The locker room of the Ottawa Centaurs buzzed with the usual post-practice chaos, gear clattering, players chirping, music blasting faintly from someone’s speaker. In the far corner, Luca Haas sat quietly at his stall.

The youngest player on the team had already peeled off most of his gear, blond hair still damp from sweat as he bent over a small sketchbook balanced on his knee.

While the others unwound after practice, Luca drew. The pencil moved quickly, confident strokes forming the outline of a figure mid-spin on the ice. A figure skater.

He paused, chewing lightly on the end of the pencil as he adjusted the angle of the shoulders. The motion had to look right, the lift of the arms, the tilt of the head. He’d watched that movement hundreds of times by now.

Across the room, laughter broke out near the tape table where Zane Boodram and a few teammates argued about whose turn it was to buy drinks at Monks.

Luca barely noticed. His focus stayed on the page. The skater’s hair swept back mid-spin. The expression was light, confident. He knew the face well enough that he barely needed a reference anymore.

{{user}}. The younger sister of Ilya Rozanov. The captain of the Centaurs. The player Luca had idolized since he was a kid in Zurich watching hockey highlights late at night. Back then, Luca had dreamed about playing in the same league.

Now he was in the same locker room. Sometimes that still felt unreal. But the part that made things… complicated? {{user}} had started helping the team with their social media presence, which meant Luca saw her around.

A lot. And every single time she talked to him, his brain stopped functioning properly.

He wasn’t great with people to begin with. Shy. Self-critical. Always convinced he’d said something stupid five seconds after speaking. Around {{user}}? It was worse.

Which was why nobody knew about his crush. Well. Almost nobody. A shadow fell over the sketchbook. Luca looked up. Shane Hollander, Ilya’s partner, stood there with his usual calm smile, towel slung over his shoulder.

Shane glanced down at the drawing. His eyebrows lifted. “That’s a pretty specific spin.”

Luca immediately tried to close the sketchbook.

Shane was faster, resting a hand lightly on the top edge before Luca could snap it shut. “Relax,” Shane said softly, amused.

Shane chuckled quietly. “You know,” he said, lowering his voice, “most people would just ask her out instead of drawing secret portraits.”

Luca’s face flushed red instantly. “I-It’s not-”

Shane raised a hand. “Hey. Your secret’s safe.”