Fearless Fiction est. 2014

hiiii angel!!!! i doooo… these are all mix of just things i’ve read recently that i’ve really enjoyed (i don’t really go out of my way to read fic, so some of these are my mutuals or fics that pop up on my dash via mutual), which is a given, but as always mind the tags and i hope you find something you haven’t read yet!! enjoy!!

carrion comfort by eden22 (wip; another true au that i have been eatingggg tf up. perilous situations w the person u maybe might love. yumyumyum)

the dust you seldom see by servetas (wip; yetttt another true au who am i. if u’ve been following me ikyk. this fic has been running my fucking brain… characterization is sooo close to myhollanov. it compels me)

second, third, and hundredth chances by kisscamcolby @montrealmetros (ohhh divorced hollanov… this genuinely rocked my shit. like. this just makes my brain buzz like no other i can’t explain it. so chewy and so well done)

let’s get married by scottstreets @literaturebf (just so so sweet. fics that have you grinning so hard your cheeks hurt. MYTHEM)

with a hand on my heart by apliddell @heart-eyes-hollander (VAMP ILYA!!!! fic concepts that are so up my alley. characterization also soo mwah)

a different kinda tension by soloisms @hollandcr (when pleaky laid that pussy on him in tampa… been thinking a lot about trans shane and revisited this one recently. just beautiful showstopping amazing. i love my mutuals’ beautiful minds sm)

cottaging by gone_girl (i have nothing to say except. this had me walking around in circles. like that one gif. you know.)

BONUS HUDCON if that tickles ur fancy… body bag by delsicle @delsicle (the concept of this….. i have been chewing on it forever and del made it real. life is so beautiful. go here please.)

gulf winds   | 31K | "I do not," Shane said, which was a lie. "And you should reflect on why you like to make your boyfriend upset so often." "My boyfriend likes to be upset," Ilya said. He was leaning fully over into Shane's space now, his elbow on the center console bearing so much of his weight as he swayed, almost accidentally closer. He was giddy, childish, how had he forgotten how good it felt to be with Shane, just to be next to him and talk – "Is there a rest stop coming up?" Natalya asked from the backseat, and Ilya didn't flinch, exactly, but it was a near thing. He'd almost forgotten she was there.| The best 'Ilya gets stuck with his niece' fic I've read so far. Everyone is messy and complicated and ends up hurting each other. Ilya's niece feels like a real teenager. And of course getting saddled with a teenager completely derails Shane and Ilya's Ottawa plan. Realistic consequences make for great conflict and storytelling. Lovely structure (non-linear narration with different intertwined storylines).

get gone | 11K | Shane tries to grab at the right words. "She's not - it's not that simple. Shane Hollander is me but it's also like - it's a thing people use to sell something. It's like a cardboard cutout of me."|   Great story that deals well with Shane's anger, his complicated relationship with his public persona and, last but not least, how and when he and Ilya fight. Also does a good job of showing the less nice side of Yuna Hollander, momager. This author has a superb handle on Shane's characterisation, imo. 

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by @flawlessassholes | 31K | Nobody knows if Ilya Rozanov tried to kill himself before the draft. Nobody sane goes first overall. And nobody knows if Shane Hollander is going to survive another mediocre season with the Boston Raiders. Isn’t it funny how a single nick in the ice can change the entire game?| My note for this fic simply says "mental health AU" which probably is very indicative of the gibbering mess I was when I was done reading. Take this as a warning, ok? In this AU both Ilya and Shane have mental health issues, everything is handled very well, as far as I can tell, but I also must say this story hit too close to home for me, so I can't be very objective about it. I also gathered this is inspired by a book, but I've never read it and was able to enjoy this without any prior knowledge, FYI. 

System Collapse by @darlingofdots | 7.6K | Shane Hollander has severe food allergies. Fortunately, his teammates don't know that. Unfortunately, his teammates don't know that.| There seems to be a niche (but not too niche) fanon that Shane has severe food allergies and I think this lends itself very well to exploring certain sides of Shane (when it doesn't delve into misery!porn) and when I saw @darlingofdots had written a story about it, I knew it was going to be excellent. Fantastic Hayden and Jackie as supportive friends. Love the story structure too and the way therapy is portrayed here. I really hope the author will write more because there's a few threads that could be explored more. 

lotophage by @citrusses | 9.8K | During a game against the Boston Raiders, the Metros’ star center Shane Hollander sustains a concussion. Six months later, he still has no memory of his life before the injury.| This fandom has a thing for amnesia fic, I've read so many stories (most of them excellent) so I honestly didn't think anyone could possibly write one that would put a new spin on the trope, you know? Ha. I was a fool. @citrusses gives us a devastating amnesiac Shane. Superb writing. One of those stories that went straight to my Kindle for future re-reading. 

Just a Formality by @catherineland| 12K | AU where Shane and Ilya do not get caught by David in 2017. And for an entire year Shane hasn't been able to come out to his parents. Ilya gets a concussion, and Yuna gets a call.| A lovely Yuna POV. 

a pox on all your houses by @the-apocrypha| 20K | Chlamydia?" Ilya has never heard Hollander's voice reach such heights in the absence of a cock. "You have chlamydia?" "I did not get it on purpose," Ilya complains.| The one where Ilya gives Shane chlamydia and it's actually a good thing for their relationship. So funny. Perfect character voices. 

Your Flight Has Been Delayed | 25K | Ilya Rozanov is many things—a pain in Shane Hollander’s ass, hockey’s biggest playboy, a better chirper in his second language than most people are in their first, the only player who can challenge Shane for the title of “best of his generation.” But when Shane and Ilya get stuck next to each other on a long-delayed flight to the MLH Awards, Shane realizes something else about him: Ilya Rozanov is hot.|  Cute AU with a different first meet. Fun, good character voices. . I've just realised a second chapter has been added since I read this! Exciting. I'll read it soon, but right now I'll just say the first chapter worked perfectly well as a standalone for me. 

Farewell Mother Russia | 16K | After a decade of careful hiding, that’s that. Everyone is saying his biggest secret out loud. Ilya Rozanov sucks cock. Ilya Rozanov fucks men. Ilya Rozanov isn’t straight. It doesn’t feel quite as life crushing as he imagined it would. A calmness settles into his body. It reminds him of those minutes right after you break a bone, when the damage is already done and you know there’s nothing you can do but sit with it. It hasn’t even been four years since Russia passed the excessively named Law for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values. He can’t think about that now.| Canon divergence AU in which Ilya is outed. Lovely Ilya POV and exploration of his feelings for his family and country. 

Exhibit A by @coffeedrgn87| 6.4K | Ilya Rozanov has photographic evidence that could destroy Shane Hollander's reputation. At least, that's what the internet thinks. Briefly.| Sweet and funny. Good characterisation.

Unusual Expenses | 3K | Once Shane's parents know about his relationship with Ilya, they begin treating him accordingly. Ilya is prepared for this. Until he's not. Or, sometimes love comes in the form of unexpected lectures on the rules regarding taxation of capital gains by foreign nationals residing in Canada. And then Shane picks up the pieces.|

Doing The Work by @bomberqueen17| 3.4K | AN:  i know enough about hockey to know there's no way a teenaged rookie from a foreign country would have been left to get his own apartment in his first season. no way, he was in somebody's house. so this is whose house he was in, and what he did there.| Technically this is an AU, but not quite, everything that happens in this fic could have happened in canon, just off-screen/off-page. It's a fantastic vignette  about Ilya's rookie year and the vet family who put him up that season. Love OCs when they're done well like here. 

Do you think about me? Do you think about us? by @queengoose| 3.3K | Shane knows that the opinion of one eighth grade girl from the Boston suburbs is not the thing that will make or break his career. It would matter exactly the same if she was from Montreal, or Texas, or the moon. Which is to say, not at all. She’s not even a hockey fan. Her opinion and her comment are nothing. It doesn’t feel like it’s nothing, though.|  Peak 2014, Shane and Ilya do the ice-bucket challenge. So much fun and perfectly in character for that time in the situationship and the internet era, so to speak. The author had such a stroke of genius.

i'm always, forever, running back to you

Boston Boys by xpityx, ilya/shane & bears, NSFW, 58k wip     When the unsentimental financial imperative of the NHL sees Shane traded to the Boston Raiders, he and Ilya are thrown into closer extended proximity than ever before. As they adjust to life as teammates, they are forced to contend with the nature of their relationship -and must answer for themselves: is it even a relationship at all?

Phone call from a Boston jail by FlamesToDust, ilya/shane, NSFW, 16.4k     Shane gets himself into some unlikely trouble and needs to be bailed out of a Boston jail in the middle of the night. There's really only one person he can call, and it's the last person he wants to face... Set post-tuna melt in a universe where Rose doesn't happen.

high on hockey by goldengalaxies, ilya/shane & cast, 4.4k     Ilya Rozanov: Is true. You are so beautiful. I cannot believe you exist. So pretty. And I get to have you and love you and be your boyfriend- [Shane slams his hand over Ilya’s mouth, his expression panicked.] Shane Hollander: This interview is over! Cut the cameras, now! (the players at all-stars 2018 eat spiked brownies. cue a chaos + a hollanov reveal)

(Oh I believe in) Yesterday by queengoose, ilya/shane & wyatt/lisa & troy & centaurs, 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

biphasic by PenAndInkPrincess, ilya/shane, nsfw, 25.1k     “I’m sorry,” he says, turning heel and resisting the urge to just book it right for the front door only because he’d rather not have to explain to Hayden why he returned from a hookup with Boston Lily in men’s clothes that he certainly didn’t leave in. It’s not until he makes it halfway up the stairs to Rozanov’s bedroom that it occurs to him in a cold rush that it isn’t just anxiety that makes it this hard to breathe. “No,” he tells himself firmly, white knuckling the bannister and trying to take a deep breath just to prove that he can. It wheezes. (how the tuna meltdown is averted through the power of food allergies and anaphylaxis)

Busted by AC91, ilya/shane & hayden & j.j., NSFW, 13.2k     Hayden just wanted to surprise Shane with a guy’s night in. Shane had been flat lately, and he and JJ thought it would be nice to distract him with friendship. How they ended up stuck in a fucking closet watching Shane get dicked down harder than anyone in the history of the world has ever been dicked down, Hayden would never quite understand.

Influential by 409_conflict, ilya/shane & david/yuna, 13.9k     The problem is, no one knows how to market Ilya Rozanov's (in his own words) sexy Euro masculinity to an audience of white straight men. He needs the best. And if it happens to be his secret lover’s mother who despises his very existence, so be it.

Crushed by CoffeeDragon87, ilya/shane & troy/harris, 2.4k     Harris needs Shane Hollander to crush a watermelon with his thighs. For charity. OR "Is charity watermelon. Has rules."

One True Love by CaffeinatedFlumadiddle, ilya/shane & troy/harris & centaurs, 23.8k wip     In which Troy doesn’t immediately post Harris on his socials after coming out, and Ilya is inspired to come out shortly after. The result? An unfortunate misunderstanding, which leaves everyone thinking Baranov is the cutest couple in hockey. Everyone other than Shane and Harris that is.

Centerfold by FlameHazel18, ilya/shane & david/yuna, 4.8k     "I knew it!" Ilya crows much too loudly, smacking Shane in the chest with the magazine. "Shane Hollander, did you buy this to jerk off to?!" Or: Ilya is tasked with helping Shane clean out his childhood bedroom. He is totally, completely, extremely normal about this.

Montreal Metros Go Broke For Woke by 409_conflict, ilya/shane & voyageurs & bears, 16.7k     They may not have any idea how to do it, but there’s no way in hell the Montreal Metros are going to risk losing their Captain to a more accepting team. Full of determination, grit, open hearts, and absolutely no savvy, this team is going to learn how to be allies, come hell or high water.

Barbe-Q&A by prailock, ilya/shane & centaurs, nsfw, 7.7k     In their first summer after being outed, Shane finally accepts that invite to Bood's backyard barbecue. It could have been a relaxing night. But Ilya's brought vodka. And the Centaurs brought questions. Might as well rip off the band aid before he signs with Ottawa. Or How many shots is it worth to know what your Captain likes in bed?

multitasking by spelling__bee, ilya/shane & cast, NSFW, 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?

Eye of the Storm by Lily_wing, ilya/shane & david/yuna, NSFW, 20.9k wip     When Montreal is hit by a bad storm on the night of their game, Ilya thinks Shane might let him stay the night. What neither of them knows is that Shane's parents, also caught in the storm, have had the same idea.

the top 1% (of lovers) by Anonymous, ilya/shane, NSFW, 3.5k     He and Shane are in bed together, Ilya’s lips attached to Shane’s neck as they lazily grind against each other, when Shane says, “So you’ve slept with like eight hundred women.” Immediately, Ilya stops. He releases Shane’s neck—even though it makes Shane whine unhappily—and pulls back so he can meet Shane’s eyes. “What?” “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."

macro by PenAndInkPrincess, ilya/shane, 19.4k     (shane has a habit of sending his team's dietician his meals for approval) (the problem with this habit? he forgets to tell ilya exactly what it is that melissa does) (how the tuna meltdown is AVERTED through the power of miscommunication)

I'm Reading Your Lips (You're Speaking My Language) by some1_around, ilya/shane & david/yuna & svetlana & hayden, nsfw, 30.4k     Despite an inauspicious start, when Russia’s Ilya Rozanov learns that Canada’s Shane Hollander is fluent in Russian at their first World Junior Championships tournament, it changes everything and sets them on a different course. Instead of being branded as rivals from the very beginning, Ilya and Shane start off as friends. And, after all, a little friendly rivalry never hurt anyone, did it?

Two-Four-Eight-One-Oh-Eight (Ilya Hollander. Shane Rozanov.) by persimmonysnicket, ilya/shane & david/yuna & cliff, 4.8k     “He’s not sleeping.” Shane flares his nostrils—another gesture Yuna hasn’t seen in so many years. “He’s waiting for me to call a third time. Mom. Please. He’s—he’ll be so worried.” Yuna shifts her thumb and lets it drop. Is Yuna a bad mother if she hopes "Lily" doesn’t pick up?

quick, he needs more hockey! by SafelyCapricious, ilya/shane & scott/kip & carter, 10.5k     Kip sometimes teases Scott for how he prefers to stay off social media. But after some of the responses to his very public coming out, it's a survival mechanism more than not caring. Even Kip is less connected online than he used to be. So the first sign Scott has that something had happened is when his coach catches him after practice — he stayed late to help two of the rookies — and tells him that management wants to talk to him as soon as possible. Shane Hollander has been traded to the Admirals.

Boston's Shining Star by whenpigssoar, ilya/shane, 13.6k     Ilya Rozanov has decade-long beef with Boston’s other star athlete. Told in vignettes.

MORE RECS UNDER THE CUT because I have more to yell about and shove at you all in an attempt to make you drown like I'm drowning. I'm good at sharing like that.

As Shane and Ilya are going through the box, Ilya pulls out a little Centaurs branded notebook, with "Shane's Fun Facts!" written on the front in sharpie. Ilya is understandably delighted.

"What is this?" he asks, smiling from ear to ear, quickly yanking it out of the reach of Shane who immediately tries to swipe it out of his hands.

"It's nothing," says Shane, but the way his cheeks have gone pink behind his freckles tells another story.

"Uh-uh. It cannot be nothing if you don't want me to see it this badly."

Turning his back to Shane so he can't easily grab at it, Ilya opens to a random page and reads in Shane's 8-year-old scrawl:

Lightning bolts are five times hotter than the sun. That is very hot!

Ilya is grinning even wider now.

"Wow, Solnyshko, that is a fun fact."

"Fuck off," Shane says. He doesn't even attempt to grab it again, just kind of collapses and bonks his head into Ilya's shoulder. "I used to have trouble making friends as a kid. Dad suggested I start collecting facts to use as icebreakers. Y'know, to get conversations going."

"Did they work?" asks Ilya, tilting his head so that it rests on top of Shane's as his husband gives an almighty sigh.

"I think they made it worse, actually."

Ilya turns to another page and reads it out loud.

"Oology is the study of eggs. It's so cool because it looks like there are three eggs in the word!"

"Oh god," says Shane, burying his face further into Ilya's neck.

"I think you knew all the worst kids in Canada," says Ilya, putting down the book and wrapping his arms around Shane. "Those facts would have worked on me."

"Really?" asks Shane, glancing up at Ilya's face to see if he's teasing him, but Ilya is being perfectly serious.

"Of course. You came up to me and started telling me fun facts straight away, remember? 'I don't think you can smoke here.' 'Wow, Rozanov, you are the best player ever to watch.'"

"Fuck off, I didn't say that," laughs Shane.

"Well, it was something like that," says Ilya, pressing a kiss to the top of Shane's head. "So at least the fun facts worked when it mattered, yes? Imagine where we'd be if you hadn't come over to break the ice."

And Shane tugs Ilya even closer.