Ruth Sadelle Alderson

"Is he like this as Captain?" Alex asks the rest of them.

"Yes," Zhenya says.

Alex pulls an exaggerated sympathetic face. "Sucks to be Penguin."

He gets shoved by Zhenya, with a cheering chorus from the rest of Zhenya's teammates. "Sid best captain," Zhenya says. "Even when picky."

The smug look Crosby turns on Alex is completely uncalled for.

"We should go skating," Olli says.

"Before we get any drunker," Brandon adds.

That garners a laugh, and when Crosby's finished rearranging his refrigerator to whatever exacting specifications he has, they troop down to the basement where Crosby has enough spare pairs of skates in various sizes that they can all get onto his rink.

"No hitting," Crosby says. "And if you're too drunk to skate you have to get off the ice. I don't want anyone going on IR because of this." He eyes Alex. "Except maybe you."

Alex joins in when everyone else laughs, and claims one of the sticks leaning up against the wall. He grabs a puck too, and slides out onto the ice with it. He doesn't have it for very long before Crosby poke checks it away from him, plays it off the boards, and heads for the other end of the rink.

Alex chases after him, and they play a game of keep-away all across the rink, weaving around Sid's teammates playing their own games and Taylor patiently guiding Connor in slow circles around the rink.

"Sid," Brandon eventually yells, "can we eat pie now?"

Crosby looks up at the clock he has hanging on the wall - Alex uses his distraction to his advantage and steals the puck from him - and says, "Yes, if everyone wants to."

There's a chorus of agreement, so they head for the edge of the rink.

Crosby steals the puck back from Alex along the way and flips it up into his hand as he leaves the rink.

Alex is almost too delighted by the smug satisfaction on Crosby's face to be upset about losing.

They troop upstairs and eat pie with whipped cream around the table. Crosby brings out water and pours glasses of wine for anyone who wants them.

"We always watched It's A Wonderful Life on Thanksgiving when I was growing up," Connor contributes to the conversation about holiday traditions.

"We could do that," Taylor says. "I'm sure it's on somewhere, or we can watch it on Netflix."

They finish their pie first, Crosby offers coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and more wine, and they take their varying drinks into the living room.

Crosby sits down in a chair that's large enough for two people, if those two people are small or particularly close. Neither Alex nor Crosby are small, but Alex plops himself down in it with Crosby anyway.

"What are you doing?" Crosby asks.

"Sitting." Alex wiggles a little to make himself more comfortable.

"This chair is not big enough for two." Crosby pushes at Alex.

"Big enough," Alex says. "Even for your ass." He grins at the ripple of laughter in the room. "Just have to get comfortable."

Alex wouldn't be able to move Crosby if he didn't want to be moved, but Crosby's had at least a bottle of the wine he likes, and there's a smile hovering around his mouth even as he grouches at Alex, so Alex tugs at him until they're more comfortably situated. He ends up with one of Crosby's legs hooked over his lap and the two of them pressed close together.