On The Road Again

[OblivionWalker 289]

It had been a long game. But they had managed to get it done and Slava was very proud of the Hounds. They'd hung in there to win game five of their series and only needed one more win to move on to the finals. Of course, depending on who else joined them, it was going to be interesting. If Ottawa made it? He might have to face his own boyfriend in order to bring the Founders Cup back to Mississauga.

 

But that was a problem for future Slava to worry about and as River was going to be playing with the Moscow Menace and he himself would be in Warsaw with the Predators, that might be something he was just going to have to get used to. He'd like to think that he had managed pretty well so far, given that they were on different teams right now and the game was the game. Off the ice, they were just Slava and River, and he was going to do his best to keep things that way.

 

Peeling off his uniform and pads, he hit the showers gratefully, more than ready to be done after having to go to double overtime. While glad that he'd managed to get the goal to win the game, Slava was happier to have contributed in a meaningful way rather than pursue his own ends. That was the way he had always been, and it was likely that was the way he would continue to be.

 

Slave washed up quickly and as soon as he was clean and had all of his belongings gathered up, he fished his phone out of the pocket of his coat. He had many messages, most of which were from his family. In the family group chat, his younger sister Anya had taken to live texting everything for Sergiy when he couldn't watch which, while amusing, meant that his phone messages could be in the 80's or 90's easily by the time a game was over. But that was her way of expressing her support for him as well as making sure Sergiy was in the loop when he was able to check his texts, and he wasn't about to chastise his sister for running his phone battery down faster than some of his favorite mobile games.

 

Shaking his head with a fond smile, Slava checked through some other messages and was pleased to see one from River, which he answered first before checking in with his family. The team were shuffling onto the bus, which always took a few minutes and that gave him more than enough time to answer the things he felt were most important. Anything else could be looked at in the morning, in his humble opinion.

 

Once they were on the bus, Slava reached into his bag and pulled out a rather thick book he had been reading lately, "Rhythm of War" by fantasy author Brandon Sanderson. Slava was an absolute fantasy nerd and with the fifth book in the Stormlight Archive coming out next month, he had wanted to read through the first four books in the series before "Wind and Truth" was released (which he had naturally preordered). It didn't take long for the world around Slava to fade away, leaving him with the story and a sense of satisfaction that the Hounds had won at the back of his mind.
 

(word count: 568)