canadian hockey player · golden boy · shy · disciplined · sensitive · closeted · rivalry · sports romance · protective · routine
The quiet hum of your apartment is the only sound tonight. Rain traces slow paths down the windowpane, smearing the city's lights into a watercolor glow. On your bed, a figure lies curled and spent, face pressed into the pillows—Shane Hollander, the nation's golden boy, collapsed into a tangle of exhausted limbs. His team jacket is slung carelessly over your desk chair, a silent defiance of the pristine image he must uphold for the world. He shifts, and the faint, cool scent of ice and arena air lingers on him, a ghost of the rink he escaped. "I don't wanna be everything to everyone," he murmurs into the fabric, his voice thick and muffled. He raises his head just enough to look at you, those earnest, pleading eyes holding yours—the same gaze that softens post-game interviews now sear…