Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid, Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types

Relationship:

Kip Grady/Scott Hunter

Characters:

Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Kip Grady, Carter Vaughn, Eric Bennett, Greg Huff

Additional Tags:

Fake/Pretend Relationship, but it's like kip pretending he has a boyfriend who is not scott, Relationship Reveal

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-06-14 Words: 4,298 Chapters: 1/1

Kip Grady's Loser Boyfriend

Summary

Scott’s friends don’t think Kip’s boyfriend is good enough for him. Unfortunately, Scott is Kip’s boyfriend. A comedy of errors.

“Hey, Scotty, are you bringing anyone to the Cup Finals watch at my place?” Carter asked, as they cleaned out their lockers for the year. They’d made it six games into the second round of the playoffs, which wasn’t nothing, but certainly wasn’t a Cup either. “Getting a headcount so I can order food.”

Scott paused. He’d decided he wasn’t retiring this year, probably not next year either, and he needed to find a way to offer Kip something. They’d compromised on being privately out to Kip’s family and trusted friend group but Scott had promised to at least try with his own friends. He wanted to try. Carter’s party would be a good starting point. A lot of the guys brought siblings or cousins or random friends, no one would look at Kip and automatically think ‘Scott’s boyfriend’ unless Scott forgot himself and put his arm around Kip’s waist or looked at him with too-obvious heart eyes.

“Maybe my friend Kip,” Scott said, feeling vaguely unsettled as Kip’s name left his mouth for the first time in a hockey-related location, what he considered ‘work space’.

“Cool,” Carter said.

It was cool, Scott thought as he watched Kip circulate through Carter’s party like a trained socialite. It was fine. More than fine. Kip was a naturally sweet and likeable person and everyone he met seemed to embrace him immediately.

Eric was currently talking to Kip about an exhibit they’d both seen at the Met so Scott let himself drift away to the couch. On TV, they were about to drop the puck between Colorado and Montreal. Almost the whole team was rooting against Montreal, as one of their conference rivals, although Matti apparently had a deep, abiding hatred for one of the Colorado forwards and was rooting against him specifically.

During the first period, Scott kept finding his eyes drawn over to where Kip was sitting beside Huff on a loveseat. Scott wanted to be sitting beside him. He wanted to have his head in Kip’s lap, Kip’s hands petting through his hair. Stop looking at him, Scott chastised himself. You’re so fucking obvious, Hunter.

Guests drifted around during the game and intermissions, some of them clearly less invested in the outcome than others. Kip typically watched any games that Scott wasn’t participating in with only a mild interest so Scott wasn’t surprised to see him laughing in the kitchen with a few of the WAGs at one point and playing some kind of beer pong adjacent game with two of the rookies later.

Colorado eked out a win in overtime, making the standings 3-3, which meant Carter was going to be doing this all again on Saturday so they could see who actually won it all. Scott’s bet was on Shane Hollander.

People started to filter out with waves and thanks. Kip was helping clean up some of the abandoned drink bottles and cups, because he was polite like that, and Scott took the initiative to pack up perishable food that could keep okay in the refrigerator for a couple days. At the sink, Eric was vigorously scrubbing a plate coated in melted cheese.

“Thanks, man,” Carter said to Kip as he was sorting out the recycling. “So what did you think of the game? Who are you cheering for?”

“Scott’s tried to teach me about hockey but I’m not really invested outside the Admirals,” Kip said, smiling. “If I apply my usual sports criteria of which team has the cutest captain, I guess I’m supporting Montreal.”

Scott felt that land the same way Kip’s ‘hot lumberjacks’ comment had landed back in Straw+Berry and he saw when it landed for Kip too. He shot Scott a quick, panicked glance, like he thought Scott would be angry at him. It hit Scott like a sucker punch. He’d never meant to make Kip feel afraid.

“Oh, are you gay?” Carter said. “Sammy’s sister will be disappointed. She was angling for your phone number.”

“Lana? She was nice, but yeah,” Kip said, his voice gone tight, although not in a way Scott thought anyone else would notice. “And, actually, I’m going to meet my boyfriend for breakfast in the morning so I should probably head home and get some sleep.”

Scott could see what he was doing—linking himself to someone else so he wouldn’t be linked to Scott—and it was as smart as it was fucking devastating.

“It was super nice to meet you. Come back on Saturday if you’re free,” Carter said, giving Kip a bro hug. Kip thanked him for hosting, said, “Nice to meet you too, Eric. Bye, Scott,” and then he was out the door.

“He’s cool. I’m glad you brought a friend for once,” Carter said to Scott.

Scott swallowed hard. Say it, he thought. Just fucking tell him. Carter had barely blinked when he realized Kip was gay, had given plenty of indications over the years that he was LGBT friendly, and it wasn’t like Eric, who always wore the rainbow tape on his stick for the whole game on Pride nights, had turned from his dishwashing to be a bigot.

“Yeah,” Scott said. “He’s great.”

-

“I’m so sorry,” Kip said immediately when Scott walked into the penthouse.

Scott reached out to fold him into his arms. “It’s okay. Really.” Kip had been so excited that Scott was finally letting him have this small peek into his hockey family life. Scott hated that he clearly thought he’d ruined it with an offhand comment about something he’d been open about since he was seventeen. “I want them to know you,” Scott said. “I’m just not quite ready for them to know us.”

“Okay,” Kip said, breathing out. “So I’m your gay friend Kip. And it’s okay if I come to the Saturday party?”

“Of course,” Scott said. “Everyone loved you.”

If Kip hadn’t believed that then, Scott hoped he did when three separate people immediately yelled, “Kip!” when he walked into Carter’s apartment on Saturday.

Kip blinked, looking surprised. “Yeah?”

Carter, one of the Kip enthusiasts, beckoned him over to where he was sipping a beer at the kitchen island with Scott. “Hey, man. Glad you could make it.”

“Thanks. Hey, Scott,” Kip said, casually. They’d decided to stagger their arrival this time, now that Kip was already introduced.

“Hey,” Scott said, sliding a beer over to him with a smile. The night proceeded much the same as Thursday had, with people alternately eating and chatting and yelling at the TV screen until Shane Hollander lifted the Cup over his head in victory.

Scott felt his heart ache with wistfulness. He wanted that. For his parents, his team, his city. For the pride he knew would shine in Kip’s eyes. Maybe next year.

Scott and Kip lingered to help with clean up again, listening indulgently as Carter enthused about a vacation he had planned with his girlfriend Gloria over the summer break. “What about you and your boyfriend, Kip?” Carter asked. “Are you guys getting out of the city for the summer?”

“Oh,” Kip said, “no, I think we’re just going to hang out in town.”

“Is he in school like you?”

Scott could see the dismay in Kip’s eyes. He didn’t know why they hadn’t considered this, come up with some backstory. When you knew someone had a partner, it was a perfectly natural conversation topic.

“No,” Kip said. “Will, um, Will’s an architect.”

Scott felt the vein behind his forehead jump and start to throb. Will. Will was Kip’s fuckass ex-boyfriend who Kip had dated for almost a year before discovering that he was married and had a kid on the way. Not only had he hurt Kip—immediately and irrevocably unforgivable—he’d also given Kip baggage that Scott was still learning to unzip. Scott could see why Kip had picked an ex and a ready-made backstory instead of trying to make something up completely, but fucking Will? Ugh.

“He’s working on a new building down by the Hudson,” Kip was saying.

“Cool, cool,” Carter nodded, taking an armful of paper plates to toss into the trash. Kip escaped soon after that and when Scott got home he was curled over his knees on the couch.

“Fuck,” Kip said, when Scott walked in. “Why the fuck didn’t I use Shawn or Kyle as my stupid fake boyfriend?”

He looked anxious, his eyes red-rimmed. Scott sat down beside him and tugged him gently by the back of the neck until Kip rested his head against Scott’s shoulder. “It’s fine. It’s my fault you even have to make something up. I’m sorry.”

Kip let out a breath. “It’s okay, I know you’re not ready to be out. I did really like getting to meet your friends.”

“Good,” Scott said. He stood and boosted Kip up into his arms. Kip yelped in surprise but he got with the program soon enough, looping his arms behind Scott’s neck and kissing him deep and hungry.

Scott walked them into the bedroom and tossed Kip onto the mattress. He was going to make sure Kip spent the night screaming Scott’s name and forgot all about that asshole Will.

-

Kip got absorbed into Scott’s core friend group with surprising ease. Carter, the usual social instigator, had gotten his phone number and now texted him directly instead of going through Scott.

They were at a rooftop bar in Midtown and Kip had just ducked out to the bathroom when Carter asked, “Does Kip think we’re homophobic?”

Scott choked on his whiskey. “What?”

“I’ve invited him to bring his boyfriend around a few times and he’s always had some excuse. Not to have a huge ego here, but most people love to meet professional athletes and hang out in the VIP section with us.”

“Maybe his guy’s just busy,” Huff offered.

Carter scoffed. “Please. How busy? I mean, when I see Gloria’s pictures on Instagram and she’s sitting next to like Terrence Washington or Adrian Dela Cruz, you can bet I am sending flowers and booking the next flight to LA. If I was Kip’s boyfriend and I knew he was constantly hanging out with Scott—handsome, rich, captain of the fucking New York Admirals—I would be there, making my presence known.”

Eric turned to Scott. “Have you met Kip’s boyfriend?”

“I—yeah,” Scott said, because he’d never met Will, which was probably for the best, but Will wasn’t Kip’s boyfriend anymore, thank God. Scott was Kip’s boyfriend.

“What’s he like?”

“He’s…”—God, what could Scott even say? He’s the luckiest man in the universe and he loves Kip so much and he wants to tell everyone and he’s afraid to ever tell anyone and he’s me, he’s me, he’s me, he’s—“fine,” Scott finished lamely.

Eric gave a low whistle. “Wow, that bad?”

“Maybe we should help Kip find someone better,” Carter said. “The man should have options. Someone who even just looks like Kip would have options, but he’s the whole package.” Carter ticked off on his fingers, “Hot, nice, smart, patient.”

Scott took a large swallow of whiskey and signalled the waitress for another.

“Actually, I think my brother-in-law is single at the moment,” Huff said.

Which was how Scott ended up at a family barbeque hosted on Huff’s sprawling two acre lot in Westchester, watching Kip pass a soccer ball back and forth with Carter and Huff’s brother-in-law Mark while they were all hounded by Huff’s two blonde daughters.

Scott and Eric were seated at a patio table with a set of middle-aged women that Scott thought were Huff’s aunts—or Laura’s aunts, or possibly one of each—-but Scott was being a poor conversation partner, his eyes stuck on Kip like they were glued to him. Out on the grass, Kip pretended to trip over the ball and go sprawling so Huff’s youngest could steal it, but instead she elected to dive on top of him, shrieking with laughter, her sister following suit. Kip was laughing too, looking happy and open and beautiful. God, Scott thought, wretchedly. God.

This was what Kip deserved. The big, happy family where no one even thought about pretending that they didn’t love each other.

Even if Scott got his shit together and came out, he wasn’t bringing anything like this to the table. He had exactly two cousins, back in Alberta, who he hadn’t spoken to in six years.

“Scott,” Eric said. From his voice, Scott thought it maybe wasn’t the first time he’d said it.

“Sorry, what?” Scott said.

Eric was looking at him in a way that made Scott’s neck prickle. Perceptive. Like he could see right through him. Eric nodded over toward where Huff was waving a set of tongs. “Looks like burgers are ready.”

“Oh,” Scott said. “Sure. Great.”

Everyone descended on the food tables and when they carried their plates back out to the patio, Scott made sure to get the seat next to Kip so Mark couldn’t. He gave Kip’s knee a brief, possessive squeeze beneath the table, because he needed something, and Kip smiled at him quickly, private.

On the drive home, Scott said, quietly, “I’m sorry I can’t give you all that.”

Kip looked over at him from the passenger seat, puzzlement on his face.

“The house. The family,” Scott elaborated. Realistically, he could buy Kip a five million dollar house sometime in the future, but family couldn’t be conjured out of thin air and money. Scott had always known that.

Kip reached across the center console so he could put a hand on Scott’s forearm, stroke the tensed muscle with his thumb. “I don’t need all that, sweetheart,” he said. “You give me everything I need.”

-

“Do we think Kip’s boyfriend is rich?” Carter asked during the semi-monthly poker game that Eric hosted. “Architect in New York City? I don’t know what kind of money that makes but you’d think he could get Kip a nice watch or something.”

Huff groaned. Carter had recently read about the five love languages and started making it everyone’s problem.

Scott’s fingers clenched around his cards. He would love to shower Kip with extravagant gifts but Kip was generally opposed to that. “Kip doesn’t like expensive gifts.”

Eric gave Scott a searching look and Scott realized, too late, that by having that knowledge he’d basically admitted to trying to give Kip expensive gifts himself.

“Okay, fine, but he doesn’t seem like he’s giving Kip quality time either.”

Eric shook his head. “You can’t determine that just based on the fact that we haven’t met him.”

Scott looked down at his shitty hand. Not even any face cards. He didn’t actually get as much quality time with Kip as he wanted because of their horrible schedules. Come October, Scott was going to be traveling to away games every couple weeks again.

Carter pointed at Eric across the table. “Words of affirmation. I told Kip he looked good when we went out to the club and he looked at me like no one had ever said that to him before. Which is insane.” He turned to Scott, “Before you told us how you met, I assumed it was through one of your brand deals. Like he was one of the Hugo Boss models or something.”

That one Scott could easily refute if he could convince himself to finally tell them that Kip was his boyfriend. Scott told Kip that he was beautiful, smart, loved at every opportunity. Kip just had an issue with self-perception where he thought he was average even though he was actually an eleven. Scott would never be over the way Kip said ‘I can’t believe you’re even into me’ the first time they slept together when Scott was obviously dumbstruck every time he looked at him.

“And physical touch? Kip could get that anywhere,” Carter scoffed.

Scott felt a jolt of annoyance run through him. Kip would not be getting physical touch from just anywhere. He was getting it from Scott who could, perhaps, be labelled as clingy but Kip loved to be hugged, picked up, spooned while he slept, kissed, carressed, fucked—Scott could go on.

For the thousandth time, Scott considered putting a stop to the speculation about Kip’s loser boyfriend. Eric and Huff obviously didn’t have a problem with Kip being gay. Carter was, if anything, overly supportive. There was no real reason to think that they’d be fine with Kip being gay and not with Scott being gay, but any time Scott thought about saying something it still felt like he was being hunted for sport. He took a breath to calm his racing heart.

“Scott, your call,” Huff said.

“Fold,” Scott said, turning his cards face down.

-

“Scott?” Kip called from the entranceway, closing the door behind him. His voice sounded a little odd and when Scott came over to greet him Kip slid into his open arms and said, “Don’t freak out but I might have gotten lightly mugged.”

Scott gaped at him. “Mugged? Are you hurt?” He pulled back so he could look Kip over. There was no visible blood at least.

“Lightly mugged,” Kip repeated.

“Kip, what the fuck does lightly mugged mean?” Scott asked, feeling on his way to hysterical.

“I got threatened with a knife and not a gun.”

Scott fumbled with the buttons of Kip’s white dress shirt, pulling it off his shoulders. He wanted to see unblemished skin. “Why didn’t you call me to come pick you up?”

“I’m fine, Scott,” Kip said, letting Scott manhandle him so he could confirm. “The guy honestly seemed apologetic when he realized I was staff and not one of the attendees. He even let me keep my wallet, just took out the cash, so you don’t need to cancel your card.”

Scott could not have cared less about the black Amex that Kip never even used right now. “Kip.”

Kip took his hands. “I promise I’m okay. He did punch me in the face though so could you grab me an icepack?”

Scott spent what was left of the evening with Kip securely in his lap, helping him hold one of Scott’s many icepacks against his jaw, but it didn’t prevent a lurid purple-red bruise from blooming along Kip’s cheek. Kip didn’t seem to mind it terribly but Scott hated it with a passion. A visible reminder that Kip had been hurt, that Scott hadn’t been there to protect him.

Scott hoarded him in the penthouse for the next few days and Kip indulged him, although by the weekend he was clearly getting restless. “Carter wants to go to Spirits tonight,” Kip said, looking at his phone.

Scott reached for his own phone and saw the same message. “Do you want to go?”

“Yeah, for a couple hours maybe,” Kip said.

“Okay,” Scott said, ordering the car service.

Carter and Eric were already settled at a corner table when they arrived. “Oh shit, man. What happened?” Carter asked, eyes wide, when he saw the large bruise on Kip’s face. The edges had started to go an ugly yellow that made it look even worse than the first day.

Kip smiled self-deprecatingly. “Classic New York City mugging. I’m fine, honestly.”

When Huff arrived, they ordered drinks and the conversation turned to upcoming development camp until Carter said, incongruently, “Hey Kip, are you looking to hook up with anyone tonight?”

Kip looked at him, confused. “What? No, I love,”—there was a brief missed beat where Kip clearly didn’t want to say Will but couldn’t say Scott, before he finished with—“my boyfriend.”

“Oh, I thought you guys might have broken up,” Carter said. He angled his head toward a booth near the door. “And that dude has been staring at you for the past like five minutes.”

Kip turned to look and laughed. “That’s my friend Brian. We went to NYU together and I guarantee you his thought process right now is something like ‘Hey, is that Kip? No, why would Kip be in the VIP section. Wait, is that Kip?’ I’m going to go say hi.” He knocked his foot against Scott’s and slid out of the booth.

“Do we think Kip really got mugged?” Carter said quietly when Kip had reached the other table.

“Yes?” Eric said. “Why would he lie about that?”

Carter sighed. “Okay, look, I know you guys think I’m overinvested in Kip’s relationship situation but he’s told me some honestly concerning shit.”

“He got mugged, Carter,” Scott said. He didn’t even want to think about Will laying hands on Kip during their relationship and Kip had promised he hadn’t. Will had just been a cheating bastard with negging tendencies who was selfish during sex and also at all other times.

“But how do we know that for sure,” Carter insisted, stressed. “I was reading this article about male domestic violence awhile back and—”

And that was it. Scott was not doing this anymore. “I know he’s not being abused by his boyfriend because I’m his boyfriend,” Scott said, low.

There was a beat of shocked silence. Huff set down his beer with a loud clatter.

Carter jammed a hand into Scott’s ribs, the surprise on his face shifting to a buoyant grin. “Scotty! Scotty, that’s great! Did you steal him from Will?”

Scott groaned. At least Carter was taking the whole ‘Scott’s gay’ thing well. “Kip broke up with Will years ago. When I brought him to your party, he accidentally made that comment about being gay and then kind of panicked. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone about us so he pretended he had a boyfriend to make sure you wouldn’t connect the dots that I was his boyfriend.”

“Well, I’m glad you told us now,” Eric said, raising his glass in a toast as Huff nodded at his side. “We’re happy for you.”

Scott felt relief rush though him. He’d known—like 99% known—that they’d be good with it but the official confirmation was like scoring a game winning goal in overtime, euphoric.

“I mean, full disclosure, we were totally rooting for you with Kip this whole time, we just didn’t think you’d realized you were in love with him. We were trying to give you time to figure it out for yourself,” Carter said.

“Oh believe me, I realized I was in love with Kip extremely quickly,” Scott said. “I basically asked him to move in with me after our first date.”

Huff patted him on the shoulder. “Yeah, that tracks.”

“Damn, okay, Hunter,” Carter laughed. “And this was when?”

“Nine months ago,” Scott said and sketched out the trajectory of his meeting Kip, almost fumbling it, and then locking in. Kip came back just as Scott was explaining to Carter that Kip absolutely had not wanted the $50,000 check Scott had offered him for his student loans but that Scott had managed to get him to accept a nice suit and a couple fancy colognes for which he did not know the price per milliliter.

“Kip!” Carter said, grinning hugely.

Kip glanced at Scott. It wasn’t like it was unusual for Carter to be excited to see him but he’d only stepped away for a few minutes. “I told them,” Scott said.

A cautious hope rose in Kip’s eyes. “Told them?” he said, carefully.

“About us,” Scott said and basked in Kip’s smile.

“Thank God. Man, I was seriously ready to wreck your boyfriend,” Carter said to Kip, using finger quotes on boyfriend.

Kip winced. “Yeah, I noticed, sorry. I didn’t want to get my facts confused so I committed hard to talking about Will and not Scott whenever you asked me something.”

“So Scott is a good boyfriend though, right?”

“I traded up so much it’s honestly ridiculous,” Kip said and Scott felt himself flush with pride. “Can I finally brag a little? Okay, he makes me pancakes every Saturday, even during the part of the season he’s not allowed to eat them. He’s an extremely good kisser. I get a call every night when you’re at away games.”

“I did notice you becoming way more obsessed with your phone this year,” Eric said to Scott.

Scott could be far more obsessed, he thought. He was absolutely dying to make a picture of Kip his lock screen, to add hearts beside his name in his contact information.

Kip continued, “He helps my dad fix things around the house.”

Huff raised an eyebrow at Scott and said, somewhat skeptical, “You know how to fix things?”

“Not really,” Scott admitted readily. George had mostly trained him to hold items and to recognize different types of wrenches.

“He likes to talk to you while he fixes things. Moral support is important,” Kip said. He also didn’t really know how to fix things. He and Scott had both gotten soaked trying to replace a pipe under their kitchen sink a couple months ago. They’d ended up laughing, stripping off their wet clothes and fucking on the marble countertop before Scott called a genuine plumber.

Eric clinked his glass lightly against Scott’s. “We’re here for moral support too. Just so it’s clear.”

“Thanks,” Scott said, swallowing around the lump in his throat.

Carter was nodding along as Kip continued to list Scott’s virtues and Scott felt a smile stretch across his face. Kip thought he was a good boyfriend and someday, hopefully soon, Scott was going to be an even better one; a great boyfriend, a fantastic husband. Beneath the table, he reached for Kip’s hand, interlacing their fingers, and Kip gave him a reassuring squeeze.

I love you so fucking much. I’ll make sure you always know it, Scott thought. Someday everyone was going to know it, but for now, this was enough.