Chapter Text
Warso had been on Will harder than he usually was, he snapped at him in the locker room, after a rough first period. Mack wanted to say something, he really did. but his dad had trained him in a way of never talking back to a coach, he honestly wired it in him. But he couldn’t bear to look Will in the face knowing he didn’t even try to defend him, so he turned away and pretended to re-lace his skates.
They were two goals behind and the second period had just started, but Mack was confident. Sure, they honestly hadn’t been having the best game of the season but him and Will still clicked insanely well and he knew when they got on the ice they would get a goal. He saw the line change, adjusted his helmet and hopped the boards.
Mack was able to get his hands on the puck after one of the older players fumbled it, he saw Will directly on his left and smirked slightly, knowing they were gonna get a goal. Will got slightly ahead and Mack had some bigger defensemen on him so he quickly passed it to Will, he saw him quickly moving and Mack was trying to be right there in case he passed the puck. Will glided along the boards slightly and-
The building went silent. All that Mack heard was the sound of Wills body hitting the boards and then smacking against the ice. Without a second thought he went after the guy, sure bad idea he was bigger than Mack and definitely had more experience but he didn’t care, he had no right to hit him like that.
Mack heard some gasps from the crowd and was slightly confused because they didn’t line up with the current fight, at all. But he didn’t care he saw red and couldn’t stop his fists. He couldn’t even tell you if the other guy got any hits in. Mack was so angry he couldn’t feel them only felt his fists hitting the guy who now has his back on the ice.
Mack was being pulled off by a ref, and he decided it was better if he willingly went, he was 100% in the box for a decent amount of time and Warso was gonna be pissed. He figured Will must’ve already gotten up off the ice so he was shocked when he got up straight to see he was very wrong.
Wills helmet was lying useless on the ice and Mack saw blood, not a lot but still concerning. Graf and two of the trainers were trying to help Will up, but Will couldn’t stand properly. He pushed their arms away clearly trying to say he could do it, but Wills feet slipped out underneath him, like his body couldn’t support itself.
Mack felt physically ill. To be honest, if he wasn’t surrounded by over 10,000+ people he would’ve puked right on the ice. Just at the thought of Will being like this.
Mack was a second away from skating over when the ref was pulling on his arm and telling him to go to the box. Seriously? Mack’s only anchor, his teammate, his best friend, his smitty, his boyfriend-
Woah okay maybe not that, for fucks sake he doesn’t even believe Will likes him like that. God knows he’s not ruining their friendship over it. So he will buckle that up and keep it in, only he knows- okay and maybe Toff because him and cat pick up on signs way too quickly but that’s a talk for another day. His thoughts are racing but it’s broken up by the sound of wills voice.
But he sounds so off, he doesn’t sound present. He’s slurring, he sounds confused. He doesn’t sound like Mack’s Will. Mack can’t make out exactly what he says with this stupid fucking ref in his ear. He doesn’t deserve to be called that, Mack knows the guys doing his job and means no harm but honestly, it could be Sidney Crosby telling him to go to the box and he would still want to punch him square in the face.
Mack turns and interrupts before the ref can get the fucking word out again.
“I will go to the box once I know he’s okay.”
Mack’s voice was stern, the type of voice that shows there’s no point of even trying, they made their decision. Mack didn’t wait for a response he was skating over to where they were still standing- or some were standing.
Mack leaned down slightly reaching out to try and hold the side of Wills face, as a way to keep him balanced and focused but pulled back. People were watching their every move. People were definitely recording. But the sight in front of him changed his thoughts instantly. Will eyes were hazy, he was pale and he looked like he was looking over Mack’s shoulder. Fuck what people think, and fuck the cameras.
Mack reached out and put his palm against Wills cheek, moving his head so he was looking straight on at Mack.
“Look at me Will, okay? Look at me”
He knows it was probably shaky but he doesn’t care he couldn’t care when Will looks like this.
Will has moved his eyes to look directly at Mack, he still looks hazed as if he isn’t truly here, but he is looking at him so he’ll take it.
“We are gonna help you off the ice so you can get checked okay smit?”
Will nods slowly looking very confused and distant, Mack is on Wills left Graf on his right and there’s a trainer in-front and behind. They count to three, even though Will definitely doesn’t know what’s going on. Mack feels sick with the weight that something is terribly wrong with Will.
They make it about two small steps before Will starts to lose his balance again and starts leaning forward, Mack was one step ahead and already has a hand across his chest to catch him.
“Woah woah I got you. I got you, slow steps.”
He tried to sound calming he knows Will is already confused and stressed, but his voice definitely cracked.
They start to move again after a second, Mack just wants to already be at the gate so Will can get checked as quick as possible but they still have a long ways to go.
They make it about four more steps, luckily with no more stops but Will keeps leaning more and more into Mack’s side. Normally Mack wouldn’t mind, he prefers it to be truthful, but with Wills state it just has Macks stomach knotting even worse. He hears Will swallow, Mack was confused he didn’t know if that meant Will couldn’t breathe or what was going on but after a second a Tiny, confused and off sounding voice came out of Wills mouth.
“w- I-“ he stopped and closed his mouth and then opened it again “Mack what happened?” If he was honest he was hoping when he heard Will speak he would sound normal and he’d make a joke about the hit he took even though he knew Mack didn’t find it funny, but this voice sounded scared and confused and his voice cracked and he stuttered throughout it.
“Just took a bad hit but you are going to be okay, we just gotta get you to the bench. We are almost there”
Mack tried to smile at the end to make Will feel better but if he’s honest it probably looked like a grimace. The bench was getting closer and Mack could see the end in sight, he was relieved. Will would get checked, he’d be fine, they would make dumb jokes back and forth and they would drive home, grab some dinner and relax with a movie, like usual.
They are about to hit the bench and Mack can see everyone’s faces, not a single person is laughing or making a joke. They all have this worried expression on their face, which seems to match the exact one Mack is currently wearing. Mack let one of the trainers through, and then turned to Will.
“Okay there’s a step”
Will moves his leg like it holds all the weight in his body and misses and starts to dip forward again. Mack moves his arm from wills upper back down to his waist, and puts his other arm in-front of Will to catch him before he tumbles forward.
“Woah. hey, I’ve got you”
Will nods small enough you could miss it but enough that Mack caught it and is just happy he’s responding. Will has both feet on the floor and is now being held up by both trainers. Mack goes to step up planning on following before he’s interrupted by a voice that he really didn’t need to hear right now. Warso.
“Let them do their job. Go to the box Celebrini.”
If he wasn’t his coach Mack would punch him in the face until he was unrecognizable. He can’t express how much he hates Warso. Sure Will wasn’t playing the best, everyone has their bad games but for god sake Mack was even playing worse then Will, and he didn’t mention it once? But what he did do is corner Will during a stressful game and threaten to take him off the first line or bench him entirely. Mack keeps replaying the look on Wills face as this happened, or the fact that no one stepped in to defend him not even Mack. He thinks he might be sick. But not right now, first he is gonna have to tell his coach to fuck off.
“mack please stay with me” it came through cracked and quietly
Mack swears it felt like he’d been standing there hours but apparently It’s only been seconds because Will is still right in front of him. The same Will that just begged him to stay with him. Yeah, he doesn’t care who has anything to say, they will have to pry his cold dead hands off of Wills body to get him to leave.
Mack put his hand on the small of Wills back, taking the place of the one trainer.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
He hears a sound come from Warso as he’s about to say something but the team is quick to interrupt first.
“Keep us updated on him Mack” the calming voice coming from Toff
“He gonna be okay Mack. let us know how everything goes” from eky in a serious tone that Mack doesn’t hear often, but it tends to not be good when it’s brought out.
And then Reaves voice comes through in his tone he usually saved for after a bad game when he’s bitching himself.
“Warso let the kid be. You put enough pressure on the two of them, god forbid they miss a period and a half for something serious.”
Mack would like to say he’s shocked but he’s not, reaves is just that type of guy. Normally he would show his gratitude but they need to get moving. He makes eye contact with reaves and nods his head in a silent ‘thank you’ he just nods with a slight smile.
Mack went to move but stilled when he heard the trainers voice deep and Stern.
“We need you to keep your eyes open Smith.”
Will opened his eyes very slowly like they had magnets pulling them closed. Mack wanted to speed this up, Will needs to get checked and fast. They moved around four or five steps when Wills eyes closed once again, Mack nudged his shoulder sternly, but not enough to hurt.
“Keep your eyes open smitty okay?”
Will opened them slowly but not fully, Mack would take it. He just needed to get him to the trainers room. They moved a couple more steps before wills eyes fluttered shut again. Mack squeezed wills waist with his left hand, and nudged wills shoulder slightly.
“Eyes open smit.” His voice wavered a bit but he’s scared. Will isn’t doing good.
“mmmm they’re open”
It came through very muffled like he had just woken up, but his eyes were still closed.
“Nope. Try again.”
He kept his voice leveled and stern, sure he could’ve said it kinder. But he needed to be stern to make sure Will did it.
If worked. He opened his eyes slightly wider and kept them open longer.
Finally making it into the training room, with a smell of sweat and rubbing alcohol, the room felt colder than it was on the ice. They helped will on to the table, Mack stood by his side holding onto his hand. He wasn’t letting Will close his eyes again, not until he knows he safe to do so.
“You can head out, we will get you once we are finished.”
Sure Mack understood, I mean they needed space to work and an extra body in the room is a lot when you need all the space you can get. But Mack really didn’t wanna leave Wills side. This isn’t his choice though. So Mack just nodded slightly in understanding and squeezed Wills hand, before forcing himself to let go.
* * * *
No way was he going back to the ice, he doesn’t even think he could look Warso in the face without snapping. So Mack headed to the locker room and stripped off his sweaty gear, before heading to the showers. He quickly washed himself and headed out and dressed himself. He quickly packed his and Wills bag before heading back to the trainers room. He sat on the bench outside, after sitting and waiting with the constant shake of his leg against the hard floors, Mack pulled his phone out.
He logged onto TikTok planning to scroll and distract himself from the deep twisting in his gut, but the first video he got was of Wills hit. Mack hadn’t fully seen what all went on, he only saw the crunch of Wills body against the boards before he fell towards the ice, but this video showed everything, how when the bigger player hit Will against the boards his helmet flew off and his head hit the ice. Hard. The next part of the video you can see Mack fighting the guy in the back, but the main focus is on Will, who tried to get up three times before falling all over the place like gravity had stopped working. The video cut right after the trainers got on the ice, but the video replayed again and again. Mack was furious, how did they just allow that hit? Mack wished he fucked the guy up worse. Sure the guy was beaten pretty bad, but he didn’t care. He wanted him to feel the pain Will had to feel.
He doesn’t even wanna think about the videos of him fighting, it extremely embarrassing and he probably looked like an idiot, but he couldn’t stop he was so angry.
“Macklin?”
He stood up and turned to the trainer whose name was Andy? Brandy? Randy? Never mind. Not important, he’ll ask the guy another day.
“His head hit the ice after the hit, luckily it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. He has a slight cut by his eyebrow but we patched that up, I figure it’ll take a couple weeks for him to recover. He’ll have some pretty severe bruising in many areas, but other than that he’ll be okay.”
Mack felt his body relax, but he needed to see Will to confirm he was okay.
“Smith is calling for him.” The other trainer said coming out from behind the door.
They both moved slightly to let Mack through and once he was through the door the one grabbed the handle.
“We’ll give you guys some time”
Mack walked closer to a Will who was definitely dosed up on pain medication.
“How are you feeling?”
“Grrrreatt”
Yup. He is definitely heavily dosed up.
“You really worried me smit”
“I’m sorry” he frowned looking upset.
“Don’t apologize. It wasn’t your fault. I’m just happy you are okay.”
He reached out and grabbed Wills hand, Will reached his opposite hand up and ran it through Mack’s hair, looking up at him like he was thinking about saying something.
“You are sooooo pretty”
Mack is positive he looks like an idiot. His face feels like it’s a 100 degrees and his mouth is hanging open.
“I have always thought you were and I just wanted you to know”
Okay now Mack’s pretty sure he looks like those stupid cartoons where their face gets as red as a tomato. Will just told him he thinks he’s pretty, what is he supposed to do with that info? He has no idea. He’s currently freaking out. His thoughts are interrupted by a light knock on the door before it opens.
Toff is in his full gear, must’ve just gotten off to break before the third period. He looks relieved when he sees Will sitting up on his own.
“How are you feeling kid?”
“A-ma-zing” Will says
“They dosed him on pain meds, if that wasn’t obvious.”
“Figured” Toff says with a slight smile and chuckle.
“I’m assuming you two are heading out then?”
“Yeah I just need to put our stuff in the car, I need to update the guys as well.”
“Don’t worry about them, I’ll let them know Wills fine but needs rest. You guys just head out.”
“Thanks Toff I appreciate it, seriously.”
“You can make it up to me by calling Cat when you guys are safely home. I’m sure she is worried sick.”
“Of course”
* * * *
After loading the car with their stuff Mack went back in to get Will, he is sitting exactly where he left him at the entrance looking like he just watched the best movie ever. So god knows what he’s currently thinking.
“Alright let’s get you home okay?”
The ride went about how you’d expect it to. Very strange. They would sit in silence for maybe a minute before Will would cut in with his new thought he just got, Mack had been asked if a hot dog was a sandwich, is water wet, and how far back does he think a bald person washes their face. Mack has finally pulled into Jumbos driveway per Wills instructions. In his words specifically:
“You have a softer bed and bigger shower and a colder temperature”
Call Will Goldilocks at this point and not because of the perfect blonde hair.
* * * *
Will is stretched out across Mack’s couch like he owns it, Mack can’t help but chuckle. He pulls his phone out and dials Cats number. He isn’t even sure if he hears it ring before her voice is coming through.
“Oh Mack! Thank goodness I was about to call you myself.”
“Hey Cat, Toff said you’d be worried and I should give you a call.”
“How is he? I can bring some stuff by just send me a list of what you both need!”
“He’s okay, they put him on some pretty heavy pain medication. He’s currently lying on the couch if you wanna talk to him?”
“Of course! I’ll be quick so he can get some rest.”
“I’ll be lucky if he does that” Mack says as he put her on speaker and walks over to where Will is spread like a starfish.
“Alright you’re on speaker Cat”
“Will how are you doing honey? Do you need me to drop anything off?”
“Catttttttt”
Mack would love to say he is annoyed by him acting like this but that would be a lie. He loves it, he loves Will.
She chuckles “Hey Will, I can make that soup you like and drop it off? Is there anything else you guys might want?”
“ooo are you talking about that potato one you make with the little pieces in it?” Mack says, he knows it’s not for him but he can’t help the way his mouth waters.
She laughs, “yeah that one, I can make a bigger batch so there’s plenty for leftovers for the both of you.”
“Can you get those juice things that you had last party?”
“Will that was alcohol. No.”
“Aw” Mack watched as Will literally frowned and made his face that almost everyone caves to even though Cat couldn’t see it.
“But I’ll tell you what, I can get you actual juice. What kind?”
* * * *
They talked to cat for another ten minutes before they said their goodbyes and she promised to bring everything by in about an hour or two. Mack was told to keep Will away from screens and to make sure he rests, and occasionally take the pain pills if needed. But Will should be fine until tomorrow morning when his current ones fade.
They’ve been lying down talking for the last thirty minutes, Mack thought it’d be unfair if he was on his phone so he put it down with the ringer on in case anyone called or texted.
It’d gone silent about five minutes ago. Mack was hoping Will had fallen asleep, as much as he loved talking with him. He needed rest.
But that thought was quickly put away when Wills voice cut through the comfortable silence.
“I really like you Mack, like I don’t think I’ve shown it as much as I could. But you’re like my best friend, we are like Larry Stylinson”
Mack did not know how to take on that sentence did Will just compare them to a one direction gay ship?
“I really like you too Will. How do you presume we are like Larry Stylinson?”
Will makes the face he always does when he’s thinking.
“You know them right? Maybe you don’t but I grew up with an older sister in the 2010s so I did, it’s like Harry styles and Louis Tomlinson and they were totally into each other and it was painfully obvious”
Mack is staring at him with his mouth hanging wide open. He can’t even make some stupid joke about how he was a secret directioner, because Will just said they are like them because they were “totally into each other”. Mack hasn’t just been making this up in his head, Will likes him?
“I hope we always stay as early Larry and not later Larry.”
Mack looks at him confused, sue him he doesn’t know the 1D lore?
“What do you mean?”
“You know like how management didn’t want them together and they slowly stopped talking to each other? I hope the NHL doesn’t do that to us.”
Mack felt his heart break, Will clearly has been thinking about it.
“I don’t care nothing will come between u and I. I Promise Will”
“See you do know one direction you just said a lyric” Will said laughing
Mack just pushed his shoulder jokingly
“Shut up.”
But they both knew he was lying. if he could choose, he’d let Will talk for an eternity as long as he could be there to listen.