Chapter Text
Getting into the locker room isn’t a difficult task. He’s Sidney Crosby after all. He waits until after the boys win their last game, bringing home gold in the tournament. On his way to the locker room he runs into one of the coaches for the team. He tells him that he’d like to be able to meet the boys. Without a moment of hesitation he’s led right to where the boys are celebrating their win.
The assistant coach announces his presence to the room and it goes quiet except for a few side conversations as he enters properly. He takes a breath in and looks around, spotting Aiden Celebrini off at the far end of the room. He can smell it in here too, the smell of ocean breeze, though it’s more contained than he would have expected considering how strong it was earlier when he was in the stands. That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s on the wrong path though, there’s so many scents going on in the room, and so much that could be clogging his senses. His own excitement could honestly be holding him back at this point too.
He gives a small speech about how they looked great out there and how they played well during the tournament and how they should be proud of themselves. The boys take turns taking pictures with him, it works in his favor that Aiden is near the back and is the last boy in the room to come up for his photo. Sidney smells it again, significantly stronger now that the boy is close to him.
It doesn’t smell quite right though. Like the boy is a packmate of Nikita, like this Aiden knows and is close to his Aiden, but this isn’t his Aiden. Still, this is the closest he’s been to finding his pup and he’s not going to let this go to waste. He turns to the boy and says, “good job out their kid. How would you feel about attending a summer skating session?”
The boy seems taken aback by the question, “yeah no for sure. Do you want my number?” He ends up typing his number into the boy’s phone and sending himself a message.
“Before you go, bud, I’d like to meet your parents.” Aiden nods his head quickly and Sid takes that as his queue to leave. It doesn’t take that long for Aiden to come out after their conversation anyways, Sidney knows that the boy doesn’t want to leave him waiting long. As Aiden leads him towards his parents, Sid takes the time to tell him a few things that he noticed while watching him play. He’s not ripping into the boy by any means, his team did win the tournament after all, but he is giving him some tips for how to improve his stick handling.
As they get closer to the Celibrini’s his nose perks up again, it’s similar to when he was sitting in the stands watching Aiden play. He instinctually speeds up, it feels like coming home to Nikita after he’s gone for worlds. Finally they turn a corner and it’s almost like all of his senses are screaming at him.
His pup is here.
There’s a boy who’s probably about the same height as Sid, standing with a man and a woman who Sid can only assume are Mr. and Mrs. Celebrini. The boy sniffs and makes a somewhat confused face before he looks up from his phone and his eyes go wide at the sight of Aiden and Sid walking side by side. He says something that Sid can’t hear, but it prompts both the woman and the man who had been having a conversation before to look in their direction.
Rick Celebrini, as Sid finds out when the man introduces himself, is Aiden’s father. And the woman, Robyn, respectfully his wife. Sid is less focused on them though, turning to look directly at the younger boy before reaching out his hand and introducing himself. The boy, Mack, stutters a little when introducing himself, Sid thinks he might be a little in shock that Sid is introducing himself to him. He knows he has that effect on people, especially if those people are up and coming hockey players.
The minute their hands touch he knows it’s over for him. It’s like all his nerves are lit up and he feels like a mother whose son’s returned from war. He can tell Mack must feel it as well from the way his eyes widen as they make contact. He forces himself to let his grip go, although he would have rather pulled Mack into his chest and kept him there forever instead. He turns to the Celebrini’s, “I talked to your son Aiden about this already, but I would like to invite both of your boys here to a skating session this summer.” Rick and Robyn look slightly surprised at first before both cooling their expressions.
“Yes of course, uh… when would that be?” Rick asks.
“Late July, near Halifax. Also, I’ve gotten Aiden’s number. Is it ok for me to also get Mack’s, for the sake of setting things up?” He’s trying not to push too hard. Mack is still a child after all, but he really wants a way to contact his son, even if it’s just to help him with his hockey. His worries are for naught though. Mack gladly hands over his number and Sid puts the kid into his contacts immediately.
When their conversation is over and there isn’t anymore that he can say to keep them there longer, he gets just around the corner from them leaving and starts dialing Geno’s number. He doesn’t pick up the first time, based on the time alone he’s probably asleep, so Sid calls him again and he picks up on the third ring. “Sid, what so important you need wake me up?” The Russian's groggy voice says over the line.
“I was wrong about Aiden, Geno.” He can hear the sigh from the other man coming though.
“Sid I tell you not to get hopes up,” he says a little annoyed. He know why Geno feels this way, but he also knows that he has more important things to share.
“Yes, but I didn’t finish bud.”
“Ok Sid, continue, explain why you call.”
“The reason Aiden smelled like our Aiden is because our Aiden is his brother.”
“Huh SId, how you know this?”
“I met him, they renamed him Mack. Oh Geno, he smells just like Nikita. And when I shook his hand I had this feeling, ya know? I could tell that he felt it too. I invited both of them to Nova Scotia this summer for a skating sesh. You just have to meet him too.”
“Wow Sid, they rename him to Mack? That is not good Russian name!” Of course that’s the part that Geno gets hung up on.
Sid lets out a laugh and his head hangs down a little, “I don’t know if Aiden is any better bud.” Geno just groans in return.