#with a little nurseydex

[petedavidsonscock]

i think the thing i love so much about nurseydex is that nothing is predetermined for them. they have to choose to be friends and choose to be more and choose to learn how to play hockey together and live together and love each other.

although i of course adore pairings where it’s obvious, pairings where “the rest of our lives” is as easy as “tomorrow,” there’s something crucial to me about characters for whom it isn’t clear-cut. i love a love that doesn’t make sense but that blossoms anyway, succeeds anyway.

how much more beautiful is that? to look at two people and not be able to explain why they love each other but know unquestionably that they do. they can’t guarantee forever but they’re here now, and the power of now is enough to overcome the fear of the future. because there IS fear, and is uncertainty, but this love is worth it.

that’s the kind of relationship i love.

[goodnightmoonvale]

Check, Please AU I'll Never Finish #3

A NurseyDex Captain's Courageous AU where Rich Boy Nursey falls off his yacht and is picked out of the sea by the fishing boat run by Dex & his family. Nursey has to learn how to fish and is Not Pleased about it. At least he gets to admire Dex's strong hands and sunburnt muscles....

[maangoes]

my wips you can sponsor for fics for gaza:

a literally almost finished satosugu single dads fwb modern au that i abandoned for. Some reason (current wc: 5,784)

zosan wip that's a follow up to this series (current wc: 2,587)

kanthony wip inspired by this tweet - kate is an auctioneer, anthony is an old money rich person whose idiot family accidentally commits a priceless family heirloom to a charity auction (current wc: 1,018)

a nurseydex fic set a few years post the end of check please! nursey visits dex’s city for a stop on his book tour, more mature dynamic & Dex in particular has grown a lot (current wc: 1,968)

little ficlet about bruce forcing dick and robin!jason to go on a camping trip with him to bond because he’s an asshole (current wc: 977)

little ficlet about sokka visiting zuko in the fire nation when they’re #in love and #long distance pining (current wc: 608)

types of requests i’d accept

200-500 words for any of the dynamics above, canon compliant or AU

don’t write any of the dead dove stuff ✌🏽im bad at it

i’m going w/ fics4gaza’s base rate, which is $1/100 words!

[talentpiper11]

Sweet little NurseyDex Drabble:

Jack and Bitty get married, and because he’s adorable (and for the excuse to play “Single Ladies”) Bitty plans to throw the bouquet.

Cut to a few months before the wedding and both Dex and Nursey have shown up, independently, to ask him if he’d be willing to hand off the bouquet to the other person to set up a proposal. He squeals, agrees, and plans.

On the day, he gets up, gets the music playing, and pretends like he’s going to throw the bouquet over his shoulder. Suddenly, Jack walks up next to him, with a second, similar bouquet. Now what are these boys doing?

They turn in unison toward the crowd, and both toss their bouquets to the other pair— Nursey and Dex each catch one, look at Bitty and Jack, look at each other.

“No, really? But I—“

“Me too, obviously.”

They each hold the flowers in one hand while fishing boxes out of their pockets with the other, then trade.

“Oh my god, I can’t believe…”

“Yeah, I mean, I’ve been planning this for months.”

“Me too.”

Then, in unison, looking at the rings and then at each other, “It’s perfect.”

[elisela]

happy un-iversary nurseydex au, fluff, established relationship. for @missanniewhimsy

Will is not the flowers, chocolate, and wine celebration person. His eighth grade girlfriend had broken up with him tearfully after he laughed when she wished him a happy one month anniversary, his first boyfriend hadn’t even made it to a year. He thinks he got concert tickets that year for Jason’s birthday but his memory is fuzzy; whatever it was, it wasn’t something he had put a lot of thought into. That’s not to say he’s not sentimental in other ways—he still carries the torn piece of paper with Chowder’s barely legible IOU HALF OF ONE MEDIUM PIZZA AND 2 CHEAP BEERS JESUS FUCKING CHRIST YOU PETTY LOSER scrawled on it from their first month of college just because it makes him smile, snaps photos of flowers growing through concrete cracks to text because Jack once told him—while drunk off his ass—that he thought they were all beautiful. 

Unfortunately, Derek is the flowers, chocolate, and wine person. On Will’s last birthday he came home to take-out—only plated nicely, two tall candles burning in the middle of the table, soft music playing in the background. The only wine Will has ever enjoyed was chilling in an ice bucket that he hadn’t even known they owned, the fancy extra-dark chocolates he didn’t like but had once complimented Bitty on sitting in a wrapped box on the island.

So it should say something that Will is standing in the floral section of the grocery store an hour before they close, trying his best to pick out a bouquet that says happy anniversary and these are not last minute flowers. 

They’re all a little wilted, so it’s not exactly working.

Will’s hoping it’s the thought that counts.

But Derek frowns when he walks in their door, his gaze darting from the flowers to the caramels from the confectionary in Old Town that Will’s seen him demolish a dozen of in the space of two minutes. “Uh,” he says, brow furrowing. “What’d you do?”

Of the two of them, Will would have bet money that he’d be the first to forget an important date. “Nothing,” he says, a flare of defensiveness coming before he takes a breath and tries again. “Happy anniversary.”

It’s funny, the way panic flashes across Derek’s face before it settles back into faint confusion. “Our anniversary is next month.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“No, it’s not.”

“Will. Our anniversary is May 8th.”

“It’s April 6th,” Will says, flowers now pointing towards the ground as he gestures pointlessly with his arm. “How could you think it was May 8th?”

“How could you think it was April 6th?” Derek asks, and he takes the flowers right out of Will’s hand as Will stares at him.

“Because that was the Rocket’s home opener,” Will says, also handing over the caramels. He had to go forty minutes out of his way for those and a small part of him wants a tiny bit of praise for it. 

Derek mouths at him wordlessly for a moment. It would make a hilarious picture, the way he stands there cradling the flowers and candy gently while looking dumbfounded, if Will weren’t so bemused about the whole thing. “We—the—what—that wasn’t our first date! We weren’t dating!”

“We weren’t until we went to the game together,” Will responds.

“We went to the game together because you thought it’d be a good idea to get season tickets!” Derek shoots back. “Our first date was at the Mexican restaurant and you changed the five to an eight on the inflatable Cinco de Mayo sombrero and made me wear it all night.”

Will stares at him. “We’d already been dating for weeks. I asked you out weeks before that.”

Derek’s eyes narrow almost imperceptibly. “I asked you out.”

Because Will can’t strangle his boyfriend—of exactly one year, thank you very much—he kisses him instead, curling his hands into Derek’s hips and pulling him close, curling awkwardly around the flowers he’s still holding. “Happy,” he says pointedly, “anniversary.”

Derek kisses him back, soft and sweet and a little self-satisfied. “Thanks for the flowers,” he says, and Will can feel him smirk. "Happy un-iversary.”

[omgpoindexter]

more nurseydex fics!!!

i’ve been doing my duty properly and reading some different nurseydex fics on ao3 lately 🫡 i tried to find some that are more recent, however i inevitably found some that are older but slipped through the cracks for me.

here are some of the ones i came across that you need to read! i might make this a thing again if anyone is interested, im sure y’all have been much more on the ball with reading nurseydex fics than i have over the years but i do love reccing <3

suddenly this summer it’s clear by @dessertwaffles

The summer before senior year, Nursey and Dex become closer than ever.

Or, Nursey and Dex's developing relationship, as told through their text messages.

i was absolutely grinning the entire way through this. it’s a texting fic, with images rather than plain text (so clever!) but their personalities are so strong and their interactions are just perfect! and you know i love a texting fic

getting used to letting go by @jennybeantime

Dex was supposed to have a fancy job in some city upon graduation, but his plans changed once his uncle died and left the family home in Maine to him. Without immediate obligations of their own, Nursey, Chowder and Farmer follow Dex up there to help him clear it out and clean it up.

this fic is BEAUTIFUL. if you haven’t read it then please do yourself a favour and do it now. it captures certain feelings and emotions so effortlessly and i felt like i was in a little maine bubble living this story with them. i can’t believe i missed this one before, please please read!!

got the feeling you’re the right thing after all by @bisexualnursey

Two and a half years after he breaks up with Dex to go to grad school across the country, Nursey runs into him again when he visits New York for the holidays. What starts as them just rekindling their friendship quickly turns into a whole other thing: a 100% no-strings-attached friends with benefits arrangement while they’re in the same city.

Which is totally chill because Nursey is definitely over Dex. He swears. He’s going back to California soon anyway.

i seriously CANNOT BELIEVE i never read this before but i think i was in my inactive era when this was posted. it’s just so perfect!!! all the feelings and interactions with not only dex and nursey but all the other characters, friends and family, they all felt so real and i loved them so much. i’ll be rereading this a LOT! you should too!!

here i am (leaving you clues) by @averteddeyes

Will loves Nursey. Nursey loves Will. Will isn’t really quite sure how to deal with it.

(Alternatively: Will learns acceptance through poetry, hesitant communication, and brightly colored sticky notes.)

this is really gorgeously written. angst warning, because ouch!!! also poetry as a love language, like a really good selection of poetry, i really enjoyed it and how it weaves into the story. and the bittydex friendship is so important to me!!!

volta by @plusoultres

volta (n.) a turning point or point of change in a poem, most commonly a sonnet.

Or, five times a poem doesn’t reach its intended recipient, and one time it does; five drafts, and one work completed; five turning points, and one ending.

the second fic was inspired by this one, and thank goodness it was because this one totally slipped through the cracks and i’m so glad i read it. their banter is just brilliant and i love the variation in medium, and the poetry is beautiful! i could quote lines from this but im not going to. just. read it

things got weird (when we made out) by @andtimestoodstill

Nursey is being stupid about this. He knows he’s being stupid.

super fun and really cute, i love it when these two are just being idiots. great inclusion of the other teammates too. read it for this line alone: “[You’re doing] That thing where you forget to look like you hate Dex and just stare at him like some Victorian lady who just saw a hot dude for the first time.” because it made me laugh out loud

things that go bump in the night by @smashthatlikebitty

The first time it happens, Dex rolls over and flings so many obscenities in Nursey’s direction that even his Grandmother would have to sit down — and she cursed so much at Dex’s cousin’s wedding that the whole family has been banned from that church ever since.

Nursey just stills in the dark, one shoe off. A languid, infuriating presence. “Chill, man.”

essentially all the times nursey’s clumsy ass wakes dex up in the night. oh how i love pretending these two roomied their way into a relationship! this is so cute, smiled all the way through

some things take two people to build by @cricketnationrise

“You are the single most dramatic person I have ever met,” Dex mutters, trying valiantly to hide his grin.

Or, 5 times Dex wishes their relationship was real +1 time he doesn't have to

this was so fun, yet again i love them being idiots!!! these two in new york city is so important to me. and i for one would LOVE to read the work party 5+1 fic. just saying

[griffther]

there’s so many ppl enabling me in the notes of this post, so here enjoy some Thoughts i’ve had about the nurseydex maine road trip so far:

they do a road trip up the coast of maine over fall break their senior year so that nursey can see acadia national park while the leaves are changing

william “acts of service” poindexter decides that it is his Responsibility as nursey’s captain and fellow d-man to become maine’s official tour guide barbie. he plans the entire thing out and even prints them little itineraries and maps and shit because this boy is nothing is not Efficient

nursey makes them stop to see every single lighthouse they go anywhere near just to be a little shit (there are 65 lighthouses in maine, this would take So Long even if you just stopped at like a quarter of them)

the only canonical reference i could find for any actual locations in maine in the comic is that dex said his uncle who owned the lobster fishing boat he worked on over the summers lived in portland

(a side note to the above, i find this hilarious. portland is an pretty solidly liberal urban city - imagine a very small boston - and not somewhere you’re very likely to find small family-owned lobster fishing boats, at least in my experience. it would make way more sense for his uncle to live somewhere like rockland but i digress)

dex is 100% positive that nursey would Love portland so he carves out two whole days of their trip for them to stay with his uncle and explore. they go to the art museum and old port and the port head lighthouse and the top of the world lookout at fort sumner park and all the little shops and hidden places dex had found from living there every summer for years

nursey does end up loving portland but it might be more about the boy that shows it to him

even though his uncle lives in portland, i am still personally convinced that dex���s family mostly lives around the rockland area. i will go on a rant about nursey meeting dex’s close family another time, but while they’re in rockland, nursey continues his dedication to seeing all the lighthouses he can by forcing dex to make the almost mile long trek out to the breakwater lighthouse with him (don’t think about them standing alone next to this little building almost a mile out from land. the wind is chilly and strong and it makes dex’s hair look ridiculous and his cheeks flush and nursey definitely doesn’t want to kiss him ITS FINE ITS CHILL)

dex has them make a detour up to bangor and surprises nursey with going to see stephen king’s house. he doesnt understand why people are interested in looking at some dudes house At All but he does know nursey would love it so he does it anyways. the fence is cool and nursey gets so excited he almost face plants jumping out of the car, so dex counts it as a success

some random places i feel like dex would make them stop at along the way: freeport (nursey is both so confused and so delighted by just Everything about that place, but he loses his mind over the mcdonald’s and the ll bean outlet), ogunquit (dex purposefully takes highway 1 instead of the maine turnpike going towards portland so that they drive through ogunquit and he can see nursey’s face when he realizes they’re driving through the single gayest town he’s ever seen in his life and it’s in southern maine), moose point state park (there are a billion lil state parks in maine but i just randomly like this one in particular idk i think it’s cute), camden hills state park (it’s too foggy when they get there to drive up to the top so nursey makes them go on a hike instead so they didn’t “waste their time.” they get lost within like 10 minutes and are wet from the fog by the time they make it back to the car like 2 hours later), the desert of maine (it’s kinda boring to dex bc he’s seen it a dozen times since he was a kid, but nursey gets enthralled by the science behind it so it’s worth it), cushing (this is where the famous painter andrew wyeth lived at the olson house and was the subject of a lot of his work and i just feel like nursey would have fun seeing this place)

when they eventually make it to acadia, nursey ends up spending like two solid hours just sitting at sargent peak staring out over everything and desperately scrawling out lines of poetry into his notebook (dex spends most of those 2 hours staring at nursey but somehow doesn’t notice that nursey definitely isn’t writing about the scenery)

[alocalband]

The Hypothetical Us NurseyDex, 3.3k words Getting Together, First Kiss

“Can I kiss you?”

Dex asks the question out of nowhere, and with so little inflection that it takes a full minute for Nursey to understand the individual words, let alone what exactly they mean when spoken in that order.

Rain beats down across the Samwell campus, cooling what was once a hot, August day. Nursey and Dex are the first ones back from summer break, side by side on the front porch to watch the storm, and the Haus behind them is as empty as when they left it. A different kind of empty, though, now that Bitty’s gone.

Nursey’s a little scared they won’t be able to ever properly fill it up again.

He’s a little scared of a lot of things going into their senior year, if he’s honest. And now here’s the most unexpected of curveballs to cap off his first day back.

Can I kiss you?

Nursey finally registers the words, and his breath catches in his suddenly frozen lungs. His heart hiccups.

He’s never actually been on the receiving end of that question before.

Continue reading on AO3

[chaoskiro]

aaaand a new podfic has been added yet again! This one is a short one of @cricketnationrise's story knit one, purl cthulu. A very sweet little NurseyDex fic. Go give it a listen!

[thoughtsofthegirlwiththecurl]

Check Please || NurseyDex || 1k || Nothing but fluff

Nursey wakes up cold—body wracked with shivers, can’t-feel-your-toes, nose-so-frozen-it-hurts cold. It feels like if he moves from his little ball of pseudo-warmth he’s curled up in under the blankets, he might die. Spending the week at the Poindexter family’s cabin between Christmas and New Years had seemed like a great idea when Dex’s Great-Aunt Deb had suggested it. Now that he’s on the verge of freezing to death, he’s starting to have second thoughts about not flying out to his parents’ vacation home in Morocco for the holiday. Or, Nursey and Dex head to a cabin in the woods in the middle of winter. Naturally the heating goes out.

Read it on AO3

[petedavidsonscock]

Chowder glances at Nursey, who’s broken out into even louder rhapsodies about the night sky and the color of Dex’s eyes, and then back at Dex, who looks tired. “What’s he doing?”

Dex sighs. “Trying to annoy me into making out with him. I told him I was too busy with homework to mess around.”

“Oh.” Chowder looks at Nursey. He hasn’t paused in his recital, but he is now wearing a shit-eating grin. “Is it going to work?”

“No,” Dex snaps.

“Cool,” Chowder says, and ducks out of the room to continue his way to the bathroom.

Five minutes later, when he walks back, there’s a sock on the door handle and some unmistakable noises coming from inside the room. Chowder shudders and hurries to his room to find a pair of headphones.

[bestatsavingface]

Not Too Late (To Pick up the Pieces)

Summary: A series of vignettes about Dex's life on the autism spectrum.

Notes: eventual NurseyDex, friendship fic, focus on self-discovery and acceptance.

"I get my hair cut once a month." The admission leaves Dex's mouth before he has time to think twice, and the regret is instant when both Nursey and Shitty gasp dramatically at it. He knows they're teasing in the 'good way', but it still makes his stomach twist like every reminder that he does things in ways no one else seems to do.

"There's no way your hair grows fast enough to warrant a trim every month, brah." 

Nursey's not totally wrong, but Dex has learned through years of experience that he can't go more than 36 days between haircuts before his hair grows just long enough to tickle his ears and neck constantly. The sensation is so overwhelming to him even as he grew up that the summer he sprained his ankle in junior high he'd ended up taking his father's shaver and buzzing his entire head when he couldn't walk the five blocks to the barber.

But Dex isn't about to explain that to half the hockey team who's just settling into breakfast. "It grows enough," he says instead, earning an eye roll from Nursey. "I just prefer it, why do I need to wait til it reaches some arbitrary length when I could just put it on my schedule every month instead?"

Shitty sighs, reaching over and running a hand lightly through Dex's hair. Years of practice is all that stops him from flinching away from the touch, but he does give Shitty an annoyed glare in reply. "Dex, my crimson compadre, don't you think you're denying yourself what could be some gorgeous locks? What's the longest you ever had it, bro?" 

Dex debates on telling the truth because he knows it'll just spur them on but he's not a big fan of lying over little things. "I had it to my shoulders when I was really little," Nursey and Shitty both start to exclaim but he cuts them off. "It's the in-between period, that's what really bothers me. If I could wake up one day and my hair is shoulder length again maybe I'd keep it but I'm not gonna put myself through months of annoying and awkward hairstyles to get there."

There's a murmur of agreements and dissents, and Dex is ready to let the conversation die and never bring up his hair habits again when Holster and Ransom sit down next to him, the blond and his breakfast including an ungodly amount of hardboiled eggs between him and Ransom. "What are we talking about?" Holster asks before shoving an entire egg into his mouth much to the disgust of his two seatmates.

"Haircuts and if Dex should let it grow and become the next Jessica Rabbit." Nursey's smirk only widens at Dex's quickly pinking cheeks, dodging the jam packet that's tossed at his head. "What about you Rans, ever thinking about growing out your fro?" Read more on AO3!

[mccleans]

worry not miss lucy! in fact, if you have time would you run us thru your timeline of becoming obsessed with mattdrai? sorry for making it personal, but you are one of my favourite bloggers, i value your football memes and arsenal positivity and hatred for m*ller; but i must say i fell into this mattdrai hole ahead of you cough wink pls imagine how pleasantly surprised i was to find you waxing poetry to one ratthew ;) i love you too miss lucy, and annika if you see this, hi!

this is SO SWEET and thank you for granting me the opportunity to play in this space a bit more <3

ok i think the context is i was very much a sterek girlie back in the days of my youth, and then when i was first getting into hockey like four ? years ago i was reading that web comic omgcp and i was BIG into nurseydex, and then i stumbled upon draisaitl and tkachuk separately as i got more into hockey and they are very much a bit of me (to borrow a love island phrase), so imagine my delight when i discovered they have that same dynamic that so thrilled me in my sterek and my nurseydex days!!!!! i guess i love a rivals to lovers where one of them is v charming and a cheeky chappy and the other is cranky and sexy. i guess i know that about me now. digression but kinda crazy bc irl i would not like a man to be rude to me at all but i do like to read about it. sometimes art doesn't imitate life 🫶 as with stiles and nursey, i'm primarily a matthew girl but all love to their significant bothers ☝️

ALSO ur words are too kind and too lovely and too sweet it made my little day ily and hope YOU have the best day of all time on earth

[vitaliskravtsov]

nurseydex for 19?

19) It will come back - hozier

I've known the warmth of your doorways Through the cold, I'll find my way back to you Oh, please, give me mercy no more That's a kindness you can't afford

Dex doesn't really know why Nursey puts up with him, a lot of the time. He's exhausting, and still half in the closet, and grumpy, and nothing at all like any of Nursey's exes, who'd show up to practice with flowers or tickets to movies and shit.

Instead, he drags Nursey out of bed on Days and forces him clean on Bad Days and hauls his ass to practice when it's too fucking early for any sane human to be awake, but it's not like he's stellarly personable the whole time he does it.

The most personable Dex thinks he could be accused of being is when he's fixing the Haus, and he needs someone to hand him something, and that's not even really... friendly.

So yeah, he kisses Nursey good morning and brings him coffee, and leaves little notes on top of his homework, but he's not like the other people Nursey's dated, not exemplary in any way.

On his worse days, he thinks about sending Nursey a text asking what, exactly, he gets out of this shit.

He doesn't ever actually send it, much as he might be tempted, though- Derek is, sometimes, a little fragile, and Dex isn't interested in shattering that.

He's still not sure what he does to deserve Nursey's hands wrapping a scarf around his neck that probably costs more than his coat, or why Nursey thinks he needs a $45 cup to keep his drinks equally hot and warm.

Fuck, it's going to suck when they break up.

He's not sure he knows how to lean away from Nursey's easy goodness, anymore.

He can find his way back to it, in the dark, blindfolded, drunk, half-gone. Maybe it's an addiction. Whatever it is, it's going to be hard to shake.

[elisela]

@missanniewhimsy reblogged something about one of my most favorite tropes and this popped into my head so. more nurseydex because apparently i’m weak.

.

“Did I ever tell you,” Will says, even though he knows he didn’t and that he’s also failed to give any context to the conversation, “that I woke up that morning and thought you snuck out?”

The adorable, confused look that overtakes his boyfriend’s face shows that he has absolutely no clue what Will is talking about. “Can’t say you ever did,” is all he says though. “What about this relationship makes you think I’m suddenly going to start sneaking out?”

“Not now,” Will says. He sets down the glass of wine Derek had poured—too bitter, a gift from Chowder because they’re grown-ups now and apparently beer isn’t an acceptable gift. Will disagrees. “After our first date. I thought you left.”

Derek blinks. His wine glass—also still full—makes a soft clink against their table when he sets it down. “Why would I have snuck out?” he says. His tone is odd, like he can’t figure out if he should be amused or offended and is hovering somewhere in-between.

Will shrugs. A year removed it’s difficult to get himself back in the panicked mindset that he’d worked himself up to after waking up alone, and it seems almost ridiculous now. “You weren’t in bed. I thought you’d regretted it, panicked, and left. I was halfway to deciding to move to Chicago when you walked back in with breakfast.”

The laugh that comes from Derek is a short bark before he shakes his head and reaches across the table; Will pushes the empty plate of lobster ravioli he’d spent the afternoon making aside and takes his hand. “You hate Chicago.”

“Which is why you’d never find me there.”

Derek chuckles. “You’re unbelievable.” There’s only a moment’s pause before he says, “I’d already done my panicking.”

Will raises an eyebrow. “Before I woke up?”

“Before I asked you out. And then again before I asked you out and had to clarify it was a date. I’m pretty sure we went out three or four times on what I’d intended to be a date but hadn’t actually gotten that across. Chowder was ready to throttle me.”

“The axe throwing?” he asks, grinning slowly.

“And the bar, the boardwalk, and the baseball game,” Derek says, nodding. “It was a lot of panicking. Wasn’t pretty.”

Will shakes his head. “You know I only went to the baseball game because I felt bad that no one else wanted to go with you.”

“You made that clear, yes,” Derek says, but his eyes crinkle at the corners in place of a smile. “I can’t believe you thought I left.”

“Yeah well,” Will says, pulling his hand back and reaching for his fork again. The wine may be shit, but the food is good and he’s not letting it go to waste. “Maybe I’d be less annoyed on a daily basis if you had.”

“Psshaw,” Derek says, reaching out to spear one of the remaining stalks of asparagus with apparently little regard for it Will was going to eat it, “less annoyed, but fewer orgasms. Your choice.”

“I’ll get back to you next year,” Will says. “Or maybe I’ll just sneak out tomorrow morning.”

“Yeah, sure,” Derek laughs. “Just make sure you bring back a good breakfast.”