Chapter Text
Shane and Yuna were having lunch at his childhood home. David was at work and wouldn’t be coming home until 3 pm. So Yuna was happy that Shane was in Ottawa to keep her company.
But now Shane was looking at his phone with a smile Yuna haven’t seen before and he wasn’t listening to a word she was saying. Yuna believes that she knew her son. They had a good mother and son relationship, and other than being his mother, she was also his manager. So that put her in a different position in his life aswell. But before today Yuna never witnessed this blush on her son's cheeks and this smile that decided to never leave on his lips.
He was texting with a focus he only gave to hockey and that was the part that surprised Yuna. Hockey was the most important part in Shane’s life and that was putting it lightly. So he must have someone special to give all this energy and focus.
She only knew about two of her son’s relationships and she didn’t even get to meet the last one, Rose Landry. She knew they still texted and were friends and Shane never gave an actual reason for why the two decided to break up, so maybe they got back together? Public attention was something her son hated and maybe they just decided to be more private about their relationship? But why was he hiding it from his mother of all people?
‘’Shane.’’
Shane didn’t even acknowledge her, maybe he didn’t hear her?
‘’Shane!’’
‘’hmm?’’
‘’SHANE!’’
Shane finally looked up from his phone. He was surprised to hear his mom yell at him. Was she saying something to her?
‘’Sorry mom, I didn’t hear you.’’
‘’I got that part Shane. Are you even listening to me, do you have something important that needs your attention?’’ Yuna gestured with her eyes towards his phone. She was smirking.
Shane suddenly blushed and fumbled with his phone. He turned it upside down and tried to steer the conversation away from himself.
‘’What? No, no, I was just checking something mom. You were saying?’’ This obviously didn’t work because Yuna was now aware of the fact that his son was hiding something. So she decided to be direct. ‘’Shane did you get back together with Rose Landry?’’
Shanes eyes widened and he shook his head. ‘’No, mom! Where did you get that from?’’
‘’You are obviously texting someone Shane, if not her than who? Is there someone else? You didn’t even introduce me to Rose and I had to find out about your girlfriend from the tabloids. Please don’t do that to me again.’’
‘’There isn’t a girl mom, trust me.’’
Yuna decided to drop it for now and went to the kitchen to get herself some more wine. In that moment, Shane's phone started ringing and he went to the porch to take the call. The caller ID was named Lily. ‘’You couldn’t be more obvious Shane.’’ Yuna mumbled to herself. She went to sit next to the window that opened up to the porch and started listening. She knew that it was an invation of his privacy but if he wasn’t gonna talk, she had to do something.
‘’You can’t just send those photos with no warning! Do you want me to get caught or something? I am with mom, please.’’ The person on the other end of the phone must have said something, all of a sudden, Shane giggled. Giggled? Yuna was confused to say the least.
‘’ I know sweetheart, I miss you too. How about we skype tonight when I get home? I will probably leave like 6 pm so we will have time? Okay good, I love you too! Bye!’’
Did he just said, I love you? She had to get to the bottom of this because this was obviously a lot more than a new girlfriend, she was sure. Realising the phone call had ended she went to sit on the sofa so Shane didn’t realise she was listening to him. He just came inside like nothing had happened, put his phone on the table and went to the bathroom. What he didn’t realise was that he left his phone open.
When the phone buzzed and the name Lily appeared Yuna couldn’t hold back and picked up the phone. It was just a string oh heart emojies but this made her open the chat and what she saw confirmed her thoughts. This Lily wasn’t just a new development in Shane’s life. They were in a relationship and Shane was hiding her from Yuna.
Lily: When are you coming baack?
Shane: Next week I have a 3 day weekend, I can come up then?
Lily: That is too far away!
Shane: I am sorry, I miss you too.
Lily: [photo of Ilya’s torso, he is holding his tshirt up in the mirror but his face is not visible and his tattoo is partially covered by the tshirt]
Lily: ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
*phone call*
Yuna is shocked. She and David once talked about the possibility of Shane being gay, but that was before Rose Landry, so they never brought it up again. Was that why his son was hiding this person from her? Did he not trust her or think that she would react badly?
While she was looking through the texts she didn’t notice Shane coming back into the room.
‘’Mom!’’ Shane was looking at Yuna with eyes wide open. ‘’What are you doing with my phone?’’ He took his phone back and realised what chat was Yuna looking through. He stared at Yuna with a scared look on his face.
‘’I just…, I wanted to… Shane, honey I am sorry. I shouldn’t have looked but I was just worried for you.
‘’Mom what did you see?’’
‘’I saw the photo.’’ There was a long silence where Shane couldn’t look into his mom's eyes, so Yuna decided to keep talking ‘’So I assume there is no girl, but there is a guy?’’ Shane's eyes started welling up with tears. This wasn’t how he was supposed to tell his mom. Whilst he was kinda relieved that he didn’t have to hide this anymore, his brain had to panic first. His mom just saw his boyfriend's photo and he wasn’t sure if she recognized him or not.
‘’Shane, honey, it’s fine, please know that it is fine.’’ Shane lifted his head and looked at Yuna. He wiped away the tears and slowly breathed in. Yuna walked towards Shane and slowly hugged him. She was afraid to scare him, but she needed him to understand that he was loved in this moment.
‘’So, is that your boyfriend then?’’ Yuna didn’t recognize Ilya, that was good, thought Shane. It was one thing for her to find out that he was gay but Ilya was a completely separate discussion.
‘’yes’’
‘’Good. Was that him on the phone you were saying I love you to?’’
‘’Mom, were you listening to me?’’
‘’Is that a yes?’’
‘’Yes, it was him!’’
‘’Then I wanna meet him. What’s his name?’’
‘’Not yet mom.’’
‘’Why is that? You obviously love him, I think you can introduce him to your parents.’’
‘’I need to talk to him first.’’
‘’Oh, okay well then.’’
***
Shane: Well we are fucked.
Lily: What happened? Are you okay?
Lily: Jane!
Lily: Are you hurt?
Shane: Mom just looked through my texts and she knows that I have a boyfriend.
Lily: Did she get mad?
Shane: No
Lily: It’s good then?
Shane: I guess so.
Shane: She hugged me and now she wants to meet with you.
Lily: I love you
Lily: Do you want me to meet them?
Shane: Do you?
Lily: I mean yes?
Shane: Really?
Lily: Yes, Jane, I do wanna meet my boyfriend's parents.
Shane: I love you.
Shane: But I think I need to talk to both of them first.
Lily: Drop the bomb yourself?
Shane: Yeah I think so
Lily: Text me after okay?
Shane: Okay
***
Shane was upstairs walking around in his room when David came home. He just wanted to get over this. He slowly went downstairs. David was in the kitchen preparing the ingredients for dinner.
‘’Dad?’’ David turned around, happy to see Shane.
‘’Shane, come help me with the salad. I think its better if we keep your mom out of the kitchen. She was very happy when I came in today. I would like to keep her that way.’’
‘’Actually, Dad, I wanted to talk to you about that.’’ David turned to look at Shane. His son was looking nervous. That wasn’t new, but he seemed extra agitated right now. He was shifting his weight from one foot to the other, and he was fidgeting with his fingers. David looked at Shane, waiting for him to continue.
‘’You know how I always keep to myself and never date anyone. Like you know that obviously, because if I were to date someone, you would have heard already. But its just that, well I don’t see anyone publicly and everyone always asks if there is a reason for that and I don’t really wanna answer because well there is actually a reason but I cant say that because that would put my career at risk and I don’t wanna lose hockey its important for me. Almost more important than anything. Well like I said almost more than anything, not…’’
‘’Shane, you are rambling.’’
‘’I AM GAY!’’ Shane shouted finally. He felt almost relieved. It was a big thing to carry by himself.
‘’Oh, okay.’’ Said David.
‘’That’s it? You are not gonna say anything else?’’
‘’Well thank you for telling me son, but this wasn’t exactly big news to me. We know you pretty well, your mother and I, you know. I kinda expected you to tell me something at some point. Is that why your mother was grinning ear to ear when I came in today?’’ David kept on chopping the vegetables.
With his father's words, Shane finally calmed down a bit.
‘’That too, yes, but she was more happy or rather surprised, because she found out that I have a boyfriend.’’ With that, David stopped chopping and finally put his knife down to fully turn to Shane. He looked at him with large, surprised eyes. His intimidating looking from the outside, but deep down shy and reserved son had a boyfriend. He had found someone to open up and share his life. Shane was looking at him with expectant eyes. He was waiting for some sort of reaction.
David smiled and opened his arms to hug Shane. Being a hockey player, Shane was a lot larger than David, but still, in moments like these, he was David's baby son. He felt safe and protected in his father’s arms.
‘’I am happy for you, Shane. You being gay may not be big news, but this is truly surprising.’’ David was more so smirking now. Shane laughed and said. ‘’Well that part may be the least surprising part to be honest.’’ David pulled apart and looked at Shane with a confused expression.
‘’I don’t wanna do this twice, so I think it's better if I tell you and Mom together. I will tell after we eat dinner, okay?’’
***
After dinner, David and Yuna were slowly sipping their wines and waiting for Shane to open up the conversation. Being a parent to Shane for all these years, they were both very aware that if they wanted Shane to talk about anything, they had to wait for him to start. Shane was slowly putting his phone down. He finally took a deep breath in and decided to start.
‘’Okay so, as I said before, I have a boyfriend. There is also the matter of who he is. I wanna tell you guys but I am just a bit worried. ’’
Yuna had a small smile on her lips. She was curious.
‘’Shane calm down, just tell us his name.’’
‘’Ilya!’’ Yuna was confused, or maybe not confused but rather hoping she heard it wrong.
‘’Ilya who?’’
‘’Mom how many Ilyas do you know?’’ David put his hand on Yuna's arm.
‘’You mean to tell me your boyfriend is Ilya Rozanov? Of all people out there? Shane, are you sure?’’
‘’Yes mom. Trust me, I am as sure as I can be at this point. We didn’t come here easily. Like, we were seeing each other for a while, but the dating part is a recent development. Like very very new.’’
‘’How long is a while?’’
‘’7 years’’ Yuna’s eyes widened, she was not expecting to hear that.
‘’What do you mean new? What were you doing with Rozanov before that?’’
Shane looked at his mother, trying to communicate what he meant without words because he would rather die than explain to his parent what he and Ilya did for the first 7 years of their non-relationship. He wanted the floor to swallow him as a whole. Apparently, Yuna finally understood from his son's non existent words what he meant.
‘’OH!’’ But the chance was not on his side today because there was still David, who was a lot more confused. He was still looking between Yuna and Shane, expecting an explanation.
Frustratingly, Shane had to say the words and basically dropped the bomb. ‘’We were hooking up, okay?!’’
Finally, David, too, understanding the elephant in the room his eyes bulged as well. He may not be as involved with hockey as his son and wife, but even he knew who Rozanov was and his son having a relationship with him was definitely newsworthy.
Yuna got up and went to the kitchen. She desperately needed alcohol. While Yuna tried to calm down and have a drink, Shane saw what his mother had in his hands. Vodka, more specifically the Vodka Ilya himself recommended to Shane, and he brought to his parents' house. He snorted at the view in front of him. Yuna looked up as if asking what was funny, and she too realised that she had a very russian looking bottle in her hands. The crylic letters were grinning to her and she couldn’t stop herself from laughing. Half laughing and half talking, she asked ‘’What were you thinking Shane?’’
Shane too was laughing right now. ‘’In my defence, it made sense at the time, and it didn’t start as dating, okay? We were just two dumb 18 year olds''