Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

2012 | Yuna

Yuna’s hands are still shaking when she gets back to the hotel room. 

Shane is okay, she thinks, and they’d seen him off to his own room before coming back to theirs. He shouldn’t have to leave it until his flight tomorrow afternoon, which should be plenty of time to rest and recuperate before he has to be around the team again. 

David follows a few steps behind her, gently closing the door and slipping off his shoes. Yuna lays her jacket over the back of the desk chair and smooths out a wrinkle near the pocket, then works at several others that emerge when she fixes that one. 

When she’s nervous she clings to facts, statistics, schedules. Things she can verify. He’s okay. He’s okay. 

Is he okay? 

The numbers flash in her head again in between the image of Shane on the floor in the empty conference room, adrenaline making them stick like concrete. She’d thought she’d have forgotten them by now but they’re still there, still something left unaccounted for. 

Who is Lily? Is she a liability to Shane? Someone that might’ve recorded the phone call and would exploit him or blackmail him with it somehow? It hadn’t seemed like it, but the nerves have her catastrophizing. She thinks Shane might be very upset if she were to lightly suggest they have an NDA drawn up. Yuna picks up the jacket again, re-folds it, lays it back over the chair. 

She’s never even heard the name before, and she hadn’t been close enough to hear the voice on the phone. Does Shane have a girlfriend, or is she just a close friend? Yuna can’t think of anyone that Shane trusts enough to be that vulnerable with; he can hardly stand her and David being present when he’s so overwhelmed. This Lily person, whoever they might be, must be something special. 

“You okay, hon?” 

“Fine,” Yuna chirps, fully aware that he doesn’t believe her. 

David sighs, palm warm at her shoulder, and squeezes once as he heads for the phone on the nightstand. “I’m going to order us some dinner. I don’t think either of us will be going out again tonight.” 

Yes. Dinner is good. Yuna tries to think about what she’d like to order, but all that comes up is the string of numbers again. She closes her eyes, breathes in through her nose. 

“I know what you’ll eat,” David tells her. “Why don’t you go on and change into something more comfortable? We can find a movie while we wait for the food.” 

She exhales. “Yes. That sounds nice. Just make sure to keep your volume up on your phone, in case—” 

He smiles lightly, knowingly at her. “I know, hon. It’s on.” 

“Okay. Good. I’ll get changed, then.” 

She turns and walks into the attached bathroom, leaving the door just barely cracked between them. She can hear the television click on, David’s murmur into the phone as he places a room service order. Yuna grips the countertop, and the numbers are still there. 

On an instinctive whim, she swipes her phone off the marble and unlocks it, clicking on the notes app. She types out the phone number in its entirety, a little of the tension in her shoulders slackening once it’s finally out. 

There is no reason she needs to use this. She’s not going to use it. It’s just helpful to have in case of some sort of emergency, or if Shane needs help again. That’s all. 

She leaves the phone by the sink and debates a bath or shower, but doesn’t think she’d be able to sit still or focus for long enough to get through either. The hand towel off the miniature shelf gets used instead, wetting it and dousing it in face wash, scrubbing at the bags underneath her eyes and the makeup that’d done little to cover them. 

Her thoughts, naturally, drift back to Shane. He’s handled all of the attention so well these last few years since the draft, but she knows it hasn’t been easy. That Shane is just private, that he doesn’t like anyone to know if he’s having trouble. Not even them. 

Lily knows, a voice in her head whispers. She snaps the face wash closed and reaches for the soap to wash her hands. 

Would it really be so inappropriate to reach out? Yuna’s not going to ask anything from her. Just express her gratitude. She’d felt so helpless today, watching Shane fade to a place she couldn’t reach until eventually there was a breaking point, her strong boy that carries so much and talks about so little. If Shane were still sixteen, she’d be more inclined to demand some answers. To know how to help. But he isn’t sixteen, and that’s fine, and Yuna doesn’t need it to be her that fixes all of Shane’s problems anymore, but she just—

She just wants to know that Shane is okay. Because when she asks, Shane is only ever fine. Fine, mom. I’m fine. But fine encompasses everything from unbearably happy to devastatingly upset for Shane, and though she trusts him with her life, she isn’t sure that she trusts him to tell her when he’s struggling. When she needs to give him a break and let him breathe. And if there were someone else she could ask instead of bothering Shane about it… 

Yuna rinses her face with cool water and pats it dry, wrings out the towel and leaves it beside the sink for later. She changes into a fresh set of pajamas and moves back into the bedroom, settling into her side of the mattress while David pats her knee and takes his turn to freshen up. 

Impulsively, she reaches for her phone again. Presses on the number, clicks add new contact. It would be good to have it already programmed in an emergency, she thinks. And she doesn’t want to forget the name. 

Even if she doesn’t think she could, at this point. 

Her blood pressure lowers throughout the movie as they eat their early dinner, the time stretching on and on with no updates from Shane. 

“He’s probably resting,” David assures her. “He’s had a long day.” 

Which is true, yes. But also—what if he has a migraine? He gets those sometimes, after his nervous system spikes like that. She has some approved pain killers in her purse, but the mini-mart downstairs at the hotel also carries other brands if he wants those. What if he’s stuck in his room right now, nauseous or in pain, head hurting too badly to call one of them? What if he needs ice from down the hall for a compress and he can’t get to it because he’s dizzy or tired? 

“Yuna,” David says. 

“I know.” She slips another bite of room service pasta onto her tongue. Thinks about whether or not Shane might have run out of prepared meals. “He’s probably fine.” 

“Yes,” he agrees, “and even if he isn’t, he’ll be okay.” 

He’s okay. He’s okay. 

Yuna unlocks her phone.

The message sends. She locks the screen, sets it down by her hip. Waits. A few minutes later, David eyes her when it buzzes. She scoops it up and unlocks it again. 

Okay. Okay. Everything’s okay. Lily doesn’t seem concerned. Maybe Shane really is fine, and he’s just resting for now. That’s good. 

It lessens the tension enough to be able to avoid a migraine of her own as the night wears on, one movie shifting into the next on the television as her and David clean up the food trays and start getting ready for bed. 

Before she goes to sleep, Yuna opens her thread with Shane and offers to meet him for brunch in the morning before his flight. They’d agreed to that initially, but if he needs to skip it, they can see each other when they get back to Montreal after Shane’s next game. 

The text sends, and a minute later Shane’s response comes through. We can still do brunch. I’ll see you in the morning. Love you. 

I know we can, Yuna thinks. But do you want to? 

Love you too, she types. Locks the phone and sets it up on the charger on the nightstand. 

“Get some sleep,” David murmurs, already dozing himself as he rubs her arm. 

“I will,” she promises. 

She tries, honestly. But it’s still a long night.