i love every version of shane going to bood's bbq in fics, and it's always so funny when they try to go "just as friends" and cannot keep up the act for the whole night. it's always good and fun and makes sense in the fic, and i always enjoy it, but it's also just funny to see when their whole deal was that they've managed to not tell anyone for a whole decade except for very select circumstances.
it makes me want a 5+1 story with 5 times shane went to a centaurs event as a "friend" of ilya's and the +1 as either him attending as ilya's partner or as a centaur himself.
the first time would be at the end of summer, right after the end of the ottawa summer camp. wyatt asks shane how long he's going to be in town for before he heads back to montreal, and he says it'll be a few more days, and hayes says bood is hosting a pre-season bbq and shane should totally swing by. he's hesitant, but the fact that it's wyatt who invites him and confirms with bood that it's cool vs him clearly tagging along with ilya that makes him risk it.
the boxing day party would probably fall as time 3 or 4? i haven't decided what the others are yet.
but through these 5 parties, shane slowly gets to know the cens and their partners, sees how different the culture is from montreal, gets to know these people ilya talks about for himself, and slowly lets his guard down.
for their part, the centaurs get to know shane as a person better and not just The Shane Hollander™️and they also can't help but notice that their captain, who's always so busy on their days off, is conveniently always available if hollander is also around.
by time 5, most people have figured out that something is going on between them. everyone has pet theories about if it's serious or exclusive or new, but they're trying to tip-toe around it and not let shane or ilya know that they suspect something. it doesn't help that ilya brings anya, and she seems very familiar with shane.
it all comes to a head when wyatt, tipsier than he usually gets at these events, notices that shane is also wearing a chain tucked under his shirt. he puts a hand on shane's shoulder and says "can you just entertain me for a second here?" before hooking a finger under the chain and pulling the rest of the chain and the ring out from where it was tucked away. he looks at the ring close up for a moment before nodding, and saying "that's what i thought." he drops the ring, letting it falls back to shane's chest before saying "thanks buddy," patting him on the shoulder, and moving on like nothing happened. shane is...befuddled, but just shakes his head at his friend and also moves on. he's a little bit panicking, but he's mostly just confused. importantly, he doesn't bother to tuck the ring back into his shirt. a little bit after that, ilya and troy and maybe bood drift over to where shane is, and troy clocks the ring on the chain and says "hey, that ring looks familiar?" and bood agrees, turning to ilya and pulling the exact same move that wyatt did, bringing the chain out of ilya's shirt, showing both the cross and the ring beside it. everyone just stares at the clearly matching rings for a moment before troy says "if you try to claim you got matching friendship rings i'm going to punch you." ilya grins, mock offended, and says "i would never." by this point harris has clocked that something is going on and comes over, taking in the matching rings on display. "holy shit, is this already married or to be--?" he asks. "to be, not yet," ilya confirms. "probably this summer, maybe july," shane says, and it's the first thing he's said in several minutes. after that, for the rest of the night they mostly drop the act. no kissing or outright pda, but they don't really leave each other's sides, and they start bickering half in russian, and they openly refer to anya as theirs (shane refers to her as "our dog" while ilya calls her "our daughter"), and when they leave they don't have to pretend like they aren't leaving together, and they haven't put their rings away again for the rest of the night.
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