In the year after the cottage, during Ilya's last season with Boston, there's a stretch of time where due to schedules and roadtrips and such, Shane and Ilya don't see each other for close to two whole months. And they try to FaceTime where they can, but with teammates in such close proximity, it's not always safe. With the result that when Shane shows up on his doorstep ahead of their game the next day, his hair is longer (and sexier) than ilya's ever seen it.
Ilya's knees almost give way as blood rushes to his cock. Shane looks so fucking hot. He immediately pulls him inside and kisses him up against the windows about it, luxuriating in the feeling of tangling his fingers up in the new longer strands. There's just so much of it now.
"Fuck, your hair, solnyshko," he says, kissing down his neck, enjoying the way Shane's hair brushes over his forehead. "It's so fucking hot."
Shane lets out a moan of pure bliss as Ilya tugs at it a little.
"You like it?" he asks, like it's not obvious from the way Ilya is trying to consume him whole.
"So much," he says, straightening up to get both hands tangled behind Shane's head and crashing their lips together again. "What made you want to grow it?"
"You're going to think it's crazy." Shane blushes so beautifully behind his freckles that Ilya can't help but press a kiss to each cheek. "You're going to realise how fucking crazy I am about you and run for the hills."
"Not possible, I won't run," he says, standing back a little. He's unable to stop the grin that spreads across his face as he adds, "That's kind of your thing."
It's worth it for the laugh and "Fuck off, Rozanov" he gets on return.
"Just tell me, Lyubimyy. Whatever it is, I am sure it won't scare me."
And Shane takes a deep breath, seemingly unable to meet Ilya's eyes now. "I was supposed to get it cut, I had an appointment booked and everything. But then I thought about how all the hair I was going to get cut was the hair you'd had your hands in. And the new hair wasn't. And we were going to be apart for so long I just... I didn't want to be stuck with just the new Ilya-less hair and no you, y'know?" His eyes finally lift to meet Ilya's, looking like he's just admitted his deepest darkest secret. "Does that make me sound as crazy as I think it does?"
And Ilya straight up can't speak. He just about manages to breathe out a shaky, "Fuck, Shane" before coming just so fucking hard in his pants. Shane just gapes at him.
"Did you just...? Because of what I...?"
And Ilya is so embarrassed, but also so fucking in love and overwhelmed by how much he's missed Shane that he grabs his arms and pins them to the window as he kisses him hard and filthy. He eventually pulls back just enough to growl into his ear.
"I haven't seen you or touched you in two months and the first thing you tell me is that you didn't want to cut your hair because you were remembering my hands in it. That's so fucking hot, Shane. Apparently I was even more desperate for you than I thought."
He goes back to kissing him, before trailing his lips down his jaw, his chin, his neck. Finally, against his collarbone so that his lips brush against the skin there, Ilya mutters, "Your turn now, Malysh. Show me that you can return the favor."
He doesn't have to wait long. In less than a minute, Shane is also coming with an almighty moan, before collapsing against Ilya, laughing.
"Fuck, it really was too long apart, huh?" And Ilya's laugh mingles with his as he kisses him.
When they break apart Shane asks "So probably shower first then?"
And Ilya presses one last kiss to his lips.
"Only if you let me wash your hair for you." He says. "I need to make sure I touch all of it so you will have to grow it even longer."