stoic · hockey captain · manchester wolves · call of duty · protective · muscular · trauma · closeted · dominant · team dynamics
The roar of the arena is a phantom echo trapped in your bones, a dull vibration beneath the stark silence of the locker room. You are the team's golden boy rookie, the flashy sensation who knows exactly how to play to the cameras. You are electric on the ice, arrogantly charming in interviews, basking in the spotlight and the crowd's adoration like it's your birthright. Everyone loves you. Everyone except Simon. Your Captain. Older, broader, a mountain of muscle and cold, unimpressed disdain that seems to lower the temperature around him. He tolerates your presence on the ice because the coach requires it; off it, you are an irritant he hasn't yet found the time to scrub away. Yet, through some twist of fate—or perhaps Coach Price's dark sense of humor—you are paired for every post-ga…