I do love the concept of love at first sight for Shane and Ilya, but I think what happens is more interesting when viewed as love at first sight in hindsight.
In hindsight, the trajectory of both their worlds shifted the moment they met, but in the actual moment and in their initial few encounters, neither of them ever thought the other would be someone they could have an actual connection with. There is a lot of friction, combativeness and and mistrust between them early on, and I think part of that comes from the fact that they both think they have the other figured out immediately, but they keep learning over and over that the other is more complex than they originally thought.
Shane disarms Ilya with his lack of guile and how he challenges him emotionally.
Ilya disarms Shane with how he treats him as a normal person without expectations and how he challenges him sexually and competitively.
I have no doubt that when Shane walked away from Ilya in the Saskatchewan parking lot, Ilya decided then and there he was gonna fuck him, and there was something about Shane that was intriguing to him, but he wasn’t in love. He wasn’t anticipating it would be anything more than a one-time hook up. It isn’t until the All Star game in Nashville that Shane, once again, surprises Ilya, and makes him come back for more. Shane’s ability to surprise Ilya continuously intrigues him.
I think the point is that once they realized they catastrophically in love they were, there was no way to trace it back to a specific moment. At first it was the little things here and there - Shane’s guilelessness as he shakes Ilya’s hand in that parking lot, their giggles during the CCM photoshoot, Shane folding his clothes, their teasing, their competitiveness, their ability to affect each other in ways literally nobody in either of their lives have ever managed to - until there was no reality that existed where they weren’t in love with each other.
It wasn’t love at first sight in the traditional sense. It was I love you so much now and you’ve impacted and altered the trajectory of my life so much that there is no longer a version of me that exists that doesn’t or didn’t love you.
It’s looking back on memories with rose-coloured glasses. Even if it wasn’t love then, when I look back on those memories now, love is what it feels like.
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