wantisam

fist bumps at the boards when one of them scores

Ilya getting to yell at the ref on Shane's behalf when he takes a cheap hit

Shane giving the hardest check of his career to the d-man that gave Ilya a minor concussion in the last game against them. The guy practically backflips but he's fine and the gif of Shane's snarling face goes viral

When Ilya loses a blade on the power play one time Shane's the closet one who can tow him to the bench (this goes VERY viral)

SICK PRETTY SHOTS on said power play, showing the world how fucking stupid everyone was to allow them to get on the same team

Locker Room / Bench

Guys tape everything—wrists, fingers, knees, ankles—and Ilya having strong opinions about how Shane tapes his wrists wrong and physically taking his hand and redoing it. It takes forever. You have to hold the wrist, keep tension on the tape. Shane spending the entire time staring at his face like he's having a religious experience.

The thing where your teammate finishes taping your stick because you're still messing with your skates. Deeply domestic. Completely normal hockey behavior. Ilya doing it for Shane without asking because he knows exactly how Shane likes his blade wrapped from years of studying him as an opponent. Shane does not Trust anyone else to even touch his stick

Ilya starts stealing Shane's sticks during morning skate and refusing to give them back until Shane physically wrestles them out of his hands.

Sharing a water bottle on the bench. Deeply unsanitary. Completely normal. Something you only really do with guys you're comfortable around. Ilya grabbing Shane's by mistake the first week and Shane not even mentioning it.

The thing where after a bad loss nobody talks. The room is silent except for tape ripping and gear getting packed away. Ilya sitting down next to Shane, shoulders touching, and saying absolutely nothing. Somehow that's the most anyone has said all night.

Sharing an iPad on the bench, shoulder-to-shoulder, drawing routes on the screen with gloved fingers. One of them grabbing the other's arm to point something out and not letting go because they're both still watching the clip.

The full-body lean that happens after a brutal shift. Just putting your entire weight onto the guy next to you because you're too tired to hold yourself up. Ilya doing it once without thinking and Shane automatically widening his stance to take the weight.

Ilya grabbing Shane's elbow during a TV timeout and physically moving him six inches to the left so he can see the whiteboard. Shane just lets himself be repositioned.

Guys smacking each other on the ass after a good play is so normalized in hockey it's practically invisible. The first time Ilya does it to Shane they both feel like they're getting away with something.

The way players grab the backs of each other's necks to get their attention. The way they grab cages to be heard over crowd noise. Ilya catching Shane by the visor and pulling him closer until they're practically nose-to-nose to say something, and Shane immediately going still.

Getting your jersey number called for a penalty and having to go to the box and your linemate skating you over, just a hand between the shoulder blades guiding you to the box door, and Shane doing this for Ilya once and Ilya looking back at him through the glass from the penalty box and Shane just tapping his own chest twice like I've got it, go sit down (I realize they're both centers but maybe occasionally Ilya plays wing, like mentioned about All-Stars in that bed convo w Sveta)

The two of them coming back to the bench after a shift and immediately starting to explain what they saw at the exact same time. "The weak-side D keeps cheating—" "I know, if we swing lower—" Neither of them stops talking. Somehow they're still having the same conversation.

Every winger they've ever played with eventually develops the same thousand-yard stare while Shane and Ilya spend an entire TV timeout discussing a faceoff they already won three minutes ago.

On The Ice

The thing about Shane being able to look completely bored while doing something physically absurd. Ilya being one of the only people who's ever been able to tell the difference between Shane coasting and Shane being fully locked in because he's spent years reading him from the other bench.

Now he reads him from the same bench. At some point Ilya realizes he can tell whether Shane is nervous by whether his right leg is bouncing. Shane is Hockey Jesus and therefore never nervous about himself, obviously. But teammates doing stupid shit? Suddenly the leg is going.

Shane automatically skates over to grab the extra guy after every scrum because nobody gets to cross-check Ilya except him.

The first month they accidentally keep ending up in the same support lane in the neutral zone. Both of them trying to do the responsible center thing on the breakout, swinging to provide an outlet, reading the same play developing and arriving in the same spot. One goes low to support the defenseman. The other is already there. It takes a month of bumping into each other before they stop thinking the exact same thought at the exact same time.

pThe breakout where Ilya is supposed to be the outlet but gets tied up on the wall. He manages to free one arm and taps his stick twice on the ice. Don't go middle. Go wide. Shane reads it instantly.

At some point they've developed an entire private language of stick taps that nobody else understands.

When the power play isn't working, they have entire conversations between whistles that are maybe thirty percent words and seventy percent stick taps, glove grabs, shoulder shoves, and pointing at patches of ice.

The Ovi-Backstrom thing, neither of them is permanently Ovi and neither of them is permanently Backstrom. Some shifts Shane is the shooter. Some shifts Ilya is. Some shifts they're both trying to set the other guy up. Figuring out who's who isn't really a system so much as a running conversation.

Shane pinching at the blue line, which coaches have spent his entire life trying to discourage. Ilya rotating back to cover before Shane has fully committed to the pinch. Making the decision for him before he's made it himself.

The first time they line up together for a defensive-zone draw and Ilya casually puts a hand on Shane's back and shifts him six inches to the right. It's not even a weird thing. Players reposition each other all the time. Shane still short-circuits because nobody has ever moved him before. He's always been the one directing traffic.

Shane taking a defensive-zone draw because it's on his strong side. Ilya automatically drifting to the wing. No discussion, no ego, just both of them recognizing what gives them the best chance to win possession.

Which is maybe the strangest thing about them. They've both spent their entire lives being THE centerman. The guy the play runs through. The guy who takes the draw. The guy who decides. And now they keep finding themselves yielding little pieces of territory to each other without even thinking about it.

They both tap their sticks on the ice in the exact same rhythm before a faceoff. Someone points it out. They deny it with suspicious speed. (They are the Exact Same People It's Creepy).

Both of them mutter constantly during games. To themselves. To the puck. To nobody. For years they did it from opposite benches. Now they're muttering at each other halfway through shifts, sometimes English, sometimes Russian, and their wingers genuinely cannot tell whether they're communicating or just happening simultaneously.

The line change where Shane is jumping over the boards and Ilya is coming off and for one second they have to occupy the exact same piece of ice. A hand on an elbow. A shove at the hip, crawling over each other. Alternatively, one of them trying to get on the bench where the other is already sitting, and like missing a little, so now Shane's dragging Ilya over the railing by the back of his jersey like a feral alley cat

Shane bodychecking Ilya into the boards during practice and then immediately grabbing his jersey to make sure he's still upright.

Ilya scores goals that look psychic because he knows where Shane is going before Shane does. The back-door tap-in where Shane hasn't even looked at him yet and Ilya is already there, stick on the ice, because he read Shane's shoulder angle and knew the pass was coming. Shane doesn't even have to find him. Ilya is just always in the right place because he's been studying Shane longer than Shane has been studying himself.

Goals / Celebrations

The goal celebration where Shane grabs Ilya's face in both hands and shakes it around viciously.

The chest bump that turns into Ilya holding him there for half a second longer than necessary because they're both laughing too hard.

When one of them gets named first star, the other immediately interrupts the interview by spraying him with a water bottle

Shane grabbing the back of Ilya's helmet and shaking it the way you'd ruffle someone's hair if the helmet wasn't there.

After wins Ilya getting Shane in a headlock and dragging him halfway across the ice.

Video / Meetings

The video session where the coaches are breaking down Ilya's one-timer and Shane keeps quietly finishing the explanation because he's spent years trying to defend against it. Ilya turning around to stare at him. Everyone else in the room already grinning, Shane having absolutely no idea what is funny.

Shane flicking the back of Ilya's helmet every time he says something stupid during film review.

Both of them are notorious video guys, which means they keep accidentally finding themselves alone in the video room after practice. At some point they stop pretending it's an accident.

You send the thing out and maybe someone reads it and something moves in them and they have no way to tell you exactly what moved or why and you have no way to know if it was the thing you meant or something else entirely.

You're working in permanent uncertainty about whether any of it lands. and you keep going anyway. you have to develop this strange faith in the act itself, in the value of the attempt separate from the outcome, because if you need confirmation every time you sit down you will never sit down.

no one is asking for this but i have to make my one million hours on ao3 mean something

the texture of memory: to write a silly blurb would do it a disservice i think, but just read it i am so serious, completed

your presence has gone through me (like needle through a thread): ilya gets a family and i cry one million tears of joy, wip

the anatomy of a bird heart in slow decay: an impossible love story and meditation on grief, mothers and sons, and survival. featuring ghosts in the literal sense. completed

fall in love again and again: the classic tuna-melt groundhog day, with a house of leaves flavour, completed

Jessica: teenaged shane as seen through his relationship with his high school girlfriend, i love them both so unbearably much, completed

home economics: nhl lockout leads to hollanov living together in the situationship era-there's no way this could go wrong! completed

Route 96 Kanata: shane suffers a career ending injury before meeting ilya but where there's a will there's a tortured hollanov situationship nonetheless. full of fantastic ottawan idiosyncrasies. wip

World on Your Shoulders: what if shane had a queer rookie while deep in the midst of his internalized homophobia "i'm not gay" era? fascinating and wonderfully pessimistic characterization, this whole series is a dark comedy that i want to swallow whole, completed

wunderkind: breathtaking look into yuna hollander's inner world but everyone really shines through wonderfully here (ilya my heart i love you so much), completed

I have only two emotions (careful fear and dead devotion): shane disappears from hockey post prospect cup and hollanov meets again much farther down the road, gorgeous tender slow burn, wip

we'll make a home on the cracks: journalist shane fights his way out of an ethics torment nexus and finds true love <3 cute hollanov & fun shane characterization, wip

car wash redhead, tube top R.E.M. concert, juror #6: hollanov character study, power and love, i adore those freaks so much <3, completed

frequently, secretly fond of each other: boston! shane, you know it you love it, wip

some pacific wind: the pains of being asian in a nearly all-white sport and having to communicate to the world exclusively in your second language: a hollanov conversation, completed

side note: all of satorussuguru's heated rivalry fics are fantastic and are on here in spirit if not in actual text

It had to be you, Wonderful you: transmasc ilya you are soooo dear to me, completed

Offside: coach/player forbidden hollanov but it's sweeter than you would expect. wip

Honey, you're familiar like my mirror years ago: climbing inside your soulmates body is a thing that is both normal to want and possible to have (ft. painful but warming version of shane's life post. career ending injury), wip

dark out and still thirty degrees: one of the only a/b/o fics i've ever enjoyed (sorry), dives into the misogyny in the bones of the genre in a way that's very cathartic for me. ft. a fascinating trans shane journey. completed

head and body to you: tortured self-destructive shane character study, toxic? situationship hollanov, canon-typical emotion development through the lens of sex, completed

the soviet montage: obviously already popular but i had to, cold-war era hollanov post. ilya's defection from the soviet union, completed

i've been waiting my whole life to know i wanted you: deep dive into shane's militant self denial that also fleshes out a much more culturally-connected japanese-canadian experience for him. #lifegetsbetter(eventually), completed

pronoms possessifs: shane writes a love letter, just wonderful completed

Home Ice Advantage: another boston! shane but diving more deeply into how being traded would impact the hockey of it all, very perfectionism torment nexus, completed (with wip sequel)

Blizost: what if you could climb inside your lover and share one body between two souls?, wip

Mama's Boy, Mama's Boy: shane hollander's journey if the whole time he was also haunted by his situationship's dead mom, fantastic irina characterization, completed

cracked plexiglass: canon rewrite that fleshes out a version of shane's pre-NHL hockey career that's more realistic to the actual environment of high level Canadian juniors, very very good, wip

i know where to draw the line: older captain shane and younger teammate ilya, super cute, completed

Overlay: very well written, read the authors note in the beginning before starting, completed

one of your eyes is always half-shut (something happened when you were a kid): it's GivingAlexeiDimensionality2026 !! such a gut punch to read as an older sibling, completed

Plexiglass Box: what if hollanov met as teens in Moscow? (ilya x coach's son but it was shane the whole time), Excellent tension, completed (sequel incoming hopefully)

but what if I need you in my darkest hour? : our favorite hockey players plane crash Bad on the way to 2017 All Stars, painful in all the ways, completed

always, sun: canon,,,,,,,divergence?? magical realism, gorgeous and vaguely terrifying, completed

I. ONE LITTLE GOD FALLING OVER ANOTHER: the last year in boston, has hardly begun but the mixed media format is so good and the tension is so thick,,,,,pit in my stomach as i eagerly await the rest, wip

nothing makes me feel as good: shane character study through jj's eyes, god im so obsessed with this crazy crazy man, completed

Hello From Moscow, Goodbye from Montreal: canon divergence circa 2012 where ilya calls shane drunk one night, and keeps calling after that, equally funny and devastating, wip

there are like millions more that i will add once i remember them

Source

situationship era

make much of time by leiascully (E | 2256 | Shane/Ilya)

To fall in love one hour at a time is not possible. Ilya knows this.

Winner's Room by DachOsmin (E | 3749 | Shane/Ilya)

It’s a dick move and right now Ilya is glad he has a reputation as a dick, so no one asks too many questions. You’re supposed to pick someone that fucked up a bit, someone the team is already kind of mad at. Picking a team’s captain, especially when he hasn’t done anything wrong—you don’t do that.

Or: Ilya notices that Hollander is off his game, and decides that a visit to the winner's room just might fix that.

chained myself to a friend by anonymous (M | 12370 | Shane/Ilya)

“Board games,” Ilya said, kneeing them higher up his chest.

Shane stared at him. “You travel with those?” he asked, trying to go for scathing. It never quite got there. He didn’t have Ilya’s skill.

Ilya smiled wide and shark-like. “No,” he said. “I got them from Emily. Mrs. Lansow.”

Shane felt even more baffled.

“The owner of the hotel,” Ilya said.

“I know,” Shane said. He just couldn’t imagine Ilya interacting with that sweet woman. Or her asking him to call her by her first name. “Why? I mean, why did you get them?”

“You have better things to do?” Ilya asked.

“I have a phone. And a laptop. And there’s a television,” Shane said.

Ilya squinted dismissively. “Screen is bad. Melts your brain.”

“You sound like my mom,” Shane said, a little softer than he intended and smiling reluctantly.

Ilya tilted his head. “This does it for you?”

//

Shane and Ilya learn what it's like spending time together with their clothes still on.

Too ripe not to split by Charlotte_Stant (E | 2595 | Shane/Ilya)

Ilya rocks his hips up. “No, Hollander. Keep up. I want to meet your dildo.” He enjoys enunciating the word. Tries to give it a bit of a whiny Canadian inflection. “You remember? You told me about him, back in Vegas.”

Hollander blushes beautifully and says, “That’s private.”

“Hollander. I know the taste of your ball skin.”

“That’s—Jesus, don’t say it like that. I can show you, but. Only if you promise not to be a dick.”

“Best behaviour,” Ilya promises. “Will say only nice things.”

Adjustments by sheepknitssweater (E | 2814 | Shane/Ilya)

Shane had been sucking Rozanov’s mostly soft dick for between six and eight minutes. Since all the most important moments of Shane’s life were timed, he had a good internal clock. He was pretty sure it had been eight minutes.

#noticing by YankingAwry (T | 2581 | Svetlana-centric)

“And this is Svetlana! You guys have a fun hockey connection. She’s BFFs with—ooh. What’s his name again, babe?”

“Ilya Rozanov,” says Svetlana. Feeling virtuous about it, she offers her hand first. “Don’t tell him I said you have the best hands in the league.”

Shane’s face is rigid. “Um. I won’t?”

“Thank you,” she says gravely. “You have saved a life.” Rose laughs, stroking Shane’s arm, and he suddenly remembers Svetlana’s hand is hanging. He takes it limply and disposes of it quick. His eyes look a little wild.

//

(Canon-compliant, set between episodes 4 and 5)

cottage/post-cottage

now i wanna be your dog by CatalpaWaltz (M | 2509 | Shane/Ilya)

In my room, I want you here.

Or: Ilya in the country.

Little More Close by maplesalad (E | 2270 | Shane/Ilya)

“Okay. You want to say no, you want to fight me. Pretty boy, all alone in his glass house. You want me to force you?”

He didn’t need Shane to answer, really; Shane was fully hard against Ilya’s thigh and pink under his freckles. But it was best to be direct about these things. And he wanted to hear Shane say it, anyway.

“I—yeah. Make me. Is that too weird?”

good bones by batman (E | 3731 | Shane/Ilya)

I figured it'd be two birds, one stone, Shane had said. I can give you the full tour of the new place and everything, there's some new stuff in the kitchen. And it can be this— sexy thing, for you.

Darling, hearing you talk about dishwashers is pretty sexy. No need to go further.

Shane and Ilya try some roleplay.

future fic/the long game

Heel Turn by DistantStorm (T | 5742 | Shane/Ilya)

“If we are burning jerseys,” Ilya begins, eyeing the massive blank space on Shane's side of the room where his Montreal sweaters used to live, “I would have gone to the store for marshmallows.”

“Burning polyester smells like shit,” Shane replies, scrunching his nose.

OR: The one where Ilya is attracted to Shane an absolutely normal amount, the Centaurs go 1-1 in their first two games against the Metros, and Shane reckons with Montreal as a concept.

the limitations of maddocks questions by viviolet (M | 36421 | Shane/Ilya)

when shane gets the injury that would come to end his career, in the moment he’s just thankful he didn’t break his jaw.

or: shane knew, in the abstract, that one day he would play his last professional nhl game. it never occurred to him that hockey would choose that day for him.

wips i am keeping an eye on

hold a cut inside by dinosaur (E | Shane/Ilya | 4k in 1/6 ch)

It's the Metros' season; Shane knows it. And no matter how many hits he takes, Shane's always been good at getting back on the ice.

Letting Ilya Rozanov touch his bruised body when he comes off the ice doesn't change anything. It can't; Shane knows that, too.

Alligator Bites Never Heal by flawlessassholes (E | Shane/Ilya | 16k in 3/6 ch)

His outstretched glove hangs there, frozen, as the noise of the arena mutates into a ringing buzz. Then he’s moving, pushed away by Marlow, and then Boston’s goalie. There’s a flurry of movement, a trainer with a towel, more blood dripping onto the ice, and he just. Stands there. Staring.

Ilya is helped off the ice. Shane doesn’t even tap his stick.

//

Remember when Sidney Crosby caught a puck with his jaw? That doesn't happen to Shane. That happens to Ilya.

Til They Retire Your Number by technicallyverycowboy (E | Shane/Ilya | 12k in 3/4 ch)

They lapse back into a comfortable silence. Shane looks at Ilya as he is and thinks about Ilya as he was at seventeen, smoking in the back of a Saskatchewan parking lot. The image is almost unbearably tender for Shane, where his own seventeen year old thrill at seeing Ilya Rozanov meets all the things Shane knows about that lonely boy now.

Shane thinks: Do you love number 81 more than you love this man?

"Hey," Ilya says, brushing his knuckles over Shane's cheek. "Whatever I do, I will be there when you come home."

I have compiled a bunch of links to meta posts about Ilya Rozanov that I encountered and enjoyed. I hope you also enjoy them!

Shane’s version here

Notes: 

This is NOWHERE NEAR complete. There are sooooo many more posts I want to include, eventually. It’s just been so long since I posted Shane’s version that I wanted to get something out there, as a start. If there are posts you love that aren’t included here, feel free to tag me on them so I can include them in the next round of updates! 

I am going to make a whole separate Meta Masterlist for stuff about Russian culture, the portrayal of Russia/Russians in the book and the show, and the Russian language. There’s A LOT of good posts on those topics

To any users I've tagged in this post, I just wanted to credit you, but if you would like me to untag you or remove your post from the list, please just let me know! Also, I think tumblr limits me to 50 tags? If yes, that's why most of the tags in the latter part of the post don't link directly to the user's blog. But all the links to the posts themselves should work. 

Some of the puzzle pieces that make up Ilya Rozanov:

@thedoubteriswise and @themoonandmyman discussing Ilya’s penchant for taking care of people

@urmomsonfire : the conflicting pieces of Ilya’s personality

@therealrashid : Tierney’s quote about Ilya's slyness

@hollanovfuckoff : some context on who Ilya is as a Russian kid

@aslongasitsblack : Diva Ilya (make sure you read op’s tags!!)

@clytemnestraaa cracked the Ilya code

@aphantasias : who is Rozanov and who is Ilya?

Ilya and Sex:

@justhere4ke-blog : Ilya’s relationship with his sexuality

@unnonexistence : a very concise analysis of Ilya’s relationship with desire

themoonandmyman (tagged above) : one of the core parts of Ilya’s identity is that he knows he is sexually desirable

themoonandmyman (tagged above) : Ilya is not a fuckboy

@ticklefighthockey and yours truly on Ilya’s relationship with sex

Ilya’s kinks: 

@yiiiiiiiikes25 : another reason to consider for why Ilya wants/needs dominance

aslongasitsblack (tagged above) : why Ilya likes Shane submitting to him

@airgiodslv : how Ilya gives orders that double as check-ins

ticklefighthockey (tagged above) : how Shane gave Ilya a virginity kink

aphantasias (tagged above) : Ilya’s ownership kink

@ahotknife : Ilya + honorifics

Episode 1: 

@academicblorbo : a study of 08/09 baby Ilya

@s--strawberry : the pronounced difference in Ilya’s reactions to Shane’s two handshakes

@iironandwine : Shane was only Ilya’s second

@ravelqueen : the press conference

@ladybugs-and-lilys : why the Nashville press conference was so meaningful to Ilya

Episode 2:

@wtf-is-hockey : this moment in ep 2

@dedecorus : how amazing Ilya is during Shane’s first time

@inthedreamatorium1 : all the non-sex things Ilya does that make him the perfect sexual partner

ticklefighthockey (tagged above) : Shane scares Ilya

@lavenderprose : Was Ilya aware that he was falling ? 

@escapepodding : the impact of THE FLEECE

themoonandmyman (tagged above) : what went unsaid during the bathroom scene

@bookdork1 : the contrast between the two bathroom scenes

@eastofedean : the emotional significance of the hookup in 2014 in the Vegas penthouse

wtf-is-hockey (tagged above) : the line, “What difference does it make?” (TLG Spoilers)

Episode 4:

escapepodding (tagged above) answers the question on everyone’s minds: Why tuna melts?

@spiders-hth-is-an-outlier : Ilya bringing up Svetlana, specifically, and what it means for him and Shane

@fresh-bag-of-ham : what Ilya meant when he said, “i like girls, but I also like you”

@femmenerd : Ilya telling Shane that he’s lazy

@macaroni-rascal : the tunameltdown and Ilya's only way to push back a little

@oathkeptroxas : the end of ep4

Episode 5:

@makana-bug : comparing two kisses

@stammiviktor : Ilya’s voice when he says, “you don't like me”

bookdork1 (tagged above) : what Ilya went through after Shane was injured

@martelldoran : Ilya in the hospital

@rainbow-femme : what high Shane’s hospital monologue meant for Ilya, emotionally

Episode 6:

@cowboylikebriii vulnerability in ep 5 vs ep 6

@alltoowille : the complete change in Ilya's demeanor in ep 6

airgiodslv (tagged above) : the sigh

@hollandcr and @gayhockeyshowenjoyer talking about the line, “Oh so this is my fault?”

@erisenyo : Ilya's feelings during the phone call bj

@tayasui-mono : Ilya doesn't joke about things that aren’t obvious

@the-cottage-loon : “I don't ever want that problem to ever go away.”

@hoechlinteeth : Ilya’s understanding of the words “compatible” and “narrative”

@theghostofashton : what Shane’s plan meant to Ilya

@thejoysymphony : Ilya’s journey from stifling tears to crying openly

@buckmybeloved : this is the first time Ilya feels that he is allowed to be soft

@anonymoustigress : smoking

@botheredbuck : Shane’s panic attack

@rozanovx : ep 6, Ilya’s instant shift into helping mode

@audoldends : ep 6 and Ilya standing at attention

@gayhockeyshow : Ilya’s contributions at Shane’s parents’ cottage 

conversation among @if-music-be-the-food-of-love , @criticaloser , and themoonandmyman  (tagged above) about Ilya insisting that Yuna and David call him by his first name

oathkeptroxas (tagged above) : why it’s important to Ilya that Shane says, “same here. only one”

@lifeofbrybooks : Ilya’s real priorities

@2-dont : Ilya's certainty during the dinner with the Hollanders comes from love

@livesbetweenpages : on Ilya labeling their relationship

Ilya in The Long Game

themoonandmyman (tagged above) : Ilya’s behavior with other queer MLH players

@acarelessmanscarefuldaughter : Ilya’s part in the miscommunication in TLG

@parcai : how Ilya is an unreliable narrator in TLG

Ilya’s relationship with Shane

Ilya understanding Shane: 

@valorfaerie : Ilya + being aware of Shane's neurdivergence

@sleepysquirrel445 : commentary on Ilya's behavior early on in the situationship

@gffa : Ilya’s very effective seduction technique

Why Shane is so good for Ilya: 

tayasui-mono (tagged above) : family taking and Shane giving

@hyperfixation-fix : How Shane must be such a relief plus mybloodstream-caffeine ‘s reblog with the tag about the word “boring”

Ilya and his relationships with characters other than Shane: 

Ilya and Svetlana: 

discussion between themoonandmyman (tagged above) and @beeeeeboooooop on the nature of the relationship between Ilya and Svetlana

aslongasitsblack (tagged above) : more on ilya and Svetlana

Ilya and his family: 

@jesuisnilunnilautre and @bomberqueen17 discussing why Ilya is so perceptive

@outside-seoul : Shane and Ilya’s different relationships with family

lifeofbrybooks (tagged above) : the dichotomy between Shane and Ilya’s home lives

Ilya and Irina: 

wtf-is-hockey (tagged above) : Ilya’s empathy for Irina

lifeofbrybooks (tagged above) : Ilya is his mother's son

Ilya and Alexei: 

academicblorbo (tagged above) ‘s answer to the question: Why does Alexei hate him?

@bonejar : part meta, part headcanon about Ilya and Alexei

Ilya and the Hollanders:

@ambiguityenjoyer and an anonymous asker talking about the relationship between Ilya and his in-laws

@mickeym4ndy : the beauty of Ilya and David ‘s relationship (TLG Spoilers)

Other stuff:

ticklefighthockey (tagged above) : Ilya's hypocrisy about him and Shane dating/sleeping with other people

wtf-is-hockey (tagged above) : the way Ilya talks about women

rozanovx (tagged above) : why Ilya is positive bi representation

@meebles : the portrayal of Ilya’s yearning in the show

@suraks-sweet-tits : why Ilya likes pissing Shane off

Ilya in English:

@hoodshem answering a question from gayhockeyshowenjoyer (tagged above) about Ilya’s use of the word "probably" in English

@gavrannoir : "one two two one" instead of “twelve twenty-one”

I laughed and cried with this. Please read it so I can rave about the amazing lines of this masterpiece with someone. When you get to chapter 11, especially 😭

Be kind and leave lots of comments, please. This author deserves it ❤️🥺