Chapter Text
It starts with Thanksgiving. Well Nursey wants to tell himself that it starts with Thanksgiving, but if he’s being honest, he knows it was too late a long time ago. A lot of the guys are staying over break. They say it’s because they’re busy and they want to study or practice. They’re full of shit. They’re staying because Ransom and Holster are staying with Jemma. The entire team is enamored with her. None of them are about to miss her first official holiday with them, even if she’s too young to remember it. Nursey tells everyone that his parents are out of town anyway and he wouldn’t have anything to go home to. This is true. That doesn’t mean that he’s not just as full of shit as everyone else. Jemma is so damn cute though.
Shitty is the only one from the Haus who has to go home. He is not happy about it. He grumbles about his damn conservative family, and the absurdity of celebrating how Europeans fucked Native Americans over, and how Bitty’s cooking will be better anyway for the entire week leading up to his departure. Still he stops complaining, and plotting various ways to offend his family members, to catch Dex and Nursey the day before he leaves.
“Yo, Dex, Nurse, step into my office.” He calls from the roof. When they got up there (both having tried to climb out the window first, causing an elbow to the ribs from Dex and a “dude chill” from Nursey) Shitty tossed each of them a beer. He just sat there for a minute staring out over campus, not saying anything. Nursey relaxed next to him, drinking his beer, definitely not staring at Dex who shifted uncomfortably. Nursey started counting in his head, wondering how long it’s going to take before Dex loses his patience.
“Did you have something to talk to us about?” Dex demanded as Nursey reached fifty-three. Shitty looked up at Dex mildy.
“Yup.” He agreed, popping the P. He was stoned as hell. He’s silent for another few seconds and Nursey can practically hear Dex’s frustration. He tried not to grin.
“Dorms are depressing as hell over the holidays.” Shitty declares at last. “Everyone is gone and those who are left are either sad, or don’t celebrate them.”
“Accurate, but is there a point?” Nursey asked, so Dex wouldn’t lose it. Nursey knew that Dex had a test he really wanted to study for the next day (the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break). He didn’t want Dex to explode from stress, impatience, and frustration.
“Well, I’m not going to be around, so my room will be empty. It seems stupid to leave you guys in the depressing ass dorms when you could be staying here, hanging out with the guys and Jemma and stuff.” Shitty told them with a wide smile.
“But who would get to stay in your room?” Dex asked.
“You guys.” Shitty answered, as if that was rather obvious.
“I think he means which one of us.” Nursey pointed out, spotting the problem.
“Both of you, you can share. You always share a room on roadies.” Shitty answered.
“Yeah, but there are two beds then.” Dex muttered. Nursey was rather focused on that point himself.
“Share.” Shitty told them, frowning at their lack of appreciation. Nursey’s heartbeat was completely normal. He will swear it on his mother’s grave. His heart did not start beating faster at the thought of sharing a bed with Dex. A voice in the back of his head reminds him that his mother isn’t dead, so that oath probably doesn’t mean a damn thing.
“I’m not sharing a bed with him.” Dex stated flatly. Whatever odd hope/excitement that had started growing in Nursey’s chest deflated rapidly, leaving him feeling worse than before.
“It’s cool, you take the room man, I’ve spent a lot of holiday weekends alone in a dorm room.” Nursey told him. He usually tries not to think about how shitty boarding school could be. “I’m used to it, I know you’ve never spent a holiday away from your family.”
“I don’t need your pity Nurse. I’m more than capable of surviving a holiday in a dorm room.” Dex snapped.
“That’s not-” Nursey sighed, biting back his protest that he wasn’t trying to be demeaning, he was just trying to be nice. Dex was never going to accept nice from Nursey, and he was just going to have to learn to deal with it.
“No!” Shitty objected before they could keep bickering, “Either you learn to share the room, or it stays empty and you stay in the damn dorms. I don’t care if one of you puts a sleeping bag on the damn floor. I am trying to be nice and promote team unity here!”
It took a bit of convincing to get Dex to agree to this. Nursey finally promised that they would just switch off every night, who got the bed, while the other slept on the floor in a sleeping bag. When he had offered to just stay on the floor the whole weekend Dex had been on his case again about pity and charity. So they had agreed to switch off. Dex had stormed off to study, but Nursey remained on the roof with Shitty. He sat and finished his beer in silence, wishing that it didn’t bother him so much to argue with Dex.
He was always failing to stay chill when it came to Dex. The red-head was one of the most infuriating people that Nursey had ever met, but he was also basically the coolest person ever. Not in an actually cool sort of way, he was a total dork, but in a just a totally amazing person sort of a way. Dex was kind in an entirely unselfconscious way. He didn’t do nice things because he wanted to feel good about himself, or because he wanted people to see him doing nice things. He was just that way: the type of guy who helps an old lady carry her groceries without it occurring to him that this was especially kind. It didn’t even occur to him not to. He was great with his hands, helping Bitty fix his oven, and Holster with his beat up old car. It was the most amazing thing to watch. He was brilliant. Dex was so damn smart, even if he was always freaking out about school. He was always worried though, always trying to be better. Dex was always so tightly wound, but it was only because he cared so damn much about everything. Then there were those rare moments when he relaxed. Nursey rarely got to witness them. Still he treasured those little glimpses of Dex comfortable and happy. He was beautiful. He was fantastic. Derek could not get over how damn amazing William Poindexter was. It was becoming problematic.
No matter how great Dex was, or how much Nursey was totally falling head over heels for him, some things just didn’t change. Dex was straight. Dex was a straight Republican for god’s sake. He would never look at Nursey like that. Hell he didn’t even tolerate very well. They were still D-men partners. They worked well together on the ice. Derek loved their time on the ice together, when they just seemed to click, to know each other so well they could tell where their partner was without having to look or ask. They were his favorite moments, when he felt closest to Dex. Still, as soon as they were off of the ice they were barely even friends. They argued all the time. It wasn’t all bad. Sometimes when they bickered it was a friendly sort of thing. Or at least, Nursey tried to convince himself that it was.
Derek buried his head in his hands with a sigh. He was so in love with Dex. Dex was never going to love him. He knew that neither of those things were going to change. Still he found himself agreeing to share a room with Dex over Thanksgiving break. He couldn’t help it. Nursey couldn’t give up an opportunity to spend more time with Dex. He was so in too deep. Thanksgiving was going to be a shit show.