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Scott got off the plane, glad to be back in New York. The Admirals had been on what felt like an endless loop of games away that took them from Boston to Detroit to Montreal to Toronto to Minnesota to Pittsburgh to Philadelphia and now back to New York and all he wanted was to get home, kiss his husband, sleep until the next millennia and then wash his stinky gear bag.
Oh and eat somewhere in there as well.
That was important.
He stretched as he got away from the tight hallway leading from the plane to the main airport area, uncaring of the traffic jam he caused until someone behind him cleared their throat pointedly. Scott wanted to be petty and stay there a few more seconds, but he also wanted to get his bags and leave, so he stuffed down the impulse and kept walking.
As soon as he got away from the throng of people he saw a familiar face in the crowd, tapping their feet impatiently.
But it wasn't the familiar face he actually wanted to see.
Frowning, Scott walked over to Maria, accepting the hug she gave him, grunting when she inadvertently pressed a little too hard on his banged up ribs (Riverstone from Pittsburgh got a little too in his feels about Scott stealing the puck and scoring from it and had slammed into him in revenge).
"Not that I'm not extremely happy to see you." Scott prefaced. "But..."
"You really should get your phone fixed." Maria huffed. "It's like...a major inconvenience."
"I know, I just haven't...where's Kip?" Scott asked.
Maria squirmed in place and made a face. "Let me preface this by saying he's fine."
"Maria." Scott said, giving her his best no nonsense look. The same look that made almost everyone on the Admirals' team flinch in worry. To her credit, though, Maria just rolled her eyes at him and he was pretty sure she made an aborted movement to flip him off.
"Ok, ok." Maria said. "Kip is fine. Really. He got it into his head he needed a bike."
"A motorcycle?!" Scott asked, gaping at her.
"No. A manual bike you dumbass." Maria rolled her eyes. "He said he wanted to finally be a New Yorker and bike everywhere, that it would give him more exercise or something."
"What happened?" Scott asked, wondering if he could get away with pinning Maria against a wall until she finally spilled the beans. As it was, he wanted to steal her phone and call Kip himself.
"He got lightly dinged by a cabbie." Maria said. She winced at whatever Scott's face was doing. "He's ok! Really. He...slid off the hood of the cab and like...across a bit of road."
"Oh my God!" Scott exclaimed. "Come on, we have to get...is he in the hospital? At the ER?"
"He's at home." Maria said, chasing after Scott as he rushed to baggage claim, letting out an animalistic growl of frustration when he didn't immediately see his bags. "He's resting. He's fine, Scott. Really. I mean, he separated his shoulder, he has some bruising on his face and side..."
"I have an apology to make." Scott said. "Is this what he goes through when I get hurt? I always thought it was funny, but..." Scott finally saw his bags and snatched them up, hooking them over his shoulders. "I don't like this, I don't like this at all."
Maria took pity on him and ordered an Uber as they were making their way through the airport and it, thankfully, was there by the time they got out there. Scott practically barked out the address to the poor, startled guy (who looked maybe like he was doing the job to get some extra money to help him through college. He really didn't need an old hockey player being mean to him) and they sped off out of the airport parking lot.
Scott looked out the window as they drove, bouncing his leg in an irritated way as he glared at the typical New York traffic, as if it would make it go faster.
They finally got to the building. What should've been like a 45 minute drive stretched to over 2 hours and Scott's patience was practically out the window at that point. He got out and grabbed his bags from the trunk, leaving poor Maria to keep up with a man that was practically 9 inches taller than her. She managed to squeeze into the elevator with him and they rode up to the floor. She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again. Scott could guess she probably was going to say 'he's fine' again, which Scott would believe when he actually saw his husband.
The elevator finally opened and Scott led the way down to their apartment, keying in the code to get in.
"Baby..." He called out as he walked inside, abandoning his bags by the door, kicking off his shoes impatiently. "Kip, honey..."
Kip sat in front of the large bank of windows they had in their place that looked over the Manhattan Bridge, a small frown on his face. He had pajama pants on that had Fluttershy all over them that he'd been given by...one of Scott's teammates, he couldn't remember which, in a way to chirp him for being gay (in a playful way, not a homophobic one) and it had backfired spectacularly when Kip actually watched Friendship is Magic and fell in love with the sweet yellow pony with the 'fabulous' pink hair.
He also had his two Labubus (QuQu and Loyalty) tucked into the crook of his (slinged) arm. From the side it looked like he was wearing Scott's Admiral's (replica) jersey that he'd ordered through the website once upon a time just to tease Scott (who thought it was the hottest thing ever when he wore it).
Kip looked behind him and he lit up when he saw Scott, which still after all these years made Scott's stomach swoop dangerously. "Scott!"
"What's wrong with him?" Scott asked, looking at Maria.
She winced.
"Um. He's...high as a kite." She admitted. "We found out the hard way he's sensitive to certain pain medication? And I may have accidentally overdosed him this morning. I gave him a big breakfast to eat to kind of...absorb it..."
"Pills don't work that way." Scott said. He walked over to Kip, bending down to where he was sitting. "Kip...hi, baby..."
"Hi..." Kip leaned against him and practically purred as he put his head against Scott's chest. Scott reached up and ran his fingers through Kip's hair (he was in desperate need of a haircut but had been watching TikTok drama about New York hairdressers and had been scared to go somewhere and get one, Scott was about ready to call up the team's hairstylist and get him an appointment). "You're home. You just left."
"I didn't just leave." Scott laughed. He glanced up and saw Maria gesturing that she was going to go and he made a face at her and shook his head, but the jerk just smirked at him and quickly left, knowing Scott wasn't going to move just to try and stop her. "I've been gone for days."
Kip made a face. "Stupid phone."
"I know. Trust me, now that I'm back in the city I am going to definitely be getting a new one." Scott promised.
"Hmmm. Good." Kip said. "Maria made me breakfast. It tasted funny."
Scott chuckled. "Yeah, Maria's not much of a cook, honey."
"Nope." Kip mumbled. He looked up and gave Scott a dopey smile. It was adorable. Even if he was stoned out of his mind. "How long are you home for?"
"Three whole weeks." Scott said. "So I'll be here with you every single day."
"Yay!" Kip said, which made Scott crack a grin. "You can come with me to my doctor appointment to give me another x-ray." He made a face. "I don't like those."
"I know, you get claustrophobic." Scott said. "I bet you're a peach for an MRI."
Kip gave him a stoic look. "No MRI." He said.
Scott burst into what could only be described as giggles. "No MRI." He repeated. "Are you hungry? Do you want lunch?"
"Nothing that tastes funny." Kip said, letting out a squeak as Scott got up and grabbed him by the waist, hauling him up from the floor. "Oh no, Loyalty." He said when the Labubu fell onto the floor. Scott huffed out a laugh, bent and scooped it up, putting it back into the crook of his arm.
"You are very adorable like this, but the next time you're high, I hope it's because of edibles, not medication." Scott said, ushering him into the kitchen.
Scott made them some sandwiches for lunch (figuring Kip could eat easily enough one handed) and they sat down at the kitchen island, Scott facing him mostly, resting a hand on his thigh. He'd hoped they'd be naked by now, but obviously that couldn't happen. He was just happy to be home, though, with his boy.
Even if he was high out of his mind.
Scott finished his sandwich and looked over at Kip to see him pouting exaggeratedly. Scott, unable to help himself, leaned over and kissed him.
"Why are you pouting?" He asked.
"I can't work." Kip said. "Cause of my stupid arm."
"No, you can't." Scott agreed.
"How'm I going to make money?" Kip asked.
"You aren't going to worry about that right now." Scott said, squeezing his thigh. "You, for once, are going to lean all over your husband who can easily support the both of us."
Kip made a face. "You want me to lay around and not do anything until my stupid arm is ok?"
"That's exactly what I want." Scott said.
Kip sighed. "I'm not good at just sitting around."
Scott laughed at that and kissed him again. "I know, sweetheart. Neither am I. But we'll learn...together."
Kip grinned. "You know, sometimes you're just really corny."
Scott mock gaped at him. "Corny? I am not."
"You are." Kip said. He made a face. "I still can't feel my nose."
"I can, it's right there." Scott poked him on the nose.
Kip crossed his eyes. "Oh. Huh."
Scott smiled softly at him. "Come on. I bet if you sleep it off, you won't feel so weird when you wake up."
Kip sighed. "I tried, I can't get comfortable."
"I'll help." Scott stood up. "I know a thing or two about trying to sleep with injuries."
Kip looked up at Scott's face as he helped him stand up. "I'm really glad you walked into Straw + Berry all that time ago."
Scott looked back at him and a big grin split his face. "So am I, sweetheart." He said.