Consumer of Media

“Yes, that is my son on that billboard, he’s got a new sponsorship”

“Yes, my son has started a new charity and is running hockey camps”

I know at least one of them was hoping they get a terrible in-law, but no it’s Ilya Rozanov. So now its

“Yes, my son and his husband were over for dinner, they wanted to talk to my wife about expanding their charity. You know the one they founded together”

“Yes, I’m taking two weeks off in June. My son and his husband are in the Stanley cup finals. Yes, again.”

“Yes, we’re so happy that NHL players are going back to the Olympics. We’re hoping both of our boys get to go.”

The only exception was whenever he or Ilya slept over. Their time together was so limited that Shane sacrificed his strict 10 pm bedtime and 6 am run for evenings spent in Ilya's arms and lazy mornings in bed together.

So the first time Ilya really becomes aware of this habit is after Shane moves to Ottawa. He wakes up, careful not to disturb Ilya, and sneaks out of their bedroom and when Anya wakes up to the sound of him moving around the house, and starts whining at the door, what is he supposed to do other than take her with him on his run?

When Ilya eventually gets up, Shane is back home, freshly showered and sitting on one of their barstools, enjoying his morning smoothie. Ilya appears, bleary eyed eyed and half-asleep, in a robe and wordlessly places a kiss on the crown of his head before gathering Anya's leash and whistling for her to come so they can walk around the garden and she can take care of her business. Shane tells him that's not necessary, they went for a run this morning and Ilya reacts as though this is high treason. He accuses Shane of robbing him of quality time with his daughter and leaving him out of family bonding. It's mostly done in jest but Shane can see that there's a grain of something there.

shane's Slutty Shorts™ that he uses as a sex signal at home

shane and ilya KILL at charades. the cens play this together for the first time at a bbq and make the mistake of letting hollanov be partners and since then have never made the same mistake again. they can read each other's minds. ilya knows the answer based on the way shane's eyebrow moves up. shane sees ilya's right pinky twitch and knows the exact answer without ilya acting out anything

ilya is somehow locked into all the drama happening in the league and shane (although he will probably deny it) is such a sucker for the gossip. after league events (the awards/all stars), they spend at least an hour talking about all the tea that ilya's collected while doing their night routine or while lying in bed and shane eats it up

shane loves tracing ilya's moles on his back when they're lying in bed (he will also sometimes trace out hockey formations with them and gets called out by ilya immediately every time) (ilya loves it)

ilya sometimes hides the sunscreen during summers at the cottage cause he wants to see more freckles; shane, however, always finds it cause he doesn't play about sun care and "no i'm not risking getting skin cancer just cause you like my fucking freckles, ilya"

ilya's lockscreen on his phone is a rotating album of shane and anya pictures; shane's used to be one of the basic default ones, but he changes it to a picture of ilya holding puppy anya like a baby the second they get home after their meeting with crowell

shane is chronically offline (duh) but importantly, that means that he almost always falls for every single tiktok trend that ilya tries with him (the only times he doesn't is when rose sends them to him first)

shane doesn't really ever post insta stories (see above) besides sponsorships and occasionally reposting the centaurs account BUT every once in a while (namely, when ilya does a sexy ad), his jealousy pipes up enough that he'll post a picture of him and ilya. usually without their faces but always very clear that it's them because he likes making sure the internet knows that ilya is his

ilya sees a video of the classic college girl dorm polaroid wall once and decides they need one so now everyone who visits their ottawa home gets a polaroid on the wall. but ilya and shane take so many polaroids of each other randomly that it becomes more of a collage of them (because the whole "we can finally take and put pictures up of us together in the house we share" of it all)

🖤

I know, I am very late at the party, not very original and there are also a lot of slides, but for once I am very proud of the result. I painted this starting from scratch, with no AI help.

♥️

I love them. So much.

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how‘s the water?

you‘re in it

Rachel Reid for Swooon

Picking up where The Long Game leaves off, Rachel Reid’s Unrivaled will see Shane and Ilya face a divided hockey world. Though they’re both playing professionally for the Ottawa Centaurs, enjoying married life, and receiving public support, Shane and Ilya are also dealing with backlash since they came out. A hockey podcast is leading the #TakeBackHockey movement, presenting the couple with what may be their greatest challenge since readers met them in Heated Rivalry.

Though she’s described The Long Game as Shane and Ilya’s happy ending, Reid felt there were things the couple still need to work through by the end of the sequel. “Yeah, because it’s so abrupt,” the author told Swooon at BookCon on April 19. “They went from being a secret and stealing moments together and all of this for years to suddenly [being] teammates, married, everybody knows about them. That’s a massive shift, and I felt a little bit robbed myself for not getting to see how that goes, because it is so, so huge.”

Reid is having fun writing Shane and Ilya as teammates for the first time, especially with Ilya being Shane’s captain. “[They’re] still very competitive, but also having a great time,” she said. “They are definitely at the beginning season, very… just giddy, really. Just so excited to be playing together, but still having a good time, lovingly roasting each other, and being competitive about scoring more goals, stuff like that. And also traveling together and just all these things that they’ve never gotten to do and just the joy of being openly out about your relationship and having people know about it.”

In the epilogue of The Long Game, readers get a small glimpse of Shane and Ilya’s new dynamic as teammates. Shane and Ilya are on cloud nine in the lead-up to the Centaurs’ home opener. Just before the game starts, Ilya teases Shane about moving to the front of the line, since the back is for captains. After leading the Montreal Voyageurs for years, Shane still isn’t used to not being in charge. Their teammate jokes that Shane is coming for Ilya’s “C” right before they hit the ice.

In Unrivaled, Shane is “telling himself [that being captain] is not important,” Reid said. “This is the first time he gets to see firsthand how good of a captain Ilya is, because I felt like it was something he’s always heard but has never gotten to see, so I think he’s just enjoying that too.”

Though he’s having fun with his new team, Shane still has some unresolved feelings about the Voyageurs. Toward the end of The Long Game, Shane decides not to re-sign with them. Most of his teammates react poorly to his relationship with Ilya. When Montreal and Ottawa face each other in the playoffs, Shane trips when he’s trying to catch Ilya on a breakaway. Ilya scores and wins the game, ruining the chances of a repeat Stanley Cup win for Montreal. The team thinks Shane tripped on purpose. Betrayed, Shane leaves for Ottawa when he becomes a free agent at the end of the season.