Chapter Text
This is after the parents find out*
After flying down to Ontario, Cliff spent a day with his cousin and her family before driving down to Hollanders cottage.
To say he was nervous was just about the understatement of a century. He was more than happy that Ilya found someone to love, but Jesus Christ, Shane Hollander? Absolute power move. If you can't be the best, get with the best? He had no clue how Roz pulled that one off.
Meanwhile, at the cottage,
“Shane, this is… overdoing it.” Ilya said as he watched Shane vacuum the same room for the third time. “Marly will not mind spec of dust unseeable to human eye.”
“I'm not overdoing anything, Ilya, I just want the place to look nice.”
Ilya raised an eyebrow and gestured to the room around them. It was completely spotless, as was the kitchen, dining room, bedrooms, hell- Shane was on his hands and knees scrubbing the back of the oven.
“Shane. Moy lyubimyy,” Ilya said gently, getting
Up off the couch “the house is nice, very nice.” He stepped on the off button for the vacuum and pulled Shane into a tight hug.
Shane grumbled, but his head fell neatly into the crook of Ilya's neck, inhaling deeply.
“I just- I wanna make a good first impression”
“He should be the one worrying, he left impression of you on ice.”
“ It was an accident. And apparently my mom punished him enough for that” Shane rolled his eyes.
“da, Yuna is scary lady. I was sure I was next when I walked into her house.”
“My mom wouldn't hit you.”
“She hit Marly”
“He took me out of the playoffs.”
“Exactly, so he is not allowed to care about cleanliness of cottage. He owes you.”
“thats different, Ilya. What if- god- what if he sees us together and changes his mind? What if he uses it against us?”
“What? Shane. That is crazy. Marly is my best friend of many years. He will not use against us. He is happy for us.”
“How do you know? What if he doesn't like me?”
“You are making yourself worry with these ‘what-if’ situations. These will not happen. Marly will come over, he will be so happy for us, he will be jealous of our infinite love because he is lonely with no girlfriend.”
Shane huffed out a breath, then inhaled against Ilya's neck again.
Luckily, for Cliff, the drive from his cousins to Hollanders cottage wasn't too bad. It was about 45 minutes and there was barely any traffic once he was off the main roads.
Once he got there, probably a little after 3pm, he shook free the rest of his nerves as he walked up to the door. He gave a few knocks, but the door was open before he could even put his hand down.
“Marly! Is great to see you!” Roz was standing with a wide grin behind an awkward looking Hollander, who had a hand extended to be shaken. Cliff took Hollander's hand, but pulled him into a hug Instead.
“Roz, Hollander! How have you guys been?” Cliff said as he pulled back to give Roz a hug as well.
“We've been good, really good, thanks. What about you, Marlow?” Hollander asked, stepping back to let Cliff into the house
“I've been great, man. Wow. This place is nice, Hollander.”
“Oh- uhm- thanks, I bought the plot and had it built a couple years ago. I come down here during the off-season.”
“I can see why, you got a great view in every room.” Cliff glanced around, grinning.
“Yeah, I wanted the place to be pretty secluded, but still have access to the lake. And my parent’s cottage is right down the road, so we can visit each other.”
“That's cool, your parents…do they…know?”
Hollander groaned and wiped his face with his hand as Roz chuckled awkwardly.
“Da, they found out a few days ago.”
“Found out? As in….?”
“My dad came over to grab his charger and saw us kissing outback.” Hollander said, his face flushed.
“Were they like…cool with it?”
“I think so, yeah. Might take some time to come around with the whole…Rozanov…of it all, but, other then that, their great” Hollander lead them into the kitchen.
“That's good, I wouldn't wish your mom's bad side on anyone.” Cliff chuckled “I had a bruise for like a week when she slapped me”
“Oh god- I'm so sorry about her, Marlow.”
“Don't even worry about it, Hollander. My mom would've done the same thing if it were me in that hospital bed.”
“Da, we all wanted to slap shit out of Marly, your mom just made it happen.”
“Okay, enough about my mom slapping Marly, here.” Hollander said, pulling a beer out for each of them.
“Hollander drinking? Never thought I'd see the day.” Cliff chuckled a bit, taking a beer from Hollander
“Well, during the summer I indulge a little, since there's no chance it'll affect my performance.”
“Hollander gets a little wild during off-season.” Roz chuckled.
“I still can't believe you only used last names for the first like 7 years.”
Hollander's face went beet red as his eyes bugged out of his head. “You told him that?” He said, turning to Roz.
“he had questions!”
“What possibly could he have asked that triggered that response?”
“He asks how I manage to keep you for so long, I say I did not, called you Shane, then you run off to Rose Landry.”
“Jesus, Rozanov, you're just airing out all our dirty laundry.”
“Dirty- what does this even mean?”
“Stupid English expression. It means you're sharing our business to someone who has no need to know our business.”
Cliff was glancing back and forth between the two, worried he had just started a fight.
“Wait- so you still call him Rozanov when you're mad at him?”
“I'm not- Jesus Christ. No.” Hollander groaned, burying his face in his hands
“Da, sometimes we still use last names when we-” Roz started, but was quickly cut off by Hollander's hand flying up to cover his mouth, then pulling it away and gagging, leaving Cliff confused.
“Awe! Gross! Did you just lick me?!” Hollander wiped his hand off on Roz’s shirt, who was doubled over laughing. It made Cliff laugh too, as Hollander went to wash his hands.
“You two are probably the most sense-making anomaly that has ever existed.” Cliff said as he laughed.
“That's an oxymoron.” Hollander said.
“A what?” Cliff asked, mirroring Roz's confused face. It made Hollander spin with a raised eyebrow.
“How did you even graduate? An oxymoron is a statement that contradicts itself.”
“I didn't need to be smart, I had hockey scholarships!” Cliff laughed. Hollander was funnier than he'd expected him to be, even if his humor was a little dry.
Ilya glanced between the two of them with a fond smile, two of the people he loved the most getting along so well. It was so heartening…maybe he should invite Svetlana down here next time. He grabbed his gold cross on his chain, fiddling it between his fingers. He wondered if his mother was watching him now, if she loved Shane like he did, if she would've accepted Ilya as he is. It was a question that could never really be answered, but Ilya liked to imagine what it could be like.
His mother would've left Russia by now, he’d have made sure of it. Maybe she’d live near him in Boston, or maybe she'd find somewhere nice and secluded. She'd work in a flower shop, able to name each one. He'd be able to come out to her, and she'd love him. He'd be able to tell her about Shane, and she'd welcome him with open arms. He'd have a nice cottage built for her near this one, they'd have family game nights with the Hollanders every week.
He shook those thoughts free and brought himself back to reality, where his best friend and boyfriend were now talking enthusiastically about Shane's home ice rink.
“Well the ice isn't real, and I usually have to replace some pieces when it starts to break down from use.”
“Yeah, I bet. I hear it's harder to skate on. Is that true?”
“Yeah, it takes a little more to push off, but I think it's good for strength training. I'm always surprised by how fast I go once I'm back on normal ice, since the fake ice is slower” Shane chuckled a bit. “so how do you spend your summers?”
“Oh, well, I don't do much really. I like to take a few weeks at the beach, visit family I don't see often, visit new clubs, find parties…stuff like that.”
“Wow, that's…alot.” Shane said. “I usually only see my parents and Hayden and his family.”
“Da, Shane is so boring, only sees boring people and eats amazing homemade pasta from Yuna” Ilya chimed in.
“Hey- ruby and Emma aren't boring”
“Ruby and- who are these people?”
“Haydens oldest daughters.”
“You’ll defend pikes daughters but not him? Damn, Hollander, that's cold” Marly laughed
“Haydens my friend and all, but he could never throw a tea party as good as the girls. They even pour my tea for me”
“Oh, do you take one sugar, or two?” Marly joked
“Well, usually I ask if they have stevia in the raw-”
“Even your make believe play is boring, Hollander.” Ilya chimed in.
“I wanna make it realistic! How else will they learn to accommodate? Not everyone wants, or needs, the same things, Ilya.”
“That is true…Pike will not teach his children about differences, someone has to.”
“Jackie would. Not the point. Point is I'm not boring, Hayden isn't boring, and his kids throw some bomb ass tea parties. Oh, and after I asked the first time, they went to the pretend store to get pretend stevia, and now they keep it pretend stocked!”
Cliff had his lips pressed together, trying so hard to keep from laughing, but failed miserably by the end. He burst out laughing,slapping his hand on his leg. It didn't take long for the other two to join in on the contagious laughter, so contagious, in fact, that they laughed until they were wheezing and desperate to get air back into their lungs.
Hollander really wasn't the rule following, no nonsense, straight-laced prude the media made him out to be.
Which isn't really fair, he guessed. Hollander never really had a girlfriend cause he was gay, not cause he was a prude. But the media couldn't know that.
“Oh, I rented us jet skis, by the way.” Hollander said.
“You rented jet skis?!” Cliff grinned
“Yeah, I mean- I didn't want us to get bored, and there's not really much to do here other than video games, skating, or swimming, so I just wanted to make sure we had something to do” Hollander said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.
“you didn't want us to be bored, so you got jet skis?! It's either zero or a hundred with you, Hollander, no in-between.” Cliff laughed.
“You don't get to be number one hockey star by only giving fifty percent, Marlow” Hollander joked
“number two, you mean” Roz jumped in
“You keep telling yourself that, Rozanov” Hollander smirked. “C’mon let's head out to the dock. You ever ride a jet ski before?”
“Yeah, a few times. I should be able to get by without the instruction manual.” Cliff was joking, but Hollander actually had the instructions.
“Well let me know if you change your mind” Hollander pulled the packet out of his pocket and shook it for emphasis.
The three men quickly changed into bathing suits and headed out the dock, where Shane wouldn't let anyone touch the jet skis until he gave them a little recap on how to use them, even though Marlow had said he wouldn't need it. (He needed it).
They were on the lake up until the sun started to go down and Shane didn't want them riding anymore.
(“It will be fine, we have not seen a single creature on the surface of water all day, we will not see them now.” Ilya tried to bargain, but Shane wouldn't budge
“Obviously we won't see them now, it's dark out!”
“What animals could there possibly be on lake?”
“Well, there's birds, otters, beavers, muskrats-”
“Musket? Hollander that is gun.”
“No. Musk- Rat. It's like a tiny beaver.”)
After changing back into his real clothes, Cliff was about ready to go.
“It was really great seeing you guys…and seeing you like- happy. And together.”
“Thanks, Marlow, it was really great having you over. I'm really glad Ilya has a friend to tell about this.”
Cliff took Roz's hand first and pulled him into a tight hug, clapping him on the back before letting go and doing the same to Hollander.
“See you in Boston next week, Roz. And Hollander, I'll see you on the ice next season.” Cliff grinned as he walked out to his rental car
“See you, Marly. Was nice to see you.” Roz waved.
Shane and Ilya stood by the door, leaning on each other and watching Cliff drive off.
“Went better than you thought?” Ilya asked
“Yeah,” Shane answered "a lot better”