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“I’m so excited, I never get called for this kind of things,” Alex smiled.
He was sitting down at a table with Finn at his side, a plain background behind them and two glasses of water on the table he was leaning on with his arms. They were wearing their team’s jerseys, with two mics were pinned on the collars. “Finn, why do you never call me for these things?”
“Why don’t you do them with your team?”
“It’s not up to me!”
A voice came from off camera. “We’re recording, guys.”
Finn turned to flash a smile at the camera. “Wassup, Lions! Welcome to another Lions Channel video. I’m your one and only Finn O’Hara, and I’m here with my brother Alex, center for the New York Rangers.”
Alex waved his hand, winking at the camera. “Hi, Lions. Today we’ll be answering some siblings’ questions, read by the amazing Marlene.”
The voice behind the camera made a cooing noise. “Alex, I want you here for every video.”
Alex nodded, smiling even more. “I want to be in one with all the couples!”
“Throuples, Al, we’re both in throuples.”
“That,” he nodded. “Throuple tag. Poly night. Double throuples double trouble!”
“I’ll make that happen!” Marlene yelled back. She made a quick run into frame to double five Alex as Finn rolled his eyes, but he was smirking. “Since I’m already here, I’ll explain the game. I’m going to read some of the questions our viewers wrote under the comments of our last video -link below- and the O’Haras are going to answer for us. You ready, guys?”
Alex gave a thumb up, and Finn making finger-guns at the camera as Marlene walked away. “Unleash ‘em.”
“Great! Just one thing to do before we start. It’s jerseys swapping time!”
They both groaned, but they got up grinning to take off the respective jerseys, their protests only light teases.
“Do we have to? He stinks.”
“But this way I’ll catch the nerdy loser’s disease.”
“C’mon, we’re playing with the audience a bit,” Marlene smiled. The two brothers handed each other the piece of clothing and put them on before taking their seats again. Alex was delighted with the blush on Kasey’s cheeks, from where he was standing behind the camera together with some members of the team, as he put on the red and golden jersey. He made a mental note for later and smiled at the camera.
“Do your parents have a favorite?”
“Oh, he’s definitely Mom’s,” Finn immediately said, crossing his arms with a light frown. Alex shrugged.
“You only say that because you’re Dad’s. The biggest couple of dorks that ever dorked on Earth.”
“Excuse you?”
Alex nodded gravely, patting his brother’s shoulder. “Yeah, you and dad are the dorks, mom and I are the cool ones. Just the facts, buddy.”
“That’s…that’s not true,” Finn said with not much conviction in his voice.
“We can call mom right now and ask her.” Finn’s ears went red from blushing.
“I don’t wanna bother her with such irrelevant assumptions, that’s all,” he mumbled, looking away, and Alex barked out a loud laugh.
“What do you love and what do you hate about being in the NHL together?”
Alex stretched his legs under the table, bringing an arm around Finn’s chair. “Well, we don’t see each other as much as I’d like to because of our schedules. But there’s an added challenge every time we play against each other.”
Finn licked his lips. “What I don’t like is that, until we’re not on the same team, one of us has to fail for the other to win, and that’s kind of bitter, like in some Greek myth.” Alex threw a pointed look at the camera, mouthing dork. “But I like when we’re on the ice together.”
“Yeah, it’s always funny to beat your bony ass,” Alex smirked, and the video was cut the moment Finn opened his mouth to argue.
“What do you think of your brother’s partners?”
“Bliz and Nat are cool,” Finn shrugged with a small smile. “Natalie will lend me her books and do face masks with me if I ask nicely. But Kasey knows that he can get away with pranks because Alex is on his side, and that’s not okay.”
Alex looked smug. “I so am. So, Leo and Logan…well, I’d say I know Logan better, but I really like them both. Leo is great. He brings all the maturity you two lack and if it wasn’t for him, you’d starve.”
“You know, he was so worried when I introduced you officially.”
“Finn!” Leo gasped off camera. “He wasn’t supposed to know that!”
“Do you think you’re a better player than your brother?”
“Yes,” they answered at the same time evenly, without batting an eye.
“What’s your brother’s pre-game meal?”
Finn started drumming on the table as they both leaned forward, identical grins on their faces. “Grilled cheese with strawberry jam!” they exclaimed together.
“It was my favorite when I was a kid, then I started making it for Finn before his games, and now god forbid we touch the ice without having it first,” Alex said.
Finn smiled. “We prepared it together before our last game in New York, a month ago. What a jump in the past.”
“When did you brother scare you the most?”
“Oof, definitely his two concussion adventures in college,” Alex sighed deeply, readjusting on his chair. “For the first one I checked my phone after practice and found, like, seven missed calls from our parents, and took a plane immediately. It was scary to see him laying still and silent like that.”
Finn was silent for a moment, biting his lip. “This is gonna sound so stupid after what you just said, but there was this time, when I was eleven-”
“Oh my God, Finn, get over it,” Alex rolled his eyes.
“Shut up, it’s my scary experience. So, I was eleven, my friends and I had gotten our hands on this horror movie with age restrictions and all. I can’t remember the title…it was about a ghost living in the walls of a house, and you’ll see why this bit is important. Anyway, we were so hyped up- that is, until I was in my room, at night, alone and in complete darkness. It’s already scary as it is, really. Then, I hear this loud stomp against the wall, and footsteps outside my room, back and forth. And this went on for, like, half an hour. I was about to pee myself. Then this dark figure comes into my room and mumbles something and just stands there, in front of me. I was so freaked out, here, feel my goosebumps.” Alex slapped his arm away. “I was crying by that point. When I mastered the tiniest hint of courage to turn on the lights, I saw this…this lanky teenager with his eyes closed, talking to himself and with a bleeding nose.”
Multiple people behind the camera started laughing.
“I was having trouble with sleepwalking in that period,” Alex explained with a sigh, “And that night I walked into a wall face-first, then into Finn’s bedroom and talked to myself for a bit. Then he started screaming so I woke up terrified and- yeah, not a good night.”
“Then dad came in and blamed me for having scared Alex, because you have to be gentle with sleepwalkers, and went all fussy over him,” Finn scoffed, shaking his head. “And I got grounded for the movie, too. I still think he was awake the whole time and that it was a prank.”
Alex rolled his eyes. “Yeah Finn, I broke my nose against a wall just to scare you when it takes so much less.”
“He told everyone in school he broke his nose on a fight on the ice.”
“Shut up.”
“Who was a better scholar?”
Alex arched his brows, pointing a finger at Finn, who opened his arms in a half-bow. “Between who, Mr. Harvard degree and winner of the Specific Learning Disabilies lottery? Tough choice.”
“Actually, it’s between whom,” Finn pointed out, voice small.
Alex turned slowly and blinked. “Finn, do you actually want me to put the socks I wore at practice one week ago and that are still in my bag under your pillow? Because it sounds like it.”
At that, Finn’s smile disappeared, his expression as if caught on flashbacks. Alex returned to face the camera and shrugged. “It wasn’t the SpLD deal per se, but the way teachers treated it. Studying was hard because there wasn’t much awareness on the subject. But I had lots of friends in school. It was a blast.”
Finn pulled a face. “We had lots of friends and were always more on the popular side. But honestly, between my ADHD and his SpLD, our parents argued with our teachers a lot. I hope the situation is better now, but the majority believed that they were just excuses for not studying. College was better, but yuck.”
Alex nodded solemnly. “Yeah, yuck.”
“Your brother’s favorite superhero.”
They looked at each other in the eyes for a second before erupting in laughter, Finn snortling a little, and making Alex laugh harder as he leaned on the table. “Look up, Finn.”
“But no, Alex, look down.”
Another fist of laughter had them bent on the table, shoulder shaking. After a while they straightened, cheeks flushed, and Alex took a sip of water. Finn grinned devilishly as he watched his brother drink and started humming the Spiderman’s theme song. It made Alex choke on his water, and some got out of his nose. He was still giggling as he coughed and patted his own chest a few times, and Finn was about to fall from his chair for how hard was laughing.
“Guys?” Marlene called, mildly amused.
Alex nodded, slapping Finn’s arm, and making him straighten up. “No, yeah-we’re good, we’re good.”
Finn cleared his throat. “We’d need a whole other video to talk about this. Short version: as two nerdy kids growing up in New York, we were obsessed with pretty much every superhero. So many shenanigans. But our favorite was Spiderman-”
“-and Ninja turtles.”
“And Ninja turtles. Alex always made up stories on how he met them on the way home. Suspiciously every time I wasn’t there.”
The older brother grinned without a trace of regret. “I had him in the palm of my hand, really. So gullible.”
“Oh, Finn, buddy, I told the Ninja turtles how fast you are at cleaning my room and they didn’t believe me.” Finn glared at Alex, who nodded proudly. “No, yeah Fishy, I just had a pizza with Peter Parker. He likes me better.”
“I had him believe that the Turtles’ base was in the sewers under our house and that you could see Spiderman flying from the living room’s window. But only when he wasn’t looking.”
“That’s mean!” Marlene called, laughing.
Finn nodded, thankful for the support, but Alex dismissed her with a hand. “Nah, it builds character.”
“Do you think your brother would make a good parent?”
“I know he will,” Finn nodded, quick and confident. They were now calmer, but the blush on their cheeks was slow to disappear. “He’s caring and protective, but not in a strict way. I like to think I was a good training, because he always hung out with me when we were kids, and he took me everywhere. Sometimes you don’t want your little tagalong brother always following you, and I certainly was a presence as a kid. But he never minded it.”
Alex, who’d been looking at him intensely, quickly wiped his glossy eyes before clearing his throat. He leaned forward and looked at both sides, like a coach releasing vital information during an important press interview. “Finn will be the king of suburban dads,” he declared.
“Hell yeah, I will,” Finn beamed.
“A point of force and one of weakness of your brother on the ice.”
They both took a moment to reflect, looking up in the same identical manner. Alex lifted a finger. “You’re crazy fast, and that’s my answer for both points. It’s a good thing because you can lead the puck from nest to nest in no time, but it also means that when you take a hit at a high speed it’s always a huge risk. Would you look at that, just like with your concussions.”
Finn rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, we got it, clumsy, silly Finn.” He licked his lips and thought some more before answering. “I’m gonna go with your hard shot for the positive thing and, huh…you should work on backwards passes? Maybe? Can that be my answer?”
He looked over the camera for confirmation and smiled. “Great.”
“Is there something you’d like to tell your brother?”
“I wish we talked more,” Alex said, more somber than from the rest of the interview, turning to face Finn. “We always do, but never of, like, feelings and such. And I wish I’d been there for you more in the past.”
Finn’s lips arched downwards in an involuntary touched pout, and he scooped his chair closer to Alex’s. “Well, ’snot your fault,” he replied gently. “You were always there. I didn’t talk, but I knew I would have been safe if I did. But yeah, same for me, I think. We kind of went through tough periods at the same time, but I was in college and not emotionally intelligent at all. So yeah, you were always there for me, but I can’t say the same.”
Alex’s smile was soft as he pulled Finn’s chair attached to his. He threw an arm around his brother’s shoulders, and Finn leaned in unconsciously. “I don’t feel that way,” he said quietly, “But we can talk about it if you’d like.”
Finn nodded, blinking rapidly. “Yeah.”
“Something you wanna tell the NHL or the fans?”
“Never be afraid of who you are and who you love,” Finn smiled, adjusting the small bisexual pin next to the microphone on his jersey. Alex did the same with his pansexual one and nodded, taking a moment to find the right words.
“In the NHL we’re witnessing many changes in so little time, and it’s great. But before last year, we’d been on stall for ages, because when you feel like you’re the only one, every step is scary as hell. That’s why it’s important to reach out and realize you’re never alone.” There were a few seconds of reminiscing silence, both nodding and wetting their lips. Then Finn cupped his hands around the mouth, forming a cone.
“And let us play on the same team!”
Alex nodded emphatically. “Think of us as an investment.”
“We’d be invincible.”
“The siblings’ bond is so here.”
“Okay, I think they got the message,” Marlene laughed. “Well, this was the last question for you guys! Wanna sign us off?”
“This was Finn O’Hara.”
“And Alex O’Hara, for the Lions Channel. Hope I’ll see you soon!”