I know everyone loves Yuna and Ilya’s relationship bc it’s so lovely for Ilya to experience a mothers love and warmth after not having it since he was twelve and I agree, but honestly David and Ilya’s relationship really gets me.
Like Ilya has never experienced kindness or warmth from any older male/father figure in his life, even his older brother was cold and spoke to him with such vitriol. All Ilya has ever known are stoic, cold or cruel men. Then comes boring and socially awkward David Hollander who welcomes him immediately, calls him ‘son’, buys good Russian vodka, cooks chicken Parmesan bc it’s Ilya’s favorite, does puzzles with Ilya and treats him with the tenderness and kindness of a quiet loving father, something that Ilya had NEVER had before.
This man of few words went to see Ilya the morning of his wedding specifically because he knew Ilya had no family there and he had a full speech rehearsed about how he and Yuna always wanted another child and now they have one, because he wanted to Ilya to know that they both see him as a son and that he has a family now, even though he was worried about over stepping.
Ilya knew a mothers love before but he’d never known a fathers love until David😭













