I’m Hanging on By a Thread
Auston Matthews/Mitch Marner
pt 1 Pt 2
It turns out feeding a child is actually incredibly difficult.
Mini-Matts is way pickier than grown up Matts and none of the nutritionist approved foods that Matts has in his fridge and cabinets are food the kid will eat. To be fair though Mitch wouldn’t be thrilled with Kale chips either but he certainly wouldn’t have thrown them at Auston. Mitch knows Ema would never have let Matts get away with that but it is incredibly hard to be stern when looking at that face.
Who doesn’t keep some emergency junk food on hand? Geez Matts.
Mitch is begging the kid to eat some bean salad and quinoa while he glares at Mitch, arms crossed and looking remarkably like his older self when he is unimpressed with Mitch’s shenanigans, when the doorbell rings.
Matts bolts for the door and Mitch chases after him afraid he might open it for someone who is not Patty. Not that Mitch should have worried, Auston could just barely reach the door handle much less the deadbolt.
“Move it squirt.” Mitch murmurs as he gently pushes the kid aside and looks through the peephole to see Patty.
Mitch threw the door open, “Oh thank god.” He says as he ushers Patty inside.
“Patty this is mini-Matts, mini-Matts do you remember Patty?” Mitch says gesturing between his teammates. Auston has a very dubious expression on his face and he hides behind Mitch’s legs as Patty kneels down.
“Mini-Matts? Really Mitchell?” Patty shakes his head in consternation. Before Mitch can respond Patty is turning his attention back to the kid.
“Hey little guy. You doing ok?” Patty says. Mitch has never found his soft spoken voice more comforting and he can feel Auston relax his grip on Mitch’s pants leg.
“Mitchy is taking care of me.” Auston says.
“I bet he is.” Patty said. Turning his attention to Mitch, “How long has he been like this? Did you talk to him last night?”
“I’m not sure. I tried messaging him last night and he never responded but I just thought he was resting, or you know brooding over the shoulder.” Mitch’s eyes widen as he comes to a realization.
“Oh hey buddy does your shoulder hurt?” Mitch asks Auston, horrified with himself that he is just now remembering the injury. He let the kid fall off a stool for goodness sakes, what if he made it worse? Auston might never forgive him if he let him get hurt worse. Hell he’d never forgive himself. But Auston just shakes his tiny head and leans into Mitch’s leg while wrapping his arms all the way around Mitch’s thigh. Mitch’s hand automatically falls to the top of his head and gently caresses his hair. He looks up to see Patty eyeing him carefully while rising back to his feet.
“He wouldn’t be injured like this. It’s his body’s way of coping with either the injury, the stress, or both. “ Patty says.
Mitch’s jaw drops.
“Wait you know what’s happened to him? How do we fix it?” Mitch blurts out.
“We can’t fix it Mitch. He has to work through this and once he does he will be back to normal.” Patty says.
“How the hell do you know about this?” Mitch says sort of in awe of Patty’s knowledge.
“I’ve seen it before. It happened to a teammate of mine.” Patty says, pulling out cell phone.
“Wow...how have I not heard about this?” Mitch murmured. He glanced down at Auston to see the kid looking up at him, when he saw Mitch looking back he beamed at him causing Mitch to smile helplessly in return.
“Ok I messaged Mike to let him know the situation and so he can notify the training staff. We need to head into the rink.” Patty said.
This was exactly what Mitch needed. A more adultier adult who could handle this situation. “Um he was hungry but he won’t eat any of the stuff in the house.” Mitch said.
“How about we grab a kids meal on the way to the rink, huh Auston? Does that sound good?” Pat asked.
“Yay!” Auston screamed and began running around the entryway in his excitement.
Patty’s smile was as helplessly fond as Mitch’s. “Alright kiddo let's head out then.” Patty nodded at Mitch to get his keys and shoes.
Once Mitch was ready to go Auston reached up with both hands for Mitch to pick him up. “Go ahead and grab him Mitch he doesn’t have any shoes.” Patty said and Mitch quickly swung Matts up onto his hip. Auston’s head settled in the crook of his neck and his hand immediately came up to toy gently with the chain around Mitch’s neck.
Patty took his keys and locked the door since Mitch had his hands full and they headed down to the parking garage. When they reached the cars however they ran into a major problem asPatty tried to take Auston to put him in the car.
“No want Mitchy.” Auston said, wrapping both his little arms so tight around Mitch’s neck he couldn’t breathe.
Mitch pried his arms off and held Auston away from his body a little. “Hey Matts buddy I don’t have a car seat. You have to ride with Patty to be safe.” Auston’s struggles to wrap back around Mitch intensified and his eyes filled up with tears.
“Oh geez buddy don’t cry.” Mitch looked over to Patty helplessly only to find his eyes filled with amusement. This was not a funny situation dammit. Patty finally took pity on him and laid a gentle hand on the kids back. “How about this Auston? You ride in Jagger’s car seat and Mitch will ride with us?” This seemed to settle the kid some and after a few moments Auston’s little shoulders heaved with a sigh and he nodded his head.
Patty had to take Auston to buckle him in since Mitch had very little experience with car seats and the disgruntled look on Auston’s little face was absolutely adorable. When Patty went to close the door Auston jerked forward, reaching out to Mitch with both hands “Mitchy!” he yelled and Mitch could see the tears welling up again.
“I am just going to the other side of the car buddy.” Mitch assured him and quickly went around to slip into the back seat from the other side. Patty didn’t say anything about Mitch’s choice of seats but when Auston reached out for Mitch’s hand to hold, Mitch caught a smirk from him the rearview mirror.
Mitch was adult enough to completely ignore it.
Pat pulled out into to traffic and by the time Mitch looked back over at Matts, the little boy was already dozing off against the headrest of the car seat. Mitch took a few minutes in the quiet to just breathe.
This was absolutely not how he had imagined his day going but as Auston’s features smoothed out in sleep Mitch couldn’t help but be a little enthralled by the soft sweet features of his little face.
Mitch reached over to gently brush back the hair curling across Auston’s forehead and closed his own eyes. It had been a really long day already and it was only 8:30 in the morning. Mitch was exhausted and the gentle lull of Auston’s breathing and the movement of the car sent him drifting off to sleep as well, Matts’ little hand still clasped gently in his own