Page 24 of The Price of Ice

“Yeah...” Levy swallowed. “But I was hoping it would be faster. Like, I was really good and rested, and...” His mouth twisted and Kallen saw his shoulder twitch as he held back a shrug. “I’m being ridiculous. I know that, but all I can think about is that on your next heat I won’t be there.”

“What?” The word felt like it’d been punched right out of him.

“I’m sorry,” Levy told him instead of anything that made sense.

Kallen shook his head, shutting his eyes for a moment as if he could reset reality somehow. Then he opened them and looked straight at Levy’s contrite expression. “You don't... That’s nuts, man. It’s not your job to—” He waved a hand between them. Protect Kallen? “It’smyjob, and I have done it without you loads of times. It was... I appreciate what you did. But you gotta focus on getting better, not go around thinking you won’t be able to do me a favour.”

“I just—” Levy bit the words back, but his expression only got more mulish.

He wasn’t sure he could take hearing the rest of it, but he couldn’t take Levy’s help and leave him hanging now. “Is there something I can do? Am I... like is it making it worse that I’m in your space so much?”

“No!” Levy straightened like Kallen had suggested jumping out the window. “No,” he repeated, softer but still wide-eyed. “I don’t— You’re helping.” His throat worked as he swallowed. He lifted his gaze, and essayed a smile that didn’t quite reach his sad eyes. “I like having you around.”

Kallen was nearly sure that was true. “Okay, you got it,” he said. “You want to choose dinner?”

Levy didn’t look away, and his eyes narrowed. “Mmm... No, I bet you are thinking sushi.”

“How...?” Kallen stared at him.

But his friend was already laughing. “I saw you checking that you had them on your speed dial,” he admitted, and Kallen had to laugh at that. He was being silly, of course, it wasn’t like Levy could read his mind.

Not that he wanted that, it’d have made this messy friendship of theirs even more complicated if he’d known what went through Kallen’s mind on the regular.

ONCE, WHEN HE’D BEENfourteen, Kallen had broken his little finger.

It sounded like the tiniest injury imaginable, but it’d been his dominant hand and it’d fucked up his whole game. To add insult to injury quite literally, his mother had insisted he take the three weeks the family doctor had recommended even though there would have been no harm to him skating around with his hand properly bundled up. The team medic had sympathised, and he’d been allowed to sit on the machines to work on his legs after the first week’s x-ray had shown he was healing well.

Levy didn’t even get that much. All the physical exercise he was allowed at the moment were the ones he did with the physio, or with Kallen on weekends if he was at home.

He’d just flopped flat on the carpet, growling a little. “I fucking can’t anymore,” he told Kallen or the ceiling above. “Might as well just wait until I can move again.”

It wasn’t true, but Levy knew that already—he’d told Kallen about fucking up his ankle the previous year and the month it’d taken to recover, and naturally they’d both spent years surrounded by injured teammates. Logic wasn’t going to help here.

“You wanna take a break?” he suggested instead.

Levy turned his face to look at him, and he no longer looked angry. In fact, he looked close to tears.

“We could—” Kallen backtracked because for all that his teammate obviously enjoyed ordering him around in the kitchen, he clearly missed cooking. The last thing he needed was to be reminded of something else he couldn’t do. “Go out? You’re probably going stir crazy stuck at home all day long.”

The sigh he got in answer wasn’t exactly encouraging, but that Kallen was also familiar with. Without hockey, life often seemed like a grey stretch of chores ahead of you. And Levy couldn’t even entertain himself with his secondary hobby. Kallen stepped closer and knelt by the alpha’s side, placing his hand on his shoulder.

It got him Levy’s attention at once, the weight of it almost physical, and Kallen inhaled too deeply; green apples and sandalwood and sweat from the interrupted stretching. He’d have to ask Kira if Levy might be overdoing it, he didn’t think Levy should have been sweating from it.

“Sorry, I’m all...”

Kallen frowned at him, already shaking his head. “Nah, just get up. Come on.”

Levy allowed him to help him sit, then gripped Kallen’s forearm hard with his good hand as they manoeuvred him to his feet together. He huffed at the end, grimacing a little. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Kallen told him. “You want a shower before dinner?”

“Dinner?” Levy asked, obviously surprised. “I thought we were going out?”

“We are,” Kallen confirmed. “It’s my turn to impress you with good food.”

He’d kept busy tidying up while Levy showered—he thought his friend’s mood was making it more difficult to put things back where they belonged right away, but he didn’t mind pitching in.

Hearing his name startled him, but Levy’s room wasn’t far. He abandoned the glass he’d been about to take to the kitchen and headed his way, calling out, “You alright?”

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