Chapter Three

When Kris stepped onto the ice the cold air hit his face and so did a smile. Practice went well and he was put back on the top defensive unit. Upon returning to the apartment he sat on his bed with his phone in his hand trying to think of what he should say to Nikki. ‘It’s good to be back but I miss the big league,’ he thought at first, too cliché. ‘Practice went well, the game tonight should be interesting. I’ll text before I leave for the arena.’ Is what he finally settled on.

Nikki was in her first class of majors, theory, it wasn’t hard to get away with things in that class so she didn’t try very hard to hide her phone. A smile appeared when she saw that things were going well back in Canada. ‘Glad things are going well. Good luck tonight and have a good pre-game nap.’ The text had been sent and she thought to herself, ‘I miss you.’

Kris has just gotten comfortable when the text arrived. He pulled the phone from the bedside table thinking of how upset he would have been if he had received the text while drifting off to sleep. Opening his phone his thoughts were the furthest thing from anger and he smiled, closing his phone again.

After placing his phone back on the table and turning the light off he was asleep within seconds. His dream was just as they had been since he met her, of Nikki. This time it was different though. Normally his dreams reflected things that they had done, sitting and talking at the Marriott in Pittsburgh, walking to the arena together, occasionally he would dream of wrapping his arms around her for a hug. This dream though was something that he wanted; he brought her close to him and pressed his lips gently against hers. The kiss felt so real, but soon the alarm was beeping and he awoke to find his lips pressed against his pillow.

“Dude your hair looks like hell,” Luc said passing Kris’ room. “You should really do something with it before we leave.”

“Yeah, thanks,” he said kicking the door closed before picking out a suit.

“Damn, he really likes that girl,” Luc thought to himself pulling a banana from the bunch.


Nikki went straight home after school to prepare for the Pens’ away game. Now she had two teams to worry about on a nightly basis. One team would be easier to keep track of than the other. Penguins’ games she could watch and that night they were in Boston to take on the Bruins. The Foreurs on the other hand would be more challenging to keep track of. She was sure that Kris would update her following games, but she wanted to be able to congratulate him and see him play. The hard times would begin in a few hours when the puck dropped for the opening face-off between the Val-d’Or Foreurs and the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. ‘The team Marc-Andre played for,’ she thought to herself.

She was taken form her thoughts when her phone vibrated on the desk next to her. ‘On my way to the arena, I’ll call you after the game if that’s okay.’

‘Bonne chance, I would love for you to call,’ she smiled.

Kris smiled when he received the text and Luc decided to speak up. “So, you really like this girl, don’t you?”

“Is it obvious?”

“I’m not gonna lie to you man, every time you get a text your face lights up, you’re always thinking about something, and I’m sure that something is her.”

“I do, I like her a lot. I had known her for less than twenty-four hours and had feelings for her. Now that I’m away from her though, in a different country, the feelings will go away and everything will be back to the way it was. As long as we’re still friends, I don’t want to lose her completely.”

“If that’s what you want,” Luc said pulling into the parking lot at the arena.

Nikki was reedy for the Pens to take on the Bruins and the opening face-off was dropped at seven oh eight. Malkin, Crosby and Malone all scored to bring their team the win and Marc-Andre stood strong in net only allowing one goal. Nikki went to check her things online after her shower and finally her phone rang. “Hello?” she answered with a smile.
“Bonjour Nikki.”

“Did you beat the Eagles?”

“Yeah, how’d you know who I was playing?”

“Your team’s website,” she said, worried that he would think that she was a creep.

“Oh,” he said, a smile in his voice. “Did the Pens win? I was going to look when I got home but I’m still in the locker room waiting for Luc to be ready.”

“Yep they won, it was a good game.”

They continued to talk and finally Luc was ready to leave, smiling when he saw that Kris was on the phone, guessing who is was. ‘There’s no way he’s giving up on this girl.’ He tapped Kris on the shoulder to let him know that he was ready to leave and Kris continued to talk to Nikki the whole way back to the apartment.

“Text whenever you can tomorrow, okay?” Nikki said when Kris walked into his room.

“I will, bon huit Nicolette.”

“Bon huit Kristopher.” They both hung up at the same time, both resting their heads back against their head boards. Nikki quickly fell asleep thinking about how she would wake up to a Thursday morning and that only two days stood between her and a Penguins’ game. She also looked forward to being able to talk to Kris as long as she wanted without worrying about waking up for school in the morning.

When Kris hung up he still sat on his bed in his suit, not wanting to get up. Forcing himself to get out of bed he stripped down to his boxers before crawling back into bed. As he drifted off to sleep one thing was on his mind, Nikki.


Thursday Nikki’s day drug on and she was excited when she received a text from Kris while in her psychology class. She wondered how in the past week she hadn’t been caught texting, apparently her face lit up every time she received a text from him. When he texted he was just leaving the arena after morning skate was over. He hoped that with one more game under his belt that he would feel more at home back in Val-d’Or.

Leaving for the arena for the second of back to back games he texted her again. “Bonne chance Kristopher, you can call me after the game, I want to know how it goes.’ Was her response.

The Foreurs lost that night to the Lewiston MAINEiacs but had to put the loss behind them. Kris talked to Nikki following the game like he had promised and after telling her the final scored they refrained from talking about the game.

“Well, I’m gonna head to bed.”

“Okay we’ll talk tomorrow, we’ll have to text though.”

“That’s fine, goodnight Kris.”

“Goodnight Nikki.”

The next day it was school for Nikki and the rink for Kris. The Foreurs had a short practice and were sent home to pack for their road trip that night. Kris pulled a Reebok bag from his closet and thoughtlessly threw a few things in it before sitting on his bed and pulling his phone from his pocket. It was noon and Nikki was in psych so Kris decided that he would text her, just to kill time.

Nikki smiled when her phone interrupted her conversation with her friend Shelby. ‘Hey Nikki, I have time to kill before I go to Montreal.’

‘Montreal, eh? I really want to go there someday, I’ve hear it’s beautiful.’

Kris smiled, ‘I would love for you to be in Montreal,’ he though. ‘It’s a beautiful city.’

They talked until it was time to meet at the arena and the only time they stopped was when Nikki changed classed so that she wouldn’t get her phone taken. When it was time to meet at the arena though Luc made Kris drive a take a short break from texting, saving his fingers.

The bus was loaded at six and was leaving the parking lot soon after, Kris never put his phone down.

“I don’t know why I’m asking this, but who are you talking to?

“Nicolette,” he said smiling.

“Should have known, not giving up on her then?”

“I just like talking to her, we’re talking about you right now.”

“Don’t tell her anything bad,” he said picking up his own phone.

Eric Godard?

So, I have a thing for Eric Godard now. He's such a sweet heart, off the ice, and he is adorable. I was wondering, if I write a one shot about him (I already started it) would anyone read it?

Please let me know and continue to read and comment on all of my other stories!

LETS GO PENS!!!

Chapter Two

Sorry it's taken so long to update, I've been so busy with school and the playoffs... But the chapter is here now, I hope you all enjoy it. Comments are greatly appreciated. =]

Chapter Two

"Kris, can I talk to you for a moment?" Ray said at practice the next day. Kris stopped and turned to speak with the general manager. "You've shown great skill over the last seven games, but I'm sorry to say that we're returning you to your junior team."

"I understand, thank you," he said before turning towards the locker room. He changed into his street clothes before returning to his room at the Marriott and taking his phone from his pocket. It was only one o'clock so he quickly texted Nikki who still sat in school. "Bonjour Nicolette, can you come up to the Marriott after school?"

Receiving the text Nikki stealthily removed her phone from her pocket and quickly read Kris' message before replying, "Of course, I'll see you around four."

Nikki attended a performing arts school which she had absolutely hated since freshman year. Her parents wanted her to get a good education and since it was the "best" Pittsburgh Public School she was forced to stay. Thankfully with each passing day she came closer to finishing her high school career as a vocal major.

The bell finally rang to end the day and as quickly as possible Nikki gathered her things and made it through the crowd in front of the school. After a few minutes the hotel came into view and when she arrived the door man pulled her aside. "Excuse me, Ms. James?"

"Yes?"

"Mr. Letang asked that I show you to his room." He led her to the elevators and it
stopped on the eighth floor where she was led to his room. "Mr. Letang, Ms. James is here."

Kris opened the door and Nikki smiled upon seeing him and thanked the door man. She followed Kris into the room where she saw his suitcase and a pile of clothes on the bed. "Kris, what's going on?"

"I've been sent back to my junior team, I just wanted to see you before I left. My flight leaves in a few hours."

"Oh," was all that she could say.

"I hope that we can still be friends," he said, hope in his voice.

"I will always be your friend Kris," she wrapped her arms around him as he wrapped his around her. Her head rested on his chest and she breathed in the scent of Irish Spring and Old Spice. "I'll miss you Kristopher. But don't worry we'll talk and I'll convince my parents to let me come visit."

He smiled, "I'll miss you too Nicolette." He still held her and took in the scent of her brown hair. 'God I'll miss her,' he thought to himself.

"I'll let you finish packing," Nikki said pulling herself from his arms.

"I'll call you when I get to Val-d'Or, good-bye Nikki." She nodded before leaving the room and quietly closing the door. She leaned against the wall and slid to the floor, her head in her hands. On the other side of the door Kris did the same, his hair fell to his face but he didn't bother to move it.

A few moments passed and Nikki brought herself to her feet, starting towards her bus stop and home. Kris eventually brushed his long hair from his eyes and stood to finish packing, all the while thinking of how much he would miss Nikki. With one last look around the room he made sure that he hadn't missed anything and closed his suitcase.

Slowly walking down the long hall he finally made it to the elevator and pushed the down button. The doors opened on the first floor and he checked out before going outside to the car that awaited him. The driver was someone from the Penguins' organization but didn't bother to make conversation. The made radio made things less awkward as they sat in traffic on the way to the airport, rush hour was a real pain. By six o'clock they had arrived at the airport, checked his bags, and been through security. The gate for the flight to Montreal is where he sat eating a light dinner and awaiting his boarding call. It finally came at six-thirty and the plane took off shortly after six forty-five.

Nikki sat trying to concentrate on her English essay, but every five minutes she found herself looking to her phone. She had no idea when Kris was leaving let alone landing in Montreal. Every time she looked up she would force herself to focus on homework, telling herself that Kris would in fact call her.

The flight took two hours and Kris quickly gathered his things before finding his best friend who would be driving him back to Val-d'Or. "Thanks Luc, do you mind if I call someone?"
"Don't worry about it, is this someone a girl?"

"Yeah," he said taking his phone from his pocket. It was just after nine o'clock so he figured that he would have a decent amount of time to talk to Nikki before she had to shower and go to bed.

Nikki had just finished and was double-spacing her essay when her phone vibrated on the desk next to her. Her face lit up and a smile appeared when she saw the called id display. "Hello," she said with excitement, but trying to hide that she had been awaiting his call.

"Hey Nikki, just landed in Montreal and now I'm on my way to Val-d'Or."

"How was the flight?" she asked, saving and printing her paper.

"Pas mal, I miss Pittsburgh already," he paused. "Et tu." Nikki smiled, he was thinking about her. Luc also smiled although his was a curious smile. Kris was all that Nikki had thought about since she left his room hours earlier. "Is that wrong?" he asked when she didn't speak right away.

"No Kris it's not wrong, I miss you too."

Kris smiled and tried to make himself more comfortable in the front seat of Luc's car, he figured that they would be talking for a while. They discussed when they would be able to see each other again but knew that it couldn't be until at least December. "I try to convince my parents to let me come up over Christmas break; maybe spend two or three days."

"Are you sure?" Kris asked somewhat in disbelief that she would want to come see him in another country.

"Yeah, by then I'll really miss seeing your smiling face. Maybe Cassie, Michelle, and I could come up, we could have fun." She thought of all of the fun they could have and how much she would miss Kris over the next two months.

Again Kris smiled. "I'll have to meet these two, are they like you?"

"Oh yeah. Cassie is almost exactly like me and we've been friends since fifth grade. She's a big hockey fan and it's all because of me. Michelle's a lot like me, but crazier. I'm pretty laid back compared to her; although she's crazy I love her. She's a big hockey fan too, partially influence by me. She liked it before she met me and I guess you could say that I corrupted her."

"Bon," he said with a laugh. They continued to talk until ten forty-five, all the while ignoring Luc.

"Text me tomorrow to let me know how the first day back goes, okay?"

"You'll be the first to know," he said with a smile. "Bon huit Nicolette."

"Bon huit Kristopher."

They hung up at exactly the same time and their thought were only of each other. Luc snapped Kris back to reality and he told of how he had met Nikki. He had seen her only a few hours earlier and missed her already; he didn’t even want to think of how much he would miss her by the end of the two months they would be apart.

Nikki went to shower and as she did she couldn't keep Kris from her thoughts. After showering she sat down at her computer and eventually found the Val-d'Or Foreurs website and saw that they had a game the next night. She sighed resting her head back against the big leather chair knowing that she wouldn't be about to talk to him the next night. Exiting out of internet explorer she put her computer on stand-by before lying down in bed. "Goodnight Kristopher," she whispered before drifting off to sleep.

Luc and Kris soon made it to their apartment and in a way Kris was glad to be home.

Kris and Nikki's dreams were of each other and each woke smiling, only to remember that they were hundreds of miles from each other. Nikki got ready and left for school only a few hours before Kris got ready for his first Foreurs morning skate on the year.

He quickly showered and pulled a baseball cap over his long hair and waited for Luc to be ready. They made their way to the arena and Kris easily found the locker room and his stall, he could have done it with his eyes closed.

There hung his jersey, it was red and white with the name 'Letang' and the number twelve stitched across the back. He ran his hand along the sleeve before sitting down to begin putting his gear on for practice.

In a way he was glad to be back, but he would much rather have been in an NHL locker room, back in the big leagues.