Resolutions

[dragonblk17.livejournal.com]

Title: Resolutions
Pairing: Thomas Vanek/Derek Roy (Buffalo Sabres) (Mentions of Jason Pominville/Drew Stafford)
Rating: PG, for some language.
Summary: Written for the challenge 'Ideal New Year's Eve' at hockeychallenge. Whoever thought soup could be romantic?
Disclaimer: Don't own any of the boys. I just love them way more than is healthy.



January 1st, 2008 had been a day that I had circled on my calendar for the longest time. It was mainly because of our game for the Winter Classic that was quickly approaching the next afternoon, and the team couldn’t have been more excited to get out there and practice on New Year’s Eve. It was nice to see everyone enjoying themselves; even after we had just lost three straight games (the most recent having been a shutout.) The boys were in good spirits for the new year, and I had been no different.

After our outdoor practice, all of us trudged back into the locker room to find that there was some soup left out for us to chow down on. I could tell by the scent of it that it was chicken noodle just soaking in broth. “Hey, does this happen to be Campbell’s brand?” Paul Gaustad had said, smirking as he picked up one of the styrofoam containers containing the hot liquid. “If that’s the case, no wonder why it’s ‘Mmm mmm good!’” Drew Stafford laughed, and grabbed one of the containers for himself. Brian Campbell rolled his eyes, and immediately headed over towards his locker. “You guys are hilarious, really. You’re just jealous that I am ‘Mmm mmm good!’” He said, stripping off his helmet and jersey.

“Not all of us can be beautiful redheads like you, Soupy. I guess it’s just the luck of the draw.” Those words came from my boyfriend, Thomas Vanek, who was just strutting over to his own locker right next to mine. I cracked a smile, and punched his left shoulder lightly. “Whaaaat?” He said, starting to laugh.
“You’re a beautiful blonde, and I like you that way.” Most of the guys in the room starting ‘awwing’ and I could see that Thomas was blushing under the dim lights of the locker room. “Thanks, Der…” He murmured, as he finished taking off all of his equipment. I leaned up to give him a kiss on the cheek, and wrapped my arms around his body. The only bad part I hated about hugging Thomas was the fact my head only came up to his shoulder – he had to bend down in order to kiss me. He was always telling me that was the great thing about our relationship; the fact I was so short, and I was too cute to pass up a cuddle session with. He always managed to get me with that one.

Still wearing my helmet, I rubbed it against Thomas’ shoulder. “Should we get soup?” I mumbled under my breath. “Haha, what?” Thomas took the helmet off of my head, and placed a finger under my chin. “I can’t hear you when you’re talking to my shoulder, sunshine.” My blues eyes flickered, and I smiled warmly up at him. I loved when he called me by my pet name, and my heart always melted just a little bit afterwards. He was so beautiful; my tall, blonde, lispy, Austrian lover.

“I saiiid…should we get some soup?” I blinked up at him, and once again nuzzled my nose into his shoulder. “Let me take my skates off first. Besides, you should get your stuff off so you won’t spill it on you.” He tried to hide a smirk, but I caught him. “What do you mean ‘spill’? I’m not a klutz, like you are.” Now I was the one who tried to hide my grin. “Thomas, I think you just got owned by your lover, here.” Staff somehow said with a mouthful of noodles in his mouth. He was stuffing it into his face quicker than he could chew, and I thought for sure it would come spilling out of his mouth any second.
“Hm? What Staff? I couldn’t hear what you said; maybe you should try not to eat with food in your mouth. Saves you from choking yourself.” Thomas stuck out his tongue at Drew, and sat down on his bench to untie his skates. I also decided to do the same.
As I began taking off one of my skates, I could hear my stomach growl. It was low, but loud enough so that the people closest to me were able to hear it. Thomas had looked up from taking off his other skate, and placed both of his hands on his hips. “Dear God and I thought my stomach growling was loud.” He smiled, and patted my stomach lightly. “We better get some food into your buddy there, before it’s growling gets even louder.”
“Yeah…” I murmured, as I finished taking off both of my skates. I stripped my jersey off, and hung it on one of the metal hooks inside my locker. The nameplate on my locker had gotten slightly dusty over the course of the week, so I rubbed off the light coat that had appeared on it. The name ‘Roy’ gleamed back at me from the lighting in the room, and my eyes glanced over to Thomas’ nameplate. His had been dusty as well, and I wiped it with my finger once again. ‘Vanek’ now had shown clearly without being covered in dust and a small smile crept onto my face.

Thomas tilted his head upwards, and looked at his nameplate from an upside down angle. “Why thank you Derek, I probably never would’ve figured out where my locker was if you hadn’t of dusted off my nameplate.” A huge grin appeared on his face, and he laughed a bit.
I once again punched him in the same shoulder I had moments before, and smirked. “…Ouch.” Thomas rubbed his arm and stood up from his bench. “You punch way too hard, Der. I’m going to have a bruise now.”
“Oh, you will not.” I leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Besides, if you do?” I brought my voice down to a whisper. “I’ll just kiss it to make it feel better.”
Thomas smiled, and whispered right back an ‘Aww…’ before placing a hand behind my neck to bring us closer together. I felt the younger man’s warm breath tickle my nose and I leaned up just a bit more to press my lips against Thomas’. The soup could surely wait, as could my stomach – I would much rather kiss my delectable boyfriend than slurp down a hot meal to satisfy the sounds coming from the center of my body.

Thomas had been the first to pull away, and he opened his blue eyes to look through blonde eyelashes down at me. He sniffled a bit (he cursed the hood he wore during practice, because it apparently didn’t save him from a small cold), and ran his other hand through my hair to give it a small ruffle. I scowled, since I hated when my hair got messed up, but…I never became too agitated when he did it, because it was Thomas. When he had done anything that was considered a pet peeve of mine, I wouldn’t care. He was an exception for anything and everything.
“Let’s go get some soup now.” I said finally to break the silence between the both of us, and he nodded his head. “All right.”
I turned around to look at the table where there had been plenty of soup to go around – but now, all I could see was one container left. “…Um, guys? Wasn’t there enough soup here to feed an army before?” I said, my face contorted with confusion. “You can blame Staff for that one.” Jason Pominville pointed towards the winger, who currently looked like a squirrel stuffing acorns in his face to take back to his habitat. “He was saying how ‘hungry’ he was and how he felt you guys could ‘share’ a container of soup.”
“Besides, it won’t hurt you two if you share, will it?” The culprit of the second to last container of soup spoke, after he gulped down a huge thing of broth. “You share each other’s germs when you make out in the center of the locker room, and I’m sure in bed, too, so..”
“Shut the hell up, Drew.” Thomas rolled his eyes, and placed the hand that had been on my neck, on my shoulder. “You don’t know what’s going on with us when we’re in private.”
“I’m sure I could take a guess…”
“Don’t ponder on it for too long there, buddy…” He growled out, and squeezed my shoulder slightly. I could tell by his sudden tensing up that he was getting annoyed with Drew.
“All right guys, come on.” I said, poking Thomas in the collarbone. “We can share. I don’t mind.” A smile grew on my face, and I saw Thomas’ face lose tenseness as he looked back at me and smiled right back.

I snuck out of Thomas’ grasp from my shoulder, and grabbed the final container of soup. The heat from the food had quickly reached my hands, and I was able to fell my fingers again. I brought it back over to Thomas, and held it out for him to hold onto. “Don’t drop it now.” I stuck out my tongue at him, and I received one in return from the taller man. Going back over to the table quickly, I retrieved some utensils and returned them back to our lockers so that we could sit down and eat. “Here you are.” I placed a spoon in his lap, and sat down on the bench in my locker.
He looked up from staring down at the soup I had him hold onto, and he placed his right hand onto the spot next to him. “Sit next to me, Der. That way we won’t spill it all over the floor. Since I’m such a klutz…” He cracked a smile, and moved over a bit to make room for me.
“I was only joking about that, Thomas.” I got right back up again, and migrated over to the spot that Thomas left open for me. I sat down, and leaned against his body as immediate warmth hit the right side of me. “God, you are warm.” My nose nuzzled into his shoulder, and I smelled his scent. Sweat and vanilla. Not exactly the greatest combination, but it was his scent, and I could careless.

“Well, that’s good. I’m afraid you’d move away from me if I was a walking snowman.” He turned to face me and held out the container of soup. “You can have the first bite. I think you’re dying more than I am.” Thomas laughed, and I couldn’t help but smile at the comment he made. I took a small spoonful and put it in my mouth to try some. It wasn’t scorching hot, but it sufficed as the hot liquid trailed down my esophagus. “Good?” Thomas asked, and he cocked his head to the side. A few strands of blonde hair fell into his face and glistened in the light. “Yeah.” I took another spoonful, and held it out for him. “I do have my own spoon, Derek…” He said, whipping out the one I had given him earlier. “Good point…though; I wouldn’t have minded your ‘germs’ on my spoon.” I winked at him, and gulped down another spoonful of soup.

Within a span of two minutes, he and I had both finished up most of the small meal. There were a few spoonfuls left in the container when we both took one at the same time, and found a long strand of a noodle shared between the both of us.
“Oh wow.” I murmured; staring at the noodle swimming in both of our spoons.
“It’s going to be like a Lady and the Tramp moment, isn’t it?” Thomas asked, also staring at it but occasionally glancing up to look at me.
“Exactly like one, but…who’s the tramp?” I grinned at him.
“I guess I am. I’m certainly not the one who acts like he has PMS every month.”
“Thomas, you’re a jerk.”
“I know – but you love me.”
I pouted, and sighed. “Yeah…I do.” I looked back down at our spoons, and blinked. “Better eat this strangler, huh?”
“Sounds like a good plan. Don’t want it to go to waste, now.”

The both of us brought our spoons up to our mouths; making sure not to lose the noodle back in the container. It survived the way up, and we slowly chewed on it until our lips were brushing against each other. I finished my half of the noodle, and pressed my lips against Thomas’ a bit harder than I had before. I could still feel the warm soup burning down my throat, and still taste the sweetness of broth on his lips as I stuck my tongue out to lick it off with one quick swoop. Before I could stop myself, I was crawling on top of Thomas and pushing him back against the side of his locker. Beads of sweat from his blonde hair were dripping onto my face and my hands came up to caress the sides of his as I continued to kiss him tenderly. I didn’t care if the entire team was watching us at that moment– I wouldn’t have rather been anywhere else than right there. When we kissed, it always felt like we were the only two people left in the entire universe, and I loved being in that mindset. He could take all of my pain away with one little kiss. That’s just how Thomas was, and he meant so much to me – our love meant so much.
“Oh for Christ’s sake, can you men over there cool it?” I heard Drew yell from his locker. “A few of us would like to keep our meals down until we get home, thanks.”
My lips turned into a smirk, and my tongue swept into Thomas’ mouth really quickly before I got off of him. His lips were still a little bit opened, and I could tell he was upset that I had stopped because of Drew’s outburst. Later, I mouthed to him, and I turned around to face Drew Stafford.

“I’m sure you do the same with your lover too, Staff.” He cocked his head in confusion when he looked up at me, but he knew exactly what I was speaking of. After the incident in Los Angeles, I nor Thomas had brought up the fact that Drew was practically in Jason Pominville’s pants that night at the nightclub. I figured since he was bothering us so much about our relationship, it was time to give him a taste of his own medicine – without hurting Pommers.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Derek.” He was being pretty calm about the whole situation, and he put his dirty practice clothes in his bag. I had just shrugged my shoulders, and turned back into my own locker. “Okay, whatever.”

Thomas, finally out of his daze, came up behind me and tapped my shoulder. I glanced towards him, and smiled at the Austrian. “What is it?” I asked, beginning to put my own dirty clothes in my bag. “Was that such a good idea? I mean, I think we’re the only ones who saw them out there dancing…”
“I didn’t mention Pommers.” My voice dropped to a whisper, and I turned my head back towards Thomas. “It’s okay. Though, I’m sure Drew won’t bother us anymore.” I looked away from Thomas to see Drew speaking with Jason quietly over in the corner. They looked to be in a deep conversation, and I had a hunch it was about what I had said just a minute earlier to the dark haired man.

“If you’re sure, Der.” Thomas murmured, and he moved back over to his own locker to put his things away. A few minutes silently past by between the both of us as I overheard the other guys talking about what they were doing on New Year’s Eve. Some guys were spending time with their families that had come to Buffalo to see the Winter Classic, and then the others were spending time with their significant others. Me? I was just hoping to spend some time together with Thomas before the big day tomorrow.

“Oh hey, Derek?” I heard the younger man say to me as I zipped up my hockey bag. “Yeah, what is it?” I placed it onto the ground, and turned back to face him. Thomas was holding out two hands; both closed quite tightly from what I could see. “Choose one.” He was looking me straight in the eyes, and his irises were tinted lightly at that moment. I managed to pull my gaze from them, and looked down to his hands. The left or the right?

Thomas was right-handed, so I chose that one first. “Hm, nope. I guess you can’t get the gift now…” He grinned at me, and my mouth dropped. “You are such a mean jerk to me sometimes, you know?”
His hand hit his chest, and he staggered back a bit. “Derek, you hurt me deeply. I can’t believe you’d consider me to be a mean jerk.”
“Well, I mean, if you’re not going to give me a gift, then fi-“

I had closed my eyes for just a millisecond, and all of the sudden I saw a ring around a long chain dangling in front of me. The ring was entirely a dark blue color, and it reminded me of the ocean. There were faint streaks of white within the ring as well, and it sparkled in the light of the locker room. The chain was silver, and also glistened as I continued to stare at the object.
“This is…for me?” I murmured, as my fingertips brushed against the ring lightly.
“Of course, sunshine.” Thomas smiled again, and grabbed onto my hand. He laid it out so that he could put the ring on the chain into my hand, and he closed it into a fist. Keeping his own hand on top of mine, he told me “I hope you wear that and think of me – no matter where you are, Derek.” He lifted my hand up, and pushed it against my chest, right above my heart. “No matter where you are.”
Wetness sprang up to my eyes, and I blinked to try and make it go away. It was impossible to do that now. I took a step forward, and wrapped my arms around Thomas before I kissed him tenderly. My mind was in a complete rush right now, and I knew deep in my heart that I would always think of Thomas, no matter what. He would forever be on my mind and nothing could change that, at all.
I whispered a ‘Thank you.’ onto his lips, and I let go of our small kiss. Burying my head into his shoulder, I felt one of his hands come up and rub the back of my neck.

There was surely no where else that I would’ve rather been than right there, in the arms of the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I didn’t need a gift to tell me that, or anyone else.

All I needed was his love.