For lani48116, I hope you'll like it. I know it's a bit longer, but I got carried away with those flashbacks :P
~Flashback #1: Waterford, Michigan, summer 2003~
"Dylaaaaaaaaaan, give me my ducky back!" small girl cries out and stretches her arms towards brown-haired boy about six years of age, who has her rubber duck in his hands.
"Come and get it, Y/N," the boy, Dylan chuckles and runs away. His friend pouts and sits down in the grass next to small inflatable swimming pool where they were playing. When Dylan realizes she doesn't follow him, he comes back and sits down next to her, handing her a ducky: "Here, I am sorry for taking your toy."
He awkwardly pecks her cheek and she smiles: "Thank you, Dy. We can share it..."
"No, you have it. You are a girl and girls should have all the pretty toys."
~Present day, Detroit~
It has been few months since your family finally started a new non-nomad life in Detroit. Before that you've moved around a lot and lived in about twenty states already. Your longest stay in one state was right in Michigan and it lasted five years, few months more or less. The photo in your hands is a photo, taken during your last summer before your family moved to Nebraska. Your fingers touch another photo and another memory flashes through your head...
~Flashback #2, Michigan, winter 2007~
Four years later, the same pair of kids, an eleven-year-old boy in an oversized hockey jersey and a ten-year-old girl in pink tutu skirt, skates around the frozen pond. The boy has his stick in his hands and babbles excitedly: "And guess what, Y/N?"
She skates past him and smiles: "What, Dy?"
He stops next to her and grins goofily: " I missed you."
She smiles back and hugs her friend: "I missed you too. I am happy we came back for few days."
He opens his mouth to say something, but his friend's parents, calling her to get back because they are leaving, interrupt him. She sighs and smiles sadly: "We will see each other again soon."
Little she knows that will be the last time he'll see her best friend again. And he never got a chance to tell her he got named the best scorer of his hockey team.
~Present day, Detroit~
You sigh as your fingertips touch the photo and you fight the urge to spend the rest of your day looking at random photos of you and Dylan from your childhood. You haven't heard of him or seen him since that winter of 2007. Well, if you exclude news you've read about him. About his debut in the NHL.
"Y/N, are you ready to go?" you mother yells and enters your room without knocking. When she sees you on a bed, her face changes: "Y/N, why are you still not dressed? What are you doing?"
"Mom, do I really have to go?"
"Don't be like that, missy. It's just a little formal dinner with your father's business partners."
"But mom, those dinners bore me to death!"
"Y/N Y/M/N Y/L/N, get dressed," she orders and snatches the picture from your grasp. Before putting it away, she looks at it and then back at you: "Are those photos with Dylan?"
"Clearly."
"Oh, sweetie, do you miss him?"
"I barely remember him, but what I remember makes me miss him and all those careless hours we spent messing around," you admit, tears watering your eyes. You have never really thought of how much you miss him, how much you miss spending careless hours with him swimming or skating or doing whatever you felt like doing it.
"Dy and you were always inseparable while growing up...why you never mention him anymore?"
Is she being serious right now? She was the one who wanted to live nomad life, not your dad, and now she is asking why you never see Dylan anymore. You look at her: "Why do you think?"
"Hey, that's not how you speak to your mother. Did you two get into an argument?"
"Mom, we moved when I was six. And I haven't seen him since I was ten."
"If you were friends, that shouldn't have been a problem," she shrugs her shoulders and goes to the door: "Get ready, we'll be leaving soon."
You glare daggers at the closed door before crawling off the bed. Sometimes your mother annoys you and that was certainly one of the moments she got on your nerves. She dared to say Dylan and you were never true friends because you didn't keep contacts after you moved away. When you were still just a kid.
You open your closet and pull out red velvet dress that reaches your mid-thigh and has elbow-length sleeves. You tie your hair in a sided ponytail and apply light make up.
"Y/N!"
"I am ready!" you grab a small clutch bag with a fake rose sewed to it before heading out of your room. Before leaving, you slip into black All Stars, the only thing you always wear.
"Y/N, you can't go to a formal gathering in those shoes."
"Mom, no one is going to notice shoes. Come on, we will be late."
You hurry past her and sit on the backseats: "Hello, daddy. How are you?"
Your dad smiles from the driver seat: "Very good, pumpkin. How are you? Ready for the dinner?"
"I'm...fine. Yeah, I think I am..."
"You don't sound ready. Don't worry, one of the invitees said he'd bring special guests along... Hello, darling. Nice dress. Both of my girls look beautiful."
Your mom smiles at him and kisses his cheek: "Thank you, darling. So do you. Except Y/N didn't want to put on those beautiful red stilettos we bought. Instead she put on that awful All Star shoes."
"Mom," you groan and roll your eyes, expecting to be asked to change your shoes, but your dad doesn't send you back: "Y/M/N, if she wants to wear All Star, let her."
The dinner is not as boring as you imagined it to be, but it's no fun either. And those special guests haven't showed up yet... your phone in your clutch purse is starting to become more and more tempting, but you know it's not polite playing with your phone during the dinner. But as the time passes, your phone seems like it was magnetized. Hey, those dinners are boring as hell.
"May I be excused, please?" you ask your father, who nods, allowing you to get up. You get up and head to the toilets, which are on the other side of long hallway. You lean your hand on a door to open it, when you hear voices from behind the door, leading to the main hall.
"Does anyone know where this dinner is?"
"No idea. I was just told to come to this address..."
You open the door to the hallway and peek your head out: "Excuse me, I've heard your conversation. Are you special guests of tonight's dinner?"
"Yeah. We just have no idea where to go."
You look at the man talking to you more carefully: "Hey, do you happen to be...Pavel Datsyuk?"
"Yes, that's me. And you are?"
"Y/N Y/L/N..."
"Wait a second..." someone says from the middle of the group and comes forward: "Y/N? Is that you?"
You look at the guy about your age and stare at him for few seconds before answering: "Do I know you?"
"I thought you'd recognize your childhood friend?"
You look at him again and this time, you recognize his eyes: "Dylan? Larkin, is that really you?"
"Y/N/N," he smiles and shoves few of his teammates away to get to you. Before comprehending what has just happened, you find yourself in his tight embrace.
"Hey, Larkin, do you know her?"
"Yeah, we used to grow up together. Until her family moved away. Y/N/N, I believe you've heard of Detroit Red Wings. Guys, this is Y/N, a childhood friend of mine."
You shyly wave your hand: "Hi, guys. Nice to meet you."
"Hello, Y/N. Uh, can you please tell us where to go?"
"Sure thing. Down the hall, second door on the left. You can't miss."
"Thank you," Datsyuk smiles and turns to Dylan: "Are you joining us?"
"In a moment," he signalizes them to leave the two of you alone. As soon as they are away, he smiles down at you: "So, how have you been?"
"Good. What about you? I am so sorry I didn't recognize you at first..."
"Don't apologize. I wouldn't recognize you either if you didn't say your name. You've grown..."
"Look at you, giant! Last time I saw you were a thin kid with big dreams and now you are a well-built NHL player."
"What was the last time we've met?"
"Winter 2007, I think. A long time ago."
He pulls you to his chest again and mumbles in your hair: "Way too long! And now you are in Detroit. How long will you be staying here?"
"As long as possible, I hope. My mom finally realized moving around is not really a good lifestyle for her teenage daughter."
"Wait, you will stay in Detroit for a while?"
"I plan so..."
His face lights up: "So there will be chances to see you?"
"I guess so. Dy, I can't breathe," you laugh as he hugs you even tighter. He unwraps his hands from around your waist and grins: "You just made my evening. Can't believe I am reunited with my best friend, with my better half."
"Better half, please! Although it's true you would be nothing without me," you grin and ruffle his hair. He laughs and grabs your hand: "Stop it!"
"Awww, you still hate that?"
"Yes, I hate that. Just like you do," he returns you a favor and messes up your hair. You lightly slap his hand away: "Don't touch my hair. Uh, actually before you guys interrupted, I was on my way to the toilet..."
He smiles and awkwardly pecks your cheek: "No problem, I won't stand in your way anymore. But you are not planning to run away, right?"
"I'll see ya in the dining room, okay?" you blush a bit and let go off his hand, which you didn't even realize you were holding.
"I hope so. Y/N/N, I am so glad to see you again after all those years. And we should definitely hang out more. Let me show you around Detroit one day, okay?"
"Sounds like a great idea. Here," you hand him business card. He looks at it for a while before lifting his gaze: "A business card?"
"Yeah, my dad got them done for me, but I don't give them around very often..."
"A high class lady, hm?"
"Not really...more like a daughter of an important person, but deep inside still the girl you used to know," you smile and push him towards the dining room: "I will be there soon."
The dinner isn't that boring anymore, since you spend most of your time catching up with Dylan and having small talk with the rest of the team. But Dylan's company is more than you've ever wished for, especially when you realize even though you haven't seen each other for nearly nine years, you are still as close as you used to be. When the dinner is over, he promises you he'd call you and show you around the city. He pecks your cheek goodnight just before you jump into your father's car and get back home, making you find yourself thinking how attractive he's become since the last time you saw him. And that he is still the sweetest person.
~Flashback #3: Michigan, July 30 2001, Dylan's birthday~
That was his first birthday without his best friend (at least from the birthdays he was old enough to remember) and it made him sad. She said they'd always be there for each other's birthday, but now she wasn't. Her parents took her away for the holidays and he had to celebrate without his best friend.
"Dylan, sweetie, come here."
With a party hat swaying on top of his head, he hurried to the entrance area from where his mother was calling him.
"Look who's here," she opened the door.
"Y/N!" he exclaimed excitedly and ran to hug his friend. She giggled and handled him a present.
"From Florida. Mommy said it's too much, but I didn't agree."
His fingers unwrapped the paper and opened the box. What he saw inside brought tears to his eyes.
"It's beautiful. Thank you, Y/N!"
~Present day, Detroit~
When already driving away from the dinner, you realize you noticed something weird on Dylan, but didn't pay attention to it. He had a leather necklace around his neck with a small black piece of rubber with tiny Florida Panthers logo on it. The gift you brought him from Florida together with a signed Panther's puck so many years ago you barely remembered buying it. But you remember one thing. Expression of pure happiness when he unwrapped the present.