I have.... once again.... accidentally invented an Ilya loses his memory AU.
At this point I'm just accepting that this is apparently my thing.
Shane and Ilya are in that stage where they're secretly hooking up pre Tuna Melt but neither of them is willing to acknowledge that there are feelings involved.
Because that would require having an actual conversation!
Then.... they're attacked while together... TBC When, where, why etc.
Ilya ends up with severe memory loss. Not just "forgets the last few months" memory loss.
He loses basically his entire adult life.
Hockey. North America. Teammates. Friends. Shane.
Eventually he ends up back in Russia because it's the only place he remembers.
While trying to figure out who he used to be, he discovers thousands of texts from somebody called Jane.
The thing is, Jane is very obviously not a woman.
At first he's just trying to figure out who this person is.
"Jane" won't tell him, but is honest that its because I'm not someone you can be with. I'm still here but we need to cool this off...
Shane remembers everything.
The attack. The relationship. The fact that Ilya doesn't remember him.
The fact that if he tells the truth, he's dumping more stuff on Ilya which he doesn't need to deal with right now..especially not in Russia with so much else to deal with.
So instead he keeps texting as Jane.
The real problem starts when Ilya returns to North America.
Because now Shane has to interact with him as Shane as well.
Because Shane is falling apart.
The attack messed him up badly.
He's not sleeping. He's overtraining. He's withdrawing from people.
His family and teammates are worried about him but he can't tell anybody what's wrong, because then he'd have to explain that he was there.
The only person he wants to talk to about it is Ilya.
And Ilya doesn't remember any of it.
The irony is that before the attack they mostly just hooked up.
After the attack they accidentally become friends.
Because Ilya recognises in Shane, who's he's relearning, things that his Mom did... Shane is not ok.
Ilya starts making excuses to spend time with Shane because he's worried about him. Asks for his number...as a friend.
Shane gets a new phone so he can have a "Shane" number. Which means he is effectively texting the same person from two different contacts.
And Ilya has absolutely no idea.
Coffee. League events. Charity appearances. Mental health outreach.
Whatever excuse Ilya can find.
Because something is clearly wrong and even with now knowing Shane he can't just ignore it, because Shane needs help (and by helping Shane, Ilya is in some ways also helping heal some of his past trauma.)
The problem is that Ilya doesn't understand why he's so invested.
And Shane doesn't understand how to let him help.
The other problem is that Ilya keeps recognising things.
Little things. The way Shane texts. The phrases he uses. The things he somehow knows. Habits that feel weirdly familiar.
Eventually Jane becomes less important because Ilya is building a real relationship with someone else....Shane.
At one point he probably texts Jane something like:
"I think I've met someone."
And Shane is absolutely devastated. Because obviously, to Shane, Ilya means someone new.
Only he doesn't. He's talking about Shane.
He just doesn't know it yet.
Cue misunderstandings, growth etc...
Anyway this would probably involve several emotional breakdowns, and require writing skills far beyond my current abilities.
So I'm throwing it at Tumblr instead.
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