Chapter Text
The preseason comes to a close and for the first time in recent history, Ottawa has a winning record coming out of it. It doesn’t matter officially, but it’s a nice boost nonetheless. Gives them some confidence going into the regular season.
The end of preseason also means Wyatt has gained a new housemate. Their new rookie is immensely grateful to have made the team, despite practically being a shoo-in. Wyatt understands the feeling. He’d been similarly thankful when he made the team after his training camp. Watson moves into the room in the basement and so far has thanked them every day for hosting him. He also insists on making dinner at least three times a week for the duration of his time with them, which he says is his way of thanking them for opening their home to him. He admits to having taken some culinary classes in college as well as a class on wine. So far though, the addition of Watson to their house is practically unnoticeable. He keeps to himself for the most part, not emerging too often from the basement. Wyatt is giving him time to adjust a little before he starts trying to coax him out more.
Two days before their home opener Wyatt, Lisa, and Watson drive down to Bood’s house for a celebratory barbecue. It’s the first with the new roster. Cassie greets them at the door, smiling widely. A few of the guys are already there. Ilya is holding Milo and talking with Caitlin, Evan, and Zane near the grill. Luca is talking to Shane near the fire pit, both of them nursing a beer. Nick and Selena arrive just as Wyatt and Lisa claim seats by the fire as well. Troy and Harris arrive next, followed by Arti and Boyle and then Tanner comes traipsing in with a new girlfriend. Almost all the new guys come in just after that and the backyard starts filling up. Jordie, Max, and Louis are the last to arrive.
Wyatt spends most of the night talking with Tanner’s new girlfriend Josie who worked on the set of an upcoming tv series Wyatt is looking forward to. She can’t tell him a lot about it but she’s happy to dissect the trailer with him and give him her opinions on the cast. Tanner attempts to be interested in the conversation for a while before he peels off to go converse with Boyle and Chouinard. Lisa spends the majority of her time with Cassie, Caitlin, Selena, Arti, and Ilya, all of whom are sipping wine while conversing animatedly. As far as Wyatt can tell, Ilya hasn’t put down Milo since he’s been there.
Eventually, Josie does excuse herself to go fall in with the circle of women, and Wyatt then migrates to where Shane, Troy, Harris, and Luca are sitting at the fire. The conversation is about hockey, naturally. Harris is talking about being a Cens fan growing up, as is Shane. Luca blushingly admits to being a Bears fan because he was a Rozanov fan.
“Absolutely never tell Ilya that,” Shane tells him, “we will never hear the end of it. The whole team will suffer, but he will never let you or I live it down. Ever.”
Luca nods seriously.
“Seconded,” Troy agrees.
“I also liked the Voyageurs, though!” Luca says earnestly, “it’s just that…”
Harris grins, “it’s just that you had a crush on Ilya.”
Luca sputters, going rather red and looking guiltily at Shane.
Shane laughs a little, “it’s okay. I had a crush on him too.”
It occurs to Wyatt it’s the first time since their wedding that he’s heard Shane say something like that about Ilya. Something that normalizes or even acknowledges that they’re married. Ilya’s made a couple offhand comments, jokes mostly about Hollander being ‘his’ or things along those lines. But this is the first time other than on the way into the tunnel that he’s heard Shane say something like this about Ilya. And since Ilya tells everyone he loves them then, Wyatt’s not sure he can count that.
“You mean you had a crush on him at Luca’s age?” Harris asks.
Shane nods.
“You both had terrible taste,” Troy tells them.
“Who has terrible taste?” Tanner asks, flopping onto one of the chairs.
“Luca and Shane,” Wyatt tells him.
“They both had crushes on rookie Roz.”
Harris eyes Shane suspiciously, “you didn’t say rookie Roz specifically. What does Wyatt know?”
Shane turns an appraising look towards Wyatt, which makes him feel rather sheepish. Wyatt’s not sure if it’s a secret, necessarily, how long Ilya and Shane have been together, but he hadn’t even been thinking about that when he’d spoken. He had just assumed that was what Shane had meant. He should probably check in with them about what they’re comfortable with being common knowledge going forward though.
“Isn’t that what you meant?” He asks Shane, not outwardly denying he knows anything, but giving Shane space to drive the conversation a different direction if he wants.
“I mean, yeah, I guess,” Shane agrees, “I did have a crush on him then. In a way I guess he was kind of my gay awakening.”
Harris starts choking on his drink. “Sorry, what?”
Shane shrugs, looking embarrassed, “yeah, I mean he just, like, touched my wrist and I suddenly realized I kind of wanted to kiss him.”
“Wait, this happened in person?” Harris asks, “I was assuming you saw like video of him or something, but I guess it would’ve had to have been in-person, wouldn’t it have?”
Shane nods, “yeah. At the draft, actually.”
“At the draft?” Luca squeaks.
“After the draft really. Neither of us could sleep so we ended up in the hotel gym at the same time.”
“That’s how you know they’re made for each other,” Wyatt jokes, “both went to work out the night of the draft.”
Shane laughs. Wyatt eyes the beer in his hand. He hasn’t seen Shane share this much information openly and although it looks like the same beer he’s had all night, Wyatt isn’t certain it isn’t simply the same brand and in fact his second, third, or fourth because he hasn’t been watching him and he hopes Shane is sharing this because he feels comfortable with the team and not because he’s drunk. He doesn’t look drunk and he isn’t acting drunk, but then again Wyatt doesn’t know him well enough to say that with any real definitiveness.
“I just can’t imagine anyone crushing on rookie Roz,” Tanner frowns, “I watched a good bit of his press while I was in Juniors and he was kind of a dick.”
Harris laughs. “And that’s how you know Tanner is definitely straight.”
“What?” Tanner asks, “what do you mean?”
“I think he means there was a reason Ilya had the reputation he did,” Wyatt tells him.
“He really was insufferable though,” Shane tells Tanner, “you’re not wrong about that.”
“I was always Team Hollander, you know,” Harris says to Shane.
Shane looks genuinely taken aback, like he’s forgotten Harris had ever heard about him before he’d signed with the Centaurs, “oh?”
“I mean, I’m a hockey fan from Ottawa. I think it’s practically a requirement to be a Shane Hollander fan. It didn’t hurt that you also happened to be hot.”
Shane blushes bright red. “Oh. Thanks, I guess?”
“You know, I almost asked Ilya for your number once,” Troy confesses. The confession lands rather like a bomb amongst everyone in the circle, disbelieving screeches and gasps of surprise overlapping.
“What?!” Harris squeaks. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Troy shrugs, "kind of forgot about it to be honest. And I was already pretty hung up on you anyway."
The commotion draws the attention of the rest of the party guests, who all pause their conversations and eye their group critically.
“Are we missing good drama?” Cassie calls out teasingly.
“Yes!” Harris replies back, “Troy wanted to ask Ilya for Shane’s number.”
Both Shane and Troy hide their faces, obviously embarrassed as the rest of the crew gathers around. Ilya, now sans Milo for the first time Wyatt has noticed all night, perches on the arm of Shane’s chair.
“He would have given it to you, too,” Shane mutters from behind his hands, “just to mess with both of us.”
“Oh, I know,” Troy agrees.
“And then he’d be jealous because Shane wouldn’t have realized Troy was hitting on him,” Wyatt grins, confident in his assessment of the situation. He is sure Shane Hollander is generally oblivious to people flirting with him and he knows Ilya is possessive.
Ilya frowns, seemingly realizing Wyatt is right. “You are probably right. Shane barely knew I was flirting with him and I was very obvious.”
Shane looks up from behind his hands to glare at his husband. “Fuck off, I knew you were flirting.”
Ilya eyes him with extreme doubt. “No you did not.”
“It wasn’t even flirting anyway,” Shane shoots back, “it was straight up-” Shane stops abruptly, and looks at the circle of people around them, seemingly remembering they have an audience. Ilya smiles smugly.
“I was flirting before that,” Ilya says, not acknowledging whatever ‘that’ was, “I called you pretty, remember?”
“That was chirping, not flirting. Do you know how many times I’ve been called a pretty boy in my career?”
“Ah, but I did not call you a pretty boy. Just pretty.”
“Nah, that probably definitely sounded like a chirp, coming from you,” Evan tells Ilya.
“Thank you,” Shane tells him sincerely.
“When did you two get together anyway?” Cassie asks. It’s a question Wyatt is pretty sure everyone here is dying to know the answer to. Ilya looks to Shane, clearly ready to follow his lead on if they’re going to answer the question or not. Shane gives him a nod.
“We hooked up for the first time the summer before our rookie season,” Ilya tells the assembled crowd.
“Jesus,” Bood exclaims. Similar sentiments ring out from everyone else. Troy and Harris don’t look as surprised, so they must’ve had some idea of the timeline before this. Maybe they’d told them like Ilya had told Wyatt.
“So you two have been sleeping together for your entire careers?” Dykstra confirms.
They both nod, Hollander sheepish and Rozanov distinctly proud.
“Wow.” Luca says.
“We weren’t like dating, the whole time, though,” Shane clarifies, “it was just casual for many years.”
“Wow.” Jordie says. “I spent a month doing ‘casual’ with Claire this summer before we had to have the ‘what are we talk’. I can’t imagine doing that for years.”
“I mean, it was…different for us,” Shane says carefully, “we were almost never in the same place and there’d never been a gay hockey player before. Not to mention, there was all that marketing about us being rivals.”
“And also he ran away the first time I ever said his name and started dating a movie star.”
Shane rolls his eyes. Wyatt gets the feeling this is a common argument in their household.
“Wait are you telling me you’d been hooking up regularly for years and never said each other’s names? Were you just silent the entire time?”
“Of course not. We were very loud,” Ilya says suggestively, waggling his eyebrows, “but last names only.”
“Ew,” Troy says, “please spare me the details.”
Ilya frowns at him, “don’t be homophobic, Barrett. I thought you’d grown out of that.”
Everyone present sighs with exasperation. Now that he’s out, Ilya’s go-to joke is about everyone and anyone being homophobic. Any minor inconvenience also falls into this category, so they hear this refrain quite often nowadays.
“Oh my god, Ilya, I am literally gay,” Troy complains, “and not wanting to hear about your sex life doesn’t make me homophobic."
“I also don’t want you to talk about that,” Shane offers.
“Exactly! See? Are you going to say he’s homophobic?” Troy asks.
“No, of course not. Shane is super gay. He cannot be homophobic."
“You can be gay and homophobic,” Wyatt points out at the same time Shane says, “I am not super gay, Ilya, I am just gay. Just regular gay. Please stop saying that.”
“Now, see, that sounds homophobic,” Louis jokes, “not wanting to be super gay.”
Ilya nods seriously. “LaPointe is right. I have married a homophobe.”
Shane throws his hands up in the air and rises out of his seat. “I’m going to get something to drink.”
Ilya raises his eyebrows and grins as he watches his husband retreat. A few seconds later he rises too and makes his way towards where Shane is opening a ginger ale. The conversation begins to shift and diverge back into smaller side-conversations. Lisa and Wyatt are pulled into one such conversation with Nick and Selena. Over by the refreshments, Shane and Ilya seem to be arguing.
“Do they argue a lot?” Selena asks, “I feel like they argue a lot from what I’ve seen.”
“All the time,” Nick tells her.
Dykstra, who had been nearby jumps in and agrees, “basically nonstop at practice. We can’t believe they haven’t killed each other.”
Wyatt is still sorting through things in his head. He’s thought the same at first, naturally, because before being on a team with them he’d actually thought they were deeply in love. Unlike the rest of his teammates, Wyatt had guessed Ilya was probably seeing someone he was very serious about. The man had missed the first practice after their plane nearly crashed and come back in a fantastic mood with a ring he hadn’t had before on his necklace. Wyatt wasn’t a genius by any means, but that had been a pretty fucking obvious sign. Plus, Ilya was always smiling down at his phone when he thought no one was looking. And then there were the camps. Whenever Ilya was on lunch pickup duty he always went to a separate restaurant to get food Shane would eat. He checked in with him constantly. One time one of the parents had said something about Ilya being a better coach than Shane and he’d kind of blown up at the guy. Wyatt hadn’t guessed from that that Shane was the mystery someone Ilya had, but in retrospect those things taken all together were evidence of Ilya Rozanov being very in love with Shane Hollander. And then after they’d been outed, Ilya had been only too eager to talk about Shane. Jokes about how he’d been seduced by a ‘weak backhand’ and ‘cute freckles’ had been prevalent in their locker room towards the end of the season. And when the guys had joked about Shane Hollander being his WAG at that one playoff game, Ilya had only smiled widely and proclaimed that was evidence he was the best hockey player, because only the best hockey player could have a WAG who was the second-best player in the league.There’d been a series of Instagram posts over the sumer, too. Nothing crazy, but videos and photos from their shared summer where they looked very in love.
So that was what made all of this very strange. It was possible distance made the heart grow fonder and they weren’t used to spending so much time together, which was causing some of this tension. Somehow Wyatt felt like that wasn’t it either. But it wasn’t like this was unusual, exactly. It was consistent with how Wyatt had seen them interact basically every time he’d seen them. Except for their wedding, of course. There hadn’t been much bickering then.
Ilya and Shane happen to come by just then, “we are leaving,” Ilya tells them, “Hollander has to get to bed by 10 pm.”
Shane rolls his eyes, “fuck off, I do not.”
“No?” Ilya asks, and there’s a hint of something teasing in it. He leans in close to Shane and whispers something lowly in Russian.
Shane turns bright pink and shivers slightly. “We do have to let Anya out, though.”
Ilya grins smugly and Wyatt realizes exactly what had just gone down. Holy shit, was that what they were always doing when they were speaking in Russian? That would re-contextualize a lot of interactions if that was true. For the moment, Wyatt plays it off like he’s none the wiser.
“Say hello to Anya for me, would ya?” he tells them, “and see you tomorrow.”
“I will give her lots of affection, no need to worry, Hazy,” Ilya tells him.
Lisa, Selena, Nick, and Zane bid them goodbye as well and then they leave to go say their goodbyes to everyone else.
“Maybe we should get going as well,” Lisa suggests, checking her watch, “I was hoping to decompress a little before bed and I have to be up early tomorrow.”
“Yeah, sure,” Wyatt agrees easily, especially because he knows what the twinkle in her eye when she said ‘decompress’ means. “Let me go find Watson and see if he’s ready or if he’s gonna catch a ride with someone else.”
Watson is ready, so they head out in a little group.
“This really is a great team,” Watson tells them in the car. “I didn’t really know it could be like this.”
Wyatt nods. “I know what you mean. I was with Toronto before I got traded here. The vibes were very different.”
Watson nods, “yeah, I could kind of tell. Actually, one of my old teammates is on Toronto now. That guy who Holmberg fought. Andrews.”
If Wyatt wasn’t currently operating a motor-vehicle he’d probably turn around and gape at Watson. The asshole rookie from Toronto had been teammates with Watson? “For your sake, I hope he wasn’t representative of the average team member.”
“He kind of was. He also was our captain.”
“Who’s this?” Lisa asks.
“Remember that random rookie I told you about? The one who came over to the bench to chirp me?”
Lisa nods, “right, yeah. So he’s basically just a dick, then?” She directs the question to Watson.
Wyatt can see him shrug in the rearview mirror, “basically. I didn’t know he did that to you, though. I’m sorry.” “It’s not your fault. You didn’t choose to be teammates with him.”
Watson avoids eye contact in the rearview mirror. Interesting. Wyatt thinks. Maybe there’s not a story there, but maybe there is. There’s so much going on this season Wyatt’s not sure how to keep track of it all. Maybe he needs to start keeping a little notebook or something. Lisa would probably tell him to be less nosy, he thinks, looking over at her in the passenger seat. But deep down, Lisa is no better than him. She loves to hear about all his theories. She usually helps him analyze all the clues too.
Wyatt turns onto their street and then into the driveway.
“Thanks for the ride,” Watson tells them both once the car is in park.
“Yeah, of course,” Wyatt tells him, “we were literally going to the same place.”
“Thanks again anyway,” the kids says. “Um, I’m probably just going straight to bed, actually,” he tells them, “I’m meeting Shane Hollander and Tanner at the rink early tomorrow.”
Wyatt notes the full first name and last name usage for Shane and smiles a little. The kid clearly hasn’t gotten past his hero-worship stage. The other young guys hadn’t seemed to either. It was still ‘Shane Hollander’ anytime most of the guys talked about him, actually. The funniest part was Shane himself seemed to be completely oblivious to this.
“Oh, that’s nice. You guys getting in some extra practice?” “I guess Tanner asked for some extra help on his passing and accuracy and they’ve been going in early pretty often. And then I was talking with Hollander a little after practice and he suggested I could join as well. Give them more of a challenge and work on my own skills too. But, uh, Tanner offered to pick me up, so no worries there.”
Wyatt nods, “cool. Sounds good.”
“Also, um, my family is coming to town for the opener and they’re going to help me buy a car. So hopefully you guys won’t have to keep shuttling me around.”
“Oh great! That should be nice for you, having your family at the game,” Lisa tells him.
“They want to meet you guys, actually,” Watson tells them, “they’d like to take you out for dinner.”
“Sure, of course,” she agrees, “sleep well, Watson.”
“Sleep well,” he echoes, and then heads down the stairs.
Once he hears the door close Wyatt turns to his wife and waggles his eyebrows, “now, what was that I heard about decompressing?”
She laughs and shoves him a little, but takes his hand and pulls them toward the bedroom.