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Alexei’s flight landed in Montreal three hours ago but he was still waiting in baggage claim.
Jack invited him up to his family’s cabin in Quebec for their Christmas break. It was supposed to be a bunch of players and some friends but the weather took a turn for the worse and Alexei wasn’t sure where their plans stood. He was supposed to fly into Quebec and rent a car for the drive two hours outside of the city to a ski resort, but that plan was looking less and less likely.
Most of the flights were diverted or cancelled and while the car rental company agreed to change the reservation to Montreal, Alexei wasn’t sure who else would even be there if he did drive up. Jack, his parents, and Bitty flew in last night to beat the weather and Alexei was kicking himself for not doing the same.
Because Jack texted him when he landed that someone else’s flight diverted to Montreal as well.
Which was how Alexei found himself looking for an Aces’ bag while Kent spoke angrily into his phone a few feet away.
“The weather here is fine; I don’t know why we even had to divert,” he was grumbling, keeping his voice down but clearly still pissed. Alexei assumed it was Jack on the other line.
“Then I’ll rent my own car,” he said, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Fuck you, Jack. I grew up in upstate New York. I know how to drive in the snow.”
Alexei saw a black duffel with PARSON written on the side of it and he heaved it off the conveyor. He dropped it down at Kent’s feet.
“Thanks,” Kent said with a sigh, hanging up on Jack.
Alexei forced a smile. Parson probably didn’t mean anything by it. Alexei heard his words nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day, and it was easy enough to stay relaxed and say something identifiable enough his soulmate wouldn’t pass him by.
But there was still the same thrill of it. Were these Parson’s first words to him? They’d been in the league long enough together, surely they crossed paths before? But Alexei racked his brain and couldn’t come up with a single conversation they’d had together.
“Why you pack such heavy bag? Christmas break only four days long.”
Alexei wasn’t exactly thrilled to be spending the holiday with Parson but he couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed when Parson didn’t show a flash of understanding or some other recognition for his words. If anything, Parson’s expression seemed somewhat annoyed.
“My snowboarding helmet didn’t exactly fit in my carry on,” he said wryly.
“Probably because your head so big,” he muttered while he went with Kent to go grab his snowboard off the oversized baggage conveyor.
Who in Las Vegas even owned a snow board?
_X_
Kent was going to kill Jack.
He shoved his bag into the trunk of their rented RAV 4 with more force than was probably necessary but Maskov didn’t seem to notice.
Kent wasn't sure how Jack engineered the worst snow storm Quebec had seen in five years but he wouldn’t put it past him. Kent could count on one hand the number of people who even knew his words, but Jack was definitely one of them.
Jack was one of maybe two people with enough information to put together Mashkov was the one who said them two years ago in Providence. Right before Mashkov called him an asshole and threatened to fight him.
Kent had sort of been hoping that while Jack was busy pretending Kent never existed that he’d also forgotten about his words. Then again, Kent knew that he hadn’t forgotten the delicate loops of What did you just say? along Jack’s collarbone. Kind of hard to forget when you trace them with your tongue.
Either way. Jack must have put together Mashkov had his words so Kent fell back on saying something super commonplace to him, hoping that he wouldn't immediately make Kent as his soulmate. One car ride and a holiday together and Kent could go back to pretending he didn’t even have a soulmate.
“Buckled in?” Mashkov asked as Kent slammed the door on their rental shut.
“Yeah,” he said, slumping down in his chair. Mashkov floored the acceleration and then stepped down heavy on the brake. Kent yelped and rubbed his shoulder with a glare.
Kent pulled up directions on his phone to the cabin and navigated them onto the highway. Mashov yanked the car over into the left lane and Kent gripped his armrest a little tighter. Part of him wondered if he was driving aggressively because he was trying to be a dick or if it was just a Russian thing.
Maybe it was just an East Coast driver thing.
“So just stay on this for like three hundred miles,” Kent said. “I’ll let you know when we get close.” The GPS said that should be there in just under five hours. Kent could deal with being stuck in the car with Mashkov for five hours. “You mind if I mess with the radio?”
“Okay,” Mashov said, stepping on the gas.
Kent flipped through the stations trying to find something good to listen to but he kept changing the frequency and he could see Mashkov getting annoyed. He changed the station two more times trying to find literally anything other than commercials and weather notices. He had an aux cord in his bag but there was no way he was going to climb over the seats to get it, especially with Mashkov’s driving.
Mashkov switched lanes to pass someone on the right and Kent took his hand off the radio to grip the armrest instead, swearing a bit when they cut back over. The radio settled on a classical station where the announcer introduced the songs in a softly lilting French.
Kent’s phone was already on low battery, though, so as much as he wanted to lose himself to Instagram and send snaps to Swoops, he left it on the center console and watched the snow fall out the window.
“You speak French?” Mashkov asked when Kent chuckled at something the radio announcer said.
“Uh, yeah. A little. I played Juniors in Quebec,” Kent said, glancing over at him. “I’m not gonna be analyzing poetry or anything but I can get by,” he shrugged. He also finished the first two levels of Russian Rossetta Stone before deciding he didn’t want anything to do with soulmates.
The snow started coming down harder and Mashkov blessedly slowed down so Kent could relax a little.
Their conversation hung in the air.
Kent cleared his throat. He’d sat through how many post-loss interviews? He’d faked his way through his secret-boyfriend’s overdose. He could do this.
“So, are you renting your stuff up there?” Kent asked. “It doesn’t look like you packed any gear.”
“Oh no, not for me,” Mashkov chuckle. “I’m planning to sit in kitchen and eat all the food Bitty makes.”
Kent forced a laugh but he wasn’t exactly looking forward to a long weekend with Jack’s soulmate. Then again, between his soulmate, ex-boyfriend, ex-boyfriend’s parents, and ex-boyfriend’s fiancée, Bitty was probably the lowest threat. He was the only person there who Kent wasn’t emotionally invested in before being cut out of their life so, like, he was pretty sure he’d be fine hanging out with Bittle.
“Why drive all the way out to a ski resort if you aren’t going to ski or snowboard a little? You know, I could probably teach you,” Kent said, trying to refocus on Mashkov.
Wait. Spending more time with Mashkov was what he wanted to avoid.
Luckily Mashkov didn’t seem to be in a rush to hit the slopes. “Plan to get me injured, huh? I guess is easier to do here than on ice,” Mashkov teased and Kent clenched his jaw. “Besides. I come to spend time with friends. But most guys’ flights cancelled. So now maybe I make new friends.” Fuck, he sounded all hopeful and earnest and Kent felt himself relax a little more.
“Either way, it’s four days of free food, right?” Kent added.
With the mention of food, Mashkov’s stomach growled loudly. Kent chuckled and Mashkov looked a little embarrassed so he pulled up his phone. “Yeah, I’ll look up some place to pull over. I’m kind of in the mood for a burger and I’m going to need to charge my phone soon anyway.”
Kent was secretly super into Yelp which helped out a lot in a place like Vegas where the restaurant scene was exploding. Plenty of guys on the Aces came to him when they needed a nice place for a first date or an anniversary dinner and he really didn’t have the heart to tell them most of it was just, you know, putting in the bare minimum amount of effort. But he turned his location on and found a mom-and-pop dinner a few exits away that he could easily direct Mashkov to drive to.
They parked the car and Kent dug through his bag in the back seat to get his phone charger (and more importantly aux cord). They were more than half way to Quebec but he seriously needed some better music selection.
The diner had a little bit of a 70s vibe to it. As Kent slid into a booth he tried to figure out if it was on purpose or if it was just because that was how Canada was sometimes.
Mashkov was already looking over a menu. He stretched out beneath the table and his legs knocked against Kent’s. Kent jerked away and kneed the top of the table hard enough to bruise. He swore under his breath and tried to rub the spot through his jeans before settling back a little to give Mashkov some room.
It was well into the afternoon but Mashkov ordered two breakfast platters and a handful of sides and Kent got a tourtière. He chatted with their waitress a little in Quebecois who teased him about his accent and Kent winked at her and told her he just needs someone to practice with.
“Where is your cat?” Maskov asked him suddenly. “Kitt Purson?”
“You know about my cat?”
“Yes, she is most famous Parson.”
Kent laughed at that and pulled up the gallery on his phone. “She sort of hates flying so she’s spending the holidays with a friend in Vegas. You want to see what she did to the Christmas hat I tried to get on her?” he asked, his need to brag about his cat overwhelming any instincts of self preservation he had to not engage Mashkov.
“Must be a very good friend for you to trust with Kitt,” Maskov said and his smile was a little awkward but Kent could roll with it.
“Yeah, sure. You, uh, have a dog or something right?”
“No, but I’m think about adopting one,” he said, pulling out his own phone to show Kent a photo. “This is Snowy’s dog. I watch him sometimes. And I help out at a local shelter.”
“That one’s pretty cute,” Kent smiled. It was a selfie of Mashkov with some sort of Pitbull mix that could’ve been Snow’s dog. They both had on dopey grins.
Mashkov scrolled over and it was a picture of Jack and a Husky, both with similar intense expressions. Kent cleared his throat and settled back in his seat. He hadn’t realized he’d leaned nearly half way over the table to see Mashkov’s phone.
As their food arrived, Kent steered them to safer conversation topics. He asked Mashkov about his family and what his plans were when he got back to Providence. It wasn’t the most scintillating conversation but Mashkov was a pretty high energy guy—once Kent figured out how to prompt him, he’d go on for a while.
Mashkov tried to grab the check but Kent grabbed it off the table first. It wasn’t a date if Mashkov didn’t pay, he told himself. “I got this. You’re driving anyway,” he said and Mashkov offered up a token protest which Kent ignored while he gave his card to the waitress.
She wrote her number on the receipt when she gave it back. Kent felt a little bad about leaving it on the table but he wrote in a hundred dollars for the tip and scrawled a thank you note on the back.
It was snowing harder when they got back into the car but not enough that Kent was worried about not making it to the cabin yet. He got his GPS back up and pulled up a Spotify playlist so they could really get their road trip going.
“You like good music,” Alexei said as they turned back on the highway.
“Let me know if you have any requests,” Kent said, shaking his phone.
Mashkov acted a little weird on the drive. It took Kent a second to realize it because he was a little preoccupied with his life flashing before his eyes every time Mashkov changed lanes on the snow-covered road. But he chatted like they were old friends.
It turned out Alexei had excellent taste in music but pretty trash taste in movies. He was pretty fun to rile up about it.
“How have you not seen Star Wars?! Is cinematic classic!”
“I don’t know. It never really came up,” Kent shrugged, trying to hide his grin.
“Never came--- Next time you in Providence, after we beat you, you come to my house and we will watch together,” Alexei said, punctuating his offer with hits to the steering wheel. “Is inspiring tale of hope. Will help ease bruised ego.”
“So, what you’re saying is when we win I won’t have to watch it, right?”
They were about an hour from Quebec when the snow picked up and it started to get hard to see on the road. Alexei slowed down but Kent had been watching their arrival time roll back for the past two hours on what was only supposed to be a five-hour drive. And his service was cutting in and out. And his phone was dying again.
Behind the wheel, Alexei was starting to look worried as well. It wasn’t night yet but it was looking less and less likely that they would make it up to the cabin before sunset and Kent really didn’t want to get stuck out at night.
“Fucking T-Mobile,” Kent grumbled when the call dropped again. “Hey, can you pull over in a sec so I can call Jack and let him know we’re not making it? We can probably find like a hotel or something to crash in.”
Alexei made a doubtful sound and Kent couldn’t really blame him. It didn’t look like many other cars were out on the road and it had been ten miles since their last exit. He really didn’t want to get stuck on the side of the road but he’d take it over driving blind.
“Allo?”
“Hey, remember that snowstorm that grounded my flight?” Kent said without preamble. Jack had caller ID and a bachelor’s degree; he’d figure it out. “Yeah, we’re stuck in it right now. I’m sending you my location, can you look up the nearest hotel? My phone is on like 9%.” Maybe Kent shouldn’t have played so much music and burned through the charge he picked up at the diner but there was a reason none of his awards were for pre-planning.
“Okay, give me a second to look.”
“8%,” Kent said, looking at his screen and turning down the backlight as far as it would go.
“Not helping,” a voice said on Jack’s end. Probably Bittle.
“It looks like you’re about ten miles from a town with a bed and breakfast. The reviews are a little iffy though,” Jack said over the line. Kent only barely kept from snapping at Zimms that he didn’t care about the reviews. But he kept quiet and listened to the sound of more typing. “They don’t accept reservations online, though? The next closest place is a Marriott-- but they’re booked up. And—no, they’re booked up too.”
“Read me off directions to the first place in case my phone dies,” Kent ordered. He dug through the center console for a pen and jotted down Jack’s directions on the back of his hand. “Okay, I’ll text you when we get there,” he said just before his phone buzzed with a low power notification.
Alexei eased the car back onto the highway and kept the four-way flashers on while they crept along. The weather was bad enough that Kent didn’t want to distract him and Alexei kept a white-knuckle grip on the wheel tightly the entire way there, eyes locked on the road.
Once off the highway the roads didn’t look any better. They got to a light and Kent felt the lurch of the car as its wheels skidded on the snow. He reached out to grab Alexei’s arm while he steered into the skid and recovered control easily.
“It’s okay. We’re almost there,” Alexei muttered and Kent let go of his arm just as quickly.
Kent didn’t know what sort of backwoods town Zimmermann picked out for them but beggars can’t be choosers and when Alexei turned their car into the parking lot, Kent was just relieved they hadn't died.
Kent grabbed his wallet and backpack and was out of the car before Alexei even turned it off.
The reception area also looked like something out of the 70s, but more like the 1870s. Kent tried not to make eye contact with the taxidermy moose head as he approached the check-in desk.
“Hi there,” he said, plastering a smile onto his face. “I was wondering if you had two rooms for the night?”
“Oh! You must be Kent!” the girl said. She looked like she couldn’t have been older than sixteen. “Your friend called earlier. I tried to tell him over the phone, but we’re booked up for the festival. There’s only have one room for the night,” she told him apologetically.
Kent could hear Alexei walk in behind him. “That’s fine. It beats being out in the snow, right?” he said but her worried expression didn’t go away.
“Well, it’s just, I’m not sure how to say this,” she said, looking up at Alexei. “But it’s a single. I mean! There’s a queen bed in there and a sofa but it’ll be a tight fit. Honestly, I should just send you over to the Marriott. It’s only like 10 minutes from here and—”
“We’ll make it work,” Kent cut her off. He dug out his wallet and put down his credit card. “Do you guys have some extra blankets or anything we can take up? And what’s this about a festival?”
“It’s the festival of lights. The town puts it on every year right before Christmas but it’s technically inter-faith. Tonight’s the last night so everyone’s in town,” she explained.
She ran his card and checked his ID. She didn’t seem to recognize the name which made Kent relax a little. Then she went to go grab them some extra linens which she passed over the desk to Alexei and Kent took the keys with an extra pillow.
The room was up two flights of the narrowest stairs Kent had seen in his life.
The place used honest-to-god brass keys. Kent turned it in the lock and swung the door open. He searched around for a light switch and flicked it on. Then all he could do was laugh.
Alexei finished maneuvering his suitcase up the stairs and Kent was holding his sides. He couldn’t even chirp Mashkov for being out of breath on the stairs because he was laughing so hard.
“I guess we know why she wanted to send us to the Marriott,” he got out finally, wiping at his eyes.
“That is supposed to be queen bed?” Alexei asked dubiously. He tried to lay down on it and his feet dangled off the end.
“Nah, man. I have a queen bed and I’ve gotten guys your size into it. No, that’s like. Maybe a full.” Kent dumped the extra blankets down on the couch which was more of a loveseat. It wasn’t even going to be large enough for Kent to lay out on it which meant he’d probably spend the night on the floor. “Whatever. Don’t get too comfortable. I want to hit up this festival of lights.”
They’d been cooped up in planes and cars all day and Kent just wanted to walk around a little bit. The roads sucked but the girl at the desk made it sound like the festival was only a few blocks away.
“If you come with me, I can leave my phone here to charge. Otherwise I’ll go alone, get lost, freeze to death in the cold, and the Aces will sue you for manslaughter or something,” he said.
Finally, Alexei threw up his hands and got off the bed. “Fine, fine! I’ll go with you. But not for too long.”
“It’ll be like an hour max, bro,” Kent smiled, getting his jacket back on.
They had to maneuver the stairs again and got some directions from the receptionist but Kent’s suspicion the festival was nearby proved to be correct and it was only a few blocks away—easy enough to walk despite the snow coming down. They probably didn’t even need the directions because after they turned the corner, Kent could hear the sounds of some sort of celebration already happening.
It all seemed localized on one street. Storefronts were lit up with elaborate window displays and Christmas lights were strung back and forth so it looked like there was a roof of color shielding them from the snow. Kent could smell caramel and popcorn in the air and kids were running down the street, shouting and dragging plastic sleds behind them.
Kent laughed again and went to go track down some funnel cakes. There was a section that was exclusively tents for food vendors and they got in line funnel cake which they ate in the line for poutine and then Alexei wanted to go see whatever hill the kids were sledding down.
At the end of the street, just beyond where the ceiling of lights ended, there was a steep hill down towards a lake. A few people skated on the water but Kent’s attention was taken up by the twenty or so children ridding sleds all the way down to the bottom.
“I think that guy’s renting out inner tubes. We have to do it,” Kent said, taking Alexei by the arm and dragging him forward.
Kent grew up in a small town. He loved Las Vegas for everything she’d given him but there were some things about home he’d always miss, including sledding down the hill behind his house.
Alexei paid the attendant in cash and got them a rickety looking plastic sled.
“Can hold us both, I think,” Alexei grinned.
“Cool, I call the front,” Kent said as they dragged it to the edge. "I've seen enough of your driving."
It looked like there were also a few adults sledding down the hill but all of them brought their own sleds. Kent didn’t mind if theirs looked cheap by comparison but he was a little worried about its structural integrity with two professional athletes weighing it down.
Kent fit himself at the front of the sled and dug his heels into the fresh powder to hold them at the top of the hill while Alexei positioned himself behind him. Kent had a sudden flashback to a high school physics question about a mass on a frictionless surface but he didn’t have time to run any calculations before Alexei put his arms around him and Kent let go.
The wind whipped by their faces, drying out Kent’s eyes as they hurtled down the slope. Alexei was laughing in his ear and Kent must’ve been laughing too. He pulled on the rope at the front but the sled refused to be directed. As they came to the bottom of the hill, Kent was just able to yank on one side hard enough the two of them went tumbling off the side and into the snow.
Alexei landed mostly on top of Kent, still laughing.
“Next time, I’m think I’m in front,” Alexei said with a dopey grin.
Kent looked up at him and wondered what it would be like to learn up and kiss him. He must have waited a second too long to respond because Alexei got a concerned look on his face. “You okay, Parser?”
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” he said, pushing Alexei off him. “I’ll race you back up to the top.”
It turned out that running up a hill of freshly fallen snow was a lot more difficult than crashing down it and both of them were out of breath by the time they turned their sled in a few runs later.
Kent made Alexei snag a table outside one of the shops for them to sit while he went off to get something to drink.
Kent got in line for some hot chocolate at a cart that had a little menorah lit up on top of it. Kent needed a second to clear his head.
“Come on, Parson, keep it together,” he reminded himself.
Initially, Kent did everything he could to avoid Alexei. He would watch tape but he deliberately avoided any press or interviews Mashkov did. The only one he’d seen had been a soundbite overheard at the gym about “typical Aces hockey” and how “Providence plays a different game.”
But Mashkov seemed like a decent enough guy. Kent was used to the idea of his soulmate wanting nothing to do with him because he acted like he hated his guts. Kent’s soul mark wasn’t exactly encouraging and that whole finding-your-first-boyfriend-not-breathing-on-a-bathroom-floor thing combined with the there-are-no-gays-in-hockey thing meant that Kent’s relationship experience was decidedly limited. He could joke about getting guys Alexei’s size into bed but saying it was much different than actually doing it.
But Alexei seemed different enough off the ice Kent could see giving the soulmate thing a shot. The chirping and the extra hard checks were left back in the rink and Kent was imagining sappy shit like cuddling in front of a fireplace with him.
Which was pathetic. Alexei wasn’t even going out of his way to be nice to him or anything. Kent was trying to convince himself he wasn’t falling for the first person who’d been halfway decent to him in a while as he rubbed the spot over his chest where Mashkov’s handwriting said You liking hit like that so much? Huh? I can hit, too!
Kent swiped his card for two hot chocolate loaded up with marshmallows, whipped cream, and peppermint schnapps.
By the time he returned to the table Alexei squared away, a band had started playing some music and it was almost impossible to talk without shouting, so they walked back up and down the street.
It was getting late and they were filled up on food from the vendors. Kent was careful not to walk too close to Alexei but it was a conscious effort. He’d find himself leaning in towards him or knocking their shoulders together and had to remind himself to keep his distance. Kent practically lunged out from under a mistletoe at one point.
The snow hadn’t stopped falling but between Alexei’s company and the peppermint schnapps, Kent kept warm all the way back to their hotel.
They tumbled up the stairs, a little bit drunk and shushing each other the entire way up. Kent needed two tries to get the key in the door and when he saw the little bed in the center of it, he started giggling again.
“Lay down,” Alexei said, pushing him in the direction of it, his own words slurred slightly. “I’m go take shower.”
Kent didn’t need to be told twice and he flopped down on the bed. He managed to toe his shoes off but he dozed off and next thing he knew, Alexei was nudging his shoulder and directing him to the bathroom to clean up.
Kent washed up quickly and was glad he had the wherewithal to bring his pajamas to the bathroom with him. He slipped into a long-sleeved flannel that was soft enough to sleep in and wouldn’t give away the words on his chest. Combined with an old pair of sweat pants, he’d probably be warm enough to brave the floor for the night.
“What are you doing?” Alexei asked when he went to the loveseat to try and organize the blankets. “Couch is too small and it’s too cold to sleep on the floor.”
“Dude, we are not both going to fit in that bed. You barely fit in that bed,” Kent pointed out.
“Then is good thing you’re so small,” Alexei said, sliding over to one side.
Kent looked over at the sad loveseat and decided that there wasn’t any way for him to turn down Alexei’s offer without sounding like a dick, so he brought the blankets over to the bed instead. Mashkov was scrolling through something in Russian on his phone but Kent was too tired to try to read it. Perched on the edge of the bed, Kent tried to relax.
“Calm down,” Alexei teased him, setting his phone to the side and turning out the lights. “I’m very good big spoon.”
“Oh please,” Kent scoffed, settling down in the mattress a little more. It creaked like a haunted house anytime either of them moved. “You’re not even the big spoon. You’re like… a ladle.”
Alexei chuckled beside him but didn’t try to cuddle him and he didn’t seem to snore so eventually Kent was able to fall back asleep.
When Kent woke, the first thing he registered was how warm it was, followed by how safe he felt. Maybe it was a soulmates thing or maybe it was just how Alexei held him close, but Kent couldn’t remember the last time he’d woken up like this. He could talk a big talk, but he wasn’t exactly used to people staying the night.
Although he and Alexei started at different sides of the bed, sometime in the night Kent shifted so he laid half on top of Alexei. His body fit curled loosely up against Alexei’s where Kent wasn’t laying on his chest. Their legs were tangled together, which was to be expected, but Kent didn’t have any explanation for how they ended up holding hands over Mashkov’s heart.
Kent sighed and gently pulled himself away.
It would have been so easy to lay there. Their alarm hadn’t gone off and Alexei was still fast asleep. Kent could have blamed it on the cold or the narrow bed and they could have easily laughed it off, but that didn’t seem fair to him.
Kent eased his hand out of Alexei’s (his hands were the size of dinner plates, Jesus). The mattress creaked violently when he shifted himself away to give them some space and the sound roused Alexei.
Kent yawned and stretched his arms over his head and then brought them back until he felt his shoulder pop. “You awake,” he asked. Alexei looked at him blearily and rubbed his eyes. “This place is a bed and breakfast, right? Let’s get some breakfast.”
“No seven, no English,” Alexei grumbled, pointing at the grandfather clock across the room.
“доброе утро красавица,” Kent chuckled and reached over to ruffle Alexei’s hair from where he was trying to escape back under the blankets. “Come on, Tater. Let’s go see if their breakfasts are bigger than their beds.”
They got onto the road earlier than expected (even though Alexei wanted to take no fewer than 500 selfies with the deer head in the room) but the plows had been though and the roads were cleared off which Kent used as an excuse to insist on driving. Things were even better on the highway and they were able to cover twice the distance they did yesterday in nearly the same amount of time.
They did stop in Quebec to get lunch which turned into taking selfies and signing autographs for some locals. He watched Alexei’s smile tighten when people called back “Thanks!” and Kent tried to ignore it. There was a surprisingly high number of people out in the city so they decided they’d rather go up to the mountains than try and get any sightseeing in.
Before Kent knew it, he was driving along backwoods roads up to the cabin address Jack texted him. The place was close enough to the resort Kent would have been worried about people trying to follow them if not for the massive wrought iron gate and eight-digit pin they had to type in just to get into the place.
Kent parked the car and Alexei hopped out to help him with his snowboarding bag. Bad Bob was walking down the front steps of the cabin (did you still call mansions cabins just because they’re in the woods?) to try and give them a hand as well.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got this,” Kent said to Bob when he tried to help Alexei with the snowboard. After the ease of the car ride up with Alexei, Kent’s felt out of practice faking a smile.
In all honesty, this was the part of the trip he was dreading the most. Being forced to spend time with Alexei had helped keep his mind off it because Kent rationalized that he never really knew what he was missing with Alexei.
Kent knew what it was like to have Bob and Alicia Zimmermann. His first season in Juniors, Kent practically imprinted on them as a kid far from home for the first time. His first season in the NHL, he learned to grow up quickly without them.
Kent took the bag from Alexei and went to get his backpack out from the backseat as well.
“Kent, it’s been ages. When we heard about the storm, we weren’t sure you were going to make it,” Bob said, walking with them up to the house.
“It takes more than a little freak blizzard to stop me,” Kent said. He wondered which of the two of them had the better media smile. His money was on Bob.
Kent knew he was being unfair and he hated it. He hated that he was the reason Alexei was giving him a concerned look as they crossed the threshold into the house. Kent knew it wouldn’t have been fair to ask Bob or Alicia to choose between him and Jack. Especially when he knew they would’ve chosen Jack.
“The cabin looks great,” Kent said, taking in the décor. Alicia probably had a heavy influence in decorating it. There was decidedly less taxidermy.
“There are six bedrooms so you boys make yourselves at home. I think Jack is helping Eric in the kitchen,” Bob said magnanimously. “Alicia is already out skiing.”
“I’ll try and meet up with her then,” Kent said and he hoped it didn’t sound as much as it felt like fleeing.
_X_
Alexei was smarter than a lot of people gave him credit for.
Maybe it was his English or the jokes he liked to play on teammates, but he hadn’t survived six years in the NHL without being observant.
Kent Parson was a lot different than he’d imagined, though the more Alexei thought about it, the less sense it made they’d never met before this trip. The league was pretty small. Even with the distance between Las Vegas and Providence, they should have run into each other at least a few times. The teams traded players and they had a few of the same friends.
Unless Kent made a deliberate effort to avoid him.
Alexei didn’t know why his stomach rolled when the diner waitress flirted with Kent, or why he cared Kent left the receipt with her phone number on the table. Alexei might have even been able to ignore how Kent curled up in his arms at night or how he’d called Alexei beautiful in Russian, like he’d practiced it.
But there was Kent writing directions down on the back of his hand while Jack read them out on the phone.
Kent looped his S’s like they were in script.
Alexei recognized it from the same way the word Thanks curled around his forearm.
But Kent was writing fast and one letter certainly wasn’t enough evidence for Alexei to confront him about soulmates—especially given that Kent ignored Alexei’s first words to him at the airport.
It was enough for Alexei to Google ‘Kent Parson relationship’ on his phone, though. All Kent’s Wikipedia page offered was a sentence on a potential relationship with Jack back in Juniors followed by a much longer paragraph concerning a potential relationship with Taylor Swift.
All of this led to Alexei sitting at the breakfast bar, eating Bitty’s ingredients while he scrolled through Kent’s Instagram. The newest photo was from the top of one of the mountains with his snowboard in front of him.
“Did you eat all the blueberries?” Bitty asked. Before Bitty, Alexei wouldn’t have thought someone in an apron could be so intimidating.
“Uh,” Alexei looked down at the empty bowl. He hadn’t realized he’d eaten so many.
“It’s okay, Bits, I picked up extra,” Jack said, walking into the kitchen. “They’re in the fridge. Tater, can you help me hang some of this garland? We’re looping it over the fire place.”
“Draping,” Bitty corrected, “We’re draping it over the fire place.”
“Come on, Tater, help me drape the garland,” Jack said, dragging him out of the kitchen.
Tater held a pile of garland while Jack laid it out over the fire place. He could hear the music that Bitty played in the kitchen while Bad Bob Zimmermann helped him peel apples. It looked like the entire cabin was decorated for the holiday and there were personalized stockings for each of them already hanging.
Alexei loved Jack and Bitty and he had fun spending the day with them, but he’d gotten used to Kent’s sense of humor and had been looking forward to spending more time with him too. Out on the rink, he kept looking to Kent to comment on Bitty’s jumps or to set up a pickup game. When Alicia came back an hour to sundown, knocking snow off her boots and saying Kent was planning on getting some night runs in, Alexei couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
They started dinner without Kent and Alexei told everyone about their adventure at the festival of lights, including almost breaking a sled. He left out there only being one bed and their late-night cuddle session, though.
“It sounds like you two are really warming up to each other,” Bitty said as he got up to put together a plate of leftovers for whenever Kent came back.
“He is… not what I expected,” Alexei said.
“Hopefully in a good way. He still cheats at Scrabble, though,” Bitty said, sipping a wine glass.
“Maybe we’ll get a rematch tonight,” Alicia chimed in, sounding a little too innocent. “I think there’s a board around here somewhere.”
“Yeah, in the fireplace where it belongs,” Bob muttered and Jack elbowed his dad.
Once dinner was put away, Alexei decided to forgo Zimmermann-family game night to take a long shower and head out to the hot tub. He’d seen one out on the deck earlier and he brought down a fresh towel. Alexei could already hear an argument brewing from the living room over what constituted the “official game dictionary."
“Yeah, Jack being a massive dork is a little less surprising when you get to know the rest of his family,” Kent said and Alexei jumped.
“I thought you were snowboarding,” he said.
Kent was perched on the side of the hot tub, phone in hand. He managed to change into the flannel he’d worn to bed the night before and a new set of sweatpants, cuffs rolled up to the knee so his feet could soak in the tub.
“Yeah, well, it’s not as fun alone,” Kent shrugged.
Alexei moved cautiously to the other side of the hot tub and felt all his muscles relax as he slid into the water. Kent already heated it up and steam rose off the top layer. Alexei groaned a little and sunk down further, tilting his head back against the cool tile.
That morning when they got to the cabin, Kent seemed tense. He’d closed off and gave the Zimmermanns space. From the little Alexei heard of their conversation, Kent kept Bob away from personal topics and redirected attention off himself. Alexei wondered if it bothered Bob as much as it bothered him to see Kent act his was through conversations like they were media bits. Actually, Alexei had seen some of Kent’ media bits. He was arguably more at ease with the reporters.
“You can take you shirt off, you know,” Alexei said suddenly. Kent’s head snapped up and he put his phone to the side. “I mean. It’s so warm… And I’m not tell anyone your words,” Alexei promised.
Kent stared at him intently and Alexei hoped he didn’t offend. Kent didn’t have any shirtless photos up on his Instagram, making him a minority in the hockey community. Alexei had a guess as to why.
“I know you wouldn’t,” Kent said, but he made no move to take off the shirt.
“Whoever has them, they are very lucky,” Alexei added, suddenly unable to stop talking. “You’re very smart, so good at hockey and with little kids with sleds, leave waitress very good tip. Someone will be lucky to have someday.” He meant it to come out lighthearted, like a joke, but Alexei’s tone was off and it ended up sounding sad.
Kent didn't respond for a long moment and Alexei was worried he'd ruined whatever tenuous friendship they'd build between them.
“I met him already,” Kent said quietly. “He wasn’t really interested so I never pursued it.”
Alexei stared at him in shock while he tried to process what Kent's words.
“What? No! You have to find soulmate, Kent. Maybe he’s just in a bad mood, running late, miss train,” Vegas had trains, right? “Just get yelled at by boss. Or not realize you soulmate. Bad first impression. But there’s still time. You can find him again, no?”
“I didn’t exactly make a good first impression myself, you know? And then there’d be distance… It might be easier to not start than to get half way into things and realize it’s not worth it.”
“You will always be worth it,” Alexei told him emphatically.
Kent looked at him and slid down into the water too. Alexei froze and watched as Kent moved closer to him, his shirt clinging to him.
“Tell me if I’m reading this wrong,” was all the warning Kent gave him before he put an arm up on Alexei’s shoulder and settled on top of his legs.
“At the airport, you say my words,” Alexei breathed, afraid to move with Kent so close to him. “Well, my word.” Alexei wasn’t wearing a shirt. Kent could have looked down to see the Thanks that curled around his wrist and up his forearm but Kent’s eyes stayed down.
“I know,” Kent said. “…Because you’d already said mine.”
Alexei reached up to undo the buttons of Kent’s flannel. His hands didn’t shake but he held his breath. As he pushed back the fabric of Kent’s shirt, he felt Kent’s heart race as Alexei read his own handwriting across his chest. Alexei was hit with the memory of a hockey game, Kent taking out the net, and Alexei grabbed him and lifted him up…
Kent wouldn’t meet his eye, even when Alexei brushed his fingers over his letters. “It was back in December 2015, when we played Providence… I didn’t know what to say. I thought that if I said nothing maybe you’d just find someone else. But then with this trip—”
“I’ve been waiting for you a long time,” Alexei said, voice thick. “I’m looking for you for so long.” He moved his hand to tilt Kent’s chin up until he’d look him in the eye. “Is this what you want? Am I what you want?”
“I think so,” Kent said quietly. “I want to be with you. I want to try.”
Alexei brushed back a strand of Kent’s hair that had fallen into his face. Alexei didn’t move his hand back and just let himself cup the side of Kent’s face. Kent was seated fully in his lap, his clothes soaked through and from the house Alexei could hear the sounds of distant arguments about some board game he’d never played.
As far as first kisses with his soulmate went, it wasn’t anything like how Alexei imagined.
But when Kent tightened his hands in Alexei’s hair and pulled him so close Alexei could feel the words of Kent’s soul mark against his bare skin, he realized he wouldn’t change a thing.