Great Wide Somewhere

crazy how i find myself thinking i've got a handle on it all finally and then i see the ways that other people tangle their lives together so easily and live so easily together with their friends and i feel like that girl at the top of the stairs painting by norman rockwell

i am not immune to a well choreographed fight scene with a fun song in the background

the cens communications team made a funny video with ilya where he kisses his teammates on the cheek to see their reactions. the first one was bood who just laughed and hugged him. the second was wyatt who kissed him back. the third was troy who dodged every attempt like “get off me man”. the fourth were the rookies (not rookies anymore) luca, lapointe, young, and holmberg who all took it lightly and beamed, except luca who got beet red. ilya went and did that with every cens player, most of them just accepted it, others joked back, some kissed him back, one or two dodged, but overall they took the ilya’s attempts well. the last one was shane, ilya kissed all over his face and shane just melted into his husband’s kiss and kissed him back. obviously that was one of the most watched videos on the cens official account.

Steve who thinks they very clearly have crushes on each other. And Eddie who doesn’t even realize that Steve knows he’s gay.

no but seriously "gimme kiss" plus those big fat pursed lips is one of the sweetest parts of the whole show because their relationship has been characterised by lust from the beginning, it's what they started with and it's what they padded their feelings in before they were ready to let those feelings stand on their own, but in this moment there's not even a hint of lust, there's no ulterior motive to seduce, ilya just wants a moment of connection with shane — physically and emotionally — and he knows now that he doesn't have to do anything to get it. he can be relaxed and silly and he can just ask to receive it. gimme kiss! said in the most mischievous manner ever. and shane gives him kiss!!!!!!!!

the communications intern was sent by the centaurs team players to make a funny video with ilya and they approaches him saying “if you can answer this one question without mentioning shane at all, even once, we’ll give you a prize” and ilya says “okay, doesn’t seem too hard” and the intern gives a mischievous smile and asks “what’s the perfect routine for a good game day?” and ilya begins “first i have to wake up cuddling with—“ and he stops and looks at the intern who has this smug grin on his face and ilya goes “it’s harder than i expected” and the intern replies “the whole team bet you’d lose” and ilya raises an eyebrow and says irritably “then let’s start over” he composes himself and begins “my perfect routine is to wake up in my wonderful bed, then brush my teeth and have a hearty breakfast, go to the gym to work out my muscles, drink a protein shake, then take a shower and go practice hockey with my amazing team whom i love like family” and the intern ends the recording and goes “congratulations, i genuinely didn’t think you’d pull it off” and ilya gasps putting his hand over his heart and goes “do you guys think i’m obsessed with shane?” and the intern’s like “no?” and ilya replies “i am, what’s my prize?” and the intern calls out louder “bring in the prize” and shane wearing a sweatsuit and glasses with his hair still wet from a recent shower enters the room looking confused and ilya sighs and goes “it’s the best prize in the world” and he raises his arms so shane will come closer and hug him, and shane does. ilya buries his face in shane’s stomach and says in a muffled voice “shane, the intern is being mean to me” and shane snorts as he strokes ilya’s curls and looks at the intern who is laughing at the situation, and shane goes “poor big russian man being bullied by a 20-year-old” and ilya lets out a whine “yeah shane, thank goodness you came to my rescue” and he looks up and pouts and shane kisses him and says laughing "let’s go home, you big baby” stepping away from ilya and holding out his hand for him to take so he can stand up and they both say goodbye to the intern. the next day in the locker room the guys start handing shane $10 each, the whole team bet that ilya would lose and shane’s grinning the whole time because he knows his husband is just as competitive as he is.

i just know there’s been a point where ilya has said something really sad about his childhood and mr earnest sincerity hollander has shaned his eyes at him and said something about ‘i wish i’d known you then so i could’ve told you it was all gonna be okay’ and ilya has started bawling

shane wakes up from a nap and notices that ilya isn’t in the room, which is incredibly weird because since they arrived in spain, ilya seems to think he’s a part of shane’s body. he gets worried and picks up his phone and sees that ilya sent him a message saying “my beloved sweetheart, i’m down at the dance ballroom learning salsa with incredible ladies” and shane snorts and thinks “that seems like a place where ilya would be”. so he goes after his husband and finds him surrounded by old ladies, dancing with one of them, and one of the ladies notices shane at the door and goes “oh young boy, you haven’t lied, you do have a very good looking husband” and ilya follows her gaze and finds shane and opens a wide grin going “mi amor!” and he apologizes to the lady he was dancing with to go to his husband and another lady says “oh if i was younger that boy right there would be my catch” and ilya turns to her with shane in his arms and goes “ah no, shane is useless with women” and shane slaps him and he keeps going “me on the other hand, i’m for incredible women like you all” and the same lady says “if you didn’t spend the whole hour talking about your husband we would’ve believed you” and ilya fake gasps while shane laughs and goes “don’t say that, my husband already has a big ego” and he smiles and turns to shane who was already looking at him and he kisses his husband while the ladies cheer.

When people point out that all of Shane’s fears come true in TLG, they don’t mention how his fear of losing Ilya also almost comes true. There is a reason why he doesn’t let Ilya drive his sports cars or let him smoke anymore in TLG. Literally one of Shane’s biggest fears is losing Ilya (be it Ilya breaking up with him or Ilya dying). The fact that Shane almost loses Ilya in a fucking plane crash is so important, because it changes Shane’s perspective on their plan entirely and he realises that staying in the closet isn’t sustainable anymore. This is why he immediately proposes to Ilya after.