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Yuna doesn’t even know why she agreed to this. These women had never been nice to her or to Shane and yet, here she is hosting them for an impromptu reunion. Hockey moms are the worst, Yuna can say that because she is one. The other moms don’t even like her, they always said she was a bully. When really, the only reason she allegedly bullied the other kids is because they were mean to Shane first.
Well, look at Yuna now. A mother to two NHL players, who were number one and two in their draft class and currently have four, count them four Stanley Cups between them.
She’s especially annoyed that the get together had to be today. Ilya had a home game tonight and they’d made a tradition out of getting lunch together when the Cens were playing at home.
They’re all sitting around the kitchen table, drinking coffee and eating pastries, talking about the only two things they have in common. Their kids and of course, hockey.
Most, if not all the other kids Shane played youth hockey with never managed to go further than college. Although, a handful of them had been drafted to minor league teams.
Yuna knows it’s probably motherly bias but she'd never seen a kid with as much natural talent for hockey as Shane had, except for maybe Ilya Rozanov. Which she’ll freely admit to now, ask her the same question a decade ago and it would’ve been a different story.
They’ve had a difficult time as a family since the accidental outing. Yuna had wanted to murder Hayden Pike with her bare hands when she’d heard the news originally.
She settled for putting a curse on Montreal, have fun never winning another Stanley Cup again, you absolute fucking assholes.
Now though, she’s free to proudly display complete family photos and freely go to home games to cheer on Ilya and the Cens.
If Roger Cromwell and the NHL want a fight, they’ve found it. Who the fuck does Cromwell think he is, telling her sons they “aren’t allowed” to get married. When the kids had relayed that specific piece of information, David all but had to physically restrain her from committing actual murder.
It’s fine. It’s fine, in a few weeks the kids will be married officially and then, if everything goes to plan, Shane will sign with Ottawa. They’ll bring home a cup next season and everything will be fine.
“You know Yuna, I just want to applaud you for how well you seem to be taking everything” one of the women finally says, it’s Cathy Brooks of course, she’d always been one to have sharp, pointed, borderline racist words about Shane.
“I’m sorry?” Yuna asked, tearing her eyes away from a family photo and giving the ladies her attention again.
“I just mean, you’ve spent what, two decades building Shane’s career, if I were you I’d be livid…walking out on his team and throwing it all away over a…lifestyle choice” Cathy says, her lip curling into a sneer as she spat out the last words.
Yuna pauses, sets down her cup of coffee and thinks for a moment. She’s well within her right to drag this bigot out of the house by her hair but, playing with your food before killing it is so much fun.
“First of all, Shane didn’t walk out on his team, he was forced out over ridiculous and baseless allegations” Yuna offered in a tone that gave off a faux calmness.
“And secondly, it’s twenty twenty one, being gay isn’t and never was a choice” she adds, still calm.
“But, fine, let’s play in your delusional little world for a minute, even if it was a choice, why should I be upset at my son choosing a good man?” Yuna asked with a raised, challenging eyebrow.
“You don’t have to defend him, Shane isn’t here and well, we all know Rozanov’s reputation” Cathy continued as Yuna hadn’t said a word.
The rest of the group was silent now, all side conversations ending in favor of listening to the main event. Cathy Brooks had always been terrible and frankly, dumb but, to go up against Yuna Hollander in her own house, about her own kids? That was a stratosphere of stupidity yet to be reached in the history of mankind.
“You don’t know a damn thing about my kids and I’m going to warn you once, you do not want to go down this particular road” Yuna offered with an easy politeness.
“One of them is your kid, the other one just wants citizenship” Cathy corrects with a scoff and nasty curled lip.
Yuna wants to kill her. There would be like, a lot of torture first and then, murder. Kill her and bury her in the backyard before letting Ilya take her on their traditional lunch date.
She’s never really understood why people always question if a parent would kill for their child. Of course they would hell, given the right circumstances, Yuna would kill for any child in need of it. She thinks that maternal rage is instinctual.
“You want to talk about my kids, my Ilya…maybe we should talk about your son” Yuna said, raising a challenging eyebrow as she rose from the table, shoving it so hard it skidded a few centimeters and made the good china rattle.
Cathy’s son, Matthew had played with Shane for years and was one of those kids who thought he was god’s gift to hockey, in reality he was middle of the road at best. He never made it to junior league and had instead played for his local high school team before getting a scholarship to McGill to play at the collegiate level.
The kid was your typical hockey jock, to put it simply he was a downright creep.
In the entirety of Shane’s hockey career, Yuna had only seen her son drop his gloves twice. The second was the now infamous Scott Hunter incident but the first had been when Shane was ten. It was just about the time that scouts had started showing interest. They’d been warming up for the last game of an exhausting tournament, Matthew, who mind you was the same age as Shane, had wolf-whistled at a younger girl in the stands.
Shane had taken exception to that, whirled around on his skates, dropped his gloves and punched the kid straight in the mouth. Of course because it was just warm ups, they hadn’t been wearing full gear. Blood and a tooth had gone flying. It still stands as one of the proudest moments of Yuna’s life.
If she had to guess, that was the start of Matthew’s downward trajectory. How does she know this, well like any good mother does she keeps tabs on her children’s enemies. Bits of information gleaned from gossip and vaguely worded social media posts, all filed away in her mental rolodex for a rainy day
Yuna could and did use a lot of words to describe her sons but, “disappointed” had never been and would never be one of them. Someone would probably laugh in her face if she said it.
“You want to talk about the kids, swap accomplishments?” Yuna asked with a sharp smile.
“Well, let’s see-“ she trailed off, making a show of trying to recall.
“Both kids were drafted to Junior League and were made captains of their respective teams, they both won the prospect cup, were drafted number one and two over all in their draft class” Yuna started, ticking off the accomplishments on her fingers as she went.
“Shane won rookie of the year and they were both made captains of their teams by twenty two, they have four Stanley Cups between the two of them, two of which were won by Shane in back to back seasons which hasn't happened since Chicago’s team in the 90s…not to mention their individual Olympic accomplishments” Yuna pointed out, with a glare so intense it could burn through metal.
“Now let’s talk about Matthew, shall we?” She offered, god was she enjoying this. In most aspects of her life she had to be poised and professional but, this time she could go for the jugular.
“I’m going to be honest, he was mediocre at best, a bully and quite frankly, a brat” She informed with a helpless shrug.
“And growing up didn’t change that, he got a scholarship that he blew and now what, has no degree, no stable job and two or is it three kids that he doesn’t provide for, instead he haunts the creepiest bars he can find and just last month he was arrested for-“ She stops then, scrolling on her phone to find the press release.
“Oh yes, snorting adderall out of a stripper's vagina…you must be so proud” she finishes, bringing her hands together in a dramatic clap.
“But, my sons are sin incarnate right? Well, at least sin incarnate has a job, at least they’re active members of their community, run a beautiful charity and make a point to put good back out into the world” she said simply, settling herself back into her seat like nothing had happened.
“Now, get out of my house you bigoted, self-righteous, miserable bitch” Yuna directed calmly, picking up her cup to take a sip of coffee.
“Actually, I’m afraid you all must leave, I have lunch with one of my sons and then a hockey game to get ready for” She informed the group as she stood up from the table again.
Once everyone leaves, the day gets immeasurably better. She gets to have lunch with Ilya, spends the rest of the afternoon with Shane and her grand-dog Anya at the park and then she, Shane and David head to the rink to watch the Cens play a home game.