Kira's POV

You know what’s sad about love? It's when you think there's just no hope for you being together yet you still pray to make it work.
It's when your mind says 'let go' but your heart says 'hold on.'
It's when you dream of that person almost every night only to wake up in the morning with tears in your eyes.
And most of all, it's when no matter how hard you try to forget that person, you just can't because you love that person so much and you just don't know what you would do without them, even if they are just in your mind.

Yeah, I knew it all too well. I regret the way I acted towards him everyday. I didn’t mean to get angry at him but it pissed me off so much that he could just push me away like he did, all for some woman. “She’s nice,” he said, “you’ll love her,” he claimed.

There was no way in hell I would like her let alone love her, why? Because she was with the one guy I had wanted to be with my whole life, that’s why.

But as people try to move on our lives change and at some point it all comes crashing back.

I could have stayed in Washington working for the rest of my life but when the opportunity to work with Mike Kadar and the Pittsburgh Penguins had arisen I couldn’t say no.

Everyone had been trying to get me to talk to Evgeni for about five years now, his parents, my parents, his brother, our mutual friends, everyone but I would do it. Every time he played in Washington for about the first year or two of his career in the NHL I would get an email from him asking me to come out to dinner so he could apologise. I didn't want though, I didn't want to forgive him and after the way he acted I didn't think he deserved my forgiveness. But somehow I had been convinced that it was time to face my childhood demons.

I still remember the night like it was yesterday that everything in my life changed, but I haven’t figured out wether it was for better or worse.

“Kira come on,” Zhenya stood in the doorway to my bedroom bouncing on his toes in excitement.
“But I want to colour,” I protested not interested in his antics.
“No colour later, climb trees now,” He stood pointing outside.

He stood proudly with the medal we had won from our hockey tournament the night before our his neck. He hadn’t taken it off whereas mine sat above my bed.
"Come on, please," he put on his puppy dog eyes and I couldn't say no.
"Ok," I sighed climbing to my feet, "but you can ask."

He cornered our mothers in the kitchen and got to begging.
"It's getting late Zhenya," his mother frowned.
"But mama we won't be gone long," he held tightly onto her sleeve.
"Ok aslong as you are back for dinner, we need to talk to you two."
"Ok we will," he beamed and headed for the door.
"Zhenya," his mother looked on with disapproving eyes, "give me a kiss," she pointed to her cheek.
"But mama," he whined as I hugged my mother goodbye without question, "fine," he gave in and said goodbye.

"And don't forget your coats and beanies, it's cold out!" his mother called out after us.
"Ok!" we answered in unison.

“One day we own land like this,” he waved his arm across the field that was the award winning view from our tree house, "one day we not have to worry about what our parents say and we can eat all the candy we want," he shoved another chocolate in his mouth and smiled knowing we were getting away with something our mothers would not approve of.
“Zhenya that is silly. You eat too much candy, you get sick and not play hockey," I reminded him.
“You can look after me,” he flashed that big cheeky grin.
“Will you look after me?” his face soften when he realised I hadn't actually agreed to do it.
“Of course I will, that’s what best friends do,” I lent over and kissed him on the cheek.

I giggled at him as his hands went to cover his now bright pink cheeks. Boys were silly and Zhenya made me feel silly too.
“Come on Zhenya its getting dark. Don’t eat all the candy otherwise our mamas will know we are sneaking food if we don’t eat dinner,” I climbed down from our tree house careful not to trip on the terrible ladder we had built.
"Race you!" Zhenya scrambled down after me and pushed me into the ground so he got a head start.
"Ouch Zhenya!" I cried as I hit my knee on a rock we didn't think was there.
That didn't stop him though, so with tears in my eyes I raced after him back past the smelter our fathers worked at and to the safety of my house.

“I win!” he bragged from the top stair of my house.
“No you cheated, you pushed me over,” I looked down at my ripped jeans revealing my scrapped knee.

The front door opened and Mr Malkin appeared.
“Come on you two, you need to have baths and then get ready for dinner. Evgeni lets go,” he walked down the stairs.
“Where’s mama?” Zhenya questioned following down the steps.
“She is helping Mrs Petrov with dinner; we will come back once you have had a bath," he put his hand on Zhenya's shoulder and led him down the path.

Zhenya turned around and looked at me, his eyes told me he was sorry but he didn't do anything to apologise. Typical Evgeni Malkin.

He could be a real bully sometimes, but it was moments like that which made my heart swell up and almost always left me in tears. I wished everyday we could to back there.

---

Evgeni’s POV

When I received her email about coming to Pittsburgh to work with the Penguins I spent a good 20 minutes staring at her name in the address box. Kira Petrov, her name still gave me butterflies.

If there was one person I cared about more than my mother it would be her. She was everything to me growing up and when she left I soon realised she would always be everything to me.

I think that was what made me do what I did, push her away. I thought if I spent my whole life drowning in her I would never function as a normal human being.

She was half the reason I wanted to play in the NHL, in hope that maybe one day I would be walking down the street somewhere in America and she would be there walking the other way smiling that smile that I loved so much.

I saw her skinned knee an instantly felt sorry. I wanted to run up and hug her until the pain went away but didn’t get a chance to apologize because my father was ushering me off down the path back home to clean up for dinner.

After Denis and I were clean I climbed upon my father’s shoulders and he carried me back over to the warmth of Mr and Mrs Petrov’s house.

I walked into the kitchen where I saw Kira perched on a seat with my mother fixing her knee.
“Zhenya, is there something you want to say?” my mama looked at me seriously.
I approached them slowly fiddling with my jacket zipper, I felt terrible, my stomach was stirring so much I thought I would be sick. I didn't want to make her cry ever again.
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.” I looked up at Kira but she didn’t look back. “I am sorry,” I hugged her.
"It's ok," she shrugged looking down at her feet.

I knew it wasn't ok and I knew I would have to do a lot more to make it up to her but there would be time for that later.

We were sitting eating dinner at the table in silence; I knew something was going on because both of our parents wouldn’t look at us.

“Ivan are you going to tell them or shall I?” Mrs Petrov finally spoke up.
He cleared his throat and put down his cutlery putting on his calm just listen to me face, “Kira, we have all been talking and your mother and I have decided that we will be leaving to go to America.”

I looked up wide eyed at Mr Petrov, he couldn’t take away my best friend not like this.
“Why?” Kira questioned from the seat next to me.

I grabbed her hand under the table and squeezed it tightly. I knew she needed to know that I would still be here for her.

“Sweetie, your father has been offered a job there,” my mother spoke up.
“So?” I could see she was trying to push it off like it wouldn’t happen.
“So, we have more money, a bigger house, a backyard for you to play in,” Mrs Petrov said.
“I don’t need backyard if I don’t have friends,” she argued.
“You will make plenty of new friends, learn English faster too. It’s an opportunity of a life time,” Mr Petrov was trying to make it sound like a good idea.
“I DONT NEED MONEY, OR BIGGER HOUSE WITH A BACKYARD. I DONT WANT TO LEARN ENGLISH AND I DONT NEED NEW FRIENDS!” Kira yelled with tears streaming down her face.

She tore away from my grasp and ran off to her bedroom where I followed quickly behind her. I didn't want her to go, I didn't want her to make new friends, she didn't need them if she had me

She was lying on her bed smothering her face with her pillow as I walked in.
“Kira?” I approached her quietly not knowing if she would be too upset to talk to me.
She sat up sniffling back tears. It really did hurt to see her cry again and I wanted nothing more than to help her.
“Don’t worry, we will always be best friends,” I sat down next to her and hugged her.

I think we were about 10 years old when that happened and we did stay best friends, at least for a few more years. She would come and visit for the summer right up until we turned 17 and I started playing hockey in the KHL.

I was dating a woman named Oksana. Back then I loved having the attention and she was a woman not a girl, what guy didn’t want that? I only wanted that though because Kira didn’t pay attention to me. Kira only ever wanted to be friends and that was all.

Although my friends had spent a lot of time telling on the phone that she had loved me all along and I was the reason she was coming to Pittsburgh.

With that I had some hope that maybe I could fix everything and she could see how much she really meant to me.

Notes

Alright guys just as a heads up bold means it is in russian and italic is a flashback. Enjoy!