So imagine you’re doing very important scientific work that could change the outcome of billions of lives and the one scientist your’e working with starts randomly imitating sex noises.

So Ilya moves to Montreal and becomes a metro. He’s initially nervous about meeting, at this point, esteemed figure in the sport, Shane Hollander, but much like their meeting in canon, the moment they see each other they’re like “yeah I need that ass/dick immediately”. They are also in close proximity with each other all the time, and being seen together isn’t odd, so they get to fucking a lot quicker than canon. They live in the same city they traveled together, no one thinks it’s particularly odd when they start rooming together on roadies (you would think Hayden would be upset, but he also lives in a household with five other people so I imagine he would appreciate being by himself).

They get close enough over the months that Shane confides in Ilya about this weird ethical form of game fixing that he’s been doing and Ilya’s initial reaction to this is, a) oh my God that’s so fucking hot. You’re so smart. I need to fuck you about it & b) (for the whole dominate/submissive of it all), Shane asks for Ilya to construct his next couple of parlays for Shane to complete secretly. And Ilya is like oh fuck yeah that’s like some sexy ‘We’re playing our own secret game on the ice while we’re winning shit’ I’m down we can do that.

So the next four months they do this, it’s purely just hot, smutty sexy fun. Just Rozanov and Hollander being absolute menaces on the ice, while Shane is half hard in his jock because he wasn’t able to make the second goal in the third period, like Ilya told him to, and he might not come tonight.

Now I know what you’re thinking, ‘ ram. I thought you said everything was about to go to shit.” and yes, my dear herd, things are going badly in Russia, while Ilya kinda has had his heads in the clouds. In addition to this relationship that he has started with Shane, his brother has suspiciously not called him in several months as well. Which Ilya is perfectly content with, but there is something small nagging at the back of his mind as the time stretches and there is no contact.

That little nagging becomes a FULL emergency when Alexeis’s wife calls ilya and says “ look I’m sorry I probably should’ve said something way before this, but it is what it is. Every dollar that you’ve sent back here Alexei has spent on himself and drugs. None of it has gone to the care of your father. In fact this man is in some old folks home- a really shitty one. I’ve been trying to survive and take care of my daughter, but now my husband has not only squandered every cent of support that you sent, he has lived so far beyond our means, and fallen so deep in his addiction that now he , & by proxy my family, is in danger and I’m sorry to come to you for help, but I don’t have any other options.”

So ilya is like ‘fuck OK fine what do I need to send now to get my dad out the shitty retirement home andpayback whatever drug dealer that Alexei is in debt to.” So he takes a quick trip to Russia to assess the damage and Alexei’s wife fucking undersold how bad the situation actually is. not only is he in this massive debt to the druglords. He is in gambling debt to these bookies- who he has promised that he can pay back because his brother is this famous American hockey player and he can always pay if shit hits the fan. However, in recent months due to the addiction, the bets have gotten larger and larger, and these bookies are not in the business of making sure you are being healthy with your bet.

And I imagine ilya sitting with some type of criminal liaison, trying to negotiate the payment and when ilya is like, “bro, that is too much fucking Money,” and the liaison is like “ I totally understand if you cannot pay. It is an exorbitant amount of money. I understand how that would be a burden to you personally. If you don’t pay the money, we’re gonna kill your brother, his family and your dad and any other family of yours we can find and if we catch you back here and we haven’t been paid, we’ll kill you too.”

And honestly, if you had told Ilya that for zero dollars, he could be rid himself of both his brother and father he would’ve clicked his heels and Done a backflip. But Alexis’s wife and daughter have nothing to do with this and Svetlana is very publicly someone he knows and cares about so she’s also in danger. So he flies back to Canada with this deadline of paying back these thugs or losing a lot of people that he cares about.

So as Ilya is landing back in Montreal and his phone is turned back on he gets a text from Shane asking about the game tomorrow and what his parlay is going to be. Ilya wants to respond ‘hey I have a lot of shit going on. I can’t really play our game right now’ but before he sends the text, he pauses and realizes that the solution might be right in front of him. But whatever he chooses to do next, he is either going to lose his family, or Shane and his own career, and in both cases, his freedom probably.

Starting with Ilya:

In this AU Shane is several years older than ilya. So ilya is a first round draft, but he does not meet Shane until much later.

His financial responsibilities are past taking care of his shitty father and his often indebted brother, but I’m throwing in Irina still being alive, but also suffering from her own sickness that entails a expensive treatment.

So while the income of a hockey player, (especially a good one) is nothing to sneeze at, he is basically sending all of his money back to his family. Which as a 19 year-old is a huge responsibility in addition to, the new country, new team, new job, etc. So our boy is quite stressed out, and crashing out a little bit more in the party boy era than he does in canon.

So about three years into his hockey career, his mother passes away, and Ilya crashes out in a big way, (think a DUI that result in a accident, a public OD, a drunken fight that gets caught by TMZ, you get the vibes), and he takes a little time off from hockey and goes back home to Russia to grieve and gather himself.

The weird thing about abusive families that still believe in a strong family unit is that Grigori is both willing to get Ilya into rehab and help him but also demean him and shame him for being so weak in the aftermath of his mother’s death. It is also during these months. It is beginning to become apparent that Grigori is becoming sicker but Ilya does have to return to Boston to continue his job, so he entrust the care of his father to Alexei, who has a huge price tag that Ilya pays out of guilt.

Fast forward another two years and things are much of the same but worse. Now ilya is paying for his father’s medical care, paying Alexei to care for him, and all these bullshit incidentals to cover his gambling and drug addiction, which are significant. And in this universe, Ilya does not have the reputation strong enough to get as many sponsorships that would perhaps be able to cushion these new expenses so again he is straight up not having a good time. (he also just missed at least seven months of work and embarrassed his team)

Six months later, ilya is about to be a free agent and has really worked on cleaning up his image, so he can regain some of that marketability. He’s offered a pay increase to come over to the Montreal Metros. Leaving Boston, making more money, all seems like his life is improving- and then he fucking meets Shane Hollander.

Now Shane;

Now in this AU Shane has been in the MHL for nine years approximately. He’s dedicated his life to this team, and he has five Stanley cups under his belt. He is undeniably the goat of hockey, but he is so so so so so fucking bored. He is this plethora of skill and knowledge and strategy, but after hundreds of games and thousands of opponents, he’s just seen it all. It’s too easy for him at this point and it’s kind of frustrating because he desperately wants something new out of this experience, but he doesn’t know where it can come from.

So one morning, Shane is scrolling through ESPN news and there is an article about some basketball players being exposed for game fixing. So he’s reading about these players, intentionally manipulating the game to make impossible parlays come to fruition. ** if you’re unfamiliar with betting, a parlay is a bet that is made up of several smaller bets. So a regular bet would be something like “ I bet $100 The admirals are going to win this game.” a parlay is “ I bet $45. The admirals are gonna win this game, $25 that’s Scott Hunter is going to make at least three goals, another $35 that the metros will have an injury and another $25 that Shane Hollander will score at least one goal - all in the same game. if that parlay hits, you technically make more money than just the initial bet, however, so many things need to go right for you to win that it is in my opinion the dumbest bet you could ever place**

And listen, Shane understands that maintaining ethics in sports is very important. But he feels oddly impressed by these players. Cause not only are they good basketball players, they are so good at their game that they are able to make specific things happen. And then he begins to fixate on the idea of how much more exciting the game must’ve been for them because they had this secret video game objective to make XYZ happen. He thinks about it and he keeps thinking about it and he can’t stop thinking about it. And he finally decides, ‘ well I’m not putting any money on what I’m about to do, but can I make these three things happen in the game and we still win?” so Shane gives himself these three small objectives to accomplish during the game- and it’s fucking hard. It’s challenging. The entire game is thrilling and stimulating in a way that it hasn’t been to Shane in a long time and he leaves the ice feeling electric not just from the public win, but because of the secret accomplishment that he was able to do. He starts incorporating this into his gameplay, and it has a noticeable effect on his excitement & his energy and the metros are here for it, like “Great our best hockey player is having some sort of renaissance and we just acquired, the slightly troubled, but incredibly talented Ilya Rozanov.”

And this is the precise moment where everything starts going to shit.