I Left The Lights On So You Stumble In Devotion

Evgeni didn’t mind the traveling for away games. Traveling wasn’t abnormal for him, and he enjoyed seeing America. He normally stayed with Gonchar since Gonchar was one of his few teammates who could understand him, but Gonchar was injured and wasn’t going to be joining him on this trip to play against San José.

“It’ll be okay. You can speak enough English to stay in a hotel room with someone, Evgeni.” comforted Gonchar in Russian on the phone.

“I know.” sighed Evgeni, looking at his watch.

Evgeni didn’t actually mind having to stay with someone else. He knew that he knew and understood enough English to be able to sleep in a room with someone else.
The part Evgeni minded was that he was assigned to sleep with Sidney since he got along so well with him, and Evgeni was extremely uncomfortable around Sidney lately.

“Is there something bothering you, Evgeni? You’ve been acting strange.” asked Gonchar. “Some of the teammates are worried.”

“They’re worried?” Evgeni frowned.

“Sidney’s been asking about you all week.” admitted Gonchar. “You should tell him that you’re just a bit uncomfortable being around him.”

“What would make you think that I’m uncomfortable?” asked Evgeni defensively.

“I’m just saying that you’re used to staying with someone that you can carry on a conversation with.” replied Gonchar suspiciously. “Why else would you be uncomfortable?”

“It’s getting late. I should be getting back to the room or Sidney’s going to be worrying about something else.” scoffed Evgeni, roughly pressing the ‘end’ button on his cellphone.

Evgeni stomped up the stairs of the hotel. He didn’t really like taking the elevators because he always seemed to fear them breaking down or somehow locking him inside. He never admitted to this because he knew it would make him look like a complete wimp, and a Russian hockey player who was currently topping the goal point’s chart should definitely not be a wimp.

Evgeni swiped his card in his hotel room door, pushing the door open. He glanced around, seeing no sign of Sidney.

“Geno?”

Evgeni stopped in his tracks and turned around. There was Sidney coming out of the bathroom, completely naked besides the towel in his hand that he used to ruffle his hair.

“Oh Jesus.” muttered Sidney, quickly wrapping the towel around his waist. “Sorry.”

“It is okay.” replied Evgeni, his eyes darting towards the floor. “I sorry, I did not mean to look.”

Crosby gave Evgeni a small grin, then put the towel back to his head to dry his hair. Evgeni did not want to look. It was awkward having his teammate eagerly flaunt himself in front of him.

“Just like the lockeroom anyway, right?” laughed Sidney, throwing the towel on the floor and walking over to his suitcase. “What took you so long to get here? I was starting to get worried.”

“You worry too much.”

“Someone’s a little grumpy from the plane ride?” asked Crosby, hauling on a pair of tight, red boxer shorts.

“No.” said Evgeni uneasily, plopping his bag on the floor and taking off his jacket.

“Ah, well…”

Evgeni took off his shirt, lying on the bed that Sidney had made apparent he had no claimed. He watched Sidney from the corner of his eye, watching as he stretched and lay down on his own bed.

“You alright, Geno?” asked Sidney, glancing over at him. “You’ve seemed a bit off lately…”

“What you mean? I get lots of assists and goals for team.” replied Evgeni angrily, focusing his attention on the television that was just playing the hotel’s main channel as it advertised the movies available on demand. “I thought I played good.”

“No, no… your playing is right on, Geno.” admitted Sidney. “You’re playing better than me and the rest of the team.”

Evgeni made a ‘hmpf’ noise. Of course he didn’t play better than Crosby; he never played better than Crosby. TSN said it all of the time, every sports broadcast always said it.

“I was kind of referring to what happened in the dressing room a couple of week’s ago.” said Crosby quietly. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable. I should’ve kept my hands to myself.”

“You mean your tongue.” corrected Evgeni.

Sidney seemed shocked by this comment by Evgeni. Evgeni smirked. Sometimes Evgeni felt like everybody thought he was stupid because of the language barrier. Yes, there was a language barrier, but it was being overcome. Evgeni was catching on rather quickly.

“Good one, Geno.” said Sidney gently, propping himself up on his bed to look over at Evgeni, even though he still stared intently at the television. “But… can you honestly say you didn’t like it?”

“You think you are good kisser?”

“Sort of.” Sidney bit his lip, looking over at the television himself. “I didn’t think I was that bad.”

Evgeni felt bad now, he could tell Sidney was being sincere and curious and hiding something much deeper than his guilt and embarrassment for kissing him.

“Why?”

“Why what?” asked Sidney confusedly.

“Why you kiss me?” demanded Evgeni, glaring over at Sidney.

Sidney shrugged, looking over at Evgeni. He could feel a tension, but so could Evgeni. The tension was too intense to miss.

“It just felt like… you know… you know how sometimes in the middle of a tight game when a goal is needed? You know how you’ve got the puck, and you keep wondering what you have to do? So, you keep skating as fast as possible and weaving in and out of people to try to do the right thing? Then, right at the last minute you try your best shot at what you think will get you to the goal? It felt like that. It felt like the last shot at something that had to happen.”

“You think you had to kiss me?” asked Evgeni curiously, raising his eyebrows.

“No, it’s just I felt like it was that thing that was going to make me happy. I thought it was going to be the best thing ever.”

“Was it best thing ever?” asked Evgeni in a higher pitched voice than normal.

Sidney got off of his bed and lay down on Evgeni’s bed; his face was close enough to Evgeni’s that he could’ve counted eyelashes. Evgeni could taste Sidney’s minty breath on his lips; Evgeni felt like spearmint had never smelt so enticing.

“It was pretty far up there.” whispered Sidney, his hand laying itself on Evgeni’s hip.

The two of them were lying on their sides, the tension between them getting less and less noticeable as they grew closer. The heat from their bodies was becoming unbearable; Evgeni felt almost on fire from the touch of Sidney’s bare skin against his clothing.

“I do not understand you, Sidney Crosby.”

“I don’t understand me either, Geno.” sighed Crosby, his hand brushing Evgeni’s hair out of his face. “But it’s not so bad, right?”

Evgeni shrugged, allowing Sidney’s hand to caress his chest. Sidney smiled lightly, sliding his hand back down to Evgeni’s hips. Evgeni actually felt a faint moan escape his lips.

“I’m sorry?” said Evgeni, blushing while frowning at Sidney.

“Don’t be sorry, you’ve just made my night.” said Sidney, followed by a small spurt of laughter.

Sidney’s lips touched Evgeni’s gently, his cool breath climbing into Evgeni’s mouth. Evgeni felt Sidney’s tongue graze his lip while Sidney’s hand began to drift lower.

“This is high on list.” whispered Evgeni, shocked at the words coming out of his mouth.

Sidney grinned, starting to kiss Evgeni much more urgently. Evgeni put his hands on Sidney now, both hands grabbing at his thighs. The fact that Sidney wasn’t wearing pants just made it too much to resist.

“How can this not be the best thing ever, right?” asked Sidney, his hand finally reaching the one spot on Evgeni that seemed to be the high point.

“No.” shouted Evgeni, pushing Sidney away from him.

Sidney jumped back, his hands raised in the air as if to say ‘I surrender’. Evgeni breathed deeply, his cheeks stained red from embarrassment.

“It is too fast.” explained Evgeni, propping himself up on his arms. “I have never… I have never been with man before. I have never wanted to be with man.”

“Are you trying to say you didn’t want that as much as I did?”

“No, it is just that I am not used to it. This will take time.”

Sidney sighed, laying back down on the bed. Evgeni lay down next to Sidney, wrapping his arm around Sidney’s shoulders. Sidney gave in and curled himself against Evgeni’s chest, the warmth of the two bodies causing intenseness again.