in response to the poll i posted the other day, the people decided i should post twice a week. i have thought about it and i don’t think i have the capacity to do that right now.
however! i think i can occasionally post requests on tuesdays! (so please request one shots)
“isn’t it amazing how almost every line on our hands align?
when your hand’s in mine
it’s like i’m whole again, isn’t that a sign?
i should speak my mind”
in which ! you find a very unconventional way of communicating your feelings towards your boyfriend
notes ! connor x minten!reader, pre-established relationship, anxious reader, reader is probably on the spectrum, i wrote this before the news about connor’s injury so i apologize for the unfortunate timing
word count ! 2.7k
Connor started noticing a difference in your behavior on a Thursday. He had just gotten back from a roadie in the south and decided to spend the night at your apartment to make up for the time spent away from you.
There was nothing wrong with how you were acting; it was just new.
You were more nervous than usual, and that was saying a lot. Most people wouldn’t pick up on it, but you and Connor had been dating for three months, in addition to knowing each other since you were kids.
Connor knew your tells. You chewed on the inside of your cheek when you were anxious. You rearranged things that didn’t need organizing. Those were typical. But the tapping was becoming more and more common.
You’d always done it, drumming your fingers against tables, books, the back of his hand. There was never a rhyme or reason to it. But recently it’s been constant. Every time Connor spent time with you, you were tapping away on something. And recently, there had been a pattern to it, but not one Connor could figure out. You didn’t even seem to realize you were doing it. And it wasn’t annoying or anything. In fact, Connor thought it was really cute.
“You okay?” he asked one night as you ate dinner at his apartment.
You looked up from your food, your hand still on the table. “Hmm?”
“You seem nervous,” observed Connor, reaching across the table to place his hand over yours. “What’s going on, baby?”
Your eyes widened slightly. Then you smiled, and Connor’s heart skipped a beat in response. He loved the way you smiled at him, as if he were the only person in the world.
“It’s nothing,” you said softly, turning your hand over beneath his and tangling your fingers together. You squeezed his hand once, and he squeezed it back twice in return.
Connor knew your answer was a lie– it came out too fast, like you were avoiding talking about it. But he didn’t push you to say anything, choosing to wait for you to come to him.
A week later, Connor was on his way home from practice when he finally decided to take matters into his own hands and figure out what was going on with you. And no one knew you better than your older brother, who happened to be one of Connor’s close friends.
Fraser answered on the second ring.
“Hey, Connor. What’s up?” he asked. “How’s Y/N?”
“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” admitted Connor.
There was a distinct pause on the other end of the phone. “Is she okay?” asked Fraser, a bit of panic in his voice. “Connor, I swear if you did anything to upset her, it is over for you when we play each other next week.”
“Fraser, Y/N and I are fine. At least I think we are,” Connor said. “I don’t remember doing anything wrong. But she has been acting weird recently. I thought I’d see if you had any idea what was happening.”
“Yeah, what’s different about her?”
“She’s just…” Connor paused, trying to find the words. “More nervous lately?”
Fraser was quiet as he listened. Connor could picture his friend’s face, features so similar to the ones he loved on you. You and your brother had the exact same thinking face; it was almost uncanny.
“She keeps doing this tapping thing,” Connor continued.
“Tapping?”
“Yeah.” Connor drummed his fingers against the steering wheel to demonstrate, but he wasn’t sure Fraser could even hear it on the other end of the phone. “She’s always done it, but recently it’s been constant.”
There was another pause.
“Oh,” was all Fraser said when he finally spoke again.
Connor frowned. “What? Is that bad?”
Fraser started to laugh. Hard.
“What?” Connor complained.
“Oh my God,” Fraser laughed even harder.
“What?”
“Connor.”
“Fraser.”
“I think I know exactly what’s happening.”
Connor waited for his friend to explain. When Fraser finally got himself under control, he continued his explanation of your behavior.
“Does she tap the same patterns?”
Connor frowned, trying to recall your habits. He supposed they could have been the same every time, but he never paid that close attention. “Maybe?”
“Is there a rhythm or is it just random?” asked Fraser.
“Definitely a rhythm,” Connor confirmed. At least he knew that.
Fraser laughed again. Connor still couldn’t understand what was so hilarious. Maybe this was a Minten family inside joke that Connor hadn’t been made aware of. Perhaps it was some elaborate prank organized by you and your brother.
“Oh, that’s incredible,” said Fraaser once his fit of giggles had subsided.
“What is?” asked Connor, utterly confused.
“Y/N’s been doing that since we were kids,” explained Fraser. “She went through a Morse code phase when she and Bryce were seven. Made me go outside to the backyard and communicate with her using a flashlight. She’d sit in her bedroom and send me messages for hours on end. She said it made her feel like a secret agent on a mission. It was a cute phase, I had no idea she remembered it after so many years.”
Connor blinked. “Morse code?” he asked, still confused.
“Yeah.”
Connor sat and thought about that for a moment. Maybe you had been trying to tell him something for weeks, and he was too dumb to figure it out? And now he needed your older brother to spoon feed the answers to him.
“Any idea what she would be saying?” Connor asked.
Fraser hummed, but didn’t answer immediately. Then he let out a snort of laughter. “Oh.”
“What?”
“Oh my God, Connor,” he said through his laughter. “Do you need me to spell this out for you?”
Connor’s cheeks burned. He was really starting to feel dumb for not understanding what was going on. “Go ahead,” he grumbled.
“She’s nervous around you,” said Fraser. “And she does this when she’s with you. Plus it’s gotten worse recently…”
“Oh my God, she hates me and is scared to break up with me,” Connor said.
At the same time, Fraser finished his rationale with “She’s probably just saying she loves you.”
The car was silent.
“What?” Connor asked.
“What did you say?” asked Fraser, a smile in his voice. “Did you just come to the conclusion that Y/N’s afraid to break up with you?”
“Maybe,” Connor said sheepishly. “Wait a minute. Did you just say she loves me?”
“She hasn’t told you yet?” he asked. “Shit, forget I said anything.”
Connor’s mind was reeling. Sure, you didn’t do well when it came to feelings. You and Connor had spent months in limbo before you started dating, where you were too nervous to admit you liked him, and he had no idea you shared the same feelings he had for you. So no one said anything until his teammate Frank had to intervene.
And even three months of happily dating later, you were still closed off when it came to telling Connor about your feelings for him. Your love language was easily anything but words of affirmation, but Connor didn’t care. He loved you, quirks and all.
But he hadn’t said that yet. He’d wanted to; he’d just waited, as he did to ask you out. He didn’t want to go all in on something if he wasn’t one hundred percent convinced you weren’t on board as well.
The more Connor thought about it, the more plausible Fraser’s theory became. Sure, you had been anxiously tapping more often recently. But you seemed nervous in other ways too. You blushed nearly every time you made eye contact with Connor, smiling shyly at him. At dinner, you’d open your mouth as if to say something, but change your mind and stay quiet or talk about something mundane. Everything clicked.
“Oh,” was all Connor could say.
“Call me after you figure it out,” said Fraser. “And don’t tell her I told you anything. I’m scared she’ll march out onto the ice herself next week to fight me.”
Connor smiled at the thought of seeing you wearing a red Blackhawks jersey, facing off against your much taller brother. It was certainly an interesting picture.
“Bye, Frase,” said Connor.
“Bye.”
The line went dead. Connor sat there for another minute, even though he’d already been sitting in his apartment building’s parking garage for the last five. He had to come up with a game plan.
As soon as he got inside, Connor got to work. He sat cross-legged on his living room floor, laptop open in front of him, notebook in his lap.
A Morse code alphabet was scrawled across the page of the notebook, the laptop screen containing a video Frank had sent him of you and Connor at a group dinner. It was a sweet video, the two of you talking in hushed voices to each other, looking at each other like no one else was in the room. Frank liked it because Connor looked nice for once. Connor wasn’t sure how to feel about that, he considered himself to be a very kind person, but Frank was Frank.
Once Connor got past how pretty you had looked in the video, he noticed something you were doing with your hand. The tapping. There it was.
And on Twitter, a video of the two of you at a Bulls game showed the same thing: your fingers drumming against Connor’s thigh, a bright smile on your face when you realized the two of you had appeared on the big screen.
Connor played the two videos side by side. The patterns were exactly the same. He’d cracked the code! Well, not yet.
He painstakingly paused the Jumbotron video from Twitter, counting taps and rewinding it to make sure it was correct.
Two taps in quick succession. I. A seven-count pause to indicate a new word. Short long short short. L.
Connor wrote down each combination of taps, then translated them into regular letters. It took him far too long to do it, but slowly, the letters pieced together. An ‘O,’ a ‘V.’
His stomach dropped and flipped like an Olympic diver into a swimming pool when he realized what he had written.
I LOVE QOU.
Wait, that couldn’t be correct. Connor rewound the video and double-checked his work. Right, that was a ‘Y,’ not a ‘Q.’
He fixed his work and stared at the paper. Then, in complete disbelief, he watched the video from Frank and repeated the same process. Same result. Back to the first video. I LOVE YOU.
Every single time, the same sentence.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Over and over, for weeks, maybe longer. And Connor had no idea. He couldn’t believe you had been laying your heart out on the line, and he had chalked it up to it being your nervous energy. He also couldn’t believe that earlier, he had come to the conclusion that you wanted to break up with him. The evidence proved quite the opposite.
Of course, Fraser was right. The Minten siblings were showing once again that they knew each other better than anyone else in their lives.
Connor’s thoughts wandered straight back to you, as they often did. You loved him. He loved you too, of course he did. Now he just had to tell you in a way only you could understand.
Two days later, you and Connor were curled up on the couch in his apartment. You were going through flashcards for an exam you had the following week, and Connor was swiping through TikTok. It was quiet except for a sigh from you when you couldn’t remember a definition or a giggle from Connor when he saw something funny.
Your legs were across Connor’s lap, one of his arms resting over them protectively. He had been absently tracing his fingers over your thighs. But after a while, he decided to test his theory.
Tap tap.
Pause.
Tap tap. Tap tap.
A familiar pattern, one that Connor had practiced over and over in the car on the way to practice, on his stick handle while he was on the bench. He knew it well.
You paused as you realized what your boyfriend was doing, your jaw going slack. Your flashcards slipped out of your hands, going everywhere. You looked at Connor. Then at his hand on your knee. Then back at him. Your eyes widened as you saw the playful smile on Connor’s face.
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes,” he said.
“Connor.”
“Y/N.”
You tried to sit up normally, but Connor held tight to your legs, preventing you from going anywhere.
“You know Morse code?” you asked, your voice small.
“Which one?” You asked, but Connor didn’t need to answer. Of course, it was the eldest of your siblings. “Was it Fraser? Oh, I am going to kill him when he plays you next week.”
Connor laughed. “He said you’d say that.”
You dropped your face into your hands. “I need a new family,” you mumbled, your voice muffled by your palms over your mouth.
“I think it’s a little late for that,” said Connor, gently trying to pry your hands away from your beautiful face. When you refused to look at him, he just watched you fondly, running a hand through your hair.
Eventually, you peeked through your fingers. Connor almost laughed at how cute you looked like that. “So you know what it means.”
It wasn’t a question.
“Yeah.”
A pause. Then a quiet “And?” Your voice was higher-pitched than usual.
Connor reached for your hand, intertwining your fingers. Your hand trembled as he lifted it to his lips, pressing a soft kiss to your knuckles.
“I love you too,” he murmured against your skin.
Your breath hitched, then you held your breath. You weren’t sure if you heard him right. But Connor was looking at you with so much affection, so much love, that he couldn’t have said anything else.
You loved him so, so much, and here he was, saying the words out loud that you had been silently communicating to him for weeks. You were overwhelmed by your feelings of happiness.
“You do?” you asked, tears welling in your eyes.
Connor squeezed your hand. “So much, baby.”
You released his hand and quickly moved your legs so you could hug him properly, throwing your arms around him. The force of it nearly sent him sprawling across the couch. His laughter disappeared against your shoulder.
One of Connor’s hands slid into your hair, holding the back of your head so you were as close to him as he could get you. For a moment, neither of you said anything. You just enjoyed the certainty of knowing your feelings lined up, neither of you having to hide them anymore.
But after a few moments, you pulled back slightly so you could look at your boyfriend.
“I love you.”
There it was. Three words, eight letters. Finally spoken aloud. You had done it, without your silly Morse code habits. Somehow, it was even better than Connor had imagined. He smiled as he tenderly brushed a strand of hair behind your ear.
Then he kissed you, his lips soft against yours.
“I love you too,” he said again when the kiss broke.
“For the record,” you said quietly. “You spelled it wrong.”
Connor groaned, his head tipping back against the couch cushion. “It was the ‘Y,’ wasn’t it? I always mixed it up with ‘Q.’”
“I love qou,” you giggled, saying his misspelling out loud. “God, Connor, I’m in love with an idiot.”
“I’m going to ignore the ‘idiot’ part,” Connor said, peppering your face in kisses until you were laughing hysterically. “But I’m in love with qou too.”
_connorbedard has added to their story…
replies
yn.minten ilq2!
_connorbedard 😘
fraserminten you spelled ily wrong
_connorbedard that’s an inside joke you wouldn’t get it
fraserminten inside joke or just you being illiterate
_connorbedard 🖕
seeing those “your camera roll if you were dating (insert name of a very specific nhl player)” knowing i could that could have been my camera roll if i hadn’t absolutely fumbled (it was barely a fumble, he was just snooping on my social media)…
should i start posting on tuesdays as well as fridays? i feel like once a week is not enough but i also worry about getting burnt out posting twice a week
- very happy we got andersson, he seems promising, even if he may never end up playing
- omg and guerin getting the gm of the year was so deserved (please sign quinn hughes)
- sharks are going to be strong next season omg
- watching chase reid get picked seventh felt like watching my favorite indycar drivers do well in oval qualifying and then drop down the order as more people go (i know, this is very niche)
- justin bieber drafting mckenna was crazy
- whoever was on aux deserves a raise, i loved the 5sos reference
- i love that the twins are staying together, we’ll see if they actually get to play for the penguins together
- leafs proving time and time again that they fumbled the minten/carlo trade
- to go off of that, FRASER MINTEN MENTION (I’m so normal about that nerd)
- c graf’s brother got drafted to nashville? i didn’t even know he existed
- all in all, good time for baby’s first nhl draft! i’m v excited for next season (free me from free agency starting next week, i’m scared)
how life feels going into night 1 of the draft knowing my team doesn’t get to pick tonight and doesn’t have to until the third round, and therefore i get to sit back and enjoy:
“i’ve been touring stateside
kissing my swedish boy over facetime”
in which ! a pop princess soft launches her boyfriend through her new album
notes ! i'm sure this has been done a million times already, so this is pure coincidence if it is similar to other people's posts! also this is my first full smau and i apologize in advance, it is not my best work :(, william is nicknamed wille bc i cannot call a swedish man will, it's against my nature, there are like two suggestive comments but nothing crazy
word count ! 1.2k except it's just comments
user1 OH EM GEE
pinkpantheress i had so much fun working with you! 🫶
your.username @/pinkpantheress we need to collab again soon!
user2 is swedish boy real?
your.username @/user2 🤐
user3 ON REPEAT
user4 can’t wait for the album!
your.username @/user4 who said there was going to be an album? 😉
user4 @/your.username is this confirmation???
yourbestfriend Y/N I LOVE THIS SONG AND YOU
your.username @/yourbestfriend thank you for listening to it when it was a work in progress and bad
yourbestfriend @/your.username baby you could never write a bad song
user1 oh she’s in LOVE LOVE
user2 what a breath of fresh air after the last album 😭
user3 @/user2 that album was so sad omg
user4 someone figure out what man made her write such a sappy looking album
yourbestfriend AHHHHHH i can’t wait to listen to it!
your.username @/yourbestfriend girl you’ve already heard it–
yourbestfriend @/your.username well yes but now you get paid for it
yourbestfriend @/your.username i have to make sure my girl is well provided for 💪
user5 i call dibs on lover girl
user6 what song’s going to make me cry the most?
your.username @/user6 my love all mine or come back, be here!
user6 @/your.username oh i know i’m going to be adding those to my sad playlist
your.username has added to their story…
replies
eklund_72 kissing you in person real soon ❤️
your.username I CAN’T WAIT OMGGGGGGGGGGGG
eklund_72 damn someone’s excited
your.username i mean i guess that’s fine for you to do that
eklund_72 my nonchalant girl 😘
yourbestfriend you were incredible!!!!!!!!
yourbestfriend i could watch you perform every day for the rest of my life
yourbestfriend can i follow you for the rest of the tour
your.username @/yourbestfriend don’t worry you’re on my packing list already! <3
yourbestfriend @/your.username just realized i have work and can’t go
your.username @/yourbestfriend maybe next time 😔
user1 BEST CONCERT EVER!
user2 oh i can’t wait for my concert
your.username @/user2 which one are you going to?
user2 @/your.username minneapolis!
user3 having so much fomo rn…
user4 praying she adds loves a waste to the set list, i miss that song
your.username @/user4 oh you know ball
your.username has added to their story…
replies…
eklund_72 min äskling ❤️
your.username i miss you already 😘
eklund_72 i’ve literally never played better than last night, i think you have to come to every game now
your.username but i have tour…
eklund_72 cancel it
your.username but…the world tour…
eklund_72 is that a justin timberlake reference?
your.username maybe…
yourbestfriend OMG EKY ON MAIN
your.username can’t show his pretty face though 💔
yourbestfriend just hard launch him
your.username no bc what if people are mean to me, or worse, HIM
yourbestfriend then as the #1 fan of you and wille, i will fight all of them
your.username and i’ll fight them all with you bc no one can be mean to my wille
yourbestfriend “my wille” Y/N BABY YOU’RE SO IN LOVE
your.username i’m aware i wrote a whole album about him 🧍♀️
yourbestfriend he’s literally your muse!
your.username i guess he is!
user1 GIRL WHO ARE YOU HIDING
user2 IS THIS THE GUY THAT INSPIRED YOUR ALBUM
user3 y/n y/l/n is dating a san jose shark: confirmed?
user4 are you dating macklin celebrini?
eklund_72 has added to their story…
replies…
your.username blurry ahh photo omg
eklund_72 all of the other ones had your face in it :(
your.username that’s okay tho bc my tits look fantastic
eklund_72 damn right they do
your.username omg wille are you flirting with me? 🥰
eklund_72 yes?
your.username good, that’s your job
eklund_72 good boyfriend first, hockey player second
your.username exactly!
_willsmith2 this is why you had to leave after practice so quickly?
eklund_72 please don’t tell coach
_willsmith2 i won’t if you tell me who she is
eklund_72 you’re not going to believe me but y/n y/l/n
_willsmith2 you’re right i don’t
eklund_72 believe me or don’t but it’s true
_willsmith2 fine then introduce me and mack to her or i tell coach
eklund_72 that can be arranged
mackcelebrini YOU’RE DATING Y/N Y/L/N?
eklund_72 how’d you figure that out from one photo
mackcelebrini i’m magic (i’m with will rn)
eklund_72 i should’ve guessed 🙄
mackcelebrini okay so you're telling me she wrote tears about YOU?
eklund_72 do you want me to be honest?
mackcelebrini okay i'm gonna pretend i never asked, that's disgusting eky
eklund_72 😛
mackcelebrini GROSS
your.username has added to their story…
eklund_72 has added to their story…
user1 and what if i kms?
user2 y/n being off the market is actually devastating news (she wrote a whole album about being in love, i should have seen this coming)
user3 mr. eklund you ain’t slick…
user4 @/user3 AS IN WILLIAM? OR VICTOR?
user3 @/user4 🦈
user5 it’s totally william eklund, he was at her show in chicago and she said there was a ‘very special someone’ in the audience
user6 @/user5 plus she was especially emotional singing cbbh, i think long distance is really hard for her
user7 omg they look so happy!
user8 @/user7 bro you can’t even see their faces
user7 @/user8 yes but the vibes feel happy, plus her posts about him are cute 🥰
user1 it’s totally eky, he was at her concert and she visited san jose at the beginning of her tour/was at his game
user2 damn i thought she was dating macklin
user3 @/user2 girl where did you come up with that idea?
user2 @/user3 idk i guess they just look like they’d be cute
user3 @/user2 she’s like three years older than him…
user4 william eklund you are mister stateside ❤️
user5 okay but what a power couple
user6 okay it’s totally eky, y/n just posted that she’s doing a european leg of her tour this summer and there’s a noticeable break right after she’s in sweden
user7 stop i’m so happy for them!
eklund_72 i’m so happy ❤️
eklund_72 i love getting to share my life with you
your.username @/eklund_72 i can’t believe i’m a hockey fan thanks to you!
eklund_72 you are such a blessing min äskling
your.username @/eklund_72 baby you cannot be real
your.username @/eklund_72 like i have never been so in love with someone
your.username @/eklund_72 my muse fr
user1 OMG I KNEW IT
user2 watch out lexi lafleur brown, a new queen of the wags has arrived
your.username @/user2 omg thanks?
yourbestfriend Y/N AND WILLE HARD LAUNCH
yourbestfriend MY FAVE COUPLE EVER OMG
yourbestfriend MAMA Y PAPA FR
eklund_72 @/yourbestfriend you mean mamma och pappa
yourbestfriend @/eklund_72 MAMMA OCH PAPPA
user3 eky you can’t fight all of us
eklund_72 @/user3 but i can try my hardest
eklund_72 @/user3 and i’ll get reave-o to step in when i’m too hurt
your.username @/eklund_72 help?
user4 i’m going to spontaneously combust
user5 i’m so happy for y/n, idk this william guy but he looks sweet and she deserves someone like him
your.username @/user5 he’s the absolute sweetest <3
just crashed out so many times making this eky smau and i don’t even like it that much. it comes out tomorrow morning, and everyone please be grateful bc tears went into that disasterpiece
i have a connor bedard one shot scheduled to post on friday but with the eky trade i might lock in on the smau i have planned for him and post that instead.
pixelskylines
stormborns
andulkaphoto
snowghoul
turnnoffyourmind
tangentwithtanner