ok - i give ilya a lot of shit about bringing up other women and specifically the "i could marry svetlana" comment but the more i think about it the more i see the parallels between that scene and the tampa bar scene where ilya is trying to figure out if shane is still with rose and shane is answering every question except That One so ilya eventually just has to come out and say it
there's a lot of that at the cottage too. it starts with ilya not at all subtly dropping that he hasn't been with anyone else, picking each other in the video game, opening up more about his home, then randomly bringing up being a free agent as casually as possible and, "i would love to not have russian passport, maybe canadian team" waiting to see what shane will say - only it doesn't go any further so then he brings up svetlana (to which shane immediately has tunameltdown flashbacks) and it still doesn't really sway shane (who still thinks ilya may want a life outside of them being together) so he confesses that he wants shane and Finally - Shane gives and tells him They'll figure something else out together
(and he does it in the most gorgeous way, shane suggests he could fall in love with someone else to which he says no, no if it's not us it has to be svetlana so i can still have you however i can)
and ilya really did need that because even though shane is very action focused and feels like all of his emotions are crystal clear, there hasn't actually been any communication on what the cottage means for them, how far they're willing to go for each other, does this have a future or is this just a new extension of their old arrangement?
so ilya does what ilya does best and subtly shows shane what he's willing to do to stay near him. he starts with oh so subtly i could just move to a canadian team and be so much closer and shane doesn't give him too much of a reaction so ilya pivots, and says ok well maybe this won't have a future in the live in each other's skin, get married, eventually come out and be each other's fully and proudly BUT he offers to marry svetlana because it would keep him close, out of russia and he'd always be able to see shane as much as he wants so their future could just be more of This and ilya would force the stolen moments to be enough in order to keep shane
so what an incredible relief it must've been when ilya finally showed his hand and shane, all teary eyed and gorgeous said no, don't marry svetlana, we'll figure something else out (together), we both want a future not just whatever stolen time we can get
it was all an effort on ilya's part to subtly, not so subtly see just how entwined shane wants their lives to become (this is also shown when shane is giving ilya bedroom options with ilya prowling behind him already nixing the idea of sleeping anywhere but right next to shane) and it's so subtle and gorgeous and it can come off in so many different ways so i love the way this shows their specific miscommunication and how it's evolved.
from ilya trying to do this Exact Thing during tunameltdown just for it to go as bad as it could possibly go, then in tampa when he's sussing out availability and is met with shane finding him at sunset, and then this, when he's told - in the best way they can say - no, we are facing everything together from now on, this changes everything, other people are not an option.
and he's met with a 3am mapped out life plan and a tearful love confession
gummygunk
pixelskylines
blakekathryn
