LOGINThe whistle barely finished echoing before everything changed. The team wearing blue didn't bother pretending anymore, the careful passing from the first half disappeared entirely as their captain slammed straight into Adrian before the puck had even reached him.CRASH.Glass shook and the crowd roared. Adrian stumbled hard enough for one skate to leave the ice before catching himself on the boards."...oh." Nikola blinked."They're allowed to do that?""They're allowed to do worse," Coach answered quietly from the bench. Lukas had already recovered the puck.But there was no time to complain, no time to look back and no time to wait. He pushed forward immediately. Viktor skated parallel to him while Aiden drifted wider toward the right wing. The defense collapsed exactly the way Lukas wanted.Good. All they had to do was leave Viktor open. He pushed once, twice and the defender committed. It was going perfectly.He slipped the puck backwards without looking and Viktor was already th
"WAIT." And suddenly, everybody stopped halfway through the tunnel. Coach turned around slowly."What now?" And Nikola looked down at his skates."I forgot how to skate." Nobody answered him. Joshua blinked."What?""I think I forgot.""You have skates in your hands.""I know.""You've been skating for years.""I know.""So what exactly did you forget?" He paused,"Everything." Coach closed his eyes."Fantastic.""I'm serious.""I know you are." Nikola pointed toward the arena where thousands of people were still screaming."Did you hear that?""Unfortunately.""They're loud.""They are.""I don't think my legs work anymore." Coach looked around."Does anybody else's legs not work?" Nobody answered. "Excellent."The silence somehow made everything worse. Lukas adjusted the tape around his glove for what had to be the fifth time in the last three minutes while Viktor quietly reached over and pushed his hand away."You've already fixed it.""I know." But he didn't stop."You've fixed it
Nobody spoke on the walk back and it was not because there was nothing to say, there was simply too much.The sound of thirty-five goals refused to leave their heads. Every pass, every counterattack and every impossible save kept replaying over and over until it became impossible to think about anything else and by the time the locker room door closed behind them, it somehow sounded louder than the crowd outside.BANG.Nobody moved immediately. Bodies were placed down without care, bags landed wherever they landed and somebody's stick slipped against the wall and fell but nobody bothered picking it up.The room suddenly felt smaller. Smaller than it had this morning, smaller than it had five minutes ago. As though the walls themselves had watched that match and decided there wasn't enough space left for their confidence.Joshua sat first and Sam remained standing while slowly wrapping fresh tape around his stick...then realized he'd already taped it."...oh." He quietly peeled everyth
The building didn't sound like a simple hockey game anymore. It sounded like an entire country.Voices bounced from every direction and none of them were familiar. Different accents collided with one another until everything blended into one endless wall of noise. Somewhere above them a commentator spoke so quickly Lukas couldn't understand half the words, another announcement followed in a completely different language and giant television screens hanging from the ceiling flashed one country's flag after another.Everywhere he looked, there was another jersey. Different colours, different logos and different people.Some players towered over everyone else while some looked barely older than sixteen, others already carried themselves like professionals who had been standing under bright lights their entire lives and nobody looked nervous.That was somehow the scariest part. They all looked… used to this. A photographer suddenly stepped backwards into Nikola."Oh." But before Nikola co
Morning arrived much quieter than anyone expected. Maybe because nobody overslept and nobody screamed across the apartment looking for missing socks. Nikola hadn't broken anything yet and for some strange reason, even their kitchen looked unusually clean.It didn't feel like an ordinary morning, it felt like their apartments already knew they were leaving.Lukas woke before everyone else…not because he couldn't sleep this time...he had. Actually, he had slept better than he had in weeks. Maybe crying so much yesterday had exhausted him or maybe Viktor's words had stayed with him longer than he realized…or maybe...he had simply accepted that some people would always be better than him.For now.He sat on the edge of the bed for a while, watching sunlight slowly creep across the wooden floor before finally standing and the room looked exactly the same.The jerseys hanging by the wardrobe hadn't moved, Viktor's hoodie was still hanging over the chair and their shoes still rested against
It felt strangely lighter outside. Not because anything had changed… nothing had. The ice was still there, players were still skating, coaches were still shouting and somewhere in the distance somebody completely missed the net and groaned loud enough for everyone to hear.Life had simply continued and it was time for Lukas to move on.Lukas stepped out of the hallway a second later with Viktor's fingers still loosely intertwined with his. His eyes were still a little red but the weight sitting on his shoulders no longer looked impossible to carry. Viktor looked at him once and a warm smile slid across his face."...better?" Lukas thought about it and smiled back,"...a little.""Good." He squeezed Viktor's hand once before letting go and that was enough. Everybody noticed him walking in and nobody spoke. There was no teasing, no laughing… nothing. Almost like the entire rink paused the moment he walked in. Everyone saw Lukas for who he truly was, and not what he claimed to be. His ey
Lukas woke up before Viktor did…mostly because Viktor had somehow slept halfway on top of him during the night again. One leg tangled between Lukas’s, warm breath against his throat and one hand still gripping Lukas’s shirt like even asleep he needed proof Lukas was still there and honestly? Lukas
The automatic café doors slid open and Nikola walked in first, laughing loud enough for everyone to turn heads immediately.“…and then you looked at me like I personally offended your bloodline.”“You did offend my bloodline,” Elias answered calmly behind him, carrying two coffees and looking painf
His breathing broke apart violently.“No—”“Hey—hey hey—” Viktor sat up instantly despite the pain shooting through his ankle aggressively.“Lukas what happened?!”Lukas stared at him like he’d seen a ghost and rain hammered against the apartment windows now. Louder and more violent. The same kind
The grocery cart wheel squeaked violently every few seconds and Lukas looked like he was one inconvenience away from murdering everyone around him personally.“This thing is fighting with me,” he muttered angrily.“It’s literally just a wheel.” Viktor laughed.“It has an attitude.”Viktor laughed u







