olympicsverse sandbox time!!! Ilya is weird about narcotics and pills in general after the first year or so of recovery for obvious reasons. you know what helps? WEED. Shane buys him the finest dab rig money can buy. Invests heavily in a weed company so he can fund research on the most therapeutic strains for pain and inflammation. Eventually Shane gets into it too because life is stressful rn, you know? Anyway that’s how they become Canada’s biggest stoners
in my head it’s yuna who suggests it, because shane is still playing at that point and he’s out in new york kicking scott hunter’s ass. and ilya hasn’t eaten a full meal in like two days because the current painkiller combo is making him sick to his stomach and the backups make him feel Weird and even more out of his body. and yuna is sitting on the couch with him while he sweats it out and she suggests it so casually.
“yuna, secret stoner?” ilya teases, but his jaw is so tense and he’s in so much pain that yuna just clucks and pushes his hair back.
“well, you know how david’s back can be,” she says, and pats ilya’s thigh and stands up. and she disappears for a few minutes, then comes back with one of david’s pre-rolls from the pharmacy in the city. and ilya does hesitate, because he’s only ever smoked recreationally, and the “smoking weed between losses” comment does still linger. but he’s desperate, and he trusts yuna, and so.
and it really does help! the tremors, and the muscle spasms, and the awful nausea. it helps him sleep, too, which is a net-win. he doesn’t need to worry so hard about getting dependent on pills, and he can eat and sleep without feeling like he’s going to shake out of his skin.
shane is, as he had expected, pretty dubious about it. when ilya tells him his jaw goes all tight and he says “mom, can i speak to you outside?” which just makes ilya scoff at him.
“i’m a grown fucking man, shane,” he reminds him, “you will not talk about me behind my back when i’m right here.”
and he knows shane doesn’t mean to be so condescending, he knows the past year has been hell for him, too, but he’s getting pretty fucking sick of him acting like he lost his mind and his agency in the accident, too. but they talk about it, and eventually shane sees all the ways that it’s benefiting ilya. so he does more research. and more research. and we all know how much shane looooves diversifying his investment portfolio!