Work Text:
The thing is, Scott knows he's competitive. He's known that about himself since he started playing organized sports. What he's not sure of, is whether Kip knows quite how deep that competitiveness runs.
Which is why, when his boyfriend tells him he's coming to family games night, Scott freaks a little.
"Why do you have that corned animal look on your face?" Kip asks, eyebrows pinched in the middle.
"I don't have—"
"Scott. It's games night, what could you possibly have to be worried about? You were the first man to come out in major league hockey. You've met my dad, you like my dad." Kip says, he's smiling, but Scott knows he's not going to let this go.
"It's just—I'm competitive."
Kip stares at him. Then continues staring at him for another thirty seconds in abject silence before he bursts out laughing.
And he laughs, and laughs, and laughs.
"Are you done?" Scott snaps.
"Baby. I know you're competitive, did you forget I was there the day you won the cup? You're competitive about who gets to the coffee machine first and how many times you can beat me to press the button on the elevator," Kip starts laughing again, coming closer to pull Scott down to his height so he can cuddle him.
"Is that why you were worried?" He whispers into his ear and Scott feels silly all over again.
"Baby, you've got nothing to worry about, you've got nothing on my aunt and cousins. There are certain boardgames banned from our game nights because of how bad we all are. You're going to be absolutely fine."
Scott lets himself be pulled towards the bedroom, sitting down on the bed while Kip gets changed.
When they get there, the house is humming with activity. Kip's aunt Kelly, cousins JJ, Milly and Jake and Elena are all lounging around the living room having animated conversations.
"They're here!" Milly yells out, just before she tackles Kip in a hug, holding on for all of two seconds before she eyes up Scott.
"You're on my team!" She says, taking Scott by surprise.
"Oh I think Kip—"
"No baby, I'm with JJ , we're the reigning champs!" He highs fives her on his way to sit next to her, leaving Scott gaping at the betrayal.
"I know son, he used to be on my team and betrayed me for our dearest Jenny from the minute she could talk," George says with a laugh as Scott takes a seat next to JJ.
"Don't worry, JJ's no good at Articulate, we're going to crush them!" Milly whispers conspiratorily.
The games get underway almost immediately, only stopping to finish off the bowls of chips on the coffee table.
JJ goes first.
"Okay, okay think, Homage to…the book, you know, Homage to…"
"Catalonia!" Kip yells.
And they go on like that. Scott thinks it's kind of scary how good they are at it, only stopped by the last grain of sand dropping through the times.
George and Jake go next, followed by Kelly and Elena and then finally, him and Milly are up.
"Okay, you ready?"
Milly nods and Kip flips the timer.
"Okay, he's a chef, angry, likes yelling—"
"Gordon Ramsay!"
"Yes!"
"Seattle hockey team—"
"Kraken!"
"Yes!"
They go on, getting one shy of Kip and JJ for the next two rounds. Scott's having fun, there's objections being yelled left and right from all sides.
When he argues that Kip can't use rhyming words he gets popcorn thrown at him from JJ and George howls with laughter.
"That's cheating,"
"That's Grady house rules I'm afraid, suck it!"
"Christopher Grady! Enough of that," Kelly yells before the deciding round gets underway.
Scott doesn't know what he was ever worried about, they're all mental in the best kind of ways, and if he's going to have his ass handed to him, he supposes there's definitely worse groups of people to do it. Having said that, the lack of rule abiding is beginning to grate on his nerves a little.
When Kip gets stuck explaining on the last round, Scott can feel the win in the smile in his cheeks.
They sweep the rest of them, Milly screeching with joy as they cross the start/finish line.
The sun has long set outside, George ducking out to flick the heat on while Scott gets more drinks from the kitchen.
"I've never seen him this happy, you know."
Jake is idling by the door to the kitchen, he looks a little apprehensive, like he wants to say something but isn't sure how.
They've met before, but the kid's only sixteen, the youngest of them all by a few years.
"With me, you mean?" Scott asks gently.
"Yeah, like, he's always been a pretty happy guy, but with you it's like, something more, you know?" Jake says.
"Yeah, yeah I do actually, I feel the same way when I'm with him, like meeting him unlocked a new level of life, sorry that probably sounds really cringey." Scott laughs.
"No, no I know what you mean." Jake paused for a while. Mouth opening and closing, flinching once when Milly yells that they're going to start Pictionary soon.
"I uhm—I wanted to say something to you and Kip said it was fine and not weird but I don't really—I just,"
"Jake, hey bud, just take a breath,"
Jake does, uncrossing his arms and standing up a little straighter.
"I just wanted to—god why is this so difficult—I wanted to say thankyou for coming out," Jake breaths out.
Scott's surprised, not really what he was expecting at family games night but his thought process is stopped in it's tracks when Jake goes on.
"I wanted to say thankyou because if it weren't for you then the other's wouldn't have come out either and like I know its not perfect and I know things are still kind of shit in the league and I know it might never be totally okay to be gay and play hockey but I knew when I was eight and it was scary in those locker rooms and I was terrified I had to choose and then you came out and suddenly maybe I didn't have to choose anymore so what I'm trying to say is thankyou because even if it's not perfect and it might never be you changed the game for people like me and yeah okay sorry that's a lot all at once I'm just gonna—"
"Jake wait,"
Jake's chest is heaving, he barely stopped for breath between his words and his cheeks are flushed and he looks like he might shed a tear and Scott can see his younger self, can see the knock-on affect in real time of what he did, even just a couple of years on.
His heart swells.
"I'm glad, bud. I'm glad you don't have to choose, I'm glad it changed things, however small, for you and your generation." And then he's opening his arms and Jake's falling into them like a kid brother he never had.
Kip makes an appearance at the doorway, smiling before ducking back out with a thumb in the direction of the living room.
Once Jake sobered himself up and wiped the tears, they made their way back to the group getting louder and louder as Kelly sets up a whiteboard and Milly sets out the Pictionary game on the coffee table.
"All good?" Kip asks quietly, wrapping his arm around Scott when they collapse together on the couch.
Kip had told him, of course. They were a hockey family, all three cousins competing in junior league before dropping it for other sports or academics. Not Jake though.
Jake had stuck with it, was projected to go pretty high as well, Kip was incredibly proud of him, but he worried. Jake hadn't necessarily come out to them yet, but Kip knew, in the way they were an incredibly tight knit family and despite the athletic ability, Jake was a lot like Kip when he was that age.
So he'd worried, occasionally mentioning it to Scott when something would flare up in the news about them or Hollander and Rozanov.
"Yeah. Yeah it is." Scott replied, content to cuddling into Kip's side.
"None of that!" Milly yells, jumping up from where shes sat on the floor.
"He's the enemy! We have titles to steal here Scott, focus!"
Scott respected the commitment to the game, moving to the other side of the couch so Milly could collude with him on strategy.
Half way through the game, all hell breaks loose when suddenly three words are allowed per guess and Scott can't contain himself any more. He'd held it in for most of the night, the slighting of the rules, the lapsed time allowed. No more.
"No! NO! I'm not having this, it goes against the very essence of the game itself, this is ridiculous! It's Pictionary! Pictures, people. Not words. Pictures, you're heathens!" He's huffing by the end, stood from the couch, bottle of beer gripped so hard in his hands his knuckles have gone white.
The whole room is silent. Scott thinks this might be the end of his relationship and this family that have welcomed him in.
And then they all burst out laughing.
"Took you long enough—"
"I'm surprised he lasted this long—"
"I thought you said he was competitive Kip, he lasted all of Articulate without saying a word while you blatantly cheated and bent the rules."
"I was trying to be nice!" Scott argues.
"Baby, you have to relax." Kip says, standing up to wrap his arms around him.
Scott basically melts against him, and then remembers the timer cheating and loses it all over again.
"God forbid a guy tries to impress his partners family! I thought this was going to be the rest of my life!" he groans, and they all giggle again.
"That's very sweet my love, but we just wanted you to realize you can get competitive and we'll meet you at the line," Kip smiles.
"I love you, but this means I'm deducting the last three points for blatant cheating, your crown won't be yours much longer. Milly, the card's please!" Scott says like he's the king decreeing his subjects and the game commences once again.
With the points deduction they win by a landslide and while the bragging rights are pretty neat, the way they all pile together on the couch afterwards to take a Polaroid to add to the game night wall is what makes him tear up.
The blankets George and Kelly pull over the 'kids'—Scott and Kip included—are soft, the kind he would have killed to have pulled over him by a parent when he was a teenager.
He's got one arm around Milly who's tucked into his side, a mirror image of the way he's tucked into Kip's.
Between the shouting—good natured though it was—and the laughter, and everything else in-between, he was wrecked.
So he let's himself be tucked in by the 'adults' in the room, takes the hot chocolate offered to him and tucks his face into his boyfriends neck while The Usual Suspects plays on the flat screen.
Scott doesn't know what he was ever worried about, this family is just as crazy as he is.
He doesn't think he could love them any more if he tried.