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“Cap, you’ve got to see this,” Carter tells Scott the second he enters the locker room.
Scott startles. He’d been a bit apprehensive, coming here today. After all it is the first time that he’ll have to change in a room full of hockey players that know he is gay and, much as management has assured him that they are thrilled about his coming out (and all the engagement and good press it has brought to the Admirals), Scott is not naive enough to not realize that there’s probably more than one of his teammates that will be checking to see that he doesn’t look at them too much or for too long.
But trust Carter to render all his worries irrelevant by dragging him to his side and shoving a phone under his nose the second he sees him.
“What am I looking at?” he asks with a sigh, but he can’t help the smile that tugs at his lips.
“Some reporter asked Rozanov about you,” Carter informs him.
He looks very excited about it, which is not the reaction the Russian usually inspires in him.
Scott’s a bit curious about why that is. Then again, Rozanov had approached him after he’d gotten his MVP award and been surprisingly nice, for once. After calling him old a thousand times of course.
Still, “Don’t they know he is from fucking Russia?”
Kind of shitty to ask him a question about LGBT matters and force him to choose between either coming off as a homophobe or getting himself and his family back home in a world of trouble.
“Don’t think they care too much as long as they get a viral moment,” Eric answers dryly, coming to stand by Scott’s other side.
While Carter’s assistance seems to be completely unintentional, Eric is very clearly taking his other flank to send a message.
“And did they get one?” Scott asks, trying to focus back on the conversation and act like today is just another day.
Then again, on a normal day, he wouldn’t ask this question. They all already know the answer. This is Rozanov, after all.
Carter smiles a bit meanly. “Not one the reporter is going to like.”
And with that he presses play.
“So I’m assuming you were as surprised as the rest of us last season,” the reporter is asking Rozanov in the video.
The background is, unmistakingly, an airport and Rozanov looks tired and is holding a couple of backs, apparently having been ambushed the literal second he’d arrived in Boston after spending the summer in Russia.
Just for that, Scott dislikes the reporter immediately. It doesn’t help that he looks smarmy and is acting overly familiar, completely unaware of the disdain Rozanov is not even bothering to hide. He is also, if Scott’s not mistaken, the author of a very nice article about how ‘politics have no place in hockey’ that Kip found particularly foul.
“Very much so,” Rozanov answers with a decisive nod. “Very surprising for the Admirals to win the Cup. Almost a miracle, I think. Something… What's the word? Oh! Unrepeatable.”
“Oh, fuck you, Rozanov,” Scott says, not caring that the asshole cannot hear him. There’s a murmur of agreement coming from his teammates and Scott basks on the feeling of still being one of the team (at least when there’s a common enemy to antagonise).
The reporter seems a bit stumped by his answer but presses nonetheless. “I was talking about what happened afterwards,” he prods him. Rozanov stares at him blankly. “When he kissed his… partner on the ice?”
“Everybody was kissing partners on the ice,” Rozanov says, blinking slowly. “They were celebrating that San Francisco managed to lose the Cup to them.”
So did Boston, Scott wants to tell the guy. But still, it’s nice to see that at least one person comprehends that what Scott did should not have made the fucking news.
“But it’s not like his partner was a nice girl waiting to get on the ice with the rest of the WAGs and families, is it?”
Scott sighs. How has this reporter not realized that Rozanov is just playing with him yet? If the most perceptive player in the league (and much as it pains Scott, that’s what Rozanov is which only enables him to reach new levels of obnoxiousness) is not picking your very obvious bait it’s because he’s decided that he does not want to bite.
“Oh!” Rozanov says with recognition in his voice. “Yeah, that was very rude of him. Why did he make the poor man come down from all the way up there? Should have let him wait with the rest of the partners. Much easier for him to get on the ice that way. But I guess he was so convinced he would lose that he didn’t want to bother. That is okay, I understand. Everyone was surprised they win too.”
“That was not-” Scott splutters indignantly. “I just wasn’t planning on- It was a spur of the moment decision!”
“We know,” Carter says, a bit annoyed at having to pause the video, again.
“Don’t let him get to you,” Eric tells him. “You know how he is.”
“Just press play,” Scott says tiredly. “He has not called me old yet, I’m starting to worry about his health.”
“But surely, you have opinions on his relationship?” the reporter says, apparently done trying to pretend that he’s subtle.
“Of course I do,” Rozanov answers with a nod. “It’s just plain wrong.”
“What is that asshole saying?”
To Scott's surprise, the question doesn’t come from Eric nor from Carter. Instead it’s one of his defensemen, a man that’s been very cagey around him since his coming out but is now looking murderous. And it’s not just him, apparently the whole team has stopped changing to listen to the Red Menace’s opinion on his love life and several have their jaws clenched like they are ready to fight Rozanov right here and now. It’s really nice to know they still have his back, but Scott cannot let that happen.
He sighs, and he’s about to tell them that Rozanov is either doing a bit (most likely) or following some very stern instruction from his motherland, when Carter shushes them.
“Wait for it,” he tells them, before cranking up the volume and pressing play again.
In the video, the reporter looks like he’s regaining his footing and lets out a relieved laugh, “I thought you might agree. You’d be surprised at how many people are supporting this obscenity.”
Obscenity, really?
“Remind me to get that guy banned from our press conferences,” Scott whispers to Eric.
“Don’t,” Eric answers. “I would love to have a chat with him.”
The defensemen from before hums in agreement and a couple of the guys actually tap their sticks to the ground in agreement.
“Shhh,” Carter tells them all with a glare.
“It’s ridiculous,” Rozanov nods. “That nice man is way too young for the likes of Hunter. It’s problematic, I think that’s the word, yes? Hunter should have found himself someone more age appropriate. He likes a younger partner? That’s okay, there’s a lot of seventy years old who I’m sure would be willing to date him.”
Of course that’s where he was going with this. Scott can’t help but snort. Around him, he can see his teammates relax and shake their heads in exasperation.
“Wha-” the reporter tries but Rozanov still has not finished making his point.
“Chasing after college kids is very midlife crisis, no?” he continues. “But Hunter is at the end of his life so he really shouldn’t do this.”
“Okay, Kip is going for his master, he hardly counts as a college kid,” Scott protests, his amusement from before leaving him immediately.
Sure, Kip is a bit younger than him but not that much! His own parents had a bigger age gap than him and Kip.
“You know all the protesting and justifying only makes you look worse, don’t you?” Eric teases him.
“Yeah, you got yourself a hot younger guy, embrace it and let the haters hate,” Carter agrees. “And shut up so we can get to the good part before Coach comes to see what’s taking us so long, yeah?”
“That’s your problem with his… partner? His age?”
Rozanov tilts his head to one side, looking at the reporter in a bored way that makes Scott think about a leopard about to pounce. “What else should I find problematic?”
His tone is carefully casual but there’s an undercurrent of challenge in it, like he’s daring the reporter to just come out and say it.
The reporter is, apparently, brave enough to call Scott’s relationship ‘an obscenity’ when he thinks someone more famous is agreeing with him, but not enough to just come out and say he has a problem with Scott having a boyfriend during what was probably a live interview.
“You’ve played in the same team as Scott Hunter in several All Star Games, haven’t you?” he asks, in a hard pivot.
“Maybe? I think he was chatting with our goalie while Hollander and I won for the East last year, yeah? Sorry, I cannot remember every player I share the ice with.”
That’s a lie. Scott has seen Rozanov chirp at guys about mistakes they made as rookies in games that were not even against Boston. Seriously, the man has as good a memory as Hollander! The only difference is that Hollander uses it to remember stats and Rozanov uses it to ensure he never lets you live down any mistake you’ve ever made.
“You probably will be in the same team this year too.”
God Scott hopes he isn’t. Or if he is, that Hollander gets sent to the other team. Sharing ice with those two together had been fucking exhausting. Someone should have told them that no one really tries in All Star Games.
“If he makes it to the All Stars again, probably. Don’t know if his knees will hold for that long though.”
Just for that comment, Scott is scoring a hat trick next time they face Boston.
“That means you may end up having to shower together,” the reporter says like that’s something normal and totally not insane to bring up in a fucking interview. Or well, when accosting someone in the airport with a camera and zero concern about how long they’ve been traveling and how much they may want to go home. “Will that be uncomfortable for you?”
Scott feels the air around him go cold and refuses to raise his eyes from the video. How many of his teammates think that maybe the reporter has a point? How many of them would prefer Scott wasn’t here right now? That he had his own changing room and didn’t have to share theirs?
“Not really,” Rozanov says flippantly. “He’s old but I don’t think he’s quite at the point where we need to worry about him falling and breaking his hip. Yet.”
Once again, Rozanov manages to kill the tension without even being in the same room as them. Scott’s so grateful that he’s going to pretend he doesn’t know that all the people suddenly having a coughing fit right now are trying to hide the fact that they are giggling like little kids.
“But he could make a move on you!” the reporter says, finally losing his patience. “Doesn’t that worry you?”
“Making move in the shower is bold and exciting. Hunter is old and boring, he flirts by buying smoothies and I’m not afraid of mushed fruit.” Rozanov shrugs. “He also has a boyfriend, yes? I don’t think he’s the kind of guy that cheats. So why would he make move on me?”
“Well, you are really hot!” the reporter answers, gesturing at Rozanov as if to exemplify it.
“So not my type,” Scott says because he needs it on the record. And because it’s (mostly) the truth. Rozanov may be objectively hot but the second he starts yapping he loses any appeal he has.
“Thank you but I don’t hook up with reporters,” Rozanov says, completely serious. “Casual flings with press is not a smart idea when you are famous like me.”
The reporter gapes and Carter pauses the video to make sure every member of the team can appreciate his expression before resuming it.
It is a very funny face, Scott’s willing to admit that.
“Because I’m from the press?” the reporter repeats. “That’s the reason you wouldn’t sleep with me?”
“Why does he sound like he’s about to offer to quit his job?” Eric asks amused.
“I mean, this is Rozanov, you have to be very straight to turn him down,” Carter muses, apparently fine with pausing the video when he’s the one with something to say.
“Really?” Scott asks, raising a very judgemental eyebrow in his direction.
“Sure, man,” Carter answers him, completely unbothered. “I mean if you are going to experiment then he’s the best option, yeah? Knows what he’s doing, is hot and won’t stay around after you are done.”
“Thought about it, have you?” Eric teases.
Carter just shrugs and for one second Scott is filled to the brim with misplaced jealousy at just how casually his friend was able to take the implications. Must be nice to be this secure in your own sexuality.
“Don’t say that where he can hear you,” Scott orders. “He doesn’t need the ego bust.”
“Well, not the main reason, no,” Rozanov says, now looking a bit uncomfortable. Or pretending to, at least. Scott’s pretty sure that despite the apologetic tone that’s glee sparkling in his eyes. “I like freckled beauties with nice chests, not balding middle-aged men with a bit of a paunch, but I was trying to be polite.” Like Rozanov even knows the meaning of the word polite. “Anyway, I’m tired and I want to get home so you get one last question, choose wisely.”
“Sure,” the reporter grumbles, looking very much like he just got his feelings hurt. “Then I’ll just ask directly:will you be congratulating Scott Hunter when you see him next?”
He already did, you moron, Scott can’t help but think.
“I will, yeah. He has proven to everyone that even the Admirals can win the Cup,” Rozanov says, once again completely sidestepping the real point of the question. “As long as both me and Hollander get injured before playing them, of course.”
And he winks at the camera right before the video cuts off.
“What a fucking asshole,” Scott exclaims but he’s aware that he’s sounding more fond than anything else.
Rozanov is an asshole, yeah, but he’s just made it very clear where he stands. And has managed to do so without making any statements that could get him accused of spreading LGBT propaganda. Scott is almost impressed. And maybe a little bit grateful.
“Come on, you've got to admit that he’s a funny guy,” Carter says, grinning ear to ear.
“I’ll admit to nothing,” Scott says with a glare. “Now everybody, stop wasting time and get on the fucking ice already!”
He’s answered with several ‘Yes, Captain’ and everybody starts changing. There’s no awkwardness, not sideway glances, no pointed comments. Everybody is too busy commenting on how skillfully Rozanov had managed to embarrass the idiot reporter.
Scott cannot believe that he owes the bastard one.
Then again, if that freckled beauty he was talking about is who Scott thinks it is, maybe they can call it even. After all, Scott’s being a good elder and going through this Circus first, opening a way for the two clowns that are sure to follow.