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:

Kip Grady, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), George Grady, Carter Vaughn, Carter Vaughn's lesbian sister, (and her wife) - Character

Additional Tags:

Fluff, Humor, Dogs, Kip Grady loves Scott Hunter, Scott Hunter Loves Kip Grady, Canon - Game Changers Series & Heated Rivalry (TV) Combination, POV Kip Grady

Language:

English

Series:

Part 5 of who are we to fight the alchemy?

Stats:

Published: 2026-03-15 Words: 1,789 Chapters: 1/1

anyone with a heart would agree

Summary

“I told Carter this wasn’t a surprise visit kind of thing, but did he listen? Of course not. I mean, it’s going great now, but still. Do you look good with your shirt off, Kip?”

“Uh.” Kip’s mouth drops open and he shoots the dog a helpless look. The dog is not inclined to offer any explanations, but tries his luck getting at the cookies again. “I – maybe?”

-
Carter continues lovingly and helpfully meddling (and has brought backup this time).

Notes

I love coming back to this verse and filling gaps! Set after you look a lot like my next boyfriend.

Carter [09:35]: Hey are you free to drop by practice later?

Kip [09:36]: Kinda. Why, what’s going on?

Carter [09:37]: There’s gonna be a surprise! Just trust me!!

Trusting Carter Vaughn has gotten Kip into some interesting situations in his life, and texts like these are usually how the mayhem starts. However, he always means well and Kip has been looking for an excuse not to work on his current paper anyway.

So, armed with a bag of pink sugar cookies from the Kingfisher (Valentine’s Day is coming up and they’re trying to attract a stronger afternoon crowd – things are very, very pink at the moment), he makes his way to the ice rink that afternoon.

Lara, the newest member of the Admirals’ social media team, meets him at the door. Lara looks absolutely elated to be there, for some reason.

“Kip,” she calls and waves at him. “Walk faster, this is the best day of my life.”

“Okay?” Kip follows her down the linoleum hallways, his sneakers squeaking on the floors. “Is somebody gonna tell me what’s going on?”

“You’ll see!”

Before Kip sees anything, he almost collides with a woman who comes rushing around the corner with – a large, shaggy dog?

“Sorry,” Kip says, lifting the paper bag with the cookies out of the dog’s reach. “And, uh. Hi.”

“Oh my God, you must be Kip,” the woman says. “I’m Sarah.”

Kip is getting more confused by the minute. He shakes her hand and gives her an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry, I don’t – have we met?”

“That’s so typical,” Sarah sighs and rolls her eyes. “Sarah Vaughn, I’m Carter’s sister?”

“Oh! Hi! I had absolutely no idea you existed, very nice to meet you.” The dog sniffs Kip’s shoes and jeans and then pushes his wet nose against the back of his hand.

“You can pet him, it’s fine. He’s really friendly.”

Kip strokes his hand over the dog’s head and is rewarded with a happy bit of tail-wagging. “He’s cute. But uh…”

“You have no idea what’s going on, do you?”

Kip shakes his head and looks around for Lara, who has already disappeared into one of the offices.

“Okay. Come with me, you can meet Maddie.”

More new people. Or maybe another dog?

“I told Carter this wasn’t a surprise visit kind of thing, but did he listen? Of course not. I mean, it’s going great now, but still. Do you look good with your shirt off, Kip?”

“Uh.” Kip’s mouth drops open and he shoots the dog a helpless look. The dog is not inclined to offer any explanations, but tries his luck getting at the cookies again. “I – maybe?”

Being a little unhinged seems to be genetically ingrained into the entire Vaughn family tree, and maybe that is something that Kip will just have to accept.

“Babe, you’re being weird again.” And there’s another woman, with another dog. She resettles the little chihuahua (possibly?) into the crook of one arm and offers Kip her free hand to shake.

“Nice to meet you, I’m Maddie. Sarah’s wife.”

Sarah’s wife. Carter’s sister’s wife. Some very important puzzle pieces are sliding into place in Kip’s brain.

“Hi. I – wow. I had no idea.”

“No worries at all,” Maddie says. “We’ve heard all about you though.”

“Yeah, I – I got that impression.” He laughs and watches the little dog lick Maddie’s face.

“Okay, so. Maddie and I run an animal shelter in Flatbush. Carter and I thought it would be a cool idea to do a charity thing with the Admirals. Have you ever seen one of those firefighter calendar photos, with the puppies?”

Kip has seen several of them, multiple times. And he’s starting to get an idea of where this is going.

“Yeah, so, we’re doing something like that, but more as an adoption event? Like, meet your match this Valentine’s Day, and the match is the dog, but the dog is being held by a shirtless hockey player,” Maddie explains.

“Yeah. Yeah, I can see that working,” Kip says and Maddie laughs.

“I probably should have led with that,” Sarah adds. “You were looking at me all, like, why is this random lesbian asking me to take my clothes off?”

“Can’t say that’s happened to me before,” Kip offers.

“Anyway, if you wanna be part of the shoot, you can do that, you’re, like, team-adjacent anyway. Or you can just hang out and play with the puppies, your call.”

“I’ll uh – I’ll think about it. Is everyone out on the ice?”

“Yeah, come on. We’re headed back in anyway.”

The ice rink is barely-controlled chaos. There are at least ten dogs running around, the Admirals players in varying states of undress, the social media team shouting instructions and adjusting lighting, and in the middle of it all…Scott.

Scott is holding a small black and brown dog with vaguely Spaniel-looking ears to his bare chest, petting its little head and softly talking to it. Kip is overcome by the sudden urge to either propose to him or make a valiant attempt at getting him pregnant. Neither of which is technically the best idea, currently.

Maddie nudges his ribs and gives him a knowing look. Okay, so Carter has told them about that, too.

When Scott looks up and sees Kip across the ice, his entire face lights up. He waves him over and Kip makes his way onto the ice, saying hi to some of Scott’s teammates left and right and trying not to trip over any of the dogs.

“Hey,” Kip says. “Carter told me to come down, he said there was gonna be a surprise.”

“Yeah!” Scott laughs and motions at the havoc around them. “Surprise for all of us.”

“Who’s this?” Kip asks and steps a little closer. There are cameras all around them and Maddie and Sarah are weaving between everyone with their phones out for some candid shots, but – well. Surely he can come pet the dog without it being too weird.

“Her name is Charlotte,” Scott says. Charlotte and Scott look at Kip with the exact same big, brown eyes and Kip exhales a nervous laugh.

“Scott. You live in a penthouse. You’re on the road half the time.”

“Uh huh.” Scott looks back down at Charlotte and carefully cradles her closer. She sniffs at him and then whines softly and puts her head on his shoulder, leaning into the crook of his neck. It’s a good place for cuddles. Kip likes it, too.

“You cannot adopt a dog. You know that, right?”

“Sure,” Scott replies, his voice a little too high. “Of course I know that. Do you wanna hold her?”

“Oh my God,” Kip mutters under his breath and holds his arms out for Scott to gently set Charlotte into them. She’s warm and incredibly soft and immediately starts licking Kip’s chin, her little paws pressed to his chest to hold herself up.

“I’m in love with her,” he whispers and Scott just nods, looking very understanding.

Kip also lives in a penthouse (most of the time). While he may not go on road trips, he is also gone a lot. They absolutely cannot adopt a dog.

Kip [17:55]: Hey dad, when you said a while ago that you were thinking about maybe getting a dog. How serious were you about that?

---

George was serious enough about it to meet Kip and Sarah at the shelter the very next morning.

“I hear I’ve got a granddaughter waiting that I need to meet,” he says with a mischievous glimmer in his eyes and Kip groans.

“Dad, come on.”

Sarah looks absolutely delighted and takes George’s hand, leading him down the corridor to the kennels. “You’re going to absolutely love her, Kip and Scott have chosen so beautifully.”

“I – this is –” Kip doesn’t even know what to say, and immediately forgets to be embarrassed as soon as he lays eyes on Charlotte again. She’s wagging her little tail, paws pressed up to the bars of her crate.

“Oh, look at that face,” George coos when he sees her. “Really could be Scott’s daughter, huh?” He nudges Kip and Kip takes a deep breath.

“Can you, like – not?”

“I’m excited, Kip. I’m finally getting a dog. I’ve been working on these all morning.”

“Okay,” Kip sighs. “Just get it out of your system. What else have you got?”

“I was gonna say I can’t believe I’m living to see the day you’re bringing a girl home – that’s a good one, huh?”

Sarah snorts and hides her laughter behind the paperwork she’s drawing up for them.

“And he chose a baby daddy who makes a lot of money, so that’s always good,” she adds and Kip shakes his head. His own community is betraying him.

---

The Instagram campaign turns out beautiful, in Kip’s completely unbiased opinion.

There’s a photo of Eric holding the tiny chihuahua, curled up in the palm of his hand, captioned Eric and Pedro – love: downward dog stretches first thing in the morning. Calm energy, but ready for adventures if the timing is right.

Carter is holding a French bulldog who looks like he would rather be anywhere else than in the photo, and Kip suspects that Sarah has given him the grumpy pup on purpose. He knows what having an older sister is like. Carter and Sally, it says beneath. Love: good food and having fun (even if it doesn’t currently look like it). Playful and easygoing.

Scott and Charlotte, obviously Kip’s favorite photo. Love: a run around the city or a long walk on the beach, stopping for a pup cup on the way back (wait, who said that?). Sweet, loyal personality.

And then, one of Kip (because apparently taking his shirt off for lesbians is something he does now) and a small black poodle mix that Maddie insisted has the same hair as him: Kip and Cooper – love: blueberries and a day at the park. Outgoing and gentle.  

He knows better by now than to check his DMs after a post like that, so he downloads the photos and then turns his Instagram notifications off.

There’s also one picture that Sarah sent him earlier that Kip can’t stop looking at: It’s the moment Scott handed over Charlotte to him on the ice, the look they share over her head so soft and full of love that Kip knows they probably should have been more mindful of all the cameras, in hindsight. He makes it his phone background; the lockscreen one of the four hundred photos of just Charlotte that his dad now sends him every day.

Carter Vaughn’s matchmaking skills strike again, Kip thinks. This time, for the entire family.