Wait because now I'm imagining that the Pikelings choose Anastasia (1997) as their pre-bedtime movie one night "Because you're from Russia, Ilya! It's a movie about Russia."
And aside, to Shane, Ilya laughs like "Ah, now I see that they are Hayden's kids." But he still enthusiastically agrees to the movie, and it's at this point that a Plan occurs to Ilya.
He leans across to Shane, who's somehow managing to rock Amber to sleep through the sounds of little green smoke demons killing a whole Russian royal family, and says something like, "Wow, is amazing how accurate they stayed to how it happened."
And Shane gives a little smile, clearly thinking Ilya's being sarcastic. He lets it sit a while, then leans across to Shane again. "They even remembered to include her dog. This was a very important part of our history lessons."
And now he's starting to see the conflict on Shane's face. There's part of him that seems to know he's joking, but he's also seeing the little frown line appear and he knows that Shane is starting to get concerned that Ilya doesn't know this is a fictionalized retelling.
When he leans across a third time when Anastasia's train derails, telling Shane he's sad he hasn't watched this before now because it's so beautiful and accurate, there's no trace of a smile on Shane's face anymore. It's all concern. He can see that Shane is almost physically fighting the urge to "um, actually" him. He knows Shane would never try to mansplain Russian history to him, but he can also tell that Shane is sitting there absolutely vibrating with the energy of
At the end of the movie he laughs and kisses Shane on the cheek. "I am just messing with you, lyubimyy. It was fun to watch your face get more and more worried about me."
And Shane glares at him. "Oh you're so lucky we're both holding small sleeping kids right now, asshole."
And the Pike twins gasp. "Shane! Swear jar!"
"Worth it," shrugs Shane and Ilya laughs.
