Alfred was not the first person on the ice. No, that would be a skater wearing a dark green jersey, with a long brown ponytail sticking out of her black helmet. Alfred quickly noticed that Elizabeta skated with more effort than that most people would use for warm ups. Her strides were purposeful and she stayed low and focused.
After stretching and skating a couple laps, Alfred located the coach and a couple of his college alumni. The large Russian man had worked with older students before he moved onto high schools, and many of his students loved working with the young hockey players.
"Alfred!" A woman in the team's uniform warm-ups, a black helmet, and a pair of skates waved to him from Coach Braginski's side. This woman had never played under the larger man, but she had been on the Ukrainian national women's hockey team. Katyusha Braginski basically carried her entire team. If everybody had been as skilled as the goalie, Ukraine could have sent their team to the olympics.
It was unfortunate that Katyusha had been forced to stop playing, but it had become difficult when she had begun suffering chest and back pains. However, the girl still had a strong shot, and she was an amazing goalie coach, constantly offering support and advice.
"How has your year been?" She asked cheerfully when Alfred had approached the group of coaches and helpers. He answered positively and loudly, as was usual for him, although his mind was more on hockey. Before the captain could ask Katyusha the same question, they were approached by Ivan, who smiled widely,
"Privyet, Alfred! Are you ready for the season? I'm going to let you run the drills this evening so that I can assess players. That sounds good, da?" Alfred nodded enthusiastically at the large man, who stood at least 4 inches taller than Alfred himself.
Alfred had heard Coach Braginski being described as cute by a couple girls before. While the man had a soft round face, bright eyes that looked violet in the right light, light platinum hair, and a body that much resembled that of a teddy bear, he was anything but adorable on the ice. In fact, the man was near terrifying. His quiet threats and cold demeanor belonged in a horror movie.
He was still a wonderful coach. Something about Ivan Braginski pushed the high school students to work harder than they ever had before. Alfred would willingly sweat and bleed for that team.
"I'm so excited, dude!" Alfred replied to his coach, a large grin on his face. The American had never been great at showing respect, and had always preferred to talk to his elders more like they were his friends, "And that sounds awesome! Should I start now?"
Ivan nodded, "Da. If they are not here, they're already late," With that, the head coach lifted the whistle hanging from a string around his neck to his face and released one long, sharp note. Within moments, all the skaters around the ice had congregated around the middle.
Alfred located Matthew geared up in his team Canada youth jersey with no name on it, a plain white goalie helmet, and a pair of silver and white itech leg pads with matching gloves. He looked very professional, Alfred thought, and there was something new in the shy boy's eyes. Alfred noticed that Matthew was not wearing his round glasses anymore.
"Privyet boys and girls!" Ivan smiled and offered a soft wave, "I'm Head Coach Braginski, that is Goalie Coach Katyusha, and this is Assistant Coach Laurinaitis," As Ivan introduced all the coaches, they gave small waves, "All of us will be working on assessing you today. Captain Alfred-" Said boy grinned widely and waved both hands widely, nearly falling backwards due to the sudden insane motions, "-will be running drills today. If you have any questions, ask him before you come to me,"
Then, Ivan nodded at the excited boy and Alfred started on drills, "Hey dudes! How're you all doing?" After a chorus of 'alright's and 'good's, Alfred continued, "Awesome guys! All of you better be ready to work your little butts off today! In the drills, show us two hundred percent of what you have. The only boundary is yourself; even if you lose I want to see you fight your hardest, understand?" A couple of nods and Alfred grinned. He felt like a superhero- intense and awesome.
"Alright then! You dudes ready? Goalies, there are five nets set up for you at the end of the ice, go on down there with Katyusha. As for the rest of you, who likes skating!?"
Full ice skating was never meant to be very difficult. For Alfred, it had always been more of a warm up. For other players, it was a way to see who had just begun learning how to skate and who had actual stamina. Alfred allowed himself twenty minutes out of the hour they had for skating drills, after which he was sure Ivan had crossed some names off the list. A couple of the kids could hardly make it across the ice without collapsing.
When they were done, Alfred divided the players by jersey color and sent them all off to smaller drills, two of which would be run by coaches while the rest were run by the players in it. This would give the coaches a good idea of who listened to instruction and who messed around.
Alfred had watched over a stick-handling station, which looked as if it was doing fine without his help. Halfway through the second group, Alfred left to go check on the goalies. They were still skating.
Dropping down, jumping up, shuffling to one side, skating backwards, Alfred had a difficult time following some of the goalies, and it looked like not all of them understood either. Most of them watched the others' movements before doing their own choppy version. Matthew, however, went through the motions with easy precision, his skates tearing through the ice with a dull grinding noise. Alfred loved that sound.
Katyusha was besides Alfred a couple moments after his arrival to the spot, "Hi Alfred," She smiled kindly, putting a hand on his shoulder, "Would you like to send some of the older players down here for shooting and screening? Only a couple, I'll send you some goalies in return." She smiled, and Alfred nodded.
"Sure, dude!" He pointed out three drills that included shooting, before grabbing Elizaveta, a named Raivis, and a tall senior boy named Matthias. Then he returned to Katyusha. She had already sent out a couple goalies, and currently only Matthew and a small freshman drinking from their water bottles as they took a small break.
Katyusha eagerly positioned Alfred in front of Matthew and Matthias in front of the smaller kid, explaining to everyone that this would be a screening drill. The two pre-positioned players would try to block the goalie's sight while Raivis and Elizaveta shot.
Alfred looked back to grin at his new friend, although Matthew refused to acknowledge him. The Canadian stayed focused on the shooter with a somewhat scary intensity. When Alfred turned around again, he faced a grinning brunette who seemed eager to prove herself.
Her first shot was quick; it went missed Alfred's hip by a couple inches. When the captain looked back, he was sure that the puck went in. But no, Matthew was in a butterfly position, and the round plastic disk was safely in his glove, which was clenched tightly so that Alfred was unable to hit it out.
Matthew dropped the puck in front of Alfred's stick. The American passed it to Elizaveta with a "Nice save," spoken to the goalie over his shoulder.
This time, Elizaveta moved back and forth and stick handled as she prepared to shoot. Alfred also, changed his approach slightly, looking back to make sure that he was blocking the goalie more efficiently. He readied a backhand shot or rebound for the Hungarian girl.
Just as Elizaveta raised her stick to shoot, and Alfred felt completely confident that it would be completely impossible for Matthew to get this shot that she was readying, something hooked around and pulled on Alfred's foot and he lost his balance. Just as Alfred landed, the puck sailed past. If he had been in place, Alfred would have efficiently tipped it in, but, on the ground, the American could only watch Matthew easily hit the puck away from the net with his stick.
"Got you down, Alfred?" Katyusha asked, as Alfred raised himself to his feet, "I'm surprised, you're usually careful about that stuff."
Alfred could barely reply, too busy blinking stupidly at the boy who was suddenly more aggressive than shy and quiet. The soft-spoken, apologetic Canadian had tripped him. Alfred grinned. If this kid missed a spot on the team, something was very wrong.
Some half hour later and Alfred was in the locker room undressing with his team. As it was, Matthew's bag was right besides Alfred's on the bench, and they talked to each other as they changed.
"I'm sorry… About tripping you earlier, you were in my way," Matthew spoke quietly and guiltily, Alfred could hardly keep back a laugh.
"Dude, don't apologize! That's totally what you're supposed to do. It's not like I'm unprotected or anything." He grinned and hit his chest protector for proof. Matthew was taking off his own chest protector, which came in only one piece that covered his entire torso and arms, but had multiple straps.
"Yeah, but still, I mean…" He shrugged, finally pulling the equipment off over his head. Now the Canadian was wearing a tight black, long sleeved shirt that outlined strong abs and pecs underneath.
Then, Matthew stripped that off as well. Alfred was suddenly talking to a half naked Canadian and damn. That timid boy could not have had any more than an ounce of fat on his body. Alfred was reminded that statues he had seen during a vacation in Greece years ago.
The boy was extremely toned, a six pack and pronounced muscles proved that, but at the same time, he managed to look slim and delicate. Alfred quickly looked away and untied his own skates, still watching Matthew from the corner of his eye.
In a moment, Matthew was wearing a white t-shirt with a plaid long-sleeved shirt overtop. Alfred sighed in both disappointment and relief and finished changing as quickly as he could.
Alfred felt so wrong. It was disgusting to use the locker room as an excuse to look at one of his teammate's bodies, wasn't it? But it had not been intentional or anything. Maybe Alfred just respected Matthew's resolve to work out so much as he obviously did.
The American was the first person in the room to finish changing, and when he did, he grinned at everybody in the cramped locker room, "Good job today guys! The roster will be posted in front of the gym by Wednesday and it'll tell you when the first practice is."
Alfred pulled his backpack over his shoulder, followed by the larger hockey bag and his sticks, but before he could walk out, a hand on his wrist stopped him.
Alfred was surprised to see Matthew looking awkward in his giant goalie pants without the leg pads. "Hey," The Canadian said timidly, "Do you mind if we walk to school together again tomorrow?" Alfred noted the way that Matthew chewed on his lip nervously. It was absolutely adorable.
"Yeah, dude, sure! You can grab me in the morning again. See you then." He waved when Matthew removed his hand, and left the locker room.
At home, Alfred went straight to his homework. Then he packed his lunch and made himself dinner, eating it with music blasting full-volume from his earphones. Then he cleaned his room. Then he cleaned his house. Anything to keep his mind off Matthew.
When Arthur returned home with Peter, the older Brit was worried about his health. Which was kind of insulting, even though Alfred was not usually the type to even shower willingly.
"Are you sure you're feeling well, Alfred?" Although he acted nice, Alfred knew that Arthur was teasing him. He wasn't the worried type. At least, not openly.
"Yes, Arthur," It was the third time in fifteen minutes Arthur had asked the same question. Alfred was currently making dinner for everybody, "I feel completely fine. You've already checked. I don't have a fever or anything." Alfred rolled his eyes, and stirred the soup. "Dinner's ready."
Peter was the first to sit at the table, excited to eat something not cooked by Arthur for once. Arthur was slower because he was annoyed at Peter's eagerness.
As the youngest boy went on about his day, Alfred could not stop himself from thinking about violet eyes veiled by round glasses and blonde hair topped by a single curl.
Hey! So, I know not many people actually read this or anything, but I really need a beta reader, if any of you readers out there are available! Thanks to y'all for reading at all, though. Review and follow if you can, that always makes me happy :)