My back hurts but I'm being brave about it

which then means he starts collecting lego sets as a hobby. shane reads his book, ilya does his latest lego, and they have very enjoyable parallel play time unwinding in the evening.

but shane also?? doesn't understand?? why everyone who comes to their house?? always thinks they're HIS lego sets??? man is undiagnosed and also has no real awareness of associations that people tend to have with other people who are also Shane Shaped, so he TRULY has no idea why every single person who comes to their house sees the legos and immediately turns to HIM to go, "oh? you're into legos? that's cool."

Cliff buys Ilya's house off him when Ilya moves to Ottawa -- mostly furnished, because Cliff needs pretty much everything (bad breakup, she kicked him out and somehow got his condo out of it) and what is money to Ilya Fucking Rozanov? As he settles in, Cliff starts to notice little...curiosities. The smart TV is still logged into Roz's YouTube account and the guy watches a LOT of Shane Hollander highlight compilations? And interviews? And shirtless ads? But whatever maybe it's chirping material. But also there's a ton of ginger ale in the fridge and Cliff has literally never seen Roz -- or, like, anyone -- drink the stuff. Well, he's heard Hollander does. He keeps finding more and more random but extremely telling clues like a fucking Hollanov scavenger hunt and by the time Ilya and Shane get outed, Cliff isn't even surprised, he's just glad his best friend isn't a stalker.

shane having to leave for a week for a photoshoot and two brand meetings and ilya's pining getting interrupted by looking at the little dish where their rings live on their dresser, clocking immediately what's missing, and sending shane a "count your days, you fucking thief" text that makes shane grin before he gets on the plane with a little piece of his husband along for the ride

🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

the texture of the ring against his tongue is wrong

and shane says, "who is it?"

"lily!"

"oh." shane immediately sets aside what he's doing and walks over, saying to his mom, "that's ilya."

yuna looks at him in confusion as he picks up his phone. "why is ilya saved as 'lily' in your phone?"

and shane looks at her, away, shrugs as if it's obvious and simply says, "I can't have ilya rozanov saved on my phone, mom" before answering the call with a, "hey, baby" and walking away.

Just as the video package, highlighting Shane and other finalists, wraps up, he turns to Ilya and whispers “I’m wearing a plug.”

Shane’s name is announced and he rises from his seat with a painted on media-smile as Ilya sputters beside him, eyes wide and hand digging into Shane’s forearm as though to keep him from going to the stage. Shane places a kiss on his cheek and carefully loosens his grip before walking away, leaving Ilya looking downright furious behind him.

I don't have that many close female friendships, and book clubs are the worst. So I just thought this could be something fun to share.