Career day – Auston Matthews
summary: your son ask your boyfriend if he wants to be his guest for career day.
pairing: Auston Matthews x singlemom!reader
I have no idea if career day actually works like that but I thought the idea was cute
I keep writing new things instead of what I should finish........
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“Mom, can I wear Auston´s jersey to school today? I want to surprise him when he gets home later.” Your 9-year-old son asked when he stumbled out of the bathroom in a rush barely stopping before smashing into the kitchen counter.
Felix trotted over from his bed, making sure his small best friend was okay before laying back down, making you laugh. “Yes, you can sweety, I think it´s still in the laundry room if you want to check.” And off he was before you could even finish your sentence.
Your son was your boyfriend´s biggest fan. Ever since you introduced him to Auston about two years ago was all he ever wanted to do to spend time with him.
You had been a little scared about introducing the then 7-year-old to the new man in your life, but it had been a few years since you and his dad broke up and falling for Auston had been quick and easy.
When you moved into his house a few months ago Nico couldn’t have been more excited and soon after him wearing his jersey to school on days Auston would return from road trips became a tradition.
Nico still believed he was actually surprising Auston, but your boyfriend and almost all of his teammates knew there would be a cute picture of Nico in the jersey sent to the team group chat later.
“I found it!” Nico proudly announced as he barreled out of the laundry room, already wearing the familiar blue jersey with the white maple leaf and “Matthews 34” on the back.
“Great, get your stuff, we´re leaving in 5 minutes,” and off he was again.
An hour later, Nico was dropped off at school, and you were back at home, getting the dogs ready to be walked before doing some work.
Felix grumbled having to go outside in the cold November air, while Rico excitedly jumped around you as you grabbed leashes and poop bags.
Right as you were putting on your shoes keys jiggled in the doorway.
The dogs immediately recognized what was going on and ran to the doors, nails scratching on the floor.
Auston had barely time to set his backpack down before they were jumping up at him. “Hey, guys. Did you miss me?” he laughed, rubbing the dogs bellies and cuddling them like he hadn’t seen them in three years, not three days.
“Oh, they missed you. Slept on your side of the bed just like always.”
Auston stood back up and walked over to you. “Hey, baby.” He kissed you, soft and slow. “Missed you.”
“Missed you too, how was the flight?”
He groaned. “Fine, I chatted with Chief about some stuff and Nico is invited to the Tavare´s house because Jace wants a playdate.”
You laughed, Jace Tavares was a few years younger than Nico but the two of them were as thick as thieves. Mostly bonding over their shared love for hockey.
“I´ll text Aryne and set something up,” you laughed before leaning into his hold. He had only been gone three days, but you still missed him each time he left.
“I was just about to walk the dogs; do you want to come or just chill?”
“I´ll come but let me change first, okay?” He kissed your cheek before going upstairs to change out of his team issued travel fit.
15 minutes later you were out the door, hand in hand, the dogs trotting in front of you down the quiet street.
“What were you up to all weekend? Sorry for not checking in much but you know how it is.” You leaned into his arm. “Don’t worry about it. Nico had a sleepover with one of his friends from school and I had dinner with the ladies before we watched the game together.”
“Did Nico watch with his friend?” You laughed. Auston was a little obsessed with Nico being his biggest fan.
“Of course he did, and apparently he kept telling him how he knew Auston Matthews so his mom expressed her concerns until I confirmed to her that he does in fact know Auston Matthews,” you chuckled.
Hardly anyone outside of family and friends knew you and Auston were together. Partly because he valued his privacy, partly because you did not want to drag Nico into the spotlight that would undoubtedly come with dating one of Toronto´s biggest stars.
“Let´s just say she was pretty stunned.” Auston laughed. “Did Trevor tell you if he wants to come over for Thanksgiving? One person more or less will not make a difference.”
You and your sons father had a good relationship. You were hardly dating when you got pregnant at 20 but you were together for almost 4 years after Nico was born. In the end it didn’t work out but you were still friends and did a great job co-parenting.
“Oh, yeah. He will be there. I think it´s still a little surreal for him that the team will be there, but he promised to not be as awkward around them as last time.”
Last time Trevor met the team was when he was picking up Nico for his weekend the day Auston hosted the customary welcome back party for the team. At the time he almost tripped over one of William´s dogs and talked to Brandon Carlo about how much the Bruins suck until Nico not so subtly reminded him that Brandon used to play for them.
The guys laughed it off, but he still became the victim of some chirps every now and then. “Willy will appreciate it,” Auston laughed. “I´ll let the caterers know there will be one more person.”
The two of you strolled through the area half an hour longer before returning home, where Auston unpacked and you got some work done.
At 3 pm you got ready to pick Nico up from school while Auston was watching TV. “I´ll go and pick Nico up.” You leaned over the couch to kiss him. “Do you want to order in for dinner or should I cook something? I think we have some chicken, I could make chicken tortilla soup, your mom´s recipe.”
“Yeah, I´d love that. If you don’t mind, I can try and do Nico´s homework with him when you´re back.” You laughed, Auston tried to help with Nico whenever he could but sometimes fourth grade math was not what he was prepared to do, and it had been a long time since he was in fourth grade.
“He´d love that, he´s been beaming about you coming back since waking up.”
“Did he wear his jersey to school?” he asked laughing. “Of course he did.”
“Celly owes me a hundred dollars, I can´t believe he fell for Kniesy´s bluff.” You chuckled.
Whenever new players joined the team, Matthew Knies made it his mission to convince him that Nico wasn’t wearing the jersey every time Auston came home. And most times, Matthew won and got Auston an extra hundred dollars, which he always put away for Nico and gave to spend at the end of the season.
“They always fall for it,” you chuckled. “Even though he met Nico and saw with his own eyes how obsessed he is.”
“That always makes me think about how Brandon tried to convince him that I´m not actually that cool and the little genius asked him now many goals he scored since becoming a Leaf.”
Let´s say, Brandon Carlo went home very humbled that night.
“I need to go, see you in a bit,” you kissed him again before rushing out the door.
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Even though moving in with Auston made Nico´s way to school almost twice as long as before, he didn’t want to switch, which you understood and you would have never forced him to, even if it meant getting up earlier and a longer drive in Toronto traffic.
When you pulled up to the school, there was already a variety of parents waiting. Nico had been in the same class with most of these kids since first grade which meant you were good acquaintances with most parents.
Striking up a conversation with Nico´s best friends mom, you didn’t notice the woman approaching from the other side of the parking lot. “Still picking up Nico on your own.”
Your head snapped to the side. Christina used to be your best friend at U of T, until you got pregnant, by the guy she used to date in high school.
At the time you didn’t know Trevor used to date Christina, but they had been broken up for over a year when you met him, and almost two when you got pregnant. Still, she never forgave you and she had been holding a grudge ever since.
“I knew Trevor would lose interest in you soon enough, and no one dates single mom´s anyways.” You rolled your eyes. Her behavior was childish, and you hardly ever entertained it, but whenever she was bringing Nico into it, you needed to try a little harder to remain composed.
She had a kid with some higher up manager at some computer firm in Toronto, and she thought she was someone around the city because people knew the company´s name. Little did she knew, no one gives a shit who some manager at some firm dates.
And let´s be honest, your boyfriend made more money in the 7 months a year he gets paid to play hockey, than her husband did in ten years of working, but she didn’t need to know that. You weren’t one to flex being with a rich man.
“Christina, good to see you,” you smiled, completely ignoring her jab.
“I would say good to see you too, but that would be a lie.” You rolled your eyes and turned back to Nico´s friends mom.
Thankfully, the kids came out of the building before she could say anything else. Nico rushed over, his jersey in his hands, just wearing his shirt. “Mom, is he back yet?” He rushed out as soon as he saw you. “He´s back and waiting for you at home.”
Nico´s teacher followed the last kids out of the building, walking a bit quicker when she spotted you. “Could I have a quick word with you?” she asked with a soft smile.
“Of course, is everything okay with Nico?” you looked at his friends mom over her shoulder, and she nodded confirming she would keep an eye on your son while you talked with his teacher.
“It´s nothing really pressing but uhm…how do I say this…” Nico´s teacher was a young woman, maybe the same age as you were, still relatively new to the job. “Just out with it, I won´t judge, I know my son can be a little much sometimes.” You laughed, trying to make her feel better about it.
“Okay, well, Nico keeps saying he knows Auston Matthews and he will bring him to career day in two weeks. I don’t really know where he gets it from, and I know he´s a fan, given he wears his jersey every other day or week but maybe you should talk to him about it. The other kids are starting to make a little fun of him, it´s nothing bad but it´s clear that they don’t believe him. Well, besides his friends that somehow do.”
You had to try hard to hold back a laugh. Initially tried to tell Nico he should not talk about living with Auston Matthews, trying to explain to him that he valued his private life to stay private, but in the end, you couldn’t control what he was saying to the people in school.
And obviously his friends believed him, because they were at your house every other week.
“I would talk to him about it, but Nico is not lying about this.” His teacher raised an eyebrow at you, clearly confused.
You pulled out your phone and showed her your wallpaper. A picture of you, Auston, Nico, Felix and Rico at his place his Arizona over the summer. “Auston, is my partner and while I can´t promise you that he will have the time to show up for career day, I´m sure Nico will ask him about it as soon as we arrive home.”
She looked at you in silence for a few seconds, so, you continued. “I would really appreciate if you would keep this private. We really value our privacy.”
She nodded. “Wow, I´m sorry for bringing it up in this case. It would be exciting to have someone like Auston Matthews at career day but of course I understand. We´re looking forward to whoever Nico is bringing.”
You smiled. “No need to apologize. I know how it sounds when a kid goes around telling people they know a celebrity.”
“Thank you. Have a great rest of your day. See you tomorrow, Nico!”
“Bye, Ms. Can we go now, mom? I want to show Auston that I wore his jersey to school again.”
“Yeah, let´s go. Thanks for keeping an eye out, and I´ll text you about next weekend.” Nico´s friends mom nodded before you went back to the car.
“And then Francis dared to say that Willy is better than you, because he had more points, but you had two goals which is better than three assists,” Nico took a break from speaking to put another piece of apple in his mouth.
“Francis has no idea,” Auston laughed and you shot him a look.
“Wasn’t there something you wanted to ask Auston?” you reminded your son, who was still chewing on his apple.
“Oh yeah, Auston do you want to be my person for career day?” The hockey player stopped in his movement. This was the first time Nico really asked him to do something for his school. He mostly didn’t want to ask because he knew Auston was really busy most days, but this was important to him.
Last year, he asked his dad, who, as an IT-manager for a semi-big company, impressed the kids with hacks and games, but it wasn’t being an NHL player.
“It´s Friday two weeks from now,” you injected. “The day after you come home from the trip.”
You looked at him over Nico´s shoulder, trying to signal him that it was okay if he said no, may it be under the disguise of being busy or because he just didn’t want to. “I´d love to, bud. Thank you for thinking of me.”
Your mouth curved into a soft smile. “Of course, you have like the coolest job ever. Can I go play, mom. My homework is done.”
“Yeah, of course, I´ll call you when dinner is ready.”
“Come on Rico, we´ll find Felix and we´ll play Lego.”
You smiled softly at your son who left quickly with the small dog.
While you cooked dinner, Auston was unusually quiet. Usually, he was telling you about his trips, what the guys got up to when they had time off or where they went to dinner, but right now he was just sitting on the couch, staring at the muted TV.
When the soup was ready to simmer for a while you walked over and sat next to him. “You okay?”
He lifted his arm, letting you snuggle into his side. “Yeah, I´m great actually. I can´t believe he asked me to speak at his career day.” Your smile softened. “You heard him, you have the coolest job in the world.” Auston laughed. “Yeah, I guess I have.”
The two of you were quiet for a beat. “I thought he would ask Trevor again, or maybe you.”
“Trevor was there last year, and I was there during his second-grade career day. Not that I had a lot of interesting things to tell. You´re important to him, Aus.”
“He´s important to me too, you both are. This might be a bigger assignment than when I have to speak in front of the worlds hockey media.”
You rolled your eyes and playfully slapped his arm. “I´m sure you´ll do great. I´m excited that my son will beat Christinas on the coolness scale for once. Today she came up to me and asked if I still picked up Nico on my own, while she picked up her son in her own. It didn’t even make sense. Her childish behavior is getting on my nerves and I´m ready to stick it to her for once.”
Auston chuckled. “You deserve it, babe.”
Two weeks later, Auston did last minute preparation for his presentation at Nico´s school.
He even had recruited the marketing department to get hats for all the students.
Right now, he was mid conversation with Craig Berube, but he kept checking the time at the wall clock. “Go, we finish this up tomorrow,” Craig laughed when he sensed his captains urgency to leave.
“Thanks, Chief. I´ll report back on how it went.”
In the hall he ran into Matthew Knies and William Nylander. “Where are you rushing off to?” Matthew asked laughing.
“I told you I´m speaking at Nico´s career day today. I´ll have to leave now otherwise I´ll be stuck in traffic and late.” He excused himself.
Matthew and William exchanged a look. “Let´s go.”
Auston stopped in his tracks. “What do you mean let´s go?”
“We´re obviously coming with you. Nico will be the coolest kid in the entire school if the full Leafs top line shows up for his career day,” William laughed.
“Yeah, okay, but hurry up, we really have to leave.”
You and Nico walked into the school early in the morning without Auston. He had to be at practice before joining you later, shortly before it was his turn to speak.
You sat through presentations of parents who were bankers, a firefighter, a police officer. One kid brought their uncle who was working in finance for MLSE.
The kids were outside during their lunchbreak, while the parents stayed inside catching up.
“Weren´t you Nico´s career day entry in second grade? Couldn’t find anyone else?” Christina quipped next to you, while you were mid-conversation with the police officer mom.
“Are you not getting tired of acting like this?” you chuckled.
“Just making polite conversation,” she smiled, but you knew it was anything but polite. Her son brought his stepbrother who was a social media manager for a college and entertained the kids by having them design Instagram posts for his school which would probably never see the day while explaining what he did.
It was pretty interesting to see that there was more to the job than just posting but you weren’t sure if the kids understood what it actually meant.
“Nico will be just fine,” you shrugged, turning back to your previous conversation.
“You know it´s okay to bring a repeat guest, I mean half these children weren’t here when you talked about spreadsheets the last time. I heard he told someone Auston Matthews is his guest, I wonder where he gets those delusions from.”
You held back a laugh. She was in for a big surprise. “It´s really funny how much you care about what my son does, how about you focus on yours instead.” And that was the conversation over for you.
30 minutes later career day continued. It was Nico´s turn after one more child and based on Auston´s text, he, Matthew and William just pulled up to the school and would be there in a few minutes.
When the girl, who´s guest was her big sister that had her own bakery, was finished, Nico stood up and walked over. “Mom, where is he?” He seemed a little nervous. “He´ll be right there,” and just as you said that it knocked on the door.
Nico´s teacher opened it and in strolled three hockey players, each one holding a bag with what seemed like Leafs caps inside.
Nico beamed up at you when he realized his other two favorite Leafs were here too. “Mom, it´s Matty and Willy. I didn’t know they were coming.”
“I didn’t know either until Auston told me earlier,” you laughed. “We can ask them later; I think it is your time to introduce your guests.”
While Nico walked to the front, high fived the guys and got settled to start his introduction, you looked over at Christina, who was sitting in her chair with her mouth wide open.
The sight alone was enough to endure her unnecessary jabs for another year.
“Hello everyone, I´m Nico, and my guest for career day this year is my mom´s boyfriend. He plays hockey for the Leafs, and he will tell us about how playing hockey in the NHL is. With the help of my favorite uncles Matty and Willy.”
You could see Matthew and Williams face melt when Nico introduced them as his favorite uncles. Neither you nor Trevor had any siblings, so a majority of the team became his fun uncles on the way.
Parents and children looked stunned as the three hockey players stood next to Nico. Auston started by greeting everyone and launching into explaining what being a hockey player entails. He talked about being on the road, William and Matthew intercepted with funny stories about funny incidents that happened during trips. How Auston and Max Domi pranked Leafs rookie Easton Cowan by sending him the bill at a dinner, making the children laugh.
The three of them put on a great show for everyone while Nico beamed at your boyfriend and his teammates.
“And lastly, we brought a little surprise for everyone.” William pulled a hat out of the bad he put down next to him. “Everyone gets a Leafs cap.”
Collective cheering between all the kids.
When all the hats were passed out Auston, William and Matthew said their goodbyes and the call for another short break was made. Nico ran over to Auston and hugged him as tightly as he could before moving on to William and Matthew.
You walked up to them, taking in the scene with a soft smile. “That was the coolest thing ever!” Nico exclaimed. “Francis almost fell from his chair when Willy walked in.” He giggled. “So cool.”
“Hey,” you greeted the guys, quickly hugging Auston’s teammates before greeting him with a short kiss and leaning into his side. “Thank you for coming.”
“If we can help Nico being the coolest dude at his school, we´ll be there,” Matthew said.
“He definitely wins by a mile, but you didn’t have to rob the merch store to make them love you.”
The four of you fell into easy conversation while Nico ran off to his friends. Auston kept an arm around you, lazily stroking up and down your arm. “That lady that keep staring at us, is that her?” he whispered into your ear, disguising it as a kiss to your temple.
You didn’t have to turn around to see who he meant. Christina had been staring since the three of them walked into the room.
“Yeah, before you got here, she came up to me and asked why Nico is so delusional to think Auston Matthews would be his career day guest.”
His brows furrowed. “Bitch,” he mumbled under his breath making the others laugh.
“I wonder if she will still call Nico delusional now.”
From the corner of your eye, you saw Christina walking over after all. “Hi, I´m Christina, the two of us are great friends.”
Auston all but held his laugh back. “I was so excited to hear that Nico would bring such great guests to career day.”
“Are you sure you weren’t calling him delusional?” William intercepted, making her take a step back.
“That´s what I thought,” the Swede continued. You let him talk; you stopped caring about what she did.
“If you don’t mid, we were in the middle of a conversation.”
She rolled her eyes but left thankfully. “How you deal with that every day is beyond me, but how Trevor could have dated her is even further beyond me.” Auston said.
“I stopped caring about what she does, she needs the validation because she doesn’t get it from her husband.”
“Are you staying for the rest of the presentations?” you changed the topic.
“Yeah, Nico said there´s only two left.”
The five of you went out to grab a bite to eat after career day was over.
Nico kept going on about how everyone told him that his guests were the coolest one of the day and how it was so cool that he knew famous hockey players and called them their uncles.
William and Matthew listened intently while eating asking him questions and keeping him entertained while you and Auston leaned back in your chairs and watched.
“You made him really happy today,” you mumbled while you watched Matthew tickle Nico´s side.
“I´m happy he´s happy and if something as little as showing up to his school and stun everyone makes him this happy, I´m glad to assist.”
You leaned over and kissed him softy. “Thank you for making time.”
“You and Nico always come first, even before hockey.” A warmth spread through your chest.
“I love you,” he leaned down to kiss you again.
“Ew, mom and Auston are kissing again,” Nico´s giggly voice snapped you out of your bubble, making everyone around the table laugh.
“You just wait until you´re older, little man,” Auston chuckled before kissing your head and falling into comfortable conversation with his teammates and your son.
