in year four, coach can’t make it up for family weekend once again and bitty’s feeling a bit blue about it, ‘cause he thought maybe being Captain would make his dad more determined to clear his schedule or whatever. but he bakes some pies in preparation for his mama, chats with the chows and the nurses and meets ford’s moms and whiskey’s siblings and there’s a mini party going on at the haus pre-game when the doorbell rings.
now, bitty knows it’s probably his mama because who else would ring the doorbell? so he opens the door and yes, his mama is there, but next to her is Shitty in a sweater vest and tie, holding a pipe and wearing reading glasses he must have stolen from ransom.
“son!” he shouts, arms open. “my boy, you’ve grown six inches since i saw you last! been eating your spinach, i see.”
and mama’s laughing and going along with it, so bitty grins and lets shitty pull him into a hug. and the whole night Mr. Crappy is absolute gentleman, making small talk with the other parents and introducing himself as bitty’s Honorary Father. (”because i’m honored to be his dad for the evening, git it?”)
and bitty is so happy to see his mama and so tickled by shitty that he forgets how sad he was feeling earlier. at the end of the evening, after the game, he pulls shitty aside to thank him. and shitty kisses the top of his head very loudly and says, “bits, c’mon. that’s what family’s for.”
a suggestion: bitty comes out to shitty a bit earlier and while he's figuring himself out and shitty's long-distance pining for lardo, they do a super cute super casual FWB thing
That was a lie; he loved his house. He loved the stillness in the red and gold of the common room at dawn, loved the crowd clad in those same colors cheering for his team on the pitch. Jack loved Lardo, his closest (and possibly only) friend in the tower. He loved that nobody, with the exception of a few muggle-born students, knew anything about his parents. Most days, he even loved his magic.
But Jack hated his roommates. The Marauders, they called themselves, always parading around and barely getting themselves out of trouble. Everyone else seemed to love their pranks, even the Slytherins at times, but not Jack.
(Perhaps he was biased; they picked fights with Parse more than anyone. Parse had been Jack’s first friend in this world, the first person to tell him he wasn’t a freak. And yeah, he sometimes deserved having his pumpkin juice spiked with hair-coloring potions or for all his pants to dance themselves around the Great Hall during breakfast, but it all felt like too much most days. At least Parse had never called Jack a mudblood. That was better than most of the Marauders’ targets could say.)
This was why Jack couldn’t help but feel confused when he saw Knight -- Jack refused to call him Shitty -- with his head in Bittle’s lap. That in itself wasn’t confusing, however; it was the jealousy Jack felt that was so befuddling.
“What are they doing now?” Lardo asked, not bothering to look up from her work. “The moron-ers?”
“Nothing,” Jack said too quickly. Lardo looked up, interest piqued.
“Oh,” she said, noticing Bittle run a hand through Knight’s long, ridiculous hair. “When did that happen?”
“What happened?” Jack wished the weird, angry bubbles of jealousy in his chest would just pop and go away. “You don’t think-?”
Lardo shrugged. “It kind of makes sense. But Knight’s always like that. It might not be anything.”
Jack didn’t mention that Knight was really only like that with Adam and Justin, the other boys in his crew. Bittle was the odd duck in their group--the shortest by several inches, thin and covered in scars that no one ever had an explanation for. He didn’t wrestle like the other boys, didn’t shout or talk back to professors or even swear when he forgot the password to the tower. Jack couldn’t imagine Bittle being affectionate with anyone, so this....this was odd.
“Things are going to get awkward in the dorm, huh?” Lardo laughed, nudging Jack’s arm. “Better work on your muffliato.”
Jack blanched at the thought of the things he might overhear, with his bed right next to Bittle’s. Before this development, Bittle had acted as a buffer between Jack and the explosions that came from Ransom and Holster’s corner of the room. Now, though…
“I’m going out,” Jack said, patting the pockets of his robes to ensure he had the keys to the broom shed. He’d borrow a Cleansweep and fly these thoughts right out of his head and never, ever unlock the door that held the answer of why he was feeling this way.
“Is that code for masturbation?” Lardo asked innocently, face schooled in a neutral expression.
Jack rolled his eyes and ruffled her hair as he stood. “Finish your work,” he said, using his best Quidditch captain voice.
“Not on your team,” she said with a quirked eyebrow. “You can’t tell me what to do.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Jack said drily. He cast one last look at Bittle and Knight -- Knight was now telling some story that involved waving his hands around, dangerously close to Bittle’s scarred, kind face -- and headed out the portrait hole, pushing all thoughts of his annoying roommates from his head.
-in the winter, shitty sleeps naked because his room is overheated. bitty still wears wool socks and a sweatshirt in addition to his pajamas. they're quite a pair. -shitty can't easily manhandle bitty the way the other guys can but he still tries. it's not unusual for him to drop bitty. -bitty retaliates by picking shitty up and carrying him to the nearest snowbank -bitty likes to wear shitty's clothes. it takes him a while to realize that means half the time he's actually wearing Jack's clothes. to his credit, jack has never seemed fazed by it -bitty feels totally out of place when he visits shitty at Harvard, surrounded by all these very intellectual, very well-spoken academics, so shitty always takes him around to explore different parts of Boston so neither of them feel stifled by Cambridge -(shitty prefers to come out to Samwell anyway. even if that makes him THAT alumnus) -their favorite dates begin at the haus being chirped relentless by their best friends and end alone in someone's room, determining just how badly they want to scar jack, and later chowder. (thin walls. very thin walls.)
it's my personal headcanon that bitty has a massive, inexplicable crush on shitty his freshman year. it makes no sense, with guys like ransom and johnson on the team, but there you have it. when b becomes friends with lardo, they have several hangouts where, after an entire nalgene of boxed wine, lardo goes on a rant about not understanding how she's fallen for someone like shitty and b just pats her arm and says, "been there." (several years down the line, the crew has reunited for some event. bitty finally fesses up to his crush in a game of truth or dare and shitty is so Touched and Honored that he sits in B's lap the rest of the night, cuddling him.) (it takes many many more shots before bitty confesses to his crush on chowder sophomore year. but that's for a different post.)
“Bits, when was the last time someone gave you a good, old-fashioned cuddle?”
Bitty raised an eyebrow at Shitty, uncertain of where this was going. “Um, when I was child, probably. Why?”
Shitty shrugged, wandering further into Bitty’s room. “IDK, man, you just always seem so…guarded. And, like, mega tense. And it makes me sad, ‘cause you’re a ‘swawesome dude and you deserved to have the everloving fuck cuddled outta ya.”
“Oh.” Bitty shifted in his perch on his bed, setting his laptop down on the floor. It wasn’t like he was getting any work done, anyway. “It’s no big deal. And it’s not like I have boys lined up down the street vyin’ to cuddle me…”
“But you should,” Shitty said, flopping across the foot of Bitty’s bed belly-first. “Just c’mere and let me cuddle you, okay? You’ve been sad this week.”
And, yes, maybe Bitty had been struggling in checking practices worse than usual and, yes, maybe he was stressed about one of his classes, but he wouldn’t say he’d been sad. Still, the offer of a cuddle from a fully-clothed Shitty seemed too good to turn down. So few guys had ever asked to be this close to Bitty, and none had ever come into his room just wanting to snuggle. He sighed and nodded and let Shitty koala onto him, head tucked against neck.
“You smell wicked good,” Shitty said casually, throwing one leg over Bitty’s thighs. “And you’re so warm…gonna sleep here forever.”
“Okay, Shitty,” Bitty said, slowly reaching up to pet Shitty’s hair. Shitty leaned into the touch, so Bitty continued combing his fingers through the surprisingly clean and soft flow. “This is nice.”
“‘Course it is,” Shitty mumbled, eyes already closed. “B. Shitty Knight cuddles are legendary, bro.”
“I’m sure,” Bitty said, his own eyes growing heavy. With Shitty draped across him like a heavy, heated blanket, he was grounded and comfortable, all of the tension and anxiety seeping from his body. Maybe he’d been more stressed than he’d realized. Maybe he’d just rest his eyes for a few moments.
When Jack passed by the open door a few minutes later, he poked his head in to see both men passed out on Bitty’s bed, snoring softly. He smiled at his two best friends and closed the door with a quiet click.
