Work Text:
#1 - Hayden
Hayden has known Shane since the first day of their freshmen year of college.
He would like to think that he knows a lot about his best friend in the six years since they were properly introduced at campus orientation and at subsequent hockey practices. Befriending Shane was easily one of Hayden’s highlights in university and now they’re working through grad school in Ottawa together. Hayden has his eyes set on a job in sustainability, probably in the government if he is lucky. Meanwhile, Shane practically has a long line of professors and minor hockey league scouts begging for his attention. Too bad that they’re losing to loons, though.
Hayden knows everything about Shane’s hockey rituals and insane lecture practices - they’ve been broke roommates for years now. He knows about Shane’s extensive colour-coded spreadsheet, which he uses to keep his life running, planned down to the exact meal he was making that morning. Their fridge and apartment are stocked and cleaned to the regulation perfection of Shane’s standards, not that Hayden minded. Hell, Hayden understands and appreciates Shane’s quirks and obsession with loons, even if it bores him to death and slightly terrifies him that Shane keeps an ever-evolving whiteboard about the flock he’s been studying at his cottage.
(He also knows about ‘Lily’ - the mysterious girl Shane has been texting for years but refuses to ever talk about.)
Shane is weird in his own endearing way, and Hayden isn’t surprised about a lot of things when it comes to Shane Hollander.
So it does come as a surprise to him when Shane turns down Jackie’s offers to set him up with her yoga teacher friends.
“I, uh-” Shane stumbles awkwardly, red in the face. He cringes before he settles on his next sentence. “I have a boyfriend.”
“A boyfriend?” Hayden finds himself asking.
Boyfriend?
Shane nods, not willing to meet their eyes.
“Oh! Honey, no,” Jackie recovers first and wraps his fidgeting hands with hers. “Thank you for telling us! We love you no matter what.”
Hayden feels a sharp elbow to his ribs.
“Yeah, buddy,” Hayden smiles. He hopes that he’s projecting something like calm reassurance instead of whatever confusion his brain is trying to handle. “It’s okay if you like men. We’re not like homophobic or anything. Hell, I have relatives who are gay too!”
Hayden does not actually know if his cousin is gay, but uh, Shane doesn’t need to know that.
That seems to get Shane to emerge from his shell and the tension in his face and body instantly vanishes. Jackie pats his hand comfortingly.
“Thanks, guys,” Shane says gratefully. “That means a lot.”
“I just thought-” Hayden should shut up right now. “You know… wasn’t there a Lily you’ve been texting?”
Shane’s eyes widen. “You know about Lily?”
“Hard not to when you smile like a maniac whenever your phone buzzes,” Hayden shrugs.
“Lily is a… codename,” Shane says.
Hayden frowns in confusion. Next to him, Jackie, bless her heart, puts it together quickly.
“Oh!” Jackie blessedly exclaims. “So your boyfriend is Lily!”
Shane nods. “It’s easier this way, for him and us.”
The gears in Hayden’s brain come to a grinding halt. Well, it all makes sense now. He thought things were serious between Shane and Lily - they’ve been texting for years after all. He thought that Shane would eventually come around to telling him about Lily, so Hayden didn’t feel inclined to push.
“Aww,” Jackie squeezes his hand. “Thank you for telling us. You won’t have to hide from us, we’ll keep your secret too.”
Hayden feels a sharp kick to his shin.
“Yeah,” Hayden agrees. “We’ll do anything for you, bud. You know that. We’re here for you no matter what.”
Shane exhales, the tension leaving his body once more. He nods, eyes glistening with unshed tears and acceptance.
“Thank you.”
Part of Hayden is mad that Shane couldn’t come to him about having a boyfriend. Did he and Jackie seem homophobic? Well, shit. Maybe it might be the hockey locker room talk. But they didn’t know and Hayden silently resolves to stand by his best friend no matter what to make up for it. Maybe he should buy some pride pins? God, he should discuss this with Jackie later.
“So…” Jackie grins. “Tell us alllll about him, Shane! How long have you been together?”
“In what sense?” Shane innocently asks.
Hayden pauses. In what sense? Huh??
“Like… together together. Official!” Jackie helpfully explains.
Shane nods in understanding. “Like… a month? But we’ve been seeing each other since 2009 or something.”
Holy shit.
Hayden helpfully does the math with his fingers. “That’s almost 6 years?”
Even longer than he’s known Shane. Heck, he had thought Shane lived like a monk - when the hell did he even find time for that? Is that in his spreadsheet too?
“Oh, Shane!” Jackie gushes. "Things must be really serious! We have got to meet your man! Tell me about him.
Shane brightens. It’s the same expression Hayden has seen when Shane’s phone buzzes.
“He plays hockey too,” Shane begins with a small smile on his face. It’s almost sickeningly sweet. “He’s so good at it - the best in the world. He makes me feel safe and understood, like I’ve known him all my life. My parents have basically adopted him as their own now.”
Hayden understands where Shane was coming from. Jackie also shoots him a look and nods.
“How did you meet?” Hayden asks. “Is he playing in the MLH?”
Shane seems to pause, as if weighing his response. “He’s a player. We met at the Prospect Cup before he was drafted.”
“He must be really good to impress our resident hockey bot,” Jackie teases.
“He’s won a few things here and there,” Shane hedges. “I love him a lot.”
“More than loons?” Hayden laughs.
“More than loons. Maybe not as much as hockey - it depends on whether he pissed me off or not,” Shane says with a smirk. “The list changes frequently; you might need to ask me again.”
Jackie giggles, delighted. “We would love to meet him, Shane!”
“We can work something out when he’s in town,” Shane smiles. “He’s based in America so it’s been an LDR you know?”
It’s later that night when Hayden is finally alone with his thoughts, turning over the facts presented to him that night.
The mysterious Lily turned out to be a man whom Shane had been involved with for years. The mysterious Lily, who probably has the power to make Shane drop almost anything and leave their apartment with some badly made-up excuse. Lily, who is currently an active player in the MLH based in America. Lily, who is young enough to have played in the junior division with Shane.
Well, that doesn’t necessarily narrow down who it could be, not that Hayden was actively looking into the identity of his best friend’s boyfriend. Shane hadn’t told them his name or shown them any pictures - it was easy enough for him and Jackie not to pry. They know Shane will come to them when he is ready and it is best not to scare him off.
Hayden sighs. Maybe Shane’s boyfriend was Canadian? That would make things a lot easier for Shane.
Well, Hayden decides, out of all the men in the MLH, there should at least be decent ones out there that would love his best friend. Not the homophobic ones, of course. That was obvious.
Hayden comforts himself in the fact that there was no way in hell he would ever come face-to-face with the menace voted as the MLH’s most punchable face for the third year running - Ilya Rozanov.
#2 - JJ
“Capitaine!” JJ crows the moment he spots the lonely figure of Shane Hollander nursing a ginger ale.
“JJ,” Shane greets, gesturing to the seat next to him. “I haven’t been your captain in years, you know? It’s been what? 10 years?”
“Less than that,” JJ pouts. He settles himself into the horribly uncomfortable barstool. “And once my capitaine, always my capitaine, eh?”
Shane shakes his head fondly as JJ orders himself a beer.
It’s not often that JJ gets to see his favourite captain from his junior years anymore. These days, Shane Hollander was more obsessed with birds than he was with hockey. Not that he isn’t still obsessed, of course - JJ is the recipient of many of Shane’s angry rants about the Montreal Metro’s fuck ups. But, well, Shane tends to pursue his interests with unrelenting focus.
Hockey used to be the number one thing, JJ knows. Shane was his Captain during the Prospect Cup when they lost to Russia, thanks to Ilya Rozanov and then beat Rozanov the following year. He remembers how intense Shane was about hockey - how he dolled out shot after shot at the net with insane speed and accuracy. Shane was good at hockey, still is, JJ is willing to bet - he knows that Shane and Hayden’s collegiate team have dominated USports over the past few years. Hell, Shane has a whole bunch of trophies to show for it and half a dozen MLH teams trying to draft him still. He was the only answer to Rozanov’s brute force and mind plays in juniors.
If he was honest, JJ didn’t quite understand why Shane didn’t get into professional hockey. The MLH media machine was already hyping up a rivalry between him and Rozanov. In JJ’s heart, Shane would’ve absolutely been a first draft pick against Rozanov. He would’ve made a damn good Metro.
“How’s the ribs?” Shane asks.
JJ feels his eyebrows shoot to the sky. “How did you know?”
“You’re favouring your right side. You don’t take hits like you usually do - it’s obvious you’re holding back. So how’s the ribs?”
“Bruised,” JJ grimaces. “It could be worse, though.”
“It could be worse.” Shane tips his ginger ale at him in acknowledgement and drinks. “Looks like no playoff trophy for the Metros, huh?”
JJ scowls. “Fuck Rozanov. I will fuck him when I see him!”
Shane chokes. “I think you mean ‘fuck him up’.”
“I mean what I said,” JJ mutters petulantly.
JJ would rather die than admit that Boston had the better team. The Metros had been suffering all season with weak centres and weaker lines due to bad trades. Rozanov has always been a terror - but it was as though he was possessed by the devil this season, making him utterly relentless. He cut through their defences as if they weren’t there with such force that it sent JJ sprawling into the ice.
It’s not for the first time that JJ laments that Shane hadn’t become a Metro and decided to pursue academia.
“They need to invest in better trades and long-term building,” Shane sighs. “My mother has been ranting non-stop all season. And my boyfriend has been insufferable about the Metros. There’s only so much I can take.”
JJ is willing to bet that Shane also secretly enjoys heckling the Metros’ bad decisions. Not that he tells-
Wait.
“You have a boyfriend?”
Shane nods, his smile turning all gooey and- holy shit. JJ has never seen him like this before.
Where on earth was Hayden- right, he was busy. Why on earth did that man not text him about this development?!
“Holy shit,” JJ says helpfully. “I’m happy for you, capitaine! You managed to snag someone. Who are you and what have you done with my hockey-loon obsessed capitaine?”
Shane laughs.
Truly, JJ was happy for him. With how Shane seemed to prefer staying home and reading books on birds and watching hockey tape, he was always a little worried his captain would die alone. His captain was objectively hot - he could pull anyone he wanted if he bothered.
“My boyfriend was very persistent.”
JJ wonders what kind of man could possibly snag the Shane Hollander.
“I like him already,” JJ cheers.
“You probably won’t,” Shane huffs. He raises a hand to JJ’s ear and whispers. “He’s a Raiders fan.”
JJ pulls back, scandalised.
“What?” JJ gasps. “Sacra bleu. This is betrayal-”
“Technically, my home team is Ottawa-”
“Betrayal of the highest order!” JJ downs half his beer in one go. “You?? Allow him to be a Raider?”
“Well, he does live in Boston now.”
JJ blinks. “What? You’re in a long-distance relationship with a man from Boston? Hollander, I will revoke your Canadian citizenship.”
Shane laughs, JJ joins him. It’s not often that he gets Shane to let loose and joke around with him after all.
“But my loons…” Shane pouts. “He calls them ‘stupid Canadian wolf-bird’ by the way.”
“Well, he’s stupid,” JJ mutters childishly. “And not Canadian.”
“I love him,” Shane says so simply that it catches JJ off guard.
Well, fuck. If Shane loves him, then JJ has to at least try to like him too, he promises himself. Fuck.
“I’ll… try.”
“Thank you.”
“But if his favourite player is Rozanov, I’m asking Hayden for help to bury his body.”
#3 - Viktor, the exchange student
It’s not every day you find a Russian-speaking Asian man in the middle of Canada.
And yet, Viktor finds the probably the only Russian-speaking Asian man in the middle of Canada in his exchange university of all places.
Truly, he was thrilled! Sure, he could easily call his husband and protege to speak Russian, but nothing beats ranting to someone in real life, hand gestures and all.
He discovers that Shane Hollander speaks Russian like this:
Viktor was chilling by the boards, as figure skaters do while warming up. Except Viktor was absolutely not warming up - he was busy doodling in his notebook while planning out a potential choreography sequence for his protege. Was he also ignoring the mound of homework growing in his to-do list? Well, that was something he could tackle later. He is an exchange student! He is allowed to slack, according to his husband’s best friend.
All he wanted then was some ice time for himself to practice before he was inevitably recruited to help unofficially coach the figure skating team, on account of his illustrious achievements. He was the first of the team to arrive at the rink, hoping to get on the ice as soon as the Zamboni was done restoring the ice from the treacherous abuse of the hockey team before.
He was lacing up his last boot when a door slams open and a stream of accented Russian rushes into his ears like music.
“I can’t find it, Ilyusha.” The man runs his fingers through his hair in frustration. “I had it with me! It has always been in my bag- why would it be at the rink? They’re in two separate locations, Ilyusha. Fine. I’ll look. This is dumb, I can’t believe I’m freaking out over a roll of tape.”
The man pauses, leaning against the board and closing his eyes. He takes a deep breath of the icy cold air and releases with a long sigh. Viktor suddenly misses his husband.
“You gave it to me,” the man says softly. Viktor knows that tone all too well - sentiment. “It’s fine. Yes, okay, you can give me another one. I love you. I’ll text if I find it.”
The man puts down the call and sighs, closing his eyes once again.
Viktor looks around the space he has occupied. The man hasn’t noticed him yet but he still feels a little bad for him. His husband does the same when he’s distressed - Viktor’s bleeding heart can’t help it.
Then, he spots it, a pristine roll of hockey tape under the bench. It’s much too clean and unused to be something that’s being actively used. He figures it must be the man’s.
Quietly, or as quietly as his skates and skate guards will allow, he approaches the man.
“Is this yours?” Viktor says in Russian.
The man’s eyes pop open in surprise, staring at Viktor before his eyes land on Viktor’s outstretched hand.
“I was over there.” Viktor’s other hand waves in the vague direction of his spot. “I couldn’t help but overhear, sorry. But it seemed important to you.”
The man relaxes a little, tentatively taking the tape from Viktor’s hand. “Thank you.”
There’s an awkward silence between them that has Viktor fondly missing his husband once again.
“You speak Russian?” He asks, switching to English.
“A bit.” The man smiles sheepishly. “Still learning, I’m not very good.” He offers his hand out for Viktor to shake. “I’m Shane.”
“Viktor. A pleasure. And your Russian is very good.”
“I have a good teacher. Are you an exchange student?” Shane asks.
Viktor nods. “Just taking a few classes here and there. I’m studying in Japan.”
Shane’s eyes widen and then he laughs. “I’m half-Japanese! I’ve never been to Japan, though.”
Viktor gasps. “Then I must tell you about where my home is!”
–--
Shane, Viktor finds, suffers the same way his husband does. He tells his husband about his new friend and is met with enthusiastic consent to continue to befriend his newfound hockey-player friend. He would appreciate it, his husband had said, and Viktor already understood how to handle people like them.
Viktor has no idea how hockey works, and neither does Shane understand figure skating. It works, somehow. They find much common ground in dogs, languages (which they end up sharing Russian, English, and French), and swapping Russian recipes. Viktor also later learns that Shane is a grad student with a specific interest in a Canadian water bird called loons. Also known as a Canadian wolf-bird. And he’s also pretty decent at hockey, but he just loves the loons a little more.
Time flies, and Viktor somehow finds himself at a hockey game of all things. He was currently savouring his last week in Canada, and Shane made it his mission to drag Viktor to at least one hockey game.
“Ottawa is not a good team,” Shane admits in Russian as they take their place in the stands. It is a rather good seat - Shane had insisted that he had it covered. “The away team is better.”
“Boston Raiders, isn’t it?” Viktor glances at the jumbotron overhead. They’re surrounded by a sea of black jerseys, the Raiders judging by the R and the cannon, and only a small handful of red with a very ugly centaur on it.
Something in Shane’s eyes softens. “They’re currently leading the conference. If they keep it up, they might win the Stanley Cup this year.”
Viktor interprets this as something akin to winning Worlds. He nods.
“No jerseys for us?” Viktor asks, noting how they were dressed in plain clothes.
Shane hesitates. “My friend plays for Boston’s arch rivals - the Montreal Metros. It is like a historical feud? He might skin me alive if he finds me in a Boston jersey.”
Viktor honestly can’t begin to comprehend that but nods anyway. “I understand. I think? My husband’s family loves football, yes? Or soccer, to be clear, if you are Americanised. They would rather die than wear another team’s jersey.”
He feels Shane still beside him, wide-eyed in wonder. It only sends Viktor into slight alarm. Did he say something bad?
“You have a husband?” Shane asks. He glances at the ring on Viktor’s right hand.
“Ah.” Viktor nods, wriggling his finger. “Russian tradition. I am very happily married to my very Japanese husband.”
“My boyfriend is Russian too,” Shane blurts out and blushes.
It is Viktor’s turn to pause, the pieces clicking into place. He laughs. “This is too funny, Shane! The coincidence is unreal!”
“What did you think I was learning Russian for?”
“I don’t know? To speak to Russian birds?”
Shane flips him off, much to Viktor’s delight.
“My boyfriend is playing tonight,” Shane whispers, as though anyone around them could understand their rapid Russian. “He would be delighted to meet you, I think. He likes to complain that he doesn’t speak enough Russian, that asshole.”
#4 - The College Team
Shane Hollander is never late to practice.
Today, Shane Hollander is, in fact, late to practice.
He comes flying into the locker room just as the rest of the team rolls out for warmups in their black training jersey.
“Yo! Cap is late! Holy shit, we should buy a lottery ticket today,” laughs one of the sophomores.
Shane sighs, pulling on a pad. “Late night yesterday. Needed a draft of the thesis done, and I wanted to catch the game yesterday.”
“Cap is just like one of us,” one of the seniors nods sympathetically. “Up all night watching hockey instead of studying for finals.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Shane grouses. “Now get out there before coach drags you into punishment with me.”
That gets the team going. Hayden lingers behind, promising to cover for Shane for as long as he can before he runs off to join the team.
Shane sighs, pulling on the rest of his gear. Look, it wasn’t like he meant to be late! It was like freaky Friday or something. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. Maybe it really is repayment for staying up to talk to Ilya for far longer than he intended.
Well, whatever. Shane was effectively running on 2 hours of sleep and has replaced all the blood in his body with coffee and Redbull. Diet be damned - it was much more important to submit the draft of his thesis to his supervisor, and he will damn well submit it even if it kills him, damn it! He really needed that call with his boyfriend for… stress relief.
Gear on, Shane rummages through his bag for the first black jersey he sees. He puts it on quickly before grabbing his helmet and stick and running out of the locker room.
He quickly joins the team in skating drills around the rink and turns his mind off from thinking. Well, not that he has energy to think - being the foremost expert in threats to loon habitats and other species in the area tends to have your last 5 brain cells clanging against each other like pucks on ice. It takes more for him to concentrate on his balance than anything until muscle memory wins half the battle, thank god.
“Hollzy!” Someone yells at him. “What the fuck?”
“What?” Shane snaps, more grumpy than he intends. A more awake Shane would’ve given a shit - he finds all his fucks have died like 10 hours ago in between his thesis bibliography and page 25 or something.
“Cap, are you playing for another team now?”
“Wait, does that make us… actually good?”
“We are already good! Cap, are you finally getting drafted?”
Suddenly, Shane is annoyed with all the chirping and noise. Obviously, their coach isn’t working them hard enough if the boys have enough breath in them to chirp.
“I could tell coach to make us do more bag skates,” Shane warns.
Shane does not want to do bag skates - he might actually fall on his face if he does. Still, the threat works well enough that the team shuts up for the whole drill before their coach calls them back to centre ice.
Now, a little more awake, Shane takes mental note of whatever plays their coach was going to make them practice today. It seemed blissfully easy enough, thank god again.
Shane is about to skate to the bench when his coach beckons him over and laughs. “Hollander!”
“What is it?” Shane says tiredly.
“You might want to get changed. Though it technically still is black. Prepping the rest for the MLH ice isn’t such a bad idea.”
“Why do I need to get changed?” Shane asks. “It’s a perfectly good black jersey…”
The Boston Raiders logo stands proudly on his jersey.
Fuck. Shane thinks.
Well, it can’t be that bad… never mind there’s a C on it.
Fuck.
“Oh.”
His coach laughs, good-naturedly and not at all angry or annoyed. “You can keep it on. You have actually beaten Rozanov before he was drafted, haven’t you? Maybe you can simulate being a terror on the ice for the young ones.”
He could, Shane thinks to himself. He’s been practicing Rozanov’s signature move after all.
“I didn’t think you could own a Boston Raiders jersey,” Hayden grumbles next to him. “And Rozanov’s jersey at that.” He pauses, realisation dawning upon him. “Wait, doesn’t that mean your boyfriend’s favourite player is Rozanov? Oh god. JJ will have an aneurysm-”
Shane really should take it off. He really should.
But god, it smells like Ilya - warm and comforting and just a touch too big.
“It’s my boyfriend’s,” Shane says aloud, no fucks given.
He skates away to a cacophony of confusion.
“Hollander! What does that even mean?!”
“Like is it your boyfriend’s or is Rozanov your boyfriend?”
“Hollzy has a boyfriend? That means there’s also hope for us, boys!”
Shane refuses to say anything further.
Ilya would be proud, he thinks.
#5 - Emma, the student
There was a rumour that one of the TAs briefly dated Rose Landry before she became mega famous.
Naturally, Emma was intrigued. How could someone bungle Rose Landry of all people? Was it his looks? His personality?
So she dug deeper and deeper, until the source of the rumour pointed to one Shane Hollander.
She regards him evenly from her seat as the professor introduces the TAs to them. Shane Hollander was dressed smartly, a blazer thrown over a shirt and nice pants. He was bulky and hot, built like the hockey player he was, and Emma finds herself immediately infatuated.
Perhaps it was Rose Landry who bungled him, Emma thinks. Because Shane Hollander was perfect, in every sense of the word. Hot and way too polite. He was passionate about his research, driven, and the best hockey player in the university.
Shane Hollander is hers to pursue, she decides.
Oh, how wrong she was.
At first, it started with dressing nicely for class, standing out from the rest with her beautiful, slender legs. Shane barely glanced at her.
Then, it was begging to have Shane’s time after class to explain concepts to her. Shane was happy to oblige, not seeming to care how close she gravitated to him, much to her dismay.
The next plan involved catching him after office hours. This completely failed because Shane Hollander was simply nowhere to be found outside of the rink and classroom.
Foiled yet again, Emma sighs loudly. There was barely any time left in the semester, and no progress had been made in her quest to date Shane Hollander.
“It’s time to be direct,” her best friend tells her. “It’s his last few weeks on campus, right? When will you have other opportunities?”
Renewed, Emma sends an email to Shane to set up a consultation before the submission of their final papers. Well, that was easy enough.
Except that everyone else also had the same idea, terrified by their professor’s strict marking rubric.
By the time it was her turn, Shane looked like he would rather be anywhere but the stuffy office.
“Sorry for the wait,” he tells her politely behind a tight smile. “Could you make it quick? Go straight into your questions - I’m familiar with your papers by now.”
“Of course,” Emma plasters on a smile.
She had based her paper on loons, hoping to impress the TA.
Shane listens to her, politely taking notes and asking follow-up questions.
“You could probably find this info in the papers I’m going to email you.” Shane’s hands are already flying over his keyboard. “Your argument isn’t exactly a new thought, but that’s okay since you’re learning. You could read more on the topic to strengthen your argument a little.”
Shane was going to email her! Emma thinks excitedly.
“Any final questions?”
There she goes. “Would you go on a date with me?”
She bats her eyelashes for good measure.
Shane’s face is blank, carefully devoid of emotion. He sighs, as though the world had a vendetta against him, raising his right hand. The simple gold band glints in the sunlight like a foreboding omen.
“I’m gay,” Shane says. “And engaged.”
Emma sputters, turning red with embarrassment. “I’m sorry! I didn’t know-”
“No harm, no foul, Emma,” Shane says neutrally. “Don’t worry, you’re not the first or last one to ask. It’s new and nobody knows.”
“I- uh. Congrats, Shane! He must be very lucky to have you.”
A small sappy smile appears on Shane’s face. “No, I’m the lucky one.”
Yeap, Emma will later realise, Shane Hollander really did bungle Rose Landry.
…Perhaps for the best.
+1
“Happy?” Ilya says, leaning his head on Shane’s shoulder.
“The happiest,” Shane agrees. A loon calls in the distance, causing him to smile.
They’re admiring the shiny new master’s degree they’ve just hung up in the cottage. The plaque glints in the warm glow of the cottage, matching the golden shine of their engagement rings. Shane smiles and intertwines his fingers with Ilya’s, delighted at how well they fit together.
“I could go for a doctorate,” Shane considers.
“You will disappoint your fans. The bird ones and the hockey ones.”
Shane laughs, kissing Ilya’s lips.
“I can’t believe you convinced me to accept the Centaurs' offer.”
“I can be very persuasive.” Ilya smirks, a hand wandering down Shane’s body and stopping just shy of his hip bone. “Very persuasive.”
Shane playfully slaps the offending hand away. “I’m just a rookie,” Shane reminds him. “Your new rookie.”
Ilya huffs and rolls his eyes. “Anyone who treats you like a rookie is a moron. You should take advantage of it and score more goals than me.”
“Get ready to lose then,” Shane hums.
“It’s on, Hollander.”
They bask in the silence for a moment.
“So what is your ranking now, Hollander?”
Shane smiles, catching Ilya’s fond gaze. He taps his chin as though in deep thought.
“Hockey, loons, you.”
Ilya pokes him in the side, forcing a laugh out of his fiancé. “Third?? Me? Your captain and fiancé - third?”
“It is tactical,” Shane says sagely. “A long-term research project with findings available in five years? Plus, with a MLH salary, I could probably self-fund a few studies. Maybe build a rescue, you know?”
“Might I remind you that you have a very rich husband?”
“My rich fiancé refuses to call a loon by its scientific name and will name the shelter ‘stupid Canadian wolf-bird’ the moment I turn my back.”
“It is not a boring name.”
“It’s not very official-sounding either.”
“Schematics.”
Shane grabs his phone and pulls up the prepared caption for Ilya’s Instagram.
“Well?” Shane sucks in a breath. “Seems like nobody really cares that the Centaurs signed some random rookie grad student.”
“My fiancé has published in scientific journals. He is not some random grad student when he is the foremost researcher in his field.”
“I just like loons.”
“Yes, and so does Ontario. Maybe we should ask to change team mascot from a centaur to a loon.”
“God, it is an ugly logo. But it is growing on me.”
“Not me.” Ilya shakes his head. “It still looks ridiculous.”
Shane laughs, reading the caption one last time.
“Well?” He raises a brow at his fiancée. “Ready to break the internet?”
Ilya nods and smirks. “Anything to fuck with Pike and Boiziau.”
☑️ ilyaroznov81 with ☑️ shanehollanderhockeyplayer and ☑️ @shanehollanderloonexpert
[Photo carousel of Ilya and Shane. The first is a photo taken on the day of their engagement, followed by casual shots of the couple. In one photo, Shane wears Ilya’s Raiders jersey while Ilya wears Shane’s college jersey. The collage ends with the two of them in Centaurs jerseys, their backs to the audience displaying their numbers 24 and 81]
☑️ ilyarozanov81 Introducing the love of my life and @ottawa.centaurs newest rookie ❤️ He also really loves stupid Canadian wolf-birds - ask him about it or read his boring journal papers
☑️ haydenpike05 I still hate you. Welcome to the MLH @shanehollanderhockeyplayer
☑️ ilyarozanov81 @haydenpike05 Your babies like me more
☑️ itsboizaujj I still cant believe he went to study loons. He should’ve been a Metro first!!!
☑️ ilyarozanov81 @itsboizaujj Early loon catches the worm
☑️ itsboizaujj @ilyarozanov81 Horrible joke delete this
mcdavidhappymeal CAP??? FROM COLLEGE??? IS THAT YOU DATING ILYA ROZANOV?? Oh my god wait
dansmithy @mcdavidhappymeal He showed up to practice one day with a Rozanov jersey and said it was his boyfriend's. HE WASNT LYING????
mcdavidhappymeal @shanehollanderloonexpert HOLLZY EXPLAIN
☑️ shanehollanderloonexpert @mcdavidhappymeal I wasn’t lying.
ilyashockeystick CONGRATS ILYAAAA but that name sounds so familiar…
Rozan0vsss @ilyashockeystick I can't find the source for this but didn’t Shane Hollander play for Canada against Russia during the Junior World Championships like a decade ago?
☑️ roselandryofficial Congrats Shane and Ilya! I’m so proud of you guys
☑️ v.nikiforov Congratulations from @katsuki.y and I!! We love our hockey counterparts #lovewins ️🌈
iloveiceskating what on earth is viktor nikiforov even doing here???? ariana what are you doin over here???????
☑️ realscotthunter Can’t say I woke up expecting this today but congratulations to you both! Excited to play against @shanehollanderhockeyplayer after hearing so much about him ️🌈🌈 #lovewins
☑️ troybarettofficial is this why you have a loon tattoo oh god. it was in front of us all along
dracoshermoine Is this how I learn that my TA is now a professional hockey player engaged to THE Ilya Rozanov??????