Chapter Text
Summer 2021
Cliff Marleau
If there was one thing Cliff Marleau knew to be true about himself, it was that he was a fucking ally. He didn’t put up with any of that homophobic toxic masculinity bullshit that was so rampant in hockey. He’d come into the game determined to make a difference -if nowhere else- then in his own fucking room.
It was why he’d been so proud to serve as Alternate Captain under Roz because he’d set a strict vibe within the team long before he’d ever been appointed to that position. It was a mantle Cliff worked to intentionally continue when he’d taken over the role.
He knew Roz knew he was a good guy, but he felt it was particularly important for him to make himself clear after the video leaked.
Those first two camps hadn’t worked out logistically for Cliff. The first year he’d had a family reunion to attend and a vacation he’d already paid for. The second year he’d been in a wedding during the week of one camp and then he’d needed to be there to help out his sister and sister-in-law with the kids after a surgery during the second camp week.
It had really just been bad timing, and Cliff had been certain at the time that Roz knew that. Unfortunately, with the way that Montreal had treated Hollander after the outing, Cliff knew he had to make sure it was clear exactly where he stood.
He’d actually called up Roz himself to ask if he could join in on the camps this year; that phone call was when Roz told him about the wedding. So yeah, there was no way he planned to miss out another summer in a row. He needed Roz to know that he had his back no matter what.
And boy was Cliff was so fucking glad he’d coached. If he could go back in time and change the circumstances that prevented him from making it out the first two years he would do it in heartbeat. Being here, surrounded by so many friends -old and new- was filling his cup more than he’d realized he needed. Not to mention he fucking missed Roz.
Coaching was awesome. The kids were hilarious and he found coaching came naturally to him. It wasn’t something he hadn’t ever really considered before and it was good to know that he might want to pursue it more seriously whenever it finally came time for him to retire. Not that that was any time soon.
The Ottawa Centaurs were shaping up to be a hell of a team, the way they’d turned the last season around had been fucking awesome hockey to watch. Cliff did not look forward to facing off against a team with both Roz and Hollander. Next season was going to really shake things up in the league.
Another fuck you to Montreal for that. They were homophobic asshats and had to go and make it everyone else’s problem.
Before Cliff knew it, it was the goodbye dinner at the end of the second camp, and he realized he was going to be saying goodbye to Roz again until the next season. His heart ached a little at that. This hadn’t been enough time.
Cliff glanced across the table at this best friend where he was sitting with his arm across the back of Hollander’s chair. His best friend was in love, out and proud and married and he was going to miss out on all of it. He’d really thought he’d gotten used to life without him around after the Ottawa trade, but it was all coming back now. “I’m gonna miss you Roz,” Cliff said, when Ilya looked over and caught his eye.
”What is this, you make it sound like I am dying. I will see you next season.” Roz joked, taking a sip of his beer.
Cliff shook his head. It wasn’t the same. They both knew it, and it was with a sudden clarity that Cliff understood what Roz and Hollander had gone through all those years being apart from each other most of the season. Life spent apart from your favorite people didn’t really feel like living.
“It’s not the same and you know it. Hockey’s not as much fun without you man.” Cliff bit his lip before taking another sip of his beer. It’s not that he had any problem with how much he felt about stuff like this, it was that he was usually better at keeping it to himself.
“Da, you are right. Hockey is definitely more fun with best player in the league on your team.” Roz joked, trying to make light of the moment. Cliff could see the furrow in his brow that told him Roz understood what he was getting at.
”Oh, if that’s the case, is hockey only gonna start being fun for you now that Hollander is joining your team?” Cliff chirped back.
They laughed, and the moment passed. Cliff glanced around -the camaraderie, the ease- maybe he should consider getting traded to Ottawa.
“Ah, but you are much too straight for this team, Marly.” Roz joked, that was when Cliff realized he must have said that part out loud. He smiled to himself, but he had to wonder if being an ally counted for nothing after all.
Summer 2021
Luca Haas
It was the farewell dinner for the Game Changer’s camp. Luca was sat directly next to Cliff Marleau. He’d tried to take a seat at the far end of the table, but Ilya had steered him right over until he was sitting across from him and Shane.
The left side of his body felt twice as hot, and he was convinced his face was flushed red. He’d done such a good job avoiding a scenario just like this the entire length of the camps. He was harboring a huge secret. One that only avoidance and invisibility would allow him to keep that way.
He’d already established a pretty reclusive and shy persona with the team. It surprised no one at all that he let himself disappear into the background of the conversation. It was the saving grace, all things considered.
It helped that Ilya and Cliff seemed mostly lost in their own back and forth.
He looked up and found himself locking eyes with Shane who smiled at him before making him laugh by rolling his eyes at Ilya’s antics. And wow, he was really sitting there getting to quietly joke with Shane Hollander. That was such an insane concept.
Luca was simultaneously wholly unprepared for the next season to start and desperate for summer to end so that it could. What had he done in a past life to get the opportunity to play on the same team as not just Ilya Rozanov, but now also Shane Hollander. Learning that Shane was joining the team had been the best news ever.
Selfishly, because it meant he might get to play on a line with him. The concept of getting to play right-wing to three time Stanley Cup winner Shane Hollander had Luca in a dazed high for weeks after news of the trade hit the team group chat.
Next season was going to be something pulled directly from his wildest dreams.
All he had to do was get through this dinner.
“Maybe I should get traded to Ottawa.” Cliff mumbled into his glass as he took a sip of his beer.
Luca’s heart started beating double time at just the idea of it. Speaking of wildest dreams. Though that would somehow probably be more of a nightmare scenario.
“Ah, but you are much too straight for this team, Marly.” Ilya told him with a laugh.
And that was exactly the reason it would be a nightmare for Luca. It was one thing to harbor our a secret crush on a guy he only saw a couple times a year. Pinning away for someone he saw everyday? Someone he stood zero chance with?
Nightmare fuel indeed.
Summer 2022
Cliff Marleau
The last year had flown by with a speed Cliff was sure couldn’t be real. One summer he was passively wondering if he should consider going to Ottawa, and a year later he was packing up his entire life and doing exactly that.
Cliff Marleau had always been pretty certain he’d play out his entire NHL career playing for Boston. He’d made it to Alternate Captain and helped lead his team to a Stanley Cup. There’d never been any worry of being traded, or that he wasn’t invaluable to the team.
He would have been happy chasing more cups and living out this dream life he somehow got fortunate enough to live. It was supposed to go exactly as planned.
Unfortunately, his best friend had to go and fall in love with one Shane Hollander, formerly known as one Jane of Montreal. Roz’s Montreal girl reveal being the plot twist of the century, second only to the day Cliff learned that Roz was leaving Boston for Ottawa.
He’d been the only person on the team that Roz had told before the announcement came in. Cliff had been devastated, but he’d understood. He’d watch Roz fall in love over the years, even if he’d never said as much out loud.
So it wasn’t a total surprise that Jane of Montreal would eventually lure him to Canada. It’s just that it kind of put a huge damper on Cliff’s own life plans. He wanted to keep playing with his best friend. Hockey wasn’t as much fun after Roz left. The weight of taking on the Captain mantle had fallen on him -and he’d done his best- but it wasn’t something he innately thrived at.
Cliff spent the ‘21-‘22 season weighing his options. He was a free agent at the end of the season, and for the first time since he’d signed with Boston, he allowed himself to truly consider what it would look like to leave.
In the end it had actually been Roz who had pushed for him to seriously consider it. They’d played on the same team at All-Stars and Roz had confided in him that while he knew they were going to push up a good fight for the cup this year, it was clear to him that they needed someone like Marly on defense. It was the one weak spot in the powerhouse team made up of Shane Hollander and Ilya Romanov.
Cliff had watched the Centaurs games through the rest of the season with that in mind, and he saw exactly what Roz had been talking about. The Centaurs had made a valiant push, and made it to the playoffs, but even with all that offensive power it had come down to that missing component.
When Cliff got a call from Coach Weibe after Boston just barely missed making it to the playoffs, Cliff had told him he didn’t need time to think about it.
It had been a simple choice.
He reached out to his agent and had them coordinate how to get him to Ottawa. He took a bit of a pay cut, but honestly the idea of getting to play on a team with Roz again -and have the chance to chase another Stanley Cup- it was worth it.
Cliff sold his house in Boston and left for Ottawa as soon as he could. He wanted as much time getting to know his new city, and any team mates that were still in town during the off season. He knew Roz and Hollander would be off at their cottage for most of the summer, but there were plenty of people for him to spend time with.
Fellow Defenseman Dykstra had been a good place to start, him and Wyatt Hayes. He’d gotten to know them both pretty well the previous summer and between the two of them he’d actually managed to get a ton of stories about the team. Pieces of information he stored away.
Cliff knew most people didn’t think he was very bright, but he quietly thrived on the knowledge that they were completely wrong about him. He prided himself on his pattern recognition and his emotional intelligence.
He just didn’t advertise these things as skills he held. If people wanted to look at him and judge the exterior then he let them. It only served to his advantage for people to underestimate him. The less of the threat they saw him as, the more prepared he was for anything that came up.
Cliff knew that he wanted his time in Ottawa to be epic. He wanted to fit into the team dynamic as seamlessly as possible. He wanted to make sure he became as invaluable as he’d felt when he played in Boston. That meant getting to know the team, learning what made them all tick.
He may or may not have a locked google folder labeled OC —short hand for Ottawa Centaurs, totally non-descript— and inside it might contain individual google documents on each of the players.
These hypothetical files might contain every single piece of information he was able to collect: birthdays, significant others' names and anniversaries, children’s names and ages, hobbies, food preferences, random factoids he learned.
It might be considered doing too much.
If those files existed that is.
It might be considered doing too much if those files existed. Which is why he never planned to divulge the existence of said hypothetical files.
One file remained pretty light on information.
Luca Haas, remained an enigma.
Luca Haas Hassy
- Rookie Season ‘20-‘21
- Swiss Nationality
- Fluent in english
- Born 2000
- No significant other
- Skilled artist
- Shy
- Ilya’s self proclaimed son
Cliff sat with his chin resting in his palm, as he stared at the nonexistent file on Luca Haas. He needed to get more to work with. If there was anyone else on the team that he knew he needed to connect with it was Luca. The other guys had been easy enough to bond with. They’d played against each other for years, so being in a noncompetitive space during the camps had made connecting with them simple.
He didn’t have any kind of history or connection with Luca to build on. Typically it wouldn’t matter too much, there were plenty of other younger players on the team that he didn’t feel compelled to get to know this badly, but Ilya having a connection with Luca and seeing him like family, that made him important.
He needed to get to know the kid.
That was his first mission.
But he had to be subtle about it. Take his time, wait for the right opportunity to strike. In the meantime, he’d linger back, pay attention and gather more information for the nonexistent very empty file he had on one Luca Haus.
Summer 2022
Luca Haas
They’d almost done it again. Another close push for the cup. Closer than the year before but ultimately something was still missing. It was interesting because despite them having lost in the playoffs, the team was still swimming on the high of the comeback they’d made as a team. From a bottom ranked team to a team that now served as a real threat.
They were celebrating at the go to bar in town. Management has rented it out for an end of season celebration of how far they’d made it.
It was with the excitement of this already in the air, that the news dropped that Cliff Marleau had been traded to Ottawa.
Luca felt himself buzzing with both excitement and anxiety. His nightmare scenario was coming to life, but it was also the thing they needed to really be an unstoppable team. So the team was going to thrive, and he was going to suffer, and that was just the price he had to pay to win in the end.
He’d spent so many years growing up watching Ilya’s games, and a huge part of that was watching the way Cliff Marleau always had Ilya’s back on the ice. There was something so exciting about knowing he’d get to watch that dynamic up close.
In a way, he’d spent just as long watching Marleau as he had watching Ilya. With Ilya it had been a crush born of fascination and admiration. An infatuation built entirely on the “I want to be him” side of the do I want to be him or do I want to have him bell curve.
With Cliff Marleau the desire he felt was on the opposite end.
He wanted him.
Had always wanted him.
He was everything that Luca found attractive. His energy was magnetic in a way that was different from Ilya.
Luca knew that Ilya knew he harbored a bit of a fanboy crush on him —and while it was embarrassing— it was something he happily let everyone think was bigger than it was.
If they knew he’d really spent his teen years lusting after Cliff Marleau he’d never hear the end of it. It was a secret he planned to keep locked in lowercase inside a vault. No one could know. Ever.
He was going to have to really work on his poker face. He could not let anyone discover the truth. Which is part of why he’d actually ordered a vault to hide the one thing that would give him away.
The sketchbook he kept solely to capture the likeness of a certain former Boston player.
Somehow he’d never imagined a timeline where Cliff Marleau ever played for a team other than Boston. Although to be fair, teenage Luca would have said the same thing about Ilya Rozanov.
It was the summer before his third season. He felt sure of himself on the ice, sure of his place on the team. He’d maybe not lived up to his own comparisons of Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander’s rookie seasons, but honestly who could ever dare to challenge those records.
Instead he’d taken Ilya’s encouragement and support to heart, and let himself appreciate what he brought to the team when he’d gone into his sophomore season. What he contributed to the team as they made their first challenge for the cup during his rookie year.
He was not a disappointment, he was a valued member of the team and he was going into this next season knowing he’d leveled up because he’d also had Shane Hollander as mentor and line mate.
The Stanley Cup was Ottawa's this year, he could feel it in his bones.
Now all he had to do was somehow keep his huge gay crush on Cliff Marleau a secret while existing in the same locker room as the man. That was the actual biggest hurdle he’d ever face, it’s why the cup seemed so achievable in his mind.
Avoiding Marleau was going to be his uphill bolder to bear this season.
He’d managed pretty well at the Game Changer’s Camp both this and last summer. Thankfully they’d been working with different students, and Luca managed to disappear during downtime. It had worked well enough, it should work just the same during the season.
He was counting on it.