Hawkguy's Gal

They think the most saintly thing you can do is care for someone disables but don't care about the emotions the disabled person themselves feel. Once you reach a certain threshold of disability, people stop seeing you as on the same level of humanity as everyone else. So the thought of a disabled person actually having negative emotion towards this help is shocking to them.

Sympathy is handed out to those exhausted and hurt from having to care for disabled people (which is fine), but not those whom may be in the process of mourning their own bodies/ability/mind. We can show a nurse/doctor having a breakdown, have entire genres of show and movie and book revolve around it, but if a disabled person lashes out thats seen as something much crueler in the eyes of the typical viewer. Its spoken about in the same vein of a dog who bites and thus "needs to be put down".

Everyone assumes Arthur got his diagnosis and then Shane noticed some similarities and got his, but that's not it at all.

David was first. A coworker got diagnosed, some things sounded a little too familiar, and well, whaddaya know. Then Yuna read his diagnosis report, went, "Wait a goddamn minute," and booked her own set of appointments. Her report was 15 pages longer than David's. She was very smug about it.

Shane held out for a bit, because it was kind of obvious as soon as he looked into it, and why bother doing all the appointments and tests at this point? He's 30? He has a bajillion Stanley Cups? They have so much money now that between him and Ilya they actually have a three-person team employed just to handle their non-Irina Foundation philanthropy requests and commitments? Also, informed self-diagnosis is valid as fuck?

But then Wyatt has the idea for quiet hockey camp sessions, and Marleau, of all people, knows some basic sign language that make it more practical for a brief trial of kids-on-ice-in-knife-shoes-with-sticks-and-also -earplugs-but-NO-YELLING, and Shane sees that, fuck. All the kids he's really connecting with? Yeah, they want the quiet sessions. They're actually thriving with accommodations of all kinds, now that the coaches and staff are looking to offer them.

And then, talking with their parents, most of them are really struggling. Do they tell their kids' teams and leagues so they can get those accommodations? Sure, seems like a no-brainer. But not if it means they risk having their kid shut out, discouraged from advancing, from training the way they want to - from playing at all, sometimes. If this word, suddenly hateful, targeted, gets thrown at them at every opportunity by ignorant adults when there's a disagreement or the slightest issue in the locker room. If the kids themselves have to hear it as chirps on the ice before they even hit 10.

Ugh.

And, look. It's not like he needs yet another thing to be the poster boy for, but if one of the best players in a generation is loud and proud about being autistic, then maybe Joe and Zorah and Kamil and MacKenzie and Daniel and Béatriz and Su Yi and all of them will be able to play some freaking hockey. So.

He books the appointments.

When he gets back from the final session with his diagnosis report, he's a bit overwhelmed. Definitely overstimulated. He's stimming absently and his brain is tired and he's out of words, so Ilya doesn't give him his present right away. Not really the moment.

Instead he's a Russian Weighted Blanket™️ for a bit as they half-doze on the sofa, and then they make lunch, and then they take Anya for a long walk. To be honest, he's kind of forgotten about it by the next morning, which is when Shane sits in the armchair to turn on ESPN and there's a loud papery CRUNCH from behind the back cushion, where Ilya had hurriedly shoved it as Shane came in the door and was visibly Not In Gift Mode.

Oh. Right! Whoops?

Ilya snatches the crushed package from Shane's confused hands, straightens the bow imperiously (the entire thing is now a very sad smooshed and ripped pancake in shiny light blue and gold paper, but no matter), and then hands it back with a flourish.

"It's for you."

There is a large tag on the front that says, in Ilya's big block writing, 'SHANYA'. Shane looks from it to Ilya.

"You don't say."

"UNAPPRECIATIVE. Open it, go go go, come on."

Shane tears it open, unfolds the shirt, reads it, and promptly throws it at Ilya's head.

"Fucking really, Ilyusha?" He's laughing.

Ilya is beaming. "You like?"

Shane groans, but his smile is growing, and when he climbs into Ilya's lap to wrestle him (read: grapple him lightly while making out) it doesn't take much cajoling for him to strip off his pajama shirt and put the t-shirt on instead. Ilya preens. Shane groans.

"Why do I like you?"

"Because I am very funny and sexy and I am going to fuck you until you come your autistic brains out."

"...Okay, yeah. Decent reasons."

It takes exactly three days for Ilya to grab it when he pulls a random shirt off the floor on his way to get some eggs. He doesn't see the teenagers with their phones out, but it's whatever.

Twitter has a meltdown, Yuna scraps the official statement she was crafting, Shane posts his one comment for the year ("This man is a thief. Give it back, Ilya.") and the outpouring of neurodiverse excitement is truly wild.

And THAT'S when Jackie and Hayden decide to get Arthur diagnosed. Not that they'll ever tell anyone that.

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Masterlist of my Tumblr drabble lore drops for Hollanov and HR is here. 🥰

I wanted to give Harrison Browne his flowers in what little way I could so here’s this quick portrait. What an inspirational human being. (And the only pro hockey player on the damn show.)

Best of luck in all of your endeavors. I hope Connors got his room service.

A little winterhawk sketch based on a pinterest ref💜

Ref and lines below