you are what you love

The thing was, Shane actually enjoyed doing their laundry. It was a nice, calming, repetitive task. Sort, wash, dry, fold, put away. Easy. Only, he had been busy, and that wasn't a problem - Ilya had offered to put the laundry in the machine, so it would be done when he got home. Perfect.

Well, maybe not so perfect. Shane was looking forward to taking care of the laundry after a stressful day. That mood shifted when he retrieved said laundry and had to realise that Ilya actually hadn't bothered to separate their laundry. Not out of malice, but simply because Ilya's brain was operating a little differently and he saw no benefit in sorting first. Shane was usually pretty good at telling their clothes apart, but with three people, three men, three surprisingly similar tastes it seemed, this felt impossible.

"Ilya, Luca!" He called them into their laundry room, being met with matching questioning looks at they walked in.

"Good luck figuring out which is yours."

It all went downhill after that. Not terribly so, but somewhat hilariously so. Suddenly, every shirt was Ilya's.

"Ilya no, that's mine," Luca protested.

"But it fits me, look," Ilya tried to prove his point.

"What is the point anyway? We share, yes? Like good boyfriends," Ilya argued, "You keep stealing my sweaters."

"That's not the same."

"Yes, it is."

"Ilya, give the shirt back to Luca," Shane sighed.

"Oh, so now you do know whose shirt this is? Interesting."

They ended up arguing like that over every single shirt, until the basket was finally emptied.

"I am going to colour-code you, if this happens again," Shane let out another sigh.

"You would not," Ilya retorted, but Luca looked at Shane, then Ilya.

"I think he actually would," Luca almost squeaked out.

"Pray you are never going to find out," Shane looked at both of them, and Ilya couldn't keep a mischievous grin off his face, earning him Luca's elbow to his ribs, before Luca walked over to Shane and leaned in for a soft kiss, with a smile on his lips.

"Thank you for always doing our laundry."

Shane sighed a little against Luca's lips, and began to relax again.

"Welcome. Now go take Ilya, I actually want to put this away without his hands in the way."

Loyalty (1869)

— by Briton Rivière

Loyalty (2025)

After a while of talking about how Anya acts the trainer says there’s nothing to worry about, Anya likes Shane just fine, it’s just that she sees him as the boss and is acting accordingly

And Ilya is like. But. I’m the one who adopted her? And raised her before Shane got here?? And the trainer is just like yeah well she sees you more like an equal. And Ilya is like WAIT she thinks Shane is in charge of both of us?? And the trainer is just like well do you interact in a way that would make her think that?

Ilya’s life flashes before his eyes as he thinks of all the times Shane has come over with a snack for Ilya and a treat for Anya, or all the times Shane has announced they’re all going for an after dinner walk, or pets Ilya’s hair and tells him he did a good job at practice, or the fact that he uses the same warning tone with Anya when she misbehaves as he does with Ilya when he’s causing problems on purpose

We don’t talk about this enough. With all the big romantic gestures in The Long Game, this, to me, is one of the most romantic moments.

We know Ilya isn’t a fan of Shane’s restrictive diet. He teases him about it, but Ilya is an expert ragebaiter who knows how to tease the people he cares about when they feel safe and in ways that never really hurt.

Shane is “frantic” in this scene. Ilya has the perfect opening to say something about his diet, and he doesn’t take it. He sees that Shane is panicking, steps in and fixes it. He was looking at that menu thinking about Shane and Shane’s fuckass diet that Ilya doesn’t even like. But he knows this is important to Shane. He knows Shane is already nervous about being on a date with Ilya in public and being with another queer couple. So he meets Shane’s needs without Shane ever having to ask, and he does it quietly, without drawing any attention, so that Shane can save face.

Of course he’s gonna tease him about it a little bit later because that’s what they do. But he only does that AFTER Shane’s had a chance to catch his breath and feel safe again.

Shane glanced over to see him frowning down at Luca's phone. "What is it?"

"Someone's calling. I think lover maybe" his words sound slightly nasally- a side effect of the punch he took after Luca went down. If he looked hard enough, Shane could see the bruise starting to form near his right eye in the light of the street lamps.

"Why do you think it's…that?"

Ilya held up the still vibrating phone, which displayed a row of hearts as the caller ID. "I should answer…right?"

"No!" Shanes eyes, darted back to the road "I mean- there must be a reason he hasn't mentioned anything about anyone… it would be an invasion of his privacy, right?"

"Hollander. Are you seriously saying you wouldn't want to know? If I was hurt, and no one knew we were together"

"I did get hurt when no one knew we were together."

hayden immediately groans and rolls his eyes openly. "god she is so annoying, all she writes about is the guy that broke up with her that week."

and ilya doesn't know much about her, sure he's heard the singles. he's danced to blank space in the club and has drunkly sang love story with cliff at karaoke one time. but he loves pissing off hayden so immediately says, "oh, wow pike. i did not know you were so... what is woman hater word?" "misogynistic" shane provides next to him. "yes, thank you moya lyubov; misogynistic. boys write about break ups too, yes?"

hayden is pissed at the insinuation [and at shane for helping him] and to further press his buttons, ilya goes to the living room so he can dance with the girls.

this becomes a thing, swiftie dance parties with uncle ilya, and as he keeps listening he starts kinda digging the music. he stumbles upon marjorie one day and cries so hard he almost throws up, and suddenly he's buying pit tickets to the eras tour for him, shane, and the girls off of stub hub.

by stilinscute

chapter one- big fat gay crush

__________________________

“You, um.” Luca’s eyes dart nervously from side to side. After a steadying breath, he meets Ilya’s stare again. “You used to be my favorite player growing up.”

Ilya smirks, asks, “Used to?”

Bood and the gaggle of younger players laugh. Bood nudges his shoulder into Luca’s and teases, “Aww, little Luca, did you have ‘Rozanov’ themed birthday parties?”

“Bet you still have his poster all over your walls, rookie,” Young chuckles.

“I don’t still have them,” Luca snaps, eyes narrowing in on the other men. He realizes his slip up immediately, the pretty pink in his cheeks darkening to a mortified red. Luca hangs his head, flinching as his teammates clap him on the back before they double over in laughter.

Ilya is surprised to discover that he’s chuckling as well, maybe for the first time since Shane left Ilya’s new house after helping him move to Ottawa.