gray

ilya being called lazy when he's literally one of the best hockey players there is at such a young age is crazy work. this is why he can't really be himself in russia, even if you take his sexuality out of the equation. a lot of people intend on just suffocating him and using him.

anybody else noticed when ilya wiped shane's tears on his chin, shane tried to follow his touch? and when i say shane hollander is a touch starved sub and then what

i was just as tickled as ilya was when shane started folding his clothes after he stripped. like yes that is ilya and i's neurotic little flower

shane being told that so many young people, especially asian kids, will look up to him and have him as their role model will just push him further back into the closet. it doesn't help that there's literally no out gay hockey player at the time. he has all these responsibilities when he's fairly young and that will just condition him to become more of what the people thought him to be and not how he truly is

cant wait to see more of hayden pike's embarrassingly obvious crush on shane in the future episodes

shane was so hurt cause he got ghosted for 6 months but he still folded so quick even though ilya's being a grade A asshole. this is his vice and he needs it so bad. he won't get this from anyone else because he's too scared and he's already attached. that's why he's taking what he was given even though he was hurt

thinking about khem finally having someone he can rely on not only on an emotional level, but also financial. he's almost orphaned and the book mentioned how he has to work hard to support himself and his studies. but i just know pharan spoils him as much as he knows how post-canon. he has a place to stay during breaks, he doesn't have to wear second hand clothes, repeat them multiple times in a short period of time (like we saw in the series) and he gets a new phone and a car (canon in the novel). he can really focus on himself and build himself up in a way that he couldn't when he was scared for his life and fending for himself.