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wyattjohnston · 3 years ago

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late nights in the middle of june - nico hischier

series: late nights in the middle of june

note: The OC in this fic has an autoimmune disease called Myasthenia Gravis. It’s not a central plot point, though it is referenced indirectly a few times (and not by name because it’s something all the other characters already know about). It also truly takes a village, thank you to Z, Shelb, Lulu and K for letting me talk to them about this fic as it progressed.

word count: 9,407

summary: another summer with the same crew, but maybe some extra fun is just what the doctor ordered.

Stef had been waiting outside from the moment she’d received Nico’s text saying that he was on his way from Zurich—an hour outside in the perfect weather, with the perfect view wasn’t going to hurt her. Tanja and Julien had already left for a hike, Stef staying behind because she knew Nico wasn’t going to be far off, so she was enjoying Iseltwald in serene silence.

Lake Brienz was beautiful to look across, and the perfect temperature for her to sit on the edge of the dock with her feet wading back and forth. Schloss Seeburg wasn’t far off, but still looked stunning with Augstmatthorn as it’s backdrop.

Iseltwald was bustling, as it usually was in Summer, as tourists arrived from around Europe, some from around the world. Stef greeted them all whenever she turned around—which was quite regularly because she looked back over her shoulder whenever she heard a car just in case it was Nico arriving.

It took an hour—predictable, really, given that she’d driven in with Tanja and Julien from Zurich the day before.

Operating on autopilot, Stef started running as soon as she saw him getting out of the car. Nico was ready for her, nothing in his hands and braced for her to jump into his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist.

“I missed you!” she exclaimed as she leant down to exchange cheek kisses.

“I can see that,” Nico laughed, placing his hands under her thighs to steady her. “This is the most excited anyone’s ever been to see me.”

Stef laughed back as she got back to her feet as she heard Tanja and Julien calling out to the from down the road.

There was a group hug, the four of them together for the first time in twelve months, that didn’t last quite as long as any of them would have liked but there was a car stopped near them that couldn’t move along the road until they separated.

Sharing a room with Nico was the norm for their vacations because Tanja and Julien had been together as long as Stef had known them. He didn’t hesitate to follow when she picked up one of his bags and started walking into the hotel, nor did he pause when she led him into a room where her suitcase was already open at the end of the bed, her clothes spilling out of it after an abandoned attempt at hanging things in the closet. Nico threw his suitcase into a corner, took the bag from Stef and placed it atop the suitcase.

“It’s your turn to choose the destination and you couldn’t even leave the country,” he teased, staring out the window at the lake.

“Neither of us live here during the year,” Stef countered, stepping beside him. “I miss Switzerland.”

“So, you chose a town an hour away from home?” he asked.

She scoffed, “You were literally just in Mykonos. You could have stayed there.”

“And miss the only time I get to spend with the Future-Of-Medicine, Miss Stefanie Brunner?”

She scoffed again and rolled her eyes. She reached forward to open the window, the sounds of people and the lake being washed into the room by a warm summer breeze.

“I like Iseltwald.”

“I like it, too. You chose well.”

It was late and dark, but Stef had made her way back to the dock, this time with Tanja. The water had gotten too cold for them to dangle their feet in it, but they sat cross-legged and attempted to make a dent in catching up on a year of not seeing each other. Despite regular phone calls and constant messages, there were many things that they had missed and other things that didn’t feel important enough for a whole text message.

Half an hour later, after a sweet silence, Tanja’s smiled turned a little mischievous—it was a smile Stef forgot about during the year, until the exact moment she saw it again and returned it with her own mischievous and challenging smile.

“I think this is the year.”

“The year for what?”

“You and Nico,” Tanja said, deceptively innocently.

“You know that can’t happen—I live in Denmark most of the year and he’s in America,” Stef said, repeating what she’d been saying since he was drafted by Halifax. It was always an easier way to get people—Tanja, specifically—to stop talking about.

“You can have fun,” Tanja stressed, the sigh in her voice nothing but exasperation. “The tension between you two has been getting worse every year since we were seventeen.”

Stef shook her head, her laugh easy, “There’s no tension.”

“So, it wasn’t you dry humping him earlier?”

“Nobody was dry humping anybody. He’s my friend and I missed him.”

Tanja huffed; the coolness of Stef’s statements always ruffled her feathers. Stef couldn’t be talked into anything and was steadfast in all of her opinions, Tanja never stopped trying, though, even if it only exhausted her. She did drop it—for the night, not for the trip, Stef was sure—and moved on to the trouble she was having trying to find a job that didn’t raise red flags at the interview stage.

“Guess who’s coming this way.”

When Stef turned her head, she saw Nico crossing the road from the hotel, making a beeline for her and Tanja. Tanja stood before Nico reached them, saying goodnight to Stef and then repeating it when she passed Nico. Nico kicked off his slides, dipping his feet into the water without so much as a flinch.

“I can’t believe you’re the captain of an NHL team,” Stef said dreamily. “Well, I can, but it’s still incredible. You’re incredible.”

Nico’s face lit up and Stef swore she saw his chest puff out. His thanks were sincere and heartfelt, as were the accompanying stories. Keeping up with Nico throughout the year was much harder than with Tanja and Julien—the time zone differences and Nico’s schedule meaning they were rarely free at the same time—so it had become the norm for them to basically info dump on each other.

Stef poked Nico when he stopped talking abruptly and he sighed morosely, “I should have brought you a new jersey.”

“Don’t worry about it; I bought one the week they dropped.”

“Really?”

She smiled at him, knowing that it was hanging up in her closet back in Zurich, saying “I’ve gotta support my boy.”

“Of course, you do,” Nico said, nodding seriously. “Who else would support?”

“Kevin Fiala,” Stef deadpanned, wondering sincerely what else Nico was expecting her to say.

Nico’s nod became a shake, “Nah. You don’t like him more than me. No way.”

It was said with so much conviction that Stef couldn’t even bring herself to put up a fight; she shrugged, smiled, and let him talk for a few moments about how much better he was than Fiala. All despite the fact that Stef knew they were friends.

“You get cockier every year.”

“You get smarter every year; I have to combat that somehow.”

“I don’t get smarter every year—you must get dumber.”

“You’ve finished your course, though, yeah? And are starting the Masters? That’s pretty smart, Stef. The Future of Medicine.”

Nico was just about the only person Stef let talk about her in that way; with high expectations and confidence because she knew he truly meant what he was saying but wouldn’t at all be disappointed if she dropped it all. They’d had many conversations over the years about the pressures they were under from themselves but also other people.

There was a chill in the air that was only getting cooler by the second, so they decided it was time to head inside—Nico complained briefly about having wet feet. Stef was barely able to move fast enough but she managed to put enough distance between them that his attempts at flicking water onto her were unsuccessful.

It wouldn’t have taken any time or effort to separate the beds if they’d wanted to, but, just like sharing a room, it hadn’t even been up for discussion. Nico was rolled over, facing her when Stef rolled onto her back and turned her head just enough to see him.

He whispered a goodnight, barely breaking the silence. Stef repeated his words.

“You good for a hike today?” Nico asked, not even lifting his head as he tied his shoes. “Just a small one. Easy.”

“Tanja and Julien?”

“They were talking about doing a longer one but I’m not feeling it.”

Stef looked at the top of his head sceptically. He’d said it so casually that she almost believed that the easy hike had nothing to do with her. Nico raised his head when she didn’t answer, cocking it to the side when he recognised the look on her face.

“I’m doing the hour-long hike no matter what,” he assured her. “Their one takes four hours; that’s not happening.”

There was a part of Stef who wanted to challenge Nico, to remind him that he was a professional athlete and that he needed to reconsider that career if a four-hour hike was too hard—but she didn’t, because there was also a part of her that worried he’d accept the challenge and leave her behind.

From her suitcase she pulled her own running shoes and squeezed onto the small bench beside Nico so that she could tie them up. She was already wearing clothing appropriate for hiking because she wasn’t planning on wearing anything much different while they were in Iseltwald, so, when she was finished, she jumped up enthusiastically. Her finger guns did not go unnoticed by Nico even though he tried to ignore them; his smile gave him away.

As Nico had promised, the hike was easy. It was also arguably not even a hike, just a slightly challenging walk, but it still took them around Iseltwald and the surrounding area and gave them lots of picturesque scenes to take photos of.

They walked mostly in silence which made it all the more jarring when Nico’s phone rang loudly. He looked to Stef for her opinion on him answering, and she agreed instantly. He greeted the person on the other end—Jack Hughes, Stef presumed, unless he’d made more Jack-friends since the previous summer—and began speaking in English. She understood every word of what he was saying, sure, but, after returning from Denmark to spend time with her family in Zurich, it had been quite awhile since she heard anything in person but Swiss German, so her brain took a moment to switch gears.

“Bro,” Stef mocked in her best American accent—the one she knew Jack had—when the call ended.

“Bro,” Nico repeated, his face lighting up even though he was trying to contain his laughter.

“So American.”

Nico pushed at her shoulder; Stef over exaggerated the momentum and stepped off the path with a horrified scream. He wasn’t buying it, just rolled his eyes and grabbed her wrist to haul her back onto the path.

“I forget how nice it is to speak my own language,” said Stef, unable to keep her eyes off the water.

“It’s what I love most about landing in Zurich; I don’t have to think about every word coming out of my mouth. I don’t know how you do it with English and Danish.”

“I forget words in all three languages all the time,” she admitted. “Some people tell me that I’m very smart for being multi-lingual—I’ve never felt dumber than when I was trying to buy a loaf of bread and couldn’t remember the word ‘sourdough’ in any of them.”

Nico laughed, hiding none of his amusement at the thought of her doing just that—he’d done it himself many times before, even. No amount of time spent in the US was enough for him to be truly comfortable with a language that wasn’t what he grew up speaking at home.

Their hike, as promised, was a small one. It came to an end back in town with some cool drinks at the café outside their hotel. Stef was grateful that they were sitting down again and was happy if that was the way things went for the rest of the day. Nico watched her carefully as he came back with their milkshakes, his head tilted slightly when he took note of how she had collapsed into her chair.

—

By the time night rolled around, Stef was feeling less wobbly on her legs. She was exhausted, though, so an early night was definitely in order.

Nico spoke, but his voice was muffled by the shirt he was pulling over his head. From her bed, the one that was still pressed against Nico’s, Stef had a perfect view of Nico with his shirt off. Despite what she’d told Tanja, it wasn’t as if Stefanie had never considered what it might be like to have some fun with Nico.

“Stef?” Nico asked as he pulled back the covers to get into bed himself.

“What did you say?”

“Do you want to go to Bern tomorrow?”

“You want to go to Bern? You’ll spend the rest of your summer training there.”

“Do you want to go?” he stressed. “I’ll drive you.”

She pondered the question for a few moments before agreeing. It wasn’t often that Stef got to visit Bern because it wasn’t necessarily worth it driving from Zurich when she was home in the summer. Once upon a time it had been her home—it was where she she lived when she met Nico as a teenager—but since her mum took a job in Zurich, and Stef started University in Copenhagen there wasn’t much time to go back and visit.

“Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you, Nico,” she smiled at him, as best she could, watching his head hit his pillow.

“You must be really tired; you’re super soft right now,” he laughed, soft enough to not disturb the otherwise quiet air around them.

Stef smiled; she was tired enough that, despite how sincere it was, she knew it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Nico wasn’t fazed; he smiled back.

“I miss you when you’re gone, did you know that?”

“I miss you, too, Stef. I can’t wait until you’ve graduated and have a job that lets you take time off so you can watch me play.”

Stef rolled her eyes, even though she was also couldn’t wait to graduate for much the same reason. Having the ability to actually watch him play again was something she looked forward to.

She reminded him, “If you’d stayed in Bern, it’d be a lot easier.”

“If you hadn’t moved, then yeah,” he countered.

“You went to America just because I moved to Zurich?” Stef joked. “I didn’t know you cared that much.”

“You would have killed me if I said I was staying for anyone who wasn’t my family.”

“Only because you’d already decided it was worth being going to the US alone for the NHL. You would have killed me if I’d stayed in Zurich because of Yannick.”

Nico hummed and rolled over onto his back. Stef stared at his profile as he stared at the ceiling. A small amount of moonlight was filtering through a break in the curtains and Stef used it to take time to memorise the shape of his face. She wasn’t stealthy about it, Nico’s smirk giving that away, but she wasn’t trying to be.

Tanja had done nothing but wiggle her eyebrows suggestively at breakfast when Nico said he was taking Stef into Bern. She wasn’t even trying to hide them from Nico which Stef considered the worst part.

Stef wandered back upstairs after they finished eating to collect a hat and her purse; Tanja followed just to ask questions about what they had planned for the day. The answer was nothing other than just being in Bern and walking around, which was clearly unsatisfying judging by the dramatic sigh that left Tanja’s mouth.

The drive to Bern was about one hour—the perfect length of time for a full listen through of London Grammar’s Californian Soil as well as a couple songs from their earlier albums before Nico was able t find a parking space.

Nico didn’t complain once, no matter that she was dragging him through some museums he was clearly only feigning interest in. He was good at faking it, though, enough so that he started to ask questions just to see if she had the answer. If she didn’t have the answer, which she only admitted under duress, he was quick to poke fun at her and tell her she was falling down the ranks on his Smartest People list.

When she did know the answer—well, she’d announce it proudly, silently daring him to challenge her only to be shaken when his faced morphed. He was never surprised when she knew something, and his expression never even hinted as much; it was pure awe and admiration. She averted her eyes every time before she did something stupid.

Stef decided eventually that she’d put him through enough and they found a café for a late lunch; she tried not to reveal how tired she was already becoming. She left Nico at a table so she could use the bathroom; on her way back she saw a woman, roughly their age, wink at Nico before she left the al fresco dining area completely.

“She’s very pretty,” Stef said sweetly once she was certain the young woman was out of ear shot. “You should go get her number.”

“Not many girls are too happy about the long distance thing when I go back. They also aren’t very willing to talk about moving to America after a few months.”

“I’m not saying you should marry her. I’m saying you could have fun,” she said, her conversation with Tanja running through her mind. “Someone to have fun with while you’re here training.”

He looked back over his shoulder, the woman a considerable distance away, shrugged and said, “Too late now, anyway.”

Stef tried to push Nico for information about his love life, something he was never forthcoming with, and got no more than he had given her during the year. Vague descriptions of the same girl he’d gone on a handful of dates with after Jack introduced them, all said through a barely open mouth and averted eye contact.

“You know I’m not going to judge you for sleeping around, right?” she assured him. “You’re the captain of an NHL team and you’re hot, Nico. I’d judge you more if you weren’t.”

“Thanks for the permission,” he said, gruffer than he had been all morning.

“I’m not giving you permission. I’m just trying to work out if you’re enjoying yourself and not just being a boring old man at 22.”

Nico rolled his eyes, but he was less gruff when he responded, “I have enough fun.”

Stef’s wink didn’t go ignored; she could still see the red tinge at the very tops of his cheeks even when he looked away from her to their waiter.

After lunch they returned to the streets. Instead of pulling Nico into museums, she pulled him into stores—all the boutiques and thrift stores she couldn’t find in Zurich. He had much less to say than when they were walking around the museums and spent most of his time talking to the sales assistants while Stef struggled into clothes to make sure they fit.

Every time she walked back into the main section of the store, he would tilt his head and she knew it was his way of making sure she was still upright and ready to move onto the next store. She was determined to keep going until all the stores shut for the day—he’d driven her to Bern for a day trip and she was going to use the whole day if it killed her.

And it might have actually killed her.

Between the two of them, their hands were filled with shopping bags—Stef wasn’t one to regularly spend a lot of money in one outing but that didn’t mean she couldn’t if she tried. Nico had raised his eyebrows with every store they went into, though he kept his mouth shut and let her spend her own money how she wanted.

The stores finally closed and Stef conceded that their day was over. They headed back in the direction of the car, Stef’s feet basically dragging against the sidewalk, Nico slowing down considerably to keep beside her.

“It’s getting late, maybe we should stay in Bern tonight,” he suggested, despite it being not long after five.

“Yeah,” she breathed, relieved. “It’s been a long day.”

She was exhausted, if she was being perfectly honest with herself. Pure optimism had led to her agreeing to the day trip—with a side of spending another day alone with Nico, maybe—but it was certainly catching up to her.

“We can just head into this hotel,” Nico said as he came to a stop, “hopefully they have a room, so we don’t have to wander around the city to find somewhere else.”

The hotel did have a room, luckily, even if Stef’s mind was blown by the price of their one-night stay. Nico refused to be talked into finding somewhere cheaper when Stef was clearly dead on her feet and could be upstairs in a bed in a matter of moments.

He handed Stef a key card and let her take herself up to the room while he went to get the car to park it closer. The first thing Stef did upon entering the room was drop the shopping bags barely out of the doorway before she collapsed onto the bed, her legs barely even on it.

Before Nico returned, Stef managed to roll around enough to pull her phone from her pocket and call Tanja on FaceTime.

“We’re going to stay in Bern tonight,” Stef said, taking her time with her words to avoid her mouth growing too tired. She rolled onto her side, holding the phone out in front of her.

Tanja’s eyes moved quickly, checking over what was visible of Stef’s face on her screen. She asked, “Are you okay?”

“Just tired; I needed to be in a bed so I could crash.”

Tanja nodded in understand. “I’m sorry that you’re spending so much money on a room you won’t even use tonight.”

“It crossed my mind when we were leaving, especially because of the hike yesterday, but we both know that I love to ignore the responsible option.”

“Only when it comes to your own health,” Tanja teased. “Call me when you’re on your way back, okay?”

Stef agreed and said a mumbled goodbye to Tanja—and Julien who popped his head into frame at the last second.

She was nearly asleep when Nico returned, still half on the bed, trying her best to smile at him when he smiled down at her. He stood beside the bed, looking down at her, and she startled when he pushed his hands under her body to pull her up the bed until her head was resting against the pillow.

They had dinner delivered to their room and Stef sat up against the headboard long enough to eat, Nico sitting up beside her and chatting away about something he’d been watching on Netflix—she wasn’t too sure what it was, not that it mattered when she would listen to him talk about anything and everything.

Outside, the sun was barely setting when Stef managed to push herself out of bed and into the bathroom. She washed her face and stared into the mirror, holding herself up against the counter, as she tried to work out what she should wear to sleep in. Nothing she’d bought that day would be comfortable and sleeping in her denim skirt was the last thing she wanted, so she unbuttoned the fly and pushed it down her legs. Her crop top would have to do, it was soft enough, so she reached underneath it to unhook and remove her bra.

She left the bathroom quietly, trying not to draw attention to herself or how little she was actually wearing, but Nico had barely stopped looking at her since he returned to the hotel, determined to make sure she was okay. They made eye contact briefly before his eyes moved up and down her body quickly and then looked back to whatever he’d put on the television.

“I think I’m going to sleep now,” Stef said.

“Okay, I’ll go sit out on the balcony,” Nico said, still not looking back at her, as he stood from where he’d moved to couch in the corner and picked up his phone.

“You can watch the TV; I’m so exhausted that nothing is going to keep me awake.”

It was the truth. Despite the light and the sound from the TV—Nico had turned it down, at least—Stef was asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The bed moved however long later, and Stef opened one eye to complete darkness and Nico pulling back the covers on the other side of the bed.

“You have to wear that tomorrow—you can’t sleep in it,” Stef chided disapprovingly, if not a little weakly, when she realised that Nico was still wearing his t-shirt.

His laughed was soft but deep, the joke easy, “If you wanted to get me into bed shirtless, you don’t need to come up with an elaborate plan.”

“I know I don’t.”

The room was silent, much more so than their room in Iseltwald without the sound of the lake out their window, with their breathing the only sound. Stef reached out her hand, finding Nico’s beneath the covers and squeezing it. The corners of his lips tugged up, setting her heart alight.

Stef broke the silence, then, “Today was great, Nico. Perfect.”

“Yeah, Stef, it was.”

“If I wasn’t so exhausted, I’d kiss you. Just so you know.”

“Next time, then.”

—

Stef and Nico arrived back in Iseltwald just before lunch the next day, well rested and with heads filled once more with London Grammar.

Rejuvenated but not foolish, Stef promised Nico, and Tanja who descended on her immediately, that she would be taking it easy. She suggested finding somewhere they could swim in Lake Brienz, even if she was much more likely to just float in one spot or sit on the water’s edge.

That was, of course, going to happen after Tanja rifled through and reviewed everything Stef had brought, only stopping short of demanding every item be modelled when Stef complained that all she wanted was to be weightless in the water for the afternoon.

So, they separated to change into their swimsuits—the boys had done so at the earliest mentions of being in the water—and Stef pulled shorts up over the bottoms of her swimsuit before she met them all downstairs.

Lake Brienz was beautiful, no matter where Stef had been in the world there was nothing that could compare to the water pressed right up against striking mountains with the sky blue and bright above them. The weather was always perfect, even when it wasn’t, and the sun high in the sky was warm on their skin with a warm breeze accompanying it making it the perfect summer day.

They discarded their clothes and towels near the water’s edge before wading in.

“Did you buy this yesterday?” Nico asked as he reached out his hand to play with the bow on Stef’s hip.

“Do you like it?” she asked, cocking her hip to make his palm flatten against it. She winked at him when he dug his fingers into her skin there.

“You’re hot, Stef, you know that,” Nico said, his voice thick.

“Doesn’t hurt to hear you say it,” she teased, tilting her hip to move his hand as she walked further into the lake to where Tanja and Julien were treading water. She didn’t go quite so far out, never letting her feet leave the bottom of the lake.

Nico wasn’t far behind her, nor did he stray too far from her the entire day. He was always there to splash her with water when she was least suspecting it or let her rest against his back whenever she needed a rest. All it took was one soft hand on his shoulder, and he’d be turning his back to her, letting her wrap her arms around his shoulders and rest her cheek on the back of his head. He never lost stride in the conversation he was having, either; the action one that came naturally to him.

What got to Stef the most was the instinctive way his hand was finding hers. Even on land, when they’d stopped for something to eat and drink, he sat down beside her on her towel and as he put his hand back to lean on, his fingers were hooked around hers. Stef kept looking at them out of the corner of her eyes, unable to keep her mouth in a straight line. Especially not when Tanja and Julien kept giving them curious looks—looks that Nico either did not see or was not bothered by.

“Didn’t you say you wanted to go check out that path up there?” Tanja asked, her question pointedly directed at Julien. “You should take Nico and tell us if it’s worth it.”

“Right now?” Nico asked, watching as Julien stood up.

“Yeah, why not?” Tanja asked back, just as pointed as she’d been to her own boyfriend.

Nico sighed, pulled his hand away from Stef’s reluctantly, and the boys wandered off in the vague direction that Tanja had pointed in. Julien actually seemed to know what Tanja had been referring to, so at least there was that.

Stef was acutely aware of just how intently Tanja’s gaze was and waited for the boys to be well out of earshot before she even thought about speaking.

“You haven’t made any jokes about me and Nico all day,” Stef said, only willing to have the conversation because she knew the boys would be quite awhile on their impromptu walk—that Stef knew Tanja had only suggested so that they could have the conversation.

“Because I think something might actually happen and I don’t want to ruin it.”

“Why do you think something might happen?”

“You’re different today. It’s not just weird sexual tension—though there is a whole lot of that—it’s feelings,” Tanja stressed. “You guys are insanely compatible, and I want you to actually do something about it.”

“I know that we’re insanely compatible; I have known since we were fifteen.”

“You’ve known all this time? And never done anything about it?”

“What happens if we do something about it and it’s great and we’re just as compatible as I’ve always thought and for the rest of this week I’m the happiest I’ve ever been?” Stef asked, her words coming out in a breathless rush. “What happens when we drive in opposite directions and then he goes back to New Jersey, and I go back to Copenhagen and the next time I see him is in twelve months when you take us to Tenerife? I think I’d rather not know what I’m missing.”

There was a beat, as Tanja processed everything Stef had said, and she asked, gently, “Do you though? Think that?”

“No,” Stef said, shaking somewhat hysterically, “because I want to know so badly what it’s like to be with him even if it’s just for a few days.”

“Then find out. He’s not about to reject you.”

“I know he’s not.”

“Oh, you know, do you?”

Stef’s eye roll was instant; Tanja’s smirk annoyed her more than it usually did. They both knew, despite Stef’s yearly denials, that Nico would be there the second Stef showed any interest. It was an innocent attraction, their friendship always coming first, but it was still there and still noticeable to anyone who spent more than a few hours with them.

“I told him, last night, that I would have kissed him if I wasn’t basically passed out.”

Tanja’s back straightened, and she pushed upwards—her legs still crossed but her ass no longer on the ground. She leaned forward, put a hand on both of Stef’s shoulders and shook her repeatedly.

“Oh my god!” she shouted. “My baby’s all grown up!”

“People are staring,” Stef said, deadpan, as she tried desperately not to let her emotions show on her face. Her heart was at risk of escaping straight through her rib cage if she thought about the idea of kissing him for even a second longer. “And what do you mean all grown up? I haven’t been saving myself for Nico.”

“Oh, I know,” Tanja said, shaking her one last time before sitting back down but still bouncing, “but you’re finally admitting how you feel and I’m loving it.”

“Love it a little quieter; I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.”

“Stef, I’m never shutting up about this. You know that.”

Tanja was telling the truth, which was something she was exceptionally good at. She was less subtle around Nico, too, after finding out that Stef had basically admitted her feelings to him—basically, in very few words, which Stef was trying to remind her telepathically.

Stef knew that every time Nico’s hand brushed against hers, or any time he got close to her in anyway, Tanja was only milliseconds away from jumping up and down and clapping in celebration. Stef had never been more grateful for Julien’s subdued nature and the way he was able to calm her down with just a hand on her arm. Nico had also told Julien, that much Stef was aware of, because Julien was no longer confused by Nico’s sudden public displays of affection, no matter how minor they were.

They didn’t stop, either, even as the afternoon disappeared, and they made their way back to the hotel for dinner. He was still never more than an arm’s length away if he wasn’t just holding her hand or resting his hand on her bare lower back.

Every touch was a promise of something to come.

When Stef had finished with her shower after dinner, she saw the balcony door cracked open and knew that it meant Nico was sitting outside overlooking the lake. Stef pulled on a sweater over her pyjamas—a cool breeze had settled in while they were eating dinner—and grabbed some glasses and the bottle of Riesling they’d bought on their way out of Bern and pushed the door open to join him.

Nico was on the phone, speaking in English, and Stef knew that if he didn’t want her to hear the call, he would have shut the door properly behind him. After placing the wine and the glasses on the table, she leant her arms against the railing, tuning out Nico’s voice as she watched the people who were still milling around.

She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t hear Nico’s call end or realise that he’d moved until he was wrapping his arms around her waist and crowding her against the rail. She pushed back into the warmth of his body instantaneously.

“How are you?” he asked, his chin coming to rest on top of her head.

Stef laughed, “Want to know if I’ve got the energy to make out with you?”

Stef pushed him back before he could speak, so that she could turn around in his arms. With her back against the railing, she wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged him closer to her until their lips brushed. It was light and tentative, much more so than she’d expected him to be.

With a confused but soft expression, her eyes lightly squinted, Stef pulled away just to see what he was up to.

“What?” he asked, his voice somehow even deeper than normal.

“Are we actually going to make out, or are you just going to kiss me like we’re thirteen years old?”

“Was that not good enough for you?” he teased, his eyes dropping to her mouth.

“You can do better.”

He took the challenge, their mouths meeting with no warning, and he pressed her right up against the railing, so close that their bodies may well have become one.

His body was so solid against hers that Stef wasn’t sure what she should be focusing on. Seeing just how much bigger he had gotten since their last vacation was one thing, having it holding her against the railing, so steady and so strong was another thing entirely.

The time it took for her to lose control was embarrassing. Desperation overcame her and she tried to pull his mouth even closer, whilst also trying to roll her hips up into his and chase whatever pleasure she could get before the real moment came.

Stef woke early the next morning, despite their late night. They hadn’t closed any of the curtains in their room, so it was before six that the light came pouring into the room. She rolled onto her back and stared up at the ceiling, Nico still in a deep sleep beside her.

She didn’t mean to get into her own head, not when she’d intended to just think about all the fun they’d had, and would have over the next three days, but as she lay there in the silence those next three days became the only days she had before she went back to the real world.

Three days until she began thinking about her future.

Nico stirred beside her, probably woken by the way her legs had started to twitch more with every thought.

“You think really loud.”

Stef could hardly hear her own question as she asked, “Do you ever second guess yourself?”

“In what way?” Nico asked, the teasing leaving his voice instantly.

“Hockey; the thing you always wanted to do, the thing you were always meant to do. What if it wasn’t the right decision?”

“What else was I going to do?” he asked gently. “I’ve been training for hockey my entire life. School’s not my thing and I guess football might have worked out but I’m here. Are you second guessing yourself?”

Stef sighed, her hands clenched in fists by her side, and asked, “What if I was meant to be something different? What if I was meant to play hockey or be a model or do anything that isn’t medicine.”

“You like medicine, though. Right?”

“Yeah. Sometimes I just wonder.”

“You’re terrible at hockey, so that’s that solved.”

It was a joke, she knew it was a joke, and yet she couldn’t take it as one. She huffed, trying to force the lump out of her throat, “I’m only terrible at hockey because my legs don’t work like they should. It’s entirely out of my control.”

“You’ve made great choices based on what you know you can and can’t do, Stef. It sucks that your choices are more limited but I’m so proud of what you’re doing. Of what you will do.”

Stef focused on her breathing, trying to synchronise it with Nico’s calm, even breaths. Nico manipulated her until his arm was under her neck so that he could pull her right into his side. It was easier, pressed right up against him, skin-to-skin, to regulate her breathing.

Once she felt settled again, or at least as settled as she would for a few hours, she let her read relax onto his shoulder.

“You’re my hero, Nico. I wouldn’t have taken the scholarship in Denmark if you hadn’t already been in Halifax showing me it wasn’t scary to leave.”

“Not a chance,” he denied emphatically, squeezing her upper arm. “You leave no matter what. No matter what universe, or what butterfly effect; you leave Switzerland because you’re too brave to not.”

“There’s not a timeline that exists where you aren’t the main thing that got me there,” she persisted.

“You’ve been holding into this for a few years? Since we last spoke about it?”

“No—mostly I don’t think about it because I love what I’m doing. This year was just harder than normal. With the Masters coming up and everything. Was it hard when they said they wanted you to be Captain?”

“I didn’t know if I wanted it. I did want it… but was I the right choice? Should they have waited for Jack? Traded in for a captain?” he suggested. “I can do it and I know that but at the time saying ‘yes’ wasn’t just about wanting it.”

Stef turned and then moved out of Nico’s arms to kneel beside him, his hand moved with her body and ended up on her bare waist as he waited expectantly for her to speak.

“You are the right choice,” she insisted. “The only choice.”

Nico rolled his eyes but instead of arguing with her, her curled his hand further around her waist and corralled her forward until she was leaning over him, and he didn’t have to lean up very far to kiss her.

“Do you want to go again, or will my dick give you another existential crisis?”

“Your dick is not that good,” Stef protested, shoving his shoulder but not pulling away from their kiss.

It hadn’t been Stef’s idea to hire the rowboat.

The idea had originally been something Tanja brought up at the beginning of the week as something the four of them would do together, except Tanja and Julien disappeared before Stef and Nico had even left their bed.

Nico suggested the rowboat while they were eating breakfast, though, and he was so excited to do it that Stef wasn’t going to be the one to deny him.

“What the fuck, Nico!” Stef shrieked when she felt Nico’s hand against her upper back. “That’s cold!”

“Sunscreen,” he said matter-of-factly. “You should know all about it as the Future of Medicine.”

Stef rolled her eyes, even though Nico couldn’t see it, then relaxed her shoulders and pushed back into his hands. He was extremely thorough applying her sunscreen, his fingers moving underneath the edges of her bikini, though it was arguable whether that was for maximum skin protection or just to brush his fingers over her breasts when he pressed right up against her back to put sunscreen on her stomach and chest without turning her around.

“Do you actually want to go on a rowboat?” Stef asked, shivering when Nico kissed to top of her ear. “If you don’t keep your hands to yourself, we won’t get very far.”

Nico stepped back, leaving Stef’s shoulders to sag. She turned to face him, pouting, and saw that he was smiling innocently.

He clapped once, loudly, and said, “Let’s go get on this boat!”

Stef huffed at him, and then even more exaggeratedly when he swiped his cap from the dresser and left the room like he was on a mission. She pulled her dress off the bed and swiftly over her head, fixing it to sit properly as she followed him out of the room to meet him at the door where he was standing with her sunhat—he put it on her head, kissing her gently and without fanfare before ushering her out the door with barely enough time to grab the bag she’d packed for them.

It was the warmest day of their vacation by far and Stef had no problem whipping her sundress off as soon as Nico started rowing away from the shore. She rubbed more sunscreen up and down her legs, revelling in the inconsistency in Nico’s rowing as he tracked her hands unfailingly.

It was payback for the way he’d taken his shirt off before he’d even started to row.

“Sit with me,” he said when they were closer to the middle of the lake.

Stef’s brow furrowed, her eyes flickering to the oars in his hands. She said, “You knew coming into this that I wasn’t going to do any rowing.”

“I’m not making you row, just come sit with me,” he persisted, pulling the oars into the boat, and stretching out his hand to her. She took it gratefully, feeling the boat wobble as soon as she tried to move, and he used it to guide her right into his lap.

“Did you want to do this just to show off your arms?” she asked, trailing a finger along his bicep. “Because frankly I think it was very rude of you.”

“Oh yeah? And your little display with the sunscreen just now was totally fair?”

Stef hummed, her smirk matching the one on Nico’s face. He leant in closer, their mouths meeting in a brief kiss. Or, it would have been brief, had Stef not reeled him back in. she had little care for the other people on the lake who were getting a free show.

Nico’s hands were on her ribcage, his thumbs underneath the band of her bikini top, while her own hands were exploring every inch of his back with the occasional detour to his shoulders and biceps so that she could really commit every muscle to memory.

The boat did start to veer, carried towards the shoreline by the light waves. They got close enough that they could make out Tanja and Julien, Tanja’s wolf-whistle carrying across to them effortlessly. Stef didn’t hesitate to raise her middle finger into the air, though she did extricate herself from Nico’s lap so that he could return them back to the middle of the lake.

They stayed out on the lake for hours, enjoying the serenity, and ate the small lunch Stef had packed—some sandwiches and fruit salads she’d bought from the café where they ate breakfast.

“Are you okay?” Nico asked suddenly, his voice cutting through the silence they’d settled into.

Stef’s brow knitted together as she clarified, “In what way?”

“Every way?”

“Yes,” Stef said, her smile soft and her face relaxing. “Thank you for listening to me this morning.”

“I always listen to you. Don’t think I could stop if I tried.”

“I know.”

“You know, huh?”

“I have you wrapped around my little finger,” Stef said, playfully poking him in the thigh with said little finger.

“I know.”

With Interlaken being so close, it was a surprise that it had taken them so long to venture in as a group; it had even been brought up a couple times in the lead up to the trip. They decided to head in on the afternoon before their hotel reservation ended.

There were no set plans for the afternoon, so they strolled through town and did things as they pleased. Tanja’s main attraction for the afternoon came when they stumbled across the horse drawn carriages.

The four of them climbed into a carriage, Nico and Stef huddled close together opposite Tanja and Julien who did the same as they all tried to play Tetris with their legs. It was cozy more than cramped, though, and Stef did not mind at all when Nico solved their leg space issue by putting a hand under her thighs and lifting them until her legs were draped over his.

Curling into him had become natural and simple even in the short amount of time she’d allowed herself to fully indulge—they had never had an issue with touching or holding each other, so everything lasting just a little bit longer than it ever had before.

Stef and Tanja held a conversation about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier mostly just to drown out the conversation the boys had started about hockey, particularly the Prospect Camp they were both going to be part of at the end of July.

Nico’s hand never stopped moving up and down her thigh, underneath her sundress. Stef had to focus extra hard to make sure that the words coming out of her mouth were the correct ones, even though Nico’s action was seemingly mindless on his part.

When their carriage ride was over, Stef talked the driver into letting her pet the horses until the next group waiting was ready to leave.

As the sun started to set and the day began to drag on, Nico was strangely insistent that they stay just a little bit longer. Except that it was just a little bit longer every time she asked if they were heading back soon. He was genuinely apologetic when he told her that there was just one last thing for them to do, even as he made effort to leave the restaurant where they were eating dinner. Stef slouched a little in her seat as she waited, the day of walking catching up to her and Nico was quick to put his arm around her shoulder and squeeze comfortingly.

When they finally left the restaurant, Tanja and Julien disappeared before Stef even realised, they’d walked in the opposite direction.

“The Ferris wheel?” Stef asked, rhetorically, given that they were heading into a line, and she was craning her neck up to see the wheel above her.

“It’s supposed to be good, I think,” he said uncertainly, also craning his head back.

The people leaving the Ferris wheel were visibly pleased with their experience, especially one couple who excited with the man having to guide the woman as she stared at her left hand with an intensity that could only mean the ring on her ring finger was brand new. They had come out of the exit nearest Stef and Nico—the shortest line, with a sign that said VIP Experience.

“Did you pay for it to just be us?”

“I thought it’d be nice with no one else around.”

Stef’s heart thundered and did not stop when Nico took her hand, or when they were escorted into a private gondola, or when she saw the champagne bottle and glasses on the table inside.

When they reached the top, Stef could see, easily and vividly, how it would be the perfect proposal experience—a lovely location, the most exquisite view, and still maintaining privacy. It wouldn’t be difficult at all to set it up, when the private gondola was apparently an option available to anybody and she wondered how many people had been proposed to exactly where she was standing.

“This is really nice champagne,” she said, to stop herself from mentioning anything else that was swimming through her mind.

Nico would probably propose at the end of a difficult hike, Stef decided, in the middle of summer in a town not unlike Iseltwald.

“I miss Switzerland,” Nico said, wrapping his arms around Stef’s waist and pulling her back into his chest as they looked out over Interlaken together.

“One day we’ll both be back for good.”

Nico hummed, “You’ve only got a couple more years.”

“I guess I hope you have way more than just a couple before you come back,” Stef said quietly.

Nico hummed again, agreeing with her statement. She did want him to have a long and prosperous career, even if it was on the other side of the planet, it was what she’d always wanted for him. It hadn’t ever conflicted with what she wanted for herself, though.

She leant back into him further, having him support all her weight as she tried to memorise exactly hot it felt to have his arms wrapped around her.

Then, before she had even thought of the words leaving her mouth, “You are coming back, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you retire, you’re coming back here? Or will you retire in America? Take a job in front office?”

“Coming back is the plan,” Nico told her, holding her tighter. “There’s more than enough for me to do in hockey here.”

“I—good. That’s good.”

—

There was a heaviness in Stef’s chest that she’d never felt before. A weight so strong she didn’t know if she could drag herself out of bed. Putting her feet on the ground would be one step closer to leaving Iseltwald. To leaving Nico.

He was wrapped around her so tightly that even if she did want to get out of bed, she wouldn’t have been able to; only, the weight of his body had been comforting only the night before. It had become overwhelming and suffocating.

A kiss to the back of her neck alerted her to him being away so she tried to relax her body and make sure that he didn’t feel any of the tension she was holding. He was holding it to, however, the kiss somewhat forced and the way he removed his arms clunky.

As they got up and started to move around the room, neither of them said a word. The silence consuming the room was suffocating. Stef couldn’t even look at Nico for fear that her resolve would break, and she’d fall to the floor.

Breakfast was just as bad, despite having Tanja and Julien there as a buffer; they both tried to bring Stef and Nico into the conversation, only to be met with one-word answers. Nico was more willing to join in the conversation, though he was constantly looking over to Stef to see if she had something to say, if she was going to join in or having something to say.

Tanja dragged her away from the table and back up to the room before their meals were even finished.

“Are you going to talk to him about it?” Tanja asked sternly, throwing Stef’s suitcase onto the bed. “Or are you just going to keep your mouth shut all morning and then cry all the way home?”

Stef watched with a twisted stomach as Tanja began to throw clothes into the suitcase, finding them throughout the bedroom and folding them as half-heartedly as the clothing already in it.

“What do I say?” Stef asked in a huff, her voice raising at least one octave. “Thanks for the past few days, bud. See you next year?”

“Yeah? Just have a conversation about it.”

“About what, exactly? There’s nothing to talk about. This has to end today.”

“You’re usually great at thinking about the bigger picture,” Tanja chided. “If you leave without talking about it, the entire friendship is ruined. Then what happens next year? One of you doesn’t come to Tenerife and then, all of a sudden, the one tradition we’ve got ends. He cares about you, and you care about him. You both deserve to have at least some sort of conversation.”

Stef fell to the bed so dramatically that it looked like her marionette strings had been cut. Her mind whirred, every possible outcome of the day—their future—flashing before her and she knew she had to find Nico.

He was sat on the edge of the dock where they’d spoken on their first night, his feet in the water and his back to her. She tried to make some noise as she got closer, it wasn’t exactly quite out but she still didn’t want to shock him.

“Hey,” she said softly as she slipped off her shoes and sat beside him, her feet in the water, too.

“Hey.” His voice was just as soft, though he didn’t hesitate to raise his arm and tuck her under it.

“I haven’t been much fun this morning, I’m sorry,” Stef said, leaning into Nico’s body. “I just don’t know what happens next. I’m scared.”

“What scares you the most?”

“That things get weird between us,” she admitted. “That we stop talking and I lose you.”

“Nothing changes,” he promised. “Maybe I let myself think of you a little more often…” His hand was inching up her thigh but stopped before it got anywhere close to the hem of her shorts. “You’re still Stefanie Brunner, and you’re still my hero.”

“Pretty sure that’s my line,” she said, sheepishly burying her face in his neck.

“You know,” Nico said, increasing the pressure of his fingers on her thigh, “I don’t have to spend the entire summer in Bern. Zurich’s only a couple hours away.”

Stef’s mouth tugged into an instant smile; her eyes fluttering shut.

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