Chapter Text
The Ottawa Centaurs had flown into New York that afternoon and as soon as they’d gotten checked into the hotel the text came through. Ilya Rozanov was inviting the team out to this bar, The Kingfisher. Luka knew about The Kingfisher, the gay bar owned by all star hockey players Scott Hunter and Eric Bennet. A few of the Centaurs were hesitant to spend the night before an afternoon game against the New York Admirals at a bar owned by the Admirals’ captain but Hunter was cool. He was gay and married to one of The Kingfisher’s bartenders: Kip Hunter-Grady. He, Bennet, and both their partners had been at Shane and Ilya’s wedding the summer before so most of the team was chill about him.
The team had been greeted by Scott and Bennet personally and Shane, Ilya, and Troy Barret had been invited to their table while the other players had taken over several tables nearby.
“Hey, Leo,” The whole team knew Leo by now and knew at least the bare bones of his story. Great hockey player, abusive homophobic family, runaway, and that Shane and Ilya were taking care of him until something permanent could be figured out.
“Hi, Luka,” Leo smiled up at Luka. Luka was the youngest on the team and other than Shane or Ilya the closest to Leo. Luka had drawn a handful of sketches of different characters and the kid treated them like priceless art pieces.
“What are you drinking?” Leo had a bright red wristband marking him as underage so the bartender on duty wouldn’t serve him, although Leo was clearly a young boy and no bartender would be fooled by a fake ID no matter how good.
“A virgin Scott Hunter…it’s like soda water and blueberry juice.” Luka nodded sagely.
“Good choice, probably much better than what they’re drinking,” Luka nodded towards the rest of the team laughing and talking over several pints of beer. Luka had snuck many drinks of beer from the table jugs last season because hockey players drink beer and it was the only way Luka could get his hands on alcohol before turning twenty-one a few days ago. Beer is disgusting and despite now being able to legally buy alcohol himself he hadn’t tried to yet. Honestly where would he even start, there were so many options and maybe all alcohol is just as gross as beer.
“Yeah, it tastes pretty good,” Leo smiled and flipped over the manga he’d been reading, it was the second volume of My Hero Academia. “Can you draw this guy for me?” Leo asked a little sheepishly.
Luka had already drawn the ten year old a Deku and a Bakugo so he was expecting someone like Todoroki or Ochako but when he looked closer the panel showed Aizawa jumping through the air with his scarf around him and his goggles on.
“I can totally draw you an Aizawa, Leo, I’d love to.” Luka smiled at Leo who beamed up at him. The ten year old’s face looked a lot better than it had a few days ago when Shane and Ilya had brought him into practice because there was no way they were leaving him home by himself.
“Not cool, Leo, I wanted a Mr. Aizawa,” Alister, a child prodigy who went viral online for making covers of Fabian Salah’s music with nothing but their own voice and an acoustic guitar who was currently staying with Fabian and his partner Ryan while Fabian and Alister collaborated on an album. Luka spotted the musician at Scott’s table and assumed they’d just arrived. Luka had met Alister at the beginning of the season when they played in Toronto and Fabian and Ryan had invited the team out to a bar via Troy Barret, who had once played on the same team as the now retired Ryan Price.
“Alright, how about I make Leo an Aizawa and I draw you someone else, Alister?” Luka offered.
“Well…I would like an Obanai Iguro. Do you know Demon Slayer?”
Luka smiled, “yeah, I do. Okay, so one Erasure Hero and one Serpent Hashira.” Alister and Leo had bonded over manga immediately and had been bombarding Luka with requests for character sketches every time they saw each other.
The lighting by the table the kids were at wasn't great but it looked like the bar was a bit more well lit so Luka took a seat at a bar stool and brought out his sketch book. He had been drawing for a few minutes when he heard someone walk over.
“Can you get you anything, gorgeous?” Luka looked up. The person who had spoken had brown eyes and short messy brown hair as if they’d cut it themself and was wearing a name tag that read “Alex He/Him” and had a trans pride flag sticker next to it. Luka had been wondering who had been running the bar since both Kip and Kyle Swift, Eric Bennet’s boyfriend, were at the table with Ilya and Shane.
Alex was exceptionally cute and looked at Luka like he hung the moon and stars. His eyes traveled down to the notebook and gasped, their eyes lighting up.
“Oh my gods, is that Present Mic?” It was, Luka had been playing around with sketching Mic in preparation for one of the kids asking and he could never quite get the hair right.
“Yeah, you like My Hero Academia?” Luka asked.
“I do. Used to watch it with my sister but now one of us makes six figures and the other works at a bar writing stories about super heroes in their free time because for some people it’s a phase and for others it’s not.” Alex laughed, a little self depreciating. “Anyway what can I get for you, Snowflake?” Alex’s voice changed back to that slightly flirty tone Luka noticed that most bartenders used.
“Um, I’m not really sure, I don’t drink. Well I can but I never have before. I’ve had beer but I hate beer.”
“Beer is gross,” Alex agreed. “Your hockey friends are bleeding us dry as usual and they can have it. I won’t be caught dead drinking a beer…So what do you like? Something spicy or fruity?”
Luka thought about it for a second, he definitely didn’t want something spicy, “Fruity I guess. Honestly I have no idea.”
Alex nodded, “fruity, doesn’t know what he want. You got any allergies?” Luka shook his head. “I think I have an idea.”
Luka watched with rapt attention as Alex floated around behind the bar grabbing and mixing different liquids. The drink Alex placed in front of Luka was a cloudy white color and tasted primarily like coconut. Luka loved coconut but hadn’t ever told anyone about it.
“So?” Alex purred, resting his head in his hands on the bar counter.
“It’s perfect,” Luka breathed, staring wide eyed at the man grinning from behind the bar.
“Oh, um,” Alex looked like he’d just realized he left his oven on. “Shoot, I was supposed to ID you before I made the drink. Can I see your ID?”
Luka laughed and passed it over. Alex was incredibly relieved to see that Luka was in fact twenty-one. For the most part he was happy he hadn't served alcohol to a minor but another smaller part of his brain was happy that the very cute, although young looking, hockey player he’d been flirting with was not too young for him. Alex was only twenty-three and would have been mortified if Luka was any younger than twenty.
Alex took Luka’s ID and credit card and started a tab. If nothing else it would give the hockey player an excuse to talk to Alex one more time before he left.