Chapter Text
As is tradition, Samwell Men’s Hockey alums come for the graduations of everyone they played with. Dex and Nursey and Chowder and Foxtrot should be the oldest alums coming this year, but it’s Shitty’s five-year reunion, and he’s bringing Lardo as his plus-one and suggested Ransom and Holster and Bitty come back as well for an impromptu team reunion, so all of a sudden there are going to be a lot of hockey and ex-hockey players at graduation.
Dex and Nursey are somehow the last ones to arrive at the hotel they’re all staying at, maybe because most of them flew in earlier in the day. Dex and Nursey took the truck, which is a reincarnated version of the one Dex had while they were at Samwell. This one has more leg room, and a dog in the rear seat (the hotel is pet friendly, fortunately), and Nursey has a key to it, but somehow all those differences don’t feel that different, except the leg room. That’s a blessing. And Nursey having a key had felt different for approximately three seconds, but then it just felt normal.
They took turns driving, even though it wasn’t that long of a drive, and Nursey takes charge of their dog as soon as they’ve parked, which leaves Dex with the suitcase. Almost as soon as the doors to the lobby open, Dex can hear the team— the lounge must be adjacent. Either that, or Bitty’s ability to project has grown massively in the past few years.
“I think we know where to find everyone else once we get everything in our room,” Nursey remarks as they approach the front desk.
Dex widens his eyes. “Wow, you really think so?”
“I know so.”
“No fucking way.”
“I know, right?”
Check in is relatively painless— the concierge asks if they’re part of the hockey group, and when they say yes, she says that Nursey’s ‘Samwell Hockey’ t-shirt gave it away. Their room is on the same floor as everyone else’s, and it’s a matter of minutes to drop their suitcase and the dog bed (which will be useless, since she usually sleeps with them anyway) and head out to the lounge.
“Well, well, well!” Shitty practically bellows when he sees Nursey and Dex. “If it isn’t the fucking fiances!”
“Jack and Bitty are engaged too,” Dex points out. They’ve left a loveseat free, clearly for the two of them, and he and Nursey and the dog sit down. (Well, he and Nursey sit down. She lies down across both of their laps.)
Shitty waves a hand dismissively. “They’ve been engaged since December. You, on the other hand...”
“I think what Shitty is trying to say is that last time he was at school with you, the concept of you even being friends was laughable, and he wasn’t here for the gradual descent into mutual pining,” Foxtrot says. Smriti, who has one arm around her and the other petting their own dog, nods with a grin.
“It was mutual pining for like a week,” Nursey says.
Foxtrot and Chowder share a look. “No, it wasn’t,” Chowder says.
“But seriously,” Lardo says, leaning forward out of her chair. “Deets.”
They have a lot to celebrate that weekend, starting with Dex and Nursey’s engagement and ending with the fact that they’re all there. Bitty’s charmed the kitchen staff into letting him use the facilities (one of them watches his vlog, which made it easy), the dogs have pretty much free rein in the courtyard, and they all troop over to Samwell together and sit in a row and every time a teammate crosses the stage they make enough noise to put everyone else to shame, and they have team breakfast in the lounge and manage to borrow Faber for a game and as he fistbumps Ransom after they successfully keep Jack away from their goal (although Nursey and Holster are doing a comparable job at the other end of the ice), Dex knows that things are just going to keep looking up.
Whiskey veers past Holster at the other end of the ice and scores, and as they get ready for another faceoff, Nursey says to Dex, “I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that I love you, and nothing is going to change that.”
Then Jack wins the faceoff and passes the puck to Nursey and Nursey slaps it straight past Dex into the goal.
“Ugh, fuck you,” Dex says as they reset, but he says it with a grin.