one-night-story - Tumblr blog

one-night-story · 3 months

Text

I Don't Know You, But I Would Love to Meet You (Jack Hughes)

a/n: I wanted to get this not under the wire, but I can't help but feel like it a little? Which, sorry about that. this is for @writingonleaves by way of @wyattjohnston 's annual winter fic exchange! I hope you enjoy it! this was as always a fun challenge to write. title is from "We Should Be Friends" by Josh Ramsay, which is v cute. (also it's so long oh jeez)

There’s probably a certain age when you’re fairly certain you’re “too old” to be waking up on strangers couches with little memory of A) who’s couch you ended up on and B) how exactly you got there.

I don’t think I’ve quite hit that age yet, so I think I’m in the clear for the understandable confusion I woke up with as the morning sun streamed in from the floor to ceiling windows.

Shit, not only was I in an unfamiliar apartment, whoever was renting the place was clearly richer than my blood.

Good news: my phone was on the coffee table and attached to a charger, so whoever I’d crashed with was a benevolent host, which boded well for my continued situation. I checked my texts and it seems last night me had been coherent and just exhausted, seeing as I remembered to text my roommate that I wasn’t coming home saying I was crashing “with friends” and that I’d text her when I got back on campus.

Huh, promising.

It at least meant she wouldn’t send out a search party consisting of our friend group, their friends, and the National Guard. All incredibly good things for my continued health and existence.

Now, to figure out who’s apartment I’d just woken up in.

Carefully, I stretched out my legs and shifted the blankets onto my lap when I realized I at the very least had the sense to not try and sleep in jeans but had left my “nice enough to go out” t-shirt on, and scanned the area. A couple of photos on the wall of a relatively decent sized family, siblings at the bare minimum as they popped up in several photos. Rich, but a bachelor as no one with any interior design sense had popped by to huck a colored throw pillow into the mix, and that was assuming their lease didn’t allow for wall color changes.

Honestly, I was coming up empty.

None of my friends were this rich, hell if they were I feel like it would’ve come up way sooner, not to mention why the hell would they bother commuting to campus when they probably could leverage online classes and still come out with a degree.

I was just about to fashion enough of a blanket skirt to at least try and find my pants so I could start rifling through a mail stack when there was creaking coming from down the hall. Well, maybe I’d have an answer soon enough. I readjusted the blanket a little so I could look over from where I thought the creaking was coming from and was greeted by… okay calling it a familiar face might’ve been a stretch, but so would the text to my roommate saying I was staying with a friend, so somehow that was two birds with one stone.

I did recognize him, which was an improvement over my worst fear, he was a friend of a friend of a brother of a friend. Which put me at four degrees of separation, and raised my “why the fuck did I crash here” hackles, but the fact that I was on a couch and not in someone’s bed felt safe, even if it wasn’t all there yet.

He didn’t seem to be fully coherent yet, as he rubbed his eyes and ran a hand through his, admittedly very pretty, hair so I tried to hold back a large laugh when he startled at seeing me sitting on his couch.

“Hi,” I said with a sheepish wave. “Sorry, I’ll get out of your hair soon enough,” I remarked. What I really needed to do was find out where the hell half-dead me had hucked my pants so I could tug them back on and then make a beeline to the nearest train station to get home.

“‘S fine, just… uh… shit, there’s no like… good way of asking this,” he mulled over.

“It’s okay, I don’t quite remember your name either,” I said, saving him the embarrassment. He laughed, and it was goofy and light, which was way too endearing for… shit did that microwave clock say 9:30 in the morning? I couldn’t help but join in with a chuckle of my own.

“Oh thank god,” he said once he stopped most of the laughter, “I didn’t want to seem like a complete asshole, but also there was no way I was going to remember it after last night.” He added.

“Yeah, I don’t remember much either, and I don’t even think I drank that much?” I said with just a dash of question in my tone, he nodded once.

“You didn’t, but I think you mentioned that you didn’t want to risk taking the train back so late.” He said. “I offered to let you crash here when you refused to let someone pay for a hotel.”

Yeah, that sure did sound like me.

“Well, thank you, I’m Sadie,” I said, and as soon as I did, he brightened like he suddenly did remember and just needed the metaphorical kick in the brainstem.

“Yes! Okay, see I thought it’d be in there,” he said with another chuckle. “I usually at least try to learn the names of the girls I bring home.” I couldn’t help but laugh at the way he chose to phrase it and even more when he very clearly winced realizing how it sounded.

“We’ll chop it up to “lack of coffee” and call no hard feelings, sound fair?” I proposed as an even solution to our silly little predicament.

“Fair, I’m Jack by the way.” he said as he came over to the couch and offered up his hand. “Nice to actually meet you Sadie,” he said.

“Nice to meet you too,” I said with a chuckle as I shook his hand with a bit of teasing vigor.

“Can I at least offer you breakfast before you sneak out in the middle of the morning?” He asked while still holding onto my hand. I thought it over, and remembered the time, and figured that… yeah I could probably stand to be held up for coffee and a minimal breakfast before jumping on the train.

“Yeah, if it’s not —“

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack was quick to cut me off. He let go of my hand and wandered back over to the kitchen and I was quick to try and figure out where the hell I’d put my pants so I wasn’t having to talk across the apartment and be perceived as rude on top of whatever else one could make assumptions about a girl who’d crashed on the couch of a guy she barely knew. After being assured that the blanket was carefully tucked around me I leaned down to check under the couch and was relieved when I found them sticking out. I carefully maneuvered my body so that I could reach under the couch, grab them and carefully bend back up onto the couch so I could put them on under the blanket. When I eventually sat back up and stood. Jack was looking at me with a look of bemusement.

“Were you…”

“No, last night me wanted to not sleep in jeans. So I must’ve haphazardly hucked them off.”

“And you managed to get them on… without getting up from under the blanket?”

“Old trick from summer camp. Trust me, you haven’t even seen half of it.” I could get dressed pretty entirely without getting up from under the covers. When Jack still looked amused I chuckled and finished walking over to where he was in the kitchen. “What? Upstate New York gets cold in the morning in the summer.” I remarked. Jack fully laughed and again, I couldn’t help but join in.

“Oh I know, I guess I’m just used to living in houses with heating too.” He said. I simply shrugged, low tech summer camps, what could you do? I watched as Jack maneuvered around his kitchen to get the coffee going from the cautious spot of his breakfast bar, trying to not take up too much space or get in the way, no one likes multiple people in a kitchen at once, it was practically a fact. “I only have milk and sugar, I hope that’s okay?”

“It’ll be fine, I’m hardly in a position to be picky,” I said as I tried to focus on something that wasn’t the way Jack’s hair was falling that made him seem… softer? than just my brain’s logical, knee jerk reaction of him being “just some guy”. I mean, of all the people that my sleep addled brain could remember, I definitely remember that Jack was one of the better looking ones. I could feel my fingers wanting to pick at my nails and the social morays of it all was pretty much the only thing holding me back from doing so. I wanted to say something, anything, pretend for one morning that I was good at socializing. The fact that I’d managed to get through last night with enough grace and charm that I had managed to score a place to crash after the friend of a friend I came with ditched me to hook up with on of the myriad of white boys that were there that night meant this morning I was praying I had enough left to at least make it through coffee.

Jack set the Keurig off to do its thing and rifled through the cupboards to try and find… something. Honestly, while I was hoping for cereal, I would’ve settled for toast, when I heard him curse someone under his breath and went over to the fridge.

“Shit.” He muttered.

“Roommate eat you out of house and home?” I said taking a shot in the dark. Jack looked over, remembering he was making coffee for two and gave me a look that read as though I’d gotten it in one. He padded back over to the breakfast bar and leaned in conspiratorially, something I couldn’t help but meet him halfway about.

“So… I might’ve lied about breakfast. My brother was supposed to go grocery shopping yesterday after practice and it looks like he forgot.” I chuckled and opened my mouth to assure him that really, it was fine, thanks for even offering, I’ll just go; but he pressed on, “there’s a spot around the corner that does… probably better than I ever could and that includes the coffee. If you want, I could… take you there?” He proposed.

On the one hand, that was incredibly sweet and his smile was very much continuing my brain’s belief of him being endearing. Not to mention I love a good brunch spot as much as the next girly and that included a good little diner.

On the other hand, I felt gross being in yesterday’s clothes and I didn’t want to impede Jack’s ability to get on with his day. That, and the somewhat social expectation to turn down anything offered with you without an obvious way to pay back. We weren’t really friends, and we weren’t dating, so what the hell could I even do? My obvious gut reaction was to reject it, to chop it up to the fact that really, he was just being polite and there was no real reason to go with him. But then I snuck another glance at him, a little open and earnest and maybe the offer was just a genuine “let me be a good host in spite of the fact that my roommate is making that a challenge.”

“One condition,” I said and Jack nodded, “you mind if I borrow your shower? I feel super gross,” I said and Jack immediately nodded.

“Yeah, course, I’ll get you a new shirt if ya need.” He was quick to add. I smiled and thanked him as he pointed me toward where the bathroom was. It was very clear a bachelor’s bathroom, but at least they had more than one bottle of soap. So… small victories.

I was quick to wash up and thankful for the t-shirt left precariously balancing on the bathroom island that fully suggested it’d been put there without someone looking. Changing was just as fast and I came back out feeling a little less like death. I grabbed my phone and my bag from the end of the couch (ungracefully shoving my t-shirt from last night in) and met Jack where he was by the door.

The trip to ground level was mostly quiet, with both of us seemingly trying to pick and choose what to say about all of this. I didn’t want to put any sort of anything on it, hell, I was prepared to pay should need be and blow the rest of my fun money budget for the month.

And Jack hadn’t been lying when he said the place had been around the corner as, sure enough, the glass faced front of a quaint brunch place, Edison light bulbs and all, was in front of us. For a late Saturday morning, it wasn’t horrendous by any means. I predicted a twenty minute wait without reservations, but I was willing to be surprised. Jack got the door for me and I muttered a quiet thank you as we walked in. The front area was small so I suspected that this was probably a strict “reservation or get lucky on a walk in” place. I snuck a glance at Jack, but he didn’t seem to be fazed by any of it as he made his way over to the hostess and they had a quick exchange before menus were being grabbed and we were being led to a quiet little back booth, out of sight of the main windows. The hostess gave her usual spiel about the menus and our waiter being over in a few and we both thanked her for her time. As she left I finally looked over at Jack.

“What?”

“Does the owner owe you money or something?”

“No, but he is a fan,” he said. That made me tilt my head slightly but I was quick to shake it off. “Relax, I made reservations while you were showering. Got lucky that they had a last minute cancellation.” He said. Yeah, that seemed reasonable all things considered, so I let the topic drop and gave the menu a scan. There wasn’t a lot that didn’t appeal to me, so that was a good sign.

“Got any recommendations?” I asked as Jack fidgeted with his fork.

“Oh, uh… the pancakes are pretty killer. And my brother swears by their waffles. But pretty much everything’s good.” He said. I nodded and adjusted my own silverware as our waiter came over and poured water. While I was of the firm belief that brunch didn’t count as brunch without mimosas, I just ordered coffee with some of their fancier fixings. We asked for a bit more time with the menus and our waiter agreed to come back with the coffee. We fell into a silence, not quite awkward but nowhere near comfortable, and I settled on biting the bullet first.

“So why New Jersey?” I asked.

“Why New Jersey?”

“Yeah, you don’t seem like you’re from around here so why’d you move to New Jersey?”

“Work,” he answered simply. My memory of the previous night was still a swirling mess of exhaustion and bright lights and a smidge too much noise, but I think I remembered that those at the table who hadn’t been with my acquaintance group were coworkers. Must be a tight knit workplace. “You?”

“School, got a scholarship.”

“What for?”

“Creative writing, not the flashiest of degrees, but it’s what I’ve always wanted to do.” I replied.

“Working on the next Great American Novel, then?” He asked and I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Ah, maybe. Right now I’m fighting to try and keep my voice while meeting every professors’ wildly different expectations. It’s a… hassle.” I said. The conversation spiraled from there, breaking to order brunch, but otherwise swapping stories about his family and my schooling. What could I say, I had an odd high school experience, even by American Public School standards, and eventful friends.

By the time food came out, we’d eased up the tension by a couple points, and I only felt sort of bad when my phone vibrated insistently in my pocket. I made a gesture asking if it was chill if I got it and he nodded. I fished it out of my pocket and scanned the notification. Multiple texts from Anna, the friend I was supposed to travel home with last night, as it seems she’d finally woken up from her adventures last night. Most of them were standard, if sweet, a “did you get home”, a “sorry for ditching you”, and then finally “oh holy shit this guy is rich rich”. It was funny, and I was just about to put my phone away when I saw the last text come in.

what kind of rich as hell guy has a two bedroom? Shit, did i sleep with a married guy?

That finally got me to audibly laugh and Jack raised his eyebrow, “The friend I was supposed to get back to campus with, she just woke up and is questioning if she just became the other woman.”

“Nah, none of the guys out last night were married. What’d she look like?” He asked.

“Blonde, dark eyeliner, wearing the purple tank top,” I said. Jack then stifled a laugh.

“Ask her if the guy she went home with had poorly taken care of curls,” he said offhandedly. I did and set my phone on the table as I continued eating my brunch.

A couple minutes later my phone lit up with a notification.

yeah, that is *oddly* specific, how did you know?

“Yeah he is,”

“Oh my god,”

“What?”

“She’s at my place.”

“You’re kidding,”

“She went home with my brother, you’ve been in the same place all night,” he said and I couldn’t help but nearly double over as I started laughing. The entire reason I’d crashed was because she had ditched me and now it turns out we’d been in the same apartment the whole night.

“Oh that’s so fucking funny,” I said once I could breathe again. I shot off a text to Anna.

I’m still downtown, I’ll meet you at the train station in a half hour if you want?

deal.

I finally put my phone back in my pocket and we finished up brunch with a companionable edge. By the time the waiter came back to clear our dishes we were getting close to having to negotiate the bill.

“So…” I started to say.

“I’m paying,”

“You didn’t even—“

“I was never gonna let you pay, my mom raised me better than that.” He said.

“At least let me cover for my coffee?”

“Sadie, don’t worry about it,” he said with a tone that got me to drop it. Like I wasn’t going to be able to win this no matter how I negotiated it. As the waiter came back with the bill and Jack handed over his card I said a quiet thanks which got a grin out of him. Brain, pick a struggle, we cannot be enamored by this boy after waking up on his couch in a first meeting we can barely remember. He finished paying and we got up to leave and I did my best to keep my internal argument off my face as we did.

I managed to make it to the street corner before I was willing to confront the fact that I had to actually leave and go back to campus, and Jack had to… wait. Hang on.

The coffee had started to kick in and things were finally lining up. I knew I had to have gotten into school for some reason right?

“Oh shit,”

“What?” He asked with a tilt of his head and okay fine I’ll admit it brain he’s cute, but the realizations that my brain was finally having made it so that this was never going to happen again.

“You’re a Devils player,” I said as I smacked my own forehead and Jack started laughing.

“You only just figured that out?”

“Leave me alone, I haven’t had a full night's sleep in like a week,” I joked, still covering my face a little. Jack carefully moved me out of foot traffic and gently pulled my hands away from my face.

“Is that a deal breaker?” He asked.

“What?”

“Me being a hockey player?”

“What, why?”

“Well, I thought that went well all things considered and I was gonna ask for your number to hopefully do dinner sometime.” He said with a soft smile, letting his hand fall into mine. I thought it over, between the fact that he was indeed cute, that he was nice, and funny, and asking with such an expression that seemed that, if he wasn’t trying to convince me he was cool and at least a little normal, he’d be rocking on his heels about; and the mere fact that he took me out to brunch after offering to let me crash on his couch. It was pretty much enough in the category of good signs that I was inclined to say:

“It’s not a deal breaker,” and he grinned a little wider, “besides I was going to ask for your number anyway. I have to get your shirt back somehow.” I chuckled.

“Ah, keep it, I can always buy a new one.” He joked. I passed over my phone and he put his contact in before quickly texting himself and passing it back. I chuckled at his contact photo, a terribly taken close up of him, and saw that I had a text from Anna that she was at the station already.

“I guess I’ll talk to you to figure out scheduling?” I proposed with just a hint of awkwardness.

“Yeah, I gotta check with my brother about some things and what have you.”

“Okay,” I said with a little chuckle of disbelief. “Thanks for brunch, by the way.” I said.

“Thank you for agreeing and not sneaking out in the middle of the morning,” he replied with a bit of a chuckle that lit up his face. There was no good way to leave this, with a promise of something stronger, but still uneasy about what one's dynamic is in the now, “can I give you a hug?” He asked.

Oh thank god.

“Yeah, yes,” I said with a stumbled out laugh as he matched it before giving me a friendly “see you around” style hug. We parted with a half wave and I started making my way back to the train station.

I made it with a bit of a light jog as Anna dragged me in the direction of the platform so we could catch the train just pulling into the station. We quickly collapsed into seats before she finally turned to me.

“So… who's this?” She asked tugging on the sleeve of the clearly borrowed t-shirt.

“The guy who’s couch I crashed on last night. I made a comment about feeling gross about being in last night's clothes that he lent me a t-shirt.” Lent, gave, I wasn’t certain I wanted to broach that topic with Anna yet. Roommate first, acquaintances second. “How ‘bout you? Did you at least get coffee?”

“Yeah, he made a comment about his roommate being out so we ordered breakfast at his place, he was so nice.” She gushed. I watched as the realization crossed her face, “wait you said you’d tell me how you knew what he looked like when we met up,” she lightly wacked my arm with the back of her hand, “spill.”

I laughed and rubbed the back of my neck, “I was at breakfast with his roommate. Also known as his brother.” I said.

“Shut up! No fucking way,” she said with a laugh. We were getting looks from a few commuters in our immediate area and I tried to quiet her down. “That’s too funny,” she said in a slightly quieter tone. “Are you seeing him again?”

“Are you?” I countered.

“Maybe, he gave me his number, but I’m not certain.” She said, “Now tell me you coward,”

“Maybe,” I countered and she groaned at my dramatics.

“Insufferable, you fink.” She joked. I grinned a little as we continued some small talk before I agreed to let her rest on my shoulder until we got to the campus’ stop.

I fished my phone out and figured that I should probably try and organize a date huh?

#winter fic exchange #nhl imagine #jack hughes imagine #nhl fanfiction

215 notes · View notes

one-night-story · 3 months

Note

i’m so so happy you loved the fic!!! i’m so happy to have it posted for you finally 🫶🏻

thank you friennnndddd 💕💕💕

#winter fic exchange

0 notes

one-night-story · 3 months

Text

And he feels like home (j. hughes)

Happy winter fic exchange! @one-night-story I am so thrilled to be able to have written this for you! I hope I created something that you love that you feel fully represented in and safe to read. 🩷

Demi @wyattjohnston, thank you as always for creating such a wonderful event for our community. Your hard work for these exchanges will never go unnoticed by me, I appreciate you so much.

And thank you to @thomasschabot for proofreading this for me and making sure it was accessible for all to read, I appreciate you so much my friend!

Title was taken from long story short by Taylor Swift. This is 4.7k words, gender neutral reader. It has been double checked by lovely c to ensure that it is safe for all to read <3

new neighbor

You considered yourself to be a very patient person. You were also extremely understanding. You didn't get upset or frustrated by much. You were a good person, sometimes you allowed people to get away with things for their own sake, even if it inconvenienced you in anyway. But at this point, you had had enough.

Since you moved into your apartment in August, you could probably count on one hand the amount of times you had talked to your neighbors. You were in the corner apartment, the last at the end of the hall, your only neighbors being two young men who you presumed to be brothers.

You ran into them a few times in the hallway, the two of them hardly ever separated. You knew they left in the mid afternoon, usually in suits. You assumed it was for work, but you never felt inclined to ask. They usually look rushed, the older one pestering the younger one to "hurry up" as he got out the door.

It was only this week that you had learned their names. A piece of their mail had accidentally been dropped in your box. The name addressed as "Jack Hughes." You contemplated what to do with it, standing at their door with the letter in your hands for a few minutes when the door suddenly burst open, the younger brother opening the door.

"Oh! Hello," he muttered out awkwardly. Neither of you had known the other's name, but you both knew each other as neighbors. "Hi! Are you Jack?" You asked awkwardly, not holding out the card, making your question seem like a random inquiry. "No, I'm Luke, Jack is my brother. Why do you ask? Do you need something?" He asked in an almost bothered tone, as if people frequently came to him asking for unwanted favors.

"Oh! Duh. A piece of Jack's mail got put in my box by accident. I assume it's okay if I drop it with you?" You asked, making you almost instantly face palm. "Yep, that works. Anyway, I'm late to something. Thanks for dropping it off..." He mumbled off at the end, not knowing what to insert for your name. You told him your name, and that was that.

That was earlier this week. This was now Friday. Occasionally, you could tell that they had some small parties. Nothing too outlandish for an apartment building that shared thin walls, but a decent amount of people resulting in a louder volume. You were young yourself, you were never going to complain for a small amount of volume on the occasional Saturday night. This however, had been far too much.

You swear this was the 3rd night in a row of their little parties, and you had dealt with far too much. It was mid April, you were studying for a big exam you had. Part of your move in August was to signal the start of your journey to get your masters degree. You were almost done with the semester, just a few big exams in between, this being one of them. You knew that it seemed a little lame, studying for exams on a Friday night, but part of the move was moving to New Jersey where there was a school that was one of the best in the country for your intended major, not super close to home. With all of your studying and academic work, including working to pay for the apartment and schooling, you didn't have much time to socialize. You had gone to coffee with some people from your classes, but not much beyond that, not enough to warrant Friday night plans towards the end of the semester.

Slamming your textbook, you decided you had officially reached your limit. You paced back and forth a bit, trying to calm down a bit in an attempt to hopefully not absolutely lose it on your neighbor. It wasn't that late, but you had been studying all day with minimal breaks. You couldn't see the end of the studying in sight if your neighbors kept the music at the volume they had. You wondered how the people on the other side of them weren't bothered by the noise, but then again you had probably seen them even less than you had seen Jack and Luke.

You slipped your feet into the pair of shoes closest to the door, banging on the door in an attempt for them to hear it over the blaring music. You took a small step back when a man you didn't recognize answered the door. "Can I help you?" A dark haired man with an accent asked. Before you could open your mouth, a very energetic Jack came bustling towards the door. "Y/N! To what do I owe this pleasure?" He asked with a charming smile, almost causing your reserve to break down. But when your brain came back after the sound of the music blared through your ears, you remembered why you were over here.

"Do you know what time it is?" You asked, crossing your arms over your chest. "It's only 11. It's a Friday night. But based on your casual attire, I doubt that matters much to you," Jack quipped at your casual pajamas. "For your information, Jack, I'm studying for a big exam. Clearly you don't know much about that." You snapped back.

"For your information, my team just made the playoffs. We have a lot to celebrate." Jack flexed, causing his chest to puff out a bit. "I don't care which of your beer league teams made the playoffs, but I would really like to pass my first year of my masters program and not have to repeat. That is, after all, how I ended up here, as your neighbor." You were starting to lose your patience, and instead of Jack surrendering, he started laughing.

"Beer league, huh. Do you not know?" You rolled your eyes. "If this is your attempt at a 'Do you know who I am?' moment, you're failing severely. Or even better, if it's going to be a 'do you know who my father is?' Just save me the time, I have an exam to study for," you had one foot out the door when Jack grabbed your arm, stopping you in your tracks.

"Relax, I just figured you knew because that seems to be all anyone wants from us who lives in this building. Favors relating to our job. Luke and I play for the New Jersey Devils, the NHL team around here. It's okay that you don't know, however I hope now that you do, you'll choose us to be your favorite team." Jack smirked at you, causing you to giggle, which resulted in you immediately covering your mouth. What was happening to you? You didn't giggle over charming guys.

"Oh, did you guys win or something? Seems like an awfully long time to be celebrating one win," you quipped. "We made it into the playoffs. We are the number one seed. We've been celebrating for a few days because we have a bit of time off. I am sorry, it is probably excessive. We'll turn it down and remind the guys that we aren't the only ones who live here." Jack put his tail between his legs. You did feel a bit bad, but you were glad the noise was going to at least quiet down.

"I hope I didn't come off like a jerk, I just got flustered. I know you didn't know. I shouldn't have come over attacking." You muttered, causing Jack to smile.

"I'll accept your apology on one condition. Do you think you can find some time in your busy finals schedule to come to one of our games? I can get you more details when the playoffs schedule comes out, but I would it if you could come. I think Luke might be a little jealous that I softened you up first, but it just adds for some more bragging rights on the kid."

You couldn't believe your ears. Your cute, albeit a little clueless neighbor, was not only a professional athlete, but he was also asking you on a date if you weren't mistaken.

"Well Jack, I'd love to, but you just better hope I pass this exam." You smiled, feeling your cheeks heat up.

"Good thing we're gonna turn the volume down."

2. first game

What do you wear to a hockey game that you were invited to by your neighbor who you have only talked to a few times but you think he may have been awkwardly potentially flirting with you when he invited you?

You were digging through your closet, looking for something appropriate to wear for probably one of the most awkward, unique events you have ever been to. You can't say that you had ever been to a professional hockey game. You weren't clueless to the rules and such, you just never had the opportunity to attend one in person.

Not to mention, you were going alone. You only had a few casual friends at school through this point in the year, and it didn't feel appropriate to bring any of them to this... interesting event you were going to. Plus, you were certain that you would be wrapped up in the game. You were nervous enough as is, and you can't imagine if you had to sit there and make awkward small talk with one of your classmates who might be able to say what your last name is.

Sitting in the uber on the way there made you start to question your choice of agreeing to go to the game. You had no idea how this would go other than you knew that Jack had slipped the ticket under your door earlier this morning and written on it was instructions on how to get to the gate. One thing that caused your cheeks to heat was that on the bottom of the post it note, was his phone number.

This made it feel almost official in a way, having his phone number. Before you could dwell on it too much, your uber pulled up to the door that Jack directed you to. You thanked the driver and walked in to the stadium, immediately overwhelmed by everything. For a second you considered turning around and making something up to Jack that you were sick, but when you took a second to look around, you saw so many happy people with Jack's last name plastered across their backs, number 86 standing proudly. You felt a sense of pride for Jack, though you weren't sure how to feel about that.

That sense of pride never went away once the game started. Your eyes were on Jack from the second his feet touched the ice, and the moment he sat on the bench. Your eyes followed him all the way to the bench, wishing the time he wasn't on the ice would go faster. You wondered why you had never been interested on hockey. Jack was so talented, and the game ended with him scoring a goal and getting two assists. You thought for a second that he was looking up at you when he scored, but you shook your head quickly to rid your brain of those thoughts.

As the game ended, it suddenly occurred to you that you weren't sure how this would end. You sat in your seat for a while letting the seats clear out, preparing to walk towards the gate that you entered in, opening the uber app. As soon as your phone unlocked, a message from Jack popped up on your phone.

"Meet me outside," it read. "I'd like to take you to dinner and drive you home. I'll meet you by the gate you entered in."

Your cheeks flushed at his admission, suddenly looking down at your outfit. Was this appropriate for a dinner date? You were not planning on this at all. You checked what you looked like in the front camera of your phone. Before you could decide whether or not you looked appropriate, you heard a familiar laugh. Your chest warmed at the idea that his laugh could be so familiar, so homey despite the fact that the two of you had not spent much time together.

Jack's feet sped up as he caught up to you, just excited to see you after a great win. His smile was contagious when he saw you standing there, staring at your sneakers in an attempt to not be noticed by the rest of the guys who might ask questions.

In the end, it wasn't Jack who spoke up first. It was Luke. "Y/N! I'm so glad you came! I wanted to score for you, but unfortunately this guy beat me to it," he smiled, throwing an arm around your shoulders. You tried to relax into his arms, telling yourself this was a new normal in your life. Casual banter with your neighbors who just so happen to be professional athletes making millions of dollars.

"Hey back off, I invited them. You dropped the ball. Your turn is up, by the way," Jack muttered, causing Luke to give a quizzical look. Taking advantage of Luke's moment of confusion, Jack sneaks around him and puts his arms around you, squeezing you tightly. A noise of surprise comes out of your mouth. Not discomfort, just surprise at his sudden display of physical affection. "That was awesome!" Jack yelled. "Did you have so much fun?" He asked, pulling away to see your face looking up at him.

"Well it would have been more fun if Luke scored for me but I guess I'll settle for your points," you teased. He smiled, his cheeks turning red at your teasing. "Y/N, is Jack blushing? Did you turn him into a shy mess?" Luke teased and Jack groaned, hiding his face in your shoulder. "I just want to impress you," he smiled which caused your entire body to heat up. It never occurred to you that he wanted to impress you. That you were there because he wanted you to be impressed with his game and how he played.

"Well don't worry, I was thoroughly impressed. Would you like to go to dinner now?" You asked. "Am I invited? Is this like a neighborly get together?" Luke was now teasing you both, causing both of you to get bashful. "Dude, clearly this is a date," Jack mumbled, causing your eyebrows to raise. "Clearly? Is that what we're calling it now. I mean I certainly thought it was, but you never asked me." You and Luke were truly just having fun with the teasing now.

"Jack, it's not very gentlemanly to assume it's a date. You really should ask, especially with someone like Y/N. They're a catch!" Jack was glaring daggers into Luke. "Yes, I should. Y/N, I would like tonight to be a date. Will you go out on a date with me?" Jack asked, grabbing your hand in his. You were grinning, nodding your head. "Well then, Luke I think it's past your bedtime. Why don't you go home with Holtzy and I will take Y/N out for dinner?" Luke shook his head, giggling. "Wouldn't you like that," he laughed. "Luke-" "Fine! Fine! I'm done. I'll go. Y/N, it was a pleasure to laugh with you. You kids enjoy yourself."

"I have a feeling we will."

3. first (real) date

Your dinner with Jack was perfect. You finally got the news back that you had passed the exam you were stressing about, and to celebrate, you got your favorite take out and watched Jack's game on the couch with a glass of wine. It was strange, to whole heartedly notice his absence when him and Luke were away for games. Right now, they were on a short West coast road trip, Denver, Arizona, and Seattle, and then heading back home for a few days off before a home game.

This was their last game being gone, and you found yourself waiting hopefully for Jack to come back. You had been texting a lot on the road trip, Jack even calling you once after he crawled into the empty bed next to Jesper's bed. According to Jack, his friend, teammate, and road roommate Jesper slept like the dead, even going as far as to wearing headphones when he slept, so there was no concern of the call waking him up. That didn't stop you from keeping your voice to a low volume, which Jack of course countered by yelling an obnoxious "What was that?" whenever he couldn't hear you.

After a Devils win, you crawled into bed for the night, finding yourself thinking of Jack, and how you couldn't wait to see him. You were in so deep.

------

As you cleaned up the remnants of your late afternoon lunch, a knock sounded on your door. You had a feeling you knew who it was, but you still checked the peephole to see Jack's face on the other side, nervously rocking back and forth on his feet, holding something in his hand.

Flowers.

"Hi, it's so good to see you!" You smiled, welcoming him inside. "These are for you. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate, but I wanted to ask you something, so I thought these might help. I was wondering if you maybe wanted to go to dinner with me on Friday? We have a game on Thursday night, and I thought a more formal, not after a game greasy pizza joint dinner would be fun. That is, if you are interested? If not, it's okay, I was just," you finally cut him off with a hand on his arm. "Jack! I'd love to. The flowers are beautiful. Thank you for thinking of me. I would love nothing more." You smiled, causing an audible sigh to come from Jack's lips.

"Oh thank God! Sorry, I didn't want to ramble, I just really got nervous. I wanted you to say yes but I didn't want to sound weird or make you uncomfortable." He smiled. Neither of you knew what was going on. Jack was stunned that his neighbor who he had barely talked to but admired from afar had turned him into a nervous, blushing mess. You also couldn't say you were expecting to fall for your neighbor. But when he was gone, you came to that conclusion: you were absolutely falling for Jack. You were falling for him, you couldn't understand how it had happened or why, but you absolutely were.

When it came time for your date to come, you felt more nervous than you did for the game. Jack had let you know that you were going to be going to a nicer restaurant. You picked his brain a bit at what to wear. What you didn't know is that he had preplanned his outfit, mannerisms, conversations, basically his every move for the date with his mom and brothers. Well, mostly Quinn. When Luke saw how nervous he was, he was constantly teasing him. Luke loved to tease him about how you should have fallen for him instead of Jack. Of course it was all jokes, as soon as the two of you started hanging out Luke could immediately see the chemistry between the two of you. He knew that your connection was much deeper than any sort of joke he could make. He was really happy for his older brother, finally seeing him fall for a person who made him truly happy.

When you decided on an outfit that was both appropriate for the occasion and made you feel good about yourself, you started pacing by the front door of your apartment, anxiously waiting for Jack to come. It was about 10 minutes before he said he would arrive. On the other side of the wall, Jack thought about coming a few minutes early, but his mom immediately shut that down. Jack argued that he wanted to seem timely and didn't want to keep you waiting. Ellen shut him down, though.

"How long does it take you to walk 10 steps next door? You never want to rush someone getting ready, especially for a first date." Luke was cackling in the background, of course.

At 6:00 on the dot, Jack was knocking on your door. He was almost more nervous than when he came by a few days before asking if you wanted to go to dinner with him, if that was even possible. When you opened the door, Jack planted his feet in the ground, willing himself to not fall over on his ass and make a complete fool of himself.

You were absolutely stunning. You looked so amazing in Jack's eyes. He felt himself blushing as soon as you opened the door. He was thanking his lucky stars, wondering how he had gotten so lucky as to find someone as special as you.

"Y/N..." he finally breathed out, his heart racing. "What? Do I look okay?" You began to feel nervous under his intense gaze, your hands instinctively picking at your fingernails. "Okay would be an insult. You look incredible. These are for you, by the way," Jack handed you the flowers he forgot he even had. "That's so sweet! You didn't have to bring me flowers. The ones you brought me a few days ago are still going strong. They will look beautiful together, though."

You took a minute to put the flowers in a vase. Jack was watching you from afar, you felt his eyes on you, following you around your small kitchen. Truthfully, he was admiring you. He couldn't help but blush at the sight of you, putting flowers in the vase that he bought for you, getting ready for the date that he was taking you out on. He felt like he won the lottery.

When you turned around, you saw him blushingly admiring you, causing your own cheeks to heat up. "What has you so smiley?" you asked, taking a step closer to him, bravely grabbing his hand in yours. You rubbed your thumb over his hand in an attempt to help him feel calm. Jack was certain no one had ever made him feel this nervous. Certainly not someone he was dating. "I just can't believe how beautiful you are. I feel so lucky that you are going out with me."

Both of you were nervous wrecks at this point. Before you could convince yourself otherwise, you were leaning forward, kissing him on the cheek. As soon as Jack felt your lips on his skin, he knew he had to kiss you. "Can I kiss you? Like, on the lips," he muttered, causing you to giggle. "Yes Jack, you can kiss me, like on the lips." He groaned at your teasing, but before he could throw his head back exasperatedly, you leaned forward, capturing his lips with your own.

Jack felt himself melt, holding onto your waist in an attempt to hold himself up straight. It was official. You had softened Jack into a gushy, pillowy mess. And Jack had never been so happy.

+1. as a couple

6 months later

"Jack, honey, if you keep stomping any louder, the people below us are gonna come complain," you muttered teasingly at him. "You really think they can hear you? Besides, if they came and complained, I would simply explain to them that my amazing partner, whom I care for very much, is meeting my family for the first time, and I think they would understand." He quipped back, causing you to laugh.

Jack's parents were coming in to town for the first time in the new season. Before you met Jack, you had long planned to spend the summer abroad with your closest friend. Jack was thrilled for you, but disappointed you wouldn't be able to spend time together over the summer at his summer house. He did however, jet off to meet you in Italy for a week, which was perfect. Ordinarily, you probably would have met Jack's parents already, but with the chaos of your summer, it was now the Devils home opener, and you had yet to meet your boyfriend's parents.

"If I'm so amazing, why are you so nervous for me to meet them?" Jack groaned, causing you to laugh. Teasing each other was something so common, but it was always done lovingly. It was almost a love language of sorts between the two of you.

"Babe, how many times have I talked to Quinn on FaceTime with you? And Luke is the best friend I have here in Jersey, besides you obviously, so it's just your parents. Who, by the way, we have also Facetimed with a handful of times together."

"I know, but in person it's different. They might get knocked on their ass by your good looks and charm, just like I was. And besides, if you think Luke's teasing and sarcasm is bad, just wait until you meet my dad. Where do you think he gets it from?" Jack continues to ramble. To an outsider, it might look like Jack didn't want you to meet his parents, but you both knew it was the complete opposite. The two of you hadn't been together for that long, but in a way that didn't matter. Jack was close to saying the "l word," and you probably weren't that far behind him. He wanted you to meet his parents because he wanted them to love you as much as he did. You felt the same way.

In an attempt to stop his never ending nerves, you took the few steps across the room towards him, putting your hand on his cheek and pulling him in for a soft kiss. "Jack, I am thrilled to meet your parents. If it makes you feel any better, I am a bit nervous too. I want them to like me. Although, I'm sure you've bored them to tears with stories making me seem like I'm the most amazing person on the Earth." "Because you are," Jack intervened, serious as a heart attack.

You laughed at his genuine tone, he was always buttering you up. "They'll love you, because you're amazing. Besides, Lukey and Quinn already love you. This will be easy work for you. The shock of me being in a serious relationship has already worn off. They're thrilled to meet you," you laughed at his half hearted attempt at a joke.

"Besides, I'm sure they will be so excited to meet the person who has turned you into a sap," you laughed, causing Jack's mouth to open in shock. "I am not a sap!" He tried to quip back, but you both knew he was absolutely lying. He was so soft on you, something none of his loved ones had ever seen. "Jack, yesterday you laid your nice jacket over a puddle in the nasty streets of Jersey for me to walk over because there was no way around it," you stared back at him. "That puddle was huge! Your pant legs would've been soaked, I know you would've hated that." You laughed at his kind hearted attempt at an explanation.

"You are one of a kind Jack Hughes," you started. "I truly love you." As soon as the words came out of your mouth, your hand covered it in shock. Of course you loved Jack, but you were so nervous to tell him. You had never said those words to someone romantically before, and you were both certain he would say it first, even though you hadn't talked about it before.

"You love me?" He asked, his voice quivering. "Of course I love you, did you miss the puddle story? I would be crazy not to have fallen in love with you." At this point, both of your eyes were watery, Jack's grip on your shoulders never wavering. "Oh my God, you love me. Oh my God, wait, I love you! I love you so much! I can't believe I haven't said it back yet! I love you!" Jack was over the moon, causing you to laugh wetly.

You had absolutely softened Jack to his core. But you were nothing but soft for him, the two of you a perfect match for each other. When you pulled each other in for a kiss, the love between the two of you was imminent, the nerves of the upcoming event melting away. Jack couldn't wait to introduce you to his parents as his partner whom he loved so much, and you couldn't wait to love them as much as you loved him.

#winter fic exchange #this goes on BOTH BLOGS AWA!!!!!#I LOVE IT AND HIM #SOFT CONTENT 12/10!!!!#this was so fucking cute thank you **so much**

630 notes · View notes

one-night-story · 4 months

Note

hello! this is your fic exchange writer! I am sorry for the radio silence, the craziness of the holidays is just finally settling down enough for me to get started. I have the works of the fic fleshed out, and I just wanted to confirm that your top 3 choices to read for would be Matthew tkachuk, mat barzal, and jack Hughes. I know you said that previously but I just wanted to confirm before I choose in case it is changed because it's been a while since I asked!

again, sorry for the silence. this will absolutely be done in time for the deadline, I just have gotten a bit of a slow start!

Bestie, you are totally fine. I thought the deadline was the end of december (very silly in retrospect but panicky in the moment when i had all my energy sucked out of me due to a post holiday cold) so I have a good chunk of mine written (i need to edit and end it but WE’RE GETTING THERE)

The top three are correct and I’m so excited to see what you’re gonna work out.

#winter fic exchange hints #asks #the writer pops in

0 notes

one-night-story · 5 months

Note

hi!! it’s your fic exchange writer back again :) i wanted to ask you some clarifying questions to assure i will write something perfect for you. if you don’t feel comfortable answering these, no biggie. i just wanted to ask you a few questions to avoid any details that would be uncomfortable for you.

i think i’m gonna go with reader insert because gender neutral oc can be difficult for me to write. i wanted to know if you would prefer more neutral traits? or potentially just avoid them at all if possible.

additionally, if there’s anything that you feel is really important/essential to your identity that you would like me to know, pls let me know if you’re comfortable sharing. i want to make sure that you feel completely comfortable and represented in the reader insert.

i hope you don’t mind me asking these kinds of questions. i myself use they them pronouns, so i completely understand the desire to feel represented in a reader insert and i don’t want to write anything that would make you uncomfortable in any way shape or form.

hello friend!

Totally chill, completely get it. I trip up sometimes and i’ve got more than one. As for the other stuff, the thing that like… summarizes it for me (poorly, mind you) is “fem doesn’t always mean long hair”

What I mean by that is I deeply prefer reader inserts with no physical descriptions, because usually when one gets put in, it feminizes a gn reader. “I put my hair up into a bun” has always taken me out because i’ve never had hair that long. Outfits that go one step into the feminine sphere will also knock me out. I cannot wear skirts because of the Wrong Gender Vibes (maybe one day if I can wear one that makes me feel more Masc In A Skirt, but we’re not there yet bestie) so when there’s absolutely 0 description, or at least is limited to no specifications, that tends to be where my comfort lies.

Thanks friend!

#asks #winter fic exchange hints

0 notes

one-night-story · 5 months

Note

hello! this is your fic exchange writer! i’m so excited to be able to write something for you and i’d love to hear your thoughts on a few things :)

* of the list of players that you said you’d like to read for, do you have a top 3? or anyone you’ve really liked reading for lately?

* do you have a preference on whether you prefer reader insert or oc?

* do you like winter themed fics? just winter themed, i wouldn’t include any holidays unless you would like that 😊

* lastly do you have a specific trope or genre you’d really like to read this time around?

i’m looking forward to hearing back from you and getting started on writing!

Hi hi friend! Oh i’m hyped for this, but hell yeah, let’s get it

ooo, top three? Matthew Tkachuk, Mat Barzal, and Jack Hughes? Tyler is also in there as a very close tied third. He’s important to me (he is the reason i’m in this mess in the first place)

Reader insert or oc is fine by me! My only request in regards to reader insert is I’d prefer to lean it more towards gender neutrality. As a nb myself, solely femme coded reader inserts have a habit of taking me straight out

Winter theme fics are a vibe! I’m an agnostic christmas-er (aka: commercial christmas not religious christmas) so i don’t mind holiday specific mentions but winter is a third place season (top two are spring and fall, the only times i am any level of fashionable)

In regards to tropes or genre, I leave genre to you. But i’m always a sucker for “fake dating, but everyone’s just placing their bets”, “help i need a wedding date”, “players and the person that treats them like Just Some Guy”, and strangers to lovers are also all fun

I’m uber excited to see what you come up with and feel free to poke back if you need clarification!

#asks #winter fic exchange hints

0 notes

one-night-story · 7 months

Text

I Used “Wonderful” and “Miracle” (Astarion)

A/N: I saw this post and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Sans the mention of my Tav’s name (Riona) you can imagine anyone. Enjoy!

Summary: Life among the bloodshed is a pleasent surprise

“Riona!” Astarion called out and I dropped my head to my chest. Never a good sign when Astarion needed me with that level of franticness.

“Yes, star?”I asked as I looked up from one of the books Gale had let me borrow. Astarion looked… well frenetic was probably the best word for it but as per usual, he was trying to cover for it.

“I might have a… minor hiccup for our journey.”

“How minor?” I asked with an eyebrow raise. I was already traveling with a vampire, a time bomb, a devil, and someone on fire. And that wasn’t even mentioning the fucking tadpoles, so minor had become… subjective.

“Well, I don’t think it will kill us, but it could be viewed as an inconvenience.” I held back an eye roll as I put a bookmark in my book, shutting it with finality.

“What is it?”

“It might be easier if I show you,” he said.

“This better not end with a knife at my throat again.”

“Never,” Astarion said and led me in the direction of his tent. It was only now that I noticed his unusual lack of shadow.

Belladonna, or simply Bell, was one of the handful of creatures who lived in camp. She, as far as Gale and Halsin could figure, was just a regular old cat who, by some miracle, took a shine to Astarion, following him around and keeping him company. At first he’d been indignant, trying to convince the cat to leave and trying to scare it. But when it hadn’t worked (and Gale named her) he reluctantly allowed the cat to stay. She’d been a welcome addition and Scratch and Screech treated her well.

“Where’s Bell?” I asked.

“That’s why I’ve brought you,” he said, pushing his tent flap open. I glanced at him and he just gestured inside.

I started my way in and finally saw his problem.

When Bell had come to us, she’d been a little pudgy, but we wrote it off as her being fluffy or as her having been well taken care of before she found herself to our mismatched family.

Staring at her now with… shit, eight kittens, it appeared that prior assumptions had not been the case and she had, in fact, been very pregnant. I tried to keep my heart from melting at the sight, I understood why Astarion had been nervous. The eight (ha, that felt like fate) of us could barely take care of ourselves let alone Bell and her newborns.

“When did this happen?” I asked.

“Sometime between when I got up this morning and when you dismissed us after figuring out our rest day duties.” Astarion replied. I looked down at Bell who poked her head up and let out a little chirp of a meow.

“What do you wanna do, star?” I asked.

“That’s why I called you over!” He huffed and I tried not to chuckle at his frustration, even if it was deeply amusing.

“Wouldn’t it have been more productive to call Halsin over? Y’know, the one who can talk to her?” I asked with a chuckle that couldn’t help escape. Astarion furrowed his brow and I refused to call the look on his face a pout, lest I be accused of favoritism.

“Yes, well,” he hesitated for a second and chose his words, “I wanted to… well..”

“Star?” I asked softly, even with this camp’s collection of traumas bouncing off each other like children’s toys, Astarion always had a different tightrope to walk. “We’re not gonna make you give her up,” I said.

“What, she’s not,”

“Star, she’s permanently at your side and sleeps in your tent, in spite of Gale’s attempt to sway her away. She’s yours. Lemme go get Hal, to make sure everyone’s healthy, then we’ll talk about how to move everyone when it comes time, okay?” I offered my hand up, a small act of affection so as not to overwhelm him (we were still working on that) and he took it, squeezing it once.

“Thank you,” he said softly. I smiled and squeezed it back before ducking out of his tent and in search of our local druid. I found him by the river near our campsite.

“Hey Hal, got a free minute?”

“Of course, what can I do?”

“Bell was pregnant,”

“Ah,”

“And we want to make sure mom and kittens are healthy,” I said.

“Of course, show me the way,” I led Halsin to Astarion’s tent and that caught Karlach’s attention.

“What’s all the commotion eh?”

“Bell had kittens,” I said. Astarion gave me a look of disapproval but it was quickly distracted by Karlach’s squee of glee.

“Really?!”

“Really,” Halsin called from inside the tent. “Eight of them.”

“EIGHT!?” Karlach and Astarion said simultaneously.

“Did you not count them?” I asked Astarion.

“Excuse me, I was in shock!” He huffed. I couldn’t help but smile a little at his dramatics.

“What’s the verdict Hal?” I asked. He poked his head out of the tent.

“For an unassisted birth, they’re all perfectly healthy. Bell seems fine, but you might want to get a new bedroll.” He said.

“You’re joking,”

“Unless you want to sleep in blood and…”

“Alright!” Astarion said. He wandered into the tent as Karlach and I stood at the entrance. He went over and gave Bell a scratch under her chin, her purs could’ve probably been heard on the Astral Plane. “A little warning next time, could you darling?” He asked her. He received a small meow in response and some confused kitten chirps.

“Oh my gods look at them!” Karlach beamed, “they’re so small!” I looked over to see the rest of the camp coming over where I explained the situation with ease. Those who wanted to see the little ones (Gale, Shadowheart, and Wyll) came into the tent and I stepped out with Astarion for a second.

“If you want, you can crash with me for a bit until the kittens are up on their own.” I said off-handedly, not directly looking at him, just sort of looking at the camp as a whole.

“Darling,” he said, lilt leaning into the word so much I was afraid he’d fall over, “how scandalous,” he said.

“Don’t be weird,”

“I would never,” he said and I risked a glance out of the side of my eye, finding him looking at me with his performed grin but warm eyes. “I will… consider your offer. Thank you darling,”

“Don’t mention it, better than trying to bunk with anyone else,” I joked. He took my hand and squeezed it once, and gained one from me back.

#in which em writes #baldur’s gate 3 #baldur’s gate astarion #astarion x tav #baldur’s gate 3 imagines

22 notes · View notes

one-night-story · 10 months

Text

since i did actually finally write something for the first time in forever. Here, have an Assassin’s Creed College AU with more OCs than you can shake a stick at

#in which em writes #assassin’s creed #assassin’s creed fanfiction #assassin’s creed writing #college au

0 notes

one-night-story · 11 months

Text

“Your art isn’t valued by the number of notes you get” okay but. If you spent 6 hours baking a cake for a party, but no one at the party eats your cake, it’s still disappointing.

303K notes · View notes

one-night-story · 2 years

Text

and it’s coming through like static on the phone (Jake Oettinger)

a/n: oh hi, i am not becoming a permanent hockey fic blog, it’s just a coincidence. This is for @jxmieoleksiaks by way of @antoineroussel ‘s summer fic exchange! I’m so sorry this took so fucking long and also not what i originally implied. But this came to me and i couldn’t put it away. I hope you enjoy!!

I didn’t like bars at the best of times.

Even on their quiet days, their tables were pushed too close together making it hard to move around if you weren’t a beanpole and while they made for great places to people watch, the feeling of the reverse was happening was something I couldn’t always shake, especially when I was sitting at the bar proper and my back was to the door.

But when my friend Ashley insisted I had to come out tonight to help her get over her most recent breakup, I was all but contractually obligated to go out. That best friend code can really be a bitch sometimes.

The three of us: Ashley, Katie, and I had been through so much even in the eighteen months we’d known each other. Well, at least for Ashley and I. Katie and I had known each other since college, moving to Dallas together when she got a lucrative job in public relations, she met Ashley on the job and since then they’d been my closest friends as I kept working at edits on my manuscript that had quickly devoured my life. Mostly because one of them was responsible for making sure I ate at regular hours and the other was in charge of making sure I left the house once and a while to get some sunlight and “didn’t become a moss that was previously unknown to science growing at my desk” on weekends. I was thankful for Katie for not minding the fact that I was working minimum wage jobs while I tried to get this into a state to start shopping around to agents.

Which meant I was nine times out of ten the Designated Driver due to a lack of disposable income for bar hopping nights. Which unfortunately included tonight, when all I wanted to do was do another pass on the romantic subplot I was trying and mildly failing to integrate. Not that I didn’t know how, it was just… not starting any way that made sense to my characters. Not unusual in my process, but it meant sitting on it for a bit.

Being the DD meant staying sober and that meant listening to Ashley’s drunken rambling about the latest fling that she was hoping would turn into something real, even though the one time she’d introduced her to the group, he was kinda… mediocre to put it politely.

“And I don’t know… I just thought he’d at least be a little different, right?” She said.

“Ash, c’mon, he’s a guy,” Katie said through a slight slur. Katie was… a bit of a lightweight, and I was just thankful they didn’t have work in the morning so I didn’t have to deal with the complaints about a hangover. “They’re never different,”

“Except when they are!!” Ashley exclaimed, pouting in the process. I took a sip of my drink as I watched them launch into another debate, which could take a while, scanning the bar in the process. In the far corner was a bundle of guys having about as lively a conversation about something just as dramatic if the limb flailing was any sign. Though, sitting on the edge was a guy who seemed to be having the same problem I was, zoning out and scanning the bar.

He was cute, in that sort of way you might call a puppy cute? Scruffy hair, at least a couple inches taller than at least a handful of his friends, but seemingly sweet. He caught my eye and raised his beer to me, which got a wave from me.

“Wait, who are you waving at?” Ashley cut into my brain space, dragging me away from looking at the guy across the bar.

“Shit is she? Lemme see,” Katie said, practically trying to crawl over me.

“Would you calm down, it’s nothing,” I said, struggling to push her back into her seat.

“You were waving at someone! Who is it? Are they cute? Do they have friends?” Ashley said as she did a more aggressive scan of the bar.

“Do you really need a rebound that soon?” I asked.

“No… but anyone catching your eye is bound to have cute friends.”

“I think I’m gonna take that as a compliment,”

“There, there!” Katie said, pointing to the gaggle of boys on the far side. In spite of all the noise my table was making, the boys seemed to be making more and by a miracle, hadn’t noticed my friends’ open gawking. Ashley whipped her head from interrogating me to seeing where Katie was pointing.

“Oh they are cute,” Ashley said.

“Would you two shut up?” I hissed trying to distract them. “You’re making us look desperate. For all we know they’re younger than us and we’re cradle robbing.”

“No way, all of them have a beer in front of them,” Ashley said.

“Okay, but you’re still making us look desperate,”

“Oh so men can openly stare at us like it’s nothing, but when we do it it’s desperate.” Katie argued, seeming to sober up in case we had to make an impression.

“She’s got a point,” Ashley said as she turned back to me, “C’mon, when’s the last time you went on a date.”

“Um…” Embarrassing questions lead to embarrassing answers. That answer being never. Not that I haven’t tried? Okay no, college was a nightmare of just trying to remember how to make friends, jeopardizing any of those relationships with actual, proper dating was the reason I only speak to two of the friends I met in my first year. Not to mention I was stuck in a high school where everyone had known each other for years so by senior year we had violent grudges against half of our class. So yeah, maybe I’m lacking a little in the romance department.

“Shit,” Fuck I hadn’t said anything fast enough and now Ashley was getting close. “You’ve never been on a date?”

“I thought you were dating that theatre major, the blonde one.” Katie cut in.

“We were in a Dungeons and Dragons party together, he didn’t like me walking across campus at night alone.” I said throwing my hands up in defense.

“And you’re sure that wasn’t just a ploy?” Ashley asked.

“What part of “We were playing Dungeons and Dragons” together did you not catch?” I asked with a deadpan expression.

“Well now you have to go over,” Ashley said.

“What, no I don’t, that’s—“

“Nope, you gotta, it’s required,” Katie cut in, pushing me out of my seat.

“What the fuck—“

“Just be yourself!” Ashley said.

“Be myself? I’m garbage!”

“HEY! Nobody talks about my best friend that way!” Katie cut in, giving me one final shove out of my chair forcing me to stand. “Go get ‘em tiger,” she added with a wink. I rolled my eyes and stood up a little bit so it looked like I had actually intended to get up. I shot a glare at the table before sighing and settling on going towards the bar like that was my ultimate goal. Maybe I’d get lucky and gain some nerve between the table and there, maybe my friends would realize they were fucking stupid and would come over and apologize for getting me into this mess, or maybe just maybe a portal into another dimension would open up and swallow me whole and take me to a dimension where I’m in the middle of a romance harem arc already.

… Actually that wasn’t half bad, I might need to write that one.

I made it to the bar with only a mild struggle of trying to not knock into people. I quietly waited for one of the bartenders to come over and pretend to acknowledge my presence when I decided to scan the bar again. The bundle of guys was still there, though it was missing the one I saw earlier, and I tried to not let some amount of disappointment crawl into my bones.

Despite of my lack of experience, or maybe because of it, I was still trying to hold out a little hope that some rom com worthy moment would happen and I would get swept up off my feet, in spite of the fact that I A) know that the real world doesn’t work like that and more importantly B) Romcoms don’t happen for people like me. It just means that suffering in crowded bars being a DD was just a way to people watch and maybe figure out how to get better at writing bars.

“So, are your friends always that rowdy?” Someone asked next to me and I turned around. There was the guy from before with a sheepish smile and radiating the sort of nervousness that I felt at the best of times, and I was right about him being taller, even sitting on a bar stool, he towered over me in a way that I surprisingly didn’t find intimidating. I laughed a little at his comment before shrugging.

“If I said no that would technically be lying,” I said. He laughed a little at that, which I counted as a definite win. “Cut them some slack, we’re performing post breakup therapy,” I added, as if I had to defend myself.

“I don’t know whether or not to be hopeful if it was yours.” He said.

“It wasn’t but I was already single.” And there I go saying something stupid. He smiled a little wider at that.

“Then I’m sorry for your friend, but I’m glad to hear it wasn’t for you, and that you're single.” He said. “I’m Jake, and my rowdy friends would not shut up until I came over and told you that I think you’re really pretty.” He said, offering his hand. I smiled and let a small chuckle escape me.

I offered up my name and shook his hand. “And my rowdy friends literally pushed me out of my chair in the hopes that I would talk to you. Gotta say, I’m really happy you approached me first, I so did not want to face down your table.” Least of which was because of the flashbacks to high school that I never wanted to live through ever again so long as I was above ground.

“Ah, they’re not so bad, just… loud.” Jake said and I briefly peaked over his shoulder where some of them pretended to not be looking at me while the others chatted amongst themselves.

“Right, and my friends are only sort of spying on this whole conversation.” I said, knowing full well that Katie and Ashley were staring daggers into my back. Jake risked peeking over my shoulder and chuckled when he looked back at me.

“Okay, fair enough,” he said. I went silent for a second as I struggled to figure out what to ask or say, we’d gotten this far and honestly, that was impressive for me at the very least. Do I ask for his number? Ask him for a drink? Coffee? Marriage? Okay, even I know that last one was pushing it but still! I sighed slightly and figured I’d go for… vague honesty? Vague honesty worked.

“Okay, I honestly have… a subpar education in the “chatting to cute strangers at bars” thing that most people seemed to have sort of learned by this point, so…”

“Oh thank god it’s not just me,” he said and I laughed as we both seemingly exhaled from that. “Honestly that was 70% of the reason I was nervous to come talk to you, that and your one friend looks like she could tear my head off.”

“Yeah, Ashley is really dedicated to arm day,” I joked knowing that both of my friends were ferocious the same way that a chihuahua was ferocious.

“I can tell,” he said but he quickly shook his head, “but I uh… I was wondering if I could get your number and we could do… coffee? That’s what people usually do right?”

“Yeah Jake, that’s usually what people do,” I said still grinning ear to ear, “pass me your phone,” he did and I quickly added my number to his contacts. “And I’d love to do coffee.”

“Awesome,” he said, smiling so wide I’m pretty positive my face hurt just looking at it. “That went way better than I expected.”

“Oh same, honestly,” I said.

“So… I’ll text ya?”

“Yeah, nice meeting you Jake,”

“You too,” he said and I watched as he went back to his table and was greeted with absolutely delighted cheers. I couldn’t help but giggle a little at the exchange as I went back to my own table.

“Did you get anything?” Ashley asked.

“I gave him my number,” I said.

“HELL YEAH!!!” Katie yelled, throwing her hands in the air. I felt my phone vibrate.

I guess that it went over well

Oh shit, it’s jake

I laughed a little.

Yeah i know.

So… coffee?

#nhl imagine #nhl fanfiction #jake oettinger #Dallas stars fanfic #honestly I'm so stressed about this Jake is... surprisingly hard to write #this went through some CHANGES

49 notes · View notes

one-night-story · 2 years

Note

Hii it's your fic exchange writer again!! Sorry for so many questions but I am almost done with the fic and I just wanted to ask: are there any topics you'd like me to avoid?

How do you feel about Parental relationships/sibling relationships in the fic?

Hi hi, no worries!!!

Topics to avoid? Pregnancy. As someone who’s ace it’s not something I’m good reading about. (More power to the writers and people who get some enjoyment out of it, it’s just a squick for me)

I don’t mind parental/sibling dynamics in fic! In spite of the fact that i’m on pretty okay terms with my rents and I’m an only child, I can pretend to live in a sibling household for a bit

Hope this helps!

#the writer pops in

0 notes

one-night-story · 2 years

Note

Hiiii it's your fic exchange writer here again!!

Just wanted to ask - how do you feel about neighbors to friends to lovers??

I…. Love that shit. That’s just less contrived “strangers to lovers” and I, as someone who isn’t what the societies would call conventionally attractive, is my fucking kryptonite

Thanks friend!!

#the writer speaks

0 notes

one-night-story · 2 years

Note

Hey!! I'm your writer for the fic exchange and I just had a few questions for your fic!!

What are your favorite trope(s)?

Do you prefer 4+1 structure or just a normal timeline structure?

Would you prefer it to be set during the season or after?

Is there anything specific that I should know while writing this fic??

I'm super excited to get started on this for you!!

Oh, hello! This is a pleasant surprise (not really but i do find it neat!!)

You really had to come out of the gate with the hard questions huh? Alright then, favorite tropes:

“How is it that you two are the only ones who don’t know your dating”

Friends to lovers

The normie and the player they just treat like Some Guy™️

Dramatic AUs

As for the 4+1 format, I’m real hit or miss on them. I do like them when done well, but when I’m just scrolling through the tag, I usually avoid them simply because of oversaturation.

Setting pre or post season doesn’t really matter to me, whatever works and jives in the moment.

As for specifics? Look, I’m just really excited to get involved in all of this, so this should be fun! (I am mildly aware that this is unhelpful, but I really do just want to see what you come up with friend!)

#the writer speaks #fic exchange questions

0 notes

one-night-story · 2 years

Text

Can We Dance? (Matthew Tkachuk)

A/N: oh wow we’re doing this, okay. hi hockey fandom. I don’t do this often, I lurk but I don’t post. unfortunately this fic has been my tell tale heart for several months and so I figured I should just finish it. it’s a labor of chaos. hope y’all enjoy. incredibly loosely based off of “Can We Dance” by the Vamps (Main character is as gender neutral as possible, but could best be explained as raised culturally female)

word count: 4.9K

“How’d you say you knew this guy?” I asked as we stared up at the apartment complex that we couldn’t even afford to look at the Zillow for.

“He’s a friend of my brothers,” Stacy, my closest friend since I started university two years ago, said as she glanced down at her phone and started texting someone, I assume whoever was going to let us in, because I imagined the doorman would’ve taken one look at both of us and just said “nope”, thus leaving us to freeze. I rolled my eyes. I would be the first to admit to not knowing Stacy’s brother that well, outside of his dynamic with her.

“Ah of course, a friend of your brother’s means no drinking.”

“Only for you,” Stacy said, well aware that my rules about party drinking didn’t apply to her.

“What can I say, I like not dying.” I remarked with a shrug.

As I said this, her brother came out and gestured to us to come into the building so we didn’t spend all night ominously standing in the parking lot like some sort of ghouls from a bad horror movie. We walked over and into the elevator just off the lobby and he punched in one of the upper level floors. I tried not to raise too much of an eyebrow, who’s party were we going to?

“I’m so glad you could make it, Johnny’s gonna be too,” he said, directing it at his sister. Ah, that explained it.

“It’s a hook up’s party?” I asked.

“No,” Stacy went to explain

“Not yet,” he cut in. “He’d like it to be, but you know my sister,” he said. “I need more than money and reputations.” She sniped. That was true. Despite her appearance and persona as a flighty party girl, Stacy was known to lock in serious boyfriends for extended periods of time and depending on the circumstances she was either testing this guy or she had a genuine interest and needed more data. Remarkable either way, I commended her.

“Is this a wingwoman night?” I asked, trying to mentally prepare a role and angle I was going to play for the evening.

“No, no, it’s a data gathering night.” Stacy said looking up from her Twitter feed. The elevator door opened, saving her from further interrogation from me or her brother. Her brother led us down the hallway and came to a door that was thumping from the bass already.

“If the house is rockin’?” I asked with a chuckle. He nodded as Stacy rolled her eyes at my incredibly dated reference. He opened the door and invited us into the most expensive apartment I’d ever been in and the first thing that caught my eye were the massive windows that were looking pretty tempting to throw myself out of should the night go awry. There were some scattered cheers from around the room at his reappearance which was followed by the siblings disappearing into the throng of people.

“Cool, yeah I guess I’ll find a way to occupy myself in a house of strangers!” I yelled as they walked away with humor in my tone. The audacity… I thought with a mental chuckle. I wandered into the kitchen and started scoping the drinks. There was a cooler that had seen better days filled with cans of White Claw and beer. Several liquors sat on the counter with a couple of two liter bottles for mixing. “Cool, cool, cool,” I muttered. I dug in the cooler and found a mini bottle of water, I’m assuming so deep down because that’s when people would need it, so I snagged it and downed it in short order. I listened to the music to try and tell how hard I should be judging the DJ for their taste. With a quick toss, I discarded the empty bottle and went to pull out my phone when I heard a yell.

“Hey Doc!” A male yelled. I poked my head up, half scanning to see who was being addressed and half trying to figure out where the voice was. Standing at a long table in the middle of the room was a dude looking directly at me. I spared a cliche glance behind me. “No, you!” The guy yelled with a laugh. I furrowed my brow and tilted my head trying to figure out what he was trying to ask for.

“What?” I asked with a chuckle.

“We need another player!” He said. My curiosity got the better of me and so I wandered over. There was a brunette across from the table built like a house who had initially called me over and a guy with blonde curls that seemed to go everywhere staring at my approach.

“What about my everything screams “I’m good at beer pong?” I asked, gesturing to my outfit of black jeans, black shirt, and Doc Martens. What Stacy called an “anti fun, anti party” outfit.

“Nothing, but Chucky needs the handicap.” The guy said. This resulted in the blonde rolling his eyes. I looked at the blonde, who if I dared to admit it to myself, was pretty cute by white boy standards.

“I mean…”

“C’mon Doc,” the blonde said with a smirk that was laced with humor, adopting his compadre’s nickname for me immediately, “one round.” He proposed. I let out a small sigh and tried not to physically show that I’d given in.

“Alright Chucky, but you’re drinking,” I said. The guy across the table cackled and they reset the cups. Beer was poured and a guy came to the middle of the table.

“Friends, Welcome to the third round of Beer Pong. To my right,” he said, gesturing to the brunette across the table, “Is the one with the cash, Sean Monahan!” He made a grand gesture as the few spectators cheered. “To my left! The Ex Pat from St Louis, Calgary’s resident shit starter, Mattew Tkachuk!” Wait what!? Matthew flipped off the guy doing introductions with a chuckle. “And his gracious partner for this event running solely under the name of their shoes, Doc!” Wait what? How the hell did Stacy and her brother get us into a hockey house party. On the one hand, that explained the way too nice apartment. On the other who the fuck was he friends with? I must’ve looked spooked, because suddenly there was a warm hand on my lower back and my touched starved ass tried not to melt at the slightest bit of contact.

“You okay Doc?” Matthew asked. I snuck a glance at him and his way too blue eyes and gave a short nod.

“Not used to the spotlight,”

“Me neither,” he said and I tried to not snap my head in his direction too quickly.

“Let’s get ready to RUMBLE!” The announcer friend yelled. A coin was flipped and it was decided that our side was going first. Matthew handed me the ping pong ball as his other hand lightly rubbed the small of my back. There was an electric current making itself at home up my spine as his thumb moved and I kind of never wanted to be without it.

“Alright, you just have to sink a cup,”

“You guys play no bounce I’m assuming?” I asked, finally looking at him dead on while immediately trying not to drown in his eyes in front of hundreds of people where the rumors would swirl and spin. He smirked a little at my question, which while being reasonable was also a direct contradiction to my earlier assertion.

“Sure you’ve never played Doc?”

“When I was a kid, we swapped beer for water.” I said.

“No bounce,” he said. I rolled the ping pong ball between my fingers. I held it out for him with a chuckle.

“Blow for luck?” I asked, fully joking. Matthew smirked, but did so, blowing lightly on the tiny piece of plastic and by extension the tips of my fingers. I nodded once hoping that the heat of the room and surrounding people would be enough of an excuse as to why my cheeks were probably the color of the home jerseys. I looked at the cups on the far side of the table and steadied my breathing, then aimed and took a shot dead center.

Plink

The ball went in and the table audience let out a cheer as Sean picked the ball out before downing the cup. The ball went into one of the cups closest to the table and Matthew briefly untangled himself from me to drink the cup in question. I tried to visibly not miss the contact too much as Matthew set up for his shot. He held it out to me with the dirtiest smirk I’d ever seen.

“Blow for luck?” He said with a chuckle. I laughed and rolled my eyes but complied, figuring we’d be even. I gave a quick puff to the plastic ball and he tossed it for the tip of the pyramid set up. After a brief spin around the rim of the cup, where it was hard to tell if it was going to sink or not, it dropped in with ease and Sean was left drinking again.

The game went like that for a couple of minutes and so far Matthew had been decent about not having me drink, which was a surprise change of pace all things considered. I was so used to guys or other friends trying to shove drinks into my hand and me coming up with every excuse in the book as to why I wasn’t. Though, as soon as he and I fell into a rhythm while playing, his hand fell back to the small of my back and the electric current returned to my spine as his thumb ran up and down with ease.

Down to one cup each, it was my turn to throw the ping pong ball. I carefully rolled it between my palms as I tried to commit the plastic to memory.

“Doc, just throw it!” Sean yelled from his side of the table.

“Go to hell Mony!” I replied with ease, even without the booze. I had relaxed while playing, not as on edge as when I first got called over, sort of a natural fit. Matthew chuckled beside me and shifted his hand to a grip on my hip, the current that came with his touch moved with it.

“Don’t worry, you’ve got this,” Matthew said so quietly, I wasn’t certain I heard it. A quick glance out of the corner of my eye was met with a smirk and blue eyes to kill for and that was enough confirmation that I had. I sighed and rolled the ping pong ball into my fingers as I aimed for the last cup. I could almost feel the room move in slow motion as with ease, the ball plinked into the cup. The spectators cheered as Sean downed the last cup. Matthew was quick to sweep me into his side and pull me closer than I already was, laughing at the victory. I found myself in the same boat, trying my hardest not to giggle, but grinning up a storm. “Way to go Doc,” He said as he pulled me into a proper hug which I accepted in the excitement of the moment, ignoring the nagging logic in the back of my brain that was basically slamming my usual way too hot guy giving you attention, suspect prank button that had been instilled in me since I was a kid. Matthew released me with some reluctance and was about to say something when I was tapped on my shoulder. I whirled around and found Stacy smiling at me and silently glancing at Matthew.

“Mind if I borrow my friend for a bit? Top secret chat, you know how it is,” She said with a smile that usually could convince anyone. Matthew smiled slightly but I tried not to read into how it wasn’t all there.

“Yeah totally,” he said. “Just find me after yeah?” He added looking at me. I hesitantly nodded as Stacy grabbed my wrist. We weaved through the people and she eventually pulled me into a hallway and to the surprise of exactly no one, dragged me into a bathroom where she promptly shut the door and locked it. I quickly popped up onto the counter like I lived there; I called it my consulting position, considering that’s probably what I was about to be doing.

“Stace, we cannot hog the bathroom so you can have like… your seventh relationship based existential crisis.”

“It is not my seventh,”

“Yes it is, you only drag my incompitant ass into the mix when you hit seven. Once when you were on sixth, but that was because you were feuding with Elaine at the time,” I said. “I still don’t understand anything about what happened there,”

“This is not my seventh!” Stacy insisted.

“Then give me your phone,” I stated as I held my hand out. Stacy groaned as she sat down on the floor and stretched out, effectively blocking my out and admitting defeat. “Stace,”

“I’m overthinking everything again,”

“How so?”

“Johnny’s really sweet, like unbelievably so…”

“I’m gonna preemptively remind you that you deserve good things, and good people in your life,”

“Yeah but,”

“No, Darren was a jackass and a bitch and I’m not totally convinced I shouldn’t track him down and kick the shit out of him for all the shit he’s somehow instilled into you.” I remarked. Stacy chuckled at that, it was a sentiment that was a frequent presence in these sorts of conversations. He was a boyfriend, and he’d been in my opinion, a piece of shit from minute one, but Stacy was stubborn and at the time was more doubtful about her ability to love than she was now, so she stayed. Eventually she couldn’t take the fighting anymore and left him, which saved my sanity by ten percent.

“So what you’re saying is,”

“Go get your hockey player,” I said. She turned to me as if to ask how I knew. “Oh c’mon, you know I’m a fan, and I’ve been playing beer pong against Mony for the past hour.” I added.

“Speaking of that, what’s with you and the blonde?” Stacy asked as she stood up and gave herself a look over in the mirror.

“Matthew? Mony just needed to give him a limiting factor while playing beer pong.” I said not moving from my spot on the counter. Stacy turned to me and gave me a look that dripped with unimpressed energy.

“Try again,”

“What!”

“Listen, I love you, but that boy was practically coiled around you and you weren’t squirming out of your skin trying to get to the opposite side of the room, so I think you’ve passed being simply beer pong partners.” Stacy said as she messed with her hair briefly. I rolled my eyes.

“You’re reading way too much into it,”

“Hey, don’t make me give you your own pep talk back,” She said. “Listen, if you were just beer pong partners, then A) he wouldn’t have looked so disappointed when I pulled you away, and B) wouldn’t have asked you to go find him when we were done here,” she added, giving me a scolding finger point, that I jokingly tried to bite as she put it in my face. “Oh my god,” she said as she yanked her finger away at the last second which caused me to laugh.

“Okay, okay, whatever, we should probably stop hogging the bathroom,” I said.

“Probably a good idea,” Stacy said with a dramatic nod and a laugh shared between the two of us as Stacy unlocked the door and we walked out.

The party had gotten no less chaotic since we stepped into the bathroom and I resisted the urge to dive out the window again. I sighed and looked over to Stacy who nodded and disappeared back into the crowd of people. I looked around when I heard a noise that sounded strangely like a sliding glass door and scanned for the direction, finding it off to the side with a couple of people going in and out. I weaved my way through the crowd and pulled the door open to be smacked by the air from being so high up. Despite there being a handful of people out here, they were still fewer than the crowds inside, and that I could live with. The balcony practically called my name, and I wandered over to lean against the railing. The city looked beautiful, but I was a sucker for cityscapes at the best of times. I took a deep breath and let the breeze wash over me. I heard the door slide open and close, but didn’t think too much of it until someone stood next to me and the electric current came back to my hip. I looked over at Matthew giving me a smile and offering a small unopened water bottle.

“Did Stacy send you?” I asked.

“Something like that, she mentioned you’d appreciate the water.” He said as I accepted it and he took a sip out of whatever concoction was in his Solo Cup.

“That I would, thanks for taking all the beer earlier,” I said as I twisted the lid off.

“Not a fan of beer?”

“No, it’s wheat piss and we as a society are fooling ourselves by thinking otherwise,” I said which got a laugh out of him and I thought that was a minor success in my head. “But it’s mostly I don’t tend to drink at parties with more than a degree of separation between me and the host,”

“So…”

“So, I’m here because a friend of Stacy’s brother invited us. That puts me at 3 degrees of separation, meaning that the likelihood of anyone at this party giving a shit about me in particular is low as hell and should anything go awry, I have very few people to lean on. It’s a safety measure,”

“Got it, guess that makes sense,” he said as if having that elaborate of a safety measure hadn’t occurred to him. Not that I blamed him, he was a guy and didn’t have to worry about these sorts of things. I took a sip of water as I tried to figure out what to say next. My inner cynic was still slamming the “this is a prank, order an Uber and run” button, but I was fighting to ignore it.

“Did Mony really need to give you a handicap playing beer pong?” I settled on asking just so I could avoid asking if anyone had paid him to take an interest in me, and that included Stacy. Matthew chuckled and offered half a shrug.

“Only kinda,”

“Should I be worried?” I asked. Matthew furrowed his brow, which still made him look attractive and that felt like a universal injustice, before shaking his head.

“No, no, nothing like that. I’ve just beat him the last seven times we’ve played, and I —“ he was cut off by someone coming out of the sliding glass door and yelling for him. I looked over and watched the frustration creep onto his face.

“Guess it’s my turn to ask you to find me later?” I proposed. Matthew sighed and gave a slightly apologetic look.

“Would you?”

“Yeah, find me later Chucky,” I said. Matthew grinned.

“Will do Doc,” he said as he went inside to deal with whatever the hell was going on. I finished my second tiny water bottle of the night and wandered back in so I could throw it out. The less clean up the host had to do, the better. Besides, I liked to imagine I was a decent person 90% of the time, allowing ten percent wiggle room for off days and shorter tempers. The kitchen was packed with people, the open floor plan not really allowing for the traditional use of “kitchen as quiet space” but still a space to congregate around the alcohol. There were a couple of women in dresses that looked great but I had no desire to wear myself chatting about something and discussing if they could get away with another round of tequila shots without wanting to be completely dead in the morning, a couple of guys talking hockey shop, and thankfully not a single discussion of politics. I eventually found the trash can, overflowing as it was and precariously balanced the tiny water bottle on top of the growing pile of cans and Solo cups. I couldn’t tell if the flashbacks I was having were from lived experiences, set hours, or too many 80s movies.

I fished my phone out and found a text from Stacy

Left with Johnny, thanks for your help, i’ll pay your uber

I was going to kill her.

Fuck!

I scanned the crowd, looking for one person who looked decent enough who might help, or Matthew whoever came first.

Eventually, I spotted his mess of curls and weaved my way through the crowd, tapping his shoulder in quick succession. He turned around and grinned when he saw me.

“Hey, I was just about to come back over,” he said. I tried not to let myself melt at that because I was easy and the alarms were already blaring.

“Yeah, about that, do you mind waiting with me downstairs while I wait for an Uber?”

“What’s up?” He asked, concern dripping from his words and even a quick read from body language that had grabbed onto my biceps lightly, and his far too expressive blue eyes told me was sincere.

“My ride just left and,”

“Degrees of separation says that you’re now a stranger in a strange land?” Matthew concluded and I felt myself smile at that.

“Basically,” I replied. “If you can’t, that’s chill, I’ll just--”

“No, no, I’ll come. I’ll just tell Mony to hold down the fort. Wait by the door?” He asked. I nodded and he squeezed my arms before we waded through the crowds in different directions. I headed for the door and curled my toes in my boots, pulling up the Uber app before remembering I did not know what this place’s address was.

“Fuck,” I mumbled tapping my leg and fiddling with the change I had left in my pocket. Why did she have to take my advice tonight? I was talking metaphorically! Okay maybe not completely metaphorically but mostly! I tried to even my breathing so I didn’t completely curl into a ball in the doorway, but the doormat was looking more and more tempting by the second. A small wave of people left and on the tail end of them was Matthew, tugging shoes on and smiling at me.

“You ready?” He asked.

“Almost, it occured to me that since Stacy ordered the Uber, I don’t actually have the address for this place.” I said.

“Don’t worry, I can order it,” Matthew said.

“No, Stacy’s paying for it, I can’t--”

“Relax, least I can do is pay for your cab. No sweat,” he said as he opened the apartment door and allowed me to slide into the hallway, as we walked away from the noise of the party and the safety of witnesses, I felt myself stiffen up again. C’mon self, don’t be stupid, you went looking for him. Maybe it was the silence.

“Wait, you told Mony to hold down the fort?” I asked with a slight head tilt.

“Yeah, considering it’s my party,” he said with a chuckle.

“Oh,” well, at least I felt a little less awful about him having to pay for the Uber. “Well, that explains the apartment,” I finally said with a slight chuckle. Matthew grinned at that.

“Trust me, it’s usually nicer without half the city packed into it,” he said as he pushed the button for the elevator. “Quieter too,”

“I can imagine, but I was more thinking about the price range. I don’t even think I could afford to look at the Zillow listings for this building, I think I would click on it, and it would immediately ask for my credit card score and my last major purchase as well as possibly my family tree.” I said laughing as I got more and more ridiculous, Matthew joining in willingly as the elevator opened.

“Oh yeah, they wanted my blood type before I could sign the lease,” Matthew managed to get out through the laughter of the both of us. We stepped in and I hit the button for the ground floor as the doors closed and the urge to go back on high alert swept over me. Dammit why the fuck was I so god damn paranoid? This was fine! Absolutely and totally and completely fine. “Hopefully you at least had fun visiting,” he added, trying to fill the silence.

“As you can tell by my everything, I’m not much of a houseparty person. But this was one of the better ones I’ve been to,” I said with a smile. The truth was I hadn’t really been to many at all but this one didn’t make me want to murder an attendee with a baseball bat so that was a big plus by my standards. Matthew laughed a little at my comment.

“I don’t know, your beer pong game suggests there’s a potential to make a party animal out of you yet.” He said and I tried not to roll my eyes.

“Let’s not get carried away shall we?” I said. We were running out of floors and there was a part of me that wanted to keep talking to Matthew, even if everything about him made my anxiety and false self preservation instincts screamed to just run.

“Oh c’mon, imagine it: Mony would lose his shit, you’d be able to drink, and I’d get to see you again. I see that as a win all around.” Matthew said, looking over at me from his side of the elevator car. I felt myself exhale a little.

“You’re suggesting I get around my rule by taking away the degrees of separation, is that it?” I asked, trying to not sound hostile but it definitely escaped a little if Matthew’s face was any indication.

“I meant… fuck that came out awful. I think you’re neat, and I’d like to hang out again.” He said as the elevator settled onto the ground floor. The doors opened and we both stepped out and I mulled over his question over in my head. On the one hand: I needed friends. On the other hand: he was an incredibly rich stranger who reeked of mischief. On my foot, there was the fact that he was nice and was decent enough to humor all my eccentricities, even if there was any part of him that thought them odd.

“I mean, I’m terrible at socializing at parties. However, I am pretty funny over coffee.” I said. He laughed a little at that, nodding once as he fished out his phone. He then passed it to me and I gave him my number, still stuck Doc as my contact name. When I passed it back to me he laughed a little louder.

“I’m not even gonna get a name?”

“At this stage of the game, would you even remember it?” I asked with a tilt of my head. “You’ve still got a party upstairs and it’s only midnight, call it incentive or knowing my audience.” I added. Matthew shrugged, conceding my point, before passing the phone back over with the Uber app open. I plugged in my apartment address and watched as the driver came for the building. “I did have fun, by the way.” I conceded as I gave him his phone back.

“Really?”

“Really, I didn’t have to hit anyone with a baseball bat, and the cops weren’t called, and no one broke their toe. I call it a win.” I said.

“By those standards, that must be pretty tame.”

“Ah, I wouldn’t say that. I just have incredibly argumentative friends and my friends sometimes have shitty partners. All in all, I have not actually hit anyone with a baseball bat, just threatened to.” I quickly clarified. Matthew nodded as we saw a car pull up in front of the building. He checked his phone and nodded as we both walked out of the building. “Thanks for everything,” I said as I shoved my hands in my pockets and did a quick scan of the license plates and car model.

“No worries,” he said with a smile. “I’ll text you when I’m back upstairs so you have my number and we’ll negotiate coffee.” He said.

“Then I guess I’ll see ya around Matthew,” I said.

“Have a good night Doc,” he said. I got into the car and he waited until we’d pulled out of the complex before disappearing back into the building. We got about half way to my apartment when I got a buzz from my phone.

so… about that coffee doc

I resisted the urge to start cackling, instead typing back

I presume not tomorrow, but my monday is clear.

no no, tomorrow works.

Then tomorrow, I’ll text you the locale in the morning.

sweet. did you get home?

I got out of the car and thanked the driver as I walked into my building and into my elevator, heading upstairs to the measly fourth floor.

just unlocking my door.

good. see you tomorrow doc.

I grinned a little and echoed the sentiment as I untied and kicked off my boots, stretching a little as I wandered into my room and got ready for bed.

Maybe parties in houses I couldn’t afford were okay actually.

#nhl imagine #hockey imagine #Mathew tkachuk imagine #hockey fic #nhl fanfiction #here take it #this fic brought to you by my enby ass not really Vibing with a lot of fics due to a lot of things #mostly: fem does not automatically mean long hair #if I were to go to a party I would not be in heels and a mini dress #and I'm an arts major not a comms major #not knocking you if you enjoy these things but they really pull me out and I wish to be the change I want to see in the world #if you actually read these tags: sorry for the manifesto #have a cookie: 🍪

90 notes · View notes