Adult Content Warning
This work could have adult content. If you continue, you have agreed that you are willing to see such content.
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Since beginning by The_Masked_Bandit
Fandoms: Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid, Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types
20 May 2026
Tags
Summary
“I need… I need to tell you something, Hollander.” Ilya squeezes his eyes shut, willing his mouth to stop trembling. Tears roll down his face, church-quiet, silent as prayers, and Ilya touches his cheek curiously, as if he didn’t know his eyes could do that. He can’t remember the last time he cried. It might have been behind the curtains of their Moscow apartment, right after his mother died. Death seems to have this effect on him.
“Spit it out, I haven’t got all day.”
Ilya visualizes Shane’s furrowed eyebrows — his angry kitten face, as he likes to call it in his head — and thinks, No, I haven’t got all day either. In fact, I might not have any day left after this, and a miserable laugh escapes him at the thought.
The airplane crash happens way earlier in the timeline. Shane and Ilya aren’t together yet — in fact, they haven’t even admitted their feelings to themselves, until the perspective of death and an ill-timed confession completely reshuffles the cards.
Or, Ilya confesses his love to Shane during the plane crash, and Shane thinks it’s a prank in very bad taste.