Remember that post that's like "BDSM torture where I tie you up and force you to accept an earnest compliment about yourself"? Yeah, that's Shane with his truth pact at the cottage.
Mr. Earnest is blurting out every achingly tender thought he's ever had about Ilya but never been able to say. He's gripping Ilya's curls while they lazily make out and he's saying "God, I love your hair" and Ilya's smirking, still all swaggering confidence and being all "Mmmh yess I'm very sexy, we know this" but Shane starts picking up steam. They're lounging on the bed basking naked in the late afternoon sunlight and Shane's dragging his fingertips down Ilya's spine and saying "I love the way your back arches, right here" and he's laying soft butterfly kisses on every single one of Ilya's moles and he's murmuring "I love your beauty marks" and he's cupping Ilya's face and he's sweeping both thumbs across Ilya's cheeks and he's saying "Your eyes are so beautiful. And your eyelashes, fuck" and on and on and on: I love your shoulders, they're so fucking sexy I love the hair down from your navel I love your knuckle bones I love the way you smell I love the way you taste I love the arches of your feet I love the pale backs of your knees and with each earnest confession Ilya's smirking assuredness starts fading until he's left blinking and blushing and squirming until he's bursting up and desperately smothering Shane, covering his mouth and face with both hands because "ENOUGH enough oh my god Hollander you're trying to kill me!!"
I think I love this headcanon because Shane is actually pretty reticent with straight up compliments, unintentionally. Obviously, it's a product of him Repressing™ and downplaying just how much Ilya means to him during their situationship era, but then that just accidentally sticks. So when Shane looks at Ilya one day while he's sprawled out on the couch in that black tank that makes his arms look insane and his hair is just starting to dry from the shower, he just stops in his tracks and stares. And eventually Ilya notices and glances up like What? And Shane just shakes his head and goes "Nothing, nothing it's just... You're really handsome." And it feels a little silly to say it that bluntly, but it's the truth. And suddenly Ilya gets all pink cheeked and wide eyed and now it's Shane's turn to go "What?" And Ilya shrugs, playing at noncommittal because "You have not said this before, really." And Shane stares at him blankly because "Surely I have." And Ilya kind of shrugs again but - but no, no surely not because - "I think it all the time. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw you in person." And now Shane is genuinely flabbergasted, searching back in his memory because surely this has come up before, surely Shane let it slip at least once even when he was desperate not to let on just how much of an effect Ilya had on him. And when Shane twigs that no, actually, he's somehow kept a lid on just how blisteringly attractive he finds his boyfriend, suddenly all bets are off. He is blurting out every compliment that crosses his mind. He becomes the compliment MACHINE. And it always leaves Ilya a little flustered and squirmy and quietly delighted.
















