Status: I'm sorry, guys. I'm so busy with uni coursework and I have major writer's block. I promise you I'll finish this, and I assure you the sequel's actually partly written! <3

I Left The Lights On So You Stumble In Devotion

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Image

Evgeni felt happy with himself as he walked into his hotel room with Gonchar. It was almost a complete relief to know that Sidney wouldn’t be occupying the room in Florida with him. He could sleep wherever; Evgeni didn’t care as long as it wasn’t in his room.

“That felt like the longest flight ever.” muttered Evgeni in Russian while throwing his bag on the floor.

“We’ve seen worse.” sighed Sergei, following behind Evgeni.

“I feel exhausted.” moaned Evgeni, throwing himself down on the bed closest to the wall.

“I told you to sleep on the plane, but you insisted on looking out the window.”

“I don’t like sleeping on planes.” said Evgeni sharply.

Gonchar rolled his eyes, sitting gently on his own bed. Gonchar would probably call his wife and kids soon, discuss the plane ride over in full detail to his wife and then tell his kids about how beautiful Florida is. Evgeni frowned, knowing that his mother would probably like a call but he knew she didn’t really care much for talk about flights or hockey.

* * *

Evgeni had kept fairly quiet in the dressing room before the game. He had sat between Malone and Staal like usual, but ignored their funny jokes and especially ignored Sidney’s conversation starters. He had nothing he wanted to say.

The game started alright, but eventually the two teams were tied up. There were only a couple of minutes left to the first period, and Evgeni was beginning to feel extremely frustrated. He wanted to get a good goal to prove how hard he was playing. When he finally got a decent pass and headed towards Florida’s defensive zone, Ballard completely hip checked him into the boards. Evgeni’s eyes were wide open as they watched his legs completely rotate in a 360 angle in mid-air; as soon as he hit the ground he jumped up quickly to skate it off.

Evgeni skated back, trying his best to make it look as though he was okay. Then he heard the shouting, causing him to turn quickly back.

“Asshole!” shouted Sidney, his arms wrapped around Ballard’s back, trying his best to get him to the ice.

Evgeni stared, watching as Sidney took a few punches to the face before throwing Ballard down to the ice. The fight was broken up now, but Evgeni still got a look at Sidney as he skated angrily off of the ice.

“Geno, you okay?” asked Jordan, tapping Evgeni on the shoulder.

Evgeni shook his head, making his way back through the exit Sidney had taken to the dressing room. There wasn’t much time left in the period, and he probably wasn’t energetic enough to take much more.

Evgeni suddenly didn’t realize why he’d left the ice when he opened the dressing room door to reveal Sidney; Sidney who was sitting on the bench in the dressing room looking more heartbroken than last year when they’d lost the cup. Evgeni kept his eyes down on the floor, pretending to fix his elbow pads after taking off his helmet.

“I can’t believe everybody got to see me get beat like that.” said Sidney softly, gazing over at his stick lying on the bench across from him.

Evgeni glanced over at Sidney, nodding in his direction and going back to the floor. He knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of the team would come noisily back into the dressing room, breaking up the awkward silence that was lying about.

“You okay? You took a pretty big hit.”

“I’m fine.” replied Evgeni roughly, although his muscles were aching and he felt more tired than ever.

“That’s good, we need you out there.”

Evgeni snorted, shaking his head and slinking back against the wall. Sidney seemed to be aware that Evgeni was going to be avoiding him, because he wasn’t overly eager to start talking again.

“I need you out there...” added Sidney, shrugging his shoulders. “-to get goals and all of that great stuff.”

“I try.” admitted Evgeni, shrugging his own shoulders. “We do alright.”

“We’re doing alright, yeah.” agreed Sidney, smiling his brightest smile sideways at Evgeni.

Evgeni frowned to himself, looking away from Sidney again. It confused him to be able to enjoy Sidney the way that he felt himself enjoy him. It scared him in the weirdest ways.
♠ ♠ ♠
The chapter title comes from the 'You Ain't Goin' Nowhere' song by Bob Dylan.