a sentient, teleporting, genderqueer street

Shane (staring intensely at where puck is about to drop, with the most casual voice): So where're you from, originally?

Player (star struk and also confused enough to answer): uh- wh- um, Texas?

Shane: huh, not much hockey there, how'd you get into it?

Player(excited about talking hockey with Shane Hollander!): yeah, my uncle played for the Maple leafs.

Shane: oh, cool, does he still play?

Player: no, he only played two seasons.

Shane (kindly, like a kindergarten teacher): You might want to follow his lead on that.

But when he asks Ilya what's wrong, and all Ilya can do is shake his head as tears start running down his cheeks despite his best efforts to stop them, he doesn't run. He doesn't roll his eyes. He doesn't demand that he get over himself and get on with it.

He holds him close and presses a gentle kiss to his chest, his chin, his temple, and then his lips. He cages Ilya's face in his enormous safe hands and wipes away the tears with a gentle swipe of his thumb. He presses a kiss to his forehead, where it hurts most, and looks him right in the eye without a hint of regret, or disgust, or hatred. He looks at him like he's always looked at him – eyes full of unbridled affection.

"What do you need? What can I do?"

And when Ilya tells him he doesn't know, that that's part of the problem, Shane doesn't get frustrated or annoyed. He just wraps his arms tightly around him until the trembling stops.

And it was Ilya who shut that down because he was scared Shane might try that with other people and get sick.

While it was definitely not his place and a little unfair to say while fucking him, Ilya had said, “you never, fucking ever let anyone fuck you raw, you understand? People are fucking liars, you don’t let anyone fuck you raw unless you are with them. Do you understand me, Hollander?”

Shane never brought it up again.

But now Ilya was going to bring it up. And that meant, if Hollander even remembered his desperate command from years ago, that he considered himself ‘with’ Hollander. Or at least, he wanted to be.

and i'm laughing about ilya feeling absolutely BETRAYED the first time anya hops off of his lap to trot after shane up to their room

his OWN DAUGHTER-

ilya, she just likes our bed and knows i'm going up

-TO BETRAY HIM LIKE THIS, AFTER EVERYTHING HE HAS DONE-

dude, you could also just come upstairs if you're that fucking bothered about it

-NO LOYALTY IN THIS HOUSE. NONE. ALL AROUND HIM ARE TRAITORS-

ilya trying to tell himself he wants to stay down on the couch and not give shane the satisfaction of giving in but also experiencing MAJOR fomo because the rest of his family is already upstairs for the night

Now my brain always goes "they wake up in their younger selves one day" sort of thing because I just love the thought of the chaos these guys could get up to with all the knowledge they have

BUT

Nate would be so confused. He's the only non time traveler because he didn't get caught in whatever shenanigans caused it in the first place because, well, he's dead. Suddenly this team is weirdly close and cohesive. They were already speed running this found family but its now somehow worse???? And ohhhhh the angst potential.

THE ANGST

Because here is the love of Sophie's life (but he's not really her Nate at this point is he?) - the man she loved and lost and mourned. She had just begun to really find her way with the grief and there he is again. But this Nate has yet to become that Nate, and if the team changes things - hits certain targets sooner, or differently, would he ever really be her Nate again?

Would he be the Nate that pulled together the original crew? Who's legacy created Leverage International and has impacted more lives than he could ever possibly know?

Because it was Nate that taught them they could be more than they ever believed. That taught them the skills they learned to hurt could be used to help. That they could forge their own path in the world, and it could be so so different from what they thought it could.

(It was Nate that brought together Elliot, Parker and Hardison together. Helped them heal, got them to lean on each other. Support each other. Learn how to ask each other for help - even of they never say the actual words).

Sophie, Parker, Hardison and Elliot would have all this history that Nate is now missing. They would be around this man who was foundational in who they became, and he would know none of it.