#drafting talented players | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

harlowhockeystick · 3 months

Text

LOVESTRUCK, WENT STRAIGHT TO MY HEAD ⎯ S. CROSBY

y/n just wants the best for her son, she thinks the program rule of no freshmen players on varsity is stupid. she just did what any mother would do...right?

coach!sidney crosby x teacher!single mom!reader

warnings: angst, smut (fingering, handjob, sex on a table), somewhat of an inappropriate relationship, single parent content, light talk of divorce, lowkey based off of "slut!" by taylor swift

word count: 4,244

a/n: look at that....i do still know how to write

The bitterness of the coffee wasn’t doing it’s job. On her third cup and it’s not even ten in the morning, Y/N waits for the next period of students to walk through her door. Taking in one of the few moments of silence she has, she refreshes the page on the sports page on the school website, itching to see her son’s name.

Carter had tryouts with the hockey team last week, he had been talking about it since the beginning of the month. He was training every day to make varsity; in leagues ever since he was ten years old every single coach and spectator could not brag enough on how much talent he had. Y/N was pressured to send him across the country, even out of the country, to go to the top hockey camps but as a single mother she couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bear to send her baby off to some strangers for a few months, and she couldn't afford to move away from family either.

But her heart dropped as she refreshed the page, pulled up this season's roster, and saw her son’s name and number on the junior varsity roster instead of varsity. She didn’t understand it, she was told by the coaches herself that he was the best kid on the ice that day. Why didn’t he make varsity?

Her questions were interrupted by students flooding into the classroom for the start of the next period. She pulled herself out of her thoughts to then teach this class period. Reluctantly though.

The final bell rang and that meant she was done for the day. Saying goodbye to her students Y/N started to gather papers and put them in the “to grade” folder to take home with her before tidying up some areas of the room. She anticipated her son’s arrival. Ever since moving up to high school he always stopped by her room at the end of the day to talk about school and help her carry things to her car.

“I didn’t make it.” Carter said as a greeting when he walked in the empty room. His face was defeated, his tall slender frame was slumped over in sadness and his eyes welling with tears. Out of all people Y/N knew and saw how hard he worked to make varsity his freshman year. He skated over fifty laps a day, worked on shots in the garage until way past dusk, he also started to lift more weights.

“Oh baby, c’mere,” Y/N pulled her much taller son in for a hug. There he broke and rested into his mother's arms like a little kid again. He softly cried before pulling away.

“I don’t get it mom, they told me i’d make it for sure, why would he tell me-” “Don’t worry about it son, I will talk to the coach first thing in the morning. I promise. But for now you have to play the cards you were dealt,” Y/N consoled her son in the way moms know how. Gathering her bags she gave the heaviest one to Carter to help carry out the building. They continued chatting on the way to her car, talking about school and homework he had for the week. Carter was a special kid, he deeply cared about his grade and education. He remembers promising his mom when he was younger that if he ever got to play hockey in college that he would get his degree and not go to the draft early.

Carter was a momma’s boy through and through. His dad lived an hour away so he spent the weekends there twice a month, but he’s at his mom’s house the rest of the time. Carter is also protective of his mom too. He never told her this, but he’s beat in a couple boys’ faces because they made some lewd comments about her. He’s respectful of her, more than any other man on earth ever has been. Y/N is very proud of how she’s raised her son.

“Okay son, go to practice. Have a positive attitude, don’t do anything stupid okay? I know you’re frustrated but just go into practice and do you, maybe they got you mixed up with someone else. But-” she saw his facial expressions change and get tense, she knew that he was still angry inside, “hey, don’t get mad at them. Wait until I talk and then you and I will figure something out.”

They walked in opposite directions, Carter to the athletic building and Y/N back to the school for one more item in her classroom. Hustling as best she can so she can get home, she runs into the person she didn’t want to speak to until in the morning. Coach Crosby.

She felt her body coil and tense up in anger at just the sight. She was supposed to wait until morning, but her tongue got the best of her.

“Coach! Hey, can I ask you a quick question?” she pulls him to the side, into an empty classroom where the teacher had left for the day.

“What’s up?” Sidney asked, sitting down on one of the wooden desks. He was wearing black joggers, a tight pullover with a school cap on. Y/N couldn’t help but notice how the material of his clothing clung to his toned body. He had been out of the professional league for at least two years, but he still kept up the physical shape of his body, and it was obvious by the way his pants were stretching at the seams on his thighs.

“I really don’t want to be that parent, but can you tell me why Carter didn’t make varsity?” Sidney cocks his head to the side. He’s only been on sight three months and he’s already dealing with this.

“Well, it’s my understanding that freshmen must be on the JV team, no matter how good they are. That rule was put in place before I got here.” He explained while crossing his arms over his chest, his muscles making his pullover look incredibly small on his frame. “He’s a good kid though, he’ll make great improvements this year and I'll look forward to having him on varsity next year.” Sidney said, trying to end the conversation and smooth things over.

“But…you’re the new coach. This is your program now, not someone else’s.” Y/N couldn’t really understand what he was getting at. Did he not see the potential in her son that everyone seemed to say? Did he not see the great player, the great athlete that Carter was? Maybe it was just her being a mother, and so obviously her child is the best compared to other kids. But she swore she didn’t want to be like those parents. She remembers being a kid in youth sports herself and hated parents who thought their kid should be player of the week every week. In her mind, she needed to earn player of the week because of her work ethic, not because her parents were board members.

“Right but I'm not trying to ruffle any feathers my first year. This is barely my program, I need to establish relationships before I change things here,” Y/N takes a step closer to Sidney, her hands folded in front of her.

“But you’re Sidney Crosby, who can say no to you?” God she feels horrible for doing this, she feels like…like some junior league mom whose husband has nothing between his ears. But she thinks, if she can just rile him up for a minute, startle him, then he’ll change his mind and put Carter on varsity. That’s her end goal, get her son feeling better. If that means pretending to be a horny college student again, so be it. “I mean really, they had to give you this job cause they trust you. So obviously you can do what you want, like putting my son on your varsity team.”

He sighs, looking down at his shoes. He knows what she’s doing…and he can’t believe it’s sort of working. He hasn’t had a woman flirt with him in heaven knows how long. He doesn’t even know how to respond to such a thing anymore. His life for the past almost twenty years has been nothing but hockey. Sidney’s family has been asking him for a long time when he is going to settle down with someone, but nobody ever scratched that itch quite like hockey did. But now? That he’s got a woman in front of him, a gorgeous one at that, who’s buttering him up? Maybe he’ll give in…just to see what it feels like.

“Your son is a hell of a player, Y/N. He really could go far,” His words got heavier as she got closer, he could smell her perfume, he could feel her breath, he could see her chest move up and down with every huff she took- “so put him on your team, Coach.” she put her hand on his chest softly and she sighed feeling his stern muscles. “C’mon, what’s it gonna take? Dinner and a show?”

His eyes, dark and blown, looked into hers and if he remembers what the term eye fucking means then that’s exactly what they were doing. His breaths became short but heavy as she left a heavy hand on his chest. She rubbed her thumb over his cheek, trying her best to work her charm that she used to have. She hopes she’s still got it.

He thinks, thinks, and thinks. This is a bad decision.

“My place, six thirty tomorrow evening. Give me your best sales pitch, and we’ll see about the show.”

Sidney stands up and for a brief second his nose bumps hers, an innocent touch but it makes him take a deep breath in to calm himself down. He exits the empty class room and takes long strides to get to practice, glancing at his watch he’s already a few minutes behind.

She’s eternally grateful that Carter is with his dad this weekend. How could she explain to him that she’s not really going on a date…but she’s going to his coach's house with plans to seduce him..but again it’s not a date. Of course, she’d have to leave out the seducing part. She put on her best dress that she had, it was pretty simple but it hugged her figure nicely. She made sure to spritz some extra perfume on as well.

The drive to Sidney’s house is silent, it’s her having fake conversations in her head about what to say or what not to say. Debating on if her seduction speech was still on date or if it’s too cheesy now. She suddenly feels like she lives in the lowest tax bracket possible when entering his neighborhood; she's never seen so many fake lawns before. She’s actually never been on this side of town much, except to look at christmas lights when Carter was younger. Now that he’s older he doesn’t care for that stuff anymore.

“Nice place you’ve got,” she said walking into his entry way. To her surprise Sidney dressed up a little bit, wearing a button up with a nice pair of slacks, the top two buttons undone for visual purposes of course. He takes her coat and her purse, hanging it up by the door. “What’s on the menu?”

“Well, I figured I'd go simple with just spaghetti and toast, with dessert to follow if that’s okay.” Sidney went into his pantry and pulled out a bottle of red wine. “This okay?” He holds the bottle in the air and she nods her head, sitting at his kitchen bar watching him pour a glass. She takes a glance at the label and she’s taken back. On her teacher salary she definitely can’t afford that brand.

Maybe she’s in over her head here- she didn’t think about any of this stuff. Suddenly she’s this woman who doesn’t have much to her name, sitting in a millionaire’s kitchen drinking wine that costs well over two hundred dollars- but damn if it doesn’t taste good.

They make small talk before heading into the dining room where he sets dinner onto the table for her, such a gentleman. Continuing the semi dull conversation she thanks him for making a meal for her, joking that she’s never had a man make dinner for her. Only half true, her dad growing up would make dinners for her family. But when she married Carter’s dad, she was the chef in the family. Not that she was complaining, it was just odd for her to be on the reverse side for the first time in a while.

“I am sorry about that idiotic rule, Y/N. Carter can easily be a varsity player.” Sidney broke the minute silence after finishing off his second glass of wine that night. She huffs, finishing her plate and scooting it away from her on the table. Was she really about to do this?

“Is there anything I can do, sidney? C’mon my boy’s in shambles, he’s thinking that he’s not as good as everyone makes him out to be,” Y/N reaches her hand out to rest on his softly. “Is there anything I can do?”

Y/N hoped he knew what she was implying and that she didn’t have to say it out loud.

And he did.

He understood every word she said and the words that were left unsaid. He knew what she was implying and he knew what she was getting at. But Sidney hated that he was willing to do what she wanted. Y/N was leaning forward on the table, getting close enough to Sidney where he could smell her perfume and her lotion mixed together, he could see a couple small freckles up close as he couldn’t see them from a bit further away.

There were no words exchanged between them, his eyes kept drifting from her tinted lips to her lustful eyes, back and forth a couple times before resting his hand on her cheek and pressing his lips against hers gently. Immediately he felt a rush of arousal- it’s just a kiss, really? He silently asked himself. He hadn’t gotten this aroused in a while, a long while.

Both parties leaned into the kiss, wanting and aching for more. They tasted wine on each other and felt each other’s temperature begin to rise. Sidney got out of his chair, lips still connected to hers, and got closer. She stood up, one hand cupping his chin and the other resting on his chest, and she leaned against the dining table. She hadn’t made out with someone in years, she hopes she’s doing it right.

She gets pushed onto the table just by the force of his body so now she’s sitting on the wooden table, Sidney standing in between her legs with both of his hands cupping her face. He doesn’t care if he seems desperate or if he seems needy, or if this is totally wrong and against almost all of the words he signed in his contract, he can’t seem to get enough of her. Sidney feels her play with the buttons of his shirt and how she begins to pull the shirt up and out of his dress pants. It was easy since he wasn’t wearing a belt.

He didn’t even know that she completely unbuttoned his shirt until he felt her hands roam all over his naked chest, her hands slowly raking up and down his toned muscles. He takes a breath and scans her body. Her skin is hot to the touch, her eyes are completely blown now and her lips are parted. “How do I get this off you?” he asked, taking a fist of the hem of her dress.

“There's a tie in the back,” she huffed out, not able to take her hands off his body. Plus, she wants him to take it off of her.

“You tied this yourself?” he asked in shock, surprised at how she tied such a perfect bow on her back with such thin strings.

“I’ve been tying, zipping, buttoning my dresses myself for the past twelve years now, safe to say I got pretty good at it.” God- has she been alone for the past twelve years? Nobody to love on, kiss on, touch on this wonderful body of hers? Sidney takes in a sharp breath when he pulls the dress off of her and he gives her body a quick scan over. Wearing a strapless bra that she’s almost spilling out of, she has on silk leopard print panties that he can’t help but notice a significant damp spot on.

“Fuck,” he mumbles, hands roaming over her soft skin. “Don’t make fun of me, it’s been a long time since I've hooked up with someone.” because that’s just what this is, a hookup. Nothing more, nothing less.

“I haven’t since I got divorced, so it's the same here.” she hooks her leg around his pulling him closer. He pressed his lips against hers again this time most softly. His hand goes down to play with the hem of her panties, “you sure about this?”

“Very sure, don’t mess with a pissed off mama sidney.” she pulls him down with her as she lays down on the table. He kisses down her body, she arches her back and lets him take her bra off. Tossing it onto the floor Sidney wraps his lips around one of her hardened nipples. She lets out a heavenly sounding moan at the action.

It’s been so long she could cum just from Sidney doing this for a couple minutes longer. One hand slips down over her clothed cunt, rubbing her sensitive and wet area. She arches her body into his, already she’s lost in a great euphoric high that she can’t even mumble words. All that’s coming out is moans and gasps.

He removes his mouth and Sidney stands up, she watches up on her elbows as he takes his pants off and removes his boxers. She bites her lip at the size - the sight - of his hardened dick in his hand. She reaches out for it herself, “you’ll give me what I want, and I promise you won’t regret it.” he thought for a moment too long, she began to doubt herself but he spoke up, “deal.”

She licks her hand before taking a grip on his cock. Slowly she starts stroking up and down, keeping harsh eye contact with sidney. She gives him a nice squeeze and a twist of her hand which makes him throw his head back in pleasure. He can only do so much with his hand, it’s nice to have someone else for a change. Y/N scoots closer to him on the table, with one of his hands he works his hand over one of her breasts softly massaging it. She leans into his touch and continues to work her hands over his hard cock.

He moves his hand from her breast down and slips it into her soaked panties. At first his fingers were a little cold but they quickly warmed up after being immersed in her sex. He circles around her clit a couple times, getting familiar with the female body again. He explores for a minute or two, his middle finger teasing her hole. The more he teases her the harder her grip gets on his cock. He pulls his hand out of her panties, they’ve never broken eye contact this whole time and he sucks everything off of his hand. God that was hot.

Sidney removes her hand from his cock fearing if she kept going he would cum all over her hand and that wasn’t what he wanted to do. He’s panting heavy now, his body forming sweat on his forehead. He pushes her down onto the table with a palm on her chest lining his cock up with her entrance, “wait do I need any-”

She chuckles, “that ship sailed a while ago, just fuck me like you mean it coach.”

With her permission she slides in and she lets out a long, loud, moan as he does it. He wants to hear that on repeat for the rest of his life, he swears. Sidney puts both hands on her hips, keeping her body steady as he rocks in and out of her, his hips meeting her every time.

Sidney allows to feel himself in her warm, wet walls. He throws his head back in pleasure and she shuts her eyes tight. Her hands come up to her breasts to add to the pleasure, fingers pinching both of her nipples as she feels his huge cock pump in and out of her small hole. He feels like he’s three feet deep inside of her, he feels lost in how good she feels. His head grows foggy each time he squeezes her.

Sidney hits the spongy spot in her tight cunt that made her gasp out in pleasure, she sang his name like a chant over and over which made him fuck her harder and harder. She warned him about her orgasm and he did the same, begging her to cum with him. A few more pumps of his cock he spilled his heavy load inside of her and she moaned loudly like a queen when he did. He pulled his cock out of her, watching his load spill out with it.

Maybe it was the post orgasm haze she was in, maybe it was the lovestruck feeling she had the minute they began making out, but minutes later she’s standing between him and the cold shower wall. His forehead pressed against hers. His fingers knuckle deep in her cunt and a hand wrapped around her throat as hot water rained down on either of them, her cunt squeezing his thick fingers while she couldn’t even say anything but his name. That’s exactly what he wanted.

The hot shower water kept her eyes shut but she knew that he was gazing at her. He was in awe of her facial expressions, how she bit her lip through a smile with every jerk he made with his hand, when she furrowed her eyebrows when she was on the edge of cumming, and how she cocked her head to the side while he kissed around her neck silently asking for more.

He took his hand away from her pussy, licking the honey off his fingers. He stayed that close to her though knowing her legs were probably jello and she wasn’t able to stand for at least a minute or two.

She took a deep breath, “got what you wanted?” she asked in a joking tone, moving her hand up and down his chest in the hot steamy shower. He chuckled, his hands never leaving her body. He palmed her breasts, he seemed to have a thing for those she contemplated, heavy lustful eyes staring into hers.

“How many more you got in you?” he asked, spreading her legs with his thigh.

“I can give you as much as you want.” Y/N answered, her hands slowly roaming down lower and lower on his chest and stomach.

“Then no, I didn’t get what I want yet.”

She woke up in Sidney’s bed the next morning with messy hair and sore muscles. Looking over on the nightstand the clock read 8:02 AM. She was glad that it was a Saturday and she was able to sleep in. She saw that Sidney was still asleep, he laid on his stomach with his head facing the other way. Looking over his back, studying the freckles, the faded scars. Y/N wants to stay in this moment for as long as she can.

She hates to admit but she really fell for Sidney. Not because of how skilled he was in bed, or because he could do wicked things with his hands, but she shared a few heartfelt conversations with him before tryouts even began.

He cared for the kids at school, the kids he taught and the kids he coached. He had a heart for the coming generation. He wanted them to have someone in their corner, and some kids don’t have that at home and he wants to be that. She got lovestruck in the past few months, sure she never planned on sleeping with him, she felt young again with how big of a crush she had. It went straight to her head, it all moved so fast.

God if her mother were still here she could just hear the word “slut!” come out of her mouth if her mom found out what happened. But she wouldn’t care. She enjoyed it, and she was sure Sidney enjoyed it too.

But still, she can’t help but think to herself what did I just do?

Sidney turns his head and sees that she’s also awake. Raising up he sees the time, 8:10. He doesn’t even care that he missed his morning workout session an hour late. He puts his arm around her and pulls her closer to him, tucking his head in her neck. With dry lips Sidney placed a tender lingering kiss on her hot skin.

It might be worth it for once, she thinks.

feedback | masterlist | au tag

tagging mutuals to boost, let me know if you don’t want to be tagged! @fallinallincurls @nylwnder @bitchinbarzal @ilyasorokinn @leafsbabe @twinklelilstarkey @raysofcrosby @lcandothisallday

#j's writing #sidney crosby #coach!sidney #sidney crosby x reader #sidney crosby imagine #nhl imagine #nhl x reader #nhl writing #nhl smut #sidney crosby smut #nhl x you #smut #drabble #blurb

543 notes · View notes

13thpythagoras · 2 years

Photo

#rip city #portland trail blazers #kofi cockburn about to be rookie of the year #benchero is overrated #holmgren overrated #Cockburn ready to play in May in June #almost no one can see talent #but to me it's as clear as day #Kofi is the best player in teh draft and it's not even close

0 notes

misshoneyimhome · 2 months

Text

「2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION」

“Wait… you like me?” I Jack Hughes 2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣

Summary; In the world of hockey, you share a close friendship with Jack Hughes. Yet, as your feelings for him grow over time, you decide to keep them hidden. However, when fate suddenly pushes you to confront your emotions, will Jack risk your friendship for something more?

Tropes & warnings; friends to lovers; teasing/light bullying; some sort of sadness; hidden feelings; fear of one-sided love;

Other notes; so, I'm actually starting to find writing about this lad quite enjoyable; I mean, just take a look at him! He's absolutely adorable 🤗

Word count; 1.6K

・✶ ｡ﾟ

You met Jack Hughes for the first time nearly a year after he was drafted, when you had just started working for the New Jersey Devils organization. You had volunteered for some unpaid media tasks, eager to establish yourself in the hockey community, which occasionally allowed you to get closer to the players. And already within your first few weeks at the hockey rink, Jack immediately noticed your curious and focused expression. Without even knowing why, he felt drawn to your shy smile and decided to strike up a conversation with you.

Although his high level of confidence initially took you by surprise, you were instantly charmed by his adorable smile and laughter. And with a combination of cheesy jokes, hockey references, and a playful sense of humour, Jack quickly grasped your deep love and passion for the sport, which only intrigued him further.

You had to admit, it felt as though your friendship blossomed out of nowhere. You bonded over analysing plays, discussing strategies, and the excitement of being part of the Devils' community. And being from the area yourself, you happily showed him around, unveiling all the hidden treasures unknown to many, as you got to know each other on deeper levels.

Jack couldn’t help but admire your dedication and knowledge of hockey, finding your passion for the sport captivating – much like his own. He appreciated how you cheered him on from the side lines, occasionally donning his jersey, and noticed your unwavering commitment to following the team whenever possible.

Yet, as your friendship gradually deepened over the following years, you couldn't deny that you found yourself relishing the time spent with him more and more. His infectious boyish smile, his amusing Florida accent, and his genuine kindness all contributed to making you feel at ease whenever you were in his presence. And as you both transitioned into adulthood, you felt yourself slowly developing deeper emotions for him.

However, you kept these feelings concealed, fearing the potential risk to your friendship. Moreover, you couldn't shake the belief that Jack was entirely out of your league. He was talented, charismatic, and had a magnetic personality that drew people to him. All the girls who pursued him exuded glamour and confidence, and you couldn't help but feel like you didn't measure up.

But though you didn't align with the same interests as those girls – preferring quiet evenings discussing hockey stats over amazing dinners – Jack valued your genuine calm and laid-back demeanour. He appreciated your dedication to your work and simply relished spending time with you, whether engaged in hockey conversations or simply enjoying each other's company.

And despite your insecurities, you treasured your friendship with Jack as well, grateful for the connection you shared. You simply never entertained the thought that he could view you as anything beyond a friend. Thus, you chose to keep your feelings hidden, content with enjoying his company and offering support in any way possible.

However, on one fateful night, fate seemed to conspire against you.

As the arena hummed with excitement, the New Jersey Devils celebrated yet another hard-earned victory over their rivals. Amidst a sea of cheering fans, you stood, passionately supporting the team you had grown to adore, as the energy was palpable, and the jubilation of the win filled the air.

And following the game, you found yourself in the company of Jack and several other members of the Devils organization. However, as you shared laughter and conversation, revelling in the triumph, the discussion suddenly took an unexpected turn.

The girls in the group began to tease you in a playful manner about your close friendship with Jack, their words carrying a mischievous undertone. Initially, it was light-hearted banter, harmless jests exchanged among friends. However, their teasing gradually veered towards a more pointed direction, causing a blush to spread across your cheeks with embarrassment.

"I swear, y/n, every time Jack scores a goal, you look at him as though he's the only person in the room," one of the girls teased, nudging you with her elbow.

And then another girl joined in, her laughter resonating through the air. "Yeah, it's as if you're completely smitten with him or something."

You attempted to shrug off their remarks with a nervous chuckle, but instead, it only seemed to encourage their teasing further.

"I think she might actually have a bit of a crush on him," one of them remarked, her tone laced with mock seriousness.

And then the realization hit you like a ton of bricks, and you felt your cheeks flushing even warmer. No matter how hard you tried to conceal it, you couldn't deny the truth in their words.

"Oh my gosh! She does... y/n's got a thing for Jack Hughes, how adorable," the first girl exclaimed, her laughter ringing through the hallway.

And nable to bear the embarrassment any longer, you hastily excused yourself from the group, muttering something about needing to freshen up. You spun on your heel and hurried away, seeking to put as much distance between yourself and the teasing girls as possible.

"Wait, y/n, hold on," Jack called out to you, his voice gentle but insistent.

But just as you thought you had managed to escape, you felt a gentle hand on your arm, halting your retreat. Turning around, you were met with Jack's concerned gaze, his expression soft yet urgent. Yet, you couldn't bring yourself to look him in the eye, the embarrassment still blazing hot on your cheeks.

"Y/n, don't walk away like that..." Jack pleaded, his grip tightening around your arm.

"Please, Jack," you attempted to shake him off, your voice barely audible. "I just want to go home, okay? You can just go back to your friends."

"What, no,” Jack's voice betrayed confusion and concern. "I'm not done talking to you."

You sighed, giving in slightly, pulling your hand to cross your arms across your chest. "Fine, then let’s talk?"

"I want to know about what they were saying back there," he said, his tone grave.

You bit your lip, feeling the blush returning to your cheeks, your arms tucking yourself tightly in a defence. "It's nothing, just silly chatter among girls."

Jack shook his head, his brows knitting together. "It didn't sound like nothing. They were discussing you and me, weren't they?"

You shifted uncomfortably, avoiding his gaze. "They... they were just teasing. It's not important." You tried to force a light chuckle, but your heavy breaths failed you.

"Y/n," Jack said softly, his thumb brushing over the back of your hand, sending shivers down your spine. “Talk to me.”

Your heart raced in your chest as you struggled to find the right words, tears pressing on, yet you managed to hold them back. "I... Jack, I..."

He lifted your chin gently, compelling you to meet his gaze. "Wait... you like me?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

You swallowed hard, feeling the intensity of his stare. "Yes," you admitted quietly. "But I understand if you don't feel the same way. I mean, look at me, I'm nothing like the girls you're used to..."

Jack's expression softened; his thumb moving to trace gentle circles on your cheek. "Y/n, I don’t want you to be like those girls. You're not like anyone else I know. And that's what I like about you. You're passionate, driven, and you love hockey just as much as I do. You're not just some random girl to me, you're my best friend."

Tears welled up in your eyes, overwhelmed by his words. "But what about those other girls? The ones who are always around you, the ones who..."

"They mean nothing to me," Jack interrupted, his voice firm. "The only person I care about is you."

You searched his eyes, finding nothing but sincerity and warmth reflected back at you. And in that moment, you realized that there was a chance that everything was about to change.

"Jack," you whispered. "I like you. More than just a best friend."

A smile spread across Jack's face, and before you knew it, he was leaning in, his lips meeting yours in a gentle kiss. As you melted into his embrace, you couldn't help but think that perhaps, just perhaps, this was the start of something truly special.

And in that tender moment when Jack's lips met yours, all your worries and insecurities seemed to slowly dissolve. There was only the two of you, wrapped in the warmth of each other's embrace.

You leaned into the kiss, relishing the sensation of Jack's lips against yours, his gentle touch sending shivers down your spine. It felt like a dream come true, something you had only dared to imagine in your wildest fantasies.

And as the kiss deepened, you were swept away by a rush of emotions – joy, relief, and an overwhelming sense of love. It was surreal to believe that Jack felt the same way about you, that he saw you as more than just a friend.

Then breaking away from the kiss, he looked into your eyes with a soft smile. "I've wanted to do that for so long," he confessed, his voice brimming with sincerity.

And you couldn't help but smile back, feeling a wave of happiness wash over you. "Me too," you whispered, your heart overflowing with love for the man standing before you.

In that moment, everything felt perfect – the world around you faded away, leaving only the two of you lost in each other's embrace.

"So, you like me too, huh?" You chuckled lightly, breaking the silence that enveloped you.

"Yeah, probably have for a while…" Jack's admission was timid, his voice betraying a hint of vulnerability.

"You should’ve said something," you spoke almost nervously, feeling a little ridiculous for not having had the courage to speak up sooner.

"Sorry, I was afraid you didn’t feel the same…" Jack's words were filled with regret.

You couldn't suppress a light laughter, the tension dissipating. "Jack, how could I not feel the same? Everyone likes you."

"Told you, to me you’re different. But I’m just happy that you do like me… because I’m crazy about you," Jack confessed, his words filled with sincerity and warmth.

And with another kiss, you sealed the newfound relationship, the warmth of it echoing the promise of a future filled with love and happiness.

#2️⃣5️⃣0️⃣ followers celebration #jack hughes imagine #jack hughes x reader #new jersey devils imagine #nhl fanfiction #nhl imagine

385 notes · View notes

generalllimaginesss · 5 months

Note

"I bet you have a finsta and spend your time trolling us." With Nico pls :)

I guess its Nico Friday! This is short and sweet, but I really liked writing it! I hope you like it!!

••

"I'm just saying, for you both to have been first round drafts that collision should be mortifying," You trailed off as Luke and Jack Hughes sat across from you and your boyfriend in the restaurant.

Nico knew as soon as he saw the replay of the collision that the boys would not be able to escape your criticism. It was one of the things that he loved about you; you were just as passionate as him when it came to hockey, you just spent your time watching instead of playing.

"Really?" Jack rubbed his eyes, exhaustion beginning to set in. The last thing he wanted was to hear another person mention the most embarrassing moment in his career so far.

"Yes, really. What were you thinking? Do you know how bad one of you could have gotten hurt?" You continued to hound them.

Jack looked at Nico pleadingly, begging him to shut you up, but it was no use.

"What else did you see?" Nico asked, curious as to who was next in your line of critiques.

"Well, overall I just feel like you all need to work on skating techniques. You're all talented, but you suck at the basics sometimes and it looks like you need a refresher course. Also, there never should have been an overtime, let's be real," You took a sip of your wine as you grabbed your phone to open the notes app and see what else you had jotted down that you thought could be improved.

"I'll make sure to tell coach," Nico joked with you.

You sent Nico a glare, but continued reading off your list of all the mistakes made in the game, catching the boys' attention when they noticed you weren't just conversing, but apparently had a whole list of things that went wrong.

"Are you...do you take notes during the game?" Nico began to laugh, watching as you scrolled through the endless comments you made.

"Babe, we're in this together," You looked at him with all of the seriousness evident in your tone.

Jack made the sound and motion of a whip, shooting a devious grin toward his captain. Nico rolled his eyes and groaned.

"I bet you have a finsta and spend your time trolling us," Nico chortled, wanting to be joking, but he's almost positive he's seen some notifications pop up for an instagram account that was definitely not your main.

"Somebody has to humble you all..." You trailed off, smiling as the boys realized you didn't deny it.

"I will spend the rest of the night trying to find it," Luke announced, pulling his phone out and putting his detective skills to the test.

"Good luck with that, Bud," You replied as you immediately went to your finsta and began to block all of the Devils players from your account, beginning with Luke.

Your finsta will be your dirty little secret...

#nhl imagine #nhl fic #jack hughes #nhl fanfiction #quinn hughes #trevor zegras #alex turcotte #cole caufield #jack hughes imagines #nico hischier #nico hischier blurb #nico hischier x reader #nico hischier imagine

354 notes · View notes

ktaerssoi · 9 days

Text

same team, different goal

(pt.1) (pt.2) (pt.3)

summary: the three weeks leading up to the draft, or the three times you realize caitlin isnt all that bad.

(2k)

week one

march was coming to an end, and Iowa had made it to the elite eight. tomorrow you would play against LSU, and you were a little nervous. your nerves didn't ease up when you were practicing the night before on an empty court.

it was almost ten, but you hadn't eaten or even thought about anything but the game tomorrow until you heard someone enter the gym, and then you weren't alone.

looking up from the ground, you shot the basketball towards the net, your arm stretching out and your feet coming off of the floor for a moment, but to no avail, it hit the backboard and bounced back to you.

"you should ease up your arm, you're too tense to be playing to your full ability." you turn to see caitlin standing by the court's edge, a calculated look on her face. "clark, I really don't need your help, I just need to practice. you're not exactly helping with that by the way."

she put her hands up in defense, "Actually that was exactly what I was doing. Plus, this isn't your gym, I can come in and practice too if I want." and that's what she did. every time she threw the ball you heard a faint swish and turned to see her lazily going to retrieve the basketball. she's some freak of nature really.

"wanna run some defense real quick?" she throws the ball to you, which you catch with an annoyed look. "sure," the tone of your voice would be enough to turn anyone away normally, but caitlin was one to never quit.

you guys had been trying to block the other on and off for about an hour, caitlin having more success than not. "seriously caitlin, I don't get how you just walk in here and play so easy." you guys were over by the benches, getting some water and checking your phones.

she looks up at you, shrugging. "no I mean seriously, if I told you to stand anywhere on the court you could make it. you practice infinite hours and yet your grades almost never falter." you hadn't really realized that you were going on a rant, but you were nothing but amazed by her talent. well maybe a little jealous too.

"wow l/n, I didn't know you were that big of a fan, do you want me to sign a shirt or something?" you would usually be annoyed by a snarky statement like this, but something about the exhaustion of practicing and the smile on her face made you smile a little too.

you woke up the next morning feeling less nervous about the game. practicing with caitlin was helpful, even if you swear for the rest of your life that it wasn't. She had told you about herself, in between breaks you guys would talk about what it was like playing basketball growing up.

she was easy to talk to.

you had been warming up for a little, talking to kate and trying to relax, like caitlin said. by half, both teams were tied at 45, and you were trying not to stress. you knew that you had a good team, and you knew that even if we were to fail it wouldn't be the end of the world.

you had a short water break at half, and caitlin came up to you, leaning down and whispering in your ear. "hey just relax, we got this, just get out of your head." you nodded, looking up and her. kate had given you guys an odd look, along with the rest of the team.

once the third quarter started, you were trying to guard angel resse. she was a difficult player to block, but you had managed to stop a few points and by the end of the third quarter Iowa was up by 11.

you could tell caitlin wasn't happy that we were so close to the end of the game and we barely had a lead. "c, just play like you did last night, don't think just play. you're not the best at thinking anyway." she rolled her eyes at your comment but smiled nonetheless.

"That's not what you said last night," she said as the whistle for the fourth quarter blew. your cheeks had turned a light shade of pink, one that you hoped you could play off as a tough game. you hadn't been put in for the fourth quarter coach opting to put someone else in and give you a break.

"since when have you and caitlin been friends?" you turn to see jada, confusion written on her face. "um, we've always been friends, just, not like good friends." you say, taking a sip of your water. "not "good friends?" you guys fight like there's no tomorrow. something happened and I and kate will find out." you shake your head, a smile on your face as you picture her and kate in old-timey investigater outfits.

"you have fun with that."

the game ends quickly after that, Iowa winning by 7 points. you smiled as you saw the team celebrate on the court, still holding good sportsmanship to LSU (for the most part..), you walked by the other team, high-fiving and telling resse that she's a tough player to block. you guys chat for a little before you say goodbye and walk into the locker room.

"what were you talking to resse about?" you hear caitlin before you see her, but when you do see her she's in the middle of changing out of her jersey into some random shirt. "nothing really, I was just telling her that she played well." you shrugged, walking over to your bag to get changed as well, trying not to stare at anyone.

"yeah, she played well I guess, we still won though." caitlin grabbed her bag in a huff, seeming to be a tad annoyed. "if I didn't know any better I would say you're mad I talked to her," you mumbled, but caitlin still heard.

"I'm not mad I just don't get why you don't treat our team like that, I mean you didn't congratulate any of us and we were the ones who won." caitlin's voice was raised now, you weren't sure where this was coming from but it ticked you off nonetheless.

"fine, you need some praise? good fucking job caitlin, our very own lord and savior." you rolled your eyes, grabbing your bag, and walking out to the bus to head back to campus. sitting down in the seat next to kate you were silent, not wanting to talk to anyone.

one thing though was that you most definitely hated caitlin clark.

you had gotten to Cleveland earlier that day, you had talked to the UConn team, since you used to play for them it was fun to chat with old teammates and meet the new players. you knew that caitlin and paige were friends, they used to play together and were a great duo. That's why you weren't surprised when she came over and started making her presence known, shutting down the conversation you were having with paige.

"yeah and then she had the audacity-" you were cut off by caitlin, smiling as she walked over and hugged paige. "hey bueckers, you better be ready to lose tomorrow." you glared at her not so subtly, sighing. "clark I was kind of in the middle of talking." she looked down at you, rolling her eyes. "yeah because you always have to talk to the opponents?"

paige had turned away at that point, talking to ice because she knew it was bound to be awkward if she continued standing there. "what is your problem? just because I didn't feed your ego one time im a problem? you need to get a grip." her jaw tightened at your words, you hadn't spoken loud, not wanting to draw too much attention to you guys.

"me? I'm not the one with the issues, you just seem to hate me for no reason at all. seriously, ever since you transferred to Iowa I've been trying to be your friend but you've taken everything I've done as an attack on you. me getting you dinner was not meant to send you into an allergic reaction and get you out of a game!" she hadn't taken into consideration that other people were around and she was talking at a voice level far too loud for the small area you were in.

you had dragged her to a corner, deciding it would be the easiest way to defuse the situation. "okay I'm sorry, you're just good at everything, and it's kind of hard to be friends with someone like that. it makes me feel like I have to prove I'm better which usually doesn't go over well. also, it wasn't even about the allergic reaction I just don't know why you got me dinner. I was fine by myself." caitlin rolls her eyes at your words but nods regardless.

you guys had won the game against UConn the next day, and you and caitlin finally working well together and not arguing throughout the game. there was a sort of understanding between the two of you guys now.

week two

you guys had ulitamtily lost the game against NC state, it was close and you guys had played hard. caitlin was anything but happy by the end of it, and not even kate or gabbie could fix it.

"clark, like you said, its not the end of the world. there will always be another game." you had said it to not only help her, but yourself. you weren't exactly pleased with the outcome of the game, none of team had been.

for caitlin it was different, she was going to the draft next week and losimg her lat college game wasn't something she could live with. but she would have to.

even though you hadn't really meant to, you had cheered caitlin up. even if it was only a little bit, her mood had improved and she was able to talk to the team with out an undertone of anger. the ride home wasn't the best trip of your life but you guys had managed to make the best of it for everyone sake.

seeing caitlin sit quietly on the bus made you start thinking about what it wold be like on the team with out her next year. with out her it would be so different, not to mention you were losing a bunch of other great players. but with out caitlin who would you compete with? she wasn't just a teammate, she was a friend, whether you guys were fighting or not you would miss her. plus she was nice to look at.

half way through the trip back to campus you guys had stopped to stretch your legs. when you got back on, you sat next to caitlin before she could put her feet up and block the seat.

"hey c," you smiled at her, and though she didn't show it you could tell that she was okay with you being there. you had looked over at what she was doing on her phone and you saw she was looking at her possible outfits for the draft.

"i like that one." you had pointed to your favorite of the options, a sparkly cropped top with a white button down and a skirt. it would look good on her.

she nodded, and quickly sent a text to her stylist that that was the one she wanted to wear. you had just picked out caitlin clarks wnba draft night outfit.

"i don't know what im going to do next year. i mean, the wnba is going to be great but seriously this team is to good to not miss." caitlin was picking at her fingernails, a bad habit of hers. "even though im on it?" you laughed a little, you knew she hadn't always liked you.

"no i think especially because you're on it. you've really been my number one compeition and with you gone i don't know who's going to keep my ego in check." she smiles at you, and you shake your head. "trust me clark, someone is going to get fed up and humble you."

something about the way she smiled the rest of the way home made you feel good. you really were going to miss her.

week three

it was draft night, and you had been invited along with some other team members to attend for caitlin. she and everyone looked so good, and the outfit you had chosen definitely distracted some people. (you included)

the draft was about to start and caitlin had been standing with you, kate, gabbie, and jada for a while before she finally had to leave. your leg was bouncing with anticipation when the commissioner came on stage with the first pick, but instantly cheers erupted from your group and many others in the room.

you were surprised when caitlin didn't instantly get up and head to the commissioner, instead, she hugged her family, stepped down off the stage to hug you first, and then, kate, jada, and gabbie, and then finally went to the commissioner. that's going to be in an edit.

the night went smoothly after that, you were getting texts from her often, and one of the commentators had pointed out that you both both on your phones. when the cameras panned over to her and you, the crowd cheered and you both waved. you felt your phone buzz a few seconds later with a text from caitlin, "they're watching us 😉" the cameras were still on you, so you flipped your phone showing the camera her message.

later that night, at the after party you were talking with Nika when caitlin had excused you both and you walked over to some corner. "hey, you know I was tal-" you were cut off by caitlin's lips on yours. it took you a moment but you kissed back.

what the fuck was happening.

she pulled away after a second and you looked at her stunned, confusion evident on your face. "um, so like why did you do that?"

her face guys pink, and she looks confused as well. "I, um, i don't know why i did that. i just really wanted to kiss you." you nodded at her admittion, yet still confused.

"i think i've liked you since you transferred. i mean, i just like, i think that's why I've always competed with you, i just wanted to show off. It's why i got mad the other day, sorry about that by the way-" she was the one to get cut off this time as you kissed her again.

pulling away after a few seconds you smiled up at her, taking in your high difference for what seemed like the first time. "you're not all too bad either clark." you gave her one more peck and your smile widened even more if possible. "congrats on getting drafted by the way. I'll have to get you to sign a jersey for me."

CHAT I HATE THIS SO MUCH SOME ONE END ME. no like all jokes aside this is actual dookie. but i finally finished this little side blurb thing so yay!! making brownies rn i will update you on them! thats all chat, once again sos. - kate

#wcbb #caitlin clark #caitlin clark x reader #paige #kate martin #iowa wbb #iowa hawkeyes #i love her sm

129 notes · View notes

hunterrrs · 4 months

Text

Evgeni Malkin said he's always felt slightly overlooked.

One of the premier centers of his generation, the 37-year-old has played his NHL career as the second center on the Pittsburgh Penguins behind longtime teammate Sidney Crosby. He was the No. 2 pick in the 2004 NHL Draft. Alex Ovechkin, possibly the only Russia-born player more statistically accomplished, went No. 1 to the Washington Capitals.

Malkin doesn't mind. Actually, it's just the way he likes it.

"I'm not the kind of guy that wants media around me. I like to be quiet a little bit," Malkin said. "I want to just play the game. Probably, people want, like, my private life a little bit more. But I'm, like, a little bit closed.

"Maybe my English is not good before, not talk too much with media. Again, this is kind of myself. I'm OK with that because I know I'm a good player."

Numbers do talk, though. In his 18th season, Malkin is third in Penguins history with 1,261 points, 485 goals and 776 assists, trailing Mario Lemieux (1,723 points; 690 goals, 1,033 assists) and Crosby (1,540 points; 571 goals, 969 assists).

Ovechkin reached out after Malkin eclipsed Fedorov.

"He's a star in the League," Ovechkin said. "I think he's a tremendous player. He knows how to win. He knows how to play. It's not a surprise he has so many points, so many goals and assists."

"People are talking about Ovi a lot. They talk about (Connor) McDavid. They talk about (Nathan) MacKinnon," Letang said. "You don't hear Geno's name a lot. What he's been able to do in this league for that long and at this age still, being the goal scorer that he is, it's just special.

"I think it's always been (that way), except maybe the year he won the Hart and everything. I think it's always been a little bit like that. He's not seen to his true color."

Without Malkin, Crosby said his NHL career would have been more difficult. That pair, along with Letang, has won the Stanley Cup three times (2009, 2016, 2017). They qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 16 consecutive seasons together before missing them last season.

"There are nights where you don't feel great or have your best," Crosby said. "You're watching Geno do his thing out there. That's happened a lot. I think we've pushed each other over the years, but he's a guy that has always stepped up when he needs to. I think that's just the competitive nature in him.

"I think the consistency is the biggest thing. You don't have that kind of consistency without being as competitive as he is. He's been amazing for a lot of years. The stats show it."

"I think the biggest thing for me that I admire about Geno is how competitive he is," Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. "Just his competitive spirit is off the charts. His will to win, his want to win, and his will and want to score and produce offense. I don't think anyone likes scoring goals more than 'G.' You can see it in his raw emotion when he scores.

"Sometimes, I don't think Geno gets the credit that he deserves in the hockey world for the body of work that he's put together in this league and how talented he is. He's without a doubt one of the greatest players of all-time."

love a good geno lovefest

#i’ll never get sick of the people who actually matter going: of course he’s the best #evgeni malkin #sidney crosby #kris letang #mike sullivan #alex ovechkin #pittsburgh penguins

328 notes · View notes

sergeifyodorov · 1 year

Note

would you actually be willing to give like a pretty long rundown of those main guys from the 2015 draft class?? because i would be Very interested

Of course! I wrote this in a Google doc so I could get it all down. It's a LOT btw -- this is the abridged version, leaving out what are probably important details, and it's still [checks] 11k words long. Sorry about that.

Anyone who tells you that the draft is a science is an idiot not worth their twenty-dollar stadium beer. The draft has analytical elements, sure, but it is a crapshoot through and through. If you dare to take a look back on draft histories from the past ten years -- the past twenty, the past thirty -- only rarely is the first pick, the “best in show,” actually the best of his class. I mean, no wonder, right? How well can you determine how good a man is going to be at hockey when you have only seen him as a teenager? Accuracy and prophecy are not kin.

Every ten years, though, you come across someone whose trajectory is easy to map. A prospect who is so head and shoulders above everyone else -- in numbers, in the eye test -- that you cannot help but say that they are going to be The Next One. God save the poor boy you put that name on.

In this case, it is 2014, and they are speaking those words again. On the dingy ice of an OHL arena, a red-haired Toronto boy with scared fawn’s eyes paces around the circles, faster than anyone else in the building. There are articles written about him already, calling his experience the torture test and labelling him Jesus, the saviour, the new great. It will get worse for him from here.

A Generational Prospect

It is 2004, and all eyes are on Sidney Crosby. He has eclipsed QMJHL scoring records. He performs highlight-reel antics. It is known that he will make the NHL as a teenager, and that whichever team has him will have an asset they should not ever think to relinquish.

Now, in 2023, all expectations of him are blown away. He is fifteenth on the all-time scoring list, having played most of his life in the dead-puck era, and will be inside the top ten by the time he retires. He has never been below a point per game, having gotten to a hundred points as an eighteen-year-old rookie and only slowed down to ninety at thirty-five. He has won three Cups; two Harts; two each Art Ross and Rocket Richard.

Something similar can be said for his contemporary, one Alex Ovechkin, sixteenth in all-time scoring, second ever in goals. While neither were always the most singular, dominant player of the past eighteen years (has it really been that long?) their longevity and consistent high-level play have cemented them into that tier of all-time greats.

Such players only emerge once (or, for them, twice) in a generation; a “generational talent.” Gordie Howe was the first, before drafting happened at all, then Gretzky, joined as a part of the WHA merger, then Lemieux, then, debatably, Jagr through the early half of the dead-puck era, then Crosby and Ovechkin. Jagr was drafted fifth overall partly due to political constraints (it was 1990, and Czechia was behind the Iron Curtain), but all of the other drafted ones went first. While development curves for everyone else are hard to map, it is easy to tell, for them, how good they are as youths. We all call Gretzky the “Great One,” but he actually got that nickname before he was a teenager, because of how much better than the rest of his peers he was.

This is how we go up to the 2015 draft. Let’s say that it is September 2014, a full hockey season before the draft, so we can set the scene. Go back to the dingy Erie rink, watch the red-haired boy speed around the ice.

This is Connor McDavid. He was born in January just outside Toronto; if you are unfamiliar with the term “GTA,” I will pause now to tell you that it means Greater Toronto Area, and that it is the nexus of all hockey in the world. He is a Leafs fan, as so many of the GTA hockey-playing hopefuls are.

Connor is an unusual child, even by young hockey prospect standards. Entry to any of the CHL major junior leagues -- the OHL, the WHL, the QMJHL -- starts at sixteen, but select few can apply early, and if they are academically, physically, and emotionally deemed adept they can be accepted for exceptional status and join at fifteen. This happens once every two or three years nowadays; Tavares and Ekblad were the only ones to predate McDavid. As well as being deemed exceptional by the board of the CHL, he is exceptional among peers, too: intelligent and analytical, black-and-white, painfully shy. He works hard in school, desperate to avoid coming off as a “dumb jock.” Media interviewers ask for him, but they have to change the settings on their microphones in order to pick up his voice, it is so soft.

He has already won trophies; scholastic achievement, sportsmanlike behaviour, CHL rookie of the year. He will score at least one point in all but one of the first eighteen games of the 2014-15 OHL season, before breaking his hand in a fight (getting himself a Gordie Howe hatty, being that he already has a goal and an assist). He will score a hundred points in thirty-eight games, and a hundred and twenty points in the forty-seven games he will play.

Understandably, his name is penned in at number one on the draft board. Even such deficits as breaking a hand and being out for six weeks don’t tank his stock, it is so obvious how well on track he is to outpace all but the best.

He is sweet and shy, a captain of Erie based mostly on skill, and tight-laced into the destiny of future franchise saviour.

At least he has a friend, though, right?

Dylan

The 2014-15 Erie Otters are a good team. A great one, even -- third in league standings by season’s end, and you don’t get that far if your single generational superstar is sidelined half the year with a hand injury.

This is where Dylan comes in. Like Connor, he’s a GTA boy, and a young Leafs fan. Unlike Connor, he’s part of a serious hockey family -- the middle child of three. His older brother Ryan has already been drafted, in the first round, no less. He’s a real student of the game, too, a stats obsessive and a calm, steadfast personality.

Remember how we said the draft is a crapshoot? That’s very true. Prospects may have precise rankings when all is said and done, but in the meantime I find it best thinking of them as instead arranging into tiers -- there’s the generational talent in this year, but disregarding him we have a first overall-level, then a small handful of top prospects. Not saviours in their entirety, but certain to make a team very happy. Dylan projects as the latter group -- he’ll be somewhere between three and five. In 2014-15, he’s the OHL scoring leader, and takes the Erie Otters’ single-season record.

He and Connor are also best friends. Connor’s quiet, anxious even, but Dylan has a coolheaded sort of confidence that brings out the best in him. Rarely are they pictured without each other; rarely are they spoken to without mentioning the other. There’s a sweet little video out there of the Otters going to New York state and going on this little ziplining/outdoor climbing gym, and Connor and Dylan are about as glued to each other’s sides as you can be while obeying the harness safety rules. In hockey terms, while a little young for it, they’re married. Much like Crosby and Malkin are, although over a much shorter term, and publically the two Otters are much closer.

Dylan is the one I feel as if I can talk the least about. He is mostly defined by what he is not: not Connor, to start, and before the actual draft takes place that is the most of it.

Of course, that’s the most of what any of it is, isn’t it? These are teenagers, separated into imprecise tiers and mostly defined by which tier they slot into. The three boys below Connor, no matter how good they are, are defined by being not Connor.

Jack Eichel most of all.

Jack, to start, is American, unlike any of the other three. He’s a late birthday -- born in November of 1996 instead of the first eight and a half months of 1997 -- so he’s, in theory, had another year to adapt. (Brief footnote: the September 15 cutoff is what determines draft eligibility, either the year you turn eighteen or the year you turn nineteen. If you were born in, say, June of 2000, you would be eligible for the draft in 2018. If you had the audacity to be born in October of 2000 instead, you’d have to wait until 2019.) His development pipeline is also unlike the others, having come up into the NCAA, college hockey, and playing at the US National Development team before committing to Boston University. He won the Hobey Baker award as a freshman, and led the NCAA in scoring as a rookie.

He was marketed, coming into the draft, as the American Connor -- the new face of American hockey, a homegrown star, a fellow generational talent, although that was a feeble marketing strategy to dull the disappointment of going second to greatness. He was proud and polite, quiet but not scared, a young man uncomfortably aware of his own myth and rather irritated at the fact he had a myth in the first place. Taken in and treated well, he would probably have a well-suited disposition to a high-stress, playoff-bound team.

It’s unfortunate that that wouldn’t realize until eight years after he was drafted.

The Draft Itself, or, What Caused All These Problems In The First Place

The draft lottery rolls around. The lottery and the draft take place on different days -- the lottery several weeks before, so that for a long time the boys have an idea of to whom they will go. The first four teams to pick are, in order:

Edmonton. Edmonton had been very bad, for a very long time, and had three shiny prizes already to show for it: Taylor Hall, drafted first overall in 2010; Nail Yakupov, drafted first overall in 2012; and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, drafted first overall in 2013. I’m sure you already know this, but Edmonton was Gretzky’s team, while Gretzky won all his cups, and they now stand to get themselves another generational talent in Connor McDavid.

Buffalo. The Sabres have a few decent pieces: Ryan O’Reilly, Sam Reinhart. They haven’t made the playoffs in a few years, and have plummeted to the bottom of the standings, finishing thirtieth out of thirty.

Arizona. Arizona has never gotten off the ground, not once. They are a dust mote of a franchise, held in place by Gary Bettman’s fragile ego and the skimmings of Original Six markets. Their survival, as doomed as we know it is, is banking on a distant hope of good prospect luck and better PDO.

Toronto. While Arizona is the smallest of small markets, Toronto is… well, it’s Toronto. Remember earlier, how I said that the GTA is the nexus of hockey? Toronto is called the Centre of the Universe, and for good goddamn reason. The Leafs are one of the most storied franchises in the NHL, and simultaneously one of the winningest (the second-most Stanley Cups, after Montreal) and the losingest (their most recent Cup was almost sixty years ago.) Their fanbase dwarfs all but the most hardcore of French Canadian separatist contingents. There’s a common phrase now, when any hockey news is mentioned -- but how does this affect the Leafs? It’s well-done satire.

And with four teams, we have four boys. So I come upon the last one now: Mitch Marner. Mitch, like Dylan and Connor, is a GTA boy, a born and raised Leafs fan on an OHL team. He plays for the London Knights -- a diminutive forward (he weighs in at 160 pounds soaking wet at eighteen, and eight years later barely cracks 180) with fantastic playmaking skills, the creativity and gall to do things other players have never even thought of. He’s a sweet one, too, bubbly and energetic and cuddly and kind.

Here is how the draft goes:

The Oilers take the stage first, for the fourth time in six years. The ceremony is unnecessary. Connor McDavid is the name everyone knows they will say. Connor walks up to the stage, looking vaguely nauseous, and dons the jersey and the hat. (His facial expression in the interviews afterward is thoroughly dissected over the next eight years. Some say it’s simple stage fright; others say it’s personal distaste for the Oilers -- remember, Toronto boy, Toronto heart. I choose to believe it’s the first one. Not all of us are John Tavares.)

After a first-round prospect is chosen, they bring him down for an interview, then shuffle him off to some arena underbelly for photos upon photos. Connor performs his niceties, but before he is taken back, he asks to stay. He wants to watch Dylan get drafted.

The Buffalo Sabres come second, and pick Jack Eichel. Eichel is asked, throughout, how he feels about Connor, being behind Connor, coming second to Connor. The narrative being pushed is called McEichel -- the Canadian wunderkind versus the American one -- and he wants no part in it. He’s impressed by Connor’s play, in their few brief meetings he thinks of him as nice enough, he wants to carve out his own path.

This refusal to play along may have been the start of the discontent, in hindsight. The media clearly wasn’t going to get anything out of soft-voiced scared-eyed perfect Canadian boy Connor, but Jack, sharper edges and colder heart, might be good for a soundbite or two about this new league-made rivalry. Jack, though, ever aware, puts himself solidly into Generic Hockey Interview voice and backs off.

The Coyotes come third. Here is where a choice occurs, the first genuine decision. Connor McDavid had been slotted into first pick since the day he got accepted for exceptional status. Eichel had taken a few years more, but his place in second after Connor was well known for months on end. Dylan and Mitch, however, were up in the air. Do you pick the big one with more points, or the small one with star power?

The Coyotes follow the conventional hockey wisdom, and take the big boy. Connor waits to watch his friend take the jersey, then hugs him in the wings.

Finally, the Leafs.

Let’s actually take a step back to talk about the Leafs rebuild, for a second, because it, like everything the Leafs have ever done, is a testament to failure. Also, somewhat, because it is relevant. Also, moreso, because I can’t shut up about hockey and you’ve asked me to talk as long as I like. If you’re still reading, I want you to know that a) I am ever thankful for your time and b) we’re, like, just getting started here.

The Leafs’ last contending era was before the 04-05 lockout season, which means it predates the salary cap. They struggled in the midsection, for a long time, then finally fell enough to gain the fifth overall pick in 2008, with which they selected a big tough young defenceman named Luke Schenn, the first official piece of the Leafs’ rebuild, strange as it may be. Luke, while competent enough, was obviously not the sort of franchise-changing star the Leafs needed, and they struggled in the midsection again, before gaining, once more, the fifth overall pick, with which they selected Schenn’s partner, one Morgan Rielly. The two would be perfect partners, but we won’t know this for eleven years. Luke was traded twelve hours after Rielly’s draft.

Rielly is still in the AHL the next year, 2013, when the Leafs make the playoffs. This is the infamous 4-1 series: the Leafs go down 3-1 in the series, claw their way back up to game seven. They gain a 4-1 lead, going into the third period, and then blow it completely and lose the game, and the series, in overtime. They do not make the playoffs in 2013-14, and before the 2014-15 season begins they change management. The man they install as President decides to tank, and tank hard, selling as much of the Leafs as he can in the hopes of landing that elusive first pick.

They end up with fourth overall, and Mike Babcock, the Leafs’ head coach, does not want Mitch Marner, instead asking the then-management for the bigger defenceman, a boy named Hanifin who will go fifth to the Hurricanes. The Leafs take Marner anyway. Watch him as his name is called. He, like the first three, sits in a nest of other prospects and their families -- Mitch actually sits right behind Jack Eichel -- but unlike them, when his name is called the other prospects lean over to offer him congratulations, as well as his parents and brother. Mat Barzal, from across the aisle, offers a bro-hug as Mitch goes by.

The rest of the draft goes as usual. The 2015 draft, beyond narratively, is one of the deepest drafts in recent memory; players you may recognize include Timo Meier, Mikko Rantanen, Travis Konecny, Sebastian Aho (the Carolina one!), Roope Hintz, Kirill Kaprizov, Troy Terry… the list goes on. These players have their own stories, but few really tie in to this one. (So far.)

Summer passes; we move on. Training camp rolls around.

Connor McDavid, as expected, makes the team. He moves in with Taylor Hall, a fellow first overall. Jack Eichel also makes the team.

Dylan and Mitch do not. Dylan’s reasons are unknown to me, but Mitch is sent down because, again, Babcock does not want him. He’s naturally undersized and does not have a frame that builds muscle; Babcock is not under the impression that young men in Mitch’s image make good hockey players. Both Mitch and Dylan are returned to the OHL.

The stage is set now; each boy has a team. Eight years on, only half of them are on those teams. But we can’t worry about that yet! We have to make it to the NHL first!

World Juniors and the Memorial Cup

Once Connor makes the Oilers, Dylan Strome is named captain of the Erie Otters. Very cool, to only get what you deserve after the golden boy is gone.

Jack and Connor are off playing with the big boys. They’ll get their own section later -- we have to work our way up, not up and down and up and down. I’ve got to be somewhat cohesive, you know? So, we’ll stay, for now, in the world of junior hockey.

The Otters and the London Knights, Mitch’s team, are in the wonderful circumstance of not only both being very good at the same time, but also being in the same division as one another. This means they see each other quite often (no plane travel in the OHL. Bus only.) and have thus formed… a bit of a rivalry. It is becoming difficult to dance around: Dylan Strome, despite the politeness they’ve shown each other at the draft, hates Mitch Marner.

And why wouldn’t you? He’s the one Dylan fought with all last season for the OHL scoring title; he’s fast on his feet and can shoot from impossible angles; he makes plays you’ve never even considered, much less considered possible. He dangles through the Otters and scores the easiest impossible goal you’ve ever seen and laughs as light as air about the whole thing. And he’s tiny. Unfortunately for the rest of us, Marner drew a lot of comparisons to Patrick Kane in his junior days -- thankfully without the character in common, but as a hockey player. An undersized (almost comically so) London winger with otherworldly ability to manifest scoring chances out of nothing. The exact sort of irritating worm that not one of us wants on the other team.

So, of course, they get put on the same team.

The 2016 World Juniors are summoned. Connor McDavid, then dealing with a broken collarbone and a great deal of pressure, is not on Team Canada’s roster. Dylan Strome and Mitch Marner both are. Suddenly and thankfully, the media’s focus shifts from one, false rivalry in McEichel to a very very real one.

I don’t want to dismiss what happens next as a mere symptom of the fact that hockey players are engineered to get along with their teammates, even if they don’t like each other. Admittedly, it does start that way -- Mitch is a winger and Dylan a centre, and both skilled, so the coach puts them on the same line. Simple enough. And then they spark up a friendship.

Dylan’s reasons for hating Mitch were not personal, just hockey-related. Dylan hated Mitch because he was good and he knew it, the simple way a teenager hates their direct competitor. On the same team, though, the competition aspect is removed, and the barrier for hatred is gone. This is the Dylan/Mitch enemies to lovers arc, if you want to put it that way.

Mitch, for the record, I doubt ever hated Dylan. He doesn’t have that in him, never had. He saw a rival, sure, and as soon as that rival wore a matching jersey I assume he taped the word friend over whatever defined their relationship before. Mitch is probably one of the most gregarious, friendly, charming hockey players out there. Beyond his cute little face and on-ice highlights, even. He’s loud, sure, but when he talks he knows how to include you. He finds out what you like and talks about it, he singles you out if you’re shy and builds up your confidence. He’s just plain nice.

Dylan, like the rest of us, was charmed. Within weeks he went from calling Mitch annoying to telling us all about how he loves cuddling (!?) with him. They became fast friends and great linemates.

Dylan’s not the only one Mitch Marner befriends at Worlds, though. Somewhere between matches, Mitch takes an elevator at the complex they’re staying at, and ends up sharing it with a boy from the American team, a tall square-jawed Mexican centre with a Justin Bieber obsession. This is Auston Matthews, one of the projected top picks of the 2016 draft -- born just two days after the cutoff that would have made him eligible to go in 2015. He played with Jack Eichel at the USNTDP, before taking his age-eighteen year to go play pro in Switzerland. He holds the NTDP scoring record as a seventeen-year-old, and will continue to hold it until Jack Hughes breaks onto the scene. The two boys in the elevator do not yet know it, but they are about to share the mantle of franchise saviour, for the franchise most desperately in need of saving.

Either way. The Canadians place sixth at World Juniors, the Americans do better, the Finns win the whole thing. (In the long run, Laine turns out not to be better than Matthews after all.) Mitch and Dylan go back to their OHL teams.

Erie and London tie in points that year, but London wins the OHL title and goes to Alberta for the Memorial Cup, the CHL trophy. Mitch Marner takes home the scoring title, the Stafford Smythe (CHL equivalent of the Conn Smythe), and the Memorial Cup itself. He is one of the most decorated winners in OHL history, touted as being clutch, creating magic, and racking up points. He has close friends in Dylan Strome and fellow Knight Matthew Tkachuk, who will be selected sixth overall in the 2016 draft, the second American after Auston Matthews himself. And when NHL training camp rolls around in the fall, even Babcock cannot deny he is ready, no matter how slight he may still be.

Connor Complex

There’s nothing that fuels story like a good rivalry, and the NHL was obsessed with marketing this rivalry. The Canadian versus the American. The perfect child of a long line of red-blooded southern Ontario tradition versus the Boston boy with a chip on his shoulder. Jack and Connor, Connor and Jack. They hyped Jack up the time leading up to the draft, trying to hint that he was almost as good -- no, just as good -- as McDavid himself.

He was not, and everyone knew.

The 2014-15 Sabres, then the worst team in the NHL and having done an elite job at tanking (they are one of the worst teams in the analytics era, besides the 2022-23 Anaheim Ducks -- I wonder what prize might be waiting at that number one spot? Surely not someone named Connor.) wanted McDavid. The Pegulas, the owners of the Sabres, tried to hide their disappointment in him as pride. They had an all-American star, they said, someone who had grown up not too far from Buffalo himself, and in the same country, no less. He would be the sort of man to lead them into a new golden age, away from the misery of the tank years.

And yet the narrative persisted. McEichel, they whispered. Look at how good Connor McDavid is, and look at how much Eichel is not him. McDavid, they say, McDavid McDavid McDavid. No article could be written about Jack without mentioning how he came second to Connor.

The Sabres tried to quell the whispers. Look at our boy, they say. They signed Eichel to an eight-year, ten million dollar contract, and in the beginning of the 2018-19 season they named him captain. Isn’t our boy great.

The team does not improve. The Sabres hadn’t made the playoffs for three years when they drafted Eichel; they still haven’t made the playoffs today. I wasn’t around to look, but the team was bad. Eichel did his best, but he was young and inexperienced and did not -- never did -- have captain’s blood in him; Ryan O’Reilly lost his love for the game.

The whispers of character issues start to come out. Jack Eichel is a “locker room cancer;” he’s selfish, stuck-up, quick-tempered. He’s caught in a cage where the only key is to be Connor, something which he never wanted to achieve in the first place, and never could have even if he did want it. The whole narrative was completely fabricated. He liked Connor well enough when they met.

I do imagine he has feelings about it, though, and feelings about Connor now. He didn’t know him, not enough to have an opinion on the boy, but the name followed him around long enough for him to think about it. Imagine it. You’re good in your field, great, even. You’re doing well enough to earn yourself a superstar contract, you’re an All-Star, and yet the only way you will get any recognition at all is when they say that you are worse than one of the greatest players ever to play the game. They lock you into a connection that you have never wanted, barring you from forging your own path. You exist permanently in that orange-and-blue shadow. I don’t blame Jack for being angry. I would be too.

Babcock

Auston Matthews was incredible from the jump. He was big, he was strong, his wrister is the stuff of legend. He won the Calder in his and Mitch’s rookie year, by a not insignificant margin, well ahead of Laine. He was a coach’s dream doll, unusual enough to be marketed and good enough to be useful. Unavoidably masculine even at nineteen.

Mitch less so. Mitch is still small, remember, and struggles to gain weight. I know I talk about his size a lot, but it’s genuinely important. Hockey and its fan culture has long been a group that prioritized size and raw power above all things. Mitch possessed neither of those things, and when he struggled with gaining muscle it was seen as an unwillingness to try. If you know anything about the ability of our bodies to gain or lose weight, you know that it is simply a genetic roll of the dice, a scale that puts a little bit of us into the “gains muscle mass easily” category and decides when to stop. Most hockey players actually aren’t very far up the muscle-gaining spectrum, especially when compared to American football or baseball players -- mass is strength, yes, but it’s also more to move around on ice -- but Mitch is especially low on the scale. Because of this, he is seen as unmanly, a dangerous thing to be.

The Leafs media market is a nightmare, and always has been. Because this is the Centre of the Universe, there are more eyes on the Leafs than on any other team. More eyes mean more writers, means you have to say weirder and wilder things to beg for clicks. Outrage is a good marketing tactic. Getting mad about one of the prize prospects seemingly not wanting to bulk up for the good of the team is a very easy thing to do.

What’s more, Mitch, after his entry-level contract had expired, had had a very difficult and long-drawn out contract negotiation, asking for a lot of money -- essentially the maximum that the Leafs could afford at the time. Because of the salary cap constraint, this was seen as kind of selfish. The angry clicks move. Mitch is sensitive, they say. Soft, selfish, weak.

It’s easy enough to dismiss out of hand when your uncle from Belleville does it, because what does he know. It’s different when it’s the head coach of the Leafs. Mike Babcock, is, at the time of hiring, the highest-paid coach in the NHL. He was signed before the 2015-16 season, and at that point had an eight-year contract, which would have carried him up until this year.

Mike Babcock sucked. Structurally, his teams were fine -- the Leafs made the playoffs in 2016-17, and haven’t missed it since, but he was awful, horribly mean to the boys under him, and especially, especially Mitch.

We should skip ahead a little bit. It’s the beginning of the 2019-20 season. The Leafs have made the playoffs three times already, and lost in the first round each time -- but this, too, is not yet a phrase that strikes worry into our hearts. They’re young, and they have plenty of time left.

Respected veteran Jason Spezza came home to the Leafs, having spent his career -- a player who might squeak the Hall of Fame, but is more likely just below its level -- in first Ottawa, where he was the captain of the Senators briefly and one of its most well-loved players, and then Dallas. Like the boys I talk about here, Jason Spezza is a former OHL player, a GTA boy, a Leafs fan. The Leafs’ season opener is against Ottawa, the team where Jason Spezza left most of his mark. There used to be a promotion with the Senators -- a local branch of some pizza chain would offer a free slice if the Sens scored more than five goals in a game. Spezza (and his linemates, Heatley and Alfredsson) were so good, they named his line the Pizza line. Mike Babcock makes Jason Spezza a healthy scratch on that day.

This is seen as disrespectful, but no more than a coach living up to his hardass reputation. You do what the coach tells you, don’t you? Lest you become a whiner, or worse, a locker room cancer. Scratching an extremely well-respected veteran on the opener against his former team is just something some guys do. A message, if you will. Stay the course, Babcock just wants his players to respect him.

And then news of the list leaks.

It happened when Mitch was a rookie, but they kept it hidden for three years. The Leafs went on a father-and-sons trip, one they do every season. They’re on a road trip, with only their fathers, isolated from their home.

(A brief aside to talk about Mitch’s dad; his name is Paul Marner, and he is the most stereotypical hardass hockey dad on the planet. A nitpicker, an armchair coach, a bully. I do not imagine Mitch felt particularly comforted by his and Babcock’s combined presence on this trip.)

Babcock approached Mitch and asked him to organize all of his teammates in a list. He wanted Mitch to arrange them in order of hardest workers to laziest; he thought Mitch was one of the lazy ones, and wanted to drive this point home by making him categorize his teammates like this. Mitch, as a rookie hockey player does in the presence of the Maple Leaf hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles, obliged. He was under the impression it would be a private affair, just an assignment from Babcock to teach him some sort of lesson. Whether it be out of fear or honesty, he placed himself last on the list.

Babcock told the others.

Specifically, two Leafs vets that Mitch had placed low on the list -- Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak. Imagine this: you are a decent centre on a bubble team, but nonetheless an established NHL veteran of about a decade, and your coach shows you a list a rookie made. He tells you that the rookie arranged everyone by work ethic, grinders to lazy shits. You are firmly on the “lazy shit” end.

How much does the coach have to suck, or how much does the rookie have to be loved, for Kadri and Bozak to react like they did? The rumour says they called for Babcock’s head on the spot. Mitch was in tears. I wouldn’t want to stay in Toronto if that happened to me. No wonder he and Auston signed for so much -- Babcock was barely halfway through his contract when they did. If I’d thought that I would have to deal with him for that long, I wouldn’t accept anything less than as much as they could possibly pay me.

In the end, in the beginning of December, 2019, Mitch got hurt and the Leafs went on a road trip. They were already losing by the time they’d left, and they kept losing. Normally, a team on a road trip doesn’t take the hurt players with them, but they took Mitch. The Leafs lost six in a row and finally fired Babcock, letting Sheldon Keefe take his place. Mitch’s presence was a comfort.

Go West

The Leafs make the playoffs first, and take Mitch with them. The Sabres are fighting a silent war with their star centre, but they are no closer to success.

Connor McDavid is named captain at nineteen, the youngest in the history of the NHL. He scrapes the team to a playoff spot, then to a second round loss. He wins the Art Ross and the Hart.

The year before his entry-level contract expires, when he is first eligible, he signs what is then the most expensive per-year contract in NHL history -- eight years, a hundred million dollars. He is looking forward to spending the rest of his prime as an Oiler. He wins the Art Ross the next year, comes very close the year after. The Oilers do not make the playoffs again until after Covid hits.

He gets hurt a lot, too -- he breaks his collarbone as a rookie, missing half the season, and at the very end of the 2018-19 year, crashes into the net irons and shatters his knee. There are rumours of the man who broke Connor’s collarbone doing it on purpose; Connor claims that he overheard the man bragging about it, and I am inclined to believe him. This guy gets traded to the Oilers not too long after that.

In the meantime, Dylan is struggling. The Coyotes stick him in Tucson, a team he is obviously too good for. His entry-level contract slides another season. He wiffles between Tucson and Arizona, not being considered good enough to stay up but being too good to stay down. In the end, on the last year of his entry-level contract, he is traded from the Coyotes to the Chicago Blackhawks, a similarly bad team with a few remnants of its Cup-winning days. Dylan, a feeble icon of Chicagoan hope for one last dance with the aging core, centres Patrick Kane.

In his first half-season with the Blackhawks, he scores 51 points in 58 games. There are hopeful flashes of what he can be, the touted prospect he once was.

Things wrap up on New Years like this: Connor is beyond a hundred-point pace; Dylan, although in no less danger, is at least out of the dust at the bottom of the barrel; Jack is caught in a cold war; the team loves Mitch.

John Tavares has a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Playoff Series

March of 2020 rolls around, and with it the coronavirus pandemic. The league is shut down before the season ends, and the playoffs re-formed in July, inside a bubble -- no one in, no one out until they are eliminated. The Sabres stay with their families, having once again missed the playoffs. The Leafs are set to play the Columbus Blue Jackets, and the Oilers are set to play the Blackhawks.

This, to date, is Dylan’s only playoff appearance, and he is set to face Connor.

Dylan wins.

The qualifying round -- functioning as the first round of the bubble playoffs -- is a best of five, not of seven, and the Blackhawks defeat the Oilers 3-1. They then proceed to lose in five games (this one is a best of seven) to Vegas, but Dylan’s job is done.

The Leafs lose in the first round again. The Leafs have made the playoffs since Auston and Mitch’s debut, every single year, but they lose each time; in six, to the Capitals, then in seven every year after that. Or, in this case, in five.

Covid had not stopped by the end of the 2020 season ( :/ ) and the NHL was rearranged for what would be ostensibly the 2020-2021 season, but ended up being played mostly in 2021. Because of border laws, the Canadian teams are sequestered into their own, North division. Dylan Strome signs a two-year contract extension with Chicago right before the season starts -- one that will carry him until the end of the 2021-2022 season.

If you’ve seen All or Nothing on Amazon Prime, it is this season that is covered. The Leafs tear through what is seen as a weaker North division, taking a comfortable first place spot. Connor McDavid cracks a hundred points in fifty-six games. Both Leafs and Oilers lose in the first round.

The Leafs do it perhaps most remarkably. They have drawn the Canadiens, a rather insubstantial team who are in their spot mostly because they have one of the best goaltenders in recent memory at their back.

I watched this game, live, before I was a serious Leafs fan. I can only imagine what it would be like if you were already invested at that point; I would not wish to live that horror on anyone. I tried to watch All or Nothing, later, but I stop here.

Corey Perry and John Tavares are both on the ice, in the race for the puck. Tavares catches an edge, as you sometimes do, and falls, and Perry’s knee is in exactly the wrong place at exactly the wrong time, and it catches Tavares in the side of the head. He falls to the ice, his limbs splaying unnaturally. He won’t move.

Medics come over, to try and raise him to his feet. He fights against them, blood streaming from a cut in his forehead, unable to tell if they are trying to hurt him or not. There is no one in the crowd, the stadium empty for the pandemic. The camera cuts to Kyle Dubas in the rafters, who has a phone in his hand and swiftly vanishes back into the halls of the arena. He is calling Tavares’ wife. We do not know what is going to happen. Everyone looks shaken -- the Habs have just watched a man nearly die, the Leafs have just lost their captain, perhaps forever. They lose, although the game feels like an afterthought. I do not want to watch hockey anymore.

They win the next three straight, though, even without him. Then they lose, twice, in overtime.

The Leafs, as they have done for the past four years up to this point, go to game seven.

Partway through the game, Mitch Marner panics in his defensive zone and puts the puck over the glass. This is a penalty, it is a penalty every time, and he knows that. He sits in the box, looking defeated already. He curls in on himself, and the camera flashes to the penalty box. He’s crying. He knows the game is lost.

The Leafs are eliminated again, and there is a target on his back now, not only for the puck going over the glass but for the tears. He’s soft, they say. As they have said since he was picked, because he doesn’t look like a hockey player should, because he doesn’t act like a hockey player should, because he doesn’t play hockey like a hockey player should. He makes too much and he disappears when it matters.

Thoughts on the Leafs’ playoff successes suddenly switch from the core is young, even if this is frustrating to they need to win before it’s too late. Already, in recent years, they have suffered historic game-seven chokes and drastic failures to launch. Whether they do it against teams like the President’s Trophy-winning Capitals or the barely-alive wild-card Canadiens is irrelevant. They cannot win a round, at all. The Leafs are already the team with the greatest Cup drought, and they are now gaining a long playoff round victory drought too. It should be time, at least, for them to look like they are a contender.

This is how the Leafs find themself stuck; a particularly frustrating timeloop, even though hockey itself is nothing but. Sports are cyclical by nature. A team is bad, then okay, then good, then declining, then bad again, and this repeats anew. Some teams try to get themselves out of this cycle by being good forever; I can assure you that this only really happens to the New York Yankees, who employ a cadre of evil wizards to keep everything on that hell team going well for them. Most other teams who try end up stuck like the Canucks are, right now: bad enough to miss the playoffs, but not good enough to get key picks for a rebuild. I can see next season play out, clear as day: they struggle out of the gate, one of their stars gets hurt right when it seems like they’re at the very, very start of gathering momentum, they’re bottom-10 by January and the team says everyone but Pettersson are on the table, they trade picks and low-grade players, they get blazing hot post-deadline and finish twenty-first.

There is, unfortunately, also a perception that pure talent is not what makes players playoff performers -- instead, some so-called “clutch gene” that exists, or not. The reality is somewhere in between. Clutch exists. There are always players who can score when no one else can even dream of it, but a greater problem is luck. President’s Trophy winners are not often Cup winners (even if higher seeds are most likely to win), because the regular season is a much, much bigger sample size and the playoffs can change the course of all of it by a goalie having a hot streak at the right time. The 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning, third-best team in NHL history, got swept in the first round by Sergei Bobrovsky going crazy. The 2022-23 Bruins lost in seven in the first round in much the same manner.

And no matter what, the Leafs are always on the wrong end of the luck. Bounces hit the post. The refs take back goals for reasons they would have ignored at any other time of year. John Tavares slips, and his head makes contact with a knee.

Mitch ends up the whipping boy. He is the Leafs’ most valuable player, and this is a team with Auston Matthews on it, but I’m serious. He was the Leafs’ leading playoff scorer in 2023, he’s one of the best penalty-killers in the league, he’s adored by everyone who’s ever once talked to him. He only ever wanted to be a Leaf, and now that he is here he is the sacrificial lamb for the anger at a curse that is not his fault.

I do blame the media. I will always blame the media, those who turn on him at a moment’s notice because they know picking on the skinny pretty unmanly one will get more clicks than anything else. I beg of you -- know that, of anything that it could be, it is not Mitch’s fault.

Jack Eichel has a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Neck Injury

It is 2021, and the Sabres aren’t going to make the playoffs. Jack Eichel has been captain for coming up on three years, and has been a Sabre for coming up on six, none of which have even slightly improved the team. He is widely disliked within the fanbase, and, rumouredly, within the locker room and organization.

Jack is frustrated, dragging a mediocre team along through a slog of the past six years, and he has never been the kindest man on the planet. He is about to get worse. The Sabres are on a losing streak when they head to Long Island, and Jack is hit the wrong way and slips a disk in his neck. The Sabres insist he’ll only be out a week and a half.

It is a great sin in hockey, to go against team. Anything that can be seen as selfish is demonized; shooting from a difficult angle when your teammate is wide open, not playing when you can muscle through the pain. Not trusting your coach or management is about as bad as you can get. If you’re a team guy, willing to sacrifice health and limb for the boys, you are held as saint, no matter how hurt you become in the end. This is a philosophy that has been drilled into these men since they were kids, as soon as they put their first skates on. You can stand any pain for the length of a hockey shift; you can play through anything for two minutes. It is a dangerous, dangerous school of thought, one of the most destructive parts of hockey culture. But it is, nonetheless, law.

Eichel is about to commit a sin so great they’ll kick him out of Heaven. I do think that, of the four of them, he is the only one with any semblance of genre awareness: when he was first scouted as a prospect and they were comparing him to McDavid, I think that he would be the only one to ignore the media’s spin on that as thoroughly as he did. He knows what he is, and he knows himself. Of course it comes off as bitchy and selfish, though -- that kind of pressure can’t be kind to anyone.

Before the week and a half is up, he visits a specialist doctor about his neck. This is where it all starts to go wrong.

The Sabres take issue with that for two reasons: one, that they hoped he’d be able to come back after the end of it. Keep in mind that he has herniated a disk in his neck, an injury typically so severe it’s impressive he’s walking -- slipping a cervical disk often causes nerve pain that radiates down through the entire spinal cord below that point, which is the whole body from how high up his is. Two, that the doctor he consults is an independent surgeon, one unaffiliated with the Sabres themselves.

The thing about belonging to a hockey team is that you are, because of the way your employment is linked to your physical health, essentially their property. They make your medical decisions for you, they feed you, they tell you how to move. Going to someone else is a breach of contract, and the already-tense connection between Jack and the Sabres gets more tense. The Sabres keep losing. They lose eighteen games in a row.

Jack’s doctor recommended a surgery that no NHL player has ever had; cervical disk replacement. The Sabres did not want this -- the surgery carries risks, yes, but they also wanted to control the way that Jack’s injury was handled, and going through with this surgery was Jack’s wish, not theirs. The Sabres do their own evaluation, and ask for a different, more common surgery: spinal fusion. This surgery carries less immediate risk, but the bones in Eichel’s neck will also be fused, and he doesn’t want that. Because the team has final control over a player’s health, not the player, they decline his disk replacement. Having reached a stalemate, they rule him out for the rest of the season, trying to win a war of attrition.

September 2021 rolls around, and the Sabres, along with thirty-one other teams, take training camp. At the beginning of training camp, players do a physical exam. Jack, because his herniated disk has not improved, because he needs a surgery that has been denied from him, because he is stubbornly and bravely willing to wait out the Sabres, fails his physical. As a result, the Sabres, fed up with him, strip the captain’s C from his chest.

Jack makes one final request to the team: either let him get the surgery or trade him. In the end, they trade him to the Vegas Golden Knights, a team that did not exist when he was drafted. The Golden Knights approve him for the disk replacement surgery the day they acquire him.

The surgery is a success; his rehab goes better than anyone expects, and he starts tearing it up when he comes back. I would argue that, if the Golden Knights win the Cup this year, he should get the Conn Smythe -- he has been an invaluable member of the team, even without a letter on his chest.

It is less important for him to win his million awards than it is for him to come in and out of this surgery in the first place, still able to play. He fought with the team that was supposed to have upheld him as their star for months over his right to do what he wanted with his own health; in the end, the only way to go was for him to change that team. He was the first to have this surgery, but after him there have already been hockey players who have undergone it -- much like Tommy John, the baseball player who got his ulnar ligament reconstructed and the surgery to do so named after him. He fought for the chance to control his own body and won.

And for that, he was demonized.

The Sabres missed the playoffs every year they had him; they missed the playoffs every year after he left. Because he was the captain and he had the audacity to go against the organization’s wishes, he was hated. In Buffalo, he is still hated. If you ask, they’ll tell you he was a locker room cancer, that he was undevoted to winning. If you look at him in Vegas, neither of those things are true.

Jack Eichel is a rare man -- he does have that “clutch” gene, or rather doesn’t have the choke instinct. He has always been unbothered by the spiral around him. He operates well in the mire, and when the pressure rises it doesn’t affect him (or maybe, even better, he feeds on it.) He has the right kind of mentality -- that fuck-you, I’m here and you can’t change that, you tried to control me and I wouldn’t bend mentality. He has only made the playoffs once, this year. Like Dylan, actually, his only appearance has involved defeating Connor McDavid. Go back and watch his highlights from the Vegas-Edmonton series if you can: he has a couple of pretty goals and more than a couple great defensive takeaways, but he doesn’t lose his cool, not once. He has earned his right to be here, and he knows it more than anyone else. I’m rooting for the Stars, but I hope he wins some day.

153

How do you talk about the Edmonton Oilers? I mean, without either excusing or demonizing them, although I admit I have Hater Instinct and trend towards the latter. They have the best player in the world; that grown-up incarnation of the wide-eyed boy on the Erie rink. They have the best playoff performer in the world; Leon Draisaitl, who I have not avoided mentioning until now on purpose, but whom I cannot continue without bringing up. They have been terribly cap-managed since the day McDavid was drafted, and are an unstable roster with blazing-hot offense and very little defence or goaltending at all.

For a brief moment, let’s not talk about the Oilers. Let’s only talk about Connor himself.

McDavid has 850 points in 569 career games. Not even Sid had that many points through that few games. If he stays healthy, Connor’s well on track to become the second player ever to hit two thousand for his career -- after a certain other Oiler, who need not be mentioned. He has won just about every award you can win, with the exception of the Selke… and the Cup.

If it’s possible, he has proven himself better than all of the hype at the draft saying he would become a great. To watch him, you can see the way he has changed his team, how even though they have all learned from him that he is still the best.

There is something that many Oilers do. When next your team plays them, pay attention to it: they cut into the offensive zone with possession on the outside, using tight little crossovers to gain speed, after which they’ll usually try to rush the net (if there are no defenders in the way). This is a move that McDavid has patented; he’ll use it, just as many of the others will, but he’ll probably be the one that scores. The depth all skate like him, really, fast and in wide arcs, trying to generate a rush chance.

Connor as a player is a tour de force, the best power-player in the world by a mile, no slouch at even strength, speedy enough to score even shorthanded. The boy’s got wheels. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which NHLers are fast and which are slow, but Connor’s just that tick above everyone else that you can see it without eye training at all.

Connor as a person is a bit less showy. He’s quiet by nature, shy and soft-voiced. Because he was hyped so much (franchise saviour, McJesus, Next One) he has been media trained into sterility, giving the same level answers as everyone else, hardly daring to express any opinion at all. His eyes are big, rounded, and one of them is lazy from a time when his brother tried to take it out as a child, and that combined with his heavy brow and stiff expression -- he’s never been a good smiler, smirks with one corner of his mouth and that’s mostly it -- give him a resting expression of something like concern, or maybe despair. When he laughs, he doesn’t really “laugh,” just kind of coughs, a one or two-syllable affair. He avoids eye contact with the camera, and often the reporters as well. There is no seething emotion under the surface, not like with Eichel, nor does he speak analytically like Dylan does. He moves through his life as if he is someone who does not want it to turn out quite like this.

I do not know if he wants to be in Edmonton. There are jokes about how he is desperate to leave, but I definitely don’t believe those; there’s a difference between not wanting to stay and wanting to go. I don’t think he hates it. He has been given a responsibility, the captain’s C -- and because, unlike Jack Eichel, he is a good Canadian boy who has been given a destiny, he accepts it. He loves his teammates, especially Draisaitl, whom he seems to derive all his confidence from.

I will also say that I don’t believe he’s stupid. Naive, perhaps; not stupid. There is no way out for him, even if he was sure he wanted to leave; he’s the best player in the world, far too expensive for any contender to afford in either trade or cap space, and if he asks for a trade he won’t let himself go to a team that isn’t already a contender. He will remain an Oiler at least until his contract is up, and I imagine that his staying afterwards depends on Draisaitl.

People talk about him leaving a lot, largely because of the team that has been assembled around him. The Oilers are not a well-created team, and I will say that plainly now and spend as little time technically deconstructing it as possible.

Beyond McDavid and Draisaitl, they have:

A rookie starting goaltender, whose success as we know it is based on a single-season sample size and a complete playoff collapse.

A five million dollar backup goaltender, who earned his contract by being carried by the Leafs, despite being utterly horrendous for a long enough stretch leading up to his free agency that anyone who looked beyond the win-loss numbers wouldn’t have signed him.

One genuine shutdown defender.

One young up-and-coming defender; by far one of the most promising Oiler (or otherwise) defensive prospects, beyond the usual suspects.

One netfront grinder who is great at playing wing to high-power setters, but cannot drive his own line.

One decent 2C.

Sarah Nurse’s cousin. Sarah’s better.

A supporting cast of bad defencemen and middling-at-best forwards.

Many charming characters, of course: Zach Hyman, the grinder, is a beloved ex-Leaf, and I’m personally a fan of Nugent-Hopkins, the 2C, but the vast majority of this is not the sort of thing a contending team is built upon. McDavid has missed the playoffs almost as often as he’s made them. The playoffs are a crapshoot, but in order to try your luck you have to at least be able to enter the lottery, and it takes a stunning amount of effort to be able to do that.

So, McDavid lingers, in this kind of limbo. It mirrors the Leafs, almost. (And yes. Because McDavid is an Ontario boy, and the Leafs are the Centre of the Universe, we have to mention them both in conversation. Not all stories revolve around the Leafs, but this one does.) One true contender, and one generational talent, both what we picture to be well overdue for their Cup run, but neither having yet done so.

The thing about the stories of the class of 2015 is that they intertwine, that they mimic and mirror each other. These boys have not simply gotten drafted in the same handful of picks in the same year and gone on their merry ways -- they layer, they parallel, they weave around each other. Connor is the captain of a team that cannot win, Jack is a captain, Mitch cannot win. Jack fought for the right to control his body and was demonized for it; Mitch negotiated for a contract that he determined to be a fair price for Babcock, and was demonized for it. Whatever pure saviour they figure Connor to be, Jack is the twisted inverse of that, falling from grace.

Connor has one of the best seasons in NHL history, one of only seventeen player-seasons with over a hundred and fifty points (Nine of those seasons belong to Gretzky. Another four belong to Lemieux.) He loses, in six games in the second round, to the Vegas Golden Knights. At the time that he’s eliminated, he leads the playoffs in points. Leon Draisaitl is tied for second place. Counting from the date Mitch Marner played his first game in the NHL, the Oilers and Leafs have almost exactly the same number of playoff game wins, with the Oilers having one more.

There’s No Place Like Strome

Before we can look to the future, there is one person I have been neglecting. Dylan, poor Dylan. I think it would be only half an unfair assessment to call him a draft bust. He’s talented, for sure, but not nearly the same calibre that the draftees around him are. Hardly a Marner, an Eichel, or even a Rantanen or a Meier.

His career has existed quietly in the shadows, so far from Connor McDavid that it only feels fair to mention them in the same conversation in this context. It has been eight years since they were best friends, Connor so close to Dylan he waited in the stadium in order to watch him get drafted. They didn’t look each other in the eye in the handshake line when Dylan won their series. Connor didn’t go to his wedding.

That being said: so far, he has found himself a knack for landing in the shadow of greatness. When he was an Erie Otter, it was Connor -- Dylan held the scoring title in their draft year, while Connor was out nursing his hand, but Connor was the chosen son and Dylan was the Coyotes’ consolation prize. When he was traded to the Blackhawks, he found himself centring Kane and Debrincat, but of course both of them were the offseason and trade deadline’s prizes, and not him.

And then he signed in Washington.

So now, we go back to Ovechkin. Alex Ovechkin is one of the greatest players of all time; his Capitals are on the decline now, but they contended for a long time while he was playing and may still contend as long as Ovi still skates. For a long time, the team relied on Ovechkin’s goalscoring, assisted mostly by his faithful centre, Nicklas Backstrom. They, too, are married; they have played a thousand games as teammates, been through a decade of heartbreak together before the Cup was theirs. During the 2021-2022 season, Backstrom took time off -- he needed hip surgery, something likely to end his career. Ovi was alone.

There is a fundamental difference, of course, between the expectations of wingers and centres. A winger, like Ovi, scores, or assists, at his own leisure, but it is the centre’s job to drive his line. Ovechkin is generational -- he will sink forty goals no matter what -- but he still needs someone to move him out of the defensive zone, someone to make his assist.

Enter Dylan -- a young centre, not especially fast on his feet but intelligent, and clearly experienced in the realm of managing high-calibre wingers (see: Debrincat, and the ghost of Patrick Kane.) He joins the Capitals on a one-year contract, desperate to prove himself. Chicago didn’t want him, and Arizona didn’t either. It takes barely until November before he is, once again, the necessary shadow of greatness.

Ovechkin, the team’s captain and centrepoint, clearly likes what he sees, and the management does, as well. The Capitals offer Strome a five-year extension.

Maybe it’s because he’s less of a superstar then the other three members of his draft class, but Dylan has a life outside of hockey -- a wife and young daughter. After being thrown away by other teams, and with his new family, I can only imagine that it was… peaceful, if anything, to be offered this contract.

Chicago, after rapidly getting rid of him, Debrincat, and then Kane, would go on to tank spectacularly, and win themselves the first overall pick. They will use it to draft another generational talent. His name is also Connor.

The Blue Wedding

So, here we stand, at the end of it all. Dylan finally has a home, a mother hen of a Russian bear that it has become his job to assist in record-breaking, and soon to be two daughters. Jack has a team that loves him, freedom from pain, and an ongoing potential Cup run. Connor has a sterile mansion, a best friend, and an unsteady team. Mitch’s life is up in the air.

Right as I’m writing this, the general manager of the Leafs has been unceremoniously kicked out. His tenure will end the day before Mitch’s no-move contract kicks in, but it is not known if Mitch’s time as a Leaf will survive that long. He is well on track to become one of the greatest Leafs of all time, and his tenure might be cut short in the prime of his career.

But let’s wrap up with this: Mitch will get married this summer. Because he’s Mitch, the darling of the league, everyone’s best friend, I imagine the wedding party to be extensive/ Packed to the brim of current and former Leafs, as well as people who have never been Leafs. I wonder if Dylan Strome will be there -- or even Connor McDavid, although McDavid never even attended Dylan’s wedding.

The stories, as they do, go on.

#asks #mitch marner #jack eichel #connor mcdavid #dylan strome #hope this helps and/or gives you brain poisoning #narrativeposting

706 notes · View notes

saiidahyunie · 5 months

Text

to the world! (interlude)

minatozaki sana x soccerplayer!reader (pt.2) ; fluff ; angst if you really squint

synopsis: winter is finally here bringing in colder air and the new year is also beckoning, calling for bittersweet endings in trade for promising beginnings. what would you do if the dreams you deeply desired were right at your doorstep?

wc: 12.7k

warnings: a little overboard with the soccer exposition (but i gave a thorough explanation for you guys to understand so don’t worry) ; cursing ; pacing is a bit slow for this part sorry ; mentions of food ; slightly suggestive (?) ; lots of guy names but the reader is gender neutral ; i badly need sana period.

pt.1 pt.3 pt.4

a/n: the long awaited second part of the series is here!! i was debating on when i would have this posted before sana’s bday or not but the best things always come when you least expect it. ^_^

i will try to have this series updated as soon as i can, the ideas for both soccer and loving sana moments are just *chef’s kiss*

thank you guys for the overwhelming love and support in the first part and i hope this one gets the same treatment if not more!!

(also, credit for inspiration goes to @spidergirlanon ft. jihyo! please give that a read as well!!!)

enjoy!!

—

“you’ve garnered a lot of attention with your showing at the academy exit trials.” the finely dressed woman said to you, kim sejong, a representative with one of the soccer clubs who are vying for your signature. you sat in between your parents whereas sejong was sitting across the dining table, dex standing alongside sejong facing you, wearing a smug look on his face.

“i assume that dex has mentioned my name to you at least,” sejong started off saying, looking at dex who glanced quickly at her and back, nodding his head as he was still paying attention as you recalled the brief moment of dex mentioning that he was talking to someone when he visited one of your practice sessions about a couple days ago.

“yes, i remember,” you said as you scratched your temple, “i know that he couldn’t disclose the specifics of who or what he talked about on the phone, but he did bring up your name to me.” sejong flashed a smile as she slid over a clipboard that had a preliminary contract draft that showed all of the different clauses that you would have to follow eventually when signing the real one.

you always talked about it with dex and some of your teammates, about how you could go from watching the premier league and champions league matches from your room or couch to actually being on the field playing in front of thousands of fans. some thought that you were crazy while others stood behind you. the hard work and dedication along with the burgeoning talent oozing out didn’t not go unnoticed as now you had two contract offers from two teams. you had to pinch yourself when dex said the two teams that were interested.

the first team to have serious interest in your talents was brighton and hove albion f.c, a team that has gained a huge reputation for finding young, upcoming players in uncommon parts of the world and turning them into absolute monsters. you were amazed with the work that they did with the previous players that used to play for the club that went on to bigger clubs later in their career. dex claimed that their development program was on par with the other teams with the likes of pep guardiola and jurgen klopp who always had an opportunity to show the youth talent in the premier league so it was pretty convincing and high praise to say the least.

as for the second team, you didn’t think that they would have the slight bit of interest in you or your talents, but wow you were so wrong. the team that you supported all the way back when you first kicked a soccer ball; manchester united, the club with the most decorated trophy cabinets with two champions leagues and twenty league titles to their name. the very same club that chanted those famous names you’ve heard and watched growing up: beckham, keane, giggs, van persie, rooney, and ronaldo. the inner voice in your head would’ve said to sign for united in a heartbeat.

but you knew that it wasn’t gonna be that simple to do.

“i know that we can’t disclose the other team that approached you for confidentiality reasons, but the development coach has seen your match videos and is captivated with what you can potentially bring to the team moving forward.”

sejong adds as you sat there with a dumb look on your face, “i hope you can take our offer into consideration y/n, your name and reputation precedes what you can achieve in the future as a player.”

“is there a grace period for when i can make my final choice?”

“no, not at all! negotiations wise, we can agree to terms here in principle. consider this to be the first round of talks so nothing is entirely set in stone yet,” sejong answered with a firm sense of persuasiveness.

you leaned back in your seat as you looked at both your mom and dad who were simply nodding at you, reminding you of the support they always had for your soccer career. you looked down at the contract draft, amazed with the fine printed text font filling the paper with the club badge sitting in the middle at the top of the paper. this was nothing like the paper you signed when you first joined coach rain’s soccer club, the same club that won back to back titles in your time there.

it wasn’t an “all you” show however, as there were also a few talented players on the team that were also candidates at the trial. both your teammates rin and blake who attended the trials with you gave high praises when the other potential candidates asked about you because they were afraid to approach you, which was odd because you knew that you were able to socialize with others but you simply played it off while those who did talk to you tried not to freak out internally.

nothing but positive remarks were said in not only how extremely gifted the way you played, but also how you led the team to those winning titles as well. you wondered if those two got offers from teams as you looked at dex who came back with a contract that you assumed was manchester united’s offer to you.

before you could say anything though, sejong’s phone vibrated, “sorry, i have to take this. you can continue to look at the offer while i’m gone.” she said as she stood up from the table and headed outside your house to answer the call.

dex took sejong’s seat as he slid manchester united’s contract over to you next to brighton’s with a smile plastered on your face still. “this is still a really good thing y/n! i knew you had a major pull at the trials with your overall ranking but i didn’t think it would be this big of a deal!” dex said to you as you smiled right back trying to relish in the moment right in front of you.

“i know but just wow, i’m actually really surprised that they would actually offer-”

“you’re not the only client to get an offer from brighton especially.” dex added, “rin is actually overseas right now finishing up the final terms.”

“oh my gosh he’s signing with brighton?!” your mom asked with a hand covering her mouth.

“i just got off the phone with him before coming here! they just finished the last round of talks, now it’s only a matter of time before they announce the signing in the next few days.” dex replied showing a picture of rin signing the contract.

“holy shit.” you couldn’t believe that one of your teammates was bound for the premier league. out of the thirty candidates at the exit trials, you and rin both took the top two rankings. that didn’t necessarily mean that you and him had a better chance at offers but it definitely increased the likelihood of teams looking more closely at you and rin.

“you don’t have to make a decision now of course, but i know that you’re aware of both teams' situations in the league currently.” dex chimed in as he put his phone back in his pocket while you switched between the two contracts laid in front of you.

you and dex kept a close eye on what was happening in the premier league between brighton and manchester united. your mind was listing the facts but your heart already made the decision of which team you were going to sign with.

midway through the premier league season, both teams are sitting at fifth and sixth place respectively, with brighton taking the fifth spot with a five point gap ahead of manchester united. brighton had just lost one of their key midfielders recently to an acl injury and are looking to fill that hole in as soon as they can to ensure their push for a high finish in the league table with the prospect of playing in a european competition next season.

you were amazed at what roberto de zerbi was envisioning over there and you knew that you could gain a lot if you played under him. you were also following the narrative that was building over them about being on a tear the last few weeks by winning against the more bigger teams in the league that they’ve already played at least once so far this season. by playing for brighton, this meant more chances to play and really get some solid minutes of soccer under your belt.

as for manchester united, the inner child inside your head was screaming to take up their offer, but you toned down the fangirling as you ran through the current progression of your favorite team. they weren’t doing too bad, nor were they doing as good as you wanted them to be. they were also struggling in every aspect; from the back, the midfield, and even the attack all seemed to be lackluster combined with no set of direction on the field.

not only that, but it was becoming a depressing trend of decline happening behind the scenes in terms of the board and management that was riddled with a new story filled with drama week in and week out. it sucked that your team was being mauled over by greedy owners that are only using the team as a business brand rather than a soccer team that was meant to win trophies.

you looked at the different clauses on the manchester united contract, sighing with a disheartening expression on your face realizing that you’d be signing your own death sentence for your career before it even started. the money was good, but you had a mantra of how it was never about the money, but by having a big paycheck you would have little to no playing time in return.

you were fond of manager erik ten hag’s glory days with ajax with that remarkable champions league semi-finals run a couple years ago, but this was manchester united, a team that is always subject to expectations, and even a good manager like him was struggling to get the gears running with the team.

sitting sixth in the league heading into the winter portion of the season and out of the champions league competition, they could really only focus on getting a high finish in the league while also dealing with the numerous injuries all throughout the squad. sure you could get playing time, but you also remember the various players that had a youthful upstart at manchester united only to have their career go sideways and you didn’t want to follow that same path.

“i know it’s your favorite team y/n, but you see the stability of how they are right now. it’s not great for what you can do with other teams.”

“but out of all the possible teams, it’s just these two? there’s really no other option for me?" you asked dex as he crossed his arms, tapping his finger on top of his left arm while you continued to read through the contracts once again.

“it’s normal to have second thoughts, i can also give you the option to wait until the window opens in january for more teams to approach you.” dex states, “but knowing you already it’ll be impossible to keep you here when i have phone calls coming in at six in the morning!” you and your parents laughed at your best friend’s remark as you looked at your mom who was slapping your arm while your dad got up to get a glass of water for everyone.

a light hearted moment lit up the house once again. as the laughter died down while sejong came back from her prolonged phone call, wearing a perplexed look on her face filled with curiosity as dex looked over, shooting straight back up from the chair for her to sit as he stood over her again, exchanging smiles with you as a reflection of the rapport that you and him have built from when you were kids.

“i assume everything went well with the discussion?” sejong asks, looking at the second contract on her left side in confusion, which left dex to grab it quickly and put it behind his back. “sorry, sorry.” dex said looking all dumb now, “we were just going over his options while you were out and-”

“you’re good dex don’t worry.” you said to him comfortingly, returning your look towards sejong across from you. “i’ve carefully considered your offer and i’m really pleased with what you’ve presented to me.” you firmly said with a sense of professionalism that even the big time hot-shot young players wished they would have.

a slight bit of suspense spread across the dining room and kitchen as your dad overhead you, racing back to sit next to you as sejong leaned in with an intrigue to what you were about to say, “oh really? what that might be?”

you looked at both of your parents, who knew that you weren’t a kid anymore as you looked at dex with a simple nod to him as you inhaled through your nose with the next set of words marking another monumental step towards your blossoming soccer career.

“i think i’ve made my decision on who i’m signing with.”

—

*ping* *krsch*

you huffed out a puff of warm air from your mouth as you steadily stood up after belting a ball into the top corner of the goal, getting a sound of amazement by someone standing next to you as you backed up with another ball for the next shot.

“is there anything you can’t do y/n?” kang daniel asked, juggling a ball while you racked in another goal for the fourth time. this one being a knuckleball that wobbled in the air for a few seconds before deflecting off of the goalpost and inwards.

“apparently beckham freekicks aren’t my specialty.” you chimed as you rolled another ball from your bag, checking to see if it was properly pumped up with air,“even for someone like me that’s seen to be a so-called midfield general.”

daniel laughed at your self observation as he too shot a ball in short distance, lightly jogging back to you, rolling another ball towards you to kick aside as you prepped up for another shot.

“if i had an inkling of your talent and skills, i would’ve made it to the lineup but instead coach has me playing sixth man off the bench.” daniel said with a slight bit of disappointment in his voice.

“hey, your playstyle actually helps with buildup play in the final third. mingyu is a solid makeshift centre back turned defensive mid, but his long balls are way too powerful for dk and shotaro to link up on the wings.”

“ooof, glad he isn’t here to hear that!” you look over to see dk’s arm wrapped around your shoulder, cheesing a smile before waving at daniel and his girlfriend jihyo next to the goal keeping his soccer bag against the fence.

“you’re late as always.” you said as you elbowed dk’s stomach, getting an instant flinching reaction from him as he set his bag down on the field.

“i thought we were just shooting for fun today!? did i miss the memo in the group chat?!” dk asked in confusion as daniel laughed at dk’s distress. even though there was no practice since coach rain out of town to help one of his close friends oversee some trials with another soccer club, you still thought it’d be a good idea to fill the time during the week to at least play for one day or two.

“y/n!!! these shots aren’t helping me!!” you look towards the goal to see a girl laying face flat with her head looking in your direction. “tzuyu if you’re gonna say that you got the goalie position by just dumb luck then say it!” you shot back as she stood up, clapping her hands together telling you to bring it on. you look at daniel and nodded as he took another shot only for tzuyu to parry it away off the right side.

“see?! you can handle our shots!” you laughed with pride while jihyo was sitting close to the goal cheering at tzuyu's play. “more of that please!” tzuyu yelled back as she stretched her arms for another shot lining up. “alright tzuyu take a quick break. i don’t want your hands to be beet red by the end of our sesh.” you said as she nodded while taking off the gloves and went towards jihyo before meeting up with everyone else sitting on the edge of the box.

you sat down to take a quick swig of water while daniel was walking towards jihyo and tzuyu. as for dk, he slipped out of his shoes into his new adidas boots that he bought yesterday to break them in.

“wasn’t hyunjin gonna be here today?” dk asked. “i thought so too.” daniel also replied now with jihyo under his left arm.

“didn’t he tease you about sana at the end of practice the other day?” dk also asked, now sitting with his new boots on his feet. you were taken aback by his question as you choked on your water bottle in response.

“i- yes and no!” you spat out, wiping your mouth of the drops of water that dribbled over your chin. you heard nothing but laughs and gasps as you try to recover from your embarrassing act.

you really need to get a grip, but at the same time you wanted to take pride somehow and soon.

“don’t try to play it off y/n, i’ve seen how you look at sana at school.” dk said as he flashed an eyebrow at you, “i didn’t notice at first but now i’m invested to see what’s all that about.”

“i swear to you, there’s nothing happening between us! i don’t know why everyone is saying that there is!” you defended yourself as you put your hands up slightly, claiming your innocence. “jihyo, you know how sana is with you guys so help my case here!” jihyo’s eyes popped open as she sat down with tzuyu doing the same, “sana is normally friendly with everybody here, but you’ve known her longer than i have so i wouldn’t know what it’s like.”

you hung your head in defeat as daniel hovered over you, placing his hands on your shoulders in comfort, “don’t feel bad y/n, you know that’s just how hyunjin is anyway.” you look up to daniel who was smiling as he stopped his little massage, pulling both of his hands back into his track jacket. “i am curious however, is there something happening between you and sana that we don’t know about?”

“no there isn’t.” you sighed out, “what we have is really a platonic friendship, there’s no romance attached between us.” you stated even though you were also lying through your teeth, just partly, but you looked around the set of eyes placed on you as you fished your water bottle back into your bag.

“booo, that’s the wrong answer ow-” dk exclaimed as jihyo smacked his head, shutting down his antics completely.

“sorry y/n, we didn’t mean to pressure you or anything,” jihyo apologized as daniel sat down next to her, leaning his head on her shoulder while jihyo tilted her head to the left to meet with daniel’s.

“it’s fine you guys, i’m not one to talk about anything love related anyway…” you replied back looking at the lovely couple sitting across from you.

“i’m sure there’s someone for you y/n, we’re just saying that sana is literally the top candidate for you so i don’t know what needs to happen there, ” jihyo said as you simply nodded, oblivious to what you were thinking. you were aware that you alone would be the clear person sana would want to be in a relationship with. nobody else was in the running for her.

the problem is, you were running out of time to carry out the feelings you held within you for so long since you’ll be going away when the new year rolls around. nobody here knew that you accepted the offer to play professional soccer in england, until all of you heard a voice coming from the benches.

“hey! did i miss the shooting clinic!?”

the group looked at each other in question as everyone turned their attention to a single figure making their way closer to the edge of the eighteen yard box. “where have you been man? i called you twice today?!” you screamed out as you shot straight up to dap up blake in a hug, who you haven’t seen since the exit trials.

“i got backed up with traffic on the way here, but i see that you guys took a break so technically i made it on time.”

“that’s what happens when you wake up late dude!” you retort, breaking the hug with one of your well known teammates of three years. “how else am i gonna carry over the passes to the forwards if my left-back can’t even wake up on time for practices and games?!”

“yeah blake you’re always late, it’s either you or ni-ki that’s always the last one to show up for stretches!” dk shoots out, getting up to warm his legs up and rolled a ball over for him to do light movements.

“shut up dk! isn’t ni-ki our main striker up top? how did i get roped into this for already having a bad habit before the regular season started?” blake retaliates, kicking off his slides and setting his supreme bag on the ground as dk scrunched his face mischievously.

“how did the exit trials go? i heard you got fourth in the top ranking assessments!” daniel asked as jihyo and tzuyu both gasped in surprise, “speaking of which, didn’t you place high on the ranks y/n?” daniel added on, now bewildered waiting for your answer.

you and blake looked at each other, asking each other telepathically if it was okay to tell everyone what went down at the exit trials. you primed your lips back while blake pouted for a quick second before the both of you nodded at each other.

“so…all three of us got placed in the top five rankings.” blake said as a wave of gasps swept across the group. daniel and dk’s mouths dropped to the floor in shock as jihyo and tzuyu shrieked in celebration, proud of what their friends just achieved by the announcement they just heard.

“no way, even rin got a high rank!?” daniel asked in astonishment, “yep, i got placed fourth while rin took the second spot out of the thirty candidates.” blake continued as you scrunch your nose while smiling since you knew that blake had lost a bet between rin about who would be placed higher in the trials, the others weren’t aware of that since rin wasn’t here but in england using his remaining vacation break sightseeing through london, sporadically sending you and blake pictures of the football stadiums that were there.

“wait, if rin got a higher rank than you blake, where did y/n place?” dk asked, staring at you with laser focus, “i think it would be better for y/n to break the news to you guys.” blake brightly said as he looked towards you as everyone was left in question for your unknown position to be answered. you simply put both of your hands in your pockets and inhaled a breath before exhaling to build suspense.

“i was the one who got the top ranking spot….” you declared as everyone collectively was left in complete disbelief. the choir of “huhs” and “what” broke through the air as you jaws dropped and hands on mouths while blake simply looked down smiling at their reactions. it took a couple moments to process what you just said as you nonchalantly juggled a ball before anyone said anything.

“i don’t know why i was expecting someone else to take the top prospecting spot, but jesus christ y/n!”

“are we really that surprised with what he’s capable of? this dude is literally our fucking captain for a reason!?”

you smiled at both daniel and dk’s compliments as blake crossed his arms, now in his nike boots tying them up with double knots on both feet. tzuyu and jihyo were left speechless, they too had seen the games you guys have played and it was always an enjoyable show to watch because of how unbelievably good everyone was at what they did with you, blake, and rin included.

—

there were a few instances where the girls took every opportunity to come to any practices to watch you guys go through drills or five on five scrimmages and even the coaches jabbed jokes towards you and the rest of the team grabbing all the ladies.

“we didn’t have this much interest back when we were playing!” coach key said as rain was practically laughing his ass off after seeing the entourage of girls just sitting at the bleachers during one of the practices a month or two ago.

the team was running through some one-two passing drills with shooting as the finisher and ni-ki just went ahead of you. before you could do the drill, you quickly glanced over at the bleachers to see who showed up this time.

there was jihyo, nayeon, tzuyu, mina from chem class, momo had just walked over a second later, and of course sana, who looked extra cute wearing those slightly thick nerdy glasses again which were a backup pair since she forgot her go-to pair at home that day.

again, you got caught in sana’s ethereal features for a few seconds as you got struck in the back of the head with a ball by dk snapping your attention facing forward as coach rain was barking at you.

“what the hell are you staring at y/n?! you’re holding the line up lets go!!.”

“shit…” you mutter as ran ahead while dk, mingyu, and blake chuckled at you while completing the drill. after drilling the ball past rowoon in goal, you walked back scratching your nose, still embarrassed with what you did.

“is something the matter y/n? you look a little more pinkish than usual.” coach key asked as you furrowed your eyebrows together trying to cover the light blush, wiping your face in quick succession.

“i’m all good coach, don't worry about me.” you responded quickly.

“are you sure? i think the others say otherwise.” key says picking up on the scattered “pffts” and giggles heard behind you.

you sigh and look at your teammates with a blank expression - clearing your throat as everyone immediately shuts up, gaining another laugh from coach rain who was watching the whole thing next to key.

“that’s exactly why we made you captain of this team.” coach rain praised the present aura shimmering around you as he tapped key’s shoulder before walking away toward the half of the field to meet with the defensive coach bradley who was working some of the other reserve players.

as you lined back up for another round of drills, blake tapped your shoulder with a slight worry. which was natural for him to check up on you as he was the right hand man / vice captain of the team.

“are you good though, really?” he asked behind your ear.

“i’m fine blake it’s nothing.” you shot back, attempting to shut him down asking anymore questions.

“if you say so. kinda weird for you to act this way, i hope it’s not the girls since that would make sense-.”

“they just showed up, so i was wondering who came along this time!” you slightly raised your voice as blake chuckled at your reason.

“sure, but i don’t blame you for staring though.” blake simply said as you two continued to move up in the line. you sighed as you continued to reflect on what had happened, placing a hand on your chest as you felt a slight tug from within when you thought about sana. i’m not usually like this for some reason but why do i feel this way?

—

the short memory flashes out of your mind as dk kept asking questions to blake about the trial.

“so did you get approached by a professional team?”

thrown off by dk’s captivating question you look at blake in a slight panic as you knew the rules about transfers, especially how players aren’t allowed to disclose negotiations to individuals who are outside of the said party. blake however, didn’t fully grasp the seriousness of this as he looked back at you in confusion, only realizing what he was about to do.

“oh, we weren’t allowed to say this to anyone yet?” he asked.

“well this is news for me too soo…...” you replied back as blake was mumbling to himself, determining if it was a good idea to announce it to the group here right now or not.

“how bout’ this, if you say yours, then i’ll say mine. it’s only fair.” blake proposed after a few seconds with you puckering your lips together, tempted at the indirect dare he made.

“deal, but you go first since the vice cap gets minor priority.” you announce as everyone sitting in front of you two paid close attention. “so to double down on dk’s question, did you get signed by anybody?”

“i did.” blake announced, “but it’s with a team in germany.” wow, you didn’t see that coming as you were suddenly interested to see where he was going.

“it’s frankfurt.” he continued, “the aaronson twins are there too getting some playtime so it won’t be as boring.”

“i bet they’re still salty they lost to us in the finals.” daniel butted in after hearing the last bit from laying down on the grass.

“that was a year ago anyway so i doubt it.” you acknowledged as jihyo and tzuyu clapped their hands, proud of blake’s announcement, showering him with “woops” and “yays.”

“alright now it’s your turn y/n, did you get signed?” daniel asked now with everyone listening in once again.

“I actually did just yesterday.” you proclaim as everyone gasped in a slight shock with how fast the process was.

blake tilted his head in genuine wonder, “okay, now you’ve got me over here thinking, by who!?”

“brighton, it’s brighton.” you said in a serious tone.

“no shot…” dk said as a jolt went through his body that caused him to drop his water bottle.

“wait, you’re gonna be playing in the prem?” daniel now with a distressed tone to his question.

“yep.” you said simply, “who would’ve thought huh?”

“a straight ticket to the premier league? what the fuck are you y/n a robot?” blake questioned as he shot back up with the fingers on his right hand kneading his forehead, still trying to relish in your announcement.

“so that’s like the best of the best in terms of competing?” jihyo asked as tzuyu was just left speechless.

“it’s one of the top five leagues across europe! they’re super competitive over there!” dk exclaimed as he was visibly shaking in his hands, trying to calm down in a frantic motion. you waved your hands in an up and down motion towards dk, trying to make him return to his normal breathing state as everyone wanted to know more details about your announcement that you were supposed to keep under wraps.

“there’s still some things left to be worked out with the contract, the bottom line is that they want me over there to start playing as soon as possible.” you continued as everyone pulled their attention back.

“yeah it would make sense for them to make a move since enciso will be out for the season indefinitely right?” blake asked, “i read that he’ll be undergoing surgery for his acl rupture.”

“i also watched some of his matches and considering your playstyle is very similar to his, brighton have done wonders with their scouting once again!” daniel added in exhilaration.

“exactly.”

“who else knows about this?” tzuyu asked, who had been quiet for a majority of the conversation.

“aside from my parents, there’s you guys and rin that’s all.” you answered.

“have you told sana about this yet? does she know about the whole academy trial thing?” daniel asked as jihyo ooohed next to him, bumping his arm.

“she knows about the whole trial thing but-” you stopped for half a second. shit. your mind panics at the fact that you haven’t broke the news to sana yet. before your thoughts could fall into defcon 1 protocols,

“i was gonna tell her but she stayed over at momo’s place going over their japanese project for class,” you said as you scratched your head, saving your own skin from any additional suspicion.

“ah i see.” dk replied again, now itching to get some shots up as he continued to roll a ball around his feet. picking up on this, you clapped your hands together and coughed slightly.

“alright! what are we sitting and standing here for? i thought tzuyu needed practice against us shooters!?” tzuyu looked shocked as she shot immediately straight up, bolting for the goal collecting laughs from everyone because of her eagerness.

as everyone starts to get up from the grass with soccer balls rolling about, blake walks over to you and clasps your shoulder,

“so if things play out this season, i bet we’ll play against each other in one of the european competitions.” he vexed as you scoffed at his interesting speculation.

“who knows, i’d smoke you anyway! do i have to remind you about our one v ones?”

blake cocked his head at your remark before patting your shoulder again, acknowledging that you were the one always winning in the end when it came to competing between you and him.

“we’re getting food after this right?” he asked.

“if everyone else is down then yes.”

—

a jazzy tune is softly blasting on the speakers as your mom hummed to the speaker while cooking you dinner. you were sitting on the kitchen island with your laptop watching the highlights of the manchester city vs chelsea game from earlier, which was a thriller with both sides sharing four goals each at the end of added time.

you had a journal out in front of you that was a birthday gift from sana from last year while she was out of town for the week visiting her aunt when you got randomly sick despite being perfectly fine the day before. go figure. she also wrote a short note on the first page when you opened the journal which makes you crack a small smile every time you read it.

“to my superstar y/n, i hope this journal will be an extension of myself and my heart for you to pen your thoughts. enjoy the cute koala plushie i picked out for you as well as some of the other favorite things i got that you love. happy birthday again baby and i’ll see you very soon.”

xoxo ~ sha <3

even if she had an astonishing way of words, she still made sure to put a touch of flirting any chance she could. sana was the only person who had access to this journal besides its writer and you intend to keep it that way. flipping through the pages of your journal that was filled with paragraphs of your thoughts and feelings, or reflections of past soccer matches with a mix of sana’s doodles here and there whenever you two would be hanging out or studying.

the latest entry you wrote in was the contract offer as well as your own thoughts about the whole situation. nothing too extreme as you were excited and happy that this path was now forming as you were walking on it, but you wrote wondering if it would be too late to somewhat confess to sana before going overseas. the chances are good–but why was the risk holding you back?

you snapped out from staring at your journal when you hear dex singing the same song coming from the speaker as he walked into the kitchen / dining area. turning around to give him a quick dap before hugging your mom who had just finished cooking.

“well if it isn’t my big time client now!” dex exclaimed as he made his way back to you, clawing your head with both of his hands playfully as waved your left arm over to make him stop, laughing at his infectious approach.

“did you forget that you’re always on the clock when you come here?” you asked.

“hey! even agents need to have their time off so bite me.” dex shot back, wearing a yeezy gap hoodie that you gifted to him as a christmas gift paired with washed baggy jeans with slim shoes. you and dex always had a fashion off over who had the better outfit, but usually it’d be all even between you two because of how similar the clothing styles you rocked.

“how’s your mom dex?” your mom asked as he slid a plate of homemade tacos over for you and dex to eat.

“she’s doing well actually! my mom says congrats to y/n for getting the contract thanks to yours truly.” he replied as he bowed at the end of that sentence which earned a laugh from your mom as he got the sauces from the cabinet.

you closed your journal and put it away in your bag while your laptop was showing another premier league match that caught dex’s attention as he sat down, reaching over for a taco.

“i hate how you practically live here.”

“oh shut up y/n, it’s not my fault that your house is directly right across from mine.”

you chuckled at his argument as you too grabbed a taco to eat, your mom placing glasses of water for the both of you. “thank you mrs. l/n!” dex said as your mom just simply hummed in response before walking towards the dining table to finish her teacher related work.

“so when are we leaving for england?” you asked, finishing a bite of your taco as dex took a swig of water.

“our flight is on the third of january, so just right after new years,” dex replied as you looked slightly puzzled while nodding.

“they’re still trying to iron out the details with the league, but your official documents are set to be signed within the first two weeks following your arrival.”

you sighed at the realization once again, the mixed feeling of accomplishment and disbelief cooled over your body.

“i still can’t believe we made it…after everything that we’ve been through together…” you sniffed, internalizing the countless hours of practicing and games along with the decisions that carried the guilt of sacrifice in order to make it this far.

hanging your head down with a slight dejection, dex smacked your back, cheering your mood up as he saw a goal being scored. “oh shit!-my bad y/n.” he yelled, realizing that he spaced out from your laptop, proceeding to give you light taps on your shoulder this time.

“don’t get all sappy now, we aren’t even in the good parts yet!” dex said as he continued to comfort you while eating another taco he grabbed.

“we’re about to enter a whole new echelon of your dreams.”

“that’s what i’m afraid of…”

“don’t be, you’re not giving me enough credit for getting you signed as it is anyway!”

“i will literally toss your ass out of this house if you don’t shut up! leeching off of me like your life depended on it!” you cried out chuckling as dex laughed at your banter towards him, cooling off after a few seconds.

“so have you talked to sana about it?” dex asked.

“i haven't been able to, she’s been staying at momo’s since tuesday but we’ve been texting.” you replied showing an image that sana sent to you of momo laying flat next to the couch with the coffee table plastered with papers and stationary items.

“she said she’ll be back home tomorrow hopefully.” you gleamed putting your phone flat on the table.

“her birthday is coming up no?” dex asked quizzically.

“it is.”

“do you have anything in mind you want to do for her this year?”

“nope, not in the slightest.” you replied leaning back facing up to the ceiling.

you and dex sit in silence with the roar of the crowd blasting through your laptop speakers. a few seconds later and you jolt your head forward with a lightbulb going off in your brain. dex picks up on your sudden action and conveys a “hmm~”

“you thought of something, didn't you?”

“indeed i did, i need your help along with a few others.”

—

not to your surprise, sana didn’t come back the next day. she stayed a little bit longer at momo’s until that friday at the end of the week, claiming that the project had to be redone because momo had a completely different prompt than the actual one they were supposed to do.

you couldn’t help but laugh at sana’s reason since she sounded like a little kid complaining that they didn’t get what they wanted at the local grocery store, looking at her with more admirability than usual as you laid on her couch with your left arm draped over sana’s left shoulder while she was sitting on the floor, various makeup items scattered across the coffee table as the tv was on playing blues clues out of all shows she could’ve watched.

“when i told you that momo messed up big time, i meant she messed up big time.” sana said, who complained about the small incident of starting the project over since momo basically procrastinated the whole assignment altogether.

while she was doing that, you couldn’t help but laugh at her slight distress as she was scrounging up scattered items on the table and next to her.

“well good thing she had you as a partner otherwise she would’ve failed that project regardless.” you said as you sat up, scooching over to the perpendicular end of the table to get your fruit tea drink from chae’s.

sana leans her head back on the seat, sighing with a slight ache in her voice as she finished her last minute gift for an event you had to drive her to. you didn’t have any plans anyway so even if you did, sana’s event that she was invited to was strictly girls only-which meant that you didn’t have to dress casually as you wore a dark blue fleece sweater with baggy black sweats in comparison to sana who sat there wearing low waisted jeans with a cropped shirt, she had one more article of clothing behind her and slipped it on, which turned out to be one of your old soccer jerseys in tandem with a grey long sleeve under it as an additional layer.

“so what time are we supposed to leave for this so-called party?” you asked as sana kept shuffling around stuff around her.

“we’ll leave in a bit, i just have to-oh wait! you think you can help me with some makeup really quick?” sana inquired as you looked at her with a small surprise to her question. “what do you mean, help? you have some of the things here already why can’t you do it yourself?” you protested as you matched her height by sitting on the floor with her.

“most of the makeup i need is up in my room! i don’t need to do much i just need your help with one thing!” sana shot back as you limped your body at her while she whined at your action.

“y/nnnn, do me this one favor pleaseeeeee?!” sana pleaded, making her voice babyish to appease you.

you groaned at her adorable act, knowing that she’ll always have her way no matter how big or small the task was.

“fine since you don’t want to do it for me, i’ll do it myself then.” she mumbles.

“wait sana no, that’s not what i meant.”

“it sure sounds like that to me, y/n.” sana says with a pout directly at you.

“just come scoot over and i’ll help you.” you ordered.

“nope! you said that you didn’t want to, so there goes your chance.” sana retorted. claiming her small victory as she smiled proudly.

you huffed out a heavy sigh of hair as you reached over to grab a lip brush that was on the table in front of you. sana looks at you, questioning what you were trying to do as you sat back on the floor again now with your left knee upwards parallel to the leg of the coffee table. shifting your upper body soon after and reaching with your arm to grab sana’s wrist, pulling her towards you while sana was caught off guard with your action. you overestimated your used strength as sana almost toppled you over, bracing herself by placing her left hand on your knee. the arm you pulled her with was almost all the way back, putting her face just mere inches away from yours, breaths hitching for just a slight second at the sudden closeness.

“sorry.” you mutter, loosening your grip on her wrist.

“it’s okay, i just need a touch up of lip blush, that's all.” sana mumbles as she adjusts herself more steadily. nodding at her request, you propped yourself up, extending a pinky to her jaw as you prepared to brush her lips.

tension hung in the air as you carefully took your time with sana’s lips, ensuring that there was no missing spot as you added a little more blush. her lips were amazingly perfect, almost a perfect oval shape with every nuance in both her upper and lower lip made it seemingly sculptured flawlessly. the pounding of your heart rang in your ears more loudly than usual, making you make accidental eye contact for a millisecond. sana catches you staring as you tilted your head left and right as a poor cover, stopping for a second to lock with her eyes-giving you a seductive smirk as your face exploded with redness. few more moments passed as you ensured her lips were properly touched up, placing the brush down back on the coffee table, content with your work.

“done.” you simply say. cheeks still flushed as you place your fingers under sana’s chin, checking if there were any mistakes, not noticing that sana’s cheeks were flushed pink as well.

sana makes eye contact with you again as you return her stare with your lips slightly agape, silence filling the room as you and here were staring into each other for the nth time. sana blinks twice, inching closer and closer to your face before your phone vibrated, indicating a call from either dex or your mom most likely.

sana then gets up as you answered the phone who turned out to be nayeon, who was asking where you and sana were, indicating that sana would be late for the start of the party. after a quick interrogation over the phone, you ended the call and headed toward the kitchen where sana was, preparing a small batch of brownies she baked to bring for the party.

you saw her shuffle the foil around the container as you stood across behind the kitchen island, staring at the back of her head while internalizing her small but cute stature.

“sha.” you called out to her, the nickname that very few people know her by, you having the most exclusivity to it however.

sana turns around, stopping whatever she was doing to give her full undivided attention to you, ensuing that this was something serious that you were about to tell her.

“yes y/n?” sana asked with a slight worry on her face. you chuckled at her expression, waving your hand in response. “it’s nothing bad i promise.-” you said to add more suspense, sana tilts her head in anticipation of what you were going to say to her.

“i got a contract offer for a team.”

sana’s eyes shot wide open at your news.

“i know the timing of this is weird and all, but-”

you were cut off suddenly as sana jumped at you, exclaiming in noises that could only be seen as happy and delight. your hands found their place on her waist as she tightly wrapped her arms around your neck.

“you should’ve told me sooner!!! that’s great news y/n!!!” sana exclaimed as she mushed your face with her hands, bursting out in laughter immediately after as she went for another hug with you holding her tightly this time.

she stays stuck to you for what feels like over a minute, but eventually she loosens herself off of you and stands in front of you, hand latched to hers.

“sorry for not telling you sooner sana, i just had to make sure it was all official before you know, announcing it and all.”

“it’s okay, you have your rules so i understand.” sana replies back with a smile still on her face.

“you do know what this means right? you asked, “we talked about if i did get a contract somewhere i would have to-”

“i know.” sana states firmly, knowing the gravity of your situation, “you explained it to me a while back so you don’t have to worry.” you dropped your shoulders at the thought you just spoke out, but you brushed that off aside with a sharp inhale before clicking your tongue.

“should we get going?” you asked sana again as she hummed in response to you, realizing that you’ve spent a little too long stalling sana away from nayeon’s girls night party as the two of you grabbed the essential items you needed before heading out the house.

—

a week passes and sana sits at her desk placing her legs on the bed in lieu of her usual footrest sitting below her which she found more comfortable. it’s just past noon and sana had just finished eating her late birthday lunch with her mom and dad downstairs who were cleaning up around the kitchen.

she scrolls through her phone at the multitude of notifications of birthday texts and birthday reposts on social media stories, making an effort to reply to almost all of them as she continues to tap away on her phone. her phone dings as she quickly swipes through the apps to see who had texted her, eyes widening at the message she just received.

y/n

happy birthday sha sha~ !

just finished practice, will come over later.

sana smiles like a fool at the text, noticing the nickname you coined for her back in middle school that only came up for sentimental moments like these as she presses her thumbs on the touchscreen.

sana

sounds good!

not going anywhere today

can’t wait to see you againnnn

y/n

shut up, you literally saw me last night

did i not drop you off after our boba run with momo and seungkwan???

sana

my bad not remembering, sorry

y/n

i live on the right of you i-

forget it lol

sana lets out a small laugh before switching back to reply to more stories on instagram, only to be interrupted by her mom calling from downstairs.

“sana! you have some visitors!” sana’s mom yells as the doorbell rang for a second time. “coming!” sana says as she speeds down the steps, opening the door wide open only to be surprised by the girls.

“surprise!”

“you guyssss.” sana whines as she was startled at the sudden appearance of momo, nayeon, jihyo, and dahyun who had various small items that looked like sweets and presents, with dahyun holding a small bouquet of lotus flowers as sana’s hands cover her mouth. a quick exchange of hugs as the four of them were invited in to chill for a little bit, conversing about the gifts that the girls gave to sana

“did you guys plan this?” sana asks jihyo, who was the natural leader of the friend group.

“well not exactly, but i did help with some of the stuff.” jihyo replied as nayeon nudged herself next to her on the couch.

“there’s more where that came from just letting you know.” nayeon adds in as sana wore a puzzled look on her face.

“what do you mean more?” she asks as the whole group of girls are startled by the sudden sound of the window - which turned out to be jeongyeon as she laughed hysterically, followed by a couple more people after her

“jeong you can’t scare us like that!” momo exclaims as the door opened revealing dk, bang chan, jeongyeon, miyeon, and dex. the living room flooded with hand daps, hellos, and hugs as there were quick exchanges of how everyone was doing.

“you should’ve thrown a party sana!” bang chan exclaims as he hugged sana, moving side to side since it had been ages since she last saw him.

“what are you doing here?! i thought you weren’t coming home until next week!? she “angrily” said with a light voice, punching his arm as bang chan laughed, “well surprise!!” going in for another hug after not seeing her close family friend for a long time since he was abroad or his studies.

“is that everyone?” mingyu asked, looking at the abundance of people now sitting in the living room.

“i think so, this is it for now.” jihyo replied, sipping a glass of water and placing it back on the coffee table as the room filled up with more talking. sana sees dex heading on his way out the door, stopping him as he was about to answer his call. “where’s y/n?” she asked, with a worried pout in her voice. dex chuckled at sana’s antic, “she said that something came up, so i’m going to help her real quick.” sana nodded as she hugged dex again, thanking him for coming over to the surprise gathering before going back to the group to take pictures that her mom was offering as dex walked out the door. sana glances out the window, wondering if you were going to show up later or not.

—

a couple hours had already passed and it was nearing sundown, sana went back up to her room after everyone had left almost two hours prior, having the small snacks that dahyun had brought as well as some of the cookies your mom had made for the entire group.

looking at the pastel blue sky as it started to turn pinkish toward the horizon, she couldn’t help but feel a growing hole in her chest as she trudged over to her bed, lying face flat for only a few seconds before hearing the doorbell downstairs. sana assumed that her mom would answer the door right away - only to hear her yelling for the second time today.

“sana! you have one more visitor!” her mom yells as she makes her way down the stairs again. sana wonders who would come at this hour, the thought tells her that it would be dex since he left his glasses on the coffee table after playing jenga with dk and mingyu but she could worry about that later.

her hand reaches for the doorknob and twists it, opening it to see the one person she had hoped to see all day, you.

you stood on the other side of the door wearing your glasses with one of your hands behind your back. sana tilts her head at the arm as you flashed it out - a bouquet mixed with roses and bouquets. sana gasps, putting her hands to her face at the surprise you had in front of her.

“sorry for being late, i came to pick you up.”

“where are we going?” sana asks you as you put a finger to your lips.

“shhh, you’ll see it when we get there now go get ready.” you reply back as sana turns around and dashes up to her room to get changed.

sana returns to her usual passenger princess mode as she enters the tesla. as you and her buckled yourselves into the seats, you stop for a second to fish something in the center console, grabbing a blindfold which was a sleeping mask. sana looks at you with a raised eyebrow, taking the hint that you were “implying”.

“it’s not what you think it is, you pervert.” you say as you hand the blindfold to her, sana punching your arm immediately after your dirty thought.

“hey! i didn’t even say a word!” she retorts as you chuckle at her light blush flooding on her face, humming at her answer before driving the car out the driveway. you stop the car before you even pass your house, sana looking at you with a stale expression again.

“keep that blindfold on until i tell you to take it off.” you instructed.

“is this the part where you take me to your special room like in fifty shades of grey?”

“god no, and you know i despise that movie anyway.” you immediately respond as you roll away while sana puts on the blindfold, still wondering where you were taking her.

—

the drive to your secluded spot for your special surprise to sana was filled with flirty exchanges and multiple “are we there yets” pushing you to the brink of insanity but something that you were used to with sana as you arrived in the back section of a hill facing the brimming sunset.

“we’re here.” you say as you set the tesla on park with sana looking around, blindfold on her face, laughing as she kept frantically looking with a smile on her face. you exit the car, catching dex at the spot on the hill that you and him set up together, essentially leaving him while you pick up sana on the passenger side, guiding her toward the picnic blankets.

“where are we y/n?” sana asks as she continues to walk forward, your hands placed on her waist nearing closer to where dex was standing.

“almost there just a few more steps.” you answered, finally arriving at the spot. dex rolling his eyes at you as he watched your dumb smile at the plan you devised last week.

“here we are. you can take the blindfold off now.” you told sana as she pulled down on the sleep mask, gasping at the cute picnic setup you took a couple hours to perfect. the spot on the hill had a perfect view of the sunset just before touching the horizon.

the picnic blanket had a bottle of red wine, along with a basket that had various snacks that you and sana liked when eating together. in addition there was a charcuterie with cheeses, saltine crackers, some salami, and small slices of bacon. topping it off another bouquet of flowers laid on the blanket with your portable speaker playing soft classical music.

sana was left in amazement at your surprise, hugging you tightly after, burying her head in your chest and stayed there for a moment. you signaled dex to get the last few things from his car as sana pulls away from you, “let's sit down, i have dex getting something for me really quick”

“you really planned all this for me?” sana asks as she takes in the various items that are laid out on the blanket, “i was wondering why you couldn’t come over earlier with everyone, and dex helped you?”

“yes he did, he did most of the heavy lifting well not really but still.” you reply back as dex comes back with a small bag with more snacks inside of it.

“thanks again for guarding this dex, i owe you big time.” you say as dex chuckles at you, grabbing a quick bite of the chocolates inside the bag, “oh you definitely do, the next meal we get together is gonna be on your tab.” he states, fistbumping you before leaving you two alone to enjoy your special birthday date.

“so was this everything like you imagined for a surprise?” you asked sana as she shuffled herself into your left arm, sighing in content with what you did.

“this was amazing y/n. i couldn’t have asked for anything more. thank you.” sana replies, hugging you again, inhaling the sweet cherry scent of her hair before pulling away. “are you sure we’re gonna be able to eat all of this?” she asks again, grabbing another bite of the saltine crackers as you laugh at her act.

—

after going through multiple snack bags and half the bottle of red wine, you and sana were talking about the various gifts that she received earlier in the day - how she got various gift cards from family relatives to use online and noting how she got a betty boop handbag from one of her other classmates who stole it after her modeling gig a while back. as she told these stories from earlier, you kept your attention on her with so much affection pooling through your eyes. the way that she was cutely layered with a brown overcoat with a hoodie underneath, the light breeze passing through her hair making her more ethereal than she already was.

she goes on with her tangent for a few more moments before returning eye contact with you, getting lost in your eyes before looking away, your face getting slightly red as well as hers.

“so…do you have a gift for me?” she asks, returning her gaze on you as you scrunch your face at her.

“of course i did.” you reply, fishing through your bag to get two small boxes that were black, one being longer compared to the short one that was in your right hand. sana looks at you confused, slightly anxious to see what you had for her this year.

“so i kept your present from last year into consideration.” you started off saying, opening the first box to reveal a necklace with a wax seal on it showing a simple heart with a message coating it. sana lightly screams at one of your romantic gifts as you take it out to give her a better look.

“the meaning of the wax seal means, my heart is eternally yours - given to that special someone you value everything that you are and what you do.” sana pouts at your sentence as you motion her to come around and put the necklace on her, brushing her hair onto one side to make it easier for you. soon after it’s on, she looks at it while you fish out the same necklace hidden in your crewneck to match hers.

“aw, matching necklaces? what’s the other box for?” sana playfully asks as you grab the other box from behind you, opening it to show matching rings. you smirked as sana was left speechless with her flawless guess, while you took the bigger ring out for you to wear on your right ring finger.

“matching rings, and this relates to what i’m about to say” you reply as sana leans in, now fully interested with the possible thought of what you might be doing, shifting her body closer to you as you showed her the simple but sleek ring you were wearing.

“you have been a constant pillar of support i can always rely on for as long as i remember aside from my own parents of course,” you say confidently despite your heart gradually accelerating by the second.

“i love what we have going on already between us, all the sweet and happy moments that are always filled with a brand new adventure every single day.” sana scoots even closer as you take her hand, clasping it with yours.

“whenever i’m with you, there’s a few seconds where my heart just starts beating like crazy - and at first i thought it was weird at first, but then the more and more it happens whenever its us hanging out like this or whenever we’re with everyone else and-” your mind was short circuiting as sana lightly laughs at you with your head in between your arms, you then look back up inching your face closer to sana’s, your heart pounding in your ears at 150%.

“soooo what’s your point y/n?.” sana asks you, slightly oblivious and in a slight instant — you couldn’t contain yourself any longer.

“this.” you simply replied, lightly placing your fingers under her jaw, breath slightly hitching as you leaned forward, catching her off guard as you placed your lips on hers.

sana hummed in surprise as she was unprepared, but was able to catch on kissing you right back, eyes slowly closing as she cupped your cheek. senses overloading at the new sensation acquired as you notice the slight taste of peach chapstick on her extremely soft lips and you wanted to remember how your lips fit perfectly with hers. you pull away for a second to catch your breath before sana pulls you right back in for more, tilting heads in interchanging directions as you slowed the pace of your second kiss together, taking more and more time passing as you and her try to keep this moment from ever ending. it was then sana’s turn to stop, eyes fluttering open as they meet yours as you went for another slow, intimate kiss, pulling on her left thigh to bring her closer to you as she wraps her arm around your neck, right hand tangling with your hair before sharing one more final kiss and pulling away soon after.

you finally did it, and she couldn’t be any more happier.

hands lingering on each other’s body as you stare into sana’s eyes again, lips brushing together slightly parted as your hearts could basically flatline at any given second. sana then lightly pecks your lips before placing her forehead against yours.

“two years,” sana begins saying, “two years is how long i’ve waited for you to do that.” you softly laugh at her observation. “god you’re so cute.”

the beating in your heart calms down after cashing out all of your feelings you’ve had for sana, the realization of what you did finally registering in your head as you look away from sana for a second, cheeks completely flushed before coughing because of the small specks of pollen that went up your nose.

‘i have a really bad thing with timing, so i hope this isn't too late.” you mumble, recalling what will eventually happen when the new year rolls in the next couple weeks. sana notices the tone in your voice, now worried about your expression,

“when do you leave?” she asks.

“two days after new years.” you answer, sana’s face somewhat crestfallen after hearing the news, “but we still have time until then, i just wish i did this sooner…” your voice trailed off with regret carried with it.

sana sccoches herself to you again, placing her head on your shoulder as she hugged you in comfort, sighing out at the beautiful view set in the distance while grazing her fingers on your hand.

“i think this is perfect already.” sana says to you, looking at her with a puzzled look on your face.

“really?” she hummed at your simple question.

“i’m not mad at you, nor will i ever be mad at you for anything y/n. i’m just happy that you and i can finally let out our feelings together without having reservations.”

a warm smile riddled across your face as you leaned in to press another soft peck onto her lips. sana giggles after you pull away again, grinning,

“hearing the things you say give me so much confidence, knowing that i can take on the world with my girlfriend right beside me.” you say as you stood up with your arms out wide, mimicking a goal celebration while sana laughed at your act.

not long after the first hours of the evening, you walk back sana to the front door of her house, turning around to you with inviting arms for a hug, gladly accepting the offer as you open your arms for sana to slot herself in. circling your arms around her waist as her arms hooked onto your back, your chin touching the top of your head, indicating the cute height difference between you and her like a sculpture that should be showcased as the main centerpiece of an art museum, letting the silence fill up with the brightly dimmed light sitting just above you two.

she looks up at you, pursing her lips together for a kiss as you cup her cheeks, pressing your lips onto hers again for one more smooch that was now filled with love and butterflies, pulling away staring into sana’s eyes that look like they could be filled with stars.

“best birthday present ever.” she hummed as you kissed her forehead, hugging her tightly once more before stepping back.

“had to save the best for last you know?” you amusingly as sana chuckled at your quick remark, having her head over heels for you once again as placed your hands behind your back as you walked down the steps of her house.

“let’s do something tomorrow?” sana asks as you turned back around immediately after her question.

“of course, i’m always down to do anything with you.”

—

the airport terminal was a little bit busier than usual as you stood there at the rotating door, endlessly spinning as people weaved in and out of it. this was it - “d-day” as dex called it, where you finally leave the hometown you have stayed at for almost the entirety of your life before embarking on your dream head on.

your two cases of luggage and backpack were all that you brought along with your parents who came to see you off while dex kept it simple with his single carry-on bag. dex and rin’s agent yujin had managed to come to an agreement for you and rin to live together, making it more convenient and the transition more smoothly since both of your living habits were strikingly similar.

“alright, that’s everything that we brought yeah?” dex asks you, turning to your left side facing him.

“our flight is in two hours, so i think we’ll be fine.” you reply back, pulling the handles of both of your luggages. a voice calls you from the distance, making you look the opposite direction, tilting your head at the small entourage of people approaching you; dk, mingyu, yuta, jihyo, daniel, tzuyu, han, hyunjin, dahyun, miyeon, and lastly sana.

“you guys really don’t know when to give me space do ya.” you say as you dapped up daniel as the others started to form a crowd behind him.

“don’t think you can leave without saying goodbye y/n!” dk chided, beaming his smile at you as you facepalmed at his comical stupidity. “either way, you will come back home regardless so you’ll know where we’ll be at.” he added as you nodded.

“that’s why i made you captain, i know the team will be in good hands with you leading.” you replied back as you stepped forward for a hug, patting his back firmly. you pulled back and looked at everyone else who came, content with the turnout.

“thank you guys for coming. it really means a lot to me and i promise i’l come back in once piece.” you said as you picked up a sniffle coming from tzuyu, leaving you in a small shock as you went forward to hug her in comfort. soon after everyone picks up on tzuyu crying, everybody went in for a group hug as sana was the second person after you to hug tzuyu from behind. after a few moments had passed, the group hug broke as you started to hug everyone one by one again.

“this won’t be a goodbye, but we’ll definitely see you soon in the matches!” yuta exclaimed as mingyu pulled you in for a headlock, tapping his arm frantically while everyone laughed at you struggling.

“you’ll be sending us stuff right?” jihyo asked you with an eyebrow raised at you.

“of course i will, you just gotta wait for them.” you answered as you started grabbing your luggage. most of the group had begun to go back home all except for one person–sana, who was standing in front of you with a simple smile on her face, wearing both the necklace and the other ring in her left ring finger you gifted to her on her birthday.

you pulled her in for a hug, caressing her hair as she nuzzled into your right collarbone. taking in the last whiffs of your cologne and the way your body felt on hers as she hugged you.

“i already told you that we’ll keep in touch, right?” you asked as she looks up at you with a pout that could snap your heart into multiple pieces, lip quivering slightly as you pulled her in for another hug.

the day before celebrating new years, you and her talked about how this new relationship would be handled, planning a bunch of contingencies in case one would miss the other person greatly. you and sana had spent all the time you could before this moment, doing everything possible–the only change now was the increase of skinship and small kisses that you and her shared together every chance possible when hanging out.

you and sana rarely ever fight against each other, but there were many tests and trials that would be overcomed together. a long-distance relationship would be the ultimate test for you two, the contrasting work schedules, time difference, match days, the list went on and on but you and sana were determined to make it work.

this was a completely new circumstance, you and sana were slightly worried of what might happen but were very confident in the road that lies ahead for you.

“i will miss you being around here.” sana says, tears welling up in her eyes as you wiped them off her, pulling her face in for a long kiss, wanting to not part away from her face. you then retreat your head back with thumbs massaging her cheeks.

“you probably know this, but i love you.” you say as sana laughs out, lightening up the mood as she hugs you for one last time.

“promise to call me when you get settled in?”

“you don’t even have to ask.” you say as dex taps your shoulder, “y/n, time to go.” you nodded at him as your parents handed you your luggages, giving them another loving hug with your mom fighting back tears as your dad rubbed her back.

“my baby is all grown up now.” your mom says, pressing your face together.

“ma, i’ll be back before you know it.” you say, shutting down her worries as you hug both of your parents for one last time, walking away to the rotating door of the entrance. you stopped in your tracks as dex looked at you with your back turned to him, walking up to sana to give her two more kisses, the second one being a short, subtle peck.

“i love you.” you whispered to her, your voice giving endearing confidence, “i’ll see you soon okay?”

sana nods as she lets go of your lingering arm before watching you and dex enter the spinning door, waving to sana and your parents, smiling for one last time as you walk deeper inside the concourses of the airport, europe bound, and facing forward to your lifelong dream.

#sana x reader #twice x reader #kpop x reader #twice sana #sana imagines #twice imagines #twice fluff #minatozaki sana

168 notes · View notes