Chapter Text
Matthew left half his closet at Leon’s house. Which isn’t a big deal, not really, when Matthew can more than afford replenishing all the clothes without even leaving a dent in his bank account, Leon’s sure, but now there are all these clothes he is forced to get rid of.
Leon stares at his walk-in closet, frustrated at the exorbitant amount of Matthew's clothing, it seems as though there is more of the Flame’s captain attire than his own, which is ridiculous because it’s Leon's house. He looks down and sighs; he believes he’s even wearing Matthew’s boxers.
Well, he’s also wearing his hoodie, but he was aware of that when he put it on, so it’s not the same.
Leon humors the idea of calling Matthew to tell him to pick up all his clothing but quickly dismisses that thought. The wound is still too fresh, and Leon can’t seem to even look at his phone, knowing there are dozens of pity messages from his friends and family, and the last thing sent by Matthew- a photo of him in the airport waiting for his flight back from St. Louis- so there was no way in hell he could call Matthew. Plus, Leon might say or do something incredibly dumb, like beg Matthew to take him back.
Because it is not like he wants that, really; but if he calls, he might get caught up in the moment or something and he does not want that.
He is happy alone, if not happier. He has the freedom to do as he chooses and maybe will even get back into dating. The girl at the café he went to this morning seemed interested enough and she made for a pleasant conversation. It was nice, he supposes.
Leon sighs and walks out of the closet. He will worry about the clothes tomorrow.
For now, Leon is going to order Chinese food and call Connor back before he shows up at Leon's door and forces him to talk about his feelings. At least by phone, it won’t be so personal, and Connor won’t be able to look at Leon and tell if he is lying or not.
So, after ordering, Leon dials his captain’s number.
“Leon! Hey bud, how have you been?”
“Fine, really, I’ll be at practice tomorrow,” Leon answered.
“Don’t even worry about it, it's optional skate tomorrow anyways. You are okay to take a few days off, we all would understand.”
Leon scoffs: he said he is fine, and he is fine. “I don’t fucking need time, Connor, I can go to practice.”
“Hey man, no need to be an ass, I’m just saying just because you can it does not mean you have to; Hockey will still be there if you prioritize yourself for a couple days.”
And isn’t that something, to put yourself over Hockey?
Leon is exhausted from this conversation already and does not want to take it out on Connor, so he agrees with his captain and tells him he will think about it before biding him goodnight.
He takes Bowie on an extremely long walk, because he feels bad for not giving the dog as much attention, and then curls up into bed and puts on a random soccer game.
Leon still goes to practice in the morning.
He knows he can’t avoid Tkachuk forever, considering how often the Oilers and Flames verse each other, but Leon wished it would have been longer than a week.
They have a game at the Flames stadium, so not only will Leon be forced to see him and play him, but he won’t get to be in the comfort of his own home until hours after the game. The team will have to take the bus ride back and Connor will want to talk to the team after as well. He is that kind of captain.
Leon is annoyed with himself about how much this is bothering him. It is not like he and Matthew were really in a relationship. Even if it was seemingly just unspoken, he had no obligation to the NHL’s crowned rat, and the pest had no obligation to him. So why can’t he stop thinking about Matthew? Why is it that when Leon closes his eyes, he can only see his dark brown eyes staring back at him? Why can he only see Matthew taking up the entire bed when he sleeps, leaving Leon on the edge, but then still managing to end up on top of Leon, body splayed to where he is in contact with every part of Leon. And he can only see Matthew cooking for him but always messing up somehow, causing Leon to take over because he is a complete control freak; yet Matthew would just look at him, smiling so wide with a glint in his eye like the shithead he is, as if he’s messed up on purpose.
Leon shakes his head to physically snap himself out of it and gets in his car to drive and meet the rest of his team.
Connor resolutely has made no further comments about Leon and Matthew and has clearly told the rest of the team to do the same, considering all the long looks Leon has gotten lately. Because while the team didn’t officially know about him and Matthew, Leon is sure it wasn’t hard for them to decipher what he and Matthew were getting up to when he went home with the Flames player, or when the player went home with him. It’s not like they made a real effort to hide it, really, towards the end.
Leon even invited Matthew to celebrate with his team before, and he never did that with anyone. Leon is selfish enough to wish it was enough, for Matthew to see how special he was to Leon. Leon wanted it to have been enough and is petty enough to resent Matthew because it wasn’t.
Because while Leon may have been stupidly in love, he isn’t stupid enough to believe his flaws go away in the name of that love.
But Leon can be honest to himself and is aware that it is his fault, even if Matthew was the one who literally ended things. Matthew wanted more, he wanted to be proudly, openly with someone, and it’s not something Leon could give him.
But Leon would have, one day, he just wasn’t ready yet. He does not know when that changed, but he knew it for a long time now. Maybe it even started on their first morning together, waking up after a long night of extinguishing their pent-up tension of months prior. After the All-Star game, where Leon made regretful comments on media and Matthew said his own to Leon at the bar the players were all at. Where one day Leon so passionately disliked a man, he barely knew but wound up in bed with him anyway. It started rough and harsh, something that they both wanted so desperately, needed even, an equal mix of hate and lust for each other. And after finally releasing some of that tension, the night ended- while just as passionately- much more melodic.
And in the morning, when Leon woke, with the other side of the bed still having an imprint on it, and his initial curiosity about his counterpart's missing presence being replaced with the strong smell of bacon, Leon went to the kitchen and saw Matthew, his back turned, mumbling to his pan. Matthew had a strained expression, seemingly struggling to take off the eggs from the bottom of the pan.
“You burned it”
Matthew visibly startled, and dropped the spoon he was using to scrape the food. He put his hand on his chest and exclaimed, “God, fuck, warn a guy, would ya,” but he ended it with a smile, much more than what being up at 7 am warranted. Of course, Matthew was a morning person.
But Leon found he didn’t really mind.
“How’d you fuck up eggs?”
Matthew pouted. “I don’t know” He reached down to pick up the utensil, “It just burned, I looked away for one second and then-“He made an animated gesture with his hands, flinging the spoon around; he was trying to portray an explosion?
“Right,” Leon said. And Matthew seemed to need to further defend himself.
“But it’s not my fault.”
“Oh? Whose fault is it then?” Leon answered, and added “go grab me an actual spatula please and not a goddamn spoon”
“Bossy,” Matthew mouthed, but he grabbed Leon an actual spatula. Leon sighed, so he just chose not to use it then.
“Your fault, obviously.”
“Obviously” Leon mimicked, humoring Matthew, waiting until he continued.
“Well I’m trying to make a nice meal, to be nice as I am so nice, obviously,” he paused to basically hover over Leon while he started a new batch of eggs, “but I am just distracted thinking about what fantastic sex we had last night, and that thing you did with your tongue, I mean-“Matthew clicked his tongue. “Let’s just say I won’t be able to get that off my mind anytime soon.”
And then Leon was turning pink. And it was too early for him to come up with a coherent response to that, so he repeated “obviously.” Then he looked up from the pan to his left at Matthew to find him staring at Leon with a glint in his eye.
Then Matthew, the little shithead, started giggling, full-out giggling as if he has said the funniest thing in the world. Leon shook his head.
“Fucking embarrassing” Leons said but with no real malice, which seemingly was obvious to Matthew if the shit-eating grin on his face was anything to go by.
He and Matthew have been rivals for years, and not just because they were on opposing teams. He still kind of can’t stand Matthew, but they fucked and now he’s standing in the kitchen with the flames’ player, and Leon can’t seem to mind.
“Cook for me baby,” Matthew said in an annoyingly farcical tone. “I’m going to grab my laptop,” and then smacked Leon's ass before heading to his room. Leon made a face.
“Fucking Americans treating their guests like shit,” Leon grumbled but was still loud enough to warrant a loud laugh out of the retreating hockey player.
Leon looked up, a smile seemingly present on his face.
He wasn’t smiling now. They are in the final quarter of their game, currently, the Oilers were winning 4-3 after another goal by McDavid. So far Leon was able to ignore Matthew’s presence, and pretend he was just another player on the ice. Which wasn’t hard, they never had trouble with keeping hockey on the ice, but then when Leon was retreating, he turned and was looking right at Matthew, and then Matthew was looking right at him.
Leon stares and has the need to say something to Matthew, but they are in the middle of a game, and what would he even say?
The oilers end up winning, 5-3, with a hat trick by Connor. Leon didn’t score, but he got two assists, and thankfully he wasn’t stuck with any media.
After he showers, he changes back into his suit, a dark blue that is nearly the same shade as all his other suits- yet still ridiculously expensive- but he looks and feels great in them.
He slings his bag over his shoulder and then they’re all heading out of the locker room to go towards the bus. He responds to a text from his sister saying congratulations, how you holding up, with great thanks 👍, and then turns his phone off, not bothering to look at any of the other messages.
He looks up and once again, he’s directly looking at Matthew. And Matthew is staring back. He’s walking past with someone who must work for the flames based on their uniform. Medical, maybe? She’s talking to Matthew about something, and Matthew responds but doesn’t take his eyes off Leon. And before Leon can really think about It, they have already walked past the Oiler’s player.