Chapter Text
Wyatt Hayes is standing on a bench in the Ottawa Centaurs locker room. Harris is below him, holding out a hat that’s flipped upside down. Inside the hat are the names of the guys on the team.
Every year, without fail, Wyatt goes to Comic-Con. He refuses to go alone. He’d go with his wife, but she’s too busy being a doctor and saving lives. Instead, he brings a teammate, they are not saving lives. To make it fair, Wyatt chooses someone randomly, out of the hat in Harris’s hands. Wyatt also gets to dress this person up how he chooses. One year, he took Ilya and dressed him up as Cyclops from X-Men. Another year, Wyatt brought Luca Haas and put him in a very expensive Spider-Man suit. You can bet Luca loved it. Wyatt also brings Harris along every time for pictures and what not, whatever Harris wanted for the social media.
The players were gathered around, waiting to see their fate from the hat. Wyatt reached down with a beaming grin and picked out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it and read the name to the room.
“Troy Barrett!” He announced.
All the heads in the room turned to poor Troy, who did not look happy with this decision. Comic-Con? Troy didn’t know anything about that! It was probably loud there too and full of people. Wouldn’t he have to take pictures with people?
“Can I opt-out?” Troy huffed.
“Nope! This isn’t optional. Your name got picked from the hat.” Wyatt shrugged as he hopped off the bench.
Troy glared at the hat in his boyfriend's hands. This fucking hat.
“Now.” Wyatt started. “Any ideas for his costume?”
Low chatter started around the room, trying to come up with the best character to dress Troy up as. When a character was chosen for someone, they usually went somewhat off looks. For Troy, it was probably going to be a character who also had black hair.
“What about Frodo?” Someone suggested teasingly.
Troy frowned. A short dude with hairy feet? He’d do anything but that.
“No. Frodo’s hair is curly.” Another player said.
“Superman has black hair.” Luca said.
“Yeah, but Superman enjoys people.” Evan Dykstra added. “Troy doesn’t.”
“Batman then!”
“But Troy’s parents are alive!”
Wyatt sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Guys. He doesn’t have to have the same backstory as the character obviously. Haasy was Spider-Man, his parents aren’t dead either.”
“Okay. Well Troy’s too small to be Batman anyway.”
“What about Nightcrawler? He’s cool.”
“Nightcrawler is blue! Are we going to paint Troy?”
“Yeah!”
Troy, who apparently didn’t get a say in this whatsoever, did not want to be painted blue. He also didn’t like that he was “too small to be Batman”. Or that he couldn’t be Superman because Superman liked people, and Dykstra was right, Troy wasn’t big on people, unless he already knew he liked them. He overall was not pleased with the idea of going to Comic-Con and being dressed up as some guy from a movie, show, comic or whatever a place called Comic-Con entailed, that he’d probably never heard of.
“What about Nightwing?” Harris piped up.
Wyatt’s eyes gleamed. “Yes! That’s perfect!”
—
Two weeks later, Troy was in the locker room, staring at the Nightwing suit in his locker.
“You want me to try this on in here? Right now?” Troy asked Wyatt.
The entire room of men seemed to answer, “Yes!”
Troy wanted to groan, but he decided against it. Everyone seemed so eager to see him dress up.
It felt a little weird, but Troy told himself it was like any other day of changing in the locker room, just that this time he was changing into a Nightwing suit instead of his normal hockey gear. A probably very expensive Nightwing suit. Troy didn’t know much about Nightwing, but this looked pretty accurate. Wyatt always went all out with these costumes. Troy could admire the commitment… when he wasn’t the one in the costume.
He put the Nightwing “suit” on. He couldn’t deny it was comfortable, yet another indicator of its high price.
Someone whistled and Troy turned to glare at them. It’s Ilya, of course. With Shane behind him, rolling his eyes. Ilya had a very wide grin on his face that Troy is not fond of. He knew the teasing was coming before Ilya even opened his mouth.
“Look at this! Where is Harris? I need him to see you like this.” Ilya said, immediately spinning around, searching for the social media manager.
“Barrett, you look sick!” Bood said.
“Hell yeah!” Another teammate agreed.
Troy does not enjoy the way his face heats up, especially when Harris walks in.
“Guys, where’d my boyfriend go? I think he was replaced by a hot superhero.” Harris grins.
That gets a few laughs out of the room, and a delighted guffaw from Ilya. Troy thought it was impossible, but his face heats even more. He knows his teammates can see it. Ilya opens his mouth to comment on it when he gets interrupted by Wyatt.
“Troy, this is so fucking awesome! You look incredible! I can’t wait!” Wyatt is beaming, and Troy feels a twinge of guilt that he definitely can wait. The guilt leaves quickly when Wyatt starts blabbering about what they would do. It sounded like a lot of walking around. Troy was an athlete and could for sure walk around for ages, but he didn’t particularly want to for Comic-Con.
—
Troy is pretty sure this is the longest line he’s ever been in his life. They haven’t gotten into the building. It’s so hot! He’s going to melt in this outfit. Harris is in nice, cool, regular clothes that makes Troy jealous.
“Who are you dressed up as Harris?” Troy huffs.
“Nightwing’s social media manager.” Harris replies.
Troy rolls his eyes, but he’s smiling.
Wyatt, however, is dressed up. He’s in a white and red onesie type thing with a cape. Wyatt had made it very clear that it wasn’t a onesie but Troy thought it looked a lot like one. Wyatt had said he was dressed up as Omni-Man. Troy didn’t know who that was, but he’d looked him up. Wyatt didn’t look like this Omni-Man guy whatsoever. It didn't seem fair. Troy had to be “canonically” accurate. Troy was learning all sorts of new words. Was this what Ilya felt like sometimes?
“Excuse me.” Troy looked down to see a woman and a man, both in costumes and Troy had no idea who they were. “Can we get a picture with you?”
Troy doesn’t want to do that. But Harris responds first. “Of course! Here, I can take it!”
Wyatt steps out of the way as the man and woman flank either side of Troy. Troy manages a tight smile. The two people leave and Troy blows out a huff of air.
“Cmon Troy, at least try to act like you’re enjoying yourself.” Harris teases, taking Troy’s hand.
“Hard to do that when we haven’t even made it into the building yet.” Troy complains. He’s glad Harris is here though. It would be worse if it was just Troy and Wyatt Hayes all day.
“This is part of the experience!” Wyatt argues.
Troy thinks that’s bullshit.
—
Eventually, they get through the line and are allowed to walk around. The building is extremely crowded, filled with popups for different t-shirts and merch and all sorts of things from all sorts of entertainment. Some things Troy does recognize. He may not be the most up to date, but he doesn’t live under a rock. Wyatt seems to know everything. It’s honestly kind of impressive. He tells them about all sorts of universes and different character lores as they walk around.
They get stopped more than once for pictures, and every time Troy has to reluctantly agree. Must be what you get for wearing a very accurate and impressive costume. Troy hoped Wyatt didn’t spend too much. It couldn’t be all that worth it for one day of dragging Troy around, but maybe it was for Wyatt. The goalie definitely was enjoying it. Some people even stopped them to take a picture with Wyatt specifically because they knew he was the Centaurs goalie. Although Troy’s face wasn’t completely hidden, he didn’t seem to get recognized by hockey fans. He didn’t mind though.
They made their way to a strip of tables with people behind glass. Troy looked around. All these people had their names on display. It looked like you could get autographs? Troy saw some faces that seemed familiar, but he didn’t need an actor’s autograph. Apparently, Wyatt did. So they waited in another line for Wyatt to pay 100$ to get a photo signed. Crazy. The guy they were waiting in line for looked chatty. Troy hoped it would be only towards Wyatt and not Troy.
Thing’s never went Troy’s way unfortunately. After Wyatt and the older man talked, the man’s attention turned to Troy.
“You want anything signed?” He asked. It seemed playful, Troy hoped.
“Uh- no.” Troy responded awkwardly.
“I see. Not a fan, huh?” The man laughed.
Troy wasn’t really sure how to respond to that. He felt like he was coming off as rude, but he had no idea who this guy was. Thankfully, Wyatt saved him by asking the man more questions about his role in something. Troy didn’t really listen.
After Wyatt got one thing signed, they moved onto another fucking line. This entire thing was just lines and lines and lines! Troy, as a NHL hockey player, shouldn’t be thinking it, but he was tired of standing. His legs hadn’t started to ache yet, but Troy knew they would. How was Wyatt so giddy about this?
“Did I seem rude?” Troy asked Harris while they waited. The two of them had decided to move out of the line because they weren’t getting autographs. Harris insisted they still stayed close so he could take some pictures of Wyatt.
“Rude? When?” Harris asked.
Troy wanted to say, “This entire fucking time”, but he refrained. “Like to that guy that Wyatt got an autograph from.”
“Babe, you didn’t even know who he was. It’s fine. I’m sure he doesn’t care.” Harris reassured. “He’s got plenty of money and is actively signing autographs, I think he’ll survive.”
Troy snorted. That was true. He could never imagine doing something like this. Sitting behind glass and signing pictures of himself while talking to people? It sounded like a nightmare. Troy was already boring enough when he talked to the press or did any interview. It didn’t matter though. He wasn’t an actor, so he wouldn’t be doing any of these.
The day seemed to drag on forever. Troy lost count of how many pictures he’d taken and he’d lost track of everything Wyatt had told him about.
Their last stop was different. It was less merchandise shops and more art. It was also less crowded. The less crowded part made Troy feel lighter. He caught himself actually looking at the art and the little trinkets.
Wyatt and Harris were very pleased that Troy had found something he liked about it. Troy kept on showing Harris things he thought were cute, like some tiny keychain or a sticker. Harris thought it was awesome that he was finally enjoying himself.
“Harris, look.” Troy said, holding up a sticker. It was an apple with stick hands and legs and a face. “It’s you.”
Harris grinned. Wyatt chuckled from behind them. Troy bought the sticker for Harris. Harris wasn’t sure where he’d put it, but he wanted to treasure it.
They stayed in that area for a while, because it’s the only place this entire day that Troy had been smiling. Troy also bought the three of them matching keychains. Harris had taken lots of pictures while they were there, so there was actual proof that Troy had enjoyed himself a little. All the rest of the photos Troy looked like he wanted to leave.
The Troy high didn’t last long once they were out of the building. It was hot and crowded again. Troy huffed and complained as he fidgeted with his new keychain. Wyatt and Harris were thinking of getting dinner, but decided against spending a dinner with a whiny Troy. They went home. Wyatt drove Harris and Troy to their house.
When they got home, Harris found his computer. It was a Macbook. Perfect. He put the apple sticker over the apple logo.
—
Next practice rolled around, and everyone was eager to hear how it went. They had seen the pictures Harris had posted on the Centaurs instagram. Most of them, Troy had a tight smile, but there were a small few where he was really smiling, holding up the keychains or showing Harris a sticker. He’d shown Harris a lot of stickers.
Troy let Wyatt and Harris tell their teammates the story. Their rendition was a lot more animated than Troy’s would’ve been.
“Did you have any fun Troy?” Shane asked with a smile. He’d seen the pictures.
Troy shrugged. “There was one place that was cool.”
“Oh my god! Troy, don’t undermine it. You had a blast there!” Harris whipped around, like he was offended.
Shane snorted, along with some of the other guys.
“Troy had a blast? This is news!” Bood joked.
“Shut up.” Troy said, ducking his head.
“Troy got me a sticker.” Harris announced. Troy blushed.
“What? Troy got you a sticker?! I need to see!!” Ilya jumped up from where he was sitting.
“No Ilya doesn’t-” Troy tried to stop them. Ilya didn’t need to see that, Troy knew the bastard would use it as a way to make Troy flustered over Harris
Harris was already pulling out his laptop and pointing to the apple sticker. “He said it looked like me.”
Ilya grinned like this was the best thing since Shane Hollander. He was going to tease Troy about this forever.