the more i see it, the sadder and sadder i get at the trope the fandom has developed that any time shane and ilya are in a fight, or whenever the boston teammates gets involved post-tuna melt, everyone around them just automatically assumes that whatever went wrong MUST have been something ilya did. and i fully admit that i have had so much fun reading the fics of boston stealing Shane's number to be like "pls pls take him back we are BEGGING" (and absolutely zero shade to anyone who's ever written that, i love you all and it's hilarious) but the fact that it's almost always also "he can fix whatever he did wrong, we're sure it's his fault" just has me in my feels today. and if they're in a fight post-tlg and the centaurs get involved, there's this attitude of "what did roz do now?"
maybe i'm just thinking about it all too deep, but ilya has basically spent his entire life being blamed or shouldered with excess responsibility, and even when it amuses me it ends up making me sad the more i see this trope that even at these higher points in his life away from russia, ilya still seems to have no one in his corner who would stand up for him or take his side. i honestly think that shane, even if he was pissed as hell at his husband, would resent the implication that it must be ilya's fault (even if it WAS) or the fact that someone, even their closest friends, felt they had a right to comment on it. he is and always will be ilya's number one defender, enabler, supporter, and would not stand for the implication that they do not have equal footing in this relationship, even when it makes him look bad because you know what?? HE'S the one who started the fight actually, because HE was being an asshole and an idiot, and ilya actually did NOTHING WRONG THANK YOU VERY MUCH, so keep his husband's name OUT OF YOUR GODDAMN MOUTH