MY BOYS (sobs in hockey bro friendship) thank you thank you thank you for this prompt - i loved the excuse to write for them for the first time in a while! 💜🦗
want your own ficlet? TWO DAYS LEFT rules here.
🏒🏒🏒🏒
jack's room, 4:15pm
When Jack frowns his forehead goes all scrunchy and Shitty has a hard time not reaching out and smoothing the lines out like a human iron. Jack has a lot of frowns, from Frown #1: Get Your Shit Together On The Ice I Swear To Gretzky to Frown #46: I Do Not Understand That Reference And I’m Not Sure I Want To and everything in between and beyond. He’s currently wearing Frown #34: That’s Not OSHA Compliant.
It’s fucking adorable. What a goober.
“Seriously, Shitty, that can’t be safe,” Jack says, all earnest concern.
“Jack. Jackabelle. Jackabaloo,” Shitty says, throwing an arm over his shoulder. “Let me paint you word picture, okay? After classes and practice, you and me, snacks, a drink if we feel like, out on the roof, surveying our new domain. You could even study like the giant fucking nerd that you are. We’d be kings of all the light touches, et cetera. You feel me? Plus, generations of SMH team members have been out on the Reading Room before us, and many will after us. It’s tradition.”
Jack crosses his arms. “The fact that so many people have been out there only worries me more, honestly.”
“It looks fine to me,” Shitty shrugs. “And Johnson says it’s structurally sound.”
Jack snorts. “Oh well if Johnson says it’s safe—”
“His dad’s an engineer or something. He checks the Haus over every summer.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh, now get that big beautiful but of yours in gear and help me get it set up.”
Frown #12: I Think I Missed A Pertinent Segue
“Set up?”
“Chairs, lights, cooler, blankets, tarp – for a start. We’re gonna trick this place out.”
Jack sighs, frowning down at the pile of gear Shitty gathered earlier. (Frown #19: I’m Thinking So Hard It Hurts Sometimes.) “You’re going to keep badgering me about this until I say yes, aren’t you.”
It’s not a question.
Shitty beams at the hint of acquiescence in his tone. “You know it brah! It wouldn’t be the same without you out there with me. What kind of a kickass hang out spot could it be without my kickass best friend?”
Jack freezes in shock. It breaks Shitty’s heart how Jack still doesn’t think of himself as important to other people sometimes.
“We should get this ready before dark, then, eh?”
And that— That’s not a frown. That’s a fucking smile.
Jack has fewer smiles than frowns, but the number of smiles that he lets Shitty (and sometimes the team) see are slowly but steadily increasing. Smile #1: Gooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaal, but it doesn’t matter if Jack is the one to score it or not.
This one is Smile #4: Shitty Called Me His Best Friend – unsurprisingly, it’s Shitty’s favorite.
I was gonna say Lardo cause I think she always deserves more love but idk if I consider her underrated, just deserving of more appreciation. I think my actual underrated fave is Johnson the Metaphysical Goalie. He’s an incredibly fun plot device and I have a soft spot in my heart for him. Any fanfic using Johnson to move the plot along because don’t worry about it is doing it right in my books
