A/N Ho Guys, this is a Hockey related Twilight one-shot as requested by iheartcsinewyork. Hope you enjoy it.
Falcons.
I'm Edward Cullen and I'm the player coach of Forks Falcons hockey team. This week was going to be one of the biggest of my career so far. We were two games away from winning the league (the first time in Falcons history!)
"You slacking off boss?" Emmett playfully hit me with his stick as he skated past.
"No, I'm on my way. Ok guys lets do goal line drills again"
"Ugh" they chorused.
"I know, but this team is one of the best conditioned in the league and if we want even a chance of beating them we need to make sure we can go the full 60 minutes without tired legs." I explained calmly.
"You heard him boys, let's fucking do this" Emmett hollered. As team captain it was his job to motivate the rest of the guys. After appointing him captain last summer he had slotted into the position really well and everyone on the team respected him.
We lined up on the back goal line and I blew the whistle that I was holding in my hand. We skated as fast as we could to the blue line and back again. Next we went to the middle of the rink and back, then to the far blue line and back. Finally we skated the entire length of the ice, to the other goal line and back again. We repeated this drill 10 times until we were close to exhaustion, I only just had enough breath to blow the whistle to tell the guys that the drill was over and they could rest. "Good job guys" I shouted a few moments later.
"Thanks coach" a few of them replied.
After rehydrating themselves with some water from the bench the boys got ready for the full court horseshoe shooting drill against Mike. As I watched the guys firing shots at Mike from all angles in quick succession I decided you must be crazy to be a netminder and having pucks firing at you up to 100 miles per hour if it was a slap shot.
After practicising a few breakout drills, defensive, power play and short handed drills we ended the session with a scrimmage.
"Sticks in" I ordered, it was the easiest way to assign teams. Everyone would chuck their stick on the ice then I would throw one to the left and one to the right until everyone was divided into two teams.
"Good job tonight boys" I said as I left the locker room.
"See ya Thursday" Emmett and Jasper said in unison as we parted ways.
I got into my car and turned the heating on, it was freezing. I wanted to warm up a bit before going to scrape the ice off my window. As I got out and began scraping I glanced at my watch, it was already midnight, Bella would probably be asleep by now. It was almost the end of the season and then I would be able to spend more time with her, that was the one thing that I didn't enjoy about playing, how it took me away from her. Bella was very understanding about the whole situation though. I met her last summer, when she moved here from Phoenix , Arizona something about wanting a change of scenery. To begin with we were both hesitant to get involved for our own reasons but every time we were near each other there was this intense attraction to one another. Finally we gave in and began dating, that was 10 months ago, now we live together.
Ten minutes later I pulled out of the rink and was on my way home, luckily I was only a ten minute drive away, some of the guys had a two-hour drive after practice – I don't know how they did it. We're a semi-professional team so we all have day jobs or are in school or attending college. If we didn't love the game we wouldn't be able to do it. Sometimes we would have a four-hour journey to get to a game and wouldn't get home until 3am! It was tiring at times but I wouldn't change it for anything. I had made a lot of friends in the past ten years of playing. Emmett and Jasper were my best friends and I met them playing for the Falcons. Bella had become fast friends with their girlfriends, Rosalie and Alice. When we were on trips that were a long way away the girls would normally get dressed up and go out clubbing together.
After parking the car in the garage I put the key in the lock and opened the front door, trying to be as quiet as possible, fearing that I may wake Bella if I made too much noise. I kicked off my sneakers and dumped my bag in the hallway and climbed the stairs. I was dog tired and had to get up for work at 7am. I peeled down to just my boxers and gently lifted a corner of the duvet up and slid into the bed, next to Bella who was sound asleep. Knowing I was still a little cold I tried to not get too close, she surprised me when she rolled over towards me and mumbled something softly, I couldn't make out what it was but it sounded like she said "Edward?". There was an infliction in her voice that made it sound more like a question than a statement.
"Yes, I'm home" I answered, pressing my lips to her forehead. "Go back to sleep" my voice now a whisper. She moved around a bit until her head was nestled against my bare chest. Within minutes I was fast asleep.
I was rudely awoken by the blaring noise emanating from the alarm clock on the night stand. Bleary-eyed I reached my arm out and slid the button across, turning the wretched thing off. I rolled over to obtain my usual good morning kiss, only to discover that Bella wasn't in bed. I kicked the covers off of me and jumped up, the air was freezing. I quickly ran to the bathroom and started running the water. I stepped into the shower cubicle and warmed up. I squirted some shower gel on my hands and began lathering it up when I cried out in shock "Ahh" as cold hands wrapped around my waist. I turned around to face Bella.
"That's not very friendly" she said before kissing my lips.
"Sorry, it was just a bit of a shock is all" I explained. My hands were still full of shower gel so I slowly began rubbing my hands across her skin. As my hands brushed against sensitive spots, she quivered under my touch. Once I had finished Bella reached up and squirted some gel onto her hands "My turn" she said with a devilish smirk.
"I gotta go. You're going to be there aren't you? I need you cheering me on" I said to Bella.
"Of course I'll be there. I wouldn't miss this" she smiled. "Go kick some Hawks butt" she slapped my ass.
"I will" I kissed her on the lips. "See you later" I smiled before picking my kit bag up.
"You're going to win Edward" Bella said full of confidence I wished that I had. I knew we had a good team this year and that we hadn't ever come this close to winning the league before but this was a crucial game. Hawks beat us yesterday meaning that we were level on points and whoever won this game would win the league. That put a lot of pressure on the guys.
Ten minutes later I was pulling my gear out of the car and walking up to the changing rooms. "Hi Edward" Emmett waved.
"Hi" I replied, without much enthusiasm.
"Whoa. What's wrong with you boss?"
"Just nervous I guess" I said, attempting a smile.
"What, about the game?" Emmett seemed shocked.
"Well, this is just between us but..." I pulled the engagement ring out of my pocket and showed it to him.
"Ah Edward, you shouldn't have" he placed his hand on his chest where his heart would be. "I'm sorry but I'm already taken" he smirked.
"Shut up" I said, punching his arm.
"What are we talking about?" Jasper said as he approached the two of us.
"Nothing" Emmett and I said in unison.
"Come on, tell me" he pleaded.
"I was thinking of proposing to Bella tonight, on the ice"
"Wow, that's a big step. Congratulations" he beamed, slapping me on the back.
"I'm not sure, you don't think it's tacky, do you?" I asked.
"I say let the fates decide. If we win this game do it, tonight, on the ice. If we don't win then maybe you do it later on." Emmett suggested.
"If you guys are finished gossiping like old women maybe we can go in and start warming up" Mike huffed as he came striding between us in a foul temper. He was the one person I didn't like in the team. I don't know what I did to make him so angry but he loathed me. It's a good thing that he is such a good netminder otherwise he wouldn't have been playing for us this season.
"Let's do this thing" Emmett hollered, punching his fist into the air.
"FUCK!" Emmett screamed across the ice as Hawks scored their third goal of the game. We had six minutes left and were trailing three goals to one. If we won this game it would be a miracle.
"Time out" I called to the ref. Those who were on the ice skated over to the bench where we huddled and discussed what we were going to do to try and win this game.
"Just forget the score, we're playing for pride now boys" I shouted.
"Let's see some passion, ay?" Emmett put into the mix.
The time out was over and I put the first line out. This was myself, Emmett and Jasper. We skated to centre ice to face-off. The plan was for me to win and pass the puck to Emmett who would then do a cross eyes pass to Jasper who would use his speed and excellent stick handling to travel down the ice and hopefully score a goal. I was facing off against a Hawks player called James, after a quick grimace at each other our eyes locked on the puck.
The puck hit the ice and I passed it back to Emmett, who then passed it to Jasper, unfortunately it had just a bit too much mustard behind the pass and travelled all the way down the ice and icing was called.
As we faced off in the defensive zone you could hear the drums and claps from the fans, being the sixth man on the ice for us. It's always easier to play at home because of the support you get, the crowd was especially loud tonight. I won again and passed the puck to Emmett whose pass to Jasper connected and Jasper was speeding down the ice, I was skating alongside him. Jasper made the initial shot but I tucked away the rebound. "Wooooo!" I hollered as my teamates came and celebrated the goal with me. I searched the crowd for Bella and pointed at her, she beamed at my gesture. The crowd was up and dancing. Four minutes left and only one goal in it.
As we skated back to the bench James checked Emmett. "Hey, I'll shove my foot up your fucking ass ya little toad" was Emmett's response. The pair of them sat next to the plexi glass seperating the teams where they continued chirping away at each other.
The Hawks were on a breakaway and on target for getting another goal. Mike made an incredible save "Nice save" I screamed, bashing my stick against the boards. He hadn't covered the puck and now we were on the rush taking the puck back to the Hawks net and boom we had another goal, we had drawn level with two minutes of regulation time left. There was a massive roar as the crowd celebrated what really was a sick goal.
I started to get a little bit nervous as I realised that maybe I would be proposing to Bella tonight after all. I hadn't thought of what I was going to say and when Hawks had scored that third goal I had resigned myself to the fact that we weren't going to win this game but now we were in with a shot.
"We've fucking got this. Their defence is fucking weak" Jasper shouted. He must be fired up he was usually a man of few words.
I was just concentrating on drawing this game out to overtime at least. Obviously if we could get a goal before then it would be great. I know my legs were getting tired and I'm sure that was the case for the rest of the guys. I'm glad that I made us do a bag skate at practice the other night, the point of doing explosive skating drills was to strengthen our legs so that we could cope with situations just like this.
We were all stretching our legs. We had five minutes before overtime started. Both teams were evenly matched we would be playing four on four. Both our fans and Hawks fans were making a lot of noise. You waited your whole career for a game like this and it came down to five minutes and if neither team had scored by the end we would have a penalty shoot out. I hoped that it wouldn't come to that though, it was the worst way to lose a game. To have come so close and then lose in the dying moments of the game.
We caught a break when two minutes in to overtime Hawks had been caught with too many imports on the ice. Their best defenceman had to sit a two minute penalty meaning we were on the powerplay. Once again my line was out and as I took the face off in the attacking zone I knew that this was the best chance we were going to get and we had to make the most of this two minutes.
Once again I won the face off and we were all in position, passing the puck between us and moving to try and get into a position where we could shoot from.
I had positioned myself into the slot (directly in front of the goal) Jasper passed the puck, I wound up for a slapshot and as my stick connected with the puck I closed my eyes and shot, praying that it would go in. Emmett was doing a good job of shielding me from their netminder. I didn't open my eyes until the guys rushed over to me and the roof came off as the crowd roared and whooped. I knew then that my shot had hit the back of the net. There was a bench clearance as the guys rushed onto the ice and jumped into the huddle that was around me. We had won the league, for the first time in Falcons history. I momentarily felt a little naseaus as I remembered that this meant I was going to propose to Bella.
Whilst the team were celebrating I quickly skated off the ice to the changing room to pick up the ring I had brought with me. I also shouted to the DJ to make an announcement for Bella Swan to come to the ice. As I skated on the ice once more I heard the announcement "Can Bella Swan please make her way to the penalty box" I scanned the faces of the crowd again until I saw her puzzled face. I gestured for her to make her way down, which she did.
Having shaked hands with the players of the Hawks team and announcing man of the match I was up. Bella was pushed out onto the ice. Lucky for her their was a red carpet laid across it so that she needn't worry about slipping over. Her cheeks were rosy red, she didn't like surprises and she didn't know what she was doing here. "Edward has a special question for you Bella" the DJ let the cat out of the bag. I skated over to her side and went down on one knee, holding the ring out to her. "Bella Swan, will you marry me?" I asked. For a moment I panicked as she just stared at me, her face blank.
"Yes" she squealed.
I stood up, and after placing the ring on her finger kissed her on the lips. As we kissed I felt her lips curl up into a smile and I did the same. The applause was deafening, the guys were bashing their sticks on the ice. Emmett and Jasper skated over to us and congratulated myself and Bella.
I couldn't ask for anything more tonight. The Falcons were the league winners and the woman I loved had agreed to spend the rest of her life with me. I would cherish every moment I spent with her.
We skated our victory lap to Queen's "We are the Champions" and tonight I truly felt like a champion.
A/N Game is based on a real game I have seen and the things said during the game are things I have heard said on the bench. As it is a bit technical if you want to know more about the terminology let me know. Thanks for reading : )