Chapter Text
Shane's body was exhausted. Away game road trips always took a toll and he let out a quiet sigh of relief as Hayden pulled onto their street, finally approaching home. Shane's eyes drifted closed as he imagined being back in his own space, comfortable again after a restless sleep in the hotel last night. A small smile ghosted his across his lips as he remembered what he would find in his bed. Or rather who he would find in his bed. Shane opened his texts, excitement bouncing around his chest as he reread his messages from before the game.
Shane: The door code is 1221. My room is the second door on the left at the top of the stairs.
Ilya: My flight lands at 4 and I will take Uber to house. I will have hours to snoop before you are home but I imagine it will be very boring and only take me a few minutes.
Shane: It's not boring. It's a normal room with normal things in it.
Ilya: What should I do with my time after I am done giving myself a tour?
Shane: Whatever you want. Just don't go into Hayden's room, I don't want to risk him noticing something is out of place.
Ilya: Ah, shame. I was going to take a nap in his bed and let him find me.
Shane: Ilya. That's not funny. He cannot know that you were at the house. He leaves tomorrow morning super early to visit Jackie and his family so you only need to be unnoticed for like 12 hours. Please tell me you can do 12 hours without fucking with Hayden.
Ilya: Yes. I will be quiet like mouse and he will not know that a hockey god was in his house.
Ilya: Get it? Is funny because I am hockey god and Pike is not.
Shane: Yup. Got it. Not funny.
Shane: I'm heading out for warmups. I will see you in a few hours. I can't believe you're going to be in my house. This doesn't feel real. Please behave.
Shane: Also... I don't know if you were joking about snooping. But please maybe don't go into my bedside table.
Ilya: Now bedside table is first place I look. Maybe I will find something to occupy my time while I wait for sexy hockey boyfriend to come home
Ilya: ;)
Shane locked his phone as they pulled into the driveway. His eyes scanned the house looking for anything that could tip Hayden off that anything was different. All of the lights were off and the house looked the same as they had left it. He didn't want to give tip Hayden off by being jumpy or weird so Shane took a deep breath and let some of the tension fall away, rolling his neck in an attempt to relax. Hayden had made it halfway up the front walkway by the time Shane had opened the passenger door and gotten out of the car. Shane followed behind, trailing Hayden into the house, glancing up the stairs and seeing no signs of Ilya. Good.
Hayden was settled into his post-game routine, making a peanut butter and fluff sandwich and carrying it to the living room. 'Oh hey man did you happen to see a package on the steps when we came in?'
Shane shook his head, wondering how long he would need to stay downstairs with Hayden before he could escape upstairs and spend the evening in his room with Ilya. 'No sorry, but I can keep an eye out for it while you're away.'
Hayden nodded, 'Thanks. No worries, I ordered a gift for my dad's birthday and was hoping it would deliver before my flight back home tomorrow. The expected delivery date wasn't until like three days from now so I wasn't really expecting it to come by then but I thought I saw a delivery driver had stopped by the house'
****
Shane froze, closing his eyes as he processed Hayden's comment.
How could he have been so stupid... Shane was the one who had suggested they get a Ring camera for the apartment. Shane was the one who obsessively checked all of the notifications and reviewed the footage to ensure that no one had entered their home. Shane was the one that had set up the app on Hayden's phone and logged him in to the account... Shane was the one who had set up a device that was about to spill his secret to his best friend.
Shane turned slowly to look at Hayden, who was still mindlessly scrolling on his phone from the couch. Hayden glanced up and clocked the expression on Shane's face.
'Buddy are you alright? You look pale.'
'Yeah I just realized, uh, I uh, left a glass of milk in my room last night and it probably spoiled. So I need to go take care of that. Right now.'
Hayden had left food in his room one too many times before leaving for an away game and was familiar with the stench that Shane was probably going to walk in to. He also knew that while he could just crack a window, spray some Fabreeze, and call it a day, Shane was unable roll with the punches the same way. Shane was particular about his space and the odor of foul milk would be smelt by Shane long after it were gone, simply becuase Shane knew it had been there at all. Hayden pushed up to a seating position and began to stand. 'I'll take care of it, why don't you hop in the shower and-'
'No! I've got it! I want to.'
'You... want to deal with the smell of spoiled milk? Are you feeling alright man?'
'Yeah, yup, all good!', Shane stammered while backing out of the living room.
Hayden let out an oomph as he fell back onto the couch. He saluted a retreating Shane, calling after him 'I'll be here if you need me! It's like Elsa said... the smell doesn't bother me anyways'. He giggled, too tired from their game to care that Shane didn't acknowledge his joke.
****
Shane took the stairs two at a time, arriving at his bedroom door out of breath. He rushed into the room, shutting it quickly behind him. He crouched with his hands on his knees, collapsing back against the closed door. His breath was coming quicker and quicker and panic was rising to the surface in an uncontrolled tidal wave of emotion. As his vision began to blur, he felt a callused hand gently tilt his chin upwards.
'Shane. Do I need to hide from whatever must be chasing you?', Ilya was smirking, misinterpreting the speed at which Shane had entered the room. 'This is why you are #2 in the league... out of breath just from the stairs', he teased.
Shane met his eyes and shook his head wordlessly as he struggled to regulate his breathing. Ilya's hand tightened on Shane's jaw. 'Moya lyubov, tell me what has happened. I will fix it.'
Shane stood upright and began to pace the room. 'Last season, there was a fan that stalked Hayd. It started off mostly normal, y'know? She'd wait outside the rink to get a picture with him, congratulate him on his game.'
Ilya rolled his eyes, 'Ah this fan was crazy, yes? Is not normal to think Pike is good hockey player'.
Shane shot a look back at Ilya, daggers in his eyes warning Ilya that it wasn't the time to make fun of Hayden, 'But as the season went on, she started showing up outside the rink. She figured out from Hayden's instagram where we liked to get coffee before the games. And that wasn't great but at least we felt kind of safe becuase it was in public? But then after one of our practices, she followed us home and wouldn't leave. She wanted to come inside and hang out with Hayd. She said that they were meant to be together and didn't care that Hayden had a wife. It was bad Ilya. We had to call the police.'
Ilya narrowed his eyes, not liking the tremor he heard in Shane's voice, hating the fan who had invaded Shane's personal life and taken away his sense of security. 'What did police do? Is girl back now?!'. Ilya's voice had climbed with his question, starting to turn to grab the door handle and fight whatever intruder must have shown back up at the house and put Shane in panic mode.
'Shut the fuck up Ilya.', Shane hissed, 'He's going to hear you'
'He? There is a man here to stalk you? That is worse. I go make him leave, I am the only man who gets to stalk Shane Hollander.'
'Hayden, Ilya', Shane groaned, Hayden is going to hear you. Let me finish, Jesus.'
Ilya nodded impatiently, still in go-mode ready to defend Shane from any men who dared to come to Shane's house uninvited.
'The police handled it. I don't know exactly what happened but the lady got professional help and obviously isn't allowed to be within a certain distance of Hayden or me. But even after she wasn't an issue anymore, I just felt like every time I came home I was spending the first 10 minutes walking around the house looking in every corner to make sure that no one had broken in and was waiting to pounce on me or Hayd. I couldn't sleep with the lights off. Our house didn't feel safe anymore'.
Ilya saw the tears start to pool in Shane's eyes and strode across the bedroom until his arms were wrapped around Shane holding him close.
Shane took in a shuddering breath and continued 'I wanted to feel safe. I thought it was a good idea', he moaned.
Ilya stilled, 'what was a good idea?'
Shane's response came out muffled with his face pressed into Ilya's chest, 'I installed a security camera at our door so we could see who was coming and going. Me and Hayd both have access to the camera and get notified every time motion is detected.'
Ilya's heart stutters as he processes what has happened. 'Has Pike said anything to you? Do you know that he checked it today. Pike is lazy, yes? Maybe he has not opened the notification.'
Shane shakes his head, the movement rubbing Ilya's soft shirt against his cheek. 'He seemed normal, I don't know. Maybe he hasn't looked yet, but Ilya, there's no way he won't watch it. He said he's waiting for a package and that he thought someone had come to the house to deliver it. There's no other reason that the camera should have gone off during our game when we weren't home. If he opens the video and see a clip of you coming into our house, how can I possibly explain to him why the captain of another team, who I'm not even friends with has the code to our front door.'
Ilya thinks it over. 'Okay. I make plan. You will steal phone from Pike and delete notification. It will not be hard. Like stealing candy from baby'.
Shane takes a step back, just far enough to be able to look at Ilya but close enough that Ilya's hands stay on his waist, keeping him grounded. 'Ok, that could work. Yeah, okay I can do that. I can take his phone, and he won't find out. It's going to be okay. I just have to steal his phone and delete the notification without him knowing. It doesn't matter that I'm not good at lying to Hayd. I've got this, it's just borrowing his phone, not even stealing. I can borrow.'
Shane rambling response was reassuring himself more than an answer to Ilya's plan, but Ilya responded anyways. He pressed a soft kiss to Shane's head, 'Ah yes, Moya lyubov, you are so sneaky. Like spy.'
Ilya's sarcasm wasn't missed by Shane, who glared at Ilya in response. 'Shut up. I can be sneaky. Now help me'