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The noise in the Metros’ locker room was a mix of excited chatter, gear hitting the floor and the crinkle of Christmas paper as the team undressed and started pulling out their gifts. Shane was feeling fairly confident about his. He’d gotten one of the rookies, Taylor, so he’d gone straight to Jackie for help. She’d helped him recreate the rookie survival pack she’d gifted him during his first year with the Metros. It was full of snacks, socks, underwear and travel toiletries. All the things a young man would forget to pack for away games. Shane also added a special edition copy of some book he’d heard Taylor raving about a few weeks ago. He’d then arranged it all neatly in a Metros gym bag and tied it off with a big red bow.
Meanwhile, Hayden had refused to tell Shane who he got and Jackie hadn’t let it slip during their shopping trip either. Which meant he probably had Shane or JJ. If it had been anyone else, Shane was sure he would’ve been dragged along to help Hayden buy something just as an excuse to get him out of his apartment. Instead Hayden had been closed lipped about it.
“Alright guys, gifts in the middle!” yells JJ over the noise, before pulling on a Santa hat with the Metros’ logo embroidered in the centre. Quickly the centre of the locker room filled up with presents. Thankfully, they had enforced a size limit after JJ bought Hayden a van full of nappies last year. Jackie had forced Shane, JJ and Hayden to spend one of their few free afternoons finding somewhere to keep them all that was out of the way whilst also keeping Emma and Ruby entertained. It had been a mostly fun afternoon but the boys knew better than to anger the WAGs if they could help it.
“Alright, first up is… Mitty!” JJ chucks him a small box, and then moves onto the next present. Shane tries to pay attention but all he can think about is Rozanov. They’d hooked up a couple weeks ago after the Metros had scraped a win against Boston. Ilya had enjoyed making Shane pay for every goal he’d made or helped make that game (two goals and two assists) and if Shane was honest, he’d enjoyed it too. What kept running through his mind was how Ilya had avoided talking about his Christmas plans. Shane assumed his family wouldn’t bother flying over just for the few days Rozanov had free, he got the feeling that they weren’t particularly close, and he worried that Ilya was spending the holidays alone.
They didn’t usually make much small talk when they were together, their mouths otherwise occupied. But when Shane did manage to slip in a few snippets of small talk between trading kisses and blowjobs, he noticed that Ilya didn’t talk much about his teammates. At least not as much as Shane seemed to talk about Hayden and JJ. Maybe it was because they were on rival teams and it would be awkward to share too much about the other players, although Shane didn’t think Ilya would use anything they talked about together on the ice, not against anyone but him. And he liked to think that Ilya knew he wouldn’t either.
When Shane had tried to bring up Christmas plans, Ilya had muttered something about Russian’s celebrating New Years and then offered him an early Christmas present. It was his dick and Shane hadn’t complained. And now Shane was worried that Ilya had woken up alone on Christmas with no presents. Would buying him a proper Christmas present be breaking the unspoken rules they had, Shane thought, and what would he even want? Vodka, cigarettes, a fast car maybe…
“Lastly! Our fine Capitaine!” JJ yelled from the centre of the room, pulling Shane from his thoughts. He barely manages to catch the small present thrown in his direction. It’s a small rectangular present, and from the wide grin on JJ’s face, Shane can only assume he was the one who bought it. “I thought you might need something to motivate you during the off season.”
Shane carefully unwraps the present, folding the paper neatly and placing it beside him to be reused, only to find himself face to face with Ilya. Well, a picture of Ilya. Ilya glaring intensely at him in his Boston gear. It takes a second for Shane to register anything else, JJ’s laughter, the rest of the team’s amused yelling, and that what he is holding is a copy of the new MLH game. The MLH game with Ilya’s face on the cover. He hopes his team doesn’t notice his face flushing with arousal at the mere sight of Ilya, or at least thinks he’s embarrassed or angry instead.
“Come on guys! Where am I even going to put this?”
“I don’t know Capitaine! Maybe in your toilet, for target practice.” This sends the team into another fit of laughter. Shane forces a laugh, before standing up and joining the festivities. Mostly just asking who each player had and what they got. Hayden had JJ and had bought him a full Metros themed Santa outfit to match his hat. JJ was now proudly showing it off as he strutted around the room.
“Umm, Captain?” Shane turned to find Taylor standing awkwardly behind him, “I just wanted to say thank you. For my gift. I love the book. And Hayden said that the other stuff will be a lifesaver. I mean, I forgot my socks last away game so… yeah… thank you.”
“No worries,” Shane replied, ”but you should really thank Jackie when you see her next, she did most of the hard work.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, I will.” Taylor stood there for a moment, as if working up the courage to speak again.
“Everything okay?”
“Oh yeah, I was just gonna say.... ummm… If you want to get rid of that game my cousin’s a Boston fan so I could like, pass it on to him.”
“Ahh,” Shane nodded towards the empty bench near his gear,” I think someone else already grabbed it. But thanks for the offer.”
Shane managed to make awkward small talk with Taylor for a few more minutes. It still felt weird to have rookies on the team who were starstruck by him when he was only a rookie himself not that long ago. He knew as captain he shouldn’t be the first to leave so he made a few rounds of the room. Checking in with the rest of his team, laughing along to the continued jokes about his present and ribbing some of the guys about theirs. When he finally noticed the room starting to thin out, he grabbed his duffle bag and said his farewells, thanking JJ again for the gift with a warning of payback when his birthday rolls around.
It’s only when he’s in the relative peace and quiet of his practical SUV, that Shane risks checking the inner pocket of his duffle bag. There, still carefully wrapped in one of his spare towels, is the MLH game. He knows it’s stupid, and probably a little bit pathetic, but it’s the only reminder of Ilya that he could even justify owning. He’s pretty sure no one noticed him slipping it into his bag, and he’ll keep it safely hidden until his next trip to the cottage. If anyone asks him about it, well, he can just say it was a gift.