Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid

Relationship:

Kip Grady/Scott Hunter

Characters:

Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Kip Grady

Additional Tags:

Episode: s01e03 Hunter (Heated Rivalry), Post-Episode: s01e03 Hunter (Heated Rivalry), Scott Hunter Loves Kip Grady, Scott Hunter Needs a Hug (Game Changers), Light Angst, drunk texting the ex, Hopeful Ending

Language:

English

Series:

Part 1 of who are we to fight the alchemy?

Stats:

Published: 2026-01-08 Words: 968 Chapters: 1/1

miss him in pictures but it doesn’t faze me

Summary

Scott [19:57]: I'm so sorry, but I can't. I hope you have a really nice time with your friends. Happy birthday.

He wants to add I love you, because God knows that hasn't changed - won't change - but deletes it before sending.

-
bar scene aftermath, everyone has many feelings

Notes

Scott [19:57]: I’m so sorry, but I can’t. I hope you have a really nice time with your friends. Happy birthday.

He wants to add I love you, because God knows that hasn't changed - won't change - but deletes it before sending. Despite leaving things kind of ambiguous, Scott knows tonight probably means things with Kip really are over now. 

He had one last chance to show up, to make things right, make the grand gesture. He even made it to the bar, fully intending to go in, and then…

And then he just couldn’t. It was the same old anxiety, cold and slimy and disgusting as it crawled up his back. What would he even say? Would Kip’s friends just immediately know? Would one of them tell anyone? What if someone took a picture in the bar and it ended up online?

Now, Scott sits in his dark, quiet apartment and has been blankly staring at the walls for what feels like hours because he can’t stand looking at anything that might hold a happy memory of them together.

Which is ridiculous. What’s he gonna do, throw out his couch? His bed? Redecorate the entire place? Yank his brain out of his head and his heart out of his chest so he doesn’t have to remember what it felt like, having Kip in his life?

He considers opening that bottle of whisky that’s been sitting untouched on one of his shelves for maybe two years now, one of those expensive gifts waiting for a special occasion. But that’s just going to make him feel even worse in the morning, so what’s the point?

Instead, he grabs some water from the fridge in hopes of fighting the oncoming stress headache. All he can see is Kip in his kitchen, so sweet and nervous that first morning together but already looking like he belongs there, like it’s never been complete without him in the first place. God, he’ll definitely have to get rid of the smoothie maker at least.

Scott knows he’s spiraling. When his friends tell him he’s too intense, they’re not wrong, and unfortunately it goes in any direction. He just hasn’t had his heart broken in so long that he forgot what that feels like, how it eats him up from the inside out.

Or, well, broken his own heart, technically? Because he’s the one who fucked things up, who couldn’t make it work…

A part of him is just angry. At himself, for waiting so long, for not having his shit together enough to hold on to the best thing that ever happened to him. If he was just…stronger. Better. Braver. If he’d just been able to be brave for Kip, things could be different now. But he couldn’t even manage to walk into a bar, for fuck’s sake.

A smaller part, one that he knows isn’t technically real, is also angry at Kip. Because Scott has given him everything he has to give. Why couldn’t that be enough? They were happy, for a fleeting moment, so happy. And it couldn’t last because what, because staying in all the time in a million-dollar penthouse was somehow a punishment? Because he didn’t turn his entire life around at a moment’s notice, possibly throw away his whole career?

But Scott knows that’s not fair. Being with Kip just served as a magnifying glass, showing him all the things in his life he already knew were wrong to begin with. Kip wants him to be happy, Scott knows that. He doesn’t want to have to lie to his friends and family all the time. And how could Scott ever begrudge him that when he knows how absolutely miserable it is, the hiding, the lying, the constant fear of being found out.

When he looks at Kip, he sees freedom. He sees a life that he might have had, too, if things had been different. Or that he maybe still could have. And Scott knows that being with him, under the current circumstances, would take all that away from Kip. Would drag him into the prison Scott has built for himself, and it would ruin him, all so Scott could be a little less lonely in the fragile little house of cards he’s living in.

You don’t lock up the people you love. You set them free, isn’t that how the saying goes?

And maybe that’s the best thing, the only thing he can do for Kip. Let him go, let him be free. Let him move on with his life.

Kip [22:01]: Thank you

Attached is a selfie of Kip with his friends, looking adorably flushed and…not quite as happy as he probably should be for his birthday party, and Scott knows he’s the one to blame for that.

[22:01]: Can I call you in the morning?

[22:01]: I miss you

[22:02]: I know it’s hard

[22:02]: Maybe we really can be friends at least??

[22:02]: I know that’s kinda weird

[22:03]: OMG forget I said that, I’m so drunk

[22:03]: Why would you wanna be my friend lol

Scott has tears in his eyes by the time the last message comes through. He can just imagine Kip, texting with clumsy-drunk fingers, autocorrect working overtime, his eyes wide and a little mortified after he thinks he’s maybe said the wrong thing.

Scott [22:05]: Of course I want that. I just want to be in your life, if you’ll let me. Please call me anytime you want. I always want to talk to you.

[22:07]: I miss you too.

[22:07]: Get home safe.

So much for letting him go. Though maybe if you try, and it doesn’t work…maybe that means your story isn’t over yet.