calico
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Listing Series
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The Architecture of Love by darkerpoint
Fandoms: Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid, Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types
21 Feb 2026
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Summary
“You treat me like I'm made of glass, Shane. You act like I'm about to break, like I am this close to ruining everything.” Ilya’s voice drops to a whisper. “It makes me feel like I'm just work to you.”
Shane’s composure fractures. “Because I’m scared!" He drags a hand through his hair, breathing harder. "And—and so are you! You don’t have to pretend you’re not, it’s fine to say it. I’m fucking scared, okay?”
There it is. The underbelly of this whole argument. And Ilya sees it—the chink in Shane’s armor, the exposed place, the honesty, the fear—and instead of softening, something in him hardens. “Scared of me,” he says, already deciding that's what he heard.
“No,” Shane shoots back, immediately. “No, not of you. Just scared. Of this whole situation. Of not knowing what to do, or what to say. Of messing up." A beat. "Scared of losing you.”
And it should be sweet, but it just makes Ilya’s chest ache. His smile twists, bittersweet. “But maybe you are already losing me. Have you thought of that?”
Every day, there's less of me left, he wants to say.
Love changes Ilya's life, but it doesn't save it.
It doesn’t have to.
Series
- Part 1 of calico
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sleepless in Ottawa by darkerpoint
Fandoms: Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types, Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid
06 Jun 2026
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Summary
Shane runs while the canal lies black beside him, and he thinks: maybe Irina wouldn’t have liked me.
Maybe she would’ve looked at him and seen exactly what he fears there is to see: all that restraint, all that carefulness, all the ways he kept his hands clean at the cost of her son.
Maybe there isn’t much to like in a man who loved Ilya with everything he had and still ended up with him hospitalized, begging strangers to help him get better.
Shane is completely, irrevocably in love. If only that came with instructions for what to do when his husband checks into a mental health clinic forty-three minutes away.
Series
- Part 2 of calico