Work Text:
It was early April. The sun was shining, one of the first genuinely nice days after months of snow. One of those days that made you think winter was finally over, even though you knew you'd be back in your winter coat within a week.
The team was only a few games away from the Frozen Four.
Everyone had been at Malone's the night before celebrating another win.
Hannah and Garrett had celebrated too.
Since they started dating, Hannah had become more comfortable drinking in public. She had a built-in bodyguard in her boyfriend, plus the hockey house boys, who had become quietly protective after learning about her past.
Hannah stepped out the back door into the backyard in search of her boyfriend.
She walked over as he came down from a crunch. Squinting at him because of the sun, she gently pulled one of his AirPods out of his ear.
Garrett looked her up and down in his faded Briar U hockey T-shirt and her leggings. He smiled immediately.
"Morning."
"Morning."
Hannah continued squinting at him.
"How ya feeling this morning?" Garrett asked, looking entirely too amused.
"Like a marching band is having a parade inside my brain."
He laughed.
"How in the world are you doing this? It's nine-thirty in the morning. And you drank more than I did last night. You maxed out your five-drink limit."
"I have a higher tolerance than you do." Garrett dropped into another crunch. "And I spread mine out throughout the night better than you did."
She rolled her eyes.
"Did you take Tylenol?"
"You mean the Tylenol my boyfriend so lovingly put next to my phone? Yes, I did."
She held up Garrett's obnoxiously large black water bottle so it hovered directly in his upside-down line of sight.
"Brought you some water."
"Thank you."
Hannah nodded.
"Can I borrow your computer? I left mine charging."
Garrett raised an eyebrow.
"And upstairs. It's so far away," she added dramatically.
Garrett chuckled.
"Sure. It's over there on the couch."
"Thank you."
"Hey, Wellsy? Spider-Man kiss?"
This time Hannah laughed.
She leaned down and kissed him upside down.
When she pulled away, she slid the AirPod back into his ear and headed toward the couch.
About forty-five minutes later, Garrett finally pulled his headphones out and walked to the couch.
As he took a long drink from his water bottle, he tuned into the conversation Hannah was having.
"Yeah, Mom. Thank you. I'll submit the application by tomorrow."
"Sounds good, sweetie."
Garrett dropped onto the couch beside Hannah, immediately coming into view on the phone's FaceTime screen.
"Oh, Garrett, honey. Good to see you."
"Hi, Carrie."
"Great game last night."
Garrett accepted the compliment with obvious pride.
"Thank you."
"Are you two up to anything fun this weekend?"
"Well," Hannah said, "we were out after the game last night, and Garrett just finished an hour-and-a-half workout."
"I was thinking about taking your lovely daughter out to breakfast," Garrett said. "And then studying."
"Oh really?" Hannah asked.
"Yeah. How does that sound?"
"You could probably convince me."
Carrie smiled.
"Whatcha working on?"
"My summer housing application."
Garrett frowned in confusion.
"Your...?"
"My summer housing application. Since I'm not going home this summer, I have to submit a housing request," she added. "There aren't a lot of students who stay all summer, but they need to know how many people are staying so they know where to put us."
"You should just live here with me this summer."
Hannah stared at him.
"What?"
"Live here."
She looked even more confused.
"Save the money. You spend half your time here anyway, and the other half we're at your apartment. We might as well be in one place."
"But what about the boys?"
"Tuck goes home to Texas. Logan and Dean will be back and forth between Hastings and Connecticut. It won't be a problem."
"You should still ask them."
"It shouldn’t be a problem but I will."
"Where am I going to put Allie's and my stuff? She normally leaves most of her stuff with me so she doesn’t have to move it back and forth, and when she gets back in the fall, we move it into our new place. Also, I don't know if you know this, but I have a lot of stuff."
“I know just how much stuff you have. I’ve seen your apartment.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“We’ll put all the boxes in the basement. Then I’ll only have to move you twice this summer instead of three times.”
"Plus," Garrett continued, "my house is closer to Malone's. And when your internship starts, either I'll drive you or you'll borrow the Jeep."
"But—"
"Wellsy."
Garrett cut her off gently.
His expression softened.
"Do you want to live with me this summer? Yes or no?"
Hannah sighed.
A slow smile spread across her face as she realized he was right. There wasn’t much point in sleeping apart when they spent so much time together anyway.
"Yes."
"Okay."
He grinned.
"I'll ask the boys. The rest we'll figure out later."
"Okay."
Hannah leaned over and kissed his cheek.
Carrie smiled at her daughter's happiness.
"Han, let me know if you need anything."
"Okay, Mom."
"Love and miss you."
"Love and miss you too."
Hannah ended the call. Then she closed the application window, and Garrett's desktop background appeared.
A picture from the Duo's party.
The one where he was fixing her bunny ears.
"Cute," she teased.
"Oh, please." Garrett playfully scoffed, "Like you don't have a Garrett Graham playlist called Forty-Four with a picture of us where you're wearing my jersey."
"Are you Spotify stalking me?"
"Wellsy, it's not stalking if you're my girlfriend."
"I made that when you were at an away game."
His grin widened.
"Are you telling me you miss me when I'm gone?"
"Are you telling me you don't miss me?"
"Not at all."
He stepped closer.
"I love that you're my fan girl."
Hannah groaned.
"And I miss you like crazy when I'm gone."
She smiled despite herself.
"I miss you too."
"And it's not fan-girling if you're already my boyfriend."
Garrett pulled her against his chest.
He smiled.
"Well, I love my fan girl girlfriend."
And then he kissed her.
They kissed for a while before Hannah headed for a shower, and Garrett grabbed some of the fresh coffee Tucker had made and talked with the boys about Hannah living there for the summer.
Being team captain—well, co-captain now—definitely had some advantages. Getting the master bedroom was definitely one of them. It meant Garrett had his own bathroom.
When Garrett walked out of his bathroom after showering, shirtless and wearing gray sweatpants, he found Hannah sitting on the bed waiting for him.
She sighed, somehow sounding both happy and sad.
"Alright, let's see the damage."
Garrett walked over and let her assess his bruises.
"Fuck, they really got you good last night, huh?"
She patted the bed and scooted back so he had room to sit in front of her.
This had become somewhat of a tradition after games.
Garrett didn't really know when it had started, but either the night of a game or the morning after, Hannah examined all his bruises and gave him a back massage.
Sometimes it led to sex.
Most of the time it didn't.
It was about connection.
And for Garrett, who had grown up in a house where not playing well earned him bruises, having someone tend to him when hockey gave him bruises for all the right reasons made him feel connected to Hannah. Cherished.
"Yeah, I guess so."
He took a deep breath as she rubbed an especially tender spot near his shoulder.
She kept going, lightly tracing the bruises.
Eventually she said, "I don't know what I'm going to do after next season when you play for the Bruins."
Garrett frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"Shit. Did I say that out loud?"
He looked back at her, silently asking her to let him in on whatever was going on in her head.
She sighed.
"You know I'm proud of you."
"Yes."
"And that I love watching you play."
"Yes."
"And that I love how much you love it."
"Wellsy, come on."
Because he did know all of those things, but he wanted to know what she was worried about.
"I don't always love watching you get slammed into the boards, watching you heal, and then watching you get slammed into the boards and bruised all over again."
She looked almost ashamed to admit it.
"So you worry about me."
This time it was Hannah's turn to say yes.
"Yes."
Garrett looked at her over his shoulder, silently telling her to continue.
"Did you know that in an eighty-two-game season, over fifty percent of NHL players miss at least one game because they get hurt?"
"You actually researched this?"
He sounded shocked, though there was a hint of a laugh in his voice.
"When I couldn't sleep one night."
She paused.
"I know you're big—"
"Big?" he questioned.
"Strong," she corrected. "And I know you can handle yourself. But the NHL is another level. One that you'll excel at. I just worry about things."
She swallowed.
"Your head. Concussions. Your ribs. Your teeth—I love your smile. Your shoulders. Normal injuries."
"Well then, I'll just have to get faster so I don't get slammed as much."
She rubbed the back of his neck, straightened his necklace, and placed a kiss at the base of his neck.
"Thank you."
After a minute, he teased, "You worry about me."
"That's kinda how this thing works, Graham. You worry about me, I worry about you."
She stopped rubbing his back, and he turned so he could kiss her.
Which he did.
After a moment, Hannah smiled.
"So where do you want to go for breakfast? Or, well, lunch now?"
"You know what I could go for?"
"No. What do you want?"
"Pie."
"Pie? You want hangover pie?"
"While I wouldn't say either one of us is in full-blown hangover territory, yes. I guess I want hangover pie."
He stood and walked over to his dresser, pulling out a pair of pants.
"So Malone's for pie. What are you doing?"
"Yes. And I am changing."
He sounded genuinely confused by the question.
Then he looked her over in her jeans and cute navy-blue top.
"You look nice. I can't take you out looking like a slob."
"I like the sweatpants."
She smiled up at him.
"Noted."
His smile turned cocky.
When they got to Malone's, they sat in a booth and ordered lunch.
Garrett told Hannah that he'd talked to the boys and that they were all okay with her living at the house over the summer.
As Hannah finished her lunch, Della came over and asked if she could work for a few hours until Allie got there for her shift.
Garrett was about to tell Della that they had plans.
But Hannah said yes.
"What are you doing?" he asked. "I was just about to get you out of it."
Hannah stood and cleared her plate.
"The Saturday no-shows are the worst. It normally means whoever was supposed to work is hungover and probably isn't coming in at all. It's only a few hours, plus extra tips."
She shrugged and headed into the back with her plate.
Garrett watched as she tied on an apron and started refilling coffee cups. A few minutes later, she came back over and set a slice of pie in front of him.
"One piece of hangover pie."
He chuckled.
"Hangover cherry pie. Are you ever going to let me live it down?"
"Maybe one day, but today is not that day."
She stuck out her tongue and scrunched her face at him with a grin.
Garrett chuckled again and picked up his fork, cutting off a bite of pie.
"Here."
He held the fork out to her.
Hannah leaned forward and took the offered bite.
"Wow. The first bite? You must really love me."
"Of course I do, you dork," he said before taking a bite himself.
"Hey, would you mind picking me up later?"
"Not at all."
Hannah smiled and headed back to work.
Eventually Garrett paid, left Malone's, and went to hang out with Logan.
Later, when Hannah walked out of Malone's, Garrett was leaning against the passenger-side door of the Jeep.
He straightened as she crossed the street and walked directly into his arms.
When Garrett wrapped his arms around her, he could feel the tension in her back.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. It was just a bad day. I'll tell you about it. Kiss?"
He leaned down and kissed her.
"Why can't you be taller?" he joked.
"Why can't you be shorter?" she joked back.
He kissed her again simply because he wanted to and opened the passenger door for her.
When he got into the Jeep, he asked what had happened.
"There was this customer. Older guy. And apparently everything we did was wrong. He asked for a Diet Coke, I brought him a Diet Coke, then he told me it was regular. He sent his food back, then tried to send it back again. He was incredibly patronizing, kept calling me honey and sweetie, then said I didn't know what I was doing. Got close to calling me a bitch. Said I was doing everything wrong. Wanted another server. Eventually Della refused him service and kicked him out."
"Wellsy, I'm sorry. Sounds like he was an asshole."
He took her hand and placed a kiss against her fingers.
"It's okay. You know I've had difficult customers before, and luckily at Malone's it doesn't happen all that often. It just sucks when it does."
After the kiss to her fingers, she reached over and scratched the base of his neck, twirling the curls at the nape of his neck.
Garrett had learned that playing with his curls was one of the ways Hannah sought extra comfort when she needed it. He loved that she sought comfort from him. He wasn’t even completely sure she always knew she was doing it.
"What should we do when we get home?"
"I should study. I have a big test on Wednesday."
"Okay."
He turned into the driveway, and they went inside.
The house was empty when they got home.
They settled into the living room to study, Garrett in the chair and Hannah on the couch.
He'd been watching her for the past two hours.
She had read maybe four pages.
Every fifteen minutes or so, she would run a hand through her hair and sigh.
Eventually, he got an idea.
He closed his textbook and went upstairs.
When he came back down, he was wearing a tank top, gray sweatpants, and a backwards baseball cap.
"Think fast."
He tossed a T-shirt at her.
It landed on top of her textbook.
Garrett walked over as she picked the shirt up and set it beside her.
"I have to study. I will—"
Garrett cut her off.
Taking the textbook from her hands, he closed it.
"Nothing is going into your brain right now. You need a break. Go get comfy."
"But I have to study."
She tried to take the book back, but he pulled it out of reach.
"I'll help you study tomorrow."
He could see she was about to cave.
"I promise."
She finally gave in, picked up the shirt, and went upstairs to change into the one he’d been wearing earlier.
The shirt smelled like him and immediately made her more comfortable than the clothes she’d been wearing before.
When she came back downstairs, Garrett was in the kitchen.
She slid onto one of the stools at the island.
"Smells good."
"Well, since my plan to take you to breakfast turned into lunch, I thought we'd do breakfast for dinner."
He plated two omelets and sat beside her at the island.
"Yummy." She smiled. "Thank you."
"You're welcome. What does your week look like?"
"Work Monday and Tuesday. Test Wednesday. Work Friday. You have an away game this week?"
"Yeah. We leave Tuesday afternoon, but we won't be back until late Thursday night."
"Dining hall dinner date on Monday?"
"Sure."
"How are you feeling about the game?"
Garrett sighed.
"Starting to really feel the pressure. We're getting so close to the Frozen Four."
"You're going to get there."
"Just a few more games."
"Exactly."
"Should we watch something tonight?"
"Sure. Start a new show?"
"Yeah."
She smiled.
"How's your head?"
"You mean from my headache? Better."
"And the rest of the day?"
"Well, I'm comfy, and my boyfriend looks really hot, which is actually very distracting. So good."
"You find me distracting, huh?"
"Okay, don't let it go to your head. Your ego is big enough as it is."
"You're good for my ego."
He leaned over and kissed her temple.
When he tried to clear the plates, she stopped him and gave him a real kiss. He smiled against her mouth and kissed her back. Then, without warning, he slipped an arm around her waist and lifted her off the stool. Hannah laughed into the kiss as he carried her upstairs toward his bedroom.