requested by devynmidnight

a/n: kinda sappy! apparently i was in a sappy mood :)

tuulikki 👑: good luck my love! 💕

andrei 🥰: thank you. i love you.

you made sure to text andrei before his games. especially the ones you couldn't attend or watch on tv.

you couldn't watch the canes play against the capitals tonight because of your plethora of schoolwork.

you really missed andrei. he was on one of the longest road trips of the season at the moment and every night you wish he was there to cuddle you to sleep, especially because it was exam week. you were so stressed out and you had no andrei.

you could tell andrei was longing to come home. he begged almost every night to facetime. even after his games, he would want at least a phone call. if you scrolled through your text convos with andrei, you could probably see more "i miss you" texts than anything. it was really endearing.

you sat at the wooden kitchen table in the apartment you shared with andrei. you felt like hitting your head into the table. you were tired, but you needed to pound out this preparation work for your exam the next afternoon.

you picked up your phone for 30 seconds to check the ending score of the canes game. the capitals had won the game 6-4.

you shot andrei a text.

tuulikki 👑: you cant win every game baby. get some sleep andrei. i love you!

you thought it was a little odd that he hadn't texted back asking to call you, but you shook it off thinking that maybe he had already fallen asleep. you went back to staring into the text of your books.

later in the evening, you heard your phone begin to vibrate on the table. you picked it up and went to peek at the contact, thinking it was going to be andrei. in actuality, it was dougie hamilton.

you furrowed your eyebrows in confusion. quickly, your confusion was replaced with fear.

andrei.

you accepted his call and held the phone up to your ear.

"hello?"

"tuulikki?" dougie asked.

"yeah dougie. what's up? is andrei okay?" you asked with worry prominent in his voice.

"fuck he didn't tell you." dougie mumbled.

"dougie, what the hell is going on?"

"could you facetime andrei please? he got injured in tonight's game and is being really hard on himself. he's blaming the loss on himself. he broke down on the bus after the game."

you sighed, "thank you for telling me. i will call him. is he okay?"

"yeah. physically, he's doing alright. he's just in his head. he just needs someone to talk to that isn't a hockey player." dougie laughed stressfully.

"okay, okay, i'll call him. thank you."

"thank you. bye tuulikki."

"bye dougie."

you hung up the phone and quickly rushed to facetime andrei.

andrei picked up at about the third ring. you quickly surveyed his face. his eyes were red and puffy. his face was really flushed.

"andrei, baby boy. what's wrong?" you asked softly.

"it's all my fault that we lost tonight."

andrei's voice was shaky and you could tell his eyes were threatening to spill tears once again.

"it's not your fault andrei. hockey is a team sport."

"but it was such a stupid injury." he raised his voice.

"you can't control injuries, my love. i can tell you that none of your teammates blame you for anything, so why are you blaming yourself baby?" you consoled.

andrei's face tightened up as he tried to prevent the sobs from exiting his body.

"i wanna come home tuulikki!" his emotions erupted.

he began to uncontrollably sob. his head fell onto his hotel bed.

you looked through the screen with sad eyes. it made you frustrated that you couldn't hold him in your arms right now because that's what you knew he needed in the worst way.

"andrei, darling, i love you so much. i know you want to come home, i know, but you have one more game then we can cuddle all you want, okay?"

andrei bobbed his head up and down with a nod.

you remembered something, "baby, i left you something in the front pocket of your bag that you never ever open."

his eyes came up to the camera. they were glossy and confused.

you egged him on with your head, "go on. go get it."

andrei brought his bag over to the camera. he slowly opened the front pocket. you saw his eyes light up slightly when he saw what it was.

"you didn't..." he said quietly.

inside the bag was something that seemed very generic, but andrei knew how special it was.

it was a ridiculously small teal 4x5 blanket, but more specifically it was your favorite blanket. you never slept anywhere without this blanket. you had a connection with it.

"you didn't have to." andrei said with a small smile.

"i know you have a rough time going away for this long, so i hoped it would help you if you had a bad day, but you never have found it until now." you chuckled.

andrei brought it up to his nose, "thank you. it smells like you. like home."

you blushed, "it's because i always have it with me. i'm glad you like it, my love."

"i promise to protect your blankie with my life." andrei smiled.

you laughed, "thank you andrei. i trust you."

"i love you forever and ever tuulikki. thank you."