#fic: mattdrai

[cheddaryouthanme]

Hockey RPF writers being known across fandoms as literary masters

When I first started reading MattDrai fics on AO3 I remember thinking “wait what the HELL is going on why is this the most consistently well-written fanfiction I’ve read in any fandom? Is this a thing? Do people know??” And apparently it is and they do.

[jamingbenn]

year in review - hockey rpf on ao3

hello!! the annual ao3 year in review had some friends and i thinking - wouldn't it be cool if we had a hockey rpf specific version of that. so i went ahead and collated the data below!!

i start with a broad overview, then dive deeper into the 3 most popular ships this year (with one bonus!)

if any images appear blurry, click on them to expand and they should become clear!

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before we jump in, some key things to highlight: - CREDIT TO: the webscraping part of my code heavily utilized the ao3 wrapped google colab code, as lovingly created by @kyucultures on twitter, as the main skeleton. i tweaked a couple of things but having it as a reference saved me a LOT of time and effort as a first time web scraper!!! thank you stranger <3 - please do NOT, under ANY circumstances, share any part of this collation on any other website. please do not screenshot or repost to twitter, tiktok, or any other public social platform. thank u!!! T_T - but do feel free to send requests to my inbox! if you want more info on a specific ship, tag, or you have a cool idea or wanna see a correlation between two variables, reach out and i should be able to take a look. if you want to take a deeper dive into a specific trope not mentioned here/chapter count/word counts/fic tags/ship tags/ratings/etc, shoot me an ask!

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with that all said and done... let's dive into hockey_rpf_2024_wrapped_insanity.ipynb

BIG PICTURE OVERVIEW

i scraped a total of 4266 fanfics that dated themselves as published or finished in the year 2024. of these 4000 odd fanfics, the most popular ships were:

Note: "Minor or Background Relationship(s)" clocked in at #9 with 91 fics, but I removed it as it was always a secondary tag and added no information to the chart. I did not discern between primary ship and secondary ship(s) either!

breaking down the 5 most popular ships over the course of the year, we see:

super interesting to see that HUGE jump for mattdrai in june/july for the stanley cup final. the general lull in the offseason is cool to see as well.

as for the most popular tags in all 2024 hockey rpf fic...

weee like our fluff. and our established relationships. and a little H/C never hurt no one.

i got curious here about which AUs were the most popular, so i filtered down for that. note that i only regex'd for tags that specifically start with "Alternate Universe - ", so A/B/O and some other stuff won't appear here!

idk it was cool to me.

also, here's a quick breakdown of the ratings % for works this year:

and as for the word counts, i pulled up a box plot of the top 20 most popular ships to see how the fic length distribution differed amongst ships:

mattdrai-ers you have some DEDICATION omg. respect

now for the ship by ship break down!!

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#1 MATTDRAI

most popular ship this year. peaked in june/july with the scf. so what do u people like to write about?

fun fun fun. i love that the scf is tagged there like yes actually she is also a main character

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#2 SIDGENO

(my babies) top tags for this ship are:

folks, we are a/b/o fiends and we cannot lie. thank you to all the selfless authors for feeding us good a/b/o fic this year. i hope to join your ranks soon.

(also: MPREG. omega sidney crosby. alpha geno. listen, the people have spoken, and like, i am listening.)

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#3 NICOJACK

top tags!!

it seems nice and cozy over there... room for one more?

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BONUS: JDTZ.

i wasnt gonna plot this but @marcandreyuri asked me if i could take a look and the results are so compelling i must include it. are yall ok. do u need a hug

top tags being h/c, angst, angst, TRADES, pining, open endings... T_T katie said its a "torture vortex" and i must concurr

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BONUS BONUS: ALPHA/BETA/OMEGA

as an a/b/o enthusiast myself i got curious as to what the most popular ships were within that tag. if you want me to take a look about this for any other tag lmk, but for a/b/o, as expected, SID GENO ON TOP BABY!:

thats all for now!!! if you have anything else you are interested in seeing the data for, send me an ask and i'll see if i can get it to ya!

[linskywords]

2024 HRPF recs

As has become my wont, I spent the last few weeks trying to catch up on some of the new fics in the hockey RPF tag that I missed over the course of the year. I definitely didn't get to everything, or even all of the most popular ones; there may also be a bias towards shorter fics here, as I was trying to get through a lot. 😅 But I hope you enjoy, and possibly find a gem or two that you missed!

First, some general favorites:

Scoring Effects by @helenish (McDrai, 30K): Ah, Helenish. A goddess among us. I love a good mistaken identity story, and this is a GREAT mistaken identity story.

barons by dilangley (MattDrai, 43K): Future fic in which Houston gets its own expansion team, Matthew coaches it, and Leon and Trevor Zegras play on it. Gorgeously done. The Trevor POV section broke me a bit, but it was worth it.

Living Things by @makeit-takeit (TK/Patty, 115K so far): I am so deeply invested in this series. It's very real and vivid-feeling future fic that does an amazingly thoughtful job exploring the NHL wife-and-kids pipeline and what happens when that doesn't fit you as well as you thought it would. The stories that are written so far feel nicely complete, but if you'd rather hold out for the full HEA, you can check out her Wild Ice for a different highlight from the past year.

put the stars in our eyes by @notthequiettype (McDrai, 17K): the McWedding story that I wish I had written. I thought it was going to destroy me, and instead it left me all warm and fuzzy.

Lost and Found by angry_geno_is_score (MattDrai, 2K): angry_geno_is_score had so much to choose from this year, as always, and I loved this as a microcosm of the hurt/comfort they do so well. If you like it, you know where to find more from them!

Next, we move to the irresistible new Sharks babies. I'm not sure I can oversell how hot these three stories managed to be:

come on (leave me breathless) by countthestars @moondoggiestyle (Will/Mack, 10K): I've already talked about how much I loved this one. There can never be too many stories of one player catching the other getting off in the shower, especially if they're as hot as this.

revising the shoreline by ohyellowbird @teex (Will/Mack, 6K): another super well done exploring-their-sexuality-while-not-talking-about-it story, aka my kryptonite.

teamwork makes the dreamwork by canary @bigdogenergy (Will/Mack and Will/Mack/Ryan Leonard, 19K): I'm sure a lot of you have already read this in the last week or so, but I couldn't not recommend it. Mack goes into heat and Will needs an alpha to help him out. Who to call but the ex?

And then we enter the realm of vaguely devastating but gorgeously written JDTZ trade fics:

home by now by donderwolk @donderwolkenblog (Jamie/Trevor, 6K): The moment they found out about the trade, and a little bit after. Brilliant, impeccable, ruinous.

heat check by jolach @hyggles (Jamie/Trevor and also Carts/Richie, 4K): Outsider perspective on Jamie and especially Trevor as they deal with the aftermath of the trade, through the eyes of Mike Richards, who may have some experience in the area. I don't know how anyone writes this well, honestly.

Finally, one of my favorite things about reading through the past year's fics is finding a prolific new author I love who I had totally missed in my year of mostly reading people I'm already subscribed to. This year it was unsay (@tungpin). They seem to have started writing HRPF this year, and they tend toward the kind of complicated sometimes-ambiguous stories that I never manage to write but love to read. Here are a few of my favorites of theirs from this year:

malt (MattDrai, 4K): Leon meets Sasha Barkov and has feelings about how he wants to be more serious than Matthew does (OR DOES HE).

accessory to the rockstar (McDrai, 5K): once again we have Leon having thoughts about how he feels more than the person he's into, this time about Connor. Bittersweet and lovely.

the care and keeping (Jamie/Trevor, 12K): in which Trevor's friends get on Jamie's case about neglecting him post-trade, and Jamie does something about it.

That's it from me, at least for now! I know there were many excellent stories this year I didn't get to, especially the long ones that I just didn't commit to while reading for this list. Perhaps this is the year I do what I've been telling myself to do for the past two years and keep track of what I read and love throughout the year. We can only dream. 😅

Happy reading!!

[saywhatyouwillbut]

i do not personally watch the panthers, the flames, or the oilers, but the one thing i have learned from approximately one week of reading mattdrai fic is that leon is the palace knight on a quest to trace down this rare artifact who gets set up by a guy he has a one night stand with who manages to follow him covertly and steal the artifact out from right under his nose, leaving him to certain death at the hands of booby traps various, only for leon to survive and have to chase him down, catching up to and running into him in many silly and perilous scenarios where matthew (the thief, obviously) keeps accidentally falling into his arms and saying, “we have got to stop running into each other like this”

[fleurywiththesave]

Starting feeling things about the game tonight, so

Matthew’s been trying so hard to pretend that nothing is wrong. To ignore that they've been talking less and less often in recent weeks, that it's stilted and uncomfortable when they do. That their conversation on his birthday barely lasted five minutes. That he can’t seem to say anything about hockey without pissing Leon off.

That he hasn’t heard from Leon at all in three days.

He tried to call him the night before they left for Edmonton, and he tried to call him right before getting on the plane, and he’s texted more times than he can count. He knows that Leon didn’t disappear off the face of the earth — he’s seen proof of life from the Oilers media. He just doesn’t want to talk to Matthew.

“He’s breaking up with me,” Matthew says glumly at the poker table.

“Or he’s just trying to keep his head in the game,” Benny suggests.

“He could keep his head in the game and still talk to me,” Matthew insists. “He’s breaking up with me and he’s being a wuss about it.”

“Then go talk to him yourself,” Benny says. “You know they’ll have morning skate tomorrow. Go to the rink.”

“That’s…not a terrible idea,” Matthew says slowly.

“I know. I’m brilliant.” And then he wins a hundred of Matthew’s hard-earned dollars. Jackass.

But he’s a jackass who’s right at least some of the time, so Matthew slips out of the hotel the next morning while the rest of the guys are still eating breakfast and calls an Uber to the arena.

It doesn’t occur to him until he gets there that they’re not just going to let him stroll right in, which means he has to swallow his pride and call Connor.

“Uh, hello?”

“I’m outside, come tell the security guard to let me in.”

“You’re outside,” Connor repeats disbelievingly.

“Leon won’t answer any of my messages and if he wants to dump me before this game then he needs to do it to my face, so come let me in.”

There’s a pause before Connor sighs.

“Give me ten minutes.”

He doesn't look too pleased when he shows up, but at least he tells security that Matthew is allowed in.

"I told him you're here," Connor says. "He's waiting for you in one of the trainer rooms." They don't talk at all while he walks Matthew over, which means there's ample opportunity for his anger to turn to fear. This is it. Holy shit, this is it and then he's going to be miserable for the rest of his life. Maybe he should just let Leon ghost him instead of having to look him in the eye and burst into tears while begging him to reconsider.

"Here," Connor says, stopping outside a room. "Don't be idiots, okay?"

Leon is sitting, but he stands up as soon as Matthew opens the door. They both hover where they are, a good six feet apart.

"Hi."

"Hi."

It's a long, painful moment of silence before they both start to speak at the same time.

"I'm sorry I—" "Please don't break up with me!"

"Wait, what?" Leon says.

"Don't break up with me," Matthew repeats, wincing at how pitiful his voice sounds. "Whatever it is I did, just let me fix it. Don't do this."

"I'm not—" Leon scrubs at his face and groans. "I'm not breaking up with you, Matty, good god."

"......You're not?"

"No. I—can we sit?"

Matthew thumps into the chair next to him. He suddenly feels very, very tired.

"I know I've been kind of an ass," Leon says. "There's just been so much attention on this game and I've been stressing about it and...I don't know."

"And you didn't want to talk to me about it," Matthew says.

Leon sighs. "No, I didn't. You're the enemy on the ice right now, Matthew. You told me yourself how pissed off you were the first time you played Vegas after losing to them. Don't you think I feel the same way? I just needed to focus on my play and my team."

Oh.

"I guess I didn't think about it like that," Matthew admits.

"Shocking," Leon says flatly, though there's a brightness in his eyes. "Look, I know I haven't handled it that well — believe me, Connor keeps telling me. I didn't mean to shut you out completely. I just didn't want to get into it. I'm sorry I was an idiot."

"I was an idiot too," Matthew says. "So I'm sorry too. And you—you're not breaking up with me?"

"Of course I am, Matthew. I could handle you winning the Cup against me, I could go to your Cup Day, but this regular game when we're not even halfway through the season is just a bridge too far. I'll send you a box of your stuff."

"Shut the fuck up." Matthew feels about a thousand pounds lighter than he did half an hour ago. Leon grins and leans in, stopping just before kissing him.

"But I'm going to kick your ass up and down the ice tonight."

Matthew smirks and closes the distance.

[droumack]

FYI folks, I'll be orphaning kissing your claws (my mattdrai fic).

it was already kinda dead in the water, but I am certainly not going to be writing anymore about an out-loud proud Trumper. That well of inspiration is dryer than tkachuk's fiancee. I'm afraid he does not deserve that bomb german D.

sorry if this is a big disappointment to anyone, but I assure you there is so much more natejo coming!

[alltimecharlo]

Two for Roughing 🏒🎬

The best-selling hockey romance novel hits the big screen!

Coming to cinemas this winter, Two for Roughing stars Academy Award Winner Leon Draisaitl and rom-com icon Matthew Tkachuk.

Two rival hockey players fight for love, fame, and the puck — only to find that the line between rivalry and romance could be much thinner than they originally thought.

(or, a mattdrai actors au fic <3)

[patrebka]

TKNP REC LIST HAND IT OVER

omg... thank you to the mysterious anon who asked me this. I do wonder who you are...

okay so I'll start with the best hockey rpf author to ever do it... makeit_takeit the beloved. everything they write is boomshakalaka slam dunk gold. everything! but these are my favourites.

in from the cold | makeit_takeit — this is my favourite fic of all time in any fandom ever of all time ever. in any lifetime I would find it. it's a masterpiece. show stopping. revolutionary. life changing. brilliant. spectacular. this is from makeit_takeit's journeymen series, the premise being that Nolan is in the league still (in various cities across North America) but Travis is decidedly not a hockey player. in this case he's an oil rig worker up in Edmonton and Nolan is on the Oilers. they meet on grindr and thus we enter a whirlwind of passion. omfggggg see now I'm making myself want to reread it right now, heh. I took this fic to my penthouse and I freaked it.

never been dipped | makeit_takeit — more journeymen, yay. here, our beloved Travis is a kind of cowboy gay-lothario line dancing Canadian redneck and he seduces a deeply guarded Dallas Star Nolan in a cowboy gay bar in Texas. yeehaw!

last ones standing | makeit_takeit — as a trash reality TV lover this thrills me. we follow Travis and Nolan meeting for the first time at the altar on Married at First Sight: Winnipeg! and it's everything I could ever want. this fic is so funny and charming, and has a facet to it that is one of my favourite aspects of any fic I've ever read. I won't mention it further because it kind of spoils the ending. but it's just so well done and is exemplary of the kind of incredibly creative and professional writing in this story and all the ones I've mentioned above.

happy endings | makeit_takeit — an exercise in seeing a little bit of humanity in someone with a dark, hateful, and unhappy soul... aka Nolan Patrick, LOL. this fic follows a deeply closeted and self-hating Nolan in this new characterisation of the post-burner era. he's unemployed and gross and mean, and encounters Travis in a happy endings massage parlour spa type of place. it's so good. I've converted people to be (mild in some cases and full fledged in others) tknp enthusiasts with this fic. my bestie Autumn read this in her car at work when the second chapter dropped. it's just that good!

living things [ONGOING WIP] | makeit_takeit — get ready to have your life and mind changed. when you start to read this series, makeit_takeit (the great one. Gretzky who?) will open up your unsuspecting mind and pour abundant light within. everything will alter around you and things like sunlight through trees or a bird’s footprints in snow will suddenly seem so much more beautiful than they ever did before. every song and poem and painting will hold a more divine meaning in your eyes because this story just changes you, down to the soul. and I've never met a hyperbole I didn't love but I'm so serious about this one. imagine being alive when Tolstoy was first publishing Anna Karenina serially, imagine eagerly waiting for the next excerpt of something that would go on to be considered by many to be one of our greatest artistic contributions. I don't mean to sound like a pyramid schemer when I say that you (person reading this. yes! you!) have the chance, with this fic, to be in on the ground floor of something great. we have, as of writing this, three parts of a seven part saga published so far. but don't wait... just start reading! the writing here is so absurdly good it makes me want to walk into the ocean. this story is the magnum opus of somebody that has about 15 fics on their page that would easily be considered once in a lifetime, striking gold masterpieces from anybody else.

okay, my makeit_takeit worship session is over now. although it may not seem like it, I do actually read things other than their stories so I'll stop yapping and lavishing praise at their feet now and will move on to talking about other things!

ratter | toxotes — this isn't even fiction to me. this is, like, fan fact or something because I really do believe events such as these are happening in Nolan Patrick's life. up and until the blossoming romantic relationship with TK, of course. this fic is hilarious and dark and captivating in every good way. when I first read it I was completely enthralled, and stayed up way too late reading it TWICE. and I then read a passage aloud to my family in a restaurant where we were getting breakfast the next morning, because I was deliriously tired and still deep in the honeymoon stage of obsessive love with this fic. I may still be in this stage!

port stanley is for lovers | manybumblebees — I love this fic so much yay. it's so sweet and funny. I once read it aloud to someone on a long car journey (this person does not gaf about hockey and had never heard of any of these people) and they were laughing a lot and genuinely enjoyed it. huge W for tknp nation! the fic's premise is Nolan visiting TK in Port Stanley over the summer and realising that everyone there thinks they are a couple. maybe they should be! maybe they will be! omg read and find out.

dusk breaks light | loveleah — this is really unique, and a very tender and sweet story. this is a favourite of mine for reasons I can't quite put my finger on, but Travis and Nolan are mining for gold in a group of guys in the 1960s, and it's just very sweet. this is Brokeback Mountain for girls who know who Biz Nasty is.

red wine supernova | donderwolk — as a ceramicist myself, I had to include this one! Nolan is out of the league and is dragged by his sister to an amateur pottery class held by one very charming and artistic Travis Konecny. I love how this fic covers Nolan's relationship with his parents, it's really well done. this is an all-timer! it's so sweet. and it's definitely one of my favourite Nolan characterisations.

save your first and last dance for me | manybumblebees — this is, like, so cheesy and so good. I think this is one of the first tknp fics I read, and I loved it so much. I didn't even realise until making this list that it's written by the same person as my beloved Port Stanley fic... wow. small world! anyway, this is just a really good time. Travis and Nolan going to various weddings together and falling in love along the way... what's more fun than that?

it's only gay if you blow him back | isozyme — I just read this recently on the recommendation of my friend Autumn (hey girl👋) and I really liked it. Travis and Nolan go fishing and get into it over the scary concept of being gay and what it would mean if one of them were to stray from the path of heterosexuality. it's more of a character study than it is about any, like, romance between them, but I think it's great.

the flush of the known universe | springsteen — I started to read this in the car on my way to the ice rink about a year ago, and then was so captivated by it that I just sat on my ass in the Papa John's seating area next to the ice and read the rest of it, instead of doing any of the skating I had paid to do. I loved this! Travis works on the training staff for the Flyers and goes for a getaway in nature after quitting his job. Nolan is a guide in a national park and they meet on the trail. it's a real slow burn story that doesn't feel dragged out, just natural!

hagfish, or primitive jawless marine vertebrates | polyabathtub — please don't run scared from the bestiality tag on this LOL, it's really not like that. I mean, it kind of is. but not really. the animal is TK, who turns into an eel-like fish in a werewolf type scenario. all he wants in his fishy form is Nolan, and Nolan obliges. it's really funny, while still being sweet. this is another one I read recently, and I found it really charming and funny. I don't know how anyone would ever think of this idea but I am glad that this author did because it brought me such joy to read!

I'm probably forgetting some big-hitters but I can't think of anything else. I'll put some non-tknp recs below the cut, because I am also an avid reader of other pairings!!! I'll read anything that's put in front of me.

all caps | makeit_takeit | Nic Dowd/Tom Wilson — okay, so I lied before about not saying any more about makeit_takeit. but, would someone really do that? just go on their blog and lie? what a scary thought. anyway. Tom Wilson has a micropenis... need I say more? this is a series and it's very sweet and also funny. it strikes a perfect balance of humour and sincerity about something kind of silly. it's a line that is walked perfectly here and that I tried very hard to walk when I wrote my one fic, which was somewhat inspired by this! #selfpromo #ad

3 ways to know if you're a third wheel - wikihow | jamiemoriartys | Sidney Crosby/Claude Giroux — I could be including this one because of recency bias because I did only just read it, but it made me laugh a lot. I kinda love reading fics where the narrator (in this case, Nate MacKinnon) is super clueless about something that's blatantly obvious. it makes me cackle out loud and kick my feet while reading, so. this did that!

gold rush | claraxbarton | Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk — this is an all time fav for me. we see Leon at probably his most mean and bitchy of all my mattdrai recs, which for a girl like me is a heavenly scenario. the premise here is another one where you're kind of yelling at the screen because the narrator is so dumb, except here it's Leon (yay) and he can't figure out that the unsaved number texting him flirtily is Matthew Tkachuk. this fic is funny along the way and then I found it to be quite moving at times. I love love love!

muscle memory | blaahaj | Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk — this is a fic that could be considered tropey because its premise is basically: what if Matthew Tkachuk got AMNESIA! and FORGOT! his weird RELATIONSHIP! with LEON DRAISAITL? but it's sooooo good. this is one of my favourite fics I've ever read. I just love Leon so much, here (and always, heh) he's so sweet and, like, lame. aw, my little German cringelord.

slip under the tongue into translation | lighthousetowers | Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk — das ist so gut. es ist eine meiner lieblingsgeschichten! thank you google translate. here we must ask the question of how far Matthew Tkachuk is willing to go to get under someone's skin. if this fic is accurate then the answer is: very far! MTkachuk learns German to more effectively chirp Leon on the ice and accidentally becomes obsessed with him. aren't we all! I remember this being so funny.

barons | dilangley | Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk — Matthew has retired from the league after an injury and ends up coaching a new NHL team in Houston. Leon, who is old (like, 37) and seeking a Stanley Cup win before he retires, signs there. and it is so good. I loved how it characterised Matthew, especially. I particularly remember this one moment where Matthew is kinda waxing poetic about how he can't understand why everyone isn't in love with Leon, and whoever he's talking to is like, 'um. because he's an asshole?' yeah. I love their asshole4asshole swag. this is so, so, so, good. a definite recommendation for those who don't even gaf about mattdrai. you will after this!

growing into someone | blaahaj | Leon Draisaitl/Matthew Tkachuk — another blaahaj banger. set in a lockout, Leon and Matthew are both playing hockey in Germany for the Haie, Leon's childhood team! it's kind of a classic enemies to lovers and I really, really liked it. it's kind of like, they have this little whirlwind in Germany and then, of course, the lockout ends and they have to go back to their real lives, and decide how much of whatever they've built to take with them or to leave behind. I love it so much.

well. that's all she wrote. I don't have anything else to say and this list took me three and a half hours to make because I take this hockey rpf shit seriously. byeee

[sportspuckball]

but what if I sped up the posting schedule to the Florida Wump fic because the comments are making me wanna spill the beans. what then?

[puckthisshift]

I was done, the deal was signed (1/1)

Read it on AO3

Summary: A marriage pact made between rivals was never meant to come to fruition. But in 2032, Leon Draisaitl is playing one last season, hoping to finally win a cup. He didn't expect Matthew Tkachuk to even remember the pact, let alone to hold him to it. And he definitely didn't expect happily ever after.

AN: So... this is 40k of old men MattDrai being down bad for each other. Enjoy

“Everyone’s getting married,” Leon sighs. “And having babies.” 

The lights make this random St. Louis bar feel a little blurry. Leon’s sure it’s the lights - they don’t serve good enough beer for him to get drunk. 

“Not everyone,” Tkachuk protests. “I’m not.” 

Wow, he’s actually participating in the conversation. That’s more than Leon expected after... everything.  

“Do you want to get married?” 

“Are you proposing to me right now?” 

Tkachuk’s voice cracks a little, and Leon can be the bigger man and not laugh in his face about it. It would be kind of funny to mess with him a little, act like he’s really proposing, and tough it out for a bit until Tkachuk loses it. But the idiot is good enough at playing the game that Leon worries he might end up engaged after this. 

There’s no way he’s gonna marry Tkachuk. 

Read all 40k on AO3

[kairos44]

Three Times To Go words: 3 k Pairing: Matthew Tkachuk/Leon Draisaitl Rating: T Tags: established relationship, iditos in love, banter, 3+1 things, feelings Summary:

Three times Leon is mad at (not) being mentioned in Matthew’s interviews and one time he isn’t.

“What the fuck?” Matthew asked himself over the ringing of his phone, his voice slightly slurred with sleep. He wasn’t even sure what time it was, just that it was in the middle of the night. He also knew that he’d put his phone on do not disturb before he’d gone to sleep. And yet here it was, ringing annoyingly loud. One of his contacts saved as a favorite then, Matthew mused, grabbing his phone and trying to push the right button to make the noise stop.

“What the fuck?” he said again, this time into his phone. Read more on A03

[three-headed-monster]

who cares if the oilers or the panthers win, this is a win first and foremost for the hockey rpf writers out there

[fleurywiththesave]

OKAY okay lol now see this is so far from the truth BUT i just saw that gif of Matty/Perry Ellis thingy again AND stylist mattdrai au?

oooooh. OOOOOOH, anon. I don't know if you mean Matthew as the stylist or Leon as the stylist, but I can actually see it going either way. Matthew is the intensely enthusiastic rising star who Leon is strong-armed into going to see for some new game day suits, and he wasn't prepared for how peppy Matthew would be. Or how long his eyelashes would be.

OR Leon is the somewhat abrupt and oddly aggressive stylist and tailor who all the best guys use for their NHL Awards duds, and Matthew is convinced to enlist his services because "he'll make you miserable, but he'll make you look great." Only Matthew's not miserable. Other than the fact that Leon seems so determined to make him put clothes on when he really thinks he'd rather be taking them off.

You know what, as long as we're all here.....

Matthew is quite certain that if he had to choose between spending twelve hours getting fitted for a suit or spending twelve hours getting dental surgery, he'd pick dental surgery before Satan had even finished asking the question. But Ekky insists that this guy is the best of the best and that Matthew just needs to put up with whatever he says if he wants to look halfway decent on the red carpet.

He's pretty sure that means that this Leon isn't going to let him wear his slides with a suit.

He almost walks past the storefront, if it even counts as that. It's an unassuming door that must lead into a space behind the specialty foods market that occupies the windows. The narrow hallway just leads to another door, and Matthew has to briefly consider the possibility that Ekky has secretly obtained the rights to his life insurance and is planning to have him murdered before he braces himself and opens it.

"Hello?" he calls. There's a desk, but no one sitting at it, and zero signage to confirm that he's in the right place. "Hello?"

"Matthew." It's not a question. The guy who's just emerged from the back is staring at him. Matthew is staring too, but he has a feeling it's for very different reasons. He's staring because Leon turns out to be no more than thirty, with the best hair Matthew's ever seen and thick-framed black glasses that are kind of making him sweat behind the knees.

Leon is staring with something more like horror, scanning Matthew from head to toe like a robot and apparently not at all happy to see his ripped-neck Panthers shirt, athletic shorts, and the trusty slides. Matthew has a vague idea that perhaps he should apologize. Leon closes his eyes — actually closes his eyes — for a second and takes a deep breath before speaking again.

"Okay. It's okay, we have time. Come with me."

The dim hallway and tiny foyer turn out to be misleading, as Leon leads Matthew into a massive room with brilliant lighting and more racks of clothes than he's ever seen in his life. The walls are decorated with pictures of what must be some of Leon's clients, all dressed and styled to the nines. Matthew even spots a photo of Henrik Lundqvist, damn. Maybe he is in the right place.

"Okay," Leon says, coming to a stop by some of the racks and flipping through them with almost disturbing efficiency. "NHL Awards. Rule number one: pick something other than the ass to emphasize. Anyone who's watched a single hockey game has been there, done that."

"Well, what if that's my best feature?" Matthew can't help but ask. Leon glances back at him and snorts.

"No. Rule number two. No. Sneakers. That's for actors trying to fake relatability at the Oscars. You'll wear dress shoes and you'll like it."

Matthew resists the urge to hide his sandals behind the potted plant in the corner.

"What's rule number three?" he asks.

"That depends on how much trouble you give me," Leon answers. "All right, we'll start with these three racks. What jumps out?"

Matthew hasn't been this nervous about giving the wrong answer to a question since his post-draft interviews. He studies the array of suits in front of him and starts to feel a little dizzy from all the choices. He had no idea they could come in so many colors and patterns. Does Brady know about this?

"Well, okay," he finally says, looking at a gray suit that seems like a reasonably safe option. "I kind of like this—"

"No," Leon says flatly before Matthew can even pick up the hanger, and he snatches his hand back like he's been burned. "Single-breasted only."

"Um. Right. Then how about—"

"Absolutely not. Do you want to look washed out?"

"I don't—"

"Try this one," Leon says, pulling a lighter-than-navy blue suit off the rack and shoving it at him. "With the cream shirt."

Matthew stares at the array of white button-downs in front of him. He swears he can hear Leon's soul dying as he sighs and picks one up.

"This. Go."

When Matthew comes back out, trying not to draw attention to his bare feet, Leon slides his glasses down and studies him carefully, even walking in a circle around him several times. Matthew tries to stay still, but it's not so easy when that behind the knees sweating is picking up again and Leon is close enough for Matthew to get a whiff of his cologne, which is somehow earthy and light at the same time.

"Good," Leon finally proclaims. "Look in the mirror, tell me if you like it."

"Oh," Matthew says when he steps in front of the trifold mirror. He wasn't expecting to be surprised — a suit is a suit, right? — but apparently this particular suit is subtly different from any of the ones he owns. He seems tall and strong, despite being end-of-season skinny, and the jacket draws attention to his shoulders, and the color makes his eyes look brighter. "Hey, that's really nice. What about a tie?"

"No tie," Leon says. He's pulled out a tape measure and is flying through the notes he wants to take with the same startling efficiency as before. Matthew barely has a chance to appreciate Leon's hand on his thigh before he's done with the inseam. "Clearly you don't like having something too close to the neck." He smirks at Matthew in the mirror, and Matthew barely manages to bite back a retort about how there are some things he wouldn't mind having too close to his neck. "You can leave the top button open, but that's it."

When Leon is done getting all his measurements, Matthew finds that he's reluctant to leave.

"So, uh, you'll call me when it's done?" he asks.

"Nope," Leon says, tilting his head toward the sewing machine on the side of the room. "Get comfortable, you're going to be here awhile."

Over the next several hours, Matthew discovers that he could be quite happy putting up with pretty much anything Leon says, regardless of whether or not he's going to get a great suit out of it. He learns that Leon started sewing when he was twelve, making things for his sister and her friends; that he finished his studies in Germany a full year early; that he came to New York with the intention of getting some intern experience through Parsons and focusing on women's wear, but one of his father's former players came to Leon asking for help with a suit and the rest is history. Leon, in turn, learns an awful lot — probably more than he was expecting — about the grief Matthew gets from Taryn for his sartorial choices, about Matthew's feelings on the NHL dress code, and about how his style has changed since leaving Calgary for Florida.

Matthew only has to stop himself from making a suggestive remark about what they'd both look like out of a suit a few times, though it doesn't keep him from wondering.

"There," Leon finally says, pressing a garment bag into Matthew's hands. "Please tell me you know that you're supposed to cut the pocket and vent stitching before you wear the suit."

"I'm not a complete dunce," Matthew says indignantly. Leon doesn't have to know that his billet mom had to inform him of that little fashion rule after he'd already been wearing his new juniors suit for two months.

"Just partially," Leon says, but there's no bite behind it. He grins when he walks Matthew to the door, wishes him luck at the awards.

It's hard to walk away.

Two weeks later, when Matthew cuts the tacking stitches on the night of the ceremony, he discovers a slip of paper in his left pocket.

Rule number three: call me after you win.

— Leon

[thefangirlingdead]

Soooo I rarely post on here anymore, but I felt it was as good of a place as ever to share that I wrote a MattDrai fic because I'm trash or whatever.

Anyway, please enjoy Matthew and Leon being friends with benefits who are madly in love with each other but too stupid and stubborn to do anything about it until it's too late:

"...it certainly wouldn’t be appropriate to tell your fuck buddy that you think you might be falling for him in a handshake line, right?"

Two years into casually hooking up with Matthew Tkachuk, Leon is struggling with how to tell him that he actually has real feelings for him. When Matthew is traded to the Panthers without so much as a heads up, it only goes to complicate things further. Over the course of the next year, both men slowly figure out how to use their words and find their way back to each other (with plenty of help from family and friends, of course).

Also working on a lil sequel/prequel here:

[hiding-from-reality-56]

I need someone to write MattDrai animal transformation where Matthew (he's a panther alr here) is stuck as a rat and it's never happened before but it happens when he's in Edmonton with Drai in the offseason for a little (the plan was not to stay in Edmonton, but shit happens) Rats are Not allowed in Alberta. Like. At all. So there's Leon trying to protect this illegal rat and worrying about how to get him home without the risk of his [bf? What is their status? Are there labels? Who's to say?] Bc Leon certainly isn't about to try and smuggle rat-Matthew past airport security, etc etc

There's just something that's SOOOO about Leon breaking rat laws for the man he loves is sleeping with

"Connor you know there are now rats in Alberta” he says while sweating profusely “If this is some stupid joke about your situationship with Chucky, I swear to god” Oh he has No idea how accurate that statement is

[bilvaye]

For the Red, White, and Blue

MattDrai | Explicit | Complete (1/1)

Summary: Leon promised that if Team USA won the 4 Nations, he'd do whatever Matthew wanted as his reward. He just didn't expect it to be so… patriotic

An AU one-shot PWP where Team USA won the 4 Nations Face Off, and Matthew collects his prize.

Years ago, back when Leon and Matthew could barely stand each other (don't laugh, it's serious), when the Battle of Alberta held such high stakes, and they were both decidedly not hiding their feelings behind snark and aggression, thank you very much, Matthew had come up with an idea: what if the winner of the game got a reward? Obviously, with this deal being made, Leon had assumed rewards would be things like "winner gets to egg the losers car", or "loser wears the other team's jersey for their media". Y'know. More of a punishment for the loser than a reward for the winner. An extra way to drive each other crazy. Matthew, however, used the first bet to do something… a little different. "Winner gets to kiss the loser for as long as they like."

Read now on AO3!