Chapter Three:
Sidney awoke in the morning to a very large dog in his lap, and a very angry Russian at his bedside. While it probably goes without saying, the Russian was teammate Evgeni Malkin, the dog being Geno's pal, Jeffery.
"Sid." Evgeni growled, roughly shaking his teammate.
"What's going on?" Sidney mumbled, dazed and confused.
"What you doing?! You supposed to help!" Geno kind of kneed Sid's mattress.
"Huh?" Sidney was very disoriented, and couldn't figure out why there was a giant-ass dog crushing his femurs, while a heavily-accented brute screamed at him.
"You supposed to help take Jeff to vet! Vet!"
Sid shook himself, trying to pull himself out of his haze, before sitting up. "Vet? Why couldn't you just take him?"
Geno had this dumbfounded look twisted upon his face, like he was genuinely surprised by his own captain's stupidity. "He big dog!" Evgeni waved his arms furiously towards the canine.
"You never told me I had to help, G." Sidney stated plainly, gazing up at the much larger man. Even if you took away the fact that Sid was sitting down, Malkin was still much, much taller than him.
"Yes I did." The Russian argued, looking down upon the tiny man with the puffy lips.
"When?" Sidney honestly had no recollection of such commitment.
"At James's party last week."
Sid rolled his eyes. "I wasn't at James's party last week."
Geno half wanted to beat the shit out of his idiotic, close friend. "Yes you were, big dummy! Drove me home!"
The Canadian one of the two blinked at the Russian, before eventually concluding, "Geno, I was not at that party. I swear to you."
Evgeni looked as confused as Sid felt. Possibly even more confused. "Who the hell did I tell to go to the vet, then?" He asked Sidney, as though he had the answer.
"More importantly, who the hell drove you home?" Sid looked expectantly to Geno, like a mother asking a small child for an explanation as to why the hell the car window was broken, and the family cat's fur was half pink.
Geno, clearly flustered by the question he most certainly didn't have an answer to, waved Sidney off. "It no matter. Just," He sighed, beside himself, knowing he was in no position to argue any longer. "Never mind. I'll leave you to your loneliness." He had to make sure he got in the backhanded jab about Sidney's relationship status.
"I'm not lonely." Sid huffed, defensively, only half lying. Generally speaking, he had sort of gotten used to living the single life.
Geno rolled his eyes. "Don't need be Einstein to figure it out, Sid. You lonely. And you'll die lonely."
Now, had the tall man said that to Sid two years ago, Sid would've been quite offended, but by then, he had been ridiculed about his so-called loneliness so many times, Geno had became a broken record. The snarky remarks rolled off Sid like rain ran off a car window.
"I'm not lonely." He repeated, gazing up to his teammate, even though he knew it was a lost cause. Geno never listened to Sid. Not even when they were out on the ice together.
"Sure." Evgeni reached down, and tugged at Jeffrey's collar, making the dog automatically spring off Sid's legs, to the hardwood floor. "And I'm no dating Hannah."
"Who the hell is Hannah?" Sidney asked, pulling the blankets off his legs.
"My girlfriend, dummy." Geno snapped, before attaching Jeff's leash to the collar wrapped around the dog's thick neck.
"I thought your girlfriend was that lady from back in Moscow..?" Sid was honestly surprised.
"We broke up two years ago.." The Russian shook his head. "Where you been? Oh yeah, drowning in loneliness..."
Even though he did have a high tolerance for idiots -particularly Geno- Sidney was 100% done with his teammate. "Fuck off." He ordered, beginning to stand up, realizing how ridiculous he probably looked, sat in bed.
"Such words from Captain Sid!" Evgeni gasped, purely to get under his superior's skin.
"Go home." Sidney ordered, staring straight into the eyes of the Russian before him.
Reluctantly, Geno heaved a deep, dramatic sigh. "Fine. Come on, Jeff, Uncle Sid grumpy today."
Before Sidney could get a word out, his teammate was dragging his dog through the doorway, huge smirk plastered on his face.
God, Geno was a pill.
