I just read and loved your terror hockey fic, and was wondering what the backstory for gore and dundy was?
the fic is brilliant, thanks for writing!!!
(if you're wondering why it took me 6 months to respond to this message, I'm also wondering that same thing.)
Heh. Yeah. This is a funny question.
The short of it: They were both young skaters together in their early twenties. They had a will-they won't-they relationships of epic proportions. They loved each other. Dundy went pro, Gore didn't follow him though he wanted to, and they never really stopped loving each other.
The long if it: I WENT SO HAM ON THIS BACKSTORY. Under the cut I'll put the notes I wrote for these two. It was going to be an entire fic titled Thread Through a Needle. I wrote about 10k of it and then just stopped mid-sentence for no discernible reason.
Because of this ask, I went back and reread what exists of the draft. It wasn't half bad! If anyone wants to read it, lmk and I'll post it here. At this point there's no chance that I'll finish writing it, but could be a fun read for anyone who needs a quick goreconte fix.
[Link to hockey fic for the uninitiated]
Separation
BY W. S. MERWIN
Your absence has gone through me
Like thread through a needle.
Everything I do is stitched with its color.
Time jumping. Non linear narrative.
Whatever 'relationship' they had was rough and tumble, back when Gore was a winger for the Leviathans. Dundy was still skating
Met in college.
Gore wasn’t captain yet. Not everyone was on the team?
Crozier and Blanky’s hockey days? Or the end of them?
Little’s college days?
Edward playing on college team with Tozer
They attended each other’s games/galas
Since there was nothing ‘official’ they didn’t do the whole ‘meet the team (family)’ thing.
Never anything ‘official’ but could have been. Ended before it could ever really begin.
Ends with Dundy winning a competition with ISU scouts watching, and getting offer to go skate with Skate UK.
Friendship reignited with Edward and Thomas’s bullshit.
Everything that follows from here mirrors Edward and Thomas’s relationship. They start seeing each other at events again, they go out to the bars together, but it’s different. They both can act under the guise of being there for Edward and Thomas.
Primary conflicts:
Dundy is very ambitious, has big dreams of skating internationally. He doesn’t plan to stay in their hometown. // Gore is equally ambitious, and wants to play with the Leviathans. He hopes to get drafted into the NHL at some point. He wants to make their hometown his base, and travel from there with the team.
They are very different people. Dundy has a million bad habits, Gore has very few. Dundy is constantly pressuring Gore to try new things with him. Gore is constantly pressuring him to stop his self destructive behaviours.
They are both young, and neither wants to be tied down by a ‘real’ relationship when their future’s are so uncertain, and if their dreams come true they will be forced to go separate ways eventually.
Gore is open with his affection and is willing to call Dundy his partner. Dundy is closed off and reserved, and does not seem to want that.
Dundy wanted Gore to fight for him when he was leaving. Gore didn’t, because Gore didn’t feel it was his place to try to hold Dundy back.
Note: When recalling memories of the past, Gore leans toward thinking of the good times (first meetings, first times for everything, happy times). Dundy migrates toward the more upsetting memories.
Gore, on the whole, thinks back on their relationship with fondness. A sense of ‘the one who got away’ // Dundy has regrets about the entire thing, and feels a bitterness toward Gore that he didn’t try harder to make it work between them (and a bitterness toward himself that he wasn’t something ‘worth fighting for’). This presents itself in the way they think back on certain events.
Additionally, Dundy has consistently been trying to convince himself the relationship would never work, which is why he likes to focus on the bad parts of the relationship
SO WHAT IF: Gore and Dundy have been in a good spell, they're getting along well and they're having fun together, but Dundy has been pulling stupid shit to perfect his routines. Drugs, late nights, injuries, all of it. Gore has tried to put it in the 'don't hurt yourself' terms but Dundy doesn't care, he brushed Gore off. "If it bothers you so much, don't come to my performances, just ignore it" type attitude from Dundy. It's been a point of tension between them, but Gore doesn't want to be forceful and he accepts that Dundy is his own person, so as much as it worries him he's willing to give Dundy the benefit of the doubt and believe that he's in control of the situation.
Gore is out of town for some reason. Hockey game maybe? Tryouts? Something big, something important to him. Gets word that Dundy was hospitalized either during performance or practice. Hears from someone else, NOT Dundy. Panic. The 'drive all night to get to you' type of panic. The 'fall asleep by your hospital bed because you're not awake but I need to be there when you are' type of panic.
This is a defining moment for the two of them, because it's both the grand romantic gesture Dundy has been looking for from Gore, and it's also eye opening because Dundy realizes his actions effect more than just himself. They effect Gore, and could possibly have an effect on his dreams and ambitions. Dundy is torn because on one hand, this feels like the confirmation of the love he has been hoping for, but it's also confirmation that they SHOULDN'T be together because to love each other would mean to put their own future's on the line. It's a double edged sword: Yes, he can have this, No, he doesn't want it.
He isn't willing to end it yet though, because beneath all else Dundy is selfish, and he wants this for himself. He agrees to listen to Gore more, and to take better care of himself. He isn't willing to give into the romance of it yet (not outwardly at least) but Gore doesn't need that, because he's smarter than that, and he KNOWS that his support and affection are helping Dundy. Knows he craves it, knows he can give it. They settle into a better, healthier routine between the two of them. Dundy curbs some of his self destructive habits, Gore learns to read between the lines of what is said, and what is meant. Then BAM a year later Dundy is scouted by ISU and everything falls apart for the two of them.
