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rsadelleUh, so I was plot bunnying in my head, and then this got jossed, and I don't really want to write it anyway, so have the plot bunny. (Someone else should totally write the epic Fred/Segs long distance relationship story.)
Segs being in trouble already means this won't work (and, uh, probably wasn't believable anyway - I never really researched anything for it - but I skimmed an article a while back about a school's approach to discipline being to check in with kids instead of immediately send them to detention or whatever, and clearly that's been lingering in my mind), so now I don't have to write it. The story I was thinking about was Segs behaving himself and then having a fight with Fred and all he has the next day is a light practice the so he goes out and parties (and drunk dials Fred a couple of times) and goes to practice hungover. Bennie (One Girl One Puck claims this is Jamie Benn's nickname, and creyr-fic's primer suggests he's likely to be the next captain, plus he's supposed to end up on Segs' wing) looks very concerned and asks him if he's okay, and Segs pretty much brushes him off.
After practice, he gets called into one of the coach's offices, and the coach shuts the door and has him sit down and asks, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Tyler says, flashing a smile he doesn't feel. "Just didn't get much sleep last night."
The coach pins him with an unimpressed look and says, "I know what a hangover looks like."
Tyler crosses his arms over his chest. "It was one time," he says. "I've been good all season."
"I know you have," the coach says. "That's why I'm concerned."
"I'm not going to let it affect my game," Tyler says.
The coach sighs. "All right. My door is always open if you need to talk, or we can refer you to someone."
Tyler works very hard at not scowling.
The coach sighs again. "Go home. Get some rest and fluids."
That was Tyler's plan anyway, so that's what he does. He leaves Fred like a dozen messages and sends at least twice that many texts apologizing.
Fred still hasn't hit him back by practice the next day, and while Tyler's recovered from his hangover, he still kind of feels like shit. It doesn't affect his on-ice performance, but people probably notice anyway.
After practice, Bennie throws an arm around Tyler's shoulders and says, "We're getting lunch," and doesn't take no for an answer. He also ropes in whoever is on Tyler's other wing and says, "Line meeting." It's pretty clearly not true, but it also means Tyler can't get out of it.
He's pretty sure they're going to try to talk to him about yesterday, but they don't. They get settled around a table and order a mountain of food, and then it's all TV shows and movies and shit. They don't even seem to care that Tyler barely participates.
He has his phone on, no matter how rude it is, and when Fred calls, he doesn't even manage a full sentence, just tells them, "Gotta," and answers and says, "Hey," as he takes his phone outside.
"Hey," Fred says.
The nice thing about Dallas is that no one cares who he is, so Tyler can say, "I'm so sorry," and, "I love you," while standing outside on the sidewalk.
He's well aware, after Fred has conditionally accepted his apology and told Tyler that he loves him, that it doesn't fix everything. He's going to have to work on that.
"What are you doing right now?" Fred asks.
"Uh, actually I'm out to lunch with my lineys," Tyler admits.
"What are you doing talking to me?"
"This was more important."
"Babe," Fred says all soft and gentle, "I love you, but you know this shit is important. Go have lunch. You can call me later."
So Tyler goes back to the table, and all his linemates say about it is Bennie asking him, "Everything okay?"
Tyler says yes and the moment passes, and he ends up having a pretty good time, plus then he goes home and calls Fred.
He thinks that's going to be it, but a couple of days later, Bennie catches him in a quiet moment in the hallway and asks, "So how's your, uh, phone call? From lunch the other day?"
"Uh, good," Tyler says. He really doesn't want to talk to Bennie about Fred. Bennie doesn't even know Fred exists, not really.
Bennie claps him on the shoulder. "Good. Glad to hear it."
It's kind of weird, and Bennie asks him about his "phone call" a couple more times. He also tells him he should talk to one of the coaches, and when Tyler gives him a look, Bennie shrugs and says, "He came out here, like almost a year before his wife did. Might have some ideas for you."
Tyler does not go talk to the coach, no way he's doing that, but he does call Brownie and ask him how he deals with it.
"Not going to lie to you, bro," Brownie says, "it sucks a lot of the time. You just do the best you can, and appreciate the time you get together." When Tyler demands specifics, Brownie says, "We talk every day, or at least text if we can't talk. I tell her I love her and miss her all the time. I try to do stuff for her, too, like send her flowers or call and have cookies sent to her whole sorority, something I know she'll like."
It sounds like pretty good advice to Tyler.
"You could call Julie too," Brownie says, "see what she thinks helps. Or talk to Fred."
Tyler does call Julie, who mentions Brownie doing stuff for her, "and the time he decked out his bedroom when I went to visit him for spring break," but also says, "I know he loves me, but it helps a lot that he tells me all the time."
Tyler makes sure to tell Fred he misses him and loves him a lot, and also asks Fred what would make it easier.
"I don't even know," Fred says. They're Skyping, and Fred's lying in bed with Marshall. Tyler wants to be in that bed so badly. "I think we just have to make it until May." May seems so far away.
Tyler thinks about it a lot, later, about what he could do for Fred. He doesn't think Fred would really like flowers. He could send cookies, but Fred's trying to eat healthier. And he already sent Fred a couple of Stars shirts way back at the beginning of the season. He kind of comes up with a vague idea, but can't figure out how to make it work, so he finally goes to one of the front office people, one of the ones who's supposed to help them with stuff.
"Hi, Tyler," she says with a smile. "What can I do for you, hon?"
"Uh, I wanted to send like a gift basket thing to someone, but not, like, a standard one I could just order."
"A custom one?"
"Yeah."
"We can make that happen for you." She turns a page in her notepad and uncaps her pen. "What did you want to put in it?"
Tyler makes a list: some dog treats for Marshall, a couple of rolls of hockey tape, since you can never have enough of that, some blank sheet music, and, "Like, guitar picks." Fred usually just finger picks, but it would be cool to send him some guitar picks for when he doesn't since he complains they disappear worse than socks.
"I don't think we have any Stars guitar picks, but I can maybe find some in green and gold."
"That would be cool," Tyler says. "And something like cookies or candy or something, but not a lot. Just something really good."
She writes it down at the end of her list. "Is there a specific occasion you want to send this for?"
Tyler says no and tells her to send it whenever she gets it all together. It means he has to give her Fred's name and address, but she doesn't blink at it, so maybe it's not that weird.
She lets him know when it's sent, and then he gets a video from Fred. It's Fred and Marshall, Fred holding out one of the treats and getting Marshall to speak before he gets to eat it. "This is from your Daddy," Fred tells Marshall.
They Skype later, and Tyler falls asleep to Fred playing him something, the Stars green of a guitar pick flashing over the strings.
*
Tyler's not really paying that much attention to what's happening around him, guys hanging out and trying to decide if they're having lunch at the rink or going out. Someone sticks their head in the door and yells, "Pevs, someone here to see you."
Pevs comes back a couple of minutes later - with Fred.
Tyler is so fucking happy to see him. He barely manages not to do anything he shouldn't in public, just grins a lot and hugs Fred hard.
"If you were free, I would've made arrangements."
Fred waves his hand, grinning just as much as Tyler. "Nick covered it. He says you owe him one."
"I totally owe him one," Tyler says. He makes hasty introductions, and then they get out of there. When they get home, they make out against the door for a while. It's pretty much the best thing Tyler's felt in a long time.
Tyler has a game tomorrow night, so he can't get fucked, but he does suck Fred off until his throat is raw and his jaw is sore.
Fred comes to his game, and down to the room afterwards. Tyler lights it up, and they pull out an awesome win. Guys are trying to make plans to go out after, and Bennie looks at Tyler and gets everyone's attention to say the party is at his place.
"We don't have to," Tyler says to Fred.
"You're coming," Bennie says, and Fred shrugs and agrees to it.
In the car on the way there, Tyler again says they could blow it off, but Fred says, "I think he made it at his place for us," so they go to the party, which is totally low-key, guys and their wives and girlfriends, just a few other people who are friends of some of the guys.
Everybody's cool with Fred, and Fred's totally easy in a crowd, so he's fine.
Tyler ends up in the kitchen with Bennie and no one else.
"Your phone call's cool," Bennie says.
Tyler has no idea what to say.
"No one's said anything," Bennie says, "because you didn't seem like you wanted to talk about it, and if you still don't want to talk about it, that's cool, but we know you have a boyfriend who you love and you miss, and if you do want to talk about it, we're cool with that."
Tyler stammers out some kind of thanks, and escapes from the kitchen to go hang out with Fred.
They don't drink a lot, Fred totally sober enough to drive them home, but enough that Tyler's a little loose, a little sloppy, and since they don't have practice tomorrow - a reward for their win - Tyler finally gets fucked, on his hands and knees with Fred pounding into him, and then Fred pulling out and flipping him over so they can kiss while they come.
*
Tyler still doesn't talk about Fred much, but he's not quite as desperately secretive about him anymore, and he finally starts warming up to his teammates and coaches. Eventually, they make it to May. Tyler insists on paying for movers for Fred's stuff, but Fred drives himself and Marshall cross-country. It seems like a ridiculous waste of time they could be together to Tyler, but Fred points out that they're going to have forever, so a few extra days doesn't make that much difference.
Fred and Marshall get into Dallas while Tyler's gone battling through round two of the playoffs. It's kind of too bad, but it's kind of nice too. He comes home late one night to Fred and Marshall already asleep in his bed. They both wake up when Tyler sheds his suit and crawls in with them. Tyler rubs behind Marshall's ear, carefully so he doesn't get him too excited, and then kisses Fred long and slow. It's exactly what he wants to come home to at the end of every road trip, and now that Fred's here permanently, he can.
Segs being in trouble already means this won't work (and, uh, probably wasn't believable anyway - I never really researched anything for it - but I skimmed an article a while back about a school's approach to discipline being to check in with kids instead of immediately send them to detention or whatever, and clearly that's been lingering in my mind), so now I don't have to write it. The story I was thinking about was Segs behaving himself and then having a fight with Fred and all he has the next day is a light practice the so he goes out and parties (and drunk dials Fred a couple of times) and goes to practice hungover. Bennie (One Girl One Puck claims this is Jamie Benn's nickname, and creyr-fic's primer suggests he's likely to be the next captain, plus he's supposed to end up on Segs' wing) looks very concerned and asks him if he's okay, and Segs pretty much brushes him off.
After practice, he gets called into one of the coach's offices, and the coach shuts the door and has him sit down and asks, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, sure," Tyler says, flashing a smile he doesn't feel. "Just didn't get much sleep last night."
The coach pins him with an unimpressed look and says, "I know what a hangover looks like."
Tyler crosses his arms over his chest. "It was one time," he says. "I've been good all season."
"I know you have," the coach says. "That's why I'm concerned."
"I'm not going to let it affect my game," Tyler says.
The coach sighs. "All right. My door is always open if you need to talk, or we can refer you to someone."
Tyler works very hard at not scowling.
The coach sighs again. "Go home. Get some rest and fluids."
That was Tyler's plan anyway, so that's what he does. He leaves Fred like a dozen messages and sends at least twice that many texts apologizing.
Fred still hasn't hit him back by practice the next day, and while Tyler's recovered from his hangover, he still kind of feels like shit. It doesn't affect his on-ice performance, but people probably notice anyway.
After practice, Bennie throws an arm around Tyler's shoulders and says, "We're getting lunch," and doesn't take no for an answer. He also ropes in whoever is on Tyler's other wing and says, "Line meeting." It's pretty clearly not true, but it also means Tyler can't get out of it.
He's pretty sure they're going to try to talk to him about yesterday, but they don't. They get settled around a table and order a mountain of food, and then it's all TV shows and movies and shit. They don't even seem to care that Tyler barely participates.
He has his phone on, no matter how rude it is, and when Fred calls, he doesn't even manage a full sentence, just tells them, "Gotta," and answers and says, "Hey," as he takes his phone outside.
"Hey," Fred says.
The nice thing about Dallas is that no one cares who he is, so Tyler can say, "I'm so sorry," and, "I love you," while standing outside on the sidewalk.
He's well aware, after Fred has conditionally accepted his apology and told Tyler that he loves him, that it doesn't fix everything. He's going to have to work on that.
"What are you doing right now?" Fred asks.
"Uh, actually I'm out to lunch with my lineys," Tyler admits.
"What are you doing talking to me?"
"This was more important."
"Babe," Fred says all soft and gentle, "I love you, but you know this shit is important. Go have lunch. You can call me later."
So Tyler goes back to the table, and all his linemates say about it is Bennie asking him, "Everything okay?"
Tyler says yes and the moment passes, and he ends up having a pretty good time, plus then he goes home and calls Fred.
He thinks that's going to be it, but a couple of days later, Bennie catches him in a quiet moment in the hallway and asks, "So how's your, uh, phone call? From lunch the other day?"
"Uh, good," Tyler says. He really doesn't want to talk to Bennie about Fred. Bennie doesn't even know Fred exists, not really.
Bennie claps him on the shoulder. "Good. Glad to hear it."
It's kind of weird, and Bennie asks him about his "phone call" a couple more times. He also tells him he should talk to one of the coaches, and when Tyler gives him a look, Bennie shrugs and says, "He came out here, like almost a year before his wife did. Might have some ideas for you."
Tyler does not go talk to the coach, no way he's doing that, but he does call Brownie and ask him how he deals with it.
"Not going to lie to you, bro," Brownie says, "it sucks a lot of the time. You just do the best you can, and appreciate the time you get together." When Tyler demands specifics, Brownie says, "We talk every day, or at least text if we can't talk. I tell her I love her and miss her all the time. I try to do stuff for her, too, like send her flowers or call and have cookies sent to her whole sorority, something I know she'll like."
It sounds like pretty good advice to Tyler.
"You could call Julie too," Brownie says, "see what she thinks helps. Or talk to Fred."
Tyler does call Julie, who mentions Brownie doing stuff for her, "and the time he decked out his bedroom when I went to visit him for spring break," but also says, "I know he loves me, but it helps a lot that he tells me all the time."
Tyler makes sure to tell Fred he misses him and loves him a lot, and also asks Fred what would make it easier.
"I don't even know," Fred says. They're Skyping, and Fred's lying in bed with Marshall. Tyler wants to be in that bed so badly. "I think we just have to make it until May." May seems so far away.
Tyler thinks about it a lot, later, about what he could do for Fred. He doesn't think Fred would really like flowers. He could send cookies, but Fred's trying to eat healthier. And he already sent Fred a couple of Stars shirts way back at the beginning of the season. He kind of comes up with a vague idea, but can't figure out how to make it work, so he finally goes to one of the front office people, one of the ones who's supposed to help them with stuff.
"Hi, Tyler," she says with a smile. "What can I do for you, hon?"
"Uh, I wanted to send like a gift basket thing to someone, but not, like, a standard one I could just order."
"A custom one?"
"Yeah."
"We can make that happen for you." She turns a page in her notepad and uncaps her pen. "What did you want to put in it?"
Tyler makes a list: some dog treats for Marshall, a couple of rolls of hockey tape, since you can never have enough of that, some blank sheet music, and, "Like, guitar picks." Fred usually just finger picks, but it would be cool to send him some guitar picks for when he doesn't since he complains they disappear worse than socks.
"I don't think we have any Stars guitar picks, but I can maybe find some in green and gold."
"That would be cool," Tyler says. "And something like cookies or candy or something, but not a lot. Just something really good."
She writes it down at the end of her list. "Is there a specific occasion you want to send this for?"
Tyler says no and tells her to send it whenever she gets it all together. It means he has to give her Fred's name and address, but she doesn't blink at it, so maybe it's not that weird.
She lets him know when it's sent, and then he gets a video from Fred. It's Fred and Marshall, Fred holding out one of the treats and getting Marshall to speak before he gets to eat it. "This is from your Daddy," Fred tells Marshall.
They Skype later, and Tyler falls asleep to Fred playing him something, the Stars green of a guitar pick flashing over the strings.
*
Tyler's not really paying that much attention to what's happening around him, guys hanging out and trying to decide if they're having lunch at the rink or going out. Someone sticks their head in the door and yells, "Pevs, someone here to see you."
Pevs comes back a couple of minutes later - with Fred.
Tyler is so fucking happy to see him. He barely manages not to do anything he shouldn't in public, just grins a lot and hugs Fred hard.
"If you were free, I would've made arrangements."
Fred waves his hand, grinning just as much as Tyler. "Nick covered it. He says you owe him one."
"I totally owe him one," Tyler says. He makes hasty introductions, and then they get out of there. When they get home, they make out against the door for a while. It's pretty much the best thing Tyler's felt in a long time.
Tyler has a game tomorrow night, so he can't get fucked, but he does suck Fred off until his throat is raw and his jaw is sore.
Fred comes to his game, and down to the room afterwards. Tyler lights it up, and they pull out an awesome win. Guys are trying to make plans to go out after, and Bennie looks at Tyler and gets everyone's attention to say the party is at his place.
"We don't have to," Tyler says to Fred.
"You're coming," Bennie says, and Fred shrugs and agrees to it.
In the car on the way there, Tyler again says they could blow it off, but Fred says, "I think he made it at his place for us," so they go to the party, which is totally low-key, guys and their wives and girlfriends, just a few other people who are friends of some of the guys.
Everybody's cool with Fred, and Fred's totally easy in a crowd, so he's fine.
Tyler ends up in the kitchen with Bennie and no one else.
"Your phone call's cool," Bennie says.
Tyler has no idea what to say.
"No one's said anything," Bennie says, "because you didn't seem like you wanted to talk about it, and if you still don't want to talk about it, that's cool, but we know you have a boyfriend who you love and you miss, and if you do want to talk about it, we're cool with that."
Tyler stammers out some kind of thanks, and escapes from the kitchen to go hang out with Fred.
They don't drink a lot, Fred totally sober enough to drive them home, but enough that Tyler's a little loose, a little sloppy, and since they don't have practice tomorrow - a reward for their win - Tyler finally gets fucked, on his hands and knees with Fred pounding into him, and then Fred pulling out and flipping him over so they can kiss while they come.
*
Tyler still doesn't talk about Fred much, but he's not quite as desperately secretive about him anymore, and he finally starts warming up to his teammates and coaches. Eventually, they make it to May. Tyler insists on paying for movers for Fred's stuff, but Fred drives himself and Marshall cross-country. It seems like a ridiculous waste of time they could be together to Tyler, but Fred points out that they're going to have forever, so a few extra days doesn't make that much difference.
Fred and Marshall get into Dallas while Tyler's gone battling through round two of the playoffs. It's kind of too bad, but it's kind of nice too. He comes home late one night to Fred and Marshall already asleep in his bed. They both wake up when Tyler sheds his suit and crawls in with them. Tyler rubs behind Marshall's ear, carefully so he doesn't get him too excited, and then kisses Fred long and slow. It's exactly what he wants to come home to at the end of every road trip, and now that Fred's here permanently, he can.
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