It's the first time they play each other this season. It's been months now, but it still feels weird, seeing each other and it not being in Minnesota.
When they arrive at the arena, Connor behaves while everyone puts their stuff away, and starts getting ready. He behaves through the pre-warmups speech, behaves through warmups, and behaves as he walks back to the locker room. It's between warmups and skating out to star the game that he sighs quietly, and glances over at JT.
JT raises a brow, and nods to the door. "You've got 5 minutes."
Connor's off like a slapshot.
He navigates his way to the Avs' home locker room, and knocks at the door. Nate answers, and before either of them can say anything, Brandon peeks his head around Nate's shoulder, and grins. "Connor!" Nate glances back, and steps out of the way. Brandon steps out into the hallway, nodding when Nate murmurs, "Four minutes."
The door closes behind Brandon, and they're alone together. Neither of them say a word- Connor's face crumples slightly, and their arms wrap around the other in unison.
"Hi, Dew."
"Hey, Dew."
Connor's arms tighten around Brandon, and they settle into each other for the next four minutes.
Obviously there was so much good content in the recent beyond our ice video, but the thing that really got to me was Duhaime being like "You know sometimes we're just sitting in the locker room - you know me and Dewar - and we're playing with a hall of famer, it's pretty incredible."
Like he had no reason to mention Dewar there. They're just a matched set. Always together, always looking in mutual awe at Fleury across the locker room.