#team was to god dam cheap to get us a bus as well

[mapbottakeamap]

Neil is so real for this

[puckinghell]

Told You So | William Nylander

Requested: no Word count: 3550 Note: I love William Nylander and that is all

William had always been the only person with the ability to read your face with just a glance, and as he opened the door worry flooded his blue eyes immediately.

“Y/N?” he asked. “What’s wrong?”

You knew you shouldn’t have come here, not when it was almost midnight, but after maybe the worst night of your life, all you’d wanted was to see your best friend. The one person who knew you better than you knew yourself, and the one person who wouldn’t judge you for your mistakes.

Even though you’d made them many times before.

“Trevor cheated on me,” you said, and as the words left your lips it was like reality finally settled in and tears flooded your eyes, threatening to spill.

A Swedish curse word left Will’s lips as he yanked you into his apartment by your arm and slammed the door shut behind you.

“What does that mean?” you mumbled, just as Will pulled you against his chest and wrapped his arms around you.

“Take a guess,” he growled, and you almost laughed. Almost. Instead, you started crying.

You hadn’t cried yet. Not when you walked into your favorite bar with some of your friends and you’d seen your boyfriend of almost one year with his tongue down some girl’s throat. Not when he’d spotted you and followed you out of the bar, and you’d yelled at him for almost an hour in the cold Toronto evening air, not when you’d jumped in a cab and given the driver Will’s address. But now, he looked so angry, so upset on your behalf, and his arms around you gave you a sense of safety you only ever found with him, and now the dam had broken.

“Oh sweetheart,” he whispered against your hair, his thumb tracing circles on your back, trying to calm you down. “He’s such an asshole.”

You stood there for a while until your cries turned to sobs, and then Will guided you towards his couch and sat you down.

“I’ll get the wine. Or do you want me to put the kettle on?” he asked, as you pulled up your legs on the couch and hugged your knees to your chest. You shrugged; even a decision as simple as that seemed too much for your exhausted brain to comprehend, and Will understood. As he always did.

“I’m going to get you some of both, and then we’re going to talk about how he was never the one for you,” he declared, and you watched him as he padded towards the kitchen, sock-covered feet soft against the hardwood floor. He’d been watching Narcos on the television, and you stared at the paused screen as your brain went into overdrive.

Will had never liked Trevor. When you just started dating, he’d told you that the guy was no good, that he was bound to break your heart. But you’d been stubborn and in love, and you’d ignored his warnings. Now, you were regretting that. Why would you ever not listen to your best friend? This wasn’t the first time this had happened; you’d date a guy that Will didn’t think was good enough for you, and they always ended up hurting you. Were you ever going to learn your lesson?

Will returned, as he promised with a glass of wine and a cup of tea, and you reached for the wine. Fuck it, you deserved it. He squeezed next to you on the couch, his arm instantly wrapping around your shoulders and pulling you against his chest. You curled your legs underneath you and rested your head against his.

“You told me,” you finally whispered, after at least ten minutes of silence. You knew he was giving you your space.

“I know,” he answered softly. He told you so. But he was too nice to ever tell you that, to ever say “I told you so”, to ever judge you for your repeated mistakes or to ever send you away when you came crawling to him for a shoulder to cry on. “You know, I thought his best friend was much hotter than him anyways,” he continued then, his voice gruff. “And he really wasn’t funny. His jokes were cheap, no content there at all.”

You felt yourself starting to smile. “You would know,” you teased, even though your heart wasn’t completely in it.

“I do.” Will paused, changing positions so that he was still holding you but could now look at you directly. “He was never good enough for you, Y/N.”

“Why though?” you asked, and your bottom lip started trembling again. “Why do I always end up falling for these guys who clearly don’t give a shit about me? Why do I always end up loving people who don’t love me back?”

“That’s not true.” He reached out and wiped away a stray tear that rolled down your cheek. “I love you back. And he could never love you as much as I do.” He meant it in a friend way, of course, but you’d be damned if your heart didn’t flutter at his words, as his bright blue eyes seemed to stare straight into your soul. “You deserve so much better than someone who lies and cheats and doesn’t know how to appreciate what he has.”

You sighed and dropped your head onto his shoulder, pushing your nose against the fabric of his worn out Leafs hoodie.

“Do you really think his best friend was hotter than him?” you sniffed, and at that, Will burst out laughing.

“I think pretty much every one of his friends was hotter than him, älskling.” You smiled as Will snuck in the Swedish nickname he used for you when nobody was around. It meant love, but it sounded so much better than its English counterpart, in Will’s soft Swedish.

“He did have a big nose,” you admitted. “And his hairline was kinda retreating already.”

“His forehead was big enough to land a plane on,” Will snorted, and you giggled. You both fell silent again. “Wanna watch some Friends?” he asked then.

Of course he knew what TV show would make you feel better. You’d been forcing him to watch it with you whenever you didn’t feel good for years.

You nodded and while he looked up the show on Netflix, you took a deep breath.

You knew how this was going to go, because it hadn’t been the first time you had your heart broken. And it wasn’t the first time you’d relied on Will to piece it back together.

He would hold you through the night, and you’d watch Friends and every now and then he’d tell you what he thought about Trevor - none of which would be good - and tomorrow he’d take you out for breakfast and although you would still be hurting, you’d know that you’d be able to get through it. Cause he had your back through it all.

This was not something Will would normally do. But it was with good intentions and for the best reasons, he told himself as he walked out of the dressing room. It was totally not cause he’d been in love with his best friend for years and years.

It was also not cause he’d been there to stitch back together the pieces of your broken heart time after time, whenever some jackass broke it. He hadn’t minded doing it, because he would do anything to make you feel better, and also because a small part of him hoped that one day you’d realize that what you’d been looking for had been right there the whole time. That he would never hurt you like that.

But that day hadn’t come yet. No, instead, he’d taken you out with the team after a win to celebrate, and also to get your mind off your lousy cheating ex-boyfriend Trevor, and you’d hit it off with Connor Brown.

Will would be lying if he said that was completely fine by him. But he had no claim on you, as you didn’t even know how he felt about you, and so he’d had no choice but to smile and pretend to be happy for you when you told him Connor had asked you out on a date, the next day. 

No, he had no choice but to be okay with it, and if anything, he should be glad because finally you were going on a date with someone who was actually a good person. You always tended to fall for the worst type of guy, the type that caused red flags to go off in Will’s brain the first time he met them, but Connor was a nice guy, and he would never cheat on you.

But, just in case, Will was going to drive the point home. Not his proudest moment. But if he did nothing, he wouldn’t be a good best friend.

“Hey, Brownie, can we chat for a second?” he asked, as he hurried to catch up to his teammate.

“Sure, bro,” Connor said, and they slowed their pace down so they fell behind the rest of the group.

“I heard you and Y/N are going out on a date this weekend,” he started, raking a hand through his blond hair. God, this was more awkward than he’d expected.

The redhead in front of him frowned. “Uhm, yeah. That’s cool, right? You two aren’t…”

“Oh, no, we’re just friends,” Will hurried to say, ignoring the tug at his heartstrings. “I just, uhm, wanted to…” Fuck, what had he wanted to do exactly? Connor looked at him expectantly. Will dropped his voice to a whisper. “She just came out of a bad relationship, man. Like, the guy cheated on her, and it really broke her heart. I’ve never seen her that messed up.”

Connor seemed to catch on slowly. “And you’re here to warn me that if I mess her up like that, you’ll mess up my face?” But he said it with a grin, and Will figured he probably wasn’t the most intimidating person for this task. If only he was a little more like Freddie. Freddie would’ve scared away any guy.

He sighed. “Look, Brownie, she means the whole world to me, okay? And if this works out for you, then it’ll be the best thing that has ever happened to you. She’s great. The best kinda person. I’m just saying, she deserves a lot better than what she’s had up until now, so treat her right, okay?”

Connor nodded understandingly. Maybe if he hadn’t taken it so well, Will would’ve actually been able to make himself be angry about this whole situation. But he’d been right at the beginning. Connor was a good guy, and that was a whole different story than it had been with your other exes. So maybe this time it would actually be for real.

That thought shouldn’t hurt him as much as it did.

“I get it, Willy,” said Connor, and he clapped his teammate on the shoulder. “I get it.” And with that, he followed the rest of the team into the bus. Will just stared after him before shaking his head and making his way to the bus also.

 He wasn’t even really sure what Connor meant by that.

“William!” You tried to hide the anger in your voice as you banged on his door, because if he heard how angry you were, he might not let you in. And you needed him to let you in, because you needed to scream at him. And then you needed some answers.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” you heard his voice from inside the apartment. Finally the door swung open and there stood your best friend, his hair messy and his eyes still filled with sleep. It was 10am, which was a normal time for you to be awake and a normal time for Will to be asleep, but when you’d woken up to Connor’s text this morning you’d known you had to talk to Will right away.

“Y/N, what’s going on?” Caution crossed Will’s face; he read your mood immediately, as you’d figured he would, and you pushed past him and stormed into his apartment.

“Would you like to tell me why Connor canceled our date for this evening?” you hissed, shoving your phone towards him even though your screen wasn’t even unlocked.

Now, your best friend just seemed confused. “Why would I know that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” you told him sarcastically, crossing your arms. “Maybe because when I called him, and I asked him if he wanted to reschedule, he told me he couldn’t go out with me ever, because he 'couldn’t do that to his friend'. Who do you think he was talking about, William?”

“I don’t know,” Will said, but did you imagine that or did something like shame flash across his eyes?

“I didn’t either, so I asked him what he meant by that.” Fury was building in your chest and you felt like your breathing was getting restricted. “And he told me, that when a guy warned his own teammate about going out with a girl, you didn’t dare go out with the girl. And then, then, he said I should probably go talk to you, because you had something to say to me. So spit it out!”

Okay, he was definitely blushing now. “I don’t have…”

“Anything to tell me?” you laughed bitterly. “I figured you’d say that. So tell me why Connor would cancel our date then.” To your own annoyance, you felt a lump building up in your throat, and you squeezed your fist so tight your nails dug into the skin of your palm. You weren’t going to cry. You refused to break down right now.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” Will said now, his voice small.

“What did you do?” There was a bite behind your words and you saw him flinch. For a second, you felt bad, but that feeling disappeared when he answered you.

“I might’ve told him that he had to treat you right and if he didn’t I’d be very mad at him.” The sentence came out in what seemed like a single breath, and you almost wondered if you’d misheard him.

“You… bastard.”

Will raised his hands as if to defend himself against an angry animal, and truth be told you kinda did feel like throwing something at him. “I just didn’t want you to get hurt again!”

“Well, great fucking job, Will, because now he doesn’t want to ever see me again!” you yelled, and then all the fight left your body and you sunk down on his couch, dropping your face in your hands.

Carefully, Will sat next to you. He reached out to put his hand on your shoulder, but you shrugged it off, and ignored the flash of hurt you saw cross his face.

“I truly didn’t mean for that to happen, Y/N,” he said with remorse in his voice. “I just… You’ve gone through so much bullshit in your previous relationships… I just wanted to make sure he had the right intentions.”

“And did he?” you sneered. “Oh, wait, it doesn’t matter, because you scared him away!” You shook your head. “Who do you think you are, William?”

“The guy who picks up the broken pieces every single time, maybe?” he answered, and now there was an edge to his voice as well. “The guy you come running to whenever one of those jerks hurts you?”

“Well, I’m sorry, Will, if I’d known I was that much of a nuisance I would’ve left you alone.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He sighed, frustrated. “Can you please just look at me?”

You did, and as soon as his bright blue eyes took hold of yours, you felt your heart in your throat.

You’d been so angry with him, but that had all suddenly disappeared. And you knew why, too. Because when you’d talked to Connor, he’d told you something else, something you didn’t dare mention to Will. 

He told you: “Listen, Y/N, if he was just being a protective best friend I would totally take you out, cause you seem like a great girl. But a protective best friend would’ve told me that he’d kick my ass. To stay away from you. But he told me he wanted me to treat you right, and when a guy puts a girl’s happiness over his own like that, that only means one thing. He wants to be the one to treat you right and he’s just waiting for you to give him a chance, but if you won’t, then at least he’ll take care of you in whatever way he can. He loves you, Y/N. And I can’t get in the way of that.”

His words had hit you like an avalanche mostly because it brought back feelings that you’d been pushing down for a while. Truth was, ever since you broke up with Trevor, you’d started looking at Will differently. Suddenly his friendly touches set your skin on fire and his laugh made your heart leap and when he looked at you your mouth felt dry. 

And when Connor had first asked you out, you almost said no, because although he seemed great, he wasn’t as perfect for you as a certain blond haired Swede, but then you’d pushed that away because how ridiculous were you to even entertain the thought of a guy like Will ever liking you like that?

“I’m so sorry, älskling. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” said Will, and there was such a clear sadness written all over his face that the last little wave of anger left your stomach.

“I know,” you muttered. “I just don’t understand, Willy.”

At your use of his nickname, Will assumed you weren’t that angry anymore and carefully reached out to take your hand in his.

“I was truly trying to protect you from getting hurt again, but I might’ve also just been a little scared.” Your head snapped up as the words tumbled out of his mouth and he fixed his gaze onto the floor, his cheeks tinted red.

“Scared?” you repeated dumbfoundedly.

He sighed. “Y/N, you always pick the worst kinda guys to fall in love with. And I hate that it ends up with you being hurt, but I can’t say I hate that you pick them. Because I know that by picking these awful guys, it’s almost certain that you end up back with me.” 

He pulled his bottom lip between his teeth, a clear giveaway that he was anxious. “But then you picked Brownie and I wondered, what if it works out this time? I mean, with a guy like him, that’s not such a farfetched idea. And if you ended up with him, well, then you couldn’t end up with me.”

You stared at him, but he avoided your eyes. His hand, however, was still wrapped tightly around yours, almost so tight it was painful, like he was trying to stop you from running away.

Had Connor been right? Was it possible that somehow Will had ended up with the same feelings towards you as you were harboring towards him?

It was possible, but unlikely, and if you guessed wrong, it could ruin your friendship with him forever.

“It’s frustrating, Y/N,” Will continued, saving you from having to decide right that second what you were going to do. “It’s so frustrating because I know I’d treat you so much better than any of your jerk ass exes. I would even treat you better than Brownie, and he’s a good guy. But he’s not me. He doesn’t know you like I do, and he doesn’t care like I do.”

“Will,” you whispered, afraid that the sound of your voice would snap him out of whatever trail of thought he was currently going down. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying,” he said, swallowing thickly, “that I’m sorry if I hurt you. But I can’t say that I’m sorry that Brownie dropped out of your date because I talked to him, because, well, I’m glad you’re looking for someone to treat you right, but I just wished you realized that you don’t have look any further than this, here.” A pause. “Us.”

Butterflies exploded in your stomach and before you realized what you were doing, you’d thrown yourself forward. Will’s hands caught your arms, steadying you against him, and then your lips were pressed against his.

The kiss started out soft and careful, with Will barely responding, as if he wasn’t quite sure if you had really meant to kiss him. But then you swept your tongue across his lips and suddenly he jumped into action, deepening the kiss and pulling your hips towards him, as you tangled your fingers in his hair. When you finally broke apart, you were struggling for air and his cheeks were tinted red, but his eyes were shiny with happiness.

As you walked into practice later that week, with Will’s hand tight in yours and a smug smile on his face, it was Connor Brown who turned around and grinned at you both, as he yelled: “Told you so!”