atemonai

ilya is absolutely infatuated with shane’s stomach. shane is an avid moisturizer thanks to yuna, so he’s soft all over, but the skin on his stomach is especially smooth. ilya is obsessed with rubbing and kissing it during sex obviously, but it’s more than that.

anytime they’re cuddling, ilya’s hand is up shane’s shirt. he’s scrolling on his phone, rubbing a hand firmly up and down shane’s stummy. sometimes he’ll shove his head under shane’s shirt so he can lay on his stomach. shane gets nervous and takes the shirt off when ilya’s been under there for too long because he doesn’t want him to suffocate.

when shane’s making dinner, ilya is constantly yelling at him to take off his shirt. if shane refuses, he comes over and does it himself, planting a kiss on his belly.

he loves his hard abs in the morning, but also how his stomach distends a little after dinner. he loves that he can hear shane breathe and his organs work to digest when he lays his ear on his tummy.

he especially loves watching shane workout shirtless in their basement gym, hot and sweaty and panting. watching his breath go in and out behind his bellybutton makes him feel mushy inside in a way he can’t put into words. he watches as it goes from in and out and in and out to a more slow in out as shane cools down.

years after they retire, naturally shane gains some weight and doesn’t keep up with his grooming as much as he did when he was constantly naked in the locker room and doing photoshoots all the time. and ilya dieeeesss. he loves the little trail of hair up from his groin and the softer give to his stomach. the skin is still just as soft and still makes a good pillow.

rating: T | tags: soft middle-of-the-night happenings, cuddles, banter, domesticity

shane wakes in the night needing to pee. ilya is cuddling him from behind, one arm cushioning shane's neck and the other weighing down the dip of shane's waist, their legs criss-crossing and tangled in blankets. shane is loathe to move, but his bladder is full and insistent and he knows he won't be able to fall back asleep without dealing with it. so he begins the awful process of disentangling himself from ilya — unhooking an ankle from ilya's calf, removing a leg from between ilya's legs, lifting ilya's arm from his stomach. he does it all painstakingly slowly, not wanting to wake ilya, but his efforts prove futile. he's barely shifted away from ilya when he hears ilya inhale behind him, feels him stir.

sleepy hum, then, "shane?"

so i posit for your consideration:

autistic shane who becomes like a cat when he's comfortable with someone (speaking from personal experience)

yes, draping himself on ilya at every opportunity, biting ilya's face and then tearing off laughing when ilya jumps up to chase him, leaning his full weight on the top of ilya's head when he's trying to answer emails or be even slightly professional, sneaking his hands under ilya's tank or shorts just to self-soothe on his husband's warmest, softest skin

but also

leaning with his arms dangling over hayden's chest like a living backpack while talking to jackie (probably with the twins on his back), and hayden ignoring it completely

curling up against Yuna's side, shoulders touching, while they watch a game together, each person used to subconsciously dodging the other's wildly swinging arms at a bad call or goal

laying with his head on rose's lap when they go on a "bffcation" to cabo, each on their phones with drinks at their knees, showing each other memes and tipsy giggling

curling his arms around harris's neck and putting his cheek gently against harris's while harris scrolls through the photos he took for the latest social media campaign, talking excitedly about them

and some reporter asks ilya if he thinks shane is cheating on him bc ofc the tabloids have caught wind of this behavior and his face gets that particular smirk that means someone is about to be verbally defenestrated. "genius observation. they hire you at top of your class? breaking news: man is affectionate with loved ones. congratulations your pulitzer will arrive in mail in 6-8 weeks. no, truly brilliant idea for next Centaurs social media campaign. adopt a hockey player. ‘shane hollander: domesticated but not trained. may climb into pockets unsupervised.'"

of course it goes viral. of course shane reams ilya bc what was all that media training for??? and ilya just shrugs and gives him the big eyes like no one talks shit on you but me, but also fuck toxic masculinity and shane sighs and pets his hair and grumbles i knew i shouldn't have let you on tumblr

and of course harris absolutely loves the idea and begs shane to let them do it, which he acquiesces to.

shane's has an entire reel of him hanging off of people and shane is mortified bc he didn't even realize he was doing it but he's not actually mad bc it proves how many people he can be open and loving with, and the response is insanely positive

and then ilya's goes live and it leads with that infamous image of him skating away smirking with blood running down his chin.