Basically me getting my thoughts and ideas together for a fic I'm trying to write.
Luca doesn't tell anyone for the first 2 years on the team but has certain mannerism that hint to his past:
- If his name plate wasn't present, it would be easy to assume that his locker room stall was vacant.
Out of everyone, Luca rarely leaves any of his gear behind. Bood, Weibe and Ilya have to remind him he doesn't have to lug everything back to his apartment everytime.
-If they have an away game or on a group trip, Luca never fully unpacks his luggages, if at all.
-When their plane to Tampa Bay has an emergency landing, Luca is noticeably quiet when they all share drinks at their hotel bar. Everyone chops it up to him still being in shock and assumes he'll find one of them if he wants to talk.
When Shane joins the team, Ilya is excited that his husband and 'son' get along so well. Luca finds comfort in Shane's practical nature and doesn't mind the "Mother henning" he's often teased of doing to Luca.
-When they start to hang out more, Shane offers to help Luca budget and is horrified/confused to find out luca doesn't have his own apartment and instead stays at hotels during the season.
Everything finally makes sense when they win the Stanley Cup and since Luca was the one to make the winning goal, he's invited to do a in-depth interview on his life and career so far.
Everyone is horrified from where the team is watching backstage when the interviewer asks Luca if his parents are proud of his accomplishments and he answers:
Luca, shrugs (eyes downcast): I... like to think they would be.
Interviewer: Oh, are you not close with them?
Luca, chuckling nervously: Kind of hard to be with them both being dead.
[The collective "WHAT!??" That echoed from the dressing room had to be edited out in post]
Robert hasn't interacted with people in so long he's developed strange habits. Z team and Chase noticed really quickly. Like if Robert is overwhelmed he will straight up grab a water bottle and bite down on it. He'll often avoid eating until he's near ow bitch the room is spinning faze. He will stay extra late at work sitting in the dark doing paperwork.( somehow his handwriting is better in the dark?) Gave Sonar a fright walking through what he thought was a empty office getting something in the breakroom only to find Robert hunched over twinkie in mouth writing. Or if he's really upset no more English all you'll get is screaming in what sounds like Korean. Chase is definitely working on breaking Robert of his new habits. Including taking a 5min power nap then staying awake for another 24 hours.
Marauders brainrot has taken over again and I started reading teacher regulus fics now I can’t stop thinking that realistically regulus would just be sister Michael from derry girls if he was a teacher
He’s gay. He’s autistic. His special interest is hockey. He’s waisan. He’s a bottom. He speaks French. He wears reading glasses. He doesn’t listen to music. He has an eating disorder. His favorite drink is ginger ale. He’s a sub. He has beautiful freckles. He’s canonically the hottest man in the NHL. He tried really hard and he’s really sorry but he just can’t help it. I love him so much it’s gonna make me puke
HR AUs rattling in brain (trust me I'm first gen Asian amateur gay athlete):
If anyone would like to adopt the premise into a fic please LET ME SEEEE (and tag me in the fic)
Second gen East Asian Shane Hollander. Born in Canada, but Yuna doesn't speak English fluently, so trilingual baby Shane grew up translating for his mum. This Yuna would push him to go to college in case the hockey thing doesn't work out and she's proud of his sports achievements but she would also compare him to cousins who are doctors and lawyers. Shane would grow up playing piano or violin, good at STEM and being that autistic, I hope my man works in those jobs where it's graphs and excel all day. Also Shane would carry the burden of "there is always an Asian better than you" well into his mid 20s. I reckon Yuna would have enrolled him in figure skating bc that's an Asian sport but Shane and David love da hockey and the rest is history. Shane has a Japanese middle name and definitely a Japanese first name that didn't make it on official papers bc Yuna wants him to have a name that's not going to isolate him. Dude grew up fixated on samurai code of honour. Has done 6 months of kendo and on some occasions used hockey stick as a big sword to smack competitors into a concussion. Internalised freckles as a sign of aging/ugliness (this is a real thing I wouldn't fuck with yall like this!!!) because East Asians hate the sun. Ethnically ambiguous to the point that he couldn't be bothered by bullies bc they always get the country wrong. When he travelled with Yuna as a kid they would always get stopped bc whose goddamn white baby is that ma'am. Same with David. Shane is too white in Japan and too Japanese in Canada. Stoic outside anime inside. Maybe he'll be lactose intolerant too 🤔 it all adds up bc Shane is the right amount of polite for an Asian boy and Japanese have a reputation for being introverted. Had a bowl cut growing up
Southeast Asian Shane Hollander, but specifically sinosphere which is my wheel house. To be completely honest majority of diaspora aren't super well off so idk how his parents could have fund hockey AND college. In the ideal world, Yuna and David gambled on Shane being a prodigy at hockey and that could be his ticket to college. Shane grew up playing hockey as his gateway to all the better things in the future but grew to love the game. Yuna deffo wanted him to become a doctor or a lawyer because all his cousins are in healthcare or finance and what better than a Stanley champion son? A doctor/lawyer. His athlete diet drives Yuna insane bc all we eat is rice. Our love languages are yelling at kids then cutting them fruits that taste like garlic. It's a multi-faith household with the Hollanders. All of his mum's side party hard, love fish sauce, openly affectionate, amazing singers, love durian. Shane would have slept on 2 chairs with a jacket over his face whilst karaoke battles were raging at 4am. David is an honorary Asian. Shane's red pocket privileges were finally revoked when he married Ilya but before the wedding aunts, uncles, grandparents and older married cousins insisted on giving him red pockets even though he's the richest one there. Cousin Shane is the shyest but always down for shenanigans. In the off season he would get moon-faced bc of all the foods he couldn't refuse. He had a pass to being gay bc he's the rich successful NHL cousin + Ilya is the Slavic version of every fun Vietnamese uncle at every party. We communicate by yelling (bc we cannot hear normal speaking volume). I would pay $50 to hear a highly accented aunt yell SHANE which is most likely going to sound like SHEN/SEN, which are actual names! Tan king Shane. Canonically he loves ginger ale so i headcannon that he loves those gross new year ginger candies on the sheer survival instinct that if you pick an unpopular sweet your million cousins won't fight you for it. Some snacks are impossible to get to Canada and sometimes Shane will try and fail to describe them to Ilya and that will just descend into him gesturing vaguely "you know what I mean" and Ilya delightedly replying "not sure I do, Hollander". He's the winter Olympics equivalent of Suni
Aussie hollanov, because the hockey community is tiny and truthfully only a thing on the east coast. They're very friendly though and collegial, which means the rivalry would be absolutely hilarious and the stakes aren't that high. Ilya lives in sunny Queensland (where hot, confident, surfing people with suntanned curls live) and Shane lives in Victoria (where repressed homosexuals with many burdens dwell and capitalism takes away your will to live). I just want to laugh at Russian-accented Australian English. Meanwhile I think Shane would have the lightest possible accent because he went to a posh private boys school that played polo and three investment homes by the coastline. Ilya 1000% plays AFL, grows a gross moustache AND mullet. Shane knowing and seeing this still wants to fuck him. Ilya moves to VIC for love and ends up sharing a house with 3 lesbians in fitzroy (the hippy artsy gay suburb in central Melbourne). The two of them always compete for points and then cup wins. it's really only bragging rights. Teammates had learned to tune out their on ice chirps. When they get into fights the ref just let them have a punch on. Shane is registered for AIHL who historically never gone to any Olympic ever and Ilya goes to KHL, but through the power of love they both end up on the Australian national team and finally qualifies to represent Australia in the Olympics bc Russia is banned. Then they propose on live TV. there would be no difference to their hockey nicknames - Rozy and Hollzy. Truthfully when I read some fics I hear the most bogan accent in my mind reading the nicknames
HEMA Hollanov. Classically Olympic trained Mr Epee Shane was dragged into a long sword training session by Hayden and saw Sabreur Ilya Rozanov slash the shit out of his opponent on the piste. It was not love at first sight but he was certainly intrigued. Ilya similarly overheard introductions being made, thinking yeah this newbie about to eat shit and go home with a purple arm, then saw Shane elegantly destroyed a seasoned teammate. Therein laid the foundation for grudging respect for each other's fencing skills. Homophobia doesn't exist in Melbourne HEMA because everyone is a variety of queer and so Shane breathes a big sigh of relief. Hayden got him to join the Voyageurs. Being classically trained, he's really good, so good that people couldn't even land hits on him and he just wears the fuckass white Olympic uniform which is such a flex because it's thin and not padded vs everyone else being one more layer away from full chainmail. Whilst HEMA is quite supportive, there were teams in the past who were not great, which I can gleefully shaft the Voyageurs into this evil role - unsafe training, underprepared, unfair refereeing, match fixing, the whole lot. Genuinely the only fair thing was hollanov aka they would bicker pre-tournament, in training and on the piste so much Voyageurs had to elect an external umpire to ref their mess. Ilya started off in the far west, Gisborne way, but slowly got more central. He said it's his job relocating him, Shane saw him like 3 times a year and they fuck nasty all those times without much talking so he could not confirm. There are all these nicknames for them: Mr Olympic (Shane) and Urgh not him again (Ilya). With the centaurs, Ilya definitely let loose and experimented with the drama of the art. My club does Italian style which have the heavy swords, being from the southeast, but northern clubs would lean more towards German or Polish. I would think Ilya suits Polish sabre bc it's quick and with a lighter blade. Shane clears them all though regardless of sword weight and styles and wins absolutely all the tournaments, even at the invitational where the hand grappling is introduced. Man's too quick, techniques too good, brain too strategic. Shane knows too much about military history and has a 5000% likely chance of going into swordsmithing when he stops fencing. Ilya meanwhile used to do kendo and had too many hits to the head so he's gone over to MMA and HEMA, both sensible and not at all concussion prone sports. Shane has two pairs of glasses, one for competing and one for everyday use, he can't wear contacts and when he wears the wonky glasses Ilya's heart also goes wonky. After years of hooking up and acting like they don't give a shit about each other, finally Shane agrees to go out post tourney to get food and suddenly five bets have been confirmed bc the community is tiny and we love drama. Very rarely does hollanov not compete in the same tourney but occasionally Shane competes in the state's open foil and epee competition and Ilya gets up at the crack of dawn with him to register and warm up at Melbourne at 8am in Jan. Likewise when Ilya competes in longsword or military weapons, Shane manfully shows up like a preppy husband and sits with all the WAGs and buys Ilya food when he comes over all sweaty. Shane had been seen squinting at Ilya and Troy almost kill each other in a match and asking "which club do those idiots belong to" only to realise "they are my monkeys, this is my circus"
Impractical time travel aus seem to be my calling because I want a crack fic where hollanov are retired, so many cup wins behind them, and they’re older now, but happy. Still in love. One night while cozy in bed they entertain themselves with the thought of what they would’ve been like if they had been together the whole time. They both needed to follow their own paths, heal and grow, but it’s a funny thought to picture them now-open with their affection, very in love-and apply it to their younger selves.
Imagine it, they say laughing, imagine the chaos
And then they wake up, decades younger, a short time before the met for the first time. They could follow their own past script. Or
Or they could get married again immediately. Gay marriage is legal in Canada, after all.
