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Before Shane even opened his eyes in the morning, he sensed that the other side of the bed was empty. Yawning, he pried his eyelids open and yes, the rumpled bed indicated Ilya had already gotten up. A glance at clock told Shane it was barely 6:30 am. He frowned. It was pretty unusual for Ilya to be up this early, and on his own no less! There wasn’t even a sound coming from the bathroom or the kitchen, so where could he possibly have gone?
Shane threw the blanket off of him but when his bare feet touched the floor, a shiver ran through his whole body.
Sometimes it was already a bit warmer in Québec by the end of March but this year, there was still snow everywhere and even the lake behind the cottage was frozen over.
Most of the time they spend their summers here but they both had a few days off and the landscape was really gorgeous here around this time of year, so they had chosen to come.
Shane grabbed some warm and comfortable clothes out of the closet before going to the bathroom and getting ready. Maybe Ilya just went out to get some things for breakfast and he’d be back by the time Shane was done?
That did not happen, of course.
“Ilya?” Shane asked, a bit puzzled when he finally stepped into the living area, his boyfriend nowhere to be seen. “Are you there?”
He was starting to get worried about Ilya being gone, when he noticed fresh footprints in the powdery snow in the backyard.
Shane put on his winter coat and slipped into his boots, before stepping out into the brisk winter air. “Ilya?” he called out but no answer came. Something Shane did hear, though, were –
“Skates?” he mumbled, confused as to why he could hear the scratch of blades on the ice. He followed the sound to a more a secluded section of the lake, hidden behind some trees, and couldn’t believe his eyes.
Ilya, his curls mostly covered by a woolen beanie, in long, comfortable-looking leggings and a training jacket, which was a lot less bulky than Shane’s cotton-lined coat. He was doing some beautiful spins out on the ice. Shane also noticed the skates Ilya wore were definitely not hockey skates but proper figure skating ones!
Still mostly obscured by the trees, Shane kept watching his boyfriend effortlessly sliding across the ice. Ilya executed some spins, step sequences and even a few jumps, like he had never done anything else. Even if Shane had never been able to distinguish all the different types of jumps just from watching...
After Ilya had gotten up at around 6 am, quietly fishing his skates out of his bag, he got changed as fast as possible and went outside. The icy air felt like tiny stabs in his lungs, but also managed to wake him up some more, so it wasn’t all bad.
While trudging through the snow, he was overcome with a little bit of guilt. He was sneaking out at the ass crack of dawn, like he was doing something illegal. It was just figure skating! It’s not like Shane would laugh at him … And still, he hadn’t told him about this, ever. Well, if he was lucky, he’d be back in bed before Shane even woke up. They had been very… busy late into the night, so maybe Shane would sleep in for once.
When Ilya reached a fairly small, shallow corner of the lake, he put his earbuds in and his water bottle and phone on a little rock at the shore after freeing it from the snow. Then he swapped his boots for his skates.
He clicked shuffle on his figure skating playlist, mostly consisting of instrumental music, and stepped out onto the ice.
Instantly, he was flooded with a soothing, almost therapeutic kind of sensation. It had been ages since he tried skating, just for himself…
He took a deep breath and began warming up with a few turns and spins and some easy poses. Eventually he even had the guts to try a few jumps again. The singles were no problem. The doubles were a little wobbly, especially the Lutz and the Axel.
He didn’t even land any of the triples, much to his chagrin.
After Ilya practiced a little more, getting used to the motion sequences again, everything went way better.
Suddenly the next song in his playlist started playing, Clair de Lune. It was total cliché but Ilya loved skating to this song. But that might just be because his mother had loved to watch him skate to it…
He took the starting position, hands curled around his shoulders like a hug, before transitioning into a turn and beginning to skate.
Ilya felt like he was able to gain a good amount of speed, and even consistently hold it. His double Salchow was almost perfect, even if he only managed to squeeze in a single toe loop at the end of the combination. His layback spin was fine, with a nice back arch, but Ilya quickly noticed that he wasn’t used to these dizzying spins anymore and had to stop for a moment before next element, arms outstretched to keep his balance.
The double Axel was way better than the last one, though, and he even landed a triple loop, even if the execution left a little to be desired. The lunge was no problem either, his skating leg was in a nice forward bend, his free leg was in a beautiful straight line, dragging across the ice behind him. His upper body was upright, core engaged, but then again, if there was one thing Ilya didn’t lack, it was muscles, especially in his abdomen and back.
The following double Lutz he kind of messed up, not really jumping from the outside edge of the blade but unintentionally skating on the inside edge, making it more of a double flip, but that was fine, too.
Finally, he did some easy spin combinations before the song came to an end, reducing his speed and stretching his arms out in a 90 degree angle with his head turned to the side for the final pose.
Ilya’s chest heaved from exertion, his breath coming out in cloudy puffs, and he could feel the red glow of his cheeks. Despite all that, he hadn’t felt this good in a long time.
Exhausted, he let his arms drop to the sides and turned his head back. This made Ilya’s heart practically jump out of his chest. “Fuck, Shane! How long have you been there? Are you stalking me, hiding in the trees?”
Shane seemed to finally snap out of it. “Sorry! Uh, not that long actually, I just saw the rest of your… I didn’t know you did figure skating!”
Ilya dodged his gaze, shrugging. “Is nothing. I am not good.” – enough.
“What are you talking about, that was amazing!”
“You are easy to impress, Hollander. Must be why you are friends with Hayden,” Ilya explained matter-of-factly.
Shane chose to ignore that. “Can you show me something?”
“I think I could show you many things,” Ilya joked with a wiggle of his eyebrows. Shane just rolled his eyes. “I’m serious. What else can you do?”
“Come here. I will show you.”
Cautiously, Shane stepped onto the frozen lake, arms outstretched for balance. “Are you sure this is safe?”
When he reached Ilya, he took his hands and gingerly pulled him even closer, pressing a quick kiss to his cold lips. “You worry too much, Shane.”
“Do you know how many accidents happen each year because people break through the ice –”
“– boring! The lake is completely frozen over. Also, the water here is, what, 30 centimeters deep? What would happen if you broke through the ice, wet ankles?”
“Ok, fine…” Shane mumbled, before focusing back on the important matters at hand. “I didn’t know you owned skates – like, for figure skating.”
“They are old. I don’t use them so much anymore.”
“But you used to? Did you participate in competitions?”
Ilya let out a humorless chuckle. “Yes, but the last time I competed, I was 12.”
Shane frowned, seeming to notice the elephant in the room. “Did you stop because of… your mother?”
For a moment, Ilya remained silent. Shane instantly regretted asking and was about to change the subject again, when Ilya replied.
“No. Well, maybe it was one of the reasons. I was getting older and I had to decide which sport I wanted to keep doing. Both were taking up so much time at this level and my father … he did not really like that I did figure skating. I was good at hockey, it came easy to me, so I just stuck to it. Only my mother… she liked watching me figure skate.”
Shane nodded understandingly, but the more he learned about Ilya’s life in Russia, the more he wanted bring his father back to life, just so he could show him what an amazing man his son had become, no thanks to him. More like, in spite of him.
“Enough of this. What do you want to see?” Ilya asked, effectively changing the subject. Shane considered it for a second. “What are the jumps again?”
You’d think he’d know them by now, after watching so many figure skating competitions in his life, and even training with some figure skaters, when he was younger!
Ilya took a moment to think about how to explain them. “There are 6 jumps that are usually important in competition. You can divide them into 2 different groups, uhmm… I’m not sure what English terms are, but you either use these… toe picks to propel yourself up or you’re skating on the edge of the blade, inside or outside, without using toe picks. All of them can be singles, doubles, triples or even quadruples, depending on how many rotations you do in the air.”
Shane nodded eagerly, so Ilya continued. “Jumps from the edge are Salchow, loop and Axel. Toe Loop, flip and Lutz are done with the toe picks. I will show you, easiest to hardest, yes?”
Ilya started gliding backwards slowly and lifted his left leg behind him, before hacking the spiky front of the blade into the ice, which helped him gain some height. He performed a single rotation in the air, before landing on the same foot he started with, arms out for balance. He’d rather show something a little more impressing, like more rotations, but the singles were a good way to show the execution of the jump in the cleanest way possible.
Shane looked at him with bright, childlike eyes. “Wow. That was beautiful.”
“It was single toe loop. Not even double. It is nothing”, Ilya scoffed. Shane seemed to think differently. “No. I can’t do that.”
“You could learn.”
“You think?”
“Of course. Maybe. You are a little… clumsy.”
This made Shane roll his eyes. “Not true. Just show me what else you can do.”
Ilya smirked but did as he was told, explaining as he went along.
Shane grinned, impressed. “I think I still won’t be able to tell them apart when I see them but thanks for explaining them to me. Which one is your favorite jump? And when are you usually practicing?”
Ilya didn’t even have to think twice. “Axel. Back then, I was training to be able to do triple Axel but I rarely landed them. Then I stopped. Now, I sometimes stay after hockey practice so I can train. The others don’t know. I think. At least no one has said anything yet.”
Shane shook his head, smiling softly. “Of course, the Axel. Because it is the hardest?
Ilya grinned. “Yes. I like challenges.”
“Can you still land a double Axel?”
“Of course,” Ilya responded indignantly, even though he knew that his rate of success sat at a whopping 50 % for his Axel today, which wasn’t particularly promising. Nevertheless, he began gliding backwards again, trying to accumulate enough speed for the jump. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves and trying to ignore the fact that the most important person in his world was watching him.
He turned forward on the spot, shifting his weight onto his left leg and balancing on the outside edge of the blade. He used the momentum of the right leg for take-off, trying to gain as much height as necessary.
The difficulty in this jump stemmed from the fact that it was forward facing, contrary to any other jump. This also meant that – since you had to land backwards on the opposite leg – you always needed to add half a rotation to the full rotations you had to do.
The lift-off had been good, Ilya had enough height for 2.5 rotations, but while landing on the outer edge of his other foot, he just… slipped.
Ilya instantly threw his hands out to catch himself but somehow he landed badly on his right arm. Sharp pain shot up his wrist, into his forearm, and a surprised cry tore out of his throat – even if he would deny that later.
With a thud, Ilya landed on the ice, hard.
Shane grimaced compassionately. “Ouch…” he mumbled, walking over to where his boyfriend had fallen. “Everything ok?”
When Ilya didn’t get up or at least answer right away, Shane started walking a little faster, frowning. “Ilya? Are you ok?”
Finally, he sat up slowly, slouching a little. “Fuck…” he groaned in exasperation, his right hand placed gingerly in his lap. Shane dropped down on the ice next to him. “Hey, you good?”
“Yes, yes. Is just embarrassing.”
“There’s no need to be embarrassed. Does anything hurt?” Shane asked directly this time, since he knew his boyfriend liked to just brush his pain aside. Predictably, Ilya ignored the question. “Was not even my fault, ice is not good! Not like in a rink, it is too… bumpy.”
Shane just looked at him with a deadpan expression, not entirely sure if even that was the true reason. “Ilya.”
“Everything is fine. My arm hurts a little bit, but is ok.”
Shane did not seem to trust his assessment. “Show me.”
Ilya sighed, knowing that objecting would not help him, so he held out his arm without saying another word. Shane tried pulling up the sleeve as gently as possible, but Ilya still winced in pain. “Sorry,” Shane whispered, but Ilya just shook his head. “Is fine.”
Shane could see the way his wrist was already starting to swell, bruising becoming increasingly visible. “Damn… Can you move it?”
Ilya’s hand twitched, his face contorting in pain. “Not really…”
Shane nodded. “Alright.” Something in his expression changed – Ilya would describe it as the facial expression Yuna usually wore – when he exclaimed, “We need to go to the hospital. Your wrist could be broken.”
Ilya could think of a billion better ways to spend his time than to sit in the emergency room all day. “Shane –”
He just ignored him. “You go sit in the car, I’m getting our stuff, your insurance card and stuff –”
“Shane –!”
“The hospital is kind of a long way from here, in this weather it’s probably gonna take us around 45 minutes to get there. I’ll text my parents that we might not make it back for lunch.”
Ilya sighed softly. If Shane put his mind to something, nothing was stopping him. This also meant he had to come to terms with this hospital visit, whether he liked it or not.
In the evening both Shane and Ilya were lounging on the couch together, some movie playing in the background. There weren’t even really watching it. Shane was sitting back against the couch, Ilya leaning against his chest. Shane was sensually carding his fingers through Ilya’s curls, while Ilya just held onto Shane’s free hand.
“It’s almost time for your meds,” he mumbled sleepily. Ilya let out a quiet laugh.
His right wrist had been stabilized with a splint at the hospital, resting on a fluffy pillow now. It was just sprained, not broken, thankfully, but he’d still have to miss training and the next few games. At least according to the doctor at the hospital…
“I don’t need them. It barely even hurts.”
That wasn’t entirely true but Ilya tried avoiding pills, if he could. For… obvious reasons. And compared to other injuries he had sustained over the years, and maybe even played hockey with, it was really not that bad.
Ilya could feel Shane sitting up straighter, his eyes searching for Ilya’s. He kept his gaze firmly directed at the TV though.
“You can’t really rest and recover if you’re in pain all the time. Please. Take the meds,” Shane all but begged. Ilya sighed, but he got up and grabbed the bottle of pills from where he’d left them in his bag. He shook out two of the white pills, eyeing them suspiciously for a moment before throwing them into his mouth, dry-swallowing them.
Shane smiled with relief.
Ilya’s own strained smile eased considerably before he sat back down. He was snuggling up into Shane again, who instantly resumed carding his hand through his hair. Ilya could never refuse Shane, and Shane knew it. And he wasn’t afraid to use that power if it meant helping Ilya.