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“Shane!” Ilya’s loud voice interrupted Shane’s post-run shower.
Normally, Shane would have chosen to ignore his husband and continue his shower in peace, but he actually sounded kind of serious. Shane sighed, rinsed the conditioner from his hair, and grabbed a towel from the warmer, drying himself off as Ilya made himself comfortable on the bathroom counter. He finished drying himself and pulled on a pair of boxer briefs before accepting the glasses Ilya was extending towards him.
“Read.” Ilya commanded, extending his other hand to offer Shane his phone.
Shane’s eyes widened as he took in the screenshot at the top of the article. It was San Francisco’s Holmberg & Young, locked in what was very clearly a more than friendly embrace as the elevator door had started to either open or close in front of them. They were wearing matching Mission hoodies & jeans and Young had his hand in Holmberg’s back pocket while Bergy’s fingers were in Young’s hair.
Shane’s initial instinct was to call Bergy, the second-year kid from Vancouver who had been a part of their gold-medal winning team in Italy earlier that year. But he held off long enough to skim the article for its key points, just to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing.
“Shane?” Ilya’s voice asked.
Shane shushed his husband and read. Sure enough, the article stated a romantic relationship between the two young San Francisco players as fact. Even if it only just hinted at something of a sexual nature. But it went on to speculate the nature, duration, and even intensity of a relationship that they had no way of knowing really existed.
Truthfully, Shane could see it. He’d seen a lot of himself in Holmberg, taken the young center under his wing during Team Canada practices and events. They’d even been paired up for some of the media events during the games. The press had even taken to calling him ‘the next Shane Hollander,’ which Shane had thought was a bit of a stretch, but at least it was nice that the attention was on someone else for once. But this wasn’t the kind of attention Shane would have wished on anyone. Shane looked through more of the photos at the end of the page - Holmberg and Young laughing together on the bench, smiling during a conversation in the locker room, decorating cupcakes together with fans, sitting together at a basketball game…
Shane shut off the phone’s display and stared at the blank screen for a moment. These were two boys, literally - he was pretty sure Bergy was just barely an adult, who were living their lives together. They looked happy. If they were a couple, they’d done a much better job of living in just the two years they’d played together than he and Ilya had in almost two decades.
Ilya and Shane had married in the summer of 2021 in a very private ceremony. Only Hayden, Jackie, Svetlana, a few of Ilya’s Cens teammates, and his parents had been in attendance. Their plan to come out after they retired had proven difficult, but it was only a few more years until that time would come. Shane was certain of it, if not in his mind then in his knees. And Ilya was ready for a family. But here were two boys who had been robbed of a chance to figure out any plans on their own, if they’d even wanted them. Shane sighed before looking up at Ilya, who was still sitting patiently on the bathroom counter.
“I want to call Bergy.” Shane said confidently. “I want to tell him he isn’t alone.”
Ilya must have already predicted this train of thought, because he very easily nodded, hopped off the counter, and took Shane’s hand, leading him out into their bedroom and throwing a pair of sweatpants at him.
Once Shane had pulled them on, he snuggled up next to Ilya in their freshly made bed for a few minutes before taking a deep breath, exchanging a heavy look with his husband, and nodding. It was time.
---
Marc Holmberg had woken up with a smile on his face. He and Liam had both played multi-point games the night before in a game that finally broke the Mission’s 6-game loss streak. Then they’d had the luxury of falling asleep together in a hotel bed, one of his favorite places to be. He’d been awake just long enough to relive the team’s celebration from the night before and brush a curl out of his boyfriend’s face before his phone rang. Out loud. His brother had called twice, bypassing his do not disturb filter, and it was only just after nine am.
“What?” Marc groaned as he put the call on speaker.
“Are you with Liam?” Adam asked gently. Too gently.
He wanted to ask why, but something in his brother’s tone told him that he knew. Marc felt his heart drop and he leaned in gently to place a kiss to Liam’s forehead and brought a hand down to drag his fingers across the sensitive skin of his wrist in the way that he knew would wake him gently.
“Babe.” Marc whispered in his ear. “You have to wake up.”
He asked his brother for five minutes and promised to call him back, hanging up over his protests. It was then that he noticed the dozens of notifications on his screen. Fuck. Something had happened, and Marc had enough context to know what it was about.
“Li…” Marc tried again, trailing his fingers lazily up his boyfriend’s arm until he saw those beautiful blue eyes flutter open. God he was beautiful. Marc wished they could live in this moment forever, sleepy blue eyes opening beneath lashes that made him weak in the knees. It didn’t matter that they were horizontal, he’d probably fall right down if he tried to get up. But the world around them was waiting, and Marc wasn’t going to face it without Liam’s hand in his.
He held Liam until he had woken enough to start talking - asking if last night had really happened. Marc just smiled at him and stole one last kiss before bringing up the fact that the world around them had probably shattered overnight.
Sure enough, there on his phone screen when he picked it up to call Adam back, was a photo of them boarding an elevator last night after they’d enjoyed as much of a night out as Columbus had to offer. Marc just handed the phone to Liam and buried his face in his boyfriend’s bare chest, his arms wrapping back around him like he’d lose him if he let go. His brain started to run through a myriad of problems this was going to cause - issues in the locker room? Disappointed parents? Reprimands from their coaches or management? Fuck. Would they even be allowed to play? He felt Liam’s hand press strongly to his back, the skin-on-skin contact doing more work than it ever had before. He focused on matching the older man’s breathing and doing everything he could to avoid letting the spiral get to him.
“I have to call Adam.” Marc mumbled into Liam’s pecs. He wasn’t even sure if it was intelligible, but either it was, or Liam just knew, because Liam pushed the buttons to call his brother back, put the phone on speaker, and set it down level with Marc’s ear.
“I don’t wanna know.” Marc told him before he could get a full sentence out.
Adam assured Marc that he loved him and was there for him and that nobody hated him, even though Marc was one hundred percent sure that was an exaggeration. Still, after they hung up, he made Liam take the phone away and snuggled back up against him. Their team, the league, and everyone else in North America could wait.
Apparently, Shane Fucking Hollander could not. Because no sooner had Liam rolled back over and pulled Marc into his tight embrace did the phone start ringing again.
“Ignore it.” Marc muttered irritably.
But it didn’t stop. It rang a second time, and then a third. When Liam rolled back over to silence it, he turned back to Marc with wide eyes, phone in hand.
“It’s Shane Hollander.”
Marc’s eyes widened slightly. Shane Hollander, whose number he’d gotten shortly after he was drafted but never used until he’d been officially selected to Team Canada earlier that year.
“Shane Hollander?” Marc asked. He could see the name on the screen, but needed to confirm that Liam was seeing the same thing. Especially because it was a FaceTime request. The only time Hollander had ever FaceTimed him was when he got lost in Milan that one time. But he’d been super nice about it, was kind of the nicest guy Marc had ever met, so he figured he should probably pick up the call.
“Gimme a sec,” Marc said as he answered the call without camera on. He forced himself away from Liam and up into a seated position against the headboard before turning the camera on and finding himself face-to-face with a shirtless, wet-haired Shane Hollander, who also seemed to be in bed? Was this really going to be a big enough deal that Hollzy had to call him before finding a shirt?
“Um… hi.” Marc greeted him hesitantly.
Hollander smiled kind of awkwardly, looked off screen, and then back at his camera. “Um… hi. Sorry if this is weird but um… I guess I wanted to check on you.”
Marc laughed and had to hold back a large number of sarcastic remarks.
“Is um… is Young there with you?” Hollander asked hesitantly.
Marc looked at Liam who just nodded and scooted over into the frame.
“How are you guys holding up?” Hollander’s eyes kept flitting in and out of focus, but he wasn’t big on eye contact anyways, so Marc let it go. Especially because he would much rather keep one eye on Liam, who was resting a hand on his thigh, than look at a very awkward and seemingly Shane Hollander.
“We’re okay.” Liam cut in, giving Marc a minute to process whatever the fuck it was he was feeling. “I mean… not really, but all things considered…”
“At least you’re together?” Hollander tried.
Marc laughed. Hollander might not have noticed, given the painful lack of Liam Young at the Olympic games, but they were kind of a package deal. International tournaments excluded, you didn’t get Holmberg without Young or Young without Holmberg.
“Sorry, I know this is probably super weird - ow!”
Hollander muted the phone for a moment and the boys watched as he had a fascinating conversation with someone they couldn’t see. When he focused back on their conversation, he had a stupid smile on his face. Stupid, but more genuine than Marc could ever remember seeing, even in the promo shots he’d been obsessed with as a child. Softer than when he’d seen him lift the cup. Almost like…
“Sorry. My husband says I should get to the point and make sure you know this is a friendly call.”
Marc’s brain froze. Did Hollander just…
“Did you just say husband?” Marc voiced his thought aloud, turning his head to find Liam’s eyes just as wide as his own.
Hollander was famously single. He’d had one girlfriend ever, as far as Marc knew. And it was maybe, possibly, a stat he knew because at fifteen he’d googled ‘is Shane Hollander gay’ and gone down a very deep rabbit hole on Reddit that concluded it was more likely Jackie Pike was a beard for Shane and Hayden than that Shane Hollander was anything but gay.
Hollzy must have been waiting for their go-ahead, because he was sitting there quietly until Marc looked back at him, eyes still somewhat wide with surprise. Especially because being gay was one thing, having a husband was something completely different.
“It’s not Hayden Pike, is it?” Liam asked. Marc shot him a look and rolled his eyes.
“Sorry about him.” Marc offered Hollander. “He doesn’t do boundaries.”
“Says you!” Liam teased, Marc knowing exactly what he meant. When it came to Liam, Marc had no sense of personal space and wasn’t capable of keeping anything from him. Which is why Marc was now painfully aware that he was on FaceTime with his literal hockey hero while half naked in bed with the only person in the world who knew he’d once upon a time jacked off to Shane Hollander’s Calvin Klein ads. He really hoped the blush he felt on his cheeks wasn’t obvious, but of course Hollzy was too damn nice to say anything if it was.
“This is most boring Canadian conversation ever,” a fourth voice contributed from the phone. “Please tell them you would never marry Pike.”
Hollander lit up at the input from the accented man who was presumably his husband.
“You said please.” Hollander teased. “You are becoming a boring Canadian just like the rest of us.”
“I’m not Canadian!” Liam chimed in quickly.
“Yet.” Marc said back with a grin. He didn’t know where it came from, but if Shane Hollander could drop a husband on them before anyone had gotten out of bed for the day, Marc could very lightly (and hopefully forgetably) imply that he planned on making his best friend a Canadian someday.
“No,” the mystery man argued with Hollander. “You are just rubbing off on me.”
“Gross.” Hollander replied, sticking his tongue out the corner of his mouth and side-eyeing the other man.
“Wait so like… you actually have a husband?” Liam asked.
If this had been any other day, Marc would have laughed about it. Liam had never formally met Hollander off the ice, and now here they were FaceTiming from their respective beds and… coming out to each other?
Hollander nodded, that stupid smile coming back to his face. “Can you keep a secret for fifteen minutes?”
Liam nodded eagerly and Marc did laugh out loud this time. God he loved him. Wait… what? Okay, that was a thought for later. They were talking about Hollander right now.
Marc nodded more calmly and said “Yeah, but just fifteen minutes? You’re not hard launching today too, are you?”
“Shane does not know this word, hard launch. Is too connected to the internet that he also does not know.”
Hollander rolled his eyes but had clearly resigned himself to the chaos that was… Ilya Rozanov?
“Fucking pinch me.” Marc muttered as he saw the Russian come into view on the screen.
Liam actually did. Then he pinched himself and made a face at Marc that said ‘what the actual fuck.’
“See, Shane. They are speechless. I am bigger deal hockey player.”
“Ilya.” Shane chided, but he adjusted himself to sit closer to the other man.
“Just to make sure we have this right…” Liam said as calmly as he could manage. “You two are married?”
Hollander’s face lit up with so much warmth and joy that Marc wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. He was still adjusting to Shane Hollander being a real person, his national team captain. Then you add some sort of queer identity on top. And just in case that wasn’t enough of a mindfuck - he was married to his biggest rival in the league?
“And this is real?” Marc tacked on for good measure. “You’re not being held hostage or paying Rozanov off just to make me feel more normal about this?”
Hollander’s laugh felt real and, well, sort of like home if Marc was being honest. The look on his face, the reality of the situation. The fact that he and Rozanov had matching wet hair, smiles that were comforting whether or not they were trying too hard for it, and the only article of clothing visible on any of the four of them was Rozanov’s black tank top… it was absolutely insane.
Marc watched as Hollander and Rozanov seemed to have an entire fucking conversation with only their eyes. He hoped he and Liam could have that one day. He felt the heaviness that had been weighing him down since his brother’s call started to lift. It wasn’t completely gone, but this call was everything he wouldn’t have known he needed. Sure, he and Liam had come to the conclusion that there had to be other queer players in the league. But he’d never dared to imagine that two of the greatest were not only queer, but together. And fucking married? Secretly?
Marc had so many questions, and he was certain Liam had even more, but he let them go for the time being as Hollander started to speak again.
“Yes, this is one hundred percent real and at some point we’d love to have you boys over for dinner and tell you everything.” Hollander promised. “But right now we just really wanted you to know you aren’t alone in this. We’ve been circling the idea of coming out for years and if you want this ignored as much as it can be, we’re happy to take the bigger hit.”
Marc felt Liam’s hand squeeze his thigh as they both processed the gravity of what Hollander was saying.
“I don’t want you to come out for me.” Marc said. “For us,” he corrected quickly. “It’s already out there and, no offense Hollzy, but we already have fans.”
“Yes, you should see Instagram. They reposted a fan edit that caused lots of talk.” Ilya confirmed.
“Ilya!” Shane scolded, swatting his husband’s arm.
“Oh it’s okay.” Liam cut in. “We knew exactly what we were doing.”
Marc laughed. “Li made it himself.”
This time Liam blushed and nudged Marc hard enough he almost fell over.
Hollander was smiling at them when they looked back from each other to the phone.
“Listen Bergy, if we’d been brave enough to say something sooner, maybe you wouldn’t have even needed to hide it. As much as I’m more than happy to let you be the first, it’s about damn time for us.”
“How long?” Liam piped up, taking the opening to ask the question they both desperately wanted an answer to.
“A very long time.” Rozanov said dramatically at the same time as Hollander said “Since 2010.”
Marc’s brain didn’t know what to do with that information. Liam’s jaw literally couldn’t have dropped any further. And Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander were looking at each other like two people who were very much in love.
The boys sat there in shock for a moment while Hollander smiled at them.
“So if you’re okay with it, we’re happy to support you both publicly while also making an announcement that is long overdue.”
Marc felt his heart swell and he shifted his body to close the last few millimeters of space between himself and Liam. Two hours ago there had never been a single out player in the NHL, not even anecdotally within the league. By the end of the day there could be four? He looked at Liam with something between awe and hope in his eyes and waited for his nod of consent before turning back to Hollander.
“I think we could be okay with that.”
---
Later that night, when their plane had landed in San Francisco and the boys were finally home in their own apartment, Marc finally braved the landmine that was Instagram. There at the top of his screen was a new breaking news post, this one consensual.
An image of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov on their wedding day came first, then one of Shane and Ilya walking what the world knew as Rozanov’s dog at some lake, then a selfie of them with Hollander’s parents. There were several photos that spanned years, over a decade. There was also a screenshot of Shane’s caption in the carousel.
“This morning, ‘news’ broke that violated the privacy of someone near and dear to my heart. While I am saddened to see what counts as news these days, I was happy to share with him that he and his partner are not alone in what they are carrying. #HockeyIsForEveryone #LoveIsLove
To make sure I’m completely clear: I am gay. I have always been gay. And I am lucky to be married to the man I started falling in love with before I’d ever touched NHL ice. @marcholmberg, @liamyoung2 - we love you. We stand with you. We can’t wait to have you over this summer.”
Marc and Liam had also been tagged in Ilya Rozanov’s story, which was just a screenshot from later on in their FaceTime call, after Marc had pulled on Liam’s hoodie and Liam had smoothed out his hair a bit, with a short caption:
“Met my husband’s new child this morning. Very nice kid. We approve of the boyfriend.”
Marc laughed and reposted it to his own story with no comment other than a heart hands emoji. He texted his family group chat that he was home safely and would call tomorrow before their next game, as well as his new family group chat - Hollander, Rozanov, Liam, and himself. He followed up the ‘made it home safely’ message with a heartfelt thank you and selfie before letting Liam drag him into the shower where they took their time washing off the stress of the day and spent the rest of the night taking each other apart.
As he cuddled up with Liam in his coziest sweats after turning off the lights, he finally whispered the three words that had been on the tip of his tongue all month, earning himself one last kiss and an “I love you too.”