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They don’t tell the team right away. Not because they’re trying to hide anything, but because they figure it’s so obvious that they don’t need to.
Their friendship transitions so surprisingly easily into something more that it probably looks impossible from the outside. Strange, to say the least. Miraculous, maybe, but only if one really hadn’t been paying attention.
Dex now does homework with Nursey’s hand resting on the back of his neck, palm warm against the skin there and fingertips absently scratching up against the grain of Dex’s short hair and then softly back down.
Dex carries an extra beanie with him on cold days, and pulls it down over Nursey’s ears for him as they walk to class, despite Nursey’s token protests.
He forgets to eat breakfast on busy days, always has, but now finds black coffee and overpriced Annie’s banana nut muffins on his open textbook when he stops at his dorm room between his morning classes.
He smiles a little quicker, a little easier.
He still argues just as much as he ever did.
It’s… effortless. It’s good.
And okay, so maybe Dex has been waiting for the other shoe to drop this whole time–that’s just how his life tends to work–but he didn’t really expect said shoe to manifest in a stunned group silence at team breakfast in the wake of Nursey pressing a quick kiss to his temple as he sits down to join them.
It feels like the entire cafeteria freezes, even if it’s really just the chaos that is the Samwell Men’s Hockey Team during a mealtime suddenly stopping short in collective wonder.
Nursey is oblivious as he shovels scrambled eggs into his mouth and hooks his left leg around Dex’s right one beneath the table.
Bitty is the first to snap out of it, clapping his hands together and turning away from the Frogs pointedly. “So. Spring C. Holster, I was expecting a Powerpoint by now.”
“Don’t start with me, Bits, Ransom’s spreadsheets are all over the place this semester.”
Ransom chokes on his coffee. “Et fucking tu, Brute?”
The table quickly devolves into relentless chirping and half-hearted Spring C planning, though a few of them keep sneaking completely unsubtle glances at Dex and Nursey throughout.
Dex, for once, doesn’t go red at the attention. Instead, he numbly eats his toast and pretends the lead weight in his gut doesn’t exist when Nursey finishes his food, none the wiser, and grins at Dex on their way out.
*
“You didn’t know,” Dex says later that afternoon in the Haus kitchen. He doesn’t make it a question, because he knows in his gut that it isn’t one.
Bitty sticks another pie in the oven and then wipes his hands on the dishtowel hanging off his shoulder. His default facial expression is “open and inviting” but Dex has come to understand that this is mostly a superficial arrangement of features. Bitty is always, at his core, inviting, but he is very rarely ever genuinely open unless he trusts his audience implicitly.
Bitty’s expression now is as open as Dex has ever had the privilege of seeing it, and he feels something in his chest break at the sight.
“No,” Bitty confirms, quiet and careful and serious. “We didn’t know.”
“Is it because of me?” Dex swallows and braces himself. He’s been bracing himself for so much for what feels like his entire life and he’s so fucking tired of it. “Because you think I’m… I don’t know. Whatever you think I am.” He takes a breath. Holds it for ten. Breathes out. “Is it because you guys think I’m–”
“We knew Nursey liked you,” Bitty interrupts kindly, and then shuffles his feet. “I mean, I assume the others did. It was pretty obvious. That boy knows how to charm his worst enemy into thinking they’re his best friend, but he only ever needles and picks at the people he really cares about.”
Dex can feel his cheeks heat with a blush, but he bites his bottom lip and shakes his head against whatever embarrassing emotion is trying to explode out of him.
“And we… Well. I knew that you liked him back,” Bitty continues, and Dex’s gaze snaps sharply back up to meet his. Bitty quirks a knowing smirk at him. “He’s the only person you ever fight with that you refuse to actually throw punches at. And you cringe when any of us try to touch you off the ice, but you’ve been letting him pull you into one-armed bro hugs since spring semester last year.”
Dex forces himself not to look away, even though he wants to. Bitty’s expression is still too earnest and open that he doesn’t feel right turning down the trust implied in receiving it. “So you guys knew all that, but you didn’t know we finally…”
“Sometimes these boys can be awful oblivious.”
“They weren’t about you and Jack.”
Bitty stops short, blinking in surprise. “…I suppose you’re right. But it isn’t exactly the same–”
“No, it’s not the same. Because you and Jack, you guys work. You fit. Me and Nursey nearly killed each other our first semester here. Obviously, we don’t work, right? You’d have to be an idiot to look at the pair of us and think that we're involved.”
Bitty frowns. “Dex. I’m sure you two work just fine.”
“Are you? Because if the reason you guys didn’t notice we were together was because you were expecting us to magically change how we interact with each other once we started screwing–”
“What? No! Dex, no. We would never expect either of you to be anything other than who you are.”
“And who we are is not anything like what you guys thought would ever work, right? Because, listen, Bitty, we still annoy the shit out of each other half the time. We still butt heads at every opportunity. And we still fight. A lot. That isn’t going to change.”
Bitty huffs and puts his hands on his hips. “I’ve seen you fight with an Allen wrench, Honey. And Nursey has been fighting with himself for as long as any of us have known him, probably longer.” He shakes his head and offers a comforting smile. “And yet, neither of you has ever looked happier than when fighting with each other.”
Dex folds his arms across his chest protectively, and tries to fight off another blush.
“I’m happy for you both,” Bitty says firmly. “And so is the rest of the team. Hell, I had to talk Ransom and Holster down from throwing a damn ticker tape parade for you two not an hour ago. I’m just sorry that we didn’t know enough to be happy for you both before now. It isn’t your fault, and it isn’t a slight on the way you two feel. We were all so focused on the day-to-day that the bigger picture just never occurred to us. Sometimes… Well. Sometimes it’s a bit hard to see the forest for the trees.”
It’s not quite enough to assuage the tightness in Dex’s chest, but it feels sincere, and the care in Bitty’s eyes feels more familial than friendly, and so when Bitty offers to help him learn how to make Nursey’s favorite baked good, like it’s the only kind of olive branch the guy knows how to give, Dex accepts without hesitation.
*
Dex walks back to his dorm through the twilight gloom as snow starts to fall. But the moment he reaches the building’s front door, he turns and stalks off towards Nursey’s dorm instead.
“The team knows,” he says without preamble the moment Nursey opens his dormroom door.
“You are fucking soaked, yo, are you okay?”
“The team knows,” Dex repeats. But Nursey remains preoccupied with dusting snow off of Dex’s shoulders and running his hands up and down Dex’s arms as if to try to warm them up.
“Yeah, okay, cool. You should borrow some of my clothes if you’re not staying though, bro.”
Dex huffs an unexpected laugh, trying to hide it with a cold hand placed over his chapped lips. By the time he’s lowered that hand, Nursey has maneuvered the both of them fully into his room, has turned his space heater up to its highest setting, and is diligently trying to peel Dex’s jacket off of him.
“You’re not listening, Derek. They know now. They didn’t know before.”
Nursey finally pauses and blinks. “What do you mean ‘before?’ Before what?”
“Before this morning.”
“…Oh.”
Dex sits down gingerly on the edge of Nursey’s bed and makes a point of not getting too comfortable, just in case. “I talked to Bitty about it, though. I think we should be good.”
“Good? Like, what, everyone’s gonna pretend they never figured it out? I didn’t know that was what we were going for here.”
“It’s not. Fuck. I just– I don’t know. Honestly, I didn’t think this would be an issue.”
Nursey’s hands immediately fall away from Dex’s arms as he takes a quick step backwards. “It’s chill,” he says with a glassy-eyed blank expression on his face that makes Dex want to punch a wall. “Look, if it makes you uncomfortable—“
“I want to tell my parents,” Dex interrupts, trying to force everything that he’s not saying but wants to into everything he is saying.
Nursey freezes.
“I’ve been thinking about it for awhile now. And I’m kind of terrified but… I don’t care. I want to be able to tell my mom that I’m in love.”
Nursey swallows audibly. “’Love,’ huh?”
“Oh shut up.” Dex stands back up and fidgets a little with sudden, nervous energy, scowling down at the floor. “I know most people think I’m not anything they’d ever want, but–“
Nursey lifts both arms up to rest on Dex’s shoulders and pull him in closer. “I think you are exactly what I have never wanted,” he agrees solemnly. “But. I have a habit of not letting myself want the things that I need the most.”
Dex rests his forehead against Nursey’s and huffs a small laugh. “Sap.”
Nursey smirks. Presses a small kiss to the corner of Dex’s mouth, blinking slowly as he does it, and Dex can feel Nursey’s eyelashes tickle his cheek. “Asshole,” he responds with a grin.
“English Major.”
“Oh, ouch. You wound me, Poindexter.” Nursey slips his hands beneath Dex’s shirt, and Dex sighs happily.
He closes his eyes and feels himself fall further into Nursey. “You’re exactly what I never wanted, too.”
“Oh yeah?”
“But I have a habit of not letting myself want the things I think I can’t have.”
“…You have me, Will. God, you’ve had me since before I even knew what was happening.”
Dex smiles and kisses him. “I think you might’ve had me for even longer.”