Ilya doesn't really know about trans people. So when he happens to notice that Shane doesn't have a noticeable bulge, he doesn't really question it. Shane wears kinda loose pants, he's probably just kinda small, which Ilya doesn't mind at all.
Except, Ilya has been trying really, really hard to flirt with Shane and get him a little riled up, and he was so sure that Shane was interested. He's chubbed up himself in front of him more than once, notably when they were panting at each other on the hotel gym floor, and he couldn't help but notice that Shane hadn't really had any... noticeable physical reaction. He hadn't meant to leer at him that way but he'd glanced and... it's fine. It's really fine, he hadn't been trying to get to him that much anyway.
But then at their CCM ad, he doesn't get to the showers in time. He's still not sure how Shane got in and out of it so quick but at least he was still on the bench of the locker room when he walked out of the shower, towel riding low on his hips, and look—Ilya saw him stare. Like, guaranteed hard-on stare. The tension was so thick Ilya himself had been rock hard, and unless he was completely mistaken he was sure Shane must be too. And, well, maybe he had been mistaken, because when Shane got up and left without a word there was still not the slightest hint of even a chub bulge through his sort-of-loose joggers.
Ilya has never, ever felt so unsure of himself. Was he somehow reading this all completely wrong? How could he be, Shane was so obviously interested, but... what was going wrong? Was he embarassed or did he not think Ilya was attractive enough?
It's finally at their first All Stars that he manages to get to Shane. They're chatting back and forth, he's pretty sure Shane is flirting with him... He throws his room number at Shane in a wild gamble, and is so surprised when Shane actually shows up that he almost doesn't know what to do. Shane is frazzled himself, seems unsure of why he's here exactly, mumbles about Scott Hunter being next door.
So Ilya does what he knows best. He closes slowly on Shane, who lets himself get trapped against the wall, and doesn't quite register Shane's breathless wait in time before his body is pressed against his from shoulder to knee and- oh.
After some flustered and slightly panicked explanations, Ilya is so relieved that Shane hadn't just somehow found him interesting but not quite attractive enough to get hard that he doesn't even hesitate to take it in stride. He'll just do some more research in the morning.
For now, he gets to figure out just how wet he'd been making Shane this whole time.
