Chapter Text
-ing at all!”
His voice echoed off the high ceiling above and the ice he was lying on. Mack’s stomach protested the sudden change in gravity, and he couldn’t stop himself this time, had to roll over and spew his breakfast over the gray of the sharks logo. Some of it splashed onto his jersey.
“Fucking perfect,” he groaned, but figured he might as well just wipe his mouth with it, then. He sat up slowly and tried to take stock. Back in the uniform sans skates, like before; back on center ice while the rink was empty. No idea what year or day or even time it was. But he felt- he thought he might know. His spine felt right again.
He slowly got to his feet, and when he was pretty sure he wasn’t gonna hurl for a second time, he half-scooted half-shuffled to the side of the rink, pushing through a gate and out of the service exit he knew led direct to the parking lot. He figured the curse alarms were probably blaring, that they knew he was back and were sending a team of doctors to him, but he just wanted to get outside for a second, just to see the real sun.
A shout from behind him, a security guard emerged from his office. Mack’s fast walk broke into a bit of a jog, then a full-tilt run, socked feet colliding hard with the concrete, and security were great but Mack was a professional athlete and he was not getting fucking caught today.
He burst through a fire exit, probably setting off a million non-curse alarms too, and he’d have to apologise to whoever’s on shift now, but first- he scanned left and right as his sprint slowed a little, it had to- yes, but it was almost too late. He ducked between the parked cars and sprinted as fast as he could after the gray Bronco on its way out the lot.
“Will! Hey, stop, Smitty!” He waved his arms like a mad thing, yelling though there was no way Will would hear it, “wait up, Will!”
The car slowed to a stop, the gates starting to open.
“Smitt!”
The security guard who’d followed him was now yelling too, trying to get the gate guard to close them, but the confusion of yelling rather than radioing gave Mack the opportunity to-
“Let me in, let me in!” He skidded to a stop at the passenger side, rattled the handle. “It’s me, it’s Mack, let me-!” The door opened and Mack threw himself in.
“Holy fuck, dude, you’re-”
“Drive! Drive, go, gogogo!” Mack was laughing, wild and breathless.
“- back, what the fuck, okay, stop-”
“We have to go!”
“- hitting me, I’m going!” Will shoved him back into his seat, but he was laughing too. His hair was wet from the shower and curling up under the edge of his cap, his eyes were young, he was Mack’s, he was totally and only Mack’s Will. “Where have you been! What the fuck! Put your seatbelt on you dumbass!” He was laughing too.
“Alright, okay, fuck!” Mack was gonna tell him everything. He had to, he was going to. “Let’s go to- not yours, not Jumbo’s, we gotta- I have so much to say. Make sure we’re not followed!”
“Shit, okay, uh-” Will immediately turned down a side street. “You got cursed, right?”
“I got cursed!” Mack jumped his whole body in the seat as far as the seatbelt would allow. “I got fucking cursed!”
“You got fucking cursed!” Will yelled too, and Mack wanted to howl like a dog, so he did. Will tried to join in but couldn’t stop giggling enough to build up any volume, and it infected Mack, and they had to pull over so they could gasp for air. He reached over the console to clutch at Will’s arm the second it wasn’t needed for steering. Will’s other hand came to cover his.
“How long was I gone?” He asked.
Will was looking back at him. “Two and a half days. No signs, no nothing. How long for you?”
“Same, yeah.” Mack’s skin was buzzing everywhere except where Will’s hand wrapped over his knuckles. “Bro, you’re gonna shit when I tell you.” He took the quietness of the touch and stretched it up his arm, through his shoulders, down his torso and up his neck until his whole body was clean. It was like the peace of flying across the ice with the puck on your tape and it was nothing like that at all. He could never keep it to himself. “C’mon, let’s go.”