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Sometimes, when they told his story, they'd claim the Firebird sent him on his quest. Others, bitter, said he'd been to visit Baba Yaga or her sisters. Zhenya didn't tell anyone the truth, clinging to a tale of contracts and broken promises. It didn't stop the press from embellishing.
Sid didn't ask - they hadn't shared enough words to begin with, relying on gestures and diagrams and the feel of ice under their feet. They'd shared fierce grins after a goal, back slaps after a loss and a handshake. And when Zhenya knew enough that he could explain to Sid what the truth was, Sid did not ask.
He even kissed Zhenya without asking and without demanding anything in return. Sid gave himself, his heart and a space in his life and Zhenya slid right into place.
The worst of it is that everyone knows he has a Destiny. It's even stamped into his passport, although he's done so much travelling that he ignores it most of the time. Sid tells him his quest was solved when he first picked up a hockey stick. His mom didn't manage to snap a picture as the typical swirl of light, the sense of a hot wind and the feeling in people nearby's bones that an enormous bell had rang. She'd caught him the next instant, one hand holding a bottle and the other his stick. It wasn't common knowledge, not like the number of players who lit up the rink after winning the cup. Zhenya had even heard that the rink lit up the first time Flower had tapped the goalposts for the first time.
Zhenya was more complicated than that. He had a destiny, a mark. In the past, he would have been allowed to seek his fortune on his own, no thoughts of taxes or national boundaries or the need for a backup plan. The modern world took the old and shifted it, codified it, tried to marry it to rules. A destiny became another box to tick on paperwork, another thing to avoid discussing through the long days of school and the arduous trials of hockey.
And, in another way, Zhenya was simple. He knew what he wanted – hockey, preferably in the NHL, a dog, a house. Sid had come along and turned the idea of someone to share it all with into a reality. Zhenya had almost tricked himself into believing that his destiny didn’t matter because his life was perfect here and now.
That was, until the baby showed up on the porch.
Zhenya had been running, pacing around the neighborhood as his way of letting off steam. Sid’s method involved rather too much in the way of game tape and notebooks for Zhenya’s complete comfort. He’d left Sid sitting at the kitchen table, focused inward, thinking hard. It was something Zhenya liked about Sid, the way he would focus utterly on the task in hand until he had worked out his exact plan. Which was very nice indeed when all that concentration and attention was focused on making Zhenya come as hard as he could. It was less of good thing when Sid was silently communing with the hockey gods.
In the end, the run had turned into more of a stroll when Zhenya passed one of their neighbors and stopped to say hello to their new Labrador puppy. He felt both stretched out and relaxed as he pounded up the steps to his front door only to be arrested by a short but sharp cry. At first, Zhenya thought it was some sort of animal until he looked around and saw the basket to the side of the front door.
The baby had dark hair, although there was barely any of it, and wide open blue eyes which didn’t seem to be seeing anything. The basket was like something out of the old tales, though, woven and plaited and a perfect size for the infant inside. A white blanket completed the look, shifting slightly as the baby kicked under it.
Zhenya opened the door. “Sid!” He waited for a few moments but there was no sign Sid had heard him and was making a move. Zhenya steeled himself and picked up the basket as gingerly as possible. His first impression was that it was heavier than it looked. It was only then that he realized that the light around him had changed. He’d witnessed this from the outside, seen the way rookies sometimes looked star stuck and amazed as their quests resolved themselves. But the lights swirling around him weren’t those sorts of lights. Instead they settled under his skin, setting a sense of anticipation and urgency deep in him.
Zhenya grasped what was going on as the baby let out a long string of nonsense sounds. “Oh, fuck.”
Later on, he would remember that perhaps a baby shouldn’t be hearing that kind of language.
“So, you’re telling me that the baby is linked to your destiny. Your quest.” Sid dangled his hand over the basket, cooing as the baby batted at it. Zhenya hadn’t had enough courage to lift him or her out yet, too busy trying to clear the aftermath of ringing bells and glowing lights from his head. “So cute.”
“Yes. And yes.” Zhenya came closer, bravery creeping up his spine. He could handle a baby. There was nothing scary about an infant. Not at all. He waved his hand at the basket. Then he took a deep breath and tugged the blanket back. The baby’s gurgles intensified. Sid faded back for a moment while Zhenya slowly let his fingers be captured by the wandering hands. There were no more bright lights, which Zhenya wasn’t too sad about. He leaned forward and carefully lifted the child up.
The baby nearly exploded with joy, kicking and batting its hands and making the most adorable mixture of chuckling and shrieking. Zhenya couldn’t help but smile in return.
“So,” Sid prompted, “how is the baby linked to your quest?”
“I don’t know.” The baby yawned and thunked its head down on Zhenya’s chest. It seemed comfortable enough to fall asleep, its eyes fluttering shut reluctantly. Zhenya would normally have shrugged or continued to argue with Sid but the presence of the small, warm weight in his arms made him pause. “I…wait. See what else…”
“Happens? Turns up?” Sid sounded a little panicked, as he always did when something new and unexpected came into his life. Then Sid took a deep breath, cradled his hand around Zhenya’s where it was holding the baby tight and leaned up to brush a gentle kiss across Zhenya’s lips. Zhenya deepened it, kissed back hard, letting his eyes fall closed. Everything would work out fine, just as long as Sid kept kissing him like he meant it.
Zhenya tried to ignore the sense that there was a bell ringing, a pitch higher than before, somewhere inside his head.
Sid was tapping around on his phone when Zhenya came in, holding the child and a bottle. Magical destiny babies apparently still needed fed and burped and changed just like regular babies, apparently. Even at 2am. When they screamed.
Zhenya had even taken to calling the baby Luka because he felt strange not calling the child something, especially after the first time Zhenya had unfastened a rather pungent diaper and discovered that the magical babies still stank. Sid had come to the rescue, disappearing to some store that provided everything a small baby could need. Including a Pens onesie. Which Luka was currently sporting.
“Geno?” Sid looked up, face serious. “I’ve been thinking.”
“Dangerous.” Zhenya slumped into the seat beside Sid, careful to not interrupt the flow of formula into baby.
Sid shot him an unimpressed look. “I know you hate the idea of visiting a Fate Counselor. But it’s been a week and nothing else has happened. I don’t think quests normally take this long.”
“Destiny is different, Sid,” Zhenya reminded him. “And Fate Counselors full of shit, anyway.”
“Don’t say… that… in front of the baby.” Sid was frowning but half-hearted in his reprimand. It made Zhenya’s heart ache a little to see Sid so befuddled and confused. It was certainly something new. While Sid wasn’t exactly spontaneous and willing to jump into new situations without careful consideration, he tended to be able to come up with plans that could overcome almost any obstacle, goalie and life alike.
Zhenya took pity on him. “We need plan, yes? For baby.”
Sid took a deep breath. Then another. “I’m just worried. What if he disappears? What if he’s going to be taken away from us?” Sid tweaked Luka’s cloth covered foot.
It was something that Zhenya hadn’t considered. His mind flashed to all the stories about destinies that he’d been made to study as a child.
“I have idea. Never complete destiny. We have Luka and each other and Cups.” Zhenya set his chin, defiantly, and glared at Sid.
“I don’t think it works like that.” Sid sounded dubious, but less worried than before.
There was a flurry of press reports – blog stories, really – when Zhenya showed up at the rink with Luka. The accompanying pictures were of Zhenya grinning wildly and a tiny fluffy hat, so it wasn’t as if he could claim invasion of privacy. The speculation online veered wildly from a secret girlfriend to baby kidnapping. Only one Russian blog even mentioned his destiny mark. And when it came to speaking to the team, showing off Luka to management and getting congratulations and gifts of a more ordinary nature, Zhenya just didn’t say anything. Sid watched, tight-lipped, until he suddenly started to relax.
It was curious, to watch Sid go from forbidding and grim into someone who was more the man he lived with. The man he loved. Zhenya didn’t want to ask, then and there, not in front of all the people who mattered outside of family, but it seemed like another bell chime added to the cacophony, the symphony, building inside of him.
They drove home in silence, Sid driving and Zhenya sitting in the back with a dozing Luka.
It was during dinner that Sid finally spoke up. Luka had woken up when the car stopped, demanding to be held and fed and more sleep all together. The flurry of activity felt like a power play with just the two of them. They slid around each other, passing each other bottles and cloths instead of pucks.
Luka dozed against Sid’s chest while Zhenya shoveled pasta into his mouth. “My parents were wondering about coming to visit. Would that be okay?” Sid spoke in a rush, all the words jumbling together and it was only long familiarity and the need to chew that gave him enough time to understand what was going on.
“Not ask before, Sid. Not ask now.” Although Zhenya made a mental note to make sure he explicitly asked his own parents to come visit while Luka was still so small and cute. He maybe should have done that before.
“But it didn’t seem right in the middle of your quest.” Sid paused, realizing his voice was getting too loud perhaps. Neither of them wanted to wake Luka.
Zhenya leaned back from his plate and tried to gather his thoughts. “Quest doesn’t matter. Never mattered.” He shook his head to keep Sid from interrupting. “Hockey, life, family – that’s what matters. Sid matter most.” Zhenya carelessly spoke too loudly and Luka stirred. When he settled, Zhenya couldn’t resist teasing. “Sid best”
“Even better if I get Luka to bed early, right?” Sid looked speculatively at Zhenya and grinned. Zhenya started eating pasta very, very rapidly as Sid headed up the stairs.
Later, in bed, sheets carelessly thrown over them, Zhenya checked that the baby monitor was still on before settling back against the pillows. Sid was breathing heavily, smiling as he watched Zhenya settle into place.
Zhenya leaned over to press another kiss against Sid’s cheek. “You are the best.”
“Orgasms speaking,” Sid muttered but he seemed too happy to put any venom into it.
“Maybe.” Zhenya grinned. Then he leaned over for another soft kiss. “But true. My Sid. Glad you’re mine.”
“Yeah.” Sid froze for a moment before shrugging. “Until your destiny takes you wherever you’re supposed to go.”
“Not going to…” Zhenya broke off to swear before leaning over to put the bedside light on. Sid blinked sleepily but was aware enough to pay attention. Also, Zhenya had to make sure Sid understood exactly what he was trying to say. “Destiny is big thing. Yes. But life is also big thing.”
Sid hesitated then shook his head. “I don’t get it.”
“Destiny is…whenever. Not what life is. Destiny could be to be here for Luka. Be here for you. I don’t need to know what it is. I’m happy.” Zhenya leaned in until Sid filled his vision. “Every time something right, I hear bell.”
“But don’t you want-“ Sid tried to argue until Zhenya laughed at him.
“Sid always have to know.” Zhenya had to steal a kiss from his pout. “Love you. Love Luka. Love hockey. Don’t need to know anything else.”
Sid looked thoughtful but Zhenya knew that this was just him processing, chewing over everything. He knew Sid would come to see he was right. But in the meantime… “Put the light out. Luka will want fed soon enough.”
There is another story, a story of stories within stories, all linked and endlessly woven so that it’s hard to tell where one story begins and another ends. Sometimes, when they tell the story of Evgeni Malkin, they whisper that his Destiny was to be part of a thousand other stories, until the chimes that signaled his quest became a full on carillon.
But of course, that’s another story.