The Ice Prince and The Snow Queen

It started with Finding Nemo. That and alcohol.

Jonathan didn’t remember much of that night, partially because it didn’t seem extremely important at the time, and partially because he was drunk off his ass. He didn’t remember which of their apartments he was at, or even why he and Patrick had decided to stay in instead of going partying with the rest of the team. What he did remember was that it was exactly a week after the Hawks won a big game, and that for whatever reason, he and Patrick had decided to spend their night watching an animated movie about fish.

The memory was pretty hazy, but it was clear enough that when Patrick texted him from Buffalo a few weeks later, Jonny got the reference he was making. He text read, “Sisters are forcing me 2 watch Disney movies against my will. that whole scene w/ the jellyfish makes a lot more sense when you’re watching it sober.”

It made him smile, because this was the kind of thing that made the long offseason more bearable, these meaningless texts from Patrick that made the distance between them seem the tiniest bit smaller. (Not that Jonny missed Patrick, or anything. Missing his best-friend-sometimes-casual-hookup was totally a thing that he was not doing.)

He texted back, “If your terrible taste in movies is a genetic thing, that actually would explain a lot,” and Patrick replied back with a, “Screw u,” and that was that.

Only it wasn’t.

Apart from the constant back and forth texting, he and Patrick generally called each other every Friday, just to catch up. It felt a little bit like something a teenage couple would do, and Jonathan always felt awkward trying to figure out if he should be the one to call Patrick, or if he should be waiting for Patrick to call him. He was actually a little bit relieved when he came home late from fishing one Friday night and he already had a missed call from Patrick. He didn’t have to feel quite as weird calling him back.

“Sorry, was out fishing,” he said without preamble, when Patrick picked up the phone.

“Again? Geez, do you actually do anything other than sitting in a little wooden boat and enjoying the serenity of nature or whatever? It’s like the least exciting thing on the planet,” Patrick’s voice sounded slightly muffled, and there was some kind of weird piano music playing in the background that made the Blackhawk captain do a double take.

“And what, listening to Mozart is that much more thrilling?”

“Huh?”

“The piano thing that you’re listening to.”

“I- oh, yeah. That.” Patrick still had this weird breathless quality to his voice, and it took Jonathan a minute to figure out what the hell was going on.

“Kaner, are you crying?”

Patrick made an exasperated noise, and Jonathan could practically see the wide-eyed face he knew accompanied it. “It’s just so frickin’ sad. I just wanted to watch a movie; I didn’t sign up for this heartbreakingly tragic crap. Like, I thought Disney movies were supposed to be all happy and stuff.”

Jonathan almost fell off of the couch. “You’re crying because of a Disney movie? Sharpie’s gonna have a field day when I tell him.”

“Whatever, I’m not ashamed,” Patrick grumbled huffily. Even though he totally was, Jonathan Toews could tell. “This thing is like, five minutes in, and someone’s already died. You’d probably be bawling your pretty chocolate eyes out.”

“Of course I would,” Jonathan remarked, putting as much sarcasm into the words as he could.

“Seriously, you would,” Patrick insisted. “Get it off Netflix or whatever. I’m telling you, it’s ridiculous how sad this thing is.”

Somehow, Jonathan ended up doing just that, and even though he didn’t cry, he had to admit that this “Treasure Planet” movie was pretty depressing. Patrick gave a little victory hoot when he admitted it (which he didn’t find adorable, because that would be weird and a little bit creepy and a little bit something else that Jonathan didn’t think he was ready to put a name to yet). So then Patrick asked him exactly how many minutes in he was. Jonathan told him, and somehow they ended up syncing up their movies and watching through the end together. And that was that. Only it wasn’t.


He had three missed calls waiting for him when he got home from his workout a few days later, all of them from Patrick. He was a little bit panicky when he called back, just because it was a Monday not a Friday. He wasn’t sure why else Patrick would be calling him unless it was an emergency. Then Patrick picked up and said “I am never letting Erica buy jackets with fur on them ever again.”

Jonathan let out the breath he was holding, because whatever the hell this was about, it clearly wasn’t an emergency. “Okay?”

“Those poor dogs!” Patrick half yelled into the phone. “All cooped up just because someone wants Dalmatian print coats!”

Jonathan closed his eyes and pinched at the bridge of his nose, because he had a girlfriend that once made him watch some of her movies with her, and he was pretty sure he knew where this was going. “Please tell me that you did not just call me three times within the span of ten minutes just so that you could angst about 101 Dalmatians.”

“Cruella De Vil is a bitch, and my sisters just keep laughing at me when I try to complain about it,” Patrick said unrepentantly.

“Why are you even watching that?”

The phone rustled a little bit on the other end; Jonathan thought Patrick might be shrugging. “I’m bored. And Treasure Planet and the clownfish movie were decent, so I figured it’d be good to stick with a good theme.”

Jonathan spent the rest of his afternoon watching 101 Dalmatians while Patrick kept up a steady commentary through the phone, drowning out most of the dialogue. He knew better this time than to think that was that.


It went like that for a while, Patrick calling Jonathan up every few days and coercing him into watching more Disney movies. Hercules was next, followed by Tarzan and then The Lion King. Patrick tried to get him to watch Tangled and Jonathan hanged up on him. Honestly, Patrick enjoyed the movie nights more than he was letting on but he knew that Jonathan drew the line at princess movies. Patrick called back a couple minutes later ranting about how terrible the second Peter Pan movie was compared to the first, so they ended up watching that instead.

Jonathan honestly didn’t know what the hell was going on in half of the movies with Patrick literally never shutting up, but he didn’t really mind. What he did mind was his brother David walking in on him halfway through Lady and the Tramp and laughing so hard that he had to lean up against the doorframe for support.

Wreck-It Ralph was just ending when Patrick complained, “Seriously, what’s wrong with Tangled? I’ve actually seen it before with Jackie; it’s a great movie."

“The fact that you think it’s a great movie isn’t exactly making me more eager to see it, Kaner,” Jonathan told him. He was honestly past the point of caring what embarrassing movies Patrick wanted to watch with him, but it wasn’t like he was going to actually admit that.

“You’re a jerk,” Patrick informed him. “C’mon, man, you’d like Flynn Rider. He’s an asshole, so you and him are pretty much the same person.”

“From what I can tell, you and this Rapunzel chick aren’t that different either,” Jonathan countered, grinning now. “Ridiculous hair, tendency to make stupid decisions, you know.”

The chirp only seemed to make Patrick more enthusiastic. “See? This movie is like, practically our life story.”

“I thought that Flynn and Rapunzel were in love with each other.” The immediate silence on the other end of the line startled Jonathan so much that the grin fell from his face. For a second, he thought he might have lost connection, but then he held the phone a little closer to his ear, and he could hear Patrick breathing shakily. “Kaner?”

“They are in love with each other,” Patrick finally whispered, and then Jonathan was listening to a dial tone.

And that was…that.


Publix was only twenty minutes away from Jonathan Toews’ place in Winnipeg but it was twenty minutes in the opposite direction from the airport, so it ended up taking him almost an hour out of his way. That added onto the five hours it took to fly from Canada to Buffalo, and Jonathan was almost going out of his mind with impatience by the time his cab showed up at Patrick’s place, even though he booked the first flight out that he could.

When Patrick opened the front door, his mouth dropped open for a fraction of a second before he plastered on one of his signature smirks, clearly forced. “Knew you missed me,” he said lightly, not quite looking Jonathan in the eye.

“Yeah, well…” Jonathan had planned out a whole speech the plane ride over, but now that he was standing here, the whole thing had flown out the window.

The corners of Patrick’s mouth twitched ever so slightly down. “Look, if this is about what I said over the phone, it doesn’t have to mean-” he started. Jonathan had to cut him off right there, because this was the opposite of what he wanted to hear. His hands were shaky when he held out the DVD case for Tangled, still wrapped up in that see-through plastic from Publix. Patrick cut himself off with a strangled sound of disbelief. He glanced back and forth between the DVD and Jonathan with wide eyes for a few seconds, before finally speaking again. “Please tell me I’m not getting this wrong.”

“You’re not getting this wrong,” Jonathan said simply.

Patrick leaned forward and kissed him.

They ended up watching the movie the next morning, after Jonathan was dragged to Patrick’s bedroom and twined his hand through Patrick’s thick blond curls. It was admittedly not a terrible movie, although Jonathan still missed most of the dialogue because Patrick kept trailing kisses down his neck.

And that was that. Only it wasn’t. Because whatever this thing was between him and Patrick (that he thought now he might finally be ready to put a name to) Jonathan really hoped that it didn’t end anytime soon.

Luckily it wouldn’t, given that the two would be returning to Chicago and returning to the hockey rink for on-ice action. It also meant that they’d be together.

Notes

This is the worst the Kazer will get, promise. After this it is implied and and will slowly die off to a close brotherly friendship like real life. XD Trust me on this, it will get WAY less gay, I promise.
Since this is sort of a Disney-related thing, I thought why not...haha. Kazer + Disney movies = Happiness!! :P


Next up: Kala Comes to Chicago