It's their second summer at the cottage. They'd been there 5 days so far when Shane tentatively approaches Ilya in the kitchen.
"Hey, so, uhh...," he hesitates. Ilya raises an eyebrow. Shane hadn't seemed this nervous around him since last summer.
"Yea. Yea, everything's great. I just, well, I know you're only here for a couple of weeks but I wondered if you'd be ok with spending some time with my parents," Shane looked away how he always did when he was nervous.
Ilya's heart melted a bit.
"I mean. You can say no. I know we don't have a lot of time just the two of us. It's just that my dad and I have a tradition. We go fishing every summer and we didn't go last year so I thought maybe-"
"Of course we can Hollander."
"Really? I mean, we don't have to if you'd rather us stay here. I know we don't get to spend a lot of time together and if you'd rather just do something else we can. I won't be upset or anyth-"
"Hollander, is fine. We will go," Ilya says. Shane grins at him and they start planning their day out fishing with David. Shane packs snacks and gear while Ilya sends him different iterations of the "women want me, fish fear me" tiktok. Shane ignores all of them.
The next day they pull up to David and Yuna's cottage midmorning. David is already outside packing a tackle box with various lures.
"Hey, boys," he greets them. They spend a few moments talking about the weather and Shane tells his dad about the new rod he had bought. Yuna pops her head out the front door, she's wearing very fancy looking silk pajamas.
"David, where did you put my foot spa," she calls. Ilya looks at Shane, confused. Shane just shrugs. David sighs.
"Come help me," he says quietly to Shane, "I think it's in the hall closet behind the Christmas stuff."
The three of them make their way into the house. Shane and David head for the hallway, leaving Yuna and Ilya standing in the living room. There was a bit of an awkward silence, they hadn't spoken all that much since last summer when they had met. So instead of saying anything, Ilya looks around and sees various chocolates, a bottle of wine, charcuterie board, a face mask kit, and a pedicure set.
Yuna sees him looking at everything and says, "fishing has always been Shane and David's thing. And you couldn't pay me enough to sit on the lake all day so I've always just had myself a little spa day when they go."
Ilya nodded and was instantly jealous. In truth, he did not want to go fishing. He had only agreed for Shane's sake. He didn't want to take him away from his family. He glanced down the hall and then back at the table.
Shane and David reemerged from the hallway then, carrying the foot spa.
"Is that all you need from us," David asked.
"I think so, thank you," Yuna replied.
"Ready to head out," David asked, turning to Shane.
"Yep," he replied, "ready Ilya?"
Ilya dutifully followed them towards the door, but glanced back one more time towards Yuna who was following them to the door.
"Boys," she said as they reached the door, "I think you two need to have some time by yourselves. Just the two of you. How about you leave Ilya here."
Shane looked a little surprised. Ilya tried his very best not to look relieved. He wanted to hug Yuna at that moment for saving him from a day of touching worms.
"Mom, I can't just leave Ilya here," Shane protested.
"What you don't trust me? Think I'll scare him away?"
"Well, no, but what's he going to do all day? If he goes back home he'll just be by himself. I can't make him do that."
"Shane, he doesn't have to go home. He can stay here."
Shane's face scrunched up in that confused look Ilya loved so much, "here?"
Yuna laughed, "yes. Here. He can have a spa day with me."
"I don't think he'd want to do your whole spa day thing, Mom."
"Oh, just because you can't relax enough to enjoy it doesn't mean he can't. Just go. He'll be fine here."
Ilya thought it was amusing how they were talking about him as if he wasn't standing right next to them. Like they were fighting over who got to hang out with him.
"I can stay," Ilya said, speaking for the first time since they arrived. "Is fine. This is for you and your dad. I can stay here, I don't mind."
Shane looked conflicted for a moment but nodded. He fished his car keys out of his pocket and handed them to Ilya, "just in case you wanted to go back home." Yuna rolled her eyes.
Once David and Shane had left, Yuna led Ilya to the couch. Where they chose their respective spots and Yuna explained that she usually watched old movies but if Ilya wanted to watch something else they could. He didn't, so they started with Sixteen Candles. They snacked on the chocolates and charcuterie while Yuna applied Ilya's face mask. She set up her foot spa and they relaxed for a while in silence other than the movie.
They started chatting a little, mostly about hockey and Shane. Ilya asked Yuna what Shane was like as a child and she told him stories of a Shane that used to run off every time they went anywhere.
"I bought a leash! I was too afraid to use it. I thought people would think we were horrible, but he just kept bolting every chance he got," she said while laughing.
Around noon, Yuna opened the wine and put on Dirty Dancing. They kept chatting about nothing in particular and more hockey. Ilya was enjoying talking to her about hockey. He was surprised by her knowledge and understanding, it rivaled Svetlana's.
When Dirty Dancing ended, she put on Steel Magnolias and grabbed another bottle of wine. By the end of it she and Ilya were more than a little Tipsy and both were sniffling messes.
And this was the Yuna and Ilya that Shane and David came back to. The movie had ended, the credits were rolling, and the two of them were sniveling and talking about how unfair it all was.
"Steel Magnolias," David said to Shane solemnly. Shane nodded.
It took some convincing to get Ilya into the car, but eventually he was situated in the passenger's seat. Shane waved goodbye to his parents on their porch and climbed in.
"Did you have fun today," he asked Ilya.
Ilya nodded enthusiastically, "so much fun. We have to do that again next year." Shane just laughed and drove them both home.
