Work Text:
now, if you ever asked nicholas blankenburg if he was a swiftie, he would never own up to it. of course, he would not tell you that his favorite song is mirrorball by taylor swift. he wouldn’t tell you that his biggest dream is to dance with someone he loves, in the refrigerator light, to tim mcgraw by taylor swift. why would he tell you that?
sometimes, the truth does come out. The boys were involved in a very extreme game of truth or dare. now, it’s not your regular truth or dare. michigan hockey truth or dare is the worst thing ever, in nick’s opinion. “hey, blanks,” a drunk kj sing-songed from across the room, where he was perched on owen’s lap. nick rolled his eyes playfully. “truth or dare?”
nick, without much thought to it, responded,
“truth.” kj and owen had matching wolffish grins plastered across their faces.
“what is the most romantic thing that you can think of, that you would want to do?” nick chuckled nervously. all of the boys were listening now, dropping the side conversations.
no one should blame him for actually telling the truth. he’s drunk, he kind of likes the question and he doesn’t feel embarrassed, at the moment, so he just full sends and words vomits. “so, like, the song tim mcgraw by taylor swift? on her first album? right. so that’s playing in the background,” he slurs to the boys. “it’s late. my partner and i are in the kitchen and the house is dark.”
he purposely uses gender neutral pronouns. the boys are accepting. he swears half of them are dating, but the good catholic boy in him isn’t ready to say it out loud.
“so they’re standing with the fridge open. the only lighting in the kitchen is the refrigerator light. tim mcgraw is playing. they take my hand and pull me in, and lead me across the kitchen. dancing. i want to dance in the refrigerator light with my partner while listening to taylor swift.”
nicky realizes the words probably don’t make sense out loud, but he completed the question. now that it’s out there and all the guys look ready to chirp him, he feels like he’s going to puke, and quickly stumbles out of the living room of the hockey house, and down the hall to the bathroom.
he’s not sure what time it is when he hears a knock on the bathroom door, and he’s not sure how long he’s been in the bathroom, but if someone has come to get him, and is frantically knocking on the door, then he may have fallen asleep in front of the toilet.
the loud, repetitive knocking continued until he finally found the drunken strength to crawl to the door. he didn’t know who he would find on the other side of the door. when he opened the door, he was met with the concerned face of jimmy lambert looking down at him, unconsciously checking over his whole body, looking for anything wrong.
when he didn’t find anything visibly wrong with nick, jimmy’s shoulders relaxed. nick want sure what he thought he needed to look for, but he wasn’t really worried. when he tried to stand up, jimmy had to catch him, so that he wouldn’t face plant on the nasty tiled floor.
jimmy made a noise if worry i’m his throat and nicky looked up at him from where he was being held in his arms and saw the concern written in his eyes. nick had never realized how pretty jimmy’s eyes were. granted, he’d never been this close to jimmy’s eyes either.
he realizes too late that he’s been staring at jimmy’s eyes too long. then, he notcices how pretty his lips are. jimmy blushes. oh. maybe he said that out loud.
jimmy gently picks him up farther, and with both his hands on nick’s hips, sets him on the bathroom counter. it’s nicky’s turn to blush. he probably shouldn’t have liked that as much as he did.
“nicky,” jimmy said with a warning tone. oh, he’d said that out loud as well.
jimmy moved nick over on the counter to find him a toothbrush and toothpaste, and stayed put until nicky was done brushing his teeth. when the boys exited the bathroom, blush high on their cheeks, it was to a quite hallway, which led to a dark living room.
nick stumbled over the old rug on the ground as he headed toward the kitchen to grab a gatorade, jimmy in tow. jimmy was typing away in his phone, frantically. for some reason, nick chose to ignore this fact.
before he could close the door, after having got his yellow gatorade out of the fridge, jimmy stopped him. “look, nicky, i know this is your romantic vision for your perfect person, but, I. I wanted to be the person you dance with, in the refrigerator light.”
One of the most beautiful smiles lit up Nick’s face, but it softened when it looked like Jimmy thought he’d taken that as a joke. “Jimmy, you’re my perfect person.” Tears welled up in both the boys’ eyes and Jimmy turned back to his phone.
He hit something on the screen, and form the tinny speakers on his old iphone, came the sound of nick’s favorite song.
it was surreal, dancing in the refrigerator light, like little nicky had dreamed of. he thought he’d be doing this with a girl, smaller, thinner than him, not a hockey player who could pick him up and took the lead of the dance.
this, doing this with jimmy, was 100% better than anything that little nick had ever dreamed up.