New city, kind of.
summary: pwhl!paige wnba!azzi au where both have both been living in boston playing for their respective teams for a season. maybe they’re a little lonely, maybe not.
a/n: this is my first fic ever 🙈🙈 please be nice to lil ol’ me (feedback is greatly appreciated)
warnings: none
wc: 1.8k
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September, 2026
the W season had ended abruptly, no fanfare or run for the championship, just an unsuccessful playoff push and a too quiet car ride home. the dark boston streets smelled like gasoline and cigarettes and the sound of azzi’s feet hitting the concrete was all too much for her. the walk to her car had felt tedious and frustrating, as if the moment she opened the door everything she had worked for this season would officially come to an end. it was a reality she really did not want to deal with tonight. so, when she reached the crosswalk to the parking garage, azzi did the only thing that felt okay to do. she turned her body and walked across the crosswalk and into a warm smelling chinese restaurant. the dimly-lit dining room splayed out in front of her and the kind face of the worker who walked her to an empty counter seat released an ounce of tension from azzis shoulders she hadn’t bothered to acknowledge she had been carrying.
now, sat here, with a bowl of delicious smelling hot soup in front of her, azzi finally let out a breath she had been holding since before the season even started. the immediate turnaround from winning her second national championship, to being drafted 1st overall by the boston wave, to being flown out and thrown into leading a struggling team to just barely missing the playoffs had knocked a significant amount of energy out of her, naturally. she took a hesitant sip of her soup after blowing slowly at her spoon and felt the warmth of it seep into the cracks inside her that went deeper than a bruise on her ribs from falling too hard or a callous on her hand from gripping weights too tight. the frustration of the season seemed to temporarily disappear with each spoonful and azzi could feel her muscles relax for the first time in ages. her mind was absolutely cleared of anything but the soup and the soft music playing over the speakers. a feeling that was so foreign to her since arriving in a new world that was just close enough to her home to feel familiar.
here, she was completely at ease with this soup and this world, finally. azzi was just starting to think she could maybe find a real place here after all, with her eyes closed and a deep breath beginning to fill her lungs.
“hey” a voice sliced right through her moment and azzi blinked, adjusting to the light and the new sound, although it had only been a second since she closed her eyes. a blonde woman was standing in front of her, shoulders bent slightly forward as if she was trying to minimize her presence, one arm rested almost uncomfortably on the counter next to azzi.
“that was a hell of a shot at the end of the third”, the woman said, clearly trying to extend a branch of communication between the two, but it came out smaller and less confident than it was obviously meant to.
“thank you.” azzi said, simply, putting her spoon back in her bowl and wiping her mouth on her napkin. she almost offered a picture to the stranger before it registered to her that she wasn’t speaking to a lucky fan who happened to want chinese food the same night as azzi, but to paige bueckers, the star player of the boston fleet and the confident and stunning face of professional women’s hockey at the moment.
she blinked again to herself before looking up at the blonde woman who’s usual charismatic composure seemed to be escaping her. “i didn’t take you for a basketball fan, bueckers” azzi began, motioning with her eyes to the seat next to her. paige looked briefly at the seat before quietly setting down her drink and plopping down beside her. “i watch sometimes. gotta support the city, yknow?”
azzi had never spoken to paige, and she never really watched a boston hockey game unless it was against minnesota, a team with one of her closest friends from high school, and even that was a rare occurrence. of course she knew about this blonde in front of her from the women’s sports accounts that frequented her feed and the times late at night. and if she would sometimes click on the tagged accounts and scroll through paige’s profile and be very careful to not double tap anything from more than a year ago, that was nobody's business. despite the media image of this woman that was nothing but composed and confident, the figure sitting next to her seemed more reserved. she had a softer presence than she let on, almost awkward, but aided by who and what she was. azzi was tired and still felt lingering aches of frustration in her muscles, but something about how paige was looking at her, as if she was trying to read azzi through each twitch of her lips and the shift of her eyebrows and quietly memorize it all for later made azzi want to let her guard down and share this moment with her.
she hummed in response and looked at the blonde carefully. “any particular reason for being in a tiny chinese restaurant in the middle of the night? just needed a shirley temple?” azzi asked, motioning to the drink paige had brought to her lips.
”i was in the area for a shoot, and i didn’t feel like going back yet”, she shrugged, glancing at the counter and back at azzi, expecting to find tired eyes and a woman waiting for the end of the conversation, but found brown eyes looking back at her, curious. so, she continued, “i’ve been driving around this part of the city for at least an hour”, she chuckled. “i saw this place like six times before i saw you walk in”, she said, pausing before quickly adding, “i just wanted to congratulate you on a good season”.
”thank you”, azzi said again, only this time, it wasn’t the distant voice reserved for taking a picture and signing a jersey, but a genuine one, interested in this person next to her, who was so different from who she thought she was.
“i don’t think i really expected it to end”, azzi said, turning her face towards the back of the bar and lifting her eyes to the row of screens, glowing harsh and white. paige only kept her eyes on the way azzi’s dipped down to her glass. “i mean, of course i knew this was the end, but something in me hoped it was a joke, or something would happen to make it different”
she laughed now, her heart squeezing just a little at the thought of a chance that was now gone. she turned her head to look at the blonde again, and couldn’t help the way her lip twitched slightly up at the way paige looked so in thought at what she had said, as if she was thoroughly turning over and considering azzis words and finding a place to keep them safe.
paige spoke softly, keeping her eyes locked on the brown ones before her. “i know how you feel”
the words were simple, so common, so cliché, but the way paige said them seeped into azzis entire body, warming her the way the soup had. from anyone else, azzi would have dismissed them, pushed them off from infiltrating her thoughts, feeling as if nobody else in the world could understand the grief she felt losing something she had worked so hard for. azzis competitiveness went deeper than the surface, and deeper still. losing felt like a crack under her ribs, every. single. time. azzi had lost a lot of times in her career, in high school, in aau, in college, and plenty of times during her first season in the wnba. but competitiveness couldn’t sum up how she felt when she lost. it was how every morning workout, late night film study, hard practice, painful rehab, and extra lifts came flooding back into her body, full force, that hit her down.
this time, she felt like she had lost. and she knew paige understood. she saw the fire paige had on the ice, knew the passion she had in the weight room, and it resonated with how she felt on the court. locked in.
so when paige told her she knew, she believed it. it made her feel like she knew something about this girl nobody else could. it flickered out as quickly as it came, but it’s presence found itself in the way azzis shoulders finally settled and released the last drops of frustration from the night, leaving only the ache of greif. but she didn’t want to think about the season anymore. all azzi wanted to do was shift her mind to what was ahead of her, focus on what she did have, and enjoy the work she was going to put in. that might as well start with making some new friends. so, azzi shifted her body to face paige in her seat, one elbow on the counter, the other on her now raised knee. “do you like boston?”
paige blinked, simply surprised by the sudden shift, but she leaned back to genuinely think about her answer. “of course i do. this place has everything”, she began, voice steady, “but it’s really different from home”.
azzi nodded in understanding and let paige go on. “the people are kind- blunt, yes- but kind. but i’ve never met anyone in my complex for real and nobody talks just to talk”. she took a small sip and continued. “i mean, at home, my whole community raised me, i knew everyone on my block, maybe it’s because i was a kid, but i did feel like i was apart of a village”. she paused to look at azzi, who was looking at her like she was a blooming flower, purple among a sea of gray ones. and maybe she was. her breath caught before she spoke again. “i’m not sure i understand it yet, but i know there’s a community here. i really want to find it.”
it hit azzi then that this woman in front of her mirrored her in so many ways, and it drew her closer, like a moth who hadn’t seen true light all winter finding a flame on a doorstep, welcoming her in and threatening to burn all at the same time.
