“Hey.”

Nothing.

It seemed that after the third attempt, her voice alone wasn’t doing the trick. This time, she gently nudged the sleeping form next to her.

“Hey….sleepyhead…time to rise and shine.”

A little movement this time.

Ali sighed. “If you don’t wake up soon, I’m going to have to deny you dinner and sex for the next week.”

That got a response. Long eyelashes opened to reveal the deep blue-green eyes she’d come to appreciate after eight months together. They narrowed on her, crinkling at the corners as a broad, albeit drowsy, smile appeared on his face.

“That’s not exactly the kind of wake-up call I was hoping for…” James mumbled, his voice deep with slumber.

From her sitting position on the edge of their bed, Ali placed one hand on the opposite side of his shirtless torso, effectively trapping him. “I only had to ask you five times before I had to use extreme measures.”

“Extreme measures, huh?” And quicker than Ali expected, James had his arms around her, pulling her into him, much more effectively trapping her. “You had better be kidding…”

“Of course!” Ali laughed. “Jeeze. Sensitive in the morning, aren’t we?” She attempted to playfully push him away, but his strength was too much, even this early in the morning.

“Not so fast.” James eased up a bit so he could see Ali. He clicked his teeth with a shake of his head. “Yep. I was right. You don’t look ready to leave, either. Guess you’ll have to stay in bed just a littttttle longer…”

Who was Ali to resist the tender kiss that followed? She allowed James’ full lips to lead hers into a slow dance, forgetting the minutes that ticked by leading up to when they really did need to leave for the day. James to practice, Ali to work. Some days their schedule coincided, most of the time it didn’t. Today was not one of those off days.

With some effort, Ali’s mouth parted from James’, but their foreheads remained touching. “You suck, you know that, right?”

“Thought that was you last night?”

Ali felt James smile against her cheek as he pressed his lips into one final kiss against her skin. He loved teasing her, messing with her like they always did. They were able to give each other shit and take it in return, which made their relationship fun. This morning, however…Ali found it hard to mentally pull herself from him, especially when he was so cuddly.

“Up” she said, finally parting from him. “Before I call in sick and you mysteriously don’t show up for practice.”

James watched as she gave him a little wink and rounded the foot of the bed, her curves hugged today by dark skinny jeans and purple Nike quarter-zip pullover. Her dark brown hair was pulled up into long ponytail, which bounced lightly as she headed for the door.

“Hey, Ali?”

She turned, one hand on the doorframe. “Yeah?”

“Love you.”

Ali smiled. “Love you, too.”

* * *

James pulled into the parking garage at Consol about 30 minutes later and headed for the locker rooms. Most of the guys had already dressed and headed out on the ice, except for one or two stragglers. James smiled to himself when he saw that he was not, in fact, the last person to practice that morning. Kunitz walked in no less than five minutes after he had arrived, which made him the final member of the team to arrive at practice. He made a mental note to tease Ali later with this fact.

“What’s up, Nealer.”

“Kuni.” James acknowledged with a nod. He yanked at one of the pads covering his forearm before throwing on his gray practice jersey. “Late morning for you, too?”

Chris chuckled. “Something like that. Kids, man. They’ll get you every time. Let me guess – same for you?” he joked.

“Slept in…with the threat of no sex looming over me as my alarm.” James replied.

“Ohhh shit, you must’ve really pushed it for Ali to throw that at ya.”

With a laugh, James shook his head. “Like she’d ever give this up” he said, hands pointing at himself.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever” Kunitz chirped.

James playfully knocked his teammate in the shoulder with his stick, then made his way towards the ice. A few steps in and he was gliding out towards the huddle formed near the far end of the rink. He fell in beside Sutter and Geno, who elbowed him ‘hello’.

The rest of practice went forward without any excitement aside from the usual drills that lead to the usual laughter and chirping between line mates. The group finished practice with new power play combinations for their upcoming away game against the Rangers in two nights. After a few words from Bylsma, they broke for the day, each player skating off at their own pace towards the locker room and showers.

James was in and out in 15 minutes, replacing his towel with jeans and a black Pirates t-shirt, hands loosely flipping through his dark hair to shake some of the water out. Checking his cell, he noticed two texts from Ali:

Hope you didn’t have to do laps for being late ;-)

James shook his head and smiled.

Thinking about Thai for dinner. Down? Let me know.

Shooting back a quick Hell yes in response, he shoved his phone back in his pocket, grabbed his gym bag full of dirty gear, and headed for his car. He waved at the guys on his way out, but Geno caught up to him in the hall.

“Lazy!”

James halted, turning towards his friend. “Yeah?”

Geno’s tall form caught up. “Hey, you come to bar later with Duper, Sid, and Flower?”

“Which one? The usual?” The pair walked down the length of the corridor together.

“Yes…guess Veronique is holding party for baby” Geno replied. “No guys welcome.”

James caught Geno’s grin, which appeared slightly more devious than usual. “What’s with the grin?”

Geno shrugged innocently. “Could be fun. Never know.”

James had to laugh. It was hard enough understanding what his line mate was saying half the time, but when he was being sly, it was even more of a puzzle. Needless to say, it intrigued him enough to consider the offer.

“So you come?” Geno asked again.

“Sure, I’ll see what Ali has planned, then try and stop by” James answered. Dinner hadn’t slipped his mind, but he figured after they ate he could manage making an appearance at the guys’ usual hangout in the Strip District.

“Bring her too, if too pussy whipped.”

“Oooo….that hurt, G” James joked.

Geno laughed and jogged forward, shoving his back into the metal bar of the door that lead out into the parking garage.

“See you at 8, Nealsy” he said, the echo of his thick accent bouncing off the cement walls. He continued to casually jog the rest of the distance to his car.

“Later” James replied. Two beeps from his automatic unlock and he was in his car and on his way through traffic in downtown Pittsburgh.

* * *

Ali’s day hadn’t turned out too bad. It was always up in the air when she walked into work…never knowing exactly what direction her day at the airport would take. Mostly, it was uneventful. Some days, it was chaos. Most days…days like today…were a happy mix of both. She’d been working part time as a receptionist at the Hyatt for just over a year, saving money for grad school...plans she had, but hadn’t yet materialized. The more she worked, the more money she had, but the longer she worked, the more expensive returning to college became. And so she continued her duties at the only hotel located next to Pittsburgh International Airport, enjoying the work and her fun coworkers, not to mention the free rooms she got no matter where she booked.

That’s how she’d met James, after all.

Ditching her formal work attire and changing back to her comfy, casual clothes she came to work in, Ali hopped in her SUV and headed for the new Thai place her and James had tried a couple weeks ago. Both of them had fallen in love with the restaurant’s signature Pad Thai dish, though they’d decided to be bold and try a spicier dish in addition to the Pad Thai. She ordered both when it was her turn in line at the counter, opting for extra spicy sauce for the hell of it.

As she was waiting for her number to be called, Ali scanned the cover of the Pittsburgh Tribune from a pile near her standing spot. Sidney Crosby’s picture made the front page, of course. The guys were entering their second week of the new season, and all eyes were on the Pens. The city of Pittsburgh was looking to rectify their tough-to-stomach loss in the playoffs, and they were depending on their Captain to lead them to success.

It was still weird to Ali. A normal girl from a small town in north central Pennsylvania, and she knew the Captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Hell, she was dating one of their highest scoring forwards. It was weird when she really thought about it, which was precisely why she tried not to most of the time.

“Number 46!”

The voice yelling from behind the counter pulled Ali from her thoughts. She thanked the man who handed her dinner over and quickly headed the rest of the way home.

Once inside the house, it didn’t take long before James could be heard bounding down the stairway.

“Heyyyy” he said, coming up behind Ali. Being as tall as he was, it was easy for him to peek over her shoulder and inspect the food she was unloading from the carryout bag.

Ali felt James rest his chin on her shoulder. “Got us our favorite. Hope you’re hungry, because I ordered two of each dish.”

“Smells good….And spicy.” He reached around her slender waist and tipped open one of the containers. “No way, is that the Volcano bowl?”

“You guessed it!”

“Damn.” James kissed the side of her neck before grabbing the container. “You’re good. I officially forgive you for your threat this morning.”

Ali watched him flash that mile wide grin as he took a seat opposite her across the kitchen island. He often used his boyish charm to win her over, just as he was doing now, and very often it worked.

“So how did practice go? Work out those kinks with the penalty kill you were worried about?”

“For the most part.” James swallowed and pointed at her with his fork. “By the way, you’ll be happy to know I wasn’t late.”

One of Ali’s eyebrows rose.

“Kuni was.”

“Ahhhhhh.” She took a bite of food. “Guess we won’t have to result in extreme measures after all.”

“Good, because I had plans for later.” He grinned as he took another fork full of noodles. “By the way, a few of the guys are heading down to the Strip later for a few beers. Geno said something about Vero having a party for the baby and Flower wasn’t allowed to be there.”

Ali let out a laugh. “Really? That’s cute. Who’s all going?”

“Duper, Sid, Flower, G, and myself….Wanna go?”

She gave a shrug. “Random group right there…could be fun, though. Are you sure you want a chick tagging along?”

“You know the guys love you.”

Ali smiled at this. While she had met most of James’ teammates throughout the course of their relationship, she still worried about treading the fine line between being a fangirl of these guys, and being the girlfriend of their teammate. She’d been a fan of the Penguins since she was young, so her serendipitous relationship with James took some getting used to. This caused her to hesitate.

“I could stay home, too” James offered. Personally, he didn’t care if he stayed home or went out. Practice was at 7 the next morning, so it wasn’t a big deal either way.

“Thanks babe, but you go ahead. I’ll catch the next outing” Ali said. “But come back early enough so I at least get a taste of what these ‘plans’ are that you supposedly have for me…..emphasis on taste.” She smiled when James caught the glint in her eyes.

“Tease.”

“Back at ya." She took another bite of her dinner and smiled.

* * *

Notes

My first chapter of my first story! Got to lead in to the story and leave a little mystery...not too much, but more will be revealed about these two soon. Enjoy!