All Chapters of Hearts on Ice: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

The apartment stayed tense and loud all at once while notifications continued exploding endlessly across phones and every few minutes Nikola whispered another deeply horrified “Oh my God” under his breath while scrolling.“It’s on hockey W now,” he muttered weakly from the couch.“W picked it up? That's bad…that alone sounds demonic,” Lydia answered immediately, her hands on her nose bridge.Viktor stayed standing near the kitchen counter quietly after almost falling earlier, both hands gripping the edge tightly while Elias watched him carefully from across the room. Lukas stood nearby and looked at him like he wanted to touch him but no longer knew if it was safe. Then suddenly Lukas’s phone rang and everybody froze slightly.Coach.“Oh no,” Nikola whispered immediately. “We’re dead.” Lukas stared at the caller ID for one second too long before answering carefully.“…Coach?”Coach’s voice exploded loudly enough that they were inched in fear.“EMERGENCY TRAINING. NOW.”Then Lukas blin

The second Lukas stepped back onto the rink Viktor looked up immediately…like he’d been waiting.Training continued around them loudly…players skating drills, Nikola dramatically yelling because Elias had apparently body-checked him “without love” but Viktor’s eyes stayed fixed on Lukas the entire time and Lukas suddenly couldn’t breathe right again. Coach’s words still echoed painfully inside his head.“Stop trying to carry everything alone.”Viktor frowned slightly from across the rink the moment he noticed Lukas’s face properly because something about him looked wrong now. He looked so fragile…Then Lukas started skating toward him slowly and Viktor immediately moved too.Their skates carved quietly across the ice until they met near the demarcation line and Lukas opened his mouth to speak first but Viktor beat him to it.“Captain authority,” Viktor muttered quietly and Lukas blinked once.“…what?”“You’re mentally unstable right now,” Viktor answered seriously. “I’m removing you fr

Their nights passed slowly and the weekend arrived quietly after that. No scandals exploded overnight, no emergency meetings from the university and no dramatic public executions from Coach despite Nikola insisting repeatedly that “the homosexual hockey agenda” had definitely shortened the old man’s lifespan. Of course, people judged and stared but it wasn't as bad as they'd imagined because instead of the world ending? Rain settled over the city softly while Lukas and Viktor stayed inside almost the entire weekend pretending the outside world didn’t even exist and honestly…they were very good at pretending.The apartment stayed warm despite the cool weather outside. Blankets remained scattered across the couch from where they’d both fallen asleep watching movies halfway through the day before and the kitchen smelled faintly like coffee and whatever Lukas attempted to cook earlier before Viktor ran to him and removed him from the kitchen for “murderous cause.”“I was just making pasta

The day dragged on slower than expected and everybody eventually went back to their apartments…leaving just Lukas and Viktor behind.The notification arrived on a Tuesday afternoon, and nobody expected it. Not Coach. Not the team. Not even the scouts. One minute students dragged themselves across campus carrying coffee and unfinished assignments, and the next?Everybody's phones exploded."Holy shit.""Wait—is that the ranking list?""It dropped already?"And within seconds hockey group chats became completely unusable. Messages flooded endlessly, screenshots, predictions. Everyone had an opinion and they wanted it to be heard.Nikola nearly tripped over his own feet running into the cafeteria."IT'S OUT!" The entire table looked up."What?" Sam asked immediately."The list." Then silence followed–brief and sharp. Then everybody reached for their phones. Even Elias. Especially Elias, but Lukas didn't move at first.He wasn't nervous, not really. At least that's what he told himself be

Something felt terribly wrong and Lukas knew it even before he even opened his eyes. The apartment was different somehow…it was too quiet.The television wasn't on in the living room, glowing faintly, there was no kettle boiling water because Viktor had decided early coffee makes one a supreme being, no music playing from his phone while he wandered around the apartment shirtless pretending not to sing along.There was none of that, it was all pin dropping silence.Lukas frowned slightly as he stretched across the bed automatically and cold sheets greeted him and his eyes shot open immediately."...Viktor?" But no answer.The bedroom remained still like it was holding its breath around him while morning light spilled through the curtains and for a second…he wasn't worried.Viktor woke up before him sometimes. It had happened several times. Maybe he was making breakfast like the last time he got up first or maybe he was downstairs throwing out the trash…Maybe—Lukas sat up properly and