Archive of Our Own

Gabe wanders through the kitchen, grabbing some bags of chips and drinks to bring out to the living room. His guests will be here soon, and he wants to be ready. This is going to be an important meeting. He can’t live another season like the last three. He’s pretty sure everyone he invited agrees, but nothing is guaranteed.

The doorbell rings after he arranges the snacks near the couch, and he goes to answer it. Mikko, Jo, Devon, Josh, Sammy, Ross, Lehky, and Casey filter into his house, attacking the snacks immediately.

“I only invited, like, half of you,” Gabe complains. “This is an important meeting.”

“Lehky is on our side,” Mikko argues. “He’s been here long enough to be annoyed, too.”

“The whole d-corps has noticed,” Devon chimes in. “That’s why Josh is here.”

“I know I haven’t been on the team long, but it’s fucking annoying,” Casey adds. “I practice with him every single day. It’s fucking awful. Ross heard Sammy talking to Josh about this meeting and decided the two of us were tagging along.”

“Fine, fine,” Gabe says nervously. “Let’s get this meeting started, then.” He clears his throat. “We’ve all been noticing our teammates’... situation, let’s say.”

Devon snorts.

“All of us here are close friends with the two of them, or have been impacted by their annoying behavior,” Gabe continues.

“You can say that again,” Jo mutters under his breath.

“So we need to come up with a plan to get them to stop dancing around each other,” Gabe concludes. “But I have no idea what else to do. I’ve tried everything. I sent them on romantic dinners. I got them to take a yoga class together, and the only thing that accomplished was them being annoyingly stretchy and going to yoga regularly. I even gifted them a helicopter tour of the mountains together thinking it would be a nice romantic adventure and nothing happened. I need your help.”

“Can’t we just talk to them about it?” Sammy asks.

Mikko chimes in. “I tried that, and Nate just laughed at me for a long time and then left the locker room.”

“I tried it too,” Josh says. “Cale just gave me a weird look.”

“But they would be so good together,” Ross says. “I don’t understand why they won’t listen to us. It’s ridiculous.”

“There’s too much… Mikko, what’s the word I’m looking for in English?” Lehky says, adding a word in Finnish to the end.

Mikko laughs. “Sexual tension.”

“Ugh,” Jo groans. Way too much sexual tension. It’s a fucking nightmare being around them.”

“Even being around one of them is bad,” Casey says. “When Nate and I practice together, he talks about Cale the entire fucking time. No matter what we’re doing or talking about, it comes back to Cale somehow.”

“I don’t know what the solution is,” Jo says. “Lock them in a room together? They probably wouldn’t even notice because they’d be too busy talking about ideas for the power play.”

“Maybe we should stage an intervention,” Sammy suggests.

“We don’t want to make things weird between them,” Gabe says. “An intervention feels too heavy-handed, especially since they wouldn’t listen individually when we talked to them.”

“What do we do, then?” Ross asks despondently.

“Well, I invited Mikko, Jo, Devon, and Sammy here to set up a sort of contest,” Gabe explains. “I guess we can expand it to include Lehky, Josh, Ross, and Casey. I thought if we made things interesting between us, we could challenge ourselves to come up with some way to get them to realize their feelings for each other.”

“Ooooh,” Casey says, delighted. “It’s like a secret operation! We need a codename!”

“And a group chat!” Lehky adds, grinning, already on his phone to set it up.

“Maybe a cool acronym?” Ross says. “The NACT pact? Nate And Cale Together pact.”

“Loving the rhyming scheme there,” Sammy says.

Gabe buries his face in his hands. This was why he wanted to keep the meeting small. It’s quickly spiraling out of control, but there’s not much he can do to stop it.

“How about CAN? Cale And Nate?” Devon suggests.

“Hmmm,” Casey says. “I was thinking Operation X. That sounds official.”

“More like XXX,” Mikko says, smirking.

“Can we get back to what’s actually important here,” Gabe interrupts.

“Who died and made you head of the NACT pact?” Ross grumbles.

“You mean CAN,” Devon says stubbornly.

“What’s the contest about?” Josh asks. “How do we compete?”

Gabe shrugs. “It wasn’t super thought out. Basically, we all try to get Nate and Cale to realize they’re both into each other and would be perfect together, and whoever gets them to actually start dating wins.”

“Wins what?” Jo asks. The others look eager to find out the answer.

“Uh, not having to deal with the two of them anymore?” Gabe says. He didn’t really think they’d need another prize.

“And $1000 from each of the rest of us,” Mikko adds. Gabe thinks that seems fair enough. It’s not that much money, and if it motivates everyone to deal with the situation, he’s ok with it.

“Ok, first thing we need to do is vote on the name,” Casey says.

Gabe rolls his eyes. “NACT pact is obviously cooler than CAN or Operation X. Sorry, Devon and Casey.”

“Fine,” Devon concedes.

They set up some basic ground rules about tampering - Nate and Cale can obviously never find out about the NACT pact - and making sure no one makes the two of them uncomfortable.

“Can we team up?” Mikko asks. “I wanna be on a team with Lehky.”

“Sure, we can do pairs. There are nine of us, though,” Gabe points out.

Jo and Sammy make a French-Canadian team, followed by Devon and Josh forming a defensemen team and Ross and Casey forming a newcomers team. Gabe sighs. He can do this by himself. It’ll be fine. He doesn’t really care about winning. He cares about Nate and Cale being happy and also getting the locker room to a healthier place without the two of them dancing around each other. If one of these other teams can figure out how to do that, Gabe will be delighted. If he does it himself, well, he’ll be delighted and a little richer.

He glances over to Mikko and Lehky. Fuck.

They’re gonna need another one of these meetings for the MALT pact, or whatever stupid fucking name Ross comes up with next. Well, one problem at a time, he supposes. No one ever said being captain of an NHL team would be easy, but he had hoped it wouldn’t involve so much matchmaking.

Jo + Sammy

“Ok, so, I’ve known Nate basically forever,” Jo says. “I know where Gabe has been fucking up. Nate doesn’t do the whole romance thing. He actually kind of hates it.”

“Right, yeah, that makes sense,” Sammy says. “But where does that leave us? What does he like? And it has to be something Cale likes too. Cale is a huge romantic.”

Jo frowns. “Is he?”

“Oh, yeah. We have a d-corps group chat and he’s always sending random sappy shit. Videos of cute proposals and over-the-top dates.”

“Hmmm,” Jo says. This might be harder than they thought. If Cale needs romance and Nate hates it, how is this going to work?

“What if we plan something for them that Nate will like, but still has some element of romance?” Sammy muses. “We know Nate loves hockey, obviously, but they play hockey together every day, so we should probably count that out.”

“Wait!” Jo says. “Nate also loves small children! Especially babies.”

“True,” Sammy says.

“And I think there’s some amount of romance in seeing someone you’re into spend time with kids, right? Like, that could be romantic in the right circumstance?”

“What are you thinking?” Sammy says.

“What if I ask Nate and Cale to babysit for me?”

Sammy frowns. “That just sounds like you’re using them to get a free night for yourself.”

Well, Sammy isn’t totally wrong. Jo still thinks it’s a good idea. “My daughter is adorable, Cale will totally fucking melt when he sees the way Nate loves her. Maybe we should just leave the two of them with her and not include my son. Toddlers are difficult at the best of times.” He pulls out his phone and shows Sammy some pictures he has of Nate cuddling his daughter.

“Oh. Oh, wow. Yeah, I’m sold. Cale is going to fucking die when he sees this.”

“I know, right!”

“Maybe we should leave them some snacks or something? Aren’t there foods that make you horny?” Sammy pulls out his own phone and starts googling. “Chocolate-covered strawberries?”

“Neither of them eats refined sugar during the season,” Jo reminds Sammy.

“Uh… well this article says avocados and pomegranate are aphrodisiacs. A salad with those? I can make it.”

“Perfect,” Jo says. He texts Nate and Cale to find out a time that works, making up some excuse about needing time with just his wife and son and wanting the two of them to work together to babysit because babies are difficult. They fall for it easily. “Awesome, they’re babysitting tomorrow afternoon.”

“I’ll drop the salad off in the morning,” Sammy says. Jo’s feeling great. They’re definitely going to win this thing.

******************************

Nate cradles Jo’s daughter carefully in his arm, using the other to hold the bottle up to her lips. She sucks on it greedily, clearly hungry. The tears stopped immediately once the bottle was ready. Cale looks on happily. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Not at this very moment,” Nate says. He’s in awe of this small human. It’s incredible to him that Jo’s wife made this whole child. He desperately wants kids one day, but it’s going to be a long time before he can have them. He’s so content to sit here and watch her drink formula. He thinks he could probably do this forever.

“You’re so cute together,” Cale says.

“I think she’s doing the heavy lifting there,” Nate grins. Cale puts an arm around Nate to get a better look at the adorable child. She’s falling asleep now, struggling to stay awake with the bottle in her mouth. She’s already consumed most of the contents, and Nate knows she typically falls asleep not too long after eating.

Nate hands the bottle off to Cale, who brings it to the kitchen to clean it. There’s a note from Jo about a salad in the fridge for the two of them to eat if they want to. Cale pokes through it. It’s a bit of a strange salad - it has lettuce and chicken and some vegetables which are normal enough, but he thinks he sees some chunks of avocados and pomegranate seeds in there, too. It actually sounds pretty good.

He hears Nate bring the baby to her crib, so he puts some of the salad in a couple bowls for them and grabs two forks. By the time Nate comes back to the kitchen, Cale has the table ready for them to eat.

“Jo made this for us?” Nate asks, confused.

Cale shrugs. “I dunno. There was just a note on the table about a salad that we should eat. Looks weird but good.”

“Yeah, it’s decent. Better than Jo can usually do. Maybe his wife made it,” Nate says.

“Probably,” Cale agrees as he digs in. “Why did they need us to babysit?”

“Something about wanting to spend time with the older kid so he doesn’t get jealous of the baby? I didn’t really understand it, but I also don’t have kids.”

“One day, though, eh?” Cale says, knocking his foot against Nate’s.

“Yeah,” Nate says. “Definitely. Basically the second I retire.”

“You’re gonna be a great dad,” Cale says confidently.

“You think so?” Nate asks nervously. “I’m always worried about that. I can get intense sometimes. I don’t want to fuck our kids up somehow.”

“The fact that you’re worried and thinking about it means you’re gonna do an amazing job, Nate.”

“Thanks,” Nate says, smiling. “You too.”

Cale snorts. “I’m still too scared to hold her. I’m worried I’m gonna crush her or something. She’s so tiny and fragile.”

The baby monitor goes off, indicating a crying child. “Practice makes perfect,” Nate says. “Come on, let me show you how to change a diaper.”

Ross + Casey

“We’re obviously at a disadvantage,” Casey says, pacing around his living room. Ross nods from his spot on the couch where he’s watching Casey. “But maybe we can use that to our benefit. The others might be too close to the situation, you know? They might be trying to plan something that’s too much Nate or too much Cale. We just need to plan something that’s good in general.”

“Oh, shit, we got a NACT pact text,” Ross says. “Seems like Jo and Sammy’s babysitting idea didn’t work out,” he adds, skimming through his phone. “There are adorable pictures included - well, Nate is cute, Cale looks like he’s never held a baby in his life - but they’re still not together. Jo said the sexual tension when they left his house was even worse than usual.”

“How does he know it didn’t work?” Casey asks.

“He just says he can tell,” Ross shrugs. “I trust him. He’s known Nate since they were teenagers.”

“Damn. I thought that was such a good plan, too.”

“Hmmm,” Ross says. “I have a sort of weird idea.”

“I’m listening,” Casey says.

“So, back when I was in Tampa, there were some team bonding issues. We went through this exercise that Stamkos came up with where we did a ‘secret santa’ type thing but instead of buying each other gifts, we had to write a note to the other person telling them what we admired about them. The rule was that it could include some hockey stuff, but it had to be mostly not about hockey. There was a 200 word minimum, too.”

“Did it work?”

“We won a Cup,” Ross grins. “Anyway, what if we did that as a team, but we rigged it so Nate and Cale got each other?”

“It’s a good idea, but I feel like it’s not complete,” Casey muses. “If they just leave the notes in each other’s locker room stalls, then read them at home, not much is going to happen, you know?”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Ross agrees. “What if we add a rule that you have to read your note to the person it’s about? Like, you have to give them the physical copy, obviously, but before you do, you read it out loud to them?”

“Right, and that way they’ll have to be together in person with these notes. Hopefully alone somehow - we should add a rule that it can’t be in the locker room. Or at the rink at all, really. That way, they have to get together outside of team stuff and tell each other everything they like about the other person. That could definitely lead to something.”

“Perfect,” Ross says.

“Shit,” Casey adds.

“What’s up?”

“We’re gonna have to do this, too,” Casey groans. “I hate writing.”

Ross laughs. “You’ll be fine. It’ll be worth the $3500 we’ll each get if we win.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Casey says.

******************************

“This is the weirdest team bonding thing I’ve ever had to do,” Cale says. “Thank god we got each other somehow.”

“Yeah, I have no idea why Ross thought this was a good idea,” Nate agrees. “When do you wanna read our letters to each other?” He absentmindedly drags a puck around with his stick, Cale following.

“Um,” Cale says, and Nate can tell he lost focus. He doesn’t know what Cale’s actually thinking about until the puck is stolen off his own stick.

“Rude,” Nate says, shoving him gently.

“Protect it better, and I won’t be able to steal it,” Cale grins. “Did you finish yours yet?”

“Yeah,” Nate says. “It’s not like it was hard to write it.”

“Tonight, then? I have plans with Devon and Kerry this afternoon, but once I get home after that, I’m free.”

“Sounds good,” Nate says before stealing the puck back from Cale and racing up the ice with it. Cale is hot on his heels, and Nate gets slammed into the boards hard as Cale attempts to get the puck back. They dissolve into a fit of laughter at Cale’s hit, and by the time they stop, Nate notices that it feels like half the team is staring at them.

Later that night, Cale gets home from his plans with Devon. He rummages through the drawer of his nightstand and pulls out the letter he’d carefully handwritten a couple days prior, then brings it out to the couch. He flops down next to Nate. “Ready to read them?” he asks.

“Oh, yeah, let me just grab mine.” Nate walks into the kitchen and shifts around a few piles of papers until he finds the letter he’d written. “Who’s going first?” he asks as he wanders back into the living room.

Cale blushes bright red. “I think I hate the idea of you saying nice things to me more than I hate reading what I wrote. You go first, get it over with for me.”

“You’re so weird,” Nate says affectionately. “Ok, well, don’t make fun of me. I’m not good at writing.”

“I’m sure it’s fine, Nate,” Cale says softly.

“Dear Cale,” Nate reads. “It’s probably obvious that I think you’re an awesome person and there’s a lot to admire about you. The first thing I noticed about you was how good your shot was back in the game against the Flames in 2019. That’s the last thing I’m going to write about hockey, because if I don’t cut myself off there, I could probably write an entire book about how much I love watching you play. You’re a really loyal friend, and it’s cool how much you do for other people. You always remember small things people tell you and then you mention it to them later and it makes them feel loved and appreciated. You’re ridiculously smart. I’m always learning something new when I talk to you. I admire how organized you are and how well you’ve fit into the team leadership. You take good care of the rookies, and you always have extra supplies for people when we’re traveling. I especially appreciate you packing an extra phone charger for me because you remember I forget mine most of the time. The last thing I’ll mention is your competitiveness. It drives me to be a better player on the ice and a better person off of it. I’m glad we’re friends and teammates. From, Nate.”

Cale is redder than Nate has ever seen him by the time he finishes reading it. He tries to hand the paper to Cale, but Cale won’t accept it, burying his face in his hands instead.

“God, that was awful,” Cale says.

“Uh, sorry?” Nate replies, a little hurt.

“Oh, no, I meant the experience of having someone say nice things about me right to my face. Your letter was perfect, Nate. Thank you.”

“‘I would never say this to her face, but she's a wonderful person and a gifted artist,’” Nate quotes The Office, laughing. “I think you’d prefer that.”

“I definitely would,” Cale mumbles.

“Well, you’re a wonderful person and a gifted defenseman,” Nate grins. “And I’m gonna say it to your face all the time because I love how red you get when I do it.”

“Hate you,” Cale says, shoving Nate. “Ok, let me read mine.”

“I’m all ears.”

“Dear Nate,” he starts. “People always assume that winning the Cup was the best day of my life, but they’re wrong about that. The best day of my life was April 15, 2019, because that was the day I met you. That day, I gained an incredible friend. I love how you’re always willing to talk to me for hours about anything - whether it’s a hockey play I’m trying to develop, an issue I’m having with a family member, or some new thing I read in a book that I want to chat about, you’re always willing to dive in even if it’s not something you’re super interested in. It’s really nice that you don’t just talk, or let me talk, but you actually listen to me. It makes me feel like someone cares. I also admire the way you interact with kids - it doesn’t matter if it’s our teammates’ kids that you know well, or random fans on the glass during warmups, you are so good at making them laugh. You make life fun - even though you can be intense about things, you still know how to laugh and have a good time. Lastly, I admire your dedication. Whether it’s about hockey or something else, when you make up your mind to do something, you always accomplish it. From, Cale.”

“That’s sweet, Cale, thank you.”

“There’s more,” Cale says. Nate raises an eyebrow. “P.S. I also admire your bravery in home decorating. Not many people would make a larger-than-life picture of them lifting the Cup a focal point of their living room, but you make it seem almost natural.”

“You brat,” Nate laughs. “What are we doing for dinner tonight?”

Cale groans. “This is my least favorite part of being an adult. No one told me I’d have to figure that out every single day for the rest of my life.”

“Ok, so I’m heating up two meals from the freezer then, got it,” Nate says, grinning as he stands up to walk toward the kitchen.

“You’re the best,” Cale says, relieved. He grabs the remote and tries to find something to watch. He’s thankful the stupid team bonding exercise is over; it’s been making him anxious for days. He didn’t want Nate to hate what he wrote. He spent so much time going over it to make sure it was good. It seemed like Nate thought it was ok, and the little bit at the end had made him laugh. That’s a good sign.

Devon + Josh

Devon stabs a piece of lettuce with his fork and sighs. “I can’t believe the letter-writing exercise didn’t work.”

“Dude. They were a fucking nightmare at practice today. If anything, it made things even worse.”

“Seriously. I was half-convinced Nate was about to drop to his knees at center ice and start sucking Cale off. They’re such a goddamn mess.”

“We should dock Ross and Casey for making this nightmare situation an even bigger headache,” Josh muses as he takes a bite of his sandwich.

“It sounded like a good idea in theory. Anyway, we have to get Operation CAN back on track.”

“I thought we were the NACT pact.”

Devon frowns. “CAN is better. It’s an actual word!”

“Anyway,” Josh says. “Moving on.”

“How do we get them together?”

“I have no idea. I know Jo said at our meeting that locking them in a room together wouldn’t work, but I’m all out of ideas for anything else.”

“Wait, I’ve got something,” Devon says excitedly. “It sort of builds on Jo and Sammy’s thing. What if we make them go watch small kids play hockey? They both love kids, Cale definitely loves watching Nate interact with kids, and they love hockey.”

“And then what?” Josh asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, they go to a rink and watch some 6 year olds try to play hockey. What happens next? How does this get them together?”

“Hmmm,” Devon thinks. “Good point.”

“What if we have them coach the kids? We could say it’s a charity thing. Get coached by MacKinnon and Makar for a day,” Josh says. “And then we could have the ‘charity’ set up to thank them with dinner reservations afterwards as a thank you for participating, but really it’s just us paying for their dinner somewhere.”

“You’re a genius,” Devon says.

“Well, I just built on your initial idea,” Josh points out. They finish their lunch and get to work setting everything up.

******************************

Nate shifts around uncomfortably as the people who walked into the restaurant just before him and Cale give their name to the hostess. The hostess whisks the couple away, leaving Nate and Cale alone momentarily.

“It’s weird that the charity paid for this, right?” Nate whispers to Cale. “This is a really nice restaurant.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Cale mumbles back. “We’ll have to write them a big check tomorrow. Cover this, and then some.”

“Good idea,” Nate says. The hostess greets them and brings them to their table in a private seating area. A waiter approaches and lets them know that the menu was picked in advance, a special tasting menu prepared by the chef with their dietary needs in mind - no gluten, no dairy, no refined sugar. He asks if they have any questions, which they don’t, and they’re left alone at the table again.

“How did the charity know about our food restrictions?” Cale asks, confused.

“It did go public with Zadorov a couple years ago,” Nate says, considering. “Maybe they just researched it and found that interview? This whole thing is a little strange.”

“Oh well,” Cale shrugs. “I’m glad we did the coaching thing. It was really fun.”

“It was! Those kids were adorable.”

“Have you ever thought about coaching… after?”

Nate appreciates that Cale doesn’t say the word ‘retirement’. It scares them both. “Sometimes,” he admits. “It would be cool to coach a kids’ team. I think I’d want it to be high school kids though, ones who are pretty good. Not major juniors level, obviously, but also not 6 year olds who are mostly falling all over the place.”

Cale laughs. “Yeah, I can see that. I think I’d prefer to stick with the little ones. I’ve always thought it would be fun to coach together, though.”

“It would be,” Nate agrees.

A sommelier interrupts them. “This bottle is the ideal match for the first few courses the chef has prepared for you, but I’m happy to switch to something else if you’d prefer.”

Cale doesn’t know much about wine, but Nate eyes the bottle closely. “I’ll trust your opinion,” he says after a brief pause. The sommelier uncorks the wine, allowing Nate to taste a sip, then filling both of their glasses after a small smile and nod from Nate.

“You ok?” Cale asks after the sommelier leaves them with their wine.

“That’s a $1000 bottle,” Nate says. “I feel like we should research this charity before donating to them. I don’t want our money being wasted.”

Cale almost spits the wine out. “Are you serious?” he squeaks. “I can’t drink this. What the fuck? That’s insane. $1000? For a bottle of wine?”

Nate laughs. “Cale, how much do you think I normally spend on wine when we go out for a nice dinner?”

“Like, $100? At the very most? I seriously hope it’s not more than that.”

“The bottle we had at dinner last December was $10k,” Nate says, grinning. “I have expensive wine tastes.”

“You can’t just-”

“Yes, I can,” Nate says, shrugging. “We have a lot of money, and I can be particular. Plus, it was a special occasion.”

“Not that special. What the fuck?”

“Would you prefer a slurpee next time?” Nate asks.

“Shut up,” Cale says, groaning. To be honest, he probably would prefer that. The wine is good - both the bottle they split in December and the one they’re drinking now - but Cale doesn’t think it warrants the price, especially considering that he’d likely be just as happy with a $10 bottle.

“Anyway, let’s not worry about how much money I spend on wine a year,” Nate says. “I want to talk more about this coaching plan you had for us.”

Cale looks down at his glass of wine, trying not to see it as the enemy. “I dunno, it’s not a plan exactly, more of a vibes thing. The two of us hanging out with a bunch of kids and teaching them how to skate and shoot - it would be a lot of fun. Sort of like today, just more regularly and maybe with the same kids every time? It doesn’t have to be, though.”

“Yeah,” Nate says. “We don’t have to wait until ‘after’ to do that, though.”

Cale raises an eyebrow. “Our season runs at the same time as kids’ hockey.”

“Well, sure, but there’s a couple things we could do. If you wanted, we could start or join some summer camp for teaching kids to play hockey. Sid has one that he does sometimes, it’s awesome. And during the season - well, I don’t think any hockey team would be complaining if the two of us showed up randomly to skate with the kids. It would be fun even if it wasn’t a regular schedule.”

“True,” Cale says. “It sounds like a lot of work to figure out the logistics, though.”

“Do you think you’d want to do all of that if the logistics were handled? Like, if someone told you where and when to show up. Is that how you’d want to spend some of our free time during the season? I know we don’t have a lot as it is.”

“Yeah,” Cale says quietly. “I think I’d really love that.”

“Ok,” Nate says easily. “I’ll figure it all out and let you know the details.”

“Nate, you don’t have to-”

“If it makes you happy, I want to,” Nate says easily. They’re cut off by the first course arriving. Neither of them pay attention to the chef’s explanation of the food; Cale is too busy focusing on Nate’s determined look, and Nate is distracted by Cale’s smile.

Mikko + Lehky

The nine members of the NACT pact meet at Gabe’s house again. Three plans, all failed. This is getting out of hand.

“I bought them a fucking $1000 bottle of wine and even that didn’t work!” Josh complains. “Nate is so picky about wine, it took forever to find something reasonably-priced that I thought he would drink. And it was all for nothing.”

“The two of them are never going to figure their shit out,” Casey moans.

“We can’t give up now,” Gabe says. “We’re pushing them in the right direction, it’s just a matter of time.”

“There’s only Mikko and Lehky left, and then you,” Ross points out. “That’s two shots.”

“And if that doesn’t work, we can start over from the beginning,” Gabe says, determined.

“I’m out of ideas,” Sammy complains. “At this rate, I want to write them a goddamn letter of my own. ‘Please fuck each other already. Love, Sammy G.’”

Devon snorts. “I don’t know if that would be enough. They’d probably think it was meant in a friendship way somehow. The two of them are the worst.”

“Calm down everyone,” Mikko says loudly. “Lehky and I have the best plan. It is guaranteed to work.”

“Guaranteed?” Josh asks, voice full of skepticism.

“Sure,” Mikko says. “It has already worked once.”

“Ok, let’s hear it,” Jo says.

“Couples massage and sauna experience,” Lehky says. “Sauna is great. It will definitely work.”

Gabe eyes the two of them. He sees a couple of dark marks on Lehky’s neck. He sighs and runs a hand through his hair. “And you think this will work because that’s how you finally got Mikko to jump you?”

Lehky blushes. “I think I did the jumping,” he mumbles.

“At least we don’t need the MALT pact,” Ross says. “I was beginning to think the two of you wouldn’t figure your shit out, either.”

“Anyway,” Mikko says, cutting Ross off. “It’ll be great. We’ll just tell them we thought they were too stressed about the season so we got them a massage appointment, and when they get there, it’ll be a ‘mistake with the booking’ and ‘is it ok if you’re in a couples’ room instead’. It’ll be great.”

“We’ll see,” Gabe sighs. “Hopefully this works.”

“Should I delete the MALT group chat?” Casey asks helpfully. Mikko shoves him off the couch.

******************************

Nate sinks into the sauna bench. He feels like his whole body is melting in the best way. He doesn’t know the last time he was this relaxed. The massage was incredible - 90 minutes, focused solely on relaxation - and now they get to spend however long they’d like hanging out in the different saunas this place has. “Could get used to doing this regularly,” he says, sighing happily.

Cale raises an eyebrow. “We get massaged at the rink all the time, and there’s a sauna there, too.”

“S’not the same,” Nate points out. “We get ‘my leg is cramping so badly I can’t move’ massages, not relaxing candlelight massages.”

“True,” Cale concedes. He can’t exactly argue with Nate; today has been amazing. “I think I saw information at the front desk about memberships. Maybe we should sign up.”

Nate takes a deep breath, letting the sauna steam fill his lungs. He smiles lazily at Cale, who grins back. “I’ll sign us both up,” Cale adds, looking at the way Nate relaxes into the bench. He’s never seen Nate like this before. It’s probably good for him. If he’s being honest with himself, it’s good for both of them; Cale gets nearly as tense as Nate during the season. Self-care is important sometimes.

“Put it on the Chase card,” Nate says slowly. “I think that’s the one with the best points for recurring membership charges.”

“I know, Nate. Are you actually worried about the points?”

“They’re fun,” Nate argues. “Sometimes I look at the app and it tells me I have a few thousand dollars in points. It’s free money.”

Cale laughs. “Sure, it is,” he says. He doesn’t say anything about how much Nate must be spending on their cards to wrack up that many points; there’s no need to ruin Nate’s good time.

“This is the best,” Nate says happily. “What if I never leave? Will they eventually kick me out?”

Cale snorts. “You’ll get hungry or something eventually.”

Nate eyes Cale. “Or something,” he agrees.

Gabe

Gabe is proud of his accomplishments. He’s done a lot with his life. He captained a team through the Stanley Cup Finals on a busted knee and won it all. He has a beautiful wife and two perfect kids. He’s managed to stay mostly sane while trying to rehab his knee into working well enough to play again.

He wonders, not for the first time, how the fuck he keeps failing at getting Nate and Cale to date each other.

Before gathering the giant group of teammates together, he had tried so many different things. None of them worked. Gabe believes in himself, though. He can do this. He just has to come up with the perfect plan. A plan so good, it can’t possibly fail.

And then he realizes it’s almost bye week. He pulls out his phone.

“Hey, Nate,” he says after Nate picks up. “Do you have bye week plans?”

“Uh, just planning on staying in Denver I think, why?”

Beach resort or cabin in the woods? Gabe thinks quickly - cabin, definitely. Nate can’t handle the sun. “I’ve got this reservation at a small cabin up in the mountains, but I won’t be able to use it. Something came up with Mel’s family, so the four of us are hanging out with her parents instead of going on a real vacation. I figured you and Cale could hang out there for the week, go hiking, whatever. Relax.”

“Oh,” Nate says. He sounds confused. “I, yeah, sure. That sounds cool. Where is it?”

“Not too far, I’ll send you the details soon,” Gabe says, typing on his laptop to try to find a last-minute cabin rental. He narrows the list to ‘one bedroom’.

“I’ll have to check with Cale first, but I’m sure he’ll be down. Let me know how much you paid so I can Venmo you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Gabe says sweetly. He found the perfect place. It’s way too expensive, but he can afford it. One bedroom, nice living room area, and a hot tub. Excellent. And it opens right up onto a bunch of snowshoeing trails. He books it quickly, then copies the info to send to Nate. There is no way this one will fail. A whole week together at a romantic cabin - Gabe has this on lock.

******************************

Nate takes a long sip of gluten free beer. It’s freezing outside, but the hot tub is nice. Cale next to him in the hot tub is even nicer.

“So Gabe just sent us here for no reason?” Cale asks again.

Nate shrugs. “He said that he had booked it for his family, but something came up and they couldn’t come anymore. I think it was Mel’s parents.”

“He booked a one bedroom cabin in the woods for his family of four?” Cale asks, skeptical. “How would that have worked? And what was he planning on doing here with two toddlers?”

Nate stares at the cabin. That’s actually a good point. Gabe has complained to Nate a bunch of times about how annoying it is when the two kids have to sleep in the same room on occasion - they keep each other awake all night. Add to that having their parents in the same room as them, plus the fact that there’s only one bed, and suddenly, this doesn’t make much sense anymore. It’s also not exactly a kid-friendly location.

“Cale,” Nate says suddenly. “Do you have your phone nearby?”

Cale hands Nate his phone. Nate unlocks it, then opens up a new chrome tab. “Ok, so this whole season has been kind of weird, right? Like, the guys have had some weird things pop up with us?”

“I guess? I’m not sure.”

Nate thinks about it for a moment. “The salad thing was weird,” he finally says. “When we babysat for Jo. I’ve babysat for him a ton of times, and there’s never been salad involved. And he also has never specified that I should make you tag along.”

“Yeah, that was a little strange,” Cale agrees.

“What was in that salad again?” Nate asks.

“Lettuce, chicken, bell peppers, cucumbers,” Cale lists, squinting as he tries to remember. “Oh, and avocado and pomegranate seeds.”

Nate taps the phone gently. He isn’t sure what to google, but something feels suspicious. “Then we had that letter writing campaign.”

Cale wrinkles his nose. “I try not to think about that.”

“Josh and Devon pushed us into that charity event, which was cool, but then the dinner after was strange - the wine especially. I looked into the charity and they’re rated really well. It’s definitely not a ‘spend $1000 on wine using charity funds’ type of thing.”

“The couples’ massage from Mikko and Lehky, too,” Cale points out. “It was generous of them to notice how stressed we’ve been this season, but they don’t normally get us gifts.”

Nate puts it together first. “Common aphrodisiacs,” he mumbles while typing into the search bar of Cale’s phone. “There it is. Oysters, chocolate, strawberries, avocado, and pomegranate. They obviously couldn’t get us oysters, and we don’t eat chocolate, so they made a salad with avocado and pomegranate.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our teammates are trying to reignite the spark in our relationship,” Nate says. “The letters - I think it was Ross who brought it up and organized the whole thing? He must have made sure we got each other’s names. Jo probably thought you’d like seeing me hold a baby, and then he provided us with an aphrodisiac salad. I’d bet anything that Josh and Devon financed our dinner, not the charity. And that explains why Mikko and Lehky sent us to get massages and it was ‘accidentally’ booked as a couples’ massage. Plus, the cabin - you’re right, Gabe would never have booked this for his own family. All of this is shit our teammates would do if they thought something was wrong between us and wanted to help out.”

Cale shoots Nate an unimpressed look. “There’s no way. It’s gotta be a coincidence.”

“They’ve been acting weird all season,” Nate says.

“That part is definitely true,” Cale agrees. “Did you know Sammy gifted me a box of condoms last month?”

Nate snorts. “What did you do with them?”

Cale turns bright red. “I left them in Tazer’s stall when he complained about how annoying his kids were for the fourth day in a row.”

“That was you?” Nate bursts out laughing. “Nice one. That is weird of Sammy, though. Actually, Casey gave me a bottle of lube around the time of the letter-writing situation. He said he bought an extra by accident and I looked like I could use it? I thought he was telling me I should jerk off more often.”

Cale is doubled over, tears in his eyes from laughing so hard. “Casey handed you an entire bottle of lube?”

“Yeah. It was huge, too.”

“Where is it?”

“Well, we’ve mostly used it up at this point.”

“Oh, that weird brand? I kind of like it better than our usual stuff.”

“Me, too,” Nate says, grinning. “Anyway, so that’s - Gabe, Devon, Josh, Mikko, Lehky, Sammy, Jo, Ross, and Casey who are all somehow involved in this. Are we missing anyone?”

“I don’t think so,” Cale says, thinking hard. “I think we’ve covered most of the weird events of the season. Do you actually think they’re worried about us? We’ve always been really solid. We barely even argue at practice, never mind at home. And it’s not like our sex life is lacking.”

“I don’t really have a better explanation,” Nate says.

“Neither do I,” Cale sighs. “What do we do about this?”

“Well,” Nate says. “We could sit on the info and keep getting free shit from them.”

“Or?”

“Or we could fuck with them.”

“Yeah, I vote on that one,” Cale grins. “But in the meantime, let’s enjoy this free cabin vacation, eh?”

“What did you have in mind?” Nate asks. Cale rearranges himself so he’s straddling Nate, then leans in to kiss him deeply. Nate groans as Cale grinds down into him, and his hand falls to Cale’s waist, pulling him closer. Yeah, ok. There’s plenty of time to figure out how to fuck with their teammates, Nate’s got better things to be doing right now.

+1

“Did they figure it out?” Mikko hisses at Ross during practice. “There’s no way this can be a coincidence, right?”

“I didn’t tell them,” Ross whispers back. “Someone else must have snitched.”

Devon glides over to the two of them. “What the fuck,” he says, voice not betraying the anxiety he feels.

“Ok, but it definitely could be a coincidence, right?” Casey joins in. “Maybe they just wanted to hang out with some of the team but not all of the team.”

“And they just happened to pick the nine of us?”

“Dude, we’re fucking toast,” Josh groans. “They have to know.”

“But if they know, and they’re still not fucking,” Jo adds, “well, where does that leave us?”

“Are we sure they didn’t get together? A cabin in the woods for a week - something must have happened. It only had one bed!” Mikko says.

“Look at them, though. They’re definitely still pining.”

They look in the direction of Nate and Cale on the ice. The two of them are playing keep-away together. They look the same as always, which is to say, extremely into each other and too scared to do something about it. There are no secret smiles of a hidden tryst, no barely-hidden marks on skin, nothing but competition and hockey.

“If they end up dying alone, at least we tried,” Sammy says dramatically.

******************************

Gabe called the NACT pact together to his place an hour before Nate and Cale were set to arrive. It was an emergency meeting brought on by the text the nine of them had received - ‘let’s plan a hangout somewhere! It’ll be good team bonding!’

Gabe had offered his house for the hangout. He’d carefully checked with other teammates, and no one else had received the message.

“What do we do?” Lehky frets.

“We have to come clean,” Devon says. “We just tell them everything if they ask.”

“Even about the condoms?” Sammy asks.

“What condoms?”

“I gave Cale a box of condoms hoping it would spur things along,” Sammy explains. “He looked confused and weirded out. I thought it would help.”

Devon sighs. “So Cale’s the one who put them in my stall, then.”

“Well, to be fair, you did complain about how kids are the worst-”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Devon cuts Lehky off. “Anyway, yes. The dates, the condoms, all of it.”

“The lube, too?” Casey asks.

“Jesus Christ,” Gabe says. “Did you gift them lube?”

“Maybe,” Casey blushes. “I bought a really fancy kind and gave it to Nate.”

The nine of them look around at each other. “Well, that hasn’t ended up in anyone’s stall in the locker room as far as I’ve seen,” Ross eventually says.

They sit in silence for a moment. “So do we just go for it when they get here?” Jo asks.

“No,” Gabe answers immediately. “Maybe this really is just an innocent movie night. We wait for them to bring it up, and if they do, I think Devon’s right - we should just come clean.”

By the time Nate and Cale join them, the NACT pact has calmed down. Either way, it’s going to be fine; it’s not like Nate and Cale will hate all of them forever.

“Hey, guys,” Nate says, smiling brightly.

They all say hi to Nate and Cale. “What are we gonna watch?” Cale asks.

“Oh, we hadn’t decided yet,” Gabe says. Nate and Cale look perfectly normal. No sign they got together - no hand holding or anything like that - but there’s also no sign that they suspect the NACT pact of existing.

“I heard the Mario movie was good,” Ross suggests.

“It’s gotta be an action movie,” Casey argues.

“Mighty Ducks,” Mikko says with a tone of finality. “We’re hockey players.”

“Hmmm, how about Brokeback Mountain?” Cale asks. Nine heads turn in his direction.

“The - uh - the gay cowboy movie?” Josh asks tentatively.

“Yeah!” Cale says excitedly. “It seems appropriate - you know, Colorado has cowboys and all. Plus, I’m from Alberta which is basically the cowboy province of Canada.”

They all sit in stunned silence for a moment. “Yeah, sure, let’s watch the gay cowboys,” Gabe sighs. He finds the movie on one of his streaming services and puts it on.

“Save a horse, ride a cowboy,” Nate says as the movie starts.

“Are you, uh, just quoting the song, or…?” Devon trails off, not quite sure where he was going with that question.

“Oh, no, I was just telling you all my plans for later tonight,” he says, smirking.

“That joke stopped being funny four years ago, Nate,” Cale groans.

“I’m sorry, did you say four years?” Casey asks.

“Well, yeah,” Cale says. He pretends to count on his fingers. “It’s 2025 now, right? So, hmmm… I probably laughed the first year or so of Nate telling that joke, and, yep, that math checks out.”

“Why does Nate make a joke about riding cowboys so often?” Mikko asks, confused. The movie plays on in the background, ignored by all of them.

“Because he thinks he’s funny,” Cale says.

“‘Save a puck, ride a defenseman’ doesn’t have the same ring to it,” Nate adds.

Jo looks back and forth between Nate and Cale. He grabs the remote from Gabe and pauses the movie. “Ok, how fucked are we?” he asks.

“Jo!” Ross hisses.

“They obviously know,” Sammy says, loyally backing up Jo.

“We agreed not to say anything unless they did,” Mikko complains.

“I’m sorry, was ‘save a puck, ride a defenseman’ not them saying something?” Jo asks.

“Alright, alright,” Gabe says loudly over everyone’s chattering. “Nate, Cale, we’re sorry for meddling. We shouldn’t have involved ourselves. It’s clear that you guys are very good friends, and we can leave it at that. We won’t do it again.”

It doesn’t have the effect he thinks it will. Instead of Nate and Cale getting angry, they both burst out laughing. “It’s sweet that you guys were all worried about us. We’re doing great, by the way, and we appreciate the free date nights.”

“What do you mean by ‘doing great’?” Mikko asks.

Nate and Cale look at each other, confused. “Are you asking for details about our sex life?” Nate asks. “No offense, but that’s not happening.”

Ross chokes on the chips he was eating, coughing up tiny pieces, while everyone else stares at Nate and Cale like they have fifteen heads. No one says anything.

“Ok, you guys are being really weird,” Nate says after an awkward silence. He looks at Cale for help.

“Nate and I fucked, like, four times on our 5th anniversary last week,” Cale says quickly, face turning bright red. “So, you know, nothing to worry about there. Everything’s great.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Ross splutters through his coughs. “Your what anniversary?”

“That’s insane,” Gabe says. “There’s no way…”

“The sexual tension!” Lehky shouts. “No one has that much sexual tension for five years!”

“Uh, sorry?” Cale says.

“The two of you are a fucking nightmare together,” Jo groans. “And this means it’s not going to stop. You’re already fucking. Oh, god.”

“The lube,” Casey whispers. “They’ve been using the lube I got them.”

“But not the condoms,” Devon says darkly.

Nate frowns. “Why would we need condoms? We’ve been together for five years. I don’t think most married couples use condoms unless they’re trying to prevent pregnancy, and that’s not exactly a concern for us.”

“Uh… did you say married couples?” Gabe asks.

“Almost all of you were at our literal wedding reception,” Cale says. “Gabe, Mikko, Dev, Josh, Lehky, Sammy, and Jo. We didn’t know Ross or Casey back then.”

This, apparently, clears up nothing. “In 2022? At our house in Nova Scotia?” Nate adds.

“I remember a Cup party at Nate’s house in 2022,” Mikko says. “I do not remember a wedding reception.”

Cale punches Nate in the shoulder. “I told you so!”

“What’s wrong with a theme for a wedding? A wedding-themed wedding is boring. And there’s no fucking way in hell I wanted anyone to hear my vows other than you.”

“I’m not complaining about the private ceremony,” Cale says, exasperated. This is clearly an argument they’ve been through a lot. “I’m just saying, a ‘we won the Cup!’-themed wedding in our backyard is more of a Cup party than a wedding.”

“You didn’t even want a wedding in the first place!”

“Which is good, because we didn’t have one! We had a Cup party!”

“Fine,” Nate concedes. “I guess you were right. Other people understood. Sid got us a nice wedding gift, remember? And so did a bunch of other people.”

“We were supposed to bring gifts?” Lehky asks, sounding horrified. “Oh my god, I showed up to your wedding and didn’t even get you anything.”

Cale sighs. “You weren’t supposed to bring gifts,” he says. “We don’t need anything. Some people are just bad at following directions.”

“How did you keep this a secret from us for five years?” Devon demands. “And why?”

“We didn’t,” Nate says. “Or at least, we weren’t trying to. For the first year, we were keeping things sorta hidden because if it didn’t work out, we didn’t want things to get awkward in the locker room. But after a while, we realized this was a forever thing so we just acted normally around each other.”

“Normal for you, meaning that you two always look like you’re three seconds away from tearing each other’s clothes off?” Josh clarifies.

“Look at him,” Nate says, turning to stare at Cale with a huge smile on his face. “Can you blame me? Anyway, neither of us is super into PDA so it’s not like we were making out in the locker room, but it felt pretty clear we were together.”

“They’re trolling us, right?” Jo says. “They’ve gotta be joking. They found out we were trying to set them up and they’re pretending to be married.”

“Set us up?” Nate laughs. “Oh my god.”

“We live together. All of you have been to our condo in Denver, and most of you have been to our house in Nova Scotia. Have we been faking that for five years?” Cale says.

“None of us has ever even seen you kiss! There’s no way,” Sammy says, latching onto Jo’s theory.

Nate sighs and pulls out his phone. He scrolls through his contacts until he finds what he’s looking for, and then he hits the call button. He puts it on speakerphone and waits.

“Hey, Nate, what’s up?”

“Hi, Sid. It’s me, Cale, and a bunch of our teammates, you’re on speaker. They’ve been trying to set me and Cale up all season.”

“What? You guys have been married for almost three years now,” Sid says, confused.

“Yeah, well, they don’t believe us about that,” Cale chimes in.

“Nate must have called Sid before they came here to tell him about their plans,” Ross says. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Jesus Christ. Well, good luck, guys. Count yourselves lucky if you’ve never walked in on them fucking. I’m gonna go do literally anything else now,” Sid says, and then he hangs up.

“Sidney Crosby walked in on you two fucking?” Mikko asks.

Nate sighs. “We live next door to each other in the summer, and he was used to just barging in whenever he wanted. We were used to having privacy in our condo in Denver. There were a few mishaps until we all figured that situation out.”

“Sidney Crosby walked in on your fucking more than once?” Casey says, voice in awe. “That’s, like, living the dream.”

“I can assure you it’s really not,” Cale says. His cheeks are bright red.

“I’m still not buying this,” Devon says. “It feels scripted. There’s no way you could have hidden this for so long.”

Nate bites his lip. “I don’t know what else to say. Cale is my other half. Marrying him was the best day of my life - better than winning the Cup. Every day, I wake up next to him and I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet because my husband is so awesome. If you don’t wanna believe us, fine. I’m not here to try to convince you guys of anything. I’m in love with him, and that’s really all that matters.”

“I love you, too,” Cale murmurs, grabbing Nate’s hand. He presses a quick kiss to Nate’s cheek.

“Holy shit, you guys are actually married,” Gabe says.

“Yeah, Nate definitely can’t act that well,” Jo agrees. “Shit. And we’ve been trying to set you up all season.”

“Now that that’s settled, can we go back to the movie now?” Cale asks.

“Absolutely not, pick another one,” Nate says. “We’re not actually watching Brokeback Mountain. I can’t deal with you sobbing for three hours after it ends.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

Nate gives him a look.

“It’s a sad movie!” Cale says, trying to defend himself.

“Yeah, well, sad isn’t the right vibe for tonight,” Ross says. “Maybe Idiocracy?”

Nate snorts. “Perfect.”

No one argues, so Jo puts the movie on and they all relax back into the couch to watch it, laughing and talking the whole way through. By the time the movie ends, Nate is eager to hurry Cale out of Gabe’s house.

“What’s the rush, guys?” Casey asks. “Stay a while, we can hang out for a bit.”

“Uh, you know,” Nate says, cheeks turning pink. “Save a puck, ride a defenseman.”

“Nate, that doesn’t even make sense,” Cale groans. “Is this gonna be your new thing? I’m vetoing it.”

“You don’t want me to-”

“That is definitely not what I said.”

“Ok, so then let’s fucking go,” Nate says, dragging Cale out of Gabe’s house. “See you all at practice tomorrow, bye! Thanks for being supportive of our relationship!”

The nine of them are left staring at each other in shock. “Yeah, so, that happened,” Josh says.

“Yup,” Gabe agrees. “It sure did.”

“I feel dumb,” Mikko adds.

“I don’t know how we didn’t figure it out sooner,” Sammy says.

“Well, I guess one of our ground rules should have been ‘make sure they’re not already together’,” Devon says. “Who gets the money?”

“We should donate it somewhere,” Lehky says. “We’re all idiots. Charity deserves it more than us.”

“Good idea.”

They all gear up to head out. “Hey, I was thinking,” Gabe says. “Have you all noticed Kivi and Juuso acting weird around each other?”

“God, yes,” Ross says, shucking his coat and sitting back down on the couch. The rest of the guys follow suit.

“It’s awful,” Mikko agrees. “I even told them about me and Lehky to show them they could also be together, but that didn’t work.”

“I invited both of them out to lunch then ditched them so they'd be alone together,” Lehky admits.

“Well,” Casey says. “Is it time to form the PAKT pact? Parssinen And Kiviranta Together?”

“Already changed the name of the group chat,” Ross says.

Gabe grins. “Let’s do this.”