Ilya had felt nervous about it himself - to bring it back up, the cologne-thing, weeks after the initial fight had happened to begin with. It could, in theory, cause old wounds to break back open, after all; Both Shane and Ilya have been doing well however, have grown significantly and learned from what that awful experience had taught them in the first place - Ilya's more outspoken now, at least he tries, instead of swallowing shit down and pretending that everything is going fine. Shane is doing the same, allows for his thoughts to run more freely whenever they bother him, and... it's good, actually. It feels as if their whole relationship has turned into even more of a safe space than it had already been before.
Perhaps it also works out well for Ilya that he's taking more therapy sessions again. Speaks to his Russian therapist at least once a week, has made entire fucking plans and shit, keeps a notebook by his side whenever they're having a zoom call to lay out further plans and work more effectively on his issues. One day they'll talk about his past, his childhood, they're currently preparing for it... even though it scares the shit out of him...
---Anyways, he'd still wanted to bring up the whole cologne-issue simply because, back then, when stuff had happened, he wasn't able to explain where that smell had come from in the first place. It had bothered him ever since, and finally, finally, he's got an answer to what had eaten away at him - and he needs Shane to know. He needs for this part of the fight to be resolved too, just to make them both feel better about it.
Because he assumes that Shane has been thinking about it too. His husband is always thinking about such things, after all, with how sensitive he is.
And when said Shane is basically melting against the counter there, Ilya knows he's been very fucking right with his assumptions regarding the love of his life. It makes him smile, softly so, because it's so cute when Shane lets it all out in this way - but at the same time it makes his heart ache a bit, tells him that yeah, the cologne-thing has indeed be a massive part of the whole... erm, hiccup.
"Yes, I'm dead serious. We can go to garage after lunch and I let you sniff my car - it's fucking horrible, Shane. I had to endure it for two fucking hours!" Chuckling lightly, trying to keep the mood somewhere further up instead of allowing for it to go into dangerous territory, he huffs and then sits up with a sigh, reaching for his can of coke that sits on the small coffee table, takes a sip. "I immediately took a shower when I came home - while you were out doing stuff with your mom. Didn't want you to smell that shit on me again - not after..."
A shrug, smile fading a little, but blue-green eyes remain soft nevertheless.