#musicallychaos

[perlukafarinn]

With Brian's lovebomb in progress, I'm curious what their communication usually looks like during the playoffs. Like Brian doesn't want to talk about hockey and Shane during playoffs is living and breathing hockey even more than normal. Do they call? If they don't usually, it must feel WEIRD for Shane to have him actually calling to chat and even to maybe talk about his favorite thing

They usually don't communicate at all, since Shane wants to focus on hockey and ~for some reason~ he subconsciously associates being with Brian with stress and anxiety.

Brian has commented a couple of times in the past that he's glad Montreal is out of the playoffs so he can see Shane again. It's the only thing (before Ilya enters the picture) that's ever caused Shane to start a real argument.

[perlukafarinn]

Okay so we know Brian's been cheating the whole time (of course he has) but at that point why bother opening up the relationship? Like this choice doesn't change his behavior in any way, so I'm wondering what got him there

My current HC is that someone he was hooking up with found out he has a long term boyfriend (maybe Brian even said something?) and got very reasonably pissed, and Brian realized that an "open relationship" would save him a lot of grief. He could be honest! "Yes I have a boyfriend, but he travels a lot for work and we're open" reads a lot better than lying or honesty about cheating

He's such an interesting character and I kind of want to know everything about him despite the fact that he's my least favorite man

He does feel bad about it (just not enough to stop) and opening the relationship occurs to him as a way to keep doing what he wants without the guilt. I like your idea of how that moment of realization happened though!

The reason he didn't think of it sooner is because he doesn't want an open relationship, really. That would take honesty and open communication and respect, and would also include the possibility of Shane getting to sleep around too (which he made peace with because he figured he'd never get the chance).