![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleSummary: Everything goes to shit after the lockout. Their game is a mess and they don't even make the playoffs. Lindsey has interviews all over Canada and the final conversation about that ends with her screaming, "Maybe I don't want to spend the rest of my life in Winnipeg! Maybe I want something different!" down the phone at him, and then stony silence, and then UPS dropping off a box of his stuff he left at her place. Jeff and Megan get engaged.
Notes: Written for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lakeeffectgirl. This story involves real-life partners; skip it if you object to that sort of thing.
Story on AO3
Everything goes to shit after the lockout. Their game is a mess and they don't even make the playoffs. Lindsey has interviews all over Canada and the final conversation about that ends with her screaming, "Maybe I don't want to spend the rest of my life in Winnipeg! Maybe I want something different!" down the phone at him, and then stony silence, and then UPS dropping off a box of his stuff he left at her place. Jeff and Megan get engaged.
Mike knows he and Jeff are weird and codependent about some things, but he never expected the way it feels like a punch to the gut when he goes over for dinner and Megan waves her hand with a giant diamond on it in his face and says, "We're getting married," and Jeff never even told Mike he was thinking about asking her.
*
Jeff and Megan have an engagement party in Sea Isle after the season's over. They have a hell of a lot of engagement parties, but Mike went to the one in LA and he's going to this one (he takes a guest room as far from Jeff and Megan's room as possible), and that means he doesn't have to go to the family-centered ones.
The fucking Flyers made it to the playoffs, but they're between rounds, so they go out one night with a bunch of the guys who are still there - Scott, Danny, Claude. Scottie and Joffrey come to Jersey for the party too, and Scott makes them all get in close for a picture he tweets with the caption, The old gang together again!
Mike's trying. He's really, really trying. He already agreed to be Jeff's best man and it is good to see everyone, but he's just not feeling it and four hours ago he got a text from Lindsey that said, I got my stuff out of the lake house. Left the key with Mark.
"Hey." Danny slides in next to him and nudges him with an elbow.
"Hey."
Danny looks at him for a moment, and then says, "Let's take a walk."
Mike recognizes the look and the tone, even if Danny's never done that let me take care of you thing to him before. It seems like the lesser of two evils, so he gets up and follows Danny out of the bar. He shamelessly reads over Danny's shoulder as he sends a text to Claude letting him know they went for a walk and they'll be back.
"Did you even know?" Danny asks when they're a couple of blocks away.
"Know what?"
"How you feel about Jeff."
Mike doesn't pretend not to understand this time. "I thought it was going to be us against the world forever."
"I thought that once," Danny says. He sits down on a bench. "Fifteen years later, she packed a bag and said she wanted a divorce."
Mike sits next to him. "At least she wasn't in love with someone else." When Danny doesn't answer for too long, he says, "Sylvie was- I didn't know that."
"She kept it quiet," Danny says. "She didn't even tell the boys until after the divorce was final."
"Okay," Mike says. "So?"
"So," Danny says, "I get it." He looks at Mike, and it's that I can help look again. "Broken hearts mend."
"That's what you have for me?"
"Best I've got," Danny says with a shrug. "I was dating someone, pretty seriously. She dumped me in February, so it's what I'm going with. It takes time, but broken hearts mend."
Danny's gaze shifting to somewhere over his shoulder is all the warning Mike has before Claude says, "He's been telling me that too," from behind him.
Mike scoots toward Danny to make room on the bench and raises his eyebrows at Claude.
"She decided she wanted to be a college student, not my girlfriend," Claude says. "I'm not sure I believe Danny."
"You will," Danny says. He claps Mike's shoulder. "You will too."
*
Mike goes up to Kenora when he gets out of Sea Isle. He had the house before Lindsey, so at least he has memories of it that aren't about her. He has people over a lot, and a couple of friends come to visit.
Danny and Claude both text him at least three times a week. Nothing big or important, but pictures of Danny's dogs or Claude's golf score sheet, bad jokes and movie recommendations. Mike texts back, sends them pictures of Arnold and the lake, tells Danny which action movies aren't worth taking his boys to and Claude how big the fish he catches are.
Three weeks before his golf tournament, the organizers call and let him know Danny and Claude have been added to the list of guests.
Mike pretends like he knows what's going on, but then he texts both of them, Why are you coming to the tournament?
Claude sends back, Sounds like fun, and Danny sends, It's a good tournament, and it'll mess with people to have us there.
Danny calls him later and says that he and Claude want to hang out for a couple of days too. Jeff and Megan are coming up before the tournament, so Danny and Claude stay for a couple of days after.
They don't do much. They play another round of golf, sit around on the deck, hang out in the hot tub in the evening when it's cooler outside.
"It's nice up here," Danny says. He has his head tipped back against the edge of the hot tub and is looking at the stars.
"Yeah," Mike says. "It's pretty great."
*
Danny and Claude invite themselves up to Kenora again at the end of the summer. They don't do much this time either. They do their workouts in the morning, play a round of golf, go fishing. (Mike fishes. Danny drinks. Claude drinks and gets a sunburn.) They watch a movie out in the cabana one night, almost too hot in the slight evening cool with the three of them sharing warmth under a couple of thin, overlapping blankets.
Mike cooks the last night, turns the fish he caught into a meal they eat around the table with a couple of bottles of wine.
They take the rest of the second bottle upstairs and into the hot tub. It's nice. Somehow, over a summer of idle texting, Danny and Claude have become his friends in a way they never were when they were on the same team.
Mike's tipsy, edging on drunk, but not so out of it that he doesn't catch on that there's something going on. Danny and Claude keep exchanging looks he can't read.
"Claude's the captain," Danny says, a mixture of fondness and annoyance. "He was supposed to." He stops talking, and instead he kisses Mike. "You don't have to be alone while your heart mends."
Mike doesn't know what to do, and then Claude's behind him, at his shoulder, and Danny stops kissing him and Claude starts.
They make out for a long time, both of them kissing him, stopping to kiss each other over his shoulder, all of their hands wandering after those first few kisses.
"Wait," Mike says when Claude's hand - he thinks it's Claude's - slips below his waistband. "I don't want to have to clean jizz out of the hot tub."
Danny laughs at him, but they get out of the hot tub without spilling the rest of the wine into it and stumble into Mike's bedroom.
It's all heat and skin and both of them touching him. There's some kind of silent negotiation that goes on between Danny and Claude that ends with Danny sucking his cock and Claude kissing him.
They make an inevitable mess.
Claude cleans them up, and then Danny and Claude get into bed on either side of Mike.
*
Mike wakes up first in the morning, Danny's arm tossed over him, and Claude pressed to his back.
He gets out of bed without waking them and goes for a run. It does nothing to make any of it make any more sense.
He goes straight upstairs and into the shower when he gets back, even though he can hear Danny and Claude downstairs.
His steps slow when he goes down to the kitchen, but Danny and Claude just smile at him, Danny sitting at the counter and Claude at the stove making breakfast.
They don't talk about much, and after breakfast, Mike cleans up while Danny and Claude finish packing, and then he drives them to the airport where they hug in front of the terminal.
*
Danny and Claude go back to texting him like they did before, and Mike replies without knowing what the hell they're doing.
He doesn't tell anyone about it.
*
But things get better, mostly. The team clicks again, and they start the season winning. Mike hooks up with some girls - a few in LA who aren't impressed that he's a hockey player, and a few on the road who are - but successfully avoids going on actual dates.
Every time he goes over to Jeff and Megan's, he has to hear about the wedding plans, and Megan drags them out on a day off to try on tuxedos.
Mike takes a moment while Jeff's the one whose outfit is being scrutinized to fire off a text to Danny and Claude. There are too many kinds of tuxes. They're just getting married on the beach.
Claude sends back, Ask if you can get a plaid one, which makes Mike chuckle under his breath.
Danny sends, Can't argue with the bride, and then, a few seconds later, Broken hearts mend.
Trust him to have figured out that it wasn't just the endless parade of tuxes spoiling Mike's day.
*
Their only matchup against Philly is in the middle of the grinding, too-long road trip when they have to vacate the rink for the Grammys. They have a day off in Philly the day before the game, but without any kind of team stuff scheduled. It's probably a nod to how much of their team used to play there.
Megan came to Philly, and Jeff has family stuff to do with her. They tell Mike he's welcome to come, but he waves them off, and calls Danny instead.
Danny comes to pick him up around lunchtime, and they go back to his house where Claude is just opening pizza boxes and beer bottles on the island in the kitchen.
They eat on stools pulled up to the island, and there are no dogs running around, which means they don't have to worry about the kids.
Mike's still not sure what they're doing - sometimes he thinks he must have imagined what happened over the summer - but after they're done eating, he kisses Claude, because he's closer.
Danny puts the leftover pizza away and herds them upstairs where they spend all afternoon in his bed. They send Claude downstairs to get the leftovers when they get hungry - "Because you're the captain," Danny says, and Mike says, "Because you're the youngest" - and they eat cold pizza naked for dinner.
Danny drives him back, and Mike leans back into the car, one hand on the door and one on the top of the car and says, "We're still going to crush you tomorrow." He closes the door on Danny's laugh.
*
They do win, and Danny shakes his head at Mike across the ice before he heads to the locker room.
*
The wedding is in July. It's on the beach, but they still have to wear dress shoes with their tuxes.
Mike doesn't bring a date.
Danny and Claude both send him nonsense texts all morning, nothing meaningful, just there.
The reception is at some hall Megan found, and there are entrances and toasts and cake. There's a first dance, and Mike holds up his phone and snaps a picture of them. He doesn't know what to do with it, so he sends it to Danny and Claude with Broken hearts mend, and then he goes to cut in and dance Jeff around the floor for a moment to make everyone laugh before he dances with Megan.
Notes: Written for
lakeeffectgirl. This story involves real-life partners; skip it if you object to that sort of thing.Story on AO3
Everything goes to shit after the lockout. Their game is a mess and they don't even make the playoffs. Lindsey has interviews all over Canada and the final conversation about that ends with her screaming, "Maybe I don't want to spend the rest of my life in Winnipeg! Maybe I want something different!" down the phone at him, and then stony silence, and then UPS dropping off a box of his stuff he left at her place. Jeff and Megan get engaged.
Mike knows he and Jeff are weird and codependent about some things, but he never expected the way it feels like a punch to the gut when he goes over for dinner and Megan waves her hand with a giant diamond on it in his face and says, "We're getting married," and Jeff never even told Mike he was thinking about asking her.
*
Jeff and Megan have an engagement party in Sea Isle after the season's over. They have a hell of a lot of engagement parties, but Mike went to the one in LA and he's going to this one (he takes a guest room as far from Jeff and Megan's room as possible), and that means he doesn't have to go to the family-centered ones.
The fucking Flyers made it to the playoffs, but they're between rounds, so they go out one night with a bunch of the guys who are still there - Scott, Danny, Claude. Scottie and Joffrey come to Jersey for the party too, and Scott makes them all get in close for a picture he tweets with the caption, The old gang together again!
Mike's trying. He's really, really trying. He already agreed to be Jeff's best man and it is good to see everyone, but he's just not feeling it and four hours ago he got a text from Lindsey that said, I got my stuff out of the lake house. Left the key with Mark.
"Hey." Danny slides in next to him and nudges him with an elbow.
"Hey."
Danny looks at him for a moment, and then says, "Let's take a walk."
Mike recognizes the look and the tone, even if Danny's never done that let me take care of you thing to him before. It seems like the lesser of two evils, so he gets up and follows Danny out of the bar. He shamelessly reads over Danny's shoulder as he sends a text to Claude letting him know they went for a walk and they'll be back.
"Did you even know?" Danny asks when they're a couple of blocks away.
"Know what?"
"How you feel about Jeff."
Mike doesn't pretend not to understand this time. "I thought it was going to be us against the world forever."
"I thought that once," Danny says. He sits down on a bench. "Fifteen years later, she packed a bag and said she wanted a divorce."
Mike sits next to him. "At least she wasn't in love with someone else." When Danny doesn't answer for too long, he says, "Sylvie was- I didn't know that."
"She kept it quiet," Danny says. "She didn't even tell the boys until after the divorce was final."
"Okay," Mike says. "So?"
"So," Danny says, "I get it." He looks at Mike, and it's that I can help look again. "Broken hearts mend."
"That's what you have for me?"
"Best I've got," Danny says with a shrug. "I was dating someone, pretty seriously. She dumped me in February, so it's what I'm going with. It takes time, but broken hearts mend."
Danny's gaze shifting to somewhere over his shoulder is all the warning Mike has before Claude says, "He's been telling me that too," from behind him.
Mike scoots toward Danny to make room on the bench and raises his eyebrows at Claude.
"She decided she wanted to be a college student, not my girlfriend," Claude says. "I'm not sure I believe Danny."
"You will," Danny says. He claps Mike's shoulder. "You will too."
*
Mike goes up to Kenora when he gets out of Sea Isle. He had the house before Lindsey, so at least he has memories of it that aren't about her. He has people over a lot, and a couple of friends come to visit.
Danny and Claude both text him at least three times a week. Nothing big or important, but pictures of Danny's dogs or Claude's golf score sheet, bad jokes and movie recommendations. Mike texts back, sends them pictures of Arnold and the lake, tells Danny which action movies aren't worth taking his boys to and Claude how big the fish he catches are.
Three weeks before his golf tournament, the organizers call and let him know Danny and Claude have been added to the list of guests.
Mike pretends like he knows what's going on, but then he texts both of them, Why are you coming to the tournament?
Claude sends back, Sounds like fun, and Danny sends, It's a good tournament, and it'll mess with people to have us there.
Danny calls him later and says that he and Claude want to hang out for a couple of days too. Jeff and Megan are coming up before the tournament, so Danny and Claude stay for a couple of days after.
They don't do much. They play another round of golf, sit around on the deck, hang out in the hot tub in the evening when it's cooler outside.
"It's nice up here," Danny says. He has his head tipped back against the edge of the hot tub and is looking at the stars.
"Yeah," Mike says. "It's pretty great."
*
Danny and Claude invite themselves up to Kenora again at the end of the summer. They don't do much this time either. They do their workouts in the morning, play a round of golf, go fishing. (Mike fishes. Danny drinks. Claude drinks and gets a sunburn.) They watch a movie out in the cabana one night, almost too hot in the slight evening cool with the three of them sharing warmth under a couple of thin, overlapping blankets.
Mike cooks the last night, turns the fish he caught into a meal they eat around the table with a couple of bottles of wine.
They take the rest of the second bottle upstairs and into the hot tub. It's nice. Somehow, over a summer of idle texting, Danny and Claude have become his friends in a way they never were when they were on the same team.
Mike's tipsy, edging on drunk, but not so out of it that he doesn't catch on that there's something going on. Danny and Claude keep exchanging looks he can't read.
"Claude's the captain," Danny says, a mixture of fondness and annoyance. "He was supposed to." He stops talking, and instead he kisses Mike. "You don't have to be alone while your heart mends."
Mike doesn't know what to do, and then Claude's behind him, at his shoulder, and Danny stops kissing him and Claude starts.
They make out for a long time, both of them kissing him, stopping to kiss each other over his shoulder, all of their hands wandering after those first few kisses.
"Wait," Mike says when Claude's hand - he thinks it's Claude's - slips below his waistband. "I don't want to have to clean jizz out of the hot tub."
Danny laughs at him, but they get out of the hot tub without spilling the rest of the wine into it and stumble into Mike's bedroom.
It's all heat and skin and both of them touching him. There's some kind of silent negotiation that goes on between Danny and Claude that ends with Danny sucking his cock and Claude kissing him.
They make an inevitable mess.
Claude cleans them up, and then Danny and Claude get into bed on either side of Mike.
*
Mike wakes up first in the morning, Danny's arm tossed over him, and Claude pressed to his back.
He gets out of bed without waking them and goes for a run. It does nothing to make any of it make any more sense.
He goes straight upstairs and into the shower when he gets back, even though he can hear Danny and Claude downstairs.
His steps slow when he goes down to the kitchen, but Danny and Claude just smile at him, Danny sitting at the counter and Claude at the stove making breakfast.
They don't talk about much, and after breakfast, Mike cleans up while Danny and Claude finish packing, and then he drives them to the airport where they hug in front of the terminal.
*
Danny and Claude go back to texting him like they did before, and Mike replies without knowing what the hell they're doing.
He doesn't tell anyone about it.
*
But things get better, mostly. The team clicks again, and they start the season winning. Mike hooks up with some girls - a few in LA who aren't impressed that he's a hockey player, and a few on the road who are - but successfully avoids going on actual dates.
Every time he goes over to Jeff and Megan's, he has to hear about the wedding plans, and Megan drags them out on a day off to try on tuxedos.
Mike takes a moment while Jeff's the one whose outfit is being scrutinized to fire off a text to Danny and Claude. There are too many kinds of tuxes. They're just getting married on the beach.
Claude sends back, Ask if you can get a plaid one, which makes Mike chuckle under his breath.
Danny sends, Can't argue with the bride, and then, a few seconds later, Broken hearts mend.
Trust him to have figured out that it wasn't just the endless parade of tuxes spoiling Mike's day.
*
Their only matchup against Philly is in the middle of the grinding, too-long road trip when they have to vacate the rink for the Grammys. They have a day off in Philly the day before the game, but without any kind of team stuff scheduled. It's probably a nod to how much of their team used to play there.
Megan came to Philly, and Jeff has family stuff to do with her. They tell Mike he's welcome to come, but he waves them off, and calls Danny instead.
Danny comes to pick him up around lunchtime, and they go back to his house where Claude is just opening pizza boxes and beer bottles on the island in the kitchen.
They eat on stools pulled up to the island, and there are no dogs running around, which means they don't have to worry about the kids.
Mike's still not sure what they're doing - sometimes he thinks he must have imagined what happened over the summer - but after they're done eating, he kisses Claude, because he's closer.
Danny puts the leftover pizza away and herds them upstairs where they spend all afternoon in his bed. They send Claude downstairs to get the leftovers when they get hungry - "Because you're the captain," Danny says, and Mike says, "Because you're the youngest" - and they eat cold pizza naked for dinner.
Danny drives him back, and Mike leans back into the car, one hand on the door and one on the top of the car and says, "We're still going to crush you tomorrow." He closes the door on Danny's laugh.
*
They do win, and Danny shakes his head at Mike across the ice before he heads to the locker room.
*
The wedding is in July. It's on the beach, but they still have to wear dress shoes with their tuxes.
Mike doesn't bring a date.
Danny and Claude both send him nonsense texts all morning, nothing meaningful, just there.
The reception is at some hall Megan found, and there are entrances and toasts and cake. There's a first dance, and Mike holds up his phone and snaps a picture of them. He doesn't know what to do with it, so he sends it to Danny and Claude with Broken hearts mend, and then he goes to cut in and dance Jeff around the floor for a moment to make everyone laugh before he dances with Megan.