Hockey Ficlets
These are just reposts from the friending meme going on over at home_ice, because I like seeing them all in one place and not broken up into comments.
So the thing is, Paul has a lot of books. They’re laying all over his house, both in and off of his bookshelves, stacked on tables, tucked into hidden corners, like he starts one and just keeps reading it until he’s done, at which point he puts it down wherever and moves on to the next book. He can also tell you exactly where every book in his house is. James doesn’t question it. Paul has a long-standing love affair with books, everyone on the team knows that.
James is kind of fascinated by Paul’s books, so whenever he’s over at Paul’s, he’ll wander around and pick up a couple with cool cover art and read the summaries on the backs (or the inside front cover flap, sometimes they’re hardbacks). Paul likes a really weird mixture of books, so James has, over the years, picked up history books, biographies, science fiction, true crime novels, and some teen fantasy novels in addition to some fairly standard mystery and thriller novels.
“You can borrow books whenever you feel like it,” Paul tells him after the first couple of times he does this. “Just bring it back whenever you’re done with it.”
Permission thus given, James treats Paul’s house like his own personal library. He’ll take home a couple of books a month, read them, and then bring them back. Sometimes Paul’s eyes will light up when James brings a book back and he’ll make James dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, James tends to gather up the books and return them to Paul whenever he thinks about it) and they’ll discuss whatever book it was. Paul has very strong opinions about Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, which James is slowly working his way through.
He brings home a girl one night, and she’s looking around his bedroom curiously when she happens to see the stack of novels on his bedside table. Her face lights up and she goes over to check them out, giving him a big smile when she sees that the top one is Pratchett’s Thief of Time.
“These are great,” she says. “Do you have any more?”
“They’re not mine,” James says, a little thrown. This is not what he’d thought he was bringing her back here for. He’s not upset about it - he’s picked up a lot of Paul’s opinions about the Discworld series, and any girl who likes Pratchett is automatically 10x cooler - but he’s not really operating at full speed. “I’m borrowing them from a friend.”
“Good friend,” she says, flipping through the pages before putting the book down. “I don’t like letting anyone borrow my books - you might not get them back, you know?”
James doesn’t know, but she doesn’t really seem interested in conversation anymore so he puts that aside for later. He remembers the conversation the next day at practice and skates over to where Craig is fixing his stick tape.
“Hey, has Paul ever let you borrow one of his book?”
Craig gives him a funny look. “Are you kidding? He’s super picky about his books - doesn’t even like it when other people pick them up and flip through them at his place.”
“Oh,” James says, because he didn’t know. “He never said anything,” he says, because Craig’s still giving him a funny look.
Craig snorts. “Oh man, I knew he was gone on you but I didn’t know it was that bad,” he says. James must look like he’s just taken a puck to the face, because Craig straightens up at that. “You didn’t know?” James shakes his head and Craig bites his lip. “Shit man, sorry-“
“No, it’s fine,” James says. “I was just surprised, is all - he really likes me?”
“Well, he apparently doesn’t have a problem with you reading his books,” Craig says dryly. “And you’re over at his house all the time, and you never hear him complaining. Really, Nealsy, how dumb can you be? Are you sure all those hair products haven’t caused irreparable brain damage?”
“Fuck off,” James says automatically, and skates away before the chirping can devolve any more.
He goes through the rest of practice in a sort of daze, and Geno pulls him aside in the locker room to ask if he’s okay.
“Not all there, Lazy,” he says mildly, and James winces.
“No, I know, sorry - I just found something out today and it kind of was distracting me.”
“About Paulie?” James frowns and Geno bumps his shoulder gently. “Good. Was wondering when that would happen. I win pool,” he says, and James scowls at him.
“Fuck you, no, there was not a pool on us.”
“Whatever you say,” Geno says blandly, but he wanders over to Sid and Duper after that and says something that causes Duper to swear in French and give James a black look.
“Couldn’t have held out for another month, Nealsy?” he complains. “I could have used the money!”
“I hate you all,” James says devoutly as he finishes getting changed and grabs his keys. Paul’s already ready and getting ready to leave, so James grabs his arm and says, “Can I come over?”
“Sure,” Paul says, giving him a curious look. James mentally kicks himself, because he’s never asked for permission to go over to Paul’s before and he might as well have tattooed “Something Is Wrong” on his forehead.
“So you love me,” he blurts out as he walks into Paul’s house. Paul freezes in the act of hanging up his coat and James could cheerfully murder himself right now for how he’s made Paul look.
“Yes,” Paul says eventually, turning and looking him straight in the eye. “I’m curious as to how you figured it out,” he says, and shit he sounds bitter, James needs a “Redo” button for life, “considering how you’ve missed it for the last year or so.”
“Books,” James says, still unable to get his brain to mouth filter to work. “You don’t let anyone else touch your books. Just me.”
“Ah.” Paul looks away from him and James jolts forward.
“Paulie, no - I just, I didn’t realize it was a thing! And then Jenna said something-“
“Jenna?”
“This girl I brought home with me like last week, not the point. Anyway, she said that you must be a really good friend if you let me keep borrowing your books, and then Craig said you don’t like anyone even picking them up really, except you’ve never seemed to mind when I do it, and then Geno and Sid and Duper and I don’t know who else had a pool - are you laughing?”
“It’s either that or cry, James,” Paul says, dry. “Was there a point to this?”
“Yes! I mean, I think so. I don’t know, really, it’s just that-“ he looks over at Paul pleadingly, but Paul is still staring determinedly at the floor. “I really like borrowing your books, but my favorite part is when I bring them back and you cook and we talk about them and I was thinking, the other day, that I have more fun doing that than I have on dates, and then I was thinking on the way over here that maybe those were dates, and I really liked them,” he says, and thankfully Paul looks up from the floor at that because James has seriously lost control of his brain to mouth filter and that helps him rein it back in. He swallows hard and finishes, “I’d like to keep doing that, if that’s okay?”
“Borrowing my books?”
“Dating you,” James says, and he can’t read Paul’s expression at all.
“Dating me,” he says, and James is about to wilt because what if Paul doesn’t want to date him? It’s already been amply proved that he’s a clueless idiot, and Paul can do so much better. . .
James’ train of thought is cut off when Paul reaches over and hauls him into his arms. “Yes, we can keep doing that,” he says, firmly. James almost faints with relief.
“Oh good,” he says, and then pulls Paul in for a kiss. Paul is a little tense at the beginning but relaxes into it and it’s so good, James feels a little like he’s melting.
“You can keep borrowing my books too, you know,” Paul says, a little breathlessly a while later. “Whenever you feel like it.”
Somedays, Ms. Laurel wonders why she ever decided to run a daycare. She especially wonders that on Mondays like today, when the Staal brothers are having an argument over markers that’s upsetting little Jeff Skinner so much that he’s sobbing miserably. Ovie and Sasha are running around like a pair of hellions throwing glitter into people’s hair, which means that Sid is pouting over by the sink, trying to get it all out. Geno is hanging over his shoulder trying to be helpful, but all his, “Still glitter, Sid,” is doing is making Sid pout more. Brent and Patrick Sharp appear to have gotten into a wrestling match to determine who gets the next turn with the Playdoh, and Duncan is egging them on. Mike and Rick have gotten into a shoving match over in the corner, while Jeff Carter just sits calmly by Mike’s feet and sucks on his thumb.
She takes a deep breath and wades into the chaos, stopping the Staal argument by pointing out how much it is upsetting Jeff. Eric and Jordan’s eyes both widen, and they go over to try and cheer Jeff up while Marc shrugs and collects all the markers over by him. She rolls her eyes at that but is distracted by grabbing Ovie and Sasha by the backs of their shirts as they race by.
“No,” she says, firmly. They both give her their best innocent looks, but she remains unmoved as she tows them both over to the sink and supervises them as they wash their hands. “Apologize to Sid,” she tells them, and Ovie scowls.
“No,” he says, petulant, and Ms. Laurel bends over and looks him in the eye.
“Apologize,” she says. “To Sid and Zdeno and Henrik and Carey.”
He folds his arms over his chest, but she has been running this daycare for far longer than he has been alive, and she is unmoved. After a few moments he sighs and takes Sasha with him to go apologize to their victims. She shakes her head at the two of them and goes to lock the glitter on the very top shelf of the arts and crafts cabinet, breaking up Brent and Patrick’s wrestling and Mike and Rick’s shoving match on her way.
When she’s done putting the glitter away, she blows out a huge breath and turns to survey the room again. Her eye catches on Jonny and Patrick, who have been sitting quietly at their table this entire time, and she goes over to check on them.
“What’re you two up to, hmm?” she asks, and Patrick looks up at her and gives her his full, sunny smile.
“It’s mommy’s birthday tomorrow, Ms. Laurel,” he chirps. “Jonny ‘n me are makin’ a card!”
She looks down and smiles involuntarily at the card, which is decorated with a clear mixture of Jonny’s perfectionism and Patrick’s enthusiasm. “It’s beautiful,” she tells them sincerely. “I’m sure your mother will love it.”
Patrick’s smile gets even brighter, and Jonny looks up and grins shyly at her too. She turns back to the rest of the room and rushes off to pull Sid and Claude apart.
Lunchtime comes after arts and crafts, and everyone seems to have calmed down somewhat. Ms. Laurel is quietly thankful for that as she keeps an eye on her charges while she eats.
“Sid have cookie?” Geno enquires politely, offering Sid one of the cookies his mother packs him every day for dessert. Sid smiles shyly at him and offers to trade one of his carrot sticks for Geno’s cookie, which Geno accepts gravely. Ms. Laurel hides a smile behind her hand at the sight of the exchange, which is being echoed in different ways all over the room. Duncan and Brent have a complicated barter system worked out that Patrick Sharp occasionally participates in, trading pretzels for crackers or chips and sometimes swapping desserts. Ovie and Sasha split everything in their lunches in half and trade with each other. Mike sometimes leans over and steals crackers from Jeff Carter, who puts up with it and steals sips of Mike’s juice when he isn’t looking.
Eric and Jordan are having another competition to see who can give Jeff Skinner more of their food, while Marc looks on in amusement and steals from both of their lunches impartially. Jeff takes all the food and looks at it curiously but doesn’t actually eat any of it, preferring instead to eat his own lunch. Eric and Jordan catch on eventually, but only after their competition gets heated enough that Jeff’s lip starts quivering again. They settle down easily after that.
“Please Jonny? I made them myself!”
Patrick is trying to get Jonny to try some of the chocolate chip cookies his mother has packed him for dessert. Jonny scowls a little at Patrick - Ms. Laurel has never met a more health-conscious child in all her years - but grudgingly takes half of the cookie Patrick is trying to hand him and bites into it.
“’S good,” he mumbles, and Patrick’s smile is so big that it looks like it’s about to come off of his face.
Naptime comes after lunch, when all of the kids are full and a little bit sleepy. Ms. Laurel loves naptime, especially on days like today when all of them go down with a minimum of fussing. She’d been a bit worried that naptime was going to be a battle of wills, but they all seem to have worn themselves out. As they settle down on their mats to sleep she smiles a little to see how some of them have grouped themselves off. Ovie and Sasha both sleep face down on the floor with their arms around each other’s shoulders, just as much coconspirators asleep as they are awake. Sid and Geno lie down right next to each other with Geno curled around Sid, the only person Sid lets touch him without complaint. Brent and Duncan switch off using each other’s shoulders as pillows, while Patrick Sharp lies on his back next to them and snores. Jonny and Patrick lie right next to that group, with Patrick curled into Jonny’s back, sucking his thumb. Mike and Jeff Carter sleep back to back, looking out for each other in their sleep. The Staals sleep in one big messy pile of boys, and lately Jeff Skinner has been joining them at naptime, much to Jordan and Eric’s delight. There are a couple of other pairs spread across the floor - P.K. and Carey sleep top to toe next to each other, and Claude is always trying to get closer to Danny - but by and large the rest of her children nap in one large tangle of limbs.
In the peace that comes with naptime, Ms. Laurel is reminded of why she decided to run a daycare - because looking down at all of them, dreaming happily, she is hit by a sudden rush of fondness and intense protectiveness, and knows that she couldn’t have done anything else.
So the thing is, Paul has a lot of books. They’re laying all over his house, both in and off of his bookshelves, stacked on tables, tucked into hidden corners, like he starts one and just keeps reading it until he’s done, at which point he puts it down wherever and moves on to the next book. He can also tell you exactly where every book in his house is. James doesn’t question it. Paul has a long-standing love affair with books, everyone on the team knows that.
James is kind of fascinated by Paul’s books, so whenever he’s over at Paul’s, he’ll wander around and pick up a couple with cool cover art and read the summaries on the backs (or the inside front cover flap, sometimes they’re hardbacks). Paul likes a really weird mixture of books, so James has, over the years, picked up history books, biographies, science fiction, true crime novels, and some teen fantasy novels in addition to some fairly standard mystery and thriller novels.
“You can borrow books whenever you feel like it,” Paul tells him after the first couple of times he does this. “Just bring it back whenever you’re done with it.”
Permission thus given, James treats Paul’s house like his own personal library. He’ll take home a couple of books a month, read them, and then bring them back. Sometimes Paul’s eyes will light up when James brings a book back and he’ll make James dinner (or breakfast, or lunch, James tends to gather up the books and return them to Paul whenever he thinks about it) and they’ll discuss whatever book it was. Paul has very strong opinions about Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, which James is slowly working his way through.
He brings home a girl one night, and she’s looking around his bedroom curiously when she happens to see the stack of novels on his bedside table. Her face lights up and she goes over to check them out, giving him a big smile when she sees that the top one is Pratchett’s Thief of Time.
“These are great,” she says. “Do you have any more?”
“They’re not mine,” James says, a little thrown. This is not what he’d thought he was bringing her back here for. He’s not upset about it - he’s picked up a lot of Paul’s opinions about the Discworld series, and any girl who likes Pratchett is automatically 10x cooler - but he’s not really operating at full speed. “I’m borrowing them from a friend.”
“Good friend,” she says, flipping through the pages before putting the book down. “I don’t like letting anyone borrow my books - you might not get them back, you know?”
James doesn’t know, but she doesn’t really seem interested in conversation anymore so he puts that aside for later. He remembers the conversation the next day at practice and skates over to where Craig is fixing his stick tape.
“Hey, has Paul ever let you borrow one of his book?”
Craig gives him a funny look. “Are you kidding? He’s super picky about his books - doesn’t even like it when other people pick them up and flip through them at his place.”
“Oh,” James says, because he didn’t know. “He never said anything,” he says, because Craig’s still giving him a funny look.
Craig snorts. “Oh man, I knew he was gone on you but I didn’t know it was that bad,” he says. James must look like he’s just taken a puck to the face, because Craig straightens up at that. “You didn’t know?” James shakes his head and Craig bites his lip. “Shit man, sorry-“
“No, it’s fine,” James says. “I was just surprised, is all - he really likes me?”
“Well, he apparently doesn’t have a problem with you reading his books,” Craig says dryly. “And you’re over at his house all the time, and you never hear him complaining. Really, Nealsy, how dumb can you be? Are you sure all those hair products haven’t caused irreparable brain damage?”
“Fuck off,” James says automatically, and skates away before the chirping can devolve any more.
He goes through the rest of practice in a sort of daze, and Geno pulls him aside in the locker room to ask if he’s okay.
“Not all there, Lazy,” he says mildly, and James winces.
“No, I know, sorry - I just found something out today and it kind of was distracting me.”
“About Paulie?” James frowns and Geno bumps his shoulder gently. “Good. Was wondering when that would happen. I win pool,” he says, and James scowls at him.
“Fuck you, no, there was not a pool on us.”
“Whatever you say,” Geno says blandly, but he wanders over to Sid and Duper after that and says something that causes Duper to swear in French and give James a black look.
“Couldn’t have held out for another month, Nealsy?” he complains. “I could have used the money!”
“I hate you all,” James says devoutly as he finishes getting changed and grabs his keys. Paul’s already ready and getting ready to leave, so James grabs his arm and says, “Can I come over?”
“Sure,” Paul says, giving him a curious look. James mentally kicks himself, because he’s never asked for permission to go over to Paul’s before and he might as well have tattooed “Something Is Wrong” on his forehead.
“So you love me,” he blurts out as he walks into Paul’s house. Paul freezes in the act of hanging up his coat and James could cheerfully murder himself right now for how he’s made Paul look.
“Yes,” Paul says eventually, turning and looking him straight in the eye. “I’m curious as to how you figured it out,” he says, and shit he sounds bitter, James needs a “Redo” button for life, “considering how you’ve missed it for the last year or so.”
“Books,” James says, still unable to get his brain to mouth filter to work. “You don’t let anyone else touch your books. Just me.”
“Ah.” Paul looks away from him and James jolts forward.
“Paulie, no - I just, I didn’t realize it was a thing! And then Jenna said something-“
“Jenna?”
“This girl I brought home with me like last week, not the point. Anyway, she said that you must be a really good friend if you let me keep borrowing your books, and then Craig said you don’t like anyone even picking them up really, except you’ve never seemed to mind when I do it, and then Geno and Sid and Duper and I don’t know who else had a pool - are you laughing?”
“It’s either that or cry, James,” Paul says, dry. “Was there a point to this?”
“Yes! I mean, I think so. I don’t know, really, it’s just that-“ he looks over at Paul pleadingly, but Paul is still staring determinedly at the floor. “I really like borrowing your books, but my favorite part is when I bring them back and you cook and we talk about them and I was thinking, the other day, that I have more fun doing that than I have on dates, and then I was thinking on the way over here that maybe those were dates, and I really liked them,” he says, and thankfully Paul looks up from the floor at that because James has seriously lost control of his brain to mouth filter and that helps him rein it back in. He swallows hard and finishes, “I’d like to keep doing that, if that’s okay?”
“Borrowing my books?”
“Dating you,” James says, and he can’t read Paul’s expression at all.
“Dating me,” he says, and James is about to wilt because what if Paul doesn’t want to date him? It’s already been amply proved that he’s a clueless idiot, and Paul can do so much better. . .
James’ train of thought is cut off when Paul reaches over and hauls him into his arms. “Yes, we can keep doing that,” he says, firmly. James almost faints with relief.
“Oh good,” he says, and then pulls Paul in for a kiss. Paul is a little tense at the beginning but relaxes into it and it’s so good, James feels a little like he’s melting.
“You can keep borrowing my books too, you know,” Paul says, a little breathlessly a while later. “Whenever you feel like it.”
Somedays, Ms. Laurel wonders why she ever decided to run a daycare. She especially wonders that on Mondays like today, when the Staal brothers are having an argument over markers that’s upsetting little Jeff Skinner so much that he’s sobbing miserably. Ovie and Sasha are running around like a pair of hellions throwing glitter into people’s hair, which means that Sid is pouting over by the sink, trying to get it all out. Geno is hanging over his shoulder trying to be helpful, but all his, “Still glitter, Sid,” is doing is making Sid pout more. Brent and Patrick Sharp appear to have gotten into a wrestling match to determine who gets the next turn with the Playdoh, and Duncan is egging them on. Mike and Rick have gotten into a shoving match over in the corner, while Jeff Carter just sits calmly by Mike’s feet and sucks on his thumb.
She takes a deep breath and wades into the chaos, stopping the Staal argument by pointing out how much it is upsetting Jeff. Eric and Jordan’s eyes both widen, and they go over to try and cheer Jeff up while Marc shrugs and collects all the markers over by him. She rolls her eyes at that but is distracted by grabbing Ovie and Sasha by the backs of their shirts as they race by.
“No,” she says, firmly. They both give her their best innocent looks, but she remains unmoved as she tows them both over to the sink and supervises them as they wash their hands. “Apologize to Sid,” she tells them, and Ovie scowls.
“No,” he says, petulant, and Ms. Laurel bends over and looks him in the eye.
“Apologize,” she says. “To Sid and Zdeno and Henrik and Carey.”
He folds his arms over his chest, but she has been running this daycare for far longer than he has been alive, and she is unmoved. After a few moments he sighs and takes Sasha with him to go apologize to their victims. She shakes her head at the two of them and goes to lock the glitter on the very top shelf of the arts and crafts cabinet, breaking up Brent and Patrick’s wrestling and Mike and Rick’s shoving match on her way.
When she’s done putting the glitter away, she blows out a huge breath and turns to survey the room again. Her eye catches on Jonny and Patrick, who have been sitting quietly at their table this entire time, and she goes over to check on them.
“What’re you two up to, hmm?” she asks, and Patrick looks up at her and gives her his full, sunny smile.
“It’s mommy’s birthday tomorrow, Ms. Laurel,” he chirps. “Jonny ‘n me are makin’ a card!”
She looks down and smiles involuntarily at the card, which is decorated with a clear mixture of Jonny’s perfectionism and Patrick’s enthusiasm. “It’s beautiful,” she tells them sincerely. “I’m sure your mother will love it.”
Patrick’s smile gets even brighter, and Jonny looks up and grins shyly at her too. She turns back to the rest of the room and rushes off to pull Sid and Claude apart.
Lunchtime comes after arts and crafts, and everyone seems to have calmed down somewhat. Ms. Laurel is quietly thankful for that as she keeps an eye on her charges while she eats.
“Sid have cookie?” Geno enquires politely, offering Sid one of the cookies his mother packs him every day for dessert. Sid smiles shyly at him and offers to trade one of his carrot sticks for Geno’s cookie, which Geno accepts gravely. Ms. Laurel hides a smile behind her hand at the sight of the exchange, which is being echoed in different ways all over the room. Duncan and Brent have a complicated barter system worked out that Patrick Sharp occasionally participates in, trading pretzels for crackers or chips and sometimes swapping desserts. Ovie and Sasha split everything in their lunches in half and trade with each other. Mike sometimes leans over and steals crackers from Jeff Carter, who puts up with it and steals sips of Mike’s juice when he isn’t looking.
Eric and Jordan are having another competition to see who can give Jeff Skinner more of their food, while Marc looks on in amusement and steals from both of their lunches impartially. Jeff takes all the food and looks at it curiously but doesn’t actually eat any of it, preferring instead to eat his own lunch. Eric and Jordan catch on eventually, but only after their competition gets heated enough that Jeff’s lip starts quivering again. They settle down easily after that.
“Please Jonny? I made them myself!”
Patrick is trying to get Jonny to try some of the chocolate chip cookies his mother has packed him for dessert. Jonny scowls a little at Patrick - Ms. Laurel has never met a more health-conscious child in all her years - but grudgingly takes half of the cookie Patrick is trying to hand him and bites into it.
“’S good,” he mumbles, and Patrick’s smile is so big that it looks like it’s about to come off of his face.
Naptime comes after lunch, when all of the kids are full and a little bit sleepy. Ms. Laurel loves naptime, especially on days like today when all of them go down with a minimum of fussing. She’d been a bit worried that naptime was going to be a battle of wills, but they all seem to have worn themselves out. As they settle down on their mats to sleep she smiles a little to see how some of them have grouped themselves off. Ovie and Sasha both sleep face down on the floor with their arms around each other’s shoulders, just as much coconspirators asleep as they are awake. Sid and Geno lie down right next to each other with Geno curled around Sid, the only person Sid lets touch him without complaint. Brent and Duncan switch off using each other’s shoulders as pillows, while Patrick Sharp lies on his back next to them and snores. Jonny and Patrick lie right next to that group, with Patrick curled into Jonny’s back, sucking his thumb. Mike and Jeff Carter sleep back to back, looking out for each other in their sleep. The Staals sleep in one big messy pile of boys, and lately Jeff Skinner has been joining them at naptime, much to Jordan and Eric’s delight. There are a couple of other pairs spread across the floor - P.K. and Carey sleep top to toe next to each other, and Claude is always trying to get closer to Danny - but by and large the rest of her children nap in one large tangle of limbs.
In the peace that comes with naptime, Ms. Laurel is reminded of why she decided to run a daycare - because looking down at all of them, dreaming happily, she is hit by a sudden rush of fondness and intense protectiveness, and knows that she couldn’t have done anything else.