Ok but headcanon that Shane is one of those people who will just write βLove, Shaneβ at the bottom of a card UNTIL he feels comfortable being vulnerable with that person, at which point he writes the most heartbreakingly sweet and earnest notes
And no one is ever ready for the switch, and even after it happens they can never fully prepare themselves for what theyβre going to get. Shane has learned that when heβs going to do that he should take them aside to give them the card rather than in front of people
Once Shane feels comfortable with Hayden as a genuinely good friend in his birthday card that year he writes out a whole thing about how heβs always wanted a best friend like other kids had but never had one and had accepted he never would, and then Hayden came into his life and gave him a level of love and friendship he never thought he would get and he loves everything about Hayden and canβt wait to be by his side as friends and brothers for the rest of their lives. Hayden fully breaks down and loses it, Jackie notices theyβve been gone a while and walks into the kitchen to see Hayden hugging Shane and sobbing into his shoulder. She raises her eyebrows at Shane and Shane just gives her the OK sign and goes back to rubbing Haydenβs back
Ilya learns about the card thing when itβs yunas birthday and he notices her opening Shaneβs card like sheβs deactivating a bomb. She stares silently as she reads it and Ilya starts freaking out a little when she starts to tear up and then pulls Shane in for a long silent hug. He looks at it later and sees that Shane wrote about how the last year made him realize over again how lucky he is to have someone as strong and supportive as her as a mother and he hopes to one day be half the parent to his own kids as she was to him
When itβs their first time having Ilyaβs birthday together heβs legitimately nervous because this is his first Shane Card and he doesnβt know what to expect and part of him is afraid heβs built it up too much in his head and Shane wonβt have as nice things to say as he did with other people. And then he opens the envelope and thereβs no card but instead multiple pieces of paper because Shane couldnβt fit it all into a limited space. Ilya spends the better part of the next hour walking around the house reading it, taking breaks occasionally to cry or hyperventilate before going back to reading it because holy shit does Shane Hollander love him. Like he knew logically that Shane did but now heβs got pages and pages of Shane walking him through his feelings over the last decade of their life and every moment he remembered and cherished. Shane finally catches up to him and heβs on the floor of the kitchen, face a splotchy red mess, chugging Gatorade because heβs dehydrated from crying
David texts later to ask how his first Shane Card was and he just sends a wall of crying emojis and David is like βLOL yup, the first Fatherβs Day he did that for me I had to take the week off work or else I would remember it and cry in my officeβ














