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It starts with Yuna.
He’s waiting backstage with Shane at some awards show or other when she comes up and straightens his bow tie, then takes out a literal fucking whisk broom and dusts off his jacket.
Ilya looks at Shane, because What the fuck? but Shane just gives him a little smile and shakes his head.
Then something explodes under the hood of his car and he mentions at dinner with Shane’s family how it will be a pain to take Ubers until it’s fixed. David cocks his head at him and says “What, you’re not fixing it?”
Ilya boggles at him, because he knows fuck-all about cars and shakes his head.
“I have a day off tomorrow, I’ll help you fix it.”
And that’s how he ends up spending three hours in his driveway with David Hollander, fixing a spark plug.
When he heads out to the game, Yuna hands him a box.
Ilya blinks. “What is?”
“Your lunch, silly!” Yuna says. “Hockey’s an intense sport, you’ll need carbs.”
He opens the box later to find a sandwich, an apple and a Coke, along with a Post-It that says “Good luck today.”
He shows it to Shane that evening.
“Oh yeah, she does that.”
Ilya looks from him to the note and back. “Why?”
Shane shrugs. “I dunno? She’s done it my whole life.”
“Your parents like me.”
Shane’s nose wrinkles. “Uh, yeah?”
“Why?”
Shane stares at him. “Because you’re my boyfriend?”
“Yes, but…” Ilya waves the note, helplessly. “No one does these things for me!”
Shane’s eyes darken. “No one?”
“Not since my mother died.”
Shane’s silent for a moment, then “She did this kinda stuff for you?”
Ilya nods. “She cut crusts off my sandwiches. Helped me make snow angels in winter. Made flower chains in summer.” He remembers her smiling at him in the meadow, a flower-crown on her head, sunlight gilding her hair. “Since then, nothing.”
Shane looks pained for a moment, then kisses him softly.
Ilya slowly gets used to having at least one of Shane’s parents at each of his games, even if Shane is playing the same day, to David congratulating him on a hat trick with a toast of expensive vodka, to Yuna fussing over his socks.
He spends an afternoon with David learning to fish. It’s ridiculous, he will never in his life need to know this, but David slaps him on the back when he finally catches something worth keeping, and Ilya is confused, but happy too.
He didn’t think, when he became Shane Hollander’s boyfriend, that he would gain parents as well.