Chapter Text
He did it.
When the Falcs had given Jack the A, a lot of reporters had doubted the decision. After all, he was a rookie with a turbulent past. He thought that all the fuss about his overdose had been over, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. As soon as his captaincy was announced, the same old discussions had started all over again. Could Jack handle this responsibility? Would he fall back into old habits? Was he really worth it?
But Jack wasn’t a scared teenager anymore. Sure, his anxiety was still present as always, but he had it under control. He knew he could handle the responsibility. He knew he was worth it. And tonight, in his first game with the A on his jersey, he proved it by scoring his first NHL hat trick. When he scored his third goal, which gave the Falcs a 4-3 lead, two seconds before the end of the third period, the arena went crazy and they didn’t stop chanting his name for minutes after the final whistle. On the big screen, Jack saw Bad Bob Zimmermann chanting just as loudly as the rest of the fans.
However, in that moment, right after the final whistle, Jack did not give a single fuck about his achievements or his dad. All his attention was focused on the boy next to Bob. Bitty was wearing a Zimmerman jersey and smiling one of those smiles that could make Jack melt on the spot.
He snapped out of his gaze when he felt a hand on his shoulder and Tater whispered in his ear: “I’m understand Zimmboni loves his boyfriend, but maybe eyefucking him on ice is not good idea.”
Jack quickly tore his eyes away from the stands and blushed.
When he looked back a few moments later, Bitty was gone. Probably on his way to the locker room. Jack gave himself a mental pat on the back for inviting Bitty as his guest so he could come see him after the game. Although, admittedly, when he arranged it, he was thinking of having him there as support if he fucked up, he had very different plans now. Maybe they could find an empty storage room somewhere.
‘Maybe’ was a bad word, Jack decided when he arrived at the locker room. Bitty in his jersey never failed to leave Jack all hot and bothered, but that, combined with his flushed cheeks from all the excitement and the way he hugged Jack close, but not close enough was plenty to drive Jack crazy. They had to find an empty storage room somewhere.
They didn’t say a word until Jack had Bitty pinned against the door of some kind of conference room.
“Jack,” Bitty breathed. Jack lost it.
He crashed their lips together and didn’t hesitate before slipping his tongue in Bitty’s mouth, which earned him a soft moan.
Jack didn’t care about the fact that he was still wearing his skates, and had to bend down a lot to kiss his tiny boyfriend – “I am average sized!” – but apparently Bitty did, because he pushed Jack back until the back of his legs hit a chair. Jack got the hint and sat down, and Bittle straddled him before pressing his lips to that spot right below his jaw that made Jack shiver.
“I’m so proud of you, honey,” Bits said against his skin, voice already a bit hoarse.
“Bits,” Jack moaned, but Bitty didn’t stop kissing his neck. He was careful not to leave any marks, but apparently he enjoyed feeling Jack fall apart under his lips.
Jack threw his head back and closed his eyes for a moment, which was why he didn’t notice the door opening. When he opened his eyes, he was faced with one of the reporters and one of the Blackhawks D-men, who were presumably there to do an exclusive interview and were now both staring at him with wide eyes, and a camera.
Bitty noticed that something was wrong and turned to follow Jack’s terrified eyes.
Suddenly, the reporter seemed to realize that he had Jack Zimmermann, NHL star, making out with another man on camera, and his face turned into a wicked grin that made Jack feel more than a little uncomfortable.
“This is going to be the story of the fucking century,” he said, and he turned around to walk away, but not before adding “thanks for the career boost, Zimmermann.”
By the time the door closed, Jack was shaking and starting to have a hard time breathing.
No, Bitty couldn’t see him like this.
When Bitty moved away and left his lap empty, Jack knew this was it. Bitty had finally realized what a pain in the ass being with Jack was. Bitty didn’t deserve this. He deserved a nice life with a nice, mentally stable man who was not an NHL star.
Still, the thought of Bitty leaving made Jack’s eyes sting.
However, to Jack’s surprise, he didn’t leave. He sank to his knees in front of Jack and took his hands.
“Jack? Jack, please, look at me.”
He couldn’t. He could hear the panic in Bitty’s voice, and he didn’t want to see the evidence of how he had so majorly fucked up this beautiful boy’s life. Bitty kept talking anyway.
“I love you, Jack. And I know you can’t say it right now, but I know you love me too, and we’ll get through this. Maybe the footage is blurry and you can just deny the whole thing and-”
“I don’t want to deny it,” Jack said, to both his and Bitty’s surprise, and with that realization, he started to calm down. He didn’t want to deny it. He didn’t know if the video was live or not, but the footage would be on the internet within a few hours.
In a few hours, he would be out.
He wasn’t stupid, he knew there would be a lot of negative reactions. But he would get to take Bitty on a real date. He would be able to hold his boyfriend’s hand- hell, maybe even kiss his boyfriend- in public. He couldn’t deny he wanted that. Fuck, he wanted that so bad, and now he would get it.
“Jack… why are you smiling?” Bitty asked carefully.
Jack didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled his boyfriend back into his lap and cupped his face with his large hands.
“Eric Richard Bittle,” Bitty visibly held his breath, “will you go on a date with me?”
Bitty froze for a second, and burst out laughing.
“What?” Jack asked, “What did I do?”
“I’m sorry, honey,” Bitty said as he got himself back together, “for a second I thought you were gonna propose.”
Jack’s breath hitched.
“And… I- I mean,” Bitty stuttered, “not that I wouldn’t say yes, because let’s be real, I would definitely say yes, but-”
“What?”
Bitty froze.
“Oh fuck no I’m sorry honey, forget I said that. Hell, just forget this whole conversation. I’d love to go on a date with you.”
“Bits.” Jack said, and Bitty looked at him with his big eyes, full of embarrassment. “Would you really want to marry me?”
He only asked because he suddenly realized how much he wanted to marry Bitty. Okay, maybe not suddenly. He realized it when he came home to the smell of fresh pie. He realized it when he woke up with Bitty curled into his side. He realized it when he looked at his own parents and saw himself and Bitty in them. But he had never allowed himself to seriously think about it, because Bitty deserved better than being his secret. Now, though, he was not Jack’s secret anymore.
Bitty suddenly looked down to his hands shyly.
“Of course I would. I mean, maybe not now, but someday? Yeah.”
Jack’s heart did not know how to handle that. His brain didn’t either. But there were some things he didn’t need his brain for. He lifted Bitty’s chin and placed the gentlest kiss on his lips.
“I love you,” he said, “and someday sounds good.”
Bitty looked up at him in shock. Was the fact that he was it for Jack really a surprise to him? Damn, Jack needed to up his game if this boy still didn’t realize how much Jack loved him.
“But maybe we should go on that date first, eh?” he added.
Bitty smiled.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea.”
They were quiet for a moment, just content with being in each other’s presence, until Bitty sighed.
“Fuck, Jack, this is going to be awful for a while, isn’t it?”
Jack wanted nothing more than to deny that, but he nodded. Then he got an idea.
“Hey Bits, maybe we should go on that date now?”
Bitty looked at him like he had just told him his mom had eight arms.
“What?”
“You know, I’m inevitably getting outed in a few hours. The video wasn’t live because then your phone would be blowing up right now, but that reporter isn’t going to keep this to himself. So we can just as well go out and enjoy ourselves before the shitstorm starts. Before you realize what I dragged you into.”
Jack averted his eyes to the hands in his lap, suddenly aware of the horrible situation he had put Bitty into again.
But Bitty didn’t let him. He cupped Jack’s face and forced him to look into those big, brown eyes.
“I would love to go on a date with you tonight, Mr. Zimmermann. But you need to shower first. And we need to talk to George. We can’t prevent this from happening, but we can at least give her a head start.”
Jack was still getting more and more amazed by Bitty every day. While Jack was thinking about himself, Bitty was already thinking about the team and the solutions to their situation.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’ll go shower. Can you- can you maybe talk to George? She loves you and… you know… you’re better at this talking stuff than I am and-”
“Of course, honey. I’ll talk to George. You go take a shower and come to her office when you’re done.”
“Okay. Okay.” Jack said and then he didn’t know what to say anymore, so he pulled Bitty to his chest. “I love you, so much.”
“I love you too, honey,” Bittle whispered in the crook of Jack’s neck, “we’ll get through this.”
“Yeah. We will.”
20 minutes later, Jack walked into George’s office after standing in the hall for a few moments to get himself together.
He loved Bitty. He knew Bitty loved him back. He knew they would get through this, but that didn’t make it any easier. George would inevitably be furious at him for not being more careful.
But when he opened the door, he was greeted by a smiling Bitty and George.
“Jack, there you are!” George greeted him. “Sit down!”
Jack nervously made his way over to the chair next to Bitty and sat down.
“I’m sorry,” he started, but George interrupted him.
“No, Jack. You’re not going to apologize. You have nothing to apologize for. This was an accident and if that reporter decides to share this information with the world, he’s a disgusting pig and I will personally make sure he never writes another word again, understood?”
Bitty smiled at him encouragingly to say see, it’s gonna be okay.
“Okay,” Jack said, “but what now?”
“Well, Eric has told me what happened, and he says you don’t want to deny anything?”
Jack nodded.
“Okay, that’s good. I’d rather kick the asses of anyone who dares to say a negative word about you than see you hide someone who obviously makes you very happy.”
Jack and Bitty both blushed and Jack reached for Bitty’s hand. Bitty squeezed his hand and Jack felt himself relax a little bit.
“So,” George continued, “there’s not much you can do right now. I suggest you take your boy out on that date while me and the team prepare for impact.”
Bitty laughed. “You make it sound like we’re on a plane that’s about to crash.”
George smiled, but Jack had done the media smile enough times to know that George was in fact trying very hard to stay calm.
“Yeah. I suggest you boys have some fun before the plane crashes.”
And fun they had.
They had dinner at a small, low-key restaurant in Providence. Jack would have rather taken Bitty to some kind of fancy restaurant, but since Bitty was still wearing his Zimmermann jersey and Jack had put on his robber outfit instead of his suit, that was not really an option. They’d get a lot more chances to go out and get a fancy dinner anyway, so neither of them really minded.
As they were not used to being able to be affectionate in public, dinner went pretty much the same as any other time they had dinner together. That didn’t make it less fun, though. Jack didn’t think it was possible to not have fun when he was with Bitty. He could listen to him recounting ‘the pie recipe incident’, something that had apparently occurred last week between his mother and his aunt, for hours.
But the real fun started when they were happily walking through the city (hand in hand!) and passed the public ice skating rink.
Bitty was about to walk past it when Jack started pulling him towards the entrance.
“Jack, what are you doing?”
“I just suddenly feel the incredible urge to try out those figure skating moves you taught me. I love you, but my true love will always be the ice, and I feel like I haven’t showed my love enough today,” Jack smirked.
Bitty rolled his eyes. “I don’t even have my skates with me.”
“Me neither, I left them at the arena. We can just rent skates.”
Bitty sighed. “Okay.”
Jack’s face broke into a huge grin and he pulled his boyfriend towards the entrance.
It was already pretty late, and the girl behind the counter looked like she would commit a murder to get out of there, so he told her to keep the change.
Her eyes lit up and she even smiled a little when she said: “Thank you very much. You and your son can pick up your skates over there.”
Jack heard Bitty gasp and he was about to correct the girl, but instead, he turned to his boyfriend and said: “You can wait over here while your daddy picks up the skates, Dicky,” and he burst out laughing when he saw Bitty’s scandalized face.
“Jack Laurent Zimmerman, if you ever say something like that again, I swear I will break up with you.”
The girl then visibly realized her mistake and started apologizing.
Because Jack was still laughing, Bitty said: “It’s fine, honey. It’s not the first time someone made that mistake.”
That caught Jack’s attention. “When has someone made that mistake before?”
Bitty looked at him in confusion for a second before responding: “Where were you even last year? During the playoffs, Holster had a beard, and every time we went out together, people thought I was his son. At some point, he and Rans actually considered just adopting me. How did you miss that?”
Jack laughed again. “You know me, I lived under a rock at Samwell. Lardo even calls me the rock lord.”
“Of fucking course. My boyfriend, the rock lord,” Bitty muttered, now smiling, as he walked off to get some skates.
Jack followed, and 5 minutes later, they were on the ice. Luckily, there were a lot less people than usual because it was already late. The only people left on the ice were a few couples and a group of girls who seemed to do more standing still and gossiping than actually skating.
This was very fortunate, because Jack hadn’t lied when he said that he wanted to try a few figure skating moves. Since they came out to the team, Jack had been skating at Faber a few times, and Bitty had taught him some couple skating moves. They never succeeded, but it was fun nonetheless.
When he voiced his intentions, Bitty looked at him worriedly.
“Are you sure? I mean, I know you wanted to go on a real date but we’re in public and there’s a big chance that someone will recognize you, so-”
“Bits,” Jack interrupted. “I’m sure.”
To amplify this, he pressed his lips to the place where Bitty’s forehead wasn’t covered by his hat.
“Now, let’s skate some rounds to warm up.”
“Aye aye, captain,” Bitty muttered before taking off and skating backwards, away from Jack.
Their ‘warming up’ quickly turned into a race, and within a few minutes they were both more than warm enough, and the few people in the rink had probably realized they were not the average people that came to this rink to have some fun despite barely knowing how to skate.
Bitty decided that he wanted to do some jumps first – only easy ones, though, because the rental skates were fairly shit – so Jack just leaned back against the boards and watched.
He loved to play hockey with Bitty and he loved to watch him play hockey, but nothing would ever compare to watching him figure skate. The grace, the beauty, the way Bitty looked when he lost himself to skating for a moment, were things Jack would never get tired of.
He was almost disappointed when Bitty stopped after a while to skate over to Jack. ‘Almost’ being the keyword, because how could anyone ever be disappointed when their beautiful boyfriend suggests to skate together and try that lift that they’d attempted at Faber a few times?
Unfortunately, Jack was a pretty horrible figure skater, so they went tumbling to the ice as soon as Bitty’s skates left the ice.
Less unfortunate was the position they ended up in: Bitty on his back on the ice and Jack almost entirely on top of him.
Jack would’ve been worried about Bitty’s fall if he hadn’t started giggling as soon as he hit the ice. At the sound of Bitty’s giggles, Jack couldn’t contain his own laughter anymore either.
After a few moments of pure happiness, Bitty turned his head to the side to look at their surroundings and he suddenly got a worried look in his eyes.
“Jack, someone is taking pictures,” he said, and he tried to wriggle out from under Jack.
Jack considered this for a moment before lifting one hand off the ice to tilt Bitty’s face to look at Jack and said, “Let them,” before kissing him softly.
Bitty gasped into the kiss, but quickly wrapped his arms around Jack’s neck nonetheless.
It was a sweet, short kiss, since Jack was not the biggest fan of PDA anyway, and when they parted, Jack whispered against Bitty’s lips: “You know, I think I love you more than the ice.”
“First you kiss me on the ice and now you outright say you love me more? Maybe we should get off the ice before it takes revenge on me for stealing you,” Bitty laughed. “You’re also getting kinda heavy,” he added.
“Oh, haha. Yeah. Sorry.”
Jack quickly got up and extended his hand to help Bitty up. He felt all warm when Bitty didn’t let go of his hand once he was back on his feet.
They were ready to leave the ice when one of the girls they had seen earlier approached them.
Bitty gave Jack a look to say ‘that’s the girl who took the pictures’.
“Hey,” she said, looking guilty but determined, and there also seemed to be… something else, “you’re… you’re Jack Zimmerman, right?”
Jack nodded. He’d rather spend some more time with Bitty than talk to fans right now, but this girl had pictures of them and she looked like she really wanted to say something, so Jack decided to hear her out.
“Uh- I, uh… just saw the news,” she stuttered, “and I... me and my friends,” she gestured to the group of girls on the other side of the rink, “just wanted to say that, uh… whoever made that video is a dick, and we support you and…” she looked at Bitty.
“Eric,” Bitty filled in.
“Yeah, you and Eric. And I think we speak for a lot of the fans if we say we’ve got your back.”
To everyone’s surprise, Bitty stepped forward and wrapped his arms around the girl.
“Thank you. That means a lot,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jack had frozen beside them. The video was out. Jack was out. The plane had crashed.
“How long?” he asked.
Both Bitty and the girl looked up to him in confusion.
“What?”
“How long has the video been out?”
“Oh, uh… not that long,” she tapped her phone a few times, “4 minutes.”
For some reason, this was still a shock for Jack. He had expected this, but somewhere deep inside, he had still hoped that reporter would keep this to himself.
Bitty immediately noticed Jack’s panic and stepped away from the girl to cup Jack’s face with his gloved hands.
“Jack, please look at me. We knew this would happen, George and the team are ready for this. We’ll be fine. These people have your back,” he nodded towards the girl, who was watching the situation unfold.
“We really do, Jack,” she confirmed.
Jack let his forehead rest against Bitty’s for a while until his breath evened out.
No matter how much he didn’t want to be in this situation, he couldn’t deny that being with Bitty in public like this, without having to worry about being seen, was nice.
“I’m okay,” he stated when he felt like it was the truth. Then he got an idea. He turned to the girl.
“What’s your name?” he asked.
Her breath hitched for a moment, but she quickly got herself together and answered: “Emma.”
“Okay, Emma,” Jack started, “I believe you took some pictures?”
Emma’s face went beet red and she started sputtering: “Yeah- yeah, I did… but I- I’m sorry and I shouldn’t have done that, and I- I can delete them right now, I promise I wasn’t planning on outing you or anything-”
“Emma,” Jack interrupted her, “it’s fine.”
“I promise I didn’t mean to-”
“I know. I believe you. That’s not what I meant to say. I just wanted to ask if you took any good pictures?”
Emma stared at him wide-eyed for a few seconds before she seemed to process his question.
“Y- yeah, I, uh… took a photography class,” Jack smiled, “so I like to think I take some decent pictures,” Emma laughed.
“Can I see them?” Jack asked.
Emma looked like she had no idea where this was going, but she complied anyway, and showed Jack the photos on her phone. There was one of Jack and Bitty right before Bitty’s skates left the ice during the lift, which made it look like Jack actually had a clue what he was doing. There was a picture of them laying on the ice and laughing. The next one, presumably taken a few seconds later, showed Bitty looking almost directly into the camera – but it looked like he hadn’t realized there was a camera yet, because he was still smiling – and Jack looking down at him lovingly. The last picture was the perfect shot of Jack and Bitty kissing. Even with her phone, Emma had framed these pictures perfectly, the light of the street lanterns shining at the perfect angle.
“These are amazing,” Jack said.
Emma blushed deeply. “Thank you. I can send them to you, if you want? I can, uh… DM them to you on twitter?” she offered.
Bitty scoffed. “No, send them to me. Jack Zimmerman can’t use twitter to save his life,” he said, and he shoved Jack playfully.
They then exchanged twitter usernames, and after that Jack and Bitty took off for real, but not before shouting, “Thank you!” to the girls who had been silently observing the whole conversation. Jack swore he could hear some of them squeal.
“Hey Bits?” Jack said while they were unlacing their skates.
Bitty hummed.
“Maybe you could post one of those photos on, uh… Instagram? Is that what it’s called?”
Bitty looked up at him in surprise.
“Really?”
Jack nodded.
“Oh. Uh, yeah, of course. Which one do you like best?” Bitty asked while opening up the app.
Jack thought about this for a few moments before deciding: “The one where you look into the camera. You look good in that one.”
Bitty put a hand over his heart and looked quasi-offended. “Jack Laurent Zimmermann, are you saying I don’t look good in the rest of them?”
Jack knew it was supposed to be a joke, but he couldn’t resist lightly dragging his lips over Bitty’s jaw before whispering in his ear: “You have no idea how good you look. Especially in my jersey. But I think you’d look even better if you were wearing only my jersey.”
Bitty seemingly choked on nothing and he hit Jack in the chest.
“You can’t just say stuff like that in public!”
Jack smirked. “Oh, but I can now, remember?”
Bitty blushed.
“Okay, I’m just gonna post that picture now and then we can go home.”
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Eric Bittle @omgcheckplease
Jack Zimmermann sure knows how to have a first date instagram.com/p/HdhJkslxv3
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