sandy

Hayden will get quiet and serious, because the question brings back a lot of nostalgia for him. The good old days before most of the Montreal team revealed themselves to be truly shitty and toxic. “Shane was… Shane was a good captain. The greatest. He led by example. He inspired by just being him. He was never a vibes guy or the guy to run team bonding events, but he made sure they happened. He’ll tell you he was a bad captain because of that, but that man knows how to outsource the things he’s mediocre at and he made sure it got done. He was the best captain I’ve ever had. He was dependable and he never complained. He was the best damn player on the team and he made you believe you could reach his level too if you just worked hard with him. He could say jump and no one would ask how high. We would just jump.”

Hayden would then look up and around at all the Ottawa players listening to him. “Do you know the speech Shane gave before our first cup win? Before game 7 that year? He was sitting in his stall, doing the calming breathing exercises he does, while everyone else was all jittery because we knew it was do or die. And he just stands up suddenly and looks at all of us. Then says ‘I believe in you. I believe in us. I’ve got your back. Do you have mine?’ And he waited till we all gave a positive response back before he said, simply, ‘Let’s go get that Cup.’ There was no dying that day. There was only do like our captain said to do.”

Shane spends the whole trip recounting his truly terrible date in his dry, matter of fact way, until Ilya is laughing so hard he has to wipe at his eyes, banging a hand against the steering wheel.

They pull up to Shane's brownstone and Ilya just idles there, neither of them wanting to break whatever spell has settled over the inside of the cab. Finally Shane clears his throat and says, "Well, I uh, I better let you get back to your night. Thanks for rescuing me back there. I was sure Todd was going to ask to split an Uber home." He reaches for his wallet, but Ilya just waves him off, says, "This one's on me. The least I can do after such a terrible evening for you. Plus, your story is the most I've laughed all day. Fucking Todd." Shane just grins and goes to open the door, but Ilya says, "Ah, wait--" He kills the engine and hops out, coming around to open Shane's door for him, bending into a truly ridiculous bow, arm outstretched toward the brownstone, "Your majesty."

I know everyone hates Hayden except for me, but Hayden referring to Shane as the twins' "older brother" instead of uncle is so fucking funny.

In the meantime, here are a few no-context spoilers:

Thank you @sandsdddddddd for tagging me!!!!

what's your favorite shampoo? (scent or brand) you already know I got that scalp acne, so Neutrogena’s T-Sal is my fav (thank you Neuty)

do you sleep with the lights on or the door closed? Do not judge me. No lights because I’m not that bad, but my door stays open 😔 my son (little kitty cat) needs to be able to access his food and litter (neither of which are in my room)

Hot or cold coffee/tea? Mama does not like tea, but for coffee, no preference! In the mornings I have iced coffee because it’s super easy to make the night before. I can sip on it for a while and not have to put in the microwave every five minutes.

do you have the same username for all socials? Nope. My main socials use my government name, but here and ao3 I am TibetanTurnip72. It was the name ao3 christened me with when I made my account a couple years ago and I never thought I would publish any fics, so I didn’t change it. And I’ve still never felt the need to change it. And 72 is my lucky number, so big plus

white shoes, yay or nay? I wear white shoes everyday. Is that bad please tell me

what song is stuck in your head right now? Sandy’s post said something about tiptoeing through the tulips, so rn it’s tiptoe through the tulips by tiny tim.

would you rather watch three 20 minute episodes or a one hour movie? I’m not a big movie watcher for some reason, so episodes

would you still love the person that tagged you if they were a worm? Yes, I have nothing against worms. There’s a picture of me as a child holding up a worm to the camera and I have a demented smile on my face because I was about to put it on my brother to scare him

tagging time!