Chapter Text
The locker room was buzzing with excitement as the Ottawa Centaurs changed back into their regular clothes after practice. The explosion and emergency plane landing had definitely shaken all of them, but their enthusiasm for the game had returned quickly. They'd gotten a lot of coverage from the press, and they were ready to beat the New York Admirals next Saturday.
Ilya subconsciously reached up to his necklace, fingers gliding over the smooth gold engagement ring Shane had given to him yesterday.
"What are you doing?" Luca Haas asked excitedly. He had gotten a lot more confident interacting with the team, especially Ilya, after his rookie year, and he fit in well.
Ilya startled, forgetting for a moment that there were other people around him. "Oh. Nothing." He shrugged, trying to encourage Luca to inquire further.
"Holy shit, is that an engagement ring?"
Ilya's strategy had worked. Luca was young, but he was definitely perceptive.
"Yes." Ilya grinned and confidently stretched his arms out behind him, the shifting of his muscles making the ring on his necklace glaringly obvious.
"Wait, Roz, you're engaged?" Zane Boodram shouted loudly over Evan Dykstra's horrible music, which suddenly stopped.
"Yes." Ilya nodded, feeling everyone's eyes on him.
"Why didn't you tell us?" Troy Barrett asked.
Ilya shrugged. "Never came up."
"What do you mean 'never came up?' I feel like that's something a lot of people would want to share with their team, you know?" Wyatt Hayes said.
"Who is it?" Luca was practically bursting with excitement, desperate to know who his captain was engaged to.
"Is a secret." Ilya smiled again and pulled his t-shirt on.
"What if we can guess who it is?" Luca was not giving up.
"Yeah, we can play 20 questions!" Zane proposed.
"Hm." Ilya thought for a moment. Shane was completely fine with Ilya coming out to the Centaurs about their relationship. From everything he'd heard, they seemed to be a nice group of guys, and they were invited to the wedding already. "Okay."
"Wait, how do we play?" Luca asked.
"You don't know how to play 20 questions?" Troy's mouth hung open in disbelief as Luca shook his head, blushing.
"Is easy. You ask me yes or no questions about my fiance," Ilya grinned, "I answer them, and you try to guess who they are within 20 questions!"
"Does she have blonde hair?" Evan shouted.
"No." Ilya replied.
"Does she have brown hair?" He asked again.
"Nope."
"Okay, does she have black hair?"
"Also no."
"Does she have red hair?"
"No."
"Fuck." He paused, thinking of a new question.
"Dykstra, I swear, if you use up all of our questions just to figure out her hair color, I'll-"
He cut off Zane. "Is she bald?" Evan asked boldly.
"No."
"Does she have white or gray hair? Like, is she old?"
"No."
"Is her hair dyed?"
"No. Evan, do you have any questions that aren't shit?" Ilya chirped.
"Oh my God." Evan groaned. "She has to have some kind of hair." He closed his eyes, trying to think of any colors he might have skipped over in his questions. "Roz, is your fiance even a girl?" He joked.
"No!" Ilya said proudly. "Now we are getting somewhere."
"What?" Luca squeaked.
Everyone stared at Ilya, who seemed to be unbothered. "Do you have other questions? Or would you like to make final guess now?" He said, trying to get the team to keep playing.
"Okay, so your fiance's a guy, right?" Troy asked.
Ilya groaned in frustration. "Oh my God. You have got to get better questions! But yes, the answer to that question is yes. Could have been figured out from the last one."
"Does he have blond hair?" Evan was back at it again, despite the complaints of his teammates. "What?" He asked. "If we figure out his hair color, we can really narrow our choices down!"
"No, he does not have blond hair."
"Does he have brown hair?"
"No."
"Does he have black hair?"
"Yes!"
Evan looked surprised for a second. "See? It worked! What did I tell you?"
"Have we seen him before?" Luca took advantage of the lull in questioning to ask a question of his own.
"Yes, you have." Ilya said. "Take notes, Dykstra. That is good question, Haasy."
Luca grinned, blushing slightly at the complement.
"Would we recognize his name?" Wyatt asked.
"Yes." Ilya smiled.
Luca, emboldened by Ilya's comment, decided to ask another question. "What's his job?"
"He pl-" Ilya stopped suddenly. "Wait. Is not yes or no answer."
"Is he famous?" Zane piped up.
Ilya smiled again. "Yes, he is."
"Does he live close to here?" Troy asked.
Ilya paused. "How many hours away counts as close?"
"I don't know. Maybe under three?" Troy's teammates all seemed to agree with his definition of the term, nodding silently.
"Yes."
"Is he Russian?" Zane asked.
Ilya laughed. "No."
"Do any of us have his phone number?" Wyatt asked. "Other than you, of course."
Ilya thought for a moment, looking around the room to make sure he considered everyone in his answer. He knew Shane didn't have contact with any of them off the top of his head and was about to answer the question when he realized that Wyatt himself did, in fact, have Shane's phone number since he'd helped as a goaltending coach with the Irina Foundation's summer camps.
"Yes." Ilya grinned, knowing the vague answer would drive the team crazy.
"Wait, who has his number?" Zane asked. Every player simply shrugged. None of them had even known Ilya was in a relationship until five minutes ago, so they didn't know what name to look for in their contacts.
"Okay, we've only got about two questions left, right, Roz?" Evan asked.
Ilya shrugged. He'd started counting at the beginning of the game but had gotten distracted and lost count quickly.
"We know it's a guy, he has black hair," Evan began counting the clues on his fingers. "We've seen him before, we'd recognize his name, he's famous, he lives close to Ottawa, he's not Russian, and at least one of us has his phone number."
Ilya noticed a look of realization cross over Troy's face as the rest of the team came up with various male celebrities they thought someone on the team might know.
"Alright, time's up!" Ilya clapped his hands together loudly, startling the team. "You have two more guesses."
"I think I know who it is." Troy said quietly.
"Do you?" Ilya asked.
"I mean, maybe? I'm not a hundred percent sure, but is he okay with you telling us that you're engaged?"
"Oh my God, yes, he is." Ilya groaned exaggeratedly. "Do you think I would even play this if he was not okay with it?"
Nobody replied.
"Well, I would not!" Ilya said defensively. "Troy, who do you think he is?"
"Is your fiance—" Troy took in a deep breath, "—an Asian-Canadian hockey player whose jersey number is 24?"
The locker room fell silent.
"Yes!" Ilya said cheerfully. "Now you have to guess his name or else you lose the game and I win."
"Is he Shane Hollander?" Luca asked nervously.
"Yes!" Ilya leapt up to stand on the bench he'd previously been sitting on. "My fiance is Shane Hollander." He loudly announced to the stunned locker room. "We are getting married this summer, and you are all invited! Now," He hopped down from the bench and slung his bag over his shoulder, "I have to go home. My fiance is expecting me there soon," He opened the door and turned to shout over his shoulder. "and I have not done cardio yet today."