Title: The Not So Virtuous Tessa Virtue
Fandom: Hockey/Figure Skating RPF
Characters: Sidney Crosby/Jonathan Toews/Tessa Virtue
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Work of fiction. Never really happened.
Summary: She's nothing like her image, and that's okay.
Author's Notes: Response to
this prompt on the hockey kink meme: Toews/Crosby celebrating their Olympic win with Tessa Virtue.
The closing ceremony had started out fun; William Shatner and Catherine O’Hara had certainly made them laugh. But Sidney had been feeling restless even before Nickelback had come out, and when Avril Lavigne followed in their wake, he felt Jonny tug at his hand. “Let’s get some air,” he whispered.
They clasped hands again once they were out of the stands; if anyone saw it, they could always pass it off as just being a result of being as happy as the two of them were right now. The crazy joy that had been bubbling up and down Sidney’s system for the past couple of hours was starting to get tinged with a little bit of sadness, though, because this was the end of it; the next day he and Jonny went back to their cities and their different but all too similar situations. But tonight they had each other. Tonight was good, tonight the whole world celebrated, tonight...
There was a young woman wearing Team Canada gear and a gold medal sitting and crying beneath the stands.
That was a sight that was so contradictory to Sidney Crosby’s view of the world right now it brought him to a full stop. Jonny halted too, and he recognized her a split second before Sidney did: “It’s Tessa Virtue!”
Sidney had known already he wasn’t going to forget Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. That might prove to be his strongest off-ice Olympic memory. Him and Jonny Monday night, giving up the attempt to sleep just yet, turning on the ice dance because they’d heard the Canadians were so far ahead there was no way they could lose and watching a pair of Canadians win might cheer them up, plus ice dance was supposed to be soothing to watch. Actually, Sidney wasn’t sure soothing had been the word. But Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had been something else all together. From those first moments, when they had turned around to gaze into each other’s eyes and he had dropped down to his knees to press his lips to her hands, he had felt years’ worth of emotion he kept deep down inside rise up within him, and as they’d continued he’d let go and let himself just be blown away by the sheer romance that radiated through the tv so strongly it was probably broadcasting from the Pacific Coliseum all through Vancouver. By the end of it he’d been nearly overwhelmed by the strength of his longing, the longing he’d lived with every day of his life but usually been able to ignore. Such happiness and perfection as Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir had portrayed did not exist in real life.
But then he’d looked over at Jonny, and in his eyes seen his own soul. And felt another longing, not as strong and not exactly the same kind, but one he knew he could fulfill and right that moment. Jonny had been quicker; Sidney had only sat fully up when he came to his bed, clambered on next to him until they had fallen on each other. Their lips had met for the first time as the commentators had exclaimed on the highness of the scores. They really hadn’t seen much of the rest of the competition, though they had come up, sated and sleepy, just in time to watch the young pair sing along to “O Canada” from the top of their podium. It had been the first time Sidney had smiled and meant it since the loss the previous day.
So really, to find half of that dynamic duo crouched like this, head buried in her arms and crying into her knees, was just wrong, wrong, wrong.
The two men exchanged a look that made clear their agreement: they owed her. They went over and Sid knelt until he was roughly eye-level with her. “Hey,” he said gently. “What’s wrong?”
She looked up. How different was that red face and bedraggled hair from those belonging to the absolute princess who had ruled the ice a week ago. Her eyebrows raised in such a way to indicate she knew who he was but wasn’t starstruck, which was what he would’ve expected, but was relieving anyway. “Why are you so unhappy?” he asked.
“Oh like you’d know,” she sobbed. “Someone like you who’s happily married to your sport and would probably faint if you heard of a super athlete like me doing some of the despicable things I’ve done!” On her last words her tears burst forth again and she went back to sobbing into her knees.
“Oh shit,” said Jonny. “You haven’t doped, have you?” God, Sidney did not want to believe that. He’d thought skaters didn’t dope anyway, at least mostly; he’d thought there’d been one story about the Russian pair from Salt Lake-or was that the third pair here? He couldn’t remember.
But Tessa was shaking her head impatiently. “No, nothing like that. No, my crimes are all off-ice.”
“Oh, well,” said Sidney, greatly relieved. “Then they can’t be that bad.”
“Yes they can!” she cried, as Avril Lavigne started a new song. It was one only vaguely familiar to Sidney, the one with the shouting and needing a new girlfriend, but Tessa Virtue obviously knew it much better, for she jumped up, shaking her head, and cried, “No, I won’t listen to that song, not right now, I shouldn’t have to, I won’t, I won’t, I won’t!” And she turned and ran for the exit. Sidney and Jonny looked at each other again, then bolted after her.
“You said girls were weird,” Sidney muttered to Jonny as they stepped outside, and saw her, shivering in the night, staring up at the sky.
“Normally not this much,” Jonny muttered back. They spent a moment standing there, not sure how to proceed.
Before they could decide, she walked back over to them. She was still crying a little, but her hysterics had died down. “Do you know what will happen if I go back in there?” she asked. They shook their heads. “The man I love,” she said it scornfully, and then she started talking fast: “that beautiful, lying, still married bastard whose home I wrecked-except now I don’t know if it wasn’t wrecked already, who says I had to be his first? I had the feeling from the start I wasn’t his only, I just didn’t want to believe it. Hell, who says he was ever faithful to her at all? He did deceive his father marrying her!”
She’d gone off on enough of a tangent she’d lost track of where she’d started, but luckily Jonny hadn’t, and prompted her: “Yes? And he will...?”
Which got a whole new spiel spilling out her, “He’ll use the same charm and sweet tongue he used on me when I suppose I really was too young and starstruck to know better, explain it all away somehow, oh the lies he’s probably told me, I don’t even believe that bit with his wife and the married hockey player anymore, take me back to the hotel room he’s still sharing with his wife and...and I know I’ll fall for it. I know I will.”
She then stood there looking desolate. She would go back in there, Sidney thought, if they didn’t intervene. She would go back in and fall back into what was obviously not a healthy relationship, and it would sour her memory of what should be one of the best nights of her life and make her hate herself all the more.
Still, he was pretty surprised when Jonny said after a beat, “Hard luck. Maybe you need to fuck someone else tonight. Maybe even two someone elses.”
But of course he wanted to fuck her. Probably had been attracted back when they’d been watching her on TV. And while Sidney didn’t have nearly the liking for women that Jonny did, his wasn’t completely nonexistent, and he couldn’t say he found her unattractive himself.
She got his drift quickly enough; she responded with a sad laugh, and a sad smile, but he thought the smile encouraging despite its sadness. “You know I’m supposed to hate you two,” she commented. “I’m a Red Wings fan. I mean, I’ve lived in Detroit since I was a teenager.”
“That doesn’t matter right now,” Sidney told her. “Tonight we’re all just Canadians.”
She really did seem to be considering it. As she looked back at the BC Place, which none of them particularly wanted to go back into anyway, Jonny leaned in a whispered, “You don’t mind, do you?”
“Not really,” he whispered back. And he didn’t. He felt neither of them had the right to be jealous of the other anyway, not when they were both pining for other people all together. If he was worried about anything, it was about the implications of her finding out about the two of them, but the way things had been in the Canadian Village, he wouldn’t assume she didn’t know already. He was really hoping it was true that what happened in the Village stayed in the Village.
Thus assured, Jonny stepped forward and gently put a hand on her shoulder. “Believe me,” he said, “I know what it’s like to be in love with a promiscuous asshole. It shouldn’t keep you from having fun tonight.”
Her smile didn’t lose its sadness, but it broadened a little, and she nodded and said, “Let’s blow this joint.”
The bus was almost empty, and though they had to endure the driver’s congratulations when getting on, it wasn’t really that much of a burden, and then they could squash themselves together in the back. It quickly became clear that the further she got away from the BC Place and from her lover, the more cheerful Tessa got. Halfway back and her face was dry, and she leaned over and started whispering things in Jonny’s ear that made him turn scarlet; Sidney looked down and saw that her words were making him more than just embarrassed. Which made his own groin twitch, and that was before he felt a warm little hand cup his backside as she murmured into his ear, “The things I am thinking about doing to this ass...”
“His lips and his ass, eh?” Jonny was leaning in to join them in swiftly heating airspace. Even if he hadn’t seen it already, Sidney would’ve known he was turned on just from his voice; it was getting that extra heaviness that had already become enough to start making him hard, hearing that. “Wait till you see them,” he hissed, “red...and swollen...and bruised...” As he spoke, his fingers found those lips, ran along them, made Sidney’s breath hitch.
“Really? Let me take a look,” and he had a lapful of ice dancer, still a little redfaced and disarrayed, but it suddenly had a different effect, especially with that smirk; it made her look not unlike someone might look after a hard practice; it was a look that became her.
“And a taste,” and Sidney had a moment to think it was weird that Jonny was the one who’d really wanted her but he was the first one getting kissed before it was happening, rough and hungry and the things her tongue was doing in his mouth felt absolutely filthy. Like most of the people he’d made out with in his life she was much better at it than him, so he just put his hands on her back and let her plunder him, with her teeth making little bites and her throat making little sounds and her fingers scrambling all over his head and hair and her body grinding itself into his; and it was her being this eager for him that was turning him on more than anything else, but it was doing so scarily quickly.
And then when they came up for air, she didn’t get much, because Jonny seized her and turned her around with a “My turn,” and dove in. He pressed her down into Sidney’s lap, their arms knocking against his erection as they groped at each other, he could see his tongue plunging in and out of her mouth to meet hers, and oh shit, couldn’t this damn bus reach the Village before he came in his pants?
When they finally reached their stop, Sidney didn’t know how either he or Jonny was even able to stand up; even Tessa was walking a little funny. The cold night air deflated them a little but not much. When the doors finally closed on the suite they were sharing with some of the other guys, Sidney took a quick glance around, and said, “They’re all still at the ceremony,” and was promptly tackled by both of the other two.
The next minute or so was a blur; his mouth was practically fucked by Jonny’s tongue, his jacket and shirt came off, someone’s sock ended up hitting his face, there was a hand on his thigh, another groping with his medal ribbon, and there was a masculine moan, a feminine gasp, and then he accidentally pressed down on one of Jonny’s bruises hard and his pained yelp brought them momentarily to a stop.
Pulled away from each other, they glanced around to take stock. Jonny was still wearing most of his clothes, but with buttons and zippers undone; his boxers were streched out and a dark sport was beginning to appear. Tessa had lost jacket and trousers; she was down to her shirt, underwear, and of course her medal; they were all still wearing those, and Sidney suspected those weren’t coming off anytime soon. His own chest was bare but for the gold, but his pants were painfully constricting him.
“We all should be more careful,” she said, and removed her shirt. It shouldn’t have been that suprising, Sidney thought, that she was nearly as bruised as they were, here and there, one nasty one near her hip; he could see her crashing down on it in practice, and that said nothing about the state of her bandaged feet. Normally she probably would’ve been worse too, because she probably hadn’t skated as much as usual since last Monday night. She might not be in the daily habit of pushing and shoving with other big guys, but the ice itself dealt its own damage, probably especially to those who spent all their time on it doing tricks that ought to make them fall down; they probably even talked about it openly the way hockey players didn’t, the way their own realm and home threatened them.
She was looking pointedly at him, and saying, “Off with the pants.”
He obeyed; and Jonny got to work himself, until they were all down to their underwear and medals. Tessa was looking between them and flushing again. “God,” she breathed. “I want you both.”
“Me too,” agreed Jonny, and they both looked torn over who to go for first.
Finally she said, “You two kiss, I want to get a good look at that,” and Jonny was happy for the direction, walking slowly over to Sidney so all three of them could feel the aniticipation. Strange how after only a week he’d already developed a way of looking at Sidney that made the other man’s legs nearly shake with how much he wanted Jonny to lay claim to him, to take the kind of control that Sidney hadn’t given up to anyone in years. When he finally descended, with a whisper of, “Don’t think you’re getting out of anything; you promised me that ass tonight and I’ve been waiting two weeks,” Sidney practically melted into his arms.
He vaguely heard Tessa’s voice gasping, “Oh my God...” but he nearly forgot about her, until he heard footsteps, it sounded like she’d gone off somewhere and come back, and a pair of lips pressed against his back, followed by what felt like a wet and warm towel. “Mind if I take a liberty?” Tessa cooed in his ear. “Though I’m afraid I’m going to be a delicate figure skater and insist on wiping you off first.”
Jonny pulled away to allow Sidney to respond, but he was too busy struggling to get air in, until he felt his underwear pulled off and the towel dabbing down between his cheeks and he realized what she had in mind, and his only response then was a soft moan.
Then Jonny peered over his shoulder, and he heard him tsk. “Oh fuck, you girls have no idea how to rim a guy. And we can’t do this here; he’ll end up collapsing and hurting his knees. Come on.” How he had the control to say this pretty steadily and then drag him to their room with Tessa following Sidney didn’t want to think. He even had the presence of mind to stop and grab a handful of condoms someone had left on the table.
They pushed him down across the two beds, which had long since been shoved against each other, and it sounded like they were kneeling behind him together. There were a pair of hands-too small and smooth to be Jonny’s, they had to be hers, cupping his ass and spreading him open, and he was nearly whimpering just from anticipation. His ability to hold it back lasted until the tip of her tongue slid between his cheeks-he could feel the heat from her breath-and smoothly licked its way in.
Jonny’s hand spread across the small of his back was a relief, he felt so vulnerable and overloaded he’d been close to freaking out. But then he heard him whispering something, and somehow mastered up the ability to start, “J-jonny, are y-you telling her how to do the thing with the ohgod...” He had, and Sidney was helpless, nearly sobbing into the bedclothes it felt so good, his brain melting into yespleasemore.
When Jonny had done this to him he’d always thought it couldn’t get any better. But now he suddenly felt Jonny’s hot breath on the back of his neck, and his panting, “Fuck, you’re so hot like this Sid, you have no fucking idea...I don’t think I can let her do this for long; I don’t want to come until I’ve at least fucked one of you,” and he was humping the bed because he was so hard it hurt, and he needed to come or he’d die. Tessa had started using her fingers, getting her tongue in deeper, and there were faint feminine sounds of pleasure which had to be hers.
His protest when Jonny ordered, “Tessa, stop” was one of the most animalistic sounds he’d ever heard coming out of himself. Next thing he knew he was on his back and they were both mouthing his chest, making him howl again, pleading shamelessly, until finally he heard Jonny say, “It’s okay, Sid, she’s got you, it’s okay,” just as a hot, wet mouth engulfed his cock, and he finally came, hard waves of blinding pleasure blasting him to pieces.
When he was able to more or less comprehend his surroundings again, he was first aware of a feminine body thrown half over his own, from which were coming desperate moans, and he opened his eyes to see Jonny had again pushed Tessa down against his stomach and was mouthing his way down her breasts and below. Sidney could see her hands flexing and unflexing, and she was starting to writhe enough that it was hard for Jonny to keep his mouth steady on her.
He finally pulled off and said to Sidney, “Pull her up and hold her in place so I can eat her pussy,” which made her moan louder. Sidney was happy to do so; he wrapped himself around her from behind and started licking idly about her shoulder blades and stroking her breasts, focusing more as she gasped out a “There, Sid, lick there, oh god...” a moment before Jonny’s head dipped down between her legs and she let our a piercing cry. Pressed flush against her body he could feel how well muscled she was; her thighs were especially well conditioned. He could also feel her start to shiver and shake, her hips pressing hard into Jonny’s face. He moaned into her crotch and she suddenly went crazy, her body flailing wildly as she moaned and shouted and shuddered violently. Sidney had never seen a woman come so hard.
“Jonny,” she growled, grabbed his head and pushing it back. “Fuck me.”
“As you wish,” he growled back, glancing around for the condoms. Sidney managed to spot them first; he grabbed a packet and tossed it over as Tessa shifted herself against him. He went back to licking her shoulder blades, since she really seemed to like that, but he kept his eyes up, wanting to see Jonny’s face as he fucked her.
He could tell when he first pushed in by her sharp inhale, and by how his own brow furrowed. He pressed kisses along her jaw as he thrust, grunted as she dug her hands into his back; from their positions Sidney thought she might have her nails in one of his bruises, but he doubted Jonny noticed. His hands were moving about; seeing her breasts unclaimed Sidney moved his own hands to them, and she sounded like that was good, but when he drew himself up to look into the heat of Jonny’s eyes, Jonny looked right through him. Sidney supposed he shouldn’t find that so hot, but it was, that Jonny got so into it he didn’t see him anymore; he wondered if Tessa would notice it later, when their positions would be switched, if she would realize only then how focused Jonny was on her right now. Much as it surprised him that his cock could react at all after he’d come as hard as he had a short while ago, he could feel it pick up again.
When Jonny picked up speed and force, fucking her so hard Sidney could feel it straight through her body, their medals clanging together as they both moved, she managed to gasp out, “Sid, my clit...” He reached down; she grabbed his hand and guided it, after a few seconds he had the rhythm and she moved her hand away to join the other somewhere around Jonny’s ass; Jonny’s were on her hip and in her hair as he pressed his forehead against her; Sidney could no longer see his eyes but he knew they had to be looking straight into hers; sometimes when Jonny had jerked him off he’d come just from that stare. “Yeah,” Jonny was murmuring to her, “Yeah...close?” Her whimper sounded affirmative. Sidney could tell too that Jonny was more than close, he was forcing himself not to come until she did. He rubbed her clit harder, and pressed his head down to mouth at her neck, the ribbon of her medal brushing against his cheek.
He felt it even more when she lost it again, her clit throbbing under his finger, and how her thighs trembled as they pressed into Jonny’s legs, her surprisingly soft cries drowned out by Jonny’s ecstatic shout as he too let go, a final clang of their medals as he collapsed against her adding to the chorus filling Sid’s ears. It wasn’t the best or even the second best thing he’d heard that day; those honors still went to that final goal horn and the national anthem filling the arena, but it wasn’t far off.
Sidney was fully hard again now, and though both of the others needed a good long moment to catch their breath, Tessa was quick enough to notice. “Your turn?” she giggled.
“It is,” panted Jonny. “In a few minutes.”
She looked shrewdly between them. “So it’s to be a Sidney Crosby sandwich then?”
“I think so,” said Jonny. “And you can help me get him ready if you want. There’s a bottle of lube waiting in the drawer over there.”
She made a slightly disappointed sound; maybe she would’ve rather readied him with her own juices. But Sidney very rarely let anyone fuck him, if only for practical reasons, and he was going to need proper lube and quite a lot of preparation, which might have been why Jonny didn’t wait any longer when Tessa finally pulled herself up and went to the drawer, but scooted over and gently kissed him while running a hand down his back. Their medals pressed against each other’s skins; both of them cold with sweat. Olympics medalists had sex with their medals on all the time, Sid reminded himself, or so everyone said, but he wondered how washable they were, not to mention the soaked ribbons.
The bed sagged as Tessa came back, and he heard her say, “Let me guess. You were saving this for tonight.”
“We had the most important games of our lives to play,” said Jonny. “We had to. You wouldn’t believe how much I had to wheedle him even for tonight, what with the NHL season resuming tomorrow.” Was it just Sidney’s imagination, or was there just that little pang of sadness in his voice on remembering that last part? But it was gone quickly enough, he was smiling as the two of them opened the bottle between them, and they both coated their fingers. “Ladies first,” he added, nodding towards Sidney’s ass.
And that was a good call, because even her little fingers were a very tight fit; now that there was no tongue to distract him when she put a second in Sidney could definitely feel it. He wasn’t sure she’d ever fingered a man in this manner before; it was clear she’d had some experience with rimming but her moves here were very uncertain. A moan escaped him as she found his prostrate, and she repeated her movement and jabbed there again, which was just about too much; there was pain in his whimper and he heard Jonny gently say, “I think he’s ready for mine now.”
Jonny did know what he was doing, but he wasn’t gentle, going immediately to two fingers and it wasn’t long before he was stretching him wide with three. Fortunately Tessa had scooted around and was running her hand gently up and down his cock; she wasn’t keeping him completely hard but it was something of a distraction. And the pain itself wasn’t entirely unwelcome, the feeling of being roughed up by a hungry Jonny, Jonny whom he knew he could trust, whom he knew he could give this too. Jonny took his time, too, until finally the pain was almost completely faded, and Tessa had combined her handjob with little bites to his inner thighs that were starting to drive him crazy, when he finally pulled free and Sidney made a noise of protest at no longer being filled.
Johnny tossed Tessa a condom; she handed it to Sidney and lay back lazily as he got it on. It was pretty clear from how relaxed she was that Jonny had actually pretty much finished her off for the night; now she was going to enjoy the sensation of being fucked without worrying about having to come. When Sidney slid into her, groaning at how warm and very wet she was, she let out a happy little sigh and drew him close, squealed as the cool of his medal hit her stomach.
A moment later a similar cool sensation hit his own back, as Jonny settled against him. He thought he heard him breathe “At last,” as he started to slowly push in.
More than any pain, Sidney couldn’t help the anxiety and split second of panic; giving up control was never easy when he was left with any ability to actually think about it. But maybe Tessa felt how he trembled, because she cradled his head in her hands against her breast and let him hide his face there until the moment was passed, Jonny’s cock filled him so wonderfully well, and Jonny himself had drawn him head close and was whispering his name as if it overwhelmed him, before drawing back and shoving forward, driving Sidney into Tessa; all three moaned. Between Jonny laying him open and Tessa clutching him tight, it felt almost too good, and when Jonny’s lips pressed ardent kisses as far along his neck and face as he could reach he pushed eagerly back, trying to get that cock deeper inside, then forward again to get his own deeper in, and as the three of them started to find a rhythm he had to clench his toes to keep from coming again.
Even then he couldn’t hold out long. Soon Jonny was losing his ability to go slow and by then he’d found the right angle to make Sidney see stars with every thrust, and he tried to just keep moving, keep holding it, ride the glorious high as long as possible, until at last he couldn’t anymore; he let go and his second orgasm of the night came in long intense waves; he was able to keep thrusting into Tessa for much of it, her oohes mixing with his own louder groan and Jonny gasps of “Oh God, oh God...” When it was over his body was completely relaxed, in a way he didn’t think it had been in months, maybe even years, and his cock was left so sensitive that remaining inside Tessa wasn’t entirely comfortable, but he was too spent to move.
He was also left very pliant, and Jonny took advantage to pierce him still deeper, hips still moving at his frantic pace, but Sidney didn’t mind; it was just as good to just feel himself being fucked, as Tessa had been doing, to be focused on what he was doing to Jonny, feeling how his thighs pressed against Sidney’s were shaking, his panting breaths, his hands finding the ribbon of Sidney’s medal and gripped harder and harder until the top of the ribbon dug into the back of Sidney’s neck, until Jonny finally hissed, “Sid, Sid, oh Sid...” and twisted Sidney’s head around for a messy kiss as he came hard enough for Sidney to feel it, the heat searing even through the condom.
Again two of them were left unwilling to move immediately, though Tessa squirmed free, bringing a little relief to Sidney before Jonny recovered enough to carefully pull out. Sidney’s ass felt so sore he was mildly worried about his next game, and for a moment had to question his decision to allow Jonny this. But no, after all they had shared this week, it had been justified. He’d happily suck it up if he had to.
“Dibs on the first shower,” said Tessa and she jumped up and ran for the bathroom before either of them could protest. Sidney vaguely recalled women were supposed to pee after sex anyway, to avoid some sort of infection or other.
Besides, fun as it had been to have her there, he wasn’t sorry to be left alone with Jonny again. He turned around to look at him, and nearly melted at the tired, sated, and deeply affectionate smile he was directing at him. “C’mere,” he whispered, and a moment later they were making out, slow and sweet; Sidney rarely felt as warm as he did then, with Jonny covering him. God, he was going to miss this.
He was even wondering what it would have been like, if he and Jonny had somehow ended up on the same team, if there’d been the possibility of doing this all the time. Of course, they were so alike it might not have been able to work out that way, not without them going crazy. It was a pity, because it did feel so nice to have someone like this, a brother in arms with whom he could share this kind of feeling. He wasn’t even giving up hope on the possibility of finding that sometime in his career. But at best that lay years in the future.
Tessa took long enough in the shower that they had time when their mouths got tired to just cuddle, and for Jonny to say softly, “Do you think it’s possible, you know, for a guy to have two big triumphs in one year?”
And since Sidney knew just what he was talking about, he replied, “Well, I think we’ve got guys here from enough of the big teams to make it pretty likely at least one of them will. Don’t worry about it. I won’t.”
By the time Tessa finally came out, it had been long enough to make hot water an issue, so the two of them shared, going as quickly as they could manage in their current exhausted state, but pausing a moment afterwards to carefully wipe their medals down with a damp towel; they looked nice and shiny when they were done. “They should give us manuels,” Sidney joked.
They came back in to Tessa wrapped up in the blankets, on the phone, Sidney assumed with Scott Moir. “I don’t know,” she was saying. “I assume they’ll both be up early. If they don’t let me stay the night I might come crash in your room at 3 in the morning; it’ll be safe for me to move about by then...yeah, I suppose, but honestly, at this point I don’t want to wake her up! If you really need your privacy I’ll try my own room, though I’d feel better if I don’t have to go there until five or so.”
“It’s fine,” said Jonny immediately. “If you need to hide from your boyfriend you can stay here tonight.”
She glanced at Sidney, saw no contradiction, and said, “And I’ve just gotten permission to stay here. Join you for breakfast at seven? Usual place? Okay, then, see you tomorrow morning. Have fun. Bye.”
“How long can you avoid him though?” Sidney felt the need to ask as she turned the phone off and tossed it at her jacket, which she’d retrieved from the living area.
“Until after Worlds,” she said. “Early tomorrow we’re on a plane back to Detroit and there we’re hunkered down because we still haven’t won the World Championships and if we retire this summer-which we don’t yet have any plans to but we might feel differently then-we want to go out with the World as well as Olympic title, since we actually haven’t won it yet. That’s at the end of March. But April...” She shuddered. “April I really won’t be able to escape him. But I can’t deal with it right now, I just can’t.” She fell back onto a pillow and closed her eyes.
If she, like them, was going straight back to the grindestone, Sidney could certainly understand her unwillingness to allow such a potentially painful distraction. Jonny didn’t look like he was satisfied with her response, but he only asked, “When exactly are Worlds? We’ll watch if we can.”
“I’m afraid the U.S. might not be airing it,” Tessa murmured. She sounded like she was already falling asleep. “Don’t remember the exact days right now anyway.”
Sidney and Jonny exchanged astonished looks. Figure skating had always been one of the Winter Olympics’ most high-profile sports, and it wasn’t like the Americans had lacked for stars; they’d won the men’s event with one skater and had pretty much its most high-profile guy with another, had two more star teams in the ice dance(and while they had been otherwise occupied while one of them skated, the silver medalists had been pretty good), and almost medaled in the ladies. The judging scandel, they knew, had damaged it, but that was eight years and a scoring overhaul in the past. For the World Championships not to be aired in the States sounded absurd.
Jonny finally went for his laptop. Half an hour later they had discovered technically it was airing, but not on a very accessible network, that coverage had been scanty indeed the past few years, that Canada hadn’t always beeen given the opportunity to watch either, and that figure skating had struggled to regain popularity. Sidney thought about the task assigned to him of representing his sport, the role that Tessa Virtue and her partner might still be fairly new to, and the kind of pressure on them that he, the most put upon man in Canada as he’d thought of himself these past two weeks, would never know.
It was with that thought he rose and looked back at the young woman now fast asleep in their bed, arms and hair and gold medal scattered carelessly about, half on her back, half on her side. Her expression was not peaceful.