phramily fic - it's that big, clogged silence that sends you back to the surface, to
Rafaël comes home to them right after the playoffs run of Laval. Even if he didn’t play the last few games and that it was completely over for him already, it was important for him to stay with the team until the very end. To which Dan and Phil understood completely. And he was still waiting for a diagnosis before taking a decision. He wanted to be with them when he would the final words. And it crushes him completely when it does so. What his fathers didn’t expect is that it would devastate them as well. But not for the same reasons. For them, it’s mostly because they know that Rafaël lives and breathes hockey. He doesn’t know what to do without it. And they don’t know what he is going to do either. “Give him time,” Phil tells Dan as he puts a hand on his shoulder. Raf hasn’t been coming up from his room since. It’s been three or four days. Not only is he exhausted mentally but also physically. He also takes some medication that makes him feel down and tired. Dan brought him a cup of tea and some cookies. Rafaël reached for his hand as Dan didn’t know exactly what to say or do. “I don’t know what to say to him. It’s not like I could.” “Dan, just because I spent extra time with him when you were on tour a couple of years ago doesn’t mean that you’re not as qualified to be his father.”
(read the whole fic on ao3)