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When Jack first met Bitty, he was astonished by how much sugar he ate. He knew in the back of his mind that a sweet would eat sugar nonstop, but he was still shocked. In his defense, it’s not like he had ever had a close relationship with many sweets. He spent his whole life playing hockey. And sweets did not play hockey. They were much too kind and gentle for such an aggressive sport. And it showed, when Bitty first joined the team. Jack was endlessly frustrated with Hall and Murray for letting a sweet on the team. But, he had proved himself. And somehow, the sweet had wriggled his way into Jack’s brain.
He sort of knew, in the back of his mind, that he would probably end up falling in love with a sweet. It was almost expected of him. That was just what happened. Sours fell in love with sweets. They just went together. His parents were the perfect example. His mother was a sweet and his father was a sour, and they were so, so compatible. He wanted a love like that. Bitty didn’t deserve to be with a sour though. He knew that sours could be a little unintentionally harsh sometimes. He sighed to himself, before entering the house. He’d spent countless hours thinking about this, he didn’t want to think about it anymore.
He smiled when he saw most of the team relaxing in the living room. There was an NHL game running on the TV, but they were mostly ignoring it in favor of the conversation they were all having. They all seemed so happy. He was so grateful to be a part of the team.
“Jack!” Lardo was the first to notice him. “Want some?” She thrust her bag of Takis toward him.
“No thanks. You know I don’t do spicy Lards.” He gave her a half smile. He was wary of her when she first became their team manager. After Parson, he told himself he would never trust a spice ever again. He probably should’ve known that if you put the two most intense flavors together, there would be some tension. While Lardo changed his opinion on every spice as a whole, he was still wary of spicy individuals. And spicy food.
“You’re missing out man.” Lardo shrugged, and shoved her hand back into the bag. Jack scanned the room for the object of his affections, and his heart melted when his eyes finally landed on the smaller boy.
Him and Chowder were curled up on an armchair together, a pint of chocolate ice cream settled between them. They each had a spoon in their hand, and Bitty was laughing at something as Chowder dipped his spoon in for another bite. Jack had been so relieved when Chow joined the team. Yes, Bitty was close with most of the team despite not sharing a flavor, but Jack was glad that there was another sweet around. As much as the rest of the team loved his baked goods, they couldn’t keep up with Bitty and his sugar. But Chowder could. He hoped that Bittle felt less alone. It was probably awfully alienating to be a sweet playing a game like hockey. He was glad that Bitty had a friend.
“Oh! Jack!” Bittle noticed him, and visibly perked up. Jack tried to calm his heartbeat. “There’s something on the kitchen counter for you, go get it!”
“Okay.” Jack went to the kitchen, grabbed the box which had “Jack” scribbled on it in Bittle’s distinct handwriting, and returned to the living room, settling down on the corner seat of the couch, so that he could be near Bittle. He opened it, and saw some lemons and limes.
“They’re fresh.” Bitty explained. “The gardening club was selling some of their produce. I set some aside to make some pies, but I figured I’d save some, just for you.”
“Oh, wow, thank you.” Jack looked up and smiled back up at Bittle. He did small things like that for the team all the time. But Jack couldn’t help but feel it was personal when Bittle did them for him. He had to remind himself that Bitty only bought them because he was a sweet. That was just what sweets did, they thought of other people. Still, he grabbed a lemon, and began peeling off the peel.
“Bro, please don’t do that freaky fuckin’ thing where you eat a lemon with a completely straight face.” Dex piped up, ignoring the broken remote that he was tinkering with.
“Brah, Jack doesn’t shame you for being a salt, don’t shame him for being a sour. You can’t cho-”
“Chill, we know. Don’t shame people for their flavors because they can’t control ’em.” Nursey interrupted him.
Jack ignored the conversation then, ripping out a slice and eating it. It was really good. He smiled at Bittle.
“Hey Bits, this is amazing. Thank you.”
Bitty’s smile was huge.
---
Jack liked to say he had gotten used to the presence of sweets in his life, but sometimes, he still managed to be horrified at just how much sugar they ate without any consequences. Just in that day alone he had witnessed Bittle eat two slices of cherry pie, whipped cream straight from the can, gummy sharks, and a pepsi. And now, as he sat next to Jack in class, he reached into his bag, and pulled out a caramel filled chocolate bar.
“Bittle, it’s only two and you’ve had nothing but candy. Isn’t there anything healthy that's sweet?”
“Fruit, I guess, but that’s boring. I sure am glad that I was born after dessert was invented.” Bittle shook his head and gave a small smile. Jack couldn’t help but smile too.
“You want some?” Bitty snapped a piece off of the chocolate and thrust it in Jack’s direction.
“Oh, no thank you. I brought one of those limes that you bought me a few days ago.” To prove his point, Jack pulled said lime out of his bag. It had already been peeled, and a few slices were already taken out of it. He took another slice off, and handed it to Bittle.
“Here. I’ll take that lime if you eat this chocolate. I refuse to believe that you don’t ever candy. Even salts like candy, you know?”
“Alright” Jack grabbed the chocolate. “I’ll do it.” He popped the piece in his mouth. And he had to admit, it was delicious. Bittle had good taste in chocolate. Still, he could distinctly taste the sugar. It was a little overwhelming. He looked over just in time to see Bitty pop the lime in his mouth, and he was glad he did. It was incredibly endearing to watch his face scrunch up as he tried to finish the slice. Jack couldn’t help but laugh.
“Hey, shut the fuck up.” A girl in the row in front of them leaned forward. “We get that you’re on a scholarship but some of us actually paid to be here.” Jack leaned back, and checked the marking on her neck. Of course she was a sour. Jack had a half a mind to say something rude back, but Bittle grabbed his arm.
“It’s not worth it.” He whispered to Jack, and gave him a small smile. Jack sighed, and decided to drop it.
---
He worried for Bittle sometimes. The hockey world wasn’t designed for sweets. He could see the judgement from other teams when they were at games. Thankfully, their uniforms covered their markings, but Lardo was always prepared with food that matched their alignment before their games. Your flavor not only determined your personality and foods you enjoyed, it also determined which foods your body was designed for. Of course, you could eat foods outside of your flavor, but your body wasn’t optimized for them. So, Lardo had special food prepared for them before a game, to make sure they were at peak performance.
And for the most part it was okay, some of them were just a little weird. Shitty always had fried chicken. Jack ate a PB&J with lime juice in it. Holster always ate saltine crackers.
But Bitty? Bitty ate chocolate. And that got some stares from the other team, as he sat on the bench, a chocolate bar in hand as he waited to go on the ice. He was targeted a lot for being a sweet. They were under the false assumption that Bittle was a pushover just because he was a sweet. Which he was, at first. Jack made sure to get rid of that instinct as much as possible though.
However, Brown was more brutal than most. Normally, they’d chirp Bitty a little for being a sweet, but they quickly shut up when they saw how he played. Brown was relentless though. And check after check, insult after insult, Jack was starting to see that it was getting to him. He grit his teeth and played through though.
Number 8, who seemed quite fond of taunting Bittle was back to desperately trying to steal the puck from him.
“Aren’t sweets supposed to be nice? You know, the nice thing to do would be to give me the puck. You’re the bitchiest sweet I’ve ever met. Go back to the bakery you sugar-coma fa-” He didn’t finish his sentence before Jack swooped in and checked him. Hard. He leaned forward and grabbed the spice by his jersey, pinning him to the boards.
“Don’t think you can get away with skating around and taunting my players you fucking-” Jack was interrupted by the screech of a whistle. He sighed, dropping the guy back to the ground.
“Awww, wittle baby Zimmermann defending his helpless sugar boy huh?” The player taunted, and Jack decided the penalty was worth beating this guy's ass. Before he felt a hand on his shoulder.
“Jack. It’s not worth it.” He was close enough to see the tears forming in Bitty’s eyes, but didn’t say anything. Jack just sighed, dropped his puck, and was benched for the remaining 5 minutes of the game.
They ended up winning, but the team wasn’t happy about it. They celebrated, and Hall and Murray even let them stop at McDonalds, but the bus was eerily quiet.
Sweets were kind, but they were also incredibly sensitive. And no one on the team was too fond of seeing Bitty cry. He sat in the back of the bus with Chowder, who was quietly feeding Bitty a McFlurry. You could tell that he was trying (and failing) not to cry. Jack abandoned his fish sandwich, and went straight for the lime that came with it. Lardo was fuming, and Shitty was trying desperately to calm her down. It was obvious that Ransom wanted to help, but Holster had told him not to. He was glad Shitty and Holster were there. They needed the stableness of savory to balance out the hotheadnesses of salty and spicy people.
The bus dropped them back off at Faber, and the teammates that lived in the Haus began their walk back together, as they always did. Chowder left the McFlurry in Bitty’s hands, before giving him a hug and running off to get in the car before Dex and Nursey drove away.
Jack and Bitty lingered behind the group as they walked home. Bitty sighed, and Jack quietly reached over and grabbed his shoulder. Sours were bad at expressing and regulating their emotions, but he wanted to try. When Bittle smiled up at him through his tears, it was clear that he succeeded.
---
It was late. Jack knew both he and Bitty should go in, but he was having a nice time sitting on the porch and talking.
“Hey, Jack?” Bittle piped up.
“Yeah?”
“Do you ever sometimes wish that you weren’t the flavor that you are?”
Jack hesitated before answering. “I used to. But not anymore. Why? Do you not like being a sweet?”
“No, it’s not that. I like being a sweet. It’s just...I wish I wasn’t so damn sensitive. Sometimes I wish I was like...a spice or something. Then I wouldn’t be so sensitive. And if I wanted to do something, I would just go and do it, instead of being afraid of what would happen after.”
“Is there something? That you wanna do?” Jack asked.
“Yeah. It’s something I’ve wanted for a long time now. But, I’m scared.”
“Bittle, I thought that I had to be bitter and standoffish my whole life because I’m a sour. But the team taught me differently. You taught me differently. Sometimes, you gotta disregard what your flavor tells you to do. Don’t get me wrong, I love that you’re a sweet. But, whatever this is that you want, I think you deserve it.” Jack smiled at him.
“You. Do you wanna know? Do you wanna know what I want?” Bittle looked up at him, sudden determination in his eyes.
“Yeah. I do.” Then before Jack could think, Bittle was grabbing his shoulders, and pulling him in. Jack kissed back just as eagerly. After spending so long suppressing his feelings, it felt incredible to finally be able to act on them. Jack couldn’t help but laugh to himself.
“What?!” Bittle pulled away suddenly. “Why are you laughing?”
“It’s just a little funny. I never believed my mum when she told me I was probably gonna end up falling in love with a sweet.” Then Jack grabbed his shoulders, and pulled him right back in.