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March 2017 - The Pike House
Shane didn’t know how he’d gotten roped into this. Well, okay, he definitely did. The Voyageurs had gathered for a watch party of the San Jose Sharks’ game, under the thin guise of “scouting the competition” - of course Shane was the only one taking notes, everyone else was on their third beer by now. It was honestly just an excuse to get a little plastered with good company, and Shane had bailed on enough team bonding events that Hayden hadn’t accepted no for an answer.
“Come on, Hollzy, it’ll be fun! Loosen up a little,” Drapeau ribbed Shane, smirking and jabbing him with his elbow from his spot on the couch.
“It’s not like he has anything to hide,” Comeau snickered. “Are we sure you’ve even fucked anyone? Maybe this ‘Lily’ isn’t even real…” Shane felt himself bristle in offense, but he was sure getting too defensive would only have the opposite effect.
“Guys, guys, lay off of him, Jesus! Our Capitane could bag THE Rose Landry, you think he has no experience? You are liars!”
“Thanks JJ,” Shane said as Hayden punched his shoulder.
“Shane, buddy, you don’t have to if you really don’t want to, but I swear it’ll be fun. It’s team bonding! That’s good for everyone!”
Shane thought for a minute before finally giving in. He hadn’t even heard of the BDSM test before that evening, but Hayden enlightened him on it when JJ had first brought up the idea of taking it together. Sure, Shane had a lot more sex than anyone on the team (except maybe Hayden) had guessed, but Shane was a normal guy! He was sure his results wouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary anyways, it’s not like him and Ilya did anything that crazy to begin with.
“Fine,” He said, smiling as the rest of the Voyageurs cheered and whooped.
“How about we make this more interesting? Anyone want to put their money where their mouths are?”
“JJ, what are you proposing?” Hayden responded, raising an eyebrow and leaning closer to him.
“Put your money on who’s the most boring, they get to keep it if it’s not true. Should be easy.” Drapeau said, looking pointedly at Shane.
Shane didn’t know if he was the only one feeling the tension in the room, or if JJ or Hayden noticed too, but it made him distinctly uncomfortable sitting next to Drapeau on Hayden’s big sectional couch.
Miitka and JJ pulled out a crisp $50 bill each and placed them in front of Shane with a mock salute before high-fiving each other.
“Sorry buddy,” Hayden said with a shrug and little grin as he also placed a $20 on the table in the growing pile.
Drapeau and Comeau exchanged a glance and Comeau raised an eyebrow before putting a couple bills on Shane and a couple on Hayden. Miitka also dropped a small bill by Hayden’s pile.
“Hey!” Hayden said, throwing his hands up in offense.
“Dude, you have like 10 kids! And Jackie doesn’t seem like the type anyways,” Miitka justified, before laughing with Comeau.
“Okay, okay, who cares, let us get this show on the road already, fuckers!” JJ said, which Shane thought was a bit of an overreaction. It was just a game and a website, what was the big deal?
Shane opened the website, scanning through the first basic questions. Gender, man. Country, Canada. Age category, 26-30. Sexual orientation… heteroflexible? What did that even mean? Homoflexible also was a confusing name for what should probably be a simple concept. It didn’t really matter, after Tampa and his brief dating history with Rose Shane was sure he was strictly gay. Even he knew that if having a gorgeous movie-star girlfriend wasn’t enough to pretend he still liked girls, frankly nothing else could change that. But since Tampa, he finally felt like the weight of keeping that secret was lifted by just speaking those words out loud to Ilya in the dim lights of his hotel room.
“Yo, we taking the longer test or the short one?” Hayden asked, stopping Shane’s brief introspection.
“Short, c’mon let’s just get this done ASAP, I can’t wait to rake in this cash!” Comeau said, clearly halfway done by the rapid clicks on his phone Shane could see.
Even just the first page of questions had pretty strong ratings for Shane. ‘I like to be dominated, especially in the bedroom.’ That was a simple ‘strongly agree’ all the way on the right. There was something about Ilya’s control that just gave Shane such a head rush when he obeyed. He was in control for so much of his life that he didn’t realize just how good it felt to give it up, trusting Ilya to catch him when he fell every time.
‘I like receiving pain during sex/BDSM and seeing the results of it afterwards.’ Well… if he and Ilya didn’t have to be so secretive, he would love nothing more than to be marked up by Ilya. The rare times Ilya lost control, thankfully it had been discreet enough, but Shane had still been teased mercilessly by the guys in the locker room when they got a glimpse of the blooming purple bruises clustered inside of his upper thighs. He was tight-lipped about this ‘girl’ they all thought mauled him, but he felt a warm buzzy feeling knowing there was still a trace of Ilya lingering on him where anyone could see.
He filled in more of the questions before stopping on ‘I am willing to try anything once, even if I don’t think I will like it.’ Shane didn’t like making the decisions most of the time during sex. However, he trusted that Ilya would know just what he needed every time. He would do whatever Ilya said, even if just to know he was doing good and following instructions.
A lot of the questions seemed so odd to Shane. Dressing up like a child? 24/7 sex slave? Acting like a pet? Shane liked to be cared for, but acting like an animal was a whole different level he didn’t think he was into. I mean, who knows… he marked disagree for now, making a note to take the test again if they ever played around with anything like that.
By the end of the test Shane felt pretty confident in how normal his preferences were. Sure, things with Ilya typically felt very intense, much more so than they had with Rose, but that’s just what happens when you have really good sex!
Everyone else was done at this point, chatting about this and that around the circle. What Miitka’s girlfriend was up to, Comeau’s unsuccessful recent romantic pursuits, how Hayden’s kids were doing, normal stuff while they waited for Shane. He cleared his throat, putting his phone face down on the table and felt everyone hone in on him like they were laser-focused.
“So, how are we gonna share the results?” Hayden asked, puzzling over it.
“First we will say how many answers are 20% or more, the orange ones. Then we will see top 5 labels, just for fun?” Miitka suggested, shrugging as everyone agreed and nodded along.
They started with him, going around until they got to Drapeau, seated next to Shane. He responded with a 5, the highest number so far but still nothing crazy.
“Nine,” Shane said, and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, before the entire team exploded into chatter.
“Hollzy, you dirty dog! Were you and Rose Landry doing all kinds of kinky shit?” JJ said, before slapping his hands together and putting on a shocked expression. “Were you too kinky for her? Mon dieu!”
“Damn, I guess there goes the bet…” Comeau said, looking pretty disgruntled.
“Should have known this was coming,” Hayden said, shaking his head. “Whenever Shane came back from seeing ‘Lily’, he was practically glowing. Half the time he changed in the locker room the next day he looked like he got attacked by some kind of wild animal, it was actually insane.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Shane said, feeling heat rise to his cheeks as he glared at Hayden.
“Hey, we’re not shaming, you deserve to let loose every once in a while,” Hayden smirked before he clapped Shane on the back.
Shane reached for the bills in front of him before Drapeau smacked his hand away. “We’re not done yet boys, we still don’t know what makes Shane such a freak,” He said.
“Someone’s obsessed,” Shane said and watched as Drapeau spluttered and tried to recover.
“It is part of the deal! You cannot just leave us hanging, Capitane!”
“JJ stop, Shane doesn’t have to share if he doesn’t want to,” Hayden sent him a glare before looking back at Shane. “Shane?”
Shane thought about it for a minute. Being defensive and refusing would probably make him the butt of jokes for the foreseeable future, locker room or otherwise. He could already hear Comeau calling him a freak and everyone laughing along and felt stirrings of discomfort. But at the same time he didn’t really want to share the dynamics he and Ilya had held so close to his chest, even if the guys were (mostly) his close friends. Shane’s submission was only meant for Ilya; he was the only one that got to see Shane unravel like that, and-
The decision was made for him as Comeau leaned over and snatched his phone out of his hands, the results still bright on the screen. Shane bolted up and lunged for it to no avail, just a second too late.
“Oh my god!” He said, bursting into laughter. Shane felt his face heat up as he flushed.
“Share with the class, come on!” Miitka demanded, gesturing with his hands.
“97% submissive… It seems like Rose is very different from the little innocent girl-next-door she pretends to be! Also, rope bunny, what does that even mean?”
Shane didn’t refute this even though it obviously wasn’t true. What was the alternative, specifying that it was in fact his long-time rival that he enjoyed being dominated by? Definitely not.
“Or… maybe they both wanted to be the girl in the relationship…” Drapeau said and smirked at Shane. “Is Lily man enough for you?”
“Hey, shut the fuck up,” Hayden stood up with his gaze tight.
“I’m just joking, don’t get your panties in a twist,” Drapeau put his hands in the air in mock-offense.
“63% brat, I see that,” JJ said, trying to defuse some of the tension.
“Oh my god,” Shane said, hiding his face in his hands.
“Okay, okay, are we done, do I get the money now or what?” Shane said, resurfacing as he finally swept the bills towards him. “Also, who’s going next? Hayden?”
“Oh, no, thanks buddy I’m okay,” Hayden tried to escape but it wasn’t enough to deter Shane’s desire to redirect the conversation.
Shane and JJ made eye contact before simultaneously deciding to go for the phone as everyone else started laughing.
“Vanilla first, I think we all saw that coming,” Miitka pointed out. “Voyeur is surprisingly high, and dominant is solidly orange…”
Hayden raised his eyebrows before winking at him.
“You’re not the only one with some surprises!” He looked pointedly at Shane and shrugged goodnaturedly.
Shane saw the screen and the rest of the results were disappointingly red, but then again Hayden and Jackie didn’t seem like they were into anything extreme. It’s not like Shane was either! But still it felt a little weird to have his entire preferences on blast, even though thankfully it was over now.
Speak of the devil, Jackie chose the perfect time to enter, right as they were discussing Hayden’s results.
“Hey boys, what are we doing now?” She asked, as clearly they weren’t watching the almost-finished Sharks game droning on in the background.
“We were just discussing your husband’s BDSM test results,” Comeau pointed out as Hayden threw his head back and sighed.
“Oh, I’m sure that was fun! Honey, did you tell them about that time we-”
“Nope! Not going there!” Hayden shouted, jumping up from his seat to hold Jackie’s waist as he steered her back out of the room. “How are the kids, should we check on them?” He said as she turned back and shrugged with a smirk as she was led away.
“Well, I certainly see where that slight dominant streak comes from,” Miitka laughed. He clapped his hands together before looking pointedly at JJ. “Your turn?”
“FUCK no,” he said and jumped up from the couch before running around the back. Miitka chased him around in hot pursuit, running circles around the dining room table and barely skirting around Hayden’s nice new stools. Hayden chose this moment to walk in and almost got bowled over by JJ as he ran through the doorway, giving an extremely confused look to Shane. Shane just started laughing, feeling lighter than he had in a while.
Yes, sometimes they were assholes, but at the end of the day they were his team and his closest friends. Would they still be this close if they knew that Shane was having a years-long clandestine affair with his biggest rival on their sworn enemy team? He didn’t know. But right now, all that mattered was the warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest. All that mattered was the laughter around him, the sunlight streaming through the blinds, and the family that he couldn’t imagine sharing a professional career with anyone else.