#thomas walker/ noelle tremblay | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

achliegh · 2 years

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The Major League

Masterlist

TW: Tattoo, making out, smut, piercing, if there is anything else just let me know :)

Baseball Boys meeting and falling in Love

What could go wrong… ;)

Beta: @punkkkkboi

Most Characters belong to: @lumosinlovelove

Chapter 15

Fizzing Whizbees Apartments, 2020

This was a familiar thing, Logan sitting on Leo’s lap as they tongue punched each other's faces on the couch while Tortilla sprawled out next to them grooming herself. They would stop a few times just to look at each other and giggle. Logan was moving unintentionally on Leo’s lap. Making him suffer more than Logan realized. Leo wasn’t hard yet so they didn’t stop but he was getting there.

Logan could tell because his lover was getting a bit turned on by just how red his face was. They got home about a week ago from the Ravenclaw tournament and Leo having been so busy with school they haven’t had a chance for them to just hang out one on one. That left Logan with an important question on his tongue. He has been thinking about asking Leo to move in for a while, he basically lives there anyway so he didn’t see the issue, except the apartment he lives in now is closer to his school. Yeah, it's only like a couple blocks closer but Leo doesn’t have a car or anything and Logan is gone in the morning’s a lot because he goes to lift at the stadium.

Leo pulls away and flops his head back over the back of the couch, panting and so so red. Logan smiles and leans forward, fitting his nose into the crook of Leo’s neck and leaving little wispy kisses. Leo lifts his hands from Logan’s hips up to his hair and takes it out of the bun he threw it up in earlier. His hair falls down and Leo just runs his fingers through the bottom half of his hair detangling it as gently as he can.

“You didn’t get hard this time.” Logan smiles and Leo can feel it on his neck.

“Too stressed.”

“Really?”

“Mhm, happens to the best of us.” Leo sighs and rests his cheek on Logan’s head. Logan feels so warm and smiley, he wishes they could stay like this forever. Then he remembers a promise Leo made in an elevator. Sitting up and placing his forearms on either side of Leo’s head and looking down at him. His eyes are closed and those light lashes are resting on his cheeks so softly, he notices how there are some lashes a lot lighter than the others. Reminds him of that weird white spot on his temple that has white hair.

“Can I see your tattoo?”

“You’ll have to sit up so I can take my shirt off.” Logan whines a bit annoyed. He didn’t want to move! He was comfy!

“Can’t you just roll up your sleeve?” Leo smiles and shakes his head, Logan gorans and sits up a bit. “Can I take off your shirt?” Leo opens an eye and nods, lifting his arms up. Logan flutters his fingers under the hem of Leo’s shirt and he feels him flex.

“You’re tickling me.” Logan laughs lightly and starts lifting up the shirt. He takes it all the way off and just stares at Leo’s arm. This tattoo was huge and creepy. “You look scared.”

“It’s just more creepy than I was expecting with all the… organs.”

“Yeah I can see that. Let me explain it.” Logan couldn't take his eyes off the ink, it had like hundreds of words in different languages in neat even rows going from his shoulder down to his wrist, there were spaces where two vertical pairs of eyes on the inside of his arm are. Two in the middle of his bicep and two in the middle of his forearm. “All the words are actually phrases, they are positive things I have said to myself over the years. Starting in Swedish, then the phrase is in Finnish, then Norwegian, then Icelandic, then Danish, then English, German, French, and finally Russian. That's why there are so many words. It's stuff like ‘I’m proud of you’ or ‘You’re okay’ stuff like that. The eyes represent how there have always been eyes on me since I was a baby. Whether it was caseworkers or baseball scouts. I’ve always been watched. Then if you look here.” Leo lifts his arm straight up and Logan sees on the back of his arm are still the words but also an anatomically correct heart on his upper arm and a correct brain on the back of his forearm. Logan noticed that the body parts were outlined in red as well as black, he can't remember if the eyes had it too. “Basically the heart and brain are there because my own feelings and thoughts have a tendency to contradict. Like too much. But I never knew which one to trust. Still don’t.” Leo puts his arm down and Logan reaches out to touch. The skin is still as soft as any forearm is but it's weird to watch his fingers run over what looks like ancient script on someone else's skin.

“Why get such a big tattoo if you are just going to hide it?”

“I got it for myself, I didn’t get it for everyone else.” Logan keeps running his hand all over Leo’s arm, like he doesn’t believe it's a real thing. Then he suddenly stops, looks into those pale eyes and finally asks the question.

“Will you move in with me?” Leo doesn’t even pause before he answers.

“Yes.”

They worked things out with Leo’s schedule, he would stay at Remus’ during the week and Logan’s during the weekends. It just worked the best that way. It took a few weeks for it all to fall into a good rhythm but they eventually got it. Remus would even stop by on friday nights and stay for dinner. Which was whatever Leo felt like making. Guy was a wizard in the kitchen but apparently made Remus cook for him all the time.

Leo has always wanted to go to a haunted house and pumpkin patch. He wanted to go into a corn maze and prove they were easy to get out of. He wanted to eat a fresh caramel apple and see if it was really as good as everyone said it was. He wasn’t a big fan of the flavor of pumpkin in sweets, he preferred carrot, but he was willing to try because he knows Logan loves sweet things.

Whether it was drinks or snacks, Logan loved sweets. He also loved scary shit, he and Noelle always bond over their love of horror movies and just Halloween in general. Having hashed out plans to get away from slasher characters on their living room floor when they were younger. Logan is driving to a pumpkin patch that has an orchard and a haunted house, he was taking Leo there as a surprise. This patch is one of the places Finn took him in his rookie year and he's gone back a few times a year, every year.

Leo has been exhausted lately and studying like crazy. He was currently asleep in the passenger seat with his well used notebook in his lap. He would wake up a bit whenever they would hit a bump in the road and fall right back asleep. Logan pulls up to a parking spot in the grass next to a big fuck off pick up truck and turns off the car. He unbuckles and shakes Leo’s shoulder.

“Leo, we are here.” Leo lifts up his head and blinks a few times sniffling and rolling his shoulders before looking at Logan.

“Where is here?” Leo’s accent was really thick because he was still sleepy and stretched his arms back over the headrest of his seat.

“Well, you mentioned wanting to go to a pumpkin patch so we are at one.” Logan smiles when Leo does and grabs his phone off the stand on the dash. “Let's go, I want to go to the haunted house first.” Leo nods and they get out of the car. They link hands and walk towards the small house separating the pumpkins and the apple trees.

The house was not scary in the slightest, Leo saw everything coming before it jumped out at them but he did love how Logan wouldn’t pay attention and get scared so he would cling to him. Leo fucking loved that so much. They exit the house and Logan is still wrapped around Leo’s arm.

“Still spooked?”

“I just need an excuse to be all cuddled up to you in public.” Logan looks up at him and smiles.

“Why do you need an excuse?” Leo squeezes his hand and looks down smiling just a little because he couldn’t help it.

“Well, we aren’t public and we never talked about it either.”

“How about we don’t worry about the media and just be a couple, hm?” Leo leans down and kisses Logan’s forehead.

“I… like that idea.” Logan cuddles up to him more and rubs his cheek on Leo’s arm. They walk over to a food stand that has everything to do with apples, getting cups of apple cider and Leo’s apple he wanted. It was wrapped in plastic and just plain caramel. Logan drags him over to the pumpkin stand and gets a pumpkin bar. They sit down at a picnic table and Logan just stares at the bar with frosting on it flexing his hands because he wasn’t given a fork. He hates, hates, sticky stuff on his hands. Leo meanwhile is focused on unwrapping his apple and taking a bite. It strings soft caramel when he takes it away from his face. It was pretty fucking good, setting it down on the plastic he takes a drink of his cider and frowns.

He did not like it. It was like hot cinnamon water and it was not enjoyable. He looks up at Logan who is just opening and closing his hands as he looks at his treat.

“What's wrong?”

“It’s going to make my hands sticky because I don't have a fork.”

“You don’t like that?” Logan shakes his head, Leo thinks for a moment.

“When Finn and I used to go get pretzels at the mall back in Harvard he would hold them and I would eat them so I didn’t get stuff on my hands.”

“Want me to do that? I don’t mind.” Logan looks up at his boyfriend and sees the soft smile with a bit of caramel on the corner of his mouth. Logan would wipe it off but… sticky.

“You would do that for me?” Logan just feels a warm feeling bloom in his chest and he puts his hands in his lap. That warm travels to his cheeks and he knows they are red but he could care less at this moment.

“Of course! Come here.” Leo pats his side of the table and Logan gets up and moves to the same side of the table. He puts a hand on Leo’s thigh and opens when Leo holds the bar up to his face taking a bite. Leo sets the bar down to take a bite of his apple again.

They continue this until their food is gone and Logan scarf down both their cups of apple cider. They go to pick apples, only getting a small bag full because Leo wants to make recipes with them. They go to pick out two pumpkins to carve and one to cook with. Leo picks out two smaller pumpkins and watches Logan pick the biggest fucking pumpkin and struggle to take it over to the til. Leo offered to carry it but Logan refused. Carrying it to the car and setting it on the trunk huffing.

“Don’t you lift like everyday?”

“Shut upppp!” Leo laughs and they put everything into the back of the car. They get into the vehicle to drive home and share a sweet kiss before they get buckled and start driving.

It was a good week.

Deathly Hallow Apartments, 2020

Before the door is even completely closed Kuny is against the wall with both of their bags at their feet. They are kissing frantically, hands grabbing wherever they can. Nado is basically trying to climb up his body. So, Kuny gives him what he wants and picks him up.

It wasn’t the most graceful thing in the world. They were mid-walk as he picked Nado up, causing him to stumble a bit, basically pinning the other man into the frame of his bedroom door. They pull away from their energetic smooching to laugh. Pressing their foreheads together Kuny adjusts his grip. Taking his friend over to the bed he tosses him onto it. Watching Nado bounce a bit while still laughing. Kuny climbs between his legs and feels Nado’s hands scramble to try and take his clothes off but Kuny grabs his wrists and just holds them for a moment.

“What’s wrong?” Nado is looking at him with those deep dark green eyes and a little bit of a flush on his cheeks, making his tan all that more glowy. There wasn’t anything wrong, he just liked to look. He also wanted to take things a bit slower, he didn’t want to hurt Nado and this was something completely new to him.

“Nothing. I just want to take my time with you. I don’t want to rush this.” He reaches over and lifts’s Nado’s shirt off him with ease. Tracing over all the wild ink and color. He was soft but also bumpy along his chest and shoulders but it reminded Kuny that Nado was indeed a human and not a god.

“Kunnnnnyyyyyy! You promised to fuck the life out of me!” Nado was tugging on his shirt and Kuny let him take it off him. He rolls his eyes and yanks Nado’s pants and underwear off before standing up and taking off the rest of his own clothes. He returns to his spot between those long legs. “Uns!”

“Sh! We need to do this right or else I’ll hurt you because… well.” Jackson watches Kuny gesture to his groin and rolls his eyes.

“Because of your massive cock, yes, I get it. But hurrrrryyyyy! I’m horny!”

“I can tell.” Kuny jokes and puts his arm up as a pillow from the massive pile behind them comes flying at his face. Hitting it to the side and laughing he leans down and kisses Nado, pulling away before they get to into the heat of the moment. He lets his eyes rake over Nado once more and stops when he notices a tattoo he has never seen before. He runs his hand in the crease of Nado’s thigh and pushes his left leg open. “Do you have a tattoo… near your dick?” Kuny just looks at the tattoo so confused, imagining the pain that comes from getting a tattoo in the crease of your thigh.

“Yeah, it’s a slug.”

“Why?”

“I thought he was cute! His name is Stanley.” Nado smiles up at him with pride and Kuny can’t help but let out an amused huff.

“You’re cute.” Kuny says and rummages around under the pillows on either side of the laughing man. He finds what he is looking for but loses his grip on it when he moves down Nado’s body. While Nado has his eyes closed from laughing he decides to give Nado a taste of his own medicine and swallow him down while he isn’t paying attention.

“UNS! FUCK! A LITTLE WARNING!” Jackson grips Kuny’s hair tightly, it was probably painful but he could care less at this very moment. Feeling his eyes unintentionally cross, he feels a heavy arm patting the bed next to him. He forces himself to focus and sees the hand trying to grab the lube that Kuny must have found under his pillow mountain earlier. Jackson picks it up, grabs Kuny’s hand and slaps the bottle in that large palm. When did Kuny even learn how to suck dick!?

Jackson can hear himself letting out breathy moans but he isn’t really paying attention to anything other than the man between his legs. He once again feels Kuny moving and Jackson helps him out, lifting his legs to rest over Kuny’s broad shoulders. He relaxes, stretching out completely with his hands stretched out over his head. Then he is less relaxed. He feel’s fingers around just where he wants them and feels a loud moan fall from his mouth as two thick fingers push into him.

Kuny was in heaven. He was listening to Nado moaning, for the first time not through their bedroom walls and it was from himself making Nado feel good. He used two fingers because he remembers talking to Nado about it one night when they were just watching shit TV on a sunday. Casual conversation, of course. Nado was crushing his head between his thighs and it was a wonderful feeling. He could feel his muscles tensing around his ears and fuck, was it addictive.

“Kuny, I’m gonna cum if you don’t-” Jackson was not a person who came easily but he hasn’t had sex in what felt like forever. When in reality it was about three months. He feels that magical mouth pull off his dick and he whines unintentionally. He feels those fingers keep moving at a steady and light rhythm.

“I’m doing four fingers.” Kuny looks up to see a confused look on Nado’s face.

“Now!?” Jackson did not realize there were more fingers added, was he really that far gone already?

“No,” Kuny chuckles and gives his inner thigh a small kiss. “ But that's what I will work up to because I really really don’t want to hurt you. Okay?”

“No, it's going to take forever!” He chokes on his words when he feels pressure on his prostate making his legs jerk in different directions and his back arch off the bed. “OKAY! Okay! Take your time.” He takes a deep breath and keeps up the pattern of deep breaths to keep himself from finding the edge too soon. Just trying to figure out how Kuny knows what he's doing.

Kuny worked him open for a few minutes, they were both sweating and Nado was twitching, gripping the sheets as his knuckles turned white. Kuny slides in another finger and Nado looks like he was about to have a stroke. So he completely stopped moving his fingers all together.

“KUNY! What the hell!?”

“I want to watch you move.” Kuny lifts himself up so he is resting most of his weight in his forearm that is placed just above Nado’s shoulder. He sees the other man turn bright red and flop his arm over his eyes. Grumbling as he slowly starts to move his hips. “Nado, look at me.”

It feels like Kuny is taunting him, so he lets out a huff and moves his arm from across his eyes to over his head, only to see those beautiful light brown eyes right in front of him.

They kiss and he feels himself turn into a melted ice cream puddle.

Kuny pushes in another finger knowing that Nado was ready for it a long time ago but he has been enjoying watching the other man just fall apart. Nado breaks their kiss to moan brokenly. Loving that sound he starts kissing up the taunt tattooed neck.

“Just like that.” Kuny mumbles into the sweaty skin as Nado keeps his hips moving on their own. Kuny takes over once again but is only able to move his fingers in and out once before Nado is grabbing his wrist making him stop moving. “You okay?” The concern in his voice makes Nado smile. He cares about him and it makes him so happy.

“Y-yeah, I just don’t want to cum when you aren’t in me.”

“... I’m literally inside you!”

“Not your fingers! Your cock!” Nado laughs a bit as Kuny chuckles into his neck. This pause has given him a bit of time to calm down and get away from the edge. Shivering as Kuny pulls his fingers out. He twists a bit to pop his hips and sighs as Kuny reaches into the side table to grab a condom and puts it on after throwing the wrapper over his shoulder. Kuny lubes himself up and wraps Nado’s legs around his waist, feeling him pull him closer. Obviously in a hurry to get fucked.

Jackson was trying to hurry Kuny the fuck up without words and instead is bracketed in with Kuny putting his hands one either side of his head and looking down on him with this expression of cockiness. Which he has never seen from Kuny before. It was sexy as hell.

“I’m taking my time with you for a reason. But once you get comfortable, you better hold on.” Kuny pushes in about a quarter of the way and watches Nado’s face contrast from surprise to eyes-rolled back in pleasure as his mouth falls open. He slowly starts rocking only a bit of the way in and out as he lets Nado get used to him. Rough hands wrap around his wrists and Nado is just panting under him. Kuny pushes a bit more in and Nado chokes again.

“Uns-”

“Deep breaths, tell me when you’re ready.” Kuny keeps his slow pace using one of his hands to brush the hair off Nado’s forehead. “You’re beautiful”

“You’re a fucking sap.” Jackson groans, looking up at Kuny who is staring back at him with the most loving look. That just makes him want to spill out those three words without hesitation… but he doesn’t. “Kuny-please!”

“Be patient” Kuny feel Nado’s heels digging into his booty trying to push him in more to bring him closer. So he gives Nado what he wants, how could he resist with a face like that. Kuny pushes in half way, leaning down to give Nado a sweet sweet kiss.

“Is that all of you?”

“Half”

“Oh thank GOD!” Jackson pushes his hips up and moans, wrapping his arms around Kuny’s neck pulling him in for more kisses. Laughing into the kisses, he makes the bigger man laugh as well, having a little giggle fit in the middle of them doing the horizontal tango. Seemed about right. Kuny pulls away and brushes the hair out of his face again because the mess-of-a-bun it's in has been flopping all over. His hands are sweaty so the hair gets a bit stuck to it and ends up pulling it a bit.

“Ow!”

“Sorry my hands are-”

“Do it again.” Kuny shakes his head a bit surprised and wants to say something but he doesn’t even know what to say. He just tugs lightly on that hair he loves so much, lacing his fingers in the bun. He pulls on his hair and pushes all the way in, with his hand pulling the hair holding Nado’s head back so his neck is completely exposed and he just goes to town sucking on those tattoos.

“ILOVEYOUILOVEYOUILOVEYOU-OHFUCK!” Kuny was pounding into him for a good few minutes until Jackson’s head got the best of him and he spurted out those words he wanted to save for a special occasion. But now that he thinks about it, this is a special occasion. Kuny just stops moving when the words sink in around them and it annoys the hell out of Jackson. “Kuny! Please move!”

Kuny does just that, pressing his face into Nado’s neck once again and just fucking the life out of him without stopping. No breaks, no pauses, nothing. He was going to show Nado that he loved him too even if he couldn’t get the words out at this very moment. Kuny feels Nado’s arm slide off from around him and go between them. His hips don’t slow down in the slightest. He was so close and he could feel it in his navel.

Jackson reached between them, he really wanted to try and cum untouched but with how Kuny was starting to sloppily move he realized the teddy bear wasn’t going to last long enough for that. Guess they would have to do this again. He smiles to himself at the thought and starts jerking himself off quickly, his moans were getting higher pitched. He throws his head back and grips Kuny’s shoulder with his free hand as Kuny thrust a few more times incredibly hard just the way he likes it.

They both cum around the same time and Kuny just puts all his weight on Nado, flopping his arms out.

“I’m hot.”

“Yes, you are. We should go again.” Jackson panted out not wanting this night to end.

“You’ll be too sore to do anything tomorrow.” Kuny mumbles behind his ear and kisses lightly.

“Only thing I’m doing tomorrow is getting my tiddies pierced, oh and my tongue.” Jackson shifts a bit to get his arms out from between them, resting them above his head to cool down.

“You still have to sit.”

“Maybe a little.” They both let out little amused breaths laying together in comfortable and sleepy silence.

The next morning Jackson is sitting on the piercing chair, he went a couple hours early to chat with Marlene as she tattoos some guys thigh, then makes his way over to Mary who is stenciling up a new tattoo for a client who texted her an idea, and finally Andy who was just eating a granola bar and was happy to talk to him. Ink came in late and she is his normal piercer. She looked like shit if he was being honest. Pale, sweaty and tired.

“Hi, sorry I’m late. It’s been a rough week. I had treatment a few days ago and just feel like shit.” She puts on her gloves and has him take off his shirt.

“Treatment? Are you sick? Is everything okay?” She shakes her head and starts disinfecting his chest working quickly before sitting down on her swivel chair and scoots next to him.

“No, June and I have been trying to have a baby for… a long time. It hasn’t been working.” She just looks so sad and he doesn’t really know how to respond and it appears she doesn’t want him to because she just gives him the rundown of after care for his new jewels. Then pierces him once he's ready.

And that was that.

#leo knut #finn o'hara #sweater weather #logan tremblay #o’knutzy #lumosinlove #the major league #coast to coast #clayton bruss #remus lupin #sirius black #regulus black #thomas walker #noelle tremblay #jackson nadeau #evgenia kanaeva

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lumosinlove · 3 years

Text

Vaincre

part vi

cw: brief mentions of past injury and past outing and anxiety

December

And then the cold came, the dark days

When fear crept into my mind

December brought loses, and not just Remus’. By the handful. Like coal in a stocking, bulky and bitter. Remus couldn’t help but feel like his own frustration was leaking onto Sirius, who slowly but surely, regained the tightness in his shoulders. Through Sirius, it trickled over the rest of the team, tar-like and sluggish.

“All right,” Marlene said from behind the camera, blond hair obviously carefully curled that morning but thrown into a stressed, messy bun now. “Remus. Loops. Re. Babe. It’s one line.”

“Yeah, babe,” Finn said from the sidelines, arms crossed over his elf costume, the bells on his shoes and cuffs jingling as if spurred on by his sly grin.

Remus narrowed his eyes at him, but repositioned himself on his mark. He was sweating a little in his Santa suit and beard.

“I got it, I got it, sorry,” Remus sighed.

“You more bad than Cap,” Evgeni said helpfully from the sidelines, nose painted bright red and antlers worn proudly. “We make good, Remus, let’s go. For fans.”

“Got it,” Remus huffed out a laugh. “Jeez, guys.”

“Where is Cap, anyway?” Marlene asked.

“Went over to Dumo’s earlier this morning,” Remus said. “Visiting the kids.”

Truthfully, Sirius had been almost skittish this morning. All nervous laughter and uncharacteristically uncoordinated limbs. He’d all but tripped out the door. Remus didn’t know if it was the loses piling up or Regulus due home from school for vacation in a few days.

“All right,” Marlene said. “Ready now?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Remus grumbled, “Let’s just get this over with.”

“Is fun,” Evgeni insisted.

The camera’s light went back on, Marlene pointed to him with two finger-guns, and Remus mustered his best Evgeni-level baritone.

“Ho, ho, ho, it’s a Lion’s Christmas!”

“Thank fuck, finally,” Marlene said, clapping her hands. “Jesus, thank you.”

“I’m out,” Remus grimaced, tugging the fake beard off his face and gasping for air. “Harz, you’re up.”

Finn sauntered in front of the camera, squatting a little with his butt out. “Marls, am I a good elf or a bad elf?”

“Bad elf,” Leo’s voice sounded from the back of the room where he was precariously trying to keep a BLT sandwich from falling apart.

Marlene just closed her eyes. “This is the longest day of my life.”

It was a fun day at the rink, watching all the guys have to put on a series of, by the end of it, slightly sweaty costumes. Logan was forced into a reindeer outfit post land exercises, and Cole didn’t look too happy slipping it on next. Logan just laughed at his wrinkled nose.

But the Captain was missing.

“We’ll have to snag him later,” Marlene was mumbling to one of her assistants, eyes on her clipboard.

“Maybe after that radio interview? Tuesday?” the assistant replied.

Remus looked down at his phone. Where are you? he’d typed out. The words turned blue as they sent. Still at Dumo’s?

Here! was the only reply.

“Remus,” Pascal’s voice came, and Remus looked up clicking his phone off.

“Hey, Dumo,” he said, glancing over Pascal’s coat and scarf. “Did you just get in?”

“Don’t lie,” Pascal smiled, slipping his scarf from around his neck. It was slightly lumpy—Remus recognized his son Marc’s handiwork from Sirius’ present last year. “You’re looking for the Captain.”

“Maybe,” Remus smiled. “How’re the kids?”

“Happy with the ever-revolving-door of new teenage boys to wake up early,” Pascal said with a nod to Cole who passed them clutching a travel mug of what Remus knew was Celeste’s perfectly brewed coffee. Remus’ eyes roved the hallway behind him, inhaling slowly. It smelled like new carpet, the way it always had. Then why did everything feel so off?

“That’s good,” Remus replied distractedly.

“Okay,” Pascal laughed and turned Remus around with an arm around his shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

Remus spared a last glance behind him. “Nothing’s wrong, but you can’t deny he’s been…”

“Backsliding,” Pascal finished for him, taking a sip of his own coffee. “Yes, why do you think I had him come over with the kids?”

Remus nodded. “All right, all right. Point taken.”

“He’ll be okay,” Pascal said as they reached the locker room doors. He raised a thick eyebrow towards his neatly pushed back hair, feathered with gray. “Are you?”

Remus sighed. “Pascal…”

“You cannot be a hockey player if you think it’s all your fault,” Pascal said gently.

“I know that,” Remus said quietly.

“Let yourself be a part of the team,” Pascal said after a few moments. “Okay?”

Remus was yanking at the straps of his pads, dressing for practice, by the time Sirius appeared. He received a few shouts of greeting, and made to go to Remus when he was stopped by Marlene’s assistant. Remus watched him nod a few times, then smiled at the skeptical grimace that crossed his face, no doubt at the idea of dressing up for a Christmas video.

“Hey,” Sirius said when he had escaped. He crossed the room before Remus could get up. “You were still half asleep when I left this morning,” He pressed his hands to either side of Remus’ stall. “Come here.”

Remus smiled and leaned in for his gentle kiss. “That’s because you all but jumped out the door.”

Sirius just kissed him again.

“Good morning,” Remus whispered.

Sirius just smiled at him, swiping his thumb over Remus’ lip. Remus couldn’t help but laugh a little.

“What‘s with the face?” He asked.

Sirius pulled Remus in again, just brushing their lips together this time. “Nothing. I love you.”

“Love you, too,” Remus smiled, and stood. As he stood, he caught Logan’s eye and his smile faltered.

Logan had a funny look on his face. His green eyes darted away once he realized that Remus was looking, looked back with a quick smile, and then busied himself with his stick tape. Remus frowned, and then watched Leo notice, too. Leo nodded at him, then shrugged, eyes flicking to Sirius.

Remus thought of Logan’s words at the bar, with Thomas. All the things they’d shared.

Be a part of your team.

Remus had felt like it that night. Even more so than on the ice. Snorting laughter with Logan and Thomas, despite the heaviness, oh-so different for each of them, that weighed around their necks.

“We’re doing special teams today, boys,” one of the assistant coaches called out. “All right? So, that’s Black, Potter, Olli…Harz, Tremzy, Reyes.”

Remus’ chest deflated a little. He wasn’t sure if it was in relief or disappointment. Was he really so embarrassed that he was relieved to not be the attention of practice? He didn’t want to be.

A slump was a slump.

“I think I want to go home,” Remus said, and Sirius looked up, confused.

“Over the holidays,” Remus elaborated. “Instead of my family coming here.”

They had already booked the flights, and some small, older part of Remus winced at that, but he had money now, an NHL entry level contract was more than enough. He could just buy more flights. Sirius could buy tons.

Sirius nodded, obviously still taken aback at the sudden declaration. “Uh, oh. Okay. We can do that. It’s not that long, but…”

“I know,” Remus said, and suddenly felt small. “Two days are enough.”

“Two days,” Sirius repeated. “Yeah. Yeah, d’accord.”

Remus nodded and looked back down at his skates.

Hey, Sirius, we wondered if we could ask you about your partner, Lupin, of course.

Remus flexed his fingers against the steering wheel. The city’s main street flowed past slowly outside his windows. What would Julian prefer? More Gryffindor merch? That was barely a present anymore. Maybe a video game. Remus wanted to find something perfect. Something that made up for the, lately, more than infrequent phone calls. Something in Remus couldn’t stand to listen to the silence in between Julian’s words. His older brother was in the NHL. And, frankly, he sucked at it.

You two haven’t been the same on the ice. And I know your preseason performances gave a lot of people a really good feeling. Lupin’s not seen much ice time at all, actually.

These things happen, Sirius’ voice said. To all of us.

Remus bit his lip. Put on his blinker.

Well, what’s it like? the host asked. Playing with your boyfriend?

Remus is a valuable member to the team, Sirius replied. Of course, he’s valuable to me, as well, personally, but that doesn’t matter on the ice.

How could it not, though? another interviewer asked with a laugh in his voice. I guess what I’m getting at is, do you wish you guys were always on the same line? I bet that’d be the dream.

Ah, Sirius laughed. Non, I mean, there are some certainties in our team right now. I’m happy every day that Remus is with us, but I’ve been playing with James for…

Remus didn’t completely hear the rest of his sentence. He jammed the car into reverse, pulling into a parking spot. He felt stupid. He pulled his phone out.

Where are you?

The reply was immediate. Staring at your car.

Remus huffed out a breath, pulled his hat back over his ears, and shoved his door open.

“Hey,” Lily said, fists deep in her pockets and bouncing on her heels in the cold. “What’s with the murder face?”

“Nothing,” Remus said defensively. “I don’t have a…”

Lily raised an eyebrow.

“I just,” Remus groaned. “I just want to shop. Okay? I just want to look at the Christmas windows and I want to find a cute present for my baby brother, and I don’t want to think about Sirius right now.”

Lily snorted, dark red painted mouth curling up. “Who said anything about Sirius?”

Remus paused from where he had looped their arms together. “I don’t know.”

“All right, all right,” Lily said, squeezing their linked elbows. “I want hot chocolate.”

Within a hour, Remus was laden down with far more than a gift for Julian. He had a new, expensive set of oil paints for his mom, an adjustable textbook stand for Regulus, and a large bag of sour candy for Logan. Thomas had a portable photo printer that plugged into his phone.

“I have no idea what to get him,” Remus sighed. “Why is he so hard to shop for?”

“Oh, he’s just he now, is he?” Lily laughed. “God, what’s got you so wrapped up with your boyfriend? And not very happily, I could add.”

“I’m happy,” Remus said. “I just don’t know what to get him. What do you get the star of the NHL?”

Remus made a protesting noise as Lily yanked him to a stop in front of a particularly bright window display consisting of red and green mirrors that reflected dazzling lights on some sort of white sweatsuit. Remus all but squinted down at her.

“Your not shopping for the star of the NHL,” Lily said, green eyes stern. “You’re shopping for Sirius. I don’t shop for ‘James Potter, Gryffindor Lions top six, Hart trophy finalist.’ I shop for James. My James, my best friend, the father of my baby boy.”

Remus looked towards the darkening street, busy with shoppers. “That’s not what I meant.”

“What happened?” Lily pushed. “This isn’t like you. In fact, not much has been like you lately—”

“He all but said he didn’t want to play together,” Remus snapped. “On the radio.”

Lily blinked in surprise. “Is that was he said, or is that what you heard?”

“Jesus,” Remus sighed, adjusting his many bags and moving around here. “I don’t need another talk about how this isn’t my fault.”

“Then stop making leaps in your head,” Lily said, following him. “Stop putting words in my mouth.”

“I have to get home,” Remus said. “Sirius’ll be waiting for dinner.”

Lily tugged him around one last time, grip like iron. Remus glanced down at her slender fingers, surprised.

Her cheeks were flushed against the red hair blowing against her face in the cold. She looked like she badly wanted to say something, but couldn’t quite decide what.

“Talk to him,” she settled on after a painful beat of silence. “Just…if not me, him. If not him, someone.”

Remus gave his head a small shake. “About what?”

Lily just sighed and released him. “I’m parked over there.”

Remus took one look at her disappointed eyes and nodded shortly, turning away. The gifts didn’t seem to weigh him down half as much as the feeling that settled over his chest.

It was dark by the time he pulled into their garage. His stomach was growling and the hot chocolate had made him unbearably thirsty. He welcomed the blast of warm house air as he opened the door, sparing a glance to the calendar. They had an early team weight session tomorrow and he was glad. He felt like he’d burn up with the restlessness in his muscles.

Sirius didn’t call out with the opening door, and Remus frowned, letting his bags fall to a heap by the kitchen table.

“Sirius?”

“In here!” came his voice from the living room.

Remus followed it, shrugging out of his coat and gloves as he went. When he reached the living room, he stumbled to a stop on the threshold.

Sirius glanced up from the TV, controller in hand, seemingly unfazed by Remus’ sudden stop. “Hey. How’s Lils?”

He said it so casually, like the dark strands that had been curling almost to his shoulders for months weren’t sheered clean away, tighter without the added weight and scooping upwards above his ears.

“You cut your hair,” Remus said.

Sirius shrugged, leaning to the side a little with the mock effort of moving the figure on the screen. “Yeah. Marls pulled me in for the holiday video and I just…I don’t know, I decided,” He hadn’t even paused the video game. “You don’t like it?”

“I…no, it’s not that, I just…” Remus let his eyes wash over him. “I didn’t know you were going to.”

“Thought I’d change it up. It’s not like I’m scoring.”

Remus could only look at him. Sirius’ phone chimed and he glanced at it, then flipped it over.

Of course. Of course it would be related to their ice performance.

“Right,” Remus said tightly. He knew Sirius hadn’t meant that as a dig at him, but it still felt like one. He cleared his throat.

“Heard the interview.”

Sirius sighed. “Re, they do these things—”

“Will you pause the fucking game?”

Sirius didn’t look at him for a moment. The figure hovered between two motions on the TV, a strange, glitching motion, and then Sirius set the controller down.

“What’s wrong with the interview?” he asked, turning towards him on the couch.

“They—“ Remus hesitated. He felt his hands curl into fists. “You sounded so…unbothered. About me.”

“What would bother me?” Sirius rose. “Re, we’ve talked about this. It’s just a slump.”

“It doesn’t feel that way!” Remus snapped. “I…God, never mind.”

He turned on his heel, back towards the kitchen, strange, unwelcome tears at his throat.

Sirius didn’t follow him. Remus thought he heard the TV turn back on, heard the swoop of a sent text.

He was being ridiculous. He took two pans off of the wall. Opened the refrigerator.

He felt so unbearably guilty.

“Baby,” Remus called, clearing his throat again. “What do you feel like for dinner?”

He heard Sirius’ shuffling as he stopped the game and turned the TV off. He appeared around the corner a moment later, already walking for his coat.

“I’m actually going out with Logan.”

Remus studied his back, the tight pull of his wool coat across his large shoulders. “Oh.”

“You don’t have to wait up if I’m late,” Sirius said, offered a shaky smile, and then was gone.

Remus listened to the garage door opening and the car start.

Sirius hadn’t even kissed him goodbye.

Logan was woken up by a strangled shout from the living room. No less then two seconds later, he heard the bedroom door open, there was a beat of wind-filled silence, and then a six foot hockey player landed on his legs full force. Logan groaned and heard Leo do the same from where he was spooned up against his back.

“Boys,” Finn all but shouted.

“Harzy, Jesus,” Leo mumbled.

“Wha’time,” Logan cracked an eye open.

“Alex got traded to the Rags,” Finn said, and gave a loud whoop, bouncing his weight down on the bed twice. “Boys! He can come for Christmas.”

Leo pushed himself up onto an elbow, blond hair pressed down at one side from the pillow. “Wait, seriously?”

“Gotta call him,” Finn said, and was gone just as quickly as he had come, phone already up to his ear.

Leo snorted, then looked back down at Logan. “Wow. Wake up call.”

They jumped when their actual alarm went off, sending Leo reaching across Logan’s chest to turn it off. Logan looped his arm under Leo’s shoulder, keeping him in place. He all but felt Leo’s smile in the kiss placed to his forehead.

“Finn will love being closer to Alex,” Leo said.

“Alex will be closer to Kase and Natalie,” Logan replied, and opened his eyes, combing his fingers through the soft hair at the base of Leo’s neck.

“Hm,” Leo nodded, pulling back to look down at Logan’s face. He laughed at the sleep that still lingered there. “Good morning. Happy game day.”

Logan’s mouth twitched towards a smile. “Are you going to really say that every time we have a game?”

Leo just grinned and leaned down for a proper kiss. “I am.”

Sirius watched his team circling the ice for warm-ups against Detroit. The crowd blurred their red and gold with some more festive colors. The last game before their short Christmas break always had the feeling of the last day of school. Sirius didn’t actually like it much. He felt a twitchy sort of unfocus from everyone around him, his own teammates included. He knew, before the game even began, that, though they’d all try to win, there wouldn’t be much hitting or fowl play tonight. Like the Christmas truce in La Grande Guerre.

His eyes found Remus across the rink, stretching out with Timmy and Olli. He looked so beautiful, helmet off and hair curled and slightly sweaty already from his pre-game warm up. Sirius’ chest hurt thinking of the previous night. Remus hadn’t asked about the sudden departure. Sirius didn’t have an excuse.

“If you want him to stop suspecting something, maybe stop staring at him.”

Sirius looked over at Logan, who had an unimpressed look on his face. Sirius sighed, busying himself with tapping a puck between the blade of his stick.

“He’s angry with me,” Sirius said.

“He’s angry with himself,” Logan amended. “Believe me. I know the feeling. And so do you.”

“Did he talk to you about it?”

“Yes,” Logan said shortly. “But not so I could tattle to you.”

Sirius groaned. “Tremz…”

“Stop staring at him,” Logan said. “For the sake of the cameras if not your surprise.”

“No one’s going to be focused,” Sirius said. “We’re going to have so many turn-overs, just like the last…fuck number of games.”

Leo, leaning against the boards for a water break, let out a low whistle. “Say it how it is, Cap.”

Sirius just set his jaw, eyes down. He didn’t remember the last time they won a game. They were falling rapidly in the division standings. Soon, he worried that there wouldn’t be anywhere left to fall.

Sirius pushed away from the boards, picking up another puck and wrapping around towards Remus, their eyes caught, and Sirius did almost stop. But he flipped at the last second, skating with quick cross-overs, back towards Remus, and shot hard at Kasey in the net. Kasey gloved it easily.

The first ten minutes of the period went quick, and Sirius couldn’t help but glance at Remus out of the corner of his eye. Coach was sitting him. Remus had barely moved, and he looked like he was just winding up tighter as the game went on and his teammates came and went around him.

He’d been asleep, or pretending to be, when Sirius had gotten home from dinner with Logan—who had brought Finn along. He’d been hoping to leave even before Remus got home from shopping with Lily, but when he’d heard the garage door open, he’d been afraid to speak. It all felt close to spilling out; his secret.

“I don’t know if I should do it now,” Sirius had said to Logan and Finn. “He’s so unhappy.”

“Dude,” Finn had replied. “If there’s ever a time to confess your undying love to someone, it’s when they need your support.”

“But,” Logan had added. “Maybe it doesn’t have to be about marriage. Maybe it could just be you and him, away from all the pressures on the ice.”

He’d come home even more unsettled than he’d left. The ring, shoved in the back of his underwear drawer, seem to let off a high pitch sound, a faint ringing that Sirius was worried Remus could hear.

“Black!” Coach shouted. “Tremz, Pots!”

Sirius blinked. He hadn’t even been paying attention to the game. He hesitated too long, Coach angrily had called to Finn instead, and the whistle blew for too many men on the ice.

“Jesus, Black, do I have to sit you, too?” Coach called.

“Sorry, Coach,” Sirius said. He was burning. Remus glanced at him.

“Get out there,” Coach said. “Lupin, to the box.”

Sirius’ chest gave another lurch. That was an unspecific penalty. Anyone could serve it, and Coach had chosen Remus. He watched Remus slam the door to the penalty box a little too hard, and keep his eyes down, away from the crowd on either side of him.

In the second, Sirius hit cross bar four times before finally sneaking in a goal. His lungs were aching from his long shifts, and he rested his stick across his knees, bent over on his way towards the bench when the siren went, signaling the beginning of the second intermission. It didn’t even matter. They were down four. Reyes had had a miscommunication with Olli, letting number 24 right through their defenses to slip one between Kasey’s blocker and the ice.

Sirius’ lungs were only just beginning to loosen when they made it out of the tunnel, towards the locker room. He dropped his wet gloves in the bin held out by Layla and felt a hand on his shoulder.

“Baby,” Remus said softly.

Sirius almost shook him off.

“Hey—hey,” Remus curled his fingers until Sirius gave, ignoring the glances they were getting from Logan and Pascal.

“Quoi?” Sirius asked, then felt like shit. Remus’ golden eyes already looked dull. But Sirius was trying so hard. Remus hadn’t budged the last few weeks, had been silently curling into Sirius’ embraces, only to pull away again when the conversation hit a nerve, or he winced at something in his own mind.

“I know when you’re beating yourself up,” Remus said firmly.

Sirius clenched his jaw and pulled away, shouldering around him. “Marlene wants me for intermission.”

“Talk to me,” Remus pleaded from behind him.

“What?” Sirius turned on him, accent heavy. “Like you’ve been talking to me?”

Remus snapped his mouth shut, looking away. “You’ve seen tonight. This game. What’s there to say?”

Sirius closed his eyes, trying to control his breathing. “Come here.”

He didn’t want to talk in front of just anyone. Not about this. Preferably, he didn’t want to talk here at all, but this was the moment Remus had chosen and Sirius was thankful he’d finally chosen a moment at all.

He found a carved out little corner of chipped white hallway. Once no one passed for a few moments, Sirius stepped forward and took Remus’ hands.

“You don’t have to say anything to talk to me. But you’re…quiet. Please don’t avoid it. Don’t avoid me.”

“I don’t avoid you,” Remus said.

“A little you do,” Sirius said more quietly, thumbs swiping gently across Remus’ knuckles. “After a bad game, like this one, you do a little bit.”

“I’m…” Remus swallowed. “I’m sorry.”

“I want to be there for you,” Sirius said. “I want to be with you. For my entire life, d’accord?” Suddenly, fear sunk its teeth in a soft bite. “You know that, don’t you?”

Remus nodded quickly, but he wouldn’t look up.

“It’s Vegas,” Remus said, ducking his head. “That’s all. Probably. It’s coming up. But—Jesus, I asked about you.”

“I just want us to win,” Sirius said. “Yes, I get like this. But I know I get like this, and I’ve gotten help figuring myself out, my own signs. You? I’m not sure you know that yet.”

Remus’ eyes finally snapped up. Sirius shrunk away. He was angry again, and his voice came out low. “You’re not sure I know how to figure myself out? What, like this is brand new to me? Like pressure is so new to me?”

“This is new,” Sirius couldn’t help the edge in his voice. “You think I like this? How public this is? We are? You think I want to be asked why my boyfriend gets benched?”

He knew he’d toed over the line even as the words slipped through. He let out a harsh breath through his nose, closed his eyes for a moment.

“Re…”

“Don’t,” Remus tugged his hands free and they stood there, silent. Sirius was still breathing hard from the game, and it only seemed to uneven the field they were standing on opposite ends of further.

“Remind me to give you the car keys,” Remus said quietly, finally. “You’ll need them to get Reg later tonight.”

Sirius hesitated. “You’re not coming?”

Remus raised a half-hearted shoulder. “Take him out for dinner, he probably missed you. I’m just going to…I’m kind of whipped.”

Sirius watched the 6 on his jersey disappear around the corner, and ran a hand through his sweaty hair.

“Talk to me,” he sighed under his breath. Marry me.

He went at Marlene’s call of his name.

Sirius’ breath fogged the air as he opened his door when he saw Regulus exit the Arrivals terminal. It smelled like airplane fuel and cold. Sirius wondered if Remus would want to go alone to the airport, when his family arrived. He hoped not.

He mustered his brightest smile, but Regulus just snorted, seeing right through him.

“Uh-huh, who do you take me for?” his little brother asked, and shoved his suitcase at Sirius to put in the trunk. “Sorry about tonight’s game.”

“Nice to see you, too,” Sirius sighed, and hurried them out of the cold air.

They ended up squeezed into the back of one of Sirius’ favorite restaurants. The waitstaff knew him, were used to him—wouldn’t let anyone bother him. They had welcome him and Remus with open arms, given them private tables when the fuss of Remus joining the team had yet to die down.

Regulus tore a piece of crispy bread in two.

“Did you bring it?” he asked. It was nice just the two of them. They could speak French. It would be mostly English with Remus around, and at family skate.

Sirius glanced up from the menu he didn’t need to look at. “What?”

Regulus gestured, like it was obvious. “The ring. I want to see.”

“Non, I came straight from the rink. I don’t just carry it around with me.”

“I don’t believe you.”

Sirius laughed, folding the leather booklet closed. He sighed, and reached for a piece of bread himself. “We actually—”

Sirius was cut off by the waiter bringing him his favorite wine. They were near the front tonight, given the late hour.

“Actually…” Regulus raised an eyebrow, picking up his glass.

Sirius settled back in his chair, the bars of the back feeling good on his sore muscles. He should have done more of a cool down, but after the loss, after Remus…

“We fought,” Sirius finished. “Tonight. Between the second and third. I keep saying the wrong thing.”

“What did you say?”

“I don’t even know,” Sirius shook his head. “I mean—I do but I didn’t mean it like that. It wasn’t even all bad. Like we know how much we love each other we just keep—it’s like we just keep missing each other on the ice.”

Regulus seemed to hold his wine in his mouth a moment. His eyes were bewildered, and Sirius spread his palms in confusion.

“Quoi? You asked me!”

Regulus was still for another moment, then finally swallowed and leaned forward.

“All right…I’m sorry, but…” he paused, shaking his head. “What the fuck does hockey performance have to do with how much you two love each other?”

Sirius stared at him.

Regulus stared right back.

The restaurant went a little fuzzy, the noise a little dim, and Sirius’ blood seemed to rush at him. It started up a throbbing headache at the base of his skull. Every time he thought he was getting better…

“Fucking maman,” Sirius breathed in realization.

“I think the phrase is motherfucker,” Regulus nodded. “But…yeah. Guess that’s a hold over from whatever we call a childhood.”

Sirius covered his face with his hands. “Jesus. Nothing. Nothing, it has nothing to do with how much I love him. I never meant…”

“D’accord,” Regulus eased. “But, if you’re really just having that a-ha moment now, any chance you’re projecting the wrong message onto Remus?”

Sirius kept his face covered for just a moment more. He breathed in, then out. Had he been? Was that how Remus felt? He thought of the I’m sorry, even that first night. Sirius suddenly didn’t want the steak dinner that was coming. He wanted to go home. But Regulus was shoveling more bread into his mouth and…he missed his little brother. Remus would be at home. Sirius would try to explain.

“Okay…D’accord, merde, well, I’m gonna fix that, but enough about me,” Sirius said, pressing his water-glass-cooled hand to his flushed cheek. “Tell me about school. Tell me about your normal life, is it everything you wanted?”

“My friend keeps sneaking Central Park squirrels into her dorm.”

Sirius just stared at him as Regulus smirked, cutting into his steak.

Sirius closed the door to their bedroom, on a last pointed look from Regulus down the hall, and stood on the soft carpet for a moment, at the end of their bed, listening to Remus in the bathroom. He eyed his drawers, where the ring lay. Everything in him wanted to make Remus smile.

He needed to explain. He didn’t even know where to begin. He was…embarrassed.

Sirius tugged his t-shirt off, tossing it in the direction of the hamper, then thought better of it and went to pick it up and place it inside. He replaced his jeans with sweatpants, tugged his hands through his newly cropped hair. It was a relief to have it off of his neck.

Remus didn’t look up when Sirius entered the dim yellow light of the bathroom. The bathroom tiles were warm beneath his feet.

“When my ankle was broken and swollen, I use to come in here and just stand on the heated titles,” he said into the silence.

Remus didn’t look up from where he was running a washcloth under the tap. Steam rose from it, flushing Remus’ cheeks.

“Oh,” he said shortly. “Like a heating pad. Could work.”

He’s just frustrated, Sirius repeated to himself. It’s not you. He winced. It’s not only you.

“You don’t need to score goals for me to love you,” he said firmly, neck hot. God, his chest hurt from how hard his heart was going.

Remus didn’t seem to notice. He huffed out a laugh. “I sure hope not.”

Sirius closed his eyes then looked down at his feet. “Re…I’m sorry. I’m sorry I said that earlier. I’m sorry I didn’t defend you more in that interview. You…”

“I don’t want you to be sorry about it,” Remus replied. His sandy hair fell into his eyes in a way that, in the mirror, made his entire expression unreadable. “Sometimes you can be my boyfriend, but out there you also have to be my captain. I really understand.”

“We’ll—“ Sirius took another step forward. “I’ll get better at balancing the two. It’s hard, Remus. Everything in me loves everything you do. But I can’t look at it that way as a captain, and it’s hard, and I am sorry.”

Remus didn’t move. Just braced his hands on either side of the sink. Sirius risked another step forward, and then settled one hand on Remus’ waist. When he didn’t pull away he matched it on the other hip, and them slid his arms forward, pressing Remus’ back against his front. Their eyes met in the bathroom mirror. Sirius held his gaze as he pressed a gentle kiss to Remus’ neck, right over his even pulse-point—or, no, it was fast. Nervous, even. As nervous as Sirius’ felt.

“Do you regret it?” Remus whispered.

Sirius pressed a hand over Remus’ chest, right where he could feel the pounding, rubbing gently with his thumb. He kissed Remus’ neck, his jaw, until it slowed some, until Remus was leaning back into his embrace, head tilted to rest back on Sirius’ shoulder.

“Never,” Sirius whispered back. “Mon loup. Never.”

Remus was silent, tilting into Sirius’ gentle mouth, his words.

“I’m sorry I’m not helping you more.”

Remus’ eyes flashed open. “You’re…”

Sirius didn’t let go, but shook his head. “I don’t mean on the ice. I mean here. I…I’m too close to what’s happening on the ice, I think. There’s nothing I want more, but I’m not. I see that now. I never want to push you too hard and I…I never want you to feel like you can’t come to me. But I also know you have an entire team of people who love you, too.”

One corner of Remus’ mouth raised, just a little. “You sound like Dumo.”

Sirius arched a brow. “Dumo confesses his undying love for you while kissing your neck?”

Remus bit back a more full smile. “No, but that’s an interesting image.”

Sirius feigned a gasp, mouthing with a scrape of his teeth at Remus’ neck. Remus turned in his arms and their mouths met in a slow kiss. Remus made a soft sound into it, almost like relief, and Sirius ached a little with the way he seemed to sink against him.

“I’ve been horrible,” Remus breathed. “I know, God, baby, I’m sorry. I’m so fucking—frustrated. And I shouldn’t have been pushing you away, you know exactly what this is like. It’s not your fault.”

“And us losing isn’t yours,” Sirius stroked a hand through Remus’ hair.

Remus bit his lip, didn’t look quite convinced, but nodded with a sigh. “I’m going to make Reg a full fucking bacon-egg breakfast to make up for how much of a grouch I was downstairs.”

Sirius snorted. “Grouch.”

Remus laughed, tiredly but more happily, and settled a palm against Sirius’ cheek. “You do help me. Maybe not…maybe not directly with this. Whatever it is. But tonight…tonight you helped me. Here. Just the two of us, on these heated bathroom tiles.”

Sirius held him tighter. “Julian’s coming soon. Does that make you feel better?”

“Mhm,” Remus said. “And you.”

Sirius smiled gently, and Remus bit his lip. It was his relaxed summer smile, not the tighter one he gave in the middle of a failing season.

“It’s not summer anymore,” Remus sighed. “I think part of me liked having you all to myself too much.”

Sirius laughed. “I’m not going to complain. But I know what you mean. It’s the real world now.”

Remus pushed up on his toes, requesting another kiss. “I like you in the real world.”

Thomas was never going to stop kissing Noelle. He didn’t care that a family of six was trying to maneuver three luggage carts around them. He didn’t care that Noelle’s flight had come in at four in the morning and he had practice at ten. He cared that she was holding him just as tightly as he was holding her. A small, scared part of him hadn’t been sure that she would. She smelled like stale plane air and her perfume, something sickly sweet that Thomas hadn’t liked at all at first, but he buried his nose into her neck now, feeling her fingers trail over his closely shaved head. It felt good. He was overheated from keeping his coat on in doors, from the anticipation, and her hand was cold.

“I missed you,” she whispered. “I missed you, I missed you.”

Apparently this was a Tremblay thing. Say it three times, and you mean it.

“When we fought, me and the girls and Lo,” she had told him that summer, half a croissant in her mouth. “Half of the fights was one of us thinking the other wasn’t really sorry. My dad came up with it. If you mean it, you say it three times. I didn’t think much of it, but it caught on. And you don’t think to say something three times when you’re screaming at your sibling, but you might when you have to say you’re sorry.”

He noticed Logan do it sometimes. He heard three I love yous, or three repeated assurances to Finn that he had played well. He wondered if Logan’s boys knew what it meant. Part of him hoped they didn’t, that Logan hadn’t thought to tell them, and that it was his secret about this beautiful girl. He repeated the words back, six times, making Noelle laugh.

“Non, non,” Noelle protested when he tried to take her bag. “Your foot, baby, I’ve got it.”

“It’s as good as healed!” Thomas protested, flexing his ankle to see. “Our PT’s got magic fingers.”

Noelle laughed, and tucked herself under his offered arm. “Do I still get to push you around on a chair for family skate?”

“You can do whatever you want,” Thomas said. “As long as I’m not watching through a screen.”

Noelle grinned. “Speaking of lack of screens. I’m gonna kiss you stupid when we get home.”

“Oh, is that all?”

“Certainly not.”

Thomas wrapped her up tighter as the sliding doors leading to the parking lot opened for them. “I missed you so much, Christmas. You have no idea.”

“Bet I have some idea,” Noelle pressed a hand to his chest. “I can’t stand those sad brown eyes of yours, though.”

Thomas bit his lip, shrugging.

“It’s been hard,” he settled on. “Watching the team lose and not being out there to help. Also knowing we’re both doing what we love but…”

“Not close enough,” Noelle said.

They stopped at the car, and Thomas skidded her suitcase to a halt to cradle her face gently in his hands.

“Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever be close enough to you.”

Noelle smiled and pushed up as far as she could, then looped her arms around his neck to pull him down.

“One way to find out,” she whispered into the first kiss.”

Natalie opened the door before Alex was even half way down the apartment complex hallway. It made for the perfect runway, a running leap. Alex dropped his bag, his suitcase, and caught her, laughing.

“You freaking scoundrel,” Natalie said and then leaned down to kiss him.

“Hm,” Alex mumbled into it. “It’s not my fault twitter’s as fast as me. I did tell you first, though.”

Natalie bit at his lower lip and pulled gently before release. “Barely.”

Alex just shook his head, fond and happy, and used the hand not supporting her legs around his waist to move all of her blond hair over one of her shoulders, bending to kiss the bare side of her neck.

“Missed you, gorgeous.”

“Will you two get inside?” Kasey’s voice rumbled from where he was leaning against the doorway. Alex held Natalie closer with the way his heart pulled. They were both in sweatpants, Natalie’s rolled at her hips—Alex’s sweatpants, the ones she had stolen on her visit. The media was still asking him about that one after someone had snapped a picture of them at dinner. Dinner, O’Hara? With your former teammates girlfriend?

He’d just smiled. Not that it’s any of your business though, right?

Natalie hopped down with a kiss to his cheek and tugged Alex and his suitcase inside. Alex looked Kasey up and down as he passed his broad chest on his way inside the apartment. Kasey gazed back, brown eyes made even darker by the dim light of the apartment. They had their Christmas tree standing squat and short in one corner, already with a few gifts beneath it. Alex spied his name on some of the tags and wanted to drop into their arms again. He didn’t have to mail his gifts this year. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to mail them any time soon. They took up most of his suitcase. He’d wear Kasey’s clothes if he really didn’t have anything, or Natalie would jump at the opportunity to buy him something new. And Christmas morning. They were planning it with Finn and the boys. Alex loved the idea of all of their families together. Hockey was hockey, it was everything, but it was also unbearable distance. Sacrifice. The relief from it made him dizzy.

“How many string lights can one apartment hold?” Alex laughed, looking around. They wrapped around the loft’s banisters, loped along behind the TV and at the edge of the kitchen’s splash back.

“You spoke too soon,” Kasey said as Alex turned towards him. His hair was a tangled mess, like he’d been napping, and he smelled like sleep and warmth when he, finally, pulled Alex in. “She insisted on saving some decorations for you.”

Alex grinned into the kiss and, as he felt Natalie press against his side, the feeling of an anchor settled deep in his chest with a pleasant little tug.

He woke up the same way, Kasey’s eyes locked on him and Natalie tangled together.

“We going skating, or what?” Alex whispered into the morning light. “Ready for me to score on you?”

Kasey’s grin was the same one he wore behind his goalie mask. “You wish.”

Logan felt guilty about it, but he wished Cole wasn’t there, across the rink, with his mother. Cole didn’t know anything, Cole was new, and that meant Logan couldn’t hold either Finn or Leo close. The cameras present prevented it, too, of course, but they were being kicked out so that the families could be alone. There was only so much footage one could use.

Logan was tired of waiting.

Kris, who had his daughter in his arms, and Leo who was asking her questions about her favorite Frozen character, looked over at Logan when he skated to a stop beside them. Logan took a slow breath, and Leo seemed to catch on. Logan watched his long legs, clad in dark jeans and regular skates for once, rather than his longer-bladed goalie ones, lead him away from the group beneath the ruse of a chase towards Finn.

“You okay?” Finn asked. Had they been alone, Logan would have expected a gentle hand to his cheek, through his hair.

“Do you trust Cole?” he asked.

He didn’t have to say more for them to know what he meant. They looked surprised, though.

“You…” Finn blinked. “You want to…”

“I want to skate with you both,” Logan said, then huffed. Say what you mean. You’re allowed. “I want to be with you both. For this. We didn’t get it last year, so…”

“Yes,” Leo said, smiling softly. His nod was firm. “I trust Cole.”

“Do…” Finn jerked his chin in Cole’s direction. “Now?”

“I’ll go,” Logan said. “If it goes bad, I don’t want him staring at all three of us.”

“It won’t go bad,” Leo said firmly. “Cole’s great. Reg and I are taking him to dinner over New Years.”

Logan looked back over. Cole was now leading Katie around the rink with small, careful strokes. Logan tapped his stick against Leo’s, then Finn’s shins, and pushed his way over.

“Reyes,” he said, coming to a stop in front of Katie. He took a knee, the familiar, easy smile crossing his face. “Are you skating, ma petite?”

“Tremzy, I’m doing it, see?” Katie grinned from her bundle of warmth—puffer jacket, winter pom-pom hat, and scarf, all impossibly small.

“You are,” Logan smiled, sharing a hidden laugh with Cole.

“All by yourself,” Cole nodded seriously, keeping a tight hold on her little hands.

Logan had maybe been a little jealous at first, of Cole taking his place at the Dumais’. Not every teenage boy was happy to be surrounded by kids all the time. He’d briefly—half jokingly—considered stealing Katie away to their apartment for himself. Logan wanted a daughter someday, he decided firmly as Katie let go of Cole’s hands and with two wobbly pushes, fell into Logan’s arms. Logan held her tiny form as tight as he dared, her arms squeezing around his neck.

“You stay with me for a moment, okay?” he whispered in French, and scooped her into his arms.

“Cute, hm?” Logan said, as he fell into stride with Cole.

Cole’s smile was fond as he looked at Katie. “Very. Except when broccoli is involved.”

“Ouais,” Logan laughed, remembering. If Katie had been his daughter, he could say she got her sweet tooth from him. “Um. Reyes…”

Cole look expectantly at him, and Logan held Katie closer.

“Um,” Logan said, and felt his neck heat. “So, I live with Finn and Leo.”

“Leo,” Katie repeated happily, watching some of the Weasley kids toss a puck around.

“Right,” Cole nodded, obviously confused. He still had the new-rookie look of being intimidated by the entire team. It reminded Logan of himself. It reminded Logan of Sirius, of Leo.

Logan realized that he had no idea how to do this. He glanced behind him, looking for Finn or Leo, both better with words. He’d said it to Sirius, back at All Stars. He’d said it to his family. Why was this harder?

“Right,” Logan mumbled, eyes down, watching both of their feet skate slowly around the outer edge of the rink. “So, I…”

“They’re together,” Cole blurted, then flushed. “I—sorry. Jesus, sorry, I just…right? I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”

“I…” Logan really wished he hadn’t.

“They’re…not?”

“How did you…”

“I thought I saw something,” Cole looked more nervous than Logan felt. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to assume. I know that…I didn’t mean anything bad about them.”

“Why does them being together mean something bad about them?” Logan replied.

“It doesn’t,” Cole said quickly. “Fuck, it doesn’t. I just—some guys in this…area of work…think that. I thought…I didn’t know what you meant. Sorry.”

For the love of God, Logan thought. Cole was worried Logan would be offended on his friends’ behalf that he had implied they were together. He didn’t blame him. That was how most locker rooms worked a lot of the time.

Logan looked down at his skates again, at the soft rhythm of their strides, gathering himself. Cole’s nerves were putting him off, but he supposed it was good that he was so nervous. And that he’d suspected and hadn’t blinked, though Logan still wondered what he’d seen.

He stopped their strides with sharp turn.

“It’s not Finn and Leo,” Logan said, and realized he could hear his own heart in his ears. “It’s Finn and Leo and myself.”

Cole stared at him for a moment. Logan watched his eyes find Finn and Leo somewhere behind him and wondered if they were looking or pointedly not looking.

“I didn’t get to be with them last year at family skate because I’m…” Logan huffed out a breath. “I’m…never mind. But I want to be able to this year. And so I’m telling you. Sorry we didn’t.”

“It’s okay,” Cole said softly. He smiled a half smile, eyes warm. “I’m the new rookie. I get it. I’m…I’m glad you thought you could.”

“Please don’t—”

“Not mine to tell,” Cole said, and then nodded to where Logan guessed Finn and Leo were lingering after all. “See you for the scrimmage, yeah?”

Logan just stared after him as he skated away. Something about his words…Logan liked them. They weren’t, I’ll keep your secret. They were it’s your truth to tell.

He felt Leo’s presence before he saw him. He brushed up against his shoulder, nice and close.

“Okay?” Leo said softly. He was smiling, blond hair bright beneath his gray beanie, and poked Katie’s tummy, making her giggle.

“I’m exhausted,” Logan mumbled, and then took Leo’s hand and squeezed it, warm all over.

“Heads up, Jules!” Adele called as she passed a puck to Julian, who took it up ice with a control that filled Remus with pride.

“He’s been practicing,” he said to his mom, and Hope smiled, nodding.

“He has. I think for this very day.”

Remus laughed, and then tried to be subtle about scooting just a little closer. He knew it was a bit of a travel pain, but he was glad to be going home for Christmas. He missed the familiarity of his living room on Christmas morning. Not that he would jump out of bed like Julian, but if he did, he’d know just where to step to keep quiet.

Hope patted his thigh. “You know I’ll be nothing but happy to see you and Jules on our old go-to pond again, but I have to ask…”

Remus smiled. “Uh-huh, I know you do.”

“Well, it’s not like we’re the ones with the mansion and guest quarters with its own kitchenette.”

Remus laughed. “What? I just thought it would be nice.”

Hope raised an eyebrow, wrapping an arm around Remus’ shoulder. “Gryffindor’s making you a little squeamish these days, baby. I can see that. You don’t have to lie to me.”

Remus felt warmed by the fact that his mom could still do that to him.

“I…it’s not really a lie, even if you’re right, too.”

“Okay,” Hope nodded. “True.”

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t…” Remus said after a moment of biting his lip. “It feels like it did after my shoulder. I can’t do anything. It makes me—not scoring makes me miss hockey. Even when it’s right in front of me. And missing it makes me mad, and then I’m mad and I can’t score.”

“I’m going to turn into the substitute teacher I was for about two years before I realized I do not like teaching groups of twenty children,” Hope said, then put on a mockingly slow voice, making Remus snort. “I heard the phrase I can’t in there about twenty times.”

“Mom,” Remus laughed. “I’m not trying to do long division, I’m up against the greatest players in the world.”

“Which probably means a lot of people thought you qualified to be one of them.”

Remus looked down. “I’m worried about Sirius.”

“Oh, yes, the most pressing issue. What’s it like to have a boy who can’t keep his eyes off of you?”

Remus glanced up through his lashes. Sirius was, indeed, glancing over at them. He smiled, maybe a little hesitantly, and went back to talking to Layla and Nado.

“What if I’m letting him down? He hasn’t said anything, but…and he’s been, like, not sneaking around but…I don’t know.”

“How?” Hope said, looping her arm through his. “How would you let him down, baby? Tell me.”

Remus opened his mouth, then closed it, shaking his head.

“How are you different than your teammates when they do something wrong?”

“They weren’t the PT,” Remus blurted. “No one’s questioning that they have a right to be here.”

And there it was.

“Because they’re not dating the captain,” Remus continued, feeling small. “And no one’s wondering whether this is all some weird sort of favoritism. Something that was bought.”

“Of course you’re thinking about that,” Hope said. “No, you’re not the same as them. They didn’t go through what you did in college, and they didn’t go through what you did last year. They didn’t have their future and then their privacy stolen from them. But you are,” Hope said around slight tears in her throat. “deserving of everything you have fought for. All the time spent being a wonderful person when the world didn’t make it even a little easy.”

Remus swallowed hard. “Mom…”

“You have to start believing it first,” Hope said softly, offering a smile. “Believe me. You deserve to be right where you are.” She kissed his cheek. “And go easy on yourself. Okay?”

“Remus!” Julian’s voice came, and Remus sniffed, laughing as his mom did the same.

He nodded, squeezing where their arms were linked. “Okay.”

“Re, you have to get changed for the game,” Julian skated fast, crashing into the boards in an excited heap. “Come on.”

“I’m coming,” Remus said, rising and trying to blink his wet eyes away. “All right, all right, cool it.”

Remus felt good after getting changed. He liked listening to Finn and Alex banter, liked seeing how happy Thomas was as Noelle changed into her gear beside him.

“Pascal,” Sirius called out as they filed out of the tunnel, already poised at center ice, spinning his stick idly between his two gloved fists. “You’re not stealing Remus from my team this year.”

“Oh,” Pascal smiled. “How sweet, is that what you think?”

Finn just snorted, holding up the quarter he had just been making disappear and reappear for the kids. “Heads or tails?”

“Heads,” Sirius said without hesitation, and looked at Remus. Remus tilted his head with a grin.

Finn whistled as he smacked the quarter on the back of his hand. “Heads it is, Captain.”

“Loops,” Sirius crowed happily, holding his arms out for Remus to skate into.

“Why don’t you let the cameras stay for this cute shit,” Marlene shouted from the bench.

“Nothing’s cute when there are cameras around,” Logan shouted back from where he was nestled under one of Leo’s arms, despite both of their bulky padding.

Remus knew his parents and little brother were watching, but he let himself linger a little in Sirius’ kiss anyway, just because he could. Just to show himself how far he’d come from secrecy. Sirius seemed to be having the same thoughts, tilting Remus’ chin up for another quick kiss when Remus made to pull away.

“My line,” Sirius said.

The teams divided up pretty evenly after that, and Julian dropped the first puck before scurrying out of the way as Sirius and Pascal went for it hard. Sirius won it, but Noelle defending with Thomas was basically as brick of a wall as Kasey was. Remus was panting with the effort to keep the pass Sirius had shot him. He tapped it back to James, laughing when Harry let out a happy, high-pitched scream from the bench. Their laughter ruined whatever play they were thinking of, and Noelle all but cackled when she stole it back, passing it to Logan.

“Do something, baby bro!” she shouted.

Remus thought he heard Logan curse under his breath as Remus shoved him into the boards two seconds later.

“Sorry, Tremz!” Remus laughed, and got the puck back to James.

“No boarding!” Coach hollered from the bench. “If I have to put someone on IR in the name of Christmas, I’m going to be real angry!”

Remus’ entire attention was drawn to Sirius’ delighted laugh that sounded as he nipped the puck back from James, who had taken it from Logan again. Remus watched him skate hard, and pushed into a long stride to catch up.

“Cap!” Remus shouted as he dodged around Logan’s block. Thomas, double-teaming just behind Logan, swerved with him, and for a moment, Remus thought he was going to miss the pass. But he picked his stick up, pushed hard off his skate to get to the right circle, and pivoted again. The puck hit heavily on his stick blade, and Remus snapped it towards Leo, just above his right shoulder.

The goal light lit up. There was no horn, not for just a scrimmage, but there might as well have been with the amount of noise his teammates—his family—put up. James slammed into him, then Thomas and Logan. He felt the light bump of Leo’s goalie mask from behind him.

Remus let out a breathless laugh and raised his head, looking for dark hair.

“Re, Re, Re,” he could hear Sirius’ voice, laughing again. Remus almost cared about that more than the goal. Sirius had looked so sad the other night.

Do you regret it?

And then Sirius’ mouth was on his, still laughing, half kissing.

“Maybe we can still read each other’s minds,” Remus laughed helplessly, then grinned at the arms wrapped around his hips and looked down. “What do you think of that, Jules?”

“We’re winning,” Julian all but tried to pick Remus up in his excitement. “New lines, new lines!” He shouted, waving almost frantically at the others. “Keep playing, we have to keep the momentum going!”

Alex laughed as he skated onto the ice with Finn. “Maybe you should be the coach, little Loops.”

Remus’ attention was drawn back to Sirius with a kiss to the cheek.

“Nice to see it’s still there,” Sirius laughed, then faltered.

Remus tried to hide his wince, keeping his arms tight around Sirius. “Ouch.”

“Non,” Sirius said. “Fuck, I didn’t mean…”

“It’s okay,” Remus sighed, leaning into Sirius’ shoulder. “I’m glad to see it, too.”

“I’m sorry,” Sirius said into his hair. “That was such a stupid thing to say.”

“Kind of,” Remus laughed. The words were rolling off of him right now. Sirius hadn’t meant it like that and, truthfully, he was glad to see that he could still score a goddamn goal. Even if it was just in a scrimmage against Kasey.

Sirius shook his head, pressed a gloved hand over his eyes. “It’s not what I meant, Re.”

Remus just pressed a hand over Sirius’ chest. “It’s okay. Really.” He leaned up for a quick kiss. “Really. I was just as surprised as everyone else.”

“I…I’m a little pent up, I guess.”

“No way, really?”

Sirius just groaned through a laugh and dipped his head into Remus’ shoulder. Remus let himself settle into it.

“We both are,” Remus whispered.

“I’m sorry,” Sirius whispered back. “I just want us to be…I really meant it as a good thing.”

“Baby,” Remus said. “I’m only going to get annoyed if you keep apologizing. It’s really okay. I know.” He took Sirius’ cheeks in his palms until their eyes met. They were a little red from being on the ice for so long. “It’s okay.” He peppered a short kiss to Sirius’ mouth. “I’m…I’m trying. I think I feel better. Today’s been really really nice.”

Sirius’ smile was a little smushed by Remus’ palms. “I’m still excited to watch Hope baby you.”

“Baby me?” Remus laughed, giving Sirius a shove. “I think we both know you’re her new favorite one to baby.”

“Love birds,” Alex called in a sing-song voice. He had a Rangers hat on, Remus noticed. “I am patiently waiting to score on my boyfriend. If you could move it along.”

Sirius looked down at Remus. “Hat trick, just for his tone of voice?”

Remus grinned back. “Definitely.”

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futurebicon · 3 years

Text

Okay, wait.

Alex is dating Kasey and Natalie.

Alex and Finn are brothers.

Finn is dating Leo and Logan.

Logan and Noelle are brother and sister.

Noelle is dating Thomas.

So if they all get married.

Are they all related through marriage?

@lumosinlove

#lumosinlove #sweater weather #sweater weather lumosinlove #oknutzy #odarwin #thomas walker #noelle tremblay #i don't know how family tree stuff works so I'm probably wrong #do noelle and thomas have a ship name?#vaincre

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onlydreamofmysoul · 3 years

Text

Gingerbread (Ficmas #1)

Here we go!!! Ficmas day one! Super excited about this - I’ve never done ficmas before! As promised... a little sweet competition!

Characters and their world by @lumosinlove “Is everyone ready?” Celeste asked, standing around her kitchen, looking at the room nearly overflowing with hockey players and their loved ones. “Leo and I are the judges. The rules are simple, you all have to build a gingerbread house, everything you need is right in front of you. The best looking one wins, okay?”

Remus grinned and nodded, nudging Sirius excitedly. They had everything - including the gingerbread premade by Celeste herself, so even if it looked like a disaster it was sure to taste amazing. Not that theirs would look anything less than fantastic.

On second thought, maybe a group of highly competitive athletes working against each other instead of with each other was a bad idea.

“Okay guys!” Leo called as he hopped up to sit on the counter and oversee the proceedings. “You have one hour. Your time starts.... Now!”

Remus grinned at Sirius, and then they set to work.

Logan knew watching Leo be all authoritative as a judge while he just had to watch would be hard. He didn’t know it would be torture. He was teamed with Adele and Katie, but Adele had to keep hitting his arm to get his attention.

“Logan,” She warned. “I want to win. Now are you gonna focus or not?”

Logan shook his head. Leo could wait. He had a competition to win. “Oui, sorry yes I’m good now.”

Adele nodded, apparently satisfied and Katie drew their attention back to her when she started bouncing in her seat.

“Allez!” She said, her eyes wide, “Tremzy come on I wanna get to the part where I can eat it.”

Logan chuckled but obliged her, obediently holding pieces of gingerbread in place at the girls’ command as the icing dried.

“Okay, no pressure or anything, but your name’s Noelle so I’m expecting you to dominate this Christmas thing.” Thomas said, only partially jokingly as Noelle carefully piped the outline of their ‘windows’.

“Um, excuse you Thomas Walker,” She replied, “What does it look like I’m doing?”

“Okay, but hear me out,” Thomas started as he picked up a piece of gingerbread, and started piping green spikes on it. “We should have pine trees in front of it.”

Noelle looked at him like he was losing his mind. “Babe, it’s a gingerbread house.” She said slowly as if it were a foreign concept.

“I know!” Thomas said, excitedly waving his hands and as he did, his pine tree went flying through the air and landed in Kasey’s hair.

Kasey turned around very slowly and looked around menacingly, reaching up and pulling the biscuit out of his hair, leaving green splotches and crumbs in its wake.

“Who?” He ground out, and Thomas looked around with a shocked expression. “I have no idea! Noelle? Did you see anything?”

Noelle bit down her laugh and shook her head. “Non. Maybe it was one of the kids?” She said, looking over at Logan’s table to where Katie had more icing on her than the house. Kasey followed her and his vision softened. He nodded once and turned back around, Thomas made another tree and held it up to Noelle.

“They’ll never see it coming.” He said, finally finishing his statement. Noelle rolled her eyes, but in the end, there were a ton of palm trees in their ‘garden’.

Finn was with Pascal and Marc, all of them particularly competitive and set on winning except there was one little problem… None of them had ever actually made a gingerbread house before.

“I think it goes like this?” Marc said, tilting his head as he stuck two pieces together, the icing going everywhere. He let go and they all held their breath while the biscuits stood for about ten seconds before collapsing so slowly it was actually a little sad.

“I say we give up and just eat everything.” Finn proposed. Marc nodded, Dumo looked like he was going to put up a fight, but one glance at their gingerbread wreckage had his shoulders slumping. He reached out and broke off a bit of biscuit, popping it into his mouth with a grin.

“At least it tastes good?”

“But we didn’t make-” Marc began.

“Shh.” Finn cut him off with a playful wink. “At least it tastes good.”

Kasey’s hair was green and that had been a problem but then Alex promised he’d wash it out himself later that night and well, those words along with the little wink Natalie sent him had Kasey pretty okay with the whole situation. He sat there, smiling softly as he listened to Alex and Natalie chat away while Kasey did all the actual work, creating quite a nice gingerbread house, thank you very much.

Kasey grew up with his dad baking every Sunday and he’d always help. He wasn’t ashamed to say he was quite handy with a piping bag, and Alex was watching with wide eyes as Kasey piped ‘snow’ on the roof.

“How-” Alex stuttered, his eyes focused on Kasey’s hand.

Natalie bit down her smile. “He likes to keep people guessing.”

“I… I’m not complaining.”

“Like what you see O’Hara?” Kasey asked, unable to stop himself from teasing the other man. Alex was as prone to flushing a deep red as his brother, but Kasey found Alex looked a lot boyish when it happened to him.

“I definitely like what I’m seeing.” Alex replied, before cheekily dipping his finger in the icing and smirking at Kasey as he ate it.

Natalie laughed at them both as she leaned in and kissed the sugar dusting Alex’s lips. Kasey raised an eyebrow, but kept looking at what he was doing, until Alex was standing next to him.

“Open up.” Alex prompted, holding his icing coated finger up to Kasey’s lips. Kasey made eye contact with Natalie for a split second, before doing as instructed, smiling into the kiss Alex gave him after.

“Chocolate was always my favourite.” Alex said with a sigh as he sat back down, Natalie placing her feet in his lap as she shamelessly ate the sweets they needed to decorate. Kasey glanced up to see Leo already looking at him.

“Redheads.” Leo mouthed with a shrug, “Gotta love em.”

Leo had to admit, sitting back and watching the world devolve into chaos was quite entertaining. He could still taste the gingerbread Finn had given him, their house looking more like it had been hit by a hurricane instead of like someone had actually tried to, you know, build it. Logan’s little team was doing a whole lot better, it was looking a little messy but Katie was doing a lot of the icing and well, there’s only so neat kids can be, try as they might.

Leo’s heart melted as it always did when he would watch Logan with Dumo’s kids. He was just so good with them and they adored him in turn. One of the spare bedrooms in their apartment had been the designated spot for where they would keep presents until they were able to give them out, and Leo was fairly sure half of the room’s contents were just Logan’s presents for the little Dumais’.

“Are rookies even allowed to be judges?” Thomas queried as Leo passed and Leo had fun getting to act all haughty. Thomas looked particularly suspicious and Leo didn’t miss the correlation between the green icing he sported and the little patch of colour in Kasey’s hair. Leo filed that little bit of information away for a day he could really use it.

“Do you think it’s a good idea to get on a judge's bad side, Talkie?”

“Hey, you love me!” Thomas protested and Noelle shook her head.

“No, but he loves me.” She said looking at Leo and winking. “You’ve got to stay on the good side of your future in-laws.”

Leo felt himself flush even as Logan twisted in his seat to look at them. “Tricheuse!” Logan cried. “Leo baby don’t listen to her, she just wants to win.” He stuck out his tongue at Noelle.

Leo abandoned Noelle and Thomas to crouch next to Logan, smirking. “Am I not marriage material Tremblay?”

Another time, earlier in their relationship maybe, Logan would have scrambled to reassure Leo, probably tripping over his own words so many times nothing actually coherent came out. Now though, Logan just smiled at him lazily.

“The most. I just mean she loves you either way, I think there’s literally nothing you could do that would make her not like you.”

Leo kissed him on the cheek before laughing as Katie wrapped her arms around him.

“Salut Katie!” He said, standing up to throw her in the air, Katie shrieking with laughter before Leo set her back down on her chair. Leo stood up and began to move away, but not before he missed Katie unintentionally chirping Logan, “Leo throws me high.” She said in a serious tone as Leo snorted his laughter, shaking his head as he moved away.

Regulus hadn’t been sure about building a gingerbread house with Nado and Kuny - he didn't really know them and as a general rule, he didn’t like to spend too much time with people he didn’t know. But Dima got on with them really well and Dima was his friend so here Regulus was, building a gingerbread house in Pascal Dumais’ house. Two snakes in a lion's den.

“Are you sure that will hold?” Regulus found himself asking sceptically as Kuny attempted to build a several story building. Gingerbread house - more like gingerbread mansion if Kuny had his way.

Nado answered instead just nodding his head. “Of course.”

“Fair enough.” Regulus conceded, happy to sit back and watch the proceedings. He glanced around the room, still not quite sure where he fit into this chaotic little familial like team, but happy to be here all the same. More than happy to see nothing but pure joy on his brother’s face. Hope because maybe Regulus could find that kind of happiness here too.

“D’accord!” Celeste called, clapping her hands. “Okay everyone step away from your tables, your time is up!”

The team piled into the sitting room as Celeste and Leo judged all the gingerbread houses. Sirius and James sat on the floor, with Harry playing happily with them. Remus and Lily sat snugly on the couch above them, both nursing mugs of tea and heads bent together as they caught each other up on the events of the last couple of weeks.

Finn and Logan were having an arm wrestling competition in the corner and most of the others piled around to watch them, all yelling for someone. Logan won, Finn hanging his head in shame and then they were both immediately challenged by the rest of the team, Logan battling (and losing quite dramatically) to Katie.

Leo and Celeste came back into the room, looking quite smug as they held up a cardboard trophy.

“We have the winner,” Leo said to get everyone’s attention and the sudden hush that fell upon the room was quite comical.

“Drumroll!” Thomas cried and the room was filled with the rapid thuds of everyone slapping their hands against the nearest object.

“And the winner is…” Celeste drew out, “Katie, Adele and Logan!”

The trio jumped up, hugging and high fiving.

Logan stood up on a chair and pressed his hands against his chest in gratitude.

“Thank you, thank you,” He joked, wiping away a fake tear. “We’ve been dreaming about this for, mon dieu, I don’t know how long.”

“You weren’t this dramatic when you won MVP!” Sirius called from the back of the room and Logan winked at him before continuing. “I think Adele had the idea that secured our win though, Adele?”

The girl dashed to the kitchen and came back with their little gingerbread house, the outside entirely lined by little gingerbread people.

“We made the team!” Katie said, bouncing on her toes. There was a rush as everyone came over to have a look and before long, everyone was grabbing their figurine and eating them.

“Goodbye little Thomas.” Talkie said mournfully before biting its head off.

“Hey, maybe now I can give myself head.” Leo muttered to Finn, who promptly choked, spitting crumbs everywhere as he flushed a deep red.

Remus leaned back into Sirius as they munched on their biscuits.

“This is fun. We should do it again next year.”

Sirius wiped the crumbs from his lip and tightened his hold on Remus’ waist. “And the year after that, and they year after that, and the ye-”

Remus giggled, twisting in Sirius’ arms to shut him up by kissing him. “Yeah, baby. I’d like that.”

#sweater weather lumosinlove #coast to coast lumosinlove #lumosinlove #coops #o'knutzy #nalexey #thomas walker #Remus Lupin #Sirius Black #finn o'hara #Leo knut #logan Tremblay #pascal dumais #regulus black #12 days of ficmas

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peggyrose19 · 3 years

Text

Midnight Kisses

HAPPY NEW YEAR LOVELIES!! I’M MANIFESTING A HAPPY 2021 DAMMIT!! SO ENJOY MY PAINFULLY FLUFFY MIDNIGHT KISS FICS FOR THE SW SHIPS. THESE ARE SHIT CAUSE I STARTED THEM AT 9PM BUT IT’S FINE.

I’ll stop yelling now. I really wanna explain all of these but I’m not going to because there’s honestly no need, I just tend to over-explain things. So enjoy all the fluff and love in these little one-shots. Characters from the amazingly talented @lumosinlove. I wish you all the most boring, uneventful 2021 <333

Coops

“Look, baby,” Remus whispered, pointing up at the sky, although the fireworks were hard to miss.

“They’re beautiful,” Sirius murmured. He wasn’t looking at the fireworks exploding in the night sky, but the man in his arms. Remus glanced down at him, catching his eye.

“What?”

Sirius shook his head. “Nothing. Just… happy. I love you.”

Remus smiled, seeming to understand what he meant. He remembered the late night, exactly a year earlier, when he had swallowed those words down, all dim light and flushed cheeks in the back of a car, hiding from the world. Not that it had mattered.

“I love you too,” he said back, pressing a kiss to Sirius’ cheek, and then his lips. It wasn’t yet midnight, wouldn’t be for a few hours, but Remus didn’t care. He could kiss Sirius, his fiancé, in wide open now without fear. It was a privilege he was never taking for granted.

When midnight did come, and fireworks were set off once more, Remus kissed him again, surrounded by their friends and family as they all rung in the new year. Sirius was sweet and pliant beneath his hands, arms wrapped tightly around him, never letting go.

It was the perfect start to a new year.

O’Knutzy

“Happy New Year, baby!” Logan shouted, arm wrapped around Finn’s neck.

“Lo, that was the oven,” Leo sighed from the kitchen. “It’s 11:32. Honestly, we should not have let him drink so much.”

Finn just shrugged, accepting the wet kisses Logan was now planting to his cheek and neck.

Leo fought a smile as he watched them. So maybe drunk Logan was kind of endearing.

“Here.” He held out one of the pigs-in-blankets from the batch cooling on the counter, and Logan took it happily in his mouth.

“Yum,” he managed around it, grinning at Leo. Finn accepted one too, still caught by Logan’s arms around him. Leo ate one too, then walked around the island to their side, wrapping his arms around them both. He kissed Logan’s cheek.

“I’m glad I get to spend the new year with the two of you,” he murmured.

“We’re glad too, baby,” Finn replied, twisting to press a quick kiss to his lips. “I love you.”

“Love you too, Fish.”

“I love you Knutty!” Logan yelled, and they both jumped.

“Oh, Tremzy,” Finn sighed. “What are we gonna do with you.”

Logan’s eyes lit up. “Kiss me?”

Leo gave him a quick kiss and pulled away. “At midnight,” he promised when Logan pouted at the loss of contact.

“Well, midnight needs to hurry up and get here then,” he grumbled. Finn just laughed and tugged him towards the couch.

“C’mon, let’s wait for the ball to drop.”

Logan let himself be pulled, collapsing nearly on top of Finn and making no move to adjust his position. Finn flipped the television on and pulled a blanket over them, leaving room for Leo once he was done in the kitchen.

A moment later, Leo joined them in watching the commercials currently playing, snuggling into Logan’s side, smiling happily. They watched quietly, enjoying each other’s silent company, until it was nearly time.

At five minutes to, Leo pulled the champagne from the cabinet. Logan was nearly bouncing up and down. Leo wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to give him more alcohol.

As the countdown began, Finn took the bottle from Leo. When they hit one, he popped it open, and all three of them cheered. With wide grins, Finn and Leo kissed Logan’s cheeks, and then each other, and then Logan one by one.

They drank their champagne and kissed again, sloppy and sticky and in love.

When they fell back onto the couch, tangled together in a pile of limbs and blankets, it was to the sound of fireworks outside and the pounding of their own hearts, the taste of champagne on their lips, and the overwhelming feeling of the happiness that was to come.

Thoelle

Thomas still couldn’t quite believe his luck. He couldn’t believe it when he woke in the morning to Noelle asleep at his side, or the days she would pick him up at the rink, or the kiss she gave him each night before bed.

He certainly didn’t believe it was two minutes to midnight and she was by his side, arm around his waist as they waited impatiently for the ball to drop and the hour hand to fall to the 12.

“What’re you thinking about?” she asked him, dark hair falling in a curtain over her shoulder. He ran a hand through it, in love with the silkiness and the way always she melted under his touch.

“You,” he replied softly.

“What a charmer you are,” she murmured, but her cheeks were flushed.

“Still can’t believe it.”

“Believe what?” She had turned more towards him now.

“That I have you. Still feels like a dream sometimes.”

She smiled, ducking her head. Noelle wasn't usually one to shy away from attention, but sometimes he could still get her. Thomas leaned down and lightly kissed her nose, making her laugh and look back up at him.

“You wanna know something?” she asked.

“What?”

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Thomas replied almost instantly, on instinct. Noelle laughed a little, eyes wide.

“You do?”

“Of course.”

She opened her mouth to respond, but was interrupted by a loud shout, the countdown beginning around them. Instead she just grinned up at him.

“You ready for a new year?”

“With you by my side? Hell, yeah.”

Together, they shouted the last few numbers, “Four...three...two...one!”

As cheers erupted around them, Thomas leaned down and kissed Noelle softly.

“I love you, Noelle Tremblay,” he murmured against her lips. She pulled away and laughed, giddy and free, wrapped in his arms and warmth.

She kissed him again, whispering back, “I love you too, Thomas Walker.”

O’Darwin

Kasey’s constant was back, at least for a little while.

It had been a surprise, to see Alex standing on their doorstep three days before New Years, a suitcase in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. Natalie had jumped on him instantly, taking the bottle from him and kissing him, tugging him into the apartment by the collar of his jacket.

“Alex O’Hara,” she had scolded him, “How dare you show up here unannounced?” Alex had just grinned.

“I wanted to surprise you.”

Kasey had shaken his head, kissing Alex softly and settling by his side on the couch. He was glad Alex was home, even if it was just for a few days. He had missed him.

Now it was nearly midnight on New Year’s Eve. All three of them were drunk, happily sequestered in the apartment. Natalie and Alex were dancing to bad pop music, leftover lights from Christmas sending rainbows dancing across their faces as they moved, with glitter in their hair and champagne on their lips. They had meant to save it for midnight, truly.

“Kase, come dance with us!” Natalie laughed, grabbing his hand and tugging him off the sofa. He let her, smiling softly at the two of them.

He looked up as the clock on the mantle began chiming, and fireworks began outside.

“Happy New Year,” he murmured to them and Natalie and Alex both cheered. They kissed each other, and then him, and Kasey smiled at the taste.

Beginning the new year with his two favorite people wasn’t so bad after all.

Nuny

The phone woke Jackson from his nap. He answered it groggily, not bothering to read the caller name.

“Hello?” he asked grumpily.

“Nado?” a familiar voice asked and suddenly he was wide awake.

“Zhenya. Hey. How are you?”

“I’m good. It is uh… how you say? Midnight here.”

“Oh!” Jackson squinted at his watch, quickly doing the math on the time difference. “I guess it is. Well, happy new year.”

“Thank you.” Evgeni fell silent for a long moment. “I’m wish you were here,” he said finally, breaking the silence.

Jackson sighed. “Me too. I miss you.”

“Miss you. I see you soon, da?”

He smiled. “Yeah. Yeah, Kuns, soon.”

“I’m kiss you then.”

That made Jackson laugh quietly. “Yeah, you kiss me then.” He bit his lip. “Go to sleep, Zhenya. I’ll call you again in the morning.”

“Okay. I’m call later.”

“Good, okay. Happy New Year, Kuns.”

“Happy New Year.”

Jily

Harry was getting big. It felt like just a week ago he had been a tiny newborn, fitting in the palm of James’ hand with room to spare. Lily didn’t mind. Usually. He was nearly a year old now, able to crawl all around the house and make endless babbling noises, talking to his stuffed animals and the bugs in the garden.

He was crawling around the living room now, dressed in a new onesie that wouldn’t fit him in another two weeks, picking at the carpet and up way past his bedtime.

Lily and James had missed the actual countdown, preoccupied with chasing their little gremlin around the house and failing to put him to bed. Even little Harry seemed to sense the excitement in the air.

It was nearly one in the morning by the time Harry finally fell asleep, stuffed lion clutched in his tiny fingers. The two exhausted parents collapsed onto the couch, leaning into each other as their eyes slipped shut.

“I can’t believe he stayed up… for six extra hours,” Lily mumbled without opening her eyes. James just grumbled. “We missed the countdown, too.”

“‘S okay,” he answered sleepily, “We can do it next year.”

“Yeah.” They fell silent. Eventually, Lily said, “We should get to bed.”

They stumbled to their feet and upstairs to their bedroom, too tired to even bother with brushing their teeth. They just fell into bed, curled up together exhausted and happy.

“Happy New Year, Lily,” James whispered into the darkness.

“Happy New Year,” she whispered back, and kissed him sweetly. She snuggled closer, laying her head on his chest, and the two fell instantly asleep to the distant sound of leftover fireworks.

#HAPPY NEW YEAR #coop #o'knutzy #thoelle #o'darwin #nuny #jily #lumosinlove #sweater weather #coast to coast #midnight kisses #fluff #love #new year's eve #here's to an uneventful 2021 #love you all

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ao3feed-jily · 2 years

Text

The Major League

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3lXMQV2

by Achliegh

Baseball boys falling in love

What could go wrong?

;)

Words: 4711, Chapters: 2/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sweater Weather - Lumosinlove

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Multi

Characters: Leo Knut (lumosinlove), Logan Tremblay (lumosinlove), Finn O'Hara (lumosinlove), Clayton Bruss, James Potter, Lily Evans Potter, Evgeni Kuznetsov (lumosinlove), Jackson Nadeau (lumosinlove), Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Noelle Tremblay (lumosinlove), Thomas Walker (lumosinlove)

Relationships: Leo Knut/Finn O'Hara/Logan Tremblay (lumosinlove), Leo Knut/Logan Tremblay (lumosinlove), Finn O'Hara/Clayton Bruss, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Evgeni Kuznetsov/Jackson Nadeau (lumosinlove), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Noelle Tremblay/Thomas Walker (lumosinlove), Noelle Tremblay/Thomas Walker/Clayton Bruss

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Baseball, Fluff, Smut, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Adopted Leo, adopted clay, adopted brothers - Freeform, Swedish knuts, Mild Injury, Cheating

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3lXMQV2

#ao3feed #fanfic #Harry Potter #Jily #James Potter #Lily Evans #Lily Potter #Lily Evans Potter

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ao3feed-snape · 3 years

Text

The Major League

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/3yLPIZu

by Achliegh

Baseball Boys meeting and falling in Love

What could go wrong… ;)

Words: 171, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Sweater Weather - Lumosinlove

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Multi

Characters: Leo Knut (lumosinlove), Logan Tremblay (lumosinlove), Finn O'Hara (lumosinlove), Thomas Walker (lumosinlove), Noelle Tremblay (lumosinlove), Clayton Bruss, Evgeni Kuznetsov (lumosinlove), Jackson Nadeau (lumosinlove), James Potter, Lily Evans Potter, Harry Potter, Severus Snape, Tom Riddle | Voldemort, Regulus Black, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Kasey Winter (lumosinlove)

Relationships: Leo Knut/Finn O'Hara/Logan Tremblay (lumosinlove), Leo Knut/Logan Tremblay (lumosinlove), Sirius Black/Remus Lupin, Noelle Tremblay/Thomas Walker (lumosinlove), Thomas Walker/Noelle Tremblay/Clayton Bruss, Evgeni Kuznetsov/Jackson Nadeau (lumosinlove)

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Baseball, Polyamorous Character, Drama & Romance, Smut, Fluff, Angst

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3yLPIZu

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #Severus Snape #Snape #Professor Snape #SS

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fruitcoops · 23 days

Note

49. Talkmas.

(49) “Well this is awkward…”

All characters belong to @lumosinlove :)

It's not that Thomas was an idiot. Far from it; leaps and bounds, in fact. How many times had Noelle looked at him like that, trailed kisses across his forehead and temples like that, all while whispering the most incredible things?

Brilliant, mon amour. Ma cher, trop mignon, extraordinaire.

Her hands were around his waist this morning, her head on the back of his shoulder. She was humming along to the music in her early-voice, the one that rasped the same as the fireplace crackling low in the living room. December had brought heavy snow in the night. Thomas had told her he had never seen a Christmas without it, and she had laughed and kissed him and agreed, curling into his side to fall asleep in soft flannel sheets from her mother's linen cabinet.

The Tremblay house, like its owners, was all kinds of warm.

And Thomas wasn't an idiot, far from it, brilliant and extraordinary, so he had not forgotten the youngest inhabitant (cats not included).

It appeared he may have been an outlier in that sense.

Heavy footsteps creaked on the stairs. "Nolly!"

Noelle made a drowsy noise of acknowledgement against Thomas' bicep as it flexed to bring his coffee cup to his mouth. A burst of French, faster and more smooth than Thomas was accustomed to, followed.

And cut short.

Green eyes flared wide, flicked down to Noelle's arms, and narrowed to slits. Bedhead and the general sleepy comfort of someone home for the holidays greatly diminished any possibility of intimidation, but Thomas didn't think Logan would appreciate it if he started laughing.

Pain flared along the inside of Thomas' cheek where his teeth dug in to force down a grin. Something told him a well-placed well, this is awkward would not be well-received either.

Logan let out a breath through his nose, still silently examining them with quick darts of his gaze. Thomas felt it like an itch, but it was quickly soothed by a nudge of Noelle's forehead on his shoulder and the pass of her thumb along his rib where she held him from behind.

"Did you--" Logan silenced himself with another slow exhale. His thumb tapped the banister knob.

Thomas took another sip of coffee.

Logan's hip bumped the banister. He tilted his head, not unlike the fluffy cat that had peered out at Thomas from behind the couch when he arrived, and nodded.

Slowly, but nodded all the same.

"D'accord," Logan muttered under his breath, turning abruptly to beeline for the hot chocolate cupboard with the familiarity Thomas had so admired in Noelle an hour prior.

He couldn't pass up this opportunity. He just couldn't.

"Merry Christmas!"

The disgruntled whine Logan let out was well worth a playful swat to his hip.

#thomas walker #noelle tremblay #logan tremblay #talkmas #sweater weather #vaincre #lumosinlove #my fic #fanfic #short fic #christmas #fluff

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fruitcoops · 1 year

Note

just had a tornado blow through...(we're okay, it's kinda normal here). but could we get another blackout/big storm fic? (if you're up for it?)

Glad you're alright! We've got a big storm here tonight as well <3 Have some Lions working through life to distract. Character credit goes to @lumosinlove!

TW mild/ medium relationship issues, Sirius' bad habits, and previous people not being very nice to Leo

There was something in the water. Remus was sure of it.

“Put—stop it! Put it down!”

Maybe carbon monoxide was leaking into the rink. Plus all of their houses and apartments.

“I told you, it’s not about the rutabaga.”

Or, fuck it, Mercury was in the microwave again. In the Gatorade? Something like that. He wondered if Marlene would know.

Arthur knocked on the doorframe and the mass of grumbling died down; the air still tasted like sour sweat and irritation and Remus wrinkled his nose at the mats. After a cursory look around the room, Arthur raised a brow and gestured with his clipboard. “Y’know, I’ve got a lot of notes—a lot of notes—but none of you look like you can handle them right now, so we’re doing the short version. Cap, come see me. Lupin, Moody’s waiting for you, don’t give me that face. Olli, figure your shit out. Kuns…Kuns.” He shook his head. “We’ll talk tomorrow. Tremzy, stop being mean, and Harz, stop being stupid. Bliz, Layla gets the honor of having you this afternoon. Do your cooldowns without biting each others’ heads off, please, and then go home and sleep this off. Goodnight.”

“Night, Coach,” came the mumbled chorus.

Remus chewed the inside of his lip while he stripped his shin pads off. Sirius was already halfway out the door, still in his under armor—the rush of endorphins that usually accompanied the sight of his gorgeous fiancé was notably absent. He closed his eyes and took a breath. Recenter. It was a rough day, rough week, rough whatever. It would be best to just let it go now.

A hand clapped his shoulder and he nearly jumped out of his skin. “Jesus!”

“Woah, hey, easy.” Talker held both hands low, palms down between their stalls. “Just saying hi.”

“What—” Breathe. Recenter. Remus blinked a few times to clear his head. “Fuck, no, you’re good. Sorry. Hi. Sorry.”

Talker’s gaze turned dark with worry. “You okay?”

“Just…in my head.” It was a shit answer, but his vague wave seemed to get the point across. Talker nodded slowly. His hands remained on his own side. “You?”

“Been better, been worse.” He tipped his head back and forth, making his small earring swing. A gift from Noelle, if Remus remembered correctly. He watched it catch the fluorescent light for a few seconds before Talker spoke again. “Weird energy in here.”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah.” Remus turned back to his pads with a humorless laugh. “No kidding. We should crack a window or something.”

Talker hummed, tucking his hands beneath himself. One knee bounced incessantly and Remus tried not to let it bother him. “Reminds me of the you-know-whats.”

Remus’ hands itched to knock on wood. “Yep.”

“But we’re not there. Yet,” Talker added after a pause.

“Nope.”

“Cap’s being…interesting.”

“Tell me about it,” Remus muttered.

Something like relief rippled over Talker’s expression. “So it’s not us.”

“When is it ever?” Remus offered a wry smile. “He gets like this. You know that. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”

Talker’s shoulder relaxed against his own, warm and solid. “Yeah, I guess.”

“It’s really not you, man.”

“I know.”

“T.” Remus waited until he looked over, and ducked his head slightly. “It’s not you.”

The kicked-puppy look in Talker’s eye made his chest hurt. Remus knew he had a tendency to put it all on himself—to think he was solely responsible for maintaining the team’s happiness. They were friends for a reason, after all. A missed pass wasn’t the end of the world, but…god, in the NHL? It sure felt like it.

Leo blew past them, not quite stomping, but certainly not pleased. Remus followed his path and found Logan staring at the floor with the same mournful gaze that plagued half the room. His stomach twisted. For a group of guys with everything in the world, they were a bunch of fucking messes, sometimes.

He patted Talker once on the shoulder before standing; he didn’t bother with shoes. It was a quick enough trip to get by in his socks. Moody’s office door was already open when he arrived, and he had barely raised his hand to knock on the frame when a grunt invited him inside.

The door closed with a faint noise. Silence thickened the air, save for the scribble of Moody’s pen. “Coach said you wanted to see me?” Remus prompted awkwardly. He didn’t like this stiffness. They had never been like that before.

Moody clicked his pen shut and leaned back in his chair with a long sigh, rocking back and forth. “Layla says you’re favoring your bad side.”

Tattletale. Remus bit the instinctive thought back. That wasn’t fair. “Probably.” Moody raised an unamused brow at him. “Yeah,” he admitted, scuffing his foot on the floor. “Yeah, I think so, too.”

“Why?”

“ ‘Cause.”

“The league doesn’t like it when I’m not nice to you boys.” Moody fixed him in place with a look. “But you’re not a snitch, so cough it up, you little shit.”

A scowl tried to claw its way onto Remus’ face, but he kept himself steady. Moody had done too much for him and saved him from too many bad places to be iced out. He kicked at a dust bunny. “Nine years.”

“Since…?”

“Since.”

“Ah.”

He sniffed, dry-eyed and nauseated. “Next Monday. Nine years. I still remember the day and time it happened.”

“We’re not playing Vegas next week.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

Moody went quiet, and stayed that way for a long time. His chair creaked as he rocked in slow, maddening patterns. He’d have his leg off, tucked beneath his desk; he rarely left it on when he didn’t need to. Something about sweat. Itching. The works, he’d grumble if Remus asked. The ‘World’s Best Grandpa’ mug—a gag gift from last year’s Secret Santa—sat undisturbed on his desk, filled to bursting. Pens, pencils, a spoon, a screwdriver, an inexplicable parrot feather, all interspersed with his steadily-growing collection of flags.

Remus remembered the day the first one had appeared. A simple rainbow with a wooden stick, no bigger than a postcard. Moody hadn’t said a thing, but he knew it was for him. It wasn’t the only one anymore. The sight of it still made his throat tight.

“Come see me if you need to,” Moody said at last. He tapped his pen on his stack of papers, then nodded. “For the record, I’m not worried. Out of my office.”

“Have a good night, Moody.” Thunder rolled overhead as he turned to the door. “Get home safe, okay?”

He got another grunt in the affirmative and turned the doorknob, hoping the squeaky top hinge would muffle his sigh. The door swung open, Remus walked face-first into Sirius’ chest, and everything went black as night.

“I don’t know why you’re angry.”

“I’m not angry.”

“Don’t pull that bullshit.”

“My feelings aren’t bullshit.”

“Mon dieu—”

“I’m serious, I’m not angry.” Leo shut the drawer a little harder than necessary. The salt shaker rattled on the counter.

“Then what are you?” Logan demanded, keeping his voice low.

“I’m—” He pressed his lips together and tilted his face up to the ceiling. Upset. Hurt. Stressed. Frustrated. Angry. “I don’t know.”

“I already apologized for the rhubarb—”

“Rutabaga.”

“Jesus, Leo.” Logan’s tone was sharp; he flinched. Okay, maybe he deserved that one. He heard Logan’s unsteady exhale and felt a gentle touch on his arm. “I’m sorry. I should have listened better, or texted you when I wasn’t sure.”

And there it was again, that burning flare of annoyance. Leo shrugged him off and turned to the coffee maker. Someone had left their disposable cup in the machine the last time it was used. The sight made him want to take the entire thing and slam it on the floor.

“Leo?”

“I don’t want you to text me when you aren’t sure.” His voice came out shaky and he silently cursed himself. At least his hands didn’t tremble while he swapped the cups. “I—Logan, I shouldn’t have to be your food dictionary.”

“Hey.”

Leo bit the inside of his cheek at the genuine hurt in Logan’s voice and dug through the mug cupboard. “Look, it’s fine, just…look it up if you’re not sure. It’s not like I hide my cookbooks.”

Or, better yet, be a capable adult. Logan’s sneakers shuffled on the linoleum. Where was his goddamn mug? “D’accord,” he finally said. “Yeah, I’ll—I can do that.”

Was it bad that Leo wanted him to push harder? Maybe he was just jonesing for a fight, but Logan’s instant buckling made him feel even worse. They had been waspish with each other earlier, enough that Finn outright refused to be in the same room until they figured themselves out—perhaps Logan had worn out his ability to argue for the day.

Leo snorted humorlessly. That would be a first.

Pastel yellow caught his peripheral vision. He clenched his hands on the edge of the countertop and took a deep, fortifying breath. Throwing a mug at a wall would get him fired. Throwing things at Logan would never be something he did, in this life or the next, no matter how angry he may or may not be.

Leo plucked the Me-Wow! mug from it’s place—dirty—in the sink—also dirty—by its tail-shaped handle and dropped it in the trash, then walked out of the kitchen, leaving Logan and his coffee behind. Thunder rumbled overhead and guilt bubbled up. He shouldn’t leave like that, not when the storm was only going to get worse. Logan didn’t do well alone and upset. He had almost certainly left his headphones at home, too. Leo was never the one to leave but he just couldn’t take it—

He made it ten feet down the hall before the lights went out and silence doused the building.

Fuck.

James was not live, laugh, loving in these conditions. First of all, his best friend/ best man/ adopted brother was imploding with self-loathing for approximately the seventh time this week. Second, his wife’s best friend/ best man/ adopted brother was a nervous wreck despite his best attempts to keep himself together. And third, two of the rookies had worked themselves into a tiff that made Finn look like that.

Finn watched Logan leave after Leo in utter misery. Poor kid belonged in an ASPCA commercial.

In truth, James didn’t know what went wrong, exactly. Sirius had these cycles—he’d ride high and be so firm in himself, in what he loved and worked for, then crash so hard James expected it to leave visible wounds. It was far more frequent in the early days. Since Remus entered the picture, Sirius hadn’t spiraled more than a handful of times. It was like he needed a pressure-release valve to make sure all those internal works didn’t melt or rust over. Remus was better at getting Sirius to talk than just about anyone. It was shitty that Remus’ wan smiles and sickly pallor had to align with the exact time Sirius most needed someone who wouldn’t put up with his nonsense.

James did his best, but he wanted them to be happy more than anything. More often than not, it meant he didn’t push nearly enough. They all had bad habits.

He knew Coach would bring it up today. Sirius’ dark mood had set them all on edge, caught in that place between wanting to prove themselves and wanting to stay out of the way. Whatever was happening between Leo and Logan had brought the scrap of good mood to rock-bottom. There was only so much slack James could pick up without exhausting himself, and he was already at the end of his rope.

Talker was still fussing with his sock tape when James looked over. The stickiness was dead from his rhythmic wrapping and unwrapping, but he didn’t seem to care. James nudged his toe with the front of his skate. “ ‘Sup?”

Talker half-shrugged. “Not much.”

“You were good in the scrimmage today.”

His hands stuttered on the roll before evening out again. “You, too.”

James scooted over into Remus’ stall and lowered his head, turning slightly away from the center of the room for an iota of privacy. “You wanna talk about it? If this is about the pass—”

“Noelle can’t make it for my birthday.”

Oh. Oh. James’ heart sank. “Aw, buddy.”

“They’re in the playoffs and someone rescheduled.” His lips pressed together in a tight line. “It’s dumb, I just…”

“Miss her,” James finished when he trailed off.

Talker nodded. “Distance sucks.”

“I know.”

James tried not to be offended by Talker’s immediate skepticism. “You do?”

“Lily stayed in Boston for three years before transferring up here.” Worst three years of my life. “She wanted her BS in chemistry. I wasn’t going to be the schmuck to hold her back. We called, and FaceTimed, and texted when she was at school, but it—”

“Wasn’t the same,” they said in unison.

The ball of tape fell pathetically next to the trash bin. “I want to hug her,” Talker said. “It sounds so stupid, but I want to hug her. And—I don’t know, it’s been rainy today. She likes it when it rains.”

“Yeah.” James leaned over to bump his shoulder. “I hear if you cross your fingers and jump in a circle three times, your wishes come true.”

Talker was halfway through a laugh when the lights went out.

Oh my god, I went blind. The thought was wild and harebrained and ridiculous. So, precisely how Remus was feeling in every other aspect of his life.

“Oh.” Sirius sounded surprised. His hands were firm on Remus’ upper arms. “Bonjour.”

Remus blinked a few times to let his vision adjust to the sudden darkness. The remnants of the team’s shouts of surprise echoed briefly before going quiet. “Uh, hi,” he managed. Sirius was nothing more than a blob of shadow, but he felt along his arms and chest until he found a shoulder to pat. “Sorry. Power’s out?”

“Looks like it.”

“Huh. Did you…did you need something?”

Sirius shifted from foot to foot. “Uh. No, not really.”

Liar, but okay. Remus patted him again, and let his hand linger. The rink felt different like this. Low murmuring had started up again in the locker room, but everything else was grave-quiet without the familiar buzz of electricity. It felt like the heartbeat had stopped. Like they had paused in time. “We should—should we go back to the locker room?”

Sirius’ hands pulsed where he held Remus. “Sure,” he said with the reluctance of someone being asked to walk headfirst into the ocean.

Lightning cracked outside and Remus caught a glimpse of Sirius worrying at the inside of his lip in the brief light. “We can stay here,” he offered after a moment. “Or, like…go somewhere else for a bit.”

“Can we?”

The relief in Sirius’ voice ached. They had been so pent-up lately, neither willing to break the ice first but both suffering from their shared bad moods. Remus knew he had been more lost in his thoughts than down on Earth for days, and Sirius was being so…so Sirius. But not his Sirius. The Sirius that was twitchy, the Sirius that tossed and turned all night. The Sirius that barely finished his dinner.

Remus rolled the sleeve of Sirius’ shirt between his thumb and pointer finger, and pulled him in for a hug. His stiffness dissolved in an instant.

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled into Sirius’ collarbone. He smelled good when Remus took a deep inhale, laundry soap and cologne. His arms were strong and solid around Remus’ back—he felt a few deep breaths come and go under his palms and inclined his head to let Sirius’ bury his face in his neck. His hair was damp from his post-practice rinse. It tickled Remus’ nose along the wings he liked to play with when Sirius was sleepy and cuddly. He sighed again. “Sirius, I’m so sorry.”

“I wasn’t there for you this week.” Sirius’ breath warmed his neck. His hold on Remus tightened. “You don’t need to be sorry, loup.”

“Okay,” Remus said softly. “But I am.”

“If you’re sorry, then I’m—” Sirius broke off with a tired laugh and nuzzled further into his neck. “I don’t know. Throwing myself at your feet and begging for forgiveness.”

Remus snorted at that mental image, but held him closer anyway. “It’s okay. I know you don’t like feeling like this.”

“I don’t,” Sirius agreed. “Doesn’t mean I should stop paying attention to you.”

“I’ve been doing the same to you,” he reminded him gently.

“You had a reason.”

“And you didn’t?”

Sirius fell quiet. His fingertips slipped along the divot of Remus’ spine while his palm warmed the small of his back; Remus felt a bit silly, standing there in his socks in the dark, but it didn’t really matter when he could feel Sirius’ heart beginning to even out at last. Someone padded out of the locker room and down the hall. Red hair stood out for a half-second when lightning struck again and his worry eased. If Finn was going to check on his boys, everything would sort itself out.

“I hate that this still happens.” Sirius’ voice barely cleared a whisper. “It sneaks up on me, and then I can’t sleep and I’m not hungry—or, I am, I just can’t—and I don’t know when it will stop.”

“I know, baby.”

“I want to sleep next to you and not be thinking about the next game, Re.”

Remus slipped his hands beneath Sirius’ arms and pressed their bodies together like he could press reassurance into him. If he could take that burden, he would. If he could fix it, he would. If he had the right words to tell Sirius that he didn’t care whether he was perfect or a wreck, he would. He pushed his nose under the soft spot of Sirius’ jaw and kissed him there. “I love you.”

A small sound stuck in Sirius’ throat.

“Je t’aime,” he repeated with another kiss. Just because he could.

The rise and fall of Sirius’ shoulders was steady now. “Je t’aime aussi. Whatever you need for this week, I’m here, okay? I’m in your nook.”

“My…nook?”

“Your—” Sirius huffed a laugh. “I’m on your side. Whatever the saying is.”

“In my corner?” Remus suggested around a smile. Sirius grumbled something vaguely agreeable and swatted at him, but never loosened their hug for a second.

Leo was holding him, and he wasn’t even angry anymore. Not like he had been. Thunder rattled a distant window and Logan’s grip twisted in the front of his shirt. “I’m fine,” he said.

Leo kissed his temple. “Yeah.”

They lapsed back into silence. He was usually so good at problem-solving, but every time he tried to speak, his tongue got stuck on the words. The anger had burnt itself out. The frustration and annoyance were still there, alongside the hurt. He wished Finn was there. Finn always knew what words to use.

“I’m sorry,” Leo said haltingly. Logan shifted in his arms. “I was shitty to you. Earlier, I mean. I should have talked to you.”

Logan didn’t answer. Somehow, that was the worst outcome. Leo knew how to match him in a verbal fight.

Lightning flashed. Logan flinched. Leo held him like he alone could stop the light from taking his boyfriend by surprise. That was it, wasn’t it? Even pissed off, he’d still hold Logan rather than leaving him in the dark with a thunderstorm.

They didn’t speak, just swayed in place. Footsteps echoed down the hall, growing closer each second before coming to a halt in the doorway. “Babes?”

“Here,” they chorused softly.

“Um.” Finn audibly hesitated. “Okay, give me a landmark. I’m so blind right now.”

“By the countertop,” Leo offered. Logan burrowed deeper into his chest. He was fever-hot the way he got when he was upset. Finn’s noise of sympathy when he found them and felt it somehow made it worse. “Hey, Fish.”

“Hey.” Leo heard the sound of a soft kiss. “Lo, you good?”

“Ouais,” came the murmured answer.

They lapsed into silence for the length of another roll of thunder. “And you…” Finn faltered. “You figured yourselves out?”

Leo looked away despite the darkness. They remained silent.

“Right,” Finn sighed.

“I don’t know what I did,” Logan blurted. “You said this wasn’t about the rutabaga, but it is, and you said you’re not angry, but you are, and I’m confused. And I’m really sorry for whatever I did to upset you, Peanut. I’m being so honest right now.”

“That’s the problem,” Leo said helplessly.

Logan clutched at his shirt, as if the answers were hidden in the fabric. “What?” he asked. “What is the problem? Stop doing that, I told you, I’m confused. Are you angry?”

“A little,” Leo choked out. Ugh, honesty was sawdust in his mouth.

“Is it about the rutabaga?”

“No.”

Logan made a frustrated noise, but Finn cut him off before he could continue. “What is it about, sweetheart?” he asked, so gentle it burned.

Leo let out a long breath, unwinding one arm from Logan’s waist to wrap it around Finn instead. He was nice and cool from his shower. They had all been running too hot lately.

“I’m not your mom, Lo,” he began. “We’re all grown-ups here. You know what food looks like. You know how to google things.” He felt the feelings ramp up again and rather than swallowing them back, let them siphon out on an exhale. Everything inside him was a miserable, knotted mess. “You don’t need me to come to the store with you all the time, and it pisses me off when you keep asking because I’m—'better at it’, or whatever. It’s not my job to shop for you. I’m sick and tired of it.”

Logan’s chest caved against his own. He mumbled something under his breath and Leo closed his eyes.

“I can’t hear you when you do that, c’mon, please—"

“I said, it’s not because I need you to shop for me.” Logan’s voice shook slightly, but not with anger.

“Then why would you ask me to walk to the store with you for the ‘right garlic’?” he sighed.

Logan raised his head, leaving a cold spot on the left side of Leo’s chest. “Because I want to spend time with you.”

That—was not the answer he had been expecting. You’re better at it, Logan would say. You know the foods better than I do. The realization came in waves; he had been teasing. Joking. Making it a bit. And Leo thought he was dead serious the whole damn time. All the frustration he had built up around himself cam down with a rush and a clatter. His heart made a break for hell with a pit stop at his stomach. He stared into the dark nothingness of the rink break room and tried to remember how to breathe.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

“I…” He broke off. Words had gotten him into this mess. Were they both that terrible at communicating properly? Finn bumped his arm and he took the hint (for once), wrapping Logan in a hug. By some miracle, Logan hugged him back. “That is the sweetest fucking thing, and I’m so sorry,” he managed, hoarse. “Oh my god. Oh my god, Logan, that was such a fucked-up thing for me to think.”

“I do actually like you, you know,” Logan said, muffled in his shoulder.

The remnants of Leo’s heart went for another spin through the shredder. “No, I know, I know, I’m so sorry. I like you, too.” He pressed a hard kiss to Logan’s temple and squeezed him tighter. “I like you so much. So much.”

“And I know what kind of garlic you like.”

Tears made Leo’s eyes sting and he violently wished them back. He had no right to cry over this. None at all. “Of course you do.”

Logan scratched lightly between his shoulder blades. “I don’t want to think about the type of people that made you think I’d do that, though. But if you want to give me names and addresses…”

Leo laughed weakly and felt Finn huff against him. “No, none of that,” Leo said with a kiss to Logan’s messy curls. He kissed his cheek, too, and his lips for good measure. Slow and easy, the way they both liked it. He wanted to make sure Logan was paying attention. “I’m sorry,” he repeated. “You did nothing wrong. I love you so, so much and I never should have thought that about you.”

In the hallway, the whir of generators kicked up. Soft light cast Logan in gold and dull shadows, just enough to make out the conflicted look on his face. His thumb was rough against Leo’s jaw. “I wish you thought better of yourself,” he said quietly. “You’re fun to be around, even walking to the store.”

I wish I had thought better of you. Leo pulled him close without a word and caught Finn’s gaze over Logan’s shoulder. His expression told him everything he needed to know, and he shut his eyes as Finn’s arms came around them both. A kiss lingered just above his ear. Leo kind of wanted to cry all over again.

The generators were a masterpiece of mechanics. The emergency switch flipped the moment the building lost power from the main grid, pooling energy around the rink itself to keep the ice solid. The rest of the lights would come on within fifteen to twenty minutes, beginning with the stadium seats and ending with the more fringe areas, like locker room and kitchens. They were top of the line, the best you could buy for a massive space that relied heavily on electricity to keep it functional.

They were no match for the Lions.

Ice cream, popsicles, and enough beer to cover the team twice over were liberated from the various refrigerators in less than five minutes. The team gathered on the floor of the locker room with iPhone flashlights and glowsticks (also ‘borrowed’ from the adjacent rooms) to enjoy their haul in peace and to play stupid, silly games like middle schoolers at a sleepover. They played games for a living, for crying out loud. Their favorite game. Why on earth would they take it too seriously when an opportunity like this presented itself?

Equal cheers and groans went up when the lights came back on. Moody was the first to leave, having only stuck around that long because the space outside his office door was occupied with an apparently necessary conversation. Arthur was next. The general consensus among the players was that the weather was simply too bad to risk driving. For their safety, they should stay and enjoy their goodies.

The morning security shift found them right where Arthur left them, puppy-piled by their stalls and surrounded by joyous havoc.

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fruitcoops · 7 months

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May It Never Leave You

Fic O'Ween Day 11: Monster--or, What You Have, What You Hate (Logan's Version). Everyone's favorite dead horse is back, babey. Kudos to @noots-fic-fests for their hard work and @lumosinlove for these characters (and an outstanding Vaincre update today) .

TW memory loss, hospitals

Sunlight yawned over the horizon. Logan ticked another day in his head. 52 hours. Nearly a new record. The last time he didn’t sleep for two days, he and Finn had just finished playing Yale.

At least the apartment smelled better than their dorm had. Leave it to Leo and Finn’s monthly Target dates to find the best candles.

His head hurt. His chest hurt. Even his fucking eyes hurt, like he had kept them open after diving into the lake. It was a miserable way to feel in an otherwise perfect place—but then again, very little had been perfect recently.

Leo stirred in the curve of his body, not much more than a twitch. He hadn’t been sleeping well, either. Finn was the only one able to keep his eyes closed for longer than an hour (if that) and even he was quiet during the day. Dawn caught their phone screens as it filtered through the sliver of the blinds, all lined up on the nightstand with ringers turned to the highest setting. Just in case.

Logan blinked hard and pressed back into Finn. He needed to feel something solid; needed to feel Finn shift, his arm tightening around Logan’s waist. Something between his lungs throbbed with blunt pain.

“We should visit today.”

Leo’s voice was dull and coarse. Logan nodded into the nape of his neck.

“I want—” He broke off with an audible swallow. “I want to check on him.”

Sirius had woken for nearly twenty minutes the day before. James had been there, and Remus, of course. Logan wasn’t sure they had left yet. Remus certainly hadn’t looked like it. But their excitement was momentary at best when Sirius’ sleepy greetings turned incoherent, and he slipped back under for the rest of the day. Logan shook the whole way home.

“D’accord,” he murmured, tucking his knees into the hollow of Leo’s own. His belly was tense under Logan’s palm; he rubbed slow circles over it and kissed the curve of Leo’s neck. “We’ll go.”

Finn’s alarm went off at eight. They let it ring itself out. Nine minutes passed and it went again, a cheerful jangle that faded into silence. Slender fingers curled up against Logan’s collarbone. Finn’s cheek was flat on his shoulder blade, shaky breaths passing warm air over his skin. He let go for less than a minute. The alarm didn’t ring again.

Leo had the courage to check his email at nine and Logan half-read it over his shoulder, little blue dots disappearing unread into “[Gmail] Trash” under a thumb with the nail chewed down to the quick. He kissed the little-dipper trail of faint freckles up Leo’s shoulder and nudged at his wrist until he set the phone down with a tired smile and allowed Logan to coax him onto his belly, shifting closer. His cheek was pillow-creased when he turned. They looked at each other for a few seconds before Logan passed his thumbpad along Leo’s cheekbone, and blue eyes fell shut.

They didn’t get out of bed until ten o’clock. Breakfast was a quiet affair despite the radio and the sizzle of the stove. “Someone should text Remus,” Leo said as he passed eggs to Logan to crack. “See if he needs anything.”

Logan fought a wince. Sleep. Therapy. For someone to physically remove him from that place. According to James, they had only just managed to make him take a walk around the upper floor of the hospital. He’d been sleeping in a chair. Logan hadn’t pressed for more information, and the guilt gnawed at his ribs. “We can bring…sandwiches. Or something. Maybe books? A change of clothes?”

“Toothbrush,” Leo suggested, prodding at the scrambled eggs. “That might be nice.”

Logan carefully sliced another section of the green onion before speaking. “James brought his toothbrush. And a hoodie, I think. I can ask what they need.”

“Are they letting him stay?”

“Loops?”

“James.”

“Non, only immediate family.”

“I’m so glad they got married.”

Logan turned and saw Leo do the same. Finn was rinsing his fingertips under the faucet, but nothing in his face told Logan he was paying any attention to it. The purple under his eyes was nearly mauve in this light. “Me, too,” Leo said softly.

“Just—can you imagine?” Finn cleared his throat, shutting the water off. “I mean, Loops would be losing it. Immediate family. I wonder if they’d call…y’know.”

Logan wasn’t going to think about that. He had been trying very, very hard not to think about that for nearly three days, now. None of them needed monsters under the bed when the real thing was bad enough on its own.

“Well, they didn’t,” Logan said briskly. The handle of the knife dug into his hand; he forced it into steadiness and moved the next handful of onion over. At the stove, Leo’s shoulders were tight up near his ears. “And we’ll go see him, and it’ll be fine.”

Sirius?

Hmm-mmm.

Buddy, can you hear me? It’s James.

Bonjour.

Tremz, call the nurse in real quick—hey, keep your eyes open. How are you feeling?

Mmm. Bon. Head hurts. Remus?

I’m here, I’m right here.

Tiny green shreds sprinkled onto their eggs, bright and clean. A ‘thanks, cher’ painted onto his temple by a kiss.

Alright, Mr. Black, let’s take a look at that forehead.

Non.

Is it hurting?

Game day. Pick up Reg from practice.

Mr. Black, please try to stay awake.

Baby, just listen—

Gotta pick him up. Reg’s practice.

“You want bacon?”

Logan blinked down at the plates. It all looked beautiful, like his mother’s wax fruit in the living room back home. “Sounds great.” He kissed Leo’s shoulder and dusted the last bit of green onion onto Finn’s portion. “Merci. I’ll get forks.”

A little shiver ran through Leo. He tucked his arms across his body, as if the apartment wasn’t set to seventy-five degrees year-round, but smiled down at Logan all the same. “Thanks.”

“Are you cold?”

“Nah, not really.”

Footsteps padded over and then Finn was there, tugging his sweatshirt off and slipping it over Leo’s head. If nothing else, it got a laugh out of him. Weak—but there. Finn’s glasses sat sideways on his face and Logan poked them back into place with a gentle swipe down the razor-straight bridge of his nose. “I made cocoa,” he said, raspier than Logan was accustomed to this late in the morning. “I’m not really—it’s not a coffee morning, I guess, but if you want some I can—”

His mouth fell quiet against the inside of Leo’s shoulder, muffled by his own hoodie. Logan saw his chest lurch in Leo’s tight hold. He felt a little dumb attempting to wrap his arms around them both and cursed his proportions for the hundredth time, but neither seemed to mind. Leo was still trembling just slightly. Finn was board-stiff; his hand came up and twisted in the pocket of Logan’s pajama pants to draw him close.

It wasn’t right, it wasn’t fair, and Logan was trying so hard to be angry.

Leo gave a light cough. “I’m really fucking scared.”

That first night, Logan had fallen asleep praying he would wake in his bed in Rimouski, buried under the heavy blue duvet he had stolen from Aubrey when she redecorated her room on her 13th birthday. It was old and soft and safe and lightly scented with the lavender soap their grandmother mailed from Nice every month. But his stomach had rioted at the thought of waking alone, the last ten years a dream. As horrible as this was, as sick as he felt, God would have to pry this from his cold dead hands before he gave it up. He wished he knew how to tell them that.

Finn was hot at the nape when Logan leaned against him. “We’ll eat,” he suggested, tracing a loose heart over Leo’s mid-back. “Breakfast looks amazing. We’ll shower. I’ll call James. They’re not going anywhere.”

“…I don’t want to get my hair wet,” Finn said quietly.

“I want to take a bath,” Leo murmured into the top of his head. “You can come with me.”

Finn nodded, then swallowed hard. “I don’t want him to wake up alone.”

“He won’t,” Logan said. When Finn didn’t show a sign of hearing him, he nibbled at the curve of his shoulder; a smile twitched his lips. “Hey. Hey. He’s got half the team there already. We’ll bring sandwiches and be popular, d’accord?”

“You need to be muzzled.”

“That sounds fun.”

Finn snorted, pushing at him without taking his face from the sanctuary of Leo’s chest. “Get outta here.”

“Come eat before the food gets cold.” Disregard that nothing sounded worse than eating right now. They had bigger things to worry about, and none of it would be made better on an empty stomach. But maybe, maybe they’d have a kinder day. And maybe Sirius would wake up for real this time. They just had to take it in stages, one baby step at a time.

One. Leo and Finn took a bath.

Two. Logan scrubbed the breakfast dishes.

Three. He tucked Leo close and tight to himself while they put the lunch order in on the couch.

Four. His kiss to Finn’s cheek lingered before his hand came anywhere close to the passenger side door.

Five. Remus was on the floor.

Sirius’ door was closed, and Remus was on the floor.

Logan pushed the takeout bag into Olli’s hands and broke into a run.

“What happened?” His knees smarted on contact with the tiles. Dumo was slackjawed and Remus was fucking white. “Loops? Is he okay? Did something go wrong?”

He’s gone, he’s gone, we lost him.

Someone was speaking, Leo was speaking, Remus was staring into the void like the world had fallen out from under him. His arm was loose and weak under Logan’s hand; he eased his grip and watched Remus’ throat bob. A breathless gasp broke from him before any words. “He doesn’t love me anymore.”

“No, Remus, that’s not…” Dumo looked exhausted. Sounded exhausted. Logan could feel himself beginning to shake, deep in his core where the fear snapped and burned. Deep brown eyes slid over the group before fixing Logan to the scrap of a planet beneath him. “Sirius is alright,” Dumo said firmly. “He’s awake and Pots is with him right now.”

Then why are we all on the fucking floor? he wanted to shout. The burning raced up Logan’s throat and into his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”

For all that Logan’s terror blinded him, Dumo didn’t look well, either. “We don’t know the full story, but—”

Nonsense bumbled from Remus’ mouth. His eyes had slipped to the pale tile, pupils dilated, a hundred years away. An exhale rattled in him like a sob chained down. “Five percent. They told me five percent.”

Logan swayed. A hand steadied him when he sat back. Dumo hadtold him about the five percent. Five percent had been hooked in the back of his mind for 60 hours and shaken him from half-waking dreams. But five percent was nothing—was practically zero. Five percent was a liability figure told to prevent a lawsuit, nothing more.

Remus was lifted to his feet, barely, and Logan watched him sit hard in one of the stiff chairs. No tears striped his ashen face. Beside him, Dumo was blinking fast. Olli passed him a napkin from the paper bag Logan had picked up not fifteen minutes ago from the place Remus liked because they had soft-serve ice cream. The place Sirius liked because Remus liked it.

He wasn’t sure if he could get up, now. It seemed he had left his knees at the cashier’s counter by mistake.

“Lo.”

A funny noise escaped him at pressure on his back.

“Lo, baby, come up with me. Come on.”

Thomas was holding Remus around the shoulders. His mouth turned down at the sides while they spoke in low voices.

Logan couldn’t help himself. “Did we lose him?”

“No,” Finn said immediately, voice dropping hoarse. “God, Logan, no, we didn’t lose him.”

“Five percent chance of severe memory loss.” That first night had been so long and so hard. He had stammered his way through a call with his father, though he couldn’t remember a word they exchanged. He knew he had stayed plastered to Dumo’s side for hours while Sirius went through scan after scan, fast asleep. Finn let him push close, let him pretend he could hide in the hollow of his arm. “We lost him.”

It was audacious to claim any part of his pain alongside whatever Sirius must be feeling—whatever Remus must be feeling. Logan couldn’t help it. The chasm of his belly beat not fair! into his guts. Sirius had done nothing wrong. He didn’t deserve five percent.

“I want to go back to bed,” he mumbled.

Finn’s hand rubbed along his back. “Okay. We can do that. We’ll get up, we’ll go home—”

“I want to wake up right now.”

“Oh. Oh, Lo…”

“This is not supposed to happen.” Tears clumped on his lashes. He refused to let them fall. He had no right. “This is not. He has to be okay.”

“Pots is with him.” Finn brought him close, and shame burbled up at the way Logan clutched him all too tight. They shouldn’t be doing this with Remus right there. “Cap’s got a lot of good people looking out for him right now. Nobody better. And I have you, and we’ve got Knutty, and we’re just going to take a minute for everyone to calm down.”

Finn was using his storybook voice. Hills and valleys, nearly singsong. It set some part of Logan’s brain mute with old comfort. “I need—I need to help.” His throat scraped when he breathed. “I need to get up or I’m going to stay here for a really long time.”

“I know.” Of course he did. Finn always knew what Logan wanted before Logan did. Drinks, food, kisses. This. He was already braced against Logan to boost him up, for Christ’s sake.

If Logan gave him double that love in return, it still wouldn’t be enough. Not for Finn, who deserved all and more. He wanted to pack him up in softness and seal it with a kiss, keep him somewhere safe and kind forever. They stood together—only a little wobble before he righted himself. Leo had pushed a sandwich into Thomas’ hands and was trying to shepherd the others into it as well. He didn’t like the tension creeping up the back of Leo’s neck.

Remus was still staring at the door as if he’d seen a ghost. Logan didn’t want to go in there. He caused damage. He was shit at fixing it.

He really wanted to be angry at this.

“Please eat.” Leo’s voice was tight and pitched at the start, forced into his measured baritone. His nailbed was white where it pressed into thin wax paper; Logan made a silent note to get him some water from the fountain down the hall.

“Hmm?” Dumo blinked a few times, then startled, as if he hadn’t seen Leo there. His gaze slid from Leo’s face to the sandwich, and he took it with a wan smile. “Ah. Merci.”

He picked at the sticker sealing it, but that was all. Logan had spent too much time around the man day in and day out to be fooled into thinking he was anywhere on this plane right now. Distant eyes and tight wrists. A rigid back, like when they thought Marc broke a rib at hockey practice. Logan wondered if Remus could hear his mind whirring from the adjacent chair.

“Loops.”

Thick gray sleeves sheltered his mouth from view.

“Remus.”

Without the vibrant red letters, the lack of color washed him out. Thomas’ deep blue shirt was harsh next to Remus’ grayscale.

“Re,” Thomas tried again, nudging him ever so gently. Remus made a faint noise. “Hey, you want a sandwich?”

“Not hungry.”

Leo’s brows pitched in the middle—Logan wanted to smooth it away, to kiss it into the ether. Distress was a difficult thing to watch on Leo’s round face. “You need to eat,” Thomas said. He took the proffered sandwich with a quick squeeze of Leo’s forearm, and slid it into the space between Remus’ thighs and body. “Whenever you’re ready, just…we’re here.”

“You should go,” Remus murmured into his forearms.

“No.”

“He’s awake. Not much to do now.”

“No.”

“I don’t—” His voice caught and Logan felt his stomach plummet. Not now, not now. “There’s not a lot to do here. The nurses’ll take care of him.”

“We’re here to take care of you, too,” Thomas said quietly.

Remus closed his eyes.

“Ouais,” Logan managed. Finn’s arm pulsed around his waist; he cleared his throat, willing the clamminess from his palms. “Both of you—yeah, whatever you need.”

It had been such a fucking fight during those first terrible hours. Nearly midnight, and still no answers. Adrenaline and exhaustion, scraps of illness battling with the raging fire inside him while every door slammed in his face with a no, no, family only, I’m sorry. Watching them roll Sirius to a scan room. Leaving Remus and his shaky, feeble smile under the scathing fluorescents. Come back tomorrow. I’m sure someone will call you with an update. It didn’t matter that Sirius would have wanted him there.

Well—that was debatable. Sirius probably would have preferred to pass out in some quiet, dark corner and pick himself up without anyone knowing. But Logan had never let him do that before, and he wasn’t about to start now. Goddamn martyr. If it wasn’t for Leo’s quaking grip on his hand, he would have bulldozed past every too-bright white coat in the place and planted himself at Sirius’ bedside just like Remus had been allowed to. He was always there for Sirius. It wasn’t fair to keep him away because of a silly thing like blood relation.

Leo tucked his phone into his back pocket. “Visiting hours start in twenty minutes.”

A silent request filled with bare-rock hope. Logan took the empty chair and cupped his hand over the back of Leo’s. “I’d like to see him,” he offered. He hoped his meaning came through—I’m here. I love you. I’m here because I love you.

The hand beneath his own turned over and twined their fingers, pale and straight against his own fucked-up knuckles. His hands looked so blunt when they were together. Let alone when Finn, all willowy strength, toyed with his fingers. It was like comparing a sledgehammer to a harpist.

Twenty minutes was a long time to ask Finn to sit still. He may have been more staid than usual, but that didn’t stop him from popping up and down no less than four times for water, trash runs, and to check in with the nurses.

More than once, it was clear he was moving just to move. Logan couldn’t blame him. He needed stillness and silence to process, but the flowing magnitude of Finn’s heart wasn’t meant to sit quietly. He had always hated that part of his concussions the most: more than being benched, more than fear, more than the blinding pain Logan had dampened with his shirtsleeve too many times. If his body couldn’t move, his brain had to, and he was denied both in those dark rooms. Logan had always done his best to ease the strain in whatever way he could. He’d pour himself to drought if it would cool the fire under Finn’s skin.

“Lo?”

Leo had scooted closer on his chair, mere inches from sitting in Logan’s lap. He wouldn’t mind that. Closeness sounded good right now. Logan smoothed the ladder of his knuckles. “Quoi?”

“I…” Leo broke off with a slow exhale through his nose. “I don’t know how to do this.”

Was he looking for a lie? The truth? Was he looking for don’t worry, I know what I’m doing or I keep thinking I’ll blink and find Sydney in there with her appendix gone? Logan figured he had fumbled pretty hard this morning. I’m really fucking scared. He still didn’t know how to respond to that. Maybe this could be his second chance. Leo was so good at giving those.

He shifted over and let Leo lay his head on his shoulder, resting his own against golden chick-fluff curls. Words rolled between his teeth and over his tongue for a long moment. “I don’t either,” he said haltingly. Finn probably would have sounded more confident. “This is new. C’est horrible. I’m—this is horrible. It’s so horrible.”

Remus and Thomas were making their way down the hallway to the lobby. Something about a phone call, Logan thought. To Lily, or Remus’ parents. It was just good to see them standing. Leo sniffled.

He ducked his head and let his lips rest against Leo’s forehead, right under the tuft of gray hair he twirled around his finger on long nights when sleep escaped them both. “We’re here, though. That counts for something. He’ll be glad to see us.”

“He pushed Loops.”

“…what?”

“He pushed Loops,” Leo repeated. “ ‘S what Dumo was saying to Finn when you got us water. Cap woke up, freaked out, and pushed Loops.”

“Oh.”

“I keep—I mean, what if—” Leo groaned softly and sat up, scrubbing at his eyes. “God, I’m just turning it over and over in my head. I don’t want him to yell at me. Which is so fucking selfish.”

“When has Cap ever yelled at you?”

“It’s not Cap, though, that’s the problem.”

Logan tried not to flinch.

Leo shook his head. “I want to see him. I really need to, just so I stop thinking about it.”

The large clock on the wall ticked through another minute. They were technically allowed to go in now. Logan wasn’t sure his stomach could handle it just yet. Finn’s foot tapped restlessly ten paces from them while he read one of the dozens of bulletin boards, hands clasped behind his neck. “I wasn’t there from the start.”

He felt Leo look at him. “What do you mean?”

“When Cap was a rookie.” He had heard stories. Seen pictures. It looked bad enough to make him grateful for Harvard, just for some distance in time. He watched Finn worry at the full curve of his lower lip. “But…you know, he was still pretty frozen over when I got here. It wasn’t until Loops that he opened up. Even when they weren’t out. There was only a few months you were here where he was quiet.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“You were new.” Logan shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know. He was a lot of things, but he was never mean. Never yelled.” He glanced back at Leo and tried for a smile. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about, soleil.”

“Excuse me?” They both turned at the sound of a new voice. Sneakers creaked on the waxed floors. A dark-haired woman smiled at them, flipping a page on her clipboard. “Dr. Manuel asked me to let you know that visiting hours will run from now until eight o’clock. No more than four people at a time, please.”

She seemed awfully calm. Logan wondered if she had been told about Sirius’ condition. Now that he thought about it, had any doctors come and gone since they arrived?

“Fantastic,” he said. A win was a win was a blessing in this mess. “Thank you.”

He could feel his hand shaking in Leo’s when they stood.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. “We both lived with him. I’m—” This is wrong. “We’re close. You and me.”

Sirius studied him with a wariness that made Logan want to curl up under one of the hall chairs and never come out. His next breath would be pure smoke from the flaming wreckage of hope inside him, he was sure of it. “Parles-tu français?”

Stop talking like that, stop it, why do you sound like that? “Ouais.”

He looked small in the bed. How could he look so small? Where did he learn that, and how fast could Logan run to get away from it? “Tu t’appelles Logan? Un nom Quebecois?”

Leo’s hand must be hurting from how tight he gripped it. Do not let me go. Sirius had always teased him for his fantaisie bon français drilled into him by his grandmother in Nice but this was not right, not right, not right, from the way Sirius’ voice folded in around his words to the lower, softer timbre just barely letting them free. No, Logan thought, he didn’t like this at all. “Ouais. Je viens de Rimouski.”

“Ah. Montréal, pour moi.” His smile was tentative, almost apologetic. Three days ago, Logan had teased him for this very conversation.

“Je sais,” he managed.

A faint humming noise answered him. He had already seen Sirius’ eyes dart over the three of them, clever and quick even when he was concussed. A subtle jerk of the chin made his mouth parch. “Qui sont-ils?”

“Mes copains.”

Logan didn’t have words for the complicated expression that flitted across Sirius’ face. “Les deux?”

“Oui.” He tried for a wry smile, for anything that could quell the riot of too much inside him. “Tu les appelles Bambi et Fleur. Tu m’appelles Thumper, espèce de connard.”

And almost—almost—that got him a grin. It was almost—almost—enough to make up for the ice-water panic filling his lungs with each passing breath. He didn’t like the smell of this place. Remus’ backpack by the chair, where he had been using it as a pillow. The plastic cups that were never stiff enough for a patient to drink from on their own. His mother had helped Sydney drink for three hours after her surgery, while her hands were still too weak not to spill on herself. And when Finn—

“Rookie.”

Logan felt Leo slump into him with a shaky breath. “Yeah. Sorry. Yeah, that’s—you call me that.”

There was a whining in his ears. A mosquito, or a siren. The sheets were too crisp. They would make his hands itch. Leo’s hand slipped from his own as he wrapped them around himself and fuck it all sideways, Logan couldn’t even comfort his boyfriend properly. He wanted to put an arm around his waist. His shoulder refused to unlock.

Sirius’ gaze dragged over him before sliding to Finn, brighter than before. “He calls you names in French.”

Oh, you piece of shit, Logan thought with startling clarity. “Sirius!”

“It’s true.” Sirius had been stoic for the first part of Logan’s rookie year, fresh off the rush of a disappointing not quite in the second round of the playoffs for the second year in a row. Logan would never forget the relief of nights when Sirius visited the Dumais house, putting aside the professionalism for a dinner that was close enough to home to ease his aching. Sirius had never asked him about Finn, either, content with the simple knowledge that they used to play together at Harvard and still tore it up on the ice.

“Finn,” Finn was saying. “Or Harzy, doesn’t matter much.”

“So you’re on the team, too?”

Logan had needed that presence when he arrived. And the…separation. The wound had been too raw for him to survive someone asking about Finn without the excuse of not knowing what words to use. “All three,” he said now. Sirius smiled, just slightly. His heart gave an unsteady thud-thud-thud. “What, you thought you were the only gay NHL player?”

The smile vanished. Too much. It slammed into Logan like a rogue wave and he bit hard on the side of his tongue. Leo was apologizing now. Apologizing for him. He would never learn, never had. Either he never tried or he pushed so hard a chance shattered in his hands. He could see it on Sirius’ face, all that confusion and fear mixed in with abrupt, sincere concern when James stood with a touch to his shoulder.

A tear slipped down James’ nose when he brushed past them. The whining turned to muddled clangs. What could he even say? I’m not gay? That wouldn’t help. The conversation had moved on; Leo had moved on, leading him forward to the plastic chairs by the bedside.

If he sat, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get up fast enough when the feeling tiptoeing up behind him finally grabbed on. The world tipped a degree off its axis and he clenched the back of Leo’s chair in both hands. Remus’ backpack was a lonely black lump by the thin blanket someone had brought for him. Itchy. Everything in these places was itchy. It clung to Logan’s skin for days. He knew how it would feel to pillow his head with rough polyester. White caught his eye—a tag? Remus Lupin, #10, Varsity Hockey Harvard University.

Just a zipper. Tiny Nike logo.

Stitching on the front Tremblay #10—

A patch. Clumsy hand-sewn stitches reinforced on the equipment room machine by an exasperated Molly. Remus loved that backpack.

Sirius was looking straight at him. “Il y a des morceaux.”

How could pieces be all that was left of three and a half years?

A pale face blurred with freckles and Logan blinked rapidly to shake them away. Leo needed this. Leo needed him to keep it together. He could do this.

He moved one hand over, until his fingertips brushed Finn’s sweater.

“You and I run plays after practice sometimes, if I’ve been having a tough time of things,” Leo said. His voice was significantly steadier than before. It was working. Logan could do this. He could help. “I don’t think you and Harzy hang out a lot one-on-one, but Lo’s usually your go-to for video games ‘n shit. We have dinner sometimes with you and—”

The air went stale fast enough to make him choke on it. Finn shifted in his chair.

Genuine puzzlement creased Sirius’ face. “I cook?”

He couldn’t do this.

“I can’t do this.”

The door was a million miles away. He was gripping the handle in four steps. The dam was breaking, knocking the sight from his eyes. He braced both hands on cold cream paint, praying, praying that Remus was nowhere near.

Tears were a funny thing. He had never really figured out how to do them right—or at least, how to do them loudly, like when Noelle skinned her knee on the deck and screamed loud enough to make the neighbors come running. For Logan, it felt more like Leo’s beat-to-hell watering can, if the duct tape holding it together ever gave up. Everything kept in, and then everything rushing out at once. Breath and water and salt alike. Rarely noise, but he still pressed his elbow over his mouth and dug his hand into the frame of the bulletin board. Always, always, rawness to the marrow of his bones.

“Lo, oh my god.”

“I’m sorry.” A guttural sound died in his chest. “I tried.”

It was all he had. It would have to be enough. He just—he didn’t do head injuries. Broken fingers and busted ribs and jammed joints, fine, but he couldn’t fucking stand sitting and watching. There was only so much reading he could do. Only so many articles he could struggle through.

“Logan—”

“I’m sorry.”

Looking was a mistake. Finn’s face fell. “Hey, baby—”

“I’m sorry.” Logan sucked in a breath and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes to force the tears back. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“Lo…”

Finn’s hand brushed between his shoulder blades and he flinched, turning away. The tears were fighting him now—fighting him so hard it made his throat ache. He could feel his pulse behind his eyes and ground his teeth. “No, no, no, no.”

“It’s okay.” Finn’s voice had gone soft and unsure and Logan hated himself. “Baby, it’s okay.”

He shook his head. It was never okay. Not like this.

“It’s okay.” He felt Finn move closer, but he didn’t try to touch again. “He’s awake now. He’s making sense.”

A jagged sound punctured Logan’s lung. “It doesn’t.”

“No, I…” Finn faltered. “He’ll be okay, baby. Come on, come sit down.”

Logan’s stomach fell to the floor. “No.”

“Can you—please give me something to work with, Logan, this isn’t—”

“I can’t sit down,” he said thickly. The light blinded him when he tilted his head back for a few harsh breaths. He wanted to cover his face, but his hands shook too bad to be any use. “I can’t just wait here, I’ve done that, I can’t do it again, I won’t.”

He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t sit and wait, forbidden from crossing the threshold because he wasn’t family, even though nobody loved Finn like he did and nobody could take care of him like he could—

A shudder rattled through Logan and he sealed a palm over his mouth. The waves howled and clawed at every one of his hairline cracks.

“What’s going on?” Finn sounded sad. Not worry-sad, but different-sad. Confusion-and-guilt-sad.

Muck clogged Logan’s throat. He took a few hitching breaths to clear a path. “It’s Sirius,” he said. “And he’s hurt, and every time I fucking blink I see your face instead and I still can’t do a goddamn thing, Finn, I can’t…”

He leaned into Finn’s hovering hand and fell against his chest with a low noise, pulling at his arms until he was safe.

Finn was here in his sweater and his jeans and Logan was safe.

He couldn’t stop the hurricane. The throbbing and the drenching, out of control. He had let it run its course in Remus’ office, in his basement bedroom, and now here. With Finn. Finn who was safe and whole. Something ugly muffled itself in the broad chevrons across Finn’s neckline, but there was no flinch to meet him.

“Let it out.”

God, it hurt so bad.

“You’re doing great, baby.”

This wasn’t a cry-solution. This had to be a Heather-solution. Logan wasn’t looking forward to that.

Finn’s nose was cold where it dovetailed against Logan’s cheek. “Love you so much,” he whispered. “So, so much.”

The compression of his arms outstripped any weighted blanket by a landslide. Logan flattened his palm against the back of Finn’s neck. There was no energy left in him to keep down a whimper when he felt Finn stroke through the back of his hair and leave a kiss on his cheekbone.

“I’m—” Logan gulped down a fragile attempt at a breath. “I love—fuck shit—”

“Shh, shh, stop.”

“I tried.”

Finn’s gentle scritch to his nape silenced him. How long had they been swaying? Finn had a funny way of coaxing him into a dance before he even knew what was happening. “I’m so sorry,” he murmured, voice breaking. “Jesus, Lo, I can’t even imagine.”

“It’s—it was Syd, and then it was you, and now it’s Sirius—” His breathing hitched on each name, as if unwilling to let him speak, but he was so tired of the silence. “—and what if I lost you, what if you forgot me, how could he forget us? Pieces, Finn, he said pieces.”

If he tried, he could probably stop. The duct tape could be slapped back on. Not perfectly, but he’d manage.

He didn’t really want to.

A gross, clogged sniffle made him feel a tiny bit better. “I’m always so fucking useless here.”

Finn was quiet for long enough that Logan could match their breathing. That, too, gentled the storm. The individual floor tiles were starting to reappear. “You helped me drink water for days,” Finn finally said. “You cooled me down. You slept next to me in a twin XL for—what, a week? You read every assignment, out loud, for two. You made Cap smile.” A sigh gusted over the back of his neck. “You’re not a doctor or anything, but I don’t think anyone can call you useless.”

“I can.”

“I’ve never been a fan of the way you talk to yourself, sweetheart.”

A problem for another day. “Leo?”

“They’re chilling. He’s just glad to be there, I think.”

Distance made him stress. Logan was familiar with the feeling. “You should go with him.”

“Hmm.”

“No, really. I’m feeling better.”

“Hmm.”

“Are you—are you okay?”

Finn took a big breath, let it go in an unsteady huff. “This is just…sad. And weird. And sad. I don’t know.”

Baby steps. One at a time. Finn was here and safe, Leo was right where he wanted to be, and Sirius wasn’t going anywhere fast. Let it out, Finn had said. God knew he was trying. He pried his hands off the back of Finn’s sweater and flexed them, pulled his elbows in until he could hold Finn’s waist. A three-count to lift his head, then a foiled attempt to dry his face before Finn got there. His sleeve took the salt and water before Logan could so much as raise a hand. Despite himself, he laughed.

“Let me take care of you,” Finn said through falsely-gritted teeth, planting an aggressive kiss to Logan’s forehead. He surveyed him for a few seconds, head tilted, before his lower lip slid out. “Aw, baby.”

“I know,” Logan said thickly. “Not everyone can be a pretty crier like Knutty.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Still.”

“I don’t love you because you’re a pretty crier.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m not.”

“Yeah, dipshit, I know.” Finn cuffed the outside of his shoulder and Logan dipped his chin against a smile. “I’m aw, baby-ing because you’re sad and I wanna go take you home and wrap you in a blanket.”

Logan sighed. His head fell forward to bump Finn’s collarbone. “I feel like an asshole.”

“Why?”

“Left you all in there.”

“Not sure anyone can blame you.”

“I can.”

“You don’t count.”

“Is Sirius mad at me?”

“Honest to god—and this is really fucking morbid, so like, mea culpa—I don’t think Sirius remembers enough to be mad at us.”

Logan’s lip quavered. “I got him sick.”

“Everybody got sick. You don’t know that it was you.”

Lo’s usually your go-to. “I spend the most time with him.”

“…pretty sure that’s Loops, actually.”

“Okay, well—”

“You’re not winning this one,” Finn interrupted. “Literally everyone on the team was sick at some point, and we saw each other every single day. You want to point fingers? Blame coach for playing Cap’s line that long.”

It was so hard to come up with a defense when Finn was always right. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Here’s the plan.” Finn gave a little oof as he helped Logan straighten up and squished his shoulders. There was fine tension around his eyes and mouth that gave way when Logan ran his thumbs over it. “I’m going back inside. You’re going to go find a bagel place for Dumo and Remus. I’ll text you when Knutty and I are done, we’ll figure out bagel dropoff, and then we’re going home and sleeping.” He must have seen Logan’s hesitation, because one auburn brow arched. “Cap’s awake. He’s not perfect, but he’s awake. There’s nothing else we can do.”

“I hate this.”

“Oh, yeah, this is terrible from every angle. Hence going home and sleeping.”

Logan nodded, then tipped his head toward the door. “Go see Le.”

Finn kissed him sweetly, a hand on his jaw, and obliged.

If Finn had been looking for a way to keep Logan occupied, tasking him with finding appropriate late-lunch/ early-dinner bagels was the way to do it. Gryff had dozens—half were closed by this hour, and the other half had to undergo rigorous inspection before Logan would even consider bringing them back to his Manhattan bagel hound of a boyfriend. Remus and Dumo would want coffee, too, even if they didn’t say it. Their respective husband and son was a previously-comatose amnesiac. He couldn’t bring them shitty coffee.

Finally, he found a promising option. Warm interior, short line, music quiet enough to tune out if he needed to. Display cases that were picked over (many customers), but not too empty (still some variety). A clean half-dozen should do.

The barista smiled when he approached the register, despite Logan’s certainly-red eyes and general crustiness. “Welcome in! What can I get started for you?”

“A half-dozen bagels, please. And two medium coffees, light cream, light sugar.”

“What kind of bagels?”

He hadn’t prepared for questions. Why hadn’t he prepared for questions? “Which ones are good?”

“What’s the occasion?”

“My—” Motherfucker. The tears snuck up on him, rushing to the front until he had to tip his head back with a frustrated breath. The barista’s hand hovered over the computer screen. Questions. He should have prepared for questions. There was a reason Finn always ordered for them. A strained, embarrassed smile was all he had to offer. “Desolé. My brother’s in the hospital.” His torso squeezed. “That’s the occasion.”

The barista seemed to freeze for a moment. “I’m…really sorry,” they finally said. “God. Wow. My bad.”

“It’s fine.” Logan shook his head. “Two plain, one sesame, one cheese, and two of the sandwich things, please.”

“Yeah. Yeah, of course.” The barista started to turn, then faced him again, lowering their voice to soft concern. “Do you have someone with you? I just—my cousin was sick, and it was hard to be there alone. If you needed help.”

“He’s awake,” Logan assured them. The next person in line had stepped back a half-meter, looking pointedly at their phone. It was a kindness he hadn’t expected. He watched the barista wrap the two plain bagels before he felt he could trust his voice again. “He’ll be okay.” It felt funny to say aloud. Different than reassuring Leo or Finn. More confident. “We’ve got family around. Friends. We’ll be fine.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” they said with sincerity he hadn’t prepared for, either. Each bagel was carefully placed in a paper bag; a large sticker held the edge down. The sides were warm when Logan pulled it to himself, and the coffee steamed in two balanced cups.

“How much do I owe you?”

They waved him off. “Please, don’t worry about it. Just…have a good day. Be with your brother.”

He sighed through his nose. “You can’t stop me from tipping you.”

“Oh—”

He stuffed two twenties in the painted mason jar by the register and stepped back immediately, tossing a half-smile to the barista. “Have a nice afternoon.”

I need to go. I really need to do this.

Logan hadn’t fought him on it. He was tired of fighting. And not against Leo—never against Leo. Finn knew New York best; the safest winter roads, the quickest routes. Logan was content to play homemaker and listen to their back-and-forth. He simply fixed two sandwiches and a baggie of snacks for the ride while they talked it out on the couch.

The roads’ll be dark.

I can drive in the dark, it’s not a problem.

I topped off the tank yesterday, but you should refill outside the city if you need to. There are more when you’re out of Manhattan. They’re easier to get to.

Thanks, sweetheart.

You’re going to be okay? Finn’s voice had been tight with worry. Logan wasn’t sure it was entirely about Leo driving. You’re—you know, you should stay here for tonight, we can all go pick him up early tomorrow.

The sound of their soft kiss made the house warm. I won’t be sleeping, Leo had said. I’ll keep you both up. He’s been texting all day and I don’t want to make him get on a train right now.

Logan had managed to tempt him to the couch with a cup of tea and an episode of Grey’s Anatomy. Finn wasn’t far behind, and Leo dozed on his chest for the show’s second half. Thirty minutes could satisfy his worry if he stretched it. The adrenaline shakes had stopped an hour prior.

I don’t like this. Finn’s arms were tight around him while they watched Leo turn his headlights on and wave goodbye with a blown kiss. I don’t like this at all.

He’s a good driver.

I keep thinking…

I know. Did Logan ever. But it’s not us. So we’re here, and we’re helping.

Finn’s nose pushed into the crook of his neck; a deep breath made his stomach hurt.

We’re here, he had repeated, tangling a hand in the back of Finn’s hair. We’re safe. Je t’aime. I have a bagel place I want to show you in the morning.

“LoLo?”

“Hi.” Logan winced at the scratchiness of his own throat and glanced back down the hall, where Katie was just skipping back into Sirius’ room with Regulus in tow. “Hey, hi. What are you up to?”

“Um…folding my laundry, at the moment.” Silence fell over the phone. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. And you’re—you’re okay?”

“Wishing I didn’t have to do my laundry, but yes,” Sydney laughed.

His heart eased. “Bon. Good, okay.”

The sole of his shoe was starting to peel away from the toe. “What’s going on?” Sydney asked, quieter.

He shook his head before remembering she couldn’t see him. “Nothing, just wanted to talk.”

“Did something happen with Finn and Leo?”

“Non, we’re fine.” His stomach was shivery, like he’d gone too long without eating despite the sesame bagel lingering on his tongue. “Figured I’d call.”

“Black is still in the hospital, right?”

“Mhmm.”

“He’s awake?”

I remember you. Not everything, but I know you. “Up and talking. Making sense.”

Sydney hummed. He heard the light thump of a folded sock hitting her drawer. “He’ll be fine, petit. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“I miss you,” he said quickly, before his mouth could force it all back. “I just—I miss you and I wanted to call.”

“Aw, LoLo.” Her sigh crackled in the hospital’s sketchy wifi. “I miss you, too. Christmas feels far this year.”

“Ouais.”

“You want me to get the girls on FaceTime?”

As if he could handle that right now. All three of them, scattered across a continent instead of safe in a pillow fort. “Non, it’s alright. I might…call, or something. I don’t know.”

This was stupid. He shouldn’t have interrupted her evening. But he so desperately needed to hear her voice after catching a sideways glimpse of Sirius’ dark hair from the open door.

“Take your time,” Sydney said easily. “I’m here all night, doing nothing. Have you heard from Obbie lately?”

“No, why?”

“She’s doing some sort of award gallery thing. Sounded neat. I’ll text you the link.”

“D’accord.” He could see her when he closed his eyes. Two loose braids to her shoulders, their father’s sharp jaw. Practiced hands flipping socks around each other, deft from gloving pucks. She had always poked and prodded and teased him more than the other two—a function of their close years—but had never once flaked when he reached out. He wasn’t sure how to thank her for that. He cleared his throat and heard it echo back to him. “You’ll call me, right? If you need things.”

“What would I need?”

“Just. I don’t know. Things.”

Her laugh was light, fond. “Yes, LoLo, I’ll call if I need things. Check your messages for the link.”

“I will.” He started to lower the phone, then brought it back to his ear. “I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

“Be safe.”

“I will.”

“See you at Christmas.” His lips felt shaky. “Or—whenever. If you’re around, or anything.”

“Goodbye, Logan,” she said slowly, though he could hear her smiling. “I’ll see you in two weeks. Take care. Give your boys my love.”

“I will.”

It was another five-count before either of them hung up.

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fruitcoops · 2 years

Note

what are some strange headcannons you have for the lions? mine is that finn likes the aesthetic of wax sealed envelopes. I don't know why but I just feel it in my soul that he does.

I have no particular order or reason for these, but here we go! Characters all belong to @lumosinlove <3

In the cubs' future house, Finn wallpapers an entire wall of the office with bookmarks from different places they go (dating all the way back to the Harvard roadies)

In a similar vein, he collects bookmarks from every city they visit while Logan collects coins. Crow4crow, we love to see it.

Sirius does laundry and Nobody Else Is Allowed To because they do it Wrong. The second he learned how to wash his own clothes, it became a thing. It's literally the only chore he's picky about.

Remus has a rhyme song for his hockey superstitions that nobody knows about, except the night janitor at the rink, who heard him sing it quietly when he was still a PT at least three times a week.

Leo owns one pair of socks that he has never washed. They're the fabric skeletons in his closet and he will never say a word about them. (if he washes them, he's convinced he'll never make another save again)

Natalie saved the first guitar pick Kasey ever gave her and keeps it in her wallet

Talker has to do "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" before leaving the locker room to check his pads and can't bring himself to do another order

Lily is a scrapbooking fiend. She has like eight different books in various degrees of completion and uses them to de-stress, especially after Harry is born.

Kasey keeps a piece of the net from every game he gets a shutout

James can smell popcorn on someone's breath from ten feet away

Sirius and Remus are both staunch believers in the ten five-second rule. It's a very good thing they keep their kitchen floors clean.

Lily has accidentally dropped yogurt on baby Harry's head and then licked it off. #girlboss.

Noelle swapped her hockey pads with Logan's pads once in middle school and he didn't notice for a full summer.

Leo is working on a cookbook of his recipes, written on notecards and put in a photo album for easy access. It started because he hates dripping things on his phone/ exposed paper recipes, but then became a hobby.

Sirius doodles on anything in reach. Paper. Tables. People. All's fair in love and anxiety.

Kasey drums on the steering wheel even when the radio is off

The only time Remus isn't anxious while driving is when he has Jules with him

Moody knew about Coops before Coops knew about Coops.

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fruitcoops · 2 years

Text

The Theory of Flight

My final @oknutzyweek submission, a day late! This is a gods AU that I’ve been thinking about for a couple months now (and co-writing one version of with the beloved @veryspacecowboy in the noot discord), and I really wanted to share it with you guys, too! Sweater Weather characters belong to @lumosinlove--thank you for making so many amazing OCs. This week has been a delight.

TW for mentioned death (everyone is fine, it’s a prerequisite for the story)

Of all the things Leo was expecting when he up and fucking died, this was decidedly not it. Tears? Sure. A touching ceremony? He figured he had been decent enough to deserve one. Wailing and rending of clothes from the people who knew and loved him? Maybe it was egotistical, but a guy could dream. He never thought it would happen that soon, anyway.

But becoming a god? Not exactly on his agenda.

It was made all the more confusing by the fact that he was not alone on his immortal life-after-life journey, and everyone he met seemed to expect him to just…deal with it. Just casually get good with the fact that he would be alive (in a fashion) for literal eternity. A kindly older man—Pascal, god of…Christ, there were all sorts of things—had given him the brief rundown, but it didn’t feel like enough. Perhaps therapy would be a better option. Really intense therapy.

Leo blinked. Was he still allowed to say ‘Christ’?

“—and over here is the garden sector,” Finn said brightly, apparently oblivious to his charge’s internal meltdown. He cast a lopsided smile over his shoulder and tugged Leo along by the wrist, sandaled feet slapping comically on the shimmering path.

Ah, yes. Problem number eight fucking billion of getting spiritually suplexed by immortality. Gods weren’t all old and bearded and uncomfortably muscular like he had expected—they were hot. Like, really hot. Red-hair-and-pretty-eyes-and-freckles hot. Hot with a capital ‘Holy motherfuck, where were you while I was alive?’. Leo thought it was a little unfair that all the cute boys came by while he still felt like a sentient wet noodle and probably looked like one, too.

Finn was still chattering about the gardens and a few of the gods Leo could expect to meet there, apparently content to play tour guide while Leo tried not to have a panic attack. He remembered being dead. Sort of. At least, he remembered thinking ‘oh, god, I’m going to die’ and then nothingness, before a deep inhale and warm golden light filled his lungs with a strange new sensation. Leo let his eyes wander along the strong bands of Finn’s arms and forced himself to follow one whorl of blue paint where it sliced through the smattering of freckles—focus, he reminded himself. Breathe. The line dipped out of sight at Finn’s elbow, then reappeared partway along his forearm and trailed down to his slender wrist.

Leo didn’t notice they had stopped until he nearly ran right over his guide. “Whoa, easy,” Finn laughed, steadying him with a hand on the shoulder. The gentle brown of his eyes reminded Leo of a deer he had seen once in the woods, lithe and regal as it stepped over frozen leaves. Still fawn-freckled in the dappling sunlight, but nearly as tall as him.

His brain stalled out. Leo was sure he looked more than stupid, goggling at Finn with his mouth open, and blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Did you die, too?”

Finn’s brows shot upward so fast they disappeared beneath the front curls of his hair. “What?”

“Oh, shit,” Leo mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. So much for ‘focus and breathe’. “Sorry. Sorry, I wasn’t—ugh.”

“No, no, it’s okay.” There was a laugh in Finn’s voice again, but it wasn’t cruel. It was the laugh of someone who just enjoyed laughing. He pulled at Leo’s wrists, guiding his hands down. “Were you wondering if I was mortal once?”

Mortification burned hot in Leo’s chest. “I just—I was wondering if I was the only one, or if that happened to everybody, but it’s intrusive. You don’t have to answer. Sorry. This is kind of a lot to process.”

“Hey, don’t apologize.” Finn ducked his head to try and catch Leo’s gaze again, and smiled. “Really, it’s alright. It’s normal to be curious. Yes, I was mortal, and then I died, and now I’m here. That happened to a lot of gods.”

“Not all?”

Finn shrugged one shoulder; the brooch holding his shoulder strap together caught the sun with a flash of bronze. “Some of them don’t remember.”

“And you do?”

“I remember enough to know this is different,” was an answer Leo had not expected. The corners of Finn’s eyes crinkled and he started walking backwards. “We’ve covered most of the boring stuff, so I was going to take you to the meadow. A lot of my friends are there. Do you want to meet them?”

The logical answer was a loud and resounding no. How could he possibly meet a whole flock of superpowered gods when he was barely keeping himself upright? How could he make conversation with people that had been dead for hundreds, thousands, of years? The only thing Leo wanted was a hot bath and a long nap where he could lose his mind in peace. The only thing he wanted was to be alive again, where things made sense.

Finn’s brooch glimmered again, the same color as his lashes in the light of the garden. The rough green fabric of his cloak was woven with golden thread, and when he turned just so, Leo swore he saw the same gold forming a soft glow around his body. “Okay,” he said quietly. Finn had been kind to him, patient despite Leo’s anxious silence. His friends couldn’t be too bad.

“You’re sure?”

Leo took a shaky breath. “As long as you stay with me.”

He felt a squeeze on both wrists, grounding him. “Stuck at the hip,” Finn promised. “And whenever you’re ready, we’ll leave. Nobody will be offended.”

They started down the path again, but Leo balked. “What if—” His cheeks heated, and he looked away when Finn turned. He should’ve just sucked it up and kept walking, but it was too late to back out now. “What if…I’m new. What if I’m too new?”

What if they don’t like me? Finn seemed to sense the unspoken question, because his face softened. “Leo.” Leo closed his eyes at the sound of his name in Finn’s mouth. He was the second person to say it in this new world. It was a comfort and agony at the same time. He didn’t feel enough like himself anymore to deserve it. “Leo, they’ll love you.”

“I don’t know anything yet.” Unwanted tears thickened his voice and he blinked rapidly, swallowing them back. Breathe, Leo, you can’t cry on your first day. Inhale, exhale—there was no real relief from breathing. The thought made his throat go tight. “I don’t know why I’m here, or where I am, or what I’m supposed to do. And they’re gods. They’re important. I’m just an idiot who died.”

“We’ve all just been idiots who died,” Finn said firmly, moving to hold Leo’s hands between them. Something suspiciously close to Leo’s heart gave way at the reassuring touch and he sniffed. “Hey, no, listen to me. Do you think any of us knew what the fuck to do when this happened? No. I was fighting, and then I was running until I couldn’t, and then I woke up and some dude with a beard told me I was a god. What the fuck is all that about? I sat in the bathtub and cried for, like, three days when I got here.”

“…is that supposed to make me feel better?”

“Yes.” The earnestness in Finn’s expression took him off guard. “Whatever you’re feeling, however you want to deal with it—we’re here for you. You’ll figure it out, Leo. Someday you’ll know what your purpose is, but until then, your only job is to keep on going. Something out there believed in you enough to make you a god. I trust that it knows what it’s doing.”

The air was cold against the trail of a tear as it slid down his cheek, followed by a second, then a third, until he squeezed his eyes shut. Finn let out a slow breath before releasing his hands and guiding him into a hug; Leo clutched the back of his sash like a lifeline. He expected the fabric to be as coarse as it looked, but it was soft as a cloud. “I wasn’t special,” he choked out through heaving breaths. He refused, refused, to let the sobs catching in his chest see the light of day. It was horrible enough to tremble in the arms of a man he hardly knew. “Finn, I didn’t do anything to deserve this.”

“Then you must be good enough on your own.”

The relief of letting go was river-sweet. Finn held him tight even when Leo’s knees buckled under him, murmuring soothing words and rubbing his back. It’s going to be alright, he said, gentle while Leo fell apart. You won’t be alone. Its going to be okay. Catharsis rushed through his body and mind, easing the terror running riot through every part of him. Despite his mortification, Leo was grateful not to be alone for the first flood.

One chapter of his life was closed forever. Another had opened, and he didn’t even know the first word of it, but he knew he wanted Finn to be there on every page.

“This is new,” Finn said when Leo had moved on to shivering. “It’s scary. If you need anything at all, let me know and I’ll help.”

Leo sniffled. “What are you, the god of friendship?”

Finn laughed again, and it sounded like the hum of a pan flute. “Good guess. But no, I’m just a messenger.”

They stepped away from each other, remaining within arm’s length; Leo was surprised to find his face was dry to the touch. The sticky, overwarm feeling of a good cry was absent, though he still felt the knot in his stomach begin to unwind. He offered Finn a wobbly smile. “The friendship part is just for fun, then?”

“Exactly.” Finn’s hand found his wrist again. “C’mon, I’ll show you the way. We’ve got a bit of a walk ahead of us.”

Leo followed him through fields of swaying grass and past towering mountains; through the edge of a dense forest full of glowing lights and past a distant ocean with boats rocking in the harbor. Environments he could never have imagined as a mortal cropped up in every direction, each cast in shining technicolor. The air was clean and fresh, and he let it carry out the trickling streams of his breakdown. Something caressed his face—at first, it felt like simple wind, but a wisp of a giggle siphoned out when it tumbled away. Finn let go of his hand after a few minutes and Leo couldn’t help trailing a path in the high wheat, rolling it between his fingertips just to watch it float away on the breeze. He could smell the sea, salty and deep; he could smell the forest, all thick loam and crisp leaves. With every tilt of his head, the whole world changed.

“What should I expect from your friends?” Leo asked as they passed the coast and headed down into a valley. He was glad Finn had taken them the long way around. His breakdown had stolen what fragile strength he had gathered since dying, leaving him drained. The dipping, winding path was just what he needed to get his head in order long enough to survive some small talk.

“The first thing to know is that they’re all lovely people,” Finn explained, hopping over a tortoise with a jewel-toned shell. “The nastier gods don’t go where we’re going.”

“Nastier gods?”

His freckled nose wrinkled. “Not everyone is as sweet as you when they’re blessed with obscene power. But don’t worry, they’ve been smacked around enough by the older gods in the gang to knock ‘em down a peg. Pascal got involved once, and we haven’t seen the other guy for a couple hundred mortal years.”

“Pascal is the one with the beard at the entrance, right?” His eyes had been brown, too, but darker than Finn’s. More paternal, less playful. His voice had sounded like a thundercloud come to life.

Finn nodded. “That’s him. Solid dude, his wife is amazing, and their kids are adorable. Anyway, the second thing to know about our group is that we’ve got a whole range of ages and backgrounds. Don’t be surprised if someone starts talking about when the world was all one big clump of land in the ocean.”

Pangaea. Some of them lived during Pangaea. Leo took a deep breath, and then another one to clear the dizziness. “Got it.”

“Also, you might see some of the really really old gods wandering around. They won’t usually trouble themselves with us, but feel free to say hi.”

“How old?”

“I delivered a message to Inanna last week from Oshun.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah, he stops by from time to time.”

“No, I—nevermind.”

Finn didn’t appear to notice his hesitation. “Note number three is that they will all invite you to dinner at some point, and while you’re under no obligation to go, it might be a fun way to mingle. I’ll warn you of the ones that can’t cook but will try anyways.”

“I like to cook.”

Leo pressed his lips together as soon as the words were out—he hadn’t meant to speak. Mortal cooking could never compare to what gods were used to, and he wasn’t even sure he would know what to do anymore. Would his hands remember how to knead dough? Would his tongue remember the taste of stew in the winter? Did winter exist in this blissful, perfect place?

“That’s good,” Finn said, unbothered. “I can’t.”

“I’ll have you for dinner sometime, then.”

The passive thoughtfulness on Finn’s face melted away into surprise, then settled into a sideways smile. “You’d do that?”

Leo shrugged. “We’re friends, aren’t we? I like to cook. You don’t know how. It works.”

The smile grew, and with it came a faint pink dusting over Finn’s nose and cheeks. “It does.”

Finn was still looking back at him when they crested the hill, but Leo couldn’t stop his quiet gasp. The wheat field tumbled into vibrant green grass studded with wildflowers that blanketed a large meadow, bookended by the woods and a flat lake. Trees crept in one by one, a birch here, a fir there, low branches sweeping down in arcs. Someone had constructed a floral swing from one of them; with every push from the breeze, petals cascaded down in a waterfall.

And everywhere Leo looked, there were gods. More gods than he had ever seen in any of the other places, tall gods, short gods, gods in as many shapes and colors as the flowers at their feet. They splashed in the lake’s lapping waves and lounged catlike in the sun—now and then, one would vanish in a shimmer of color, or another would appear at the outskirts. Some had brought furniture to relax in, while others had claimed various bits of the glade as their resting spot.

“Welcome to The Den,” Finn said, his chest puffing with pride. “The best realm of them all.”

“This is…” Leo trailed off with a shake of his head. The aura of radiating peace clung to his skin and cooled the heat of the sun.

“I know.”

“Is this some sort of godly spa?”

“No, but I see why you’d think that,” Finn laughed. There was an extra skip in his step as he headed down the hill and gestured for Leo to follow, like he had been looking forward to being there all day. “I’m not sure why it feels so different. Probably because there are so many of us here all the time, and not a lot of conflict. It’s a common space. If someone wants to start shit, they don’t do it where everyone will think they’re a dick.”

Leo didn’t doubt that for a moment—the ground hummed with power. The Den may have been plainer than many of the other areas they had walked through, but it had been charged by the mere presence of dozens of gods cycling in and out. There was something tangy in the air, almost like oranges. He wondered if that was what magic tasted like.

“See that guy in the water?” Leo squinted to follow Finn’s line of sight to the lake, where a man stood waist-deep and traded splashes with a long-haired young woman. Excess water sloughed off his dark skin when he returned Finn’s wave. “That’s Talker. He’s a major river god and his girlfriend Noelle’s a rain goddess, so they expanded a stream into the lake.”

“How long did that take?”

“For them? Ten minutes, give or take.”

Talker flicked the water Noelle’s direction and a wave washed over her; within seconds of resurfacing, she opened a black cloud over his head, sending a curtain of rain down with a burst of laughter. A thin blue shimmer connected the tips of their hands with the arcs of a leaping dolphin.

A young woman sitting on the shore with a book gave a lazy swish of her hand—thunder shook the surface of the lake, and Finn nodded to her. “That’s Aubrey. Sydney’s probably on call right now, but she brings the lightning. Oh, hey, Bliz is here!”

He let Finn usher him further down the hill, doing his best not to slip, and went willingly under fluttering hands that gestured toward the motley crew of immortals. Focusing on their ethereal glow and range of clothing diverted Leo’s attention from the warmth of Finn’s hand between his shoulder blades; he stubbornly ignored the thrill in his stomach when the smell of fresh rain and old books washed over him each time Finn grew close.

“We call him Bliz, but his real name is Kasey,” Finn explained, pointing to a blond man with broad shoulders. “He’s a winter god. Old as shit, too—I don’t think his original people exist up north anymore, but he was big for them. His partner Natalie is a music goddess, though I’m pretty sure she’s actually one of the nine Muses and is fucking with me. My brother Alex is dating them both.”

Leo raised a brow. “Your brother? He came with you?”

“Hmm? Oh, not really. I don’t know if I had mortal siblings.” Finn tilted his head from side to side while he thought, as if he was searching for the right words in the air. “It’s a bit tricky to explain, but a lot of us come from similar cultures or have similar enough realms of power that we stick together, like siblings. Alex is a wind god, I’m a messenger god, so it just…I dunno, it fits. He’s more family to me than the others for sure.”

“That’s wonderful, Finn.”

The dusty blush returned and he ducked his head a little. “Maybe you’ll hit it off with someone. You never know.”

“I’ve got enough time,” Leo joked, earning himself a snort of amusement.

“You can say that again. Uh, the big guy over there is Kuny, and then the one next to him is Nado. They’re usually out and about because their realms are more specialized for a bunch of small things, but it’s always good when they can stop by. Next to them are Lily and James, who came from the same pantheon and control autumn and spring for a few different worlds. They only started dating over the past thousand years, though. Pretty young relationship.”

“What counts as an old relationship?” Even as he asked it, Leo wasn’t sure he wanted to know. A millennium was a mere blip to the gods. It felt kind of terrible to think it would become the blink of an eye for him, too.

“Well, Pascal and Celeste are as old as the earth and sky, but…” Finn hummed and surveyed the Den, then made a happy noise and turned Leo a little to the right. “See those two?”

He found only a handful of dozing gods and shook his head. Then Finn took him by the chin and moved his head for him, stealing the breath clear from Leo’s body. His touch was gentle, yet steady. A soft sigh escaped Leo when the touch fell away; he had to blink a few times before centering his vision on the pair Finn was trying to point out. “Under the tree?”

“Mhmm. That’s Remus reading, and Sirius is—per usual—all up in his personal space.” They looked quite content in Leo’s opinion. Remus, cloaked in plain brown, didn’t seem bothered by Sirius’ dark head occupying his lap in the slightest. Hazy silver-gold surrounded them in a woven heartbeat. “They’re one of the rare couples that started in different pantheons, not that they recall which was which. Neither of them had an easy trip up here.”

Leo frowned. “What do you mean?”

But Finn appeared not to hear him, or at least did a very good job of ignoring the question. “Their realms overlap because they’ve been together so long. It’s kind of interesting, actually, since they started out on opposite ends. Remus was a healing god at first, and Sirius was a death god.”

“And now?”

Beneath the ash tree, Sirius plucked a small lupine from the grass and tucked it between the pages of Remus’ book. “Remus is still a healer, but he also helps those who die gentle deaths along. And Sirius has always had some little realms, children and loyalty and a couple others, but those grew stronger the longer they stayed together. Less doom and gloom, more of the things he enjoys.”

It may have been the most confusing and panic-inducing day of Leo’s life (or rather, his afterlife), but he could have heard the wistfulness in Finn’s voice a mile away. He glanced away from the lovers under the tree and to the right, following the tilt of Finn’s face.

Another god sat alone, a sword at his hip, oiling an armguard. In the sun, his tan skin made him look like a burnished statue come to life. He looked up as if he could sense them watching, and his scowl of focus dissipated like morning mist into a smile the moment he saw Finn.

Oh, Leo thought. The other god set aside the armguard and raked a hand through his hair—he felt Finn’s chest hitch. Oh, shit. Finn may have been the expert in the history of the other gods, but it seemed he had a complex story of his own that was still unfolding.

“Finn, light of foot,” the god called as he sauntered over with a hand on his sword hilt. “Messenger of worlds, swiftest, nosiest, and most irritating of the gods.”

A smile struggled to break through Finn’s solemn expression. “Logan.”

“You brought a friend.”

“Maybe.”

“A rookie.” Logan’s eyes were the brightest green Leo had ever seen; something a little like fear, a little like excitement tumbled through his stomach when they flickered up and down his body before settling on his face. Whatever Logan found there, it made him cock his head to the side. “What do you do?”

“I…died.”

Amid his overwhelming embarrassment, Leo wondered if it was possible to shuffle off an immortal coil in addition to the mortal one. “That’s it?” Logan raised a brow, more bemused than anything. “You don’t seem like a ghost.”

“I’m not.”

“What’s your realm?”

“I have no idea.”

“Lo,” Finn began, and Leo only had a moment to be surprised by the casual nickname before Logan held a hand up and narrowed his eyes.

“How long have you been immortal?”

“Like, two hours.”

Logan poorly stifled a laugh. “What’s your name, rookie?”

“Leo. Knut.” Thank you for finally asking a question I can answer. “Like the lizard.”

“You’ve got plenty of time to figure it out, Leo Knutlikethelizard.”

“It’s—” Leo faltered, then sighed. He didn’t have the energy to argue with a god whose attention had already turned back to Finn. Not today. Not fucking today. “Thanks.”

“You’re playing tour guide?” Logan sounded surprised, though it was hard to understand why. Finn was a messenger god—it only made sense that he would be the one to show newbies around.

Finn half-shrugged. “I had time. Good day?”

The humor drained from Logan’s face, dimming the vivid shine of his eyes and dulling the tan of his skin. He stood a good six inches shorter than Leo, a detail that had gone unnoticed until now amidst his bluntness and broad shoulders. Leo wanted to kick Finn for asking a question that so clearly upset his new friend. “It was a day,” Logan answered. “I would have preferred being a tour guide.”

“You hate being a tour guide.”

“I hate Duvost more.”

Finn frowned deeply at the name. “Why would you—”

“War is war.”

“There are other gods—”

“And they asked for me.”

“I—”

“Finn. Enough. It was a day and it’s done now.”

The corner of Finn’s jaw ticked, like he wanted to keep pressing the subject, but he carefully smoothed it out and straightened. “I’ll bring you dinner later, once Leo’s settled.”

Logan shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, I already ate.”

A look crossed Finn’s face, then, a combination of hurt and frustration and want that made Leo’s fingertips tingle the way lightning felt just before it struck. Apparently, he had not imagined the emotion in Finn’s voice before. Less doom and gloom, Finn had said of Sirius. More of the things he enjoys. A heavy burden alleviated by a friend-turned-lover. Oh, there was history there, no doubt. He could see it in the way Logan leaned toward Finn like a habit and in the pulsing, roiling, viciously red mist between them that neither spared a glance toward. Maybe not the kind of history either of them wanted, but one they were both fighting.

Leo just wished he knew which direction they were fighting it, so he could—

So he could—

Well, shit. He wanted to calm the strange thing between them until it stopped thrashing, wrenched in different directions but refusing to die out in spite of its missing pieces. He wanted to spend days and days with Finn while they wandered across this strange world; he wanted to see Logan smile again without the weight of whatever duty he was called to fulfill.

Leo had expected a lot of things when he died. Falling ass over teakettle into the third spot of an immortal love triangle was not one of them.

It appeared chapter one of the story of his next life had begun.

142 notes · View notes

fruitcoops · 2 years

Note

Eve!!! Could maybe request bear hugs from the prompt list? For whatever pairing you fancy!

Anything for you Sarah! (from this list)

"Hey!"

Talker nearly dropped his phone in his haste to turn around; there was only a second's stretch between a smile splitting his face and the impact of a mid-season hockey player colliding with his chest. "There you are."

"My baby," Noelle sighed happily, sliding her hands up his back before draping them over his shoulders to pull him in for a kiss. "My love, my sweetheart, mon cher..."

God, Talker loved airport PDA. She still smelled like the plane, but beneath it was the crisp floral scent of her perfume, wrapping around him tighter than her embrace. "Bonjour, Christmas. Good flight?"

"Mhmm." The one cheek in his sightline was pink from happiness--she smushed her face against him like a cat before making a soft noise and hoisting him a few inches off the ground. "Mon dieu, I am so done with FaceTime."

"You and me both," he laughed, a little breathless in her hold.

Noelle set him back down a moment later and kissed each of his cheeks, then his lips. Her eyes shone in the fluorescent lights. "Two whole weeks of loving you, mon amour."

#thomas walker #talker #noelle tremblay #talker/ noelle #sweater weather #vaincre #lumosinlove #my fic #fanfic #short fic #airport reunion #bear hugs

82 notes · View notes

achliegh · 2 years

Text

The Major League

Masterlist

TW: making out, breaking up, being drunk, dramatic reactions, Swedish, vaping, gay stuggle, if there is anything else just let me know :)

Baseball Boys meeting and falling in Love

What could go wrong… ;)

Beta: @punkkkkboi

Most Characters belong to: @lumosinlovelove

Chapter 14

Feathered Hotel, 2020

Sirius was just about to head down to breakfast when a knock on his door stopped him. Who would be here at 6am the morning before the final games of the tournament? He opens his door with a hair tie in his mouth while one hand holds the ponytail he so carefully crafted before this intruder came to visit.

“Hey, I left my-whoa!” Sirius pulls Remus into the room by the front of his yellow eagles shirt. Slapping his hair up in a way more messy than intended he regrabs that soft shirt, using his other hand to grab the back of the slightly taller man's head and bring him into a searing kiss. Remus makes a noise of surprise and throws his hands up for a second before relaxing. Resting his hands on Sirius’ shoulder blades he kisses back. “I was not expecting this.” He mumbles on Sirius’ lips making him smile.

“I like surprises.” Sirius moves the hand holding onto the fabric so the crook of his elbow is at the side of the other’s neck. They both laugh a bit. Remus loses his balance for a second and they stumble back a couple steps. Pulling away they just look at each other before snickering. “Yellow is a good color on you.”

“Thanks, it’s my team color.” Remus kisses him again, running his tongue along Sirius’ bottom lip. Opening his mouth he feels a hand on his side, he flinches because it tickles. Remus hums a laugh and moves his hand to the small of his back instead.

They make out for what seems like hours but was really only a few minutes because one of the twenty alarms Sirius has set on his phone goes off. It was the one he hit snooze on just before starting his hair. Five minute snooze. He steps back just a smidge to pull his phone out of his back pocket but when he reaches for it, it isn’t there and the alarm has stopped.

“What?”

“Right here hotshot.” Remus waves his phone in his face, smirking.

“How did you…?” Remus chuckles at Sirius’ face and reaches around to slide his phone into the very pocket it came from. Giving it a little pat before stepping back and walking over to the dresser. He picks up the mysterious charging cord that Sirius found when he woke up.

“I have a lot more tricks up my sleeve, Black. You just gotta be around me enough to figure out what they are.” Stuffing the cord in his shorts pocket he struts back over to the highly confused man and gives him a soft lingering kiss. “I’ll see you at the stadium.” With that he winks and walks out the door. Leaving Sirius floundering for words.

Just like he was promised, he saw Remus at the stadium. Very up close and personal… in the family bathroom. He was snatched from the hallway when he stopped to check his phone. At this moment, Remus was sitting on the counter with his ankles hooked behind Sirius’ back and his hands on his cheek and neck. Sirius had his hands pressed against the weirdly warm countertop. He didn’t know what time it was and frankly he didn’t care. Their tongues run across each other smoothly, taking turns sucking on the others bottom lip, Sirius always ends up biting down playfully on Remus’ making him laugh and turn more pink than he already is.

“You should probably go.” Remus says but he doesn’t let go or pull away. He couldn’t bear to. He just wanted this to be never ending. But air was in short supply. He pulls away only to let Sirius breath. Kissing down his neck, he smirks a bit before lightly nipping at his pulse point making Sirius jolt a bit.

“What are you a vampire?” Remus lifts his head and smiles at just how red those tan cheeks are. Reaching up he tightens the pony tale that has started to slip. Resting his hands on top of Sirius’ that are on the counter.

“Maybe I am, I bet it was your dream in highschool to be a vampire. I could see you as a twilight fan.” Remus smiles when he hears Sirius start laughing, leaning forward he puts the tips of his fingers under Sirius’ chin and kisses him, gently. “Better get moving, you have a game to win.” He unhooks his legs from behind Sirius’ back and pushes him away with his feet on his thighs. Once Sirius was far enough away he swung his legs and waves.

Sirius walks out of the bathroom, picking up his bag from the floor by the wall where it fell when he was so aggressively yanked. Hurrying to the locker room he gets inside and can’t wipe the smile off his face. It’s hurting his cheeks at this point. Getting dressed he just keeps playing those moments with Remus over and over and over again in his head. Ignoring anyone who tried to talk to him.

He played one of the best games of the season that morning. God, he felt great. He could run a hundred miles if he wanted to. He was so excited to see Remus again, whenever that would be. It’s crazy how just a single thing can change the entire way you look at someone. But, did he think differently? Was this just something he hoped for, deep down he knew this was wrong and that he should stop. Walking in the empty halls of this maze-like stadium gave him time to think. Actually think about what he’s been doing.

He wanted Remus in a physical way, he was strong and handsome and was more of a man than Sirius ever saw himself. His fluffy brown hair and killer glare always made his stomach do turns but he always thought it was because he hated him so much it made him sick to his stomach. Should he call things off? Go back to hating him because that was more widely accepted? He couldn’t have luxuries in his life like Remus… there was too much at stake. So, he made up his mind. He was going to call it off, or at least he thought he would.

Familiar hands grab his shoulder from behind and lips that smelled like mango whispered in his ear.

“Wanna make out?”

“Since when do you ask?”

“Since this time it’s gonna take some finesse.” He felt himself getting led away down a dead end hall with a locked broom closet at the end. Remus stopped in front of the door and squatted down so he was eye level with the doorknob. He pulls out two hair pins and suddenly the door is unlocked. Pushing it open with the slightest touch of his fingers.

“Where did you learn that!?” He blindly follows the other into the pitch black room. He lets out a little noise when he feels a hand on his chest and his back to the now closed door. He flinches when he feels a smirk touch his lips.

“You seem to forget,” Remu’s pressed his whole body up against Sirius’ own, his breath caught in his lungs as he realizes just how trapped he is… it was wonderful. “I’m a criminal.” Lips meet again for what feels like the millionth time. It was frantic and rushed even if they had more time now than they did either of the other two times they smashed faces.

Sirius threw his arms around Remus’s neck and lifted one of his legs to rest at Remus’ hip. He felt that strong hand grip his thigh pulling it higher, and Sirius just tried to pull him even closer. One of Remus’ forearms was against the door beside his head, the other hand was squeezing his thigh with every intense kiss they shared. Pulling away so the back of his head rested against the surface behind him, he was panting trying to catch his breath.

“Did you really learn how to do that in school?” He groans quietly when he feels sloppy kisses leading up from his collar bone up to his jaw.

“I never said in school, I just reminded you that I’m a bad guy.” A kiss. “A troublemaker.” Another. “Someone who people usually avoid.” A very intense kiss that makes him feel like his eyes are crossing and his leg tightens around Remus’ hip. “Fuck, you’re so good at this.”

“Did you expect me not to be?”

“I always thought you were kinda a prude so I didn’t have high hopes.” Sirius might not be able to see with just how dark it is but he knows that signature grin is on the other face right now.

“I see where Leo learned it from.”

“What?”

“That look.”

“You can’t even see me!”

“I just know.” Remus laughs and kisses him again, moving his arm from by Sirius’ head to his other thigh and tugging at him. Sirius pulls away and grabs Remus’ shoulders.

“You can not pick me up!”

“Why not? You seem like the type who likes to be held.” Sirius fills his cheeks with air and feels his face start to burn. Thank god there isn’t light in this room. At least not one that's on.

“I mean! We are basically the same size, you can’t just pick me up!” The hand on his raised thigh leaves and the body pressed so firm against his own leans back. He hears a little jingle before a click and suddenly the sun is burning his retinas. Once his eyes adjust to the dull bulb he realizes he is staring into two very determined brown ones. “What?”

“You really don’t think I can lift my body weight?” The sass in that question let Sirius know that he said the wrong thing, but the smirk on Remus’ face let him know that it wasn’t a bad wrong. Grabbing his thighs again Remus pulls them out from under him at the sametime. Sirius feels himself fall and he grabs whatever part of Remus he could. Which so happened to be his hair. Remus huffs and puts his knee under his ass. “Maybe put your arms around my neck instead of trying to rip my hair out. I quite like my hair.”

“Sorry.” He does as Remus suggests and the grip on his thighs turns into a grip on his ass, lifting up so they were eye level with each other now. “Cool.” Sirius kicks his legs a bit and smiles.

“Thought you would like it.” Voices down the hall catch their attention, swiftly the light is turned off and a hand is put over Sirius’ mouth because he starts to verbally panic. The voices get closer and more familiar.

“You’re sure no one is down here?” That was definitely Finn.

“Why would they be?” And Clay. They were so screwed. The door handle turns and a push is felt. Remus just pushes harder against Sirius who tries his best not to make a noise. “Hmm, something is in front of the door.” Another push in and another push back.

“There's another one two halls down. Wanna go there?”

“Yeah, why not.” The voices of their friends dissipate as they scurry off, laughing and talking. Remus puts him down and once he knows for sure it's clear he starts laughing.

“Let's get out of here.”

He was drunk, his mind was racing and his emotions were dictating his actions. Standing in front of Remus’ room door he knew what he was doing was stupid and about to ruin everything he could ever want but it needed to be done. He couldn’t keep doing this. The fear of someone finding out, even worse his parents finding out, made him feel physically ill. He needed to end this no matter how much he actually wanted this. He couldn’t have it. He knocks, waiting for a while no one answers the door. He knocks again. Still no answer. He was getting frustrated. Maybe it would be easier just to start ignoring Remus all together. Never talking to him again. Avoiding being in the same space as him as much as possible.

He knocked one more time. Waiting as long as he could with his heart beating out of his chest. No answer again, so he turned around and walked towards the stairs. Opening the door he felt it hit something.

“OW! What the hell!”

“Remus?” He sets into the stairwell and sees Remus rubbing his forehead. “Sorry, I didn’t know you were there.”

“Don’t worry about it, I was just resetting my brain before heading to bed.” He smiles and reaches over Sirius’ shoulders to tighten his ponytail, a sentiment that was slowly becoming the norm for them. “Why were you on our floor anyway? Aren’t you up one?” He removed his hands from his hair and rested his elbows on Sirius’ shoulders, making the distance between them minute. His heart was fighting his ribcage again.

“Y-yeah I am… Remus?”

“Hmm?” He hummed, closing his eyes and resting his forehead to Sirius’. His cheeks were getting warm and he was starting to lose all train of thought besides the want to kiss the beauty in front of him. He clenches his fists and takes a deep breath.

“We-MM!” Remus did it. He kisses him, just like he wanted. Sirius couldn’t help himself; he kissed back knowing this was the last time they would ever do this. The last time Sirius would allow himself to do this. He gripped Remus’s waist tightly, he didn’t want him to move away. Their lips move against each other with a rhythm so easy and relaxed that it could have made him cry. Their smacking was loud, ringing in his ears, with every passing moment he felt the anxiety in his stomach churn.

He steps back, holding Remus arms length away from him. Panting while looking at the ground. Remus was going to hate him, never speak to him again. Tell James and Lily about everything they did and then they would leave him too. Fuck, he felt his eyes burn with salty tears, he’s never getting drunk again.

“We can’t do this.” He felt Remus stiffen. He couldn’t look up.

“What do you mean?”

“Remus we can’t be together, we can’t keep sneaking around. We can’t.” Remus smacks his hands off his shoulders and Sirius looks up.

“Hold on, wait. You started this shit. Then one day of us having a good time and getting along you fucking cut it off! Are you serious?! Don’t you dare make that fucking joke right now because I’m actually angry.” He wasn’t lying, Remus looked furious, his eyes were angry but also hurt, his arms were tense, his cheeks were red from the alcohol and his heightened emotions. He was so beautiful.

“I didn’t mean to start it in the first place!”

“Then why did you go along with this!? You obviously want something!”

“No Re-”

“Don’t say you don’t want it. I see the way you’ve changed around me, I know what you want but you’re too stubborn and scared to admit it! What is stopping you? Huh? What is it? Tell me!” Remus backed him up against the wall as he walked forward with every sentence. Making him feel trapped. Not in a good way this time. Sirius puts his hands on the angry man’s chest, just to keep distance between them because he knows if he gets too close he will fall into his desire again.

“It’s wrong!”

“Wrong? I thought you supported our friends.”

“It’s not wrong to be gay… it's wrong for us to be together! We hate each other. All we do is fight and when we don’t it’s because we are trying to keep the peace around James and Lily! Remus, I don’t want this. I don’t want… you.” Sirius knew what he said hurt, it hurt him too. He watched that face he learned to enjoy so much fall. Remus backs up away from him. His hands fall from the other's chest to his side.

Then he was gone.

Feathered Hotel, 2020

Clay was sitting on his brother's bed, tossing a baseball up towards the ceiling and catching it while Leo got ready for bed. They were just talking about their schedules with school now that baseball was over.

“Kan vi studera på onsdagskvällar? Det är de enda dagar då Reg och jag inte har kvällslektioner.”

“Ja, vilken kväll som helst skulle fungera förutom torsdag. Min ryska lektion är på torsdagskvällar.” Leo is brushing his teeth so his voice was all gurgly.

“Tar du examen i förtid? Som tre år i stället för två?” He and Reg were both aiming for that but his brother really liked school so he didn’t know if he wanted to keep going or not.

“Ja, jag-” THe door bursts open making both of them jump. Clay drops the ball on the ground and Leo chokes on his toothpaste. Remus storms in, throws himself on the bed and lets out a very distressed scream into his pillow. Leo comes out of the bathroom to lean against the doorway. “Remus?”

He just screams again, the brothers share a look. Clay picks up his baseball and moves to sit on the edge of the bed facing the screamer while Leo goes to rinse out his mouth.

“Remus, what's going on.”

“I HATE THEM! I FUCKING HATE THEM!” Remus’ muffled yelling is very intense. Leo comes out of the bathroom, he sits down next to Remus and rubs his back.

“Who do you hate?” It's silent for a moment before Remus sits up and swings his legs over the side of the bed just about kicking Leo in the face as he does so. His hair is sticking up like a mad scientist with how staticky he is.

“I was maybe possibly starting a relationship with a-a-a… girl?”

“You don’t seem so certain.”

“Shut the fuck up! Anyway, I was starting a relationship with this girl and I was having a great time sneaking around with her today. Yesterday she kissed me for the first time and even if it was a fucking shitty pathetic kiss I was so happy. I was so. Fucking. Happy!” Remus stands up and starts pacing between the beds. Clay and Leo watch him pace getting more and more confused by the second.

“What happened?” Clay asks knowing that Remus needed to get it off his chest. This just reminded him of when Cam found out that the girl he fell in love with at first sight was actually just using him for money. He was a mess and is still affected by that today. So, he knew that Remus needed to talk about this.

“I don’t know what I did wrong but…she said we couldn’t keep doing that.”

“After one day?”

“After one day! Not even a full fucking day. I don’t know what happened, we were laughing and talking and just being nice to each other for once when we would sneak off but, I guess I fucked up somewhere along the line. I knew she was selfish and stubborn and a fucking idiot. But I didn’t think she would be such an asshole! A fucking jerk.” Remus was panting as he walked, his face was red with anger and his eyes were full of hot tears threatening to fall. Eventually he stopped pacing and sat on the end of his bed with his back facing them.

“She must have been someone you really liked for you to be this worked up over a one day thing.”

“That's the thing, I don’t even like them! I hate them! I’ve hated their guts forever! So why does this hurt so much…” He sounded so sad all the sudden.

“Who is she?” Leo moves down the bed to place a comforting arm on his friend's shoulder. “Anyone we know?”

“...No, you wouldn’t know her.”

“Describe her, we might.” Clay says as he gets up and sits on the other side of Remus who is just looking at his hands. Looking like he was calculating.

“Really long curly hair, light blue eyes a shade or two darker than Leo’s, tall but not taller than me, stubborn, athletic, snobby, a prude.” He sighs and puts his hand on his face.

“She sounds like a real winner.” Clay says sarcastically, Remus cracks a smile when he flops his hands back down on his legs.

“Yeah, but I guess I wasn't the prize.” They all sit there for a moment before Remus stands again. “I’m gonna go shower, wash those memories away. They don’t matter now.” Remus walks off to the bathroom, closing the door gently.

“Han är verkligen inte okej.” Clay looks at Leo who nods.

“Låt honom få tid för sig själv, jag följer med dig till ditt rum.” They get up, Clay grabs his phone off Leo’s bed along with his vape and they walk down the hall, up the stairs and down another hall the other way to Clay’s room. In silence. Clay sighs and smiles a little at his brother.

“He will be okay, we can make him sweets when we get home. Something to make him feel better.” They part ways, Clay going into his room where Reg is laying on his bed looking at something on his phone with his vape hanging out of his mouth and his leg hanging off the side of the bed.

“Sup.” Clay says walking over to his own bed and flopping down on his back before turning on his side to look at his best friend. “When we get home tomorrow are we deep cleaning the apartment?”

“Probably should, I might go over to Sirius’ though. Something happened with some girl and he was texting me nonsense a few minutes ago.”

“Remus also got heartbroken today. I didn’t even know he was dating someone.”

“I didn’t know my brother was either. I wonder if maybe….” They both look at each other having formed the same idea. Speaking at the sametime.

“They were going after the same girl.” They collectively sigh. Reg flops his arms out to his sides so his phone is in his fingers over the edge of the bed. Clay picks at the loose string on the decorative blanket of the bed.

“They always compete with everything, why did they have to compete over a pair of tits?” Reg sits up and groans frustrated. “You know when Sirius was drafted he completely cut me off? Then when I was drafted I went to his apartment and yelled at him. It ended up with us talking about how he hates Remus for like three hours. So fucking annoying!” Reg gets up and starts changing into his sleep clothes. Clay just hummed.

“Do they only hate each other because of how the media twists them? Because I have witnessed them being friendly to each other and I don’t see why they can’t get along.”

“James and Lily have asked them to be friends because they are expecting a mini version of them. So, yeah they are starting to be more friendly but Sirius still just fucking complains and its so exhusting.” Reg gets under his blankets after turning off the one light in the room and turns on the lamp. Clay scoots under his blankets as well, cringing at how his leg hair is sticking to the blankets from the static.

“Oh, did you hear that Crouch and Riddle got into an argument!” Clay plugs his phone in and puts it under his pillow. “No one knows what it was about but apparently it was a huge argument.”

“When doesn’t Tom cause drama?”

“I mean, true but usually it's never with a coach.”

“You sure about that?”

“I thought so, him and Igor are like best friends.”

“Igor just sucks Tom off because Tom is scary and a great player.”

“I like Igor, he’s nice to me.”

“He’s a good coach but a lot of people don’t like him because on the surface he seems so cruel but he’s a nice guy.”

“Helped me meet my best friend.”

“Awww that’s so gross, don’t ever say that again.” Clay just starts laughing at what Reg said and he can see Reg trying to hide his own smile. “Also, if Thomas and Noelle are going to keep randomly showing up to the house drunk to find you I’m going to ban them from coming over.”

“They don’t mean any harm, you know that.”

“I like them but I’m also tired of them stumbling in and stealing you away for you to return hours later with bags of stuff they bought for you.”

“I mean they just feel like they owe me stuff because I got them together… I think.”

They were laying in the yard of the hotel, looking at the stars and also at the rooms of the hotel turning off their lights. Thomas was a bit more drunk than Noelle was, holding her hand in the grass between them with his other hand behind his head. She had her free arm just stretched out above her head picking at the grass.

“I appreciate you meeting my family, I know they can be a bit much.” Thomas watches as another hotel room light goes out on the third floor.

“I liked your family, they were fun. Your grandma sure is a character.” Noelle pops her gum that she has been chewing for hours and really has no flavor anymore.

“Yeah, she has always been nosey when it comes to relationships. Wants us all to be like her and Pawpaw Jer.”

“It’s sweet, she just wants to share a good experience she had. But if she were to literally share it with you that would be disgusting.” They both chuckle a bit.

“She is determined that one of us ended up like her, and I was always told to ignore her when she starts suggesting I try polyamory. My parents always thought it was a bit weird.”

“I’ve heard of it but I never really looked into it, I always thought it was kind of shady. Like a way to cheat but not label it as cheating. A way to make people have like orgys and stuff. I don’t know, it’s just kind of weird. I don’t know how you can have a healthy relationship while having multiple relationships.”

“When Nana talks about it she always looks like she is looking back at the fondest memories she has ever had. Her and Pawpaw were in a relationship with another couple for… I don’t know, years maybe. But Pawpaw died and she lost touch with the other couple.”

“That's really sad. I see why she wants her family to experience that. It’s a lot of love she lost.”

“You think they all loved each other? I always thought it was just for sex.”

“Well, doesn’t a relationship need love? Whether it’s a couple or a poly relationship?”

“It's called a polycule and I guess you’re right.”

“If you were ever in a polycule, who would it be with?”

“You obviously.” Noelle laughs at him. “What? It’s true! Who would you?”

“Well, you for one. But if it's a poly thing then we would need at the very least another person.” Thomas looks at her and raises an eyebrow telling her to go on. “I think Remus would be nice. He’s good looking and funny.”

“Seriously, my team captain?” Noelle laughs and lets go of his hand to roll over and rest her head on his chest, tracing her finger up and down his chest.

“Well, who would you want?” She asks, looking up at him to see him still staring at the hotel windows.

“Clay.” They are quiet for a minute before Thomas realizes what he said. “Wait no! I mean umm a-”

“Thomas, it’s okay.”

“But I’m not gay!”

“You can like a man and not be gay, I mean you’re obsessed with Micheal B. Jordan.”

“Hey, I admire him. I don’t have a crush on him.”

“Yeah sure, and I totally don’t have a crush on Kristen Stewart.”

“I mean, I don’t have feelings for Clay. He just gets along with us really well.”

“Whatever you say Muffin Man.”

2 notes · View notes

achliegh · 2 years

Text

The Major League

Masterlist

TW: Food, Drink, emotional talk, mentions of shitty family, swearing, relationship issues, if there is anything else just let me know :)

Baseball Boys meeting and falling in Love

What could go wrong… ;)

Beta: @punkkkkboi

Most Characters belong to: @lumosinlovelove

Chapter 10

Indicolite Stadium, Ravenclaw, Hogwarts 2020

The Ravenclaw tournament is only held in the years when not a single team from Hogwarts makes it into the World Series. It was the last games of the season and was more played for fun than anything else. Everyone except the Ravenclaw teams all stayed in the Feathered Hotel just a block away from the stadium.

Ravenclaws stadium was the best stadium in the city, it was on the second highest point of Hogwarts. It was Remus’ childhood, his dad took him to games here all the time, getting ridiculously long hot dogs and comically small sodas. He loves it here.

He was hanging out with his team and a couple other teams in the players lounge as they watched the Lion’s play against the Ravens. It was a close game, the room was split 50/50 on who would win. They were tied up until the 8th inning when Logan hit a home run! Having the Lions take the lead into the 9th. Remus was so happy and mildly intoxicated from the shitty beer on tap at the little wet bar in the corner. This tournament was a big deal in Hogwarts with so many people arriving it was safest and probably the easiest to keep the players in the lounge.

How do you do that? Beer and food.

The game ended in the Lions winning 45 to 43, the teams came out to join everyone in hanging out. For some reason Sirius is in a bad mood. It’s more like he’s sad, this was the last game of the night so everyone starts filing out to their cars to either go home or to the Feathered. Remus sees Sirius just sitting on one of the deep blue couches, his face was in his hands as he is resting his elbows on his knees.

“What's up?” Remus sits on the arm of the couch next to the other man.

“Just a bad night is all.” Sirius takes his face out of his hands leaning back and looking up at his… Well, he still didn't know what to call Remus.

“You pitched great tonight, you won the game.” Remus was surprising Sirius more and more everyday, he never expected someone who insults him so frequently to care about how he’s feeling.

“It’s not a bad night in that way… I got a call from my parents telling me I have to go home for some fancy dinner party for my birthday. It’s going to be some stupid thing with all their buiness associates who disrespect our culture and try to pass it off as a joke. I’d rather not go but I don’t have a choice.” It felt like there were metal beads being poured into his chest, getting heavier and heavier the more he thought about going home. Like he was being buried from the inside out.

“Come with me.” Remus stands up and starts walking to the stairs that lead up into the stands. Sirius only has a second to follow him before he loses him. Sirius gets off the couch and follows behind the taller man, he notices that Remus is wearing a Lions jersey without a name or number on the back. It made his mind wander to a place he never thought it would.

What would Remus Lupin look like in... his jersey?

He is brought away from his troubling thoughts when they have climbed all the way past the boxes to the nosebleeds and Remus starts climbing an old metal ladder. Sirius hesitates because it doesn’t look very safe and he can see through the railing that's at the back of the stadium.

“Come on, you’re being slow.” Sirius sighs and climbs up the ladder as quickly as he can. He finds himself standing on top of one of the boxes, looking over the field and even the whole city they were that high up.

“Whoa.” He sits down next to Remus who has his legs over the side of the box and is swinging them. Sirius takes in the beauty of the city, all the lights turning on as the sun sets, the colors of the sky melting into an oil painting of hues.

“It's beautiful up here, how did you find this?”

“This is where I would come when I was a kid, after camps here or whenever my bike wasn’t locked up to a pole because I forgot the combination. I was never allowed in the stadium by myself after I got in trouble so in high school I’d have to break in just to get some alone time. I would read a lot up here.” Sirius looks at Remus, the taller of them pulled a small bag of ranch flavored sunflower seeds from his jeans pocket and put a handful in his mouth. Spitting the shells over the side to be swept up later. “Want some?” He holds the bag out to Sirius who just shakes his head turning it to look back out to the view.

“I never had a spot like this when I was a kid, there were always eyes on me. My family doesn’t have the best reputation with the tribe because of a rumor of why our eyes are blue and the fact that Orion bought a uranium mine for some white people.”

“Uranium?” Remus looks at him, raising an eyebrow. Was Uranium still a big thing?

“Yeah, it’s something that the tribe was forced to mine when it was first discovered. People on the Res are still affected by radiation poisoning to the point where there are special clinics for that. Yet, he just decided he cared more about the money than anything. His dad was to busy playing baseball to show him any attention and his mom just gave him money to stay away from her so it’s no wonder hes so fucked in the head.” He finds a couple twigs and tosses them over the edge just watching them fall. “We call it yellow dirt. You can look up all the stories about it if you want.”

“I will.” Sirius was surprised, usually when he tries to inform someone about this stuff they just brush it off. He looks up meeting Remus’s eyes and smiles a little. “I want to know more about your culture, it sounds amazing and interesting. Plus, if we have to be friends then we should probably know as much about each other as possible.” Remus spits out a couple more seeds before tossing more in his mouth. Cracking them loudly.

“I don’t know what to say to that…”

“Then don’t say anything.” Sirius pulls one of his legs up from over the side and rests his chin on his knee. “I thought your dad was just a baseball star.”

“After he got injured from sliding wrong he decided to fuck over the family as much as possible I guess..” He sighs, flicking one of Remus’ sunflower seeds that fell between them off the box, watching it fly out over a couple rows of seats before disappearing.

“I forgot he got injured.” There was a silence between them, all they heard was the breeze in their ears. Then Sirius couldn’t take it anymore.

“What about your family? Are they nice?” Remus smiles, Sirius is looking at his profile and notices how it's illuminated by the crescent of the sun still being shown over the land.

“My parents are amazing and supportive and Julian is such a cutie, he gets on my nerves but I’m pretty sure all brothers do that. He’s also about ten years younger than me and somehow I was the accident. He was so excited when he got into Ilvermorny… He asked me what highschool was like and I couldn’t tell him because my experience was so different” They let out light hearted laughs, Remus leans back supporting himself with his hands. Sirius could tell something was bothering him though.

“Reg and I weren’t on speaking terms for a while, our parents thought we would revolt against them or something. We didn’t start talking again until he was drafted, then he just showed up at my apartment and yelled at me for leaving him there alone.” Sirius criss-crosses his legs and leans back on his hands as well so he can look up at the stars that are starting to peek through the dark sky.

“You have each other now.”

“Yeah, we do.” They watch the stars come out in silence, eventually climbing down and making their way out of the stadium.

Sirius and Remus walk back to the hotel together, Remus was nice enough to carry Sirius’ bag there for him. All he did was complain about his shoulder being sore and suddenly his bag was out of his hands. They walked in silence, only breaking that when James walked up between them after they got to the hotel lounge, slapping his arms over their shoulders.

“Look who's getting along!” He kisses both their cheeks before patting their shoulders and walking in front of them, turning around to face them as all of them continue walking. “Anyway, there is a ghost adventures marathon this week and I would like to watch it with my two best friends.”

“Lily isn’t here, aren’t her and the baby your best friends?” Remus sends him a teasing smile at the complete offense on James’ face.

“I mean you!” He smacks Remus upside the head while speaking in quick Spanish that he can’t understand besides, “Estúpido.” Remus laughs and ruffles James’ already crazy hair.

They go up to Sirius’ room because James is sharing a room with Kuny, the latter being the captain was allowed to get his own room because he has special privileges… like a loser. James decides to take up the entire couch, stretching his arms behind his head and his ankles over the side of the other arm of the couch. He sends the other two a smile.

“I like the couch, you two can share the bed.” His smile is innocent but Remus knows something else is going on. He kicks off his shoes and hops on the bed, leaning his back against the headboard, texting Leo that he would be back to the room a bit late. He was sharing with Leo because he didn’t trust him not to get in trouble. The kid doesn’t know how to not be a complete tornado over half the time.

Sirius joins him on the bed, keeping a friendly distance between them. James was in charge of the remote having snatched it off the dresser that the tv was one and flipping through the channels until the loud intro of Ghost Adventures ruptures their eardrums. There was no reason for it to be so loud.

They watch as these bozos scream ghost at every little sound, Remus never believed in this type of thing but Sirius was looking quite shaken next to him. He smiles a little at how scared this 6’ man was at an obviously fake show. James passed out in a rather odd position on the couch about five minutes in, his arm was over his face and he had one leg over the back of the couch and the other was over the side with his foot on the ground. Remus nudges Sirius with his elbow.

“What?” Sirius looks at him, Remus grabs his chin and turns it towards James. Sirius is confused for a moment and then notices how his best friend is sleeping, pulling out his phone and snapping a picture. He sends it to Lily, they have always sent weird ways their Puerto Rican falls asleep in. He was so weird sometimes.

Remus takes his hand off Sirius' chin before he takes the picture, he didn’t mean to do such an intimate action but he also knows that James is a light sleeper so if he spoke too loud, he would have woken up. He hopes Sirius didn’t think it was too much.

Sirius has a weird feeling in his chest, like his heart was about to beat out of it. It also felt like he could still feel Remus’ rough fingers still on his chin, it was like his fingerprints were being burned into his skin. It made him anxious, jumpy even. He was already freaked out from all the shit going on in the show and now he felt on edge from these feelings dominating his brain.

After he sends the picture to Lily he places his phone on his lap and crosses his arms to try and hide his tapping fingers. Acting like he is focusing on the show again he is watching Remus in his peripherals, he was actually watching the show. Laughing every once in a while at something, probably another spine chilling voice over the weirdly loud box thing. Sirius’ eyes stay forward but the focus is now on Remus’ scar that’s a crescent shape, it basically cradles his eye from the end of his eyebrow to the top of his cheek. He still can’t believe that it came from a rock.

He also still can’t believe that Remus went to a boys school, he doesn’t seem like someone who would ever break the rules. He always thought Remus was just a hot head who was a strict rule follower. But tonight on the boxes he saw a different side. Remus was really nice and actually cared enough about Sirius to show him his little childhood hideout.

Maybe they were actually becoming friends.

Feathered Hotel Lounge, Hogwarts 2020

Clay was sitting at a booth table in the bar area with Finn beside him and Leo and Logan across from them. Leo had something to tell him and he was getting anxious, he thought that since Logan and Finn were there that he was going to tell him that it's happened. That Finn and Logan happened. He was drinking water tonight because he plays in the morning tomorrow, also he is rooming with Reg and doesn’t want to ruin the poor guy's sleep.

“So what did you want to tell me?” He looks at his brother, it seems Leo is about to explode from excitement or something. Finn has been in a terrible mood these last few months and it has ended up in their relationship being a bit rocky as of late. They decided to work on it after one particularly intense argument over something as small as what they should do for a date. They started spending more quality time together by doing a simple task. A puzzle, an all black puzzle, it was hard and Clay loved a challenge so he had the idea of doing the border of the puzzle last. It was set up on Finn’s coffee table so they would sit around it on the floor and just talk to each other.

Sometimes it's hard to get time to do this puzzle together but they decided that once a week they would work on it. This was also another way for them to be together that wasn’t just about sex, that has been what the relationship devolved into rather quickly at the end of June. It was October now and they were finally seeing the growth from all their non-sexual time spend together. Finn’s arm was resting behind him on the top of the booth seat, rubbing his thumb on his shoulder. It was soothing.

“Well, this has been going on since the last week of June.” Clay felt like a dog with the way his ears perked up. Leo noticed and paused what he was saying for a moment. “Logan and I are dating!” Clay watches his brother's face bloom into a bright shiny smile as Logan flung his arms around his neck and kissed Leo’s cheek. They both giggle something sappy and Clay felt the contagious happiness flow onto his side of the table making him smile as well.

“That's great! Who asked who?” He places his hand on Finn’s thigh after he feels the thumb running over his shoulder stop. Did it really bother him that much?

“I asked him just before we fell asleep together after the Pride game.” Logan was ogling Leo with his eyes, running a hand through his hair and plastering himself to Leo’s side. He wonders if Finn looks at him that way, he looks at his boyfriend and notices how tightly he’s holding his glass while staring at the couple across from them. He feels his phone go off and checks it. Reg wants him back to the room so he isn’t exhausted tomorrow.

“Reg is mothering me again, I should probably head up. Coming?” He starts sliding out of his seat looking over at Finn who hasn’t budged. He can feel his face dropping a bit and decides to smile at Leo and Logan. “I’ll catch up with you guys tomorrow.” Lovebirds gave him a thumbs up, he fully gets out of the booth and walks towards the elevator. Looking at his feet as he walks he runs directly into someone.

“Eyes up here Clay.” He looks up and realizes it’s Thomas. He sends him a small smile and pats his chest that's right in front of his face.

“Sorry, I was in my head.”

“You okay? You look sad.” Clay just nods and goes to walk past his friend but is stopped when he steps in his path again. Looking up at him confused he raises an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Clay, what's wrong?”

“It's nothing! Now I need to go up to my room before Reg-” His sentence is stopped short when he is pulled into a tight hug. He tries to get out of it for a second but gives up not having the motivation to get out of the vice grip around his shoulders.

“If you won’t tell me then I’ll just hug you. Hugs make everything better.” Clay sighs and lets his arms hang as Thomas gives him a couple of squeezes. It felt nice actually, Thomas was warm and really strong so it felt like a cushioned cement block was holding him.

“Are you and Noelle dating yet?” He mumbles into the firm shoulder his face was smashed against.

“Yeah, we went on a couple dates but became official last night after our game. She’s coming tomorrow to see us and Logan.” Clay just hums and takes a deep breath when Thomas finally pulls away.

“I don’t like hugs very much.”

“Well, get used to them. I hug all my friends.” Thomas ruffles his recently retwisted locs and walks past him to the lounge. Clay feels a bit lighter but his chest is still heavy. He decides to take the stairs up to his room. Giving himself more time to think. He felt sick.

Thomas walks into the lounge, there are many tables filled with a mixture of people from different teams. He wanted to go sit with someone from his own team but it appears most of those tables are full. Damn the Eagles being socal butterflies! He spots a booth with some of his friends and an empty seat so he makes a b-line towards it before anyone else decides to sit there.

“Sup guys!”

“Hey Talker!” Leo smiles at him as they fist bump over the table.

“So what's going on? Anything interesting?” Leo just shrugs, jostling Logan’s head on his shoulder. Thomas was so proud of his little Brother-in-law for going out and getting what he wants. “You two are so fucking cute, I’m glad you took advice for once.” He meets Logan’s eyes, the shorter man rolling them and flipping him off.

“Noellle said she is coming up tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah that reminds me! You owe Clay food.” Logan sits up straight in a split second and his eyes get big.

“No fucking way!” Logan slams his hand on the table with a completely shocked look on his face before he starts laughing. “When did this happen!?”

“We’ve been going on dates for a couple months, had our first kiss like three weeks ago after we lost against the Braves. She was wearing my jersey and everything.” Thomas sighs and the other three can basically see little heart shaped bubbles coming out of him. “We officially started dating last night.”

“Are you gonna tell us the story or not?” Finn looks at him, Thomas feels a bit shy which is not normal for him but he shrugs it off and nods. Thomas tells the story from the beginning of the night.

“I went to her performance last night, basically rushing out of the stadium to get there on time. I picked up a daisy from the outside of the stadium in those little flower pot things out front, you know the brick things.”

“The flower beds?” Finn snickers.

“Yeah! Those! Anyway, I got her a daisy because they only sell roses at the stage and she does really like roses. So I gave her that after her fucking amazing performance. She's just so beautiful” Thomas sighs again, resting his chin in his hands on the table looking quite red in the face. “After that she dragged me to this little hole in the wall tacos stand and ordered enough food to feed a small family. She can eat, and I love it.” He smiles remembering how beautiful Noelle looked in the glow of the streetlights as they sat outside at a small table barely big enough to hold all the food. Watching her stuff her face because she hadn’t eaten all day to make sure she looked presentable in her costume.

“She’s always been able to eat a lot, Mom would get so mad when she would keep asking for more food when we were younger.” Logan laughs a bit.

“It's amazing! She's amazing! We were just sitting there staring at each other like we have a tendency to do and she said ‘What?’ and I said ‘Nothing just looking.’ and she said ‘You’re so sappy.’ and I said ‘Yeah?’ she was like ‘Yeah.’ then we just kinda stared at each other again for a while.” The other three were all giving each other looks, one confused, one amused, and one flabbergasted.

“So when did you ask her?” Leo wraps his arm around Logan and sits back a bit in his seat to relax.

“She asked me. Said there was no way I can get out of it now. I wouldn’t want to get out of this even if my life depended on it. She’s definitely the one for me.” He smiles wide.

“I hope you know I won’t believe it until I see it.” Logan says, yawning and stretching in his seat.

“She's coming to the game tomorrow, us against the Badgers.” Thomas and Leo high five over the table, making Logan whine at being shaken about.

“Sorry, käraste.”

The next afternoon after the Eagles game that was lost 56-0, a weird game for sure. Clay stands between Logan and Finn as they witness the absolute monstrosity that is Noelle and Thomas baby-talking to each other.

“When are you free?” Logan leans over just a bit towards Clay as they continue to look forward at this sentimental molestation of their eyes. Clay leans towards him slightly as well.

“I won’t have any free time with school until December.”

“Then our date will be in the winter months.” Finn walks away and Clay thinks about going after him but ignores that feeling entirely. Finn avoids him so much recently that he’s started to think that Finn doesn’t even like him. It makes him annoyed so he’s gonna start ignoring Finn back.

“Sounds good to me, I’m gonna go get something to drink. Later.” He walks away, leaving his brother and Logan behind with confused looks on their faces. He didn’t care anymore.

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