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“I’m going to say something, but you can’t judge me.” Harris started suddenly.
Troy frowned, turning his attention away from the tv and towards Harris sat beside him on the sofa scrolling absently through reels on his phone. “Okay.”
“This team is too gay.”
“Harris!”
“Come on! Look at our roster. We’re collecting queer players like Pokémon cards.” He defended.
As if to prove his point Harris turned his phone screen towards Troy, a fan edit rolled across the screen of Shane and Ilya kissing on the ice. A cheesy love song played softly over the top of it.
“That is the fifth edit to come across my feed tonight.”
“It’s cute.”
Harris groaned, locking his phone and dropping it onto the arm of the sofa.
Troy chuckled softly next to him. “This conversation feels like a hate crime.”
“I know!” Harris sighed dramatically. “That’s why I said you couldn’t judge me.”
“I’m judging you so hard right now.” Troy teased.
Harris glared at him.
Troy smiled, reaching out to pull Harris closer. Harris went willingly, sliding down the sofa to rest his head on Troy’s lap. His gaze fixed on Troy as he settled comfortably. Troy’s hand found Harris’s on his chest and squeezed it softly.
“Tell me more about our pride problem.” Troy said and Harris rolled his eyes.
“Ilya caught Luca and Young making out in the locker room before practice yesterday.” Harris said, his tone just on the edge of a whine. “He wouldn’t stop going on about his ‘son’ growing up and being defiled by Young.”
“Well that explains why Roz checked him during practice.”
“That’s your takeaway from that?”
“Well we knew Luca was gay, he told us months ago. Young on the other hand is a bit of a surprise, I didn’t realise he was queer.” Troy shrugged, smirking when Harris frowned up at him. “Good for them.”
“Troy. Don’t make me the bad guy here.”
“You can’t complain about the NHL being homophobic and then moan about people on the team coming out.” He laughed, “we’ll have to start taking pins away from your jacket.”
Harris smiled a little.
“Come on you must agree a little? Ottawa has become the NHL gay capital and I’m proud that we are so inclusive but if one more member of the teams comes out, we’re going to have to change our logo to a rainbow.”
“God that would be so much better than that stupid fucking Centaur logo we have.” Troy said with a sigh. “I don’t know what you expected, Roz is our captain. He’s like catnip for gays, everywhere he goes there is some poor sod in a closet waiting to burst out.”
Harris rolled his eyes again, but Troy wasn’t completely wrong. Ilya Rozanov was the NHL equivalent of Freddie Mercury.
Harris snorted. “I was gay way before Ilya joined.”
“Ah, Harris Drover the Red in our Ottawa Centaurs rainbow.” Troy laughed.
“Ha ha very funny.” Harris mocked, closing his eyes when Troy’s hand moved to his hair. “I’m just saying that anyone coming out as straight at this point would be a shock to the fans.”
“I’m definitely taking some of those pins away.” Troy teased again, smiling when Harris laughed.
—
“Guys, I know that might come as a bit of shock but uh—” LaPointe started, standing up from his seat when everyone turned to look at him.
Everyone except Harris who had instead turned to look at Troy across the table. ‘Another one!’ He mouthed and Troy shook his head fondly with a playful smile.
“I’m engaged.”
“To a man?!” Harris groaned. “I knew it.”
Everyone turned to look at Harris.
Troy had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop himself from laughing when Harris blushed.
“Thank you— wait, what? No, to my girlfriend Vanessa.” LaPointe frowned. “Wait did you all think I was gay? I’ve been seeing Vanessa for like a year now. I brought her to the barbecue last month. You were talking to her most of the night Harris.”
Harris wanted to the ground to swallow him.
“Ignore him, he’s on gay witch hunt.” Troy said casually.
“Troy!” Harris shouted, his cheeks pink. “I am not.”
LaPointe cleared his throat and carried on with his announcement warily. The rest of the team cast a final confused look at Harris before their attention went back to LaPointe. Troy grinned, watching as Harris closed his eyes and slumped back into his chair, mortified by his own outburst.
Troy slid his foot along the floor under the table to tap his shoe against Harris’s. Harris opened his eyes to look at him. His eyes pleading and a silent cry of “what is wrong with me?” Troy wished he was sat beside him so that he could lean over and kiss him.
Instead Troy smiled softly at him, his lips quirked upwards in a light laugh that made Harris’s shoulders relax a little and a smile curve across his face.
Troy’s heart fluttered in his chest.
The table filled with congratulations, a few of the guys toasting their glasses and bottles as LaPointe sat grinning happily.
“What’s up with him?” Bood asked waving his bottle towards Harris who was now apologising furiously to LaPointe.
“He’s just jealous that he’s not the only gay around anymore.” Troy said loudly.
Harris swung round to glare at him mid-apology.
Bood and a few of the others around them laughed.
“Don’t worry Harris, you’re our favourite gay.” Bood said, Harris glared at him too.
“Stop it Bood, he’s not an ally like the rest of us.” Troy teased, winking when Harris shook his head.
Harris clapped LaPointe on the shoulder and smiled warmly at him as he again enthusiastically congratulated him and apologised.
Bood stood from his chair a minute later, calling out to the team that he would buy the next round. That gained another round of cheers from the team and Troy kicked Bood’s empty chair out as an invitation.
“You know what.” Harris said as he slipped into Bood’s empty chair, Troy smiled around the neck of his beer bottle. “Having all of these queer men on the team has made me realise that maybe I have other options.”
“For what?”
“A boyfriend.” Harris said dryly.
Troy snorted a laugh next to him.
“You’re right. I’m sure there is someone on this team that’s just dying to be with a homophobic—“ Troy laughed when Harris smacked him. “—gay country boy who smells like apples and plays pop songs at 6am every day.”
“You are a horrible boyfriend.” Harris said, smiling. “I have plenty of other options now, maybe you should be nicer.”
“Every flavour of gay.” Troy said, smiling when Harris wrinkled his nose.
“God, I wish one of them had come out before you joined the team.”
Troy only smiled at him. “No you don’t.”
“Sadly you’re right, I don’t.” Harris said, tilting his head to rest on Troy’s shoulder when Troy squeezed his thigh.
“Would it be too gay if I kissed you?” Troy whispered softly, a teasing lilt to his voice. “I know you don’t really support all that pride propaganda stuff.”
Harris laughed but he lifted his head and let Troy kiss him.
“I kind of understand where you’re coming from,” Troy started, swallowing as he squeezed Harris knee under the table. “But speaking as someone who was hiding for so long it’s nice to be a part of a team that is so open and welcoming that everyone is out.”
Harris smiled at him. “It is nice.”
“I wish I felt like I could have come out when I started playing hockey and the team would have accepted me like the Centaurs do.”
“I don’t.” Harris said and Troy laughed uneasily at the side of him.
“Of course you don’t.”
“No.” Harris smiled, tilting his head to look at Troy as he spoke. “If you had come out when you started, you’d probably be with some hot guy by now living in Toronto. It sucks that you had to hide for so long, but we probably never would have met if you hadn’t.”
The rest of the team were still laughing and cheering around them but Troy had turned his head just enough to look at Harris.
“I’m glad we have such a proud team.”
“You’d just like a few more straight people right?” Troy teased.
“Shut up.” Harris laughed before he leant forward and kissed Troy again.
Troy smiled.
“That was so gay.” He whispered, laughing loudly when Harris almost shoved him out of the chair with a roll of his eyes.
“Worst boyfriend ever.”
“Liar.”
Harris didn’t reply; he just smiled.