Chapter Text
Summer 2018
Ilya just wanted to keep up with the rooks and now he’s standing in a local rink in Ottawa at 10am two weeks after the Stanley Cup finals. His body still hurts and he is still fucking tired.
Not the best combination to try something new.
He is here to meet Shane. Shane Hollander. Current World Champion and World Record holder. Only person to ever master all the quad jumps. They call him Quad God, but that’s all Ilya knows about him.
His agent Farah got into contact with Shane because Ilya wants to work on his edgework and balance. He wants to become a better and faster skater. He already is the best in the league, but he knows he has to put in more work now that he was older.
He takes a deep breath shoulders his equipment bag and walks inside.
Shane is standing inside waiting for the Russian ice hockey player. He is nervous. If he’s honest, he is always a little bit scared of ice hockey players. As a man with a more feminine side and openly gay, the MLH is a scary place. He knows there is one openly gay player. Scott Hunter. But after his coming out nothing really changed within the MLH. He knows the Ottawa Centaurus went to the Pride Parade and that is the only fact keeping him from spiraling. He also knows Ilya is huge. He did his research when he got asked to coach a player. He doesn’t exactly know how that would work out. He never teached anyone, but he is the only professional skater living in Ottawa.
In his head he walks through his list of skills he wants to show Ilya. They are the absolute basics, but he needs to see what he is working with.
He just hopes Ilya wouldn’t make fun of him.
Shane is so lost in his thoughts that he nearly jumps out of his skin when someone touches his shoulder.
“Shane?“
A deep voice with an accent is standing behind him.
“I’m so sorry! Yes, I’m Shane.“
He startles while spinning around. His heart is beating hard in his chest while he takes in the sight before him. And damn. Shane’s chin nearly drops. This man is gorgeous. Tall, blue eyes, blond locks and broad shoulders. Shane is nearly a head smaller than the Russian.
“Thank you for, eh, doing this.“
Ilya looks around and nearly comes across as nervous.
“Yeah, yeah, uhm, no problem. Do we wanna get started? We have two hours on the ice without anyone being here.“
Shane stutters and blushes furiously. He hates when he stumbles over his words.
“I thought maybe an empty rink is more comfortable for you.“
Shane is wringing his hands nervously.
“Yes. Less people wanting my picture.“
Ilya smirks his signature smirk and Shanes’ faced heats again.
“Let’s get started. Uhm, do you need to change?“
He looks Ilya up and down. He is wearing a Centaurus Hoodie and their grey sweatpants. He looks good. Shane himself is wearing black sweatpants and a black compression shirt.
“Mh no, I’m good. Just skates.“
“Alright let’s go.“
Shane is thinking about their different exercises. Would Ilya be able to do the exercises with his hockey skates? Would it even be useful if he’d be able to master them in figure skating skates but not in his hockey skates? Does Shane have to adjust the exercises? Will he be able to do that?
His mind was spiraling and he almost misses the turn to the ice. He stops abruptly to turn and has a big hockey guy run into him.
“Whoa, you ok?“
Ilya catches Shane around his shoulders and back.
“I’m sorry. I was just in my head.“
“Is ok, let’s go.“
Ilya removes his hands from Shane and he could breathe a little easier. God he is nervous.
Ilya watches Shane walk to the benches. He’s cute. Small but still strong. You have to be if you want to be able to jump and spin this fast.
He hopes that it wouldn’t stay this awkward. If yes, this hour would be fucking horrible.
He follows Shane, sits down and takes his skates out.
Ilya looks at Shane. He is tying his laces meticulously. Not a wrinkle in sight. Ilya can’t suppress a small smile while tying his own skates.
“Soooo, Quad God, yes?“
Ilya has a slight smirk on his face.
“Please don’t call me that. I hate it.“
Shane shudders. He really hates that name.
“But why? You can do all Quads, yes?“
“Yes, but-“
“So, you a god among skaters.“, Ilya says matter of factly.
“No, I-“
Shane tries to interrupt but Ilya just keeps talking
“So Quad God. Easy. You’ve earned it. Be proud of it.“
Ilya sounds a little confused. He can’t comprehend how someone could not be proud of their own accomplishments.
To be fair, Ilya struggled with it for a while himself but he has enough people around him to remind him. He doesn’t need his fathers approval anymore. Not only did his father die last year, but Svetlana made sure he knew his father would always criticize him no matter what he did.
He likes her a lot.
Shane just sighs resigned.
“Alright. But please call me Shane. You are as good of an athlete as I am. I don’t want to feel superior to you.“
“Show me.“, Ilya demands.
“Show you what?“, Shane looks at him confused.
“A quad jump. I want to see you do a quad jump. Lutz, Loop, Alex whatever.“
Ilya waves his hands around while Shane lips lift into a small smile. He huffs out a laugh.
“You mean Lutz, Toeloop and Axel. What do you want to see?“
Ilya thinks about it for a second. He wants to see the most impressive jump but maybe is too dangerous to not warm up properly.
“Do you need to warm up for all of them?“
Shane looks at him with a funny expression.
“Would you full on sprint on the ice without warm up?“
He has a point.
“I could show you something different.“
Shane is promptly blushing bright red.
He has freckles, Ilya notices. He is so adorable Ilya nearly gets cuteness aggression.
With a bit of a delay he registers what Shane said and how different it could be understood. Ilya is full on smirking now.
“Well, yes please do.“
“That’s not what I meant!“
Shane is flustered now.
„I meant like backflip!“
“A backflip?“
Ilya is stunned. A backflip on ice? This blows his mind.
“Yes! You know a backflip, right?“
“Shane, I’m not American I’m not dumb! Yes, I know what a backflip is. But on ice?“
Shane is giggling now. Ilya didn’t think Shane could get any more endearing.
“Yes, Ilya on ice. Look!“
With that Shane springs onto the ice, doing a few laps, turning around and then just does a backflip. Ilya can’t comprehend this.
“Can you teach me?“
“No, Ilya. If you hurt yourself all of North America and Russia is gonna hate me!“
Shane is laughing while making his way back to the bench.
“But imagine how cool it would be. I score I do backflip. Legend!“
Ilya is animated and eager to learn the backflip.
“No. We are here to work on your edge skills and efficiency in skating!“
Ilya blows a raspberry.
„Boriiiing!“
“Let’s get started. I need to see what I’m working with and where your weaknesses are.“
“Weaknesses? Plural? I’m the best player in the league!”, Ilya mock shocks.
“Yes, but are you the best skater?”, Shane shoots back.
He skates backwards to the middle of the rink waiting for Ilya to join him.
Over the next thirty minutes Shane scopes out what he’s working with. Obviously not a complete beginner but he sees a few things he can help with and that settles something inside of him. He knows what he can do.
“Alright that wasn’t that bad.”
“That bad my ass. I was amazing.”
“You were good. I’m not saying you weren’t. But I now know where I can help you improve!”
Ilya grumbles something but focuses back on Shane so he can start learning.
And that’s how the remaining one and a half hours flow by. Shane demonstrating something while explaining and Ilya trying to copy him. Shane corrects him and praises him when he nails something.
Ilya loves it.
But who doesn’t love praise from someone who understands the technicality of your own profession.
At the end of the lesson both of them are leaning against the boards sipping their drinks.
“Alright, can you show me now?”
Ilya wants to see a quad jump badly. Shane just sighs while taking off.
He’s going to do his favorite jump. The one he does not have to think about anymore.
A quad Lutz.
He skates around, picks up speed and launches into a quad Lutz landing perfectly with a smile on his face. He hopes this feeling after hitting a perfect jump never goes away.
“This is fucking incredible!”
Ilya cheers from the sideline thoroughly impressed.
Shane just huffs a laugh and lets himself glide back to Ilya. He still couldn’t believe how nice Ilya actually is. He only knew him from the media and he was always portrayed as the cocky asshole player. But he did not make fun of him or the exercises one single time like it was below the big bad hockey guy. He feels at ease with this man.
“Thank you again for doing this. I, ehm, appreciate you for taking time out of your day.”
Ilya looks at Shane earnestly and throws him a small smile.
“No problem. It was fun!”
Shane really had fun today. But he really wants to get started with his own practice now. His season is starting soon and he feels as unprepared as ever. Probably just his own head again but it is not a good feeling.
“Hi Shane!”
Great, his coach is here. He wasn’t fully on board with Shane coaching Ilya. But he is also very protective of Shane. And just as Shane, he only knows Ilya from the media.
“And you must be Ilya. I’m Max, Shanes’ coach.”
You could hear the protectiveness in his voice. Max can come off pretty stern and cold if he gets protective.
“Hello! Yes, I’m Ilya. I was just leaving.”
Ilya shakes Max’ hand and gets off the ice.
“Thank you again, Shane.”
Ilya looks back at Shane with a smile before putting on his guards, grabbing his bag and leaving the rink for the changing rooms. He could’ve easily changed his skates on the bench but Shane knew Ilya could feel a little hostility radiating off of Max.
“Bye, Ilya!”, Shane answers his retrieving back.
He turns to look at his coach.
“You didn’t have to be so stern all the time.”
Shane turns to look at his coach smiling a little.
“You like him.”
It is more matter of factly than a question.
“He was nice. And he took this thing serious.”
Max just acknowledges this just with a grunt before clapping his hands once.
“Let’s get started before too many people show up.”
And with that they start practice.
__________________________________________________________________________
Ilya knows the second Max greets them that he does not like Ilya. He seems protective of Shane. He hates feeling like he did something wrong without actually having done something wrong. Ilya does not want to feel like an inconvenience, so he hightails out of there.
The first thing Ilya does when he gets home is googling Shane.
He didn’t do it earlier because he trusted Farah. He knew Shane was one of the best, if not the best figure skater out there. But he wants to know more.
Half an hour later he has his trip planned to Shanes’ next competition in Toronto and he knows that Shane is in fact gay. As a closeted bisexual man himself this means a lot to him. Ilya obviously knows about Scott Hunter but this is just one perspective. And he could ask Shane about his experience in Canada. How are the people here with gay athletes. It’s Ilyas second year in Canada and so far the people were amazing. His team actively participated in Pride Nights and went to the Pride Parade earlier this month. Still coming out was a scary concept while being on a work visa. Russia is not good about gay people. Before he knows he’s on Instagram looking up Shanes’ profile and leaving a follow. Maybe he should text him. Or maybe he should wait a little. He does not want to come across as too eager.
Before he can think more about it he gets a call form Farah.
“Hello Farah.”
“Hello Ilya. I wanted to check in with you. How was it? Did everything work out? Did you scare that poor boy?”
Farah was already laughing a little. She loves riling him up.
“I think I want to come out to him.”
Well, that is not how Ilya wanted to talk to her about it but now it is out there.
This also stops Farah in her tracks.
“What?”
“I just found out he is gay and it would be nice to talk to someone about coming out in Canada. And maybe about me coming out to my team and-“
He is rambling now but Farah interrupts him.
“Ilya, Ilya, Ilya. Slow down for a second. You didn’t know he was gay?”
“No, why should I know if Canadas Golden Boy is gay? I’m Russian and I was living in America.”
Ilya is confused as why he should know that.
“I don’t know. I thought as a person in the LGBTQ community you know if other fellow athletes come out.”
“No Farah. I only know about Scott Hunter because he literally kissed his boyfriend on ice and my whole team was talking about it. I don’t keep up with stuff like that.”
“Alright. Fair enough. And what makes you think Shane is the right person to tell? He could go to the press and get some good money out of it.”
“No, he wouldn’t do that.”
He takes a moment to think about Farahs’ question a bit and Farah lets him.
“We got along well today. He didn’t treat me differently or sucked up my ass, like many other people would’ve done. And I don’t know. We didn’t really talk about other stuff than what I need to do on the ice. But he did not make fun of me because ‘why would a seasoned ice hockey player not know how to skate perfectly’”
He tries to mimic a canadian accent. Farah let’s out a small laugh at the other end.
“Are you crushing on Shane Hollander?”
There is so much glee in her voice when she says this.
“Have you seen his freckles?”
Ilya sounds over the top exasperated while also laughing about himself. Yes, he thinks he has a small, tiny crush on Shane Hollander. His grace, his strength, the way he carries himself. Ilya found it fascinating.
“Oh, Ilya. Just be careful, alright? And don’t overwhelm him. He seems like a soft soul.”
He does seem like a soft soul.