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Nicklas Bäckström had no idea what he had done to piss off a local witch this badly but apparently it was bad enough to warrant an honesty curse.
Of course, it could apparently only be broken by a kiss from your true love.
Now, that curse wasn't horrible in and of itself - leaving aside that he knew that his 'true love' wouldn't want to kiss him, ever - but it did lead to some interesting situations...
While the barista who had prepared his coffee that morning had appreciated the blurted-out compliment regarding their hair, the old man hitting on them hadn't reacted well to the "Fuck off, they're clearly uncomfortable with that" Nicke had spat his way.
Despite still being agitated, he relaxed marginally once he stepped into the arena.
The first thing he heard once he walked into the locker room was Michael rambling,
"Papa! Hey, I need your help", while he ran up to him before continuing speaking more quietly and in Swedish, "What do you reckon I should give Tom for our anniversary? I'm really clueless right now because it's like, as soon as I start brainstorming ideas, everything I ever knew about him goes right out of the window!"
He really wanted to be patient and gentle about it, but what got out was,
"Just give him whatever, he's gonna enjoy it anyways as long as it's from you."
Running his hand across his face, he then groaned,
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be that rough..."
"Bad morning?", the younger man asked sympathetically.
"Guess you could call it that... It seems I've been cursed."
Michael's eyes widened slightly at that and he grinned,
"What did you do to warrant it?"
"Fuck if I know..."
Well, he could assume what it was but that was neither here nor there.
Apparently witches didn't particularly like when someone declined their friend's attempts at hitting on them by making up a boyfriend; who knew...
(No, he totally hadn't thought of his captain when making up said boyfriend, hush.)
Michael grinned,
"Let me guess, can only be undone with a true love's kiss?", accentuating the last three words with air quotes.
The Swede just nodded and turned around to finish putting on his gear.
TJ interrupted his attempts to do so by yelling halfway across the room,
"Oooh, Nicke's in love?"
He really wanted to say no - but he couldn't.
What was meant to be a denial came out as,
"Yeah."
His eyes went wide and he added,
"Fuck, I didn't mean to say that!"
After that, all hell broke loose; everyone was asking questions at the same time.
Except for Alex, who was sitting in his booth, unusually quiet, and looked busy lacing up his skates.
The loudest one was Shearsy asking if he'd heard the part about the curse correctly.
Nicke couldn't do anything but agree, a deep frown on his face.
TJ still yelled,
"Ohhh, who's the lucky girl?"
"Or guy", Kuzy added.
At that, Hags rushed to push the palm of his hand over Nicke's mouth and tell him,
"You don't have to answer that question."
Once he took his hand off, the other Swede smiled gratefully at him.
Then, he said,
"I'll tell you guys this much voluntarily, and this much only: it's a guy. Let's stop wasting time now and get on the ice."
Coach, who was standing in the door frame, agreed loudly with that, telling them to be on the ice in three minutes if they didn't want to be bagskated.
That sent everyone in the room into a state of chaos while they were scrambling to finish getting ready.
Just before he could step on the ice, Alex stopped him and, with an incredibly hurt look on his face, asked,
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Nicke could only look down at the floor and try very hard not to blurt out that he was actually the guy he was in love with.
Thankfully for him, Alex quickly added,
"Because I'm Russian? I think you know I don't mind!"
"It's not that", he replied, "I ... I just wasn't ready to talk about it yet."
'Not with you at least', he added in his head.
The captain just nodded, looking only slightly less sad, and left to start skating warm-up laps.
Nicke knew better than to disturb him during those.
Unless he came over to talk to you, Alex was not to be disturbed during his warm-up; that was a lesson he'd had to learn the hard way during his rookie year.
He hadn't even realized how intently he was watching him until Tom put a hand on his shoulder and grinned,
"Think I might have an idea as to who that mystery guy is..."
Nicke flinched hard at that and started blushing.
"You don't have to say anything, Backy. Just ... maybe consider telling him, yeah?"
Quietly, the older one of them replied,
"I have, trust me... The risk just isn't worth it right now; I don't want to destroy what we have."
Before Tom could start protesting against that notion, their coach had already yelled at them to finally get their asses over to the goal so they could help Holts warm up.
Begrudgingly, they skated over there and began shooting pucks at him.
"Hey", Tom asked after a while, "Do you have to tell the truth always, in any case, or can you also refuse to answer a question?"
Nicke shrugged and said,
"I don't know..."
In order to answer that question, Tom inquired,
"How old were you when you had your first kiss?"
"Like, seventeen, I think?", the Swede replied before groaning, "Fuck, I didn't want to say that."
Tom had a glint in his eyes that told him that he was definitely in for some chirping about that later, as well as a grin regarding the obvious answer to their previous question.
From where he was standing in the crease, Holts shouted over to them,
"What are you two gossiping about?"
"Nicke's lover", Tom yelled back, his gloved hand clasped firmly over the Swede's mouth.
Said man grumbled slightly at that and shot the puck with a bit more strength than strictly necessary.
After practice, Alex came up to him once more, in the lockerroom, and sat down next to him.
Quietly, he asked,
"We good?"
"Hm? Yeah, of course", Nicke smiled in response and continued unlacing his skates.
He only scoffed and raised an eyebrow at the "You sure?" that escaped the captain before he could think about it.
After the realization, he just flinched slightly and mumbled,
"Sorry, didn't think."
Nicke waved him off and continued undressing.
"Can I help? Some way?"
He shook his head no but what came out of his mouth was,
"In a way, yes."
Then, he let out a few colourful swearwords in a mix of Swedish and English as he hurriedly put his clothes on.
The reply, however, caused the captain to cock his head and inquire how exactly he could help.
Luckily for Nicke, TJ picked that moment to yell his name and beckon for him to come over and look at something.
Due to Alex' overdeveloped Russian stubbornness - as Kuzy had put it - however, that distraction was short-lived and he kept pestering his friend about ways he could help.
Eventually, completely unnerved, the Swede whisper-yelled,
"Maybe I just don't want your help!"
"But why?! I try to help make you happy, you always so grumpy!", the captain retaliated.
"Says you?! Maybe work on your own problems instead of trying to fix everyone else!"
Alex spat,
"Fuck you!"
And they both knew that, unlike the many other times he had said that to him, this time he meant it.
Had one asked him, Nicke would've sworn he meant to say "Fuck you too, asshole!", he really would.
What came out, however, was,
"Fuck me yourself, coward!"
For a few seconds, it was so quiet, you could've heard a pin drop.
Tom was the first to voice what everybody was thinking; namely "What the fuck?"
After that, all hell broke loose with everyone falling over themselves to ask every possible question about their alternate's now-not-so-secret crush.
Somehow, within all of that mess, Kuzy managed to drag Nicke out of the lockerroom without many of the others noticing.
"Thank you", he groaned, "That was fucking dumb..."
"Nah, just love. Cursed, huh?"
He just groaned and let his head drop back against the wall he was leaning on.
Kuzy grinned,
"Ah, always knew you like him more than me. And anyone else."
Not even bothering to react to that, the Swede instead asked,
"Do you know anything about getting rid of a curse? Apart from the kissing bullshit?"
As a response, he only got a shake of the head and another grin.
The silence was broken when Alex joined them, dropped Nicke's bag on the ground next to him, and said,
"Almost forgot this."
"Thanks...But you don't have to do this, you know."
The captain only cocked his head in question but stayed silent.
So, he elaborated,
"Being nice to me; I know that it's probably really weird."
Again, Alex just looked at him, silently asking him to clarify what he was talking about.
"Are you really gonna make me spell it out for you?", he groaned and ran his right hand over his face, "I'm in love with you, okay? And I know that it's stupid, I really do. I'll do my best to get over it, I - hey, what are you - hmmpf!"
The latter sound was produced due to Alex pulling him in by the collar of his shirt and kissing him.
For a moment, Nicke forgot how to breathe, and only belatedly started relaxing and kissing him back.
"Now, lie", the Russian grinned after he pulled back an inch, ignoring how the other man obviously chased after him.
That left him very confused for a moment until he remembered that the curse would have to be lifted now.
So, he said,
"I don't like you."
And then, a splitsecond later,
"Holy shit, it works!"
Alex just showed a blinding smile and pulled him in for another kiss.
Yeah, perhaps curses actually weren't the most horrible thing to ever exist, Nicke thought as he embraced the other man and kissed him back.