Princes of New York | Mat Barzal

~1~

"LC, we've landed." I hear Mat whisper in my ear. I slowly open my eyes and lift my head off his shoulder. I look up at him and plants a kiss on my forehead. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Vancouver International Airport. Local time is 11:36 AM and the temperature is 63 degrees." We hear the pilot say over the speaker system. I look at Mathew and smile. "Welcome to Vancouver." He says softly. I giggle and gather my stuff. When we get the all clear to exit the plane, Mat and I go to baggage claim to wait for our luggage. When we grab our suitcases, we head out of baggage claim to find Mat's family, who was here to pick us up and take us to their house in Vancouver. Mat spots his family waiting near a pillar near the entrance of the airport. When his mom sees him, she pokes Liana and they rush over to us and pile on Mat. "Oh, we missed you!" his mom says. "Mom, you saw me last week at Lex's graduation. "But I haven't seen you both since Christmas." Liana says, stepping forward and giving me a hug.

We follow Mat's mom and sister to the car and load our stuff up. Mat offered to drive for his mom and she sat in the passenger seat. This left me and Liana to sit in the back and take a million and one selfies. As I was scrolling through Instagram, I saw a post from the NHL about the NHL awards. "When will you know if you've been nominated?" Liana asks. People in the players association nominate players and then make the calls about a week or two before the ceremony. I've already won the Calder so I'm not sure if I'll be up for anything." Mat explains from the front. "Oh please, if Ovi can win the Maurice Richard basically every year, you can win another award." I say. Mat looks at me in the rearview and winks at me. "Quick, everyone make predictions of what he could be nominated for." Liana exclaims. "I think he'll get the James Norris." His mother says. "I don't know all the awards so I'll go with that too." Liana says. "I think you'll get the Bill Masterson award." I say. "Well, regardless if I'm nominated for anything or not, I'm still going to support the other guys. Most players go either way." Mat explains. "Which means you, m'lady, get to wear a pretty dress and go with me." He says, smiling at me in the mirror. I blush and smile back at him.

When we eventually arrive at the Barzal's house after a 45 minute drive from the airport, we all hop out of the car and start unloading bags. Once everything is inside, Mat shows me to what was his bedroom before he got drafted. There's pictures of him playing hockey on his old team and a ton of trophies and medals hanging on shelves around the blue room. "I swear, every guy has a blue room." I chuckle after making a 360. "My room at home in New York is blue too." He laughs. "I thought this was your home." I say, stepping toward him and placing my hands on the back of his neck. "My home is wherever you are." He says. "That was so cheesy." I say, playfully rolling my eyes and kissing him. When we break from our little moment, Mat glances down at the necklace he gave me for Christmas laying on my chest. "You still wear that?" He asks. "Everyday, why wouldn't I?" I ask. "No reason." He says, turning from me and unpacking his things. "You might as well unpack too, we're gonna be here for a few months." He says. "So, Mr. Canada Native, what you got planned for me while I'm here?" I ask, sitting down on his bed. "Well I still have to train for the season so when I'm not doing that, we can go fishing, hiking, swimming, whatever you want." He says with his back turned to me, putting clothes in drawers. "how often are you training?" I ask, messing around on my phone. "Monday, Thursday and Saturday mornings. Wednesday night." He says. He then turns to me and bends over me with a hand on the bed on either side of where I'm sitting. "But don't worry, you're all mine every other second of the day." He says lowly before planting another kiss on my lips. I pull him closer to me by his neck and fall back on the bed, him on top of me. He slides an arm underneath me and held me to him as we made out, one arm holding his weight so he wasn't laying completely on top of me. "Matty, Lex! Want to go grab some lunch?" We hear Liana yell from down the hall. "In a minute!" Mat yells back, crawling completely on the bed, hands sliding under the tank top I was wearing. My own hands mess with the hem of his tshirt, wanting to take it off. To keep myself from undressing him completely, I run my hands through his hair, probably messing it up. "Mat, let's go, I'm starving mom made me wait until you got here to eat." Liana says, knocking once on the door as she passed by it. He rests his forehead on mine and says "Probably a good thing. Don't want her to hear. You're pretty loud." He jokes with a huge smirk on his face. "Oh whatever!" I say, playfully hitting his arm. "Relax, I'm kidding. Geez!" He laughs, grabbing his wallet and phone and heading out the door. We meet up with his mom and Liana in the driveway as they were getting in. Mat got shotgun which shoved me and Liana in the back again and I accepted that as long as the four of us were traveling together this was my fate. We sat down at lunch and Liana wanted to see more pictures from my graduation and that turned into showing her almost all of my pictures of Mat and I.