3: Three taps means can I

HÅKON

Three taps means can I.

We don't use it too often yet.

Rocket is working on his low blocker stops and asked me to spend a little time helping him practice. He's got to watch how much time I spend practicing with him, I'll get ridiculously good at shootouts and then what? You send out an enforcer defenseman to take a shootout?

"Fuck!" Rocket swears, rolling onto his back in front of his net, staring up at the ceiling. "My reaction time is just ass today, that's what I'm going to blame it on."

I lean over him, staring down between the squares of his helmet. "I'm going hard on you, that's probably another reason."

He frowns. "But if I can't stop your shit then that's bad because you're the shit I'm supposed to be stopping."

"Right, but-"

"Right." He puts his glove over his face. "Fuck."

"On another note," I poke him in the stomach with my stick. "Your other boyfriend and his girlfriend just walked in."

He breaks into a grin, sitting up and looking out the window at Steph and August.

"I'll bother them in a couple minutes, do you think now's a good time to tell him?"

"I think now is probably okay." I respond. He heaves out a breath and sits up, looking all big and cuddly in gear that I know absolutely reeks. I'd love to hug him but there's only so much Rocket+hockey B.O that I can handle. I really like the guy but gross. It's like the desire to pet a bear. I want to hug him so badly in all that because he just looks so squishy but lord I wouldn't be able to breathe without searing all the hair out of my nose.

"Take another couple shots at me, I refuse to go home before I stop at least ten in a row." He drops into ready position and I pull a puck back on my stick, giving him a quick snap of a wrist shot to his blocker side. I send five more as fast as I can, knowing my aim is spot on and knowing that the faster I can go the less time he'll have to react. It'll help him switch that from a mental command to instinct.

He gets six out of six.

"Better," I comment, kicking over the bucket of pucks. "Can you do it in alternation?"

He seems worried about that proposal but I'm shooting again before he's even got the the time to respond. Lower left hand, five hole, top of the net, bar, side bar, other side, glove high, glove low, blocker low, glove high, pad low, pad high, blocker high, blocker low, blocker high.

I finish the bucket and collect a rebound, headed right at him, a quick fake to the left gets him out of position but he's quicker than that, leaping toward me and jabbing the puck off my stick.

I skid to a stop behind the net. "Nice, only four are in here."

Rocket pulls off his helmet. "Are you trying to kill me?"

"No." I say it with a stupid cheeky smile.

He rolls his eyes. "Who knew having a boyfriend meant I want to strangle you half the time." He bends over, hands on his knees, a little winded. "God you're fast."

"Thanks," I tap my stick three times on the ice and he taps back twice.

I pull my helmet off and grab the cage on his, lifting it up over his head but not pulling it off.

He takes it from me instead, setting it in the net on top of the goal.

"I still wanna murder you," he whispers against my lips. "Can't resist a kiss but you piss me off."

"Go talk to Steph," I pull his chin up and kiss him again. "Can't have you strangling me before playoffs."

He just smiles. "I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

He pulls his hands out of his gloves and sets those on top of the net with his helmet, then skates to the door. I watch him hop out onto the rubber mat and then slip out the glass door to the main lobby. He disappears from my sight on his way over to rink four from this one. Nico and Fen are in the rink next to us, we've been hearing them going back and forth one-on-one for about an hour now.

Gage was here when we arrived but not in his gear, just skates with his girlfriend. Funny how a good portion of us come back to the rink every day to get in an extra hour or half hour of ice time even though we don't have to. I guess it says something about the program.

I collect all the pucks out of the back of the next and out from around the net, sending them back toward the bucket and I'm about to start picking them up when my phone goes off from the bench.

It's unusual, considering the only people that call me on a regular basis are Rocket when he's bored and Bernie when he has to ask Fen and I something.

It's Isa. Who normally texts me.

My first thought is that someone died, which is unlikely, but it was my first thought.

"Hello?" I pick it up.

"Hi HÃ¥ks," She's too peppy to be telling me that someone died, so that's good. "I gotta talk to you about the wedding."

Oh the wedding. Isa and Leo's wedding. "It's in three months, what about it?"

She sucks in a deep breath. "I need you to bring Rocket."

My heart about stops in my chest. "No, I'm not doing that. Just no."

"HÃ¥kon, this isn't a question."

"No, I can't, Isa I can't."

"Why not? I'm only getting married once, HÃ¥kon, I want you there with someone, I'm absolutely completely sick of you coming back home without anyone and I'm not letting you attend my wedding where all you're going to do is sit like a damn lump during the ceremony and then watch during the reception. No, no, absolutely not."

I lean against the boards. "Isa I'm not bringing him back with me."

"Then I'll ask him my damn self."

"Isa-" I warn.

"HÃ¥kon please just don't argue with me on this?" She tries again. "I really really can't stand you in that type of environment without him. I hate the environment and for fuck's sake I'm marrying in a heterosexual relationship. I can't see you go through another whole summer without some type of support system."

"Isa I'm not making you change your wedding to allow me to bring someone-"

"You've been marked with a plus one since we started planning at mom's accordance."

"Isa I-"

"Hey, HÃ¥kon?" She starts. "Did you know that severe long term mental strain can cause you to get sick? Normally with stomach unease and long periods of exhaustion."

"Is-"

"You know what upsets a stomach even more, HÃ¥kon? Red meat, milk products, things high in acids like salad dressing, certain sauces. Fish is also hard on the stomach, maybe also fruits and some vegetables." She starts lecturing. "I'm not stupid, HÃ¥kon."

"Well I'm not either and I know better than to bring a teammate home for your fucking wedding." I run a hand through my sweaty hair. "Someone's gonna figure it out and it's game over, no more me at family events."

"HÃ¥kon. Bring him home." She says. "I'll say we're going up to the cabin for a little alone time before the wedding to destress and then Leo and I will just stay home. Stay at the cabin with him until the day or so before the wedding and then just show up and he can go home right after."

I groan. "Isa, this, there's just so many ways it could go wrong."

"I'm literally refusing to allow you to come to my wedding without him. I'm your sister and in a few years when I show up to your wedding I'm bringing Leo. It's not going to be fun for you if you have nobody there for you."

"I can just, god, I can just ask Svea if she wants to come with me, we've been catching up a little recently. It'll be fine, we can just-"

"Svea is already coming with someone."

"What?"

"Svea and her girlfriend are coming because her girlfriend and Leo were close in college."

I set my elbows down on the tops of the boards. "Isa-"

The door bursts back open.

"Hold on for a moment." I mumble, turning around just in time to catch Rocket in my arms as he barrels toward me, laughing like an idiot and covered in ice snow.

"How did that go?" I set my phone down on the boards. He just laughs.

"Better than what I expected," he puts his hands on either side of my face and pulls me in for a kiss.

"Did he say anything?" I ask. "More importantly did you tell him it's me?"

"He figured it out without me telling him." Rocket responds, flicking his hair so it gets out of his eyes. "But he took it really well and didn't care and yeah, it's good, he's good. I mean, I knew he was going to be fine with it because he's always been fine with that and hell, Jilly came out to him earlier in the year and is now dating a girl and he's like really really good about that so I didn't expect him to freak out on me but like, I dunno, it's just nerve wracking anyway." He grabs the front of my jersey. "So, back to work?"

"I'm actually arguing with my sister right now about something so I'm gonna step out for a couple of minutes to finish that up." I kiss his head. "I'll be right back." I pick up my phone and start toward the door.

"I think you bumped speakerphone." the phone says out of nowhere. "I mean it's nice that Rocket got around to telling Steph."

"Isa! Hi!" Rocket shouts.

"Hi Rocks!" she yells back.

"Isa, I swear to god you better not go buddy buddy on Rocket to get me coerced into this." I grumble in Swedish, careful not to throw any english in there. Isa and I are both very fluent between English and Swedish so sometimes we just speak both at the same time to each other. The same thing happens with my parents except because my grandparents and relatives on my Dad's side are all Norwegian, he'll throw a few Norwegian words in there too. Mom doesn't know Norwegian so my dad will sometimes flip all the way over with Isa and I while planning something. When speaking, I'm trilingual, but I can't write a damn word of Norwegian.

"Rocket!" Isa yells through the phone. "C'mere buddy."

"Isa, no-"

"Yeah?" Rocket appears by my side.

"Can you steal me from him for a second? I gotta talk with you."

Rocket looks up at me for a second, then swipes the phone right out of my hand with what I'm reminded are some of the world's best reflexes.

"I hate you," I mouth at him.

He just smiles and flops onto his back on the ice. "Hey Isa? What's going on? What's up? I haven't talked to you in a good minute, maybe a week or so."

"A week?" I panic.

Rocket wiggled his eyebrows at me. "Me and your sister are good friends, HÃ¥ks."

My mouth drops open. "You-"

"So, what's up, what's going on? How's the wedding planning? Stressful? If you need any help I barely graduated high school but I know how to operate the base functions on a calculator."

She laughs. "Yeah, it's stressful but it's almost over, I don't need you to help with a calculator. Just over three months until the big day."

"Really? Just three months? That's close, damn."

She laughs. "Feels weird, how close it is."

"Well, I'll make sure this big oaf picks out a good suit, now, what are we arguing about?"

"Well, you can help him pick out a suit, sure, but do you want to pick one out for yourself?"

Rocket's eyes go wide. "Are you inviting me to your wedding? Isa I'd fucking love to."

She bursts out laughing. "I knew it. Now you just have to convince that big oaf of yours to agree to let you come."

He looks up at me. "Please?"

"Rocket," I sigh. "I don't think it's a good idea-"

"But the literal bride wants me there, you can't deny that type of wish." The little glint in his eye is telling me I'm about to lose this argument.

"Milo I don't think it's a good idea, especially with my family. If we were out to them like we are with your mom it would be better but I don't know how to excuse having a random teammate come with me. They barely even know the names of the guys on the team in the first place."

He shrugs. "Great, just say I'm a friend and that Isa was tired of you looking estranged so I came with. It'll be a good pitstop for me anyway. I've been meaning to suck it up and head to Czechia and just see if I can find the rest of my family that isn't just my mom for a couple years now and now I'm doing it."

I gape at him. "Rocket you can't just, what if-"

"We don't live long enough for what ifs, HÃ¥kon, I'm done doing that."

"Rocket there's a line between being bold and doing what's right for you and being absolutely fucking stupid. You're being stupid."

"No the hell I'm not." He responds. "So what if I head back to the Czech Republic and nobody's there? What if they all died tragically in a plane crash or some shit? At least I know. And if I go back and they still fucking hate me then so what, I've still got my mom, it doesn't matter. I wanna know and for fucks sake I wanna say hi to my brother at least one more time before I rot." He realizes the phone is still up to his head. "Oh, sorry about this, Is, I can always argue with him later about this same thing."

She clears her throat. "No problem, I mean, it's better to argue it out then let it go without discussing."

He looks up at me. "She knows what she's talking about, she's been dating the same guy forever."

Isa laughs over the phone. "So, is it a yes or no, are you going to bring him or not?"

I pinch the bridge of my nose. "Isa if they find out it's game over for all this. You know I wont be allowed home for the rest of my life."

"HÃ¥kon it'll be okay, alright? You're so good at keeping it down already it'll be okay. You only have to be with him around the family for a couple of days. I'll get the cabin and you can stay there until the night before the wedding, show up, attend the reception, and then he can fly out. They won't notice a thing and if they do, let me talk it out. They're not gonna mess up my day. Plus, I've been dying to get into an argument with our parents anyway."

I groan. "Not at my expense, Isa! I don't wanna end up, gah, there's so much at stake with all this."

Rocket sighs and sits up. "HÃ¥kon," he scrapes to standing, tucking the phone into the front of his jersey. His hands land on my cheeks. "I swear to god it'll be okay. I can even just be there in the same country as you for a couple of days, I don't have to show up to the actual wedding. If you suddenly decide you don't want me to go I can fuck off on some adventure north or something. Everything is up to you on what I do, when I do it, how it all happens because I'm the one that's comfortable with this and you're not therefore we follow your boundaries not mine." He breathes out.

My eyes drop from his. There's no reason for him not to go. We've held our shit together in a couple of press conferences and every single damn day with the team we've managed to avoid letting anyone know but people that we trust (and Jack and Paxy on accident). We have a system that seems to be working incredibly well and we're careful with the boundaries. We know what's a red flag from a mile away and he's my safe spot. I know he'll take some of the heat off spending time with my family and I know he'll really love to come home with me. "Fine."

"Hah!" Isa shouts from inside Rocket's chest pads. "Leo! Leonardo! Don't take HÃ¥kon's plus one off just yet, the bitch finally caved!"

I hear a whoop from the other side of the phone and my eyes go back to Rocket. "I swear to god." I mumble under my breath.

Rocket taps my cheek three times and I just nod and lean in, giving him a soft kiss.

"Alright, you two, I gotta go, but check in later and I'll give Rocket some details about what's going to happen yada yada, bye!"

"Bye." I respond and hear the phone click off.

Rocket looks up at me. "You're sure you want me there? You make the final decision."

I stare at him and his green eyes and soft expression. To be honest, I don't think I could force myself to handle this particular event without him. I know my family is bad and they only get worse about me dating as I get older. He'll be a good breath of air around all of it.

"Yeah, I want you there. I don't think I'd survive without you."

"Anywhere you need me I'll be there, you know that right?"

I nod. "Right. And anywhere you need me I'll try my best."

He pecks my cheek. "Obviously."

Three taps means can I.