Page 49 of Two for Roughing

“You do, sometimes,” Damir pointed out.

Ketchup shrugged. “I’m old enough to know what I can take.”

Damir eyed him. Though Ketchup and Matheson had the same birth year, they ended up in different drafts thanks to the cut-off date. “And how’d you learn, hm?”

A sliver of a grin slid across Ketchup’s face. “Made some mistakes as a rookie.”

That was what Damir had been afraid of.

“Can I ask you a personal question?”

Damir shrugged.

“Why did you become an athlete? You don’t enjoy any of the perks. You do your own cooking, you keep your own house, you don’t drink, you don’t do drugs, you don’t even talk to the puck bunnies.”

“You spent your adolescence on shitty bus trips and freezing ice rinks on the off-chance you’d be inundated with drugs, sex, and alcohol if you made it to the NHL?”

Ketchup sighed like a teakettle on a stove just starting to go cold. “It was a motivating factor, at least at the start. What are you here for?”

“To play hockey.”

Laughing, Ketchup clapped him on the shoulder. “I guess there’s that too.” He peeled off toward his own room on the opposite end of the corridor.

“Ketchup?” Damir called after him. “Do you mind if we get a third roommate?”

“You’re not going to take in a rookie to save him from the drugs and alcohol, are you?”

“No. We’ve got a new guy on the roster, and he’ll need a place to stay.” The second guest room wasn’t as big as Ketchup’s, but Damir aired it out regularly, and the sheets were clean.

“Dope. Fine by me.”

Damir nodded sharply and went to his own room.

If he wanted to take Kilian in to save him from the drugs and alcohol, well, Ketchup didn’t have to know.

Chapter Nine

“Late on Sunday night, the Sea Lions traded center Kilian Howard as well as two draft picks for the Chicago Firecrackers’ backup goaltender, Arnold Henderson. With the Sea Lions’ starting goaltender Vladimir Dmitriyev out indefinitely, San Francisco was in desperate need of fresh blood. On first glance, the trade seems equitable: Henderson’s save rate is at a respectable 0.908. Meanwhile, Howard spent part of November in a scoring slump, though he broke it against Ottawa and has been playing consistently ever since. But rumor has it the Sea Lions had other reasons for wanting him gone.”

Top comments:

Jefferson Howard: Typical Starling, rumormongering and threatening a good player’s reputation for clicks.

1682rox: [eyes emoji] tell us more!

(From “Henderson to SF for Howard, Two Draft Picks,” by Olivia Starling, published to the sports section of the San Francisco Herald Online, 12/01/2025)

By the time he made it to Cyberian Arena, Kilian’s head pounded. He’d scrubbed his face raw in the same club bathroom where he’d fucked himself on his fingers an hour earlier. But he couldn’t quite remove the last black streak of eyeliner, and his lips were so red and puffy from the rough treatment he might as well still be wearing the lip gloss Liam had smeared across them.

He spat out the gum he’d bought from a twenty-four-hour convenience store along with the biggest bottle of water they had and a cup of scalding hot coffee. He’d finished both of those in the Uber on his way here and hoped the gum would be enough to eradicate the combined alcohol and coffee breath.

None of it made him less aware that he wore a blush-pink crop top under his tightly zipped jacket. His grandpa was going to be so disappointed by the trade; he didn’t need to see Kilian looking ridiculous in addition if he got photographed. The less said about what his dad would think, the better.

He crushed the gum under his shoe and used his ID to swipe into the arena. The doors whooshed open, and he followed the familiar path toward the head coach’s office.

The call from Lindy came in three minutes after he hung up on Damir. It gave him enough time to get away from the dance floor and into the bathroom, the door muffling the loud music, and enough time to practice answering the phone the way a sober person would. He supposed he should thank Damir for that.

“Howie.” Lindy smiled warmly. “So glad you could make it at such short notice.” She pushed open the office door to let him in. Behind her waited Phil Easton, the team’s star D-man turned defensive coach, and Coach Edwards. Great. A full committee.