Work Text:
ILYA
This is Hayden. Team bbq at 3:00 at my house! Be there! Time to celebrate the end of the regular season before we take off for New York tomorrow night. (We’re gonna crush the Admirals!) All players and their friends and family welcome. We’d love to have you!
Ilya stared at the message.
Hayden was inviting him to a barbeque to celebrate the end of the season in Montreal.
Hayden…Pike? That couldn’t be right.
But the end of the season was tomorrow and the Metros would take off for New York to face the Admirals in the first round of the playoffs.
There was only one Hayden on that team.
Didn’t Hayden Pike hate him?
And even if he didn’t, weren’t these things usually just for the team, not the whole league? Ilya didn’t know whether or not to make fun of him for inviting the opposing team they’d be playing in their final game tomorrow. Probably? Maybe he couldn’t think of enough people to make up a party so he needed to invite the opposing players. The Metros were so boring they needed to invite the Raiders for their parties to be any fun.
But the Raiders had arrived this morning ahead of tomorrow’s final game of the season, so there was nothing technically stopping Ilya from going. And it was the first really nice day of the spring in Montreal. He wondered which of his teammates were going.
Haha you sure you want me there? Ilya asked. I might be too fun for your parties.
His phone immediately chimed a million times in a row.
YOU’RE COMING?
Best surprise ever
We’d LOVE to have you
My wife loves you already
I mean everybody loves you but my wife REALLY loves you
She adores you
I think you’ll love her
She’s the best
Please come so that she can finally meet you
And everyone else too obviously
Everyone will be so happy you’re there
Seriously they’ll be so excited
Guest of honor
<3
Please come!
Here’s the address:
Ilya stared at the messages. If he’d thought the first message was weird, these were off the charts. Hayden Pike’s wife loved him? Was this a weird sex thing? Ilya had never been able to resist a good time, but he wasn’t like that anymore. Hayden and his wife and her weird fantasies could go be weird somewhere else. Ilya was monogamous now. He could never regret that, but he couldn’t stop himself from continuing to stare at the words.
Why had Hayden Pike been so happy to tell him that? Was it a weird sex thing for him too? Ilya needed to figure out what it was so that he could make fun of him for it the next time they saw each other.
Which, actually, now that he thought about it, could be 35 minutes from now.
Ilya had nothing better to do.
He switched his phone to his chat with Jane.
Hayden invited me to bbq haha
I think I will come
There, he’d told Shane. If Shane really didn’t want him to come, he’d reply back and Ilya would stay back at the hotel and play video games with Connors like he’d planned. He wouldn’t even be offended. They didn’t really do things like that together, as thrilling as it was to think about.
Ilya showered, then changed, then did his hair, and he took his time doing it.
When he was done, there was still no text from Shane.
Well then, if he didn’t object…
It was 3:30 already. He hadn’t really meant to be this late. He pulled out his phone as he was walking out of the elevator and called Cliff.
“Are you going to Pike’s thing?” he asked when Cliff picked up.
“What?” Cliff asked, sounding distracted, “Sorry man I’m with a friend right now, is it important?”
Ilya grinned. Good for him.
“No man, enjoy your afternoon off.”
“You too,” Cliff replied, and then the line went dead.
Ilya shot off a text to Connors, but didn’t get a response. He was a goody two shoes, he’d probably arrived on time. Ilya had no idea who else would even have been invited, so he just called an Uber for himself.
When Ilya arrived, the party was pretty lively. It was clear from the street that everyone was hanging out in the backyard, so he just made his way through the open gate to join.
He nodded at a few of the guys from the Metros who he recognized. He got one smile from a rookie and three very confused looks.
Most of the people in the crowd he saw were probably friends and family of the team, so he didn’t recognize everyone. He didn’t immediately spot anyone from his own team either. But there had to be a friendly face somewhere.
It was a pretty big crowd, for the size of the yard. The music was bumping. For the first time in a very long time, Ilya was in Canada and it wasn’t freezing. It was a great vibe for a party.
Unfortunately the first person Ilya recognized was Hayden Pike. Unfortunate, because he was making a beeline towards Ilya looking angry.
What had Ilya done? He’d thought he was being nice by accepting the invitation.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Hayden asked in lieu of greeting. His voice was low. His face was loud, but probably no one else had actually heard the words he’d said because he wasn’t yelling.
Ilya laughed dryly.
“You invited me?” he asked. But he really was asking. What was going on?
A few people around were watching them with some interest. Ilya plastered on a fake smile. He really hadn’t come to make a scene, he’d come because he’d been invited. Or he thought he had.
“Of course I didn’t!” Hayden said. But it was more of a hiss. So maybe still no one heard them. His face was getting louder though. And redder. He gestured around. “It’s a Metros party, why would you be invited?”
“I thought-” Ilya began, but his answer felt too lame to finish. ‘I thought your party would be boring and you’d need me to make it interesting’ didn’t sound as good with a cheerful crowd around them. “I thought you would love to have me here,” he said. He was just about to add ‘I thought your wife would love to have me here,’ but he stopped himself just in time. Hayden didn’t look like he would be happy to hear that.
“I only invited the friends and family of the Metros players,” Hayden said, “Not you.”
There was something wrong here, and it was tickling the edge of Ilya’s consciousness. What was it?
“But you texted me,” Ilya said.
“I don’t even have your number,” Hayden said, “Someone else texted you. Let me see your phone, let me figure out who.”
No, there was really something wrong here. Alarm bells were starting to go off in Ilya’s head.
He reached his hand into his pocket and held down the power button on his phone for as long as he could grip it in his hand. He knew it would turn off, he just needed to give it time to power down before he pulled it out.
“Who exactly did you invite?” Ilya asked.
Hayden shrugged, exasperated. “My team? Our friends and family? Everyone here?”
“Yes,” Ilya said, “and who else?”
Hayden glared at him.
“Give me your phone. Who texted you?”
Ilya pulled it out of his pocket and tapped twice on the screen. There was, predictably, no reaction.
“Dead, sorry.”
“Great,” Hayden said dryly, “Your phone is dead. How convenient.”
“Who else did you invite?”
“I don’t know! All the wives and girlfriends.” Ilya could hear a ringing in his ears. “Even Shane’s.” Ilya’s looked around immediately. Where was Shane?
Hayden watched him as he scanned the crowd.
“Waaaiiit,” he said slowly. “Do you know her?”
Ilya turned back to him. He could feel that his eyes were wide.
“Do you know Lily?” Ilya still hadn’t actually said anything. “How do you fucking know Lily and I don’t?”
“I don’t know Lily,” Ilya corrected.
“Yes you do. You’re looking for her. You know what she looks like and you’re looking for her.”
“I don’t,” Ilya said.
At the worst possible moment, like he’d rolled a fucking Nat 20 on stealth, Shane showed up from the side without either Hayden or Ilya realizing it.
“Hey,” he said.
They both jumped a fucking foot in the air in surprise.
“What are you doing here, Rozanov?” he asked.
“It was a mistake,” Ilya said, “I came by mistake.”
“You came to Hayden’s house by mistake?”
Ilya opened his mouth to reply, but Hayden beat him to it.
“Shane, why does Rozanov know Lily and I don’t?”
Shane’s face whipped towards Ilya.
“You know Lily?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“I don’t. I have never met her. I have no idea who she is. Maybe I should go,” Ilya said. But before he could so much as think about turning back towards the gate, Hayden grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t even fucking think about it,” he said.
Ilya tried to fight him off, but nope, he wasn’t letting go.
Of all of the people to be basically holding hands with at a party, why did it have to be Hayden Pike?
“I don’t know her. Why would I know her?” Ilya asked.
“You were looking for her!” Hayden disagreed, “I know what I saw!”
“He said he doesn’t know her,” Shane said, “He doesn’t. Let it go.” He glanced at Ilya’s wrist. “And let him go, you’re being weird.”
Hayden ripped his hand away. Ilya nodded at Shane in thanks and rubbed his wrist. Shane didn’t acknowledge him.
“You guys are lying and I don’t understand why.”
“We’re not lying,” Ilya and Shane replied in unison, sounding exactly like two people who were definitely lying.
But of course, very technically, they were being perfectly truthful: Ilya had never met Shane’s girlfriend named Lily. That was, very technically, entirely true. Very technically.
Hayden stalked off, which left Ilya and Shane alone together. In the middle of a crowded backyard probably surrounded by a million cameras.
“What are you doing here?” Shane asked in a low voice. He didn’t sound angry, just stressed.
Ilya raised a pointed eyebrow and spoke under his breath.
“He texted Lily to invite her. I did not realize. I thought he invited me.”
Shane paled.
“How did he get your…”
“Stole it, I think,” Ilya replied.
Shane put a hand on the pocket that usually contained his phone but there was nothing there.
“Dammit,” he said in a whispered voice. “I don’t even have my phone. I have no idea where it is.”
He looked like, if he wasn’t on the verge of breaking down just yet, that he would be any moment. Ilya knew he needed to help him get out of here.
“Do you want to go?” Ilya asked.
Shane looked around, probably trying to figure out if they could escape together unnoticed or if he’d need that Nat 20 stealth roll again, and seemed to decide against trying.
“Give me three minutes. I’ll meet you out front.”
Ilya nodded once before turning and leaving the way he’d come.
-
HAYDEN
“J.J., the weirdest fucking thing that has ever happened at my house just happened, I’ve got to tell you.”
J.J. looked up from where he’d been relaxing on a lounge chair with a couple of people Hayden didn’t know. Hayden gestured for him to walk away with him, and J.J. did. The people he’d been talking to would survive.
“Ilya Fucking Rozanov showed up.”
“No.”
“That’s not the weirdest part. He knows Lily.”
“No!”
“He knows what she looks like. He was looking for her.”
“NO!”
“I KNOW.”
“How does Rozanov know her?”
“Did Shane introduce them?”
“No way, he wouldn’t have!”
Hayden threw his hands up.
“Then how could he know!”
“The fuck did Shane say?”
“Shane said he didn’t know her!”
“So he doesn’t?”
“I know what I saw man, that man KNOWS Lily.”
“Damn.”
“And Shane knows he knows. He was covering for him.”
“Why?!”
“I don’t know!”
“This is the wildest development I could possibly ever have imagined in this whole you-can’t-meet-Lily saga. Like it CANNOT get worse than this. He told ROZANOV? And not us?! This is as wild as it could possibly get.”
Hayden couldn’t help but laugh.
“I know!”
“Shane really knew?”
“Definitely.”
“Did he seem…mad about it?”
“What do you mean mad?”
“Like…you know Rozanov, he’s a player and a ladies’ man. Has he hooked up with her or something?”
They stared at each other for a second.
“She wouldn’t have,” Hayden said, but how sure could he be? He didn’t know her.
“I mean…” J.J. began, sounding approximately as sure as Hayden felt. Shane wouldn’t date that kind of girl, but Rozanov did have a certain reputation. As the legends went, he could land anyone he laid eyes on. No one was immune to his charms.
But LILY?
The sweet angel who probably had cinnamon macrobiotic cookies (was that a thing?) baking in her house at all times while she drank tea and read cozy mysteries?
The precious and hardworking girl whose dream was to build a library for orphans?
The award-winning volunteer at the local animal shelter who held the record for most kitten adoptions to senior citizens?
The loving girlfriend who spent her free time knitting Shane sweaters with her initials sewn into the hem? (Hayden would have to check the hemlines of Shane’s sweaters.)
Hayden just couldn’t imagine that the kind of girl Shane would fall in love with would also hook up with Ilya Fucking Rozanov.
“Hayden!” Jackie’s very chipper voice said from Hayden’s left, spooking both Hayden and J.J. Did she have Shane’s fucking loaded D20 to roll for her stealth too?
“Jackie!” Hayden said in a voice that he knew immediately was Way Too Bright.
“What’s going on?” Jackie asked, a very excited twinkle in her eye. “What have I missed?”
Hayden and J.J. looked at each other and nodded to each other. Hayden told her everything.
“Ilya Rozanov was here and he knows Lily and he and Shane tried to lie and say he doesn’t know Lily but he totally does!”
Jackie’s face went through a full rollercoaster of expressions: excited, horrified, exhilerated, vaguely nauseous, the world was upside down, and then excited again. Exactly like a roller coaster.
“Let me get this straight.”
Hayden and J.J. nodded.
“Ilya Rozanov knows Lily?”
“Yes.”
“And Shane’s knows he knows.”
“Yes.”
“But Shane didn’t introduce us.”
“Yes.”
“Just Rozanov.”
“Yes.”
“Maybe Shane needs to die for this,” Jackie said with a perfectly straight face.
J.J. looked like he was going to fall over laughing.
“That’s what I’m thinking!”
Jackie sobered up a little.
“It makes sense though.”
J.J. stopped laughing, and both he and Hayden looked at her.
“It makes sense?” Hayden asked. “How does it make sense?”
“Yeah, they both live in Boston.”
“They both live in Boston?” Hayden echoed, before saying more excitedly, “They both live in Boston!”
“You literally call her Boston Lily,” Jackie said, “I’ve never heard you call her anything else. You literally put her in your phone as ‘Boston Lily.’ And you know he plays for the Raiders. They both live in Boston.”
“You are a genius,” Hayden said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. Everything that she had said was a hundred percent correct. He also probably wouldn’t have made the connection for a month.
Jackie giggled.
“But how did they meet?” J.J. asked.
“Maybe it’s his sister!” Hayden said. He could contribute ideas too!
“Lily isn’t a Russian name!” Jackie said, “And besides, ‘Lily’ and ‘Ilya’ are way too similar, you wouldn’t have names like that for siblings. Their names are waaaay too close.”
“I married a genius,” Hayden said, just to make her smile again.
“Did she actually show up?” Jackie asked. “I still haven’t met her.”
“No,” J.J. said, “She did not come.”
“Bummer,” Jackie said.
“It’s so unfortunate that we thought Lily would show up and instead we got Rozanov. Tough luck all around.”
“Lily didn’t show up and Rozanov came instead,” Jackie echoed. Hayden and J.J. nodded. “Lily didn’t show up and Ilya came instead,” she echoed, as though she were saying something new. Hayden and J.J. nodded again, waiting.
“Where’s Shane?” She added.
“He left right after the conversation with Rozanov,” Hayden said.
“Did he leave…with Rozanov?” Jackie asked.
Hayden just stared at her.
“I don’t think so.”
Jackie looked like she was thinking, but she nodded quickly.
“Right, yeah, of course not.”
“Maybe he went to go see Lily somewhere far away from Rozanov,” J.J. suggested.
“But Rozanov had already left!” Hayden disagreed, “She could have come here and he wouldn’t have been here!”
He expected that Jackie would back him up, but she was kind of vaguely nodding. She looked like she was a mile away. Or possibly 250 miles away in Boston while she thought everything through.
“What are you thinking?” Hayden asked her.
Jackie focused in on him.
“I think…” she began, “I think I want to talk to Shane.”
“Okay, we can find him,” Hayden began, “He probably went home, but I can-”
“Let’s call him,” J.J. said.
They tried, but his phone was off.
Call me, Jackie texted when they didn’t get a response. I just want to make sure you’re okay.
The party went for three more hours. When they still hadn’t gotten a response by the end, Jackie started to worry. They’d called several more times, but his phone remained off.
“Should we go to his house?” Jackie asked, “Check on him there?”
“He’s a grown adult,” Hayden said, but he was kind of uncertain. Jackie opened her mouth to speak, but Hayden cut her off. “We are not calling his parents.”
Jackie’s eyes went wide.
“I wouldn’t!” But then she looked thoughtful. “I mean we could ask Lily if he’s okay.”
“We could make sure she is too, since she didn’t come. Something could have happened to keep her away which might explain why Shane had to leave,” Hayden said.
Jackie’s head sort of swiveled in a thoughtful but uncertain sort of nod. Hayden thought it was supposed to be a nod, anyway.
“I’ll text her,” Jackie said. “It’ll be between us girls.”
-
ILYA
Ilya checked in on Shane, but he still looked like he was asleep. It had taken him some time to relax, and Ilya had had to wear him out a little, but eventually he had gotten there.
When he went back to the living room, his phone had a new notification from a new unknown number.
Hey Lily, can you just let us know if Shane is okay?
Ilya wouldn’t respond. He really hadn’t meant to get involved. Shane could tell them that he was okay later. Despite what Hayden Pike probably thought, Ilya had no interest in messing up Shane’s personal life.
But after a few minutes, there were more messages.
This is Jackie
Hayden’s wife
We found Shane’s phone, he left it here
In the kitchen, so maybe when he was helping prep the food before the party.
We just want to make sure he’s okay and we have no way to reach him
Ilya caved. He hoped Shane wouldn’t mind.
He’s okay. He’s sleeping. I will tell him about the phone. Thank you.
There, that was good. He’d responded, so Shane’s friends wouldn’t be worried about him. That was good. Shane wouldn’t want his friends to be worried.
I think I understand what happened earlier.
Ilya stared at the message. He didn’t know Jackie Pike. Was this blackmail? Was it a threat?
I’m here if you need to talk about it.
Nothing else followed immediately.
Ilya thought through possible responses. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You don’t know anything. I have no idea what you’re talking about. But her words seemed really nice. She seemed like a nice person. Ilya had never met her, but he could tell that from these messages. Ilya knew from Shane that she was a really good friend to him. And now she was offering to be a good friend to Ilya, too.
He thought she was probably safe. This wasn’t blackmail, this was a friend. But he would have to tell Shane about the texts.
-
HAYDEN
“Shane!” Hayden called out the second Shane stepped out of his car in the parking lot.
He’d had Jackie drive him to the arena and then the two of them had waited in the parking lot two spots down from Shane’s usual spot. Hayden parked anywhere he felt like on any given day, but Shane always parked in the same place. And they’d managed to park as close as they could to that spot. They weren’t stalkers or anything, though.
“Hi,” Shane said, opening the back door of his car on the driver’s side and shouldering his bag. “Hi Jackie,” he added when he looked up and saw that she was here too. He closed the door and walked around behind the car to where they stood.
“Shame we missed Lily yesterday,” Hayden said. “She said she was going to come and we were really looking forward to it.”
Shane froze, both his body and his expression. He looked lost, and like he had no idea how to respond. The silence seemed endless.
Hayden felt bad. But he also wanted an answer. He could wait.
“But we’re okay with that!” Jackie said quickly, apparently not wanting answers as badly as Hayden did. Which was funny, because this conversation had been her idea. She’d said that she needed to see Shane’s face while Hayden talked to him about it. “It’s okay if we never meet Lily and if Lily’s identity needs to stay a secret forever.” Hayden and Shane both just stared at her for a long moment. “We are completely okay with that, okay?”
“Okay,” Shane said weakly.
“We’re okay with that?” Hayden asked Jackie, “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” Jackie said.
“But you said-” Hayden began.
“I know what I said but I’m saying something different now.”
Hayden blinked twice at her.
“Okay, I guess we’re okay with that.”
Jackie smiled a tight, closed mouthed smile at Hayden.
“Good, thank you that we’re on the same page about that.”
We are? Hayden thought, but he knew better than to say anything like that out loud.
“Shane,” Jackie said, in a much softer and less tight voice like she was speaking to a scared kitten, “If you need to talk to anyone about anything, you can talk to me. You can trust me.”
Shane closed his eyes. It wasn’t that same petrified frozen look anymore thankfully, but what Jackie had said had caused him to close his eyes. That was the exact opposite of Hayden’s reaction, which was to widen his eyes and go “What-?” but Jackie shook her head quickly.
“There’s nothing going on, but if Shane needs a friend to talk to-”
“You can trust me, too,” Hayden added quickly, trying to be supportive. But he was really missing something and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was.
Jackie was being weird, but Shane didn’t look confused about it. He looked almost…resigned? But that didn’t make sense because what Jackie was saying didn’t make any sense. What was there to be resigned about except maybe confusion? Hayden was feeling pretty resigned to the fact that he was confused right about now.
Shane said nothing, to either of them. His eyes were still closed, but his head was bowed slightly. He was taking deep breaths.
“It’ll be okay,” Jackie said. “Your secret is safe. You’re safe. No one will ever have to meet Lily if you don’t want them to. Okay?”
“Okay,” Shane said, finally opening his eyes and turning to Jackie. And then he whispered, “No one can know.”
No one can know what?!
But something big and important was happening and Hayden was pretty sure he shouldn’t interrupt.
“No one will ever know unless you want them to, okay?” Jackie asked. Shane’s eyes flicked to Hayden for the the barest of seconds.
“No one,” Jackie repeated emphatically.
Did they mean Hayden? What was going on!
But the thing with Jackie was she was entirely trustworthy. And a good friend to Shane. So she probably wouldn’t tell Hayden whatever it was that she mysteriously knew that Shane didn’t want Hayden to know. And Hayden would be a bad friend and a bad husband if he tried to force her to tell him.
“Okay,” Shane finally said. He was still looking at her. “Can I go into the arena now?”
They all laughed a little.
“Yeah, you can go in,” Jackie said with a smile.
“Should I-” Hayden began, but Jackie cut him off.
“Go get ready for your game, I’ll see you after.”
Hayden followed Shane into the arena three paces behind for the first ten steps, then caught up with him and made sure to chat about anyone and everyone they knew other than Lily and Shane’s confusing secret keeping bestie Ilya Rozanov.
-
“Pssst,” Hayden said to J.J. after the game.
J.J. followed him immediately out into a little hallway.
“Look, I’m not supposed to talk about this, but I just can’t not.”
“What?” J.J. asked.
“Well, that’s just the thing, I don’t know! I have no idea!”
“What?!” J.J. replied, looking confused. But that was fair, Hayden was confused too.
He relayed everything that he knew about what had happened so far.
“Okay so let me get this straight,” J.J. began. “From the beginning: You invited Lily to the party. Lily did not show up. You did not invite Rozanov. Rozanov showed up.”
“Yes,” Hayden agreed.
J.J. started pacing in the little hallway.
“And then Rozanov knew Lily and Shane knew that he knew her and they lied about it to cover it up.”
“Yes.”
“And then Jackie said Shane should die for keeping that secret from us but telling Rozanov.”
“Well she didn’t really mean-” Hayden began, set on defending his wife, but J.J. had already moved on.
“And now she doesn’t care about meeting Lily and says it’s fine if we never do.”
“Right.”
“And Lily and Ilya both live in Boston so it makes sense that they know each other but they aren’t siblings and they have maybe hooked up.”
He was going to wear a track into the floor in the eight foot line he was pacing.
“Also yes.”
“Okay and Shane wouldn’t admit that Rozanov knew Lily and wouldn’t just explain it.”
“And they lied about it in sync, like they said it at the same time like it was rehearsed.”
“And suddenly Jackie doesn’t care.”
“Yes,” Hayden said for what felt like the millionth time.
“But she knows something.”
“Yes, and I don’t know what,” Hayden said, frustrated.
“And you can’t ask her, because you can’t make her betray Shane.”
“That’s right.”
“But you and I can try to figure it out because then she does not have to betray Shane.”
“Right!”
“Because it is okay if we are bad friends and do this?”
“We’re not…okay maybe that’s right too.”
J.J. stopped in his tracks.
“He would not want us to know. Maybe we shouldn’t try to find out,” he said.
Hayden nodded sadly.
“I feel like it’s staring us in the face. It’s right there, so close I can almost feel it, but I can’t quite get there. We’re missing something. But I won’t try to figure it out.”
-
One month later, Hayden was sitting in the TV room long after the kids had gone to bed. He was sort of lazily watching SportsCenter while only half listening as he scrolled on his phone.
He picked up the TV remote and looked up at the TV to turn it off, but noticed that they were talking about Ilya Rozanov’s decision to sign with the Ottawa Centaurs.
They were displaying his stats on the screen. One Stanley Cup win, three MVPs, led the NHL in goals scored three times and in assists twice. Hayden stopped reading and focused in on his name, which was sitting right there at the top of the list above his stats.
Huh.
“Ilya” really did look a lot like “Lily.”
They were made up of almost the same letters. Just in a different order.
He could hear the echoes of a past conversation flashing through his head.
Their names were similar.
They both lived in Boston.
But now Rozanov had moved to Ottawa, which was very close to Montreal.
He’d said Hayden had invited him to the party but Hayden didn’t think he had.
Hayden had invited Lily, and she’d never showed.
Lily’s identity had to stay a secret.
Hayden gasped. Jackie was never going to believe this.
WAIT. Jackie already knew.
“JACKIE!” he called out into the silent house. He went running to find her.