Lovers

david hollander: oh shit i wasn’t supposed to see that. i have invaded his space and seen something he didn’t want known. he was hiding away in the cabin with a man. because he wasn’t ready to come out yet. he didn’t want us to know and now i know. wait that’s rozanov! what the fuck is he doing with rozanov? oh no that felt judgy of me. hold on am i being homophobic right now? i’m intruding and it was a secret and - fuck i just outed my son. what if I just run. what if i signal that i didn’t see anything by simply dashing out the door. shane i promise i didn’t see anything. fuck yuna help i fucked it all up.

shane: oh man my dad’s not happy i’m gay.

and shane feels sick that ilya’s sitting at home, all alone, nobody to take care of him. he doesn’t have any close friends on his team yet, and even if he did, they’re playing hockey games and can’t be taking care of him.

shane looks at his schedule to see if he can make it home for a few days, but even with skipping optional practices he can’t be back in ottawa for more than 4 hours.

so shane enlists his mom to take care of ilya. (at this point, yuna and david aren’t super close with ilya as he just moved).

yuna is, of course, happy to help. she heads over with homemade soup and meal replacement shakes and an arsenal of over the counter medications for whatever symptoms ilya has.

when she shows up, she expects ilya is going to brush her off, tell her he’s fine and doesn’t need help, and she’s going to have to push herself in. but that’s not what happens at all.

when ilya answers the door, he looks HORRIBLE. and yuna immediately gets some food into him, changes his sheets and gets him into bed to lower his fever.

shane is texting his mom for updates every hour, and yuna is telling shane how sweet ilya is and how thankful he’s been. he doesn’t want to put her out but she can tell how tired and sick he is. they play some card games together and watch movies. yuna drives him to his checkup with the team doctor to make sure he’s progressing okay. he gets a lot better but is still a bit under the weather by the end of the week.

finally, it’s sunday and shane is driving to ottawa to relieve yuna. he speeds all the way there, anxious to see his boyfriend again. when he lets himself into ilya’s house, it’s eerily quiet.

“hello?” shane calls.

he hears yuna shushing him from the living room, and heads towards the sound.

he comes to find ilya asleep, curled up on his side with his head in yuna’s lap. she is running her hands through ilya’s hair soothingly.

shane immediately takes out his phone to grab a picture and tears up a little at the scene.

Cue Ilya making a rare appearance at Bood's Barbeque because it's the team's chance to meet little Milo for the first time. Everyone congratulates the parents and oohs and aaws at Milo. Cue Bood asking "anyone want to hold him?"

And Ilya is the first to volunteer, already reaching out his hands. And Bood, like any new parent, starts the "Alright here we go, now be careful to support the head-" only to trail off because Ilya does not need any help. For some strange reason, Ilya fucking Rozanov is a pro at holding a baby, murmuring to him in Russian swaying him softly in his arms.

The Groupchat ("CenBros NO CAP") goes wild because how the fuck is Rozy so good with babies. And then one of the rookies is like "maybe he has a baby??" and at first everyone scoffs because, hello. This is Ilya Rozanov we're talking about.

On second thought, though.

Ilya did move to Ottawa seemingly out of nowhere.

He did buy a house in the suburbs.

He is strangely secretive about who he's texting all the time.

He is skipping almost every team event.

Suddenly it all makes sense. Ilya has a girlfriend (wife??) and he moved to Ottawa for her so that they could raise their child together. And of course he's almost never attending a team outing or leaving early, he has a child at home! Of course he's secretive about it, Ottawa or not he's still Ilya fucking Rozanov, papped every second day. It only makes sense that he'd want to protect the identiy of his girlfriend (wife??) and child.

The final piece of evidence is overheard by Holmberg and Young on a random Thurday after practice. Ilya clearly hasn't noticed them as he walks to his car, a fond smile on his face and obviously focused on his phone call. "Goodnight, I miss you very much. I will be home soon", he says. It's followed by laughter and Ilya adding that "Yes, of course is necessary! I have been away all day, my daughter must hear me say goodnight to her."

Holmberg and Young (standing next to Young's car and therefore hidden from Ilya's view) stare at each other with open mouths and wide eyes. Because holy fucking shit Rozy just confirmed he has a daughter?? And based on the conversation also a girlfriend/wife??