Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Heated Rivalry (TV)

Relationships:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike, Hayden Pike/Jackie Pike

Characters:

Hayden Pike, Jackie Pike, Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov

Additional Tags:

MTV's Catfish, Crack Treated Seriously, Texting, Fluff and Humor, Miscommunication, Good Friend Hayden Pike, Identity Reveal, Coming Out, Hayden Pike Finds Out About Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, POV Hayden Pike

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-03-08 Words: 7,931 Chapters: 1/1

Hi Lily, This is Hayden Pike from MLH's Catfish

Summary

Hayden knows he's not the smartest guy in the world. He's got a decent hockey IQ — good enough to make him the Metros second round draft pick the year before Shane — but he doesn't read for fun like some people. He's street smart, and if this Tracie chick can be a movie star and get cat-fished that means it can happen to any celebrity.

Maybe even a celebrity that lets his momager handle the bulk of his social media.

Maybe especially his sweet, sheltered friend who has a secret girlfriend he's never let anyone see. Or told how they met. Or even video-called — fuck regular called — in the hotel room he shared with his best friend and teammate.

Notes

Using the iMessage Skin from Azdaema Codes thank you!!

It's hard to tell if it's a re-run or not.

There's something about hotels that make everything on the television feel like something he's already seen before. Maybe he travels too much, that he's seen the same furniture and the same white sheets and the same blandly pretty wall art so many times that even the TV is starting to look like one more thing that's just there.

It's like a lime space, or whatever fancy word Jackie or Shane would find to use.

Or maybe it's just that even a show as dramatic as this one with the secret identities and naive reality stars, and crazy reveals is still basically the same every episode.

But it's this or Beat Bobby Flay and something about that guy's face skeeves him out. So Catfish it is.

Hayden isn't ashamed, exactly, to admit that he's halfway through his second rerun before he realizes he's in the middle of a marathon. Ruby's been sleep regressing, Jackie is at the stage of her pregnancy where she gets heartburn from a bad dream, and he never sleeps well on the first night of a road trip. He's not been watching so much as appreciating the bromance between Nev and Max, it makes him wish Shane was here watching with him.

And, well, once his brain is there…

Hayden knows he's not the smartest guy in the world. He's got a decent hockey IQ — good enough to make him the Metros second round draft pick the year before Shane — but he doesn't read for fun like some people. He's street smart, and if this Tracie chick can be a movie star and get cat-fished that means it can happen to any celebrity.

Maybe even a celebrity that lets his momager handle the bulk of his social media.

Maybe especially his sweet, sheltered friend who has a secret girlfriend he's never let anyone see. Or told how they met. Or even video-called — fuck regular called — in the hotel room he shared with his best friend and teammate.

Does Shane even know how to reverse image search?

Hands fisted in the sheets, he focuses on the drama unfolding on screen with an intensity he doesn't even give tape review.

This is more important. And if he holds onto the bed like he's scared he'll fall off that will keep him from texting Shane.

He's never been so annoyed to be in Boston.

A third episode rolls and it's like Shane's shit couldn't be more textbook if it had been scripted for MTV. He was just another poor sucker getting strung along by a stranger. He was out on the streets of Boston waiting to meet up with a girl who wasn't gonna show up, once again. Every time he stayed out later and later, but he always came back flushed and flustered, embarrassed and unwilling to talk about how he'd obviously been stood up.

Shane always played like a beast after, probably trying to show Lily what she was missing out on.

Didn't feel worth it to him.

Well, okay, it was still a win against Boston. But he didn't love that it came at the expense of his buddy.

Like that thought summons him, Shane bursts into the hotel room, the door slamming against the wall in a way that only seems to fluster him more. His hair stands at an angle, he's obviously been tugging at it, his hoody hangs uneven at his shoulders, Shane always tugs at his sleeves and collar when he's anxious.

And pale tracks haunt his face even with the flustered blush. Shane's been crying.

If there was any hesitant doubt in his mind it's gone now. Shane doesn't cry. Not even when he held Jade for the first time and Hayden told him they wanted him to be the twins godfather. He just got that wide, wet eyed look he gets when he's holding back big feelings.

"Everything okay, buddy?"

Shane has the kind of face Hayden hopes his daughters inherit — yes, he knows they aren't actually brothers and that's not how anything works — where guilt and all his messy, unfamiliar emotions flicker across the surface before he can remember how he should mask them.

"I'm fine?" Shane lies.

Hayden decide he's going to leave it there. Shane's like a bear trap, one wrong step and he'll snap shut. And he's willing to consider the idea that sleep deprivation may have him putting too much trust in the reality part of reality television. But then Shane adds, "Do you want to stop for coffee on the way to the rink? It's no Timmies but I want to see if that shit they've got Rozanov shilling is as disgusting as it looks."

Honestly, he'd be less shocked if Shane had pulled the whisky from the minibar and downed it in front of him. Shane Hollander suggesting coffee instead of tea? A sugar bomb before they play a game? Before they play Boston? Maybe Lily had shown up and replaced his friend with a pod person.

"Are you…" He doesn't get the chance to figure out how he was going to finish that sentence, whether he was asking if Shane was alright or okay.

"Let me go to the bathroom and then we can go. I want to make sure we're back soon enough to change before getting on the team bus to the arena."

Well that sounded a bit more like him, Shane was always waiting at the door of their travel bus, taking roll and note of how everyone was looking before the game.

But the strangeness of everything else is too much. And he's the kind of guy that can't help but peek at his Christmas presents, temptation is hard to resist when he's got his best friend's heart to think about.

Which is to say he's got Shane's phone in his hand the second the bathroom door is shut.

1410, he's watched Shane type the passcode enough it comes to him without much thought. Hayden was pretty sure Yuna's birthday was in November, begging the question is Lily a Libra or have they been together that long?

Lily 💛

Lily

i am sorry about today

Shane

It's not a big deal

Lily

next time will be different

you send me what we talked about

Shane

Of course

Lily

💙😊

She stands up Shane and immediately asks for gifts? Hayden hasn't hit a woman before, but it would be sexist not to, right? It's the direction his winger instincts are calling him.

At the sound of the sink running, Hayden dumps the phone back on to the bed. With a sharp stab of regret he thinks he should have take a picture of the exchange. For proof? Evidence? Intervention? Maybe all of the above. Something settles deep in his chest as he meets Shane's smiling face, the same feeling he got when he saw Shane wringing his hands in the locker room his first day on the team or when the team tried to force him into a drink on a night out.

Hayden's gonna need a longer look at that phone if he's getting to the bottom of this.

For someone as guarded about everything as Shane is, he leaves his phone laying around a lot.

Sure, it's password protected, which is more than Hayden could say about his own until a couple moths ago — at least it was only JJ who'd grabbed it — but he's prone to just leaving it sitting in his locker.

Like now, while he's in a last minute captain's meeting with Theriault.

It works in his favor, sure, but would some consistency kill the guy.

That same protective blood lust takes over as he grabs a picture of the screen and messages he's already read. Scrolling back he sucks in a gasp, startled by the sudden appearance of Rozanov's smug face in the chat.

"Why do you have Capitaine's phone?"

His outburst and snooping noticed by JJ, Hayden waivers between truth and lie before settling with, "Time sensitive question from Yuna."

JJ nods, returning to whatever conversation he was having with Drapeau of all people, and Hayden feels a flash of vindication about his lie. If JJ didn't know there wasn't a chance in hell of Yuna Hollander texting Shane about something that could throw off his game he definitely didn't need to know about the catfish theory.

They had reached a point, finally, where if Hayden came at it sideways enough Shane didn't immediately deny that there is anyone in Boston even named Lily. Which he had started to assume basically meant he should start preparing a best man speech. Now he wishes he could pretend he'd never heard of the girl.

Prepared and unobserved again, he skims this new conversation with Lily that started with her sending a screenshot of Rozanov's fucking blue steel from the cover of this year's chel.

Lily 💛

Lily

you get?

Shane

Obviously

Lily

didn't you win cup this year? yuna hollander is not on the phone with EA?

Shane

Everyone knows that cover is just to soothe the fragile ego of bad players

Lily

🙄

so you'll be on it next year then just say this

Shane

When I am I'll send you a copy for everyone on the Raiders

He's surprised, or maybe not, that Shane is so… rude? Rude, to the girl he's been practically in love with for the last two years. But given that he's not even sure Lily is a real person, the conflicted feelings muddle into something like pride that his quiet friend could get off a left-right punch nailing both the Raiders and getting the last word with Lily.

There isn't enough time to think about that pride now though. The game will start soon, and Shane's ritualistic pre-game routine will have him squirming out of the office any minute. He scrolls back through their conversations, his phone hovering an awkward distance above the screen snapping pictures at each random pause. He's not reading, there's no time, but for as sporadic a texter as Shane is Hayden doubts he's missing much information or context.

After scrolling for minutes, easily, the thread still goes further, he's not even sure if he's out of this year yet. Shane is the kind of guy to call to set up plans, texting takes too long for simple things and there's always a tone to figure out, apparently. His own text thread with Shane is probably half this long for this reason, even with the kid pictures he's constantly spamming. If they set up dinner or babysitting it's a call and then a text with the time so it's written down too.

So they're just texting?

Or is this another one of those catfish things? Lily won't let him call because she doesn't sound like she should? He really needs to study more if he's going to get to the bottom of this.

With 20 new pictures on his phone and the knowledge that he's given himself a homework assignment, Hayden slips Shane's phone back into his cubby just in time to see him walk back into the locker room from wherever he and Theriault had hidden themselves away.

Good, because the first thing he does is grab the thing, firing off a message and biting back his smile at the near instantaneous reply.

Lily must be watching tonight, even though she couldn't bother to show up to their date.

He hates it, but Shane's going to play like a beast tonight.

In a show of restraint he'd brag to Jackie about, if he thought she'd believe it, Hayden makes it until they're off shift in the 2nd period before he says anything. Shane's eyes are locked on the ice, Roz is off shift but their second line is giving the Metros a run for their hard earned 1-0 lead. Tapping their helmets together, he waits until Shane nudges back before he asks his question.

"Hey Shane, do you ever send Lily gifts?"

He tenses every muscle from the knee down, he knows that Shane still has a low-ball 75% of his focus on the game in front of him, but it's hard to know if he came at the question sideways enough that Shane will actually answer. It's hard hoping to rely on game-honed instinct, Shane needing to do everything — even respond — fast and at gut level.

"What'd you forget you and Jackie's anniversary or something?"

"Obviously not," he forgets subtly in the face of the instinctual offense that he could ever forget an important Jackie related date. He's already got flowers scheduled for every birthday, wedding anniversary, and babymoon-iversary for the next ten years.

But then he remembers he has a goal here, "A guy can't ask his best friend for ideas on how to surprise his wife."

His shoulders may be around his ears, but Shane is too much of a sucker for praise of any kind to not smile a little at the comment. God, it's no wonder he's getting taken for a sucker by this Lily chick.

"I don't think Jackie's going to be into the kinds of things I get Lily," he says.

"Well, what-"

"She's flying out for the Nashville game, right?" He interrupts before Hayden can steer them back to Lily. "For the, wh, before…"

"Arthur."

"Right, your baby vacation." Shane is already standing, anticipating the line change that was coming to put an end to this conversation. "Get her something to read on the plane, I saw something she'd like." He's racing onto the ice, to face off with Rozanov, with a promise to send it to Hayden for her.

There's four days until they play Nashville, Hayden has bought seasons 1-3 of Catfish on iTunes so he can cram before devoting his attention to his beautiful wife for the three consecutive days they managed to get together.

A little nausea as he battles car sickness is a price he's willing to pay for Shane. And the car sickness is to blame for the way his stomach clenches and rolls with each new episode, not the loneliness and quiet desperation he keeps seeing on his screen.

It's hard not to put Shane there. A frog in a boiling pot, accepting the same flimsy and repeated excuses because he wants the scraps Lily is giving. Had Hayden not tried hard enough to find him someone? Shane had been against being set up almost since the moment they met, had it been Lily that long or should he have pushed harder?

He keeps watching, playing spot the difference with each featured couple. Note taking wasn't his specialty a lesson hard learned in his one attempt at online college his rookie season, but now his fingers itch for a pen to keep track of what he's learning. Interrupting the marathon for his notes app is unthinkable and really so is keeping a physical record when he's sharing a room with Shane. Even if he spends the whole time talking to Lily that would probably be too much to ignore.

It's there on this phone to come back to. Hayden can sit here with his head leaned back and his eyes squeezed shut, as the team bus drives them down to their next game in America, to fight the car sickness not to avoid having to watch what keeps happening on his screen.

A pattern starts to emerge after a while.

He's not a goalie or Shane Hollander so they're categories about as complex as the shape sorting puzzles he's ready to pull out of storage for Arthur. The square goes in the square hole and, god, he hopes Shane Hollander goes in the 'already suspicious they're being cat-fished' hole.

Because the alternatives are 'completely in denial' or 'aware and can't get out.'

But maybe he should be more worried about what box Lily fits into. 'Honest, but insecure' would be good. Shane was soft, for a hockey player, the team would give him shit if his girl was a butter face, but if there was a guy who could overcome that it was Shane.

'Stalker' feels more likely, but what is a puck bunny but a stalker they all agree is fine? It's better than 'out for revenge/blackmail.' He's convincing himself that one is the least likely, it's Shane after all. Canada's Golden Boy. Hockey's Perfect Man. He doesn't chirp or fight and rarely says no to anything asked of him in the right way. What dark secrets could he be hiding? He forgot to thank a stewardess for his ginger ale?

It's the kind of uncertainty he knows will only be solved by actually looking at the texts he stole photos of. The excuses to hold off have run out now that he's halfway through season 2 and Shane's disappeared into the hotel gym.

It's now or never

Lily 💛

Lily

you want to come

Shane

Yes

Please

Lily

😈

i will think about it

Shane

Lily

that is a dirty trick you know i love when you beg

Shane

Can I?

Lily

you are in boston next week think you can wait

Shane

No

Please

Lily

ok i will call

Lily 💛

Lily

what color

Shane

Not this again

Lily

😈

not this time but dont think i forget

Shane

Color for what then?

Lily

sexy underwear

Shane

😳

For you or me?

Lily

was for me, now i think I need to see Shane Hollander's idea of sexy underwear

Shane

Fuck off

Lily

😘

i will make it easier for you

i know how you struggle with choices

black or gold

Shane

Why am I picking out something for you to wear out?

Lily

jealous малыш

they are your reward for game tonight

played so beautifully against dinosaur

i will send photo for you to get off to in your hotel next to boring friend

Shane

If it's for me shouldn't you be in blue?

Lily 💛

Shane

[Photo of airport bookstore in Montreal airport]

This is all your fault

Lily

wow texting first and saying im right

have you been kidnapped

should i call for help?

canadian horse police please save Shane hollander

Shane

Where did you get me saying you were right from saying this was your fault?

And they're the Mounted Police

Lily

this your retirement plan?

i know how you like to be mounted

Shane

Fuck off

Lily

fine fine i stop joking

but i do tell Shane Hollander, put boring book in bag котенок you will forget it if you dont

you will be so upset and bored on airplane, leave sexy glasses on and you can come after you pack

but you say one more chapter and then fall asleep, so bored

Shane

That is not what happened

And I can't believe YOU are calling a book about Tretiak boring

Lily

and i have already said things should be read in the language they were created in

Hockey should be in Русский язык. Я знаю, что ты на нём не говоришь, иначе бы спросила меня обо всех тех ласковых прозвищах, которыми я тебя называю.

Shane

You know I can Google translate that, right?

Je parle les deux langues du hockey et je n'ai pas besoin de savoir russe pour savoir quand tu me traites de salope.

Lily

you know i can google translate that right 🙄😏

show me what boring book you got from airport моя шлюха

Shane

[Picture of the cover of Hope to Die by James Patterson]

Lily

how is your taste in everything but hockey so terrible?

Shane

I feel like I should remind you, YOU are a choice I keep making

You're traveling what do you consider tasteful airport literature

Lily

[Picture of A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle]

Shane

Okay fair.

Lily 💛

Shane

[Picture of the cover of A Great Game: The Forgotten Leafs & The Rise of Professional Hockey]

Lily

oh is book club time?

or am i supposed to be proud you remembered this time?

Shane

Sorry, did you want to share something about your day?

How was the 5 hour delay out of Chicago?

Lily

[Picture of Anne of Green Gables on an airport carpet]

Shane

That's what I thought.

Lily

i should rename you anne

Shane

Why

Lily

Shane

Don't

And I wouldn't say I'm obsessed with you 🙄

Lily

yes totally normal to know flight delay of airplane in completely different airport going completely different place

мой маленький лжец

Lily 💛

Lily

you play at home today yes?

no book club?

Shane

I try to share one thing with you 🙄

Yes, we play at home. Guess you'll have to play on your phone the whole flight

Lily

or i show you again what taste looks like

[Picture of Old Yeller by Fred Gipson]

Shane

NO put that back

Lily

you know you cannot actually stop me from getting a dog

im sure this is what you worry about but i am an adult

Shane

I will send you money, buy ANYTHING ELSE

You can't read that

Lily

i am perfectly capable of reading American children's book

Shane

[apple cash $50]

Buy one of those terrible romances you say you don't like. You CANNOT read that book.

Lily

well if you are going to beg fine

Lily 💛

Shane

What are you doing with your night off?

Lily

wouldn't you like to know

Shane

Yes? That's why I'm asking?

Lily

show me what you're reading on your flight to detroit

or are you watching tape of zetterberg now that he's hit 300

Shane

[Picture of cover of The Boys of Winter: The Untold Story of a Coach, a Dream, and the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team]

Zetterberg is older than Hunter, why would I care that he's finally hit 300

Lily

you are changing my plans for the night quickly

[Picture of Pnin by Nabokov]

think it is time to see how bitchy Shane Hollander can be

Shane

Taking a break from your summer reading homework?

Lily

no the game is not fun when it is to me

Shane

Just a question

Lily

insincere one

but i will give a sincere answer because i am nice

i am taking a break from awful american writing and seeking comfort in my comrades

Shane

And you went with Nabokov?

Lily

yes?

you think i should read pushkin? tolstoy? dostoevsky? gorky?

Shane

Okay, I get it you read.

Lily

yes and i read in the beautiful language they were meant to be, not ugly english

tell me what you hate about Pike

The plan had been to have an answer, or at least a plan before it was time for Jackie to fly down.

But reading the texts hadn't done anything but make him more confused about where he actually stands on Lily and Shane and ShaneandLily. She's Russian, and is it racist to wonder if that doesn't make her more suspicious. But nothing they've talked about has really been blackmail worthy, and beyond the first couple texts that he'd seen she hadn't asked for money or gifts, though that hadn't stopped Shane from giving her money and maybe the first two times he'd seen her ask had been coincidence.

It doesn't require a lot of stalking to know when the Metro's are home or away, they're public figures with publicly available game schedules. And he's learning that Lily travels just as much as they do, despite the fact that she seems to be some kind of elementary school teacher. Maybe that should make her more suspicious, it mostly just makes him mad.

She travels this much and she can't come up with a better reason not to see his boy?

He's never actually seen the excuses that she gives Shane on those days in Boston when he disappears for hours and comes back embarrassed; maybe they are good. Or maybe they're just good enough to fool someone as trusting as Shane is.

Either way, the day comes for Jackie to arrive and he still hasn't decided whether he's writing an email to MTV or doing the parent thing and letting his friend learn from his own mistakes.

It's torturing him really, keeping him up at night. It's all he can think about… right up until Jackie deboards her plane and is in front of him again. He stops thinking for about 24 hours after that.

Maybe if Jackie weren't at the stage in her pregnancy that she was horny all the time, but not so far along that Hayden was afraid he'd squish the baby if they did it in the wrong position. Or if they didn't have those concert tickets that she'd been looking forward to using for months. And did he mention that she's ready to go at all times now and he hasn't seen her, or had an empty house, in weeks. It's a party every day in Nashville, and not being able to drink has not slowed down Jackie Pike one bit.

A man has needs, and his need to protect his best friend doesn't return to his mind until Jackie is rolling over to finish the last pages of the book he had ended up ordering for her for her flight.

"Oh my god."

Jackie sends a lazy glare over her shoulder, not bothering to turn all the way from her reading. "Can you wait until I'm finished to be jealous? It's not Shane's fault he's a surprisingly good gift giver."

"How'd you know that was Shane's idea?" They've been together too long for him to be offended by the arch of her brow or what he knows it really means. "That's not what I meant anyway."

The sound of the page turning and the rustle of the over-fluffed duvet take over the room as Hayden wrestles once again with the conundrum he's been fighting with the last week.

"Should I nominate Shane for the Catfish show?"

The book falls shut with a thump, Jackie releasing her hold on the pages without so much as reaching toward the bookmark the girls — and Hayden — had made her for Mother's Day. There's something unreadable on her face as she rolls over to meet him head on. Which is alluring as it is frightening, and threatens to send him back to the 'not thinking about anything but Jackie' phase he'd only just left.

"Shane," she says slowly, "Hollander."

"Yeah."

"On the fat ass Kelly Price show?" Jacks is still laying stretched out across the bed, but even the way she's looking up at him makes him wonder if he's about to be called an idiot.

"That's not exclusively what it's about."

"Shane, the guy who tried to avoid having a birthday party thrown for him by editing his own Wikipedia page with a fake birth date, twice? Or did you mean Shane, the guy who was so pissed you all let the Centaurs score a goal in your first post-cup season that he made you run drills you haven't run since Mites because he thought you all quote, 'needed to be reminded of your real fundamentals.' Or maybe you meant Shane, the guy whose Mom controls his entire public image. Which one were you thinking of?"

He sighs," Okay, okay, I get it. You could have just said it was a bad idea."

Running a hand up and down his arm, she's smiling like a shark when she says, "Like our children I find you do best with concrete reasoning."

"I'm worried about him," he admits. The arm thing is a bit of mom magic he can't resist, but Jackie has always had a way of getting Hayden to talk.

"Have you tried communicating that to your close friend like an adult talks to another adult?"

He tries to send her a flat look, but it turns into something soft and gooey the way it always does when he's looking at his wife. "He won't even admit she exists unless he's tricked into it, and even then he's restrained about it."

Jackie narrows her eyes, it wrinkles the button of her nose just a little, and with her hair in those two braids he can't help but think of how cute she is, like a bunny. Even now as she's judging him and probably wondering why she let a guy like him get her pregnant twice — three times if you count Jade and Ruby as separate — he's still so in love with her. And that's what he wants for Shane, what he's afraid Lily is keeping him from truly getting. He wants his friend to have someone he is so blindly in love with that all he can think about is that affection, even when she's looking at him like this.

"Alright," she says, eyes softening at the edge.

"Alright?"

"You want to help Shane, we'll help Shane. After line dancing, you can show me an episode and we'll see what we can do. It can't be that hard."

She says it with the confidence of a woman who has kept the Metro WAGs running like the navy for the last two years. And for the first time since he saw Shane come back to the room in Boston, he actually feels good about this.

Watching Jackie work is like what he imagines its like watching the CSIS work. She's quick and efficient, using her laptop while an episode she isn't watching airplays from his phone on the hotel TV.

She reverse image searches the handful of Lily's pictures they have while Nev and Max are still highlighting the couple of the episode. He tries to keep up with the show and the show eyes darting back and forth from where he's standing behind Jackie, hands resting on the bare shoulders exposed by her flowy, off-the-shoulder, line dancing top. If someone like Jackie hosted this show, he thinks, it would be on international broadcast. Beautiful and charming, with a good cohost she could be a household name. Maybe he should float it to a Canadian network? Is that what Shane's always talking about when he's telling him he needs to diversify his investments?

The thoughts distract him enough that he misses what happens before Jackie sighs. The duo on TV are actually meeting their victim in person, discussing the details they've kind of already covered from the initial email. Her screen has a bunch of pictures of that same Russian book.

"She's fake?" Hayden doesn't expect the apprehension he can hear in his own voice.

"No. Well… I don't know. The pictures we have don't turn up exact matches, whoever it is probably took them, but they're just book covers. You don't have any pictures of her face."

"It's not my fault that she's either a liar or Shane's a gentleman. The only photo that's even mentioned is the one she was going to send for him to…" He trails off, he can also be a gentleman. But Jackie's raised eyebrow reminds him she's spent too much time with hockey players, her brothers included, and doesn't need to have 'jerk off' censored.

"We could run her number, I guess." There's a disappointment in her voice that makes his heart stop, he's like a dog in that way desperate and wanting to please.

And if he were a dog he'd be one that knows he's about to get in trouble, head tilted down and waiting to be scolded for not bringing back the right stick. He asks, "There's nothing else?"

"Not unless her first name is actually Boston and Lily is the last name. There are probably a thousand women named Lily in the city alone, not to mention the girls who live just outside the area but say they're from Boston anyway. The number is the best way."

"Right, and what would having the number do?" He can feel the way his face is visibly cringing. Maybe he should have brought Jackie in earlier.

She turns her head to look back at him over her shoulder, eyes darting silently between him and the TV that has finally caught up to their stage of the investigation.

Nev and Max are gasping over something that's been pulled up on Facebook, cross-referencing it on Twitter.

"We could just skip over that drama," Jackie flicks her hands back toward the screen. "There are services you can pay to get all the registration information for a phone number."

Between his week long marathon and the nonchalance she says that with Hayden wants to scrub the internet of every photo and mention of Jacks and the kids. Him too actually, everything that isn't publicly approved of and required by his and the team management should disappear from the internet.

Shane's Instagram makes a lot more sense now.

"I didn't get her number," he admits.

Nose wrinkling, the way it does when he fumbles a role play she's set up, Jackie shrugs and closes the computer. "Turn that off, I dont want to listen to their scripted banter while you're going down on me."

"Yes ma'am."

Under strict instructions from Jackie, the first thing Hayden does when hes back in the Metros locker room is find Shane's phone.

Always the first on the ice, there's a relief that he doesn't have to worry about Shane seeing him take it. Avoiding everyone else is harder, they play Boston again at the end of the week and a home game always leads to a run of tense practices.

He plays on his phone, makes up a pretend prenatal appointment that Jackie is on that he's waiting on a update for, any reason to loiter so the room can clear out before he starts digging into Shane's locker.

Lily 💛

Lily

4 days

Shane

I know

Lily

sorry for trying to be romantic

Shane

You know what's romantic?

A perfect hat-trick

Lily

what a surprise Shane Hollander wants perfection

good thing he has me 😘

did you know Ottawa is only two hours from Montreal

Shane

Yes? My parents are there

Lily is typing and Hayden clears out of the message chain he'd been reading before he can be caught in it. He sends Jackie her number quickly so he doesn't have to see whatever is coming next.

Putting Shane's phone away, he goes and practices like he can forget what he's waiting for Jackie to do. He skates hard, drills hard, works until it hurts to breathe standing there on the ice. And practice still feels like it ends too early.

Worse, it ends with Shane punching his shoulder and smiling wider than he usually does on a Boston game week. "You play like that on Friday and the Raiders don't stand a chance."

Hayden tries to smile back but he knows it can't meet his eyes, but it's Shane and he knows it goes unnoticed.

And he doesn’t, he just slaps Hayden on the back before going to his locker and grabbing his phone. Maybe that should have been his first sign, more than anything, that Shane is gone on Lily. He's been going to check his phone before getting the funk of practice off of him for the last year. The smile he sends down to his phone puts the one he gave Hayden to shame, its hard to tell if hes blushing when he still has the flush of practice on him but Hayden would bet he is with how he takes off to the showers after seeing whatever Lily sent.

There's no excuse now, not to look at his phone. Not to look at the answer he's been searching for that he knows Jackie ended up finding.

He sits down heavily, unlaces his skates one handed and imagines that it will say something simple. The number will belong to a Lily Vetrova, Jackie will have found a picture of a plain, blonde, Russian girl who does something that involves a lot of travel.

But he knows it won't be that easy.

With one skate still on, he bites the bullet, knowing if he doesn't do it now he won't ever.

Jackie 💖

Jackie

OH MY GOD HAYD

ROZANOV

Lily is Rozanov

He wants to punch his locker, or the wall, or really if he's honest fucking Rozanov's stupid Russian face. Because of course it's Shane's rival. Of course it was the worst case scenario. Of course it's some long drawn out, sadistic fucking Russian mob, KGB fucking plan.

It backfired a bit, Shane always plays better after Boston. But maybe it's a long con. Maybe they'll be facing Boston at the cup and Rozanov will break Shane's fragile heart.

Shane who's towel drying his hair, quick and rough, shoving his things haphazardly in his bag like he doesn't care if it all makes it home with him. Who looks down at Hayden with concern pinched between his brows. "Everything okay with Jackie and Arthur? She had some doctor thing today right?"

"Yeah, everything's good. She was just sending me some updates."

"Good," he smiles, glancing back down at the phone in his hand. "That's good. Give Jackie and the girls my best."

He can't let Rozanov happen to his friend.

Jackie 💖

Hayden

I'm going to fuckign Ottawa

Jackie

Swear jar

Kick his ass

Boston uses the same hotel that Montreal does in Ottawa. It makes them easy to track down.

The fact that they're the loudest motherfuckers in the world makes it even easier to find Rozanov. "I'm telling you dude, Roz has his Montreal girl here. You shoulda seen his face when he found out his upgraded room number, they must have done some freaky shit in 1221 before."

He slips into the stair case before anyone has a chance to spot him. Like the two hour drive, the twelve flights of stairs don't do anything to temper the quiet rage that's been boiling inside of him since finding out it was Rozanov.

He's panting, sweating at his temples, when he gets to the door. Is this a bad idea? He hadn't stopped to think much beyond his instinctual anger, but even now as he's trying to it's hard to see how this is any different than if Shane had taken a hit on the ice. He would protect Shane then, and while this won't be game sanctioned violence it is Jackie sanctioned.

Hopefully Rozanov is more bark than bite.

He knocks hard on the door, straining to hear if Rozanov is even in there. Sure they'd said he was bringing some girl over but that didn't mean that he had.

The flicker of surprise on Rozanov's face is almost gratifying. His motor mouth dropping open in shock as he blinks at Hayden in the doorway. "You are not room service."

His reflexes are quick as a center, and going up against Shane so often they'd have to be. But that element of surprise gives Hayden the chance to shove his shoulder in the door and bully his way in before Rozanov can lock him out.

"Pike, what an unpleasant surprise. Please go now."

"I know what you're doing and you're going to fucking stop."

He surprised that he's using his words, but then Jackie had initially suggested that he talk this out like an adult. Maybe he can get out of this without any fists being thrown. They do both have games coming up.

Or maybe not, Rozanov's face draws shut, lips turned in and eyes stormy. It's the last face a lot of guys see before they're becoming acquainted with the boards.

"I don't see how that's your business."

"You don't see how what you're doing might be my business. He's my friend."

"You don't trust your friend to make his own big boy decisions?" He says with a smirk.

He's such a fucking douche bag. It's like he's actually trying to get punched.

"Not about this. Not when you're- you're-" Fuck what is he even doing to Shane. "Leading him on."

He probably doesn't even know what that means, but because he's Rozanov he can't look confused he just looks smug. His eternal default state.

"Hollander doesn't need much leading."

That is actually his final straw. Jackie is going to have to visit him in jail because he isn't just going to kick Rozanov's ass, he's going to kill him.

"Did they remember my ginger ale?"

Or he was going to if Shane didn't come out of the bathroom, shower damp once again and picking at the skin around his nails. Hayden feels like he's just taken a hit, the way shock leaves him still and waiting for the world to catch up around him, and surprisingly Rozanov looks pretty similar.

It's stupid and funny and scary, like when he fell through the ice he'd been planning to play pond hockey on as a kid.

And when Shane's eyes look up to Rozanov before nervously snapping to him, Hayden laughs.

It's the wrong thing to do, he knows it before it's even finished happening; but like when he found out they were having twins when he barely felt ready for one kid, the emotional overflow has to go somewhere.

He doesn't even blame Rozanov for pushing him up against the wall, hand fisted in Hayden's shirt.

"Ilya!" Shane snaps. If he thought there might be some confusion, that thought is quickly killed. "Hayd, it's not- What are you doing here?"

"He thinks you're making a mistake, milyy. Apparently did not know you were here when he came to tell me to fuck off."

Hayden denies it immediately, "No! That's not-"

"Is that true?" Fuck, Shane is getting that shut down, look on his face. He can fix this.

Rozanov's grip slackens as Shane bites down on his lower lip, Hayden shrugs him off and crosses over to his friend. "That's not accurate." Hayden insists.

"What is accurate?" Shane bites out each word in clipped syllables and yeah he doesn't have any way out but painfully through.

"I thought Rozanov was cat-fishing you."

It's the quietest a room that has Ilya Rozanov has probably ever been. Hayden isn't convinced any of them are even breathing. But all good things come to an end, and this silence dies to the sound of Shane and Rozanov bursting into a laughter so loud it sounds painful.

"Like terrible television show? With the hosts who try to make it seem like they are fucking even though their chemistry is very bad?"

"I really don't think that's what they're trying to make it seem like they're doing," Shane says.

"No, no, I talk with Connors and his girl about this at last Raiders party it is a way to get teenage girls to watch, they are major demographic."

"And teenage girls are more likely to watch if they think they're…"

"Connors' girlfriend says so, she's a student, very smart."

"Right," Hayden says, not sure if he's agreeing or just reminding them he's in the room. Something about watching the two of them speak off the ice is looking at a funhouse mirror reflection.

"Wait," Shane shakes off the conversation with a literal shake of his head. "Why would you think I was being cat-fished? And how did you get to Ilya from Lily?"

Hayden shrugs and hopes he can leave it at that. But the narrowed glares of both Rozanov and Shane make it clear that is not happening, Shane's is scarier.

"You always came back to the room a few hours after you were supposed to meet Lily, and you've never shown her to anyone, or talked to her while in the same room as anybody. I just," he shrugs again, hoping that's enough to make it obvious why he thought this was happening and they don't make him say anymore.

"And?"

"And I maybe saw a text from Lily that looked suspicious." And then a couple more that were mostly normal, but once he was there what was he supposed to think.

"And you got to me?" Rozanov asks. Because they couldn't leave it at Hayden just being a bad friend who went through Shane's things.

"And I got to you. Maybe look into not having your phone number directly linked to everything about your identity."

"Da, who knows what could happen? Worst player on the Metros might show up at my hotel room and accuse me of mind games."

"Fuck you, dude."

"You are in my hotel room, Pike. I am not wrong person here."

"Stop!" Shane snaps. "Both of you just-"

"Dorogoy," Rozanov coos. Isn't that a fucking trip. "It is fine, we are fine, you are fine. Your good friend Hayden Pike cares so much he did KGB investigation for you, very dumb but very sweet."

A flash of a smile is there on Shane's face before he's burying it in his hands. Rozanov glares at him hard enough a spike of fresh fear shoots down his spine. "It really is fine, Shane. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-" Well, Jackie tells the kids they should only apologize if they mean it, and they aren't just going to do it again; and he would do this again if it meant keeping Shane from being taken advantage of. "I should have talked to you before I confronted anyone. But you all are..?"

He trails off, hoping they'll fill in the gap, but it leads to a fresh wave of panic on both their faces as their eyes snap to one another's. And he knows, the same way he knows which twin is Ruby and which is Jade and which one is always the one drawing teddy bears on the baseboards of their walls, that neither one of these idiots has talked about this.

"We're fine." Shane says, which is close enough to an answer that he'll take it.

"Right well, I'll let Jackie know you aren't being taken advantage of and we can just pretend this didn't happen."

"Yes, goodbye Pike, so terrible to see you!" Rozanov says cheerily. They hadn't made it far into the room, and Hayden finds himself being pushed back toward the nearby door. "I will be sure to mark my Shane up so nobody thinks he has been stood-up by his lover. This has never happened in Raiders locker room because Jane always leaves her calling card behind for them to see she is real."

Shane blushes so violently, it's a wonder he doesn't pass out. "See if that happens again tonight, asshole."

"I think it will," he's looking at Hayden, but he's under no mistake that Shane is the one Rozanov is really talking to right now. "He's very easy, moya shlyukha."

Gritting his teeth, he grabs for the door handle, ready to be out of there before his tolerance for Rozanov and his belief that this was just how he was ran out.

"Alright, yeah, sorry again Shane. I'll see you for practice, bye."

"Bye-bye, Pike. Looking forward to beating you Friday!"

"Hope one of the Centaurs high sticks you at your game tomorrow."

Rozanov laughs again, and it actually sounds genuine, even as he's closing the door in Hayden's face. This is just too fucking unreal. He passes the room service guy he'd been mistaken for on his way back down the hallway, buries his nose in his phone and hopes that he looks enough like any other Canadian without Shane Hollander by his side that he'll be able to escape unnoticed.

Mostly he just needs to text Jackie.

Jackie 💖

Hayden

Shane is very aware of who Lily really is

Jackie

👀

Think he'd be mad if I added her to the WAG chat?