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The injury wasn't severe, but it looked bad, and Shane was worried sick. There had been a fight and Ilya's helmet came off, and then somebody had pulled him down and somehow someone's skate had sliced through his left eyebrow.
There was a lot of blood, and Shane had been convinced something horrendous had happened, but as soon as a professional got a good look at Ilya's face it was declared it would only be a few stitches.
Still, Shane couldn't help worrying, despite Ilya's continues reassurance he was fine.
"Let me see." Yuna demanded as soon as the doctors told Ilya he could go. Without waiting for him to respond she took a hold of his face and studied the stitches, then turned his head from side to side to get a better look.
"I'm fine." Ilya assured her as well, in the same tone he had used on Shane, but he was also deeply touched to see just how much Shane's parents cared about his wellbeing.
"You scared us." David sighed, then gently pulled his wife back. "Okay, don't unscrew his head."
Ilya chuckled at the comment. "I'm sorry, it just looked bad."
"It looked horrible." Shane corrected.
Yuna took Ilya's phone from her bag. "It kept blowing up, it was Svetlana. I told her you were fine."
"Thank you." Ilya sent Svetlana a quick text to let her know he would call as soon as he could, but that he was fine.
"Come on, we'll drive you guys home." David said.
There was a lot of reporters out front, and Ilya gave a pretty simple statement saying that he was alright and would just like go home.
Something he didn't say out loud but defienely thought, was that he just wanted to lay down with his husband and try to sleep off the raging headache he had.
While they drove he gave Svetlana a call, and had to repeatedly tell her that she didn't need to fly back from her vacation early because of what happened. With her being his manager, however, she kept insisting she should. Finally, Yuna said she would handle anything that needed to be handled, and Svetlana agreed.
"Call me in morning." She told Ilya.
"I will, go have fun." Ilya said and hung up, then slumped his head against Shane's shoulder.
"What did he even say to you?" David asked. "You looked like you were ready to kill him there."
Shane, who had been close enough to hear the comment, but not fluet enough in Russian to understand it quite yet, looked down at Ilya with curiosity.
The guy was reinforcement in Montreal, that had tanked after Shane's departure and were trying desperately to get back on their feet. The guy was also Russian, and he had been getting a kick out of calling Ilya a traitor and a Quisling and many other things. Safe to say, he was pretty popular with the fans that had turned against Ilya once he and Shane were outed.
"He mentioned my mother." Ilya explained. It had been the straw that broke the camel's back, and he knew more mess would come from it in the later days. "Is common curse, but then he went on, and then he made it personal."
"Jesus." Yuna looked disgusted, she was already drafting a statement on her phone, she deleted a big paragraph and rewrote it. "Do you mind me writing this? If you'd prefer Svetlana or someone else to do it-"
Ilya shook his head. "No, thank you for doing it. I'm sure you will make it sound proper."
"Alright." Yuna smiled gently.
Once they got home Ilya went and called Svetlana to assure her he was alright, while Shane called their coach.
Yuna and David stayed for a bit, Yuna checking with Ilya if the statement she had put together was alright to put out, and David went to walk Anya so they wouldn't have to.
"You're sure you guys are fine?" He asked at the door when he and Yuna got up to leave.
"We are, dad." Shane said.
"Thank you." Ilya added.
"Get some rest, and don't forget to be careful, and make sure to put on a bandage before you go to sleep." Yuna hugged him.
"I will."
"I'll make sure he does." Shane corrected.
Yuna chuckled and gave him a hug as well. "Alright, good night."
"Good night." They both echoed.
Once alone, they agreed that they would be going to bed early. In the bathroom, after they had showered, Shane made Ilya sit down at the edge of the bathtub so he could put on the bandage for him.
"I am not disabled." He pointed out, but the stress about the situation was still evident in his voice, and his hands were shaking slightly.
"You'll put it on wrong." Shane argued, tilting his head slightly to the side and placing the bandage down carefully, making sure none of the glue got onto the stitches. "There."
Ilya looked up at him with such soft eyes. "Thank you."
Shane leaned down and kissed his forehead gently. "Let's go to bed."
"Mhm."
Anya, noticing something was wrong, abandoned her spot at the foot of the bed to go and lay across Ilya's legs. She was usually so energetic, but that evening she remained calm, looking up at her owner with attentive eyes.
Ilya scratched behind her ear. "It's okay, good girl."
Shame came in with a glass of water, just in case, ans put it on the nightstand before getting into bed and letting Ilya rest his head on his chest.
"You're okay." He assured, knowing that Ilya's fear wasn't really about the stitches, but rather the fact that he was always one head injury away from starting to forget before he even started going gray.
Ilya wrapped his arms around him and took in a deep breath to try and calm down. "This time."
Shane kissed the top of his head. "And every time."
"Shane, is genetic."
"You'll be okay." Shane insisted. "Even if you start forgetting, you'll be okay. I'll remind you every time."
Ilya smiled, but tears also welled up in his eyes. "Is is wicked work."
"It's worth doing. And stop being so pesimistic, just because there's a chance doesn't mean you'll actually develop dementia."
"I know."
Shane very gently ran a hand through his hair. "I get that the idea is scary, but you'll never end up like your dad. I won't allow it."
Ilya placed a gentle kiss right over his heart. "You are angel, you know that?"
"I'm not, I just love my husband. And I'll love him when he's old and gray, when he has crow's feet around his eyes, and even if he starts forgetting." Shane leaned down for a kiss, then kept running a soothing hand through Ilya's hair.
The combination of the heavy painkillers he was on, stress of the day, and the exhaustion from the game, meant Ilya's eyes grew heavy almost instantly, and he didn't fight sleep.
It was a privilege to have this side of Ilya, the soft side. The side of Ilya that didn't feel the need to hide his fear or pain from Shane. A very small circle had the privilege to see that side.
The contrast was sometimes so striking it gave Shane whiplash. The world still saw Ilya as some nothing but an asshole, and while the charity was well perceived, it was always phrased in a way that made it seem like it was more of a public image thing rather than genuine care.
But the man asleep in Shane's arms was anything but. His Ilya was loving, and gentle, and so fundamentally caring. The man who didn't kill spiders, he would scoop them up and release them outside. The man who was so great with kids it gave Shane, and many others, baby fever. The man who always made sure to have Yuna's favourite wine and to compliment David's cooking.
Shane sometimes got mad, if he was being honest. Ilya was genuinely the best person he knew, and yet he was perceived as a demon. Yes Ilya was still a rough player, and he did have an ego the size of a mountain, but he also had a heart to match it.
With a gentle, almost reverent kiss to the top of Ilya's head, Shane let himself fall asleep too, comforted by the knowledge that his husband was safe and sound in his arms.
Ilya woke up to the smell of pancakes and the sound of Shane moving around the kitchen. Proper pancakes, none of that substitute stuff.
Anya lifted her head and came up to his face as soon as he woke up, sniffing and whining a little.
"It's okay." Ilya scratched her chin and just stayed there cuddling her for a while before finally getting up and going to find his husband.
In the kitchen, Shane appeared to be on the phone, and he sounded agitated. "-it's not fucking funny, Hay."
"Why is he pissing you off?" Ilya asked and hugged him from behind, resting his chin on Shane's shoulder.
Hayden's voice from the other side of the phone made a dismissive sound. "Come on, Shane, you know I don't mean any harm."
Shane scoffed. "It's still not funny. I would never talk about Jackie like that and you know it."
"That's different. Look, I'm sorry, okay? I just thought-"
"You didn't think anything, Hayden. If you had thought for even a second you wouldn't have said that."
"Jesus, do you need to defend his honor or something? It's Rozanov, I'm sure he can take it." Hayden chuckled.
"I have to go." Shane hung up.
Ilya raised an eyebrow. "What did he say so you have to defend my honor?"
Shane sighed. "Nothing. Nothing smart at least. He made a dumb joke."
"Every joke he makes is dumb." Ilya couldn't stop himself, but then kissed Shane's cheek. "I'm sorry. What happened?"
"He joked about you getting a concussion and becoming nicer."
Ilya frowned. "Not even creative."
Shane rolled his eyes and then kissed him. "How's your head?"
"You never complain, so I think good." Ilya laughed.
"Jesus." Shane couldn't help but laugh, then give him a playful nudge with his elbow. "Pervert. I over here worrying and you go making sex jokes."
"And tou laugh." Ilya pointed out, peppering kissed over Shane's face and neck. "Anyway, I don't care about Hayden's not-creative, stupid jokes. Don't worry."
"I know you don't." Shane finished preparing breakfast and then turned around to properly wrap his arms around his husband. "It's principal. Even if it didn't affect you at all, he can't talk about you like that."
Ilya kissed him. "I am not that nice to him."
"You're slightly mean, but some things he says are unacceptable. He can't talk about my husband like that." Shane placed a tender kiss right under the bandage on Ilya's eyebrow. "Especially when he's saying stuff about something as serious as this."
"I don't want you to fight with your best friend because of me."
"We're not fighting. He'll come around. I'm just putting my foot down on some things." Shane assured him. He wanted to say that he'd fight the whole world over Ilya, but he couldn't find the words, so he just kissed him again.
Ilya seemed to be able to read his thoughts, and he tightened his arms around Shane like he was making sure he was really there. After they stopped kissing he rested his forehead against Shane's.
"I love you." Shane said quietly, one hand coming up to gently comb through Ilya's curls. "I love you so much and I won't have the guy I call my best friend be disrespectful like that."
Being someone who wasn't used to people standing up for him, those words meant the world to Ilya. Not because he cared about what Hayden Pike thought about him, but because Shane cared enough to care about that.
Because Shane, his perfect Shane, cared enough to fight with his best friend over the way he talked about Ilya.
"Thank you." He whispered.
Shane pulled him into another kiss. There was so much more he wanted to say, but words so often failed him. Still, he knew he had to say at least some of it, because Ilya deserved to hear how loved he was.
"When you're mean to him there's no real bite to it. And he knows that. He could get away with it before because he didn't know you. But now that he does he knows your comments are never malicious, but his still are." He said.
Ilya only looked at him with unimaginable fondness and appreciation.
Shane's mind, being one cruel thing, decided it was the perfect time to contrast that expression on Ilya's face with the one Shane dreaded to see. It was the expression Ilya wore that time Shane ran away from him. That split second of hurt right before Ilya's walls had gone up again. And the heartbreaking knowledge that Shane had caused it.
He had seen it only a few times, and he remembered each and every one. Because he hated seeing Ilya hurt, but what he hated more was being the reason for it. It was hell during their rough patch, when they were stumbling through communication and realizing they had a language barrier far greater than that of English and Russian.
Ilya spoke a language only abused children knew, and Shane spoke a language his mind wouldn't put into words no matter how hard he wanted to.
For an awful little while, he feared he would lose Ilya for good. But they made it out.
Seeing that Shane's mind had started racing, Ilya ran a gentle finger over his cheek and placed a soft kiss onto his lips. "Hey. Look at me. We are okay."
Shane smiled. "We're okay."
Ilya kissed him again. He hated to see Shane upset, and he hated himself whenever he was the one who had upset him.
Nothing could've prepared him for the unimaginable struggle they had had with communicating at the start of their relationship. It had been torture to have their perfect life within reach, only to have it slip away whenever he actually reached for it. He knew that he idolized his mother, but despite that knowledge he was sure she would've had some way of knowing how to advise him in that situation. And yet even if she would have, he'd never know. At first he believed he needed to figure it all out himself and give Shane the best possible version of himself, without troubling him with the process of getting to that, but eventually he learned that Shane wanted to help him. To have him, emotional baggage and all. It was a difficult war to fight inside one's head. But the thing that kept Ilya going was the knowledge that Shane was worth fighting for.
They were always clingy when they were alone. Always touching. Always wanting to have the other in their arms. It was more than likely the product of being separated by miles and miles for years. After only having each other in dark hotel rooms with months apart, after only talking through texts under fake names, it felt incredible to simply hold each other whenever they wanted.
But they made it out of the dark, and they got to hold each other in the sun warmed spot on their bed, in their home, alternating between exchanging sweet nothings and teasing.
Each of them found themselves thinking that they had heaven on earth whenever they shared moment like that.