Page 21 of The Price of Ice

It was just a joke, Kallen knew it, but he still found himself tongue-tied. “You want water?” he asked instead of answering, and he was already on his feet with his own half full glass and heading to the kitchen before Levy had a chance to answer.

“Get me a beer!” he hollered after a minute when Kallen still hadn’t returned, so he got two. It was as good a reason as any for Levy to delay the next dose of his painkillers.

THE NEXT DAY WAS SUNDAY, but Kallen hadn’t even thought about going downstairs to the Johnsons’ after dinner. Levypreferred to shower in the mornings anyway, so it was easier if he was just down the corridor in the guest room.

After that first time, Levy had put his foot down about Kallen going into the bathroom with him, but he’d agreed to letting him know and leaving the door ajar so if he fell, Kallen would hear.

It was better that way, the last thing he needed were more images of his teammate naked to add to the ones he was trying not to think about. Or dream, but he figured if he dreamed about it then it wasn’t his fault and if he woke up hard, that was just normal for a guy his age anyway.

Breakfast foods had been his specialty until Levy had got hold of him and started teaching him dinner appropriate recipes, so he went into the kitchen.

That morning, he was feeling particularly proud of his eggs and he didn’t want them to get cold, so he went in search of Levy.

He heard him before he saw him, though, and it was obvious he was on the phone.

“I’m sure,” he was saying patiently. He’d left his bedroom door ajar, maybe a new habit, maybe for Kallen’s benefit. It hadn’t even crossed his mind until this moment that Levy could fall while changing clothes as well as in the shower. “You don’t need to— I, no, really, mum, you got enough on your plate. Kallen’s—” He sighed, and then raised his voice and called out, “Kallen!”

He jumped half a foot in the air, suddenly aware that he’d been eavesdropping. At least he hadn’t overheard anything too private, but still. He hesitated, then opened the door. “Yeah?”

“My mother wants to know you are a good replacement,” Levy explained, and then he put his phone on speaker. “Mum, this is Kallen, who’s been feeding me and making sure I don’t even shower unsupervised.” This came with a mostly mocking glare.

“Hello, Kallen,” came a woman’s voice and he’d never heard her before, but he could tell she was not pleased at suddenly being plunged into a conversation with a stranger either. “Are you staying over?”

“Um, hi, yeah, I haven’t left since Levy got injured. I mean, except to go to practice, but I left food, and he promised not to do anything risky while I was away.”

His friend grimaced, but bit his lip, obviously intent on playing dutiful son. “See?” he asked his mum.

“And what about your parents? Do you live with them?”

“No, they... No, I live with the Johnsons, and they got plenty to do with their own kids, they don’t mind. Plus, it’s only three floors down. There are a lot of White Cat families in this building,” he added in a flash of inspiration, and Levy smiled at him in approval over the phone he still held between them. “So even when I have to travel, someone can come check on Levy.”

“Mmm...” Levy’s mum was clearly still sceptical. “I see. Can I have these families’ numbers then?”

Levy’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth, but when Kallen lifted a hand in the air to signal for him to wait, he stopped. His eyes didn’t leave Kallen as he inhaled deeply, nodding at him to indicate he should do the same.

“Levy?” Mrs Pollack asked in the silence.

Levy’s eyes lingered on his own for a moment longer before he responded on the exhale. “Yeah, um, let me see about that. I’ll call you in a couple of days, yeah? Everyone has your number, so they can call you.”

Somehow, he got her off the phone, asking her to say hello to the rest of the family for him. “Sorry,” he told Kallen, mouth twisting to the side. “She is bad with injuries, she had a sick sister growing up, so she gets all controlling.”

“It’s fine,” Kallen told him. It was weird to him; his parents had always taught him to be independent. He assumed theymust have been this protective when he was really really young, but he didn’t remember it and his brothers were both older than him, so he’d never seen anyone behave that way. “Um, so I made breakfast. It’s probably cold by now, but...”

Levy jumped off the bed, wincing a little as he jostled himself.

“Don’t break yourself,” Kallen chided him, but he didn’t grab him to make him slow down. “You made me responsible in front of your mother. Now if anything happens to you, she’ll hunt me down and kill me in revenge.”

It was a bit over the top, but it made Levy guffaw. “Wow, you have really thought about that in the last... thirty seconds?”

Kallen shrugged. “You are lucky I can think on my feet, you just...” He mimicked dropping something.

“I knew you could handle it,” his friend claimed, but when Kallen turned to shoot him a look where he was already sitting at the breakfast bar, he found him smirking. Kallen rolled his eyes at him, but it was strangely nice to hear.

THEIR TEAMMATES HADbeen asking after Levy, naturally, and Levy himself had mentioned them enough that Kallen knew they’d been texting him too, but he still didn’t expect their welcome when he drove them to the arena.

“The roooooookies are here,” someone called out, and maybe Levy had been expecting it because he was already calling out, “Left arm is the broken one!”

It was a good precaution to exaggerate since the blue sling blended into the hoodie he was wearing and moments later he was surrounded by alphas in different states of undress, some towering over him in skates, some barefoot despite the danger to their toes from the blades.

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