Imagine with me for a second: Shane Hollander being diagnosed autistic. He was tested while he was quite young and has lived basically his entire life knowing about it. He just doesn't tell anybody unless prompted. So none of his team members know, the public doesn't know, and Ilya isn't aware of it either.
That's pretty much exactly how it goes for many years. Fast forward some time in the future. Shane and Ilya are now in their retired dads era and they're sitting with Hollanov Baby's teacher. Teacher is suggesting that they maybe should consider testing Hollanovling for autism.
"Alright, makes sense." Shane is thinking to himself while nodding along.
Of course both parents wanna do right for their child the best they can. Ilya is ready to do all the research about autism and the more he learns the more he's side-eyeing Shane. He finds it most interesting by the end of his research that autism is most likely genetic. Now he's more than certain his husband has it. How does he bring it up to him, however?
Well, he supposes, he'll have to gently share his findings with Shane. "Did you know about the genetic factor?" He'd ask Shane one day as he's showing him all the studies he was reading up on.
"Oh, yeah. That'd make sense." Shane nods. "Considering I'm autistic too."
Ilya feels like he got slapped in the face with this information. He's known this man for how long now? Over 20 years by this point. He thought he knew everything there is to know about Shane Hollander, and he did suspect it to be the case. But how is Ilya just now finding out that his husband has been diagnosed the whole time?
"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Ilya would ask. He's not being accusatory in any way, just curious.
Shane only shrugs. "You never asked."
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