Chapter Text
Back when Jack had first started coming to The Coffee Haus, he’d looked out of place in the moderately sized shop. He would sit with his shoulders hunched and his arms crossed, and he always seemed conscious of the space he was taking up. The awkwardness had fallen away somewhere along the line and Bitty was incredibly grateful for it, but he’d never realized just how much presence Jack Zimmermann could command, until he got to see him play hockey in person.
The ‘A’ on his jersey made all the sense in the world because, from the moment Jack stepped onto the ice for warm-up to when the Falcs won the game and he smiled and waved at Bitty, he looked infallible. Jack looked untouchable, and it did things to Bitty’s heart that he didn't want to think about, so he didn’t.
He put those feelings in a box and he pushed them aside, and he focused on cheering alongside Shitty and Lardo.
The three of them screamed their hearts out when Jack scored his first goal and then when he scored his second one, and they screamed when he got an assist too. Being by the ice and getting caught up in the game reminded Bitty of his Samwell days, and he was pretty sure that Shitty and Lardo felt it too.
It was nice and fun and just a little bit bittersweet but, by the time the game ended, they were all too pumped to care.
The three of them were standing in the lobby, trying to decide what to do next, when Bitty’s phone vibrated in his hand. The screen told him that he had a text from Jack and, when he unlocked the phone and read the message, he was pretty sure his heart stopped.
It was only when Shitty cleared his throat that Bitty realized he’d missed something in their conversation, and when he saw a raised eyebrow from Lardo, his cheeks flushed.
Still, the text concerned them too, so Bitty just cleared his throat before he said, “It’s Jack- he’s going to grab drinks with some of his teammates and he- wanted to know if we wanted to join them?” and Lardo and Shitty were both beaming before Bitty even finished his sentence.
Shitty said, “Fuck yeah, we do,” and Lardo said, “I’m so down,” and Bitty couldn’t hold back a smile of his own.
“I’ll let him know,” he said, before he texted Jack a quick, ‘ we’d love to! where should we meet you?’ and swallowed down a lump in his throat. As long as he kept telling himself that he wasn’t nervous, he didn’t have to analyze when he was all but shaking in his boots.
Jack texted him back a moment later, directing them towards gate one, and promising to get through press as quickly as possible, and those texts calmed Bitty more than he wanted to admit.
If Lardo and Shitty noticed his nerves, they didn’t say anything. The three of them made their way over to the gate slowly, weaving their way through the crowds of people trying to get home or go out after the game, and trying to stay out of the way as they did so.
When they got to the gate in question, Bitty texted Jack to let him know, before he tuned back into Lardo and Shitty’s conversation, just in time to hear Shitty contemplate the potential of writing a thesis on toxic masculinity in hockey. Bitty had heard Shitty contemplate more than a few thesis ideas that had never come to be, so he didn’t feel bad about only partly listening.
Instead, most of his attention went to scanning the crowd and trying to look like he wasn’t, until his eyes finally landed on Jack and he felt himself light up in a way that he couldn’t hide.
Any embarrassment that he normally would have felt was diminished by the fact that Jack was beaming from ear to ear right back at him and, when Lardo and Shitty saw who Bitty was smiling at, they grinned as well.
Shitty, being himself and the closest to Jack, also threw himself at Jack and said, “You beautiful, hockey playing man,” while they hugged.
When they pulled apart Jack was laughing and Lardo held out a fist for him to bump. “You really did play great,” she said, and Jack blushed while he thanked her.
The blush was a lot, and so was Jack’s still damp hair and the brightness in his eyes and his perfectly tailored dress shirt, and all of a sudden Bitty wasn’t quite sure what to do with his hands, so he ended up clutching his phone with both of them while he said, “Really, you looked fantastic.”
It didn’t feel like enough, but Jack’s smile softened a tiny bit when he said, “Thanks Bitty,” and Bitty was pretty sure that Jack understood. Of course, Jack also said, “You guys ready to go?” and they were, so they followed Jack back through the arena while he explained their plans for the night.
Apparently Thirdy had to bail because his daughter wasn’t feeling well and Guy had to bail because he was ‘too old for this crap’, but Marty, Tater, and Snowy were meeting them at the bar, and if Tater and Snowy were there, than Poots probably would be as well. Bitty listened and nodded along at the appropriate moments, but he let Lardo and Shitty do most of the talking as they climbed into Jack’s truck.
It was only when Jack started the truck and something that was definitely country music started playing through the speakers, that Bitty spoke up because, really.
“Jack Zimmermann, are you trying to make me feel like I never left Georgia?” Bitty asked, only a tiny bit serious, and Jack didn’t look guilty at all.
“Is there a problem?” he asked, and Bitty huffed dramatically.
“There’s always a problem when country music is playing, hon,” Bitty said, and Jack looked like he had a response to that ready to go, when Lardo chimed in from the back seat.
“Unless it’s you standing on a table singing Jolene at a party in third year, right Bits?” she asked, and Jack’s smile grew while Shitty howled with laughter.
“I thought we were friends, Larissa,” Bitty said over the laughter, before he added, “And it’s not my fault if Dolly Parton is an icon and I was the only one at that party willing to give her music the respect that it deserves.”
“Even if it’s country music?” Jack asked, with a sidelong glance and a smirk that did nothing to alleviate Bitty’s blush.
Bitty sighed before he said, “Even if it’s country music,” and then he added, “And shouldn't you be focusing on the road, Mr. Zimmermann?” just so he could feel like he got a victory out of the conversation.
For his part, Jack was smiling and the laugh lines around his eyes were prominent, but he lifted his hands briefly in surrender, keeping his eyes on the road the entire time.
The bar they went to ended up being more like a hole in a wall, but the inside was more crowded than the outside had seemed.
When they got there, the group of Falconers they were meeting had already piled into a semi-circular booth in the back, and a few of them- Marty and Tater, maybe?- waved when they saw Jack.
Jack lead the way to the booth and, when they got there, he started introduction with, “Guys, these are my friends I was talking about- Shitty, Lardo, and Bitty,” and then he went on with, “And these are my teammates- Snowy, Tater, Poots, and Marty,” pointing to the Falcs as he said their names, and then the introductions were over and it was quiet for a moment.
Shitty was the first to break the silence, saying, “Sup, bro’s?” as he slid into the booth.
Lardo followed close behind saying, “Hey,” as she went, and Bitty glanced at Jack before he slid in beside Lardo.
Jack sat at the end of the row beside Bitty, and it was impossible for Bitty not to notice how close together they were. He distracted himself by saying, “It’s so nice to meet y’all,” and then he added, “It’s nice to put faces to the names that Jack’s always tossing around,” and Marty smiled.
“We could say the same about you, kid,” he said, sending Jack a look that Bitty didn’t quite understand.
Bitty didn’t know what to do with any of that, so he was grateful when Tater said, “Bitty, you are the one with pies, yes?”
Bitty smiled and said, “Lardo and I own the coffee shop,” before he narrowed his eyes slightly and turned to Jack. “Have you been talking about my pies but not sending us customers?” he asked, joking, and Tater boomed with laughter from across the table.
“He is sharing pie from Thanksgiving but wanting to keep you all to himself,” Tater said, and Bitty tried to ignore the effect that those words had on his heart.
He was pretty sure he heard Snowy say, ‘Jesus Christ Tater,’ but Bitty just laughed politely until the moment passed, and then he asked, “So, have y’all ordered drinks yet?”
The answer turned out to be yes, and a few pitches of beer arrived moments later.
Jack poured Bitty a cup that he drank gratefully, and the conversation got easier from there. Bitty still felt like he was missing something, but the beer made him care less and less, and it also made Jack’s leg pressed into his under the table just a bit more tolerable. It still felt like enough to set Bitty on fire, but it was in a way that made him happy to burn.
Eventually, Bitty was warm and fuzzy to the point where it took him a few moments to realize that Jack’s arm was draped across the booth behind Bitty, but then all of a sudden Bitty was ready to explode, because that wasn’t fair.
It made him want to lean into Jack’s side and stay there, and it made him want to kiss Jack’s jaw where it was level with his own eyes, and it made him want a million other things that he couldn’t have and none of that was fair so, after a moment of stunned longing, Bitty excused himself.
“I’m just gonna go grab a glass of water from the bar- I don’t want to bother the waitress with it- excuse me, Jack, hon,” he said, a bit too flustered to sound casual, but he could blame that on the beer. Sure, it would wound his pride, but less so than the truth would.
There were a few tables that Bitty had to weave himself through before he actually got to the bar and there was a small dance floor off to the side that he was just noticing, but he ignored most of that and focused on catching his breath. The bartenders were busy so he didn’t bother trying to get their attention- he just leaned between two empty stools and told himself to calm down and breathe, and he was just about there when a throat cleared beside him.
“Hey, not to be weird, but do I know you from somewhere?” a voice asked, and Bitty turned his head, only to see a man that he almost definitely didn’t know.
“Sorry, hon, but I don’t think so,” Bitty said, and the man’s cheeks flushed and his expression fell just a tiny bit, before he shook that off with a smile and a tiny laugh that didn’t made any sense to Bitty, until-
“Right. And I’m guessing I should have listened to my friends when they told me that that line would never work?” he asked, just nervous enough to be endearing, and this time Bitty laughed.
It was an awkward, surprised noise that worked its way up his throat before he knew it was coming, and then he threw a hand over his mouth to block it, not wanting to seem rude. “They might be onto something,” he agreed, and there were a million other things running through his head and most of them centered around Jack Zimmermann, but flirting was easy and the guy in front of Bitty wasn’t complicated, so he didn’t bother stopping himself from saying, “But we are talking now, aren’t we?”
The man’s smile grew wider than Bitty had seen yet, and it was a nice smile. A bit crooked and not as enticing as other smiles that Bitty had seen that night, but it was nice. The man also held out a hand and said, “We are. And I’m Ryan- it’s nice to meet you,” and Bitty shook the offered hand.
He also turned so that his free elbow was leaning against the bar and he was facing Ryan entirely, and he was just about to introduce himself, when-
“Bitty, the waitress came by right after you left and it looked like things were taking a while here so I asked her to get you your water,” Jack said, and it felt like he’d come out of nowhere, which probably meant that Bitty had drank more than he realized, and for a moment too long, Bitty just froze entirely.
He looked at Jack and Jack looked at him and Ryan probably looked on wondering what was going on, and Bitty felt bad about it but he ignored Ryan entirely, because he was almost positive that he knew what Jack was doing, and it wasn’t fair.
He was half a second away from saying the most dismissive thing he could manage and going home with Ryan out of spite, when Ryan jumped in and said, “I’m gonna head back to my table- but it was nice meeting you,” and then he was gone and Bitty was ready to explode for what felt like the millionth time that night.
He was ready to explode but, in the end, he just said, “Thanks, Jack,” in the most polite voice he could manage, and he went to move around Jack and then back to the table or to the bathroom or maybe he’d just keep walking all the way home, when-
“Bitty, can we talk?” Jack asked, and he sounded more nervous than Bitty had ever heard him, and it made Bitty freeze once again.
He froze where he was, half way through brushing past Jack and now acutely aware of just how close together it left them standing, and then he let out a breath that seemed to hold all of his bravado. “About what?” he asked, sounding smaller than he ever wanted to sound, and when he finally looked up he saw that Jack was glancing around the bar.
Bitty was about to get angry about that, when Jack asked, “Can we go outside?” and Bitty frowned, but he was too confused to protest.
He felt completely and entirely lost, so nodding and then following Jack outside ended up being one of the easiest things he’d done all night.
It was cool out, and the fresh air made it easier for Bitty to breathe. It helped clear his head, and it helped him think.
Of course, thinking made him begin to wonder what, exactly, was going on, and he was about to stop walking and ask Jack just that, when Jack stopped first.
He stopped and he turned around to face Bitty, and something in his expression reminded Bitty of how he’d looked on the ice earlier that night, and it was doing things to Bitty’s heart that he was used to and would never be used to all at once, and then-
“Can I kiss you?” Jack asked, and Bitty was pretty sure that his heart stopped altogether.
All he could do was blink and wait to wake up, but when that didn’t happen he realized that he needed to say something. “Can you-” was all that came out before he went back to blinking and trying to breathe, and Jack was looking more and more nervous by the second, but he didn’t let that stop him from talking a moment later.
“I- I like you,” Jack said, and all Bitty could do was stare on in wonder as he kept going with, “And I’m sorry I was a dick in there and I’m sorry my friends have been weird and I’m sorry for- this. But Bits, I- I just really like you, and I just. Really want to kiss you. If that’s okay.”
Bitty wanted to say that it was okay, and he wanted to tell Jack that he liked him too, and then he wanted to tell the entire world, but every time he opened his mouth, the words didn’t come. He still felt like he was dreaming, and he still felt frozen, and he felt like if he made one wrong move, the entire world would fall apart.
Of course, he also felt more than willing to risk the entire world, so, after a few more moments of staring, Bitty closed the distance between him and Jack.
His hands found Jack’s face and Jack’s hands found Bitty’s hips, and their mouths met half way and, in that moment, a lot of things started to make sense.