Chapter Text
Shane walked into the Ottawa locker room an hour and a half before practice with the intention of going out onto the ice to run some drills before the rest of practice started. Ilya, who had driven in with him, had captains' meetings with the coaches and had already headed to the admin offices in the practice facility. He was unsurprised to find the locker room empty and completely cleaned from the day before; his locker had his freshly laundered practice jersey and his other equipment waiting for him. He changed and prepared methodically with his routine he had since he was younger; shedding and folding his clothes, putting on his base layers, then his pants, one skate at a time, laced to the perfect pressure, then his pads and jersey, checked his three hockey sticks were still ready and usable, and finally tapped the picture of his parents, Ilya, and him that he kept in his locker. As he turned to leave, his phone began ringing, shrill and obnoxious in the otherwise silent room. Shane considered not answering, knowing whoever was calling could just leave a message, but after the third ring, he turned back around and picked up the phone. It was Hayden. He deeply sighed before answering, “Hey man, what’s up?”
“Shane! I need help! Can you watch the kids tonight?” Hayden was already talking at a volume above a comfortable phone conversation. Not quite yelling, but loud and fast. Speaking in a rush as if it were an emergency.
“Hayd, I am in Ottawa. I have practice, foundation meetings, and date night with Ilya. I can’t do that tonight,” Shane responded in a normal volume. He was deliberately responding in a low voice to try to coax Hayden to stay calm about this. He knew Hayden wouldn’t respond well to the rejection. While not lying about how busy a day he had after practice, the truth was, he didn’t want to babysit tonight or drive the four-hour round trip, or give up one of the few date nights with Ilya he gets to have during the season.
“Oh, c’mon! You don’t need a date night with Ilya. Without kids, every night can be date night. Jackie and I have been planning this outing for 3 weeks. I just forgot to call the babysitter until today, and now she is busy,” Hayden had that tone again. The one he used whenever talking about Ilya and Shane’s relationship. “Can’t you skip date night or move it to Montreal and take the kids with you?”
Shane wasn’t sure how to respond. His first thought was just to say ‘no’ outright, but he knew that would result in making Hayden mad at him. “How about Ilya and I check our schedules and try to come out to babysit next week? We have a few nights next week where we will be in Ottawa before we leave on the road for 4 games.”
“No, that won’t work. Montreal has away games all of next week. You don’t have our schedule memorized? You used to memorize Ilya’s, but won’t remember your best friends?”
Shane thought Hayden wasn’t trying to be mean, but his words were still hurtful. Being accused of not caring about someone in his life was rude and disrespectful. Still, it mainly felt like Hayden was downplaying his relationship with Ilya to a friendship rather than to a spouse-and-soulmate status, as he had with Jackie. “I’m sorry. I have a lot going on and forgot. Why don’t I look at our schedules and see if we can get something scheduled before the Christmas break?”
Hayden sighed deeply, sounding exasperated. “Fine, okay. Jackie is going to be so mad at me. Can I blame you? Say you backed out at the last minute? I already forgot twice in October; she might actually kill me this time.”
Even when Shane still lived in Montreal, Hayden would try to blame him for forgetting things. Like when Hayden was supposed to ask Shane to watch the twins a few summers ago, so Jackie could go to the dentist while Hayden took the younger two to some birthday party. Hayden had forgotten to ask until the day before, and then told Jackie Shane had called and said he had the flu when Shane had to say no because he was out of town for a commercial shoot. Shane had been confused when Jackie had texted him, hoping he would feel better soon, and Hayden had called to yell at him for ‘blowing his cover’ and ‘getting him in trouble with his wife.’
“What is it you would always tell me, if you feel like you have to lie to your partner, maybe your relationship isn’t healthy?” Shane laughed humorlessly. He was trying to make a joke to lighten the mood over the phone, but clearly, he hit the wrong nerve today.
“Man, fuck you! At least I am lying about what someone else had said; you were lying about your own fucking feelings. I can’t believe you won’t babysit tonight, and now you are making jokes about the quality of my marriage? Mine? Maybe you should worry about yours, and I’ll worry about mine,” Hayden was getting louder as he continued to speak.
“Okay, okay, I am sorry. Of course, you can blame me and say you were sick. Just make sure Jackie knows not to ask, cause I won’t be lying to her, and I don’t want to be in the middle of this fight again,” Shane responded. “Oh, and swear jar twice!”
“Jackie isn’t even here, man. I won’t be telling her, and neither should you. My kids were so excited to see Uncle Shane and Uncle Ilya. We were looking forward to seeing you both as well, but oh well, I guess,” Hayden replied. “I got to go and find out if someone else can watch them. Thanks, bro, bye.”
Hayden hung up before Shane could reply. Shane felt bad, but knew it wasn’t his fault that Hayden hadn’t asked before making promises he couldn’t keep. He already knew the kids, or Jackie would call, and he’d have to lie about why he couldn’t come all the way to Montreal right now. He wished Hayden would just take care of it and not make him the bad guy, but knew it wasn’t worth the effort to explain to Hayden why it was hurtful to keep putting him in this position. Shane was tired of arguing with him.
***
Shane was still on the ice when Ilya came out of the tunnel from the locker room with a worried look on his face. A few others were milling around, but no one but Shane was on the ice. “Why didn’t you tell me you weren’t feeling well?” Ilya asked as Shane skated up to him after finishing his lap.
Shane sighed before responding, “Because I am feeling perfectly fine. Which one texted you?”
“The best Pike adult. She texted me saying, ‘Sorry Shane isn’t feeling well. Let me know if you need advice for dealing with sick hockey players,” Ilya said questioningly. “Why would she text this if you are fine?”
“Hayden is an idiot. He forgot to organize a babysitter and called me a little while ago to ask if I could babysit. He told me he was going to say I cancelled because I was sick, when I told him we had plans.” Shane made sure to put air quotes around the middle part of his statement. When Shane finally looked back up at Ilya, he was frowning and had a crease in his brow.
“Why would Hayden lie to Jackie, his better half? She is already too good for him.”
Shane shook his head and laughed at Ilya. He could always turn any of Hayden’s actions into quips about Jackie needing to leave Hayden. “I don’t know, something about him having done this several times this year. Apparently, Jackie will kill him for waiting until the last minute to secure a babysitter.”
“We could cancel our date night and go over there if you wanted.” Ilya was offering, but Shane could see his reluctance. “Our last foundation meeting ends at 3 pm, right?”
“Babe, no. I… I, uh… I don’t want to go over there today. I have other plans for our night.” Shane could feel his face blushing red.
Ilya gasped. “You mean the Great Uncle Shane would rather get laid than hang out with his … what’s the term? Children of god? Jesus-littles?”
“Godchildren? My godchildren? Yes, Ilya, I would rather get bent over than hang out with my godchildren tonight.” Shane realized too late what he had said. “No, do not make that face, you smug bastard. We haven’t had a date night in years. Plus its two hours there, two hours back, and we have practice tomorrow at 7 am. And you know they never get back on time. So we probably wouldn’t get back here until 1 am or after.”
Shane was rambling, he could tell, but he needed to change the subject before Ilya used it as leverage to distract him for the rest of practice. “Yes, yes, I understand. I would prefer to have you at home tonight as well.” Ilya interrupted. “I promise to show you how much later.”
Ilya pulled Shane toward him from the other side of the boards. “We have 20 minutes. We could get a head start on tonight.” Ilya said as he dipped down to mouth at Shane’s jaw.
“AH! Not again! Why can you two never be in a locked fucking room? BOYS! Save yourselves. Captain and Holzy are making out on the ice again!” Boodram yelled as he stepped out onto the ice.
“Maybe we should instate a PDA jar and make them pay each time,” Troy replied as he lead the others out.
Ilya was laughing into Shane’s neck as the boys continued to chirp them about PDA. Shane had made Ilya promise to keep the PDA to a minimum during their first year on the team together, but Ilya had learned to push the boundaries, and as Shane had become more comfortable this year, they had relaxed the rules a bit. Ilya lifted his head a way from his hiding place, kissed Shane, and then yelled over his shoulder, “You fuckers are just jealous I get to be here with my hot husband every day. Maybe you should also convince your WAGs to join the team!”
“Shut up, you asshole! Do not call me hot in front of them,” Shane laughed as he heard the rest of the team whistle and began chirping Ilya. “Are you going to let me go, so we can start practice?”
“Ugh, you are so boring, Hollander. What if I wanted to fuck you at center ice while the whole team and our fans watch?” Ilya whispered in Russian as he hopped over the boards, keeping one hand holding on to Shane’s jersey.
“No. Stop that. We have practice. Later.” Shane was flustered as he tried to back away from Ilya and join the rest of the team.
“Fine, fine,” Ilya smirked as he tried to push past Shane. “Race you!”
Shane immediately started skating after Ilya and tried to get in front of him. “Not fair, you asshole.”
Shane technically won the race to the rest of the team, but wasn’t trying to earn bagskates for the whole team. He dutifully decided to keep his mouth shut, but his other teammates did not take the hint. “Ha! Halzy won! You really going to let him beat you like that, Roz?” Hazy chirped.
“Uh, yes. My gorgeous husband needs to win sometimes so he and I can…” Ilya started.
“NO! Stop it! They don’t need to hear that!” Shane interrupted. “Are we going to get started soon?”
“I was going to say so we can keep practice interesting. Is very boring if I am the only one winning all the time.” Ilya tried innocently.
“You know that is not what you were going to say, Rozanov,” Shane replied with attitude.
“You don’t know that, Mr. Boring. Everyone to the goal line!” Ilya finally started practice. “Maybe some bagskates will help us remember this.”