theres a pack of cigarettes

and hes just staring at it for a few seconds and then goes "huh" and mentally wiggles his finger at his boyfriends mom bc yuna yuna yuna after all these comments about him smoking tsk

he puts them back and tries to hint here or there that he knows over the next few weeks. it never seems to land.

(those were davids)

(this not once crossed ilyas mind)

(plus yuna now thinks he found the cigarettes in her glove compartment for when the speedo ppl call bc theyre impossible to handle otherwise)

(after yuna simply Not Getting It ilya goes back and puts a note in there that says "hah, found them")

(so david assumes that was yuna and starts hinting at it)

(which makes yuna think ilya ratted her out)

He doesn't get much useful advice and soon the guys are arguing about how long you can pursue someone before it starts getting pathetic. Holmberg is at one end of the spectrum at two weeks ("We're rich professional athletes, man, we shouldn't have to try that hard.") and Wyatt Hayes is on the other at three months ("Maybe she likes you but just doesn't want the WAG lifestyle. You need to prove to her that you see her as a person with her own goals separate from yours.")

Then someone notices that Ilya, despite his wealth of experience, hasn't chimed in yet and asks, "What do you think, Cap?"

"Two years."

The entire room goes still.

"What?"

"Two years," Ilya repeats, completely unashamed. "Is not pathetic to go for what you want. Not if you think they're worth it."

In sync, every person in the room turns to look at Shane, who's pretending to fiddle with the laces on his skates, looking pink-faced and vaguely pleased.

Finally, Holmberg turns to the rookie. "Okay, I guess two years is fine if it's Shane Hollander. Is your girl Shane Hollander?"

The poor rookie has no response to that. His girl is, indeed, not literally Shane Hollander.

"Man, gay people move different," LaPointe mutters.

Shane Hollander has always dreamed of playing in the MLH (human hockey) but they do not allow rats to play, and there's not enough interest in starting a rat league. So he signs up for the operating business and gets paired with Scott Hunter, who has been in the league for some time but hasn't really hit his stride yet. Scott is desperate in a family in a way that feels kind of sad to Shane. Shane's "family" is small, he's the only one who survived from his litter, but like most in their society he was also raised alongside other hundreds of rats his age. It was lonely for him, of course, most rats didn't understand his love for hockey... and the operator program wasn't around until he was almost an adult, so for most of his life (rat life) he was set apart from his peers. Still, he had family to turn to. Scott Hunter really didn't.

Shane likes working with Scott, he's kind, a talented and hardworking enough player to synchronize their moves, and they get along surprisingly well. They have lots of quiet nights talking about hockey, eating side by side (Shane on the table of course, sitting at a tinier table because his mom trained him in human etiquette), and reading in their beds next to each other. He doesn't like that Scott gives him every summer off; Shane's best friend Hayden (rat Hayden) says he should be grateful, and it's nice that Scott always comes back from more relaxed, but Scott is also more skittish and morose in a way that makes the start of the season difficult for both of them.

Anyway, they have a good thing, and even though the season is off to a bad start, Shane is feeling good about their chances this year. His mom (who's been trying hard to get the RLH started) agrees. Then Scott meets Kip and.... Shane has feelings about it. Jealousy, maybe. Homosexuality is not as frowned upon in rat society, thanks to the focus on communal child-rearing... but romantic pair bonding are very rare and seen as a kind of foolish and indulgent. And... it's the first time Shane realizes he could have a romantic partner by his side forever. It's the first time he's paused to consider what he wants outside of hockey. And the first time he wondered if there was someone out there (some rat) who might understand him too. Scott is great but...

Ilya Rozanov signs up for the operating business as soon as he hears there are hockey players looking for operators. His life in Moscow was great, even with the death of his mama, thanks to his large social group to lean on... but his dad and brother have been putting more pressure on him to provide for the group, and Sveta and Sasha both left for the operating business already and... he's starting getting this creeping inescapable feeling that maybe he'll die if he stays. So he goes.

He's paired with Troy Barrett, who is a real asshole, but is surprisingly nice behind closed doors. Ilya gives him a lot of hell at first. The human is a bully like Ilya's (and Troy's, though Ilya doesn't know that at first) father and not even a good enough player for that, and their petty fights get in the way of the improvement they could have as a team. But they learn more about each other their respect grows, and they become a real force on the ice. Troy slowly rises up the ranks as one of the better players in the league.

Ilya is right there beside Troy when he finds out about Kent. Ilya waivers, it's human business, he's only here to play hockey. But Troy decided to call Kent out about it on the ice while Ilya is tucked under his helmet and.... well, Ilya suddenly respects Troy a lot more. Slowly they start to think of each other as brothers. When Troy is transferred to Ottawa, and has trouble adjusting to the new team, Ilya is right there with him (Toronto is one of the most chic & exciting cities for a rat operator to be assigned to, Ottawa is not). But when Troy and Harris start to hit things off... Ilya feels... lonely in a way he never has before.

Anyway, in an Admirals vs Centaurs game Scott and Troy have a freak collision on the ice. Somehow both of their helmets get knocked askew and Shane and Ilya go flying out and spin out into the center of the ice. They're revealed and broadcasted on the jumbotron and live TV (human tv) to the entire world. Rat operators are... common enough... but extremely frowned upon for professionals. The league doesn't have any rules for it yet, but now the whole world is asking whether or not these two players (the only two openly gay players in the league, mind you) should be stripped of their wins or asked to pay fines.

Shane and Ilya's first meeting is in the ruckus of their reveal on center ice. And even though they're in a crisis and they're both panicking a bit under the floodlights and the cameras (human cameras) are trained on them.... they've both just come face-to-face with a beautiful man (rat man) who they KNOW understands hockey—because they've been unknowingly playing against each other for years atp—and being alienated in both rat and human society and having to hide who you are. And they're curious. They're so curious (rat curious) about each other.

- On the couch in Harris' office

- Under the desk in Harris' office (he didn't want to be found, it was his best bet at a hiding place)

- On a chair in Harris' office

- On the bench in the changing room after practice

- In the gym (he was working out with Shane, who said he'd be right back. He wasn't)

- In front of the dishwasher (he was waiting for it to finish)

- In his and Harris' back garden (he let Chiron out and the dog had more energy than him)

- Chiron's new dog bed (he wanted to prove it was just as comfortable as the old one)

- Bood's bathroom (he need a minute, which turned into a twenty minute nap, eventually got woken up by Luca who really needed to pee)

- On the bed mid changing the sheets

- On Shane and Ilya's back porch (Ilya said he'd be right back, he wasn't)

- On the floor in Wyatt's living room surrounded by Legos (they were building a space ship together)

not just for the fact that noted hockey legend shane hollander has never 'gotten his bell rung' before in his entire life of playing hockey and he would Not be turning around in the neutral zone while in possession of the puck bc clearly, he knows how to skate. he's wicked fast with stickhandling and would be so used to avoiding targeted hits from his uhm, entire career of people targeting him.