since (the summer before) our rookie season

shane: 🧍‍♂️ ilya:

Look at this man experiencing freckles and awkward Canadian politeness and developing a fat crush.

My favourite part however is as Shane is leaving clearly uncomfortable with how their conversation went (he does a head tilt like "well, that went horribly")

Ilya notices and that's when he chirps, immediately making Shane more comfortable as he chirps back. And thus, their lovingly teasing, when they say "asshole" and "boring" they really mean "I love you" dynamic is born.

ilya coming off kinda surly and aloof and cool but really he's pissed off at his accent and how english sounds in his voice. he's been debating seeking shane out while also pretending he's not at all interested and Already Better than him anyway and now here he is and ilya is cursing his accent and wishing he had more words. he doesn't want anyone to know how alien and alone he feels because he doesn't want anyone, especially shane, to know that this is all so new for him and maybe he's scared but he feels like his accent is making it so obvious how out of place he feels he is

and shane, seeking out this boy he's heard of but never met and is fascinated by because he's so fucking talented and despite the fact that they've never met they're both the best so ilya already has more in common with shane than anyone shane's actually met thus far in his life because they are both The Player and he's thinking he has a better shot at getting around his social skills, or lack there of, because ilya is also the best and that can be their common ground and maybe it won't matter that shane isn't the best at talking about anything except hockey with ilya

but then ilya is kinda short with him (or at least he thinks so) and he's like fuck ok maybe not maybe this isn't anything and ilya, god, ilya able to read shane from the jump pulls them to a place where they're both comfortable, he doesn't have words for polite conversation, but, he's fluent in Chirps and shane is still competition and it pulls them both in and makes them feel comfortable immediately just completely laying their foundation

they like each other