Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories:

F/M, Gen, M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Inception (2010), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid

Relationships:

Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Jean-Jacques Boiziau | J. J. Dagenais & Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike

Characters:

Hayden Pike, Hayden Pike's Children, Jean-Jacques Boiziau | J. J. Dagenais, Shane

Additional Tags:

Good Friend Hayden Pike, Good Friend Jean-Jacques Boiziau | J. J. Dagenais, Hayden Pike Finds Out About Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Fluff and Crack, Supportive Hayden Pike, Good Parent Hayden Pike

Language:

English

Series:

Part 4 of Dream Rivalry Verse

Stats:

Published: 2026-04-11 Words: 1,929 Chapters: 1/1

Ruby Pike's New Middle Name

Summary

Hayden Pike's twins like to choose new middle names. They also like guessing games. Somehow this leads to Hayden figuring out who Boston Lily is several years early.

Notes

This nominally takes place in my Dream Rivalry 'verse which hinges on a couple of different premises. The important one here, and only because it's mentioned in passing, is that Jackie Pike's older brother is Arthur from Inception. One day I'll write a proper AU in this 'verse. For now, it's a bunch of random "maybe this will end up in the final version of this AU but until then it's still fun so let's share it".

Come find me on Tumblr!

Hayden Pike figured out who Boston Lily was one unremarkable Saturday afternoon in 2015. There were three reasons for this:

1. The Pike home almost always had a hockey game playing on at least one screen

2. Ruby Pike loved hockey as much as her Uncle Shane did

3. and, at five-almost-six, she didn't always get hard to pronounce words just right.

It happened like this:

The Metros had a few days off before an extended roadie that started in Tampa and ended in Boston, and he was taking advantage of it by hanging at the house, playing with the kids, and giving his wife a break.

Jackie had been whisked off for the weekend by her brother and brother-in-law—a "spa getaway" Arthur had called it, but Hayden knew by now not to ask questions when Arthur and his British thug came and borrowed Jackie for a few days—and Hayden was currently sprawled on the couch with a dozing baby Arthur on his chest. The twins were playing on the floor in front of him, a chaos of Barbie and Ken and all the related paraphernalia strewn in front of them. They had JJ trapped between them, looking lost as they dictated a complicated scenario that included Barbie taking over the Moon.

Shane had escaped this round of Moon Take Over, as he had some sort of mid-season promo shoot in New York ahead of the All-Star game next month, and an interview with Good Morning America tomorrow. Busy bastard. Hayden hoped he took a detour to Boston before coming home.

On the television, New York was playing Boston at Madison Square Garden, the score 0-0 at the end of the third. Then, Ilya fucking Rozanov scored, bringing the Raiders ahead of the Admirals just as the final period ended. JJ swore, a sentiment Hayden agreed with but he was too comfortable to want to get up to contribute to the swear jar.

"Swear jar, Uncle JJ," Jade informed his friend primly. "I know that was French for fuck."

"Jade Elizabeth Pike!" Hayden reprimanded, though without much weight behind it. Any actual authority was ruined by the laugh he had to choke back. "What was that about the swear jar?"

"I'm Ruby, Daddy, and neither of us are middle named Elizabeth this week. I'm Ruby Katrina."

He and Jackie had never gotten around to giving the twins middle names—they'd meant to, but could never agree on what sounded good, and then years had gone by and it just hadn't been a priority—but since the girls had started school and made friends who kept asking, they'd decided they wanted to choose their own middle names. Since it saved him and Jacks from having to circle back through a five year old argument, they'd decided that was a great idea.

Nearly a year and three dozen different middle name combinations later, Hayden was starting to reconsider.

"Semantics, Ruby Katrina. No swearing."

"Wanna guess my new middle name, Daddy?" Jade asked, abandoning her Barbie by shoving it in JJ's face until he had no choice but to take it out of self preservation. She shuffled over on her knees until she was by the side of the couch. "Puh-leeeease?"

Hayden sighed as the on-screen coverage moved into post-game analysis and interviews. "Sure, Ruby Roo. You have to give me some clues though."

She grinned, the sharp, too clever for a five year old one that let him know he'd walked right into a trap. She'd learned it from her uncle, he was pretty sure. Jackie's brother was quiet, but evil.

" Okay, you get five questions, then you gotta guess. If you get it right, I'll eat a vegeable at dinner. If you don't, I get ice cream instead."

"You drive a hard bargain, but it's a deal." Hayden managed to hold his hand out to seal the father/daughter contract, and met JJ's amused look over the top of Ruby's head.

"Your kids are weird, mon chum," he said, but with a wide grin as he returned to helping Jade orchestrate the moon takeover with Barbie.

"Daddy! Ask your questions!" Ruby put her hands on his face to get his attention. "I don't have all day!"

He laughed, then schooled his face into something more serious. "Okay. First question: did you choose a character this time?" Typically Ruby's name choices fell into three categories: fictional characters, real people they knew or had seen on television, or a random name chosen from a baby name book.

"Nope!" Ruby made a little pop noise as she bounced on her heels. "Next question!"

"Did you use the name book?"

"Nu-uh. You got…" She paused, held up five fingers, lowered two, and counted the rest. Fuck his kids were smart. He and Jacks were definitely going to be outsmarted by their kids in another couple of years. Well. Even more often than they already were. "Three left."

"Ok, did you pick a name of someone we know?"

She had to think about this one. "I 'fink so." She glanced over her shoulder where the television was showing a post-game interview. Hunter and Rozanov were both on screen. She nodded. "Yes."

Hayden fought back a smile. Thank fuck, he could still outsmart a five year old. "Is it your faaaavorite hockey player of all time?" He teased.

She pouted and crossed her arms. "Ugh, yes!"

"Ha! I don't even need my last guess. Your Dad is the smartest, bestest Dad on the whole planet—"

"You didn't even guess yet, Daddy. No gloating until the game is over. That's the rule," Ruby said, still glaring at him. "But you are right. It is my faaaaaavorite ever hockey player in the whole wide world. The bestest, most awesomest ever."

"Okay, you made your point," Hayden laughed. "Ruby Scott Hunter Pike. That's my guess."

She gasped, then fell over from the sudden fit of giggles that overcame her. "Nope! You lose!" She gasped the words out through the laughs, rolling on the floor.

"Daddy. Scott Hunter is my favoritest ever hockey player," Jade said, with the most disappointed sigh a five year old could ever let out. "Cuz he looks like Cap 'Merica and he's the best 'venger cuz he punches Nazis. You should always punch Nazis." She looked at JJ. "Uncle Arthur told me that."

JJ looked torn between offense (at anyone other than a Metro being the Pike kids' favorite, was Hayden's conclusion), confusion (a five year old talking about punching Nazis probably wasn't a usual topic of conversation for JJ), and amusement (the whole situation was, Hayden had to admit, kind of funny).

"Of course. I always punch Nazis when I meet one," JJ agreed. Thank fuck that JJ was always so willing to just go with the flow. "One of my favorite activities."

Hayden looked back at Ruby, who had finally gotten over her giggle fit. "Wait. Then…JJ? Ruby JJ Pike? Is that the name of the week?" It had to be, though JJ had been the name of choice a few weeks ago, he was pretty sure. The other twin had been middle named Unka Shane that time. Neither had stuck around for long.

"NO! It's Ruby Lily Pike!" She beamed at him. "Like Lily-a Roseynov. He's the handsomest, bestest, funniest hockey player ever, and he plays for Boston which is where Uncle Arthur and Uncle Eames live sometimes and I like the aquarium there. And! Lily-a Roseynov is always going like this," she paused to make an exaggerated winking face, "and saying funny things about Uncle Shane, like 'he is goalie now' and 'he has weak backhand'." She giggled as she mimicked—better than Hayden would have thought, and that had to be Eames' influence; Eames spoke fluent Russian—Rozanov's accent. "He's silly, and his name is Lily-a—I took off the ah sound though, because Lily is like a flower and it's pretty—so, I'm Ruby Lily!"

It was a lot of information to take in at rapid pace, and Hayden had to cycle through it a couple of times before his brain got caught on loop. Boston. Lily. Roseynov. Lily. Ilya. Boston. Lily. Boston. Rosanov. Lily. Boston. Lily. Ilya. Roseynov.

Boston Lily is Ilya Rozanov.

As soon as the thought formed into something coherent, he knew it was true. All the questions he'd had about Shane's Boston Lily from the last few years, all the missing puzzle pieces, slotted into place like a camera finally coming into focus. And the picture framed within it all was…

"Fuck."

"Swear jar, Daddy," Ruby scolded, then smacked a kiss against his cheek, and went back to join the war Jade and Barbie were waging against the Moon.

JJ was looking at him. He looked as shocked as Hayden felt. Boston Lily had come up in conversation between them several times over the years. Never with the rest of the team, which Hayden was hugely grateful for right now.

"You don't think…" JJ asked, glancing at the television, but it had switched to the pregame for Carolina and Toronto. Rozanov was gone. "Can't be."

"Doesn't matter," Hayden decided in the moment. Gently supporting Arthur with a hand on his back, he moved so he was sitting up rather than reclining. Made it easier to give JJ his most serious Alternate Captain look. "It's Shane. He'll tell us when he's ready. We just need to be there when he is."

"Yeah, but…him?"

Hayden but back his gut reaction, which was to curse Rozanov 's name, and forced himself to try to view him from different perspective. He glanced down at the twins, who could be blood thirsty little gremlins, but who were scarily good at reading people. They had uncanny instincts, in that way some kids just seemed to know when adults were genuine or not, and Ruby thought Rozanov was funny. Hayden closed his eyes, and forced all the team rivalry stuff aside. If Rozanov was on any other team, hell if Rozanov was a Metro, he had to admit that he'd find a good amount of the shit Rozanov talked funny. And he couldn't judge Rozanov's party boy behavior; not without details or knowing what he and Shane had between them.

And he knew from Connors, who might be a Raider but was a decent guy aside from that, that Rozanov was always the first at practice and the last to leave—like Shane. It was well documented that Rozanov attended most of the Raiders' outreach stuff, like hospital visits and seemed genuinely into it. Unlike some assholes on the Metros that Hayden could name, who bitched about stuff like that, sbowed up for the photo op, and left as soon as possible.

Fuck.

"Guess so. Signs point to yes. And." Hayden sighed, kissed the top of Arthur's head as the toddler finally started to wake up. Kid slept like the dead. "It makes sense, if you think about it logically. I mean. Who else is there?"

JJ thought about that, then laughed. "Fuck, and yes I know, swear jar. When you put it like that, Boston Lily can't be anyone else." He handed a headless Ken (beheaded for crimes against the Moon) to Ruby. "Come on, mon chum. Let's get these petits monstres some lunch, and strategize. I don't think I can take much more of le capatain's pining."

Hayden laughed. "I can't argue with that," he agreed, and let JJ pull him and Arthur up off the couch, and into the kitchen.

They had a lot of plotting to do.