#idk is this an appealing format. a pseudo drabble

[vintagemiserie]

john has been forcing daniel and jamie to get along, and the only thing keeping daniel from hissing death threats at jamie seems to be getting him on a sheet of ice. daniel conned the rink into getting him a set of pads for jamie (read: politely called the rink's owner begging for a spare set the night before), and off they went. it was early in the morning, a few figure skaters were practicing on the main rink, so they shuffled over to the empty side rink.

jamie asks him at some point why he was such a weirdo about skating. like, it clearly wasn't a gay thing, otherwise he would have been a figure skater or something. daniel shrugs and rifles through his puck bag. "i used to be on track to go pro," he says. "went to a tryout camp with a whl team up in victoria when i was twelve or thirteen or something. cause scouts were worried about my size so i was never drafted. and i guess they were right and my doctor was wrong about how tall i would turn out. stopped playing organized hockey at like fifteen cause it pissed me off so much." he tees up a shot and it sizzles into the back of an empty net. "you try a shot," he suggests.

jamie for the first time could sense that daniel wasnt an asshole just for the sake of it. barely comfortable enough on skates to stand still without falling, he manages to at least get the puck moving in the direction of the net.

"it's just so fucked up, you know? i fucking clawed my way into that fucking camp. my dad was sending me all the money he could and it was barely enough to keep up with hockey. i was fucking skateboarding to my practices and games cause my mom didnt give a shit. i couldnt make friends for shit cause my parents werent there to force me to and i was scared of all of those motherfuckers. i put like, everything i had? everything i had into it. and i ended up fucking short and without any useable skills and any friends i was behind in school and... shit, man, i could have been in the nhl if my stupid fucking body didnt decide not to fucking grow."

daniel clears his throat and shoots another puck without much thought. "so, uh, yeah, you do, uh, you do any sports as a kid?" its not a big effort at small talk, but its the most hes made in the entire few months they'd known each other.

"played football for a couple seasons." jamie says. "usually as a safety, but i did whatever. i was like fourteen, nobody took it serious."

daniel laughs. "shit man, i played tight end and wide receiver when i played." he does a fancy bit of stick work before teeing up another shot. "good hand-eye, fast, too small to do anything else, you know? got tackled once and bounced my head real fuckin bad, stopped playing after that."