we still know how to feed

towards the end of their wedding reception, sun setting, looking rumpled and tired, Ilya kissing Shane's palm while Shane is very seriously talking to Scott Hunter

the two of them with a fan, taken at the dog park, Ilya holding Anya and Shane with one arm around his husband's shoulder and the other trying to prevent Anya from licking the fan's face

Shane Hollander sitting on the Centaurs bench with blood on his face, mouth wide open, Ilya Rozanov gripping his chin and glaring at the gap where Shane's bottom canine used to be

Ilya Rozanov with his fist in the air after a goal, a smear of red in the corner of his mouth

sitting next to each other at team tape review, heads bent together, Ilya's hand on Shane's thigh, Shane's hands sketching out a play in the air

Ilya Rozanov leaning against his car in the airport arrivals line, a coffee in one hand and a forest-green smoothie in the other

Shane Hollander giving his husband the middle finger after losing the shot accuracy competition at ASG by half a second

piggyback racing across the yard with a Pike twin each clinging to their necks

Ilya Rozanov, outraged, with a face full of snow, as his husband doubles over with laughter

wearing identical blank expressions the seventeenth time a journalist asks about their "off-ice chemistry"

Shane Hollander throwing his head back and cackling in a booth at a random dive bar in a random city, Ilya Rozanov grinning into his drink

Loyalty (1869)

— by Briton Rivière

Loyalty (2025)

Hudson Williams | Best Lead Performer in a Drama Series

"The sex tells the story, so it never felt gratuitous to me. The sex is character development. The sex is what is moving this relationship forward, and watching it change over time."

Jacob with some spot-on Ilya character analysis (and general thoughts on sex-as-self)

I think this is something lost on the audience in the show that is explicitly implicit in the books.

Shane thinks Ilya is a sex god bc

1) he is "better at sex" than shane

2) shane up to this point hasn't had a successful and Very Good sexual experience. He literally says once Ilya dick is inside him that he "finally understands why people are sex- obsessed." It has clicked, and his brain says its because of ilya, not bc he is gay

3) ilya is a whore so that translates in shanes brain to very experienced, good at it, therefore sex god

They tease back and forth that ilya has ruined sex for shane bc no one else will do, and while shane is embarrassed by this, he agrees.

In TLG it comes out that ilya has maybe been with like 5-10 guys at most. Personally i think its the lower end of that. He specifically says that men are a "rare treat," implying that 1) its safer to pull women (he really is terrified of being outed and shipped back to russia), and 2) he only pulls men when he is missing shane so much he cant stand it.

Shane has canonically been with 3 men. Two pulls he didnt care for, and ilya. Again, in his mind, ilya is the key, but its not inherently bc of ilya's skill, its because of their crazy deep connection.

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eddie spends weeks thinking he made steve cry that one time he snapped at him and feels sick about it. then one day he watches steve turn the shiny eyes + single tear on some random authority figure to get out of trouble and realizes it’s a BIT. meanwhile steve’s over there like 🙂 and eddie is reevaluating his entire life and relationship choices.

eddie: “dude, I’m not mad, I just said you were being annoying.”

steve, eyes going glassy immediately: “no, it’s fine, I get it.”

eddie: “wait, hey, I didn’t— are you seriously crying?”

steve, one single tear: “just… give me a second.”

Eddie, guilt ridden, thinks about this for weeks.

Months later…

cop: “you were going fifteen over, son.”

steve, same exact shiny eyes + lone tear: “I’m so sorry, officer, it’s just been a really hard week—”

eddie watching from the passenger seat, connecting the dots in real time: “…”

cop: “I’ll let you off with a warning.”

eddie, as they drive away: you manipulative little theater kid, I cannot believe I FELL FOR THAT.

Later that night

eddie: “no. uh-uh. do it again.”

steve: “do what again?”

eddie: “the thing. the eyes. I watched you with your little Bambi routine, Harrington. You’re not slick.”

steve: “it’s not a routine, I’m just sensitive🥺”

eddie: “you turned them on like a faucet.”

steve, already dialing up the shine: “eddie, that really hurts my feelings—”