Chapter Text
So here's the thing: Hayden knows he’s been an ass.
He’d argue that he’s been an ass too (he’s certainly not the only one making things difficult here), but that’s neither here nor there as Jackie has helpfully pointed out to him.
Because sure, Rozanov may be the hockey Anti-Christ and a complete asshole but he is also (for some inexplicable reason) the man Shane has chosen to love.
And, as his best friend, Hayden should respect that.
Especially since he’s the only one that knows.
Especially since Shane had been kind of excited to introduce them.
Especially since, for all his many, many faults, Rozanov has managed to charm his wife and kids (Hayden is not ruling out the possibility that some kind of russian hypnotism has been involved).
There’s also the fact that seeing Shane eye him suspiciously when he’d asked him if he was excited about being in the same city as Rozanov for once, had kind of broken his heart.
He’s waited years, literal years, for Shane to be comfortable enough with him to share about his romantic relationships. He doesn't want his best friend to retreat into himself again after he’s finally started opening up!
Not to mention that it would be great to have someone with whom to bond over how great being married is and side-eye the single guys in the team for their ‘adventures’ and bragging, safe in the knowledge that, not only do they have an amazing partner (and family!) waiting for them at home, but they also get laid significantly more than these ‘studs’.
When Shane had come out to him, he’d thought this was his chance. Sure, he didn’t have a lot of experience wingmaning with guys but how hard could it be? Hayden’s not blind, he can see when guys are attractive, and he’s definitely better at picking up on their flirting than Shane is (not as good as JJ but being in a team with Shane Hollander has taught Hayden the importance of only comparing himself with people at his level).
But Shane had not wanted to discuss guys, Shane hadn’t even looked at the pictures of Jackie’s cool gay friends (and there’s one or two there that even Hayden would have given a shot to, if he was single).
So, with some prodding from Jackie, Hayden had arrived at the obvious conclusion: Shane was in a relationship, and honestly, it could only be with Boston Lily.
Boston Lily.
Boston Ilya
Ilya Rozanov.
The revelation had been like being dropped in a frozen lake during the winter and Hayden had suddenly seen all his half drafted ideas of double dates and shared holidays slipping away from him.
Except that while combative and obnoxious, Rozanov had come to his place for dinner.
And while he’d been insulting and defensive, all his insults had focused on Hayden, never once crossing the line and targeting Jackie.
Jackie who had found him ‘charming’.
Jackie who had given Hayden the cold shoulder for two days after that dinner.
Jackie who had not been mad, just disappointed.
And dammit but Hayden is not the kind of guy that disappoints his wife!
He is also not the kind of guy who enjoys dimming his own best friend's clear excitement about having a date tonight. Shane should get to brag about bagging an NHL star with fanclubs dedicated to his abs, and his arms and his back (and his curls for some reason?). It’s only fair, after all Hayden makes sure that his friend is reminded of just how great his own wife is at least once a week.
So, much as it pains him, he is going to have to make this right and he will do it tonight come hell or high water. He’s Shane’s winger after all, his job is to create opportunities for the man to score even when the situation feels hopeless.
The whole team is hanging out at a bar, and it’s painfully clear which players have taken Shane’s recent revelation well and which haven’t because, while last season they would all be crowding the same booth and trying to convince Shane to play a game of pool or have a beer for once, today some of the guys have decided to remain at the bar while others have chosen another booth to sit in.
Still, half the team is still on the good side, ie. the side currently cheering for Shane as he destroys JJ on darts.
“Give it out, JJ,” one of the rookies is saying. “You know no one has better aim than Cap.”
“Shush,” JJ answers. “I have two grand riding on this, don’t distract me.”
It’s a lucky thing that JJ can afford to lose two grand, Hayden muses, because there’s no way in hell that he, drunk as he is, has any chance of defeating Shane.
As expected, soon Shane is smiling that smug smile he so seldom lets the press see, and boasting, “I’m buying everybody a drink on JJ’s dime.”
All their teammates cheer and for a second, it seems like everything is back to normal.
“I think I’ve had enough for tonight,” Drapeau grumbles, like he’s ever turned down a free drink before.
“Yeah, I’m good too,” Comeau agrees.
To his credit, Shane doesn’t let them see his hurt, he just shrugs and says, “Your loss.”
Hayden knows Shane though, and he notices how his hand goes to his phone, before stopping himself and returning it to the darts.
Hayden wants to tell him to send his boy a message, but he knows Shane will just shrug and say that he doesn’t want to distract him, after all, the Raiders are facing the Admirals in a matter of hours and all players know better than to disturb pre-game rituals and routines.
Still, it’s a pity that even if, for once, the stars have aligned and both Montreal and Boston are having games in New York on the same day, Shane and Rozanov won’t be able to meet till late tonight.
Unless, of course…
“I want to play too!” Hayden declares pointing at the darts.
“Oh?” Shane asks, suddenly interested. “And what are we betting?”
“Not money, I’ve got too many mouths to feed,” he jokes.
“I know!” a defenseman calls out, “If he loses he has to show us his hot wife’s nudes!”
“In your fucking dreams, Anderson,” Hayden yells back and makes a special note to crosscheck him as hard as he can get away with during next practice.
“How about if you lose you have to clean all the rookies' lockers for a month?” Shane proposes, to the delight of the rookies.
And shit, Hayden knew Shane was kind of pissed at him for how the dinner had gone but he didn’t realize it was this bad! This is the kind of punishment you give to a suspected serial killer, not to your loving if a bit misguided best friend!
Still, he has a mission so he forces himself to soldier on and say, “Fine.”
And then, because he really is a fantastic friend, he adds, “But if you lose, you have to go to the Raiders game tonight and cheer for Rozanov.”
“Ooooh...” their teammates chorus, all seemingly delighted at the challenge.
“Brutal,” JJ laughs.
Shane's face, on the other hand, has gone suspiciously blank, “We wouldn’t be able to get tickets, the game is in an hour and fifty four minutes.”
“I can help with this,” JJ suddenly says, wiping out his phone. “I’m sure St Vic would hook me up. Oh, stop booing, he was my friend before he was a Raider, okay?”
Shane looks at JJ for a long time before nodding and when his eyes return to Hayden, his gaze is suddenly a lot more calculating.
“And I’d have to cheer for Rozanov?” he checks, his thumbs tucked into his pocket like he does when he’s nervous about something but kind of excited at the same time.
“Absolutely,” Drapeau says, for once in his life being helpful, though the malicious little smile he’s wearing lets Hayden know that it’s not on purpose. “You’ll have to applaud every goal and praise him when he does something cool.”
“Act like his little cheerleader, otherwise what’s the point?” Comeau agrees.
For a second, Hayden thinks he may have miscalculated here. He did not mean to humiliate Shane, and if they start connecting Rozanov to Shane's sexuality things may get ugly.
However, Shane just sighs and says, “Whatever, it’s not like I’m going to lose.”
Which… That’s a green light, isn’t it? Shane has walked away from more than one challenge because he thought they weren’t worth it. If he’s agreeing then he must at least partly want to go, right?
“You are totally going down,” Hayden promises. “I’ve been training!”
And he has.
Jackie’s father owns a bar, and considers that a man’s worth is tied to his ability at darts and pool. Hayden spent three months practicing before he even dared walk into the bar and introduce himself.
And of course, his darling wife is a pro and loves the game, so Hayden has kept his skills sharp ever since, lest he embarrass or, worse, bores her.
Still, it’s a close game.
Way too fucking close considering that Shane only ever plays darts with the team so he should be far less practiced than Hayden (does the guy have to be the best at everything?!).
In the end, it comes down to the last round.
“Careful, Hollywood,” Comeau leers. “One mistake and Roz will get a new fan tonight.”
“Shut the fuck up, Commy,” JJ snaps back. “You’ve got this, Cap.”
“Yeah, please Cap, we promise to treat maid Hayd well,” one of the cockiest rookies promises.
“No way in hell,” Hayden mutters to himself, “It’s my life on the line here.”
He’s pretty sure some of those lockers could be considered biohazards and he’s a father of four! He cannot lose here.
He takes aim carefully and throws the dart.
It misses the bullseye by a hair.
The rookies whoop.
Comeau and Drapeau also whoop.
“Yes!” JJ says, patting Shane in the bag. “Capitaine, you can still win this!”
Shane pauses for a second, then looks at Hayden from the corner of his eye.
Hayden nods minutely.
Shane throws the dart.
The dart lands just to the left of Hayden.
Silence falls under the bar for a second, before Comeau and Drapeau start cackling, followed by all the other players.
“Oh man, I can’t believe you lost,” JJ says sympathetically.
“Better ask St Vic for those tickets,” Shane sighs, completely failing at sounding resigned.
“Yup,” Hayden says, “A bet’s a bet, after all. So Shane here is going to be a good sport and cheer for the Raiders like he’s Rozanov number one fan.”
This makes the bar laugh again and Hayden is pretty sure someone is recording this.
Good, he hopes they post it on twitter.
“How many tickets am I getting?” JJ asks to the room at large.
“I’m coming,” Hayden says. “Have to make sure Shane keeps his word. I’m guessing you are also coming? But remember you are not allowed to cheer for St Vic.”
“We want in too!” Comeau declares, pointing at himself and at Drapeau.
JJ looks down at his phone, which has a message from St Vic promising that several of the Raiders are willing to give up their seats if it means they get Shane on their stands.
“Sorry, guys,” he lies unabashedly. “Looks like three is the most we can do.”
This gets all the others booing.
“How about this?” Shane says, quieting them all down. “JJ can take some videos of me praising their game play and he’ll post them on Instagram. This way, you can all watch my humiliation.”
And this way, Rozanov will be able (expected) to watch clips of his boyfriend talking him up. Which is not going to be good for his ego (that thing is big enough as it is) but Shane’s eyes are basically sparkling so Hayden can't bring himself to regret his little scheme.
They have to leave the bar immediately after that to get to the game and, while JJ sorts their tickets, Shane and Hayden hang back.
“Can’t believe you let me win,” Hayden whispers.
“It was just darts,” Shane mumbles back, actually looking a bit ashamed.
“Shane, you once refused to go easy on my then four-years old at Connect 4 because ‘that’s the only way they are going to learn’!” he reminds him, because really! Shane is lucky that his daughters are tough as nails.
“And now there’s no one in their school that can beat them so I was right!” Shane replies.
“Yes, yes,” Hayden admits, because it’s true. His daughters are the unrivaled champions of their recess. “Still, you must really want to see this game, that’s all I’m saying.”
And Sane turns towards him with the sunniest smile Hayden has ever seen from him, “Yeah, Hayd, I really, really do.”
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Argh why do the metros have to hang out in my fucking bar?
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
No guys, I’m not going to tell you which bar it is. I hate the metros but I’m not that much of an asshole.
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Hollander knows his way around darts, that much I’ll admit.
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Dagenais just lost enough money to buy a bike to him.
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Like not a very nice bike, but definitely not second-hand either.
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Pike has decided he also wants to lose some money tonight.
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Wait, things are getting interesting here: if Hollander loses he has to cheer for the Raiders.
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Couldn’t he have made him cheer for the Admirals? We are the reigning Cup winners, you know?
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Shit, Pike is pretty decent too. I’d never have guessed it.
WeAreTheChampions @AdmiralsAlways3
Yikes, poor Hollander, looks like he’ll be wearing gold and black tonight.
Olé Olé Olé Montréal @ LaCoupeàLaMaison
@AdmiralsAlways3 pics or it didn’t happen.
Metros Dynasty @metrofan1975
He’s definitely lying, no way our team would embarrass our Captain like that. They respect him way too much.
Katey @katekate4
Sooooooooo: [video attached in which you can kind of see the metros playing darts, the audio is pretty clear and it lays out the terms of the bet]
Tired And In College @marian
It’s kind of shitty to film people without their consent, just saying.
Katey @katekate4
They were in a public space?
Tired And In College @marian
And that makes it okay somehow?!
ShaydenTruther @Andtheywere(hockey)roommates
Do we think they had a fight or something? Maybe Hayden is just punishing his man for something?
It’s HaySha Actually @VolunteeringAsShanesBeard
Real, like that’s the only explanation that makes sense. I know Shane doesn’t ever pick up his socks and Hayden has had enough XD
ShaydenTruther @Andtheywere(hockey)roommates
Hayden walks his Shane like a dog lol
Shane Defense Squad @Ijustthinkhesneat
How could they do this to my baby? Don’t they know he’s sensible?!! Look at him! He looks so uncomfortable!!!
Pike’s Seventh Kid @pleaseadoptmejackie
It’s just a bet, relax. Hockey players do this kind of thing all the time.
Josh @mtrlfan703
We should all be focusing on what’s truly worrying here: why the fuck does JJ have the phone number of a fucking Raider???
Shane The GOAT Hollander @metrosforlive
Imagine having to cheer for Rozanov 🤮 🤮 🤮
3 Cups When? @ MetroSinceBirth
He’s gotta, now. Men don’t go back on their word, no matter what.
Fuck Yeah, Metros @Joeoldtimeyhockey
Chill, our Captain is not a pussy, he’s not going to chicken out.