Ivy turned to face her friend as she smiled at her. “I’m so excited. I can finally experience what it’s like to watch hockey in real life and not on TV.”

“Thanks to me,” Nikki added in a joking manner.

“Yeah, thanks to you,” Ivy replied with a roll of her eyes.

The two girls had been friends since high school. Ivy had stayed in the U.S. as a foreign exchange student for a couple of months when Nikki was in the eleventh grade and she and her parents had been Ivy’s host family. Ivy had only stayed with them for a few months, but during that short period, the two girls had somehow grown to be the best of friends. They never lost contact and that was one of the reasons why Ivy visited Nikki once a year.

Every year had been the same. Ivy would come to Minnesota because that was where Nikki was from and where she had gone to college. However, this year was different. Nikki had moved to Chicago, Illinois to get a job as a sports journalist almost ten months ago and through that field of work, she had managed to meet Jonathan Toews and she eventually became his girlfriend.

During the warmups, Jonathan purposely didn’t skate near where his girlfriend was sitting. She and Ivy were sitting in the front row and he didn’t want to risk getting caught saying hi to her. His team had been losing the past few games and he had been hearing shit about how his girlfriend was dragging him down. It obviously wasn’t true, but he didn’t want his girl to undergo any more false accusations. He was going to focus and lead his team into winning this game. As he skated to the other side of the ice, he saw Kane going the other way. It seemed like he was going to go say hi to the girls. Jonathan decided not to care. The sports reporters usually wrote less trash about Kane since he was known to be single.

Nikki was going on and on about how she strongly believed that the Blackhawks were going to win this time while Ivy barely listened to what she was saying. She was too busy taking pictures of the large arena. When Patrick skated over and stopped directly in front of them, she was momentarily surprised. He leaned close to the glass and made a funny face at Nikki, the only thing preventing him from pressing his face any closer being his helmet.

“Hey, Ivy! Quickly, take a picture of this idiot! I mean it. He needs to see how ridiculous he looks making that silly face.”

Ivy realized that Patrick Kane and Nikki were obviously pretty close and the whole thing felt surreal to her. Patrick was one of Ivy’s’ favorite players. He was one of the popular ones. How was he close with her friend? Even the true fact that her friend was going out with Jonathan Toews still felt unreal to her.

Ivy listened to what Nikki said and immediately shifted her phone into Patrick’s direction. She got a clear shot of the goofy face he was making.

“Did you get it?” Nikki asked.

Ivy nodded in response.

“Let me see,” Nikki said. The two looked at the picture that had been taken and bursted out into laughter. “Oh my God. Show it to him.”

Ivy turned her phone so Patrick could see the picture through the glass. Once he saw it, he laughed too although they couldn’t really hear it from the other side. His blue eyes twinkled charmingly as he took his glove off and gave them a thumbs up. Ivy found herself staring into his eyes. It was like they were somehow smiling at her. Patrick put his glove back on and waved at them before skating away.

“Oh my gosh! Did you see that? They’re so lucky!” one of the three girls sitting a few feet away squealed. It appeared like they were high school students.

“Wait, isn’t she Jonathan Toews' girlfriend? I recognize her face,” the second girl said.

“Which one?” the third girl asked.

“The one over there with the brown hair and the Toews jersey,” the second girl answered.

“Really? She’s so lucky. She’s dating Toews and she’s like best friends with Kane.”

Ivy faced her friend. “So how does it feel to hear people talking about you like that all the time?”

“It’s kind of weird to be honest,” Nikki replied as she tried to block out what the girls were saying as she tried thinking of what to say to her friend to change the subject. When she glanced at her friend, she knew the perfect thing to say. “So…I saw how you were looking at Patrick,” she suddenly declared as she grinned.

“What do you mean?” Ivy asked, playing it cool.

“You like him, don’t you?”

“Well, yeah. He’s my favorite hockey player.”

“Yes, I know, but you like him more than just a favorite hockey player. Don’t you?” Nikki pressed.

“Psh! What makes you say that?” Ivy asked.

“Your voice is getting higher,” Nikki accused. “That means you’re trying to cover up something, which means that you like him.”

“What are you talking about? I just met-”

Nikki interrupted her. “It’s okay. He’s a cute guy. I’ll introduce you two to each other after the game. I have a feeling he likes you too. See? Look over there.”

Ivy thought Nikki was making things up until she looked to see where Patrick Kane was at. Once she saw him, she couldn’t help but agree with Nikki. Patrick flashed Ivy a bright smile after catching her attention. Okay. Maybe he was interested.

---

The Chicago Blackhawks had won 4-3 to the St. Louis Blues for this game. It had been a close one, but it didn’t matter to the Blackhawks fans. They had finally won. They were out of the slump and this excited them. They hoped that this was the start to a better performance this season.

Ivy found herself standing outside of the locker room with her friend after the game ended. She thought that waiting for Jonathan and Patrick wouldn’t take too long, but she was wrong. She never knew that so many reporters would be going in and out of the locker room for so long.

“God. Those reporters are so annoying,” Ivy said quietly as she watched the large group finally exit the locker room and head down the hallway.

Nikki heard what she said and frowned. “Hey! I’m one of those ‘annoying’ reporters too, you know.”

“Sorry,” Ivy replied with a giggle. “So how many times have you interviewed Jon after you two started dating?”

“Well, definitely not as much as I used to. As soon as the news got out that we were together, my boss decided to send my partner to interview the Blackhawks. I usually interview the opposing teams.”

“Oh, I see.”

A few minutes later, the players began leaving one by one. They all looked tired and sweaty as they said their goodbyes to the girls as they passed by. Some of their wives and children were waiting for them. More minutes passed and finally Jonathan and Patrick came out. Ivy noticed how they were wearing suits like the other players and remembered how Nikki had told her that they had to wear those on game days. She thought it looked odd how the both of them wore beanies on their heads contrasting the formal clothes that they had on.

“Hey, babe,” Jonathan said as he wrapped his arm around Nikki’s shoulders.

“Hey. You guys were great,” she replied as she gave him a smile. “I’m happy for you.”

“You being here must have brought us luck,” he said and Patrick made a gagging sound.

“All right. Stop it you too,” he told the couple.

“Right,” Jonathan said before clearing his throat.

“Oh!” Nikki stepped away from her boyfriend taking the short pause to introduce her friend. “Jon and Patrick. This is Ivana,” she introduced her by her full name. “She came to visit me all the way from Slovakia.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Ivana,” Patrick said as he stretched his hand out for her to shake.

“It’s nice to meet you too. You can call me Ivy by the way,” she said as she looked at her friend briefly to give her a playful glare. “She always introduces me by my full name to annoy me.”

“She does that to everyone, doesn’t she?” Patrick asked. “Everyone except her boy, Jon.”

“He’s special!” Nikki said in her defense.

“Yeah, yeah,” Patrick said rolling his eyes.

“I’ve heard great things about you,” Jonathan said as he stepped forward to shake hands with Ivy as Nikki and Patrick finished bickering in the background.

“Same here, but from what I’ve heard, it seems like you’re spoiling her too much,” Ivy joked.

Jonathan laughed. “It’s hard not to.”

Ivy smiled in response feeling glad that her friend’s boyfriend seemed to care a lot about her.

“So how about we go get some ice-cream?” Nikki suggested.

“No.” Patrick shook his head. “We should go get some drinks.”

“Today’s a weekday. Definitely not,” Nikki replied.

Patrick groaned. “Whatever, Mom.”

“She’s right though. What good will it do for us to drink on a Wednesday night?” Jonathan added.

“Why do you always have to be so serious?” Kane asked shaking his head.

“I don’t know. Ask the people who call me Captain Serious,” Jonathan replied sarcastically.

---

Despite Ivy’s quiet protests, Nikki had somehow gotten her to ride in Patrick’s car while she had gotten in her boyfriend’s car. It was awkward sitting in the seat next to him as he drove to the ice-cream place that the four were meeting at. He finally broke the silence.

“So I guess you are a hockey fan?” he asked.

“Well, sort of. When I stayed with Nikki’s family during high school as a foreign exchange student, I sat down with them to watch hockey in the living room a couple of times a month because her dad loved it. Today was my first time being at an actual game though,” she answered.

“Oh,” Patrick nodded thoughtfully. “How did you like it?”

“I really enjoyed it. It’s exciting to watch the real game and not just on TV, you know. I would like to come again.”

“You should. Forget about Toews. I’ll get you tickets next time.”

Ivy chuckled as she nodded at his declaration.

“So you’re wearing Toews’ jersey..."

She glanced down at what she was wearing before speaking. “Oh. Um, Nikki said this was the only other one she had.”

“Of course. She would be in trouble if she owned a jersey with my name or any of the other guys’ names,” he said with a laugh. “So whose jersey would you have worn if you could have picked?”

She didn’t know what got into her, but she suddenly had the urge to respond to his flirty tone in the same way. “Hmm…I don’t know…I guess I would have worn yours.”

“Well, you definitely should when I get you tickets to next week’s game.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Ivy agreed.

“You know, I like you. You seem pretty cool,” Patrick stated out of the blue.

“Thanks,” Ivy replied feeling herself smiling so wide that it hurt her face. What was better than hearing one of her favorite hockey players telling her that he liked her or that he thought she was pretty cool? It was obviously another way for him to say that he thought she was cute.

“So how long are you staying?”

“About a month,” she answered his question.

“Well, we better spend the whole month together then. I’m determined to get to know you better,” Patrick said to her. He took his eyes off the road for a split second to give her a lighthearted grin.

Spending time together with Patrick? Boy, Ivy liked the sound of that.

Notes

Please leave a comment if you liked this one-shot! I don’t know if it’s really romantic, but I tried! It was hard to incorporate lots of romance in it since this scenario isn’t where Patrick and the character are already in a relationship. They’re more like strangers getting to know each other.

Anyway, please copy and paste this and fill it out in the comments if you would like to leave a request! Thanks for reading!

REQUEST FORM:
Your Name/Your Character’s Name:
NHL Player’s Name:
Scenario (make these short and simple so I can add my own touch to the rest):
Smut or No Smut: