Work Text:
“Bye”
“See you tomorrow”
The two stood waving in the driveway until the car was out of sight. David let out a loud sigh.
“Well.” He paused and looked at his wife. Her gaze had not shifted from the corner that the Jeep hid disappeared around. “That was a lot. Are you OK?”
Yuna hummed in ascent, still staring into empty space; she truly was OK with everything she had found out today. There was just one thing –
“Rozanov – sorry, Ilya – is not what I expected him to be.” David continued, “Really nice guy.”
“I need a minute” Yuna said turning sharply and heading back into the cottage, her husband trailing behind her.
Having lived with Yuna and Shane for many years, David recognised the signs immediately. High shoulders, a slight crease between the eyebrows, and a particular position of the lips meant ‘I won’t ask for it, but I need to process something, and I need to do this alone before I can talk about it’. It had been a while before he and Yuna got the system correct, with arguments and meltdowns along the way. When Shane came along with the same quirks, David knew exactly what was needed of him.
He walked to the kitchen, brewed a pot of tea, and silently took it to the office where he was in no way surprised to see her intently looking at the screen of her computer.
He was very surprised, however, to see what she was looking at.
“Hockey’s foulest chirps?” he asked, reading the title of the YouTube video. “Huh?”
Yuna did not respond as she watched. She was holding a pen over a blank notepad, fingers gripping so tight that her knuckles were white. The video was a rapid montage of one-liners from players over the last five years, and she didn’t want to miss a single one.
“Why are you even here, just fuck off back where you came from.” A player in a red jersey said to a player with olive coloured skin.
*
“You pussy, that was barely even a hit. Grow a pair and act like a man instead of a little bitch” A bearded man in a blue jersey said to a young player on his own team.
*
“Oh, I bet you’d love that you homo. Next time get on your knees”. This one was Boston player shouting at a member of the opposing team who was being held back by two referees.
Yuna sped the video up to double speed, appalled by the hate she was hearing. She was looking for one player who had not appeared yet.
“He’s not in it” she said.
“Who?” David asked, but he already knew the answer.
“Rozanov”
“Ilya” he reminded gently.
Yuna did not respond. David walked out of the office after he watched her type into the search bar and click on another video
Ilya Rozanov – hockey’s biggest asshole
*
Ilya leaning against the boards talking at Chicago player who was actively not looking at him
“OK, because it is your birthday I will score one hat trick just for you. As gift. More would be too much”
The other player turned and glared at him “Fuck off Rozanov”
“Oh, you want four goals? Greedy boy, but OK. You deserve it”
A yellow text overlay appeared reading “Rozanov scored 4 goals”
*
Ilya facing off against Scott Hunter
“Hunter, you remember when you were young and talented like me? Did they call you the future of hockey too, or were you never so good?”
*
“Little tip for you” Ilya skidding to a halt in front of a player in a white jersey who was doubled over, breathing heavily “you want to put the puck into the net. Not next to it. That is how scoring works in hockey”
The other player dropped his gloves and swung for Ilya’s head. Ilya grinned widely and threw his own gloves to the floor.
*
Yuna watched the entire video. Thirty clips including eleven fights, all of them initiated by the others player after Ilya chirped them. None of the chirps got close to being offensive or inappropriate, just the exact right thing to say to piss his opponent off. The notebook on the desk was still blank.
She watches eight more videos, following links and recommendations with titles such as “The Russian Bear strikes again” and “Rozy’s bloodiest fights” before she accepts that she isn’t going to find what she thought she would.
Was Rozanov the asshole the hockey world made him out to be? Had Yuna made her mind up about Ilya Rozanov, captain of the Boston Bears, before she should have?
Shane had been compared to Rozanov since juniors, it was natural comparing the best to the best. The juxtaposition of the calm and controlled Canadian against the hot-headed angry Russian was an easy sell for the media. The rivalry and the hatred were an obvious angle. Yuna had watched it play out for years as a mother, manager, and as a hockey fan. But now she was wondering if she had been led to believe something that had never actually happened.
“But you hate him” she had said to her son.
What evidence was there of that?
They were fierce competitors, of course. Captains of teams with a decades-long rivalry. They were always asked about each other in interviews, always compared with stats that were often hair-splittingly close.
But Shane and Ilya had never thrown punches. Ilya had never insulted Shane in interviews, in fact he had always said that Shane was a good player, just not as good as him.
Huh.
Yuna opened Google on one tab of her browser, her emails on another and went down another avenue of research. Ilya might not be the brutish hockey thug she thought he was, but was he a good person?
Searching social media was time-consuming when you were looking for something specific, but Yuna was a pro. After a few leads, she came across a link to a blog that she hesitated before clicking on it.
Hockey’s biggest man-whores
OK ladies, we all know sports-stars don’t struggle to pick girls up on a night out, but I want dirt on the good, the bad and the ugly of the hockey world. Judgement-free zone (you get yours).
I’ll even open – I once hooked up with Carter Vaughan when he was playing in my hometown, and he left a giant skid mark in my toilet EEEEEWWWWWWW. Sex was adequate.
SarahLou66 – Dallas Kent hit on me in a club in Detroit once. I told him I had a boyfriend and I wasn’t interested but he was not keen on taking no for an answer. I had to leave and got the bouncer to get me to a cab so he didn’t try to follow me.
- 😧
-Girl, you got off lightly. I’ve heard rumours about that man
-Yeah, he’s a total creep
-I’ve heard he needs new girls every night because he’s so bad in bed, no one wants to go back
-He hosts weird Playboy-mansion style parties at his place in Toronto. Dude isn’t rich or good looking enough for it to not be weird
FloridaGalentine – best sex of my life was a one nighter with Cliff Marlow and Connor Connors. I won’t go into details, but I will be spending the next few HOURS reminiscing
-Yaaaaas queen. This is what I’m talking about👏
-Can confirm, Marlow lives up to the hype
-DETAILS NEEDED
-Marlow is so gorgeous. That jawline alone is enough to get me off.
-Also have evidence to support Marlow being an absolute god in bed.
-I went home with Connors once… not to be ignored 🍆
-Ooooooh is Marlow Hockey’s biggest man-whore?
-Nah, surely Rozanov has him beat. “Russia’s greatest love machine”???
Ihearttheadmirals – I’m ashamed to say as an Admirals fan, but I went back to Rozanov’s hotel room once. Total betrayal of my team, but I have a new admiration for the Boston Bears.
-Now. Was he an asshole? Did he demand to do it in front of a mirror so he could watch himself? His ego is so big, I bet he’s completely selfish. Was he like Kent?
-Rozanov is 100% NOT selfish in bed. We hooked up when he was a rookie and he wouldn’t fuck me until he’d given me two orgasms already
-The man is TALENTED
-NOT KENT! We were kissing in a club once and he asked me back to his hotel. I said I didn’t want to and he brought me another drink, we danced for a while, and he put me and my girls in a cab and said “get home safe”.
-Rozanov asked me about 50 times if I was sure, if I was OK, if he could do xyz, if I liked it. So safe, so hot
- I met Rozanov inOctober 2013, best night ever!
Anonymous81 – I completely threw myself at Rozanov once in Tampa when I was hammered. Basically gave him a lap dance in the VIP area. He took me home and… I woke up still in my clothes from the night before, tucked into bed with a glass of water on the nightstand and a note that said “sorry, but you were not OK to make good choice”😭
-The man is a saint
-Well, not a saint, he’s been with a LOT of women
-But respectfully, skilfully and with consent.
*
Yuna closed the blog, having seen far too much already. Nothing about Ilya with men, of course, but only good things about Ilya as a partner.
Maybe the polite, loveable man that sat eating pasta in her dining room was not putting on an act.
One thing left to explore.
“Hello? The gentle, female voice on the other end of the call answered
“Hello, is this Sadie?” Yuna asked, with her professional voice on.
“Yes, can I ask who’s calling?”
“My name is Holly Young”, Yuna lied, “I got your number from Zach at the agency and was wondering if you had a few minutes to talk about one of your players?”
“Of course! Zach said you’d be calling, what can I do for you?”
“This might sound strange, but could you tell me anything about Ilya Rozanov? My clients are interested in becoming involved with him, and we have a few concerns based on what we have seen of his character.” Rule number 1 of snooping: Keep it vague, don’t give any details if you can get away with it.
“Oh, that’s all an act” Sadie laughed. “He’s a sweetheart, everyone who actually knows him loves him”
“Really?” Yuna tries to keep the surprise out of her voice, but she is not sure if she manages it “He’s so harsh in his interviews and in the way he plays.”
“He wants to win, and if people think he’s a dick, it makes them dread playing him. Or so he says. Honestly though, he’s a big softie”
“How so?”
“He tells each player he loves them at every game, more if they’ve just lost. He looks after the rookies like a big brother. Keeps an eye on them at parties, invites them over if they seem homesick, one to one time on the ice. He goes to the children’s hospital and just hangs out playing video games with the fans in his own time, not just at team schedule events. No press, just because.”
“Oh wow. That is… I have no words. I’m in a bit of shock” Yuna’s mind was whirling, the foundation of almost a decade of knowledge was rebuilding after being demolished earlier in the day by a nervous looking Russian man saying the word lovers.
“Don’t tell him I told you this” Sadie said, sounding nervous “He’s selective with who gets to see this side of him, but it is the real side of him.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, it will be our secret”
David was sitting on the sofa, watching the news on the television when Yuna emerged.
“Sorry about that,” she said, sitting next to him and running a hand up his arm, “I just- “
“Needed a minute,” David replied with a warm smile that crinkled his eyes. “I know. Did you work it out, whatever was bothering you?”
Yuna relaxed completely into the seat, her head falling back and eyes closing.
“I did.”
“And…”
“I think,” she paused “I think that Ilya is a good person. I trust Shane’s judgment, but I needed to convince myself that what I’ve thought for so long isn’t really him.”
“I think he’s a great person” David said earnestly, “I’m glad you agree”
Yuna sat up suddenly, eyes sharply looking at her husband
“Don’t tell them I did this”
“Of course not dear” David leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss on the lips.