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“Kip, wake up.” Scott jostled his shoulder in the dark as the sounds of the city drifted up towards their apartment.
“Huh?” He rolled onto his back, eyes unfocused without glasses. “Babe, what’s wrong?”
“I’ve been thinking, I can’t sleep, when do you think Hollander and Rozanov got together? I’ve spoken to both of them before, Hollander in particular, and you know I really didn’t see it coming! I missed a huge puzzle piece, Kip.”
Kip blinked up at him a few times before sighing. “Scott, you need to go to bed.”
“No, what I need is to know how long this has been happening under my nose. Those motherfuckers let me think I was the only queer person in this sport for too long and—”
Kip reached up and cupped his face, the delicate pads of his fingers brushing over his nose and cheekbones gently. “Babe, I’m telling this because I love you, you really need to go to sleep.”
Scott sighed and dropped his head. “Alright.”
“Love you.” He mumbled and rolled back over.
Scott laid back with his head on the pillow, staring at the ceiling in aggravation. Hollander and Rozanov shared a rookie season, they were both drafted incredibly young all the way back in...what was it? It must have been 2009. Did they know each other then? Had they met yet? They were both extremely promising young players and likely would have played in the IPC to show off their skills one last time before the draft.
He grabbed his phone. It was time to make a list.
-
“Scott, what in the everloving fuck is in our living room?” Kip stumbled out of the bedroom and skidded to a stop.
“When we moved training facilities they were getting rid of all sorts of useful stuff, including this whiteboard. It’s been in a storage closet for a while but I’m making use of it now.”
“Making use of it to…?”
“Figure out when Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander got together.”
“Right…” He drifted over towards him to look at the board. “Scott this really is looking like something a serial killer would make.”
“I’m too lazy to be a serial killer.”
“See, you say that, but you had a whiteboard in your closet that you’ve apparently been saving for the perfect moment to...to cyberstalk two of your coworkers?”
“They’re not my coworkers, they’re just other players in the MLH.”
“Right.”
“So their rookie season was in 2009, although they seem to have met in 2008 briefly before they were drafted. Now here’s where things get tricky—”
“I’m going to make coffee.”
“I was on the All-Star team with Shane in 2011 and when we were on the bench, Rozanov blew past us and said something I didn’t catch to Shane. He blew it off and said he was just shit talking him, but what if it was something more?”
“Do you really think they’d be flirting on the ice?”
“It wasn’t flirting the interaction was only a second.”
“Serial killer energy.” Kip’s eyebrows quirked up. “You’re overthinking that one though. It was only a second long, he couldn’t have said anything meaningful.”
Scott crossed off 2011 All-Star Game from the list on the board. They knew each other then, but not like that. It was sometime after, then, but the question was how far?
-
“Thank you all for coming to this meeting.”
“You ordered pizza.” Elena held up a slice.
“So I’ve come to the conclusion that Shane Hollander knew, or suspected that he was gay by the time we went to the Sochi Olympics back in 2014.”
“How did you come to this conclusion?” Kip leaned back on the couch. “I don’t disagree necessarily, but is this just an intuition thing?”
“A teammate of ours and I ran into him in an ice cream shop. At some point in the conversation my buddy brought up how it wasn’t legal to be gay in Russia – I really don’t remember the context – and Shane got all weird and was checking his phone and then got up and bolted out of the shop. It was really weird, but uh, if any of you remember around that time I wasn’t doing much better sooo…” he shuffled in front of the white board that was growing increasingly cluttered. “I didn’t think much of it.”
“Alright, so 2014 Shane acts weird when someone brings up being gay.” Kip nodded.
“I think that’s solid enough to put on the timeline.” Elena agreed.
“The other thing is that people thought they saw Shane and llya having a conversation one on of the higher mezzanines of the ice rink after Russia’s crushing loss to...do either of you remember who they lost to?”
Kip and Elena both shook their heads.
“Okay, well anyways, I’m going to establish that they were probably friendly with each other here, if not a little before.” He drew a star on the whiteboard.
“Do you thinking they were fucking yet?”
“Elena!” They both shouted at her.
“What? Come on, we were all thinking it.”
-
“Can someone remind me why we care so much about this? Other than the gay thing?” Kip tucked his legs under himself on the couch.
“Well, it is Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, they basically set the hockey world on fire.” George said. “And besides, it is interesting to hear this all from an actual MLH player’s point of view.”
“Dad, don’t encourage him.”
“I’m just here to be nosy, but I’m really enjoying this.” Elena laughed before getting up to grab another beer from the fridge.
“Okay so I remembered something, and I think Shane and Ilya were together before the Sochi Olympics. Like four months before the Olympics I played against Montreal and Shane said something snippy and I accused him of sounding like Rozanov. The game was already over, but he started yelling at me and going crazy, not physical or anything, but got real angry. I thought that got under his collar a little too much but, you know.” He shrugged.
“So that leaves our time frame between 2009 and late 2013.”
The four of them stood to stare at the cluttered white board. The years where Hollander had publicly dated Rose Landry were crossed out, Shane hardly gave the impression of someone who would cheat on his partner or sneak around. Earlier it had been decided that they had likely been together during the 2017 All-Star Game when their chemistry had been off the charts, and that they were definitely together when Shane was knocked out of the season after and accident.
Now that he was really thinking about it, Ilya Rozanov had looked like a lost puppy when Shane had fallen to the ice, and seemed overly concerned even given the situation. The rumor mill said that Ilya had visited him in the hospital, too.
“Son of a bitch, Scott you were right about them flirting on the ice during the 2011 All-Star game.” Kip tripped over the coffee table. “If Shane was already acting off in 2013, then it only makes sense.”
“Montreal and Boston played each other like five times between the 2012 and 2013 season.” George confirmed. “They would’ve been in the same place, at the same time.”
Scott crossed off 2013, leaving between 2009 and 2012. When did they have time to meet before then? They didn’t play against each other all that much from 2010-2012 and from what he had gathered they only really saw each other at awards shows. Unless...unless…
Their rookie year they had done countless promotional shoots and interviews. They dominated the MLH news circuit in the absolute worst way, and when they did all those shoots and promotions and brand deals they would have had plenty of time to get to know each other. He quickly crossed out 2010, 2011, and 2012 from the list.
“Those assholes have been together since their rookie season.” Scott stormed off towards the bedroom.
“Scott! Where are you going?” Kip hurried after him.
“I’m getting my phone and I’m calling Shane Hollander!”