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“So, do you like him?” Yuna asked quietly, her eyes still fixated on the car that was slowly disappearing on the horizon. She could feel where her husband's hand was resting steadily on her lower back and she leaned into it a little more, appreciating the calm radiating off of him even right now.
David made a little humming noise behind her, that could mean yes, no or neither “Do you like him?”
Once the form of Shane's car had fully retreated she finally turned around to find David already looking back at her. His face remained rather neutral, only that tiny kind smile on his lips that seemingly always rested there.
Yuna could feel herself sigh “I mean-” she broke off gesturing in the direction the car had disappeared to, a frown forming on her face “I mean we already guessed the whole gay part.” Her heart still clenched at the way Shane had actually apologized to her about that.
David made the little humming noise again, they had. It's not like the topic had come up often, but the few times they had spoken about it, they had been pretty much aligned in their speculations. Neither of them had ever had a problem with the idea, god not at all, but both of their hearts had started to ache a little once they realized what it would mean for their little boy, that the world he lived in probably wouldn’t take it with much kindness.
She cursed herself for never really bringing up the topic with Shane, not trying to force anything, but just making sure he knew where his parents stood on the matter.
“It's just, I didn't expect him. Him. Out of all people.” At that her husband chuckled lightly “Yeah, Shane's never been someone to do things the easy way.” His warm eyes found hers that were already shining with a new set of tears “And neither do you.”
“Nine years.” She shook her head “Can you imagine that? Loving someone for nine years and not telling a single soul about it, not even your parents?” The tears that had gathered on her waterline the second Shane had turned his back to them started to fall.
David's eyes locked onto hers, this time though she could see the same sorrow in them she felt in her own soul.
She thought about her college roommate, telling her that the cute guy from the coffee shop had finally asked her out, calling her sister in the middle of the night gushing about their first kiss, how perfect it all had been, sitting down in her parents kitchen and telling them about the man she already knew she was going to marry.
Shane didn’t get those moments, and would never be able to get them back, because this world, including her, had robbed him off it.
“No, I really can’t.” he took a deep shuddering breath, the first time during the last few hours that she could see that this whole thing weighed just as heavy on him as it did on her, his composure starting to slip. After another deep breath though this time sounding a lot more stable, the man in front of her gave a firm nod “But we can’t change it now, can we? It’s already happened. However we can make sure that he feels safe with us now. That they both do.”
And that brought her back to Ilya Rozanov, terror on the ice, a man that had slammed her precious son into the boards more than any other player. A man that was almost always the first to throw hands on the ice, that had run his mouth about Shane to the press for almost a decade. Violent, snarky, brutal and obviously deeply in love with her son.
At some point they had moved inside and Yuna had started to clean up the kitchen, rinsed their plates, put the leftovers in the fridge all while her thoughts were working overtime in her head.
David had quietly started to retreat to his armchair in the living room, leaving his wife the space she obviously needed right now. After about an hour the noises from the kitchen eventually stopped and Yuna appeared in the door a towel still thrown over her shoulder.
“You like him.” She stated, hands firmly on her hips. It wasn’t a question.
Once they got over the more serious stuff David and Ilya actually had a rather long conversation about crossword puzzles and sudoku of all things, because apparently the Russian enjoyed them, just as much as her husband did.
Between the two of them, David had always been the one to handle social situations with a little more grace. Sure Yuna knew how to handle business dinners and sweet talk big cooperations into deals, but when it came to the more personal, emotional conversations, he had always taken the lead. It was something she equally admired as well as loved about the man, how fast he felt at ease with other people, how quickly he could make space for somebody in his enormous heart.
For Yuna it had always been a little more complicated then that, she needed the data, wanted to have the facts on someone before she formed an opinion about them, never just going with her instinct, like David did.
And well, the facts she had about Ilya weren’t exactly in his favor.
David raised an eyebrow at her, a tiny smile still resting on his lips “And you don’t?” She didn’t answer the question, because honestly? She truly wasn’t sure.
“He was..different, definitely not what I was expecting.” her husband huffed, a fondness sneaking into his voice, and she knew that the tall blonde had already secured himself a place in David's heart.
“He was charming and polite. And he likes sudoku and-” “And threw your son so hard into the boards that he almost couldn’t move the next morning, just a few months ago.” Yuna interrupted him, sounding a little more frantic than she'd like.
At that her husband's eyebrows rose almost comically high on his forehead, before he started to laugh “Thats what this is about? You do remember that Shane body checked him just as hard like two minutes later, right” Yuna huffed “But he-”
“He also held our son's hand.” David interrupted in a manner that was equal parts kind as it was firm. “He came over to his boyfriend's parents house, after they were both outed against their will, braved facing his parents that he’d never met before, all so he could hold Shane's hand through all of this.”
And the thing was, that Yuna had seen it, had seen the loving glances, the little check ins to make sure Shane was still fine, the way they had held each other's hands under the table.
“He is kind and gentle with him. He loves him and most importantly Shane loves him back. So yes, Yuna, I think I really like him.” Even though David was still smiling at her, there was a seriousness to his eyes “Just give him a chance. That's all I ask. That's all that Shane asks.”
She felt herself nodding, she knew her husband was right “Okay, I will. I promise I will try.” After rising from his chair, he quickly walked over to her and pressed a peck to her lips “Great, because if we want to pick up beer before dinner we really should get going.” Yuna took one deep breath before following her husband out to the car.
A chance, she could definitely give him a chance, because everybody deserved one, even Ilya Rozanov.
The cottage felt…different. There were more shoes lined up in the hallway, a black hoodie with cyrillic lettering thrown over the armchair Shane never used and the smell of an aftershave she didn’t recognize in the air. It was obvious that over the last few days two people had been living here and Yuna realized that she thought it seemed homier that way, more lived in than when Shane was here alone.
She secretly had always thought that it had been too big for her son on his own.
She steeled herself before rounding the corner to enter the kitchen, David half a step behind her “We’re here!” she announced to her sons back.
Shane had changed, the light blue linen shirt replaced by a dark t-shirt that hung a little loose around his shoulders, probably Ilyas, ‘his boyfriend’ her mind supplied uselessly. And of course, why wouldn’t he wear his boyfriend's shirt in his own home. She still liked to throw on David's old hoodies when she wanted to feel comfortable.
With a shocking realization she figured she had never seen her son simply be a boyfriend, didn’t really know what he was like in a relationship. Sure he had told them about the actress a while back, but that had been over before she could even meet her. She didn’t know if he was somebody who constantly stole the others clothes, if he liked to hold hands or how he even talked to his partner.
Her throat closed for seemingly the hundred time today. Shane spun around and she immediately noticed his eyes were still red, like he had cried a little more, once he had gotten back to the sanctuary of his own home. She just hoped Ilya held him through it.
For a second mother and son just stared at each other, neither knowing how to handle their new situation, thankfully David interrupted their moment placing the beer on the counter with a loud thud. “And we brought beer and some groceries.”He moved past Shane, giving him a brief one armed sidehug, the other still cradling the paperbag from the store before he started to sort the products into Shane's fridge, following the system he knew his son liked.
“Thank you, you didn’t need to though. I was just about to start the grill.” he nodded towards the open patio door, right as Ilya rounded the corner and stepped into the kitchen as well.
Yuna noticed that he looked a little more tired than he did during lunch, but also looser, his edges softened now that he moved in a place he was comfortable in. “Hello” he gave them both a strained, but earnest smile and Yuna tried her best to smile back.
After the groceries were put away and some back and forth, David decided he would be the one managing the grill, while the others were put on chopping and tablesetting duty.
Just as she started slicing the aubergine she could hear some banging noises and curses from the patio, quickly being followed by a “Shane? Can you come here for a sec.”
Next to her the young man started to grumble “Why didn’t he just let me do it from the beginning." Despite complaining, humor laced his words, however the easy joy that had overtaken him left, as quickly as it had appeared, once he realized what leaving the kitchen meant.
Ilya would be forced to be alone with his mother, the two of them obviously not being comfortable around each other just yet.
“Uh-” “Is fine, Hollander.” Ilya had taken the knife from Shane's hand and gently hip checked him away from the counter
“You go to your father and make sure your stupid expensive patio does not burn down. You want the zucchini in cubes, yes?” After another reassuring look Ilya had thrown Shane, that Yuna pretended not to notice, he made his way out to his father to oversee whatever was going on out there.
And suddenly for the first time ever Yuna Hollander was completely alone with Ilya Rozanov, standing in her son's kitchen cutting vegetables together, she resisted the urge to pinch herself to make sure this whole thing was actually happening.
The silence that had fallen over them started to suffocate her “So..” she started desperately digging through her brain for anything she knew about the man next to her, that didn't involve hockey “Your not going to Russia over the summer this year?”
For a second Rozanov tensed before relaxing again “No, I won’t. Probably just going to stay here until Shane gets sick of me and then go back to Boston.” She hummed to herself, based on the way these two have been looking at each other she seriously doubted her son would grow sick of the blonde, maybe ever.
“And your family doesn’t mind you not coming over? I’m sure they must miss you.” Now Ilya had definitely tensed up beside her, Yuna could practically feel the way his shoulders had risen up to his ears.
“Ah, my brother-he and I, we don’t…don’t get along very well.” he paused, swallowing so hard she could hear it standing next to him “And my parents are both dead, so” he trailed of, shrugging his shoulders, trying very hard to not look at the woman beside him.
Yuna internally cursed at herself, of course, the one off ice thing she knew about him.
It had been a few months ago that David had shown her an article on his phone during breakfast. A short statement from the Bears after Ilya had missed a few games, nothing more than a few words explaining that Grigori Rozanov had finally passed, following a long battle with an illness that had very pointedly not been named in the article.
The picture they had included had shown a stern looking man, eyes cold and serious and looking absolutely nothing like his son. However it was the last sentence that had caught her eye, the Bears expressing their deep condolences to their captain who had now lost his second parent at only 25.
It had actually been something she had noticed over the years, that none of his family had ever attended Rozanov's games. Sure she herself went to less and less games as Shane got older, but even now she still went to the important ones, the ones that she knew meant something to Shane.
“Did you know?” David had asked her, her eyes still fixated on the screen. “I’ve heard some rumors that his father hadn’t been well lately, but no, not really.” Something inside of her began to hurt.
“I had no idea about his mother, I’ve been wondering why I never saw her.” David made a noncommittal noise across from her “Must’ve happened before he signed with Boston, I don’t remember them ever saying anything about it.”
Finally lifting her eyes from the screen she looked at David, who stared off into the distance, appearing rather sullen “My God, can you imagine? Orphaned when you're not even 26. All while living in a foreign country, completely alone.”
Yuna cleared her throat glancing back at the picture of the stern looking policeman, silently wondering if maybe Ilya had already been alone before his father had passed.
“That poor child” she murmured under her breath, “Nobody deserves something like this. Nobody.”
The memory knocked the breath out of her “Of course Ilya, I’m so sorry. David and I saw the statement a few months ago. I guess I just forgot who you are for a second and-” “Is okay.” The Russian interrupted her in a gentle tone “Is fine really, Mrs. Hollander. I sometimes forget myself.”
He shrugged again, smiling unsure at her and Yuna swore you could hear the way her heart broke at that last sentence.
Taking a very deep breath she put the knife down and fully turned her body towards him “May I be honest?” She asked his permission as much as her own.
The young man now angled his body towards her as well, and maybe for the first time she really looked at him, not as another player, but just him as a person.
In a way she was surprised how big he truly was, now standing directly in front of her, even though he couldn't be taller than Shane by more than a couple centimeters, maybe they were even the same height, if Shane ever managed to stand up straight for once in his life. His shoulders seemed a little broader and he carried himself so differently from her son, confident in taking up space and not trying to make himself seem smaller, instead his head held high in a defiant manner, as if he was constantly challenging those around him.
And yet his eyes were now holding only uncertainty, maybe even fear, while nodding hesitantly.
“I don’t know how to do this.” She confessed in one breath. barely more than a whisper “I’m just..-” She broke off, hands gesturing around the two of them “I’ve never done this. Shane has never been in a relationship long enough to introduce us, he never even brought friends back home really. I don’t know how to meet the boyfriend.” she admitted, feeling shame at her own insecurity coil in her stomach.
But suddenly a smile started to spread on Ilya's face, it looked different from the way he normally smiled, his eyes crinkled and the corners of his mouth actually turned down a little instead of up and a little dimple started to appear on his left cheek, it looked real she realized.
“That is very fortunate for me, Mrs. Hollander, because I have never met parents of boyfriend.” The fear in his eyes had changed into something warmer “I also don’t know how to do any of this.” he chuckled and Yuna couldn’t do anything but join him in his laughter.
Reaching out her hand towards him she said “And please, call me Yuna. I’d really like you to." Ilya also reached out to shake her hand, and she was surprised how soft they felt, a lot less callused than Shanes were. “Ilya” he replied, that downturned smile still on his lips “very nice to meet you, Yuna.”
Throwing her insecurity in the wind, she followed her gut and tugged on his hand, still clasped in hers and pulled him into a crushing embrace, feeling how he had to bend his back in order to comfortably rest his head on her shoulder.
“Just so you know, I think you’re doing perfectly fine with all this.” She whispered in his ear, sensing how he melted against her much smaller frame and part of her couldn’t help but wonder when the boy in front of her had last been held like this.
“I’ve got a feeling we’re going to get along just fine.”