History Literature / YouCouldMakeALife

''you could make a life'' is a WebOriginal [[TheVerse Verse]] written by Taylor Fitzpatrick that's set in a "slightly askew and (even) gayer" version of the NHL and follows the careers and love lives of a variety of closeted and not-so-closeted hockey players.

* YouNeedToGetLaid: Poor Thomas hears some variant of this pretty often. An example: ''"Hey Vinny, still doing that whole virgin shit to turn into a super goalie?" Bergen asks. “'Cause man, gotta break it to you, you're never going to be a starter, so maybe you should give up and get your dick wet already."''

* CanadaEh: Smashed into little pieces; the majority of characters may hail from Canada, but they're just as trash-talking and hard-hitting on the ice rink as the average athlete. Also completely inverted with David and Jake, who are hyped by the media as a sweet, gentlemanly Canadian player in a rivalry with a brash, rough-edged American player when their actual personalities are the almost exact opposite.

* TheyDo:
** Dan and Marc get together in the first chapter, stay together for the rest of the series, and [[spoiler:even get HappilyMarried]].
** [[spoiler:Andy and Derek]] also have an unambiguous "getting their heads out of their asses and admitting their feelings to each other" conclusion to their story.
** Jared and Bryce, after getting past their initial hostility towards each other, become the most stable and loving couple of the verse that isn't Dan and Marc. [[spoiler:They're also the only gay couple other than Dan and Marc to get married.]]

* WhamEpisode: After writing an upbeat love story about an extremely stable couple and a somewhat gritter and more turbulent romance that nonetheless worked out for the most part with both parties, the next multichaptered story Fitzpatrick wrote featured an immensely dysfunctional and emotionally abusive relationship that was ''not'' played solely for hatesex kinks [[spoiler:and ended with both characters breaking up for good]]. Many readers who had expected [[spoiler:Luke and Nikita's relationship to somehow work out in the end like Marc and Dan's and Mike and Liam's had]] were thrown off-guard by this development and have since then learned to [[spoiler:not take a happy ending for any couple in the verse for granted]], to the point where more than one reader thought that David would end up [[spoiler:heartlessly abusing Jake like Nikita did with Luke]] and the author had to clarify that David is much more {{Tsundere}} than BastardBoyfriend.

* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/series/250237 Vinny gets a life]]'': Habs back-up goalie Thomas Vincent is helplessly in love with his best friend/Habs defenceman Anton Petrov but [[RomanticAsexual doesn't want to have sex with him]], to his confusion.

* {{Asexuality}}: Thomas Vincent seems to be somewhere on the asexual spectrum.

* ShutUpKiss: Joey and Scratch's FirstKiss involves Scratch pulling this on Joey, who lampshades it and makes fun of Scratch for being cliche (before giving Scratch one in return). RealityEnsues:

* ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/64465 between the teeth]]'': David Chapman hates his rival Jake Lourdes for [[AlwaysSecondBest being better than him in every way]]. Then he winds up unexpectedly kissing Jake one day and things [[DatingCatwoman get complicated from there on]].

The first two series are no longer available on ''Website/ArchiveOfOurOwn'' after Fitzpatrick got them revised and published, but they can be purchased [[https://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/69921804300/paypal-orders here]].

* YouWouldntBelieveMeIfIToldYou: Vinny's reason for [[CannotSpitItOut refusing to talk]] to anyone about his sexuality/feelings for Anton.
* YourCheatingHeart: Georgie slept around on all his partners, including Robbie.