Northern Lights

"This is so boring," TJ whispered into her ear, leaning back in his chair lazily and rubbing his face afterwards.

"Shh," she whispered, but not in a hissing way. She put her pointer finger to her lips and smiled smally at him, in turn making a grin creep its way onto his face as well.

Post-Civil War American History was not a class TJ Oshie ever wanted to take, but with little to no persuading he ended up having it two days a week after Ava had asked him to take it with her. She found history interesting, and loved to learn more about it, TJ really just wanted to still be asleep. The class lasted for about thirty more minutes, and when the clock hit 12 o'clock TJ practically sprang to his feet and ran to the door. Ava left at a more leisurely pace therefore causing TJ to wait for her outside the door of the classroom.

"It's not that bad," was the first thing that left Ava's lips. TJ groaned loudly and threw his head back.

"Are you kidding?" He asked her. Ava simply smiled and laughed lightly. TJ grinned down at her and threw an arm over her shoulder, leaning some of his weight on her as they walked back to his on campus apartment.

Once inside, TJ immediately threw his books on the kitchen table and headed for the couch, falling back on it and propping his feet up on the coffee table in front of him.

"Teej," Ava said. TJ looked up and saw her standing at the other side of the coffee table. She was wearing a black tank top and a high-waisted plaid skirt despite the cold temperatures outside, her red hair wavy and messy looking. She was standing there with her hands on her hips and a small smile tugging at her lips.

"Yes?" TJ asked her.

"Do you want anything for lunch?" She asked with a wide smile. TJ couldn't help but smile back and nod.

"Yeah," he confirmed.

"Good, I'll make a big thing of Mac and cheese. Tell the boys to come over," she said while making her way into the kitchen that TJ rarely used. He sprung up from the couch and ran over to where Ava was leaning down looking into the fridge. He smirked and wrapped his arms around her hips, holding her in the air and spinning her around once.

"You're the greatest sometimes," he told her warmly.

It was weird knowing that Ava was watching him play. She hadn't been at a game of his since college and he almost felt nervous walking out on the ice. In college TJ was one of the best, and while he was still pretty good when it came to the NHL he certainly wasn't Sidney Crosby.

He walked out onto the ice with his fellow teammates while the crowd cheered loudly. Ava was standing in the walk way of the home side. She smiled as all the Blackhawks walked on to the ice and cheered when they were all gone and skating around in circles.

TJ tried his hardest to keep his eyes off the small red head, but he was all he thought about. He skated his last few laps before walking to the bench and grabbing a water, squirting some into his mouth, but spitting most of it out. He wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his uniform and looked over to Blackhawk's bench where Ava was doing a quick check of Ben Eager's wrist before he shot back out on the ice. She looked up and smiled at TJ sending him a short cute wave and making his stomach to a back flip. He smiled back and then skated towards Patrik.

"Who's the girl?" His friend asked him.

"Just a girl I know from back at college," TJ explained shortly as he hit a few pucks that glided past him.

"She's cute," Patrik commented with a nod. TJ let his eyes once again find their way to Ava,

"Yeah," he said solemnly. "She is.”

“Anything happen between you two?”

TJ shook his head and looked down at his skates, moving them both back and forth to try and keep his attention on anything else but Ava. “Nah,” he shook his head again for effect. “She was just a friend of the team’s.”

And while he wasn’t exactly lying when he said that, he couldn’t help but know she was so much more to him. He just hadn’t exactly realized what that meant until he saw her again tonight.