Hockey Imagines

Alex Tuch

"Hey good lookin’ what’s cookin’?” I rolled my eyes as I stepped past him into the house.
“How was the filming of the ‘castle’?” I asked Alex puting air quotes on castle. I took off my coat and hung it up by the front door before kicking my shoes off.
“Hey, don’t insult my house.”
“Come on, this isn’t a castle and you know it. You wouldn’t be sleeping in a closet if it was.” I said making him laugh as we walked upstairs to his gaming room.
“Touche.” 
“So what are the plans for today Tuch?”
“I have no plans.”
“You invited me over for no reason?” I asked suspicious of my friend.
“Well I mean I wanted company but I didn’t plan anything to do.”
“Classic.” I said falling back onto the futon.
“We could order food and watch a movie?”
“Unoriginal.”
“Ya know what..” he said letting out a laugh. “You’re a nuisance today.”
“I am not!”
“Pick a movie, you brat.” he said with a big smile. “I’m going to go get snacks.”
“Okay. Bring me a blanket too?”
“God you’re so needy.” he said playfully rolling his eyes.
“Shut up you love me.”
“For some unknown reason.” 
“Rude!” I yelled after he left the room, hearing him laugh which made me smile. I really had the biggest crush on Alex. I’d been friends with him since we were teenagers. Our 10th grade english teacher paired us up for a big group project to give him a better chance at getting a good grade. I had already had a crush on him at that point and I figured it would go away but it never did. The big shot hockey player has had my heart for years. He was so goofy and almost flirty with everyone though so it was really hard for me to navigate what was going on so I just never did anything about it. 
“Hey space cadet.” Alex yelled throwing the blanket at my head, breaking me out of my thoughts.
“Asshole.” I mumbled making him laugh again. 
“What’s got you so zoned out?”
“Dumb boys.”
“Oh? Is there finally a boy in (Y/N) life?”
“God no.”
“You’ve never had a boyfriend. You’re like 23 and still single.”
“And your point?”
“Why?”
“Maybe I have my eye on someone.”
“Well what’s taking so long then?”
“He’s super not interested.”
“How do you know?”
“Well it’s been years and nothing sooo that’s pretty clear to me.” I sighed and pushed his shoulder. “Hey why are we talking about this where are my snacks?”
“Here you little gremlin.” he said throwing a bag of Doritos at me.
“Thank you.” I said with a sweet smile.
“Don’t look at me all sweet and innocent like that.” he laughed. “I know better than anyone that you are not either of those things.”
“Um wooow. I am sweet I’ll have you know. Just not to you. Because you don’t deserve it.”
“Brutal.” Shea said laughing in the doorway.
“Shea! Come watch a movie with us?” 
“No this was our hangout time.” Alex said pouting.
“Nonsense Alex, be nice. Come watch with us.”
“If the pretty girl says so.” he said shrugging coming in and sitting on the other side of me.
“Don’t call her that.” Alex said rolling his eyes.
“What are you trying to say there Tuch?” I asked raising an eyebrow at him.
“That isn’t what I meant. Can we just watch the movie please?”
“Okay..” I said quietly pushing play. Alex got off of the futon and turned the lights off before coming back and sitting closer to me. I unfolded the blanket Alex brought me and curled up in it. At least I tried before both boys took an edge and got under the blankets too. “I’m not very cozy anymore.”
“Well sorry, princess.” Alex said sarcastically.
“Come here.” Shea said putting an arm around me. I rested my head against his shoulder as the movie continued. I heard Alex scoff but he just let it be. Half-way into our second movie Shea got up claiming he had to go do something. Almost as soon as Shea left the room Alex scooted closer to me and pulled my body back into his.
“Alex what are you doing?”
“Shea left. Someone has to hold the baby.” he said trying to make a joke out of it.
“But you don’t like touchi-”
“(Y/N) if I didn’t want to touch you I wouldn’t be. Simple as that.” he said interrupting me and pulling me closer.
“If you’re sure..” 
“I am.”
“Okay.” I said quietly pulling the arm that was resting on my hip around me so his hand was up by my head. Doing that made us get into more of a spooning position and I was fine with that. It felt really nice to just be with him in that way. We were quiet for a minute just watching the movie until Alex cuddled more into me and broke the silence.
“I can’t help but notice that this is very different to what you were doing with Shea.”
“Is it a problem?” I asked trying to move away.
“No.” he whined pulling me back. “I was just pointing out that it was different.”
“Shea’s like a brother to me.”
“What and I’m not?”
“Absolutely not.” I said too quick. “I mean yes.”
“No, no, no you don’t just get to back track like that.” he said rolling me over so he could see me. “What do you mean I’m not like a brother to you?”
“I um..I just don’t see you as a brother that’s all.”
“Why not?” he demanded.
“Don’t raise your voice at me like that.” I said quietly.
“I’m not raising my voice, I just want to know why I’m not a brother to you.”
“Alex just leave it please? I really don’t feel like talking about it.”
“How am I just supposed to leave it and ignore that?” 
“Alex..”
“All I’ve ever tried to do is make you feel safe and happy and have you know that you’ve always got someone around who cares about you a lot. I just don’t understand.”
“You do all of those things. Every single one of them and more.”
“Then why is Shea someone you consider to be so close to you and I’m not?” he yelled standing up.
“Listen up Tuch. You mean more to me than Shea does. You both mean something to me in very different ways.” I tried to explain getting mad.
“Then what way am I important? Hmm? Because I don’t feel very important tonight.”
“For fuck sakes Alex, I don’t see you as a brother because I’m in love with you, you dumbass. It’d be kinda weird to be in love with someone you thought of as your brother.” I didn’t realize what I said until it was too late and I just shut my mouth and looked down away from his face. Which was probably for the best honestly since he just left the room. I panicked and went downstairs to get my stuff and get out of there as fast as I could but I was stopped by a pair of very large arms.
“(Y/N) you can’t go yet.” Shea said while I was struggling to break free.
“Shea you don’t understand. I just embarrassed myself more than I ever have in my life I need to leave.” 
“You can’t leave right now.”
“Yes I can.”
“Not until this is fixed.”
“Does he want to talk to me Shea?”
“Well I mean-”
“Does he want to talk to me?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then I will be leaving.”
“I don’t think he wants that either.”
“Shea this is what he does. I’ve watched him do this for years. He gets admissions from people he doesn’t want them from and he never fucking speaks to them again. He just disappears. This isn’t going to be any different.”
“(Y/N) this doesn’t make sense, please just stay and try to deal with this.” he let me go and when he did, I ran. Once I was outside I just sat down angry at myself. I kicked over a flower pot but then quickly picking it back up and fixing the flowers. Soon my anger towards myself became anger towards him. I hated the feeling I had. The anger powered me to go back into the house. Shea saw that I was on a mission and just nodded while moving out of my way. I opened the door to his room and found him lying on his bed.
“Can I fucking help you?” he asked taking his headphones out.
“Yeah. We’re fucking talking about this.” I said sitting down on the end of the bed. “I’m not leaving here until we do.”
“This is stupid.” he said rolling his eyes.
“Talk to me, asshole.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say. Sorry you have feelings?”
“You’re fucking stupid.” I said scoffing. 
“You had the right idea to just leave before.”
“Why? So you could just cut me off and never speak to me again in your life?”
“What no? Why would you say that?”
“I’ve watched you do it to sooo many girls. They speak up and you disappear. Never to be heard from again. The great fucking Houdini.”
“I wouldn’t do that to you. You’re my best friend.”
“An easy to lose one apparently.”
“You’d never be easy to lose, don’t fucking start.”
“But you’re willing to do it.” he was quiet and I knew I had him. “So that was just going to be it? Because I have a stupid crush on you, you were just going to pretend I never existed in your life? Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Too bad.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I’m not letting you throw away 6 years of friendship because you don’t want to deal with feelings.”
“I don’t want to talk about feelings. I’ve never been about feelings and you know that.”
“Then just say that you don’t like me back so I can start to move on and this can just become some stupid joke that we laugh about while drunk at parties.” I said laying back on the bed. I needed a break from looking at him.
“I can’t tell you that.” he said making me sit straight back up.
“What? Why?” 
“Because it isn’t true.”
“Then what the fuck is all this for then?”
“I can’t be what you need me to be. You know how I am and who I am. I can’t be what you want me to be.”
“You have no idea who or what I want you to be. All you know is I have feelings for you.”
“I can’t be the perfect loving boyfriend you deserve to have.”
“Uh yeah I know.”
“Um wow rude.” he said cracking a small smile.
“The fact that you think I don’t know how you are and that I’m liking you blindly is fucking hilarious to me. I know you aren’t perfect, idiot.” I said smiling kicking his leg.
“Why would you bring it up now? It’s been so long.”
“I just got upset and it had been bubbling to the surface for a while now. I would’ve been content just sitting around on these feelings and never letting them out but here we are.”
“Here we are.” he repeated. He was quiet for a minute before he added, “I don’t know what to do here.”
“Me neither. I always thought you would react bad but I never thought you wouldn’t be able to tell me it was one sided. I don’t know what to do with that honestly.”
“I didn’t think you’d ever have feelings for me knowing me as well as you do.”
“You’re not that bad of a person to know.” I said rolling my eyes.
“I have a bad temper, I don’t trust easily, I overreact all the time.”
“Trust me I know all of these things.” I rolled my eyes and crawled up the bed to sit beside him. “But you trust me already so there’s that.”
“I guess there is that. But trusting you as a friend and trusting you as something more are two different things.”
“But why? Just leave things how they are but more.”
“What do you mean?” he asked bumping his leg with mine.
“I mean treat me like you always have just with like, touching and stuff.”
“Wouldn’t that just be friends with benefits then?”
“If that’s what you wanted it to be I guess.”
“I don’t want that.”
“Ouch okay.” I said laughing.
“I didn’t mean that I don’t want to fuck you.” he said bluntly sighing making me burst out into laughter. “What is so funny?”
“Just the way you said it. I’m sorry. What were you saying, Tuch?”
“I was just saying that you deserve better than friends with benefits.”
“Then be better than friends with benefits.” I said shrugging and looking at him.
“I don’t know how.” he said quietly. “I’ve only ever had friends with benefits.”
“Then let’s figure it out together, Alex.” I said putting my hand to the back of his head. He closed his eyes and I gave him lots of time to pull away before I closed the distance and pressed my lips to his. He kissed back right away and it was intense to say the least. He licked my bottom lip asking for entrance almost immediately and when I let him in he really destroyed any ability I had to come up with a coherent thought. It really felt like I had been hit by a train. I felt the kiss in my entire body and when he pulled away I whined making him laugh and me blush.
“Needy.” he said brushing his thumb against my bottom lip with a smile.
“God everyone knows I’m needy, Tuch. You’re not original.” 
“My needy girl?” he asked softly.
“Yeah.”
“(Y/N) I’m really not good at this. It’s hard for me to let my guard down and I shut people out in these kinds of situations. I don’t want you to get into something you weren’t expecting and then leave me.”
“I’m not going anywhere. You’re not nearly as hard to love as you think you are.” I said hugging him.
“I’m willing to give us a shot if it’s what you really think you want.”
“It’s what I really know I want Alex.”
“I’m just so afraid you’re going to see me in a light that you don’t like.” he said resting his head on top of mine.
“I’ve seen you in every light. There’s nothing there that’s going to make me want to leave you. Let me prove it to you that not everyone is just trying to leave.”
“Okay.”
“Let’s just give it a try. That’s all I’m asking. We both have feelings, we might as well give it a shot. We kind of owe it to ourselves.”
“You’ve got a point.” I he smiling and pulling back to give me another kiss. “Plus turns out I really like doing that.”
“Me too.”
“This is the most you’ve ever agreed with me in one sitting. The baby just needed attention to cooperate is that it?”
“God shut up, asshole.” I said laughing before pressing another kiss to his lips.