I Left The Lights On So You Stumble In Devotion

Evgeni woke early, noticing Brooks still tangled up in his bed sheets. He was snoring, something Evgeni didn’t normally approve of, but it wasn’t too loud. He preferred sleeping in silence, much like when he shared a room with Gonchar.

In less than an hour, the two of them were leaving the room together to make their way to the stadium to meet up with the rest of the team. They would be late, most likely, because of Brooks’ habit of oversleeping and being an incredibly non-morning individual. Evgeni would scoff at him as he slowly showered and slowly dressed and slowly got ready to leave for the stadium; if he hadn’t seen him playing hockey he would probably assume that Brooks was the slowest at everything.

“Chill out, Geno.” sighed Brooks, walking in through the doors of the stadium. “We’re not late.”

“No?” Evgeni watched as Brooks glanced to the figures of their teammates skating hard across the ice.

“Ah, fuck it.” muttered Brooks, shaking his head.

The dressing room was empty, the benches were clear and hockey bags were hollow. Evgeni hated feeling late, shoving all of his hockey gear on clumsily to try and make it to as much of their pre-game practice as possible.

Both him and Brooks made it to the ice at the same time, receiving glares from their coaches and trainers- the glare from Sidney was the worst. He didn’t give any reassuring glances towards Evgeni throughout the entire practice; his passes were hard at Evgeni, often hitting off his skates or going too far ahead. Sidney showed every sign of being frustrated, causing things to set off in a chain reaction for the entire team.

Nobody was feeling overly confident as they walked out of the stadium, everybody’s head focused in on the game that would happen in a few hours. Even though they were up three games, it didn’t matter; the pressure would be there regardless, they’d want to make the best of it.

***

Although Sidney and Evgeni didn’t talk during their break before the game and in the dressing room, they played as though there was nothing between them in the game. Evgeni didn’t get any points, but it didn’t matter to him as long as they were there. And they were. The last few seconds of the clock had finally run out, causing the sea of red in the stands to begin to file out. There was a different kind of victorious high that came when you beat a team in their home stadium, and Evgeni was enjoying it.

Sidney did the unspeakable, grabbing at the trophy from winning the Eastern Conference finals. It was bad luck, a lot of the team grimaced at him as he took it. Gonchar and Evgeni skated over to join him, the cameramen kneeling before them to snap the pictures. Evgeni didn’t have to hide his victorious smile behind his cheeks tonight, finally expressing every ounce of pride in his body through his crooked teeth. These horrible pictures would be plastered all over the internet and the television tomorrow, but he didn’t care now. They won in four straight games. Four. Just four.

“Good job, Geno.” echoed as his teammates passed by him, and he would say it back according to player.

Sidney was last off the ice next to him, gliding calmly next to him. Evgeni didn’t have to glance over to know that Sidney was looking at him, his bottom lip caught between his two perfectly straight front teeth. He was probably desperately trying to think of something to say to cover the awkward silence, even though it wasn’t that quiet at all. Sometimes Evgeni wondered why it took him so long to talk at all, considering that he already knew how to talk the language.

“Good game.” said Sidney finally.

“Yeah.” replied Evgeni, slowly coming to a stop before the boards.

“You played good.” It sounded more like a question to Evgeni than a compliment.

“Thanks?”

“Yeah.”

Evgeni moved so Sidney could pass by him on his way to the dressing room, watching as his strides moved much faster than his own. He didn’t look back, he kept on walking; Evgeni watched as he chatted casually and pleasantly with the other teammates. Evgeni was slightly jealous, missing the days when his relationship with his adored Captain wasn’t centered by awkward situations and late nights; he frowned to himself, finally noticing that Sidney had begun to avoid him.