Chapter 3
Alexei genuinely considers hanging up.
"We lost by four goals," he says darkly.
"So great for Sherbrooke, maybe."
Sterling lets out a deep breath.
"Shit.
Okay listen, I'm sorry.
I didn't check the score, and I had a 50/50 shot of getting that right.
Well maybe 70/30 considering you play for Kingston now."
"You called to rub loss in my face?" Alexei guesses, having come up with literally no other explanation for this call.
"Is low, Sterling, even for asshole like you."
"Okay first of all, fuck you,"
Sterling shoots back.
"And second of all no, I called because... well, because..."
A wild thought occurs to Alexei.
"Sterling, are you...
What is the word?
Captured?
Like in movies with guns and explosions?
Is this hostage situation?"
"No, Fedorov, it's not a fucking hostage situation,"
Sterling snaps.
"And if it
were
, you would be the absolute
last
person I would call for help.
I need you to know that."
Alexei rolls his eyes.
"I would say 'blink twice if you are in danger', but considering I cannot see your face and also I hate you, I guess it does not matter so much.
Would probably be good character build for you anyway."
"For Jack's sake, I'm going to ignore everything you just said."
"Would also be really good if you could get to the fucking point, Sterling," Alexei says, this time with more edge than before.
"I cannot drive through snow and translate your bullshit all at same time.
I will crash and Jack will be very upset and will be all your fault."
"Alright, listen,"
Sterling starts hesitantly,
"before you freak out, Jack is—"
Anger flares up in Alexei's gut, and he cuts Sterling off impatiently.
"If something is wrong with Jack and you have been waiting this fucking long to tell me, I swear I
will
kill you really—"
"Look, Jack is fine!
He's fine, he's just..."
"What, Sterling?" Alexei presses, hoping his voice doesn't sound as frantic as he feels right now.
Did something happen after their game?
Or during it?
An injury or concussion that got past the med team?
Was he freaking out in a corner somewhere, gasping for breath like he sometimes does when he's too overwhelmed to push it all down?
He presses his foot against the gas unconsciously, pushing the speed limit by 20 now and not giving a single fuck.
"He's what?"
"High,"
Sterling says miserably.
"He's so fucking high."
For a moment, Alexei can't comprehend what Sterling is telling him.
The words literally don't compute in his brain.
"Did you say high?" Alexei asks after a long beat of silence.
"Am thinking I did not hear you right."
Yeah, Jack is super high right now."
"Jack
Cameron
?" he asks stupidly.
Because there's simply no way that golden boy, goody two shoes, Jack Cameron, the man who practically makes the sign of the cross at every cigarette he's ever seen, has abandoned his principles on a random fucking night and decided to get high for what is no doubt the first time ever in his life.
If Alexei Fedorov knows
anything
about his boyfriend, he knows this.
"Jack does not smoke anything," Alexei says, as if this fact will explain the situation away.
"Ever."
"I know that.
He didn't take hits off a joint or anything.
It was all just one big fucking misunderstanding.
Look, Max told him about these non-alcoholic beers in the fridge, right?
But what he didn't say was that next to the beers were a few cans of this THC drink.
Weed-infused or whatever.
And I guess Jack didn't bother to read the labels or didn't know what it meant, because he downed three of them in the span of like an hour."
"Fucking hell," Alexei mutters.
This was not good.
Jack loves control almost as much as he loves Alexei.
Maybe more.
"He eats like fucking bird, too.
It will go right through him.
Christ, he will be soaring sky fucking high."
"Can confirm, he's already up there.
Like wayyy up there."
A thought occurs to Alexei.
"And where the fuck were you when this happened?
Why did you not stop this?"
"Putting my kids to sleep, thank you very much!
I intervened as soon as I got there, but by that point..."
"You are useless, Sterling," Alexei sighs.
"Useless player.
Useless friend."
"Jesus, Fedorov, it wasn't anyone's fault.
Except for Max's maybe."
"Not maybe!
Definitely!
Was definitely his fault.
Jack would never do this on purpose and now it has happened accidentally.
He will be very upset when he realizes."
"Well, he's not upset right now, alright?
In fact, this may be the happiest I've ever seen the guy.
And he won't shut the fuck up about
you,
which is why we had to leave the party.
Well, one of the reasons anyway."
Both alarm and satisfaction spread through Alexei's core— alarm at the fact that Jack, who is so tight lipped and anxious about their relationship in public, could have betrayed himself by accident, and satisfaction that while high and apparently
very
happy, all Jack seems to be able to do is talk about him.
"Where are you now?" Alexei asks.
"At Jack's place.
I didn't want to leave him alone, and I wanted to see how close you were to the city.
And maybe give you some fair warning of the situation you're about to walk into."
"Very thoughtful, Sterling," he says, voice flat, while he checks his maps to see how much longer he has.
The screen is telling him twenty three minutes.
"I will be there in fifteen."
Alexei tenses as he unlocks the door to Jack's house, bracing for the worst.
After all, this was truly a blind experiment, Jack getting high for the first time ever outside of the hospital drugs that had a similar effect all those years ago.
But this was different, less controlled.
Some people have terrible reactions to weed, especially people predisposed to anxiety.
He could be freaking the fuck out somewhere in here having a panic attack.
Or he could be sick to his stomach like Alexei has seen happen to people who ingest too much of the stuff— nauseous and vomiting their guts up.
Ben had said he was fine on the phone, even happy, but the tide could have turned in the time it took Alexei to get here.
"Jack?" he calls, tentative.
"Sterling?"
He hears hurried footsteps and then Jack appears.
"Baby!" Jack cries, his whole face alight, and Alexei, who has seen Jack's real, genuine smile so many times now it's imprinted on his eyelids every time he closes his eyes, has never once seen his boyfriend smile this brightly.
With absolutely zero inhibition, open and free and so fucking beautiful.
And then Alexei fully registers the word Jack called him and he's sure his eyes have grown to be the size of dinner plates because Jack Cameron does
do pet names.
Ever.
Even blissed out and fucked senseless, talking nonsense and gibberish, nothing like that has ever slipped out.
He always figured Jack just wasn't a pet name kind of guy, which was obviously fine, but now—
"You're hereee."
Jack's arms wrap around him tightly, squeezing almost to the point of pain, and Alexei clings to him for one selfish moment, shutting his eyes and breathing in the scent of his hair, clean and familiar.
Then he pulls back, all business.
"Yes.
Am here.
Feeling okay?"