ROCKET

So, you know, my lovely best friend rants at me for like a half an hour and we go back to the cabin and I make soft love to him for like the third time in a 24 hour period and then we watch a movie, nap, and do it again and then eat a ridiculously late dinner (I'm blaming the lack of a discernible night) and do it again and he's lucky I've still got teenager libido from being pent up for 23 years, more like 10 considering I didn't have a sex drive as a toddler, but you know what I mean.

Before I know it, he's kissing me good morning on my last day in Sweden.

"Good morning to you too," I mumble, dropping my head back against the pillow, one arm slung over his bare hips.

"We have about an hour until we need to start driving." He whispers against my neck.

"I wish you could come with me." I run my fingers through his hair, bringing his eyes up to mine. He rubs the very tip of his nose against mine, circling it for a moment and then kissing me.

"Me too, but I think this is something you should do on your own and I have to deal with my family up here before going back to Canada." He whispers. "I would love to."

"Yeah," I tap my lips against the tip of his nose. "But you're right, this is something I have to do without my moral support defenseman."

He sighs, setting his head back down in the crook of my shoulder. My arms circle up around his warm and slightly sunburnt back. He took off his shirt while working out yesterday against his own better judgement.

"Should we shower now or in fifteen minutes." I ask, fingers in his hair giving it a little comb, detangling his bedhead.

"Hmngh," he mumbles into my neck. "Fifteen minutes."

"God, I could get used to this," I respond.

He just smiles, rolling off me. "Yeah, me too."

A half hour later, not at all on schedule, we sit down to eat a small breakfast.

It feels like the time is moving at warp speed because before I'm able to blink and say "i love you" for the hundredth time, I'm hugging him in the parking lot of the airport, breathing in how he smells.

"You'd think one of us was getting deployed or something." He mumbles against my hair.

"Yeah," I respond. "But I'm not. And I'll see you in like... two weeks. Maybe less."

"Hopefully not less." He pulls back, cradling my face in his hands. "Keep me updated. I know you forget to text people here and there but keep me in the loop. Be safe, don't talk to strangers, you have a plan, right?"

"I do." I don't, not a reliable one, anyway.

"Text me when you're taking off, call when you get there-"

"Håkon I'm not an unaccompanied minor."

He frowns, then smiles. "I love you."

"I love you too."

"Alright, and be safe, okay? Be safe. You remember Czech, right?"

"Yea," I laugh. "Yeah I remember Czech."

"Good, good. Do you have Euros."

My eyes go wide. "Oh that's a good point."

"Oh boy."

"No, no wait, I remembered to get some at one- no those were Krona." I pause, pulling out my wallet from my back pocket and shuffling through all the bills. "Swedish shit, Norwegian shit for some reason, there's Canadian money and I've got American stuff too-"

"All in there?"

"Yeah, small bills, though, like four dollars each."

He peers into my wallet. "There's some in the car. Enough for like... a coffee."

"If I could have that, that would be great. I mean, I've got my card that goes between a few but if- no pause." I grab his arm, pulling him back. "They don't even use euros."

"They don't? But they're EU, right?"

"I think so," I say. "Means they have to adopt the Euro sometime but I think they still use koruna. I'll deal with that when I get there."

"Okay, yeah, sure." he breathes in. "god I'm gonna fucking miss you."

"I'm still gonna call you and stuff." I look up at him. "It's not like I'm gonna drop off the face of the Earth for two full weeks."

He sighs. "You've been attached to my side for six months."

"Yeah, I know," I reach up and hug him again, watching the parking lot, making sure nobody can see us. "But I have to go, just a little while."

"Kiss me and then seriously you're gonna be late." He slips his fingers around my chin and I lean into it, locking my lips with his. He tries to stay, alter his position just a little, but I pull back, patting his chest.

"Love you, but I have to go, unfortunately."

"Love you too, now get outta here." He ruffles my hair and pulls me in for one last short kiss.

The first leg of my trip is short, just a train ride to Gothenburg. From there I send him images of signs for him to tell me where to go, though most stuff is doubled in English.

I end up at the right terminal, thank you, Håk, and then I've got exactly a half an hour to spend bothering him from afar.

I get distracted on my way to open up his message chat and end up playing a half an hour of pocket edition Minecraft. Occasionally he'll log onto his phone and join me in this world and make me little farms and flower patches while I fuck around in the nether or mine things. I should've known he was going to be completely okay with bottoming when he came in and furnished my hole-in-the-mountain house and put little sign labels on things.

The last time we used the wifi to play together in this little world he even built me a full house and put his bed down next to mine. He's got little banners on the sides of the windows to act as pseudo curtains and there's carpet and a little potted plant.

His love language is taking care of me in Minecraft. Steph's love language is brutally murdering me in Minecraft. He's done everything, pushed me into the nether lava, dropped an anvil on me, trapped me underwater, dropped me down a hole, spawned a hundred skeletons in the same room as me, removed all my torches in a cave so I couldn't find my way back, shot me with a crossbow, you get the pictures. Håkon gives me potted plants and decorates my house and makes me farms and flower fields, Steph murders me in gruesome horrible ways. I'm still the only one of the three of us that's got enough guts to go into the nether and the end and keep it on 'normal' instead of 'peaceful' but don't bring that up to them, they get mad.

I eventually get on the plane, panicking for a moment before reassuring myself that my goalie gear is, in fact, checked baggage.

I settle myself down by the window and fire off a text.

ROCKET: i'm on the plane

ROCKET: my knees are in the seat in front of me

ROCKET: i'm too big for planes this sucks

ROCKET: why are all of them so small? What's the point? Capitalism?

ROCKET: i love being tall and then I cant stand all the way straight in a plane

HÅKON: i've still got three full inches on you, i know what it's like to duck on a plane

HÅKON: on another note, don't play too much Minecraft I still haven't finished your house

ROCKET: i've been mining

ROCKET: and sucks to suck tall boy

Someone sits down next to me and I look up from smiling down at my phone.

"Good afternoon," it's an older guy, greeting me in broken English.

"Hello," I respond.

"You're a bit tall for a plane."

"Just a little." I respond, pinching my fingers together.

"What brings you to Prague?"

I shrug. "Family visit." I mean I can't really tell a stranger I'm going to go bust down the door of the man that disowned me ten years prior in hopes of seeing my brother again, but. "You?"

"Just going home. I love Swedes, hate Sweden."

"Ten straight days of summer getting to you?" I switch it over to Czech, he's from there so he's probably stronger in it.

He laughs, taking to the Czech. "Yeah, I'm exhausted. You've got an American accent."

"I've been living in Canada for ten years, Czech gets a little rusty after that much time."

"What do you do for work in Canada? I don't know a lot of Czech people that live in Canada."

"I play professional ice hockey." I respond, tapping out a quick message to Steph.

His eyebrows go up. "You're pulling my leg, you have to be."

"Nope," I respond, letting Minecraft load again. "Regina Wolves. I'm secondary goaltender."

"What's a professional athlete doing in economy class?" He jokes.

"Not sure, to be honest."

The conversation sort of fizzles out and I go back to mining and waiting out the flight.

I manage to get a whole stack of diamonds before we hit the ground and I send Håkon another text.

ROCKET: here

ROCKET: i found us more diamonds

***

kinda weird that euros aren't actually universal to the EU. just learned that tonight

anyway

-rabid