Chapter Text
Bitty shuffled in his seat, trying to get comfortable on the green couch while everyone mulled around in the room. He would much rather have been standing next to Nursey or Chowder, but Shitty had pulled him down next to him. Mentally, Bitty cringed as he imagined the various germs and infestations that might be brushing against his bare arms in that very moment.
“Why are we down here?” Holster asked from the corner, nudging Ransom’s shoulder as he spoke.
“It was Bitty’s idea. Ask him,” Ransom responded loudly, nudging right back.
The room was crowded, with all current Haus members having draped themselves across all of the available furniture, and then the rest of the team filling in all of the remaining gaps where they stood. Bitty wrinkled his nose, looking around—it smelled and looked like their locker room, with the underlying musk of the Haus floating around as everyone talked amongst themselves. Even Lardo was there, sitting on the arm of the sofa comfortably. The frogs were the only ones quiet, with Dex glancing around nervously every few seconds and Chowder on his other side bouncing silently in anticipation. Nursey was the only calm one; he had found a means of entertainment in sharing silly faces with Ransom across the room.
“Yeah, Bitty. Why are we all here? Is there more pie?” someone called out from behind him.
“No, no. I could make some more, though, if you’d like, after this. I actually had an idea for Christmas, that I wanted to run by everyone. I was thinking, while I was skating the other day, that with the holidays coming up and the end of term almost here, we should do a Haus Holiday dinner and you know, exchange presents and everything.” He shrugged, with a small grin.
“A party? Like Winter Screw?”
“There’s enough time to get a keg and all, I think. Right Jack?”
“Oh awesome, I love holiday parties!”
The chorus of responses was overwhelming and it took Bitty a few moments to speak again, having to raise his voice a bit to be heard. “Not a party, a dinner! Like what we did with Thanksgiving, but with a secret santa and everything, too. Or Snowflake, since not everyone celebrates Christmas. We could decorate the Haus and it’d be so nice.”
Someone laughed. “Whoever thought of Secret Snowflake? That’s gotta be the best thing I’ve ever heard.”
Bitty grinned. Maybe this would work after all.
“I’m game. But there’s no reason there can’t be some fun involved, too. I’m still thinking a keg. Ransom, your thoughts?”
“You know what I’m about, Holster,” he said with a grin to his compatriot. To Bitty, Ransom nodded and said, “We’ll take care of it! It’ll be swawesome.”
Again, there was a chorus of agreement and laughs. Someone chimed in that they could host it the last weekend of term, the night before Winter Screw for some more extreme fun before the formal kind. Lardo volunteered to help organize it, as long as Shitty handled the decorations. Shitty immediately looked at the Frogs and told them flat out that they’d be responsible for creating and hanging any and all decorations. He finished off his someone threatening order by saying that he expected a tree.
The only team member who hadn’t yet spoken was Jack, who was sitting quietly on one of the arm chairs, fiddling with the sleeves of his grey-heathered Henley. Bitty let his gaze linger for a few moments, watching Jack’s long fingers slip through one of the small holes that had finally been worn through the area just below the seam. His black hair was getting a little long in the front, and fell lightly over Jack’s forehead as he looked down. It looked soft.
Bitty bit his lip to hold in a sigh. While things had been better between them, they still weren’t as good as he would like. Jack was so serious, and even living across from him hadn’t gotten the team captain to open up to Bitty. One day, maybe, Bitty thought to himself. Either that, or Bitty would have to get over this hopeless crush before Jack graduated.
“So how’s the Secret Snowflake shit going to go?” Nursey asked finally, breaking through the various conversations and thoughts of the group.
“Oh! I have everyone’s names already on slips of paper.” Bitty stood up and rushed towards the kitchen, where he’d left his old Elf hat for safe-keeping during the meeting. Or tried to at least. Trying to leap over the various feet and members of the team who had grown tired of standing ended with Bitty falling face first into someone’s chair and then sliding down onto the floor with a groan. He closed his eyes tightly, embarrassed.
“Are you okay, Bittle?”
He felt a soft touch on his foreheard, and cracked his eyes open to see who was inspecting him. Jack, of course it was Jack. However, instead of the exasperation he had expected to see all over his captain’s face, all Bitty saw was concern.
“Your head’s alright, yeah? You didn’t aggravate your concussion, did you?” Jack asked quickly, worry edging into his voice as his fingers felt around for a bump.
“No, no, I’m fine. Sorry, I just tripped. Nothing to worry about. See, I’m fine!” Bitty stood up quickly and hurried out of the room, his face bright pink. He took longer than was necessary to return, not wanting to face Jack and the guys again so soon.
Finally, he entered the room again, holding his green and red hat aloft.
“I’ll go first, and then we can just pass it around. If you get yourself, put it back and draw again!”
The rules of secret santa were pretty self-explanatory at this point, he assumed, so with that, Bitty drew a slip of paper from the bag and passed it to the next person.
Chris Chow
That’d be easy enough, he knew. He rubbed the back of his head as he waited for the elf hat to finish making its rounds, not speaking again until the hat was safely in his hands again.
“Since that was all I had, I guess everyone is free to go back to studying? Don’t forget to get a gift and the like! We can trade presents after the dinner, and before the party.” With that, most of the group began milling out, and Bitty took advantage of his position near the door to do so before he got consumed by the crowd of hockey players. He had finals he wanted to study for, now that his first part was done. Once he felt confident enough in his knowledge, he’d go make a pie. That counted as studying for his Women, Food, and American Culture class, he was sure.
* * *
Jack stared at the wrinkled piece of red construction paper in his hand, trying to smooth out the crease down the middle, marring the words printed on it in smooth block handwriting. Everyone else was making their way back to their rooms, but he wasn’t ready to move yet, as he contemplated the name before him.
Eric Bittle
He wasn’t sure what to do with this. He could use the gift as an opportunity to show Bittle how he felt, since his skills with words left a lot to be desired when it came to expressing his emotions, or maybe something practical, like a new baking set. Or something to help his teammate with Hockey. Each gift would send a different message across, and Jack wasn’t sure which message it was that he was ready so send.
“Yo, bossman. What’s with that face?” Lardo asked, coming over to stand next to him.
Jack looked around and saw that no one else was in the room. Wordlessly, he lifted the slip of paper up, so that she could see it.
“Ah. Well, whatever you get him, I’m sure he’ll be happy.”
He nodded. Lardo was one of the few members of the team aware of Jack’s feelings towards Bitty. She’d figured it out during one conversation over the summer, when he’d been panicking over the fact that Bitty hadn’t been in much contact with most of the team.
“Let me know if you need help, okay?”
Again, he nodded and began examining the paper. Perhaps the answer of what he should get would be hidden within its depths.