Chapter Text
“I’m coming to the cottage.”
“I’m coming to the cottage.”
“I’m coming to the cottage.”
That sentence kept playing over and over in Shane’s mind as he stared blankly at his phone. From the next room, he could faintly hear the low murmur of people discussing ramifications of the momentous event that had taken place that night at the Stanley Cup Final, his parents softly talking about it.
Ilya was coming to the cottage.
The Admirals had just won the Stanley Cup and Scott Fucking Hunter just kissed a man on middle of the Ice.
Ilya was coming to the cottage.
Shane suddenly knew what he needed to do.
“Mom! Dad!" David and Yuna jumped in surprise as Shane ran past them and up the stairs.
“Shane, be careful!” Yuna fretted loudly, trying to stop her only son running up the stairs like a hooligan.
“No time!” Shane called back as he hurried into his childhood bedroom.
He yanked open the drawer of his old desk and rummaged through it until his fingers found what he was looking for. He grabbed it and immediately turned around, nearly tripping over himself in his hurry to get back to the living room.
By the time he returned, he was half struggling into a sweater, trying to pull it over his head without jostling his injured arm too much.
“Mom, where are my car keys?”
Yuna stared at him in disbelief.
“You’re still on concussion protocol, Shane! And your arm is still in a cast! You can’t drive!” she exclaimed, snatching the keys out of his hand before he could even reach for them.
“Listen to your mother, Shane,” David added calmly from the couch. He watched his son with a mixture of concern and amusement. “Where are you trying to go, anyway? Your mom and I can drive you there if you really need to be there tonight.”
“Fine. Then you drive.” Shane didn't even hesitate. “I need to be in Boston tonight.”
His parents exchanged a long, puzzled glance.
“Boston?” Yuna repeated. “Why Boston of all places?”
Shane paused, his hand instinctively checking the pocket where he had tucked the small box he had just retrieved from his bedroom.
Then he looked at them.
“I’m going to ask the love of my life to marry me tonight.”
Silence fell over the room.
Yuna's mouth dropped open.
David blinked at his son.
“You’re what?!”
Shane:I’m going to ask Lily to marry me tonight.
He jumped as his phone buzzed angrily, Rose was calling him. He quickly answered the call, accidentally clicking on the speaker option as he did so.
“What do you mean you’re proposing to Lily tonight?!”
Rose’s loud shriek practically rattled the windows of the Land Rover.
From the front seats, David and Yuna exchanged a long, loaded look in the rearview mirror. Neither of them said a word. They knew their taciturn son well enough to understand that the moment they started questioning him, Shane would retreat behind a wall of silence and refuse to explain another thing.
Also, Lily?!!
Rose, however, had no such reservations.
“I thought you were going to talk to him about going exclusive during your sexcation! Now you're telling me you're going to propose to him?!!”
Him?!!!
“Rose, oh my God, shut up!” Shane hissed, his entire face turning tomato red, sinking lower into his seat. “My parents can hear you!”
“Oh. Sorry.” She sounds so apologetic. “But seriously, you’re proposing tonight?”
“No.” Shane huffed. “I’m going to ask Lily to elope with me tonight.”
The Land Rover screeched to a sudden stop as three different voices shrieked at once.
“What?!”
Shane winced and grabbed his seatbelt as his parents turned around and stared at him in stunned disbelief.
“You’re going to do what?!” Rose shouted from the phone.
Ilya listened idly as everyone talked over him. After the Stanley Cup Final (and Old Man Hunter’s kiss with his frankly very pretty but far-too-young child bride), he had ended the watch party immediately, kicking almost everyone out of his house and leaving only his closest teammates and Sveta behind.
Except for their newest rookie, Alec Cadyn, who was currently snoring away in the armchair.
That kid really could sleep anywhere, anytime, and apparently within the span of a heartbeat.
Ilya mentally reminds himself to get Marly to prank the rookie later.
“-supportive team right?” Connor Connors asked worriedly.
“No way Hunter would come out without telling the team first. He must’ve had a plan.” Victor St. Simon’s French Creole accent cut through the chatter.
“Who knows? Maybe Old Man Hunter wants one last hurrah before retiring. Surprised he could lift the cup, thought he might break his back.” Ilya chirped, still staring at his phone.
Marly, Connors and St. Simons laughed at his weak joke and then continued to discuss how to make sure their team is not going to raise problems for Hunter next season. Good thing between the four of them and Hammy they made damn sure their locker room knew that they had no tolerance for homophobic or racist slurs.
They had never pretended to be saints. In fact, most of them were raging assholes on a good day.
But there were lines they simply didn't cross.
You could chirp your opponent until he wanted to strangle you, make jokes about their terrible terrible haircut, questionable fashion choices, or inability to score on an empty net. You could give them hell from the moment they stepped onto the ice until the game was over.
But you didn't attack someone for who they were.
That was one of the few things they all agreed on without argument.
Sveta, who had been leaning against Ilya all night long, was watching him quietly. She knew he wasn’t coming back to Russia with her that summer.
“S toboy vso v poryadke, Illyukha? Segodnya noch'yu sluchilos' koye-chto vazhnoye. Eto ved' khorosho dlya tebya i Dzheyn, pravda?”“Are you alright, Illyukha? Something big happened tonight. It’s good for you and Jane, yes?” She said.
“Mozhet byt'. Tol'ko prosledi, pozhaluysta, chtoby Nadya poluchila ot menya podarki, i uznay u Oksany naschet ucheby.” ““Maybe. Just make sure Nadya gets her gifts for me and check with Oksana on her schooling for me.” Ilya muttered softly, already making a mental list of what to bring to Hollander’s cottage.
A sudden doorbell rang, cutting through their cozy gathering. Everyone looked at one another before turning toward Ilya, who was staring at the entrance in confusion.
“You invite someone over, Rozy?” Marly asked, setting his beer down.
“Nyet.” Ilya got to his feet and walked toward the door, the others watching him curiously. He pulled it open.
To his surprise, Shane was standing on the doorstep, staring at him with the strangest expression on his face, somewhere between nervousness, determination and completely overwhelmed. Behind him stood two other people, older and both looking equally shocked to see who was answering the door.
For a few seconds, Ilya could only stare.
Blyat.
Did Hollander seriously drive four hours from boring Montreal all the way here just to break up with him?
His stomach dropped.
He knew it was too good to be true.
Shane suddenly smiled ruefully at him. “Stop making that face. I’m just here because I need to ask you an important question. Can we come in please?”
Ilya stepped aside and let them into his house, and fuck damnit, that’s Yuna Hollander meaning the man is Hollander’s other parent.
This is not how he wants to meet his future in-laws, Solnyshko! Ilya screeched in his head.
“I have something to tell you and I really, really need you to listen very careful because this is very important.” Shane turned toward him, oblivious to the small crowd of hockey players (and Sveta) watching from the living room behind him. Every pair of eyes was fixed on them, but Shane seemed to have forgotten that anyone else existed, keeping his soulful brown eyes on Ilya,.
“Saying hello to you on that cold winter afternoon in Saskatchewan was one of the happiest decisions I’ve ever made.”
“I have loved you ever since our first kiss in Toronto eight years ago. I’m really sorry it took me years to realize it.” He gave a small, nervous laugh. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life making up to you for all those years I wasted not knowing.”
"When you called me earlier tonight to tell me you're coming to my cottage instead of heading back to Russia, you gave me the greatest hope and the courage to do this.
The room had gone completely silent, Marly and Connors clutching at each other, Sveta already recording on her phone, her mouth open in silent shock.
“You are my greatest rival,” Shane continued, his smile soft and sweet. “My eternal opponent. My absolute pain in the ass. My forever love.”
He slowly lowered himself onto one knee.
Ilya's eyes widened.
For a moment, he simply stared at Shane as if his brain had stopped functioning entirely.
Shane pulled a ring out.
“Ilya Grigoryevich Rozanov, Ty vyydesh' za menya?Will you marry me?”
Shane suddenly laughed sheepishly. “Sorry. I haven't had time to learn how to say tonight in Russian. So…Will you come elope with me tonight? Or, um…” He glanced toward the clock, then back at him. “First thing tomorrow morning?”
Someone behind them made a strangled noise.
Shane ignored his mother, just staring up tentatively at Ilya with a hopeful smile.
Ilya froze.
He simply stared down at Shane, his mind racing in a dozen different directions at once.
First: OH MY GOD.
Second: Yes. A thousand times yes. A million times yes.
Third and his final thought before he effectively bluescreened from the impromptu proposal : Dear God, how was this man capable of mangling Ilya’s mother tongue so spectacularly and still somehow still sounding incredibly sexy while doing it?
Ilya sobbed loudly but before Shane could say another word, Ilya launched himself forward, his curls bouncing as he threw his arms around Shane “Yes! Shane Hollander, yes! I will marry you!”
Shane's face crumpled with relief. “Yeah?”
“Da! Yes, yes, yes!”
Ilya was laughing and crying at the same time, pressing kiss after kiss across Shane’s beautiful face while Shane laughed helplessly through his own tears.
“Yes,” Ilya repeated, as though he needed to make absolutely certain there was no room for misunderstanding. “I will marry you. Tonight. Tomorrow. Whenever you want.”
Behind them, the stunned silence in the living room finally shattered.
Someone shrieked with delight, followed by loud applause and cheers erupting throughout the room.
In Ilya’s arms, Shane stiffened, finally realizing they had an audience.
“Oh no.” His voice filled in horror.