Work Text:
Shane didn't actually want to be there.
It was a dressier restaurant, and he wasn't in the mood to dress up. But there he was, as dressed up as he could make himself get, a white undershirt with an olive grey suit jacket and matching pants. He sat down at the table with his mother, father, Ilya (thankfully) and a few other people who 'networked' with his mother. He sat there idly listening to the conversation, trying not to focus on just how long his day had been and how he just wanted to go home and eat some white rice for dinner and lay down and watch Canadian Big Brother until he went to bed.
But he couldn't apparently.
"What are you ordering, sólnyshka?" Ilya asked.
Shane ducked his head and flushed, but then he realized probably no one at the table could speak Russian, only, maybe, French.
"Um...I think the fish with the potato." He said, having been there enough he knew vaguely what was on the menu.
Yuna stopped her conversation with David and frowned over at him. "Didn't you have bisque the other night?"
"Yeah." Shane said. "But that's ok."
"Shane, come on, it's a full menu." Yuna picked the menu up that he'd placed down and held it out. "Choose something else, they have plenty on the menu. There's chicken, you eat chicken."
Shane's jaw flexed and he tried to think of how to explain to his mother that he didn't want chicken, he wanted something as easy and as not too wild with flavor as he could take, something he considered a safe food.
He wanted his fish.
His mother gave him a look he knew meant 'don't cause a scene', he'd been given the same look his entire life.
"I don't want...it's fine. I'll just drink and have something later." Shane said, trying his best not to cause a scene.
"Shane. Eat the chicken. It's fine." Yuna said, stressing the words 'it's fine' like she was trying to force a certain reaction out of him.
"It's not..." Shane sighed quietly and stood up. "Excuse me." He said. He turned and left the restaurant without another word.
Yuna looked at Ilya.
"Can you please go and talk to him? Honestly. He's being ridiculous and we need him here to talk about the sponsorships." Yuna said.
Ilya raised an eyebrow. She should've known better. "He doesn't want those sponsorships. He doesn't use shitty moisture wicking underwear because it keeps skin wet, he thinks energy drinks taste like pennies and the shoes broke apart after a week."
Yuna looked fit to be tied, but she tried to relax her face. "Ilya, seriously, I'm going to need you to..."
"Yuna, seriously." Ilya returned, a slight mocking tone to his words. He didn't come back at her with the Russian coldness he could've.
No, he tapped into the side that lived in Boston for years.
"Fuck off." He said bluntly. "Shane is adult. You treat him like child. He wanted fish, yet apparently for you he is four, you try and force chicken on him. He is an adult. What is the problem of him eating what he wants? You forced him to come here for a useless dinner with terrible companies with shitty products, even though he's had a hard day..."
"So have I, and yet, here I am, trying to do my work." Yuna said, cutting him off.
Which was the wrong thing to do.
"Sometimes it would be nice if you stopped being Kris Jenner and was just mom." Ilya said. "It's exhausting."
He stood up, not giving her a chance to respond, and he walked out and got into the SUV.
Shane was in the passenger side, staring out the window, shut down.
Ilya sighed.
"Shane...what do you want to eat?" He asked.
"I just..." Shane started.
"Whatever you want. I do not care. From wherever. I will go to California if I need." Ilya said, trying to make Shane at least smile.
Shane cracked the barest of smiles.
"Some garlic milk rice and a Canada Dry." He said quietly.
Ilya nodded and he grabbed Shane's phone from the middle cup holder and turned it off just as it started to ring, doing the same with his own. He drove them to a place where he could get the dish and then went and got them some Canada Dry before driving up to McKay Lake. He gave Shane his food and they pushed their seats back and began eating.
Shane sighed quietly and glanced at Ilya. "You must think I'm..."
"Whatever you're going to say...no." Ilya said. "I don't."
"You don't?" Shane asked.
"You are adult, Shane. You are allowed to make own decisions. No one should force you to do or eat or say or...anything you don't want." Ilya said, taking a calming breath. "You have to...and this isn't me trying to tell you what to do, just general advice. You must put boundaries to people."
"But she's my mom." Shane pointed out.
"And I have cut off my brother." Ilya pointed out. "Family is complicated. I'm not saying your mother is bad person. But if you let people in your life do things you are uncomfortable with...they take advantage and think they can always do it. Placing boundaries on people isn't a bad thing. It's...needed at times. Yuna has no problem placing boundaries. It's how she's so cut throat."
"I think I should fire my mother." Shane said, sounding so sad and pathetic about it Ilya had to choke down the laugh that wanted to escape.
"Yes?" He asked.
"I think it's the only way to not completely screw up my relationship with her." Shane admitted. "Especially if I need to place boundaries on our relationship. And that's not me snarking at you, I swear. Or me thinking you're trying to force me to do something I don't want to do. I swear. I just know I need to..."
"Stand your ground more?" Ilya suggested quietly.
"It's so hard sometimes." Shane said.
Ilya smirked. "If it helps, you can picture my face. You have no trouble standing ground with me."
Shane laughed at that and leaned over, kissing Ilya's cheek. "Thank you."
Ilya shrugged. "Is this not what husbands do?"
"One of the things." Shane said. He grabbed his phone and turned it back on, wincing when he saw how many times Yuna had texted and tried to call. He opened up the texts and didn't even look at what she'd said.
'You're fired. As my manager. I love you as my mother, but as my manager you're fired.'
He turned his phone off just as she was typing a response.
He knew he'd have to deal with it later, but later was later.
"Have you ever been skinny dipping?" He asked instead.
Ilya's eyes got as big as saucers just as Shane was opening the car door.