#stabs writes

I think he was so frequently at summer training camps after his mother died that it went unacknowledged. Maybe a cupcake if someone made note of it.

Even when he's an NHL superstar he gets bland texts from teammates, classic PR public birthday wishes, and gets drunk in Russia, usually with Svetlana. She gets him a card and several years in a row she takes him to a friend of a friend who breeds working farm dogs and lets Ilya dissociate with a bunch of puppies.

Then, after the Olympics, Shane actually texts him "happy birthday". With a little balloon emoji.

It makes Ilya's month. Even if he doesn't show it when he sees Shane a couple weeks later in Vegas.

Then, in 2015, Shane texts Ilya "happy birthday" at midnight in Boston, so perfectly timed that he's sure Shane set an alarm for it because he's in Halifax with the Metros and the Cup doing a cross-Canada victory tour. And that makes him so warm and fuzzy.

In 2016 Shane texts him "happy birthday" at midnight, and this time there's a picture. A screenshot of a donation made by Shane to a Russian community centre in Montreal. Ilya looks up the centre and they're the one place that gets a pass on cheering for Boston in the whole city, because so many of the young Russian kids look up to Ilya. In the spot to list a reason for the donation Shane's written "for Lily".

In 2017 Shane texts him a plain happy birthday. But then he has a proper cake (though small) ordered from a small bakery near the cottage. It's set for delivery a couple days after Ilya arrives (the day after they come out to Shane's parents) because it gave him enough time to cancel if it went horribly.

So Ilya wakes up to find Shane not in bed, talking politely to someone at the door, and when he goes to see what it is he finds Shane standing with a plain white box that he gingerly sets on the table and opens to reveal a beautifully decorated cake. It's a soft blue frosting with chocolate ganache covering the top and dripping down the sides, there are chocolate covered strawberries perfectly spaced on the top.

"I wasn't sure what flavour you'd like so the top layer's funfetti, the middle's chocolate, and the bottom is strawberry. And there's cookie dough-flavoured icing in the middle."

It's enough cake that between the two of them and Shane's parents it takes them a week to get through.

It becomes a thing. Shane finds new cake flavours for Ilya's (belated if the awards are after his birthday) birthday cake every year.

When they finish their first season together on the Cens Shane has spent months working with Harris in secret. And Ilya's birthday is turned into a Centaur's community fair. They fill the parking lot with rides and free carnival food and games. There's a massive adult-sized bouncy castle.

Ilya takes Anya for her walk on a rainy Ottawa spring day (in her pink polkadot rain suit that covers her back and head and legs)

Anya finds a scent a little off their usual route and since Shane didn’t want to walk in the rain Ilya lets her go for it

A tiny little mewl is heard from the bush Anya is sniffing

Ilya recalls Anya and tells her to sit and because she is a very good girl she listens to her Papa

Ilya crawls in the mud and finds a tiny kitten soaking wet and shivering. He picks it up and tucks it into the pocked of his hoodie, under his raincoat, and hurries home

Shane asks how their dog is completely clean but Ilya is tracking mud into their house

Little mewl is heard

Shane is shown the tiny kitty and falls in love almost as instantly as he fell for Ilya.

They take the kitten to the vet where she is cleaned up and dried off and checked out.

The kitten is unnamed until Scott visits and jokingly compares her to Shane with how strict she is on her schedule

Shaya the kitten shows up on the Cens social media when she’s had all her vaccinations and the internet loses their mind bc she clearly thinks Anya is her mom and Anya clearly thinks this is just some weird puppy but it’s her weird puppy tyvm

The video Harris took BTS of a pet merch shoot with Anya grooming Shaya goes viral. 16/10 rating and Shaya is dubbed “honorary puppy” by weratedogs

Rose Landry has been Shane Hollander's best friend, roommate, and beard for years. The two captains of the Montreal Metros and the Montreal Victoire are the royal couple of hockey. Of course, none of it is real, and with Shane and Ilya's upcoming wedding in the summer of 2018 they're in the home stretch.

Ilya is Svetlana Vetrova's best friend. He's her person. She would do anything for him. Even if "anything" just means letting media run wild with the idea that the Boston hockey captains are similarly entangled. Svetlana has never had a need to text Rose, or call her, even if they have each other's numbers.

Until something threatens to reveal both their boys' secret, and they devise a plan. Maybe they're much more alike than they think...

When Shane was 8 years old his parents decided to go on a road trip across Canada. They drove through the prairies and into the mountains right to the coast of BC. They went to a beach. Shane played with a boy his age, one who didn't speak English or French, but in the way kids often do they figured out how to play regardless. At the same beach the next day the boy was there again. It got cold. The boy gave Shane his coat when he saw Shane shiver, and in broken English said "keep safe, yes?" and Shane said "yes".

Almost exactly ten years later Ilya Rozanov sees a boy with freckles and falls head first.

Until 2014, when he is showering in Shane Hollander's apartment, and finds something he thought he'd never see again.

His skin.

The skin his mother told him to hide before they were dragged back to Russia.

"I thought you just looked like him," Ilya tells Shane when he emerges with the skin.

It's become Shane's favourite blanket, growing with him.

Ilya doesn't panic, like he had been, he sits and tells Shane the truth.

That Ilya is wholly human in this form, but he is also wholly selkie. The product of an experiment where the government captured selkie pups, raised them as Proper Russians, and then paired them off with loyal officials. Alexei had been born without a second skin, so Irina and Grigori had been deemed a failure for the purposes of the experiment. They were left to be Normal Citizens. Irina thought quickly and hid Ilya's second skin the moment he was born.

They escaped, when people started to ask questions about Ilya never being cold on ice rinks. It wasn't for long, but they swam, for thirty days, across the water. And Irina told Ilya to hide his skin well.

Ilya saw a boy with pretty freckles and kind eyes and decided to trust him, not fully knowing what he was trusting Shane with.

Shane tries to give the skin back, but the Olympics are weeks away. Ilya can't take his skin back, and Shane's kept it safe this long. Clearly Ilya made a good choice.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I'm still working through it," Rose was saying on the phone to someone. "It's a lot, Mom. It would take up the entire off-season. I wouldn't have any breaks- Yeah, I know it's a good part. I know." She sighed heavily. "Probably going to Ottawa with his parents. Like every year. Why wouldn't I? Because Michigan is seven hours at least from- Yeah, I know. I know. I don't control the game schedule, Mom. I- Hi, Dad."

Svetlana added more milk to the pot on her stove and chopped up some more chocolate. 

"Yeah. It's not something I can miss- This is a lot different from John's games. It's a different schedule and- I have to be back by the 28th. I know that's not enough time but we have practice- Why would she have anything to do with this? She's on a different team, she doesn't make the schedule- No, I'm not going to see her parents either. Because they're in Russia. Dad. I can't- Getting to Russia takes like, two full days of flying right now. Well you could come to Montreal- Yeah. I know that's stupid. I can't- Yeah. Sure. Tell Peter I say hi."

Svetlana poured the thick hot chocolate into two mugs and carried them both to the couch Rose was sitting on.

"Here," she said, holding one out to Rose.

Rose took the mug and held it in her hands, unusually quiet. Svetlana let her sit in the quiet for a few moments, until her shoulders started to relax again.

"Christmas?" Svetlana assumed.

"Yeah. I can't make it back home again, and my parents think that's..."

"Unacceptable?" Svetlana suggested and Rose nodded.

"I just-" She sighed. "The most my Dad's been invested in my life was when I was 'with' Shane," Rose made air quotes. "And they never even met him because why should they have to travel to Montreal?"

"Because they can actually take time off of work," Svetlana answered. "And we cannot."

"As I've been telling them for years," Rose agreed. "I dunno, this is the longest break I've had since the PWHL started and I don't wanna spend a full day flying to fucking Michigan in the middle of winter." She looked over at Svetlana. "Are you going home?"

Svetlana wrinkled her nose a little and shook her head. "No, Russians follow Orthodox calendar so Christmas isn't until January 7."

"Oh yeah, I hadn't thought of that." Rose sat up and braced her elbows on her knees. "Is Russian Christmas that much different from American?"

"It's not nearly as consumerist," Svetlana answered easily and Rose laughed. "Unsurprisngly."

"American holidays? Consumerist? No," Rose said with heavy sarcasm. 

Svetlana grinned. "Christmas is not our gift day, either. Ours is New Years, Ded Moroz comes and gives children presents. It's more similar to Western Christmas, though. And I'm much more Americanized than most Russians," she added.

"So is Christmas like, just religious, then?"

"Pretty much, yes. Though it still feels Christmas-y, with the trees and decorations and things preparing for New Years." Svetlana stirred her hot chocolate. "What was Christmas like for you, as a child?"

"Well I was usually on a set, so it wasn't a typical Christmas." Rose took a long drink of her hot chocolate. "You know the idea of how you can grow up with siblings and not have grown up in the same family?"

Svetlana shook her head.

"It's the idea that everyone experiences the world differently, but parents have their own biases, plus events in the wider world impact how kids get raised. For my brothers they had snow days and Christmas cookies and secret Santa at school. I had film lot Christmas parties with a lot of adults around and early call times the next day." Rose shifted to bring her knees to her chest, like some sort of physical shield. "I used to watch the cheesy Hallmark movies all the time, with the picture perfect small town Christmas."

"Secret royalty?" Svetlana asked.

"I loved those ones," Rose sighed softly. "I always wanted to go to some snow covered European city and get mulled wine and hot chocolate and listen to old church bells."

"Montreal is pretty similar."

Rose smiled a little. "Yeah, I guess it is. It's no Paris, though."

Svetlana hummed. Sasha lived in Paris, with his dancer husband. She could text him, find out what show the Opera was doing, splurge a little on someone else for a change. She knew Rose didn't need it, or maybe she did. Maybe she needed someone to whisk her away and show her a normal Christmas.