Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

Gen

Fandom:

Heated Rivalry (TV)

Relationship:

Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike

Characters:

Shane Hollander, Hayden Pike

Additional Tags:

Pre-Canon, Autistic Shane Hollander, College Hockey, Misunderstandings, Shane Doesn't Know How To Be A Good Friend (yet), Hockey nicknames, Canon Compliant, (with the show-canon that is)

Language:

English

Series:

Part 16 of [challenge] Heated Rivalry Febuwhump 2026

Collections:

febuwhump 2026

Stats:

Published: 2026-02-16 Words: 1,313 Chapters: 1/1

tap for good luck

Summary

Hayden accidentally bullies Shane Hollander into tolerating him. Or so Hayden thinks – right until he pulls back.

Notes

For Day 16: Touch Aversion

The boys did not want to play quite nice, so it's a lot less Touch Aversion-centric than I figured, but alas.

Hockey background for why I put these two into the NCAA in the end-notes!

Hayden’s first impression of Shane Hollander is that he’s weird.

It’s not his proudest moment, and later on his go-to answer will be that he knew, even then, that Shane was something special. Which isn’t exactly untrue, because even 17 and skinny, it’s clear that he’s a force to be reckoned with: he’s the youngest player on the Fighting Hawks, the Universy of North Dakota team, by several months, but he was the leading scorer for the two years he attended Shattuck-St. Mary’s and dominated the U18 tournaments to the point that he’s already expected to be a shoe-in for World Juniors this winter. He’s good.

He’s also very much not good with people. Hayden runs into him a couple days ahead of training camp when Hollander is scrutinizing the lunch buffet, his tray half-filled with decidedly too healthy food stuffs considering the season hasn’t even started yet. He’s easy to recognise, a visibly Asian kid wearing a Team Canada hockey zipper jacket and beanie.

“Hey,” Hayden says, holding his fist out. He realises how stupid that is – Hollander has a dinner tray in his hands, it’s not like he can reciprocate – even before Hollander gives him a dry look.

“I think a tray would do you more good.”

Oops. Hayden lets his hand sink and busies himself with grabbing a tray of his own. “So, you’re Shane Hollander, huh?” he says when he catches back up to Hollander, who’s now settled on the chicken breast with rice and broccoli. Classic, but boring.

“Yes.” The single word hangs between them, awkward and closed-off. Then, Hollander shakes himself. “And you are Hayden Pike, right?”

Hayden feels his jaw drop. “Uh, yes.” It’s unexpected. Not impossible, of course, but definitely not expected; Hayden went early in the third round, but usually, people don’t know anyone beyond, like, the top ten. Though Shane Hollander isn’t exactly people, is he?

Hollander gives him a smile that looks like it fits a little oddly on his face. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too, man.” Hayden grabs a burger for himself, and fries, and pretends he doesn’t see Hollander’s judgemental look. The season will start soon enough; there’s really no reason to invite it in early, is there?

They start chatting about the upcoming season as they make their way over to a table, and it’s not until Hayden’s back in his dorm that he realises he never actually got that fistbump from Hollander.

By the time training camp ends, Hayden knows two things for certain: Hollander is exactly as good as people said he is, easily keeping up with the rest of the team – if he’s not getting started on the first line, Hayden doesn’t know either, because the kid got skills – and he’s even weirder than the first interaction had suggested.

It’s fine as long as things are about hockey. On the ice, Hollsy (as the guys have dubbed him after Hollsy had fully ignored any and all mentions of more stupid nicknames, like Hollywood and Holy Shane, just not reacting at all. Which. Props, kid) shows up and yells and gets people to fall in line like he owns the ice. Not everyone’s a fan, especially the older guys, but the team hasn’t won a NCAA championship title in six years and everyone’s hungry for the success.

But in the locker room… He’s quiet. Doesn’t join the celebration piles; twists out of the way of guys when they brush past, is removed in a way that some guys are reading as arrogance but that Hayden is pretty sure is just uncertainty, and so Hayden finds himself sticking close. Not too close – Hollsy shies back from touch in a way that makes Hayden’s chest hurt, because god, kid, he’s just trying to help – but he sits with Hollsy on the bus and at lunch and bunks with him on the road.

It’s all Hayden though: it’s him who keeps a seat for Hollsy, him who tells Coach to just room them together, him who follows Hollsy. Don’t get too attached, Hayden tells himself whenever Hollsy leaves practice without waiting up, whenever he skips the cafeteria without telling Hayden. Because Hayden can’t get attached. Hollsy will get drafted next year, and then go play in the MLH, and even if Hayden stays on his wing and gets to shine that way, he might never make it to the MLH himself. And unfortunately, Hayden’s always been a forever-kind of guy.

So he really, really shouldn’t get attached.

“Where were you?” Hollsy asks him. His voice is flat, but his eyes are wide in a way that might be hurt, and Hayden’s heart sinks.

“Uh, –”

“And Coach said I was rooming with Harler.”

“He’s a nice guy?” Hayden ventures. When he’d asked Coach to switch up the assignments, he hadn’t expected Hollsy to say anything. Or, well – not say anything to him. But here he is, hurt and possibly accusing, when Hayden had been pretty sure Hollsy would thank him. Unless Hayden’s become part of his routines, in which case it’s probably still better to pull back now instead of later.

“But he’s not you!”

Oh.

“What – whatever I did wrong, I – please tell me and… I’ll fix it.”

“Because I’m disrupting your routine?”

Hollsy looks at him like he’s grown a second head. “No,” he says slowly, “because I like you. And – I know I can be… weird. And so. If it’s something I can fix. Uh – please tell me? Or I can just back off. Sorry, that’s probably – I shouldn’t put pressure on you to, uh. Like me.”

Hayden’s thoughts are whirling, because that’s not what he expected Hollsy to say. It’s pretty much the opposite. And it’s not something they should be discussing in the hallway.

“Hey, Greener!” he yells when he sees the teammate Coach roomed him with instead of Shane. “Can you swap to room with Harler?”

Greener raises his eyebrows but shrugs. “We’ll all profit if you make up,” he says, and passes by the room he’d share with Hayden to duck into the one Shane just came out of.

“C’mon. Get your stuff.”

“So I’m – forgiven?” Shane asks, and he sounds younger than he is.

“There’s nothing to forgive,” Hayden says, “I was being stupid. But let’s talk in the room.”

Shane blinks at him once, then disappears into the room. A minute later, they’re both in Hayden’s room, though Shane stops just inside the door, looking at Hayden. “You don’t have to spare my feelings. I know I can be… weird.”

“You’re not weird,” Hayden says reflexively, then cocks his head and amends, “No, okay, you are weird. But you’re my weird. I just thought – that I had kinda… forced you into being my friend.”

“Oh,” Shane says, and then, “No, I’m – I’m just really not good at this. You – I do want to be your friend.”

“You already are,” Hayden says, and that’s enough emotion for now, so he nods at the far bed, the one that Shane always prefers. “Now get settled so we can go for dinner; I’m starving!”

Shane laughs. “Maybe if you ate something actually nutritious…”

“Slander!” Hayden exclaims, but he’s grinning, because huh. Maybe they really are friends.

“No good luck tap?” Hayden points at his helmet, and tries to tell himself that he’s not overstepping, that this is something very normal to ask a teammate who just affirmed that they’re also friends, especially when the rest of the team all knock heads before the game.

The way Hollsy freezes suggests otherwise.

But he shakes himself after a breath, smiles under his cage, and says, “Sure?” It’s a tentative tap, but it’s there, and it gets less hesitant the game after, and two games later the rest of the team catches on and includes Hollsy in their ritual, and Hayden feels just a little warm.