Blood
Rating: T
Genre: General
Disclaimer: I don't own the Mighty Ducks, they are owned by their creator and Disney.
My response to the lack of Dwayne-centric fics! ) He has to be one of my favourite characters. Also a tribute to diverse pairings.
Flashes of colour rush past me as I fly up the ice, so fast and so effortlessly. I can hear the blood pounding in my ears as my team mates call for the puck, the opposition call obscenities and the crowd cheer with electric excitement. I keep gliding, as if I'm flying through the sky.
I shoot… I miss… cheer from the opposition, sighs from my team. One of my team comes and pats me on the back, I cannot hear what they're saying. All I can hear is the rush of blood in my head. A whistle blows for period break, I skate back to the bench, my ears throbbing with the sound of my pulsating veins.
The coach sits and speaks with us, Charlie adding in a new game plan to ensure our victory from two points behind. The girls – Julie the goalie and Connie the once-enforcer-turned-leading-scorer – are helping each other stretch, making me feel warm in places I shouldn't, especially when they have fiercely protective boyfriends. Who wouldn't when girls are playing against six-foot-high goons who are twice their weight? Not that I'm saying that they shouldn't play with us, they too are the heart and soul of the team.
Back on the ice, I stickhandle the puck all the way to the opposition's goal, as per Charlie's plan. Fulton and Dean are there, manhandling the opposition so I can score without resistance. Connie and Guy distract the goalie – they're quite the double act even though they won't admit it. I shoot and score. All I can hear is the blood pulsating in my ears, through my head.
The game is turning to custard. Connie has been injured, checked into the boards by some goon. Her helmet was dislodged and a blade struck her as she fell, leaving a deep gash down her cheek. Her red life force spilled onto the ice as medics, Coach Orion and half our team skidded across the ice. This time, I couldn't save her. No rope trick, no 'yee-haw'-ing, no public spectacle. She skates off the ice, trying to attack the player that checked her, spilling deep red liquid as she went.
Play resumes, Fulton and Dean get vicious payback for their teammate's injury with Adam substituted for Connie scoring a spectacular goal. Adam's future lies in hockey, some ivy-league college will snap him up for his skill and his brains. All I want is to play for Dallas so I can go home, where I belong. Yet I also belong with my team, they understand me and I understand them.
A few seconds left, the score is tied. One more goal is all we need to claim victory. Adam passes the puck to Dean, who gets it to Charlie. Charlie goes for it, is checked. The puck is passed around the opposition; I trip them up and gain possession. The time ticks along with the throbbing in my ears. I fake, play with the puck and shoot. It sails into the net just on the buzzer.
A knot of bodies form around me, the throbbing subsides and I can hear the cheering. We do a victory lap, with Connie joining in – stitches already marring her pretty face. The Eden Hall Ducks had done it again, back-to-back champions in the schools league of Minnesota.
"Dwayne?" came a voice. I swung around to see Julie coming to sit next to me. Her normally bright face was pale in the light of the moon that had just risen. I raised my head and looked her in the eye.
"Howdy, Julie," I replied, shuffling over to let her sit by my side. She smelt of the raspberry shampoo that she uses, she had obviously had time to go back to her dorm and shower whereas the rest of us had to make do with the locker room showers. I think Connie had been washed when her cheek was stitched.
She looked away, wiping her eyes.
"What's wrong?" I asked, concerned due to the lack of her bubbly personality.
"Oh, nothing… just that Scooter… Scott broke up with me…" she tried to stem her tears. I handed her a handkerchief.
"My mother always said to carry a clean handkerchief…" I explained
"Your mother sounds as if she knows her stuff…" Julie replied through sobs. She leant against me, and I placed my arm around her in a vain attempt to keep her warm. Adam came out to make sure that Julie was ok. He sat on the other side of her and stroked her back.
Julie and Adam had dated once, during the Goodwill Games. Her return to Maine and his to Minnesota caused their break-up and since the Ducks' acceptance into Eden Hall, she's been a constant guest at the Banks' residence as a little sister of Adam. In the past three years, we all see each other as siblings, 'brothers from another mother,' as Russ says, whatever that means. It must be a Russ thing.
"I'm about to go home, my mum's here to pick me up," Adam explained, giving Julie a quick hug. He turned to me.
"Are you right to make sure she gets back to her dorm?" he asked, concerned for Julie. I nodded and he smiled and made his exit. Julie stayed still for an hour, snuggling into my side. The others came and went. Charlie took his girlfriend home in his beat-up station wagon, and Connie and Guy went somewhere bickering the whole way. A few of the other guys left with girls – some cheerleaders, others from girls teams at the school, even some of the girls that are deemed 'nerdy'.
"Dwayne…" started Julie, I looked towards her. She went on, "How do you think of me and Connie?"
I sat and thought about her question. If I told her what I really thought, she would think that I was some kind of pervert. So I told her a half-truth.
"Connie is like a sister, I mean she has Guy… even if they don't go together all the time. You…" I paused, thinking my words through my head.
"I'm…?" Julie asked. I took the plunge.
"I think you're beautiful,"
She kissed me lightly on the lips. I could feel the heat rise in my face and the blood pounding in my ears. My first kiss!
"Let's go back to the dorms now…" I stammered. I was really acting like an idiot. She smiled, the colour returning to her face. She giggled and linked her arm with mine.
"I really like you, Dwayne," she said, giving me a kiss on the cheek. I grinned.
"I really like you too, Julie."