2013/14 Canada Ontario U17 (Otters’ Hoody)

Like many things in Mitch’s life – it starts with Dylan Strome. It doesn’t start because of Dylan Strome, no, it starts because of Nova Scotia, because Mitch stupidly thought that growing up on the coast of one of the great lakes would mean he knew about being on the coast, but it turns out that the coast of the Atlantic Ocean is a little different, and by a little different, he means that the wind coming off the sea is like tiny shards of ice that cut through your skin.

It’s not that he didn’t pack his own jumpers, but he’s one of those people that’s always cold, and they’re supposed to be doing some stupid team bonding thing by looking at the sights of Sydney, which is stupid, because they’re all teenage boys who have zero interest in sight seeing. Still, Stromer’s probably the teammate he knows best out of his Team Canada teammates, and on top of that, he knows that Strome is a cuddly motherfucker when he wants to be, so he stands especially close to him as they stand on the waterfront and look at a fucking massive violin.

“Fuck Marns,” Strome’s taller than him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder, “Are you shivering?”

“Fuck off,” Mitch glares at him, “Just cuddle me and I’ll warm up.”

Dylan wraps his arms around Mitch’s waist as they stand there, someone droning on about the massive violin to them like any of them give a shit. His arms are warm around Mitch’s waist, and he presses up against Mitch’s back, tucking his head over his shoulder. It’s abnormally cuddly for teenage boys, but then again, they are hockey players.

Still, when they start to walk again, Mitch can’t stop shivering, he really is cold.

“I can’t cuddle you and walk.” Stromer pauses thoughtfully, before starting to tug his hoody over his head, “Wear this, I’m not even that cold.”

Mitch raises an eyebrow at him, but he’s not going to turn down warmth at this point, so he takes the Navy hoody that Stromer’s passing him. It’s big enough that he can fit it over the hoody that he’s already wearing, and it still has Dylan’s body head making it warm. As he slips his hands into the pocket at the front he notices how fucking soft it is. “Jesus,” he looks up at Dylan, “How soft is this?”

Dylan shrugs, “It’s just one of our standard hoodies. I figured they were the same across the league.”

They clearly aren’t the same, because if they were then Mitch’s Knight’s hoody would be this soft. “Don’t tell anyone, but like, I would consider playing for the Otters, just to get a hoody like this.”

Dylan laughs and ruffles his hair, “Keep it,” he says, “I have millions.” He wraps an arm around Mitch’s shoulder as they talk, “Besides, it makes you look super tiny, and that’s funny.”

Mitch sticks his tongue out, but he can’t even bring himself to be mad, because the hoody is so warm.

14/15 Season (Knights Hoody)

Their Knights hoodies are nowhere near as soft as the Otters’ ones, they’re also mostly white, which is a stupid colour to dress teenage boys in, but clearly the equipment managers didn’t think this.

It surprises Mitch then when they’re getting into kit, and he notices that Domi’s hoody is a mottled green and black rather than the plain white ones the rest of the team wear.

“Dude,” he stares at him, “Your hoody is so cool, how come you have a cool one?”

Max shrugs, “I tie died it.” He answers nonchalantly, having a dad who is one of the biggest fighters the NHL has ever seen means Max is utterly unashamed about his softer hobbies and utterly unafraid of being bullied about them. “Cool no?”

“It’s awesome,” Mitch grins at him, “Would you do one of mine?”

Max shrugs, and then throws the hoody at him, “Keep this one, I was thinking I wanted to do a different colour scheme anyway.”

“Dude, thanks.” Mitch grins, “You’re the best.”

2015 Draft (Otters’ Hoody)

As one of the top ten draft prospects in one of the biggest draft years in history, he has to do a bunch of stupid team building exercises with the other draftees. It’s not the worst, he mostly hangs out with Stromer and McDavid, who are inseparable as always, and he knows Crouse, Hanni and Barzy, so it’s not like he’s with a bunch of people he doesn’t know. They’re sat outside at a café one evening, chatting with each other, drinking cokes because none of them are legally allowed to drink, which sucks because if there weren’t cameras on them 24/7, they all would have been.

He’s sat next to Dylan, who has one arm slung around his shoulders, the other arm slung around McDavid’s shoulders, their fingers laced together the way they have been all week. He’s starting to shiver, because the sun has gone down.

“Cold Mitchy?” Stromer asks, pressing a kiss to the top of his head – Strome’s weird like that, and Mitch just tends to run with it.

“Always.”

“I’d give you my hoody,” Dylan tugs at his t-shirt, “But I’m not wearing one.”

“Shame,” Mitch grins at him, “Your Otters’ hoody is still my favourite hoody. I left it at home though – didn’t want to get caught wearing enemy colours at the draft.”

Dylan lets out a snort, and then turns to Connor, “Davo,” he grins, “You don’t need your hoody on right?”

Connor looks at him like he’s insane, “Why do I have to give Marns my hoody?”

“Sharing is caring,” Dylan grins, “Now give me the hoody.”

Connor rolls his eyes, but sits forward to tug his hoody over his head, letting go of Dylan’s hand as he does, passing it over to Strome, who dutifully gives it to Mitch.

“Fuck,” Mitch sighs happily as he pulls it over his head, “Do they make these out of actual otter fur, is that why it’s so soft?”

“Are Otters soft?” Connor asks sitting back and slipping his hand into Dylan’s once more.

“Dude,” Mitch stares at him, “You’re like King Otter, should you not know this?”

“Google it,” Dylan laughs.

Mitch is nothing if not obliging to two people who just orchestrated and gave him a new hoody. “Otter pelts feel smooth and soft to us, but if you look at otter hair with a microscope you can see that it's covered in tiny, geometric barbs.” He reads off his phone

“Woah,” Dylan breathes softly, “Spikey AND soft,” he squeezes Connor’s hand, “We’re so badass.”

Connor chuckles, and leans into Dylan’s tall frame, “You ever going to give that back Marns?” he asks, as Mitch is still stroking the hoody.

“Nope.” Mitch grins back at him.

15/16 Season (Knights Hoody)

They’re at a party, and he finds himself sat outside it someone’s backyard, curled up with Matthew Tkachuk. They’re sat by the firepit, beers in hand, and Chucky has his head in Mitch’s lap, Mitch running his hand through Matt’s unruly curls.

“Fuck,” Matt mutters softly, “I’m so warm.”

“Warm?” Mitch stares at him like he’s insane, “You realise we’re outside and the sun has gone down yeah?”

Matt shrugs sitting up, “And there’s a fire,” he shrugs his hoody over his head, “and beer blankets are a thing.”

“I’m stealing this,” Mitch tells him with the honesty that only alcohol brings to the table.

“Marns, you keep playing with my hair and you can have whatever you want,” Matt tells him, lying back down in his lap.

Mitch grins, pulling the jumper over his head, it smells of smoke and hockey player, it’s warm and cosy. “Deal.” He says, tangling his fingers back through Matt’s curls.

15/16 Canada U20’s (Flyers’ Hoody)
World Juniors’ is awesome, because Stromer is there as his captain to dish out as many cuddles as Mitch wants, plus they’re rooming together, and he calls Davo every night, and it’s always nice to catch up with the second coming of hockey.

Dylan chirps him hard about his hoody stealing addiction, which seems a little harsh, since 50% of the hoodies he illicitly owns Dylan told him he could keep.

“Watch out,” Stromer’s jabbing Konecny in the ribs as he leaves his Flyer’s hoody on the bench, “Hoody slut will steal that.”

“Shut up!” Mitch laughs, “I’m not a hoody slut.”

“Dude,” Teeks balls up the hoody and throws it at him, “You can keep it, it’s fucking hideous.”

“You don’t like,” Mitch glances down at it, “Bright eye offending orange?”

“Bud,” Teeks gives him a look, “I’m happy the Flyer’s drafted me ok? But the colour scheme is…” he gestures at his grey sweat pants and the camo t-shirt he’s wearing, “Not me.”

Mitch shrugs and pulls the hoody over his head, “It’s mine now.”

16/17 Season (Maple Leafs’ Hoody)

The first time Mitch stays over at Auston’s it’s unintentional, they’re playing Chel and they don’t realise the time until it’s too late.

“Wanna stay?” Auston offers casually.

“That would be awesome.” Mitch grins at him, “You can give me a lift to skate in the morning.”

“Er,” Auston looks at him, scratching the back of his neck a little nervously, “Like, you want the couch? Or you can share with me,” he lets out a little chuckle, “I’m told I’m an aggressive cuddler though.”

Mitch grins at him, “Aggressive cuddling sounds awesome.” He follows Auston to the bathroom, brushes his teeth with his finger – he’s got a spare toothbrush at the rink, so he’ll totally be able to brush them properly in the morning. He crawls into bed beside Auston, “Do I get to be little spoon?” He asks with a cheeky grin over his shoulder.

“Hell yes,” Auston pulls him into his chest, wrapping his strong arms around him.

It’s nice, Auston is warm and broad behind him, “Hey Matts?” Mitch asks softly in the darkness of the bedroom, “Wanna be my bestie?”

Auston snorts with laughter, “What is this, Kindy?”

Mitch shrugs, “I figured that was about your mental age.”

“Only if you pinky swear on it then.” Auston laughs.

“Done,” Mitch wraps his little finger around Auston’s little finger, “Auston Matthews, I swear that you and I will be BFF’s forever.”

“BFFs FIVE ever.” Auston replies smugly, “That’s longer than forever.”

“You dork.” Mitch grins as Auston presses a kiss into his hair, and he snuggles down into Matts’ embrace.

The next morning, he pulls on his clothes from the day before, because there’s no way any of Matts’ clothes are going to fit him, but then he sees Auston pulling out one of his four identical team hoodies.

“Can I steal one of your hoodies?”

Auston shrugs, “Sure,” he grins, throwing one at Mitch, “Why?”

“It’s a thing I do,” Mitch answers, “I like to steal people’s hoodies and claim them as my own.”

“Wear mine,” Auston grins at him, “Can’t have my BFF wondering round wearing someone else’s hoody.”

Mitch strokes across the number 34 on the chest and grins at him.

16/17 Season (Coyotes’ Hoody)

The first Mitch hears about Dylan being sent down is an overnighted package from Arizona. He opens it up and finds Dylan’s worn Coyotes’ hoody and a short note, “Don’t want to wear this now I’m back to being an otter – figure you can add it to your hoody hareem. Love you. Stromer xxx.”

He tries phoning Dylan straight away, but unsurprisingly it goes straight to voicemail, so he drops him a text, which is just a sad emoji followed by a million hearts.

Dylan texts back straight away, so maybe he wasn’t flying, just wasn’t wanting to speak on the phone
> Did you know that in terms of miles, AZ is actually CLOSER to Edmonton than Erie is.

Mitch doesn’t know what to say to that, but he pulls Dylan’s hoody over his head, it smells of Dylan and it makes him want to be held. So he tells Dylan that instead.

>Why would you want a hoody that smells like a shitty hockey player?

Mitch draws his knees up to his chest, and decides to go over to Matts, because he wants to have cuddles from someone if he can’t cuddle his best Strome.
> I’d argue on that front
he replies
> But you won’t listen
> So you can tell yourself that I’m wearing a hoody that smells like an AWESOME FRIEND
> And I miss you

16/17 World Cup (Flyers’ hoody)

The world cup blows Mitch’s mind – not only is he getting to play against some of the best players in the world, but he’s playing alongside superstar players like Nathan MacKinnon and Claude Giroux, but he’s also there playing with Teeks who’s been on every worlds team with him since they were kids.

“This is crazy,” They’re sitting around chilling, and he’s got Travis’ arms wrapped around him.

“Eh,” Teeks is considerably more chill than him, Claude is his captain, playing with Sean Couturier doesn’t make him bat an eyelid, although he did stutter when he first bumped into Nathan MacKinnon, which made Mitch feel justified.

“Dude,” Mitch works his fingers in between TK’s ribs, “Stop being so chill.”

It’s at that moment that Claude walks into the room sitting down beside them.

“Having fun?” He reaches out to ruffle Travis’ hair.

“Woah,” Mitch is staring at him, because he’s wearing a charcoal grey hoody, with just a simple stripe of orange across the front, his number elegantly under the flyer’s logo. “Is this the new Flyer’s hoody?” He can’t stop himself reaching out to stroke Claude’s arm.

“Yes?” Claude is staring at him like he’s crazy, but Mitch kind of doesn’t care.

“It’s so much nicer than mine!”

Now Claude’s frowning, “Yours? Why do you even have a flyer’s hoody?”

Travis starts laughing behind him, “It’s mine G, but Mitchy here is a hoody thief,”

Mitch can’t let that slander stand, “You gave it to me fair and square, it’s part of my collection.”

“Your collection?” Claude’s laughing a little, amazed by the two tiny rookies.

“Yeah,” Mitch grins at him, “I have like,” he counts briefly on his fingers, “Seven stolen team hoodies now?”

“All from different teams?”

“Nah,” Mitch makes a sad face, “Otters, Knights, Yotes, Flyers, there’s a couple of repeats.”

Claude shakes his head, and then gets distracted by MacKinnon walking into the room with Barrie and they go to discuss strategy.

They make it all the way through to the finals, and when Mitch goes to pack up his things, he finds a neatly folded hoody, charcoal grey with a stripe of orange across the middle. There’s a note written in cursive on top “To add to your collection – Captain G.” Mitch hugs it close, grinning at Teeks, “Upgrade.”

17/18 Season (Maple Leafs’ Hoody)

Freddie Andersen turns up at training camp and steals Mitch’s best friend away. That’s not strictly speaking true, Freddie is awesome, and Mitch respects his crazy goalie ass and likes his quiet dry sense of humour, Auston on the other hand is utterly smitten – not that he wants to admit it, either to Mitch or to himself, and certainly not to Freddie.

So Mitch comes up with a plan, and a few weeks after the season has started, he waits until they’re on a plane, and he sits next to Freddie. Planes are part of their life now, but Mitch doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to how cold they are.

“Cuddle me Freddie.” He nudges Fred’s arm, “I’m cold.”

“You are always cold,” Fred rolls his eyes, wrapping an arm around Mitch, “Thought Canadians were good at the cold.”

“Not this one.” Mitch snuggles in close. Auston’s given him a couple of death glares but has resorted to watching a movie to ignore them, but cuddling up to Freddie had never been Mitch’s end game here. “Can I steal your hoody Fred?”

Freddie hands him the hoody that he’s not wearing, and Mitch pulls it over his head, “You’ll never get it back.” He warns him.

“Consider it as donated to charity for freezing Canadians.” Fred smirks at him, and then pulls him into his side again.

Mitch waits until he’s sat in his and Matts’ room, before breathing in the scent of the hoody. “I smell like your boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Auston pouts at him.

“But you want him to be,” Mitch teases in a sing song voice, “Come cuddle me and inhale his beautiful manly odour.”

Aus is still glaring at him, but he climbs onto Mitch’s bed, burying his face in Mitch’s shoulder and inhaling the scent of the hoody. “I hate you.” He mutters.

Mitch wraps his arms around him, “Doesn’t he smell good?”

“I want him,” Auston mutters quietly, “I want him cuddling me.”

“Tell him,” Mitch says softly, “I’ll be there with you every step of the way Aus, you can tell him.”

17/18 Season (Oilers’ Hoody)

He ends up hanging around outside the home locker room at Roger’s Place, he’s supposed to meet up with Davo for dinner, and it doesn’t matter that they’ve just beaten them, because he and Connor go back far enough and have won and lost enough matches against each other that they don’t care any more.

The second Davo walks out of the room, Mitch grabs him by the hand.

“Dude?” Davo glances down at their joined hands.

Mitch shrugs, “You Otter boys indoctrinated me.” He squeezes Davo’s hand, “Besides, it’s nice.”

Connor can’t really argue, “There’s a nice place just round the block, you ok to walk?”

Mitch whines, because he always does, because it’s freezing cold, and Mitch might be Canadian, but he also doesn’t like the cold.

“Hold on,” Connor lets go of his hand, and tugs his team brand hoody over his head, “Put this on.”

Mitch grins at him, pulling it over his head, it smells like Connor and familiarity.

“And yes,” Connor grabs his hand again, “I know I’m never getting it back.”

18/19 Season (Maple Leafs’ Hoody)

Being a Maple Leaf means being a big name in hockey, and of course, Mitch is best friends with Auston Matthews, one of the best players of their generation. The doesn’t mean that he has any chill about playing on the same team as John Tavares, any chill at all.

For the first few days of training camp Mitch doesn’t speak to him, just makes embarrassing squeaking noises every time John says anything in his direction. He eventually manages to work himself up to talking about hockey, but the idea of chilling and having a beer with the guy is still mind blowing to him.

Still, after a chilled practise, he’s late leaving the rink with Matts, they’re the only two in the locker room, and he notices that JT has left one of his hoodies in the stall.

“Bro,” Mitch walks over to the hoody, reaching out for it, “Tell me not to.”

Auston snorts, “Why? It would be like, your most prized possession.”

“Yeah but,” Mitch strokes it, “Everything in the collection has been given willingly, this is like, literal actual theft.”

“And?” Auston shrugs, “He’s a hockey player, he can just get a new one. Like, the kit guys will just give him a new one, he’ll think it’s lost.”

Mitch caves, because he really wants it, but he breaks down drunk two weeks later and confesses it to JT, who is surprisingly nice, and tells him he can keep it, and after that he’s less like a super star and more like a teammate, so perhaps stealing his hoody was the best thing Mitch could have done.

18/19 Season (Blackhawks’ Hoody)

He tries to call Dylan as soon as he hears about the trade to the Blackhawks, because honestly, Dylan has been so miserable down in Arizona and lovely as Auston says it is there, he knows that a trade is the best thing that could happen – the fact that Dylan’s gone to Chicago, where he’ll be with Brinks, is even better. It’s manic for Dylan though, because he goes from being on a roadie with the Coyotes, to being on a roadie with the ‘Hawks and travelling back to a different home city than the one he started in.

Still, Mitch gets a parcel in the post, and when he opens it to see the Indianhead logo staring up at him he squeals. The note attached says “This is unworn, sorry, but I wanted you to have the first one I got.”

Mitch grabs at it, holding it close, because it doesn’t smell like Dylan, but it makes him think of Dylan, he pulls up his calendar to see when he’ll be playing against Chicago.

19/20 Season (Maple Leafs’ Hoody)

Mo is out with his fractured foot, and Mitch is pretty high on the rota of teammates to go and visit him, because he misses his teammate, more than the others do probably. He clambers onto Mo’s couch, and into Mo’s arms. “It’s not the same without you,” he has to manoeuvre around Mo’s leg, but he manages it.

“Oh Mouse,” Mo presses a kiss to the top of his head, a habit all their teammates have picked up from Auston. “You’re a big boy now yeah?”

“Nope.” Mitch glares at him, “Never gonna happen.”

“You’ll be fine,” Mo tells him, “You’re surrounded by experienced vets, you boys don’t need me.”

“Nonsense,” Mitch tells him, “We’re broken without you.” An idea strikes him, “Can I steal one of your hoodies?”

“For your collection?” Mitch’s collection is no secret after he confessed to his crime of stealing JT’s hoody.

“To wear in the locker room,” Mitch tells him, “I can take it on roadies and it’ll be like a little bit of you there with us.”

“You’re a sap,” Mo tells him, but directs him towards his closet to grab one of his standard team hoodies.

When he wears it on the plane for their next roadie, a couple of people clock that the number is different, and grin at him, and it’s not the same as having Mo there with them, it’s pretty damn good.

The Pause

Mitch tries to keep himself occupied during “The Pause” by twitch streaming (even when Aus and Freddie make out on his twitch streams, which honestly, rude!), but for someone who’s used to being surrounded by his teammates, used to having daily cuddles, it’s hell. He misses everyone.

He calls Dylan and Auston on a daily basis, he calls people he hasn’t spoken to in years just to keep himself occupied. “I miss you,” he tells Dylan honestly.

“Lies,” Dylan grins at him from miles away, “If you missed me, you’d be wearing my hoody.”

Mitch’s eyes light up, he’d forgotten about that. He goes and finds the Otters hoody, the one that started it all – it doesn’t even smell like Dylan anymore, but it’s still the softest hoody he’s ever owned.

“Otter fur,” Dylan tells him.

“Naw,” Mitch grins at him, “It’s so soft because I’m so soft for you bud.”

Dylan groans, but there’s laughter behind it, “Bro, I am mega soft for you, I imbued that hoody with how soft I am.”

“You started a terrible addiction.” Mitch tells him.

“Mitchell!” Dylan laughs, “I started the greatest addiction, now you have your hoody collection when you miss us all.”

He’s not wrong, and that night, curled up in Dylan’s hoody, Mitch feels the least lonely he’s felt since the season went on pause, he grabs Auston and Freddie’s hoodies too just for good measure, and then decides that since there’s no-one there to judge him, he grabs them all. Eight hoodies doesn’t make a bad nest it turns out, and wrapped up in them, Mitch feels warm and loved.