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Had somebody told David what was going to happen that day, he wouldn’t have believed them.
He woke up next to his beautiful wife, got up, made coffee and poured himself his usual cup. Then, he got started on breakfast while his wife was still sleeping. He also set aside some coffee for Yuna, pouring it into her favorite cup and adding a splash of cinnamon and nutmeg. Just how she liked it.
Then, he picked up the newspaper, solved the crossword and checked his phone for a while. When his wife got up, they ate breakfast together and chatted for a second about a strange dream she had had that night. Afterwards, they got on the topic of Shane, wondering how his son was doing on his “solitary silent retreat”, hoping he got the peace and quiet he needed.
“Do you think he’s seeing someone?” Yuna had asked him, having noticed his late patterns of smiling at his phone and giggling when he thought nobody was looking. “He looks… happier, but I think something is holding him back. I’m worried about him”.
“Maybe he is seeing someone. But I’m not quite sure that person is actually a girl”, David responded, remembering his son’s expression the day the New York Admirals had won the cup and Scott Hunter had kissed his boyfriend for the whole world to see. “Didn’t you see how his face lit up when Hunter came out? And how he immediately went to pick up a call and seemed much more relaxed after finishing talking to whoever had called him?”.
“I know, right? But he hasn’t told us… And he’s never cared about girls. Maybe he is gay”.
The conversation ended with a very worried Yuna, and David thought he maybe could break it to his son in some way. Maybe a talk about pride, or some thing about a gay bar opening, something that made him see that they accepted him and his partner, whoever that was. There had to be some way to ease their son into telling them he likes men. After all, everything they wanted for Shane was happiness and somebody who loved him.
They went on with their day. Yuna got started on lunch while David frantically searched for his phone charger. He swore he had put it down in the master room, but he couldn’t, for the life of him, find it anywhere. Maybe he had left another somewhere…
“Why don’t you go look in Shane’s cottage? Maybe he has an extra” Yuna had suggested.
“Yeah, I think I’m going to do that”
So he grabbed his car keys, he got in the car and made the drive to Shane’s cottage, feeling sorry for interrupting his silent retreat. He would try to be as quiet as a mouse, making no noise, just slipping in and right out with a phone charger. He pulled over in front of the driveway, not taking the car fully inside of the house as to not disturb his son.
He made his way inside, using the keys his son had given them when he had the cottage built, as quietly as he could, and searched the entrance for a charger. He didn’t find one, so he went into the living room, hoping his son was on the deck or out for a run.
However, he wasn’t ready to find his son and somebody else, laying on the couch on top of each other, Shane’s hand on his chest and the other boy’s hand tangled in his son’s hair. He noticed the other man’s grabbing his son’s waist, making sure he wouldn’t roll off the couch. They looked quite peaceful, a quietness in the house that meant comfort and love.
He looked at Shane’s… boyfriend? Partner? Lover?, and tried to make out his features even as he slept, his face covered partly by his son’s sleeping frame. He had blond curly hair, slavic features, and his nose looked like it had been broken before. Was he a hockey player?
In that moment, the boy turned his face, clearly still asleep, and he could finally see his whole face.
“Oh my god”, David whispered.
The man cuddling his son, running his hands through his hair, grabbing his waist as to protect him from a possible fall, and looking as comfortable as could be, was Ilya Rozanov, his son’s supposed arch-rival.
When he took a closer look, making sure he didn’t make any noise, he saw his son’s relaxed expression, his lips curled up in a soft smile, their bodies fitting like they were meant to be. And right then and there, David knew: his son was in love with this boy. It all made sense now: his son’s slight reluctance to insult Rozanov, the way he acted when his name was brought up in conversation like he was a sore topic, why the russian man had visited him in the hospital after he went down. He remembered seeing Shane’s injury on ESPN, after he had been cleared and back home from the hospital, and watching a close up of Ilya Rozanov’s broken face, like his whole world had been shaken to its roots. He seemed like he was preparing for the worst.
He remembered watching the All-Stars game, how Rozanov had kissed Shane’s cheek after he had scored a goal from an assist from the blond, and thinking: “wow, maybe they became friends”. He understood why Shane had kept this a secret from them. Was he really that scared of their reactions?
David took a deep breath and, holding back the urge to wake them up and meet his son’s something, he started taking slow steps backwards, making sure they didn’t even stir, not wanting to disturb their peace. They clearly had figured something up, and he hoped they had a plan. After all, wasn’t this all he wanted for his son? Happiness, someone to be himself with, somebody who could get his guard down and make sure he didn’t overthink.
So he went back, no charger, and thinking about what he should do. Who was he to out his son by telling his wife? But how couldn’t he tell his wife the happiness his son had clearly found in Rozanov’s arms? He thought back about his wife’s comments to Rozanov, sometimes bitter at her son’s biggest competition, and decided he had to tell her.
He drafted up an excuse and went back to his house. They would make sure their son could find the strength to tell them he was gay and involved, in some way, with his arch-rival. Yuna would clearly design a plan to make his son more comfortable with his sexuality in front of his parents, and some day, he would bring Rozanov back home and introduce him as his boyfriend.
But, for now, he would protect the memory of both boys’ sleeping frames.