#character: steve

Why in the hockey romance books (specifically m/m) the love interest are never Finnish? NHL is teeming with Finnish boys to love!

And they would be such a delicious source of drama based on cultural differences!

Lets imagine an American hockey player, Steve and a Finnish player, Kimmo.

Steve is your regular loud, outgoing and positive guy, who first befriends Kimmo.

And to Steve, Kimmo is kinda weird. He drinks way too much coffee, seems to speak very little and communicates in mostly grunts and hums. He doesn't say please and seems to inhale while speaking.

On the ice Kimmo is unstoppable. He is like a different person. But off it, he is closed off, shy and his most common replies are monosyllables.

Steve is intrigued and he develops a crush. But flirting seems to go NOWHERE. Kimmo kinda just stares and says "okay" a lot.

To Steve's confusion, Kimmo starts following him around like a puppy, but nothing else seems to happen, no matter how much he flirts and bats his eyelashes at Kimmo.

Then Kimmo takes him to a Finnish style sauna and causes Steve to get a heart attack by stripping completely naked. ESCANDALO!

Finally Steve sits Kimmo down and tells straight to his face how he feels and Kimmo sorta shrugs and says "I know. I thought we were already dating". And Steve almost cries from frustration. Anyway, kissing happens and all seems to be well.

Then sex happens and afterwards Steve asks if it was good. But to his horror, Kimmo again shrugs and says "It was nice."

Steve spends days wondering if Kimmo is just humoring him, until a helpful Swedish player enlightens him that "it was nice" is Finnish for "it was amazing, I love you".

So, with the Swede as a little bit of cultural translator, Steve learns that Kimmo operates on quite a different level, and if the man smiles, it means he is happiest he has ever been.