Chapter Text
“They should be here any minute” Shane said as he paced around the kitchen for the umpteenth time, double checking the food in the fridge again, just in case.
It had been three months since Ilya had moved to Ottawa, and one since the couple had set up their camp.
While Hayden had figured out the relationship around that same time, this was their first true “double date”, and Shane was rightfully nervous. His best friend had been nothing but supportive of his sexuality, and nothing but appalled over his choice in men.
Jackie had been, oddly delighted when she found out, claiming it was “a love story straight from a romance novel”.
“Shane my love, relax. It’s a lunch date, you’re not getting sent to war.” Ilya wrapped his arms around him from behind as Shane rolled his eyes.
“You and Hayden don’t exactly have the best track record.”
“We get along fine at the charity, maybe we are not friends… but he is ungodly underqualified, and it was a charity of its own to give him that job. I know he is filled with gratitude.”
“It’s a volunteer position, Ilya, if anything you should be the one filled with gratitude. And none of those jokes when they get here, I mean it, I really just want a normal cookout.”
Ilya raised his hands in surrender “I know it means a lot to you my love, I will play along with the delusions of grandeur you seem to hold towards Pike.”
“Delusions of grandeur? Where’d you hear that one from?”
Ilya opened his mouth to respond right as the doorbell rang, Shane shot him a look and mouthed be nice before springing forward towards the front door.
“Hey man! I’m so glad you guys made it up here, hey Jackie, you look great!” Ilya could overhear him greeting his friends while he hung back in the kitchen, feeling awkward but not wanting to let it show. He heard Shane give a brief tour of the cottage before leading Hayden and Jackie into the living room.
“Hello Hayden, hello Jackie.” He greeted awkwardly; Hayden nodded a hello and Jackie smiled warmly.
“So after all these years I finally get to meet Boston Lilly? I must say Shane, she’s gorgeous, good job.”
Shane smiled bashfully while Hayden looked as if he was fighting back a brain aneurysm before he chimed in, “Definitely takes some getting used to, that’s for damn sure.”
“Ah that is why you’re here, right Pike? To get to know me outside of hockey and inside of being your future brother-in-law. Shane believes me to be quite charming.”
“Shane also has a fridge full of beer, you want?” Shane himself chimed in, handing a corona out to Hayden as a peace offering, “we should get set up outside, I have a bunch of burgers and dogs. And the weather is great, maybe we can go swimming after we eat. Oh wait? Did I tell you guys to bring swimsuits? I have an extra for you Hayden, but I don’t have one for you Jackie-“
“Sadly, we are not gay enough to wear bikinis.” Ilya cut in to stop is boyfriend’s ramble “but worst-case scenario there’s a shopping center not too far from here.”
“It’s quite alright, I packed a suit just in case-“ She responded, sauntering to the fridge to grab her own beer “I also brought dessert! So try not to gorge too hard on burgers and dogs.”
“You hear that, Shane? No eating like bird today, Hayden’s better half brought desert.”
“My better half? You just met her.”
“And she brings dessert upon first meeting! You disagree your wife is your better half? Shame, I know Shane is my better half in everything except hockey, and we’re not even married yet.”
“Ilya can you help me carry this stuff outside?” Shane cuts in ignoring how his heart flutters with Ilya’s second mention of marriage in the past 10 minutes, “why don’t you guys make yourself comfy outside.”
The lunch went pretty well for the most part, with Ilya keeping his comments at bay. It helped, or maybe didn’t help, that Jackie was enamored by him.
“So you have four children?”
“Yes, we have a one year old, four year old twins, and a six year old.” Jackie responded, swiping through on her phone to show him another family photo.
“Six is fun age, my niece is seven.”
“I didn’t know you had a niece.” Hayden chimed in,
“Yes, my brothers daughter, she is back in Russia, will probably never see again unfortunately. I love kids, that’s why I love working at the charity, I mean I love being able to help people like my mother, but being around kids is what makes it the best.”
Jackie frowned, “you’ll never be able to see her again?”
“Sadly Russia is not very fond of-“ Ilya gestured between him and Shane “and my brother is not very fond of me so, bad combination. Best to just stay here, even though I’m not out yet. I have trust set up for niece for when she turns 18, I know she will be okay.”
“You must miss your homeland though.”
“ I mean, yes. But this is my home now, I try not to think about it too much.”
“Oh, that’s- I’m sorry I’ll drop it. I brought, I thought it would be sweet but I hope it doesn’t upset you…” Jackie pushed out of her chair and made her way back into the kitchen to grab the dessert she brought.
“медови́к!” Ilya exclaimed, rising from his seat as Jackie set the cake on the table, his eyes lighting up and a toothy grin etching itself on his face “I could never be upset with this! Shane look! Jackie you made this? Thank you! I have not had in so long!”
“I hope it came out alright, I’ve never had it before.”
“It looks beautiful, am sure its great. I’ll get us some plates.”
Shane turned to Jackie the second Ilya was out of earshot, “that was really nice of you, I know you just made his day. I feel like I’ve been totally failing at helping him deal with being homesick.”
“Shane, you’re his home now. He’s absolutely nuts over you.”
“It’s true dude, it’s disgusting to watch. Still feels like the twilight zone, but I am happy for you.”
The glass door slid open before Shane could respond, and Ilya started passing plates out to everyone. “Shane if you use your macro-whatever diet as an excuse to not eat this delicious honey cake it would be an insult to Jackie and an insult to my culture. Your poor immigrant boyfriend.”
Shane rolled his eyes pecking Ilya on the cheek, “for your culture and for Jackie’s hard work, I’ll have a slice.”
Ilya was on his second slice before Shane was even halfway through with his first, overjoyed as he devoured his childhood favorite.
“Jackie this cake is delicious, has been so long since I’ve enjoyed food from home. Usually just enjoy vodka from home, but that has less childhood nostalgia. Still has some though.”
Jackie smiled in response then glanced towards Hayden, glancing down at his phone then back at him, a knowing look on her face.
"Ah right, well this is kind of a perfect segue into my news: a coach from Russia reached out to me about teaching over the summer."
"He reached out to you Pike, and not me? The Russian? Who is this supposed coach?"
"He's legit, I've seen his stats, his name is Grisha Berezkina," he sounds out the name slowly, pulling up the conversation thread between the two of them, and not noticing how Ilya pales before he lunges for the phone.
Ilya quickly threads his thumb over the touchscreen of Hayden’s phone, glancing through the messages exchanged “How, what? Why- why did he?”
Hayden gives him a puzzled look “he reached out on instagram. He knows it’s a volunteer gig. He has great stats, he even mentioned being a huge fan of you.”
“No.”
“What? Why? Because I pitched it? We should at least discuss it.”
“He’s not here, right? He’s still in Russia?”
“Yeah, I told him I’d get back to him.”
“Get back to him, tell him no, then block him. Or better yet I can do for you, download Cyrillic keyboard on your phone.”
Hayden turned to Shane with an exacerbated look, a I told you your boyfriend hates me etched across his face.
“Ilya, babe, at least read what the dude sent Hayden. Why are you so against this?”
“Because I am the only one here from Russia? I know this coach. Mean man, bully. Don’t want him near innocent kids.”
“You’re a mean bully half the time and you still coach the kids.” Hayden retorts as Shane gives him a look.
“I am great with kids Pike, I would never be mean to a kid. Kids should be protected. You are what, 30? You think I should treat you like kid?” Ilya holds out his hand making a grabbing motion for the phone, “I will read what he has to say, if that makes you happy. How did he find you?”
“Like I said, Instagram. He left a comment on one of my pics to check my DMs and I saw his account was verified so I checked my DMs and then we got to talking.” He tentatively holds his phone out to Ilya who scrolls to the top of the messages.
And although we’ve never met, I’ve been following the career of Ilya Rozanov since he was just a tiny 12 year old boy that no one had heard of. He reads from the first message, nausea brewing in his stomach as he scrolls up further, it’s the comment that started it all. Cute kids! Check your DMs Ilya clicks the photo that Berezkina originally commented under, it’s the Pike kids all lined up at the bottom of the stairwell, in their Halloween costumes. He only has enough time to scooch backwards in his chair and stand up before he vomits the burgers and cake onto the patio.
“Ilya!” Shane exclaims, rushing out of his seat.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He mutters, putting the phone back on the table, sliding it towards Hayden “I am sorry I did that in front of you.”
“Honey, we have four kids, we’ve seen plenty of vomit. Are you okay? Was it the cake?”
“No no, cake was delicious, was me. Pike can I talk to you inside?”
“Uh sure, are you okay though?” Hayden wearily glanced between Shane and Jackie, varying degrees of concern and confusion on their faces.
“Am fine, will brush teeth, will hose patio.”
“Babe I’ll clean the patio, you need to lay down.” Shane pipes in as Ilya brushed him off with a wave of his hand as he makes his way inside, a confused Hayden following behind.
“You need to block this man. You need to download keyboard so I can tell him to go away, and you need to block him, and you need to take babies off of Instagram.”
“Why are you so against him? And why should I delete my kids, they’re adorable.”
“He lies to you, in first message. He knew me, when I was child. He was, bad. Very mean, would slap me, would… taunt me over my mother dying. Part of that is just the culture, my father hit me too if I played bad. But this man is just wrong. Please don’t tell Shane. Just, please trust me on this. And children shouldn’t be on the Instagram because there are weirdos on the Instagram. That is general safety concern.”
Theres something akin to horror on Hayden’s face as he hands Ilya his phone, Cyrillic keyboard at the ready, “fine, but I don’t like keeping this from Shane.”
“Shane knows my childhood was upsetting, I don’t want to give him and his parents more reason to look at me with pity.” Ilya responds, typing a novella out that Hayden can’t decipher. He clicks send then immediately blocks the account, handing the phone back to Hayden.
“I promise Pike, if it had been just a normal Russian coach I would have been all for it, but this is just, not good.”
Hayden just nods, “I believe you.”
“Thank you, I am going to go brush my teeth. Go back to Shane and Jackie, don’t let this ruin the day, Shane has been so nervous and excited for our coming out fest.”
“You guys aren’t even out.”
“Five people know now, for a decade it was zero, baby steps Pike.”
And yeah, it was hard to argue with that logic. Hayden made his was back to Shane and Jackie whilst Ilya bounded up the stairs, a sinking feeling in Hayden's stomach over the whole ordeal lingered.