I saw today's prompt for @duckprintspress may trope mayhem and immediately thought... Hollanov, with Ilya in the flower shop and Shane in the tattoo parlor!
(this is not a full fic just ideas bc I have a full time job, too many fanfic ideas and no time or energy to actually write most of them down, but if someone wants to pick this up feel free!)
Florist!Ilya who loves pretty things, adores chatting with customers, finding out what kind of event they need flowers for and making the bouquet perfect for what they need, making up elaborate guesses in his mind (or when gossiping with friends) about the people that don't tell him their reasons to buy flowers... And maybe he ended up working in a flower shop first because they had flowers that reminded him of Irina, her favorite flowers maybe?
Tattooist!Shane who is so meticulous in everything he does, his designs will be perfect after initial sketches and redesigns and talking it through with the client, he doesn't have quite as many tattoos as you'd expect for his profession but the ones he does have all have a very specific and personal meaning. He knows not everyone's tattoos mean something and he doesn't mind (much) when someone comes in who just wants something that looks funny or pretty but he absolutely refuses to tattoo anyone who's drunk... though he probably doesn't do spontaneous walk-ins anyway, there's a whole process.
Shane moves back to his hometown Ottawa, opens the tattoo studio next door to Ilya's shop and is a bit worried Ilya doesn't like him because the tattoo thing might scare away the flower customers or something, meanwhile from Ilya's side it's love at first sight :)
As soon as Ilya sees these freckles, he's a goner, and the crush moves seamlessly into falling in love with Shane as he gets to know him better, sees how focused Shane gets on his designs, and maybe Shane comes in one day to buy flowers for his parents and they start chatting...
Shane does Ilya's tattoos, the bear for his home country and later the loon for his new home <3
My Hollanov tag list, lmk if you want me to add you to or take you off the list: @toboldlynerd @spookyvoidangelskeleton @live-laugh-love-ao3 @scentedsandwichgarden-blog
