Work Text:
Luca was starting to have a headache. His English was good, but trying to understand each word all day was asking for a concentration he didn’t have (especially when the French-Canadians talked to him). After the draft was organised a nice party, but after talking with three or four players, even as interesting as they were, he was tired. He had talked to Wyatt, a Centaur, who told him he would blend in perfectly. They spoke pop culture, but when the guy exclaimed “Vaughny !” to the energetic player of the New-York Admirals, Luca decided he was going to avoid a new polite conversation, and went to the bar.
He knew it was a bad idea. He already had a slight headache. Even though he asked for a cocktail. It was paid by the NHL after all, and who was Luca Haas to refuse what the NHL gave him ?
He stood next at the bar, looking at all the people present in the room. It was now his world. He had left his country to live in North America. In Canada. In Ottawa. With Ilya Rozanov as captain. He couldn’t believe it. He asked himself how many players here not only liked the sport and admired the players, but were a fan. Hockey wasn’t just a job for Luca, or a hobby when he had just started. It had begin, from the start, as a passion, a true obsession, and he had quickly followed every game especially of the Boston Bears. They would sometimes watch the games on the family television, and older, he started waking up at night to see the games live.
Luca knew almost everyone in this room. Especially Rozanov, who was talking with Scott Hunter right now. Icons, both of them. Luca had drawn both of them, Shit ! He had read fics about them ! He had stayed up till midnight every year since twelve for their birthday and watched each and every single interview of them !
He could see Hollander at the other side of the room. The fanboy in Luca started checking if the captain wasn’t glancing at Rozanov. Because, yes, Luca had shipped for the longest time Hollanov, the ship name of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov who were very much real, in front of him, and who would soon know him. Him, Luca Haas. He stopped himself. “Oh jeez”, he thought, “how am I supposed to act normal at all times in front of Rozanov” ?
He knew where his bear tattoo was, his favorite colour and meal, and what sort of dog he would like !
“Hey you’re okay bud ? You seem in another world right now !”
Luca almost jumped. He recognised the guy who had startled him. A rookie for the centaur, like him, who had been drafted the year before him. He remembered his name : Nicholas Young, but most commonly called Nick.
Luca chuckled and made a general sign with his hand : “ Not used to these sorts of parties.”
“A bit posh, aren’t they ? I'm not good at small talk either. Did you talk to Cromwell ? Roz ?”
“Yeah for a moment.”
The two interactions had stressed him for different reasons. Cromwell looked like watching his prey, smiling with all his teeth, voice fake. Luca felt as if he was still being tested, and not on his capacities, but on who he was. Rozanov, on the other hand, was actually surprisingly kind, complimenting him on his hockey scales, him, Ilya Rozanov, and on his accent, which Luca appreciated. People didn’t seem to understand how hard it was to move for at least four years in a totally unknown country, unknown continent. Despite the obvious will of Rozanov to make him relax, Luca couldn’t stop thinking “Don’t tell him you had a poster of him above your bed, don’t. Do not. Holy shit Rozanov is my captain ! I’m gonna see him every day !”
Young asked, whispering, like for a secret :
“What if we go to the pizzeria next door ?”
“Believe me I would love to,” Luca laughed.
“I’m serious. They won’t notice you’re gone you know. And don’t tell me these disgusting cocktail biscuits were enough.”
-
And that’s how Luca was sitting, the jacket of his tuxedo next to him, in a small crappy pizzeria, in front of Nick Young who had insisted on commending a Hawaiian pizza. Which was disgusting. Americans are weird.
“No but like he’s in love with Jane, Cap is crazy about her !” was saying Nick too loudly, hands expressive, before taking a large bite of his slice of pizza.
“And she’s from Montreal ? Did he come to Ottawa for her ?”
Luca loved how Nick had stopped so quickly to talk about hockey facts and give more gossip. He felt like they have known each other for years. And, yes, he was also enjoying getting information about his celebrity crush. Information he tried not to mix with his wishes. Yes, Jane and Shane both lived in Montreal, and shared a very similar name, but it didn’t prove Hollanov. But the existence of Jane was confirming loverboy Ilya. He had read fics about this.
After talking about the gossip, the dramas between the WAGs and sometimes between the players, nothing very important, but always fun to hear, they started talking about themselves.
“Oh you know, I’m not that interesting” chuckled Nick. “ I’m from Michigan. I have a younger brother. If I didn’t do hockey I would like to be behind a camera, probably, making an indie movie with no money.”
Luca smiled.
“My hobbies are cinema, and I like to brag about it, going to bars with my friends, or, you know, convincing them to ditch a party to eat a pizza with me, and I like to travel. A lot. I’m trying to do South America in integrality right now. I was in Surinam last time.”
“Surinam ?”
“Didn’t know it even existed did you ?”
“Can’t say I did.”
Luca was starting to understand this guy. An adventurer, curious, probably the type to know a bit in every subject. He was fun and was able to laugh about himself. Probably the guy to know everyone and enjoy parties.
“What about you Luca Haas, I need to check if you’re gonna be a good rookie !”
“Oh please, you’re not even that older than me in the team !”
“Come on tell me, Haasy, need to know !”
Haasy. Huh. Luca liked it.
“I’m from Switzerland.”
“That’s why you have a little German accent.”
“Swiss-German.” snapped Luca.
“Right. Notted. Swiss-German. Please continue.”
“Thanks” chucked Luca. “So I’m from this little town, and I started hockey very early, in the club in the closer city. At school I was part of the drama club…”
“Drama club ?”
“Hey, no interrupting !” Laughed Luca. “Yeah I love theater. But I mostly draw. I sell my drawings. Well I used to. Can’t mix my artist career and sport one. I live with my mother and my three sisters, see my father on rare occasions, but he works a lot, so he’s rarely in Switzerland anyway. It’s my first time in North America. Well in America in general. This is amazing. The NHL is a dream, but it’s also a lot of pressure. And I hope to do my best. That’s it, you can talk now.”
When the pizzeria closed, they were still talking, and they started walking to the hotel where they were both staying. Luca had never shared so much to a stranger, but he just felt so at ease. He was in a foreign country, in an unknown city, talking to a guy he had met hours ago, and was feeling relaxed in a way he hadn’t since probably more than a year, since he had started training as never before in hope for an impossible aim. That he had finally succeeded. Nick had that way of laughing at the right time and putting the right words on the vague ideas and emotions he was feeling. He waited when Luca was looking for a word, and correcting him gently.
Well, yes, while Luca stopped at his floor, and the elevator’s doors closed when Nick said “Well good-night ! See you at breakfast !”, he felt a giddy smile on his face.
And shit. He had a crush.