huhu

cliff marleau laying a blanket over it as inconspicuously as possible to try and get roz to fall in like a looney toons trap which he gets ONCE rozys first or second year and then roz doesnt go to the beach with him for 5 years.

cliff marleau with sunburn lines from his whore short swim trunks and constant sunglasses on his face.

cliff marleau trying surfing every year and wiping out IMMEDIATELY every year (he still tries over and over for an hour every year. this year will be the year he gets it. this year will be the year he succeeds. this year is not the year he gets it. this year is not the year he succeeds.)

cliff marleau building shitty sand castles and decorating them with shells and shit he finds on the shore.

big dick cliff marleau and big dick ilya rozanov in tabloids in the summer for their whore short swim trunks and clear dick print in the pap pics. they’re sunburnt and laughing and cliff is mid thigh deep into digging his beach pit and they’re dripping wet and will have heat stroke by the end of the day because they didnt drink enough water.

cliff marleau getting a mouthful of sea water because hes diving for a cool shell before the current pulls it out, he wants it for his sand castles or for his sea shell bucket (the kiddie bucket he used to dig out The Pit).

cliff marleau being slowly taken out to sea while someone’s trying to tell him from the shore, hes having too much fun to care. roz watching him slowly get further out and snapping a pic to post with “defense position open, ours is a fish😒”. he stops doing this and is more aware of how far out he is after 3 years when his mother finds out about this behavior and damn near grounds him to his room.

cliff marleau off season summer fun and hes lathering himself in aloe 20 minutes before he does sunscreen and goes right back outside for the whole day.

George Thomas Georgiadis - Young Man on the Sofa in a Moment of Relaxation

Wins Above Replacement | 9.5K | Ilya tries to take on Shane's tendency to deprive himself by using ancient Chinese military strategy.| No one writes sex-as-character-work as well as mcshrug. What a banger of a story.

the top 1% (of lovers) | 3.5K | “You’ve slept with eight hundred women,” Shane says. He’s a bit pink in the cheeks, but that might just be the arousal. “I did the math."| Hot, funny and in character. Shane!!! Lol.

Tin Roof Rusted by @lavenderprose | 5K| Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander are twenty, on top of the world, and a little irresponsible about it. This is the crash.| I normally don't go for omegaverse fic, but I really like this author and I'm so glad I have this a chance. It has fantastic world-building and it's not afraid to delve into the discrimination and society implications of omegaverse. Interesting OCs too.

if you're scared of wolves by @anotherwordfortrouble |92K | **| My note for this fic is a laconic but hopefully enticing enough 'Best time loop fic ever'. I should probably re-read it. I do I trust my self from 3 weeks ago, when I bookmarked it, though. :D

i looked over it and i ached by @isvsworld | 7.8K | “I don’t really think about stuff like that,” Shane replies in interviews, his lips wooden at the words. OR Shane and being haafu, 2nd gen, and Asian.| Those of you who have enjoyed my themed rec post on Shane's Japanese heritage should run, don't walk, to read this story! Because this explores Shane's heritage and racial identity and without shying away from the complexity of it all, including how it intersects with Ilya's (white, European) immigrant experience.

a pigsty built for two | 9.8K | Shane and Ilya get rid of their housekeepers as part of their plan to keep their relationship secret. Ilya discovers that keeping a house clean is easier said than done.| Funny and in character. I especially love Shane's backstory here. Shows the massive privilege these guys have in a fun way. If I were Ilya I probably wouldn't find this all as funny, tbh, but the characterisation for both of them makes it work for me here.

Performance enhancing strategies by @dubiousculturalartifact | 5.1K | The Shane Hollander Is Fucking Ilya Rozanov and Will Accept No Further Questions, Team Powerpoint Presentation| Shane comes out to the Voyageurs and it all goes well. It involves a PowerPoint, an adorable rookie and a locker-roomful of dumb hockey bros. Sweet and funny. It should have gone this way, damn, Shane totally deserved it.

Small Hours by @lavenderprose | 4.6K | Thoughts on a marriage; or, things that might have happened.| Err, normally I make a note when I bookmark a story, precisely because then it's easier to make a proper rec even weeks after bookmarking ..I didn't this time. And my memory is crap. And now I have no time to re-read but Lavenderprose is a great writer and that shall be enough, as recs go.

A Healthy Dose of Fear | 5.4K | Five times Shane scares the Centaurs, and one time he (accidentally) terrifies them.| A great take on a harder/meaner Shane than usual (especially when Ilya is involved).

symptoms may include pain and difficulty breathing | 2.1K | Ilya is injured but tries not to show it. Shane notices anyway.| Ilya deserves to be taken care of. This was so sweet and hot and in character.

Expert in a Dying Field by @bluegrasshole | 10.3K | Today is Tuesday, but it might as well be Wednesday or Thursday for all it matters. It’s a real Groundhog Day situation, Shane thinks, only Ilya isn’t aware and Shane doesn’t care about breaking the time loop, too content with their life to make any changes.| Future fic. Shane and Ilya are old. They've got...health issues. Amazing Shane POV. This is so heartbreaking and beautifully written. Made me actually cry and I'm not someone easily moved.

Clean Sweep by @theburialofstrawberries | 29K | Shane’s brain cycled rapidly through a half-dozen celebrities, porn actors, Grindr profiles, every attractive bartender who’d ever served him a beer, trying to find a comparison for this level of outrageously concentrated beauty in one person, but he was drawing a blank. The man—Ilya Rozanov, Facilities Attendant, his badge read—gestured around the supply closet. “I help you find something?”| I'm pretty sure everyone and their mother has already read this, because it spread like wildfire through my circle...if you have been living under a rock, somehow, this is  a canon-divergent AU set during the 2017-18 MLH season. Shane is Shane and Ilya is a janitor. This is totally going to be a classic in the fandom! So, SO good. Amazing characterisation and I love how the author remixed the main beats of canon and all the slight and big changes in this AU really work.

Don't stop believing (hold on to that feeling) | 33K | A series of vignettes following Shane's relationship with music through the medium of karaoke, set along the timeline of his relationship with Ilya.| I urge you to give this fic a chance, because going on the summary alone I honestly was very sceptical. And I shouldn't have been! I would have never imagined a story about Shane Hollander and bloody karaoke could be this good.

white collar crimes | 21K | So Shane Hollander is, how do you say in English, a dirty little thief. A clothing thief, to be precise. Ilya can't say he saw that coming, but he also can't pretend he's all that mad about it. His shirt looks good on his Shane. On Shane. On Hollander. Right. His shirt looks good on Hollander.|  Set during the situationship. Great characterisation and banter and feelings. Second chapter is my fave but it's all very good.

No Friction, Just Chemistry by @dragonmuse| 20K | After leaving behind his last job, Ilya threw himself into a new profession: making and selling all things one can pickle. His week revolved around the Sunday farmer's market. Everything seemed simple and predictable until a new vendor arrived late in the season.| I normally don't do full AUs but Vee is a genius and I'd trust them to hell and back. This was the perfect rom-com version of Hollanov. Cute, fun and in-character. It also comes as a podfic, read by the author, and that's always a big plus for me. 

so you must like me for me by @alasse9 | 36.2K | It turns out, having the worst thing you can think of happen to you when you're seventeen years old can end up being pretty liberating. And land you an unexpected best friend.| Shane is outed before the draft, goes seventh and ends up in Ottawa. Best friends to lovers, a trope I really like that somehow works really well for Hollanov. Sweet and earnest.

(Oh I believe in) Yesterday | 9.4K | Time loops are just a fact of life to Wyatt, insane as that sounds. He’ll happily settle in for a repeat day every couple of weeks. Chances are he’ll wake up tomorrow morning and go to regularly scheduled practice. A teammate probably pissed off their wife, which is an easily fixed problem. Or, the Wyatt-Hayes-centric-time-loop-Boxing-Day-fight-fix-it-fic| A super a fun and original take on the time loop trope! Love Wyatt as our POV character, he's so well-written and his relationship with Lisa is just lovely.

All Love Must Leave but Search For It I Will | 23K | A shoulder injury takes Ilya out for the season ten games into his second year with the Ottawa Centaurs. With one good arm and an empty house, Ilya battles with memories of his parents and his mental health.| Good depiction of depression (I have a thing for stories that explore Ilya's mental health). Great characterisation.

babies born in the month of may by @bitterbloodyorange | 5K | Yuna Hollander and the Art of Raising a Winner Without Giving Him (or Yourself) Too Much of a Complex About It; Ilya Rozanov's Incomprehensive Guide to Charming Your Stoned Boyfriend| Really lovely Yuna character exploration.

multitasking by @emotional-synth-music| 7.3K | *I am in hell, Ilya thinks. He's awkwardly hard in his cup and layers of gear. He can't focus. How the fuck is Hollander functioning like this? Is he actually so gifted at hockey that he can play at this level and still have space to let the sex demon in his brain run rampant? Is this what he's like all the time? *|Crack treated seriously. Ilya can suddenly hear Shane's thoughts. Hot and so lovely.

when you leave here by @iddayidnight | 8K | “It just feels like such a nothing story," Shane says. "But my mom’s so fucking... worked up about it.”  Ilya watches him. “I think,” he says carefully, “that your mom is also the parent of a teenage boy who played on that hockey team. And not just the manager of a person who is being asked for comment on a bad story. Yes?”  (Shane was fifteen years old when he moved to Sarnia.)| Extremely painful to read but extremely good fic about hockey culture. Inspired by We Breed Lions (which I discovered and read thanks to this fandom, obvs). Amazing characterisation.

Pencil in the Rest | 87K | Scent patches were mandatory for anyone participating in World Junior's, but a lot of the Russian guys Shane saw in the hotel or around the rink had them loosely attached to their necks or not quite centered over their scent gland. Shane had been on his way to his parents' car when the wind shifted, and he smelled that Rozanov, leaning against the wall and not-at-all-surreptitiously fishing a carton of cigarettes out of his pocket, must have been one of them.| Omegaverse with fully realised world-building and great characterisation. Excellent use of the soulmate trope. Unputdownable.And I say it as someone who's usually meh on both these tropes.

winning streak by @citrusses | 9.1K  | Everyone hates All-Stars. If anyone asks, Shane does, too.| Perfect, perfect Shane characterisation. Ilya is amazing too, but we are in Shane's head here. What All Stars means for our unhinged duo during the situationship era.

Shane As It Ever Was by @@exactphoify | 7.1K | Ilya wakes with no memory after an eventful night. Or maybe it wasn’t eventful. He doesn’t remember, that’s the problem.|Time travel fic. Short and sweet. And hot. Lovely.

oh well, I guess we're gonna find out! by @angel-deux-writes | 95K | Shane leaves that Vegas penthouse suite feeling wretched, and like an idiot, and like he never wants to see Ilya Rozanov again. Except, well. Then there are zombies.|Again, this took fandom over by storm for a reason, but if you haven't read it yet, my bookmark reads "OMG. Zombie apocalypse AU. Fucking perfect."

here we are and what the hell are we going to do with it | 24K | “Shane.” Ilya takes Shane’s head in his hands, squeezes his cheeks so that Shane looks puffy, absurd. Beloved. “I am saying that to me, even though you are retired, you will always be No. 1 hockey player. Fuck Wayne Gretzky.” That’s what does it, as Ilya knew it would. Shane rears back, spluttering, outraged, trying not to laugh. “Oh, I have committed blasphemy now. They will take back my citizenship, big crime, very sad.” Shane smoothes his hands along Ilya’s calves, rests his fingertips on Ilya’s ankles. “Fuck Wayne Gretzky,” he says. He looks like he can’t believe what he’s saying. Ilya wonders, distantly, if he can get it on tape to play back to himself when things feel particularly bleak. “We can live in exile together. I don’t care. You’re my, my best, my second best hockey player forever too.”| Probably the best 'Shane has to retire and comes to term with it all' fic out there. Excellent characterisation all around, I love that this was plenty angsty without being over the top.

Dance Yrself Clean | 3.3K  | Two summers, nine years apart, and the changes they bring| Really good Ilya character study.

clouds in my coffee | 7.4K | A scandal breaks. Rose drives to Ottawa, to be not-alone.| A fic in which Rose gets some of the care and comfort she deserves.

When I Walk Into The Room, I Do Not Light It Up. Fuck. | 12.2K  | Transitions are hard for Shane. Joining his husband's team turns out not to be an exception to that rule.| Shane struggles to adapt to Ottawa. Amazing Shane POV. Lots of hockey, which makes it all much more grounded and interesting.

Shane gazes up at him, his eyes half-lidded and heavy and a self-satisfied smirk slowly tugging at his lips. "Yes," he says, his smile cheeky and teasing, looking forward to Ilya's reply, whatever it may be - most likely poking at his sides, tickling him, and kissing his neck until Shane relents.

like the way he asked "what is nur-ate-iv?" makes me think man TRULY was not catching all of the words getting tossed at him so fast the second his eyes were even a LITTLE open. like he wasn't asking "what story did you come up with?" he's asking "what word are you even saying to me right now?" man got like 0.2 seconds to be like "oh i'm awake now?" before he was getting PELTED with english because shane had a forty step plan that couldn't wait like. three more hours.

in my heart, shane sleeps like a ROCK and is also non-functional if his sleep schedule is disrupted

either ilya is completely mia because he went to lay down with whatever kiddo came to get him and then fell asleep in their bed without meaning to, or shane wakes up to little feet pushing into his kidney or a little fist tucked under his arm or a kiddo sprawled sideways over him AND ilya in a way that canNOT be comfortable

@zouisalmightie

wakes up at 6 am alone and goes to investigate where his husband ended up and finds ilya curled up on a twin bed he's taking up almost all of the real estate on, their wide-awake child reading their little picture book while using him as a backrest, and shane picks kiddo up, sends them off to the kitchen to wait for breakfast and then *gentle smooch smooch until ilya stirs without fully waking up* hey. i'm sure twisting up like a shrimp is super comfortable and good for your back, but we have a king size bed, too, in case you forgot. just a reminder that you have some options here.

I think with Shane and Ilya's marriage it's this dual consciousness thing where everyone knows they're married, obviously, it was a huge deal. But it's like a quantum marriage, unless you're looking directly at it it's just not perceived. Rookies and trades are completely taken aback the first time they see Shane and Ilya snuggle together at the bar after a game, or kiss, or head off to their shared room. It's like oh right. Right. They're married. Obviously they would---right. Sure. We all saw the kiss. I guess. I kinda tried to forget about that.

In general I think no one upon no one wants to imagine two of hockey's greats being sincerely attracted to another man. That's like---fucking embarrassing. These are the guys you idolized most in the entire world, and now...? The cognitive dissonance is too much, so most just ignore it. Shane and Ilya are constantly having to remind people that they are in fact each other's husbands. They're going to All-Stars and some assistant keeps calling Shane up to ask if he wants event tickets for his partner or family and finally he's like "my husband already has an event ticket he's playing in the goddamn game."

Now I do think the Cens team, org, and home media are pretty good about it, they know Ilya and Shane personally and they've had a long time to wrap their heads around the idea that they're together. So they talk about it normally and causally. I think the Cens home announcers in particular love to drop marriage tea they manage to get from Shane and Ilya in the hallways and such. Stuff like "You know Ryan, I asked Shane this last week....he told me he can't carpool with Rozanov anymore because their music tastes are too different [cue for cheesy announcer laughter]"

Shane is like no! It’s embarrassing! And this is public! And you wouldn’t make me actually do that to Rose would you? You know the answer, I’m gay!

Only Rose thinks the whole thing is hilarious and gives Shane the go ahead so there’s no real reason to resist Ilya’s begging anymore, still he holds out to the day before the interview.

“Fine! Fine! You can ask about Rose, but I get to ask about anything I want too!” And Ilya’s like yes yes of course my love. His boring Shane would hardly ask anything damning.

Fast forward to the day of the interview Shane is fondly exasperated with Ilya’s Rose questions, and Ilya is being a cocky bastard so happy with how it played out.

Until they switch sides and Shane breaks out his first question:

“Is it or is it not true that despite famously calling Scott Hunter ‘a nearly extinct fossil’ you think he’s hot?” The blood drains from Ilya’s face pretty quickly after that.

“Do you think Hayden Pike is a good hockey player?”

“Do you consider Hayden Pike a close friend?”

“Who do you love more: me or Anya?”

“Besides me who is your favorite teammate?”

Like, Shane’s still not one to drink often, but they’re at a banquet or gala or whatever so mentally he’s decided he Has to, and the pressure to perform is kinda high so there’s a glass or two on top of when he should’ve called it quits, and now he can definitely feel himself at the far end of tipsy. It’s fine, he’s not at the point of being sloppy but his tongue is a lot looser than he’s comfortable with, so in comes his genius solution: no words.

Can’t embarrass himself if he’s silent. And really, more people were talking at him than with his so who really cares?

Ilya. Ilya cares. A whole lot. Shane is visibly rocking back and forth but now won’t answer if he’s okay or how he’s feeling or if he wants to go home. He’s nodding and smiling at people walking past but those flushed lips are Sealed. Not a peep! And it gets to the point of Ilya mentally running through every sudden onset neurological disorder he can think of while Shane revels in his successful plan that now has the added bonus of getting Ilya to stay right in front of him for the rest of the night :)