After they’re outed, Shane and Ilya start to indulge in all the normal “date night” stuff they couldn’t experience before.
Ilya sees a trend on social where a couple picks a color and then goes into a store and have to get the other person things in that color, in specific categories.
They pick red after a lively debate but it’s the color Shane is most ok with when it comes to random food items (he can’t really explain why but Ilya doesn’t need him to), and their categories are: a favorite snack (a treat, not overly healthy), a favorite drink (can’t be their two most likely drinks - coke and ginger ale), and something silly.
Shane is very confident picking out things for Ilya. He keeps an organized list of things Ilya likes in his notes app, so he starts scrolling through that as he wanders away from Ilya.
Ilya is going for vibes, as always, but also has an encyclopedia’s worth of Shane-knowledge locked forever in his brain.
Thirty minutes later they check out in different lines to prolong the surprise, even though Ilya is trying to sneak a peek the whole time.
They get out to Shane’s “boring” car and Ilya insists on going first. For the food he got the red wax Babybel cheeses. They’re hardly a treat for most, but cheese for Shane is practically a sin and Shane gets a soft smile on his face as he pulls them out of the bag. Next is a four pack of fancy blood orange ginger ale.
Shane: We said no ginger ale!
Ilya: Is not *just* ginger ale! Is blood orange! Very different thing!
Shane: Agree to disagree, but I will accept because I really want some ginger ale right now.
Last is a red crop top t-shirt from the women’s section. Shane’s a little confused until Ilya says, “This one is actually more a gift for me.” “Pervert!” Shane says as he balls up and throws the shirt in Ilya’s face. “Ok, my turn!”
Shane starts with the drink. He’d picked some horrible energy drink called something like “Red Card Raspberry” that has more Red Dye 40 in it than should be legal, but he knows Ilya loves these drinks and doesn’t allow himself to have them often because he knows Shane doesn’t like that he drinks them. “I will drink this before next run to be sure I beat you,” Ilya says while wagging his eyebrows at Shane.
Shane hmphs and moves on to the silly item he picked - a red slinky. Ilya scrunches his brows in confusion, but Shane explains, “It’s a slinky!” Which doesn’t mean anything to Ilya. Shane figured this might happen since Ilya’s childhood wasn’t very… fun. He pulls up a video on his phone and shows a slinky going down a set of stairs. Ilya’s face is lit up like he’s a five year old on his birthday morning, and Shane gets a smug little smile on his face. “We can try it out when we get home.” Ilya pulls him across the cars center console for a kiss.
Shane pulls away, “Hold on! There’s one more…” as he pulls out a red can of whipped cream. He knows Ilya likes to put it on his coffee, but they rarely keep it in the house.
Ilya is looking at Shane like he’s going to eat him.
Shane: You know, for your morning coffee?
Ilya: I think I will use it on something else.
The next morning the red crop top and empty red whipped cream can are thrown on their bedroom floor. Ilya and Shane are snuggled up together, and Shane looks up at Ilya. But Ilya’s looking at something on top of their dresser.
Shane: You’re thinking about the slinky, aren’t you?
Ilya: I think I’ve earned it, no?
They spend the rest of that morning drinking coffee (with no whipped cream) and wandering the house seeing all the ways Ilya can think to test out the slinky.
