NHL!Bitty + Hug Check

whoacanada:

Bitty signs with another team and no one on the Falconers wants to be the guy to check Zimms’ boyfriend; the problem is Bitty’s a quick little fucker and if you don’t stop him somehow he has a tendency to score. They’ve already lost one game because Guy hesitated a half-second too long and god-forbid they end up in a cup series with him.

Solution? Falconers bring back the patented Horton ‘bear-hug check’; initially just for Bittle, but it spreads league-wide because straight up lifting guys off the ice for a few seconds is hella effective and the linemen haven’t seen it much so they don’t really know how to call it.

—

There are three minutes left in the second period and the Schooners are up by one; Bitty spins to avoid Thirdy, shoots a look to Avery, ready to pass and –

“Miss you, Itty Bitty!” Mashkov crows over the roar of the crowd, his massive chest stopping Eric’s momentum full force. Bitty knows what’s coming next, wrapped up in Mashkov’s arms, squished by pads and misplaced affection, he watches helplessly as the puck slides away, immediately picked off by Thirdy. “Miss your pie!”

“Let me go –” Bitty growls, struggling against the hold even as a linesman skates by to examine if what they’re doing constitutes a fight. 

It doesn’t.

“Aww, Bitty not enjoying my hugs,” Mashkov tells the linesman, squeezing tighter, bumping his helmet against Eric’s, “rather I knock out pretty teeth instead.”

“Fuck you, Tater!”

“No, no, you fuck Zimmboni. You make me pie.”

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