Yes yess yessss that’s such the Perf vibe!! honeymoon phase of honey I need to buy us food and honey actually we need to fuck a bit a little a lot actually I need to kiss you a bunch more I don’t think you should leave 😚😚😚😚
So important because this is actually honeymoon phase 2.0, honeymoon phase 1.0 being post-I love yous at the cottage the first time around, staggering around each other like unable to walk properly because they keep trying to sway into the other's orbit. Forming habits and body language that they start to codify into the language of Them that they take into the next year (the hardest year, arguably, with Ilya still in Boston). But for now they're still in heaven, still together at the cottage and they love each other and they told each other so and now Shane is riding high because his parents know. They know about Ilya now, and all he's wanted for so long is for his family and Ilya to exist in the same world, and now they can just enjoy the rest of their time and learn about what they like to do together now that they don't have to pretend that being together isn't their favorite thing in the world.
I'm having a vision of them trying to cook some basic ass instagram one-pan pasta recipe to try and have a romantic evening (because how many burgers and hot dogs and beer can even the guyest guys eat), and Shane is squinting at the iPad propped up in the kitchen counter while he tries not to slice his fingers off chopping garlic and Ilya is like snooping around and opening cupboards and doors and Shane is distracted because those are Ilya's footsteps in his house and Ilya opening the doors and windows to his heart and that's Ilya's voice calling up from cellar ('you have a whole fucking wine collection hollander' and shane is like 'I do? Oh right yeah someone stocks that') and those are Ilya's hands circling behind him pulling him close and saying 'my hot boyfriend handling a knife, hot' as Shane abandons the garlic by just smashing it up and moving on to the onion and there's water boiling on the stove and the steam is clinging to their skin and Shane feels it on Ilya's cheek when he leans into the warmth of him, remembering once again how well his face fits into the crook of Ilya's neck.
BUT then Ilya is opening a bottle of white wine that they need for the recipe and his hands are so fucking big spanning the bottle with the fine hair on his knuckles and the blue of his veins standing out and how has Shane not noticed that detail about him yet? One vein that forks into another, in between a knuckle. Shane throws the garlic and onions into a too-hot pan, and the aroma saturating the steamy air. 'Smells good, malysh,' Ilya says as the cork pops, (he's been calling Shane all sorts of words, soft in Ilya's mouth, he still won't tell Shane what they all mean) And now Shane's really hungry, so hungry, not for food, but for familiarity, for this to be their ten year anniversary instead of just a few days into their relationship because Shane loves stability and security, he knows that the butterflies are good but that time will change them into something. Calmer. Settled. How he longs to just be settled with the man he loves. Shane, who doesn't plan long-term just lives day to day like a shark who keeps swimming, is now suddenly thinking about what Ilya will look like with crows feet. How his hands will change with time, how their bodies will change, and Shane fears the march of time, fears retirement, fears bodily weakness and aging but suddenly there's something so sweet waiting for him at the end of it. He doesn't know yet that the plan is unsustainable, that they will need to adjust and make choices, but for now he can look forward to a sweet refrain, a knowledge that he won't be alone when his life's purpose is no longer there, there will be someone there opening the doors and windows to his heart always, and it just so happens to be his favorite person.
They burn the garlic. Guess why.
