#nytp continued

7. “Can I just lay on your chest? The sound of your heartbeat always helps calm me down.” [722 words]

It wasn’t the burned meatloaf that caused tears to stream down your cheeks. Rather, it was the culmination of seemingly every little thing going wrong that had you falling apart on your kitchen floor. You’d forgotten to pay a bill on time, you were behind on all of the work you needed to do with deadlines looming over you, you had spilled your cats food all over the floor the previous night because the lid hadn’t been on all the way, you’d woken up to flat tires and then proceeded to be yelled at by another customer when you were trying to do your grocery shopping. The grocery shopping that was supposed to feed you and a friend tonight if you hadn’t forgotten to set a timer and burned your dinner. 

It was as you were sobbing on the kitchen floor that you heard a knock on your door and when you didn’t respond after a minute, the door crept open, Mikko calling out for you. The last thing you wanted was for him to find you like this...the two of you honestly weren’t close enough for that but there wasn’t much you could do about it now, your breathing too shaky to control. 

When Mikko found you, he immediately crouched down beside you in concern, his nose only then picking up on the smell of burnt food. Still, somehow he knew that this breakdown was caused by so much more than that and he quickly reached out a hand to pull you to your feet, ushering you over to your couch. As you melted into the cushions, tears still streaming down your cheeks you could hear Mikko in the other room calling in a takeout order before doing his best to clean up the mess you’d made. 

You weren’t sure how much time had passed before he returned to you, sitting down beside you. 

“What can I do?” He questioned, the soft tone of his voice slightly jarring. For some reason you expected him to be disappointed with you. The whole reason he was coming over was for a home-cooked meal and you couldn’t even manage to give him that. There wasn’t any tinge of disappointment or anger in his tone of voice though, only concern for you. Your brain was still racing as you searched for a way to calm yourself down. In your frazzled state, the only thing that came to mind was how safe you felt when Mikko hugged you and your head rested against the broad expanse of his chest. Still...you weren’t sure the two of you were close enough for you to make that request and so you hesitated in saying the words until Mikko’s hand brushed over your knee in an attempt to draw you back to him. 

“Can I just lay on your chest? The sound of your heartbeat always helps calm me down.” Looking down at you, Mikko’s gaze went soft and he quickly leaned back against the couch cushions, pulling your body closer to his own. 

“Of course...come ‘ere.” He murmured, his fingers carding through your hair as he guided your head onto his chest. With the sound of his heart beating in your ear and the feeling of his fingers running through your hair, you finally felt your breathing slow and your heart rate reduce. It wasn’t until you had steadied yourself that Mikko spoke again, though he refused to let you move off of him. “I’d ask what happened but I feel like this was probably something that was building and just exploded inside you tonight. So instead I’ll just ask if you’re okay? We’ll lay like this until dinner comes and then we can open a bottle of wine and watch a movie.” 

“Twins? Are you freaking kidding me?!” with Elias Pettersson [758 words]

___________

It was supposed to be just a regular boring doctor’s appointment to check up on how the baby and you were doing as you neared the end of your first trimester. You’d insisted to Elias that he wasn’t going to miss anything when he protested you having an appointment while he was on the road. You had only planned on the doctor taking some measurements such as your weight and to check in with you and maybe run some blood work. 

That had been the plan until the doctor found out that your levels were off. The first clue had been that your weight gain was more than double what the doctor had expected. At first, she assured you that that wasn’t completely outside of the norm but that it was something that you would continue to measure. Then the doctor had gotten your hCG levels back and those were also outside of the expected range. You weren’t aware of the possibility that anything was off until you saw your doctor’s face as she took a doppler reading of the baby’s heart rate. 

The next thing you knew, an ultrasound machine was being wheeled into the room and your doctor was smearing more gel onto your stomach. After a moment she turned the screen to face you and your jaw dropped as she pointed out not one but two little blobs residing in your womb. Twins. The thought of being pregnant with more than one baby was a terrifying thought and you had no idea how you were going to tell Elias. 

As you certainly couldn’t do it over the phone you were somewhat short with Elias when he called, insisting that you and the baby were just fine. Technically you and both babies were fine but it meant that you were going to have more appointments as your pregnancy was now higher risk and in the end, you would be bringing two children into the world instead of the one that you were expecting. 

In the following few days while you waited for the Canucks to return home from their road trip you did your best to not let the news of your twins panic you. Of course, you were excited, but it was such a big thing and handling it on your own was difficult. 

Elias got back late at night, long after you had passed out from the exhaustion of carrying two babies. Waking long before him with another bout of morning sickness you ended up curled up on the couch waiting for your boyfriend to awake. You found yourself dozing in the process and you must have been out of it enough that you missed Elias waking up until he was kneeling in front of you, pressing soft kisses to your stomach and talking to the baby. 

Knowing that now was as good a time as any to break the news to him, you reached out and gently tugged his hand pulling him onto the couch with you. 

“Hey, babe...I need to tell you something.” Elias’s hand fell to your stomach and he leaned his head against the couch cushions, nodding at you to say whatever it was that was on your mind. 

“How do you feel about having two kids?” You asked, pulling your bottom lip between your teeth. 

“I mean yeah sure...we can have a second someday.” He agreed nonchalantly. 

“And if someday is in 7 months?” You clarified, watching as Elias’s eyes went wide and he jolted upright. 

“Twins? Are you freaking kidding me?!” He exclaimed, waiting for you to nod. “I thought you said I wouldn’t miss anything!” 

“I’m sorry…” You trailed off, a hint of sarcasm lacing your words. This had come as completely unexpected to you too because if you had any idea you definitely would have insisted that he be by your side. It was pretty clear that Elias’s head was spinning for a moment and then his lips were on yours kissing you fiercely. 

“We get two for the price of one?” He asked, eyes softening with emotion. “This is fucking incredible. I can’t wait to meet them both.” His joy was overwhelming and you couldn’t help but burst into tears, burying your head into the crook of his neck. 

32. “I like the way your hand fits in mine.”

9. “I want everyone in the world to know you’re mine.” [812 words]

_______

You’d been going on dates with Nate for a few weeks after meeting at a local rink. You had just moved to Nova Scotia and now that you were in Canada full time it was probably time to learn to skate. Since you didn’t want to embarrass yourself in front of the locals you had rented out a small patch of ice time, not knowing that after your session the ice was going to be used by people who actually knew what they were doing. The moment he walked into the rink, a few minutes before your time was up, you knew exactly who he was and his presence sent you toppling onto the ice, your balance still shaky. It was going to take a few more skating sessions before you could feel confident in your ability to even skate laps. 

Flushed red, you picked yourself off the ice and decided that it was probably best if you called it and didn’t embarrass yourself further. So you were a little surprised when the man who had sent you toppling, the one and only Nathan MacKinnon, had blocked your way off the ice. 

“You can’t end your ice time with a fall…” He mused a bit of a smirk on his face signaling that he had definitely not missed your little blunder. Sighing you placed your hands on your hips. 

“If that’s the rule I’d be here all day so…” You responded, your flush growing just from his presence alone. You had known meeting him was a possibility when you moved because Nova Scotia was only so big...you just hadn’t planned on it being like this. Nate’s smirk shifted to a frown for barely a moment before it returned and he shook his head, offering you a hand after taking off his gloves. 

“One lap. I’ll help and then you can call it a day.” 

One lap turned into one date. One date had turned into two and then three and now you’d like to think you had something real going on but you weren’t naive enough to assume as Nate hadn’t said anything that would make you think the two of you were officially together. 

Today was Canada Day though and Nate had invited you to his place for the get together he was hosting. You were a little surprised at the invitation but you hadn’t seen him in the past week so you were looking forward to it. Arriving at his house you texted him that you were there before climbing out of your car. You hadn’t really expected him to meet you out front but as you tried to compose yourself you spotted him walking down the front path, a bright smile on his face. 

“Hey...y/n.” He said, leaning in to give you a quick hug and peck your cheek in greeting. “Glad you could make it.” He added and suddenly his hand was reaching down to lace his fingers with your own. You expected him to let go of your hand when you reached the front door but instead, he squeezed as he reached for the handle. You could hear the voices of people inside and suddenly you froze, lifting your hands up closer to eye level.

“Uh Nate…” You mumbled, trying to hint to him that he didn’t have to hold your hand. His brows creased for a moment as you tried to communicate silently with him. 

“Oh.” He breathed after a moment but yet still didn’t release his grip. “I like the way your hand fits in mine.” He declared with a shrug, once again reaching for the door handle. 

“But Nate…” You repeated his name, this time pointing to the shadows created by the movements of people inside with your free hand. “Everyone will notice.” You added under your breath. 

Turning toward you, Nate took a moment to take in your expression. Kissing you quickly he pulled back and reached back to the door with the intent of entering without letting you stop him. As he opened the door, he tugged your linked hands. 

“Maybe I want everyone to know you’re mine.” He declared and before you had time to process those words you were surrounded by Nate’s friends and family causing you to react on your feet as Nate introduced you to everyone. 

So maybe you hadn’t talked about whether things were official or not but it was certainly leaning more toward this being a real relationship with every passing moment. 

Oh god yes. I think I practically melted when I saw him in person. He was just so large that the look on my face must have been one of amazement and dare I say lust...

Bless you, because 14 hours of driving is absolutely no joke. 

I’m going to ship you with Jamie Oleksiak. Man would totally love your dogs and once you teach him about your horses I can seem him being really into that as well. I mean imagine that man riding a horse...