First Frost

First Frost

Rating: General Audience, no ship unless squinting General description: Leo finds out what happens when a sidewalk frosts over. Cast: Leo Knut, Finn O'Hara, Remus Lupin Thanks to @noots-fic-fests for organising, and @lumosinlove for such lovely characters to play with. ---

“Awww, yikes!”

Leo goes down, grabbing onto the railing as his gangly legs flail out from under him. He starts pulling himself back up, his legs dancing on the slippery pavement as he tries to find traction. Failing, he gives up and scoots on his butt to sit against the railing’s post. Finn collapses with laughter in the doorway.

“Is this why you wanted to get up early and go for a walk before practice, Knut?”, Finn asks as he regains his breath.

“It looks so pretty out, like everything has been etched over by tiny lutins. I forgot elves are also known for being dangerous, luring unsuspecting travelers to their doom,” Leo drawls, looking out over the frosted over shrubbery that lined the path sloping down to the sidewalk and road. “I had read about this, but never seen it before. Our sidewalks are different kinds of booby traps down in Nola.”

“This is your first ever frost? That does explain how a professional hockey player can’t manage to walk on a tiny dusting of ice,” Finn teases as he helps Leo lever himself up off the ground and shuffle back to safe ground. “Grip with your toes, grip with your toes.” Finn twirls the car keys around one finger. “Tell ya what. I’ll drive us to practice and park in the outdoor lot instead of the spot in the garage, and you can practice on a flat surface.” He throws his arm around Leo’s waist and starts steering him towards the stairwell. “You’ll get plenty of opportunities to see frost up close and personal this winter here in Gryffindor, I promise.”

Leo leans in to the support Finn is giving him, hoping Finn can’t feel his heartbeat speeding up at the casual contact initiated by his shorter teammate. He blows lightly on his palms, happy he had had the forethought to put on his light knit gloves before venturing out onto the treacherous pavement. The last thing he needed was scraped up hands, he’s still getting used to his new Lions blocker and glove.

In the car, Leo presses his forehead to the window, watching the frosted landscape pass by, marvelling as they pass through the park across from the arena.

Finn pulls into an empty space in the near-deserted parking lot, about halfway between the subway station exit and the arena’s entry. Hopping out of the car, he yells out to the lone walker leaving the subway, “Loops! Come watch a baby deer learn to walk!” He dashes around the hood to open Leo’s door before he can do it himself.

Remus comes striding over, and offers Leo a hand to get out of the car. “Oh right, I guess you aren’t used to walking on frost yet. It’s a vital skill up here, especially if you aren’t planning on getting your own car.”

Leo leans lightly on Remus, gripping his forearm tightly as Leo’s feet threaten to betray him on the slippery concrete. “Thanks Loops. I haven’t got the trick of it yet.”

Finn butts in, “I told him the trick is to grip with your toes.” Loops joins in, chanting with Finn, “Grip with your toes, grips with your toes!”  The two look at each other, give a high five, “Ya man!”.

“I am so lost right now”, comments Leo, still struggling to find his footing while Remus shakes with laughter next to him.

“Kiss my lucky egg?” Finn asks.

“Some people say you know you can’t believe”, Remus starts off, with Finn joining in for “Hey Jamaica, we got a bobsled team.”

Leo looks at them both, completely bewildered. “I am definitely missing the reference. Seriously, how do I do this?”

“Aw, sorry Knut. Here, for now, practice sliding your feet along as though you are skating, just with smaller strides.” Finn steps out in front, demonstrating, then Remus slowly slides one foot forward and waits for Leo to copy him.

“You got this Knut, you are a professional hockey player, you can skate. It’s just like skating,” Remus adds, guiding Leo into another step forward.

The three make their way slowly to the rink’s entrance, Leo chanting the whole time under his breath, “I’m a hockey player, I can do this. I’m a hockey player, I can do this.”

Shiver - snippet

General rating and trigger warnings: General audience, but you are asked to imagine someone in a shower. Singing in a shower. Overthinking.

Ships: Finn O'Hara/Logan Tremblay/Leo Knut Credit to Taylor Allison Swift and Jack Antonoff for this one, as well as @lumosinlove, @noots-fic-fests, and @hazelnoots, of course.

It has been established, here on Tumblr, that O’Knutzy are Swifties. It is also known that Logan lives a lot in his own head. When Midnights comes out, he can’t help but feel that Bejeweled is how Finn must have felt about their situationship before they were officially together. So, of course he has a little fun playing with the lyrics as he mentally tortures himself about possibly having mentally tortured Finn. So, picture Logan in the shower, singing out random snatches (in bold) of these lyrics, with a very confused Leo and Finn overhearing the snippets as they do important stuff in the kitchen (and wishing they could join him in the shower):

“Baby ‘Lo, I think I've been a little too kind Didn't notice you skating all over my peace of mind In the boots I gave you as a present Puttin' someone first only works when you're in their first line And by the way, I'm gonna play tonight

Best believe I'm still bejeweled When I walk in the rink I can still make the whole place shiver And when I meet the team They ask, "Can you be mean?" I can still say, "I don't remember" Familiarity breeds contempt Don't put me in the basement When I want to be on the roof of your heart Diamonds in my eyes I skate real, I skate on ice Nice

They only just got him singing the proper words to Blank Space a week ago. --

Meanwhile, Finn, in his first year with the Lions, adopted Bulletproof as his bop, because he missed hearing Logan call him Roux, and if this was all he could get, then by d*mn he was going to take it. Plus, that song slams. Finn wants to make one of La Roux’s outfits his next Hallowe’en costume, but he also doesn’t want Logan to listen to the song too closely. He doesn’t want Logan to start having a conversation with the-Finn-in-Logan’s-brain about why Finn identified so strongly with the song.

No nap for Cap - snippet

Based on the line “He’s also really bad at taking his pre-game nap.” from @lumosinlove team rosters. Rating: General audience, reference to Coops.

Setting: Long road trip – first game at the Climate Pledge arena in Seattle. A list of Sirius’s excuses to get out of the mandatory team nap on a rainy Seattle afternoon, and Coach Weasley’s responses. Thanks to @lumosinlove for the characters, @noots-fic-fests for organising, and @hazelnoot-analyst for the archiving :)

-I slept on the bus here from Vancouver. -Sirius, the bus left at 6 am. It doesn’t count. Plus, you slept for less than half an hour. You talked with Pots the rest of the time.

-I took a micro-nap on the Space Needle elevator. -No, you closed your eyes because you are afraid of heights.”

-Is my first visit to Seattle, and we didn’t get to go to the lower levels of Pike’s Public Market.. -We’re staying here tomorrow, you can go then. Besides, it closes at 4, you’d only get half an hour, tops.”

-Have to go set up a surprise meeting with Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe for Loops and Leo. Need to go finalise details. Bye Coach. -They are joining the team workout tomorrow morning, Sirius. Surprise. So, naptime.

-I have class at the German Language School. -What? -Need some good chirps for Grubauer. -No Sirius.

-But Remus snores, I won’t be able to sleep, so why bother? -That bodes poorly for the rest of your life. Take a nap, Cap.

-But it’s a rainy day, and in the rain, the pavement shines like silver. -If you sing me the whole musical one more time, Cap, I swear I’ll stick you on babysitting duty for the rest of your time with the Lions. Take your nap.

-I am meeting up with Brady, he is going to give me a locals tour. -Brady knows our travel routine, he wouldn’t dare. (Headcanon: Brady Smith was the team member sent to the Seattle Kraken as part of the expansion.)

-There is a troll, I can’t sleep near trolls. Need Olli or Henrik to exorcise it first. -Really, Sirius? What did the poor troll do to you? No, don't tell me. Go nap.

-I have an appointment to see tattoo artist. He has a year-long waitlist. -One, Sirius, you know you would save that for the off-season. Two, Cap, you don’t have your special squeezee with you that you need to get any shot. Try again.

-I ran out of honey for my sandwich, I need to go find a grocery store. -Moody packs extra, you know this. Sleep, Cap.

-My room is on the wrong side, the sun will be in my eyes. -Then close the curtains, Cap, you know this. -But I will still know the sun is there. Better I use the pool, will just float, promise. -No Cap.

-I drank too much coffee, if I nap, j’aurai toujours les jitters for the match. -Nice try, Cap. Take a nap.”

-Je n’en ai pas envie. I am not tired. -Tampis. To bed, Cap.

-I won’t nap, I will just keep Remus from napping. Best I leave him alone. -You want me to assign you to different rooms for this season’s roadies? - Non, non Coach. J’y vais.

New definition of gritty reboot: the story is exactly the same, but one main character has been replaced by Gritty.

How to win at extracurriculars - Snippet

General rating: General audiences, reference of mild pining but no boats afloat.

Cast: Olli Halli, Cole Reyes

Description: Headcanon and set-up at end, because it makes more sense there to me(?), but essentially, the new rookie gets assigned to a veteran lineman for the Lions' annual fall team-building and community engagement activity... which happens to get Percy extra credit for math class.

Big thanks to @lumosinlove for the characters, @noots-fic-fests for organising, and @hazelnoot-analyst for organised archiving :) -- "Bear right over crest. Bear right over crest? Where? Where is the bear? How do they know it will be standing right there when we all drive through this section of the stage?”

“No, Cole, there is no bear. That is a driving instruction.”

“It would be a lot more fun if there were a real bear.”

“Somehow, I think arranging for that surpasses even the Lions’ budget for team-building and community events.” “How do they figure this as a team-building and community engagement anyway, it’s just two or three of us alone in our cars? Plus, I guess some Lions’ staff manning checkpoints.”

“I guess one of Coach’s kids, maybe Charlie?, did something like this a few years ago for a math class, and offered to keep doing it for extra credit and getting his drivers’ license faster. Then Percy picked it up and built it into a fundraiser, and combined it with driving lessons so that he could get a learner’s permit at fourteen, or something like that? I dunno. All I know is, somehow, we end up doing this each year the weekend before the season opener. Coming up to an intersection, need the next instruction rookie.”

“Stop, T, right.”

“You sure? The sign says dead end.”

“Hold on. No. Stop, T, left. Sorry Olli.”

“Geez, they sent us a D-man who doesn’t know his right and left? Caray.”

“Geez?”

“You’ll pick it up. Loopsisms are contagious.” -- In which the Gryffindor Lions organisation sponsors a small car rally through the fall foliage each year. Rookies get assigned to co-drive for veteran linemen, ostensibly as team building. Community members can participate, students from local high schools get extra credit in their math classes for participating, juniors can get some extra supervised hours towards their driving license, and a good time is had by all. Loops and Moody used to get really into it and go all out with silly competitions like frisbee tosses or apple bobbing at their checkpoint. Nat and Lily would drive around delivering coffee to checkpoint teams, while Sirius would pretend to get lost so he could keep returning to the PT checkpoint multiple times throughout the afternoon. Winning community team gets to join a team dinner at Sid’s.