Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types

Relationship:

Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau & Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Ilya Rozanov, Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau, Connors (Heated Rivalry)

Additional Tags:

Coming Out, Team as Family, Marlow is an ally

Language:

English

Collections:

Drabbles for Dopamine

Stats:

Published: 2026-05-14 Words: 1,284 Chapters: 1/1

The Other Man

Summary

Cliff just wants to go out for dinner with his bro. He didn't sign up to provide therapy.

Notes

I have decided that this is Book-Accurate Cliff Marlow, who's a year younger than Ilya. He is also Hockey-Accurate in that he has two brain-cells and he needs both of them for hockey so there's nothing left over. We still love him

“God, man, can you be normal about Roz for like five minutes?”

Cliff thought that St-Simon’s comment was a little uncalled for. After all, nobody was really normal about Ilya Rozanov. A beast on and off the ice, and even the weird moods that he’d started to cultivate made him interesting, rather than annoying.

“Well, have fun on your date, or whatever.”

“Shut up, we’re just having dinner somewhere actually nice for once. It’s not gay for two guys to be friends.”

“Yeah, yeah.” St-Simon waved from the bed and Cliff flipped him off before snatching the spare key off the side and heading out the door. Roz was only a couple of doors down, and he had barely knocked when the door opened.

“Oh, hey Marley. Have fun. See you later.” Connors darted out of the room in a rush, barely stopping to speak, and was stood in front of the elevator before Cliff had really registered what was happening.

Cliff stepped into the hotel room. The main lights were off, though the blinding brightness of the bathroom light against stark white tile made Cliff squint as he passed through the beam. It was just enough illumination for Cliff to see the whole room, and specifically Roz, laid on top of the bed, barely half dressed.

Cliff closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Roz didn’t often get like this, but this season had been strange. Roz seemed to bounce back and forth between hyper-excited and deeply despondent, and in the second case there was often very little that anyone could do to snap him out of it.

“Hey Roz, you still coming out?”

“Go without me Marley,” came the voice out of the darkness, and Cliff sighed.

“Nope, yet your ass up or let mine in. Come on.”

“I’m not in the mood, just fuck off.” Roz’s voice almost sounded like he was going to cry, and Cliff just rolled his eyes where Roz couldn’t see and kicked his sneakers off. He jumped onto the bed next to Rozanov, who’s phone lit up for a moment with an incoming text.

Jane: I’ll call you as soon as the game is done. Love you.

Shit. Montreal Jane. Breaking out the ‘I Love you’s? What the fuck was this guy’s problem?

“Not even your beautiful girl got you to cheer up?” Cliff asked. Roz grabbed the phone and looked at the glowing lockscreen for a few moments, his eyes getting comically large and sad the longer he looked at it.

“Hey. Fucking hell man, you miss her that bad?”

“Very much. We do not see each other often. Or if we do, it means I’m… Well, it doesn’t matter.”Ilya dropped the phone back on the bed, but the screen was still up, the lingering notification staring at Cliff.

“Hey, fuck man. You really hard up about this one, hey?”

“We, uh, made it official. Boyfriends now,”Roz said. Cliff decided not to correct his English.

“Oh shit man, congrats. I mean, half the guys are already married and shooting out kids by the time they’re thirty so you’re on a roll, but fuck this is huge for you.”

“Is huge for my Jane too. Was never… serious with anyone else.”

“How long you two been together now? Feels like you’ve always had your thing in Canada.”

“Since, uh, before first season. I have known Jane longer than I have known you.”

“Ah, fuck man. That’s intense. But she, what, wasn’t good enough?”

“Is, uh. Complicated. But I have met parents now. We were at the Cottage for the summer. I had a great time.”

“And she’s still not met the team, damn son.” Cliff smiled to himself. He did know this about Roz: if he was in a shitty mood, it was a text from Jane that got him feeling better.

“If I tell you a secret about Jane will you promise to not tell?” Roz asked, after a long moment of silence between them.

“Sure man. You can tell me shit. I don’t have to share it around the barn.” Cliff felt Roz turn his head and could imagine the incredulous look that levelled at him. “I can totally keep a secret!”

“Tell that to Gonzy and his hair removal cream.”

“Fuck off that wasn’t a serious secret. You laughed too.”

“Yes, but only because he is a baby who cannot even grow a playoff beard yet—why does he need to remove hair?” Roz chuckled to himself, but his shoulders stayed tense. “No, this is a big secret. Could be dangerous secret. For Jane and for me.”

Cliff stayed silent. He didn’t want to spook Roz. It felt like he was in the presence of a stray dog.

“Jane is… not really Jane. That is not her name. That is not… his name.”

Cliff frowned for a moment, sure he’d misheard.

“…his?” he clarified. He felt Roz nod in the darkness. Cliff let out a long breath, blowing hard between his lips. “Woah.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

“Shit, and you’ve been together for nine years?”

“Nearly ten now. All our adult life.”

“So Montreal jane is a guy that lives in Montreal?”

“Yes, Marley.”

“Woah.” Cliff kinda wished that he had something more to say. “Wait, have we been, like, cheating on Jane?”

“I don’t know Marley have you been sucking my dick in your sleep?”

“No I mean like, we’ve been going out and having nice dinners and shit together. And we did that paintball thing the two of us. Are you cheating on Jane with me?”

“Just because I also like guys does not mean that I like you. If you can be friends with Jamey’s wife I think you can manage being friends with a bisexual.”

“Oh. Yeah. Okay, that’s fair.”

They sat in silence for e few minutes longer.

“We don’t, uhh. We don’t have to stay friends. If I make things weird.”

Cliff sat up and turned to switch on the bedside light. Roz had curled himself up a little more, and was looking at him with genuine fear in his eyes for a moment.

“Ah fuck, come here.” Cliff opened his arms and grabbed Roz up in a hug, pulling the other man roughly despite his tension. Cliff held him tight for a long moment, feeling Roz gradually relax under the pressure until he eventually lifted his own arms to reciprocate.

Once Cliff decided it had started to get weird, he let go, but he didn’t let Roz lie back down.

“Shit, did you guys see Scott Hunter and decide to make it official?” Predictably, at the mention of Hunter, Roz frowned.

“No. I am much more cool and interesting than Scott Hunter.” Roz paused, then sighed. “Well, I was packing to go back to Russia when watching the final. I saw, and then I called Jane to say I was coming to visit. So… maybe.” Roz held up a finger, threateningly. “But you say anything about this to Hunter and I will bribe kit guys to forget your spare sticks.”

Cliff couldn’t help but laugh. Of all the parts of this whole situation to threaten him over, that was what Roz picked.

“Sure, man. Whatever. Now are we still going out for dinner or are we gonna stay in and watch Montreal get absolutely wasted by the Queens?”

Roz looked at his phone, smiled, then looked up at Cliff. “I think I will get full recap when I get back from Jane. He is big Metros fan, travels to lots of their games.”

“Oh shit! Fuck man, I want you to tell me all about him. Come on, it’s on me.”