A/N: There’s a couple of easter eggs in here from other fandoms. Extra points to those who catch them. ;-) Also, there is a read more at the end, but it’s hard to see on mobile. JUST SAYING. This is about 5k, so.
Growing up, he hated crowds. They made himuncomfortable, being packed in by people he didn’t know. Unfortunately, he grewup with a lot of crowds. A side effect of being the son of a hockey legend, yousee. Growing up, he never once thought he’d be at homein a house full of people. Growing up, he never thought he’d have this—hehadn’t wanted to. All he’d wanted was to play hockey. He never gave muchthought to anything else. Then Eric Bittle happened and his life…turned intothis: a four bedroom house in Providence that he shared with his two dogs andhusband who is currently hosting a party for every single person he ever caredfor. And he’s completely fine.
Smiling tohimself, he finishes putting the last touches on the eggnog the way Eric likesit and heads back out into the crowd. He finds Kent and Tater by the Christmastree slipping in their Secret Santa gifts to the pile and talking with Marty.Most of the Falconers are here, actually. So are some of the Aces sinceliterally everyone loves Bitty.
“That is afancy little drink you got there, Zimms,” Kent chirps him and Jack rolls hiseyes. You make a bad cosmo once and you’re ruined for life.
“Fuck off, eh?”he makes a big show of handing a cup to Tater while giving Kent’s to Marty.Kent bares his teeth at Jack and before coming in for a hug. Kent feels soft ina way he hasn’t in a long time and Jack’s glad they’re okay. Kent is barely outof his arms when he gets ambushed and liftedoff his feet by Tater. Jacklaughs in surprise and hugs him back.
“MerryChristmas, Zimmboni. Is nice party. Where’s little baker, huh? Not see him.”
“Bitty’s withLardo, I think. He wanted to show something to her.”
“How is she?”Kent and her have always been close…r. Jack had walked into Kent, Lardo, Shittyand Derek chilling out and he’d walked straight out. It’d felt like he’d walkedinto an alternate dimension.
“Very, verypregnant.” Something he’s never really thought he’d say about Lardo, but sheseems happier than he’s ever seen her before, so he can’t really complain.
“Poor Lardo.”Tater sighs. “Pregnancy is hard.”
Marty nods withhim. “I used to stay up massaging Carrie’s feet. I felt so bad for her, butthere wasn’t much else to do.”
“Well, I’mgonna go find her,” Kent declares, finishing off his drink. “Say hi. Youcoming, baby?”
Tater shakeshis head and kisses Kent’s cheek. “Is okay. I stay here. You make her feel likeprincess, okay?”
“Pretty surethat’s Knight’s job, Mashkov,” Kent calls out as he weaves through the crowd.
“How’s Shittydoing?” Marty asks after Kent leaves.
“You mean howmuch is he freaking out,” Jack asks wryly.
“It’s tough thefirst time. Let him know that he can come to me if he has any questions, yeah?I mean, I told him, but he might actually believe me if you say it.”
“Thanks, man.I’ll let him know for sure. How are your kids?”
“Good. I justtook Anna to the rink last week for the first time.” Marty grins proudly.“She’s pretty good for someone who doesn’t know what she’s doing. She wasstanding by herself by the end of the day.”
“You getvideo?” Tater asks.
“Yeah, man.Carrie got the whole day on camera.”
“That’samazing. But you go easy on her, know?” Tater chirps. “You tell her she come toUncle Tater will teach her proper hockey.”
“Oh, please, I’llbe teaching her to win, Mashkov,” Marty chirps back.
Justin groans.“Unfortunately, I’m not even kidding. I mean, who does that? Let me tell you,this is not the reason I went to med school.”
Carrie wrinklesher nose while Adam chortles beside Justin, an arm around his waist. Jack patsAdam’s back and smiles when he exclaims and hugs him with one arm.
“Is it thecarrot story again?” Jack chirps Justin with a hip check and a hug. He hadn’thad a chance to say hi to them since he’d been with Snowy and Swoops when theyshowed up.
“Ugh, dude, I’mtraumatized for life.”
Jack snorts.“Clearly, man. I would be too.”
“Thanks forhosting us, Jack,” says Carrie. “It’s really nice of you and Eric. This isamazing.”
“Oh, please, youguys are practically family. Besides, Eric’s the one who put this all together.”
“Bro, that isnot what I heard.” A teasing smile appears on Adam’s lips and Jack can’t stophim before he turns to Carrie and goes, “Jackiepoo, here, helped with allthe decorations and the cooking.”
“That is sosweet, Jack! You have to teach my husband some things,” she chirps, smilingwidely.
“Hey, from whatI heard, he’s pretty good on the grill.”
“Eehhhh.”Carrie imitates a balance scale with her hands. “He makes up for it in otherdepartments.”
Adam and Justingroan while Jack rolls his eyes at her. He’s pretty desensitized to Carrie atthis point.
Carrie laughs.“Alright, alright, I’m gonna go catch up with Miranda and get a refill. Youboys behave, alright?”
“Yes, ma’am.”Jack salutes as she walks away.
“She’s reallynice, man,” Justin observes.
“Yeah. Martygot lucky.” Jack claps his hand on Justin’s shoulder. “So, how are you twodoing? How’s everything coming along?”
Justin and Adamlook at each other before grinning widely at Jack. “We’re not really talkingabout it so we don’t jinx it, but it’s nice, Jack. Really nice,” Justinconfirms and it’s all Jack needs. Justin and Adam have been looking intoadoption options for a few months now on the DL.
“That’samazing, you guys. You two deserve it.”
“Aw, thanks,Cap.” Adam smacks a kiss on Jack’s cheek. “What about you and Bitty? You’vetalked about any plans?”
“I don’t know.It feels like we just settled down, ya know? Everything’s great. Bitty’s shopis doing well and hockey’s doing good and—”
“Doing good? Bro, you just got a Stanley Cup.”
Jack grins.“Okay, fine, hockey’s great. But you know what I mean.” He shrugs. “If it comesup, we’ll talk about it.”
“Awwww, looka’chu, all adult and responsible in your relationships.” Justin digs hisfingers into Jack’s side and Jack barks a laugh in response.
“Please, likeyou’re not right there with me.”
Justin shrugseasily. “But you’re married, bro.”
Jack manages tocatch himself before he looks at Adam. He doesn’t know when,but he knows Adam is planning on proposing soon. Jack can’t for the life of himfigure why they waited this long considering they already live together, buthe’s just glad his best friends are happy.
“It doesn’tmatter. You guys are solid. That’s all that matters.”
“Jack! Honey,can you come here a second?” Bitty calls out and Adam shoots Jack a knowing yetmocking look that Jack ignores as he leaves to help his husband.
“Sorry we’relate, man,” Will mumbles into the hug as Derek hangs their jackets in thecloset.
“BITS, DEREKAND WILL ARE HERE!” Jack calls out before turning to Will. “Don’t worry, man.We’re just glad you were able to make it,” Jack replies. “How’s Dodger?”
“He’s better.The vet wanted him to stay the night just to make sure, so that’s where he’sat.”
“I’m glad he’sokay. Bits was really worried. I had to stop him from looking up doggie treatsbefore he overworks himself.”
“Nah, man,”Derek chimes in. “Dodger is fine. But that’s really sweet though.”
“Derek Malik Nurse, is that a ring?!” Bitty bounds down the stairs in a streak and infront of Derek. Bitty grabs Derek’s left hand and oh, that’s a ring. Jack spies a similar one on Will’s hand andraises an eyebrow. Will flushes in response.
Jack grins.“Congrats, you two. About time.”
“I cannotbelieve y’all didn’t tell me! Oh my gosh, Derek, Will, congratulations!” Bitty bounces. “Okay, so we’re gonna go inside ‘cause my mamaraised me better this and you two are gonna tell us everything, ya hear?”
“My god, isEric Bittle asking for sex deets?” Derek chirps as Bits drags him and Will upthe stairs. The tips of Bits’ ear turn tomato red, but he doesn’t slow down.Jack follows and the four of them settle into the couch. For the first time allafternoon, he has Bits in his arms and he pulls him even closer. Bitty smilesin response before focusing on the engaged couple.
“Sooo…?” Bittyprompts and Jack can’t help pressing a kiss against his adorable husband’s head.
Derek rolls hiseyes despite his pleased smile. “We…um, well, we kinda proposed to each otherat the same time.”
Bitty nearlysqueals. “At the same time? How?” Gordie, their pitbull, barks and vaults himselfin their laps, finally found his humans. Jack automatically goes to scratchbehind his ears.
“Well, we wentfor a date after, like, three months since we’ve both been pretty busy,” Willstarts. “I hadn’t really planned anything but dinner, but I took the ringanyway.”
“When did youget the ring?” Bitty interrupts.
“Whoa, what’sgoing on here, brahs?” Shitty sits on the floor near Will.
Bitty opens hismouth to answer, but Jack squeezes his side and Bitty falls silent as Derekglances at Will.
At Will’s nod,Derek grabs his left hand, holds it up and yells, “WE’RE MOTHERFUCKING ENGAGED!”
Pindrop silencefollows for two seconds before the entire house erupts and Derek and Will arehauled out of their seats for hugs, congrats and several kisses thanks toShitty. In complete contrast, Lardo holds out her fist for a fist bump and Jackgrins.
Eventually,things settle back down and Bitty clears his throat at them pointedly.
After a fewmoments, Will remembers the questions and replies, “I bought the ring twomonths ago?”
“Oh, wow.”
“Anyway,” Derekpicks up. “This fucker goes to the restroom and I’d had everything planned down to the T, so the staff cleared the table and broughtout the white chocolate bread pudding which is what we had during our firstdate and I arranged the ring on the table, ready to get on my knee and thisguy, he comes out of the restroom andgoes straight on one knee.”
“To be fair, Ihad been waiting for the right moment for two months,” Will adds,shoulder-checking his fiancé. Jack grins at their attics and the blatant joy ontheir faces. He’s not the only one. Most of their friends have abandoned theirconversations to listen to this. “The entire date was perfect an—”
“Because I madeit be,” Derek interrupts.
“andI just realized,” Will continues as if Derek hadn’t spoken. “That he’s alwaysbeen there with me and I didn’t want to wait anymore.”
“You could’vewaited another minute,” Derek grumbles.
“You still gotyour proposal, Nurse.” Looking up at Jack and Bitty, he clarifies, “Once I goton my knee and asked him to marry me, Derek froze and then looked absolutely furious—I’ve been never been more scared in my life, Iwas literally sweating bullets here, and he says ‘only if you marry me’ andwhips out his ring from the table and gets on one knee. We both said yes at thesame time.”
“Oh my god,that is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard!” Bitty jumps up and into their armswhile there’s a chorus of awws and woot!s from the crowd “I’m nearly in tears! That’s soromantic and wonderful and y’all better invite me to an actual wedding and notelope or some shit or I’ll cut off your pie-access.”
Everyone laughs.
Derek gasps inmock-horror. “Not the pie!”
Will chuckles.“Don’t worry, Bits. Both our moms are kinda insane about weddings. I’m surethey’ll kill if we don’t have a huge wedding and of course, you’ll make thecake, right?”
Bitty looks atWill for a moment and Jack can see the tears in his husband as he chokes out,“of course. Good lord, I’m so happy right now, I don’t know what to do withmyself.” He fans himself.
“So am I,Bitty,” Derek confesses, resting his head on Will’s shoulder with a serenesmile. “So am I.”
“This wasreally nice, you guys. Thank you so much for having us over.” Snowy and hiswife, Miranda, say after their hugs.
“Of course,honey. We’re so happy you came and that lasagna really was something else.”
“Nothingcompared to the desserts, Bitty. You outdid yourself,” Miranda says while Snowynods in agreement.
“Damn right, hedid,” Snowy booms from behind, Poots and Swoops by his side.
“You guysleaving too?” Jack reaches for a hug. It’s been awhile since he’s seen themafter they switched to other teams. “It’s a pleasure.”
“Trust me, man,it’s ours. Take care of yourself, alright?”
“I will, thanksfor coming.”
Jack manages tohug Poots and Swoops too before Bitty hands them their gifts and fusses overthem as they bundle up.
“Drive safe,y’all! Don’t be strangers!” Bitty calls out as they wave their goodbyes.
“I’m miss themall so much,” Bitty sighs.
Jack pulls himinto a tight hug. “Me too, babe. We’ll visit them during break, eh?”
Bitty gets onhis tip-toes and kisses him sweetly. “Okay. I love you, Jack Zimmermann.”
“I love youtoo, Bits,” Jack whispers and returns the kiss.
“OH MY GOD,STOP SUCKING FACE. IT’S SECRET SANTA TIIIIIMMME!” Shitty bellows from theliving room.
Jack flips himoff and dives in for a far-dirtier kiss than they’d been doing a minute ago.Bitty squirms against him until he catches up with the plan. Then he throws hisarms around Jack’s neck and pulls closer. They both laugh when they hear Shittyshriek.
Bitty is theone to pull back first. “We should go,” he whispers and Jack knowshe’s right, but he has his husband in his arms, freshly-kissed, so he pouts atBitty instead.
Bitty flushes,the color bursting through his cheek. “Oh my god, Jack, we have guests.”
Jack chucklesand pulls back. “After,” he promises.
The red in hishusband’s cheeks grow darker. “Fuck you.” Bitty jabs him in the chest and runsaway. Jack follows.
The group hascongregated in a somewhat circle near the Christmas tree by the time they showup. Bitty plops on the ground near Chris and Caitlin and Gordie immediatelyclimbs on his lap. Their other dog, Maple, was already fast asleep the lasttime Jack checked. Jack lowers himself on the couch next to Shitty whoimmediately sprawls across him.
“So, are wegoing one by one or all at once? It’s your choice, y’all,” Bitty questions.
“One by one,Bitty. We’re adults, not heathens,” Kent chirps.
Bitty stickshis tongue out at him. “Just for that, you’re going first, Mr. Parson.”
“Oh, is thathow it is?” Kent snarks back. “Jokes on you ‘cause I wanted to go first.” Kentuncurls himself from Tater’s side and heads to the tree.
Jackstraightens with interest because Tater, Bitty and Lardo have been discussingthis for quite some time and very secretly. Bitty wouldn’t tell him what it is nomatter how Jack asked.
“This betternot be a gift card,” Kent grumbles jokingly as he holds up a small card-shapedgift. He rips it open to a white card. “Go to the office,” he reads with aconfused look. He looks at Alexei with a small smile. “Damn, what’d you all getme?”
Kent gets upand heads to the office. Jack strains in his seat to get a view. There wasn’tanything in the office the last time he looked. But that was hours ago.
A loud gaspsounds from the room followed by a small “oh my god.”
“Bro, what isit?” Justin calls out.
Jack looks backto see Bitty and Lardo smiling like fools.
“He’s perfect,”Kent says as he enters the room with his arms curled. There’s a small ball offur in his arms. Is that—
“Bro?” Adamsays, awe in his voice.
Kent nods andJack can see the tears in his eyes. Oh,Kent. “It’s a kitten. I got akitten.”
“That’sawesome!” Chris leaps to his feet and goes to Kent. He’s not the only one.Everyone, including Jack, crowds around Kent to get a peek at the little thing.Kit had passed away only two years ago and it’d hit Kent hard. He’d refused toget another cat immediately, but clearly, this is the right time.
Alexei managesto pull Kent into a hug despite the crowd and Kent sobs into his chest. Alexeimurmurs something into Kent’s hair and pets him as everyone carefully pets thekitten. The crowd thins after a while and Jack finally gets a turn to get aproper look. He’s beautiful.
“You alright,Kenny?”
Kent smiles athim widely and nods. “I’m surprised you didn’t have something to do with this.”
Jack quirks aneyebrow. “Nice try. I’m not gonna say who your Santa is.”
Kent pouts. “ButI wanna thank them!”
“Figure it outthen,” Jack replies simply and drops a kiss on Kenny’s forehead beforerepeating it to the kitten.
“So, who’snext?” Shitty calls out.
“Man, I’m kindascared to go now. What’s gonna top that?” Caitlin confesses, grinning. Then,she turns to Chris. “What about you, babe?”
Chris gasps.“Traitor.”
“Yeah, Chris,go,” Lardo goads without missing a beat.
Chris sighs,knowing when he’s beaten. “Alright, alright, I’ll go.”
His gift comesin a huge box wrapped with gift paper Jack knows is hiding in their garage.Bitty spent weeks on this gift and Chris is gonna loveit.
“Goddamn,”Chris breathes out when he opens the box. “My god!” He nearlysqueals out as he pulls out a knitted pair of gloves in black and teal. Chrishas grown past his Sharks obsession to where he no longer has his entire housefilled with merch. He still loves the hell out of them though and the set Bittyhas knitted for him allows him to support his favorite team in a subtle way.
Chris continuesto pull out a scarf, a beanie and a striped sweater. “Cait, look!”
“And they don’thave sharks on them so I can wear them everywhere.”
Everyonechortles as Caitlin sighs heavily.
“Yes, you can,honey.”
“This is thebest! Thank you!” Chris gathers all his presents and returns to his spot,rubbing the soft fabric against his face.
Caitlin side eyesBitty with a mock glare and he winks back at her.
“I’m next! I’mnext!” Shitty dives into the gift pile and emerge with a long, rectangular box.He carefully opens it before freezing.
“Oh shit,”he whispers after a few minutes. “HOLY SHIT! Brah, whoever you are, THANK YOUSO FUCKIN—LARDO, LOOK!” He scrambles to where Lardo is sitting, her feetpropped up on Adam’s lap and pulls out smaller cubes. When he turns it, Jacksees a familiar logo etched on the tie.
“Duuuude,”Lardo replies in recognition with a smile.
“I got StarTrek ties!” Shitty exclaims and proceeds to show it to everyone. “They’re sofucking cool. I can wear these to cases. I can totally wear these to cases. YES! Thanksbrahs!”
He settles nearLardo and opens a box. Within minutes, Shitty is proudly wearing a Star Trektie over his ridiculous Christmas sweater and a wide grin.
Derek goes nextand doesn’t shriek when he finds a bundle of books from his favorite poetsbecause he’s chill. Bitty, on the other hand, freaks out for a good minute or two when he finds the certificate for that ovenhe’s been wanting for the shops for ages, but refuses to buy because hiscurrent ovens are working justfine, Mr. Zimmermann. Jack slylythanks Kent for that one. Will nearly drops his gift when he unwraps it beforegaping at it for a good while. Then he unwraps it for everyone to see and Jackgrins when he sees it’s the new fishing rod that Will’s been raving about, butnever bought because it’s (ridiculously) too expensive. Jack silently bets tohimself that it’s Shitty who got that one. Jack goes next and finds a set newlypublished memoirs and autobiographies Jack’s been eyeing for a few months.Bitty defintely had a say in this. The sneak…
Adam opensLardo’s gift for her to find a huge art set with everything from color pencils,crayons to paints…and a mini-version of all of it. For Mommy and me days, said the printed note. Then Adam opens his, butthe note on top tells him to open his with Justin’s in bold letters. Adam huffsa long “finnnnne” exaggeratedly. Caitlin finds Christian Louboutinheels with a lot of straps and certificate for a spa day.
Tater goes nextand Derek visibly squirms in Jack’s periphery. Jack raises an eyebrow at himand he shakes his head in reply. Unlike Kent, Tater gets a large, flat box, butwhen he open its, there’s nothing there but crumpled paper. He pulls out a noteand reads it aloud, “go to basement.”
Oh my god, Jack thinks when hefigures out what the gift is. The only thing that would explain Derek’ssquirming. Biting down his laugh, he watches Tater disappear into the basement,Kent’s on his tail with the kitten in his arms and waits for the reaction.
Seconds later,a shout comes from the basement followed by a squeal and incomprehensiblecooing. Jack grins as Tater runs up the basement stairs (with Kent on hisheels, no doubt) and excitedly shows off his gift like Rafiki from Lion King.In his arms is a dark gray fluffy poodle puppy.
“Isn’t she so adorable??” Tater coos and brings her closer to himself tosnuggle with her.
Gordie perks upas the puppy barks at Tater and joins all the humans in crowding Tater. Taterlaughs and kneels to introduce the two dogs to each other. Gordie barks andlicks the puppy. Tater lets the puppy go and watches her jump over Gordie witha content and happy look on his face. Bitty grabs the puppy for a bit, blowingkisses and petting her.
“She better getalong with my kitten, Mashkov, or she’s leaving,” Kent mutters from behind.
“Why don’t weintroduce them, huh?” Tater scoops the puppy up and goes to Kent. The puppy andkitten stare at each other for a few intense moments before the kitten sniffsand turns away and the puppy nearly jumps out of Tater’s arms to lick at her.Everyone laughs in delight.
“They get alongjust fine, Kenny.” Tater laughs as he holds the wiggling puppy to the kittenand dips down to kiss Kent. Kent melts and they return to their seats.
“Alright, myturn!” Justin claps his hands together and reaches for the last gift under thetree.
“And mine,”Adam chimes in.
Justin gets ridof the wrapping paper to find a long flat box with a note attached on toptelling him to wait for Adam.
“Someonecoordinated,” Lardo notes.
“You ready,babe?” Adam asks with his hand hovering over this box.
“Yup. On three?”
“On three.”
“One,two…three!”
They open theboxes at the same time, tossing the lid behind them as they stare at thecontents.
“What is it?”Bitty whines, bouncing in his seat.
“Dude,” Justinlooks at Adam with wide eyes.
“Dude,” Adamechoes and pulling out a plane ticket.
“Daaaammmnn,”Lardo whistles. “Where to, fellas?”
“Caribbeans.”
“Wait, there’sa note,” Justin notes and hands his ticket to Adam. “Shit.Babe, hotel tickets and…” Justin flips through the sheets. “Approval from ourbosses for the trip. Shit.”
“That’samazing,” Shitty exclaims, pulling them in for a hug.
Pretty mucheveryone here knows the two deserve a good vacation after the hours they pullat work and put into being the best friends anyone can ask for (which includesdog-sitting.) Jack smiles and pulls them into a tight hug. “Congrats, man.”
“Thanks,”Justin whispers into the hug. “This,” he exhales in disbelief. “It’s amazing.You know who did it?”
“Nah, man. Butyou deserve it.”
Justin duckshis head. “I know, but with…everything, we thought it’d be best if we saved our vacationdays, ya know? To spend time with… I just didn’t think our bosses would be coolwith this and that.”
“You’re bothhard workers. Your bosses know that.”
“Okay! Okay!”Bitty yells above the crowd. Jack looks back to see his husband standing on atable. “It’s really late—later than I planned and I know most of y’all areheading back to spend Christmas with your families, so, um, let’s do a toast,okay?”
Jack grabs thechampagne and Derek tags along to help with glasses. Soon, everyone is armedwith a glass full of champagne except Lardo who got apple juice.
“I just—Iwanted to thank y’all for coming and making this one of the best Christmases everand, um, just…thanks for being in our lives, for being my friends and Jack’sfriends and being more than I’d ever imagined I’d have. Y’all are basicallyfamily now, so.” Bitty takes a deep breath and swallows heavily before smilingwidely. “Here’s to a lifetime of family.”
Everyone cheersand clinks their glasses with their neighbors.
Jack moves nextto where Bitty is standing. “Bits is right. Every single one of you is family,and growing up the way I did, after everything that happened, I never expectedany one of you. But there you all were, caring for me as Jack rather than BadBob’s kid, and I don’t think I’ve ever expressed how grateful I am for that.For what you gave me. For being by my side time and again when I needed you andeven when I didn’t because that’s what family does. You helped me become abetter man and—” Jack chuckles. “That allowed me to be brave enough to take thenext step with Bitty. Every time I step on ice and play, whether I win or not,it’s because I know either way, I’ll have you just like I’ll have my parentsand Bitty. You guys make me stronger, better and there’s no gift in the worldthat I can give to thank you for that.
“Until today, Inever really realized how far we’ve come. We’re not in college anymore and thisisn’t the Haus, but we stuck together still and now, here, we’ve shared ourvictories and defeats. We’re different people than we thought we’d be ascollege students, but the people I see here are happyand that’s all I’ve ever wanted for every single one of you. So thank you andcongratulations.”
There’s a beatof silence and Jack actually looks at the people around him and notices most ofthem are in tears. Shit.
“Um, here’s tohappiness?”
“Honey!” Bittyhugs him, burying his face into Jack’s side. Jack curls an arm around him whenShitty barrels into him.
“JACK!” hewails wetly and sobs into his shirt. With that, the silence is broken and Jackis surrounded by his best friends in cuddle pile. Jack can’t make out much ofanything, but Adam is behind him and close enough that Jack can hear him.
“We’re gratefulfor you too, man. And so proud of you, Cap.” Jack blindly reaches back tosqueeze Adam thanks. Jack feels a pair of lips press against his neck in replyand Jack can’t stop grinning as he dips down to kiss Bittle’s forehead.
“Oh, honey,” hebreathes out and tilts up to kiss him gently.
Jack curls downto rest his forehead against Bitty’s and lets the feeling of homewrap around him like a warm blanket on a rainy day. They’ll do this again. Heknows they will. Maybe next year, maybe not. It doesn’t matter either waybecause he knows they’ll be in each other’s lives one way or another for therest of their lives. And their lives, their lives will change rapidly and dayby day and they’ll have each other to lean on.
Sure, Jacknever thought he’d have this. But he’s never letting go.
wackypacky replied to your post “you guys… i’m going to cut out the really bad friend who has been...”
You are beautiful, brave and strong. The people who are meant to be here will always stick around. Don't ever be afraid to get rid of toxic things or people in your life. Your health is the most important priority. Your feelings matter, and you deserved to be first in your own life. Love you... and don't ever forget today's gc.
ahhh Packy!!! you’re a blessing and I’m so happy to know you. thank you so so much. love you too.
