Work Text:
"Uncle Ilya! Here's a huge frog! Come and help me catch it!" Ilya looked up from where most of the grown ups were sitting at the table on their cottage's veranda. Ruby and Emma had just been out and about in the back yard, taking in the surroundings. This was the first time Shane and Ilya were hosting Yuna and David as well as the whole Pike family. Of course, the kids were over the moon to explore the cottage and everything in close proximity.
"A huge frog? Be careful so it won't eat you!" Ilya called out while he got up from where he was sitting, making Ruby and Emma giggle. Jackie was standing next to her twins with Arthur on her hand while Amber was sitting in Hayden's lap. Hayden was sitting next to Shane and watched Ilya walk over to where his family was standing, close to the shore of the lake, but of course not too close. They didn't want one of the kids to fall into the water, after all.
"Look! There it is!" Emma's excited, high-pitched voice was to be heard. Shane grinned when Ilya immediately answered, loudly, "Holy shit! That thing is fucking huge!" Jackie scolded his husband with a stern "Ilya, language!" and Shane's grin widened when he heard his husband say "Oh, sorry, mama Jackie." Then, Ilya crouched down next to Emma and Ruby to look at the monster frog or whatever it was they had spotted.
"He's so good with kids," Shane heard Yuna, his mother, say, and he looked at her. He nodded. "He really is." Yuna's expression was fond while she watched Ilya talk to Hayden's and Jackie's children. Emma even grabbed his hand and held on to it, her small fingers wrapped around Ilya's larger ones. The kids loved their uncle Ilya and there was obviously a lot of trust involved - coming from the whole family, not just Emma and Ruby. Jackie adored Ilya and even though Hayden mostly tried to pretend to still be hating him, he obviously did not anymore. He trusted Ilya with his children after all.
"I'm so glad he's found a home here with you, Shane," David commented. Yuna nodded. "Remember when Shane brought him to our cottage back then? For the first time? Ilya had been standing there like a little boy waiting to be scolded by his parents." Yuna's expression was still fond but also amused. "In his Boston Raiders shirt of all things! He really didn't think that through back then," she said, laughing. David watched her for a moment. "That's not true," he said.
Shane and Yuna both looked at him. David grabbed Yuna's hand that was lying on the table top in front of her. "Ilya wore that particular shirt on purpose." David's eyes flickered to Shane for a second before he looked back at his wife. "What do you mean?" Shane and Yuna then asked at the same time, confused. David smiled softly and his gaze trailed over to where Ilya was just lifting Emma up to place her on his shoulders, the girl giggling in delight, her small hands grabbing his curly hair.
"Don't tell him I told you, but he put on that particular shirt to protect Shane," David started to explain. Shane frowned. "To protect me? But… how would wearing a Raiders shirt protect me?" David looked at his son. "He had no idea how we'd react. To you coming out. To him being your partner. So he wore it to maybe divert any anger that might be coming from us on himself. To protect you."
Shane, Yuna and also Hayden stared at David and it seemed like nobody knew what to say. "He told me last Christmas when we were decorating together. He's been so used to parental anger and disappointment being aimed at him that he gladly would have taken the blow if that had meant to shield Shane from it."
They all now turned a little to watch as Ilya played with Ruby and Emma, a bright smile on his face. He looked so happy and carefree. So loving and relaxed, just being himself together with people who loved him. "Wow," Hayden said. "Why do I want to cry all of a sudden?" That made Yuna and David chuckle.
Shane pushed his chair back and got up. "Where are you going?" Yuna asked when he stepped off the veranda and onto the grass to join Ilya, the twins, Jackie and Arthur. Shane knew exactly what he wanted to do right then and there. "I am going to kiss my husband."