Chapter Text
New teams, new people, new beginnings and new experiences. Nolan repeated his mantra over and over again. Usually he was calm and collected, hardly nervous about anything, but this was the NHL, if he fucked up on his first day of camp, he’d probably lose his only chance at fulfilling this dream.
So he keeps his head down and plans on letting the veterans do the talking. (The loudest guy, to his surprise, appears to be one of the younger guys. His yapping carries across the room and Nolan can’t deny that the close to constant prattling has a comforting effect on him.)
Nolan somehow makes it. He plays somewhat well, no goals but he’s satisfied with the apples he got and he gets to stay up, so he feels like there’s no reason to complain.
However, before he can join in on his first ‘real’ training, both him and the other ‘new guys’ were ordered to go to one of the trainer’s rooms.
There waiting for them were Claude Giroux and Konecny, the talkative guy. The latter of them was rocking back and forth, a nervous habit that seemed so unlike him.
“We made you guys come here because there is something important the team would like you to know. Before TK tells you however, we ask you to sign an NDA, just for the protection of everyone involved”, the captain’s words made an un-good feeling rumble up in Nolan’s stomach, however he stayed silent and grabbed the offered contract and pen.
He skimmed through the lines, trying to spot anything suspicious and after finding nothing, he left his signature at the designated line.
He saw the others do the same thing, and while most of them looked as confused as he felt, only the goalie had a knowing smile on his lips.
After Giroux had taken all the papers back, he made an encouraging gesture towards TK. The younger guy stopped moving, more like a deer in headlights than anything else, and opened his mouth a few times, before he finally began speaking: “I’m a vampire. No, I won’t bite or turn or whatever other nightmare scenario you have in your head, yes I do drink blood, the team provides me with special packets, so I don’t need to ‘hunt’. Any other questions?”
Nolan’s brain blanked. Still, he shook his head, anything he wanted to know, he could surely just look up later. And TK didn’t seem dangerous. (After a few seconds, a mean voice in the back of his back chimed in that his behavior could still be nothing but a farce, but Nolan chose to ignore it.)
One of the other young guys, the tall blond one, however raised his hand: “Is there anything we should avoid doing around you? Like, eating garlic?”
TK looked stunned at the question. He blinked a few times before answering: “Uh, no, most of the anti-vampire shit is false. Garlic, crosses, sunlight and holy water don't do any more harm to me than they do to other people. The main differences are that after I eat properly, I’m a little stronger and heal and move faster than most humans, which is why I won’t drink blood before games.”
The asker nodded acknowledgingly.
As no one else had any questions, Giroux let them get out to get ready.
Nolan did his best to not let this revelation distract him, even if fear struck through him whenever TK came ‘too close’. (Some days, he felt like the spark of fear that struck him when TKs eyes fell on him woke him more than smelling salts ever could.) However, someone else didn’t seem to handle it as well as he did, without even trying.
It became clear over the next few days, the guy, Smith, was actively making sure there were no less than four people between himself and TK, hindering his own work with it, often ignoring TK when he talked and when they did speak, he was unfriendly.
The final proof that he was more of a bigot than a sanguivoiraphobe (Nolan had looked up the word) was when he found out Nolan was rooming with TK on road-trips. Nolan himself had felt a rush of fear going through his entire body after it was announced, but he talked himself down, remembering that TK hadn’t hurt anyone so far and that if he did, he surely wouldn’t still be on the team. Smith however seemed to think the opposite.
He caught Nolan after he had just left that hotel room he was sharing with TK: “Hey Patrick, do you have a minute?”
“Yeah Smitty, what’s up?”, Nolan put as much gruffness in his voice as he could, he only had suspicions about what was going to happen, and he wasn’t happy about either of them.
“Let’s go to my room, Sanheim is out right now so we can talk there in peace.”, his voice was accentuated with a jerk of his head, in the direction Nolan assumed that room to be.
Nolan just nodded, curious and suspicious of the direction this conversation was going to go towards.
He followed along, a step or two behind and stood in front of Smith’s bed when he finally entered the room.
Smith looked like he wanted to invite Nolan to go sit on his bed too, but left it be.
“About Konecny”, he began and Nolan’s chest pulled itself together, ”I’m sure you’re worried about what he could do to you, members of his species are unpredictable, so I have something for you from my own collection.”, he underlined his words by grabbing something wrapped in cloth out of one of his bags, "Don't let the bloodsucker see this and always keep it on you, I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to you. Now go before he becomes suspicious.”
Nolan felt weird leaving that room. Once he felt like he was far away enough from Smith’s room, he unwrapped the “present”. To his shock, inside laid a dagger, as simple as they came. A wave of nausea rolled over him, as he thought about what Smith wanted him to use it for.
“What do I do now?”, he whispered to himself, overwhelmed with the situation. “Maybe Nico knows what to do? Would it go against the NDA?”
In his mumbling, he nearly ran into Sanheim: “Careful there big guy, anyone smaller and you’d run them into the ground”, he paused for a second when he saw the dagger, “what’s that for?”
“Uh”, Nolan was struggling to find the words to explain the situation, “can we do that later?”
Sanheim’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but he agreed: “After dinner.”
Even though it wasn’t a question, Nolan nodded, then he quickly marched back to his and TKs room, leaving the d-man behind.
There, the vampire was sitting with crossed legs on his bed, his head facing down to his phone, but he looked up when Nolan walked in.
“Hey Patty! Didn’t expect you to be back so soon!”, he began, then he saw the wrapped weapon, ” What’s that?”
Nolan didn’t want to worry TK yet, so he worded it as vaguely as he could: “Just something dumb Smitty gave me. I’m probably gonna stuff it in my closet once we’re back.”
“Oh okay”, TK turned his attention back to his phone.
Nolan packed the dagger into his suitcase, covering it in some of his clothes too for extra protection, before settling down on his own bed.
After dinner, Sanheim was waiting for Nolan in front of the hall: “Let’s go for a walk.”
Again, it wasn’t a question, so Nolan just followed after him.
They walked in silence for a while and only once the hotel was out of sight did Sanheim open the conversation: “So. why do you have a dagger?“
„Smith gave it to me.“, Nolan hesitated for a second, unsure of if he should tell Sanheim everything, but he and TK had become friends really fast, so maybe he knew what to do. „He gave it to me so I could defend myself against TK“
„TK. Our Travis Konecny?“, Samheim‘s voice hardened.
„Yes. Smith heavily implied he believes TK is dangerous“, Nolan tried to recount that meeting.
Sanny frowned:“ TK wouldn‘t harm anyone in that sense, it’s utter bullshit what he told you“, Nolan nodded along with that. He knew his fear was irrational and the worst thing TK has done so far, was being loud and annoying.
„What do I do with this?“, he dared to ask the defenseman, „Do I tell TK? Giroux? The front office?“
Sanheim thought about it for a moment before he answered: “Let’s go to Simmer first. I think he’s a little more rational about TK than G is. If Smith gets beaten up, it’d bring a lot more eyes on him and he could out TK easier.“
„Sounds good to me. Do we go to him now?“, Nolan was glad he had run into him. Even if they only had a two year age gap, Sanheim always appeared wise beyond his years, and maybe he was.
The walk back to the hotel went by faster than the walk away from it, their similarly long legs working well in the hurry they were in, without actually running.
Conveniently, they ran into Simmonds in one of the hallways. Neither of them had been keen on asking around for his room number and seeing their desperate faces, he led them to his room.
Inside of it, he began questioning them: „What‘s going on boys? Is everything alright?“
Nolan shared a look with Sanheim, who gave him an encouraging nod.
„So, uh, Smith gave me a dagger. For TK. What the fuck do I do?”, Nolan knew his calm facade had slipped, but he couldn’t care about that, not right now.
Simmonds’ eyebrows shot up to his hairline: “ A dagger? Does he want you to kill TK?”
When both of them nodded, his expression grew more serious again: “And where is it now?”
“In my suitcase”, Nolan confessed, “We, uh, I can go get it?”
Simmonds nodded and Nolan stomped out of the door, leaving the other men behind.