I Left The Lights On So You Stumble In Devotion

Evgeni felt as though he was on the biggest adrenaline high of his life, every single second he spent skating on the ice sent another pulse of energy through his veins. He felt unstoppable, trying his hardest not to look utterly pleased with himself when the fans began to throw their hats onto the ice. The eyes of their bench remained on him, the entire stadium watching him as he chewed on the sides of his cheek to keep himself from smiling. He’d given his victory yell, he’d have to save the rest of the excitement in case they actually won the game.

And they did, even Tyler Kennedy got a goal before it had ended. It was beautiful. Every single goal that went into the net was beautiful. Every hit, every pass, every shot was beautiful in that game, or so it felt. Evgeni felt like he had just fallen in love with hockey again, and it didn’t help when Sidney skated over to him and hauled him into a huge hug at the end of it. It took a lot of strength to hold back from kissing him right then and there, blame it on being too caught up in the moment to stop himself. That wouldn’t be any good, though, so he just stared at him as if to say ‘you-know-what-I’m-thinking’.

The dressing room was loud, as it normally was when they won. Evgeni felt as though a lot of the eyes were on him, he just tried to keep himself as calm as possible. His first NHL career hat trick in the playoffs is kind of a big deal, and it evened him up to Sidney. He liked feeling equal.

“Uh, Geno?”

Evgeni looked up, following the voice that had spoken across the room. Kris was looking at him, a big grin across his face.

“Man, you’re not as fucking excited as you should be.”

He felt Sidney’s hand tingle against his neck as it slid across his shoulders.

“Geno’s a bit of a pessimist.” stated Sidney.

“What?”

“Пессимист.” spoke Gonchar loudly, having to fight the noise in the room.

Evgeni snorted and shook his head, feeling Sidney’s arm as it slid away from his shoulders again. Evgeni didn’t like this, but assured himself that it had to be done to remain unsuspicious to their teammates.

“I feel good, just… not want to think too much.”

“Uh, you just got a hat trick, I think you’re allowed to think a little of yourself.” He heard Jordan chuckle next to him.

Evgeni just smiled, and continued to hold his smile as he sat there and listen to the rest of his teammates talk. They wouldn’t be going out tonight with an important game going on Saturday.

“So, your parents still here?” asked Sidney quietly.

Most of their teammates had left, leaving them to be the only two left on their side of the room. Talbot and Letang were talking quietly on their own side, so Evgeni didn’t think they’d be paying any attention.

“Yes.”

“So, where are you headed after you leave here?”

Evgeni looked over, just after shrugging his shoulders. There was no dazzling smile hanging off Sidney’s face, but it was easy for Evgeni to tell that he was happy. He looked nearly stunning, even if Evgeni could smell how horrible his hockey gear was and witness the sweat running down his neck. His hair was soaked, the little wings of his hair curling out from beneath his hat, his cheeks were flushed into a pretty, rosy red and his voice sounded raspy and rough. It was somewhat impossible for Evgeni to not find himself attracted to Sidney, he didn’t understand how none of his other teammates were caught swooning over him by now.

“Mario’s still going to be out, if you’d want to come over…” whispered Sidney, his teeth scraping over his lips.

“I want to.”

“But, you won’t?”

“I try.”

***

Sidney was shocked, not expecting to end up answering his door at three in the morning to find Evgeni at his doorstep. The house darkly lit, a small glare through the window from the moon. Evgeni was wet from standing in the downpour outside, shaking almost with his hands shoved in his pockets. There were smiles exchanged before Sidney pushed the door open afar to allow Evgeni to walk in.

They didn’t speak at first, just found themselves walking towards Sidney’s bedroom. Sidney closed the door behind him and locked it, finding himself nearly face to face with Evgeni. The room was lit suddenly by a strike of lightning, causing Sidney to shudder a little.

“Wet.” muttered Evgeni, grabbing at his shirt and wringing it.

Sidney didn’t mind as the droplets of water fell against the carpet on his floor, he was too busy gawking at the few inches Evgeni had just exposed of his stomach. Sidney walked forward, grabbing at Evgeni’s shirt and hauling him closer until Evgeni bent down to touch his lips against his. His lips were cold and wet, but they were softer than normal.

“Take it off, then.” spoke Sidney softly.

“You.” said Evgeni boldly, lifting up his arms.

Sidney grinned nervously, sliding his hands against Evgeni’s hips before slipping his hands underneath his shirt to slide it off of him. It was hard, considering how slick it was to Evgeni’s body now that it was wet.

“Better?”

“Cold.” muttered Evgeni, although he was feeling much better when Sidney started to rub his hands up and down his sides.

Sidney paused for a short second, grabbing Evgeni’s hand and hauling him down towards his bed; it squeaked a little as the two of them toppled onto it, all of Evgeni’s weight pressing down on Sidney’s body. Sidney didn’t mind, he could handle it physically, but mentally it was torturing him.

Things were much fast-pasted this night, mostly because there wasn’t such a lingering awkwardness from every touch Sidney planted on Evgeni’s body. It wasn’t as though he were used to it, but he didn’t mind it as much; Sidney thought that maybe he didn’t think about all of the aspects of it anymore, he maybe just zoned out and pretended that he wasn’t doing this with him.

Sidney’s hands seemed to be ripping through Evgeni’s clothes, leaving Evgeni to find himself grinding onto a nearly fully-clothed Sidney while he was left in his underwear; he could feel the cotton roughly rubbing across the denim, and he was nearly positive he could feel Sidney through his jeans. Sidney instinctively moved upwards and unbuttoned his jeans, waving his hips vaguely in the air before Evgeni hauled them downwards. Eventually they were next to Evgeni’s, landing on the floor with an echoing thump.

“Uh, Evgeni?”

“Yeah?” Sidney shook a little, Evgeni’s breath feeling icy on his now sweaty skin.

“What are we, you know… doing?” Sidney’s voice sounded shaky.

Evgeni didn’t respond, especially seeing how he wasn’t too sure what they were doing. He just knew that he wanted to touch every crevice on Sidney’s body, and that it didn’t matter to him at this current moment whether Sidney was a man or a woman or animal or alien. It didn’t quite matter.

***

When Evgeni woke, it took a while for him to realize he wasn’t imagining that Sidney lay across his bare chest, arms thrown around him as if he were clinging for dear life. It was warm in Sidney’s bed, even though the air in the room remained quite chilled. Evgeni’s arms felt as though they were nearly dead, the weight of Sidney pressing down on them seemed to cause all of the blood to stop flowing to his right hand. If it wasn’t for the fact that Sidney looked perfectly (and innocently) adorable with his head on his chest he probably would have woken him up or moved him, but instead he put up with his throbbing hand to continue listening to the rhythmic beating of Sidney’s heart against his chest.

Evgeni played the previous night’s events over and over in his head, trying his hardest to remember every detail. It didn’t bother him too much to think about touching Sidney, or being touched, mainly because of every nanosecond of pleasure it gave him was strong enough to persuade him to quit hockey and possibly chop off his left arm.

“Stop staring at me.” Sidney’s voice groggily crept up into Evgeni’s ears, surprising Evgeni as Sidney rolled over.

“Sorry.”

Evgeni stared over at Sidney’s bare back, the sunlight glaring off of it seeming to burn into Evgeni’s eyes. Instinctively, Evgeni rolled to his side, his left arm draping over Sidney’s side. He heard Sidney yawn, feeling as his chest moved upwards.

“Last night…”

“-was good.” finished Sidney, kissing Evgeni’s palm before replacing it back around his hips. “I don’t expect anything, Geno, honestly.”

Evgeni responded by pressing his lips gently onto Sidney’s shoulder, laying his chin on his shoulder as he waited for Sidney to continue talking.

“I like you even if you don’t put out.”

Evgeni and Sidney laid there, smiling to themselves before drifting back to sleep. Both of them completely unaware of a now present Mario Lemieux in the house, waiting patiently in the living room for Sidney to appear.