Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

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

Relationships:

Kip Grady & Scott Hunter, Kip Grady/Scott Hunter

Characters:

Kip Grady, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Carter Vaughn, Eric Bennett, Kyle Swift, Maria Villanueva

Additional Tags:

Lovers to Friends, (but they're definitely fooling themselves about that), Coming Out, Friendship, Canon - Game Changers Series & Heated Rivalry (TV) Combination, Social Media

Language:

English

Series:

Part 3 of who are we to fight the alchemy?

Stats:

Published: 2026-01-15 Completed: 2026-01-16 Words: 3,513 Chapters: 2/2

blueberry season

Summary

Puck It! – Sam & Jack Talk Hockey, episode #124: Carter Vaughn shares the secret to the Admirals’ winning streak, proposing to Gloria Grey and favorite road trip destinations
Carter: Turns out, it’s gotta be the same smoothie, from the same shop, made by the same smoothie guy.
Jack: Oh wow, that’s specific.
Sam: What if Smoothie Guy has a day off?
Carter: Worse! Smoothie Guy quit the job a few weeks in.
Jack: No!
Carter: Yeah, that time the Raiders fucking massacred us on the ice?
Sam: Oh my God, because you couldn’t get your smoothies?

-
Scott’s friends are very supportive after he comes out to them - stay tuned for the most heterosexual reason to go to a gay bar that they can possibly come up with and the magic of friendship and smoothies and mocktails.

Notes

The timelines probably don’t match the show or the books at this point, but I am once again asking everyone to ignore all that and roll with it (:

Most importantly, Kip does not get the Boston scholarship like he (presumably?) does on the show, he goes to grad school in New York like in the books, otherwise none of this makes any sense.

Chapter 1

Chapter Notes

Being friends with Scott is going great. That’s what Kip keeps telling himself and it’s at least half-true.

The true half is this: They talk so much now. All the steps they previously skipped in getting to know each other in favor of falling directly into bed and confessing their love, they are now catching up on.

He learns about Scott’s life, his friends, the surprisingly boring in-and-outs of being a professional athlete (it’s the gym and then practice and then the gym again; twisted knee, giant tub of protein powder, sprained wrist, the same Underarmour shirt in 4 different colors, more protein powder). Occasionally, the plot of a murder mystery novel that Kip thinks makes absolutely no sense. He tunes into Scott’s awkward sense of humor and his earnest sincerity that would sound fake from anyone else. He learns to like Scott, in addition to being hopelessly in love with him.

And that’s the part where Kip is definitely lying to himself, because nothing about being friends with someone you love the way he loves Scott is ever fun or easy. They don’t meet in person much anymore, because the only place they can really see each other is Scott’s apartment and the couple of times they tried that….well, it ended in a very predictable way. Memorable as those nights were, they also broke Kip’s heart all over again when he had to leave the next morning, watching the struggle on Scott’s face, knowing all he wanted was to ask him to stay.

But all that aside, Scott has stayed true to his promise to Kip (and more importantly, Kip thinks, to himself) and taken a few wobbly first steps towards eventually coming out and being able to live a more open and honest life.

His two best friends, Carter and Eric, took the news more than well and have gone on to show nothing but support. Kip has met them both and been welcomed with open arms. Carter told him how cute he was no less than twice the first time he saw him. The way Scott’s hand twitched each time where it was resting on Kip’s thigh under the table (it was a friendly touch, okay?) still makes him smile.

It might end up going to Kip’s head, all those hockey players fawning over him.

Where Eric has been quiet and steady in his support of Scott, Carter is a little more…active. So when he tells them he has a foolproof plan that only involves “some lying” to grant them a bit of wiggle room to see each other in public, Kip is both grateful and slightly terrified.

“It’s probably gonna get you some attention too. Like, mentioned by name in an interview as a friend of the team kinda thing. You good with that?”

“Honestly, if it helps Scott, I’m good with anything,” Kip says. In hindsight, maybe he should have asked a few more questions.

---

Excerpt from “Puck It! – Sam & Jack Talk Hockey, episode #124: Carter Vaughn shares the secret to the Admirals’ winning streak, proposing to Gloria Grey and favorite road trip destinations”:

Jack: So, things have been going really well for you guys this season, all of New York is loving the team spirit. What’s the secret?

Carter: Jack, I’m so glad you asked, because this is actually an insane story that I’ve been waiting to tell someone.

Jack: Oh wow, so there is a secret?

Carter: I mean, not really a secret, but you know how people make fun sometimes, of all the superstitions and rituals and Hockey Gods and stuff?

Sam: I do that a little bit on here, and now I kinda feel like maybe I shouldn’t?

Carter: It’s all real, man. And once you find your thing…

Jack: So, what is it, what’s your thing?

Carter: All right, so it all starts with Hunter. Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, but he was in a slump earlier this season.

Sam: Yeah, he had a couple rough months.

Carter: Right, and then it turned around all of a sudden. So we were like “what’d you do, man?” and he’s like “no idea, didn’t do anything different. I got a smoothie today”, like, just, random, right?

Jack: Yeah.

Carter: So one of us makes a joke, like “better get a smoothie again next game”, and guess what?

Sam: It works? The secret is smoothies?

Carter: Nah, man, we’re only like ten percent into this story. But for now – yeah it works, Hunter gets a smoothie, we play a good game. It catches on, like a few of us go with him, it’s great. Only, it turns out, it’s gotta be the same smoothie, from the same shop, made by the same smoothie guy.

Jack: Oh wow, that’s specific.

Sam: What if Smoothie Guy has a day off?

Carter: Worse! Smoothie Guy quit the job a few weeks in.

Jack: No!

Carter: Yeah, that time the Raiders fucking massacred us on the ice?

Sam: Oh my God, because you couldn’t get your smoothies?

Carter: Well, we did, but someone else made them. Shoutout to Maria, we love you, you’re awesome, but your smoothies are bad luck.

Sam: Oh God. She probably didn’t mean to curse you.

Jack: So what did you do?

Carter: So, we didn’t know what happened to Smoothie Guy, and our girl Maria wasn’t technically allowed to tell us. But with the fate of the entire team at stake…

Sam: Yeah, screw workplace privacy.

Carter: Anyway, they’re friends, so she asks him if she can tell us. You know, we don’t, like, serial killer stalk the guy. Anyway, turns out he works at a bar now.

Jack: No more smoothies.

Carter: Yeah, so, we gotta put this to the test, right? If it’s not the smoothies, and it clearly isn’t, maybe it’s the guy? Maybe it also works if he makes us a different drink.

Sam: So you all show up to this guy’s new work?

Carter: Picture this: 4 incredibly fucking stressed-out hockey players, and that’s Scotty - Hunter - and Benny and Huff and me, crammed into one car in a mad rush halfway across New York City to get a drink before the game starts. We get there, to what turns out to be this gay sports bar, and just burst through the door, on an absolute quest, looking for our smoothie man to save our game.

Jack: [laughs] Team bonding moment.

Sam: What did Smoothie Guy say?

Carter: All he knew was that his friend had just given Hunter the name of his new workplace. I don’t think he expected all of us to show up there half an hour later. I think he was a little shocked, looked pretty pale for a minute.

Jack: What drinks did you guys get?

Carter: Like, mocktails? And I had no idea what that is, but it’s basically an alcohol-free fruity umbrella drink. Not unlike a smoothie, if you think about it. But, as scientific testing has since proven, it doesn’t matter what the drink is, it’s just gotta be made by the same dude.

Sam: That’s wild. Can we get a shoutout for Smoothie Guy? What’s his name?

Jack: Does he know the fate of the Admirals rests solely on his shoulders?

Carter: Oh he knows. His name is Kip, shoutout to Kip, we love you. Please don’t quit your job again.

Sam: So you guys go to the bar before every game now?

Carter: Yeah, and we got the longest home game winning streak we’ve had in ages.

Jack: The secret to great hockey is mocktails in a gay bar, who would have thought.

Carter: Right? Bet you didn’t see that coming.

Sam: You gotta follow this guy everywhere now. Kip?

Carter: Yeah.

Sam: Kip moves out of New York, the Admirals are coming with him.

Carter: Man, don’t scare me like that. He can’t leave town. You hear that, bro? Stay right where you are.

Jack: You followed him to a gay bar, but you’re not gonna follow him to, like, New Jersey.

Carter: I personally would follow the guy to a gay bar exclusively aimed at middle-aged lesbians in New Jersey.

Sam: Wow.

Carter: I’m not sure they’d like me there much, but I gotta get my winning juice. What can you do?

---

To his credit, Kip only drops his phone twice when he picks it up to text Scott after he finishes listening to the interview.

Kip [17:32]: Middle-aged lesbians in Jersey??

[17:33]: “winning juice”??

[17:33]: That was entirely unhinged

[17:33]: None of this is true

[17:34]: Oh God I need to make Maria and Kyle listen to it so they have their stories straight

[17:34]: Are you panicking? Because I’m panicking

[17:34]: Shit, you’re at practice

[17:35]: Please give Carter a hug from me. And then punch him in the face (just a little bit). Or maybe reverse that order, your call.

One anxious hour later, a call from Carter comes in.

“You’re insane,” Kip says instead of hello.

“Yep,” Carter answers, sounding nothing but proud.

“How’s Scott?”

“Your man is fine. He maybe had a little nervous breakdown at first, small one. Tiny. But he’s good now.”

“Oh God,” Kip groans. “I mean – thank you, honestly, I see what you were trying to do, but –“

“Wait, let me –“

“Kip?” That’s Scott on the phone, sounding exhausted but at least firmly past nervous breakdown territory, as far as Kip can tell.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I – yeah, actually. Do you know what this means?”

“A couple weeks of really good profit for the Kingfisher?”

“It means I can come see you.”

“Oh.” And in all of his panic over what Scott would say to Carter’s antics, Kip really hasn’t thought this through yet. He puts Scott on speakerphone and scrolls back through the podcast, that, as it turns out, millions of people listen to. Everyone knows the story, fake as it might be. But he’s just very publicly been given an official role in Scott’s life.

“And you can come out with us for – lunch, or whatever, who cares. You’re practically part of the team. You’re like our good luck charm, no one’s gonna question that.”

“They might think Carter is secretly in love with me. He did say he’d follow me to Jersey.”

“I am so in love with you, in the most heterosexual way possible,” Carter yells in the background, followed by a rustling sound of being handed his phone back.

“Gloria and I sat down last week and wrote out an entire fucking movie script of how things could have happened. So that’s what you heard on the podcast. We acted out the scenes and everything.”

Kip laughs. It’s entirely absurd. He can feel his nervous energy tipping over into giddiness.

“I was you and Gloria was Scott,” Carter continues, sounding very pleased with himself.

“I actually don’t need to know any more about that at all.”

“We got your back, is what I’m saying. And your bar better have an outstanding juice selection, because we’re gonna be there every week from now on.”

“Fuck. I’ll get you guys any juice you want. And I promise I won’t move to Jersey.”

“Oh and also – we had this idea for a whole narrative of Scott coming out publicly, too. It kinda hinges on your juice being so good we win the Stanley Cup, if you know what I mean. But I have faith in you.”

Kip has absolutely no idea what to say to any of that, but knows better than to protest Gloria Grey writing the script to his life now.

By the time he hangs up with Carter, he has a new text from Scott.

Scott [18:45]: You can absolutely say no, but do you maybe wanna come over tonight?

Kip [18:45]: You know what. Fuck it. Yes.

Chapter End Notes

Title from Cate Tomlinson’s song of the same name, series title from The Alchemy by Taylor Swift

Look, it was 3 AM, I couldn’t sleep, and my brain threw all this at me. I figured, might as well write something fun after the angst fest that the first fic in this series was.

Chapter 2

Chapter Notes

I thought this fic was complete, but...I was wrong! Thank you so much for all the love this got yesterday! <3 and I hope you'll enjoy the second part.

“Well, the podcast people sure found me fast.”

Kip hands his phone over to Scott, letting him read the DM he received at the completely normal hour of precisely 3:47 AM.

They’re still in bed together, sitting up against the headboard with their coffee cups in hand.

Kip isn’t going to pretend he feels bad about any of it. They both knew exactly what was going to happen when Scott asked him to come over last night. They were still a little high on adrenaline after Carter’s interview and, maybe for the first time, feeling a little hopeful about the future. Both of that makes for pretty incredible sex, as it turned out.

So, no. He’s not going to beat himself up about this. Have a good cry over everything once he’s back home? Absolutely. But for now, he gets to lean into Scott’s side, have his forehead kissed, and pretend they’ve somehow magically made it to a place in their lives where a morning like this is real.

“Oh, they want you to do a thing for Instagram,” Scott says, brows furrowing as he reads the message. “You know you don’t have to do that if you’re not comfortable, right?”

Kip shrugs. He’s fine with it, actually. Being with Scott – really, publicly being with him at some undefined point in the future – was always going to bring some amount of public attention eventually. He doesn’t really feel one way or the other about that. And making a reel about mocktail recipes seems as harmless as it can get.

“It sounds like good PR for the bar anyway,” he finally says. “I’ll ask Kyle to do it together. It might be fun.”

“You’ll be famous before you know it.” Scott hands Kip’s phone back to him and puts his coffee aside, a subtle determination in his every move. “So while I still have you all to myself….”

With a goofy smile, Scott disappears under the covers and Kip doesn’t think about Instagram again all morning.

---

@puckit_podcast: The @kingfisher_nyc’s @kipgrady (aka the Admirals’ very own trusted Smoothie Guy) and @swiftiekyle show us how to make the Winning Juice @cartervaughn_admirals has been raving about!

Haven’t heard the story? Catch up on episode #124 and learn all about the secret to the Admirals’ latest winning streak!

20 minutes ago

---

Kip: Hi everyone, my name is Kip, you might have heard my friend Carter talk about me on the podcast last week.

Kyle: I’m Kyle, and we’re here at the Kingfisher today to show you a couple of quick and easy mocktail recipes you can make at home to enjoy while you’re watching the boys get their next win.

Kip: Or you can come in and we’ll make them for you. I hear that’s good luck.

---

kaylakey: How adorable are these two??

tommy_likes_hockey: I’d win at anything if this guy made me a drink first

ny_ethannn: Are all the bartenders in gay bars this cute? I feel like I’ve been missing out being a stay-at-home homo

hollanov_truther98: I ship it

salsy171: Okay am I insane or does Kyle like our Smoothie Guy a little bit?

---

Two hours after the reel goes online, Kip’s DMs are filled with anything from dick pics to marriage proposals. He stares at his phone while the notifications come in and then makes the executive decision to delete Instagram.

Kyle has apparently already arranged hookups for himself for the next four days, one of them double-booked (morning and afternoon, “because you gotta make the most of a Sunday”).

Of all the things Kip might have expected from his new-found fame, this wasn’t it.

---

Scott [22:50]: Call me after your shift?

Kip [22:51]: It’s gonna be really late, I’m not home til 2

Scott [22:51]: I’ll put the phone on loud so I’ll wake up

Kip [22:52]: Are you sure?

Scott [22:52]: Yeah, if you’re not gonna be too tired?

Kip [22:53]: I’m good

Scott [22:53]: FaceTime?

Kip [22:53]: …is it a booty call?

Scott [22:54]: Wasn’t gonna be but I’m open to surprises?

Kip [22:54]: Go to sleep before you get horny about it

Kip slides his phone back into his pocket with flushed cheeks. He promised himself he wasn’t going to flirt too much. Keeping anything outside the boundaries of friendship strictly to the occasional night at Scott’s apartment has been working well for them. Kind of.

Except for the way Scott looks at him when they see each other – at the Kingfisher with the guys, at various team events that Kip now gets invited to, being the unofficial mascot and all.

And except for the way they take any chance they can get to sneak a little touch. Kip honest to God got hard once because Scott brushed his fingers across the back of his hand while they were taking a group photo (with Kip holding a giant paper smoothie cup with the Admirals logo on it, courtesy of the social media team, and what could be sexier than that?).

So what if their newfound freedom has made them a little…bold. Other than that – other than all that, they’re still doing very well at friendship. Really. Super well.

Scott [23:01]: Too late

---

By the time Kip makes it home and to bed, he’s managed to half-convince himself it’s a stupid idea to call Scott. Whatever he wants to talk about can probably wait until the next day. But Kip is weak, and thinking of sleepy Scott on FaceTime, warm and cozy in his bed, is making his heart do things.

“Mhmmhey.” Scott looks just as cute and rumpled as expected and Kip settles further into his pillow with a smile.

“Hey, sleepy.”

“How was work?” The video briefly gets a little shaky while Scott props the phone up against something.

“Good. Weird. It was really busy, because apparently a lot of people have seen that mocktail video.”

“Yeah,” Scott says with a huff. “Yeah, I. Hm.”

“What?”

“I’ve been compulsively refreshing Instagram all day, I don’t even know who I am anymore.”

“Why?” Kip asks with a laugh. “Did you just like, watch it 400 times?”

“I read the comments,” Scott says hesitantly. “Uh.”

“Oh. Yeah, those. I got…I deleted the app after a few hours? It got kind of wild.”

“Wild, how?”

“Oh, nothing bad, just –” Kip isn’t sure how much he should be telling Scott about the horny people in his inbox, but surely Scott gets a lot of that all the time. “I currently have half of gay New York in my DMs wanting to marry me, so. You know.”

“They’re smart. They know you’re a catch.”

“Scott,” Kip sighs. It’s tugging at his heart, the way Scott is looking at him, even through the phone. “Don’t –”

“I, uhm – I know this isn’t technically any of my business. None of this. But I just wanted to say –”

“Scott, don’t…” He trails off a little helplessly. This is not a 2 AM kind of conversation, when everything is too raw and too real and too quiet.

“No, please, let me…some of the comments were talking about your friend Kyle and your – chemistry, whatever, I know it’s just social media, but if you wanted – something normal. I just wanted to say, if you wanted something more normal, don’t – I mean, you know, not on my account. I know we’re not together and I’m not expecting you to wait for me, I know I can’t ask that of you.”

Scott sounds choked up by the end of his chaotic little speech and Kip has to blink away hot tears he can feel wanting to spill over.

“You’re not asking it.”

“Yeah, but I’m –”

“Scott, please stop, okay? Whatever you’re thinking, you’re not making me do anything. I – I just wouldn’t be into it right now. With anyone else. It’s not what I want.”

“I know what you mean.”

They look at each other in silence for a long minute until Scott breaks the tension with a wet-sounding laugh.

“I’ve never been in a monogamous friendship before.”

“Maybe it’s a new thing we invented.”

“Being a trailblazer like this is exhausting.”

“Go to sleep, you big dummy,” Kip says and scrunches his pillow into a better shape with a little more vigor than necessary. “You really woke up at 2 AM to tell me I should fuck other guys?”

“It seemed like a good idea three hours ago.”

“Three hours ago, you were practically living in the Instagram comments section. Anything will seem like a good idea.”

They say their goodnights and Kip presses a kiss to his fingers and then touches them to the screen. It’s been an emotional conversation, he’s allowed to be a little sappy about it. Right? Right.

A minute later, Scott sends a screenshot of the reel’s comment section, and Kip is about to call him right back and tell him to get the fuck off Instagram, until he sees the comment in the center of the screenshot:

@scotthunter_admirals: Still so glad I went to get a smoothie that day

Chapter End Notes

Can you tell I was having feelings about all the current social media drama in the fandom that needed an outlet? There are so many great fictional characters to play with, surely we can leave real people alone :)