Ahhhhh sooooooo. Waaaay back when, @irlkent tagged me in this post about the possibility of a genderfluid Jack? This turned out to be more….ummmm Epic!Flow!? & SoftMasc!?Jack but well, there it is ❤
SoftMasc Jack with a hell of a flow and some flowers.
Based on this pic of some…dude apparently named Brock o’Hurn?
You can’t always tell because he keeps it tied up, looped in a bun, hidden beneath his helmet, but Jack’s hair is long. On the rare occasion his mane slips out during a game, commentators like to describe it as the most majestic flow the game has seen in years.
But then it gets longer, slipping from the nape of his neck down to his shoulders. Playoffs end in defeat or victory, but Jack doesn’t get the chop. It isn’t good luck or bad luck, it just is.
And it gets longer still. Long enough Bitty can practice his bread braids while they watch SportsCenter. Long enough they can play around with all the fun hair products Jack gets sent by advertisers for simply existing.
Then one weekend they go for a hike with some of the old Samwell crew, and they don’t make it two miles before Lardo and Farmer have Jack planted on a boulder, weaving his long hair into a messy Bavarian braid.
By the time they’re done tucking ivy and wildflowers in between the weave, Jack is cautious to meet Bitty’s eyes, instead looking to Shitty for approval, which he offers without hesitation.
“Jackie, babe, you’re a god-damn Disney princess you know that? Making me miss my flow!”
Bitty notices a gap in the braid just above Jack’s temple and snags an oxeye daisy from behind a log to loop in while Jack holds terribly still, ready for rejection. For criticism. It breaks Bitty’s heart just a little bit.
“You look so pretty, honey,” Bitty whispers just above Jack’s ear, without an ounce of sarcasm. “We should cover you in flowers more often.”
When he pulls back Jackis glowing.
For the rest of the hike Bitty makes sure to collect the most beautiful flowers for Jack’s hair. By the end of the day, Jack might as well be wearing a crown.
Jack is gorgeous, huge, colorful and filthy, and smiling so wide in their photos that he could be a different person; but there’s something else, something new, and Bitty is reminded suddenly of an old Marilyn Monroe interview.
‘Do you want to see me become her?’
It takes a while for Bitty to really understand, because he’s so used to thinking about things in black and white, but when he gets it, he gets it. There’s nothing to debate because for all Jack Zimmermann is Bitty’s NHL star hyper-masculine boyfriend, sometimes he’d rather not be. Sometimes Jack might wake up and maybe, technically, sorta, kinda be Bitty’s girlfriend, instead. Or significant other. Partner. Bro. Companion. Depends on the day.
A Google search gives him the term ‘gender-fluid’, and the first time Bitty brings it up, Jack just shrugs and says, “Neat.”
He starts to see it at night, when Jack showers off the day and the thick locks shake down past his shoulders. When Jack Zimmermann stops being anything other than Jack, slipping the bounds of ‘proper’ identification.
It’s that easy. Nothing changes, because they’re still ‘Jack and Bitty’. Jack’s terrible fashion sense doesn’t disappear over night. Jack’s toes are still freezing under the covers, Jack still cheats at Monopoly, Jack is the same terribly wonderful human being Bitty fell in love with.
But now, sometimes, Bitty will wake up and roll over to find the love of his life buried beneath a mound of blankets, peering at him sleepily.
And Jack will whisper, “I’m feeling soft today.”
And Bitty will yawn and say, “Sounds great, Sweetpea. You want to start the coffee or should I?”
jack zimmermann fell asleep with his loving boyfriend in his arms and the literal fucking stanley cup by his side and if u told teenage jack that one day he would wake up to that reality he’d probably laugh in ur face. fucking amazing.
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