Who: Hockey and Figure Skating. What: Brotherly bonding. Kind of. When: Tuesday night, during the Men's Short Program. Where: Hockey's apartment. Warnings: Language, alcohol, suggestive comments from Figure Skating, uncomfortable deflections from Hockey.
Hockey's apartment was barely used - the god was either on road trips or at the Garden and tended to use the apartment as a place to crash occasionally - but it had seen more use since Hockey had torn a muscle in his knee than it had seen since the beginning of the season. Especially when the Rangers were on the road and Hockey didn't need to come to every practice to watch from the sidelines, come to every game to watch from the owner's box, Hockey had far too much time on his hands. There were advertising representatives, there were rehabilitation appointments, but there were also the Olympic Games and an older brother to watch them with, to commiserate with about being so close, yet so far away from being able to participate. An open pizza box with half a meat lover's pizza left was on the coffee table and only about a foot away, Hockey's leg was propped up, the knee brace visible over red track pants. That brace and the crutches leaned up against the couch - and, of course, the pizza and the cooler filled with beer next to the coffee table - were the only signs that Hockey wasn't actively playing.
There were still the obvious signs of his athetic lifestyle; the equipment bag by the door, the sticks propped up in random locations, the treadmill in the corner, the weights sitting beside it. To say Hockey was antsy and eager to play again was an understatement, but he had to let the injury heal at least somewhat naturally for it to be believable. As it was, he leaned foward, opened another beer, and glared lightly at the television as he waited for Figure Skating to arrive. There were three major events going on tonight; the Rangers were in Ottawa, their game starting at 7:30, Team Canada was playing against Norway, and the Men's Short Program was also being televised.
All at the same time.
But Hockey knew about about figure skating to know that Johnny Weir was skating tonight. Hockey knew enough about Figure Skating to know that his brother might not react well to Weir's presence. And if it meant turning Team Canada's first game of the tournament into their commercial show for the night, so Hockey, usually not in-tune with anyone's emotions but Figure Skating was family, could do what he could to ease Figure Skating's annoyance, well, Hockey would make that sacrifice.
That didn't mean, however, that he'd take off his Team Canada jersey.