last reblogâŠi think every single day about how we actually got a good and realistic and lovingly&respectfully portrayed depiction of a queer autistic character who finds comfort in kink and submission AND then he also gets to be talented and hardworking and the best at what he does and so so loved. truly the character of all time he literally changed my life and the way i understand parts of myself
The Centaurs decide to secretly compete to see who can make Ilya laugh the hardest as part of a social media campaign promoting the upcoming season
Most of them get at least a chuckle out of Ilya, some get a full laugh. Shane goes last and he just silently texts Ilya something then puts his phone down. Ilya checks his phone and starts laughing so hard he almost passes out, with Shane smiling smugly at the others who all went all out in their efforts to make their captain laugh
The video ends with a screenshot of what Shane sent Ilya and itâs a picture of Anya wearing sunglasses
For weeks Ilya will start laughing when he looks at his phone and sees the picture and it pisses the team off every time because Shane just silently grins every time
Ok, what if when two soulmates happen to be in front of a mirror at the same time they can see each other? It starts almost immediately so Shane at three or four is sitting on his parents' bed watching his mother get ready and instead of himself he sees another little boy with a halo of curls. They stare at each other. Shane, confused, waves. His wrong reflection does not wave with him. The other boy tilts his head and blinks in confusion. His mother doesn't notice. After a beat, the other boy pulls a face at him and sticks out his tongue. Purely on instinct, Shane sticks his tongue back out at him. They both laugh and then the other little boy freezes and runs off. Shane's reflection returns.
"What's funny, baby?" his mother asks.
"Nothing." Shane says because he has no idea what that was.
It takes awhile for happenstance to strike again, and even then it's only glimpses for awhile. Then at ten, they move and Shane has his own bathroom with a big mirror. Sometimes when he's getting ready for school in the morning, brushing his teeth, the other boy is there instead, but he's dressed like he's going to bed. By now, Shane has heard about soulmates, he wonders if the other boy has too. So Shane mouths 'hi'. The other boy frowns and mouths back something else entirely. When Shane shakes his head, the boy wrinkles his nose. It takes a few tries before Shane painstakingly writes a message out backwards and show it to the mirror 'My name is Shane. I speak English. You?'
The other boy stares at the words, frowns and then runs off. Shane waits and even though he winds up almost missing the bus it's worth it because the other boy holds up a sign with weird lettering, but he's patient enough to hold it until Shane can take a picture with his Polaroid. It takes weeks of looking in the library (Shane doesn't ask his teachers much of anything usually and anyway, he doesn't ever know what to do with himself during library time, so it gives him a project). He determines the other boy is using Cyrillic. This explains less than he'd like. The school library doesn't have any books about Cyrillic. Defeated, he finally caves and tells his parents "I see a boy in the mirror, he uses this alphabet, can I get a book?" His mother hugs him very hard. Soulmates, he learns, are rare and precious. He also learns that maybe his parents were worried about him in ways that don't entirely make sense, but okay. Fine. Glad we squared that away. Can I have a dictionary now?
If it had been two years later, he might not have asked. He would have been too afraid of what it might mean to have a male soulmate. Lucky they moved. Lucky that they brush their teeth and the same time.
Shaky-handed characters and pantomime get them to 'Ilya' and 'Shane'. A lucky glimpse in a locker room bathroom gets them to 'hockey'. They start to use clocks to make sure they don't miss each other. When Ilya misses one of their schedule times, Shane can barely think about anything else all day. He knows they won't have a chance again until tomorrow, but when he goes to pee before dinner, he finds Ilya in the mirror, his eyes red-rimmed. For the first time, Ilya seems way too far away. Shane put his hand to the mirror and when Ilya put his hand up too and it's shaking, Shane wants desperately to be closer. That's how his mom finds him on top of the vanity which is not doing well with the weight of a preadolescent hockey player with his whole torso pressed to the glass. She doesn't make him get down. Maybe because he's crying too without any idea what they're both sobbing about. He won't for years.
It goes and goes. Shane interrupts Ilya getting ready to go out, finds him styling his hair. Shane mimics him with a smile and Ilya wrinkles his nose at him. Ilya watches Shane floss in bafflement, but takes up the habit too, seemingly so he can make fun of the faces Shane makes. When they happen to catch each other in hockey gear, they use their fingers to signal goals and assists. Shane keeps track in a little book that holds a lot of things. No one else can see Ilya, anymore than any one can see Shane on Ilya's side, but they learn to be careful in public restrooms, coming up with a clear subtle signal for 'not home' since they can't see the others location. They watch each other grow up. They learn how to write in each other's languages and backwards at that.
And finally, finally, comes the sentence that makes Shane's heart skip a beat. In Ilya's pretty handwriting (good even in his second language and backwards which makes Shane unbearably jealous and proud):
I will see you soon.
They meet at four sitting on their mother's beds across the world from each other. They meet at twelve, sharing a pain that doesn't need words to be clear. They meet at fourteen, Shane fresh out of the shower and Ilya shirtless, things wakening in Shane that he thought he would never understand. They meet at sixteen, hands pressed to the place on Shane's mirror that is always marred with fingerprints.
They meet at seventeen. Shane sees him across the parking lot and tries to stay cool, walking instead of running. He watches Ilya try to light his cigarette and gets there before flame touches it.
"You're not kissing me for the first time tasting like cigarette smoke, asshole."
"This is not romantic," Ilya protested. "This is not first time I hear your voice."
"I love you," Shane said irritably, "do not light that thing or I'll throw up."
Ilya's breath caught. "You do not know me. You do not love me yet."
"I do," Shane said stubbornly. Then he stuck out his hand, "I'm Shane Hollander."
With a smirk, Ilya took his hand. "Ilya Rozanov."
Shane didn't let his hand go. He held firm and Ilya didn't try to pull away.
"There, now we know each other. I love you. Kiss me."
"Shane. I have to go back. It is no good there if we..."
"I know. Mom read me a bunch of articles," Shane said with a shrug. "But there's no one else out here. Kiss here. Everything else later. Okay?"
"Okay," Ilya said.
They kissed in that terrible parking lot and Shane never wanted it to end. He pulled away with a soft sigh.
"Wow."
"Wow," Ilya repeated teasingly. "You will say this when we beat you too."
"Not happening," Shane laughed. He was still holding Ilya's hand, a circuit completed.
When Shane got back in the car, his mother asks, "How did it go?"
Shane has a number in his pocket and a promise for a mirror meeting tonight once Ilya's roommate goes to sleep that makes his ears burn.
"He's kind of an asshole," Shane said, delighted.
"Okay," his mother laughed. "I can't wait to meet him."
And it's not that it's easy. Ilya goes to Boston and Shane goes to Montreal. They will have years before they see each other more in person than through reflections. But when Ilya gets ready for game 7 of the Cup, he does it with Shane smoldering with lusty jealousy from twelve inches away. And when it's Shane's turn, Ilya wears his jersey alone in the privacy of his house so Shane can see it before he heads off to victory.
Even years later, when they're married and more often before a mirror together than trying to communicate through them, sometimes they do it anyway. If Shane is washing his hands, ready to go back out to a photoshoot, he'll look up to find Ilya flirting with him or holding up Anya to make her wave at him.
There is always a handprint on their mirrors.
Sometimes they are apart, but they are rarely alone.
âtheyâre truly cute togetherâ cassie says, sipping her coke as she watches shane and ilya being all lovey dovey. ilyaâs lips pressed to shaneâs ear whispering something that makes shane giggle and duck his head. lisa goes âi know right? i canât believe they had to hide for so longâ and selena adds âa whole decade hiding, thatâs so sad, i get completely wrecked inside whenever i remember itâ and cassie says âbut look at them now, theyâre together all the time, making up for all those years they couldnât be together for realâ and caitlin goes âiâm just so happy we get to witness them like thisâ and lisa nods and says âi get cute aggression every single time i see themâ and all the wags hum in agreement. then cuts to ilya whispering in shaneâs ear âand then i want to see you fingering yourself real good, really slow, while i jerk you off, but you canât come until i say so...â
What if Yuna and David somehow had a more balls to the walls deranged relationship trajectory then Ilya and Shane. Iâm talking mutual cheating, breakups galore, people being left at the alter yet still they do not come together until finally. After way too long. They come together purely by chance, spurned exes trailing behind them both and a happy marriage in front of them. (Shane doesnât even flinch at half this, too used to hearing it, Ilya is experiencing the cursed knowledge that it Could Have Been So Much Worse, Somehow)
Can you imagine the chaos if ilya and shane actually go through with telling the public they are together once they retire? Let's assume they find a way to survive all that time. Let's assume they find a way to hide it.
Imagine they retire at the same time and are asked to say something at their last awards show.
Walk with me here:
The last one giving a speech end his with "oh and one more thing" The other comes out.
Oh thats weird the audience thinks. Well they are really good friends and have a charity together. Maybe they want to announce something with the foundation
"Due to the blatant homophobia in the MLH we hid the fact that we were together for over 20 years and married for over 10. Now we can live happily out and together. Goodbye"
The internet would explode. The MLH would be burned to the ground
I think it would be hilarious if Ilya finds out that questions are not just a Shane Thing, but a Hollander Thing.
We see this with Davidâs inquisition about youtube and Yunaâs various questions to both of them throughout dinner.
The vast majority of Ilyaâs family conversations have been silence or statements met with a yes or no.
So he really gets thrown in the deep end with three Hollanders who all seem to communicate through endless questions.
He also learns they get very excited to be asked questions. âDavid, how did the offices summer party go? David, why did you re-uh-reupholster the boat?â or âYuna, do you think Pittsburgh will make playoffs? Sveta does, but⊠Yuna, how did you get the surround-sound quality so good?â
Itâs a little overwhelming at first but heâs so happy to learn how to be part of his family.
I love alternate universe fics where Shaneâs parents/Hayden find out because they walk in on like. Shane and Ilya passed out on the couch together. Ilya alone in Shaneâs apartment in his pajamas. Open boxes of sugary cereal on the counter at the cottage. Ilya making a sick Shane soup. Ilya and Shane playing video games together and being so loud they didnât hear the knocking on the door. Adidas sneakers lined up neatly in the hallway.
Fics where they donât just stumble across Ilya, but also across evidence of deep and long-lasting affection.
shane and ilya on a date, they decided to sit at the bar. and theyâre there drinking and yapping like they always do when theyâre together. when the bartender slides two drinks over and goes âthose ladies over there bought these for youâ and shane and ilya both glance over at the women who are very beautiful and clearly watching them. then shane goes âmaybe theyâre hockey fans?â and ilya looks at him with an eyebrow raised and asks âin greece?â and shane just shrugs. ilya turns back to the women, gives them a little wave and a polite smile, then grabs shane by the collar, pulls him in, and plants a big sloppy kiss on him right there at the bar. and when they pull apart, ilya looks back at the women and one of them is recording them with a big grin and the one goes âGO CENTAURSâ and shane says excitedly âsee theyâre fans!â
One day Ilya is trying to do some research on Anyaâs various breeds (he got her a doggy DNA test) and it turns out she has a large percentage of herding dog in her.
He comes across the sentence, âa common behavior in herding breeds is staring intensely at their human until they get what they want.â
one day a rookie is gonna flirt with yuna hollander not knowing who she is. her response will be "oh i'm flattered but you are young enough to be my son who, by the way, will KICK YOUR ASS in this next game." and during the game he will get slammed into the boards at approximately the speed of sound.
in the centaurs group chat, some player sent a photo of a cat with the caption ânew addition to the familyâ and the players started replying with comments about how cute the cat is and other cat owners started sending pictures of their own cats. then ilya texts âi also have a cute kittyâ and sends a pic of shane doing the angry kitten expression. shane looks over and asks why ilya did that and ilyaâs like âthey were all sending cat pictures, i sent mineâ. then ilya texts the group saying shane doesnât think he looks like a cat and the whole team starts replying that shane indeed looks like a cat. wyatt even says that the angry face he does towards ilya resembles a cat the most. then shane looks at ilya and says âthis team is truly a perfect fit for youâ and ilya gives his husband a peck and points his phone camera at him and says âlook, the angry kitten expressionâ and shane frowns even more.
ilya was cracking one of the self deprecating jokes like iâm lazy to shane and shane scrunches his face then yells out to the living room âMOM, DAD, ILYAâS PICKING ON HIMSELF AGAINâ and yuna and david fake gasps and yells back âDEFAMATION ON MY SON!â and shane grins and gives ilya a peck while ilyaâs brain short circuit because apparently he was just scolded for defaming⊠himself?
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