so i have this future mcdrai fic idea where they don't get together for years until connor mcdavid LEAVES edmonton after his 2yr contract ends and... yes, i know, but bear with me -
they still grew up together, and felt so drawn to each other, and yes, there was a point when they were vacationing together, somewhere near the ocean, where the air was warm and frizzy and they were far far away from hockey and media and the world of responsibility, and close to each other's hearts. they did stupid things like throwing rocks into the water, and they got drunk, and kissed, maybe made out a little, and the next morning leon woke up and made two cups of coffee like nothing happened the night before.
connor thought leon wasn't interested enough; it was probably a lapse of judgement. leon thought he cared too much to fuck it up.
nobody acted on it bc they weren't sure, so they waited, and waited, and waited, for the right moment. nobody brought up that night again.
after we win the cup together, connor thought;
i need tell my family and my sister first, leon thought, and till i could steal him away for a private vacation again... because no, he was not gonna confess his love to connor fucking mcdavid while being drunk, again. he couldn't stand to lose his captain, his training partner, his summer and winter neighbor, and his best friend.
too many "if"s and too many "but"s, they lost the cup twice, and another two seasons of the hard grind. the truth is that the stakes just got too high; they were no longer connor and leon, they were art ross and hart winners, EDM's best duo and the only hope to championship, the eye of the storm. gravity pulled them into an endless pit.
so when connor's contract was up and he left, it didn't hit leon as a surprise. he knew they were on borrowed time. so he watched as connor packed up his life, the last decade of memories, everything neatly into a dozen home depot boxes. connor paid movers, but leon came to help him pack anyway, chirped him about the hasty sale, how he never got the money back on the heated driveway, on the various shades of grey in his wardrobe, and stared a long time at a picture of them, together, on his nightstand.
it was connor's rookie year, they were visiting the rogers arena for the first time. connor joked that leon's irrational fear of getting hit by a flying rock before his career took off. leon chirped him on how his head was never the right shape for that damn hat. they'd met for three days and were wearing friendship bracelets. they were both so, so young back then.
next to the photo, leo saw, because he couldn't stop looking, that connor had kept a rock from the white sand beach on that vacation, it was the beginning of everything, all that they could be, all that they never were. and leon hugged him so hard it made his own chest ache.
[i'll skip a thousand words of connor at this amorphously shaped team bc it fucking hurts to think about it lol] connor was still playing his best game because yeah, that's just what he does. and maybe made it to the final again, and the whole time leon kept texting him.
they never texted all that much in edmonton, because they were always together and around each other, even during the off season. everything felt like a part of the routine, a code that they could not break. but now it felt different. they weren't doing it for the city, the team team, not because there is a front to keep up, a story for the media to write about. they were doing it because they wanted to.
connor said, perhaps after a beer or two, on an off day, i missed you, leo.
leon had almost drifted off to sleep then, and when he woke up, he remembered to text back, i miss you too.
then they were reunited at an all-star game. connor seemed happier, and lighter. leon asked him to get dinner, just the two of them, and connor said yes. it was not like a date date, but something shifted in the air.
ok this is what i have so far. oh, and leon becomes captain of edmonton after connor. connor becomes captain somewhere else. they faceoff, have chirp e/o about it when they meet. on open mics ;)