Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

Gen

Fandom:

Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid

Relationships:

Eric Bennett & Scott Hunter, Eric Bennett/Kyle Swift

Characters:

Eric Bennett, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Kyle Swift, Ilya Rozanov, Holly Bennett

Additional Tags:

Coming Out, Character Study, Book 4: Common Goal (Game Changers), Good Friend Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Crying, eric bennett's life transitions, eric bennett-centric

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-04-24 Words: 688 Chapters: 1/1

jesus, benny, come here

Summary

Eric Bennett hasn't cried.

Notes

realized I haven't written in a while and decided to see what would happen

 

Rated G but we have one f-bomb.

Eric Bennett hasn't cried.

Hadn't cried when Holly sat him down and said We should talk. Hadn't cried when he and Holly went to the courthouse together to file the papers. Hadn't cried when they kissed for the last time, a little goodbye. Hadn't cried the whole time they walked through their immaculately decorated house and partitioned out the furniture and decorations: You keep this one. And: This one's yours from that sale in Brooklyn, right? And: You always liked this one better than I did. Not even when Holly handed him one of the paintings they'd gotten at their wedding and said This was from my mother, she'd like you to keep it.

He'd cried when he'd left their house for the last time: a brief thing, one or two tears and a choked feeling that receded as quickly as it came up, leaving him bewildered and a little disconcerted. He'd expected real tears. Where were they?

When he moves into his new place, a wide, empty house waiting to be made his own, he smiles a little. The choked feeling makes itself known, somewhere under his chest, but it seems content to stay there, a gently rolling wave that refuses to break.

He throws himself into training, and by the first match of the season, he's forgotten all about it.

Ilya Rozanov sees him staring at Kyle Swift in the Kingfisher. He's surprised, but falls easily into the rhythm of chirping Rozanov. He was checking out Kyle, and Rozanov is perceptive, so there's nothing surprising here.

The wave crests when he tells Kyle he's bisexual. Kyle hugs him and kisses him and offers to "help him with any other 'firsts,'" and for the first time in longer than he remembers, Eric is blinking back tears.

He doesn't let them fall. He doesn't know Kyle yet, not really, which is part of what made it feel possible to come out to him, but is also why he can't have a breakdown in the guy's arms. And a breakdown it would be, Eric's sure of it. He stumbles home. By the time he gets to his own, empty house, he doesn't really feel like crying anymore. He eats a snack, drinks some water, skips nighttime yoga, and goes right to sleep.

Then, three days later, Eric is in a room alone with Scott.

He formulates the words.

His heart feels like it's going to hammer out of his chest.

Scott's looking at him with such patience, Eric wonders --

"You know what I'm going to tell you, don't you?" he asks his best friend.

"Do I?"

"Do you?"

"Eric."

Eric doesn't respond for a moment. Scott waits.

"I'm sorry," Eric says first. Sorry that I never told you, he means. Sorry I'm such a mess telling you now. Sorry I left you alone.

"What? Why?" Scott asks.

"I'm bisexual."

Scott looks confused. "You're sorry you're bisexual?"

"No!"

"You're not bisexual?" Then Scott's brain catches up. "Wait, Benny, you're bisexual?"

"Yes."

They stare at each other.

"Jesus, Benny, come here."

Scott pulls Eric into a hug, and the wave breaks. Eric fucking sobs. And Scott just holds him. He lets his feelings about Holly out from where they've lodged somewhere in his hip: Ten years, Scott. He lets his feelings about moving houses out from where they've been living between his ribs: I had to hire a company, and they were so careful with my paintings, and it was so easy, Scott, was it supposed to be that easy? He lets his weird complicated feelings about Kyle out from where they've been roiling in his gut: I don't understand, Scott, he's so kind to me and I just can't. And he finally breathes out the tension in the middle of his heart when he whispers, face turned away from Scott's, and this is my last year.

Last year of goaltending. Last year of knowing who he is.

But as he moves apart from Scott and exchanges a watery smile and a chuckle with his best friend, he thinks he might be ready to find out who he's going to be.