Chapter Text
Luca was not focused on the game. They were about halfway through the season and were playing against Buffalo on home ice tonight. The second period was almost over when Ilya first noticed.
Ilya had seen the look in the boy's eyes before, the look that seemed a bit lost and dreamy. It was reserved for drops and little Luca. It was not supposed to be on when they had a game to finish.
But Luca was playing well, even if Ilya did notice that the movements felt more forced than usual. The skating looked like it took effort, instead of being fluent, close to second nature, like normally. He was probably the only one to notice that, he thought to himself.
“Hey, you doing okay?”, he asked as he skated closer to Luca, when the second period was over.
“Hm? Oh, yeah Ilya, all good,” was the reply he got. Luca didn’t even look up at him, fiddling with his hockey stick. Realising that the younger boy wasn’t about to explain everything that was on his mind right now, Ilya decided to drop the situation for the moment.
He let Luca be, patting him on the shoulder, that most of the guys would interpret as friendly. When he turned around to his husband though, who smiled at him knowingly, he knew the younger boy would accept the motion as affectioned.
He went over to Shane, bending down to the height Shane was when sitting on a bench, to whisper a quiet: “We take Haasy home after this, he needs to drop”.
Shane, realising this was not the time to question Ilya’s decision, nodded. “First though, we win this game”, he added, standing up and smirking at Ilya.
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They won the game 4 to 1, so the team was celebrating. People were screaming in the changing room, singing and partying. “You guys coming out to celebrate tonight?”, was shouted at Shane, who had just showered and started changing into normal clothes, by what seemed to be Hazy.
“Nah, we're having a night in, but you guys have fun.” Shane answered, remembering what Ilya had said earlier. After a moment of consideration he added: “Don’t get too drunk though, I am not coming to save your ass tonight”.
Hazy laughed at that, shaking his head and walked away.
The room slowly quieted down after that, more and more people leaving. Probably to go out and get drunk, Shane thought, by now having changed into casual clothes.
He stood up and walked over to where Luca was sitting on a bench. Ilya was still showering, so Shane took it upon himself to investigate what was up with their rookie.
Shane quickly realised that it did not take a lot of skill to notice something off with the younger boy.
The littles eyes had bags under them, as if Luca hadn’t slept in days. To that, came the fact that the boy was still half dressed in his gear. While he had taken off his skates and helmet, he was still wearing his sweaty undershirt.
“Hi Luca, you doing ok?” was the question Shane settled on. He didn’t want to assume the boy sitting in front of him was little, in case that would set him off. “Am fine” was quickly answered, though it was not convincing at all, seeing that it sounded very watery to Shane.
Shane leaned in closer to Luca so other people wouldn’t hear him. “Do you think that maybe you are feeling a bit small, hm?” he asked.
At the mention of the word small, Luca’s eyes widened, one hand being lifted dangerously close to his mouth. As the younger boy let out a barely audible whimper, two fingers entered his mouth, being sucked and gnawed at in search of comfort.
Shane immediately tried to calm the panicked little in front of him, making shushing noises and rubbing his back. “Your okay! Ilya and I are just gonna take you home tonight and we’ll have a sleepover. Doesn’t that sound good? Just like last time, we are gonna have fun and we can watch a movie!” he rambled mindlessly in hopes of calming Luca.
The boy seemed to relax a little at the reassurance that the situation was under control, though he still glanced at the caregiver a little unsure. “‘m kay ” he mumbled after a second, lifting his arms and politely adding: “Change, please”.
Shane smiled at that, ruffling the little guy's hair. “Sure, thank you for using your manners. So good” he coed, starting to remove the little’s shirt. He continued undressing the boy, muttering reassurances and praises when Luca tried to help.
At one point, he glazed towards Ilya, who had finished showering and was dressed in jeans, missing his shirt. He tried to cast a look that said: “He’s dropped, I’ve got him until I ask you for help.”
Ilya seemed to understand that, stepping back a step, so that Shane and Luca had some space, while still being close enough to help, in case they needed him.
It only took Shane a few minutes to get the little mostly undressed, but when he pulled down the pants he came to a stop.
The younger boy's briefs had a decently sized wet spot around the crotch and when Shane went to remove them, he realised that said spot had already cooled. Shane wondered when that had happened, but decided against asking, not wanting to make Luca self-concise.
He opted to just taking them off, lifting Luca just to pass the boy to Ilya, who still stood beside them, arms wide open to take the younger one.
“There we go malysh. We are gonna have quick rinse off, while Shane does boring packing up, da?” was quietly coed to the little, who nuzzled his head into the Russian's neck.
Shane looked at the pair, deciding this was the cutest thing he had ever seen. He shot his husband a thankful look, agreeing with the decision to shower Luca. Seeing that they had just played a game, the boy would be a lot more comfortable, if the sweat was rinsed off.
While Shane packed away their stuff and searched for an outfit for Luca, Ilya was getting the little one showered. Since he was already mostly dressed and didn’t want to get wet again, he set Luca on his feet, holding on, until the boy seemed stable.
“Am gonna take this and rinse you off and then help you clean up”, he narrated to Luca, as he took the removable showerhead in his hand. It was almost like when he had been a child, being rinsed off with a hose in the garden, except the water here was warm and he would be a lot more gentle than his dad had been.
Luca didn’t seem to mind being showered, staying mostly quiet and pliant throughout the wash. When they were done, Ilya wrapped him in a large towel that had seemingly spawned out of nowhere, before lifting him to his hip.
“There we are, all done.” Ilya announced, walking out of the shower. The locker room now seemed to be completely empty, much to Luca’s relief. They walked over to Shane, who had cleared part of the bench and was laying a towel out as a makeshift changing mat for the little.
After Ilya laid the boy down, Shane went to work getting the little dressed, while Ilya distracted him. They managed to get Luca changed quickly, the younger only whining at the pull-up that Shane slid over his hip, too tired to actually fight the caregivers.
“Here you go, your soska”, Ilya whispers to Luca, pushing a pacifier to his lips, as he lifts the boy, who makes grabby hands towards him as soon as he is completely dressed (the outfit being a pair of light grey sweatpants and one of Shane’s extra soft shirts).
Both caregivers had worked on Luca being more accepting of his little side and aging down younger, so the pacifiers, the soskas, were becoming a staple in their household. They were the thing Luca was least hesitant about when little, finding comfort in them when he was in headspace.
Ilya bounced Luca lightly on his hip, as Shane carried their bags out the changing room and when they reached their car, Shane opened the door for the backseat, for Ilya to place Luca in his carseat.
They had gotten it very recently, as Luca was physically an adult and insisted on not needing it. Shane had argued that he regressed young enough to lose some muscle control when dropped and couldn't brace properly, in case there ever were to be in a car crash.
Their talk about it had resulted in somewhat of a fight, which left the younger one pouty for a week, in which he would completely ignore Shane and only talk to Ilya in both headspaces, because Shane was being “a stupid meany”. Ilya found the entire thing extremely amusing, though he agreed with Shane.
After some more talks, they had convinced big Luca though, who realised that his safety was not something either caregiver would lack at. And even though big Luca had accepted his situation little Luca seemed to disagree.
As soon as he was out of Ilya’s arms, he started wailing at full volume, as if something physically burned him. “Shhh, little guy, you’re okay, you’re okay!” Shane tried to comfort, though he doubted his words were even heard over the screaming toddler.
Ilya tried to rub the little’s tummy, though that seemed to make the situation worse, because now Luca was clutching his stomach.
Shane pushed past Ilya to lift the boy back out of his seat for a moment, in hopes of calming him better that way. That seemed to do the trick, because as soon as Luca was in Shane’s arms, the wailing quieted down to sniffles and silent tears.
The problem of how to bring the little home remained though, so when Shane turned to Ilya to ask: “What do we do now?”, the Russian was at a bit of a loss. He tried to think back to what his own mom did to calm him as a young child. Singing lullabies was what came to his mind.
So that was what he did.
What he did not expect however, was how well it worked. When he started singing Russian lullabies, the little one stared at him with wide eyes, suckling softly at the soska Shane had put in his mouth. He let himself be handled into the carseat, only slightly fussing, which was soothed by Shane handing him his blankie, which was a new comfort item he immediately loved. It was just so soft.
As Ilya started driving, Shane reached for his hand and after about 10 minutes, he heard the Canadian whisper: “He is asleep now.”, followed by: “Didn’t know you were a professional singer”, which made Ilya groan.
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Once they reached their home, Shane went to lift Luca out of his seat, rubbing his back, trying to wake the other softly.
“We need to eat now, moy rebenok”, Ilya whispered to the boy in his husband's arms, cooing at the way he sleepily rubbed his fists to his eyes.
“Sleepy”, was quietly mumbled as a response, which made Ilya chuckle and say: “I know and we can go night night very soon, but we played game, you need food, da?”. Luca only whined at that and hid his face in Shane’s shoulder.
With combined efforts, the caregivers managed to feed Luca some soft foods, until the younger was falling asleep while chewing, which made Shane declare it as a choking hazard.
Half an hour later, when they were all changed and fed, Ilya held Luca in his arms to be fed a bottle. The younger didn’t seem very interested though, only taking a few sips, before spitting it out twice and whining when Ilya pressed the mostly filled bottle back to his mouth.
“Guess you are too tired”, Shane chuckled for where he was sitting, pressed against the pair, taking away the bottle from Ilya. Ilya laid the baby down after that, adjusting the blankets, so that Luca could lie comfortably between them.
Both he and Shane were exhausted after the long day, so they laid right next to the sleeping boy. He did still wonder why Luca had dropped so suddenly today though, he thought right before he drifted into sleep.
If he had known the answer though, he may have had a harder time to actually find sleep.