Chapter Text
It made national news in no time. Like any other news of that level it was everywhere within the hour. Headlines after headlines, all trying to figure out the details, the why's. More questions, than answers, many of them about how this would be fixed. All the reporters and people alike were running to confirm the news. They were running to fix their world view onto its new axil with this new information. Everyone was asking all the questions that came fist to mind: What happened? Why it happened? Who is responsible?
But nobody was asking the important questions: Who we're the ones most affected by this?
⛧°. ⋆༺🜲༻⋆. °⛧
A home game against Florida. Nothing too exiting or special. Just a normal home game.
The game was going well, Luca had made a goal, Shane and Ilya had made two together on power play, when the Florida players had made some odd judgements and spent time in the sin bin thanks to it. Wyatt was holding like a wall and had only let in one puck on power play when Ilya, in turn, had made some odd judgements and spent time in the sin bin.
Overall it was a routine game. Wiebe was happy with them for going into the last period with 3-1. The Cens only had to hold on until the end of the last 20 minutes and the win would be theirs.
Luca sat patiently on the bench tapping his stick on the ground. The ice ring was colder that usual. Even though the heat of the sweat, Luca could feel the chilling breeze running up his spine. The overhead lights glimmered and glowed, and the sounds of ice being sliced in two by metal blades cut into Luca's head like spikes. People were chanting, and it only grew louder the less time was left on the buzzer. It was hard to hear anything.
Three more minutes and then it would be a victory for them. Three more minutes and Florida would go home crying like Roz said. Three more minutes…
Suddenly Weibe tapped him on his shoulder: " Luca,-" He hesitated for a moment as if not sure what to do. He rubbed his neck and his eyes flicked back and forth between the game and Luca.
"There's a call for you", was finally what came out of his mouth.
What? A call?
"Can't it wait till the game is over? We have like two minutes?"
What would be the reason for a call this important?
Weibe was motioning for Luca to step to the hallway behind the bench: "No, unfortunately."
Luca was truly confused: "But the team-"
Weibe cut him of by giving him a phone and lightly pushing him into the locker room: " No, as you said, there are only a few minutes left. If they fail without you, the cap is distributed so wrong."
The comment and the shy smile both seemed like ways to make situation better, less heavy, but that only made it worse for Luca. What would have been so horrible that he had to be sent away during a game?
He stared at the phone. It was one of the staff phones, black, sleek and full of centaurs stickers. The screen was cracked at the upper left corner, clearly fallen on the stone floors of the stadium at some point. It looked incredibly small compared to the pit forming in Luca's stomach.
The screen light up when Luca moved the phone a bit. To displayed a number that looked familiar. A number from Switzerland. He hit the accept button immediately.
First silence. Then running heard in the background and shouting in Swiss-German. Then the same voice that shouted, spoke to the phone. Sofia's voice came through: "Luca? Are you there?"
It was like cold water was dunked on him. Sofia never called during games.
Sofia Haas was one of the only people that knew everything. It had been kinda necessary after Luca had just one day showed up on her and their dads door. They were technically speaking half-siblings but to the world and to themselves too they were as much of siblings as anyone else. Luca and her called almost weekly talking about everything and nothing at all. And even though Luca didn't understand the law she was studying in Cambridge or the chess rules she tried for the hundred time to explain with little to no success, and her only understanding the basics of hockey or colour theory, they still understood each other. Luca didn't bother her when exam season was on and she never called when Luca was playing. Still now her voice was coming from this phone.
She never would have called if it wasn't something incredibly important. But the thing that made Luca actually panic was the tone of her voice. She was usually a energetic, wild and free. Everyone could always hear that when talking to her. Now however, her voice was almost void of emotion. It was flat and somehow empathetic at the same time. Luca could hear a small tremor in her voice.
"Luca?" Came a new question.
He forced himself to take a breath: " Sofia? What- why are you calling? It's in the middle of the game!"
Luca shouldn't be mad at her for interrupting the game. This seemed important. But at the same time, she had interrupted the game, pulled Luca out of it and for some reason got his coach to dump him with a phone to the locker room. So he was a bit annoyed to say the least.
"Luca are you alone? Have you seen the news ?"
"What news? I haven't seen anything because I've been in the game, like I said", he was getting irritated. God were those sirens? was the game over?
The line went silent again. There was rustling of papers and something that sounded like a keyboard in the background. Sofia was doing something for a while because after what felt like an eternity her voice came commanding through the phone speakers: "Sit down. Immediately. You need to sit."
"Sofia, I'm scared. What is happening?"
"OK, just listen. Are you alone?"
"I don't have time for this! The game is ending Sofia!" He couldn't hide his irritation from his voice any longer. What was this important?
"Are you alone?" Sofia demanded.
"Yeah, I'm in the locker room. But again, why are you calling? There must be a reason, right? The game Sofia! You can't just-"
"Luca", Sofia tried.
"- call and expect me to answer? This is my dream-" He rambled on.
He didn't know why he felt the need to air this out on Sofia. Yeah she had called, but what else had she done to trigger him so much? The whole day had felt off somehow. The gear too tight, skates too loose, the routine unorganized. Was that what bothered him so much today?
What fuck was going on?
"And you know that! This day has been weird enough, that I don't need this please-"
"Luca", came harsher this time.
"Just tell me what is going on? Why would you call in the middle-"
"Wille!", Sofia yelled to the phone.
… Well that got Luca's attention.
The irritation morphed to a burning rage in an instant: " Sofia, what the actual fuck! Wille is no longer here!"
There was no more noise from the other side. Luca couldn't hold his anger at all.
"I'm not HIM! I have not been for a WHILE! WHAT IS IT?", he shouted.
Sofia was silent for a moment before taking a breath and seemingly bracing herself. Then a small voice came through: "It's Erik. He's…-" She took a breath once more: " He's dead."
You could hear a pin drop in the locker room. Luca couldn't make a noise. The world seemed to stop and the crowd on bleachers seemed to disappear. All the warmth was gone and suddenly the cold was creeping in his jersey and the sweat dripping down to the ground.
He didn't understand what happened but the next thing Luca knew, he was back against someone's cubby bench, chest rushing up and down.
What?
Erik? Dead? When had this happened? What- what happened? Why now? Why- why when he could finally be free? Why would Erik leave him? What ? He couldn't right?
What about mom? Did she want him there? Now? When was the funeral? Would he make it before the next game? Fuck! Could he continue to play? Would the MHL ban him? He didn't even get to have a cup? What about the crowd? What would they think?
Fuck what about the centaurs? He couldn't just leave them? He- he- had so much to do! Fuck, shit. What should he do? God the world will know soon if they don't already? That's why Sofia was calling, right? Shit! He- he couldn't-
"Luca breathe for me. Please? Luca?" Sofia tried. But Luca could barely hear her. It was all too much.
The ceiling was pressing against his chest and the walls were taking all the air. Somewhere he thought he heard crying and water dripping in the floor. Why were his cheeks wet and hot?
"Luca please I need you to answer! I'm sorry for dropping this on you but like you need to prepare yourself", she sighed, typing something on her computer. She was clearly stressed and worried.
Then almost pleading: "Luca? Please don't make me call you that name again."
Lucas voice felt like it was paralysed. Like everything was crashing down and nothing made sense. Was this why the day had felt so off? God, he has celebrated his goal today, on Erik's death day. He was a horrible person. He had yelled and screamed and hugged them in celebration, while on the other side of the world everyone else was mourning.
There was noise from outside of the locker room. Some of the rookies were a bit too loudly expressing their happiness for the win, but Ilya's voice could not be heard through them like normally. What was up with that?
"You need to answer,Please?
Luca used all his might to make a small hymn of a noise for Sofia to hear he was listening. He couldn't make himself talk yet.
You could hear the relief singer voice: "OK good."
Then her voice morphed into a more serious tone and she started to explain her thoughts.
"You need to listen Dad is booking everything so you don't need to. We are coming with you but we probably aren't allowed to attend the- … event." she left out it. They both knew what she was talking about.
"You need to get to the airport. The plane leaves in 4 hours."
There was more noise in the background, like she was packing now.
Then a brief pause. It was like she was considering if to share what she thinking. Then her small voice came in: "Dad is trying to hold them off. If they had a say, you would have been pulled from the game before the first break."
That didn't surprise him but broke his heart still. They didn't really care about his career, did they? I mean for them hockey had always been more of a hobby than anything else. Sure, he could have made it to the national team but being from a certain household ment that such "privilege" was not his to attain.
She made a noise of disapproval and continued: " Thanks to dad, you have not been publicly identified yet. Originally they were supposed get you but we managed to convince them otherwise. But its only a matter of time before you do get exposed due to them. "
Shit, he didn't even think about the public thing? What would they think? "Disgrace of a son returns only after death strikes twice" , "The Sole heir". Would everyone look at him differently? Would the cens?
Luca made a second noise of understanding before falling silent. Sofia stayed there for a moment too. Just understanding. They both knew.
Then her voice came in like a hug: "Luca, I have to go to catch my plane, but whatever happens, we love you. You have us always."
Then a beat, a second. And then the call ended.
The silence after felt like death sentence.
Luca just sat there, unmoving. The front of his jersey was soaked and his face felt like it was burning off. He wanted to crawl into his skin and stay there. His heart was hammering at his insides with such force, Luca shook. His hands were trembling. He buried his head in hands pressing the palms of it deep into is eyes, making it hurt.
Fuck what was he going to do? What should he tell the team? Should he tell them? Who was he kidding, they were going to find out soon enough.
Far in the back of his mind he could almost tell that the hallway was filling up with footsteps, all on skates. There was loud celebrating and laughing from the rookies and the rest of team it sounded like. That meant the game was over and that the team was soon to be…
Then the locker room door cracked slowly open and suddenly the room was spilling with noise of talking and rustling of skates and jerseys. Nobody noticed Luca on the floor, because their backs were turned to him. The laughter was louder and it made Lucas ears sting even though the arena where they all just had played had been ten times as loud. Why was nothing making sense?
But then Ilya entered, Shane right behind him. They both stopped in the door frame and their eyes landed immediately on Luca.
Ilya pushed through everyone and fell on his knees beside Luca, looking like he wanted to touch him, perhaps to hug, but too afraid to do so. Shane voice ordered someone to gram coach and medical staff. The whole rest of the locker room froze, celebrating forgotten, as all eyes turned to Luca.
Wyatt that had been in the back of the pack in deep conversation with Dykstra had torn of his helmet and pads in record time trying to ask what he could do to help and that Lisa had told him about this. Dykstra was right behind him but he was still stuck in his skates. Troy looked like he was deeply concerned, Bood was trying to ask what was happening and Nick, Tanner and Boyle had such a confused and worried look in their eyes it was almost entertaining seeing them in the middle of the chaos. The rookies were the only ones that stood completely frozen in shock. They looked like they didn't quite know how to react.
It felt like too much, the like too little. These people knew nothing but a sliver of the truth and there they were, trying to understand. They knew nothing and Luca had let them down all ready by making himself a liability. They were going to hate him.
Ilya's voice was unsure as he spoke: "Luca? What is wrong?"
That was all he needed. Luca threw himself at Ilya, holding onto his jersey for dear life and burring his face in his neck, hugging him. Ilya was clearly a bit taken a back, but almost immediately gave in and hugged him back.
Then the tears came falling.