Work Text:
Shane and Ilya were over at the Hollander’s for Sunday dinner, and as usual, the conversation devolved into Shane and Yuna talking shop. “Did you get a chance to look at that new ad campaign offer from Rolex? I already sent back a counteroffer, and they agreed to give us another three percent.” Yuna asked.
Shane sighed and rolled his eyes. “I haven’t looked at it yet.”
“Okay, well, you need to look at it today because we have to give them an answer by tomorrow.”
Shane nodded. “I’ll look at it after practice, I promise.”
“Oh, and Calvin Klein sent over the previews for the shoot you did last month.”
“Where are they?” Ilya interjected with a sly grin.
Yuna pulled them up on her phone and handed it to Ilya and Shane, who swiped through the pictures together. Shane was in a variety of poses, ranging from lifting a wet t-shirt to reveal the Calvin Klein waistband just above his jeans, to the last one, where he was shirtless in just a black boxer brief with his finger tugging down on the waistband at the hip.
Ilya let out a whoop.
“Ilya!” Shane blushed and turned off the phone screen. “Not in front of Mom, please.”
“Why? She was there for the photo shoot, wasn’t she?”
“Yeah, but it’s different. I wasn’t being ogled.”
Ilya laughed. “I guarantee the entire crew ogled you.”
Shane just pushed him away playfully.
“I reviewed those contracts you sent over. They looked good.” Shane told his mom.
“Uh-uh, I already reached out to the agency, we can get more, they’re lowballing you because you’re nice.”
Shane let out an annoyed scoff. “They haven’t met you yet, have they?”
Ilya smothered a laugh of his own.
“Ilya, I’ve been putting feelers out to some of my contacts. Brands we’ve worked with in the past. I heard about this perfect contract for you with Porsche.”
Ilya’s skin began to crawl. He gave his head a little shake. “I’ve never been good in front of a camera. My accent, you know.”
“Ilya, don’t be ridiculous. Your English is great, and most of the time Shane’s not even talking in the ads he does.” Yuna pushed.
Ilya’s eyes darted around, looking for another excuse. “I don’t know. Maybe. Send it over, I’ll take a look.”
He didn’t do the ad. He could tell it bothered Yuna, but she didn’t say anything. She still passed contracts along. He would do magazine ads, small campaigns, but always passed on the larger contracts. Each time, Ilya made some excuse why he couldn’t do it.
It finally came to a head when he turned down another contract that would have made him half his annual MLH salary. Yuna could not understand why.
“Why do you care how much money I make? I have enough money already! For ten lifetimes, enough money!” Ilya finally said.
“I just hate seeing you squander an opportunity like this!” Yuna retorted.
This was a knife to his heart. A confirmation of everything his family had told him. He was lazy. He was wasting his potential. He wasn’t living up to the family name. He wasn’t taking care of his family.
“Okay, you think I am lazy? You think I am useless? I work hard, I do. I make enough money for me, for Shane, for you. I will make sure you are taken care of. What do you need? Do you need me to make more money because you think I will not take care of you and David?”
“What? No, Ilya, that’s not what I meant.” Yuna’s face fell.
“What is your percent? Do you need more? Is that what this is about?”
“Percent? Ilya! No, I don’t take a percentage.”
“What do you mean? You take the same percent from me as from Shane, no?”
“Ilya! I don’t take a percentage from Shane! I never have!”
“But you have nice houses, nice car. Your husband is government job in Canada. I know he doesn’t make enough to pay for two houses.”
“I—yes, that’s true, but—"
“So you must take percent from Shane. You will take the same from me. You are good to me. I don’t want you to think I won’t take care of you like Shane. If you need more, I can give you more. I don’t need to do that ad campaign to get you more money.”
“Ilya, I’m sorry, I wasn’t clear. I don’t want any of your or Shane’s money. Yes, he has been kind to us. He’s given us cars and helped us with our house. He makes sure we're taken care of, that’s true, but that’s not—I never asked him for any of that. I don’t take a percentage of his deals. I work hard to make sure my son is able to take care of himself, and often I try to discourage his gifts to us. You should have seen the first place he showed us, there was a pool and a tennis court. In Ottawa. I told him no. I don’t want any of your money. I just want you to be taken care of, for yourself. So you don’t have to worry when you retire.”
Ilya looked at her in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
Yuna sighed as Shane wandered in after his run. “What’s going on?”
“I put my foot in my mouth, and now Ilya thinks I need a percentage of his deals,” Yuna said.
“What?” Shane looked at Ilya in bewilderment. “What do you mean?”
“She won’t tell me what percent you give her. Is okay, I know you take care of them, the houses, the cars. If she is doing my ads, she will need percent. I can take care of it.”
Shane shook his head. “What are you talking about? I don’t—listen, it’s not because I didn’t offer it. I tried making her take a percentage for her work as my manager. I know she deserves it, for all the campaigns she’s got me, but she won’t do it! So, it’s best to just let it go, and sometimes she lets me buy them things. The house took years of negotiating. I had the perfect house picked out for them, it had a tennis court in the back and a pool, but they said it wasn’t ‘practical’.”
Ilya looked between the two of them like they were speaking some third language he didn’t understand.
“Which part of that was confusing?” Shane asked with no hint of sarcasm. He could tell when Ilya was having trouble processing.
Ilya sat shaking his head for a moment before speaking, “All of it, but go back to the part where you argued over money, but she was asking for less?”
“Ilya, this whole time you thought Mom was getting a cut?”
“Yes, that is normal, that is what family does.”
Yuna looked like she was going to be sick. “Oh, Ilya, no. That’s—that’s not normal, sweetie.”
“Is that what your family did?” Shane asked quietly.
Ilya didn’t say anything, but he could feel the embarrassment rise to his face as his cheeks grew hot and his eyes glistened with unshed tears. Then Shane was wrapping his arms around him.
“Ilya, I didn’t mean—I would never…” Yuna stammered.
“Mom, can you give us a moment?” Shane calmly asked as he held onto Ilya.
“Of course. I’m so sorry, Ilya.” She said as she left the kitchen.
Once she was out of the kitchen, Shane just held Ilya as his breath hitched in his throat.
“I—” Ilya tried to speak, but couldn’t get a word out past the lump in his throat.
“Shh…it’s okay.” Shane took a deep breath, and Ilya found himself trying to mirror it, syncing up his breathing as they held each other close. Eventually, when he was more under control, Shane whispered. “Do you want to tell me?”
Ilya took another deep breath and loosened his grip so he could look at Shane, “My family, I supported them. I sent money back to my father, my brother.”
“I think I figured that part out, but—did you want to, or did they make you?”
“I—I would not let my family starve, Hollander. Of course, I wanted to take care of them.” Ilya said defensively. Although his family was never at risk of starvation, Ilya reminded himself.
“Right, I know, but…did they ask for money? Did they keep asking?”
Ilya just nodded, and tears came to his eyes again.
“Was it…was it a lot of money?”
“What is a lot of money? You bought your parents a house, that is a lot of money! Is normal!”
Shane shook his head gently. “My parents didn’t ask me to buy them a house. My parents didn’t—didn’t demand I buy them a house.”
Ilya brought his hands up in an annoyed gesture of indifference. “It is what was expected of me. A good son will give everything he can to his family. Take care of his family. I just—I knew it wasn’t—normal. I knew they were—"
“Taking advantage?” Shane supplied when Ilya cut off.
Ilya sighed and spoke quieter. “The only thing I was good for was giving them money. So I did the only thing I was good for. And it was never enough.”
“Ilya, I’m so sorry.” Shane pulled him into another tight embrace. “You gave them everything, and all they did was hurt you. I’m never going to do that to you. Mom and Dad won’t ever do that to you either.”
“She does all of that for you, the work, the ads, the contracts…she does all that and doesn’t ask for anything?”
If it wasn’t so heartbreaking, it would have been a funny question. Yuna wasn’t demanding, but she certainly wasn’t quiet about her opinions. Sometimes Shane felt like all she did was ask him for things. Another ad campaign, another article, another interview, another contract renegotiation. She did ask him to do a lot, but she never asked him for anything. When they were out, his parents paid. When they traveled, he had to force them to accept his portion. He had tried to get them to take a monthly stipend so that his dad could retire earlier, but he said he liked his job. So he could honestly answer, “No, she never asks for anything.”
Ilya abruptly broke out of the embrace and moved toward the hall where Yuna had walked away to give them privacy.
“What’s wrong?” Shane asked as he followed after him, trying to figure out what he had said wrong.
“Mrs. Hollander,” Ilya called down the hall, looking in each room.
“I’m in the laundry room.” She called with a somewhat shaky voice.
Ilya turned the corner into the room to see her folding clothes with tears in her eyes. “Mrs. Hollander, I’m sorry.”
“Please, Ilya, call me Yuna, I’m not Mrs. Hollander to you. And you have nothing to apologize for, I should be apologizing to you. I overstepped, I’m so sorry.”
“No, I insulted you, I misunderstood. I’m sorry. I will do the deal if you think it is best. I trust you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t—I’m so sorry, I can be so forceful, sometimes. I don’t want to overstep, I just want what’s best for you and Shane. I see now that I was wrong to push you.”
“Is okay, I am not easily hurt. No damage done. I will do the deal if you think it best.”
Yuna stopped folding her clothes. “Ilya, why haven’t you done more ads in the past? I talked with your last manager. I always thought they were mishandling you, but they said you would turn down most of their offers.”
“I…I’m lazy, I know. I will do better.” Ilya hedged.
“No. You are not lazy. That’s not the Ilya I know. I see a driven, kind, giving man. It’s okay, I don’t think you are lazy, I just—I just want to understand. If I understand, then I won’t make this same mistake again.”
Ilya shook his head and paused before finally answering. “If I do big ad campaigns, it will get back to my brother, and if he finds out, he is not like you. The more money I make, the more hands appear for their cut. I work extra hard on ad campaign, and none of it comes to me. Why work extra for no payoff? See? Lazy.”
“No, Ilya. That is the opposite of lazy. That is being worked to the bone and sent home without supper.”
All Ilya could do was shrug.
Yuna sighed. “Okay, and the extravagant cars?”
Shane interrupted. “I don’t think now is the time to lecture him about extravagant purchases, Mom.”
Yuna shook her head. “That’s not why I’m asking. I understand you like them. I’m glad you have them. I just want to understand clearly. Why did you buy them?”
Ilya wavered for a moment before finally answering. “If I spend money on cars, on nice apartment, then it does not sit in bank account where father’s financial advisor can—what is word?—leak it away.”
Yuna took a deep breath and shared a look with Shane.
“I know is stupid purchase. But if they are in my garage, I can tell if they are stolen. Safe.”
Yuna closed her eyes and sighed before replying, “Okay, I get that now, thank you for explaining that.”
Ilya could tell she was biting her tongue. “What is it? What do you want to say?”
Yuna opened her eyes and took another breath. “I am resisting the urge to make suggestions right now.”
“I do not want you to be on eggs.” Ilya was getting worked up again. “What do you want to say?”
“I don’t want to know any details about your finances—"
Shane failed to hold back a scoff.
Yuna glared at him and reiterated. “I don’t want you to think I am being nosy, or overstepping, or looking for my cut. But David is a financial adviser, and could suggest someone trustworthy who can look at your finances to make sure nothing is being siphoned anywhere. They can help you make sound investments so the money you do have and the money you make in the future is able to work for you as best as possible. I understand now why you don’t want attention brought to you with brand deals. That makes sense. We can find other avenues to get you income sources that work best for you. Real estate, for example. Things that build up your bank account and save for your future. Not mine, not Shane’s, and certainly not your brother’s. And, if all you want to do is tell me to fuck off and stay out of your personal business, then this will be the last you hear of it from me, and I promise, I won’t be offended. That is your prerogative.”
Ilya wasn’t entirely sure what prerogative meant, but he mulled over the rest of it. “This advisor that David knows…”
“Completely third party. We won’t have any of the details.”
“I do trust you. It is okay if David advises…” Ilya said with an uncertain tone.
Yuna shook her head. “I know you trust us, but given—given what you just shared, I would feel better if it were a third party. That way you never have to worry about what we might be doing, okay?”
Ilya’s face grew red again, and he nodded. “Okay.”
“Now, may I give you a hug?” Yuna asked softly.
Ilya just nodded as a tear leaked down his red cheek. Yuna cleared the distance between them and pulled Ilya into a fierce hug. He got the sense that even now she was holding back the full force of her embrace. He felt Shane’s hand on his back, gently rubbing circles of comfort, letting him know he was still there, that he would always be there. He reached up and wiped his eyes before pulling back from Yuna.
“Thank you, Yuna.” He said quickly before grabbing Shane’s hand and retreating from the room.
Yuna didn’t follow for some time. Instead, she finished folding the laundry, replaying everything in her head. When she finally came back out to find the boys, Shane and Ilya were working on the puzzle together. David always had one spread out in the den. This one was Canadian waterfowl. She could see Shane’s hand resting on Ilya’s knee under the table. She promised herself in that moment, that somehow, she’d make Ilya see that their love for him was not conditional.