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Shane’s interest in shibari had actually grown out of a coping mechanism that he stumbled upon by accident as a teenager. A particularly observant equipment manager had noticed Shane quietly folding and re-folding a pair of dirty docks after a difficult practice and handed him a ball of impossibly tangled spare laces that had been found stuffed in the back of a storage closet.
“See what you can do with that, Hollander.”
Shane found the act of disentangling the laces more soothing than he had expected, and soon he began to carry a small knotted ball of spares in his bag wherever he went in case he needed something to do with his hands. One day Hayden had noticed him absently undoing a pair of knotted laces, and mentioned that Jackie had found an Etsy shop that sold similar fidget toys that Ruby loved and offered to send him the link. Later that night Shane had spent a fun hour looking through different types of rope toys and ordered a few to try out. He also found an Etsy seller who not only sold pre-knotted fidgets, but custom dyed lengths of rope labeled as being for “shibari”. A quick google search later and Shane realized this was definitely something he would be doing some more in-depth research on later.
When he first brought up the subject of rope to Ilya, Shane was a bit nervous that he would get teased, or that Ilya might automatically assume that this meant Shane to be the one tied up. But rather than laughing or leering as he feared, Ilya met Shane’s questions with curiosity and was more than willing to be the guinea pig for Shane’s newfound interest.
They started small, with simple harnesses so Shane could get a feel for how the rope behaved, but before long he was trying more intricate ties inspired by shibari artists he found on Instagram and Reddit. He loved how peacefully blank his mind went while he worked his way through a complicated design, all his focus directed toward the amount of pressure, the symmetry of the pattern. The calm he found when rigging was almost perfect. The only real issue was his model’s inability to shut the fuck up for more than five minutes at a time.
“Can you please stop talking, Ilya?” Shane grumbled, undoing the last knot he had made. “I really need to make sure this can hold your weight or you’re going to come crashing down as soon as I remove the ladder.”
Ilya was currently stood on the cottage’s deck, leaning forward at a precarious angle with his chest bracing against a step ladder while Shane worked around him to secure the anchor rope to the deck’s railing.
“Ooh, bossy today”, he said, with far more attitude than someone who was completely immobilized should be giving to the only person capable of untying him.
Shane tugged slightly harder than necessary on the final knot, causing the anchor rope to pull completely taut. He stood back to admire the curve of Ilya’s back, happy to see that the knots on his thighs and those holding back his arms all looked like they had ideal tension.
“Okay, I think we can remove the ladder now” he said, walking around to stand in front of Ilya. “You ready?”
“Yes, малышbaby” Ilya said, nodding.
Shane took a deep breath before slowly moving the ladder backwards, watching as Ilya swayed forward slightly before reaching the end of the rope. He circled around, eyeing his handiwork critically.
“How do I look?”
“Hmm?” Shane said absently.
“Shanya, how do I look?” Ilya repeated, raising his voice slightly, just enough to break through Shane’s concentration.
“Oh, sorry, yes, you look great. I just wish I had done a different combination on the front, the reef knot looks wonky, and I think a nodome would look--”
Ilya cut him off before the commentary could turn into a true spiral.
“Солнышкоsunshine, I’m sure it is perfect. Take photo so I can see, please.”
The direction seemed to snap Shane out of his own head.
“Oh yah, that would be really good. Hold on a sec” he said, turning to walk back up to the cottage from the dock.
“Wait a minute, where are you going?”
Smiling, Shane turned back to look at his husband and his breath caught in his chest at the sight of the sun setting behind him, framing Ilya in a golden halo.
“I’m going to get the Nikon, I want some proper photos of this.”
Ilya broke into a wide grin.
“Hurry back, малышbaby.”
Watching Shane as he jogged up to the back deck, Ilya wondered for the thousandth time how he had gotten so incredibly lucky.