TheBlueMeanie3000

Shane is like no! It’s embarrassing! And this is public! And you wouldn’t make me actually do that to Rose would you? You know the answer, I’m gay!

Only Rose thinks the whole thing is hilarious and gives Shane the go ahead so there’s no real reason to resist Ilya’s begging anymore, still he holds out to the day before the interview.

“Fine! Fine! You can ask about Rose, but I get to ask about anything I want too!” And Ilya’s like yes yes of course my love. His boring Shane would hardly ask anything damning.

Fast forward to the day of the interview Shane is fondly exasperated with Ilya’s Rose questions, and Ilya is being a cocky bastard so happy with how it played out.

Until they switch sides and Shane breaks out his first question:

“Is it or is it not true that despite famously calling Scott Hunter ‘a nearly extinct fossil’ you think he’s hot?” The blood drains from Ilya’s face pretty quickly after that.

“Do you think Hayden Pike is a good hockey player?”

“Do you consider Hayden Pike a close friend?”

“Who do you love more: me or Anya?”

“Besides me who is your favorite teammate?”

Chapters: 2/6 Fandom: Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Kip Grady/Scott Hunter, Scott Hunter & Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander & Ottawa Centaurs Team Ensemble & Ilya Rozanov, Hayden Pike/Jackie Pike, Jackie Pike & Ilya Rozanov, Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau & Ilya Rozanov Characters: Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Kip Grady, Jackie Pike, Hayden Pike, Hayden Pike's Children, Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau, Luca Haas, Wyatt Hayes, Zane Boodram, Troy Barrett, Harris Drover, Svetlana Vetrova, Rose Landry, Ottawa Centaurs Team Ensemble (Game Changers), Ottawa Centaurs WAGs Ensemble (Game Changers)

Additional Tags: Crack Treated Seriously, Humor, Social Media, fanfic about real people, ao3 - Freeform, Curiosity killed the cat, And Then The Cat Opened AO3, Ilya has questions, Nobody Should Have Answered Them, Shane Hollander Tries, Nobody Listens To Shane Hollander, Team Barbecue, Everyone Knows What's Coming Except Ilya, mild existential crisis, The Scott Hunter Situation, This Gets Worse, poor scott hunter, mutual suffering, Internet Culture Shock, No Beta We Die Like Shane's Peace Of Mind

Summary:

"What is fanfiction?" The silence somehow got worse.

OR

Ilya discovers AO3, takes an interest and traumatises himself.

–x–

“you are here” “of course i am” “shane hollander is taking me home” “shane hollander-rozanov is taking you home” “shane hollander takes my last name” “yes he did. do you want to come home with him?” “i’ll go anywhere shane hollander goes” “okay then let’s go home baby”

“Haas, where are you right now?”

“The club by the hotel.”

“And he’s not in the bathroom?”

“No.”

“Not on the roof?”

“No.”

“Not trying to access any of the dancers poles?”

“What? Why would- Oh, Troy says no.”

“Is he hanging out with drunk girls in the women’s bathroom?”

“Umm, one sec. Harris, can you ask her if Ilya is in there? … Harris says no.”

“Ok. What were you talking about before he disappeared?”

“We were trying to figure out where to eat.”

“Did anyone bring up sushi?”

“He didn’t say he wanted-“

“Just answer the question.”

“Uh yeah, someone suggested it, but he said he wanted-“

“He’s at the pier.”

“What?”

“He got bored, sushi put fish on his brain, which made him think about water, and he likes going to piers, and the hotel is walking distance from a boardwalk by the water. He’s there, most likely trying to look at fish going under the dock.”

“… How do you know that?”

11/10. Mwah. Mwah. Mwah. I truly grew to love this book. I hold several of the character in my heart(like I usually do), and think of them fondly.

Here’s a quote from the book: “He bottomed, but I feel like I’m the one who’s fucked.”

Given the context, that’s so cutsey. This book took about a week for me to finish. I read reviews online about people who dnf’d it because of all the smut and you guys are whimps I guess. I went into this book thinking I wasn’t going to like it, but now I love it. (Of course, respect to those who truly don’t love so much smut. We all have preferences.)

Here’s a book report(This goes without saying, but SPOILERS!)

I really enjoyed the writing and found it similar to God of Fury. The difference between the chapters of Avi and Kyran and the way they see each other made the book better.

Favorite character: Kyran’s bestie Guty. He’s so funny and goofy and adjacent to queerness. At least, I think so. He was so supportive of Kyran when he came out and was dating Avi. He even helped Avi out when they couldn’t find Kyran. I mean, he’s just so lovable. And he’s hot. Zeb sure thinks so.

This. Book. Is. SSSSSPICY. I don’t know why people were complaining; I was eating that shit up. My favorite smut scene(is it weird to have a favorite smut scene?) was when Kyran told Avi to tell him he’s beautiful. I feel like during those scenes, Avi and the reader get the real Kyran.

I love Kyran but he was pissing me off. I rolled my eyes every-time he ran away and pushed the gay away. Like gang, it’s 2026(I don’t know when the book was written), people are gay Steven.

Fuck that stupid priest and Kyran’s mom.

I feel like, if I were Kyran, I wouldn’t have forgiven my dad as quick as he did. Like, the same day. I can hold a grudge, so it would have been awhile. I feel we could of had more that that

That five weeks of Kyran being gone was torture, especially for Avi but also me.

The epilogues were really cute. It’s crazy that they once were trying to fist fight each other.

Big spoiler, so don’t read this if you haven’t read: if it really bothers you that they’re stepbrothers, they aren’t stepbrothers at the end…And they hated each other for years so it’s whatever.

(TW- Mention of childhood sexual assault (not detailed on page, mention of sensitive religious topics, detailed trauma recovery & healing, mention of death & grief, mention of suicide, homophobia, internalized homophobia, filming of sexual acts for money (online sex work), negligent parents)

I highly recommend this book. I was kicking my fucking feet. This was my first Nyla K. book and I really enjoyed reading. Also, in like every question that wasn’t a like of dialogue, there were two questions marks…Am I missing something? Also, this book report is very late. 😅

But he doesn't know who Bad Bunny is, and Bad Bunny doesn't know who Shane is... So they're both just making small talk with this hot guy they met at the bar while they wait for their drinks. They're enjoying talking to someone who doesn't know their celebrity status. And Shane is getting a little flustered despite being married, because damn if this guy isn't his type, and Bad Bunny is lowkey flirting with him.

And then Ilya shows up and has a heart attack. Alternating between fanboying over Bad Bunny and wanting to fight him. Just standing there frozen with this bonkers expression on his face.

Ilya wins his first awards and hes got nobody he really wants to thank after his team and coach cause he he hates his family but he knows his speech is too short so on impulse he goes "And I want to thank Shane Hollander for being slightly worse than me this season". Everyone knows it was going to one of those two, so everyone thinks hes an asshole to say that but whats new so it works for him. But from then on it then becomes a bit for both of them to thank each other in their speeches in a snide way as a reason they won.

Shane winning the Art Ross Trophy (Awarded to the player who leads the league in total points at the end of the regular season). and going "special thanks to Rozanov for missing at least 5 shots this season, he was a huge help"

Ilya winning the Conn Smythe Trophy (Awarded to the most valuable player for his team in the playoffs.) "Just want to give a quick shout out to Hollander for getting knocked out in the second round this season. Must hate to see me up here."

1) It’s important to know that it’s not just Shane and Ilya who are struggling, and that struggle is not unique to them. Like, it's very easy to assume that they're afraid of admitting their feelings for each other solely because of their own personal hang-ups. It's very easy to assume that, if they could just acknowledge how they feel – that it's not just a casual hookup with no strings and Shane is gay gay – they could happily drive off into the Canadian sunset together and all would be well.

But we know that's not the case, because we have Scott and Kip.

Scott is way more advanced in his career, he’s a lot more confident in flirting with a total stranger, he asks Kip to move in with him the morning after they have a first date that’s almost entirely sex and Kip agrees… and it doesn’t matter.

There is absolutely no ambiguity about their gayness or interest in each other, they are incredibly good at communicating their feelings, they do nothing but love and support and understand each other, they're practically married after like a week and a half, and it doesn’t matter.

Scott is still legitimately terrified of being outed. Literally the only thing holding him back from living with Kip in openly gay wedded bliss is hockey, but that’s enough.

The only similarity between Shane and Ilya’s messy slowburn fuckbuddies-to-lovers arc and Scott and Kip’s coffee smoothie shop romcom is the overwhelming dread of losing the career to which you’ve dedicated your entire life (to the point that you have almost no marketable skills or significant relationships outside of it and have repeatedly hurt yourself physically and mentally in service of it) because of the homophobia inherent in the culture surrounding it.

But that similarity is hanging over the entire plot like the sword of Damocles.

Which is also why Scott outing himself by kissing a man on live TV after winning the cup is so powerful that Ilya immediately drops everything and decides to come to the cottage instead. If Scott can have all of that hanging over his head and choose to knock it down like a fucking piñata, if Scott can see the disaster coming and invite it in, if Scott has all the same fears that Shane and Ilya do about coming out and can still say, "Fuck you, I'm doing it anyway, and in the most spectacularly public way possible," why not hang out for a week or two in (theoretically) complete privacy with the person you've been in love with for nearly a fucking decade?

Why not take the lifeline of hope Scott's providing and grab it with both hands?

Without seeing Scott and Kip's full story (not just the kiss we see at the end), the stakes for Shane and Ilya aren't as obvious. We need Scott and Kip so that we fully understand exactly where Shane and Ilya are coming from.

2) GO HOME! GO HOME!