Crucially, David and/or Yuna filmed Baby!Shane giving imaginary press interviews. And on the second summer at the cottage after they meet Ilya (so summer 2018), they break those old videos out and show Ilya. Shane is mortified but Ilya is utterly charmed. He asks for copies of the cutest photos and videos of Baby!Shane. So they can be hung up in their cottage as well as David and Yuna’s cottage. Shane complains it’s like a creepy shrine.
Ilya has limited childhood mementoes of his own that ended up coming to North America. It’s not like he has nothing, no old photos or videos. But there isn’t a whole lot. Not compared to Shane, whose parents spent much of their only son’s childhood documenting him. And a lot of the ancient photos and videos from Moscow have Grigori and Alexei in them, so his memories are mixed.
Ilya took some mementoes from his father’s house after the funeral. After his stepmother Polina made sure they had no monetary value. And he took a few mementoes when he first moved to Boston at 19. His much-patched old teddy bear, an ancient photo album, Irina’s favourite sweater. All, of course, locked in a box so his teammates and his hookups would never find them.
Ilya took one or two more things back to Boston with him at the end of each summer when he left Russia. But he doesn’t have extensive documentation of his entire childhood like Shane does. Irina liked to take photos of her boys, but as her mental health got worse, a lot of the photos ended up in shoeboxes instead of albums. Or if they were digital, didn’t get printed up.
There’s one framed photo Ilya keeps face down in a drawer most of the time. It’s one of the few genuinely happy photos of his whole family. They’re on a beach and must have asked a passerby to take it. Grigori and Irina are smiling at each other and it looks like it’s not just for the photo (not a common occurrence). Ilya is a chubby toddler with sand in his curls. Alexei has an ice cream moustache and is carefully applying sunscreen to his baby brother’s arms.
Ilya doesn’t actually remember this beach vacation, he was too young. But it proves to him that his parents weren’t always miserable. And before everything got fucked up, before Irina got sick, before the drugs, there was a time his big brother loved him in an uncomplicated way.
Svetlana’s parents in Moscow are an excellent source of copies of old photos of little Svetlana and little Ilya getting up to mischief together. Although Svetlana has to pretend she just wants the photos for herself. Since Sergei Vetrov still feels humiliated by Ilya turning out to be bisexual.
He’d never had a clue about his daughter’s childhood bestie. And as Putin’s former minister for sport, important people had questions for Sergei after the video leak. Every time she goes back to Russia to visit family, Svetlana takes fresh flowers to Irina’s grave and sends back photos to her bestie.
There’s one photo of Irina with Ilya and Svetlana at Sveta’s ninth birthday party that makes Ilya look like his mom’s mini-me. Same curls, same smile, same eyes. Shane insists on hanging that in their living room in Ottawa after they get outed. It’s a happy childhood memory of Ilya with the two people in the world who loved him most.
The framed photo of the whole Rozanov family on the beach mostly stays in the sock drawer. Sometimes Ilya gets it out and leaves it out for several days. Eventually he turns it face down on the top of the dresser. When Shane sees that Ilya has done that, he quietly puts the photo back in the drawer. Ilya has done his reminiscing and now it’s over until the next time.
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