Chapter Text
“Oh my god,” Shane slammed his phone with the screen down on Ilya's living room table. Ilya, who was sitting in his open kitchen and was currently enjoying his breakfast while humming to Taylor Swift's “I knew you were trouble”, raised his eyebrows at his boyfriend and shoved another spoon of Lucky Charms into his mouth. Shane hated the smell of the Lucky Charms (“They don't smell like anything, Shane!” - “Oh, good to know that not only your tastebuds are dead but also your nose.”). So whenever Ilya wanted to enjoy a bowl of his favorite American cereal (the Lucky Charms addiction had started back in his Boston days when Cliff Marleau had introduced him to them) he had to do it as far away from Shane as possible.
He usually only ate them when Shane wasn't there which was the case most of the time. But today felt like a Lucky Charms day, he was in a good mood cause hell - they had seen Taylor fucking Swift yesterday (together!) and it had been one of the rare days where Shane had agreed to stay the night instead of driving back to his apartment in Montreal.
The night had been filled with hot sex, lots of talking and even more sex. Ilya had woken up this morning with the love of his life in his arms. They both didn't have practice today and Shane was only going to leave in the late afternoon.
Nothing was going to ruin his mood today.
Nothing.
“What's up?” he asked with a full mouth that usually would annoy Shane just as much as the Lucky Charms themselves. But he didn't even flinch. Ilya wasn't sure if Shane had heard him. His face was white like a wall, his eyes kind of blank, still staring at the spot where he had put his phone down on the table.
“Shane?” Ilya put down the spoon and got up from his barstool behind the kitchen aisle and walked over to his boyfriend who was looking like he had seen a ghost. His lower lip was trembling, his hands shaking. He was looking anywhere but at Ilya.
“Sweetheart?” Ilya tried again. Suddenly not so sure anymore about the day being unable to be ruined. Something bad had happened. He was sure of it.
“They saw us,” Shane croaked, his voice sounding alarmed and scared when his eyes finally locked with Ilya's. Oh god, he looked like a deer in headlights.
“Who?”
“Everyone!”
“What do you mean, everyone? Where?” Shane wasn't making any sense. What the hell was he talking about?
“At the Eras Tour!”
“Well of course people saw us,” Ilya exclaimed and pushed up the sleeve of the boxy Eras Tour sweater he'd purchased the night before, revealing the one hundred and five friendship bracelets (he counted!) on his arm that almost reached his shoulder. He'd taken them off last night, bracelet by bracelet, only to put them all back on this morning while Shane had been in the shower. “I traded all of these with Centaurs Fans yesterday. They loved my bracelets!”
“I know!” Shane tried to give him a smile but failed miserably. “That's not what I meant,” the color of his face was slowly turning from pale white to an unhealthy looking shade of green.
“Ilya, they saw us,” he repeated now, rubbing the palms of his hands over his handsome face. Shane then took a deep breath and reached for his phone that was still lying face down on the glass table.
Without looking at it he handed it over to Ilya who, for the first time since they began this weird conversation, started to feel a bit hesitant now. What was Shane actually talking about?
Did they …
No he couldn't mean it like that, could he? He couldn't possibly mean that someone had seen them together. They had been so careful.
They had attended the tour as friends. They had discussed the whole thing, being hyper aware of the risk of going to a concert this size. How risky it was to go to the biggest tour in the world as a closeted queer hockey player in a relationship with your media-made-up arch rival.
But they went anyway.
They had accepted the invitation to attend the VIP tent last minute. Ilya had begged Shane to go for months, knowing damn well that his boyfriend would say no.
The almost-plane-crash had been the game changer, though. They had come up with a game plan with Shane's mother - because she was Shane's manager and also because mothers usually knew best in situations like these. And Ilya knew that if there was one person who could calm his nerves and convince him of the possibility of going to a concert with Ilya as just friends it was his mom.
So, yes. Everything had been planned through. They had tried to keep a bro-appropriate distance to each other, they hadn't touched.
So they were fine.
Whatever it was that Shane had seen on his phone, it could not be that.
Right?
Ilya slowly turned the phone around, bracing himself for the worst but still not being fully prepared for what he was about to look at.
It was Shane's text message conversation with his best friend and Montreal team mate Hayden Pike. More precisely, it was screenshots of an article Pike had sent Shane less than five minutes ago.
The headline of the screenshotted article read “NHL’s illicit affair?”.
What the fuck? What was that even supposed to mean?
But it got worse.
Right underneath the league changing headline was a picture of him and Shane. Kissing.
At the goddamn Eras Tour.
Oh. Oh. Yeah, there was that.
Maybe there had been one moment during the three and a half hour long show where they hadn't been that careful. Or careful at all.
Maybe they had been carried away. A bit too much … probably.
Ilya stared at the screenshot a moment longer as if the link to the article would magically appear like that. Hayden had only sent Shane the screenshot and not the link to the article. Who did that? What did they want with a screenshot of an article that could possibly destroy their careers - but not the article itself?
Ilya handed Shane his phone back before he would type out a snarky reply to Hayden and quickly took out his own smartphone.
He was surprised at how calm he was as he sat down next to his trembling boyfriend on the sofa. Shane's entire body was shaking and he seemed to be on the verge of a panic attack. Yet, Ilya remained fully still.
Maybe it wasn't even that bad. Yes there was a picture of them kissing.
But what if… what if no one had recognized them? Wasn't that still a totally plausible possibility? There had been lots of other celebrities with them in the VIP tent. Maybe whoever had taken this picture had mistaken them for Shane and Ilya.
Ilya placed one hand on Shane's trembling knee and finally unlocked his own phone. He hadn't looked at it all morning because whenever Shane spent the night, Ilya wanted to soak in every moment he got. He didn't want to waste any second that could be filled with his boyfriend with stupid screentime.
But now it was phone time so Ilya did the unavoidable and looked at the screen.
Seven missed calls, fifty three unread messages.
Could be worse, right? But that also meant that other people had seen the article then. And that the totally plausible possibility of not being recognised wasn't that totally plausible at all.
Well, fuck. This was probably bad.
Probably the worst.
Ilya took a deep breath and quickly opened the browser and typed in his own name in the Google search bar. This was the easiest way to find the article.
He didn't even get that far because he immediately got distracted by the suggested real time trends that popped up after he typed in his name. There was the usual stuff, people googling for goal compilations or about the Irina Foundation. Even people searching for videos where Ilya was speaking Russian was a thing.
What was new was, well, this.
Ilya Rozanov goal compilation
Ilya Rozanov Irina Foundation
Ilya Rozanov Ottawa Centaurs
Ilya Rozanov speaking Russian
Ilya Rozanov Eras Tour
Ilya Rozanov kissing Shane Hollander
Ilya Rozanov and Shane Hollander kissing. There you go. Their names together with the word kiss was one of the top google search trends.
Fuck.
Ilya clicked on the suggestion and hit enter and … holy fucking shit. There were so many articles. It felt like he was looking at their worst nightmare. Ilya quickly tilted his phone to the side so Shane wouldn't accidentally look at his screen and see … whatever all of this was. Shane knowing about one article was already sending him into a spiral, what would knowing about hundreds of articles do to him?
Hayden had sent the one by The Game Uncovered (what an awful name, Ilya thought) so he decided to read that one first. He had to start somewhere, right?
Ilya carefully clicked on the article and tilted the phone even further away from Shane. When he looked at the screen again he was immediately greeted by the picture of him and Shane.
To be fair, it was a pretty good picture. It was dimly lit and blurry and felt kind of magical, with all the lights of the light-up bracelets behind them that everyone in the arena had been wearing.
It was also definitely unmistakably him and Shane kissing.
Ilya reached out for Shane's hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Whatever was written in those articles - they would be okay. They had been through so many things together, they would be able to face this storm. And maybe it was a good thing they were finally coming clean about their relationship, their love for each other.
It had been fourteen long years since their first kiss. It was time for the world to see them. They had discussed this before. They wanted to come out.
Not like this, though. Not on other people's terms. And definitely not publicly at the fucking Eras Tour.
Shane squeezed his hand back when he suddenly jumped up from the sofa and pressed his phone against his ear.
“Mom…” his lips were still trembling and his voice sounded extremely shaky, but he wasn't crying yet. Shane always tried to hold back his tears but Ilya could tell that he was close to letting it all go. It was probably healthier to cry in a situation like this anyway.
Ilya squeezed Shane's hand one more time before he let go of his boyfriend. It was good that he was talking to Yuna now. She was his manager after all and most importantly, she was his mom. She would know what to do next like she always did. Ilya didn't doubt it for one second.
“It's going to be all right,” he mouthed and Shane gave him a sad, unconvinced smile before leaving the room to talk to his mom.
When he was gone, Ilya unlocked his phone again and finally began reading the article.
There was no going back now.
The Game Uncovered
NHL's illicit affair?
by Casey A. Monroe
Shane Hollander (#24, Montreal Voyageurs) and Ilya Rozanov (#81, Ottawa Centaurs) have had one of the NHL's most entertaining but difficult friendships to explain.
Back in summer 2018 when the infamous rivals-since-rookie-season, Montreal's captain and star-center Shane Hollander and former Boston Bears captain Ilya Rozanov, announced that they were “actually friends now”, fans were skeptical at first but willing to believe in a good old-fashioned enemies to friends arc. Because even though the NHL had never seen a more unlikely friendship, Hollander and Rozanov melted the ice in no time.
The joint interviews. The respectful post-game handshakes. The new found close distance when Rozanov joined the Ottawa Centaurs in the 2018/2019 season.
And most importantly the mutual interest in building up a foundation helping suicide prevention organizations. The Game Uncovered was one of the first to state that Hollander's and Rozanov's unlikely bond could turn into a league-approved success story. And we were proven correct.
So yes, the story almost writes itself. Former rivals who matured, buried their mutual dislike and became friends. Two players who bonded over similar backstories as we have first written about back in 2014: “How Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov shape the league”.
But everything changed, when on Thursday evening, the two players attended Taylor Swift's Night Four of her record breaking sold out “The Eras Tour” show in Toronto together.
There had been no hiding when the two former rivals turned buddies Rozanov and Hollander arrived at Rogers Centre. Even though they stayed in the VIP tent, they were seen chatting with fans or trading the so called Friendship Bracelets (read: “How a friendship bracelet changed Travis Kelce's life”, The Game Uncovered, 2023, Issue #13 here). Multiple fans even posted selfies with them earlier in the night, praising how “friendly with each other" and “excited about the show” they seemed.
Videos of them dancing to Swift's classic hits like “Cruel Summer” or “22” were quickly the most talked about topic for that Thursday evening.
But then, in the early Friday morning hours, a different image surfaced.
Taken from several rows back, badly lit and out of focus, the photo appears to show Hollander and Rozanov pressed close together with their faces turned inward. It’s not clear what they are doing but it gives off the impression that their faces are touching. It looks like a private moment never meant to be shared with the public. It looks intimate, romantic even. And it looks nothing like the story fans thought they knew about the NHL’s two most talked about players.
You can’t see everything. But you can see enough. Enough that the internet did what it does best. Which is why one blurry photo, taken at a Taylor Swift concert and posted without context by twitter user @hollanovtruther has landed like a puck in an empty net.
By morning, the image had been reposted thousands of times, sharpened, circled and shared on all kinds of social media platforms.
“They are just talking,” some insist. “Definitely kissing,” others fire back. A couple of fans claim they were near the tent and swear it wasn’t platonic. Others say the angle is misleading, that the picture was completely taken out of context.
But here’s the thing: rumors don’t just spark like this.
Sources close to the players told The Game Uncovered that the two have been inseparable off-camera for years, often spotted together post games in either Ottawa or Montreal.
Their sudden friendship announcement, once framed as a rivalry to friends story, now reads very differently to fans that are revisiting old footage. Lingering looks, undeniable All-Star chemistry and unusually soft smiles exchanged across center ice long before Hollander and Rozanov revealed their friendship, seem to speak for themselves.
Whether the photo shows something real or is just a trick of the light, one truth is unavoidable: the narrative has shifted.
Because in hockey, enemies becoming friends is a nice story. But enemies becoming lovers?
“This is the Scott Hunter moment all over again”, a twitter user stated.
“It's even greater than that”, seems to be the general tone of the comments.
But whatever it is and how it will possibly change the NHL, this is the kind of secret that can't stay hidden for long.
Or to quote Taylor Swift herself: that's the thing about illicit affairs [...] they show their truth one single time.
Holy fucking shit. This was even worse than he expected. What the actual fuck. Illicit affair? Really? Suddenly all fear left Ilya's body. Instead he was flooded with anger. How could someone write an article like this?
And at the same time he knew that there were probably even worse articles about this out there. The quoted tweets even seemed … nice. Supportive. In a way.
But still, who published an article like this without even talking to the people involved? And who the fuck did they mean with “sources close to the players”?
Ilya closed the article and opened his messenger app. Now there were seventy nine unread messages, most of them coming from “BBQ At Bood's” - the Centaurs group chat.
The team had once told Ilya that they had created the chat years ago for a supposed one time outing at Zane Boodram’s place that had quickly turned into a bi-monthly BBQ event and well, the chat had stayed and had been repurposed as their unofficial team chat.
No one had ever bothered to change the name, either. It was kind of funny, if you asked Ilya. And it also helped to calm his nerves now too. He could pretend he was just casually coming out to a bunch of friends in a chat they usually discussed BBQ in. Nothing to worry about here.
Just a casual Friday morning.
“This will be fun,” he hummed to himself and finally clicked on the chat.
Ilya smiled at the screen. Fuck. This was really, truly happening to them right? He locked his smartphone and shoved it back into the pockets of his sweatpants. He really needed to talk to his teammates in person, but first he had to find Shane. Make sure he is okay.
“Shane?” he called out and followed the direction where he'd seen Shane go earlier when his mom had called him. Anya was following him closely.
"Bedroom!" Shane called back so Ilya quickly picked Anya up and rushed up the stairs with her. The door to Ilya's bedroom was ajar, but there was no light coming through.
Gently, Ilya placed Anya down on the ground and pushed the door open. It was completely dark in the room even though it was after 10am. Shane must've drawn the curtains. He was lying on the bed, his face buried deep in the pillows.
“Sweetheart,” Ilya breathed and sat down next to Shane on the bed. “Are you alright?”
“Are you?” Shane asked, turning his face towards the Russian. His eyes were puffy and bloodshot - so he did finally cry.
“Of course, I'm with you,” Ilya gently brushed his fingers through Shane's dark hair.
Shane sniffed at that but Ilya could see that he was smiling now. “My mom said the same. We should probably call Farah, right?”
Oh! Ilya had kind of forgotten about their agent. She was an angel, though. If there was someone who knew what to do it was probably her. She was also one of the few people who knew about Shane and Ilya.
Or well, had known before … today.
“Good point,” Ilya said. “I also talked to the team and they invited me over for vodka.”
Shane smiled at him. “You go then, after we talk to Farah.”
“What about you?”
“My team didn't invite me for vodka.”
“Shane,” Ilya said flatly. “It will be okay, right? Hayden is there? And JJ is also good with you being gay, da?”
“I guess,” Shane shrugged and finally got up in a sitting position, his head resting on Ilya's shoulder. “I'm so scared though. This is not … this was not how I imagined telling them about us.”
Ilya placed a soft kiss against Shane's temple. “Sorry I kissed you there. At the concert, I mean,” he hummed. “Was not my fault though, was Taylor’s. What did she even think mashing up State of Grace with Labyrinth?”
“Really can't blame you then,” Shane smiled and turned his head towards Ilya's who also couldn't help but grin at his boyfriend.
“Love made me crazy,” Ilya murmured against Shane's lips before finally kissing him. Shane immediately melted into the kiss. They would be alright. They could face this. Together.
They spent a few more minutes kissing (it was after all the best way to make Shane calm down) when suddenly Shane's phone rang. Ilya groaned when he showed him that it was Hayden who was calling but quickly let go of Shane so he could answer the call.
“Hayd? You are on speaker phone, Ilya is with me,” Shane explained. He looked scared again so Ilya reached out for his hand and intertwined their fingers.
“Thank god you picked up!” Hayden sounded like he was out of breath. “I sent you like a billion messages. Are you home? I'm on my way to your place.”
“I’m at Ilya's,” Shane stated, giving Ilya a concerned look.
“Okay doesn't matter. But whatever you guys do, don't go to twitter.”
“Wait, what's happening on twitter?”
Ilya was never the kind of guy who would listen to whatever Hayden Pike told him to do. So he got out his phone and opened the app. And oh wow. There were a lot of notifications.
“They want you out, Shane. Both of you.”