Chapter Text
The first text came in right as Ice was finishing up his eggs and toast.
Slider: lmao
He didn’t even have time to unlock his phone to send out a reply before a second text came in.
Hollywood: 😬
“What the hell are you guys–” Ice came to a stop halfway between the breakfast bar and the sink, nearly dropping his plate when he saw the headline banner come down from the top of his screen.
Trade Alert: San Diego acquires D Pete Mitchell and G Nick Bradshaw in deal with New York
The alert was forced away when a call came in from Slider. He swiped to answer it while putting the plate in the sink and rinsing it off.
“Soooo,” Slider drew out the word like he was trying to keep the situation light. As if that was even possible. “I’m assuming you saw the news by now.”
“Yeah, no thanks to you, asshole. Couldn’t even send a screenshot or anything to go with the stupid comment?” Ice wiped his hands on the towel hanging off of the oven handle and started to go back to his room to change before morning skate. He put the phone on speaker as he pulled open his dresser drawers to grab clothes to put on and throw in his bag.
“Well, to be fair, if you ever used your Twitter account the team set up for you, you would have probably found out about it last night like the rest of us did.”
“It happened yesterday?”
“What? No. But there were rumors and shit going around. Apparently it was between us and Vancouver.” There was rustling around on the other end of the call and Ice could imagine Slider trying to get Katie ready for school drop off before practice.
“You’re telling me you guys basically knew about this last night and none of you told me? I should be the first to know about this stuff, shouldn’t I?”
“Yeah, ok, and who would you want to have made that call? You were probably already asleep by 9 like a freak and would have killed anyone who woke you up to begin with, let alone to tell you Mav is coming here.” There was a brief pause as the two men considered the argument. “Katie, go get in the car, I’ll be right there. Lunchbox!”
“Fine,” Ice begrudgingly let it go. Slider was right anyway and they both knew it. “Doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. And don’t call him that,” he finished with a grumble.
“Wouldn’t expect you to be, Ice. Grab us some coffee before practice, will you? I gotta go. It’ll be fine, they don’t even get here until tonight. Relax.” The call went dead before Ice could reply and he slid his phone into his back pocket before grabbing his shoes off the shelf in the entryway.
“Couldn’t have gone to cold ass Vancouver, huh. Liked the sun too much or some shit probably.” Ice’s mumbling continued until he got into the front seat of his car with the distinct feeling that he was forgetting something. “Oh shit.” He got back out of the car, opening the garage door just enough to yell “BEAU I’M LEAVING, COME ON” before climbing back in and starting the car. He was tapping his fingers on the steering wheel contemplating getting out of the car again when the rookie came hustling in through the door in his pajamas and they could finally make their way to the practice rink.
–
Most of the guys were already in the locker room when Ice walked through the door, his rookie trailing him with the coffee carrier he was tasked with holding almost tipping over. The drive to the rink isn’t too far from where his house is, but stopping for coffee for his frankly ungrateful and terrible and useless best friend held him up a little bit. He had Beau drop the coffee off with Slider and sat down in his own stall next to him, starting to pull everything he needed on to make it onto the ice before Coach Metcalf walked in.
“Guys, if you’re ready to go, go ahead and head out there. I have to talk to Slider and Sunny anyway, captain stuff.” A few guys shuffled out of the locker room as Ice continued tying his skates, refusing to look up at Slider’s sure to be annoying face. When all but the team leaders were left, Sundown got out of his stall and walked to stand between Slider and Ice, rubbing his eyes and sighing.
“Listen, the girls and I had a late night, is this an actual meeting or did you just want the guys out of here?” He leaned on his stick, head resting on his gloves, and looked slowly between the other two. Slider had a grin on his face and Ice looked like he’d rather be anywhere but practice right now, which probably spoke to how he was handling the news more than any words ever could.
There was about 10 more seconds of Sundown waiting for one of the others to speak before Ice finally opened his mouth.
“No, it’s not actually anything, just. Be normal when they get here tonight, right? We don’t want to set a bad example for the rest of the team.” Ice was scowling down to his skates as he spoke and didn’t see Sundown and Slider roll their eyes at each other.
Slider slapped a hand on the captain’s shoulder and pulled him in close to fake messing up his hair before Ice managed to squirm away.
“Bud, you are literally the only one here being weird about it. It’s just another trade, we didn’t even lose anyone we know, just two of the minor league boys and draft picks.” Slider brought him close again and held him there, probably in an attempt to get him to relax, but Sundown didn’t see any relaxing going on. If anything, Ice was even more tense now, with some pink coming in to color his cheeks. “Let’s just go out and have a normal practice and then give Mav and Goose a nice warm San Diego welcome tonight, yeah?”
“Fine, just–let me go , man–just. Continue being normal, then. And I’ll be normal about it. And then we’ll all be normal about it. Whatever, let’s go,” Ice rushed to stand up and shove his gloves on, making his way towards the rink. The two alternates shared another look with each other before following him out.
–
To say that morning practice was a mess was a bit of an understatement. In fact, Slider would argue that it was one of the worst practices they’ve had since Ice became the captain three and a half years ago. He knows that finding a balance between hard-ass captain and encouraging, patient leader had been a very, very long trial-and-error process, but today it was like all the work had been undone; Ice kept everyone on their toes out of fear of having to do extra drills and bag skate the next practice. He was at least kind enough to not have them do extra punishments on a game day, but that might just be hardwired into him just because he needs to win and needs everyone alive to do it.
By the time everyone hit the showers, hardly anyone would even look in Ice’s direction, the man himself staying behind to fire some extra shots into the empty net. When it was just the two of them left, Slider called out.
“Hey, Ice, I think Kyle probably wants to go home pretty soon,” he yelled, gesturing towards the man leaning against the zamboni. Ice rushed out a quick mumbled apology before collecting the rest of the pucks into a bucket and making his way towards the locker room.
When they got to their stalls, the first few guys were starting to head out to the parking lot.
“Hey, boys!” Ice yelled to get everyone’s attention and the locker room fell silent. “I just wanted to say, I’m sorry for practice today. I was out of line. I’ll do better tomorrow.” Some of the guys looked at each other, Cowboy and Woody nudging each other with eyebrows raised, as if they couldn’t believe the Iceman himself was owning up to a mistake this quickly. He shook it off and continued; “Rest up for a few hours and I’ll see you back here tonight, yeah?” There were assorted noises as a majority of the team left to go to the parking lot or see various trainers about nagging injuries. Beau walked up as Ice was peeling the rest of his equipment off.
“I’m gonna go grab some lunch with Cowboy and Woody.”
“Make sure to rest up and everything, I know how you guys get with fuckin’ video games. It’s not helpful to get so wound up before you even get here for a game, Simpson.” Beau rolled his eyes and nodded as he turned around and grabbed his bag.
“Yeah yeah, I’ll be sure to take a nap and everything. Later.” Ice and Slider glanced at each other, squinting as if they were trying to figure out whether that attitude needed addressing. They shrugged at each other as Ice grabbed his things to hit the shower.
A few minutes later, Ice came out of the showers and walked to his stall, where Slider was still waiting for him. Sundown was the only other person left and he shot a raised eyebrow to the other alternate, being sent off when Slider nodded his head. Then it was just the two of them left. Slider let Ice get dressed and only spoke up once they were gathering up the rest of their things to head out.
“Get your head out of your ass, Kazansky.”
Ice froze in his tracks, bent over his bag.
“Really? Back to last names, alright.” He shoved the last few things into his bag and took his phone out, sliding it into his hoodie pocket before turning to Slider with his arms crossed. “What happened to Ice, Kerner? I’d even take Tom from you.”
“You tell me, bud. Everything was fine until you found out Mav and Goose were on their way over here.” Slider had his arms crossed too, albeit in a much more relaxed manner, leaning up against the wall with his bag already slung over his shoulder. Ice’s blood boiled when he heard Slider use the stupid ass nicknames the two of them had.
“Oh, so Mitchell and Bradshaw are good enough for nicknames but I’m not? Maybe I don’t want them here, think of that?” Ice scowled more when Slider laughed. He slid his sunglasses on and hoped it made him look more intimidating, as if the pink and orange mirrored glasses had any chance of intimidating the man that had known him for half his life so far.
“You literally could not make it more obvious that you don’t, Ice. But tough shit, get over it.” He pushed off the wall, turning towards the door and gesturing for the captain to follow him out. “They’re here until our season ends at least . I’m not gonna stand here while you ruin the locker room with your shit attitude from a grudge you can’t get over with a dude you met for, what, three weeks? Like five years ago?”
“Six,” Ice answered back quickly. “Six years ago.” Again, Slider laughed at his reply.
“Oh, trust me, I know.” He dug his keys out of his pocket as they reached the door and grinned over at Ice. “Remind me, who took home gold that year?”
Finally, Ice cracked a smile and shoved at the taller man. “Fuck you. US would have had it if we didn’t get fucked over by the refs against Sweden.”
“Yeah, keep telling yourself that.” Slider tossed his arm over Ice’s shoulder in the same practiced way he’d been doing for years and pulled him in close. “You’re the captain, Ice, you gotta straighten yourself out. You know the guys are gonna follow your lead, that’s the whole point of you wearing that C on your chest.” He let go and unlocked his car door. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to pick up lunch and continue scheduling date night with my dear beloved Adele and our good friends the Bradshaws, you may know them.” He winked at the mention of Nick’s family and Ice rolled his eyes, much more cooled off after the chat. “Let me know, maybe we can set up a playdate for you and Mav.”
Ice reached out to mess up Slider’s hair as he laughed and started walking to his own car. “Get outta here, old man. I’ll see you tonight.”
“You sure will, hon,” Slider blew a kiss to Ice as the latter gave him the bird and threw his bags in the trunk.
–
It was impossible not to know the exact moment that Mitchell and Bradshaw made it into the arena. The yelled greetings that most of the team gave to the two of them had nothing on Slider’s commotion, abandoning his turkey sandwich and running to lift Nick up and spin him around like the new goalie wasn’t 6’2 and nearly 200 pounds.
The two of them started shouting, shoving, and doing a handshake that seemed far too complicated to Ice but left a small smile on his face as he took another bite of his own sandwich. The good mood lasted just long enough for him to make eye contact with Mitchell from across the kitchen, the defenseman grinning like the image of Ice shoving his face with peanut butter and jelly was the funniest thing he’d seen all week. With a sigh, Ice put his food down and brushed his hands off on the napkin under his plate, making his way over to the new guys.
Nick and Slider were still catching up and rough housing (a little too close to the counter for Ice’s liking), so he reluctantly made his way over to the brat. The two stood facing each other for a moment, the grin still firmly on the smaller man’s face, before Ice held his hand out.
“Mitchell.” The other man went to reach for the handshake but froze.
“Wait, were you eating PB and J? I’m allergic to peanuts. Deathly, actually.”
Ice quickly took his hand back, already envisioning the route to the sink to wash his hands and turning to follow it when Nick walked up and punched Mitchell in the shoulder.
“Mav, you dickhead, you are not . Be nice!” The two of them started laughing as Ice turned back to face them, his cheeks feeling a little warmer than he’d like.
Nick held out his hand to Ice, introducing himself as they shook hands.
“Good to see you again, Ice. Been too long since we were close enough to talk, eh? What was it, junior worlds? Man, remember when Sweden scored that beauty in–”
“Goose,” the other three said with varying levels of enthusiasm as the man laughed.
Mitchell held out his own hand this time, still chuckling a little. “Sorry for the crappy joke, just wanted to see if I could crack the Iceman before the game.”
“Hey, that’s Mister Iceman to you, Mav,” Slider pointed to the man with mock authority, finally coming to Ice’s defense. Not that he needed him to, but it was still nice to know that his alternate wasn’t completely siding with the enemy. Yet. Slider looked at the two new guys after winking at Ice and spread his arms to show off the facility. “Welcome to San Diego, guys, we’re finishing up dinner and then heading over to the locker room. Your stuff should be there already, right Ice?” Slider nudged him with his elbow and kicked Ice back into gear.
“Right, yeah. Welcome.”
God, this was going to be a hell of a season.