Eds :D

1) The Long Game

2) Heated Rivalry

3) Role Model

4) Game Changer

5) Tough Guy

Spies are Forever 10th Anniversary event!

Rules:

For the month of June 2026, create and upload works based on the prompts. To get reblogged onto the event page tag @saf-10-years and tag the post as #spies are forever 10 years

Any medium is allowed. Writing, drawing, cosplay, music, sculpture, moodboards etc etc.

Any characters, ships and scenarios are welcome! This includes AUs and OCs, as long as they are related to Spies are Forever.

You can interpret the prompts as loosely or as literally as you want.

Angsty/violent/sexual works welcome, but make sure to tag everything properly, especially 18+ content.

In the spirit of celebrating the creative minds who made this musical, and the people it inspired to create fanworks for it, I encourage everyone to reblog, comment on and like the pieces created for this event!

Spies are Forever 10th Anniversary event!

Rules:

For the month of June 2026, create and upload works based on the prompts. To get reblogged onto the event page tag @saf-10-years and tag the post as #spies are forever 10 years

Any medium is allowed. Writing, drawing, cosplay, music, sculpture, moodboards etc etc.

Any characters, ships and scenarios are welcome! This includes AUs and OCs, as long as they are related to Spies are Forever.

You can interpret the prompts as loosely or as literally as you want.

Angsty/violent/sexual works welcome, but make sure to tag everything properly, especially 18+ content.

In the spirit of celebrating the creative minds who made this musical, and the people it inspired to create fanworks for it, I encourage everyone to reblog, comment on and like the pieces created for this event!

"But why did Ilya not open up to Shane earlier?" Fantastic question young grasshopper, he didn't because once he had finally worked up the courage to take their relationship to the next level (7 years later might I add) Shane LITERALLY LEFT HIM. Ilya finally opened himself up and tried to be vulnerable with him, got him to stay over, did the domestic shit with him, RECEIVED A CALL FROM HIS DYING FATHER AND THEN PULLED HIMSELF TOGETHER TO GO SEE SHANE, had a vulnerable moment with him calling him Shane which was basically him admitting his feelings (this action being so clear even Shane knew what it meant) and then Shane FUCKING LEFT HIM. AND THEN HE GOT A GIRLFRIEND AFTER BASICALLY TELLING ILYA HE DOESN'T REALLY LIKE GIRLS. So yeah of course Ilya isn't going to be ready to open up to Shane until Shane opens up to him first later because when my boy tried to be genuine with him, SHANE LEFT HIM FOR A WOMAN.

Poor guy is dealing with realizing his soulmate is a man even when he's capable of loving women he only loves Shane, his dad dying and him not being there to take care of him, his own depression, realizing that if he has Shane the way he needs he'll never be able to visit HIS MOTHERS GRAVE in Russia again, knowing that he has absolutely no solid support system (excluding Svetlana because she's not always physically there), and trying to be there for his teammates in the league so yeah he's going through a lot at the moment.

Ilya's battling with his love for Shane is such a perfect depiction of bisexual guilt. He knows that he's perfectly capable of loving a woman, of living a happy life with a woman. He knows that if he were with a woman, he could remain an impressive Russian figure, he could still return home and visit his mom, he could live the life that his mom wanted for him. But then he falls for Shane Hollander. Worse, he realizes he's in love with Shane Hollander and there's nothing he can do to stop it. Shane LITERALLY LEAVES HIM and he's still in love with him. Somewhere deep down Ilya knew he had fallen and was cooked when he first met Shane and was obsessed with those freckles, but the actual realization years later that he couldn't be with anyone else without thinking of Shane destroyed him.

In the Las Vegas Remix chapter of Heated Rivalry we can see Ilya’s perspective of that infamous night in Vegas where Ilya LITERALLY HAS A PANIC ATTACK AND HAS TO HIDE HIMSELF IN THE BATHROOM AWAY FROM SHANE TO TRY TO REGAIN HIS COMPOSURE. He had a panic attack seeing Shane again after 6 months because he realized he wanted Shane more than he thought he was capable of. Sure he thought of Shane every day but seeing him in person and immediately breaking down is an entirely different action that he wasn't expecting.

His feelings of not just lust but affection for Shane are made even more obvious in this chapter by when he takes actual photos during the award ceremony bit because he wanted the pictures. Because even if Shane never wanted to touch him again at least he would have these pictures. Oh. My. God. Or when later in that chapter he thinks that if he starts kissing Shane he’ll never stop and that's why they don't kiss at that event. The fact that he wants to hold Shane in his arms and fall asleep with him more than he wants to fuck him scares and confuses Ilya because this is just supposed to be a hook up, nothing more, and Ilya knows that if this keeps up he's not going to be able to handle it only being a hook up. In the same way that Shane realized these feelings were real when Ilya said his first name so he left, Ilya did basically the same thing but instead of leaving he made his walls stronger. He couldn't fully resist Shane, but he couldn't be genuine with him either because he wanted to do all he could to prevent this from becoming more than what it was.

In those early days, I don't know how well Shane would have even dealt with Ilya actually opening up to him. When Ilya hints at what is making him unhappy at the first Las Vegas awards night, Shane doesn't pick up on it at all. "Must be nice," thrown back at an Ilya who's dreading returning to a family (and country) that wants nothing more than to bleed him dry and hammer home every flaw they've ever conceived him of having.

Even when he saw him in Russia, Shane thought he was checking in on a guy who'd just not had a great game. He expected to find Ilya annoyed and disappointed but overly fine.

Instead, he finds Ilya knowing he has to go to a huge event with a minister of the country and listen to his father rip him to pieces about something he had no control over. He's not ready or prepared for that.

Yes, Ilya is unduly harsh but if he'd been otherwise, Shane wouldn't have realised that Ilya was bearing something incredible. He couldn't match that level of intensity at that point, possibly because he was repressing so much of himself.

The stilted conversation after that sex in Las Vegas again is Shane stumbling about in the dark. He never asks Ilya what it's like to go home. His answers are closed, mostly, and assume a lot of things about Ilya and his family. He pushes past where Ilya is clearly uncomfortable without seeming to notice until Ilya basically tells him to go.

We also have to remember, for the sake of the show, that due to the episodes being from Shane's perspective, he is a somewhat unreliable narrator. You're made to think of Ilya as just some dick from the first 2 episodes because you only get glimpses of his own life and you primarily see Ilya through Shane's eyes.

Shane was 100% not ready to receive any genuine answers to his questions cause later down the line when Ilya opens up, Shane gets scared and leaves. So even if Ilya was the master communicator that so many show fans want him to be, Shane wouldn't have been able to confidently reciprocate those feelings. He still thought he was capable of liking women, bro was NOT about to accept that he had fallen in love with his arch rival.

It's so important to note that Ilya fell first, because Shane didn't properly understand his feelings until much later into their situationship. "We didn't even kiss" was Shane beginning to process that he might have more than sexual feelings for Ilya, but even then he pushed those away and didn't let them actually come to mind until his conversation with Rose years later.

Hudson and Connor look like proud parents! ❤️