I'm sure someone has written this before, but I've been spinning this AU around in my head where Irina got help for her depression, but Yuna passed away from a physical illness when Shane was twelve and how that would reflect on Shane and Ilya's characters throughout the series.
Like. Shane wouldn't have the same pressures on him because he wouldn't have had someone who acknowledged they existed. He wouldn't do as many sponsorships, and he would probably take only companies he truly believed in. But also, he has to live with the weight of his mom passing. He feels disconnected from his Japanese identity, and his dad doesn't quite understand it in the way Yuna would. At every hockey event, he misses her.
Ilya would perhaps be out as bisexual to his team pretty immediately. I think it would be a thing where they saw him take a guy back to his hotel room, and Boston is relatively chill about it, and Ilya is a good enough player for them to not think about it too hard. In my head, Irina escaped with Ilya to the U.S. after Ilya is caught with Sasha, and while she doesn't completely understand, she is supportive and loves her son. I imagine he and his mom are neighbors in Boston because he bought the house right next door to hers. He lies to her about sending money home because he feels guilty for leaving his father dying with Alexei, but it's ugly and complicated because he remembers what they did to her. He tries to hide his depressive symptoms from his mom because he doesn't want to burden her more or make her feel guilty that he probably inhertied this from her. He goes to therapy at his mom's insistence, but he isn't always honest with his mom or his therapist. He likes to talk to his mom about Shane.
I have thoughts on Irina and David too ofc.
Irina, to me, was very quickly befriended by some older ladies that love quilting after finding a job at a fabric and craft store. She also quickly gets to know the people who work at the closest Russian grocery store, and she spends a few weeks looking for a church she likes that also accepts her queer son. She attends weekly. She's going to therapy and on medication, and she's desperately trying to find an answer for it just in case she handed it off to Ilya. She is a bit overbearing in an almost smothering way when she has the energy for it. But there are days that Ilya takes her food in bed, and she feels so endlessly guilty and embarrassed about it in a way she struggles to articulate.
David is trying his best :(( He loves Yuna so much and he doesn't want to leave the home they built together, so he encourages Shane to go on without him. He's still very supportive of Shane, but he's always been a little more relaxed than Yuna. His support is showing up to events with Shane when he's younger, but as the years go on, he only goes if Shane explicitly asks that of him. He's friends with the people at his office, and he joins and crushes it in his companies bowling team or smth. He loves bragging about his son, and he manages to still brag about marrying Yuna despite her having passed a long time ago. He isn't really all that interested in being with anyone else. He's dated a little bit after several years, but he hasn't been able to find anyone who has made him feel right and happy in the way Yuna did. He reckons he never will.
I've been going through the HR timeline and reimagining how Hollanov's relationship would change based on this, too. Idk. Theres a running document. Probably wont write a fic with it. But its fun to think about!
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