#ALL UR YEARS OF HARD WORK TO GET TO THE NHL FINALLY CLICK .....

[lobsterdex]

Kent trying to come out subtlety but heteronormativity gets in the way. He is continually frustrated and keeps getting less subtle each time.(Maybe Jack joins in and they compete to see who the media notices first?)

this got kind of out of hand which is why it took me 200 years to publish it?? it is also arguably the worst thing i’ve ever written and i love it. not exactly what u requested by enjoy :)

Kent is lying on his side on the couch with his head inJeff’s lap.

Jeff is watching Sports Center, and Kent is mostly justspacing out. It’s warm and comfortable, and he feels safe, and the backgroundnoise of the TV and Jeff’s hand carding through his hair is lulling him tosleep.

“Should we?” Jeff says.

“Should we what,” Kent mumbles.

“Come out.”  

Kent’s eyes snap open, and the analysists are talking toeach other with Jack’s picture in the corner of the screen. Ah.

Jeff’s hand stills. “We don’t have to, I don’t know. I don’tknow why I said that. I just. Maybe it would be better if it wasn’t just him,y’know?”

Kent lets his eyes fall close. “Yeah.” The same idea hasbeen rolling around his head for the past few weeks, since Jack and Bitty cameout quietly via Jack’s Instagram. The entire Falcs organization and fan base isbehind him, as they fucking should be, considering he’s the reason they’ve madethe playoffs the last three years. And yeah, one player is not the team, Kentknows the spiel. He is the spiel. Butso is Jack. A single player isn’t an entire team, but one of Jack’s calibermakes a world of difference. It changes the dynamic and can turn the wholething around if the rest of the team clicks.

So they can’t really tear down his game. They can’t play the“he’s doing badly because he’s gay” angle, because Jack has a seven game pointstreak. No one is really saying anything outright, but they’re stilluncomfortable.

It would be the same way if he came out. They can’t say hissexuality ruined his game, because he’s been gay since the draft. He was gaywhen he was born, he was gay in juniors, he was gay when he won the Calder, hewas gay when he won the cup the first time, he was still gay when he lifted itthe second time. If anything, he could argue it made him better.

He’s safe in the knowledge that he won’t get traded or sentdown to the minors. He doubts he’ll lose much of his fan base, and most of theteam knows already anyways.

It’s always been something he thought would never be anoption, so he never let himself think about it too much. But now, he realizesthere really isn’t much to lose.

“Do you want to?” he says.

“If we did, I’d be okay with it,” Jeff says quietly.

Kent rolls onto his back and smiles softly up at him. “Iguess we should, then.”

.

Kent doesn’t want it to be a big deal.

It is a big deal, but he doesn’t want to hold a pressconference or make a speech.

He and Jeff sit in one of the conference rooms with the PRpeople and the GMs and the coaches. They’re in there for an hour and a half,and everyone just decides it would be best to do it via Instagram, which theydefinitely didn’t that long of a meeting to decide, but whatever. Kent isn’tthe boss here.

Kent chooses a picture of the two of them and gets PR’sapproval. He captions it with the red heart emoji, and then it’s done. There’sno going back now.

.

Apparently, it wasn’t a big enough deal.

They’re all sitting in the damn conference room again, and someonefrom PR is summarizing it for them. It’s not a lot to summarize. Deadspin ranan article about their bromance, and some tumblr blogs started speculating andpulled out receipts, but nothing legitimate enough to publicly confirm it.

“I don’t think any of us want to sit here for another hour,so how about Jeff posts a picture and we cross our fingers and call it a day?”Alex from PR says, clapping her hands together at the head of the table.

“Sure,” Jeff says. Kent nods in agreement, and they break.

.

It’s still not a big enough deal.

It’s progress, though, if you count a Deadspin articlespeculating about whether or not there’s a romantic nature to their bromanceprogress. Jeff reads it aloud to Kent in bed.

“So I guess we should go fuck in the Bellagio,” Jeff says,and Kent snorts.

“Nah, then the headline would just be, ‘Two bros arrestedfor wrestling naked in the Fountains of Bellagio.’”

Jeff laughs so hard Kit falls off the end of the bed andbolts out the door.

.

Kent doesn’t know why they’re all still bothering with theconference room; it’s just him, Jeff, Alex and some other guy from PR, and Tag,who is mostly here for “moral support,” because he thinks this is all hilariousand has nothing better to do.

Alex asks them about a press conference for the hell of it,and doesn’t seem surprised when they immediately veto it.

She flips through a few pages in her notebook, then sighsand looks up at them. “You just want to keep trying Instagram and hope someonecatches on?”

Kent looks at Jeff, who just shrugs. “Yeah. Should I captionit with two hearts?”

Alex rolls her eyes. “Whatever you want, just run it by mefirst.”

“We could do a date night or something,” Jeff suggests.

“That would work,” Alex says.

.

It doesn’t work.

They go out to dinner, and it’s been decided that Kentshould do most of the posting because he has more followers and a biggeroverall fan base. “More eyes are on him” were Alex’s exact words, but they allknew what she meant.

So Kent posts a picture of Jeff sitting across from him, fancyrestaurant with white and gold trim and potted plants everywhere, candles andglasses of wine on the table, more silverware than Kent knows what to do with,the whole nine yards.

He captions it “Date Night” with the red heart emoji, andthen he puts his phone in airplane mode and has dinner with his boyfriend.

.

It’s still not enough, and Kent is starting to seriouslyconsider Jeff’s plan to fuck in the Bellagio.

Alex would kill him. He would have to get his affairs inorder and write his will and whatnot if they have to resort to that. He alsodoesn’t really want to do that to his mother, but least they have a plan Z.

They all meet up in the conference room and Alex sighs andstarts a group chat with the three of them and tells them to keep trying and torun anything they come up with by her. Kent makes them all put their hands inthe middle and do a countdown and break.

“Say ‘gay’ on three!” he says, and it gets a smile out ofAlex. They break, and then Tag walks them out to their cars rambling about howridiculous the whole thing is. The media loves the gay scandals, and yet hereare Kent and Jeff giving them the second big gay story of the year, and theyjust keep saying bromance.

“If I hear the word bromance one more time, I’m skating intoour next game naked with a pride flag,” Jeff says.

“If I see the word bromance in one more headline, we’refucking in the Bellagio,” Kent says, and Tag groans and says, “gross,” but he’sa little shit who once hung up mistletoe all over Kent’s apartment, so Kentfeels zero remorse.

.

Jeff posts a picture of Kent sitting on the couch with Kitin his pajamas, grinning lazily at the camera.

It’s captioned “the Boyf.”

The next day, there’s another Deadspin article about theirbromance, and Kent texts Alex asking if she’s sure about the Bellagio plan.

Her response is an immediate “absolutely not,” followed by“this is fucking ridiculous” and “keep trying.”

.

He’s in a groupchat with Jeff, Jack, Bitty, and thePoindexter kid called “gays of the nhl.”

Bitty keeps sending screenshots of Kent and Jeff’s Instagramposts with obscene emoji combinations. He also leaves Kent a two minutevoicemail of him laughing his way to wheezing because they’re being so goddamnobvious but the whole world has decided to stay in denial.

Poindexter: Lolghost asked if you guys were dating

You:really??

You:finally

You:what did u say

Poindexter: Isaid yeah and then he said “why the fuck is no one talking about this”

Bitty: HONESTLY

Jeff: Would youguys still love us if we came out by fucking in the Bellagio

Poindexter: Thewhat

You:the fountains

Poindexter: Ohthat

Poindexter: Yeahdo it

Bitty: I mean youcan afford the public indecency charges……………so  I don’t see any reason not to

Jack: Bitty has apoint

Jack: We’d stilllove you

You:perfect let’s do it

Bitty: haha “doit”

You:fuck u bits

Bitty: ;))

You:ur not funny

Poindexter: Sexpuns are always funny

Jeff: ^^

You:et tu???????????

.

In their next game, Kent breaks the tie with a minute left,and Jeff and Tag crash into him, yelling. He and Jeff are nose to nose,grinning, and Kent decides fuck it, what does it matter anyways, at this point,and kisses him on the mouth.

It isn’t a long or intense kiss, because Tag is screaming intheir ears and Brennan crashes into them a few seconds later. The only personwho brings it up is one of the regular beat reporters who asks him about thegoal and says, “dramatic celly” with a wink. And also Tag, who laughs at themfor about five straight minutes once all the reporters leave.

The next morning, Alex texts them a link to yet anotherarticle about their bromance. The embedded picture isn’t even of them kissing,it’s just of them nose to nose, hugging and grinning.

Alex: I give up

Alex: Which meansyou still CANNOT try the Bellagio plan, but I don’t have any other ideas thatwouldn’t require a presser or a big publicity thing.

Jeff: So what now

You:I have an idea

You:But like I’m not sureif it’s possible or legal

Jeff: ????? U nevertold me???

You:You’re literallysitting right next to me

Alex: That isn’treassuring, but what is it?

.

It’s the first time in years that Alex approves one of hisideas. Granted, they’ve gotten more ridiculous with time as he needs less real helpwith PR, but still.

She says she’ll make some calls, pull some strings.

Jeff is shaking his head. “I hate you.”

Kent is grinning. “It’ll be fun.”

.

Poindexter: Kentyou’re the worst person in the world

Poindexter: Youreally did this

Poindexter: I can’tfucking believe

You::)

Bitty: ???

Poindexter: https://www.buzzfeed.com/norbertobriceno/ten-times-kent-parson-came-out?utm_term=. xmRKnqDZV #.garlzmkkr

Bitty: HSHDGGDHSHFGGF

Bitty: YOUG FUCKIN G DIDN’T WHO ARE YOU

Jack: They let you write it yourself?

You:yeah isn’tit great

Jeff: Lol yeah sure whatever helps u sleep at night babe

Jack: I honestly wish I was more surprised by this

Jack: I would’ve never come up with it on my own but now that it’shappened it’s more like “oh yeah fucking of course” instead of “wow I can’tbelieve this”

You:awthanks jackie boy

You:youare my oldest friend after all

Jeff: It’s a really stupid article but at least we got to point outall the stuff no one noticed

Jeff: That part was fun

Bitty: “I can see how the first one or two could be taken as a joke,but date night? The Boyf? Really?” this is the best thing I’ve ever seen thereare actual tears in my eyes

Poindexter: Iconic

You: thanksboys i try

#i'll probably beta this and put it on ao3 bc why not #and idk if the texting part makes sense #the 'You' is supposed to be kent bc it's his perspective even tho it's 3rd person #if that makes sense #it looks better on word/ao3/anything that isn't tumblr bc kent's texts are right aligned like it looks on your phone #anyways #my fic #kent parson #kp #answered