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1 – Ghouls and Goblins
Shane couldn’t remember the last time he'd been home for Halloween. Before he got drafted, there were always practices and games, both at home and away, and after he got drafted was more of the same. The league seemed to love Montreal playing on Halloween night since their arena always did something fun for the day.
This was the first time in a over a decade where there was no hockey and no roadtrips involved. The Centaurs had held their annual costume party the previous weekend, so everyone was doing their own thing tonight, mostly with their own kids. Ilya had decided he wanted nothing more than to have the best house in their neighborhood to hand out candy from.
And so, Shane was sat in the trunk of his SUV at the end of their driveway, surrounded by boxes of candy bars while Ilya gushed and fawned over all the little ghosts and goblins visiting them.
They’d set up closer to the road to make sure no one missed their house. Ilya had moved all the decorations from their porch and lawn to the gate, which was now covered in fake spider webs and surrounded by pumpkins and plastic spiders and a massive blow-up Skeleton.
“That may be the best costume I have seen yet,” Ilya exclaimed – not for the first time – as a little boy in a Rozonov Centaurs jersey, hockey helmet, and mini-stick walked up to him. “You get three chocolate bars.”
Shane couldn’t contain a laugh. “We’re going to run out if you keep this up.”
Ilya shot him a smirk over his shoulder and Shane’s heart melted just a bit more for his husband.
“I like your costume too, Mr. Ilya,” the little boy answered, and Ilya straightened and struck a pose, making him giggle.
Since Wyatt had organized the Halloween party this year, he’d imposed a comic book theme on the lot of them. For the party Ilya had insisted on being Wonder Woman to Shane’s Superman. Tonight, Ilya was wearing the Superman costume and Shane had put on some bat ears headband Ilya had bought and a flashing necklace with bats on it - a very sad attempt at Batman. But Ilya was not wearing the Wonder Woman costume outside the house (mostly because it had gotten ruined during post-party shenanigans). Shane was mostly happy it wasn’t snowing or too cold that they all had to wear winter jackets over their costumes like was the norm when he was growing up.
After Ilya had taken a few selfies with the adorable little Centaur, Shane got in for one too and Shane stayed with Ilya as a familiar family walked up to them.
“Damn, I thought Hazy was kidding when he said you bought out all the full sized bars ar Costco,” Bood called out to them. “Double hockey income and no kids is clearly the way to go.”
Bood hugged them both and soon, Ilya was fussing over how adorable Milo was in his Lego man costume, stuffing his bag with more chocolate than the kid probably needed. Shane chitchatted with Bood and Cassie, handing out candy while Ilya took Milo to see their giant skeleton.
When they left, Ilya wrapped Shane in his arms and squeezed him tightly. “I cannot wait to do this with you.”
“Eat all the leftover candy since you basically did buy out Costco?”
Ilya poked him in the side and loosened his grip on Shane. “Go walk around on Halloween with our own kid. Show off how cute they are. Have matching costumes, maybe.”
Shane smiled up at his husband. “I can’t wait to do that too.”
A chorus of trick or treat behind them had Ilya releasing him with a quick kiss on the cheek. Shane stood in place smiling giddily at his husband as the image of them and their own kid walking around their neighborhood filled his mind.
He truly couldn’t wait either.
.•°~°•.
2 – Family skate day
“I can never tell who has more fun at these: the kids or Ilya,” Wyatt laughed as Ilya skated by with six children trailing him, possibly in some form of race?
“Has he always been like this?”
Shane and Wyatt were skating slowly around the ice, stopping from time to time to say hi to whichever of their teammates' kids were shuffling by on their skates.
“Oh yeah! We weren’t sure if he’d want to join in when these started, being the single guy with what we thought was a bit of a playboy reputation and all, but he’s always been a big kid at heart and was the first one on the ice playing with them.”
Shane tried to contain his smile at that, but he was beaming internally. Ilya had always been good with kids, and moments like these just proved it again. Much like the now customary pool parties during All Star weekend where Ilya entertained all the kids in attendance, seeing him with his teammates’ kids made Shane’s heart flutter happily.
“So, this is weird to ask but, do you guys want some of your own,” Wyatt waved at a few of the kids skating by.
“We’ve talked about it. We do, but figuring out the timing is harder than we thought.” Shane smiled at Ilya skating by holding Nick Chouinard’s daughter like she was flying just off the ice. “For the longest time, everything was after we retire. And I’m sure that’s the most logical thing when it comes to kids, but seeing him like this… and fuck knows what kind of shape we’ll be in by then. So yeah, we’d love kids of our own, but I have no idea if or when it could happen.”
“That makes sense.”
“Hollander, come here,” Ilya beckoned from across the ice at one of the benches.
Shane and Wyatt shared an amused look before Shane skated off to see what his husband wanted. It turned out, he wanted to gush over Evan Dykstra’s newborn son.
“Wow, he is so tiny,” Shane observed, leaning over the boards to catch a better glimpse of the tiny human still strapped to his carseat.
“He is so cute,” Ilya cooed, rubbing the back of his finger on his tiny hand. “He clearly takes after his mother,” he added with a wink to Evan’s wife, Caitlyn.
“I’m not even gonna disagree with you there,” Evan added with a chuckle. “He’s pretty damned cute.”
“Can I hold him?”
“If you sit your ass down on the bench, sure,” Evan answered.
“I will not drop him. I am best skater on this team.” Ilya still moved to be away from the crowd on the bench and swung himself over the boards so he could sit.
“I’m pretty sure your husband is a better skater than you,” Evan chirped as he unbuckled his son and lifted him into his arms. “And I’m mostly worried someone’s gonna smack into you when they aren’t paying attention. It’s just real busy over there.”
“Fine. I am sitting, gimme.” Ilya made grabby hands towards the baby and Evan placed him delicately in his curled arms.
As soon as the baby started fussing, Ilya calmly started shushing him and bouncing his arms lightly, settling him like he’d done it a million times.
“Ilya holding a baby? Now that is sure to be popular on social,” Harris proclaimed as he stopped next to Shane and snapped a few pictures. “If I had ovaries, they’d be twitching at this sight.”
“As someone with ovaries, I can confirm: they are twitching,” Selena, Nick’s wife, said as she joined the growing number of wives that were stopping to watch Ilya holding a very miniscule child. He looked even smaller cradled in Ilya’s big strong arms, against his massive chest, and Shane was feeling some kind of way about the whole thing.
“We are done,” Nick announced, or reminded, his wife, as he skated by with two of his own children holding on to his arms.
“Well, someone needs to keep having babies so we can all fulfill our newborn snuggle wishes and be on mat leave with us,” Cassie, Bood’s wife who was currently pregnant, added making the lot of adults within earshot laugh.
“Must make you want a little one of your own, seeing him like that,” Lisa whispered to Shane after bumping shoulders.
“Yeah, kinda,” Shane answered as nonchalantly as he could mange.
Because deep down inside, he echoed the general sentiment around the bench. Ilya Rozanov holding a newborn was an unfair sight, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist his husband much longer.
.•°~°•.
3 - Winter Wonderland
Shane looked outside again and still couldn’t see Ilya and Anya. Normally he wouldn’t really mind, but he was waiting for Ilya to come home so they could get their workout in for the day. It had been at least an hour since Ilya had left on a walk with Anya. It wasn’t cold, but it was still winter and snowy. They usually didn’t go too far on those days. He normally would have been home by now.
He grabbed his phone to text Ilya and make sure he was okay, and not stranded somewhere with a sprained ankle, but before he could type anything, he noticed the typing bubble pop up.
Can you bring my snow pants?
That was random.
Shane replied trying to get more details and within 20 minutes, he was in the Jeep, driving down the street to their neighbor’s house where, sure enough, Ilya was crouching down, rolling snowballs around to help the kids make a snow fort.
Shane sat in the car for a minute watching Ilya help Willa lift the ball she’d rolled to make the fort taller. He then ran over to Andrew who was stuck with his own ball, so Ilya rolled it to the fort and added it to the wall. Anya was happily rolling around in the snow in her little jacket and boots, trying to catch snowflakes as they fell from the sky.
For a second, Shane imagined this was his life, their life. Him coming home from an errand, and finding Ilya playing with their kids. It was hard not to smile at that idea.
He stepped out of the car and Ilya looked at him with the most boyish smile. Shane lifted the snow pants he was holding, and Ilya ran to him.
“Sorry I did not call sooner. I was walking by and Andrew was having trouble rolling this big snowball so we stopped to help and-“
Ilya made a surprised noise as Shane grabbed his face in his hands and pulled him in for a kiss.
“What was that for?”
Shane shook his head. “Just love you a whole fucking lot.”
Ilya quirked an eyebrow but didn’t question it. He opened the car door and sat down to get his boots off and get his snow pants on and he looked at Shane properly.
“Are you staying?”
“I figured I’d either leave the car here, since I don’t think you and Anya will want to walk back later and walk back now myself, I can bring Anya if you think she’ll be cold. Or, I can stay and help?”
Ilya’s smile brighten impossibly. “You want to stay?”
“Of course. Now, I haven’t made a snow fort in a few decades, but I learn quick. Tell me what to do.”
It was Ilya’s turn to kiss him now, before he explained their plan to Shane and they set off to work.
.•°~°•.
4 - Unexpected arrivals
“Holy shit, Cass is in labour,” Bood exclaimed as he hung up his phone and tossed it into his bag.
“I thought she wasn’t due for another week,” Shane said. He wasn’t fully sure how those things worked, but he hoped one week early wasn’t bad. Jackie had always managed to go to her due date, even with the twins.
“Yeah, my parents aren’t getting to town until late tonight, so I can’t even go to the hospital until they show up. I have to go pick up Milo at daycare-“
“No no no. We can watch him,” Ilya cut Bood off and Shane froze momentarily. “Just take my car and give me your keys so we have his car seat, and he can hang out with us until your parents arrive. We will sleep at your place. Will be fine."
“Seriously?” Bood looked between Ilya and Shane looking so relieved that Shane couldn’t protest and nodded along with Ilya. “I owe you guys, so much.”
He didn’t even change out of his workout gear, before exchanging car keys with Ilya. “I’ll call daycare on my way to tell them you guys will be there at pick-up. Thank you!”
And Bood had left the dressing room.
“How do you propose we entertain an almost three-year-old exactly,” Shane asked when he’d changed out of his own workout gear and joined Ilya at his locker.
“Will be fine. He loves us.”
“He hasn’t exactly hung out with us alone much. His parents are usually there.”
“He loves Anya, so he can play with her at our house while we get overnight bags. We can make snowmen outside if it is not too cold. I played with his race track with him last time Bood had a party, he liked that too. Oh! Maybe we can bring him to the toy store and he can pick a stuffy for his new baby sister!”
Shane found himself smiling more and more as Ilya was speaking, and when Ilya mentioned buying a gift for his baby sister, Shane turned to putty.
“And, you know what best part of babysitting is?” Shane shook his head. “McDonalds for dinner.”
That made Shane groan. But seeing how excited his husband was at the prospect of spending time with Milo made the whole thing worth it.
“We aren’t buying anything but a stuffy at the toy store, you know that right?” he said instead.
“But you said we could get Nerf guns the other day.”
“Not with Milo around! I don’t think his parents would ever forgive us.”
Shane tangled their fingers together as they walked out of the dressing room towards Bood’s SUV, while Ilya still tried to convince him the youngest member of the Boodram clan (for now) needed his own Nerf gun.
.•°~°•.
5 - Uncle Ilya
The energy in the Centaurs locker room was off the chart after the team had not only hit a record breaking 10th win in a row, but also clinched their playoff spot in the process. Shane was the last one to enter the dressing room after being named first star of the game and doing a quick interview.
He got back pats and fist bumps from his teammates, and he couldn’t stop smiling himself. This had been one heck of a night.
“Hey, I need you to do the post-game scrum tonight,” Harris said as soon as he was within earshot of Shane. “Hazy is going to be doing some too, since he got another shutout.”
Shane looked around the room. “Isn’t Ilya doing it?”
“Not tonight. He had to step out for a thing. He said to tell you not to worry. Now, journos are gonna flood this place in 5, if you wanna change quick.”
Shane didn’t have time to worry about Ilya’s whereabouts as he went through the post-game routine. When all the journalists had cleared out, and he’d managed to jump in the shower for a quick rinse off, Shane finally checked his phone. He wanted to text Ilya to see where he was at and if they were driving home separately. And he saw a bunch of texts from Hayden to the group chat they had with Ilya. And weirdly enough it explained part of why his husband had disappeared.
Shane called Hayden once he was dressed.
“Stupid school is ruining everything,” Hayden whispered as a greeting.
“I’m pretty sure he needs to learn to count. I’ve seen him try and skate, I don’t think he’s got hockey in his future,” Shane replied about his sorta-nephew Arthur.
“Fair, but at least we used to be able to fool him into thinking Ilya was still playing when you had early games or late ones. Now he can tell the time, and he knows 3 and OT aren’t the same thing, so I can’t even PVR the end of a game and use it as an excuse.”
“He’s getting smarter than you,” Shane chirped his best friend before flagging Harris down. “Do you know where Ilya is?”
“He’s in the presser room. We didn’t need to use it tonight, so it was empty.”
Shane thanked Harris and headed in that direction, while Hayden told him how Arthur had puzzled out that the Centaurs game was over. And when Hayden had insisted that wasn’t the case, he’d made their Google Home confirm it for him, and then demanded uncle Ilya read him his bedtime story.
Shane found the door to the room slightly ajar and pushed it open as quietly as he could. Ilya didn’t notice him – or chose not to – and continued “reading” Arthur his bedtime story, something about a dog and donuts that he’d read him a million times while they spent time at the cottage this summer and that Ilya basically knew by heart now. Every now and then, Arthur asked Hayden or Jackie to call Ilya to read it to him. Apparently tonight was one of those nights.
Shane watched as Ilya recited the book on video chat, Arthur giggling at the silly voices Ilya was doing.
“How many times as he read it to him,” Shane asked. He knew the book wasn’t that long, so it didn’t make sense that Ilya was still in here.
“I dunno. I lost track after the fourth time they did it.”
“One more time, please!” a little voice echoed from both his and Ilya’s phones.
“Uncle Shane is ready to leave, and I am still very stinky from hockey.”
“Uncle Shane won’t mind,” Arthur chimed.
Ilya lifted his eyes to Shane then, and Shane’s breath caught at the soft happy smile on Ilya’s lips.
“Gotta go, Hayd.” Shane hung up before Hayden got a chance to reply and walked to his husband, taking the seat next to him and waving at Arthur. “Last time, bud, okay? Uncle Ilya really needs to shower before getting in the car.”
“Is he stinkier than daddy was?”
Ilya laughed. “No one is stinkier than your dad.”
Arthur giggled as Hayden protested in the background and Ilya started the story again. Shane leaned his head on Ilya’s shoulder, and swooned just a little bit at how adorable Ilya was in that moment
.•°~°•.
+1 - Changing Priorities
Ilya walked in the house and dropped his overnight bag by the door. All he wanted was to wrap himself in his husband's arms and sleep in his own bed, finally. He’d missed both those things dearly even after a short road trip to nearby teams. Shane had sustained a minor injury to his hand and everyone agreed that it made more sense for him to sit out the road trip than risk making it worse before the playoffs.
It didn’t mean Ilya didn’t miss having him around on the road though.
Ilya was about to make his way upstairs when he noticed a light still on in the living room. As he got closer to the side table in question, he noticed his husband, their dog, and their six-month-old all snuggled together on one end of the couch. Ilya couldn’t resist taking out his phone and snapping a picture.
Shane was sitting in the corner of the loveseat, with the foot of it raised up into a lounge position. Anya was snuggled into his hip, her head resting on his thigh, and Shane must have been petting her when he fell asleep, as his hand rested on her back. His other arm was wrapped around their daughter Zoe, who was securely strapped to his chest in that weird baby carrying thing they’d gotten from Jackie as a present – it had come in far handier than they ever thought.
He had always found his husband absolutely sexy, but there was something about watching Shane’s big strong arms holding their tiny daughter that made Ilya’s insides gooey. Shane had always liked kids, but he was always cautious and unsure. When it came to Zoe, he was the opposite. And seeing her sleeping on his chest like this… well, it made Ilya’s heart skip a beat.
When Ilya had his picture, and had immediately set it as his new phone background, he sat down next to Shane. Anya barely moved but started wagging her tail happily when Ilya gave her a little scratch on the head. Ilya kissed Shane’s forehead and wrapped his arm around his husband and his daughter. When he leaned down to kiss Zoe, Shane cracked an eye open just a fraction.
“Wake her up and die,” he said ever so quietly.
“That bad, huh?” Ilya resisted his daughter’s pull, and instead rested his head on the back of the couch next to Shane’s, keeping his voice quiet to not wake her up.
“I had to use the snot sucker, and she cried so much, I think it made her nose even more boogery in the end. This cold is the absolute worst. She won’t sleep unless she’s on someone. Hell, she barely wanted me to sit down.” Shane leaned his head against Ilya’s. “Dad came by to watch her so I could go do some physio at the arena, and I had to show him how to use this thing. There’s some funny pictures on my phone.”
Ilya kissed Shane, earning himself a happy sigh from his husband. “I’m sorry I had to go away while she is sick.”
“Not your fault. Got lucky I had to stay here, really. Good game tonight. That goal in the second was sexy as hell.”
“I am still not sure how it went in. Hayden says hi.”
“He texted to say he hates you.”
Ilya bit down a laugh. That goal in particular had involved Ilya completely owning Hayden on the ice and skating circles around him and most of the Montreal players, so he’d expected he wouldn’t have been happy with him.
“I’m sorry this isn’t the welcome home I was hoping to give you. Missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
Ilya brought their lips together for a slow sweet kiss. He’d also really hoped to get his lips on other parts of Shane’s body tonight, but this – having his whole world wrapped in his arms this way – had quickly become something else he loved experiencing when he got home from road trips.
Ilya lifted his own section of the couch so he could recline as well, and he gently pulled Shane against him, trying not to jostle Zoe in the process.
“You should go to bed upstairs. She’s probably going to wake up soon, and you have practice tomorrow.”
“It is optional. I’ll let Coach know you need me here more.” He kissed Shane’s hair and smiled when Shane relaxed into him in that way he always did when he was relieved by whatever Ilya had just suggested. “There is nowhere else I would rather be.”