Ilya knows that he has plenty of assumptions that follow him around, mostly because he’s created half of them. It just comes with the territory of trying to wade through becoming a successful hockey player, building a legacy from the ground up practically ever since he could maneuver a stick on the ice. Reporters sometimes find him aloof when he responds to questions, other players assume he’s an asshole, a ragebaiter, a hothead—and sometimes he’s all of those things. Sometimes the assumptions are true. But what people fail to realize is that it’s a carefully constructed mask. He’s doing all of these things with purpose.
So when people think he’s angry on the ice, he’s really not. He can turn it off as quickly as it was flipped on—usually with a grin when opposing players realize Ilya was trying to just push their buttons. And he’s succeeded.
Shane, however? is not someone who’s riled up easily, at least not to the point where he might start throwing punches. You really have to dig under his skin for him to toss away the aura of calm, cool and collected that he tends to always carry.
Ilya has seen that up close, and what is even more fascinating is that sometimes it doesn’t even happen on the ice.
They’re in this club that is definitely not Shane’s idea, but he’s humoring that Ilya wants to be here. That they can have a few drinks and dance and maybe make up for lost time in which past moments they’ve been together have felt far too rushed. They have a shared lazy day planned for tomorrow, so the night feels young and vibrant and theirs.
Ilya holds onto his drink as he dances near the bar, his other arm stretched out and his head tipped back with his eyes closed. He can feel Shane’s gaze on him as his boyfriend leans against the bar counter, a small, amused smile pulling at his lips when Ilya looks in his direction. Ilya is doing most of the dancing and drinking, but Shane doesn’t seem to mind that. Just wanting to be here in Ilya’s orbit.
Shane reaches for his hand and hooks their fingers together briefly, running his thumb over his knuckles before letting go. He turns and faces the bartender, ordering another beer. Ilya drinks Shane in too, even though he’s in an outfit that is quiet in tone compared to his own—blue jeans and a black t-shirt, while Ilya has black jeans and a floral sheer t-shirt. The gold of his cross shines brightly against the pinkish-purple lights filling up the club. He finishes his drink before fully sliding up next to Shane, his hip pressing into his boyfriend’s.
“We can go soon,” Ilya says over the music.
Shane places water in front of him before turning to angle his body in the direction of Ilya. The bar area is packed but not in an overwhelming sense, there’s enough space for them to hang out here instead of on the dance floor to drink. He enjoys the proximity to Shane, their intimacy hidden in the darkness of the club, in the way that no one is paying attention to them, in a shared bubble of a universe they’ve created where it’s just the two of them.
Shane leans closer to speak and Ilya’s stomach flips at the scent of his skin mixing with cologne and laundry detergent. Something purely Shane, “It’s okay, you’re having a good time.”
Ilya hums lightly, fingers brushing against his water glass as he picks it up to sip it, “But are you?”
Shane smiles a little, his fingers moving to curl up and underneath Ilya’s sheer shirt at his hipbone to touch his skin. Ilya fights a shiver down his spine, “I’m having a good time watching you. You’re so pretty tonight.”
“Oh, so not every night?” Ilya teases with a grin, definitely preening from the compliment.
Shane rolls his eyes but there’s still that smile that’s living in the corner of his mouth, his thumb pressing into Ilya’s waist.
People slide in and out of the bar area, pressing in all around them to get drinks. A guy moves in behind Shane, his gaze sticking to Ilya in a way that is not appraising. But that’s fine—Ilya doesn’t fucking care what people think about him. He’s never tried to fit himself into any sort of box when he doesn’t have to. He’s done that far too long for family, for people he thought might care about him. He doesn’t now.
By being with Shane he realizes that people can love him as who he really is.
So he ignores the pointed looks and the slight disgust and the assumptions this guy is making—but what he doesn’t realize is that he also must say something. Something that Shane hears.
Because his boyfriend goes completely rigid.
There’s a brief moment where Shane’s nostrils flare and then he’s turning around, “What was that?”
The guy blinks, clearly not realizing his comment would be heard or maybe even addressed. He sort of opens his mouth but nothing comes out. Shane isn’t much taller than him, but the way he’s angling his body is pure hockey aggression; a metaphorical taking off of his gloves. His shoulders straighten, his back is like a rod as he towers over this guy,
“Go head—say it again.” Shane hisses, “Talk about my boyfriend to my face.”
Ilya’s hand clamps over Shane’s forearm, a gentle tug backwards. Despite how utterly arousing it’d be to see Shane get into a fist fight, it’s not worth it. Not here. Luckily the guy turns pale as a ghost, backing up a few steps and sputtering before he leaves the bar. Apparently all talk but not worth getting into a physical confrontation.
Ilya presses himself up against Shane’s back, wrapping an arm around his waist. He presses a soothing kiss against his neck, where his fluttering pulse is, slowly feeling him calm down. He leans back against Ilya, letting out a short breath.
“Sorry,” Shane mumbles and Ilya shakes his head.
“I would have done same thing,” He promises, understanding feeling protective over someone he loves completely.
Ilya draws in a breath, his hand pressing against Shane’s stomach, slipping just a bit lower to toy with the waistband of his jeans, “Let’s get out of here. Maybe fool around in Jeep.”
Shane turns, letting out a soft huff but even in the dimness of the club, Ilya can see the flush on his cheeks where his freckles are, “We are not fucking around in my car.”
Ilya grins, their noses brushing in a bunny kiss, “Not with that attitude.”
Shane smiles, his hand slipping into Ilya’s and squeezing his fingers before leading him right out of the club.
i love for ilya to be super selfindulgent abt his own cock. he loves looking at it, he gets a head rush from looking at it go inside shane and he loves doing that (he does this a lot in canon WOHOOOO). he loves making shane talk abt it "you love that big cock huh? tell me" all demanding while fucking him or maybe sometimes in a slow grind and superduper sweetly too. "i love your big cock" shane slurs and HE DOESSS so much
ilya being in a period of Bad depression and between playing games and going to practice he doesn't really have the energy to do much else and he just kind of collapses when he gets home and he hasn't shaved in days and his hair is unruly and he just feels kinda gross and ugly but doesn't have the energy to do anything about it so shane is like Not On My Watch so he drags ilya into the tub and washes his hair with his special curly shampoo and carefully shaves his face and lathers him in too much body lotion which means he has to stand stark naked in the bathroom for 10 minutes before he can put clothes on and shane tries his best to do his curly hair routine for him he gets the special towel and the curl cream and his eyebrows furrow in concentration as he scrunches ilya's curls to the best of his abilities and ilya sits on the toilet lid with tears in his eyes
I am a fan of the dynamic where there's no leak and Shane moves to the Cens of his own accord and then Shane and Ilya never come out exactly but they just live openly and all these dumbass hockey players are just like
"Oh yeah they're just like that. They live together and room together and vacation together and get mad if they're separated on the bench. And they kiss in the locker room sometimes but it's you know. They're joking around. Good guys. Gay? Well---no I don't think so. I mean that's weird. Roz is a pussy hound. I mean I've never seen him with a woman but you know he is. Anyway Hollander had that whole thing with Rose Landry and he still talks about her, I think he's still hung up on her. Poor guy. I did walk in on Hollander sleeping on Roz's lap the other day but they were just getting in sync for power play you know? You reporters always want to make everything gay it's so weird. What do you mean 'why do they kiss so much' they're the top goal scoring duo in the league"
so how much do we want to bet shanes stylist didnt pack him the pleaked up shirt and he bought it in tampa after seeing ilya in his little tommy bahama cunt divorced dad number at the bar chomping at the bit to cuck rose landry and downing his fourth beer to steady his hands
shane's face after ilya picks him up my god he's so turned on. this guy is 200lbs of pure muscle he follows a diet other professional athletes have never even heard of and spends half his life in the gym, the other half muscling big strong hockey players out the way to get to a puck. and ilya just lifted him right off the ground and is ferrying him over to the bed where he Is Going To Fuck Him. my sweet steaming-engine-brain shane has never blanked so hard in his life. he's barely a person in this moment he is just Hormone
shane’s better at paddle boarding than ilya. they’re both professional athletes with great balance but it takes ilya awhile to get adjusted meanwhile shane’s doing yoga on his just to be a show off
shane and ilya argue over names for the boat and eventually shane gets “wolf bird” painted on it
ilya isn’t allowed to drive the boat that first summer bc he doesn’t have the proper license but shane helps him study for the written test
anya has a life vest with a shark fin
it’s equally impressive and annoying to everyone how well they do in a tandem kayak or canoe together, paddling in perfect unspoken harmony (hayden and jackie almost get divorced)
they run off the dock and do fancy jumps into the water, making the other person rate them like the olympics
they lay on the dock together at night and watch the stars, sometimes talking and sometimes in comfortable silence
the best part of the day is when they come inside, take a shower together, and collapse on the couch all sleepy from their outdoor shenanigans. ac is blasting so they grab a soft blanket and snuggle in to watch a movie
when ilya asks shane “worth the wait? 😏” to get his ego stroked and then shane lays those tender loving kisses upon his face…….its so over for you fake ass idgafer i saw your resolve start to crumble🤣🤣🤣🫵🏻🫵🏻🫵🏻
kingdom - hollanov - @taylorswiftmicrofic - word count: 686 - click here for my hollanov microfic archive on ao3
"One story before bed?" Jade whined, her big, brown eyes making Ilya's heart ache as they reminded him of Shane. "Dad always tells us stories when he's home."
"Jade, you have to go to sleep," Shane said from the armchair, smiling fondly as all of the Pike children cuddled up to Ilya on the couch. "It's your bedtime."
"Oh, Hollander, you are killjoy," Ilya said, waving his hand in the air. "One story will not kill anyone. Plus, if boring Pike can tell story, so can we!" He grinned as Shane shot him a warning look. "Okay. Let me think." he looked around for a moment, clearly seeking inspiration. "Ah! Okay, once on a time there was two kingdoms. One was kingdom of yellow and black and one was kingdom of blue and red. And each kingdom had beautiful prince..princess."
The children made ooohh and ahhhh noises, settling into the cushions.
"Of course, the princess of the yellow and black kingdom, Lily, was a little more beautiful than princess of other kingdom, Jane, but is not important," Ilya said with a smirk, eyeing Shane, who snorted derisively. "Anyway. One day, the princesses met. Because...uh...they are having a painting made. And after painting, they realize: they are in love!"
The kids let out little yelps of delight, making both Shane and Ilya smile.
"Yes, yes, is very romantic. But there is problem! The kingdoms, they are enemies!" Ilya exclaimed dramatically, throwing his hands in the air and beaming as the kids gave him scandalized looks.
Shane couldn't help but grin fondly, entranced by the way Ilya spoke to the children.
"So, Lily–she is the more beautiful, more talented one, yes? She is very brave. She asks Jane to meet her to have...um..."
"Have tea!" Shane jumped in, narrowing his eyebrows at Ilya, who grinned and winked.
"Yes, tea! The princesses, they are very good at tea. Love tea very much," Ilya agreed, stifling laughter as the two of them avoided eye contact so as to not lose it completely. "And they have tea together often, yes? And fall so much in love."
"But it was a secret? The love?" Jade asked, eyes as wide as saucers.
"Yes," Ilya nodded somberly. "Very sad, right? The princesses were very scared that their love would not be accepted by their kingdoms. And then one day, very bad thing happened."
"What?!?"
"A...letter. A letter that was sent between them. Was found by Jane's friend and both kingdoms found out," Ilya replied, nodding his head like he was delivering terrible news.
And of course, all of the children were staring at him with rapt fascination, like this was the most terrible thing they hear in their lives. Shane grinned at the sight.
"What then?" Arthur asked, fully in awe.
"Well, some people, they do not like it. Many people in both kingdoms were very angry. They say the princesses were being...betraying," Ilya explained heavily, but Shane could hear the emotion in his voice. "The princesses were very sad, that their love was treated this way. Like was not real."
"But it was," Jade frowned indignantly, like she was ready to fight kingdoms herself.
"It was," Ilya agreed, smiling softly at her. "So what do they do?"
"Fight!"
"No, no," he admonished, smiling. "They find new kingdom. A red and black one, with both of their colors. This kingdom loves and accepts them, and is happy for them and their love. And now, they are together forever, happily ever after."
Shane smiled along with the kids, eyes finding Ilya's.
"Good! They should be happy," Jade said with a grin, hopping up and dragging Ruby with her towards their bedroom.
"Mmm. It was a good story," Shane agreed, standing and gesturing for Arthur to get up as well, while Ilya helped Amber. "Inspired by anything in real life?"
Ilya grinned. "No, Hollander. Do not be so stupid. Fairy tales are not real."
But as they walked together with the two youngest Pike children off to their bedrooms, grinning and bumping hips, it kind of felt like they were.
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