i got this, i'm truly fine

“Did you see?” Scott Hunter asked as he slid into a booth at the Kingfisher, a huge grin on his face.

“That you are old? Yes,” Ilya replied smoothly, taking a beer from the tray Scott had brought.

“Wow, original. No, the draft, you idiot,” Scott replied, rolling his eyes. 

Instantly, everyone perked up. “What, Marcus and DeSantos?” Shane asked, always one to know everything about hockey.

“More like Hollander and Rozanov 2.0,” Troy replied, smirking.

“Mhm, even us sane, non-hockey fans can see it,” Kip added, nodding. “The tension.”

“It could just be a rivalry!” Shane defended, looking around the table. “And you know how the media gets! You have a draft like that, with two really good players, they get pitted against each other! It’s-“

“Look at this picture,” Harris demanded, showing his phone screen to the group.

It showed two newly-drafted players, hardly any older than 18, staring daggers at each other. Passion and competitiveness oozed out of their every pore and it was clear that both were out to beat the other.

But underneath their clearly aggressive expressions lay something…heavier. Softer. More…intense.

Ilya recognized it immediately. It was something he saw every time he looked at those pictures of himself and Shane from their CCM shoot right after their draft. It was something he still saw when people caught snapshots of them competing to this day. It was very telling. “Oh,” he said, beaming. “Yes. They want to fuck.”

Even Shane couldn’t deny it. Staring at the screen, he had to smile. “I….hm. Okay, I can kind of see it,” he admitted.

Everyone chuckled. 

“Okay, let’s see. Over/under on how long it’ll take? How long did it take you losers to admit it? Ten years?” Harris grinned.

Enjoying Summer :DD

and even before that he’s constantly checking if his baby is okay and he’s sitting in that stairwell cuddling ilya’s jacket and he’s so desperate to hold ilya’s hand when he’s off his head on painkillers. he’s rereading old texts. he’s got his phone in his hand and he’s texting ilya when he’s literally just got off the ice after winning the cup again and that’s years before they’re even together. he’s inviting ilya to the cottage because he gets two weeks off a year and he wants to spend them both with his favourite person

Because lately it seems like people had forgotten that redemption isn't something a person can deserve or earn. It doesn't have any conditions beyond just trying to do better.

Troy choses to do better, he doesn't ask for premitionon or wait for someone to tell him to do it. He sees the opportunity (moving to a new team) and takes it. He puts in the work, even though it's difficult and awkward.

He apologizes and at no point does he expect to be forgiven. And even if he weren't forgiven, that wouldn't change his decision to be better, because he isn't doing it just to get people to forgive him. He genuinely wants to be a better person.

He wears black, because it's the least hassle possible. Black shirt, black pants, no opportunity to miss match the colours.

When Harris asked him what his favourite type of apple is, he said red, because everyone knows apples are green or red and fuck if he knows the difference. To him apples are either sweet or sour and he has no idea if the taste depends on the colour.

He'd never had issues differentiating players on ice, because Toronto's colours are blue and white and those don't cause him any problems. Ottawa is black and red though, which makes it a bit more tricky, but he can still just focus on the black and it's fine.

He never really gives the whole thing much though and is half convinced everyone just goes through life like this.

It finally comes out when Wyatt's starts explaining something about superheroes and it becomes clear Troy believes two characters are dressed in the same colour, when they clearly aren't. The Centaurs proceede to waste half the practice asking Troy what colour he thinks different objects are.