Chapter Text
Luca didn’t tell daddy or papa that Gabe was coming to visit until the last possible second, which is to say he didn’t tell them until the day before he was supposed to pick his brother up from the airport. Daddy and Papa are understandably not that happy about it. Luca hadn’t expected them to be, that was the whole reason he’d put off saying anything for so long.
There were a lot of reasons they weren’t happy about it. They didn’t like Gabe much, for a start, which was Luca’s own fault for not keeping his mouth shut. They didn’t like the idea that Luca was going to spend a whole week away from them for the first time in months either, even if he wasn’t technically going to be on his own.
“We really don’t mind just having him here.” Shane had tried to reason while Ilya pulled a face behind his back that said they very much did mind.
“It’ll be fine.” Luca promised. “I’m good, really. He’ll be gone before my next scheduled drop anyway.”
“And if you slip?” Shane asked, not sugarcoating his real concern. Luca hadn’t had an answer for that. He had just shrugged and promised again,
“It’ll be fine.”
Which Luca wished he was more confident about, now that he was tapping his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel of his car that he hadn’t driven in months waiting for Gabe to emerge from the airport. He would’ve gone in himself, but it had gotten harder being out and about in crowded places in recent years since the Centaurs had started actually winning their games.
Luca loved talking to their fans, but maybe not when he was trying to get his brother out of the airport without having a panic attack about the fact that this was the first time he was seeing him in over a year. Part of him was worried that Gabe would take one look at Luca and be able to just…tell. Tell that he had been faking being a grown up over the phone every time they had called the last few months, tell that he’d been lying about going to centres and handling it himself. Luca had told Ilya and Shane that Gabe didn’t actually think Luca was pathetic for being little, that it was just something that he had said when they were younger and stupider, but the truth was Luca didn’t really know.
He never talked about being little with his family. It stressed his mama out, having to worry about him, and Luca didn’t want to add to everything that was already on her plate. Gabe was just never around, older enough that he was out of the house by the time Luca’s classification really started to matter. Then Luca was drafted, and he had moved to Canada, and they only saw each other once or twice a year if they were lucky.
Sure, they talked on the phone but there was a lot Luca didn’t tell his family. He didn’t tell them about Shane or Ilya. Didn’t tell them when he was hurt during games. Didn’t tell them about whatever was going on between him and Nicky. Really all they knew was that Luca was alive and that he was happy. That was all they wanted to know. That was all Luca really wanted to tell them.
Gabe actually being there meant he was going to learn more, probably. Which Luca was still trying to decide how he felt about when the back door of his car opened and Gabe’s head popped up in the rearview mirror, effectively scaring the shit out of Luca.
“Jesus christ! Where did you come from?” He snapped at Gabe, who was already tipping his head back to laugh brightly as he threw his duffel into the backseat before clambering into the passanger seat, pointing towards the airport doors.
“You see that big building there Luca? It’s called an airport.” He teased. “It has these things called aeroplanes-”
“Shut the fuck up.” Luca huffed, shoving his brothers shoulders before leaning over to give him a hug. “You scared me, I didn’t notice you come out.”
“I know, you were spaced out.” Gabe snickered, ruffling Luca’s air affectionately. “Good to know some things never change schnucki.”
Luca rolled his eyes. “You’re the worst. Put your seatbelt on.”
Gabe saluted him, obeying Luca’s command and clipping his belt in place while Luca turned the car on and began the horrendous ordeal of escaping the airports parking lot. For the most part, the drive was actually nice. Gabe told him all about what had been going on back home, things that were too complicated or arbitrary to bring up on the phone like the fact their upstairs neighbours were finally getting a divorce after almost a decade of screaming matches and the local stray cat had given birth to yet another litter of kittens which their mama was fuming about.
In turn, Luca shared what Canada had been like. He told Gabe about the team, about how weird was when he would get stopped on the street for pictures and autographs. Gabe and his girlfriend were still doing well, living together now with vague thoughts of getting married beginning to occur. Luca had weaved his way out of answering questions about his own love life with an insistence that he had been too busy to even think about it beyond a few small trysts on nights out, which was true enough if he ignored the elephant in the room.
By the time they actually made it to Luca’s apartment, he had almost forgotten about the pit of anxiety swirling around in his chest. Almost.
“It’s a nice place.” Gabe hummed, peering around Luca’s apartment while Luca helped him settle in the guest room. Luca fought the urge to shake his head. It wasn’t that his apartment was bad. It was just…not home. It never really had been. This was the first time Luca had been back for more than five minutes at a time in months.
It felt empty. Even with the nice show room art on the wall and fancy decor Luca had been so proud to show his mama when he’d first walked her around the apartment on face time, because it looked like it belonged to a grown up. It wasn’t right though. The sofa was nice, it was comfortable, but it didn’t have Luca’s favourite blanket thrown over the back or a weird dip in the cushions from where papa would be squished whenever Luca and Anya wanted cuddles at the same time. The kitchen didn’t have Luca’s snacks or his teethers for when his mouth started hurting. There was no hand-painted L on his bedroom door.
“Thanks.” Luca replied instead. “I’m really happy with it.”
Gabe grinned at him, bouncing over to sling an arm over Luca’s shoulders and pinch his cheeks between his thumb and the rest of his fingers. Gabe was thinner than Luca, wiry and lean with less muscle mass on account of the fact he didn’t get beat up for a living, but he still had a good few inches on him which he apparently could still use to his advantage as he wrestled Luca into a half cuddle-half headlock.
“Look at you Schnucki, all grown up.” He crowed teasingly, sniffling with fake pride. “Mama’s little itty bitty baby living on his own. I never thought this day would come.”
“Fuck off!” Luca squawked, squirming when he pressed a sloppy, overly dramatic kiss to Luca’s forehead and shook him around some more affectionately, the same way Anya would shake around her lamb-chop toys. It wasn’t hard to push out of Gabe’s grip, dodging away when he tried to chase him. “You are such an asshole.”
Gabe blew him a kiss just to prove it.
“It’s really clean.” He added once he had stopped chuckling to himself. “Are you sure you live here?”
Luca flushed. No, he didn’t. Not really. His bedroom at home was a mess, art supplies littering his desk in organised choas and a mix of clothes, blankets and stuffed animals strewn around his floor in a way that always made Shane and Ilya wrinkle their noses and chide him to pick it up when they ventured into his room for something. He didn’t tell Gabe that.
“Of course I do.” He said. “I get a cleaner in every couple weeks.”
Gabe laughed, whistling lowly. “Maybe I should have gone into hockey too. I think a potential TBI is worth not having to do my own dishes.”
“You have to be able to skate to play hockey.” Luca chirped. Gabe fake gagged.
“Never mind then.” He replied primly, wandering towards Luca’s kitchen and helping himself to the fridge before Luca could tell him not too. Luca watched him pause for a second, wincing to himself as Gabe turned to face him with an unimpressed look. “Luca, why is your fridge completely empty?”
“I eat out?” Luca offered. It was a bald faced lie, but it sounded less pathetic than telling Gabe that his captain and teammate cooked for him every night— and oh, not to mention spoon fed him half the time too because despite Luca’s best efforts, he was still just as pathetic as he had been when he’d left Zurich.
Gabe sighed wistfully though, taking Luca’s lie at face value much to Luca’s own relief. “Being rich must be so nice. You eat out every single night?”
“Not every night.” Luca defended. “We have meal plans and stuff. There’s staff who organises it for us most of the time if we don’t want to do it ourselves.”
“Probably for the best.” Gabe said. “You are a terrible cook.”
“Hey!”
“Remember that time you managed to set the macaroni on fire?”
“I was ten!”
They ordered dinner, after a brief intermission of trying to beat each other up with Luca’s throw pillows over what they should get and Gabe’s insult to Luca’s honour. They sat in the living room to eat, which made Luca feel like he was doing something naughty because daddy didn’t like eating dinner on the couch in case it was messy.
It was nice, spending time with his brother. It really was. He and Gabe got along. They always had, Gabe had always included Luca in his games with his friends even when Luca was probably more of a hinderance than a help. He was first person Luca had told about getting drafted. He was the one who helped Luca find a centre in Ottawa when he had first moved, even if Luca had only ended up actually going once or twice. Gabe had been his best friend growing up. But Gabe wasn’t Luca’s daddy or papa.
It was weird, being in his own apartment once the sun had settled low in the sky and blanketed the apartment in the dusky feeling of nighttime. Like he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be. Eating dinner on the couch, staying up past his bedtime, not having his blanket or his light or Blossom sitting on his bed when Gabe had finally taken pity on Luca’s nonstop yawning and told him to just go to bed if he was tired instead of trying to muscle his way through another movie just so they could keep hanging out. No one even tucked him in, Gabe staying on the couch when he’d waved Luca off with a simple goodnight.
Luca was a big boy, he could handle one night in his own apartment without daddy and papa to hold his hand. He just… didn’t really want too. He liked having someone tuck him in and read him a bedtime story, even if it was silly. He had pulled his phone out before he even really though about it, thumbing at Papa’s contact and listening as the call trilled. It barely rang once before Papa answered.
“Luca? Are you okay?” Papa asked, voice concerned. Luca could hear Daddy close by, probably sitting at Papa’s shoulder to listen in. Anya was there too, which Luca knew because she barked once happily when she heard his name.
“Yeah.” Luca said. “M’okay.”
“What’s going on malysh?”
“I’m going to bed now.” Luca informed Papa. “Can you and daddy read me a story please?”
Luca heard Papa take a slow, deep breath before he hummed. “Da, we can read you a story malysh. Do you want daddy and papa to come and get you?”
“No.” Luca said. “Just want a story for bedtime.”
“Okay.” Papa said. “Talk to daddy for a second zaychik, I will get story for you.”
“Thank you papa.” Luca said politely, listening as the phone was passed over. “Hi daddy.”
“Hi baby.” Daddy hummed. “Are you having fun with your brother?”
“We watched movies.” Luca said.
“Does he know you’re little buddy?” Daddy asked. Luca paused, pursing his lips.
“Uh-huh.” He lied.
“Is he taking good care of you?”
“Yeah.” Luca said, this time not lying. Gabby always took good care of Luca when he was younger. “Daddy, you have to give Anya and Papa a goodnight kiss for me ‘kay?”
Daddy laughed. “I can do that baby.”
“And papa has to give you a goodnight kiss.”
“Okay baby, I will let him know.” Daddy said, as Luca heard Papa come back. Daddy messed with the phone for a second, probably putting it on speaker.
“Okay malysh, I have bunny book or bear book.” Papa offered. “Which do you want?”
“Bunny book.” Luca decided. Papa hummed like that was the one he thought Luca would pick. Which was fair, because Luca always picked the bunny book if it was offerred. It was about Blossom, he had too. He wished he had brought Blossom with him back to his apartment. Maybe he could ask daddy or papa to give her to him at practice tomorrow.
“Ready zaychik? All comfy?” Papa asked. Luca nodded, before he remembered Papa wouldn’t see him and hummed instead. Then, Papa started reading. Luca always liked it best when Papa read to him, even though he knew Papa didn’t really like reading him stories in english. His voice was low and soft as he made his way through the story, Luca’s eyes getting heavy with each quiet turn of the page.
“Papa?” Luca hummed quietly, making Papa pause his reading.
“Yes malysh?”
“Love you.”
“I love you too malysh.” Papa said. “More than anything.”
Luca hummed, pleased as he drifted off to Papa continuing the story.