#erikberg

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MADE TO LAST by Las | hockey RPF | T | 1032 words | Loui Eriksson/Carl Soderberg

"Loui’s not one for public displays of affection, but Carl was back in his arms and he has always been the exception to all of Loui’s rules."

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shoutout to carl’s little smile while talking about how he still has friends on the bruins and it immediately cuts to a panting loui eriksson on the ice hahahaha IM FINE

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BHG has no tumblr, but she wants the following, and what BHG wants, BHG gets:

If you do more Loui/Carl I whole-heartedly request #39 - who initiated the relationship and when did they realize they were in LOVE???

Summer of 2014 and everyone picking up after themselves, picking up the pieces of each other. Even in the aftermath, there was chaos - another Lucic controversy, Krejci planning his wedding, and everyone already wondering who’s going to pay for elimination this time. Who’s going to go? Who gets to stay? Carl lets it all wash over him and wonders if it’s cowardly to try and move on like that, but he doesn’t know how he can make it through the summer otherwise. He’s not built for grief. Torey and Marchy tease him for being mechanical, but he just needs something to work towards, that’s all. 

After the very last game, Loui catches up with him in the parking lot, and that’s okay. Loui is the one teammate Carl wouldn’t mind talking to right now.

“Running away from us?” Loui says.

“No,” Carl replies. “I’m going home.”

“Malmo, eh?” 

“Charlestown.”

“No, I mean...” Loui shakes his head, but there is a small smile there. “I mean, later. Later this summer. Are we still on for Malmo?”

“Oh, for--”

“Can I still visit you?” Loui asks. “I know it won’t be with the Cup like we planned, but...”

“But...?”

But Loui just raises his eyebrows expectantly, and what flummoxes Carl is not the question but that Loui feels the need to ask it again. Is there something more? Carl has already said yes. Loui is welcome in his home. Loui is always welcome.

LONG STORY SHORT: Loui, in the offseason, telling Carl he’s glad he’s here, that they’re here together. Loui was unprepared for the trade that sent him to Boston, and Carl was planning and planning for Boston, and Loui is standing close enough to touch, smelling like campfire and pine and making Carl’s heart race. All you need to do is look at Loui to see that maybe his heart is racing too.

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CARL/LOUI 5 10 and 18 PLS

5. Nicknames? Pet names? Any in-jokes? 

 Loui called Chris Kelly ‘storebror’ in front of Carl, and Kells was all “what is that, what does that mean” and tried to get Siri to translate it but he couldn’t get the accent right. Carl laughed, which pleased Loui, and they both started calling Kells ‘storebror’. (”I asked Sveddy,” Kells said. “I thought it was gonna be something worse. Who taught you to chirp?”)

10. Who drives? Cooks? Does the handiwork? Cleans? Pays the bills? Handles the public? 

Neither of them want to handle the public, and have resorted to rock-paper-scissors before. They take turns cooking, but Carl is the more experimental of the two, all like “I found this recipe on the internet,” and Loui is all [apprehensive look]. The question of who drives depends on where they are. Loui foists off all city driving on Carl, but will speed down an open highway if he thinks he can get away with it. Handiwork-wise, they would both prefer to call someone who knows better, but sometimes Loui thinks, “Oh, all it needs is one tweak” and then ends up obsessed with it until it gets fixed or completely destroyed. “I told you,” Carl’d say, if it breaks, and then Loui sulks for a while.

11. What are their dates like? How long do/did they date? Do they ever feel the need to take a break from each other?

Fuckin’ Carl mothereffing Soderberg takes Loui to plays and museums and the symphony, and he has membership and alerts for various cultural events around the area. Food festivals and wine tastings and information on when things like the superbloodmoon will happen so they can keep track of it from the bedroom window, and predictions about when the leaves are gonna change color and where is the best place to watch it happen. (”Also from the bedroom window,” Loui answers quite confidently, but Carl suspects Loui has ulterior motives.) Carl Soderberg will take you on intense dates, and sometimes it kinda overwhelms Loui. Loui is more conventional, preferring dinner out at a nice restaurant as the date activity. He keeps an eye out for Carl Stuff though, like the time he bought two tickets to a Shostakovich concert and Carl was so pleased he didn’t tell Loui he loathes Shostakovich.

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Speaking of McMurdo AU, I ended up writing some Loui Eriksson/Carl Soderberg post-Antarctica reunion schmoop set in this ‘verse for the BHG formerly known as Anon (lol), because I am highly suggestible. Originally posted in this thread.

In the end, everyone goes home.

Loui will miss these guys, despite everything. Even Marchy. There's a lot to be said about having no choice but to get along, and by the end of it, Marchy was saving him a seat at the cafeteria and nabbing the last chocolate milk for him because Loui always got off his shift late and all the chocolate milk would be gone otherwise. Loui wonders if he and Marchy would be friends in the real world, but that's not a problem he's going to have once he gets to New Zealand. "I'll see you on Facebook," Marchy said, and that's about the long and short of it.

On the plane, on Loui's left is Piesy, and then Bergy next to him, the both of them hooked up to the same iPad and watching a movie. On Bergy's other side, Marchy is asleep on his shoulder. Everybody's going home. ("Everybody's leaving home," Malcolm had corrected him, before getting on the plane. That kid, Loui swears. He loves that place, comes back every year.)

Everybody's going somewhere. Once they touch down topside, everyone will scatter, but Loui’s going to take it easy for a few days or so, stick around New Zealand, acclimate slowly. No man is an island, but Loui is at least peninsular, or has become so over the long winter. He's not sure it's his favorite temperament to embody, but that's out of his hands. When the plane lands, Loui is exhausted, which is strange because he's done nothing more than sit for hours, and even napped, but there's a whole world out there now and it's already beginning to settle heavily on his shoulders. He remembers this. He remembers this part, when everything comes flooding back.

The last thing he expects to see is Carl in the arrival hall. The sight of him dashes Loui's heart to the ground, because it can't possibly be true. This is the cruelest mirage. How can that be Carl? Carl is in Sweden, so that can't be--

Loui would know Carl anywhere.

Carl stands with his arms crossed, eyes scanning the crowd, not seeing Loui, but it doesn't matter. Loui sees him and he can't look away, bumping into people as he takes the shortest route from point A to point B. He wonders if he's changed so much that Carl doesn't recognize him anymore, but when Carl spots him, his eyes light up. He waves, he smiles, and Loui can't even smile back, too moved.

Carl embraces him, and Loui clings back, breathing deeply, his vision blurring. Carl smells like the cologne Loui got him for Christmas, and the sense of smell is evocative and suddenly all the domino pieces are falling in Loui's memory - wine on the back porch, cinnamon in the hot chocolate, the frozen pond and Carl bringing out his old hockey sticks and saying, "One on one, you and me," and Loui said yes, okay, you and me.

"What are you doing here?" Loui blurts out, and it's not really the first thing he means to say.

"I said I'd meet you at the airport," Carl states simply.

"I thought you meant in Sweden."

"Surprise," Carl grins, like he has made a grand joke, and Loui laughs into Carl's shoulder, holding him close like he doesn't ever intend to let go.