Russian Roulette

Anastasia Ovechkin loved the sport of hockey. She loved the feeling of being in a crowd as they cheered on their favorite team and players; she loved the intensity, the hits, the fights, the goals, the saves. Everything about the sport. But more than anything, Anastasia loved watching her big brother play the sport he loved so much.

Just from the way he handled the puck, the way his face lit up when he scored a goal, and the way he congratulated his teammates when they won, Anastasia could tell how much hockey meant to him.

She knew a lot of people had various opinions on him. Some loved him, wearing his uniform constantly, dying for an autography; some were bandwagon fans, who pretended to know everything there was to know about him, only following because of the possibility of the Stanley Cup; and then you had the people who couldn’t stand him, who labeled him as a dirty player, who was too cocky, too celebratory.

Making her way back out of the locker room and down the long hallway, Anastasia was surprised to once again run into Sidney Crosby.

“Hey,” he smiled when he saw her. “Did you find it?”

Her eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.

“The locker room. You find the locker room, eh?”

“Oh! Da! Thanks for help,” she gushed. She could tell her lips were slightly chapped from the cold and allowed her pink tongue to run across her plump, red lips, wetting them.

His dark brown eyes followed her tongue then drifted back up her face to focus on her almond shaped eyes. “What are you doing right now, Anastasia?”

She glanced around the once crowded hallway they were standing in, to see that it was now almost empty. “Um, the game?” she spoke, meaning the game between Russia and Latvia that was set to start in just a few minutes.

Sidney shifted slightly, his weight going from one leg to the other. “So, who are you rooting for?” he questioned, attempting to keep the conversation going between the two of them.

The twenty-one year old girl’s fingers automatically went up to play with her hat, where the flag of Russia was clearly on display. She let out a short laugh at his question, answering with a brief, “Russia.”

Sidney’s mind put the pieces together, realizing how stupid of a question it was; she knew Geno, she was wearing a Russian hat, and she asked for Russia’s locker room. He tried to smile off his mistake, hoping the blonde didn’t think him too unintelligent. “Some of the guys on my team are sitting together to watch the game. Would you want to come join us?” he offered.

Anastasia thought briefly of her parents sitting in the stands, but she realized they would probably be too engrossed in the “perfect child’s” game to notice her absence. “Da,” she agreed, causing him to smile as he led the way to the reserved seats.

Walking up the steps that brought them up to the main floor, Sidney glanced back. “So do you live in Russia? Or what?”

Her shoes lightly clicked against the tile floor as they reached the top of the staircase. “Lived in Russia, but just graduated from university in December and moving to the States,” she explained in somewhat broken English.

“Oh, really?” he spoke, curiously. “Where in the States?”

The two of them made their way to section 117, where Sidney seemed to spot who he was looking for. Several guys in their mid-20’s waved, making sure Sidney spotted them.

“Um, just outside Washington D.C.,” she replied, Sidney gently grabbing her hand and leading her to some empty seats.

“Oh? Why there?” Sidney asked, but Anastasia didn’t get a chance to answer, as several guys spoke out their greetings to their Canadian teammate. “Guys, this is Anastasia,” he introduced, his hand resting on the small of her back.

The guys all called out various forms of “hello’s”, some of them introducing themselves, as Sidney and Anastasia sat down.

“Team Russia?” the guy in front of her questioned, turned around in his seat to face her.

She nodded her head, “Da! Идет команда Россия!” she spoke enthusiastically, clapping her hands a few times.

Sidney leaned over, whispering in her shoulder, “I think all the guys here are rooting for Latvia tonight,” he pointed out, before moving away.

“Even you?” she asked softly, facing him.

Sidney smiled. “Yeah, even me.”

“But what about Geno? Don’t you cheer for him?” She fiddled with the strings on her jacket, her mind seeming to momentarily forget the fact her brother hated the young man in front of her.

“I want him to do well,” he confirmed, “but I would rather see Latvia win.”

The guy on the other side of Anastasia leaned over. “That’s just because he is rooting against Ovechkin,” he pointed out.

“Shut up Flower,” Sidney spoke, rolling his eyes at his teammate. “You can’t say you aren’t doing the same thing.”

The guy in front of Anastasia, still turned around, piped up, “You a big fan of Ovechkin, eh?”

Anastasia hesitated. “Um, he a great player,” she pointed out, shaking her head slightly, not really sure what to say and certainly not wanting to get into an argument about it.

The same guy nodded his head, briefly. “And you think he’s ‘hot’,” he spoke, using air quotes.

She shook her head ‘no’, laughing hard. “You seen him? Not attractive,” she managed to get out between laughs.

The guys around her laughed. “Then why root for Russia?” one of the guys asked her.

“Really Doughty?” Sidney asked, shaking his head.

“What?” the young, dark haired boy asked, looking back and forth between Sidney and Anastasia.

“I from Russia,” Anastasia spoke up. Noticing the players come out on the ice, she turned her attention to center ice. “Идет Александр,” she cheered, spotting the familiar number eight jersey.

Sidney glanced over at her, smiling at her excitement and throughout the game his attention seemed to be more focused on small Russian beside him rather than the Russian players on the ice.

--

She jumped up cheering loudly as her brother’s wrist shot made it in to the back of the net. Latvia’s goalie slumped over in defeat as Sasha was surrounded by his teammates. He was smiling as he made a fist pump in the air, scanning the crowd. His eyes landed on his parents, but he frowned when he realize his baby sister wasn’t there.

Anastasia frowned, wondering if she really should have just sat with her parents, but feeling Sidney’s arm touching her own, she was happy to be there with him.

She could feel the heat radiating off his body, the smell of his cologne trying to cover of the stench of sweat from his own game a few hours before. Around her, she could still here the cheering, chanting, applauding Russian fans as her brother made his way over to the team bench.

“Хороший брат работы,” she whispered softly under her breath, before sitting back down to enjoy the rest of the game.

When the game ended a little while later, Anastasia resisted the urge to run down to the locker room and congratulate her brother. She knew the team would be having a meeting and she would have to wait until later before she could go down.

She stood up, stretching her stiff legs after sitting so long. Anastasia figured she should go and hunt down her parents who would have surely noticed her absence by now, but she wasn’t sure she felt like leaving Sidney quite yet.

“So, who do you know on the team?” Sidney asked, walking directly behind her as they headed out of their seats.

She was pretty sure she knew what he was talking about, but she was not sure she wanted to tell him. “Which team?” her accented voice calm and smooth.

“Um, Team Russia? You know a couple of guys on the team?” he clarified as they entered the crowded hallway, several of Sidney’s Team Canada teammates behind them. Many people turned their heads to stare at the Canadian celebrities. Noticing the many on-lookers, Sidney gently grabbed Anastasia’s hand, tugging her down to the privacy of the basement. The guard on duty spotted the Penguin, nodding his head in recognition, as Sidney Crosby led the blonde. “For privacy,” he explained, simply. “Who do you know on the team?” he repeated.

“Oh, uh, most the team, I guess,” she replied, vaguely.

The two of them fell into step walking with no real destination. “How’d you meet them?”

“Well, I, uh—“ she began but she was cut off.

“Добрый вечер Анастасия!”

Both of them turned to their right to spot Semyon Varlamov as he headed over to the two of them. He looked back and forth quizzically between Sidney and Anastasia. “Ваш брат знает вас висит вне с им?” he questioned, nodding his head in Sidney’s direction.

“нет, И он doesn' потребность k,” she replied back, glaring slightly at him. Sidney watched the tension between the two of them, not understanding at all what was going on.

When it came down to it, Anastasia was pretty sure Semyon would pick her brother, his teammate, over her. Unless of course she convinced him not to.

“Не скажите Александр о этом и я не скажу ему о что случилось на русском учебном лагере,” she bribed.

He nodded his head, giving in. “Но он идет узнать окончательно,” he pointed out, causing Anastasia to roll her eyes.

“And I will deal with that, when that happens,” Anastasia spoke in English with a certain finality, before grabbing back on to Sidney’s hand and pulling him away from Semyon.