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1.
Shane didn't realize it would become a thing the first time he did it. They were at the cottage and Shane was setting up the deck while Ilya made lunch inside, when Shane noticed an American Ermine Moth. It was white with black spots, and Shane quickly managed to catch it right before Ilya walked through the back doors.
"Ilya look!" Shane called, walking towards Ilya with one of his hands closed in a loose fist.
"Look at what?" Ilya asked as he set their plates down on the table. Shane went right up next to Ilya and opened his hand just enough for Ilya to peek in.
"It's an Ermine moth!" He said excitedly. Ilya had mentioned the night before that he likes the movie 101 Dalmations so Shane thought he'd appreciate the look of the moth.
Ilya did not, it turns out, appreciate the moth.
"Ah! Shane what the fuck!?" Ilya yelled, quickly moving away from Shane towards the other side of the table.
"It looks like a dalmatian! See? White with black spots." Shane explained.
"Okay? Why is it in your hand?" Ilya's eyes were wide, looking at Shane as if he'd gone crazy.
"So I could show it to you." Shane didn't understand why Ilya was freaking out.
"Is this a thing you do? Catching bugs?"
"Sometimes I guess, bugs are cool." Shane shrugged
"Shane, I love you, and I love that you think bugs are cool." Ilya started. "I do not think bugs are cool, I would like them not in my face."
"Wait, are you scared of the moth Ilya?" Shane asked, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"No! I am not scared of moth!" Ilya insisted. Shane didn't believe him for a second though because as soon as Shane darted towards him with his hand out, Ilya started running.
"Just look at it Ilya!"
"Hollander! Hollander, no, get away from me with stupid bug!"
Shane continued chasing Ilya around the yard laughing before eventually letting the bug go.
2.
The second time was when Shane was at Ilya's house in Boston. He'd noticed a spider in the hall closet and caught it with the intention of just letting it outside. Halfway to the front door, however, Shane remembered the moth incident and quickly changed directions, going to find Ilya in the bedroom.
"Hey Ilya, I found something in the closet." He said innocently as he walked through the door.
"What did you find?" Ilya asked as he walked back out of the closet, quickly stopping when he noticed Shane holding his left hand in a closed fist. "Shane, what is in your hand?"
"Look." Shane said, walking up towards Ilya and trying to keep the smile off of his face. Ilya gave him a dubious look before peering into his hand and then pushing Shane away.
"Why do you have spider!?" Ilya had launched over the bed, standing defensively on the other side of the room.
"It was in the hall closet." Shane shrugged. He started slowly walking towards Ilya.
"No! Hollander, stay away from me, I do not want to see spider."
Shane paused for a second, took a single step back towards the bedroom door, before sprinting towards Ilya.
3.
From then on, it became a thing. If Shane found a bug in the house, he would catch it and chase Ilya around, taunting him to just take a quick look. He would also do it if he happened to find a particularly interesting looking bug outside. Everytime, as soon as Ilya noticed his closed fist, he would take off, shouting various obscenities as Shane chased him around the house.
It was their third summer together the first time Shane did it in front of other people. They were at his parents house, they had just had dinner and were now getting ready to spend the evening out back with a fire going. Shane was helping his mom put some stuff away in the shed while his dad tried to teach Ilya how to start the fire, when he almost walked right into the web of an Arabesque Orbweaver, which happened to be one of his favorite spiders.
Shane didn't even have to take a second to think about it before he was catching the small spider in his hand. Ilya's back was facing him, so Shane moved as quietly as he could until he was standing directly behind Ilya.
"Ilya look." Shane said, reaching over Ilya's shoulder to put his closed fist directly in front of Ilya's eyes. Ilya jumped up with a shout, nearly knocking Shane over as he rushed to get away.
"What the fuck Hollander!" Ilya yelled. Shane chased after him as he looped around to the front of his parents cottage and then towards the back again. Ilya ran towards Shane's mom, and hunched over to hide behind her. "Yuna, please, save me!"
"Ilya calm down, it's just a spider."
"It's just a spider." Ilya mocked.
"Ilya please just look?" Shane gave him his best wide eyed look. "It's my favorite spider."
"You have favorite spider?"
"Yea! It's really cool!" Shane moved towards him and Ilya took off again.
"Shane I love you but I will not look at the spider!" Ilya shouted as he ran through the yard again. Yuna and David shared a look of amusement as they watched Shane chase Ilya through the backyard.
4.
Shane had been a little nervous when he joined the Centaurs, but thankfully found himself fitting in without issue. The guys were all really nice, and despite Shane's worry, seemed entirely unfazed by the occasional PDA between Shane and Ilya. Not that they did much, they were at work after all and they were professionals, but by the time they were halfway through the season Shane no longer felt the sting of anxiety anytime Ilya's touch lingered long enough to longer be platonic.
This is why, when Shane saw a lady bug crawling along the wall outside of the locker room, he didn't hesitate before catching it.
"Hey Ilya!" Shane casually called as he walked in. Ilya was standing in front of his stall half dressed, poking fun at Troy about something. He turned around and immediately paled when he saw Shane's right hand closed in a fist.
"No, get out Hollander!" He pointed towards the door, trying to make a stern face but it was obviously wavering at the thought of what Shane had in his hand. Shane paused halfway into the room with a giant grin on his face.
"What's happening?" Troy asked.
"Come look Ilya." Shane ignored Troy's question, holding his fist out towards Ilya.
"This is not fair Hollander, I am in skates." Ilya took a half step towards the tunnel that led to the ice, debating how well he'd be able to run in his skates.
"I don't know what you're talking about Ilya." Shane took a small step closer. "I just wanna show you something."
"Where did you even get it?" Ilya asked, now taking a full step back.
"Get what?" Bood asked, the whole locker room was now watching the two curiously.
"In the hallway." Shane shrugged. The room had fallen silent as Shane and Ilya stared each other down. Shane stayed still for about thirty seconds before rushing towards Ilya who immediately took off as fast as he could.
"Stay the fuck away from me Hollander!" Ilya yelled as he ran out of the locker room.
"What just happened?" Luca asked the room as they all stared at the door. They could hear Ilya continuing to yell as Shane laughed after him.
5.
They arrived a day early for their game against Boston, and Marlow had invited the team over to his house since it was finally warm enough to grill. Marlow had a decent outdoor space for hosting, and about half of both the Centaurs and the Bears had shown up. Shane was enjoying himself, watching with a smile as Ilya caught up with his old teammates.
Shane was sitting at a table, snacking on some carrots, when Luca approached him with a shy look on his face.
"Hey Luca, what's up?" Shane greeted him. Luca looked like he was gonna turn back around for a second before changing his mind and sitting next to Shane, slowly bringing his hands forward.
"I caught a dragonfly." He said simply. Shane leaned forward curiously, smiling when he peeked into Luca's hands to find a small blue dragonfly.
"Can I?" Shane asked, gesturing his hands forwards. Luca nodded and they carefully transferred the dragonfly from Luca's hands into Shane's.
"Are you going to scare Roz with it?" Luca asked.
"Absolutley I am!" Shane grinned. He stood up and walked towards Ilya who was standing in a circle with Marlow, Carmichael, St.Vick, Troy and Bood, obviously in the middle of telling a story that involved a lot of hand gestures. Shane kept his hands low as he fit himself into the circle in between Marlow and Bood. Ilya immediately made eye contact and smiled at him without pausing, so focused on telling his story that he didn't notice Shane's hands cupped together.
"And then, and I swear this is true, Marly said-" Ilya stopped abruptly. Shane gave him his sweetest smile, trying his best to hold back a giggle as he watched Ilya's eyes look up and down between Shane's face and his hands.
"You okay babe?" Shane asked, putting on a face of fake concern.
"Shane, please, do not do this." Ilya was rocking a little on his feet, stuck between wanting to run and trying to act unaffected.
"Do what Ilya?" Bood started laughing next to Shane, nudging Troy next to him in excitement for what was about to happen.
"Shane." Ilya whined, finally taking a single step back.
"I think you'll really like this one." Shane said before moving across the circle towards Ilya. They both broke into a run, weaving around the various hockey players spread throughout the back yard.
"Hollander stop! Is not funny!"
"Just look babe!"
"No! Will not look!"
"Baby please, just look!"
"NO!"
"You'll like it I promise!"
"I will not like it! Get away from me you freaky bug man!"
Shane continued chasing Ilya around the yard, laughing so hard he accidentally let the dragonfly go at some point. Luckily, Ilya failed to notice so Shane continued to chase him around anyways with his now empty hands still cupped together. Normally Shane made an effort not to actually catch up to Ilya, but now that the dragonfly was gone he sprinted ahead to tackle Ilya to the ground.
"Look baby." He said, opening his hands over Ilya's face. Ilya screamed for a second before realizing there was nothing there.
"I fucking hate you." Ilya grumbled, shoving a laughing Shane onto the ground.
"No you don't."
+1
There was probably a nicer way to do this. No, scratch that, there was definitely a nicer way to do this. But Shane couldn't help but feel like this would be perfect for the two of them. One of Shane and Ilya's favorite pastimes was finding ways to lovingly annoy each other, and this was one of their more consistent bits over the four years they've officially been together.
Ilya was grabbing some towels as they prepared to go swim in the lake. Shane had said he needed to go to the bathroom so he could secretly grab the small black box out of the space in the closet where he had hidden it at the beginning of the summer when they first arrived at the cottage. Shane walked towards Ilya with his right hand closed in a fist, trying to keep his smile it's usual mischievous rather than the giddy grin that was threatening to come out.
Ilya glanced over at him and, after noticing Shane's closed hand, immediately took off through the glass door just as Shane had hoped. Shane chased him around the yard as usual, waiting until Ilya started towards the direction of the dock to sprint ahead and jump onto his back.
"Hollander, don't you dare!" Ilya yelled, trying to push Shane off of him. Shane held on as tight as he could, bringing his hand in front of Ilya's face.
"Marry me?" Shane whispered in Ilya's ear, slowly opening his hand to reveal the simple gold band in his hand. Ilya froze with a gasp, staring silently at the ring.
"Shane."
"Yeah?"
"Is this real?"
"Yeah, baby, this is real." Shane laughed lightly. "I love you, more than anything, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
Shane slid off Ilya's back and walked around to face him, grabbing one of Ilya's hands as he got down one knee. "Marry me?"
"Yes, obviously!" Ilya was grinning as he fell to his knees and pulled Shane into a hard kiss. "Does this mean you will stop chasing me with bugs now?" Ilya pulled away a little to ask.
"Never." Shane grinned before pulling Ilya into another kiss.