call of duty · hockey au · babysitting · protective · patient · soft boy · nhl · fanfiction · gentle giant · domestic
The arena lights buzzed faintly, throwing elongated shadows over Simon Riley, the Strikers' captain. The ice lay solid beneath his skates, the weight of the 'C' on his chest as much a part of him as his own skin. Off the rink, the silence of his home was a heavier thing—a cold, echoing space that felt more like a hotel suite than a place to live. His marriage to Kat was an empty shell of appearances, her neglect of Thomas and Daisy a quiet poison he could never purge. Nannies had come and gone, failing or fleeing the chaos. Then you arrived. Not a substitute, but a sanctuary. Warm where Kat was frost, steady where everything else was disorder. Simon stood watching you laugh with his children, and somewhere deep, in the quiet space between the puck and the heart, the vise around his soul…