just fanfic stuff

I am a slut for plane crash fics in this fandom. I came across this one and have to say it's one of the best I have read. (I have read dozens!)

The characterization is top tier. Emotions run high. The love between Shane and Ilya is palpable. The story flows very smoothly. You'll be happy and you'll be sad and then laugh and soon you'll probably be close to tears. What more does one need than that?

Angst with a happy ending. 💕

The Ilya we see in Heated rivalry would not be throwing the first punch, he's not an enforcer. Ilya is a star center and a Pest. He wouldn't be doing his job correctly if he was punching players every other game, it would end up with not enough ice time to let him be the playmaker he's paid to be.

But being a pest can be playmaking! Find a player to bait, emotionally push them just enough that they try to fight you, and then get the fuck out of there before the ref gives you both penalties. This gets your team the power play. There is probably someone on Ilya's line dedicated to helping him get out of the fights he starts, and finishing them for him!

I also think this is also something that Shane would respect. Ilya is good at it and it's a good strategy for his team. I don't think Shane would see it as some dirty tactic, because Shane probably thinks everyone with a brain can see it for what it is! He probably thinks everyone should be able to see that being an asshole is a tactic for Ilya, that it's something to ignore and not fall for, that it's a strategy and not personal beef.

And Shane is like, “yeah, I’m married to you.”

This is the greatest news Ilya has ever heard. “What?” He asks, happy tears springing to his eyes. “Me?”

“Yeah.”

“For real?”

“Yeah, Ilya, of course. I love you; we’re married.”

“You love me?”

“Yeah,” Shane laughs. “A lot.”

“Wow. Wow.” Ilya is stunned. “I really married you?”

“Yeah look.” Shane takes his hand and shows him the wedding band on his finger before showing off his own. He presses a sweet, chaste kiss to Ilya’s mouth and the poor guy melts.

“Oh wow,” Ilya sighs. Then pauses. “Wait, come back here. We’re married, come—”

Ilya’s obviously a nuzzler, coming in behind Shane to kiss his neck, run his hands over his stomach and chest, but that’s not always a prelude. There are subtle differences between a touching base and sex. Usually the cant of his hips or if one kiss becomes two or three. If Ilya touches Shanes’ jaw then it’s a definite ‘yes? now?’ question.  If Ilya pauses in the middle of the room and gives Shane the slow up and down and Shane gives him any attention at all then it’s over. Shane better put down whatever he was doing.  

Shane’s overtures would take him a little time to perfect. Not the obvious ones, they definitely still have ‘we have both arrived in the house, time to slam someone against a wall’ moments. But the small ones, the tiny silent inquiries that speckle through the louder things. If he runs his fingers over Ilya’s forearm while they’re watching tv, just light enough to almost tickle. Or lingering a little in a doorway after announcing he’s going to shower. Maybe he deliberately takes off a layer during colder months. Drags his hoodie up the right away so it flashes Ilya’s his stomach for a second.  

They have moves they share too. The coded language of a long-term couple. If we’re already holding hands in public, but I press my thumb into the center of your palm that means ‘as soon as we have privacy'. If we make the right kind of eye contact and I run my tongue over my teeth than that’s a question asked and answered. If we’re both awake too early and you kiss my shoulder and slot your knee behind mine and I roll my hips back, then its a go.

There are deescalations too. Times when the question is asked and the answer is not now. A kiss on the jaw gets a kiss on the cheek in return ‘I see you, I love you, I’m in the middle of meal prepping give me an hour’ or a long look gets a head tilt instead of a leap off the couch ‘I see you, I love you, but I’m having a shitty moment and I’m not in the right head space’.  In bed instead of rocking back into it, rolling over to exchange a kiss that doesn’t deepen because they both have to be out of bed and getting ready too soon. 

“A Fragment out of Time”, published in 1974. Kirk / Spock. page 1 page 2