Nathan Mackinnon - Tumblr Posts
gabriel said hulk smash
his draft picture was nice..
CONGRATS CAP AHHH !!!!!!!
hello this video has been stuck in my head for days
help
look at how he scoffs when he turns around goodnight
this one very pretty bowen bryam picture with a bunch of different filters curtesy of yours truly
LOOK AT WHAT I FOUND ITSA BABY BOWEN BYRAM.
i just wanna know why felt the need to look at the camera like that at the end but it’s fine
and here’s the whole vide yes bye
TNIS GAME IS TOO FUCMING FUNNY
it’s 9-3 now THE AVS ARE JUST SO GOOD LMAO
i made this just now and physically cannot anymore
an idea: Jo is an omega with abnormally low/undetectable scent (something he is probably self-conscious about), but Nate can smell him because Nate is OBSESSED and notices everything about him and expounds at length about how good Jo smells and everybody else is like ??? and Jo may or may not think Nate is making fun of him.
oh please I'm fucking losing my mind over this.
like jo gets mocked for being less of an omega. meanwhile nate is like "god made me a wife who's scent only i can smell, I am a lucky man and also i might have to kill everyone who makes him smell sad"
blackhawks @ avalanche | 10.19.23
fellas is it gay to wear your captain’s hoodie???????
what if you were my idol turned best friend who everyone in the league knew i was completely gone for. and what if i drafted you first on the team i was captaining for the all star game after begging the captains going before me not to pick you. and what if i told reporters that this was my longtime dream come true. and what if you told them later that all you wanted to do now was to make your captain happy. and what if after all that... you put my hoodie on and did a live interview in front of god and gary bettman.
↳ NATHAN MACKINNON BEFORE THE 2024 ALL-STAR GAME | 2.3.24
if nothing else will fix me sidnate timmies ads will
on tonight's episode of 'crushes with beefcake'... - nate mack
dad!nate x f!reader
summary: josh has some questions and nate jumps at the opportunity to tell a little story of his own
warnings: swearing, mentions the death of a grandparent, fluff (psa this is just a little palette cleanser fic thing, i had inspiration and i ran with it)
word count: 5.9k
It wasn’t very often that your son called a family meeting. In fact, in the entire history of people that had called a family meeting (excluding little Leyla), he’d never called a family meeting. He frowned upon them. Groaned at the words and sulked the entire way through them – as most ten year olds probably did.
Which was why, after putting him to bed and after you and Nate had both wandered back downstairs to watch a film, it was a shock to hear a pair of determined footsteps echo down the stairs with a clear purpose. The only thing more shocking was when he stood in front of you both, brows knitted together and a nervous frown on his face, and the words “I want to declare a family meeting right now” tumbled out of his mouth.
You’d blinked and Nate had sat up, removing his legs from where he’d draped them across yours. And when Josh turned around and strolled into the dining room, dragging a chair back out behind him, you shared a curious look with Nate – who looked as though he couldn’t decide if he should laugh or be worried.
And then you had to swallow a laugh and put on a serious face when Josh placed the chair in the middle of the living room, facing the both of you and lacing his hands together.
“It feels like we’re about to get therapized by our kid.” Nate muttered under his breath, and you swore you could feel your mom-face slip for a moment.
“Or it’s an intervention. Did we do something wrong?” You whispered back.
You felt Nate pause and then tense.
Josh was oblivious, trying to adjust his seating position on the chair to find a comfier one, and probably also trying to stall because of the suddenly tense atmosphere that had enveloped the room.
Nate shuffled closer to you, his bicep and thigh touching yours, partly to reassure himself and partly to get closer so he could whisper into your ear without the risk of being heard, “What if he heard us?”
You inhaled, your stomach dropping unpleasantly. It had been one of your fears as a parent – the idea of scarring your kid in that way was absolutely mortifying. You had friends that had unfortunately experienced it, and there were a few choice words thrown around, so even the mere thought that Josh could have…it was enough to make you squirm uncomfortably.
“Nate.” You whispered, your tone causing him to whip his head towards you, a crease now prominent on his forehead, “If that ever happens, I give you permission to divorce me for trauma to the kids, okay?”
Upon hearing your words and realising they weren’t as serious as you’d initially made them sound, Nate’s face broke into a soft grin, thumb coming up to lightly brush under your eye, “For future reference, I’d much rather pay for their therapy than ever even think about divorcing you.” And he pressed a cheeky kiss against your lips as a way of sealing the promise.
“Ahem.” Josh coughed pointedly, and both you and Nate spun to look at him, feeling an awful lot like you’d been caught in a forbidden act of affection – which was pretty ridiculous considering the fact that it was at the hands of a gobby ten-year old.
Nate’s hand fell naturally on your leg, draped across your knee and curling around the top of your shin as you both turned your full attention to your son. Josh was pretty tall for his age, every bit of Nate’s build as he possibly could be. It was that, paired with Nate’s eyes and mouth that sometimes had you doing a double-take when you looked at him. It was like looking at a younger version of Nate again, back when you were both in school – not that Nate had stuck around for too long.
And you were reminded of that when Josh took charge of the entire room, and how similar it was to that funny expression Nate used to wear at his age, and even to this day – before games, dad-duties, serious conversations. It was their concentration face.
“He’s kinda scary–”
“Are you two done flirting now?” Josh interrupted, throwing Nate an unimpressed glance as his eyes darted between the two of you with about as much disdain for parental affection as he could possibly muster.
You swallowed, trying not to laugh and partially succeeding, and slowly pushed Nate’s hand off your knee. Josh’s eyes closely followed your movements, looking rather pleased with your reaction, and you could feel Nate’s disappointed glare burn the side of your face. It seemed to diminish in intensity somewhat when he caught the stifled twitch of your mouth as you wrestled with a smile.
“We weren’t flirting–” Nate denied, shaking his head and bumping your knees together – compensation for not being able to actually have a hand on you at this particular moment in time.
“I ordered a family meeting, excluding Leyla.” Josh groaned, hands on his cheeks in a show of hopelessness and frustration, “That means I’m the Head Judge, I get to make the rules, and Rule One is now no flirting–wait, Mom, where’s the Wooden Hammer Thing?”
You pushed yourself off the sofa, wandering into the dining room and picking out the gavel from one of the shelves and walking back into the living room to see Nate scratching his head with red cheeks and Josh sitting scarily chipper on the chair, hand out awaiting his Wooden Hammer Thing.
“It’s a gavel.” Was all you said, a little hesitant to say much else out of fear of…Josh’s unexpected wrath, “What happened?” You pointed the gavel between them both, slightly concerned for Nate when he shook his head, clearly embarrassed at something.
“Dad was watching you walk away and I set a new rule because it was annoying me.” Josh shrugged, taking the gavel from you.
“What rule is that?” You asked, intrigue skyrocketing when Nate pushed himself towards the far end of the sofa, as far away as humanly possible as he could get away from you in such a small space.
Josh sighed, “I’ll paraphrase because I need to talk about something important. Basically, no horny behav–”
“No what now?”
“Where did you even learn that word?”
You and Nate spoke at the same time, you with confusion, and Nate with a hint of outrage as his eyes remained fixed on Josh, who, for the first time since he’d come back downstairs, was looking sheepish. His cheeks were a little red and he was grinning rather shyly, shoulders curling in on themselves.
“It was on TV the other day, someone said it.” Josh shrugged, before noting the still evident look of mild horror on both you and Nate’s face, “And I Googled it because I didn’t know what it meant.”
“No, don’t Google it!” Your hand covered your mouth, images and words that he could have seen flashing in your mind – images and words that no ten year old should ever be subjected to, ever.
And to think Nate was worried about being heard? Why did kids have to be so good with technology and Google nowadays? When you were Josh’s age, YouTube was a dating site, so to think..
“It’s okay, I didn’t click on pictures.” Josh pulled a face, “The words were enough.”
There was a sputtering sound from the other end of the sofa, and you turned to find Nate also with his hand over his mouth, failing to hide a snort of laughter despite his earlier complaints. It seemed to die out, though, when he saw the identical way you and Josh were looking at him: with a hint of amusement and a tad of impatience.
He coughed, clearing his throat and straightening, “Sorry. Got something stuck in my throat.”
You rolled your eyes fondly, patting him on the leg (because even if he tried to move to the other end of the sofa, with the way he’d spread his legs, you barely even had to lean over to reach him).
“Whatever you say, Beefcake.” Josh muttered under his breath, and your hand stilled on Nate’s thigh, face freezing.
You didn’t have to look at Nathan to feel the piercing way he tilted his head to glare at you out of the corner of your eye, frustration clearly written across the panes of his face, “You created that.” He muttered, breath hot against the shell of your ear as he moved back over to you, his arm resting against the back of the sofa.
You said nothing, just resisted a smile and leaned against Nate’s arm, relishing in the way he draped it against your shoulders, drawing you against his chest.
There was a brief flicker of hesitation when you leaned fully into him, wondering if this was the so-called ‘horny behaviour’ that Josh had ruled out of the meeting, but when he looked back up from where he’d been picking a strand of hair off his Penguin’s pyjama top, he didn’t say anything. Just sighed a little, and shook his head, like it was pointless trying to get you to adhere to his rules in the first place (which it was – Josh was the one treading in uncharted waters: it was nine pm on a school night – a time strictly reserved for unwinding with Nate on the sofa).
“Okay,” Josh began, back straightening, “I gather you here today–”
You could feel Nate’s stomach tense and a shaky breath be exhaled in an effort to not break.
“To talk to you about something.” Josh took a deep breath, “It’s something I hold very close to my heart, but it means I have to ask you for help and questions because…” he shrugged, snapping out of the role somewhat, “in all my life, I’ve never not known how to talk to a girl.”
Oh.
Nate stopped laughing, and you felt your eyes widen in surprise.
“Mom, Beefcake. I got a crush.” Josh slowly slipped off the chair, landing on his knees and holding his hands up to the sky, a pained expression on his face.
“I don’t know where he gets that from.” Nate muttered, gesturing to the dramatised scene occurring realtime in front of you.
“I think that’s just him.” You nodded along, suppressing a smile.
Josh returned back to his seat, smiling innocently and like he hadn’t just cried to the heavens, and you wanted to take him off the chair and sandwich him between you and Nate.
Gosh, he’d grown up too fast. You could have sworn only last week you were bringing him home from the hospital, and now he was getting penalties for roughing in his games and asking how to talk to girls.
You scooted over, patting the space between you and Nate, “Come on.”
Josh rolled his eyes and fashioned a groan but followed you anyway, throwing himself down and eliciting a huff of pain from Nate as he half-sat on him.
“Okay,” you started, hands going to stroke through his hair, “tell us about why you need help with this crush.”
Josh practically reddened under your gaze, crossing his arms and swinging his feet – like he instantly regretted even bringing it up – but you applauded his bravery. Your mom had to pester crushes out of you because you were so scared if you told someone that the crush in mention would somehow hear you whisper their name.
“Her name’s Aimee, she sits behind me in class. I’ve tried talking to her, but she’s kinda quiet and I think I intimidate her a bit because…I’m not quiet.” He mumbled, fingers absentmindedly picking at his sleeve, “And I don’t want to scare her off.”
Your heart squeezed a little, and you were at a loss of what to actually say. You’d never been in that position before, usually the roles were reversed: you were the quiet one crushing on the louder person. Naturally, your eyes fell to Nate, who, it seemed, had got something in mind and had already been looking at you.
He was smiling like he knew something you didn’t, and you furrowed your brows, questioning his motives when he looked back down towards Josh.
“I’m gonna tell you something that I think’ll help.” Josh peered up at Nate, something akin to hope and excitement lingering on his face as he watched Nate talk, “When I was your age, maybe a bit younger, I had a massive crush on this girl. She was in a couple of my classes in middle school, and she was quiet. She didn’t put her hand up to answer any questions, even though she should’ve because she knew all the answers anyway – and I thought she was the prettiest girl in school by far–”
“What was her name?” Josh interrupted, frowning slightly.
“That’s not important.” Nate shook his head, “Anyway, in one of my classes in particular, we were assigned seating plans, and she sat on my table, with two other people. And I’d never spoken to this girl in my life, so all I knew was that she was pretty, pretty smart, and pretty shy. And it took me a couple of weeks to even ask her for the time–”
“No way.” Josh muttered sarcastically, and Nate frowned at him, bottom lip sticking out.
“I’m tryna help you.”
Josh blinked, “Get to that part, then. You’re just spewing words.”
Nate pressed his lips together, meeting your eyes across Josh’s head with a straight-faced look. You didn’t pay it much attention – in all honesty, you were trying to figure out this mystery crush he’d had. Nate had been a pretty known person when you guys were in school, what with his hockey and everything, but even despite that he’d always been pretty tight-lipped about his middle school crush, and it had always felt a little silly to keep pestering him about it, so you just…left it.
“Fine.” Nate continued on, one hand reaching out to grasp yours, even as he turned his attention and focus back on Josh. His grip was tight, cool wedding band a nice contrast to your warm hands, and you tuned back into what he was saying, “And once this girl got used to the people she was sitting with, she started talking, and it turned out she was pretty funny. She used to say these things under her breath that only the table could hear, and we’d either all get a telling off for laughing, or we’d all know the answers to the questions.” Nate sighed, “Then the entire table got split up because we were distracting everyone.”
Something in the back of your mind seemed to click at that moment.
The same moment Josh spoke up, “Then what?”
“Then we left school and moved away.” Nate shrugged.
Josh pushed himself up off the sofa, arms crossed, “How’s that supposed to help me?”
In any other situation, you would’ve turned to Josh, tried to calm him down or say something reassuring, but you couldn’t quite pull yourself away from the crinkles in the corner of Nate’s eyes, or the way that he was still smiling like he knew something no one else did. Your mouth parted unconsciously at his words, and your brain went blank. His hand was still tangled with yours, squeezing every so often.
“Because eventually she opened up, and I didn’t have to change anything about me for that to happen. It just takes time, and she has to learn to trust you and be comfortable around you.” Nate continued, either ignorant or choosing to ignore the way you were intent on just staring rather awe-strickenly at him, “I’d also say it was a minor character misjudgement from me, because it turned out she was just quiet around people she didn’t know very well. She liked to sit and observe before chipping in.”
Josh was quiet for a second, deep in thought, and you took the opportunity to use your free hand to poke Nate in the cheek. Once, twice. He caught your hand, bringing it to his lap, and almost as though he was purposefully trying to drive you crazy, he reached for your leg, hauling you across the space Josh had just left. All without paying you a single scrap of attention.
“So I just have to be patient?” Josh asked, a rather dumbfounded look on his face.
You turned your attention back to your son, curling into Nate’s side again and feeling rather smug.
“Yeah. Maybe dial the noise down, though, let her know you’re paying attention to her instead of shouting to your friends, or interrupting.” Nate pressed a kiss to your head, a hand going to cover your mouth as you opened it to say something.
Josh caught the action, raising a brow in your direction, “Sounds doable. Did you break Mom, or something?”
You nodded, and you could feel Nate shake his head.
Josh looked unconvinced, so you licked Nate’s palm, attempting to pry it away from your mouth so you could defend yourself, but he’d clearly expected that kind of retaliation because he breathed a laugh, momentarily tightening his grip to prove he wasn’t fazed.
Josh took a few steps forward, reaching for Nate’s arm, “Can you unhand Mom, please? She wants to say something.”
Nate let go, still keeping an arm around you but resting his opposite arm on the side of the sofa, head in his hand and looking at you with a knowing smile.
You inhaled, “He’s not telling you the whole story.” You pointed an accusing finger at Nate, and Josh gasped.
“Beefcake! How dare you deny your son the truth?”
Nate laughed, but didn’t elaborate.
“Ask him what happened after.” You encouraged Josh, nudging your head back towards Nate.
Josh peered at you, mouth curved downwards in befuddlement, “He said nothing else happened.”
“Ask him again.”
“Dad.” Josh started, eyeing you cautiously out of the corner of his eye, “What happened after?”
Nate glanced at you, eyes darting to the sparkling bands on your left hand, before settling on Josh, who still hadn’t quite moved from where he’d folded his arms.
“I moved to Minnesota for a bit, then back home when I was sixteen. Then Colorado when I was seventeen or eighteen,” he pulled a face, not too bothered on the specifics, “And then about six years later, I came back home one summer and saw her standing in the ready meals aisle of a superstore, looking just as beautiful as the day I left – and still the prettiest person I ever laid eyes on.”
Josh glanced at you out of the corner of his eyes, uncertainty clear – he couldn’t tell whether to run to your defence and interrupt Nate’s spiel, or let him carry on. And you gathered that from your clear lack of upset, that he chose the latter.
“You have to know that it took some guts and I gave myself a bit of a pep talk, but I went up to her, introduced myself and she remembered me–”
“Dad, you were literally an NHL player.” (And Josh returned with the reality check.)
“She remembered me, and I asked if she wanted a drink and she said yes.” Nate finished, leg kicking out to poke his foot against Josh’s leg for interrupting him – but the younger MacKinnon was still looking rather lost on the entire subject.
“What then?” He pressed, yet again throwing you another worried glance, to which you simply grabbed his hand and pulled him to sit on your knee — he didn’t fight it like you expected, just put his arm around your neck, his hand resting comfortably against Nate’s forearm, and placed his head on your shoulder, yawning softly.
“Three years later I asked her to marry me and she said yes. And now,” Nate smirked, “we’ve been happily married for nine years, and have two beautiful children called Josh and Leyla.”
You felt Josh sigh against your collarbone, “I don’t want to play the long game, Dad. Not like that.”
You fought a grin at Nate’s drop in expression. You could tell he’d been expecting some blown out reaction of ‘wow’ or ‘wait, that was you and Mom?’, and the lack of thrill from Josh had clearly knocked his confidence a little, because he shifted, pulling a face.
“If I hadn't played the long game, you wouldn’t be here.” He reasoned, eyes flicking to you.
Instead, Josh lifted his head up, looking you dead in the face with your husband’s eyes, “Did you have a crush on Dad in school?”
You hesitated.
Nate mock-gasped, both hands flying over his mouth, even though you knew he already knew that little smidge of information.
“You didn’t?” Josh asked, recoiling slightly, “Then why did you tell me this story? I thought you were supposed to be inspiring me, not tearing me down and stripping me of my confidence?” He questioned, clearly appalled.
You laughed, “Okay, you gotta bear in mind that the first time I met your dad was on that class table. And it was only about four weeks until we were moved around again, and then he left to go to Minnesota, so he didn’t have time on his side at all.” You took a breath, “Or a pair of balls, apparently—”
Josh cackled at Nate’s expense.
“I can’t believe—” Josh giggled, “that you were literally in love with Mom, a-a—” he practically dissolved into a boneless heap in the middle of you and Nate, hand clutching his stomach, “and she didn’t even know you existed.”
“That’s not true.” You objected, “I knew Na—your dad existed, I just…Look.”
Josh dove into another fit of giggles at your struggle.
“If your dad hadn't talked to me in that one class as much as he did, he wouldn’t have left a good enough impression or given either of us a reason to catch up with each other all those years later. And when I saw him again, y’know, we’d both grown up. He was…This is probably gonna gross you out, but your dad was fucking hot when he came home—”
“Mom, language!” Josh scolded, a grin on his face.
“And he was polite, kind, funny, and impossible not to fall in love with. So, no, I didn’t really have a crush on him in school. I liked him, for sure, it had crossed my mind that he was cute, but it just wasn’t our time then.” You cringed internally (who’s time really was it at ten years old?), “But I definitely had a crush on him as a twenty-four year old adult.”
“Did that mean Dad was pretty much just, like, full-on in love with you at that point?” Josh queried, glancing between you both.
You looked at Nate, taking in his excitement at telling the story. You’d talked about it before, in hypotheticals just before you got married, about what your kids would think of the story of how you guys met. It wasn’t particularly exciting, there were no big confessions of love in the rain, or jealous exes, or miscommunications. It was simple, quiet and calm. Like turning on a light in the dark.
And it didn’t take an expert to be able to find the way that happiness seemed to pour out of Nate. He practically glowed with it. His eyes were wide and he hadn’t stopped smiling, and it was clear he’d been planning this conversation for a while: the keeping you in the dark thing was a welcome surprise, entirely shocking on your end, but you could tell he was just being honest.
“I wasn’t full-on in love with Mom at that point,” Nate squeezed your hand, “I was maybe a little bit in love, and part of that was because she was wearing a Halifax Mooseheads t-shirt when I saw her again.”
“What was the other part?” Josh quizzed, eyes a little heavier.
“That after one conversation I liked her even more than I did when we were in school, which I didn’t even think was possible.”
You rolled your eyes fondly, “Don’t listen to him–”
“What? It’s true.” Nate interjected.
Josh watched the two of you bicker for a few seconds, a slow smile on his face. It wasn’t very often that you and Nate could really show him this was what you were like, between Leyla’s nappies, Josh’s hockey, Nate’s hockey, your job, household chores – the MacKinnon household was busy. The only time all four of you seemed to be in the same room at the same time was the occasional dinner and weekend, and even then it was a rare occasion.
“You guys are just really big kids with really big crushes on each other.” Josh muttered quietly, shrugging at his realisation.
You stopped, words dying on your tongue as you took in what Josh had said. Then you looked at Nate – who seemed to be nodding without even realising it, “Yeah. Yeah, it kind of is.”
Then Josh shook his head, “So why can’t I believe what Dad says?”
“Because even after all of that, I made the first move. And said ‘I love you’ first–”
Nate guffawed from behind you, flicking your ear, “That's only because you made me nervous and I didn’t want to scare you.”
You tilted your head curiously at him, and judging from the way Nate’s eyes seemed to zip cautiously between you and Josh, you could only assume Josh was shooting him the same glance, “That’s pretty ironic considering I’m supposed to be the ‘quiet’ one.”
“You’re not that quiet, though, are you?” Nate teased affectionately–
“Is that a horny thing?” Josh scrunched up his nose, fidgeting uncomfortably and pulling a face like he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer, and you tried not to smile, shaking your head.
He was getting tired, you could tell. His attention was starting to dwindle, he was blinking sleepily, and you’d caught him trying to swallow a few yawns when Nate had been storytelling.
“No.” Nate frowned, “I just meant your mom isn’t quiet when you get to know her.”
You nodded, pushing yourself up off the sofa just as Leyla’s cries started to filter through the baby monitor next to Nate. Three pairs of eyes snapped to the small screen, and Nate picked the device up, turning to you and Josh with raised brows, “I’ll go check on her.” He ruffled Josh’s hair as he walked past, and you both watched him walk up the stairs.
Then Josh turned to you, eyes clearly struggling to remain awake for much longer.
“You know we’d never do any of that…um.” You hesitated, “Horny behaviour, in front of you.”
He nodded, yawning, “I know. I don’t mind the flirting, though.”
You swallowed, a little shocked by his revelation considering how much he seemed to protest against seeing it, “You don’t?”
“No, it’s nice to know you guys still like each other.” Then he huffed a laugh, “I had no idea you and Dad went to school together.”
You shrugged, placing a hand on the back of his head and nudging him towards the stairs. He went without complaining, turning back to look at you after your silence, “Well, I had no idea your Dad had a crush on me in school, so we both learnt something new tonight.”
“Wait, you didn’t?” Josh smiled, meeting you at the top of the stairs and peeking through Leyla’s door before following you towards his room.
“Nope.” You opened the door to his bedroom, facing an old trio of hockey posters that Nate had taken from his childhood room, “He might have played the long game, but I don’t think either of us would have changed it for the world. I mean, who knows, maybe if we’d have talked more in school, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Josh seemed to think about it as he climbed under his duvet, you choosing to lay at the foot of his bed as he made himself comfortable.
“When did you know Dad was the one?”
Your heart stuttered a little, and your words seemed to get tangled in your throat – momentarily caught off-guard by the question.
Truthfully, you weren’t aware there was a specific moment in time that made you stop and just know that Nate was the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. It had built up slowly as your relationship progressed; talks of the future were brought up pretty early on considering what he did for a living, and eventually it got to the point where you just knew that there wasn’t going to be a breakup or a break. That realisation had just planted itself into your head, that it was gonna end in marriage, and you couldn’t have honestly dreamt of anything or anyone more suited to you.
There was no one, and then there was Nate.
“If I had to choose, though,” you wondered aloud, eyes briefly glancing at the family photo Josh had chosen to have on his bedside table, “I’d probably say that I knew, or at least suspected that your Dad might be it, about four months into us dating. Neither of us had said ‘I love you’ at that point, because actually getting to know each other with your Dad’s schedule was pretty hectic and the timezones made it difficult, but my grandma passed away and I had to fly home from Montreal–”
“Because you were working there, right?”
You nodded, a bittersweet smile on your face, “Yeah. And I remember I left your Dad a message before one of his games, and when I landed back in Nova Scotia, there were missed calls, texts and one voicemail; I waited until I got back home to listen to it, and it said something along the lines of ‘I’m so sorry, I know how much she meant to you, blah, blah, blah, is there anything you need or something I can get your family?’ And I remember thinking, ‘What? Why would he be asking me all of that?’ And then I looked at my texts and there was information for a flight and it turned out he’d booked the earliest one he could after finishing his game.” You took a breath, slowing everything down, “I cried for most of the two days he stayed and looked after us all. By that point, we’d known each other for about a year, but we’d only been dating four months, and it was the first time he met my family and he was an absolute angel.” You swallowed, a lump forming in your throat at the memory of that period in your life.
“Did Grandma and Grandad like him?” Josh snuggled further under his duvet, stifling a yawn with his hand.
You opened your mouth, about to answer, when the bedroom door creaked open and Nate padded in through the door, flicking the overhead light off and turning the bedside lamp on as he took a seat next to you. His hand came to rest on your thigh, a welcome and reassuring squeeze, but his attention was on Josh, “I think that signals bedtime.”
You nodded in agreement, but Josh seemed to blink manically and sat up in bed, his covers falling around his torso, “But I have way more questions—”
“And you can ask them tomorrow.” You promised, running a hand through his soft hair and pressing a kiss to his forehead, “Are you okay with Aimee, though?”
He nodded, cheeks reddening as he seemed to shrink into himself again, and you smiled at his cuteness, “Love you, sleep tight.” You whispered, pulling away and letting Nate have his turn as Josh whispered them back.
You slipped out of the room, heading into Leyla’s room at the other end of the hall, tiptoeing in to peer over her crib bars. Nate had settled her again, and she was laid on her back, blonde hair a wavy mess, fists curled shut near her head. Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful zipped up in her Bambi onesie.
It was barely ten seconds later when you heard Nate’s steps creak the floorboards, his arms caging you in against the side of the cot as his front pressed against your back. His head came to rest on your shoulder, nose nudging the side of your cheek when you turned to face him.
“I can’t believe you had a crush on me in school, and you kept it from me for more than a decade.” You smirked, raising a smug brow in his direction as he bit the inside of his cheek.
“You mad?” He checked, no real concern in his tone as he fought to conceal the amusement in his eyes.
“No. Just shocked you managed to keep your mouth shut for so long.”
He rolled his eyes, “Well, it was worth it.”
“You’re a sap sometimes, y’know.” You nudged him playfully, “But I wouldn’t change it.”
“No?” He hummed, and you shook your head in response.
You knew he heard the entire conversation with Josh – it would have been hard not to, considering Josh couldn’t whisper for shit, and Leyla’s room was directly opposite, but there wasn’t a need to talk about it immediately. It was partly because you’d talked about it before – it was something you’d both discussed in a whisper after he’d proposed – and also partly because you’d gotten to the point in your life where Nate had perfected the ability of reading you at any given point, and vice versa.
And right now, you were both pretty content.
“Leyla’s gonna come home from school one day and start talking about crushes.” You whispered, watching him closely as he scowled, glaring at you out of the corner of his eye.
It made you smile, not wanting to laugh in fear of disrupting her sleep.
“I don’t even want to think about that.”
“It’s scary, right?”
“Terrifying. She’s my baby girl, I don’t want her to grow up.” He reasoned, pressing a quick kiss on your cheek.
You were both silent for a while, watching her eyelashes flutter mid-dream, and her little fists gently clench and unclench.
“I wonder what she’ll be like.” You whispered.
You felt Nate breathe a laugh against your neck, “Hopefully not like Josh, in the nicest way possible, I don’t think my patience could take it.” He teased, eliciting you a gentle laugh.
“Josh is one of a kind.” You shook your head fondly. He could be cute most of the time, but when he loses his patience or gets too cocky (or just refuses to do the things you ask of him), he can be a little menace — something Nate struggled to get a handle on at first.
They clashed a bit.
“It’s because he’s got your smarts—”
“But your fucking audacity.” You finished.
Nate gasped, a look of sheer disbelief written on his face, “That’s not true.” He denied, shaking his head.
“Your parents were the ones that said that.”
He quietened, lips pulling down in a frown as his eyes focused on something you couldn’t see, “Really?”
You nodded, “I mean, I’m paraphrasing, they actually described Josh as a ‘smart boy but with Nate’s bold cheek.” You snickered as he pulled another face, letting go of the railings and stepping backwards for the door, “Need some time to think about it alone?” You teased.
Nate nodded, eyes wide, “I’m just gonna go get changed.”
“M’kay, love you, Beefcake.”
“That one’s not come from me!” He hissed, smiling all the while, before disappearing from sight.
Nathan MacKinnon Imagine: striped heart
Summary: Over the 2019-2020 season, the first female referee in the NHL and superstar center Nathan MacKinnon keep meeting, and fall for each other along the way.
Rating: T (mentions of violence, gendered slurs)
Word Count: 10.1k+
BLM Resources
Part 2
A/N: This is so inaccurate I’m probably gonna make someone furious but I love this idea too much and I don’t have enough patience to research.
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(October)
Normally, you would never be so self-indulgent to think that people were looking at you. But, that night, you felt like you had just cause.
You were the first woman to referee an NHL game since 1999.
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Nathan MacKinnon Imagine: Striped Heart (Part 2)
Summary: You and Nate deal with the repercussions of a relationship as a referee and a player.
Part One
Word Count: ~9k
BLM Resources
NOTE: after the Coyotes series, this will no longer follow a close line of the 2019-2020 season so everything after Round 1 Game 5 will be AU.
Rating: T (for violence)
(August)
Nate MacKinnon heard about it from Landeskog first.
“Did you hear that the NHL hired the first female referee since the 90s?”
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