max hurries to clarify, feeling appropriately breathless for the desperate, drowning sensation overwhelming her. “No, not like that. I just… I didn’t know how to handle it. So, I just kept putting it off, y’know? Like with homework. Remember how many times my mom had to bail me out because I’d wait too long on finishing a project and it wouldn’t be ready by the due date? Only no one could bail me out this time. And the longer I waited, the worse I felt, the more sure I was that you hated me, that you’d scream at me and tell me to stay out of your life. And I was too scared to face that so I…”

“I never hated you,” Chloe says, face caught somewhere between fury and despair. “Fuck, for the longest time all I wanted was to leave here, to be where you were instead.”

“The night you called me,” Max cuts in gently, proud at least when her voice doesn’t shake, “when you tried to run away, I was so scared for you. And I felt guilty because I realized I was wrong, that you still wanted to be my friend, and I knew I didn’t deserve it. I cried myself sick on the ride down with my mom to pick you up. It really freaked her out. But when we got there you just hugged me and you let me hold your hand the entire way back to Arcadia Bay.”

Chloe stays silent, chewing her lip hard enough to make Max wince.

“And even after, even though we were talking again the entire time I was away I’d think about being back here instead. I think about all the years I missed with you and I get mad because it feels kind of like my fault. Like if I’d tried harder it wouldn’t have taken this long. But I can’t fix that now, I know, I’m just glad we’re here now.”

Chloe shakes her head, rough, and throws the beat up hockey stick into a pile behind her. “Max, you fucking—”

She cuts herself and stomps over and Max isn’t sure what she was expecting, but she’s definitely surprised when Chloe wraps her arms around her, drags her close until there’s almost no space between them.

As tight as the hug is, Chloe’s hands hovering over her back are gentle. She’s quiet but her breathing’s rough. It takes a long time for her to speak again; when she does her voice is shaky, quiet. “I never, ever hated you, but I was pissed at you for a really long time.”

“I’m sorry,” Max tries to say but Chloe squeezes her tighter until she falls quiet.

“I got tired of it,” Chloe says. “And it wasn’t fair, either. Not really. We were just kids. God, I fucked so many things up so much worse than that. You don’t know how bad. If you did, you’d think I’m so pathetic. You’d hate it.”

“Chloe Price, you’re so many things, but pathetic has never been one of them,” Max insists, a little startled by the steel in her voice. Chloe tenses in her arms, but doesn’t move away so Max continues, gentler, “I wish I’d been here more. I know you weren’t alone the whole time but still, if I could go back and change anything it’d be trying harder to be a bigger part of your life. It’d be not letting it take so long to get here.”

It’s stupid, she knows, it’s ridiculous to think she could have prevented any of the hard knocks Chloe had taken in her absence but the thing is she’ll never know and Max thinks that she’ll probably always feel responsible somehow.

“God, imagine if we’d had a few years together at Black-Hell,” Chloe says and releases her, finally. She stays close, pushes some hair out of Max’s face. “We would have gotten into so much trouble. Me, you and…” She trails off with a wince but doesn’t linger. “You could have cheated off my science papers. I’d trade you rides around the Bay for homework.”

“Hey,” Max laughs. “Presumptuous. How do you know I would have compromised my morals like that?”

“Oh, you would have,” Chloe says, laugh all low and breathy. “When have you ever been able to say no to these baby blues?”

She bats her lashes facetiously, but the blush staining Max’s face is very real. “Okay, whatever. What else would we have done?”

“Oh, pranks,” Chloe says. “No doubt. We would have pranked it up so hard on those nerds. I always had this idea about semi-permanent hair dye and Victoria’s shampoo bottles, but I never lived in the dorms. And for some reason, Rachel refuses to be my inside man on this one.”

“I’d be down,” Max blurts out, not sure what the sudden pained look on Chloe’s face could have been leading to, but desperate to head it off.

“Wait, for real?” Chloe asks, appropriately distracted and Max realizes suddenly that her hypothetical assent to collusion had just been offered in practice.

“Uh, I mean—”

“No take-backs,” Chloe crows, gleefully. “Holy shit, dude, yes. Okay, I’ve got it worked out pretty well, this is something I’ve been sitting on for a few years at least. First, we’ll need a distraction…”

Chloe’s plan is elaborate, but thorough, and by the time she’s done laying out the details Max isn’t sure she’ll be able to follow through, but she does know that whatever lingering doubts about their friendship she’d had this morning were founded in one-sided insecurity.

“Let me sleep on it,” she says, finally.

“Max,” Chloe whines. “You promised.”

“I did not.”

“I mean, practically.”

“No, I didn’t.”

It’s almost like being a kid again, arguing about something pointless under the midday sun, a little dehydrated but having too much fun together to do something sensible like go back inside. Max has missed this for so long.

She’s deliriously happy she won’t ever have to miss it again.

#life is strange #pricefield #how to live here #ask games #explosionfic

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carnationcreation · 4 years ago

Note

Hi! Can I please get an imagine where the reader is Bombay’s daughter and he’s never been around because of his job and that he left the readers mum years ago. But he comes back to coach her team, not knowing she plays and they argue, he pleads to get to know her etc.☺️😄basically the absentee!father x reader who wishes for a father but doesn’t know how to forgive him

TITLE: Forgiveness [Can you imagine?] (Bombay x daughter!reader)

✌🏻Masterlist Taglist, Requests, and Works in progress!

Prompt/summary: Bombay tries to reconnect with the daughter he walked out on 8 years ago.

Word Count: 2,519

Authors note: You said argue? Alright here’s some angst. It feels so good to be writing for The Mighty Ducks again, this is one of my favorite movies so I’m so happy I got a request for it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Every summer I used to get the same letter from my dad. It actually wasn’t even a letter. It was child support.

Every fall we used to stop by the diner in town to get milkshakes to celebrate the anniversary of him leaving us. It wasn’t that he was a terrible dad, she just knew she could do better for the both of us if he wasn’t around. After 8 years she still got the same order every time we went to the diner, and every year Mrs. Conway was still there taking our order.

Her son Charlie was always there too. Both of us played on the same hockey team and every winter we would drag our gear down to the pond to practice with our team.

That entire routine changed after one day.

“Goldburg you’re the goalie, the puck is supposed to hit you,” Charlie sighed as he skated towards us.

“Does that sound stupid to anyone else?” the goalie groaned.

I rolled my eyes at him before lining up another shot.

After a few more shots Charlie tapped my shoulder, he looked in wonder as a car drove out onto the ice. We all wandered over and a man in a finely pressed suit stepped out.

“Wait, that can’t be him-” I mumbled.

“We ain’t buying nothing man, I’m feeling generous today so I’ll let your sorry vanilla bootie outta here before we use your eyeballs as hockey pucks!” Jesse said.

“Thanks bro,” the man rolled his eyes before going to reach in to his jacket, “but I’m not going home ‘til I take care of business.”

The group slowly backed up. When the man pulled out a piece of paper and not a gun we all sighed in relief.

“District five pee-wee hockey team, I’m Gordon Bombay. Your new coach.”

The team laughed as I locked eyes with Charlie. He saw the absolute panic in my eyes.

“Got the roster right here. Averman, Dave. Bombay, (Y/n). Conway, Charlie. ”

His face scrunched up as he got to mine. Confusion or being uncomfortable. Either way I couldn’t tell. Luckily no one seemed to notice the fact that I had the same last name as the coach.

“Here’s the long and the short of it. I hate hockey and I don’t like kids. I’m sure this will be a real bonding experience. Maybe one day, one of you will even write a book about it in jail.”

Charlie nudged my shoulder, looking at me with a questioning look. I sighed, “He used to love hockey, but he really seems to hate kids. My mom said she heard that he got a DWI last week.”

Bombay ordered us to scrimmage. We all dove for the puck. Players tripped and fell over each other as we desperately tried to play. I finally got the puck and started to make a move towards the goal when Jesse (accidentally or not) hooked my ankle with his stick as he fell. Connie skated over quickly to help me up before taking off over to Bombay.

I rubbed my sore elbows as Charlie and I skated back over to the car that was still parked on the ice. Bombay brushed the team off by saying we need to scrimmage more and got back into the car.

“What a jerk,” Peter said.

Eventually the team came to the amazing conclusion we should hijack the car. On Peters mark, we all jumped on the car, shook it, and climbed inside.

“We want a ride! We want a ride!” Connie began to chant as we all joined in.

“Take em for a spin, anything!” Bombay said, we all cheered as they started driving.

The fun didn’t last for long. Charlie’s mom soon appeared on the ice and made us all get out.

She furiously shouted, “Are you out of your mind? What were you thinking putting that car on the ice? My son was in that car!”

“Lady lady relax,” Bombay said, “The ice is not gonna crack.”

“Who the hell do you think you are?” she said. Charlie and I slowly got out of the car and skated to the side to take off our skates.

Bombay sighed, “Gordon Bombay, the new hockey coach.”

Oh lord he was in for it now.

“Oh you’re the dead beat that married (Y/m/n). They send you down here to coach the team and you endanger their lives. You endangered your daughter's life!”

I hid my face with my hand as Bombay looked back at me. Oh god he knows now.

Charlie’s mom eventually pulled us away and drove us home. I knew I’d be hearing about this from my mom later.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By order of the state of Minnesota Bombay was at the game the next day. I’d made it my mission to avoid my “dad”. Charlie did a good job of keeping him away, asking him questions or distracting him. I knew I’d have to talk to him eventually but until then I was content with pretending I wasn’t his daughter.

The game was a joke. We didn’t score any goals. Didn’t get a chance to defend ourselves as the Hawks beat us into the ground. 9-0. I left the game with bruises on my face and arms. My helmet was barely covering my face and my hockey pads were my dad’s old ones from the 80’s. One of the few things I stole from his house when we left. Charlie was extremely frustrated at the missed shot he had towards the end of the second period.

As the team sat arguing I was putting my gear up.

“I thought we came here to play hockey. Do you guys think losing is funny?” Bombay yelled.

“It’s not like you coach us or anything. At least we tried,” Jesse said.

Bombay’s face went red with rage, “That was the sloppiest playing I’ve ever seen. Why the hell won’t you just listen to me?!”

I stood up, shouldering my bag, “Why the hell should we?”

The team followed me out of the box.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next game was a disaster. Bombay encouraged us to lie, cheat, and foul our way through the game. Bombay was furious when Charlie wouldn’t do his little act when he was cornered. The bruises on my face still hadn’t healed properly.

The locker room was filled with groans as everyone agreed the game was pathetic.

“Charlie! When I tell you to do something, you do it! Got it?”

“You can’t make me cheat,” Charlie said walking out of the locker room.

Jessie and Terry’s dad stormed into the locker room, “LEt’s go boys. This is what I gave up my overtime pay for? To watch my kids take falls? You’re a pathetic excuse for a coach, and an even more pathetic father if you can let your daughter get beaten up like that.”

The team’s heads turned to me as he pointed in my direction. I let my head fall as I stormed out behind Jessie and Terry.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I really thought I could keep avoiding him. I didn’t think he would come and try to find me.

The next day at practice was a shock for everyone. We all got new uniforms, gear, and sticks. Everyone was pumped up during practice and we even got two new players.

“What changed?” I asked Charlie.

He shrugged, “I don’t know. He came and apologized last night.”

My blood boiled. He can apologize to another kid but not his own daughter who he practically abandoned. I warmed up to him as practice went on but in the back of my mind there was still that thought lingering.

“(Y/n), you’re riding home with me,” Bombay told me as I packed up my stuff.

I looked at him confused, “But-”

“Your mom said it was okay.”

I silently followed him out to the car, the driver had rolled up the middle window so we could have some privacy.

“So…” he said, I stayed quiet still looking out the window, “Your mom told me you never quit hockey. Even after I…”

“Left?”

He sighed, “Yeah I guess it was like that wasn’t it?”

I rolled my eyes.

“Look (Y/n), if I had known how much it had affected you I never would’ve stepped out that door. Your mom and I… we just weren’t good together.”

I scoffed, “No, your drinking side just didn’t line up with the fact mom wanted a decent husband.”

He went to speak again but quickly closed his mouth.

“I’ll just imagine me forgiving you. Maybe one day I can actually do it with meaning,” I sighed and went to pick my bag up as the driver pulled up to the curb.

“(Y/n),” he said grabbing my arm, “I already talked to Charlie about this. I’m so sorry for the way I acted. I never should have asked you guys to cheat. And I definitely shouldn’t have taken my anger out on you guys. I’d do anything to try and get you to forgive me.”

“I’m just confused as to why your star player got an apology before your daughter did. I’ve been waiting for that for 8 years. If you truly wanted that from me you should’ve tried a long time ago.”

I slammed the car door as I got out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few days I spent at Charlie’s house when my mom wasn’t home, hoping Bombay wouldn’t come track me down again.

“(Y/n)?” Charlie said, “Someone left a package for you.”

I looked up from the comic books that were sprawled across Charlie’s bed in confusion as he sat the brown paper package down. My name was written across it in black sharpie.

Charlie shook his head, “Well, are you gonna open it?”

“I think I already know who it’s from.”

“(Y/n), he really wants to make it up to you. Just open it.”

I sighed and slowly ripped the paper, inside was a jersey. My favorite hockey team’s jersey.

“Woah,” I said.

Charlie scoffed, “Your dad sent you that? How’d he know your favorite team?”

“Cause it’s his favorite too. Charlie this is his vintage jersey.”

“Well,” he said, “Maybe you can start imagining that forgiveness part.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“The Ducks? We’re the ducks? What brain dead jerk came up with that name,” Peter scoffed.

“As a matter of fact,�� Bombay said pulling a jersey out of the box, “I did. But I didn’t have a choice, we’re being sponsored. You’d rather be district 5? Some stupid number?”

“They don’t even have teeth,” Peter said.

“Neither do hockey players,” he said, we all giggled, “Have you ever seen a flock of ducks flying in perfect formation? It’s beautiful. Pretty awesome how they all stick together. The other animals are afraid, cause they know if they mess with one duck then they’ll get the whole flock.”

Bombay walked around the locker room giving his little speech. He smiled when he got to me, his eyes flicking down to see I was wearing the old jersey he had left for me.

He whipped off his coat to reveal his Ducks jersey underneath as we all laughed, “I’m proud to be a duck, and I’d be proud to fly with any one of you.”

Charlie and I smiled at each other.

“So how about it? Who’s a duck?”

Silence followed as everyone looked around the room to see who would go first.

“I’ll be a duck,” our new player Fulton Reed said.

I smiled and placed my hockey stick on the bench, “I’ll join the flock.”

“Yeah,” Charlie said following suit, “me too.”

Soon enough the whole team joined in. Grabbing jerseys and cheering.

“We are the ducks!” Bombay shouted, “The Mighty Ducks!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few games were amazing. Our winning streak started to pick up and soon enough we were getting ready to face off against Cardinals.

Charlie and I were named the dynamic duo. Our ability to make plays and take shots off of each other improved everyday. But that put a target on our back.

It was the third quarter, we had to make one shot to pull us out of a tie and win. The crowd was going crazy as Charlie and I sped up the ice. Our team following behind us for backup.

It was a stupid idea.

Charlie went to take a shot as I saw a goon defender moving in for the body check. So I threw myself in between Charlie and the goon. My head snapped back against the glass as I heard the buzzer go off signaling a goal.

The team cheered. Charlie frantically raced over to me.

“(Y/n)?”

I could barely hear him, the ringing in my ears was so loud, “Where’s my dad?”

Charlie looked confused before shouting over to Bombay.

“(Y/n)? Can you hear me?” he said.

“Dad?” I started to cry as the pain caught up to me.

“Get her helmet off Charlie,” he said, I felt Charlie gently take it off and the coolness of the ice against the back of my head, “(Y/n) the paramedics are gonna get you off the ice okay?”

I felt myself being picked up off the ice and lifted onto a stretcher, the crowd clapped as I was rolled off the ice.

The ride to the hospital was short, Charlie’s mom called my mom's work to tell her what happened and she rushed over as Casey rode to the hospital with me.

“Where’s my dad?”

“He had to finish up the game, he’s gonna meet us there afterwards.”

Everything happened really fast when we got there, I wasn’t allowed to sleep even though I was super tired.

“Look who’s here” Casey said. I turned to see Bombay and Charlie walking in.

“Woah,” I yelped as Charlie ran over to give me a hug.

“Are you crazy? You won’t be able to play at the next game!”

I laughed, “At least we get a next game. It was worth it.”

He rolled his eyes and ruffled my hair. Bombay sat down in the chair beside the hospital bed. Casey and Charlie walked outside.

“Do you remember what happened after you took that hit?”

I paused trying to think back to earlier, “Um… not really.”

“I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it in front of the team. You called me dad.”

I turned my head to look down at the sheets, “Oh…”

“I don’t have a problem with it,” he laughed, “But the team is definitely going to have questions for you tomorrow.”

I smiled.

“Alright, grab your stuff. The doctor said you can go, you just can’t practice or play in a game for a week.”

My eyes widened, “A week?!”

“Yes,” he said, “And I better not hear any complaints. I’ll make you run extra. Your moms waiting on us.”

“Where?”

“At the diner, she said something about milkshakes.”

I smiled, “We always get milkshakes after games.”

“Well, it’s on me tonight.”

I jumped up and gave him a hug before running out to grab Charlie. I think I can imagine that forgiveness thing now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist: @thebookwormlife @talksoprettyjjx @coolreallyfuzzystudentuniverse @igotabadfeelingabouteverything @larrystylinson-sus @lovesanimals @aunicornmademedoit @thexhotmess @ssprayberrythings @registerednursejackie @julieandthephantomsblogduh @fangirling-allday @solophantomsmultis @drxgxnslxyer @schnapp-my-neck

#the mighty ducks #the mighty ducks imagine #gordon bombay #emelio estevez #gordon bombay imagine #gordon bombay x daughter!reader #emelio estevez imagine

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so-writing · 4 years ago

Text

The Head Tolerates What The Heart Wants - Nolan Patrick (6)

Summary: You and Nolan broke up a few months ago and you’re both conflicted. Chaos ensues.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five.

“I think you’re being too hard on yourself,” Ash set a cup of steaming coffee down in front you, “Nolan’s mad you slept with somebody else while you were single. It doesn’t matter who that person was, hockey player or not, it’s not his business.”

“I know he has no right to be upset but I can kind of see his point. Out of all the men in the world the one I decided to try and move on with was someone he works with and knows personally.”

“Yeah, they’re both in the NHL but I think ‘works with’ is a stretch. They’re not on the same team and probably really see each other when they play each other.”

“It doesn’t matter to him. He sees it as a betrayal and I know it. I felt like we were maybe getting somewhere.”

“Oh please,” she got up from her seat with her empty mug and grabbed your untouched one, “you’re not getting anywhere with him.”

She dumped your mug and set the two of them in the sink before coming back and sitting down right next to you.

“Look at me, I am your friend and I hate that you’re dealing with this bullshit but I can’t keep this to myself anymore. You’re not getting anywhere with Nolan. He’s been nothing but a cold, moody bitch to you since he came back into your life after abruptly leaving it because he was cheating on you.”

“No he hasn’t, not the entire time.”

“Tell me one time since you ‘reconnected’ or whatever, that he’s been kind to you, like genuinely nice.”

Rolling your eyes at her, you tried to think of a time when you had a friendly encounter with Nolan since seeing him at the bar with the team. It irritated you that you honestly couldn’t think of anything, so you settled on a joke.

“He sent me a picture of his dick. He knows how to use that nicely.”

Nolan had been crashing with various teammates, but mostly TK, since he got back to Philly. At first, he couldn’t bring himself to stay at your shared place with all the memories but when Travis informed him you’d been there to get your things, he knew he definitely didn’t want to go there. Seeing the apartment with your things gone wasn’t something he was ready for yet.

He lived with his parents in Winnipeg, and you were in Pittsburgh in the off season, but two of you decided that when things got serious, you would get a place together in Philadelphia. It would be like a place just the two of you could go to escape everything else.

No one ever caught his eye while he was playing, he was always too focused on the game to care what anyone sitting in the stands looked like. It took him as a surprise when he caught a glimpse of you and even did a double take, causing him to trip over his skates and come crashing down to the ice.

Half of the arena was cheering over his fall and it annoyed him to no end that you happened to be sitting on that side, a small smile on your lips and a Pittsburgh Penguins logo across your chest.

He spent the rest of the game ignoring your existence and fighting hard to win the game, though maybe not hard enough, because the Flyers ended up losing anyway.

The trip across Pennsylvania was only a few hours, so the team decided to grab some food before getting on the bus and that’s where Nolan found himself shoved into a small booth next TK, across from Hayes and directly across the aisle from you, alone in a booth with your attention focused on your phone.

“Hey,” TK tried to get your attention, “hey, girl wearing the wrong Pennsylvania hockey logo, want to come sit with us?”

“And celebrate your loss? Nah, I’m good over here.”

The dig both impressed and pissed Nolan off. You didn’t care for the Flyers but maybe if you got chummy enough with them, they’d hook you up with some tickets to other Penguins games so you decided to join them and chirp them a little over their loss for the fun of it.

Nolan and the boys left the diner far earlier than he wanted to, but he was more than happy to jump on the bus and sit staring at his phone for the entirety of the trip, only because your number was saved in his phone and he intended to use it to his full advantage.

“Patty? You up?”

Nolan ignored Travis and pulled his comforter over his head in an attempt to drown out his bothersome best friend.

“Come on man, stop being a baby.”

When TK got nothing but silence from behind the guest bedroom door, he tried again, “She didn’t do anything wrong and you know it and I know you know it and I know you know I hate that you know it!”

“Jesus, Teeks,” Nolan muttered to himself as he threw the blankets to the bottom of the bed and tried to figure out what the fuck kind of word salad Travis had just made.

Nolan wasn’t mad at Travis. He wasn’t mad at you either. If he was being totally honest, he wasn’t really even mad at Barzal. It was just easy to take his aggression out on the Barzy because he was there and he was with you. It was stupid of him to get so aggressive with someone that had done nothing wrong, and he’d never admit it, but he kind of enjoyed taking out his anger on Mat.

“What the fuck are you even saying?”

Nolan emerged from TK’s spare bedroom with a pissy look on his face.

Travis being the optimist, ignored it and shoved a granola bar and bottle of water into Nolan’s hands.

“We’ve got an optional skate today.”

“Yeah, I’m aware.”

“I think you should skip it.”

“Why?”

“I think you should go clean out your apartment.”

What? Nolan’s heart dropped into his stomach.

“Travis, what?”

“I think you should go clean out your apartment,” he repeated, “I think you need to face this, whatever it is.”

“Fuck,” Nolan’s voice dropped to a whisper, “I don’t think I can.”

“I can go with you, if you want. You need to do this, Patty. You told me yourself that you think it’s over. Let’s end it.”

Nolan wasn’t sure what the fuck was happening. As far as he knew, Travis absolutely loved you and he was the hardest on Nolan when he found out about the cheating. Travis had been the one rooting for the two of you to get together in the first place. It was incredibly bizarre that he was now pushing for Nolan to go to your shared place and empty it out.

“Really, Teeks?”

“Really, Patty.”

“Why?”

It came out much smaller, sadder than Nolan intended.

“Because I said so. You want to end it, right? So let’s go do that.”

Travis was being uncharacteristically cold and Nolan didn’t quite know how to take that. TK lived in the same building as your shared apartment so the walk wasn’t far, but Nolan insisted on dragging his feet the entire way.

He pushed the key into the lock and turned the knob, not sure what to expect. Not much had changed about the open kitchen and living room, your plants were still there, dead, but still there. Blankets that belonged to you were still draped across the couch and your candles were still sitting on the coffee table.

It wasn’t until Nolan got the the bedroom that his walls came down. The closet you shared was half empty and the bathroom cabinets contained none of your skincare products. It wasn’t until he saw the necklace laying on the dresser, that he really broke down.

“Fucking shit,” he picked up the piece of jewelry and admired the glittering N in the center of it, “fuck.”

“Pats, you good?”

“No, no Teeks, I’m not.”

A month passed and you heard nothing from Nolan. Your contact with Mat began to slow, the two of you deciding to be friends, too busy for anything more.

It was the first time in a long time that you actually felt free. You missed Mat, but you knew better than to play with fire. You missed Nolan too, but it was considerably less than before.

“It’s probably in your best interest to keep any hockey boys away from here,” Ash laughed as she followed you into your new apartment in Philly.

“Trust me, no one that has ever played for the NHL will be here, swear on fucking everything!”

“I don’t think you should make that kind of commitment,” her eyes lit up and she laughed.

“No,” you protested “no, we’re not going out with them tonight!”

The Flyers were home and Ash wanted to party with the team.

“Yes we are.”

“Please Ash, no.”

“Yes, babe. I promise you’re going to have have fun. Fuck Nolan, these guys are your friends and I know you miss them.”

#nolan patrick #nolan patrick imagine #Nolan Patrick fic #Mat Barzal fic #travis konency fic

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spine-buster · 4 years ago

Text

The President Wears Prada (William Nylander | Chapter 18

A/N: Remember that there’s a DOUBLE POST this week because of my birthday that happened yesterday! Look out for Chapter 19 to be posted Thursday at 7:30pm. I think you guys will reeeeeally like that one :)

January 24th, 2020

Aberdeen Bloom was amazed.

The welcome reception that the NHL planned in the hotel was full to the brim of what seemed like every NHL president, general manager, and their assistants mingling and munching on perfectly prepared hors d’oeuvres. Everybody was staying at the Ritz-Carlton, a fifteen minute drive from the Enterprise Centre where all the hockey-related festivities were taking place. While the all-stars had already been bussed to the Enterprise Centre, she was here with Brendan and Kyle, trying to assert her presence in a room full of men who thought they were gifts to God’s green earth. She wondered if any of the other executive assistants – a good 99% male, from her observations – felt the same way. It was when she was standing in that room that she realized how much of an anomaly she truly was, and if some guy gawked at her because he hadn’t seen a female since October, she wouldn’t be surprised. Hockey was an old boy’s club, and there was no better proof for that than the makeup of the people in this room.

Many people came up to speak to Brendan and Kyle – Aberdeen thought they were almost like the star debutantes at the ball, except one debutante already had three Stanley Cup rings; the other debutante was like the belle of the ball, as one of the youngest GMs in the league, and everybody wanted to talk to him. The only thing they’d do is give Aberdeen a quick nod after they finished their conversation before walking off. It was like she ceased to exist, or existed only as a figure to nod to once the discussion with the ‘big boys’ was over. Nobody was giving her the time of day. She didn’t even know why she had to come here and do this when—

“Aberdeen,” Brendan’s voice cut off her thoughts. She straightened out her back and looked more attentive as he looked back at her. “Who do you think will come and speak to us next? Let’s make a bet.”

She smiled. She knew that instead of sulking she should be working the room as much as possible, inserting herself politely into conversations Brendan and Kyle would have with some of the other presidents and general managers. “BriseBois has been eyeing Kyle for five minutes, so twenty bucks and an extra day off says it’s him,” she said confidently.

Brendan laughed, as did Kyle. “My bet’s on Ken Holland,” Brendan quipped. “Here to talk to us about Tyler Ennis. Everyone knows they want him. Hometown boy.”

“It’ll be Sakic. To talk to us about Naz,” Kyle said.

“DUBBIE!”

All three of their heads turned to see Brisebois smiling and making his way over. Aberdeen smiled. She leaned into Brendan. “I’ll take that twenty bucks in a Starbucks gift card.”

***

Aberdeen thought that maybe Frederik Andersen should be the one seemingly babysitting Auston Matthews, but she digressed. Because he was attending the All-Star Weekend but not actively participating in any of the festivities due to his slight wrist injury, he was free to do (what seemed like) whatever he wanted. He could visit both locker rooms, he could chat with all the guys, he could take pictures with everyone. All she had to do was make sure he got to the benches during the Skills Competition and she could consider it a job well done.

She didn’t want to follow him into the locker room – that was a bit much – so she stood outside and watched as he interacted with Fred and Mitch before moving on to some of the other players: Jack Eichel, Brady Tkachuk, and Mathew Barzal, for the most part. When he was finished, he looked almost surprised that she was still there waiting for him.

“They’re going on in ten. Where should we be?” he asked.

“I’m just gonna lead you down quickly, but I’m watching with Brendan,” she informed him as they began to walk down the corridor together.

“Aw, come on. You can’t keep me company?” he asked.

“There’s no way I’d be caught dead on a camera beside Auston Matthews, thank you very much,” she joked, but at the same time, was totally serious. If even one hair on her head was caught on camera, she was sure Auston’s fangirls would know her name, address, social security number, and blood type within the hour. “Let alone at the All-Star Game. And let alone with you looking like that.”

“Like what?!” he wailed.

“Oh, come on Auston. You look like you were a cast off of Anchorman and you know it.”

“I’m fashionable.”

“If you say so,” she rolled her eyes.

“I thought those types of comments were only meant for Willy, anyway.”

“They’re meant for any of you when you look like this,” she covered herself, giving him a full up-down, causing him to laugh and shake his head.

They walked past the Western Conference locker room, bustling with all the players and the media walking in and out of it. Auston stopped again to say hi to some guys that he could see – Tyler Seguin and Connor McDavid – before Aberdeen watched another player making his way towards them.

“This your girl, Matthews?” Matthew Tkachuck asked, a devilish smile on his face.

Aberdeen crinkled her brows. Gross. “Ew Matty,” she watched Auston as he made a face. “This is Shanahan’s executive assistant.”

“Oh!” Matthew’s face and demeanour completely changed as he took off his glove to shake her hand politely. “I’m Matthew Tkachuk from the Calgary Flames. It’s nice to meet you.”

Aberdeen laughed at how these boys could switch from being rats one second to upstanding gentlemen the next. “Nice to meet you, Matthew. How do you know Auston?”

“U.S National Development Program,” Auston answered for him. “We were on a World Junior team together.”

“Yeah, not to mention I was on a line with Mitchy in London,” Matthew added, referring to his junior career with the London Knights of the OHL. “It’s like I’m practically on the Leafs,” he smiled.

“You wish,” Auston scowled.

“You’ll be on the bench watching, yeah?” Matthew directed his question towards Auston. Auston confirmed he would be. Matthew’s attention went back to Aberdeen. He gave her a very visible up-down before biting his bottom lip. “How about you? You gonna be on the bench with Auston?”

“I’ll be sitting with my boss, but thanks for thinking about me,” she smiled over-politely. She heard Matthew chuckle but he still didn’t take his eyes off her. “We should go, Auston. I don’t want Gary Bettman angry at me for keeping the star of Toronto backstage for too long.”

Matthew said his goodbyes. Aberdeen and Auston continued walking down and around the corridors until they came to the entrance to the ice. Some of the arena workers, recognizing Auston, began showing him the way. “Now stay here and be good,” she said.

Auston smiled mischievously before winking and walking away from her. “Only for you, Aberdeen.”

“And tell Matthew Tkachuk if he even thinks of me, I’ll kick him in the balls.”

“Will do, baby.”

***

She saw the number pop up on her phone and the request for a FaceTime call. She hesitated at first, not knowing if she should accept. Sure, she was alone in her hotel room, it was late at night, and she was sure everybody had gone to bed, especially Brendan and Kyle. Nobody would be knocking on her door. Nobody would be calling her asking her to get a suitcase ready so they could take a private jet to Phoenix to fire a head coach. And even though her first thought was that this had to be some sort of practical joke, she quickly reconsidered. The last time this was requested it was in the back of a cab and an automatic no.

Not for anything, but less than 24 hours ago he was in her.

So she accepted.

William’s face popped up on the screen. He was clearly already in his pajamas, his hair tied back with an elastic atop his head. Aberdeen remembered that Toronto was an hour ahead, so it was even later for him. “Hello minskatt,” he smiled.

She’d just showered, and her hair was in a towel. She tugged it off so she didn’t look too ridiculous. “Hey Willy.”

“How are you, minskatt?” he asked sweetly, biting his bottom lip slightly as he watched her hair fall out of the towel. “How was today? Long day?”

She nodded her head. “Long but good. I met a lot of the other GMs. Well, most of them just sort of nodded their head at me after having conversations with Brendan and Kyle before moving on. It’s like they don’t know how to speak to women.”

“They probably don’t,” he quipped. “Did Auston behave?”

She smiled. “Yes, Auston behaved.”

“So I don’t need to kick his ass?”

Aberdeen giggled. “No. You’d never, anyway. He’s one of your best friends.”

“I’d still kick his ass if he gave you a hard time.”

She continued to smile. “How was your day? What did you do?”

“Miss you all day,” he said.

She rolled her eyes. She did that a lot today between him and Auston. “What did you really do?”

He shrugged. “Went to the gym. Talked with my brother. Just the usual boring stuff. Nothing as exciting as what you did.”

“Nothing I did was too exciting,” she admitted. She hated to admit it, but it was true. “I don’t mean to be rude when I say that. It’s just – I could have networked, I really could, I mean I know how to work a room, but these guys just weren’t having it. Well, everyone besides Julien BriseBois from Tampa. He was super nice.”

“It’s okay, minskatt. I’m sure tomorrow will be better,” he said encouragingly. “There’s a luncheon, right?”

She nodded her head, a bit surprised that he remembered her schedule. She hoped that would run smoother than what had happened today at the welcome reception. But now, at this moment, with Willy on FaceTime and two more days until she got to see him in Nashville, she didn’t want to talk about work. She’d only left him this morning and she was already missing him. “Hey Willy?”

“Hmm?”

“I…I’ve never really asked, but why do you always call me that? Minskatt?” she asked.

“Because that’s what you are,” he said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She knew that it meant ‘my treasure’. She remembered that quite vividly. “Yeah, but like…why my treasure? Why not just darling or honey or whatever?”

“Do you want me to call you those?” he asked worriedly.

“No! Not at all. I…I like minskatt. I love it, actually,” she admitted for the first time out loud. After months of blushing about it and hearing him say it in her dreams, she was finally able to admit it. “I just don’t know why you’d choose that over the hundreds of other things.”

William shrugged his shoulders again. “I just heard it a lot growing up from my grandparents. My grandpa would call my grandma that all the time. When I was really small, I thought it was her actual name. And I just…I don’t know. I think it’s the nicest thing. Because you’re my treasure. That what you are to me, always. From the moment I met you. You’re my treasure.”

Aberdeen smiled sheepishly. God, he was so…good. So pure. So characteristically William that she honestly didn’t have another word for it. “For what it’s worth, you’re my treasure too, Willy.”

***

January 25th, 2020

Aberdeen decided to get breakfast on her own, without waiting for Brendan to call. She’d fallen asleep talking to William last night – they both had, gag – but she still felt pretty energized and ready for the day. She threw her hair in a bun, knowing it would be easier to style when she got back from breakfast for the luncheon, and put on a simple pair of yoga tights and a University of Toronto hoodie.

She figured that most of the guys were either still asleep or would have ordered room service, and she was pleased to see that the dining room for the continental breakfast was basically two-thirds empty. She grabbed a plate and loaded it with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages, and hashbrowns. She then poured herself some coffee and orange juice and settled into a table, taking out her phone so she could browse the news or read an article while she ate.

She was in a completely tranquil state of mind until she heard a voice from behind her. “Hey!”

It startled her. She turned around to see Mitch standing behind her, holding a plate stacked with food. “What are you doing up so early?”

“Same thing as you – eating!” he smiled. He looked behind him. “Hey guys! Aberdeen’s here!”

She leaned back to look past him and saw Fred’s giant body towering over the egg buffet and Auston looking like he literally just rolled out of bed pouring some cereal into a bowl. Fred smiled and Auston waved. She looked back at Mitch. “You’re all up?”

“You seem shocked,” he said as she settled into the seat across from her.

“I’m not shocked about you, because you’re just an excitable puppy,” she said. “I’m more surprised about Auston. Does he usually get up this early?”

“You’d be surprised,” Mitch shrugged. “When we’re on the hockey grind, early wake up calls are just a part of life.”

Fred and Auston came to the table eventually, with Fred sitting beside Aberdeen and Auston beside Mitch. They spoke casually – about the events of last night and the upcoming day ahead of them, what they would do with their day off tomorrow before having the fly to Nashville on Monday to meet the rest of the team. Auston suggested that they all go to the big arch. Mitch wanted to have lunch at a smokehouse. Fred wanted would arrange the Ubers.

They looked at Aberdeen. It was a while before she noticed. “What?” she asked with a mouth full of breakfast sausage.

“What do you want to do Sunday?” Mitch asked like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

She was confused. “I’m coming?”

“Obviously,” Auston piped up.

“Why would you think you’re not invited?” Fred asked. “You’ve been with us for how long now?”

“I just…I don’t know,” she digressed. “I know I’m, like, part of the team or whatever—”

“So why wouldn’t you come?” Fred followed up.

“I—you guys constantly freak me out, you know that?” she asked. “Like, I don’t get why a bunch of hot shot hockey players want me to tag along with them on their day off.”

“Why wouldn’t you think that? Willy likes you tagging along everywhere,” Auston said.

Aberdeen suddenly stiffened at Auston’s words, thrown around so casually, but they were so charged for her. “So does Jason,” Mitch added quickly. “And Brendan, even. I mean, Brendan wouldn’t have invited you here if he didn’t trust you with us, or you with us, you know? I mean, the All-Star Game is Peter’s thing.”

She’d heard that once or twice before. “It’s just it’s still new to me, that’s all,” she said, trying to remain calm. “I don’t want to intrude on your private time. I’m already around you guys practically all the time as it is. I don’t want to overstay my welcome.”

“Not sure that’s possible,” Mitch said. “You’re always welcome with us. We love you, Aberdeen.”

***

When Aberdeen went back up to her room after breakfast, she took a long look at herself in the mirror. Long. She knew she was loved by many people: by her parents, her grandparents, her siblings, by Kasha, by friends like Masani and Tom and Margot. By Brendan, at least in his own way. By William. She was loved by William.

Could she add the Toronto Maple Leafs to that list?

***

February 5th, 2020

New York City in the beginning of February was much different than, say, New York City in the summer, even New York City at Christmas. With nothing to really look forward to – no holiday or event, no long stretch of time where the city swelled with tourists and it felt so alive – New York City was just…well, New York City. Big. Imposing. Busy.

Brendan had lived here for a few years, both as a player and an NHL executive, and he’d gone out for an extended lunch with a friend, so Aberdeen had nothing better to do than to walk down to Magnolia bakery and grab a half dozen cupcakes to eat and then bring home to share with Kasha – two red velvet with cream cheese icing, one confetti, one lemon, one coconut, and one truffle. It was her way of saying thanks, because Kasha had been picking up donuts from Bloomers or Glory Hole at least once a month since they moved in together. The perks of flying on a chartered flight was that she knew the cupcakes would be safe all the way back to Toronto.

When she got back to the arena, she made sure the box of cupcakes was placed in the box where she’d be with Brendan and Kyle that night, knowing that nobody would touch it. It was when she exited the press box and began making her way through the corridors between the locker rooms that she saw someone she was not expecting at all: Saylor, Kasperi’s girlfriend. She looked very glamourous, with her hair and makeup done professionally.

When she looked up from her phone – which she didn’t do often – and saw Aberdeen, she smiled excitedly. “Ohmygod, hi Aberdeen!” she greeted her enthusiastically.

“Hi, Saylor. You traveled to New York with Kasperi?” she asked, trying to make small talk.

“I actually had a shoot booked, but I scheduled it so I could come to New York the same time as the guys came,” she revealed, clearly proud she was able to get the gig. “You know, because I model.”

Aberdeen resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Saylor reminded her every time they spoke about her modelling. Well, Instagram modelling. Aberdeen didn’t think she’d ever walked a runway or appeared in an editorial. It was mostly just the aforementioned Instagram modelling with a YouTube channel where brands would send her clothes or “collab” with her for exposure. “Yeah, I remember Saylor. Sounds fun.”

“It is!” she smiled excitedly. “I’ve been super lucky so far. But I mean hey, with a bit of makeup and good angles, lots of girls could be models.”

“I’m sure,” Aberdeen giggled. “Wouldn’t be me though. Not with these bushy Persian brows,” she joked, knowing full well thick brows were very in right now and that a lot of girls got them dyed or microbladed to look like hers.

“Persian?” Saylor was confused.

“Yeah. My dad’s Persian.”

“Ohmigosh, I knew you were mixed with something! Your nose totally gives it away.”

Aberdeen froze, though a strained smile was on her face. She knew she had a Greek nose, that it was pretty big with a prominent bridge, not elegant at all like Siena’s, but she didn’t think it was that big of a deal. She didn’t know what Saylor was trying to say or imply, but she tried to play along anyway. “I thought it’d be my hair.”

“Well, that too.”

Aberdeen nodded her head. Before she could say anything else, Saylor’s phone began ringing. “It’s my agency,” she said as she looked down at her phone. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“See ya.”

Aberdeen watched as Saylor left, her hips swaying back and forth in her skin tight Levis. She brought her hand up to her face, feeling the bridge of her nose before patting down her hair. She sighed. At least Saylor didn’t see the Magnolia cupcake box – she probably would have made a comment about that, too.

Aberdeen thought back to New Year’s Eve, when Morgan and John sat at her table and told her the story about Bee; about how she’d gotten messages from fans making fun of her weight and looks and how they’d called her the team cum bucket. Aberdeen shivered. She didn’t understand how people could have such vitriol in their heart for another person they hadn’t even met. And having it be directed towards Bee McTavish of all people. Those were targeted attacks, mostly because they were jealous of who Bee was dating (as they should, because Morgan was a great guy). But Aberdeen wondered if Bee ever got those types of comments from people she knew – other wives or girlfriends who maybe couldn’t hold their tongue or thought that looks were the be all, end all of someone’s worth.

Aberdeen knew better than to think that way. She knew it was all bullshit. How you presented yourself to the world was one thing – with your clothes, your hair, your makeup – and it was somewhat an extension of you, but it wasn’t who you were as a person. Like, Aberdeen always liked to look fashionable and presentable at work, because she knew she was in a highly professional environment and on any given day she’d shake hands and speak with a billionaire, but her clothes didn’t define her. Her personality defined her. Her work ethic defined her. Her respect for her job, her bosses, and her colleagues defined her. Her ambitions defined her more than her clothes ever would, than her clothes ever could. She knew Saylor didn’t mean any harm, that it probably wasn’t said maliciously at all, that it was only said because she didn’t know any better and nobody in her privileged life had called her out on her language that bordered on offensive. Aberdeen wasn’t going to hold it against her unless it kept happening and it did get offensive.

But she highly doubted that.

***

The Leafs lost to the New York Rangers 5-3.

William had knocked on her room door.

She let him in.

He kissed her the second the door closed and she felt overwhelmed by the feeling of his lips on hers, like she always did, really. They hadn’t been able to connect in Nashville or Dallas after the All-Star Game because her room was right beside Brendan’s, so they had to wait until the night they got back to Toronto. The Leafs weren’t doing particularly well lately, but nobody would be able to tell by the way William was acting. He brushed off the losses fairly easily, not liking to dwell on them too much.

“You okay after tonight?” she asked.

“It’s fine, minskatt,” he said as he kissed the tip of her nose. “Better now.”

She smiled slightly. She highly doubted that she made the situation better, but she’d take it. “Come to the washroom with me. I have to wash my face.”

“That’s sexy.”

She smacked his arm. He just gripped onto her hips tighter. “I can ask you to leave.”

“You’d have to make me at this point, and I’m a strong boy,” he raised his eyebrows.

She scoffed, dragging him into the washroom with her as she took off her makeup and cleansed her face. William leaned his body against the wall behind her, so she was able to see him and look at him through the mirror. He was so patient, and literally just watched her as she went about her nightly routine. He didn’t say a peep, didn’t complain, didn’t rush her. He just watched her with a look in his eye that told her, fascinatingly, that he was enjoying just watching her, like he was captivated by her simplest movements.

She pat her face dry, looking at him through the mirror. “Can I ask you something?” she asked. It was so quiet she could practically hear the electric current going through the lightbulb.

“Of course, minskatt.”

She was hesitant, mostly because she didn’t really know if William knew anything about it, but also because she should probably be asking Morgan. She set the towel down on the counter. “Do you know what happened with Bee last year?”

William didn’t look too bothered by the question. “You mean when her mom passed away?” he asked.

“No,” she shook her head. “The…the other thing.”

“Oh, that,” William nodded his head. “Yeah, I know what happened.”

“Morgan said it was someone who knew Kasperi’s ex.”

“It was. Her name was Cassie. Kasperi’s ex, I mean,” he clarified as he stepped closer towards her. “The girl who actually approached Bee in the restaurant was named Danielle.”

“Had you ever met them before?” she asked.

“Cassie, of course. Danielle, no,” he said. “Why?”

“Does Kasperi exclusively date models?”

“Basically,” he giggled slightly. “Why, minskatt?”

“It’s nothing,” she shook her head. “I just—I saw Saylor earlier tonight, and she mentioned how she was in New York City for a photoshoot with a brand or something.”

“She’s one of those Instagram models,” he said, wrapping his arms around her and nestling his head into the crook of her neck. He placed light kisses on her skin that made her feel temporarily drunk. “You should be a model,” he mumbled against her skin.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Aberdeen replied sarcastically, though the feeling of his lips still on her skin made her brain mush.

“Oh come on. You’d be a great model. My model,” he continued with his compliments and with his kissing.

“Not with this nose,” Aberdeen quipped. “At least that’s what Saylor said.”

William stopped his movements. It was quiet again. She continued to watch him through the mirror as he looked at her, speechless. It shouldn’t have come out like that. She didn’t plan for it to come out like that. But like most things to do with William, nothing ever went according to plan. Ignoring him certainly didn’t go to plan – look where they were with that. “Excuse me?” he asked, finally. “What did she say to you?”

“It’s honestly not even a big deal,” Aberdeen said, trying to sound as confident as possible. “She found out I was half-Persian and was like ‘Oh your nose totally gives it away’,” she mimicked Saylor’s voice. “Then when I mentioned as a joke that I thought it would have been my hair that gave it away, she was like, ‘That too’, like it was so obvious.”

William looked angry – a confused angry, like he couldn’t believe something like that was said to her by someone so close to one of his best friends, but at the same time, could totally see it being said by her in particular. Nobody else had commented on it when they found out – at least nobody on the team had – but of course Saylor did. “Minskatt—”

“Please don’t make this a big deal,” she interrupted him, seeing the look in his eyes. “It’s not the first time someone has said something like that to me and it’s definitely not going to be the last.”

If she didn’t want him to make a big deal out of it, he wouldn’t. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t still angry about it, though. And it didn’t mean he’d look at Saylor differently now for what she said. “But minskatt…you know I think you’re beautiful, right?” he asked softly.

Aberdeen nodded her head. “I do,” she said confidently. “I know you do. But, like – and no offence – but I think I’m beautiful. And – again, no offence – that’s more important than you thinking it. I have enough confidence in my appearance to not let it affect me. That’s why it doesn’t matter what she said.”

William smiled at her. Proudly. “No offence taken,” he said, biting his lip. “That’s all that matters. Still makes me want to talk to her though.”

Aberdeen whipped around so she could face him. “Don’t you dare,” she warned.

William’s smile turned from prideful to facetious. “Gotcha.”

Aberdeen scrunched her face at him, but he didn’t care. He dipped down and kissed her again, refusing to stop even as he picked her up in his arms and placed her on the vanity. He stood in between her thighs as he kissed her and kissed her and kissed her, not wanting to ever stop. “You know I think you’re pretty great, right?” he mumbled against her lips.

Aberdeen stopped, their faces only inches apart as she stared at him, smiling slightly. She brought her hand up and let her thumb caress his bottom lip, the slightest bit swollen from all their kissing. His eyes were so, so blue as she looked into them. Sometimes she didn’t think he was real. “I think you’re pretty great, too.”

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starrybethany · 4 years ago

Text

Maybe Someday - Matthew Tkachuk Imagine

Part 2

Word count: 4.5K

He’s kissing on my neck but it’s like I can’t feel it. I fake a moan, I close my eyes. He doesn’t realize that I close my eyes to imagine that he’s someone else. Like I always do.

His lips were always on mine. And when they weren’t, he was talking- talking about how his team is playing Brady’s next week or how Taryn is preparing for college or how his dad chirped him on the phone last night.

“Y/N, you’re hurting me,” he murmurs. My eyes snap open. This isn’t Matthew, it’s Curtis. Curtis from the bar- good Curtis, who scared off the douchebag who was hitting on me and carried a respectful conversation with me. That’s when I decided to go home and sleep with him. I release my grip on his hair and my knuckles turn from white to red.

“Sorry,” I mumble.

“No, it’s okay,” he reassures, placing a soft kiss on my cheek. “Do you want to keep going?”

“Not really.”

Curtis looks surprised to see me, and I’m just as surprised as him, but I hide my shock better.

“Do you two know each other?” My manager asks, eyes sliding between me and the boy across from me.

“No,” I quickly say, eyes connecting to Curtis’ bowtie. Matthew would never wear a bowtie- he always said that ties were more professional, people took you more seriously. A fun suit, though. He liked to switch it up once and a while.

My boss doesn’t believe me but brushes it off, leaving me with Curtis to train him.

“Do you, uh, do you want to talk about the other night?” He coughs awkwardly.

“No.”

He stands dumbly beside me, watching as I organize the money drawer, quickly counting the bills and coins and making sure everything is there.

“Oh, um. Do you just want to put everything behind us then? Start new?” He questions.

“I don’t believe in starting new,” I admit strongly, tensing then relaxing when the next words leave my lips. “Even if I was the one to give off a shitty impression. I do, though, believe in growth and moving on. And if you’re willing to move on, I’m willing to move on.”

He nods quickly, eyes glimmering. Clearly, there’s still some interest there despite the fact that I made him feel like an awful partner in the bedroom. “I’m willing to move on.”

I wonder what Matthew would think if he knew I was doing this right now. Curtis leaves gentle kisses on my jaw and I try my best to focus on that, but I can’t help to think of Matthew’s face when he realized what I was doing.

Those pained green eyes haunt me in my sleep. I wake up every night in a sweat, wishing I would’ve focused all of my love and attention on him like he did for me.

I see the whitened fists from him clenching his hands so tight when I brush my teeth, and I remember his curly hair swaying as he shook his head while I pleaded for him to stay as I wash my dinner plate.

I’m sorry. Please stay, Matthew, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.

But how do you explain that you’re afraid to commit to the one person who would give up the entire world for you?

“Hey, uh, I think I’m bleeding.” My eyes snap to Curtis’ but he’s looking down at his arm, where my fingernails are digging deep into his skin.

“Oh, shit, I’m sorry,” I mumble, nudging his body off of me and standing up.

I clean the marks for him.

“I’m outside,” I tell Curtis, staring up at his brick apartment.

It’s been two months since we started dating. I guess you could call it dating. I mean, we kiss and make out and talk and cuddle, but it doesn’t go much beyond that. Every time it starts to I think about Matthew.

Matthew’s breath on my lips, his fingers gliding over my soft skin, the words of worship leaving his mouth. Really, just anything about Matthew. I always feel like I’m thinking about him, and I know that I should get over it by now, since it’s been three months since he ended things with me, but I can’t.

Something’s holding me back. The feeling of losing the best thing that ever happened to me and forgetting that it ever happened is holding me back.

“I can’t stay long,” I remind him for the millionth time. Curtis pleaded with me to hang out tonight and I reluctantly gave in, wanting to get home in time to watch the entirety of the Flames vs. Blue Jackets game by myself.

My feet carry me up the brick stairs to my partner’s apartment and he’s waiting at the door for me, a bright smile on his face. He’s always smiling when he sees me.

Matthew would always give me a mischievous look that let me know he was up to no good. Then I would find a toy spider in my underwear drawer or my shoelaces would be pulled out of my running shoes.

“Oh, hello,” I greet the group of five people as Curtis welcomes me into his apartment. I was unaware that this would be a group event- Matthew would always ask me before inviting people over, even though we mainly hung over at his apartment.

My eyes move between the three guys and two ladies, my heart dropping as I recognize one of the girls. My heart beats faster and I pray to God that she doesn’t say anything.

“Hey, I know you, you were dating my neighbor, right?” She asks.

I nod wordlessly, afraid of what would happen if I were to open my mouth. I’m not sure if I would vomit or if I would vomit words.

“What happened? You two were so cute together.”

How do I tell this woman that I ruined it all? That I completely fucked up and Matthew will never forgive me, and you know what, no one can blame him.

“Just didn’t work out.”

They drop it but my brain doesn’t. My brain never forgets Matthew. I want to leave as soon as my plate was empty, but one of the guys turns on the Flames game and my mouth gets dry when I see that mouthguard hanging out of the side of his mouth.

I always used to tease him about that and he would just smile, telling me it’s a habit that he doesn’t want to fix.

Ruining my relationship with him is something I wish I could fix.

“I have to go.” My voice cracks and I hate it. Curtis looks concerned and his friends share glances, but I ignore it, hurrying to put my shoes and coat on and get out before I’m sobbing into the fabric of Curtis’ couch.

“Is something wrong?” He questions, resting a hand on my lower back.

I almost shudder at the contact.

“See you Monday.” His front door slams shut behind me and I hurry down the stairs to my car, tears streaming down my berry-colored cheeks as soon as I close the door.

Fuck fuck fuck.

Matthew deserves better than anything I could ever give him. That thought alone makes my chest heave and my vision starts to blacken as my breathing gets shallower. The realization of the situation hits me.

But I did this to myself. So I have to pay the consequences.

Once a cheater always a cheater.

I guess I never learn my lesson, right? I guess waking up tomorrow in this stranger’s bed with guilt filling me from head to toe isn’t enough torture, right? I need to live with that guilt and agony every time I see Curtis or hear Matthew’s name.

The liquor running through my veins thinks it’s a good idea.

It welcomes me to accept the fear that I’m holding. The fear of being connected to one person for the rest of my life, the fear that the person I decide to stay with may not actually be the one for me.

And is it bad that I feel worse for cheating on Matthew than I do for cheating on Curtis? I see a future with Matthew, not with Curtis.

My arms tangle around this stranger’s neck, allowing him to kiss softly down my throat. Matthew was always good at this. It somehow turned me on yet made me feel loved at the same time.

“My place or yours?” He breathes into my skin.

“Yours,” my eyes remain closed. I don’t want my home to be tinted from the memories of Matt.

He told me that his parents were coming to Calgary. They were coming to watch a game and spend the weekend with him and he wanted me to join them. He joked that I couldn’t say no because he already told them about me, but the look in his eye told me that he would respect it if I did say no.

I said yes. And I had the best weekend with Matt, Keith, and Chantal going to the Calgary Tower and the zoo and acting like a tourist in the city I’ve grown up in. We watched Matt’s game together and cheered at the win and during breaks in the play, Keith would give us updates on the Senators game against the Islanders.

Chantal told me about how much Brady likes playing for the Senators and how Taryn really wanted to come with, how she really wanted to meet me after how much Matt has talked about me, but she couldn’t leave school.

And I was on a high the whole week after their visit. I was so pleased that our relationship was going so well.

I could spend all of the time in the world with Matt without getting sick of him and I met his parents and hell, it seemed like everything was going in the right direction.

Then I went out to the bar with my friends. I gushed about my perfect hockey-player-boyfriend and our incredible relationship and they approached the situation with hesitance.

“Have you checked his phone lately? What do you mean he has a passcode, what is he trying to hide?”

“How do you know he doesn’t have girls in other cities when he leaves? He could easily hide it and you know his teammates would defend him.”

“He’d probably hold his salary over your head at the end of the day, Y/N. He’d use it as a way to control you.”

“Aren’t you afraid of getting too serious with him right now? You’re so young.”

With shot after shot, glass of wine after a margarita, their words sunk under my skin. It cemented the doubts I already had, yet had forgotten about for the past week. Matt was in Anaheim at the time, they had a game the next morning, and I convinced myself that he was screwing another girl all throughout the night.

So I decided to do the same.

My fingernails dig into the side of the Styrofoam cup, causing a dent. I know what I need to do but that doesn’t make this any easier.

“Curtis, we need to end this. End this, thing, whatever we have,” I stutter through, running a hand through my hair. I hadn’t planned what I wanted to say in my head at all. I just know I needed to say it, needed to do something to become better.

To heal, to process.

He looks up from his phone, a shocked expression on his face. “What? Why?”

“It’s just, we need to, Curtis,” I insist. The chair scrapes against the dirty café tiles as I rise, rushing out the front door.

“Wait, talk to me, Y/N,” he pleads, catching up to me on the way to my car. He shuts the door as I begin to open it. “Just tell me, please. I can handle it.”

I turn around, tears already welling in my eyes. I shouldn’t be crying, I’m the one who did this to him. I’m the one who hurt him. “I cheated on you.”

I watch his Adam’s apple as he swallows. “Why?”

“I have so much pain inside-“”No,” he stops me sternly, “Why wasn’t I enough?”

“Because you’re not him!” I yell, exasperated. No one will ever be Matthew. And Matthew won’t even be the Matthew I had when he was mine. I broke his trust; I broke his belief in love and that’s the worst thing that you can do to someone.

“You’re not him,” I repeat in a raspy voice, letting the tears flow down my cheeks at the realization. I fuck everyone over. And I’m trying to do better, hell I’m telling Curtis instead of letting him find out like Matt did, but Curtis had to chase me to get me to do that.

For some reason, Curtis pulls me into his chest, taking the cup from my shaky hands and resting it on the hood of my car. My chest rises and falls with the loud thumping of my heart as I wind my arms around him, gripping him as tight as I can. I know it probably hurts.

But I have a feeling it can’t hurt more than the aching feeling in my chest, the longing for the love that I once had.

And I have no one to blame but myself.

I knew that he was suspicious. He was suspecting something. I could feel his eyes on me longer than he usually stared, his eyes would gaze at my phone whenever it would light up, he would ask me more and more questions every time I went out with my friends.

I told myself even before taking the first guy to bed that I would have two rules during my affairs. The first rule would be that we could never go back to my place.

Matt and I never moved in together. We planned on revisiting the topic after a year together. We would probably have moved in together in my apartment since he always said that it was more comfortable and he felt more at home than his apartment, but we never got to the one year. We were two months away.

The second rule would be that my new partner for the night had to use protection. I didn’t want to risk any STIs and even though I’m on birth control, any babies. I’m a horrible enough person, me raising a baby wouldn’t be fair for anyone.

Matt had gone to one of his teammate’s friends for a movie night. I don’t know, I wasn’t really listening. All I could think was ‘how pretty is this girl that he’s cheating on me with?’ I had called my friends and we got ready together in my apartment. I listened as they talked about their plans to get all of us laid tonight, and that includes you, Y/N. If your boyfriend is having fun, you can too.

Matt had found me in a gender-neutral bathroom that night, panties down to my ankles and dress pulled up to my belly button. The guy was buried inside of me. All of the desire and lust I had vanished when I saw his face.

Oh gosh. His face.

I dream about his face every night, the smiles, the funny faces, the laughs. But this face is in all of my nightmares.

Pain came first. Pain came in the form of tight lips and closed eyes. Hurt followed. His eyes widened and his lips went down. The bathroom door closed behind him.

I remember hurrying to push the guy away from me, bile and the alcohol I had drank rising in my throat as I pulled up my panties and yanked down my dress.

I caught him in the parking lot.

“He said so much to me, yet it’s etched into every corner of my brain. Y/N, I gave you everything I had. I gave you my heart, body, and soul. I was willing to put everything on the line for you. I saw a future with you and somehow, even though my heart is breaking into two, I still do. You met my friends- fuck- you met my family and none of that means anything to you, does it? I tried to disagree, but he wouldn’t hear me. I don’t blame him.” I pause the story to wipe a tear from my eye, ignoring the concerned looks from people wondering why I’m crying in this café. “He told me that I broke his heart and that he’ll never be able to love again. And that, clearly, we were over.”

Curtis watches as I stare at the table in shame. I don’t know what else to say. I haven’t tried to contact him at all. It seems disrespectful to him and his healing process.

“It’s been four months,” I grab a napkin to blow my nose, enjoying the burn of the harsh fabric on my skin. “And my friends tell me I shouldn’t still be heartbroken, he was probably cheating on me too, but I don’t know. I’m still in love with that man.”

“You remember his neighbor? The one that I’m friends with?” He speaks, pushing my story to the side. I nod, briefly remembering the girl from when I went to his apartment. “She says he’s much different now that you’ve ended things. He doesn’t leave his apartment except for work, he avoids eye contact with everyone in the hallways, and apparently he looks like he’s in rough shape.”

I bite my lip, processing his words. That’s not the Matt that I remember. Matt loved talking sports with the elderly man next door, he paid attention to his physique to remain in shape for the season, and if he wasn’t watching a movie at home, he was spending time with one of his friends.

Guilt bubbles in my chest. I fucked him up. And it did heavy damage. I bury my head in my hands, wanting to reverse the past seven months to take back what I did to him.

“How do I fix this?”

“You can’t,” Curtis responds quietly, watching as I take the information in. “But you can make it better.”

“How?”

“Talk to him. That’s what he needs.”

Hi Matthew,

I don’t even know how to start this. I’m sorry for writing this, I’m sorry for having to write this in the first place. And I’m sorry that I’m too much of a little bitch to tell you this myself. And I’m sorry if this brings up old shit that you’re trying to heal from or you’re already over everything and your new girlfriend is reading this over your shoulder going, “Oh, is this the slut you were telling me about?”

And I’m sorry for what I did to you. I’m really, really sorry. No words can express how apologetic I am and how much I regret putting you through the pain that I put you through. You treated me like I walked on water. You bought me souvenirs from the cities that you played in and spent days off buried in bed with me, laughing over stupid TikToks.

I destroyed that for us. For you. And I am so sorry.

Love,

Y/N

I realize that I put love while folding the laundry two days after putting the letter in the mailbox. I freeze with the movement, blood running cold.

I mean, it’s true. I still do love him. But he doesn’t care, he hates me. That ‘love’ probably felt like a punch in the gut. I bet he feels like I never loved him because of what I did to him. How can you say you love someone and then turn around and completely betray them?

That night I dream of two kids, a mini him and a mini me, running around a kitchen. He’s standing beside me, an arm wrapped around my waist and a smile just as big as the one he had the day we first met.

Matthew texts me a couple days later. The few days that I waited I switched between nervously anticipating his response and never expecting it to come. He texts me at night, asking me to meet him for coffee the next morning.

I can’t sleep that night. A million and one thoughts run through my head. When did he unblock my number? It’s not like I tried to contact him after the breakup, but I almost did on multiple nights after one too many drinks.

How will he react when seeing me? Will it be like when he saw me for the first time, or will he immediately visualize some other dude inside of me? I can’t help but think of how he’ll look. I always liked his hair more grown out, so that’s how he left it a lot.

I wonder if he cut it, the length reminding him too much of me.

I get there twenty minutes early. I want him to know that this is important to me. That he’s important to me, as shitty as I may show it. I twirl the coffee cup in my hands, taking off the protective holder to let the hotness burn the palm of my hands.

I know it as soon as he enters. My eyes lift from the lid of my cup to meet his. He hasn’t changed a bit; he looks just the way that I remember. His scruff is longer than I ever remember it getting, but it looks nice.

It suits him.

He slides into the seat across from me, leaning back in the wire chair and crossing his arms over his chest. He stares at me with a blank expression, daring me to say the first word. I know he won’t- he shouldn’t have to, I’m the one who messed everything up.

“Um, did you want to get something? They have really good steamers here,” I begin, weakly motioning towards the order station.

He shakes his head silently, staring me down.

“Thank you for, uh, coming, and um, hearing me out,” I stutter through, practically shaking under his intense gaze.

“Why’d you do it?”

I knew the question would come. And he deserves to know the answer, too. It’s just- the reasons are stupid, beyond pathetic reasons. And if I tell him, he can never unhear it. And knowing Matt, I don’t know if he’ll feel comfortable living with this thought for the rest of his life. I take a deep breath. “Well, um, I guess it was to get back at you, really. My friends convinced me that you were cheating on me.”

He raises his eyebrows. “And you believed them? And cheated on me instead of talking to me about it?”

“It’s stupid, I know.” I bite my lip, brushing a stray hair out of my face. His eyes follow the action.

“How many times?”

I wince at the question. If he didn’t like the answer to the last question, he definitely won’t like the answer to this one. And even though I was the one who was doing it, I don’t like the answers either. “Three.”

“Three times?” I can feel the bite in his voice, and I sink down in my seat, ashamed and humiliated because of my actions. I can’t even make eye contact with him, but I can feel him practically burying me into the ground with his eyes. “With the same person or different people?”

“Different people,” my voice is barely over a whisper.

“I don’t know what would be better,” he retorts. I watch his arms drop to his sides in disbelief at the answer. “The fact that you would sleep with other men and then with me-“”I made them use condoms,” I quickly interrupt, cringing as soon as I do it.

I probably shouldn’t be interrupting him right now or trying to defend myself. I need to take this time to take responsibility for my actions and beg for forgiveness.

“How long?”

“What?”

“How long were you cheating on me?” He demands.

“A month and a half,” I answer shyly.

“You cheated on me three times over a month and a half?” He confirms.

I nod, swallowing the bile rising in my throat. When he turns his head to the side, I can see the tears glistening his eyes over.

I’ve never seen Matthew cry. He never wanted to cry in front of me- I could cry in front of him at anything but he would never cry in front of me. When I asked him about it one time, he told me that it’s because he needs to be strong and be able to protect me.

I was supposed to do that too. Not by not crying, but by faithful and giving him all of my love. Instead, I’m bringing him to the point of tears by telling him all about my infidelity.

“Matthew, I know it doesn’t mean anything, but I’m sorry,” I breathe out.

“You could say that a hundred times and I still wouldn’t care,” he shakes his head.

Hurt flashes through my body at his words, but my brain forces me to understand. He doesn’t need to care about me anymore, I hurt him as bad as you can hurt a person. I should just be grateful enough that he’s still with me right now.

“Thank you for being the best boyfriend I could ever have. You did so much for me and I, I never appreciated it as much as I should have,” I speak slowly, knowing that we have a limited amount of time left. It’s clear by the way that he can’t even look at me right now that we aren’t meant to be with one another right now.

He wipes at the tears, blinking his eyes to get them to disappear. “You shouldn’t be the one to get the final word, I should.”

“Okay,” I nod. “Go ahead.”

“You really messed me up. You fucked me up for my next relationship,” he gives a watery chuckle, “But you also taught me a lot and we had a good ten months and four days together. Fuck what you did to me. That was awful. But the worst part is that I know you, and I know that you’ll grow from this experience and you’ll be even better for the next guy. I love you. Or, um, I loved you.”

It’s my turn to wipe the tears from my cheeks, biting my cheek to hold back the sob that wants to be released.

“Maybe someday, Matthew,” I give him a weak smile.

He knows what I mean. Even though he doesn’t smile back, I can he returns the emotion by the glimmer in his eye and the “Someday, Y/N” when he thinks I’m far enough away.

#NHL imagines #Matthew tkachuk imagine #Calgary flames imagine #hockey imagines #Matthew tkachuk x reader #bmsomeday

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dripkingpetey · 4 years ago

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untitled-j.markström

I didn't even intend to post this at all, I was just writing this cause I was bored and really missed marky but @passthehockeyplease made me post it so enjoy this poorly written+not proof read fic?( idk if you can call it a fic) I know nothing really makes sense especially since the reader is playing in the nhl and it is a female reader but just go with it haha. anyways I hope you enjoy :) (also, please do not come at me for any mistakes lol)

warnings:swearing+alcohol I think

2002words

You couldn’t believe it when you saw the notification on your phone. “Jacob Markstrom has signed with the Calgary Flames to a 6x6 contract!” Feeling a wave of emotions flushing through your body as your best friend, Jacob called you. You did possibly the worst thing, smashing your phone across the room as you bursted into tears of angriness and sadness. “What the fuck.” Was all you managed to mumble.

You couldn’t believe it, your bestfriend leaving the team you had spent years together on, without even telling you he was considering the offer. You heard a knock on the front door and you knew it was him, you walk to the peep hole of your apartment door to see if you were correct and you were. “Jacob go the fuck away I’m not talking to you.” You mumbled, just to the point where he could faintly hear you. “Please, just let me in. I can explain it.” The familiar calming Swedish voice rang from the other side of your front door as you hesitated whether you should let him in or not, quickly pulling your hand away from the doorknob you realized what you were doing. You latched the chain lock on your front door which you have never done before and Jacob heard it, he knew you didn’t want to talk but he had to talk to you, he had to tell you what was happening. But you never watched to see his face or anything of him ever again, hoping he would just leave Vancouver without talking to you and giving you and explanation and that’s exactly what he had to do.

“Y/n you can’t just do this, you both miss each other and you know he had to sign with them.” Brock tried convincing you to talk to Jacob but it wasn’t working. Brock and Elias are the only people you’ve seen since then, Elias stayed in Vancouver with you for the off-season as Brock went back to minnesota but recently returned for the season. “I can’t just do what?” You questioned angrily. “Do whatever I want without saying anything? Well seems like I’m not the only person that did that right?” Brock was shocked by your words, he knew you were hurt but not this much. “Yeah, I do miss him. But what the fuck can I do Brock, there’s no way he’s going to come back and play for Vancouver and there is absolutely no way that I’m playing for Calgary, him and I’s friendship is over wether we like it or not. End of story.” You started tearing up as you said that. Brock moved over in hopes to comfort you since he didn’t know what to say. “I don’t want to kick you out but I have to, I need time to myself right now.” Brock understood and gave you a quick kiss on the head as he walked out the door, pulling out his phone to text Jacob what happened. “You hurt her, really badly.” Was all Brock managed to type.

Tomorrow was the first game of the season and you just so happen was scheduled to play against Calgary, groaning as you saw the schedule since you knew you were gonna have to see Jacob. It wasn’t unusual for the season to start off with a road trip, so you started packing. Cleaning out your hockey bag since it was a tradition for you to do that at the start of every season, you saw something. “Markys hoodie,” You mumbled as you picked up Jacobs hoodie, he gave it to you last year while you were on a road trip in New York but you remember it like it was yesterday. You picked it up and put it on, remembering how big he was and the way the sweater absorbed your body, you knew you were going to regret it as the memories came back. Finding yourself crying once again, you picked yourself up and finished packing before you hung the hoodie back up.

The hoodie ended up haunting you for the rest of the day, even though it was sitting in your closet, it was the only thing you saw whenever you even looked in the direction. You missed him, too much. You would be lying if you said he wasn’t occupying your brain 24/7, you knew it was so bad when you were driving to meet up with the team for the first game and all you could think about was not being seat mates with Jacob anymore. “Are you sure she’s okay?” Bo whispered over to Elias as you pulled into the parking lot, putting on sunglasses to hide your puffy eyes. “She isn’t, and none of us know what the fuck to do.” Elias quickly whispered before you made your way over to the guys and hugged Bo. “Hey,” You smiled as Bo returned the hug. Bo was always like a big brother to you, you told him about any problems you had but not this one. You don’t know why telling him didn’t cross your mind but you knew that Brock and Elias definitely told him as he pulled you into a tight hug. “Hey y/n.” He smiled at you before helping you with your luggage. “Are we ready for the first road trip of the season guys?” Bo exclaimed trying to hype you guys up and it worked. You unzipped the puffer jacket you had on over your hoodie as everyone got seated, it was unusually cold that day in Vancouver but you were glad to be going to a city that was even colder.

You realized you didn’t have a seat mate this season which you tried to take as a good thing, it meant you could sit with anyone as long as they wanted to sit next to you. It also meant that you could sleep more comfortably and you took advance of that right away, falling asleep with your legs stretched out to the empty seat beside you as soon as the plane elevated into the air.

“She smells like Jacob.” Bo said quietly to Elias, not wanting anyone else to hear. “I know, I don't think she saw him so I'm guessing she has his clothes and was wearing them.” Elias responded right away in the same level of voice. They exchanged a look at each other, knowing that they had to help you somehow.

It was the next day, you tried to not think about Jacob which resulted in you working out at the hotel gym that the whole team was staying at. “Hey, keep some energy for the game tonight.” Bo joked, which was really because he was concerned about you but he didn’t want to let it show. “Oh I’m fine,” You said quickly while panting. “See, just working out a bit to stretch the muscles and be even better for the game.” You lied, it was to get your mind off of Jacob. Bo took a quick peek around the gym to see if anyone was around before he started speaking again. “Listen y/n, I hate to ruin your mood but I know what your thinking about. It was hard for everyone and I know especially on you but you know I’m always here to talk if you need someone.” You nodded at Bo’s words as he later on encouraged you to go upstairs and get ready for the game and that’s exactly what you did. You braided your hair tightly after the cold shower you took to wake yourself up, the braids were a signature of yours. Whenever there was an important game you would braid it up for good luck and it worked this time, outscoring Calgary 9-3 it was a win for the Canucks. It was hard seeing Jacob on the ice and especially not in Canucks gear but you did it, without crying or letting your emotions take over your brain.

“Yeah I’ll head back to the hotel for tonight, I’m super exhausted.” You said as you declined the invite from the guys to go out and they all groaned, but they knew not to ask you again. You quickly found yourself being the only one in the locker room, heading out with your stuff when you accidentally bumped into someone. “Oh my god, I’m so sor-” You cut yourself off when you saw who you had bumped into, Jacob. “Sorry- Y/n?” Jacob also cut himself off when he saw you, he didn’t know what to say. “Please stay, and talk to me.” Jacob begged as you started to walk away but you stopped. “What is there to say Jacob? You’re ‘sorry’ that you didn’t have a choice? We both know damn well that you could’ve told me first, or even anyone else. But no, you didn’t even try to talk to me till the news was out.” You said sternly and you could see the emotions on his face. “I thought you were my bestfriend.” You mumbled as you started tearing up, not letting him say a single thing as you walked away to the hotel.

It was safe to say you were a wreck, not even noticing the tears that were streaming down your face until you saw a reflection of yourself in the tv of your hotel room. Finding any alcohol you could in the hotel mini fridge, you drank it all. Knowing it was going to cost lots but who cares, it took a second for the alcohol to set in but you knew you were going to wound up throwing up by the end of the night. You don’t know how but Jacob ended up at your door, you saw the surprised look on his face when you opened immediately. He was surprised partly because you opened, and partly because you were drunk. “Can I please come in?” Jacob asked as your brain sobered up a little and you knew what you were doing, leading him in as you sat down on the bed. “They forced me to sign the contract, I wanted to stay in Vancouver.” Was the first thing Jacob blurted out, you were confused at how he was forced but you let him explain. Jacob started talking about everything before you cut him off. “Shut up and kiss me.” You whispered as you moved closer and Jacob was confused but he kissed you, knowing that he wanted to kiss you as well. You had been waiting for this kiss forever, even though you always addressed Jacob as your bestfriend, you knew deep down that you liked him. “Fuck,” Jacob mumbled as he pulled away from you, almost tearing up. “I missed you, so so fucking much.” Jacob mumbled before noticing the weird taste in his mouth, it was all of the alcohol you drank prior to him arriving. “How much did you drink?” Jacob asked with a deep tone of concern in his voice as you laid your head on his chest. “All of those.” You mumbled, pointing your index finger at the pile of mini bottles on the table. “Oh shit,” He quietly cursed to himself knowing that you were going to be very drunk when all of the alcohol finally hits. It took awhile but in this moment you were absolutely blackout drunk, throwing up in a trashcan beside the bed as Jacob held your hair back and got you some water. “I’ll go get you some water.” Jacob said as he rubbed your back softly and you laid back down, you took a big sip of the water before thanking him. “I can’t stay in Vancouver without you, I miss you.” You mumbled while tearing up at him. “Its gonna be alright.” Jacob held you tight in his grip and kissed your head as you drifted off to sleep in his arms, completely forgetting about the awkwardness and what’s going to happen when you woke up.

#oh god this is long #jacob markstrom #calgary flames #<- that HURTS #im also gonna tag canucks because its about him leaving :(#vancouver canucks #Jacob Markstrom fic #calgary flames imagine #nhl #hockey #hockey fic #nhl fic

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bqstqnbruin · 5 years ago

Text

Distractions

Oof I’m glad we still have some rat king fever going on here.

But anyway, it’s now after midnight on Friday, which means my college graduation is tomorrow and I still don’t have all of my cords and medals and stuff which is sad but I’ll get them eventually, right?

This was requested, so I hope you like it! Here is the original request!

___________________

“I don’t get why you want to come to the rink and study all the time?” you hear Sam say through the phone.

“Because I know that guys won’t harass me there like they do at the coffee shop on campus. And if they do while I’m at the rink, you can just hit them or something.”

“Y/N, c’mon.”

“Sammy, please,” you call him the name you know he hates. It might not be the best strategy to use it, but it always gets you what you want. “I pay you for gas to come pick me up, don’t I?”

“Yes.”

“And I make you dinner once a week if you let me study there already.”

“Yes,” he groans.

“So, then, come pick me up and I’m studying at the rink.”

“Fine.” He hangs up to hopefully come pick you up and drive you to the rink as you get your books and computer together in your bag. Your exam was coming up in your Reformation and Revolution of Europe,1500 - 1850 class, and you needed to do some hardcore studying and prepping of essays before you got so behind you weren’t able to catch up.

Sam was happy when you had decided to go to University of Calgary for school, because it meant you would be right near him, he would know you’re safe, and most importantly for him, he would be able to keep an eye on you to make sure you were safe. What he didn’t seem to like was that you had a hard time studying unless you were at the rink, a habit and mindset that developed growing up. Your parents would take you to Sam’s practices and you stay the entire time, your mom or dad being the parent volunteer that would be the extra set of eyes in case a child needed help off the ice. You had to get your homework done somehow, especially in high school. What choice did you have?

You find your keys and run out the door of your apartment right as Sam pulls up to your apartment. “I hate two things: one, that you know my schedule so well because I get stuck doing crap like this, and two, that you’ve gotten so good at nailing down my schedule you know exactly how long it will take me to pull up in front of your door.”

“What can I say. History is all about the timeline.”

“I hated everything about what you just said.”

“Yeah, me, too. Just drive.”

“So what are you studying for this time?” he asks.

“Ref and Rev. My exam is next week.”

“I don’t understand why you like history so much. Like, who likes history?”

“Plenty of people. It’s a good major for law school. Who likes hockey?”

“Enough people that I make more money in one year than you’ll probably see in your entire life.”

“Oh, shut up!”

“Hey, ya know, some of the guys might be happy that you’re coming to practice today. One of the guys even said that after you came, he played the best game of his life,” Sam says, pulling up to the practice facility.

“Yeah, sure. Which one?”

“Remember Matthew?”

You definitely did. The curly-haired, blue-eyed, lispy rat boy that was your brother’s teammate was one of the players, from your understanding, that you were supposed to either love or hate with no in between. “He’s that rat-type boy, right?”

“Maybe don’t say that too loud, Y/N/N. Most people don’t really enjoy being called ratty, even if Matthew really is a rat.”

“Fair enough,” you shrug, parting ways with him to go find a seat for yourself to study in for the day.

The first thing you had to do was actually figure out which unit in the class the exam was actually on. You loved that your professor was so passionate about history; every day she was genuinely excited to teach the class, even if it was an 8 am, but wow was she disorganized and all over the place. The first essay you had to outline was asking whether or not the reformation did what it meant to. The vaguest possible question: did something succeed? was probably what you hated most about being a history major. You could say one wrong thing, and the entire answer goes to shit faster than you can come up with something that actually makes sense.

All you had to do was outline the essay now and memorize it next week. Then outline the other essay, and basically fill out the four page study guide that you now realize you have. “You’ve got to be joking,” you say to yourself as the boys start coming out onto the ice.

“Y/N, why are you all the way up there?” you hear Sam call out.

“Where else would I go?” you yell back, the guys turning to look at you, your feet up on the seat in front of you, a book and your laptop open in your lap.

“On the bench? Come here before we have to come move you.”

You lean your head back, groaning, a smile on your face anyway. You know what he’s doing. Sam wants you close so that Matthew can go talk to you. You shove your stuff in your bag, getting up to make your way down to the bench as Sam starts cheering like an idiot. “You’re annoying, you know that?” you tell him, sitting down and trying to do your best to get comfortable with your computer and books.

“I would be a horrible older brother if I weren’t,” he says, skating away. You roll your eyes at him, getting back to the essay you were starting to outline. You finally get in the zone with the paper, hoping that you had a solid thesis and a good direction to go with for the paper.

“So?” someone says, snapping you out of your zone, causing you to jump.

“Jesus Christ!” you squeal, nearly dropping your laptop, your book falling off your lap and onto the bench.

“Wow, jumpy much?” Matthew says, leaning over the wall to try to see what is on your computer.

“I was clearly not expecting you to sneak up on me when I am obviously doing work.”

“Why do you come here to study? How is all of this not distracting?”

You look up at him. The curls sticking out from his helmet, the slight lisp in his voice, the beads of sweat dripping down the side of his face. You just want him to leave right now. You just want to study. That’s the only reason you came. “What’s distracting about being here?”

A smirk grows on his face, a devilish look in his eyes, “Oh, I think you know what would be distracting.”

“You’re right. There is a pest problem,” you return his smirk, looking back down at your laptop. You started typing, even though it was complete nonsense just so he would go away.

“See ya later, Y/N,” he says, skating off, the grin still on his face.

Every time you looked up for the rest of practice, his eyes were already on you, looking away just in time to make you think you had been imagining it.

By the end of practice, all you wanted to do was get home and finish the section of the study guide you had started. You were waiting for Sam by his car, on your phone scrolling through Insta when you hear two voices approaching you, both of them way too familiar for your liking. You look up to see Sam and Matthew, freshly showered, Matthew looking directly at you as they came towards you.

“So, Y/N/N, Matthew actually lives closer to you than I do, so he said he would take you home,” Sam says, unlocking his car.

“I was going to get us dinner tonight though, remember?”

“Uh, get it with Matthew. I’ll eat with you another time, I just want to go home right now.”

“Yeah, I’m down for dinner with you,” Matthew says, taking your arm and starting to drag you to his car.

Before you can protest, Sam shuts his door, you not even realizing he got in and started the engine. “Watch it Chuky, she’s still my sister. Love ya, Y/N,” before driving off, leaving you no choice but to follow Matthew to his car.

“So what were you thinking for dinner?”

“Enough food just for me,” you tell him. Yours and Sams number one rule was no dating friends or teammates. Sam was not allowed to date any of the girls on the track team with you when you two were in high school, you were not allowed to date any hockey player that had the same logo on their chest as Sam ever. Matthew was definitely no exception. But then why would Sam have even mentioned that Matthew was the one who liked you coming? And what did he mean by ‘she’s still me sister?’ “Sorry,” you tell him, shaking your head, “I’m just stressed over the exam I was studying for.”

“What class?”

“Reformation and Revolution of Europe, 1500 to 1850,” you tell him the title of the class that was slowly becoming your least favorite.

“Why would you do that to yourself?”

“I’m a history major. It fulfills like eight requirements that I need for graduation so I figured, why not? Plus, Martin Luther is kinda interesting once you get past the whole, ‘he’s the Donald Trump of his era.’”

You keep talking the rest of the way, realizing that Matthew didn’t actually know where you lived. “Where are you taking me?” you ask him, surprisingly not scared about his answer.

“Oh, shit. I was driving back to my place outta habit.”

“I’m fine with that if you are,” you hear yourself say, not even realizing it was actually something you wanted, or at least, wouldn’t mind.

“Yeah, sure.” The smirk from before returns to his face. “You know, you staring at me while I’m driving actually is a distraction. Kinda like you sitting there on the bench looking so,” he stops, like he’s trying to find the right word, “nerdy.”

You can’t help but roll your eyes, “Should I be taking that as a compliment?”

“If you want.”

“Now I understand why Sam likes Noah more,” you tease, knowing it gets under his skin. Is this flirting with him? Should you be flirting with him to begin with?

“Oof, you know how to hurt a man, Bennett, just like your brother on the ice.”

“Why did you come up and talk to me during practice?” you ask, changing the subject.

“How could I not?”

“No one else did, not even Sam,” you point out.

“I guess I just wanted to talk a cute girl today.”

“Matthew Tkachuk, are you supposed to be hitting on one of your teammate’s sisters?”

He pulls his car into a parking space, not even realizing you were in the garage of what you assumed to his apartment building. You hadn’t even been paying attention the entire drive where you were going, other than the fact that you weren’t going home. He turns off the car, turning to face you. “Your brother said it was ok.”

You can’t help but burst out laughing. “What, you asked Sam’s permission to flirt with me?”

“Maybe not just flirt?”

He starts to lean in for a kiss, your heart pounding. “Wait a minute. You’ve gotta at least buy me dinner first,” you tell him, your hand on his chest, feeling his heart pound just like yours is. The look in his eyes, the longing, shock. You get out his car before he can say anything.

“You’re just doing this as a distraction, aren’t you?”

“We all love distractions, don’t we?” you say, as he takes your hand in his, leading you to his apartment.

“So, what do we want to eat?”

#matthew tkachuk #matthew tkachuk imagines #sam bennett #calgary flames #calgary flames imagines #flames #flames imagines #hockey #hockey imagines #nhl #nhl imagines

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allisonxmoynihan · 4 years ago

Text

she’s mine ~ t. zegras

Request: I have a request for tz, you and him have been keeping your relationship private and you go to the beach with all the BU boys, and Trevor gets jealous bc all the boys are seeing you in a bikini

Word Count: 1745

Note: This was also posted on my old account, and I promise this is the last of the reposts before I start working on new stuff! Let me know if you have any requests!

“babe, come on, we don’t want to be late,” trevor yells from outside your dorm room door. You were going out with him and some of the BU boys to the beach to enjoy the sudden warm weather that you’ve been deprived of after a long and cold boston winter.

“trevor, hold on,” you shout back as you tie your bikini top around your neck. you look in your mirror and do a quick turn in your swimsuit making sure you looked okay. it wasn’t that you wanted to impress anyone, but you also didn’t want to look like a fool, especially since you were a little nervous being one of the only girls going today. You grab a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and throw it on over your swimsuit as you slide on your flip flops.

you and trev find yourselves walking down commonwealth avenue as you head towards the beach, and he’s telling you all about this crazy story.

“Yeah, and then she was like ‘well don’t call the cops,’ and i was like, ‘what and let him die?’ anyway, yesterday after practice dom and i got pizza and i gotta take you to the place…”

you laugh slightly shaking your head.

“What, is there something on my face, because you know i didn’t wash it after i ate and i had some chocolate pancakes today, we should get them some time.”

“Trev, slow down, okay? I’m still confused about the police story? Was that real? you jump around from story to story so fast, it’s hard to keep up,”

Trevor frowns looking down at you, “so, anyway, those pancakes were really good, Wendy at the good dining hall made them for us.”

You smile shaking your head at your boyfriend of the last eight months, you were totally and completely head over heels over him and his endless, goofy antics.

Trevor grabs your hand, interlacing his fingers in yours.

“Trev,” you start, “we’re in public, we shouldn’t, i mean what if someone sees?”

Trevor shrugs, “so they see? No one important is around right now anyway. The boys are already at the beach.”

You force a smile so he knows everything is okay. And it was, you wouldn’t ask for any other guy in the world because trevor treated you amazingly and you knew he was the one you wanted to grow old with. But you couldn’t lie about the rock that formed in the pit of your stomach every time you and him were out in public. you hated keeping your relationship a secret from every single person in your lives, but you knew it was probably for the better. If something did happen between you two you didn’t want his fans and hockey world coming after you or thinking he was some sort of destructive monster.

Trevor drops your hand the minute you turn the corner and the beach is in eyesight, “i’m going to walk a little ahead since, well you know,” he says, offering a shy, boyish smile at you before he walks ahead.

you wave to his back and slow down your pace. you knew he didn’t mean to hurt you by doing things like this every time you guys were going out with the boys, but it always stung. If you were being honest you were getting sick of keeping the relationship secret, especially when he would openly flirt with other girls in front of you, earning him some cheers and a couple of words of encouragement from his teammates.

you finally reach the beach to see the boys gathered in a game of beach volleyball.

“y/n! You’re here,” Alex Vlasic, probably your closest friend on the team besides trevor, exclaims.

you nod as the boys quickly turn their interest back to the game in front of them.

Payton, alex’s girlfriend comes up to you, “Hey, girly! Did you get my text about smoothies tomorrow morning?”

you nod as you slide your shorts off, “yeah, i’m totally down, i’ve been wanting to try the new place anyway.”

Payton smiles as she lays out two towels for the two of you to lay on while you tan, “i know, right? I’m so happy they’re finally putting a smoothie bar in the sea of coffee shops that they call boston.”

you laugh, taking off your shirt and laying down on your towel. “I know, coffee does get old after awhile,”

Payton starts talking to you about her movie night with vlasic last night, and how he tried making cookies for her, and you smile at her excitement and how in love she is with him.

“Zegras, what the fuck man?” Farrance shouts.

“Come on, Z, that was an easy hit!” Ethan whines, as Dom, Cam Crotty, and Vlasic snicker.

“Maybe you should take your eyes off of the girls and pay attention so you don’t get hit again,” Dom remarks towards his roommate.

“Yeah, yeah,” trevor says, finally peeling his eyes off of you and kicking the volleyball back over to Crotty.

“Damn, y/n’s got a nice body, we should invite her to the beach more often,” Ethan jokes, glancing at trevor to see his reaction. It was a shared suspicion on the team that you and trevor were a thing, or at least had feelings towards each other.

Trevor’s jaw clenches as he sends an icy glare at ehtan, “shut the hell up.”

“Awe, Z, are we talking about y/n inappropriately?” Farrance ridicules.

Trevor’s eyes find their way back to you, laying on the towel as you laugh with payton. His eyes flick up and down your body as a smirk erupts on his face, “whatever,” he grumbles, his voice stern and cold.

~*~

you and payton had decided to build a sand castle after the picnic lunch Crotty had packed for everyone.

“Hey, why does trev look so pissed off?” she asks?

you look up to find him with an emotionless face staring at you with a tight jaw. you also don’t miss the other five boys staring at you and payton in your swimsuits.

you shrug, “ummm, i am not sure. Probably lost some bet the boys had going on,” you cover up, knowing that the real reason is the boys were clearly looking you girls up and down and enjoying every second of it.

Payton squeals, “nooo, a wave is coming!” the two of you giggle as you scramble to try and block the wave from destroying your sand castle. you two topple over laughing at your failed attempt at saving your creation.

Vlasic walks on over, snaking his arms around payton’s, “can i take her away for just a moment?” he asks before leading her down the shoreline, the two of them hand in hand.

you smile softly over at them before walking back to your towel and sitting down, not really sure what else to do. you grab a textbook out of your bag that you brought with and decide to get caught up on your sociology reading.

Out of your peripheral vision you see someone sit down next to you on payton’s blanket. you look up and find trevor looking at you with a goofy grin adorned on his face.

“Nerd,” he laughs out at you, closing your textbook and throwing it on the towel in front of you.

“Trevor! I’m behind on reading and need to finish the chapter,”

He shakes his head, smiling down at you as he pushes himself up and extends his hand out to you.

Your eyes go wide, “what are you doing?” you ask, looking around you to see where the boys were at. Trevor huffs in annoyance, so you place your hand in his so he can pull you up to your feet. He walks with you by his side down to the water, him bumping his shoulder playfully into yours causing you to smile at the gesture.

“Just want to spend some time with my girl” he smiles, wading into the water with you.

you feel a blush creep onto your cheeks, “trev, they can see,” you start.

“Shh, let’s just forget about them, okay?” he says, wrapping his arms around your waist and pulling you close to his body. you smile, wrapping your arms around his neck. It wasn’t often trevor showed his emotions towards you and was all cutesy and romantic in public, so you were going to enjoy the moment while it lasted.

“The boys kept making comments about you being hot and all that and i think it’s time they know who you belong to,” he pouted, causing you to laugh.

“Oh, do you now?” you smirk back at him, a grin blossoming on his face.

“You’re mine and i’m sick of the guys always expressing how attractive you are and how they should make a move. I’m sick of sharing you with every single fucking guy in boston. You’re mine and i’m not sharing anymore”

you press your lips gently to his and he lets out a small moan, you pull back raising an eyebrow at him. you were beyond happy that you didn’t have to keep your relationship on the down low anymore.

“I love you so fucking much baby,” he says leaning his forehead against yours, just holding you close to his body, not wanting to let go.

you smile, lightly pecking his lips, “i love you too trev,”

“Get a room!” you hear some of the guys shout as the others make exaggerated gagging noises at you and trevor. The two of you laugh at his teammates as trevor puts you down and walks you back up to your towel, which he happily wraps you up in.

“Hey Z, how long has this been going on?” Farrance asks as he points between the two of you.

Trevor looks down at you smirking, “about eight months.”

you can’t help but laugh at the boys as their jaws all drop open, “oh wow,” is all they can muster up to say.

Trevor leans down and whispers in your ear, “how about me and you go to froyoworld tonight?”

you smile up at him, “i’d very much like that trev, but i’m not paying this time.”

He groans, “of course you aren’t” but he can’t help the inevitable grin that’s plastered to his face because he wouldn’t give you up or the moments, the good and the bad, you share together for the world.

#trevor zegras #jack hughes #patrick moynihan #alex turcotte #anaheim ducks #hockey #ntdp #ntdp imagine #last of the reposts

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midnightsnyx · 5 years ago

Text

Nathan MacKinnon - Little Do You Know

pairing: nathan mackinnon/reader

warnings: swearing, angst, fluff

word count: 2.7k

a/n: new game - count how many commas i can put in a paragraph

my masterlist

Nathan MacKinnon

October

“You look like a puppy dog in love.” Cale says and I glare at him.

“I do not.”

“Dude, you’ve been drooling over him for the past two hours.” He grins but raises an eyebrow. “Y’know… he’s probably going to take one of those girls home.”

I let my eyes trail to where Nate is sitting at a table with some other guys from the team along with at least six girls.

Normally, I would at least be sitting at the table even though it was annoying watching girls latch on to Nate like leeches and him loving it. But, Cale is just able to legally drink at bars and I was given the task of taking care of him. While we started out sitting with the guys, two things caused us to leave.

One, I realized how bad an influence the guys were on Cale who really couldn’t hold his alcohol yet.

And two, it was annoying when all the girls decided to sit with them.

So I’d dragged Cale to a booth and made him drink a couple glasses of water and eat a bag of chips until he sobered down a little which was nice until I remembered he was even more annoying sober. He had been bothering me for the past fifteen minutes about how love struck I am looking at Nate.

He wasn’t wrong but pointing it out got under my skin.

“I don’t care.” I mutter but he just scoffs.

“Right. Call me when pigs fly and I will believe you.”

“Do you want me to send you home?” I snap and he slouches in his seat, cheeks turning red at the fact that I can indeed send him back to his apartment.

“Fine.” He mutters but his eyes widen and he nods towards where his teammates are sitting. I look and see Nate walking towards us. He’s way more than tipsy and grins when he looks at me.

“Having fun?”

“Yeah. Babysitting is awesome.” I grumble and Cale kicks my leg under the table.

Nate simply smiles and I can tell he doesn’t pick up on my sarcasm.

“I’m heading out.” He says, jerking his head towards the front door. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

When I look towards the door, I see a girl waiting there and she gives me a satisfied smirk that I ignore. Before I left the table, she’d been glaring at me every time I spoke to Nate.

“Sure.” I mutter and when he leans down to kiss my cheek, I clear my throat and lean back in my seat so he kisses air. He almost tips over which is probably the highlight of my night.

“Have a nice night.” I tell him when he frowns at me. I don’t know if he gets the message or is just too drunk to care but he nods and leaves.

“I told you so.” Cale says and I sigh, standing up and motioning for him to follow me. I walk over to the table where the guys are and put on a fake smile.

“We’re heading out.” I tell them and pinch Cale’s cheeks. “It’s past his bedtime.”

They all laugh loudly but wave when we leave. The air is cold when it hits me but it’s better than how stuffy the bar was.

“Can I trust you to get home yourself?” I ask Cale because I need to go for a walk to relax and clear my mind.

“I’m not five.” He says but I call his cab for him anyway. When it arrives, he stops and looks at me before getting inside.

“You should really tell him.”

“I know.” I say and he gives me a tight smile.

“But you won’t.”

“No,” I say quietly. “I won’t.”

. . .

November

Nate invites me to lunch on a Saturday telling me he has some news and wants me to hear it from him first. I expect it to be something related to hockey or maybe about his family.

But it’s not.

He’s met someone and he wants me to meet her.

“She’s great. I think you’re really going to like her.” He says grinning and I don’t have the heart to act like an asshole just because I’ve had feelings for him for years but didn’t do anything about it. I can’t blame him for that.

So I force a smile and nod. “I’d love to meet her.”

. . .

Of fucking course.

Of course she has to be nice. She’s probably one of the nicest people I have ever met and I should hate her but I can’t.

Because she’s too fucking nice.

Her name is Julia and she’s a journalist.

And she treats me like we’ve been best friends for years.

She invites me shopping and dinners and she even invites me on a trip to Los Angeles which I politely turn down because what the hell. Who just invites someone on a trip to LA and offers to pay for everything?

Julia. That’s who.

. . .

Cale finds all this fucking hilarious.

“I can’t believe you’re friends with her.” He cackles. “I mean, this whole situation is insane.”

“She’s a good person, okay?” I snap.

“Who’s a good person?”

I jump when Nate and Julia walk in the room. Cale opens his mouth to say something but I slap my hand over his mouth.

“The girl who served us ice-cream today.” I say and Cale laughs but it’s muffled because I still have my hand over his mouth. I glare at him and he sticks his tongue out and licks my hand making me drop it.

“That’s gross.”

Julia giggles and I look to see her curled up on Nate’s lap. “You two would be a cute couple.” She says and I roll my eyes. I love Cale, but as a brother. I could never think of him as anymore than that.

“They’re like brother and sister.” Nate says stiffly and I look at him in surprise. He has an annoyed look on his face which is weird. He’s never reacted like this when I dated other guys.

“Yeah, I think I’d throw up if I had to kiss Y/N.” Cale says cheerfully and I throw a pillow at him.

“Oh, well we will have to set Y/N up on a date soon.” She says and nudges Nate. “One of your teammates, maybe?”

Nate’s gaze darkens. “Over my dead body.”

And just like that, my body goes cold. He’s staring at me but I lift my chin, refusing to let him try to make decisions on who I can date.

“I guess you’ll have to drop dead soon because you don’t have a say in who I’m allowed to date.” I snap, glaring at him. The room is suffocating with tension and I’m waiting for him to say something but Cale whistles and stands up, pulling me off the couch too.

“Well, this has been fun but I don’t think I can cover up a murder today.” He says and drags me out of the room. As we’re walking out the front door, I can hear Nate and Julia arguing.

And it feels like a victory.

. . .

December

Saturday or Sunday afternoons were always reserved for lunch with Nate if he wasn’t on a road trip. But since our argument or whatever you want to call it, we haven’t spoken.

I figured he was either still mad at me or was spending those afternoons with Julia instead but a week before Christmas, I got a text from her asking if we could get dinner together.

This took me by surprise because I hadn’t spoken to her since that day either. But I agree and we set the date for a Wednesday evening when I know Nate is on a road trip.

She’s typing away on her phone when I sit down. Her head raises and she smiles but it doesn’t quite touch her eyes.

“How are you?” She asks and I shrug.

“Not bad, all considering.” I say and she nods.

She looks nervous and I raise an eyebrow in question. She is making me nervous because she keeps opening and closing her mouth like she wants to say something but can’t.

After a minute, she sighs and looks at the table.

“I’m going to break up with Nate.”

Wait.

“What?” I ask, feeling completely shocked. When she invited me to dinner I was expecting us to catch up and maybe her saying something about the argument Nate and I had.

She shrugs. “I can’t be with someone who doesn’t love me.”

“Nate does love you.” I say but she shakes her head.

“No. Nate loves you.”

I feel like someone punched me in the stomach and then threw me off a cliff when she says that. I want to say something. Deny her statement but I can’t.

“I think I’ve known for awhile, I just didn’t want to admit it.” Her hand shakes a little when she wipes a tear away. “He’s been miserable since the two of you stopped talking and nothing I do is making him feel better.” She laughs a little bitterly. “And I should hate you for that but I can’t. You’re too nice of a friend.”

“I felt the same when I met you.” I say.

She smiles sadly. “I know.”

I watch her stand up and put her coat on. “I truly hope you and Nate will be happy together.”

“We’re not…” I say but trail off. “Why do you think that?”

She shrugs. “I just have a feeling.”

. . .

Christmas Eve

Due to a blizzard and a canceled flight, I have to spend my Christmas Eve alone, in my apartment and in the dark because of a power outage.

Peachy.

It isn’t the worst Christmas Eve I’ve had because there have been quite a few that I would rather forget. It still sucks so as I lay on my living room floor and wallow in pity, I perk up when I hear the doorbell because the pizza guy is finally here. I grab my wallet and rush to the door, throwing it open without even checking the peephole and almost pass out when I come face to face with someone who’s not the pizza guy.

“Hey,” Nate says awkwardly. He’s holding a box of pizza in one hand and a flashlight in the other. “Um, the power is out so the pizza guy couldn’t ring and I still had my key so…”

I stand in the doorway like a dummy while he stands there looking stupidly hot. My mouth flops open and shut a few times like a fish before he clears his throat and nods.

“Can I come in?” He asks and the manners my mother drilled in my head as a teenager kick in. I step to the side and he brushes past me, kicking his shoes off and walking straight to the living room.

He’s been here a million times but there is something different now. There’s a tension in the room that’s never been there before.

He lays the pizza on the coffee table and sits on the layer of blankets and cushions I had spread out on the floor before he came. I haven’t moved from the spot I was standing and when he raises an eyebrow at me, I stiffly walk towards him.

“You can sit down. I don’t bite.” He jokes and I plop down beside him, missing how easy things used to be between us. When I look at him, he is staring at his phone screen but it’s locked.

“Julia broke up with me.” He says quietly.

“Why?” I ask and do my best not to give away that I already know.

“She knew I was in love with someone else.” He says and the look he gives me knocks the air out of my chest. He’s looking at me like I made the goddamn sun rise and it’s killing me.

“Oh?” I squeak. “Who?”

“I think you know.”

His eyes bore into mine and I know he’s not going to make any kind of move until I respond.

“Nate.” I say but he just raises an eyebrow.

“What?”

“You just got dumped.”

“Ouch?” he says and I wince because this isn’t how I planned for this conversation to go.

“You’re heartbroken.”

“I’m not, actually.”

“You should be.” I snap and stand up and his eyes follow me when I start pacing. “I don’t understand you - Julia was great for you and she was really nice-”

“but she wasn’t you.” He says, standing up and walking to me. Before I can push past him, he gathers my hands up in his much larger ones forcing me to stand still.

“Look, I’ve been an idiot and a jerk. I know that. I shouldn’t have used Julia to try and get over you or make you jealous.” he shakes his head and sighs. “and I know you would never do that because you’re such a better person than I am, and you deserve better than me but I want you, and I love you more than anything and if that makes me a selfish idiot, I don’t care.”

He looks nervous as he waits for my response but I don’t know what to say because how do I top that? How do I tell him that I’ve loved him, probably since the moment I met him.

I’ve never been great with words so instead, I stand up on the tips of toes and kiss him soundly. He kisses me back immediately and without hesitation; like he’s starving for air and I’m the only one who can give it to him.

We kiss for what could be minutes or hours, only coming up for air and when I finally pull away, the dopey grin on his face makes up for the past two months of heartbreak.

“I guess that answers my question.” He says and I blush. “But, I’d really like to hear-”

“I love you.” I tell him.

His smile lights up the room.

#nathan mackinnon imagines #nathan mackinnon imagine #nathan mackinnon fanfic #nathan mackinnon fanfiction #colorado avalanche fanfiction #colorado avalanche imagines #nathan mackinnon x reader #nhl imagines #hockey imagines

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totallysharkycomplete · 4 years ago

Text

Cherry (Duck Newton x Reader) Chapter 1 (Don’t You Call Him Baby)

Chapter Two Cherry NSFW Ending When Mama had asked you and Barclay to go pick up some pizzas you were more than happy to help out. Barclay opened the door to the pizza hut with a joking bow.

“M’lady.” He adds.

“Thanks, baby.” You joke to your long time friend and you both laugh.

When you turn to look inside you're caught off guard by who you see standing at the counter and freeze. He’s turned around staring at you with a sad frown on his face.

Barclay looks at you in confusion then to the man at the counter, then back at you.

You notice the confusion and offer a weak smile. “Uh, hey Duck.” You begin walking again towards the counter.

“Hey.” Duck nods in return without a smile.

The person behind the counter hands him a pizza box and wishes him a good day.

“See ya’ around.” Duck coldly says before walking out the door.

You turn and watch as he disappears from view.

Barclay places a hand on your shoulder. “What was that about?”

----------

“You’re going down!” You jeer before the roller hockey match begins.

“In your dream!” Duck yells back.

It was a Friday night and you were at the abandoned furniture store. It was common for you and other rowdy teens together here late in the night to play roller hockey and smoke the occasional weed. You had made quick friends with Duck and looked forward to seeing him.

The teen beside the two of you drops the puck and the game begins. You get the puck first and your teammates begin shuffling it towards the opponents goal, before Duck swoops in and changes the direction of the puck. You roll over the stand by the goalie ready to help out. Duck swings his stick back and sends the puck flying towards the goal.

At least, what Duck thinks towards the goal. Instead of the puck flying into the goal like the thought it would, the puck flies up and hits you square in the nose. There’s a moment where everyone freezes, before people begin to react. Some of the other teens start booing Duck, a few laugh but not in a mockingly way. Your hands instantly fly up to cover your nose as blood begins to drip from it and tears sting your eyes. Duck is quickly by your side.

“Ah shit, I’m sorry, I didn’t ment ta’-,” Duck begins apologizing and following you as you skate away.

You roll into the old bathroom with Duck not far behind you and flick on a flashlight from your pocket. It illuminates the dark room just enough so you can look in the mirror.

Looking in the mirror you assess the damage. A small bruise has already started to form on the bridge of your nose, and blood is dripping from both your nostrils. “Damn.” Is all you could say. Reaching up you touched the bruise before pulling your hand away and wincing.

“Here.” You look over at a sympathetic looking Duck who is offering you some tissues.

“Thanks,” you smile and take the tissues, wiping away the blood. More leaks out and you carelessly wipe it again.

“Here you gotta,” Duck says, bringing his hand to your nose. “Can I?”

You nod and allow him to pinch the bridge of your nose despite the pain.

“You gotta pinch your nose to help the blood clot.” Duck informs you.

“I didn’t know. This is the first time I’ve had a bloody nose.” You inform him with a nasally voice.

Duck makes a pitiful face. “I really am sorry about this.” He sighs.

You place a gentle hand on his forearm and smile. “Duck, really it’s alright. I know you didn’t mean to.”

“Still, I feel awful. Can I make it up to ya’ somehow?” He offers.

You think for a second. “Just let me bum a smoke from you then we’ll be even.”

“I can do that.” He smiles back then moves his hand from your nose. “I reckon that should be good.”

You turn back to the mirror and wipe off the rest of the blood. “Thanks, Doctor Newton. I’m as good as new.” You joke.

“So, do you wanna smoke?”

----------

You have to shield your eyes from the bright light as someone steps out of the arch way. Mama and Aubrey do as well. When the light dies down you just stare dumbfounded at the man before you. Duck doesn’t notice it’s you yet thanks to the darkness of the forest.

“What the hell?” Mama exclaims.

They exchange a brief conversation before a car comes crashing into the arch way, you run over to help Barclay out of the car. That’s when Duck notices you.

He tries to say something before you interrupt him. “We can talk later, Duck. I’m sure you have a lot of questions.”

----------

You sit beside Duck as you watch your fellow peers continue the roller hockey game. Duck takes a drag from his joint before coughing and passing it to you. You take it and inhale. As the smoke burns your lungs you begin to cough too, before passing it back to him. The two of you continue until it's gone.

As your head begins to feel lighter you lean against the wall and smile, some of the pain in your nose subsiding. You sit there and watch the game and cheer when one of your friends makes a goal.

You point over to her and look over at Duck, who is staring at your face. “That’s how you make a goal.” You joke.

Duck’s face turns red and he looks to the floor. “I’ll make a note for next time.”

You shove his shoulder. “I’m only joking. Lighten up.” He shoves you back and you giggle.

The two of you return to sitting in silence for a while before Duck breaks it.

“Hey,” he rubs the back of his neck. “Do you maybe wanna, go on a date… with me?”

You turn to him with a stunned look on your face. “With me?” You repeat back.

“With you.” He confirms.

“Duck, if this is a joke I’ll kick your ass, you know that right?” You scowl.

“It’s not, I swear! I just… I think you’re cool and, uh, thought you might wanna hangout by ourselves.” He’s looking at the floor.

“I think you’re cool too, Duck.” You reached over and took his hand in yours. “Sorry, I’ve had had guys think it’s a funny joke between them and their friends to jokingly ask me out before.”

Duck smiles in return. “So you wanna come over tomorrow and play some video games?”

You giggle. “Yeah I’d like that.”

----------

Everyone was sitting in the foyer of Amnesty Lodge as Mama talked game plans with them.

You stood by Barclay and leaned against the wall, arms crossed over your chest. You were apprehensive about bringing so many people onto the Pine Guard at once. Barclay and you had been asking Mama to bring more people on for a while now but three at once, and Ned fucking Chicane?

Duck stood on the other side of the room and although you tried to keep your focus on Mama, you couldn’t help looking over at Duck every so often, accidentally making eye contact almost every time. Everyone agreed to meet back up to fight the abomination, and Ned and Duck made their way to leave.

You quickly ran after Duck and caught him on the porch.

“Duck.” You call his name, stopping him in his tracks.

He turns to look at you with a small smile. “Hey.”

“Duck, I,” you pause and think on your words. “I have so much I want to talk to you about. When we’re done with this hunt can we talk? Please?”

“Sure.” Is all he says before making his way to his truck.

You make your way back inside with a sigh, almost walking into Barclay.

“What’s all that about?” He asks.

“I… We…” You let out another sigh. “Barclay, I broke his heart, and I’m pretty sure he hates me for it.”

----------

You were sat by Duck’s side on the floor playing a fighting game, and you lost for the fifth time. You let out a groan and fell back on the floor.

“This isn’t fair, I’m no good at these games.” You pout and Duck lets out a laugh.

“How about a racing game? I’ll still beat you, but you might have a better chance.” He offers.

You sit up and pretend to be offended. “I’ll have you know I’m a master at racing games.”

Duck smirks as he changes the cartridge in his game system. “Wanna bet?”

“Absolutely. If I win you have to admit I’m better at video games and roller hockey than you!” You smirk back.

“If I win,” Ducks smirk falls from his face and his cheeks turn a lovely rose color. “If I win I get to kiss you.” He almost whispers.

You pause for a second before laughing. Duck is taken aback, had what he said really been so silly?

You placed a hand on his shoulder. “You don’t have to win for me to kiss you, Duck.”

“Oh, I…” He shuts himself up before he sees you’re leaning closer to him. He closes the distance and places a few awkward first kisses to your lips.

The door to his room flies open and you two move apart, faces red. You both look at the door to see Duck’s little sister standing in the door frame.

“What the hell, Jane?” Duck exclaims.

“Mom said you gotta have the door open with a girl in your room!” She smirks, similar to Ducks. You laugh.

------------

The night air blew cold and you shivered. Duck wrapped his arm around your shoulder and pulled you close. The two of you watched the fireflies from the swing on his family's front porch. His other free hand held yours and you leaned your head against his shoulder.

The silence was calm and enjoyable. Even so Duck decided to break it.

“Hey.” Is all he says and you look up at him with a smile.

“Hey.” You offer back.

He’s smiling back at you fondly, a slight redness in his cheeks and ears. “I love you.”

You move to give him a gentle kiss and you both smile. “I love you too, Duck.”

----------

You somehow got separated from your family in the middle of the woods. Since your dad decided all his kids needed to know how to do archery, you had your crossbow held at your side. The sun was beginning to set and you cursed. You made your way to the stream and began to follow it up, which you knew led to the parking lot nearby.

Despite the fact you had spent so much time in these woods it seemed like the stream was leading you the wrong way. “Is there more than one creek in these woods?” You thought aloud.

“What’re you doing out here?” A voice startled you causing you to jump.

You look over and see an older man and woman on the other side of the small creek. They each had a weapon in their hands. You scowled and gripped your crossbow tighter. “Just a little lost.” You tell them, looking over their weapons. “You know there’s no hunting allowed in these parts?”

They go to reply but are interrupted by a nearby howl.

“You need to get out of here kid,” the man informs you.

“There’s no time,” the woman replies. She begins to make her way across the creek towards you and you begin to raise it at her. She stops in her tracks but doesn’t seem scared. “Are you any good with that?”

You nod.

“Good. Thacker gets over here, it’ll be here any minute.” She says to him as he makes his way to her.

“But, Mama, don’t you think,” he is interrupted again by the howl, which is even closer.

The sun is completely behind the horizon at this point, leaving the faint light of dusk to see by.

“Kid, if you see something weird and wolf-like, shoot it.” The woman named Mama tells you as she and Thacker stand in front of you.

You raise your bow at the ready. There's a sound of a branch snapping behind you and you twirl around to see a large five headed wolf. You follow directions and shoot.

----------

“This is all so far fetched.” Your hands are wrapped around a mug of warm tea. You're sitting at a table in Amnesty Lodge across from Mama and Thacker.

“I know how it sounds, but you saw it yourself.” Mama reminds you, taking a sip of her own tea.

You nod. “It also makes sense though. I always thought there was something off about our town.”

“So, what do you say?” Thacker asks. “Care to join us in keeping this town safe?”

There's a moment you pause to think. “Yes.”

----------

Little did you know while you were having your own experience with the unexplained, Duck was too. Since neither of you mentioned it to the other though how would you know?

Duck was sitting in his room talking to Minerva when you entered.

“Talking to yourself, babe?” You smile.

“As always.” He jokes.

“I got some good news.” You flop onto his bed.

“And what would that be?” He lies down next to you.

“I found a job. Up at the lodge called Amnesty. I’ll be running the front desk.” You inform him.

“Really? That’s great!” He kisses your cheek.

-----------

Duck knew after a year of dating you he wanted to spend the rest of his life with you. However he didn’t want to ask you to marry him so soon after you were both out of high school, so he decided to wait. Three years later he still waited, but had a ring hidden away in his sock draw.

After you started your job at the lodge Duck saw you less. Which made sense, you were both working at different times. You felt bad lying to Duck about your job. You only partially lied, you were working at the front desk. But also you were protecting this town from monsters.

After the next hunt, you end up in the hospital with a broken arm. You lie to Duck and say you feel down the stairs, and you hate it. You hate that you have to lie to him. After heavy contemplation, you decide you won’t anymore. You decided the only way to keep Duck safe from all this, you have to break up with him.

-----------

Duck decided this was it. This had to end. He decided he would work up the courage finally and finally ask you to marry him.

The two of you decided to meet up at one of your favorite places. A bench in the park that overlooked most of the town. Duck said he wanted to meet up when you both got off work because he missed you. Which was true but he had something else on his mind.

“Hey, darling.” He stood and kissed you, but noticed the sad look on your face. “What’s wrong?”

With a sigh you sit on the bench. “I… We need to talk, Duck.” You bite the inside of your cheek as you can already feel tears welling up in your eyes.

Duck’s stomach flips, this isn’t how he imagined this night going. “What’s wrong sweetheart.”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time at work and it takes up most of my time.” You begin, not making eye contact. “I feel like right now I can’t,” you swallow hard trying to keep the tears in your eyes. “I can’t dedicate enough time to our relationship right now and it’s not fair to you, Duck.” You fail and tears start running down your face.

“Whaddya mean?” Duck holds your hand not in the cast and wipes away tears from your cheek with the other.

“Duck, I’m,” you sniff, not wanting to say the next words. “Duck I’m breaking up with you.” Your lip quivers and you look away.

His hand stills on your face, you can’t bring yourself to look at him. “I don’t understand.” He says softly. “I, uh, we can make more time. You don’t have to feel pressured to see me everyday. We don't have to end this, we can make it work.” His voice begins to crack as he talks.

You take his hand from your face and place it on his lap. “Duck, I’m so sorry.” You can only whisper before you get up and make your way to your car. Leaving Duck alone with a heavy weight in his heart, and a ring in his pocket.

----------

When you walked into the room you could see Duck was already sitting at a table facing away from you. The room besides him was empty due to the late hour.

You sighed and fixed your hair before moving to sit across from him.

“Thank you for coming to talk with me.” You said sitting down.

You can’t help but look over his face now that he’s closer. He’s aged since you broke up with him, of course he had. You had as well. He had a few wrinkles, and he actually grew a five o’clock shadow he hadn’t been able to grow when he was a teen.

“S’ no problem.” Duck offers a small smile.

Duck can’t help but notice how you’ve changed as well. Besides a few age lines on your face you look more mature. The way you hold yourself and speak is more worldly than it was when you were together.

You can’t help but smile back. There’s a moment of silence before you both begin to speak at the same time.

“You first,” you offer.

“So this whole time you’ve been up here fighting monsters, huh?” Duck is looking at the table instead of you.

You nod. “Duck, I wanted to tell you. I really did. But I thought you would think I was crazy, and I didn’t want to keep lying to you. I felt so awful lying to you about how I broke my arm. I didn’t fall down the stairs, I had an abomination throw me against a tree. Everytime I lied to you it broke my heart, Duck. So that’s why… That’s why I broke up with you, Duck.” Your lip quivers, you feel overwhelmed getting this lie of your chest after so many years.

Duck reaches across the table and grabs your hand. “Hey it’s alright. You don’t need to start crying.” He coos.

“I just feel so bad, I ended things so horribly and didn’t take into consideration how it’d affect you. Can you ever forgive me?” You give his hand a squeeze.

“Of course I can.” He offers you a real smile.

“Really?” You sniff back a tear.

“Course I can. What happened between us was ages ago. Anyways you seem real happy here, and that Barclay fellow seems nice.” Duck assures you.

You pause for a second to think of his words. “Thank you, Duck. And Barlcay is really nice but we, we aren’t together is that’s what you’re implying.”

“Oh, I heard you call him baby and just thought, because that’s what you… Uh, that’s what you called me.” His smile falters for a second.

“No, there’s… There’s really been no one in my life like that since you.” You confess.

“Really?” He almost laughs.

“Really,” you confirm. “What about you?”

“No one serious.” He states.

“Really?”

“Really.”

There's a pause between the two of you. Your hand is still in his. For a moment you think to ask to try again, but decide you don’t have the right to. Then Duck breaks the silence.

“Now, you can say no, but do you think, maybe… Maybe we could try again?” Duck murmurs.

“I’d really like that, Duck.”

#duck newton x reader #the adventure zone x reader #amnesty x reader #the zone cast x reader #the zone cast

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