Chapter Text
July 4th, 2005 - Ottawa
Ilya didn’t bother his roommate, Shane, anymore as he finished unpacking, leaving the boy to his hockey book as Ilya unpacked. When Ilya had first seen Shane he was by himself in the game room. Shane had looked like he was uncomfortable until the tour guide had handed Ilya off to Shane so he could show Ilya to their room. When Shane had held out his hand to introduce himself Ilya was close enough that he could see the pretty freckles covering Shane's face.
When Shane had helped Ilya with one of his bags without being asked, all Ilya could think of was that his mother would have liked him. Ilya had fought with his father about being able to visit his mothers grave before leaving for nearly a month, which had led to Ilya going when his flight was leaving and missing it.
His father had been upset and nearly didn’t let Ilya come to camp, only relenting in the end because it would be good for getting Ilya’s name out there when he eventually wowed the scouts. Ilya sighs and hopes it was worth it to come here, Ilya was better than all the other kids on his team back in Russia and he hopes for some challenge here. Ilya is excited to see if Shane was as good on the ice as he was interested in the book he was reading.
When Ilya is done unpacking he yawns, looking at the clock on the table between their beds. Ilya looks over a little more to see Shane, he had started looking calmer the further they got from the game room and looked peaceful now as he read his hockey book. Ilya had a long flight and they still have some time until dinner starts so he lays down on his bed, falling asleep quickly.
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Ilya is woken up to a hand gently shaking him, Ilya opens his eyes to see Shane above him. Ilya could swear that Shane’s face is a bit flushed but he backs off quickly so Ilya doesn’t get a good look. Ilya sits up and stretches and when he looks back at Shane he looks fine.
“It’s time for dinner” Shane says and walks over to the door to put on his shoes. Ilya glances at the clock and there’s still ten minutes before dinner starts and Ilya says as much. “Dinner is not starting for ten minute.”
Ilya looks back at Shane as he shuffles a bit and then says “I don’t want to be late”
Ilya huffs out a small laugh and gets out of his bed to put his shoes on too, nodding to Shane and simply saying “okay” as he opens the door for the pretty boy.
Dinner is simple and quick, Ilya sits next to Shane half because he’s the only person he knows so far, but also because he remembers how Shane looked when Ilya first saw him in the game room. There are a few other kids at the other end of the table who are loud and rude to each other and Ilya tries not to be annoyed but Ilya can see that look from the game room start to creep back onto Shane's face and decides that he likes Shane Hollander and that it’s time to go.
When Ilya is done eating he looks over and says to Shane “I am tired. What is tonight?” Shane looks up from his food and shakes his head, “Nothing, our next practice is tomorrow after breakfast.” Ilya nods as Shane finishes eating and says “Time for bed then.”
Ilya stands up and Shane follows, they both take care of their trash before walking back to their room. Ilya is genuinely tired so Ilya goes almost straight to bed instead of goofing off or bugging Shane much. He waits as Shane does a list of things before leaving the bathroom and getting in bed to read some more. Ilya changes and brushes his teeth before he gets into bed.
Ilya rolls over to see Shane putting the book down and says “Goodnight, Shane” Shane looks at him and nods as he responds “Goodnight, Ilya”
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July 5th, 2005 - Ottawa
Ilya wakes up to the alarm clock he assumes Shane had set because it is way too early to be up when they don’t have practice after breakfast. He sits up with a groan and looks over to see Shane already standing up and making the bed, at the groan Shane looks over a bit guiltily and says “Sorry, did my alarm wake you up?” Ilya blinks for a second before shaking his head and muttering “Для английского ещё слишком рано.” It's too early for English.
Seeing as Ilya is awake now there is no point in going back to bed so he gets up, going to the bathroom to brush his teeth while he can hear Shane fiddling with the sheets of his bed. After a minute Shane joins him and starts to brush his teeth too. When Ilya is done he leaves the bathroom and sees Shane's bed made practically perfectly, he laughs a bit and straightens his bed a bit.
Ilya grabs some clothes and starts changing, he doesn’t care if Shane sees and when he has new pants on and is about to reach for the new shirt before he hears what he can only describe as a squeak. Ilya turns to see Shane standing in the bathroom doorway looking anywhere but him and definitely blushing. Ilya smirks and decides the shirt can wait.
Ilya puts the shirt over his shoulder “You okay?” Ilya asks, teasing the other boy with the causal question and after a second Shane shakes his head and says “I’m fine” Ilya keeps a straight face as he nods and Shane nods too as he walks over to his side of the room to get clothes to change into
“Why wake so early?” Ilya asks as he stretches over his bed, he might be flexing his back on purpose, pretending to fix his bed some more. When he hears Shane take a deep breath Ilya turns back to him and Shane stands there holding his clothes as he says “I wanted to get some time on the ice before breakfast.” Shane looks a bit embarrassed and it is very cute
Ilya nods and he is once again reminded of the hope that he can find some challenge here so he asks “Can I join?” Ilya is surprised to realize he wants Shane to say yes.
Shane stands there for a second, seeming to think it over before he nods “You can join me. Just give me a minute to finish my routine and then we can go.” Shane walks over to the bathroom as Ilya nods while he starts to look for the little translator book he had brought so he can figure out what ‘routine’ means as he waits.
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Shane doesn’t take too long in the bathroom and soon they are at one of the ice rinks. Their lockers were next to each other, probably because they were roommates but it gave Ilya a chance to see Shane re-tie his skates twice as they changed into their gear.
They entered the rink and both started on some warm ups, staying on their own side of the rink for a while as they practiced until Ilya looked over and saw Shane working on his shot accuracy, Shane was hitting nearly every target that he had set up so Ilya decides to see if he could make that a little harder on him.
Ilya shakes over quickly and just as Shane is about to shoot, which he would surely hit if Ilya didn’t choose that moment to skate in front of him and steal the puck, skating back towards the other goal as quickly as he could. Ilya looks over his shoulder to see Shane start skating after him but knows that he is close enough to the goal that Shane will not reach him.
Ilya shoots and hits one of the targets he had set up, smiling as he turns back just in time to see Shane run into him, pushing Ilya into the boards. For a moment Ilya is shocked, he is inches away from Shane who looks a bit annoyed and when Ilya sees Shane’s little pout he bursts out into laughter.
Ilya bumps his helmet against Shane’s as he laughs and Shane stares for a second before slowly joining in, laughing along for a minute till they both quiet down. Ilya looks at Shane’s pretty flush from chasing him across the ice and says “You make good shot, work on speed” smirking as Shane rolls his eyes and skates away to get the puck.
They are on the ice for a little longer, sometimes chasing each other around as they try to steal the puck from the other and score, sometimes working on passing the puck as the skate, but they are having fun together for the rest of their time on the ice.
Eventually it is time to leave for breakfast, when they are finally out of all of their gear and walking towards the cafeteria Ilya pats Shane’s shoulder after a joke that had them both laughing again and notices as Shane tenses for a second before seemingly relaxing. Ilya files that away as something to remember as they enter the cafeteria.
The rest of the day passes quickly, they have practice or games to help with teamwork all day and their first game that evening. Ilya is happy to see that Shane is good. During the game they are put on the same team and they wipe the board, they work together very well and their team wins 3-0. When the game is over Ilya shakes to Shane and picks him up cheering and smiling up at Shane who was flushed and smiling, and not tense at all, as he looked back at Ilya.
When they go to bed that night they talk about the game, practice, the other boys, the food, everything. Ilya is glad that he has the Russian to English book because when he doesn’t know how to say a word or doesn’t understand something Shane said he and Shane would look it up so they could continue the conversation.
Ilya does not think he has smiled or laughed this much for a long time, he is glad that his father let him come and can’t wait to spend three weeks with Shane at this camp.
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July 9th, 2005 - Ottawa
Ilya wakes up to Shane’s alarm like he has been doing for the past five days and sits up as he rubs his eyes. Ilya gets out of bed to go brush his teeth, smiling when he looks over to see Shane getting out of bed to start making his bed like he has every morning. They move around each other as they get ready to head to the ice rink they’ve been practicing at.
Ilya tries not to think about how Shane would be leaving to stay with his parents this weekend. Ilya tries to be just as upbeat as he would be most mornings, but Shane definitely notices it while they’re on the ice. It’s stupid that he was so upset over Shane leaving. Shane had told Ilya that he lived near the camp and was going home for the weekends and Ilya hadn’t even known him for a week!
Ilya decides that he definitely isn’t running away after breakfast when Shane is in their room packing some things he wants to take home and talking about how excited he was to see his parents when Ilya stands up and claims that he is going to the game room. Ilya rushes out the door, he is definitely not going to the game room but he needs to leave that room. Ilya doesn’t want Shane to think he is weak.
All Ilya can hear is his father's and brothers voices telling him Двигаться дальше, Хватит плакать. Move on, Stop crying. Calling Ilya Слабый, Плакса. Weak, Crybaby. Ilya is definitely crying at this point and he opens a random door into a dusty library. Ilya looks around and sees an old couch in a corner, he walks over and sits down, coughing at the dust that springs into the air.
The library is quiet and empty and here he is able to cry as much as he wants and not worry about people seeing him. Where he doesn’t have to worry about the boy who has beautiful freckles and the same smile as his mother.
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July 9th, 2005 - Ottawa
Shane could tell that something had been off all day but when Ilya had stood up and practically ran from the room he looked like he was about to cry. Shane wasn't sure what to do, Ilya was basically his first friend so he had never had to deal with something like this before. Despite that he had stood up and tried to follow Ilya.
He hoped knew that Ilya wasn’t going to the game room. While Ilya was more social then Shane was, he still seemed to not care for the other boys much when they were off the ice, which Shane was grateful for. They spent their time together, either on the ice, in their room, or sometimes they would go on runs around the camp together.
Shane stepped into the game room and tried not to cringe at how loud it was. He didn’t see Ilya and just as he was about to step out someone grabbed his wrist. Shane stiffened at the contact before forcibly relaxing his body as he looked at who grabbed him.
The kid holding his wrist was one of the big kids, - he was fine at hockey but he was too violent, always hitting other kids too hard. Shane could swear that one time he had purposely hit a goalie with the puck once- he smirked at Shane “Looking for your boyfriend?”
Shane pulled away and took a step back, saying “He’s not my boyfriend.” Shane looked around at the boys gathering and opened the door, stepping out quickly before he could be grabbed again. Shane kept looking for Ilya, peaking into different rooms as he went. Eventually Shane heard soft crying and could feel his chest tighten as he got closer.
Shane stood in front of the library for a second before slowly opening the door to see Ilya, he was shaking softly and turned away at the sight of Shane, quickly wiping at his eyes. Shane walks over slowly and sits down on the couch, sneezing when dust clouds up into the air.
Shane didn’t know what was wrong but he asked “ Um.. are you okay?” The question came out a lot more awkward than he hoped it would. Ilya looked at him for a moment before sighing, then, so softly that Shane almost couldn’t hear him, Ilya said “I do not want you to go.”
Shane paused and looked at Ilya. Unsure what to say, Shane sat there thinking. “I can ask my parents if you could come stay with us?” Shane took a breath before continuing “I kind of assumed that your family would be here with you, that you would stay with them over the weekends. My parents wouldn’t let me go to another country alone even if I wanted to..”
Ilya looked up at him and laughed, but it was hollow and didn’t help Shane understand any better.
“My Father would not come if I begged him.” Ilya said as he looked back down at his hands
Shane nodded and asked softly “What about your mother?”
Ilay inhaled sharply, digging his nails in deeper. “She is dead, swallowed bottle of pills.”
Shane looks Ilya over, he sounds so tired and Shane is even more unsure how to help now. When he sees Ilya’s hands he sees little crescents of red and reaches for Ilya’s hands before he thinks better of it. Shane feels Ilya stiffen up before he sags and leans into Shane, unfurling his hands and interlacing their hands he starts to cry softly and all Shane can think to do is apologize. “I am sorry Ilya”
They stay there until Ilya eventually stops crying and then a while longer after that until he sits up.
“Thank you, Shane” Ilya still looks tired but he looks a little more alive now. Shane squeezes Ilya’s hand and nods “Would you like to come stay with us?”
Shane doesn’t have to wait long until Ilya is nodding “If that is okay, yes.”
Shane smiles and nods “I’m sure my parents will love you.”