NHL Imagines

History Lessons (Anders Lee x Reader)

You were working on your Master's Degree at NYU. It was hard to balance working on your degree with the busy schedule of your boyfriend, New York Islanders captain, Anders Lee, but both of you made it work.

The Islanders had a few days off, so Anders was over at your place, wanting to spend time with you while he could. You told him that you had to work on your thesis, but he didn't mind.

"Any time spent with you is good." He had said.

So, Anders was over and he had decided to cook you dinner, which was nice. Anders cooked while you were at the kitchen island working on your thesis.

"How's it going?" Anders asked you with a smile, a kitchen towel thrown over his shoulder as he leaned onto the island across from you.

You looked over your laptop with your own smile. "Do you really want to know?"

Anders' jaw dropped as he gave you a fake offended expression. "I'm hurt that you would ever imply that I wouldn't want to know how you're doing or how your work is going."

You shook your head. "Okay. So my paper is about the battle of human rights in Canada in the end of the twentieth century."

Anders nodded. "I knew that." That being said, he knew nothing about the topic, just that you were doing a paper on it.

"It's so fascinating." You smiled. "I mean, I could write like eight different papers just about this topic. I could have looked at women's rights broadly, or the abortions laws, language rights, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Indigenous rights, the White Paper and the Red Paper, Bill C-150, or gay rights broadly. Really the options I had to write about were endless."

Anders laughed, he really had no idea about Canadian laws, especially ones implemented before he was born. "So what did you choose?"

"Well, you see, a lot of the things I just listed had one very big over lap." You explained, gesturing with your hands.

Anders' smile softened. "Oh?"

You nodded your head excitedly. "Prime Minister Trudeau. Yes, Canada's current Prime Minister is also Trudeau. The Trudeau I'm talking about is his dad, Pierre." You tacked on when Anders opened his mouth to ask about Trudeau. At your explanation, he closed his mouth and nodded.

"So," you continued. "I thought, why not write about Trudeau's involvement in human rights in Canada?!" You said with such a big smile.

You had the best smile, and you were so passionate about your work, about anything and everything you loved. And you always worked your hardest and found joy in the smallest of things and your screen saver was a picture of you and Anders and there was a special order to your kitchen cabinets that you had smacked him on the ass with a dish rag for messing up.

And he loved it. He loved you.

"I'm talking about Bill C-150 and the decriminalization of homosexuality and abortion in Canada and the long term implications of both of those things, the Official Language Act and the move to a bilingual Canada and how that has effected Canada for the better, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. I have a lot to say on the Charter. I'm going to talk about it as it was designed, guaranteeing fundamental freedoms, but also how section 15 was used by women and the LGBT community to advance their rights within the country. Did you know that Ontario was the first province in Canada to legalize gay marriage? Well, they did in 2003 when the Ontario Supreme Court found that restricting marriage to opposite sex couples was in violation of section 15." You rambled on and Anders' smile only grew as he listened to you talk.

He could learn a lot from you, and he did on the regular. But, honestly, he could listen to you talk about anything and everything for the rest of his life and he would die a happy man, he knew that for sure.

"God I love you." Anders said, shaking his head after you had finished speaking. The words had just slipped out of his mouth and they hung heavily in the air.

"What did you just say?" You asked him softly after a moment.

Anders cleared his throat. "I love you, (Y/N)."

"You do?" You couldn't help but ask.

Anders deadpanned. "No, I just said that because I'm actually in love with your couch."

You rolled your eyes as you hopped off the bar stool. "No need to get sassy with me." You said as you walked over to him.

You brought your hand up to pull the towel off his shoulder before cupping his cheek. "I love you too, Anders."

Anders smiled at you. "Really? You don't have to say it back just be—"

"I mean it." You cut him off.

Anders' smiles grew and he leaned down to press his lips to yours in a soft kiss, his arms wrapping around your waist as he pulled you flush against his body. And both of you would have stayed like that for a while if not for his timer going off.