Chapter Text
“Hayden is going to come for dinner after the game.” Shane had announced that morning, not even looking up from his phone while he said it. Luca—who had been halfway through the plate of bacon, eggs and avocado toast that Roz had made for him—felt his stomach swoop uncomfortably, nerves dancing in his chest at the thought of not coming back to Roz and Hollzy’s place for the first time in forever. He would be fine. He was an adult. He could stand one night away from daddy and papa so that they could have some privacy and catch up with their friend. Well, daddy’s friend, because Ilya had scoffed derisively at the news.
“Tell him he is not welcome if he is not bringing babies.”
“I’m not telling him that.” Shane had replied with a roll of his eyes. “You like Hayden.”
“I tolerate Pike.” Ilya corrected with a sniff. “Because he has wonderful children and beautiful wife that I do like. He is worthless to me without them.”
“Yeah sure, so that super expensive high quality water pump you got him for his birthday was just because you tolerate him and not because you heard him talking about wanting to install a pond in the backyard once.” Shane drawled. Ilya nodded primly.
“I do not have to like him to be good gift giver.” He said. “Is one of the many things I am better than him at.”
“Sure.” Shane laughed, finally looking up from his phone. He looked right at Luca, brow furrowing a bit. “Do you want something else for breakfast Haasy?”
“What?” Luca asked dumbly.
“You aren’t eating.” Shane pointed out, nodding to Luca’s plate. He had paused mid bite, caught up in his own thoughts.
“Oh no, this is fine.” Luca flushed, quickly taking another bite of his toast. It settled funny in his stomach but that was fine. He’d work the feelings out in the morning skate. “I was just thinking about how I was going to get to my apartment after the game, my cars not here.”
“Why would you go back to your apartment?” Ilya questioned, brow furrowed. “Do you need to get something? We can pick it up after game Haasy, do not worry.”
“I just- I figured if Haydens coming over you’d want…privacy or something.” Luca said. “Time to catch up without me hanging around y’know?”
“Why would we want that?” Shane asked, bluntly confused like the idea of Luca not being around had never occurred to him. “You live here too.”
“I mean… not really?”
“Haasy, what the fuck are you talking about not really?” Ilya asked. “You have keys. You have not been to your apartment in months. I do not even know why you still have apartment you never use, is waste of money really.”
Luca blushed. His apartment was probably a mess, now that he thought about it. Well, probably not. He had cleaners who came on a schedule. But it would be dusty, and the air would probably be stale from disuse. Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t feel like home if he did go back. It would feel like any other hotel room. Just… a really expensive one.
“Luca, you don’t have to go back to your apartment just because Hayden is coming over.” Shane said seriously. “We don’t kick his kids out when we visit him, why would we do that to you?”
“Pike will be happy to meet you anyway.” Ilya added, before Luca had the chance to combust about that particular label being applied to him. It at least gave Luca something to focus on other than the idea of being Shane and Ilya’s kid, because Hayden had absolutely met Luca multiple times before. They had had full conversations.
“He’s met me before.”
“He has met hockey player Haasy.” Ilya nodded. “He has not met baby Luca though. He will be happy he is finally an uncle, he has been bothering Shane about it for years.”
Luca blinked. “I’m not a baby.”
“Not right now.” Ilya shrugged. “After game though, probably.”
“I’m not going to drop after the game.” Luca said. “It’s not even a little day.”
“Luca, you always drop after games.” Shane said. It wasn’t said unkindly, but it did have a certain feeling that Shane was explaining something he thought was obvious. Which, it wasn’t obvious thank you very much, because Luca didn’talways drop after games.
“No I don’t!” He argued. It was, infuriatingly, met with Ilya and Shane glancing at each other with poorly concealed amusement. “I don’t!”
“Luca, what happened after the game with Colorado?” Shane asked. They had played Colorado on Monday and sure maybe Luca had dropped after they had gotten home, but it had been a long game. Luca had taken a lot of hits now that everyone had seemed to realise that Luca was also a threat on the ice and he had played hard, he had even been the one to score them the winning goal in overtime.
“That was one time!”
“Okay, what about Pittsburgh?” Ilya added, giving Luca a shit eating grin as he flushed. That had been last Saturday.
“We’d just come off a roadie.” Luca argued. “I was tired.”
“Mhmm, and what about all the times you came back to daddy and papa’s room while we were on the roadie?” Ilya asked. Luca glared at them, taking another bite of his toast while he tried to think of a good reason for the fact that he kept going back to their hotel rooms instead of his own. And trying to think of a time that he didn’t, because surely over the course of two week roadie there had been one game he hadn’t dropped. Unfortunately he wasn’t coming up with one.
“You’re both assholes.” He settled on eventually. A masterful retort, really. It made them both laugh, Shane standing up to collect his and Ilya’s empty plates and ruffling Luca’s hair when he passed him affectionately.
“Finish your breakfast.” He instructed. “We have to leave for the rink soon.”
Luca, pouting, did as he was told. Only because he was hungry and he needed fuel for the game though. Not because he was told too and definitely not because it earned him an affectionate “good boy.” alongside a kiss tot he top of his head from Roz when he complied.
Playing against Montreal always sucked. They were, to put it nicely, absolute fucking dickheads. There were some good players, players who tried to play clean and actually had some fucking respect. Hayden, JJ, Erichsen who had been in Luca’s draft class and was generally a nice, chill dude. Luca actually felt kind of bad for him. He had been really excited when he had been selected by Montreal, the prospect of playing with Shane Hollander something he had talked about at length back then.
Of course, he never got to play with Shane, because he hadn’t moved up from the farm until after Shane had moved to Ottawa. If he was jealous about the fact Luca was living his dream, he didn’t show it though. Which was nice, because everyone else on Montreal seemed to think they were MMA fighters and not hockey players.
It was a dirty game. Roz and Nicky both ended up with a few stints in the sin bin for fighting. Holmberg got a minor for hooking because one of Montreals defensemen was running his mouth enough to piss him off. They won anyway, largely due to the fact that for each minor Ottawa got, Montreal met it with a major. With Roz and Hollzy on the power play, Montreal was fucked, which everyone knew by now. For some reason, Montreal kept handing them to the Centaurs anyway. Not that Luca was complaining. A 5-2 win in Ottawa’s favour was never something he was going to complain about.
He was buzzing with energy in the back of the car, swinging his leg while he sipped at his gatorade. It was still light outside, which was nice. Luca always liked that about afternoon games. It made the drive home more interesting, people actually out and about for Luca to watch as they rolled through the streets. It also meant Luca would have more time between dinner and bedtime.
“You okay Haasy?” Papa asked, turned around in the passenger seat so he could look at Luca. Luca grinned at him, nodding.
“M’okay.” He nodded. “Are we having chicken pasta for dinner?”
“Da, the one with the cream sauce you like.” Papa confirmed.
“That one’s yummy.” Luca nodded. “Can I have cookies after?”
“You can have two cookies.” Daddy said, peering at Luca in the rearview mirror. Luca would like it if he could have more than two cookies, but Daddy was boring like that. That was what papa always said. He didn’t like Luca having lots of sugar after dinner. Or ever, really, but especially not after dinner. He didn’t like it when Papa did either though, so at least Luca wasn’t alone.
“Then we can play with Anya?” Luca suggested. “I bet she’s missed us papa.”
“I bet she has malysh.” Papa agreed. “But you need bath after dinner.”
“But I wanna play with Anya outside.” Luca pouted. “Can’t play outside after bath.”
“It’ll be too dark to play outside baby.” Daddy said. “You can play with Anya inside after your bath.”
Luca sighed, making sure daddy and papa knew he thought that was stupid, but he decided not to throw a tantrum about it. If he threw a tantrum, then daddy and papa might decide that Luca is really extra tired and needs to go to bed right after his bath. Then he wouldn’t get to play with Anya at all, let alone outside. He didn’t stay pouting for very long, because soon they were arriving back home and Luca was abruptly reminded of the fact they had a dinner guest when he saw Hayden Pike lingering casually on the front porch.
Luca, for a moment, only stared as the car was parked. Shane and Ilya got out first, not nearly as thrown by Hayden’s presence at Luca was, collecting their bags from the trunk while Luca gathered his thoughts. He was snapped out of his daze when Ilya opened the door to the backseat.
“Still okay?” He asked. Luca cleared his throat and nodded, shaking his head out. His thoughts were still kind of fuzzy around the edges, but he didn’t feel quite as small anymore. Which was good.
“I’m okay.” Luca confirmed, trying to make himself sound confident and self-assured and adult. “I just forgot he was coming.”
“Mm, yes, Pike is very forgettable.” Ilya said, making Luca snort. “You do not have to be big just because he is here Haasy. He will not be asshole about it. I will kill him if he is, he knows this.”
“I know.” Luca said, though he was saying it just to say it. “I just don’t want to embarrass myself or something.”
“Pike has thousands of children, there is not much he has not seen.” Ilya assured. “Besides, you are little angel baby, he will think you are adorable.”
Luca wrinkled his nose. He was clingy when he was small. And shy. And a crybaby. None of those made for a particularly good first impression on people.
“How about this; we will let daddy and Pike make dinner and talk and be boring together while Papa and Luca go upstairs and have a bath.” Papa suggested, probably because Luca’s apprehension was obvious. “We can stay upstairs as long as you want, we will even bring Anya. When you are ready, if you want too, we can go say hello to Pike.”
“Really?” Luca asked. Papa nodded.
“You will be saving me malysh.” He said. “I would much rather hang out with you than boring Hayden Pike.”
“You say daddy is boring all the time and you love hanging out with him.” Luca pointed out.
“Your daddy is good boring.” Papa said with an easy shrug. “Pike is boring boring.”
That didn’t really make sense to Luca. He didn’t know what the difference was between good boring and boring boring, but he would rather hang out with his papa than Hayden Pike too. So he nodded, climbing out of the car when Papa unbuckled his seatbelt and clinging tightly to Papa’s hand while they walked together to the porch where Daddy and Hayden were waiting for them.
Briefly, Luca looked at Hayden and found him looking at Luca. He was smiling, all relaxed and happy. He was always nice to Luca when he was big, even if they hadn’t spoken lots. Last time they had seen each other had been at an Irina foundation event and Hayden had asked Luca if he had any suggestions for beginner art supplies because his daughter Jade loved drawing. He had listened to what Luca told him, thanked him thoroughly, and had even sent daddy a picture of Jade’s first drawing with her new markers so that daddy could show Luca and thank him again. Luca hid in Papa’s leg anyway.
He was scooped up onto Papa’s hip promptly so that he could hide even better in Papa’s shoulder.
“We are going upstairs to have giant party.” Papa announced. “Only cool people are allowed, so you will have to stay down here. Sorry Pike.”
“Man fuck you, I just got here.” Hayden replied, but he didn’t sound angry-angry. He sounded happy-angry, like how daddy sounds when he calls papa an asshole.
“Swear jar.” Daddy and papa said at the same time, Papa’s voice sing-songy as he carried Luca inside and headed towards the stairs, whistling for Anya to follow him. She did, happily abandoning daddy and trot after them up the stairs.
Anya wasn’t allowed in the bathroom while Luca was having his bath, but she didn’t mind because she didn’t like the bathroom anyway. She was scared of the shower, even if it wasn’t turned on. She sat in the doorway gnawing on her chompy monkey instead. Luca liked having baths after games. The warm water was nice on the bruises he would accumulate and made his jelly legs a little less jelly-like. Plus, Papa had gotten Luca bath toys, which were lots of fun.
His favourite were the swimmy fish, especially when he was having bubble baths. He liked to set them all loose at once after winding them up and trying to catch them with his net as they darted around underneath the bubbles out of sight. He liked his boats too, because he played pretend that there were fishermen living in them trying to catch the giant fish with their big net.
“Look papa, purple.” Luca said, showing Papa the purple swimmy fish he had just caught. The rest of them were still zooming around in the water, sometimes tickling Luca’s legs as they swam past him.
“Da, Fioletovyy.” Papa said, scrubbing at Luca’s free arm gently.
“fee-a-LYEtaviy.” Luca sounded out, turning the fish over in his hands before carefully resting it in his purple boat. He liked matching the fish to his boats. He didn’t have an orange boat though, so the yellow fish and the orange fish had to share. “What about daddy’s way?”
“You will have to ask daddy, zaychik.” Papa said. “Papa does not know french.”
“Luca’s way is lila.” Luca told Papa, pointing to his swimmy fish and purple boat. “lila fischig und lila boot.”
Luca had almost forgotten about Hayden Pike being downstairs by the time his bath was finished and he was wrapped up in his fluffy towel, carried off to his room so that he could get changed into his jammies. Papa had just finished taping up Luca’s diaper, despite Luca’s best attempts to squirm away from the changing, when daddy appeared in the doorway of Luca’s room.
“Hi baby.” Daddy greeted, when Luca held his arms out for a cuddle. He took over from Papa, pulling Luca’s pyjama shorts up over his bottom and tugging his shirt on over his head. “Dinner is ready, I was just coming to see if you and Papa were coming downstairs to eat or if you’re still having a party without us.”
“Creamy sauce?”
“Yeah buddy, Hayden and I made your creamy sauce.” Daddy said, bouncing Luca on his knee gently. “Do you want to come down and have some?”
Luca looked to Papa, but Papa didn’t seem to have an opinion either way, shrugging at Luca. “Is up to you malysh.”
Luca hummed, tip of his thumb pressing into his bottom teeth as he thought. Hayden was nice. Daddy and Papa both liked him, even if Papa pretended not too. And he helped make Luca’s favourite sauce.
“Wanna come.” Luca decided. “But I stay with daddy, okay?”
“That’s okay.” Daddy laughed. “You can stay with me as long as you want.”
Luca nodded, cuddling into Daddy’s chest when he was lifted up to be carried downstairs. Daddy and Papa didn’t like it when Luca went up and down the stairs on his own when he was little. They were worried he was going to fall. Which was silly, because Luca was very good at crawling up and down the stairs. Still, it was nice to be held until they reached the bottom, Daddy setting Luca down on his feet once they did make it back down to the first floor. He didn’t let go of Luca’s hand though, squeezing it gently when they walked to the dining table together.
Hayden was already sitting there, four bowls of pasta set out. One for daddy, one for Papa, one for Luca and one for Hayden. The one for Luca was in his dinosaur plate, the pasta in the big portion with some carrots and broccoli in the little sections. His sippy cup was at his spot at the table, filled with juice.
“Hey.” Hayden greeted, giving them all an easy smile as they arranged themselves at the table. Daddy was across from Hayden and Luca was beside him. It was a little bit funny that Papa had to sit next to Hayden, because Papa made a yucky face at Hayden when he wasn’t looking. “How was your party?”
“Very fun without you there.” Papa said primly. Hayden rolled his eyes exaggeratedly at Luca.
“Didn’t have a party.” Luca mumbled shyly, not looking at Hayden while he spoke to instead focus on spearing of piece of broccoli with his fork, dipping it in the extra creamy sauce daddy had put in one of his sections. “Papa’s being silly.”
“Yeah, I think your papa likes being silly.” Hayden nodded, digging into his own pasta. Papa stuck his tongue out at Hayden, and Hayden did it back, Daddy sighing at both of them.
“Your both worse than he is and he’s the only actual toddler here.” Daddy said with a big roll of his eyes. He didn’t sound very annoyed though. Mostly he just sounded like he loved them. Which was good, because Luca loved his daddy too and Papa definitely loved daddy.
Luca didn’t pay much attention to Hayden while he ate. Mostly, he just focused on daddy being beside him, sometimes tapping his foot against daddy and waiting for him to do it back. He ate all of his broccoli and all of his carrot first, because he always ate the yucky stuff before he ate the good stuff. Though, he liked broccoli and carrot, so maybe they weren’t yucky. He did like the chicken and pasta best though, so he saved them for last. Hayden didn’t seem to mind that Luca didn’t talk to him much, happy talking to daddy and papa. Luca caught bits and pieces, but it was mostly boring grown up stuff.
There was a brief moment where they were talking about the game from earlier and Hayden told Luca he played really good, making Luca’s face go all hot and pink while he had stuttered out a thank you and shuffled his chair closer to daddy. That was the extent of Luca’s talking, until Papa decided to try and draw him into the conversation.
“Ah malysh, what did you want to ask daddy earlier?” He asked. “About purple.”
Luca blinked, a bit taken off guard at suddenly being included. Papa, Daddy and Hayden all waited patiently for him to say something though, so he swallowed nervously as he turned to daddy. “how do you say purple daddy’s way?”
“Pourpre.” Daddy answered, giving Luca an encouraging smile. “What’s purple Luca’s way?”
“Lila.” Luca said. Across the table, Hayden perked up.
“Oh right, you speak german don’t you Luca?” He asked. Luca nodded. Then, Hayden did something very, very cool. “ich mag lila aber meine lieblingsfarb ist blau.”
“Si redet schwiizerdütsch?!” Luca asked, probably a bit too loud. It made Hayden laugh as he nodded.
“E chli.” He said. “Händs de Papa und de Daddy paar neui Wörter biibrocht?”
“What the fuck?” Daddy asked, startled. “Since when do you speak swiss fucking german?”
“Swear jar, two times.” Hayden chirped, giving Daddy a grin. “And since always.”
“De Daddy kennt meh wörter als papa, de Papa seit, englisch isch scho schwer gnueg z merke.” Luca tattled.
“Oh, I do not like this.” Papa said. “Pike, stop corrupting my baby.”
“I’m not corrupting him, I’m just talking to him!” Hayden laughed. “Besides, you corrupt my kids all the time.”
“You’ve known fucking german the whole time I’ve known you?” Daddy asked. He looked very surprised.
“Dude, you knew this.” Hayden laughed. “You’ve heard me talk to my grandpa and my mom on the phone before.”
“I didn’t know what language that was, I wasn’t paying that much attention!” Daddy defended.
“Chömmed Sie au us Züri? Kenned Sie mini Mama und Gabby?” Luca asked. Hayden shook his head.
“Sorry kid, I’m from Windsor.” He said. “My grandma grew up in Bern though, she spoke swiss german. I’m a better listener than talker, but I know enough. I vividly remember how to sing head shoulders knees and toes in fact.”
“Well I want to see that.” Daddy teased.
“Mm, Pike you will have to give us a performance after dinner.” Papa said. “It will fun to watch you embarrass yourself.”
“Jokes on you man, I’m four kids deep I have no shame anymore.” Hayden quipped.
Luca was practically passing out on the couch when Shane decided it was time to bundle him off to bed. His excitement about Hayden knowing how to speak his language had lasted throughout dinner, Luca chattering a mile a minute in between bites of his pasta, which Shane had taken over feeding him when it became clear he had forgotten all about it in favour of his new friend.
He calmed down once dinner was done though, growing shy again when they moved from the safe bubble of the dinner table to the living room. Not as shy as before though, slinking away from Shane’s side to play quietly with his toys on the floor, using his foam blocks to try and build a dog house around Anya. It was made tricky by the fact Anya didn’t seem to understand she was supposed to stay still while he was building, but he had a blast crawling around after her and trying to build her house before she got up again. He gave Hayden a wide berth, never got too close or started a conversation once the moment had passed, but he wasn’t actively hiding away upstairs or in Shane’s side, which was progress.
He had bid Hayden a quiet goodnight when Shane had prompted him too, the baby half passed out on his shoulder when he was scooped off the couch. He’d long since abandoned his game in favour of cuddling into Ilya’s side and watching the game they had put on the TV with half-lidded eyes, soother in his mouth and Blossom produced seemingly from thin air once he had begun to grow tired.
“Nigh’ nigh’.” He’d mumbled with a floppy, uncoordinated wave, the words slurred around the soother in his mouth.
“Night Luca.” Hayden returned. Tucking Luca in didn’t take long, the poor thing already asleep by the time Shane had made it up the stairs. He barely stirred when he was laid down in his bed, only whining softly while he waited for his goodnight kiss. Shane made sure to flip his nightlight on before he made his way back downstairs, Ilya moving quickly to go and bid his own goodnight to Luca, as well as let Anya out one last time for the night.
“Well, as far as meeting godchildren go I’d say that was pretty successful.” Hayden announced when Shane flopped back down on the couch with a sigh. He was tired himself, half tempted to kick Hayden out so he could go the fuck to sleep himself. It had been a long day, and aside from the Montreal of it all, he had been pretty worried about Luca meeting Hayden for the first time.
“Who says your his godfather?” Shane quipped.
“Please, who else would it be?” Hayden snorted.
“What about literally any of the centaurs?” Shane asked. Hayden shook his head, taking a sip of his beer.
“Nah, I still beat them I think.” He said. “Except maybe Boodram. I’ll accept him if it’s not me, he and Rozanov seem close.”
“I can’t believe you speak swiss german and didn’t tell me.” Shane said. “You should’ve led with that if you wanted him to like you.”
“I don’t speak it that well, he’s easily impressed because he’s a toddler.” Hayden laughed. “He seems like a good kid.”
“He is.” Shane hummed.
“Jackie’s going to be bummed she didn’t get to meet him.” Hayden added. “She’s really excited about being an aunt.”
“Don’t you already have two nephews?” Shane asked, quirking an eyebrow at Hayden. Hayden laughed, shaking his head.
“Yeah but they aren’t your kids.” Hayden said. “Jackie has been waiting for you to have kids for years man. She’s thrilled.”
“I don’t think this is what she was thinking.”
“So? It’s still your family.” Hayden shrugged. “Your happy aren’t you? I mean you seem pretty fucking happy. Disgustingly so, I’d say.”
“Yeah.” Shane hummed. “I’m really happy.”
“Good.” Hayden nodded. “Now give me insider info, because I am determined to beat out every other centaur for the best uncle title just to fuck with Rozanov and I am working at a disadvantage being in Montreal.”