Remembering My Childhood Crush

Alex’s POV
It was 3am and my mind was wide awake. Kira on the other hand was fast asleep in my arms.

I wasn’t sure how many times I had woken up with Kira still in my arms but this time instead of getting out of bed I stayed. She needed me right now and I wasn’t about to let her down.

“Evgeni,” she mumbled as she stirred next to me.
“Evgeni,” she kicked again a slight whimper escaped from her mouth.
“Kira,” I propped myself up on my elbow so I could look at her.
“Evgeni,” her eyes flickered under her eyelids.

“Hey,” I pushed the hair from her face, “wake up,” I shook her lightly, “Kira.”
“No, Evgeni. No don’t leave,” she began to thrash around.
“Kira!” I shook her harder but she didn’t wake.
“Don’t leave me, I love you,” she continued as I saw a tear roll down her cheek.

“Kira, it’s ok.” I grabbed her and held her tight to my chest, “Shhh it’s going to be ok,” I soothed her as she calmed down.

Her whimpers soon became no existent and silence filled the room once again as she returned to the peaceful sleep she was in minutes ago.

Where things messed up or what? We were stuck in some dumb love triangle or more than likely just confused about how we felt.

She loved him and who was I to get in the way of that? It was really my fault that this was happening. If I had have kept my hands to myself when she started working for the Capitals then maybe she wouldn’t doubt how she felt about him.

She was probably just confusing the comfort I apparently was to her and her love for him.

She always wanted to be with him, but in her anger and loneliness she came to me to help her and so I did. Every time I was there holding her as she cried, I was there when she found out he had gotten engaged to Oksana only to end it a few months later. I was there when her father had a heart attack and I was there right by her side when her dog Dmitri was put down.

I couldn’t imagine my life without her anymore and the past few months had been a lot to handle. I missed hanging out with her, I missed having her company, I missed seeing her smiling face when I got to work, I missed my best friend.

Kira’s POV
“Hey Kira, wake up,” Alex’s voice was full of sleep as he nudged my shoulder.
“No, I don’t want to wake up,” I complained rubbing my eyes.
“Yes you do, it’s winter classic day,” he smiled as I finally opened my eyes, “You also don’t want to be late again,” he reminded me.

“I call dibs on the shower first so you have time to get out of bed,” I watched as my naked best friend wrapped a towel around his waist and disappeared into the bathroom.

What was I going to do now? I had gone months finding comfort with Evgeni and now I was running back to Alex. He was always there for me though.

“You ok?”
I looked up from my phone to see the cheeky blue eyed Russian standing in the middle of the room with a towel sitting on his hips, his wet hair clinging to his forehead and… “Why do you do this to me?” I narrowed my eyes at him but smiled none the less as he poked his tongue out at me.
“Go have a shower,” he tried to pull the sheets from me.
“Fine,” I tossed my phone on the bed and wrapped the sheets around my naked body before running into the bathroom.

Evgeni’s POV
When we all arrived for the game later that night all of the staff where there which meant Kira would be too.

I had spent all night trying to figure out what I was going to do, how I was going to show her I loved her and I was sorry. I wanted her to know that it could all be as easy as it was when we were kids.

“You know we shouldn’t have come through here,” Kira insisted as I had decided we should take a shortcut through the bush on our way home from school rather than following the footpath.
“No it’s ok,” I put my hand out for her to grab so she could step over the slippery rocks in the stream.
“If I fall…” she looked hesitant.
“Kira just do it, it’s ok, if you do I will catch you,” I made my steady so I could do as I said I would.
“You promise?” her grip tightened on my hand.
“I promise, I never break promises ok?”

As it turned out I couldn’t even keep promises back then. We both ended up in the water, drenched and freezing cold as we walked home shivering, our teeth chattering the whole time.

But it was things like that which I missed. All the little adventures we went on, getting ourselves in trouble. Running, jumping, climbing, skating, building stuff, no matter what we did it and we did it together just the two of us and I missed it so much..

“Max I swear to god if you don’t put me down,” I heard Kira’s voice as Max carried her over his shoulder through the locker room.
“The captain is summoning you,” he continued and started tickling her.
“Max no,” she screamed and her laughter filled the room.

Maybe she was ok without me. Maybe fighting to get her back wouldn’t be worth my time and effort.

No I had to, there wasn’t anyway I could live without her again. I needed her in my life for good.

******************************************

We started off strong in the first period. Flower was all over the puck every time it went near the goals. But after my goal in the second everything started going downhill. We were getting walked all over by the Capitals and they loved it.

“Hey Malkin!” I saw the smug look on Erskine’s face when my goal scoring luck had run out.
My head snapped back to him when he started laughing with Semin, “What?”
“So Kira is moaning Alex’s name now, huh?” he chuckled.
“What?” I must have been the only one who didn’t know what was going on as everyone’s gaze wondered from mine.
“Didn’t they tell you? They were up all night having sex last night.”

I looked at Alex who was in deep conversation with their coach. I thought I could trust him. How could he do this to me? The anger grew in my stomach.

The moment he stepped onto the ice I was ready to hit him. Any chance I got I took it.

“Why would you do that?” I had him pinned up against the boards.
“Do what?” he was struggling to get the puck free.
“Sleep with Kira? You know she is mine,” I reached around his neck to pull him out.
“You ruined the right call her that when you fucked that red hair girl that other night,” he got out of my grip.
“Fuck off, you know I am going to fix it,” I reached for his head and managed to pull his helmet from his head.

The officials were there trying to stop us but we were already in the moment, there was no way either one of us were backing down.
“How long do you think a girl like Kira is going to wait around for you? She deserves better,” and with that I lunged at him.

I was ready to beat him, throwing punch after punch. I had him on the ground sitting on top of him so he couldn’t get away. He grabbed my jersey, “Stop!” he shouted, but I wasn’t going to. I was already in my rage.

His lip was split, his eyebrow was bleeding, blood trickled down out of nose as I continued to punch him.
“Zhenya please,” I could see the regret and sorrow in his eyes. His grip on my jersey had slacked before he completely let go.

The officials tore me off of him and pinned me to the ice as the Capitals trainers ran out to Alex. That’s when I saw Kira run out too screaming Alex’s name. I finally looked at him and he was out cold.

I had done that? I did that to one of my closest friends? What is wrong with me? There he was lying on the ice bleeding from every possible place on his face. Everyone was going to kill me, not to mention what my parents would think and just about the entire hockey world.

Kira’s POV
I couldn’t believe what Evgeni had done to Alex. I was going to have to beat up the guys for telling him, it was uncalled for and none of their business.

I wasn’t going to encourage Evgeni to fight, but it was helping to show me his true colors. It showed just how angry he was and how upset the whole thing was making him.

I watched over Alex as he laid in the hospital bed. He was bruised and battered with cuts everywhere. I couldn’t help but feel guilty; if it wasn’t for me he would be ok.

They wanted him in over night just as a precautionary thing to make sure he was going to be alright and I was going to stay by his side the whole time.

There was a knock at the door and I wasn’t sure as to whether I expected it to be Evgeni who walked in or not.
“Hi,” he put his head down as he shut the door behind him.
“Hi,” I reached forward and grabbed Alex’s hand.
“Sasha wake up,” I ran my hand through his disheveled hair.
“Mmm what?” his voice was deep and full of sleep as stirred but didn’t open his eyes.
“Evgeni is here to see you,” I looked up at Evgeni who nodded.

Alex’s eyes shot open, his hand clamped around mine and he looked slightly panicked by Evgeni’s presence.
“I just wanted to say I am sorry, I don’t know what I was thinking I was just angry. I know I have messed up a lot lately but I just hope you guys can find it in you to forgive me.”

He looked at me and for once didn’t look away. He held my gaze as he words sunk in.
“I think with some time we will all be ok,” Alex sat up and pointed to the chair on the other side of his bed where Evgeni quickly took the seat.

“How did you get passed the guys?” Alex smiled weakly.
“It was hard, believe me. I thought I was going to die,” Alex and I both laughed at Evgeni’s worried expression.

“Are you ok?” I watched as Evgeni’s eye flicked around each bit of damage to Alex’s face.
“Yeah, just a bit of headache,” he rubbed his temples.
“Get some sleep ok?” I put my hand on his arm.
“Ok,” he gave in to his heavy eyes and was out like a light.

I was amazed when I saw Evgeni’s purple knuckles, “Woah are you ok?” I gulped wanting to run to his side and fuss over him.
“It’s nothing, least amount of pain I felt in days.”
“Maybe we should go and talk?” I suggested hoping he would go for it.
“Okay,” he agreed with a small smile.

This was going to be a long night.