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“Something occurred to Ilya after he ended the call with Shane: maybe Shane had recorded that call and was going to run it through some sort of translating app later. But Shane wouldn’t do that, would he?”
Shane read through the translation. Once. Twice. And one more time. He felt guilty that he skimmed over what Ilya revealed about his feelings for his father. But one phrase took his breath away.
“and on top of everything, I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you and I don’t know what to do about it.”
I’m in love with you.
Ilya Rozanov was pretty sure he was in love with him, Shane Hollander.
Shane had a feeling Ilya only revealed that because he thought Shane was just listening. But it occured to Shane to record so he could be helpful. He knew not to trust the online translators, but he at least thought it would help get his point across that he was supportive and there for Ilya. Even if he didn’t know exactly what they were, he swore he would be the best whatever it is.
Shane just leaned back on the stairwell. Still trying to get his heart to calm down. He was in the same boat as Ilya as well. He was also pretty sure he was in love with him and he had no idea what he could do about it.
A text came in from Hayden.
Hayden: You good?
Hayden: Where did you go?
Hayden: Shane?
Shane smiled to himself as he rose from the stairs and started heading for his room. At least Hayden wasn’t complicated and his annoying text chains were more predictable than “I love you” admissions. Shane decided to put the translation in the back of his mind to freak out over later. Like everything that had to do with Ilya Rozanov.
— May 2017–
Ilya just sat back after getting a call from Shane. Boston had lost their game last night against New York and were officially out of the playoffs. Ilya hated himself for how weak he was. He hated that he was hurting himself. He knew blaming the hangover and lack of sleep and stress of the playoffs had nothing to do with calling Shane that afternoon. If anything, he was mad at the fact that he wanted to call Shane as soon as he got a second of free time the night before. He saw that Shane had sent a text and avoided looking at it. Knowing Shane, it was going to be professional and supportive and most likely the tipping point to make Ilya lose it.
Because he was a sadist, he did open it. He read the message and decided to rally his team to go out and drink. Everyone would see it as him being a good team captain trying to raise his teams spirits after a hard fought run. They expected that. Not their ruthless player captain having a pity party because his rival sent him a message to show once again, that Ilya wasn’t good enough for him and even if he was, there was no way he could ever be with him.
But all those thoughts weren’t what had Ilya just staring into space. At the end of their call, Shane had said a word in what he was assuming Japanese. It was very quick and quiet. It sounded like, “Ice ta ma.” Ilya had no idea what it was and he knew with his accent it would not come out right if he tried speaking it into a translator app. Shane had hung up before he could ask what that meant, but he had hung up quickly after a squeaky, “bye!”
Ilya tried putting it into his phone by spelling it out by what he thought he heard with his rudimentary english spelling skills. He kept scrollibg through some nonsense before a phrase caught his attention.
Aishitemasu means “I love you”
Ilya looked it over and closed his phone. There was no way that was what Shane had said and he did not have the strength to drink himself under the table again. He left his phone on the couch and grabbed his jacket. Some fresh air would distract him. Nothing like the fresh “ha” Boston air to distract him from thoughts of a certain cute Canadian man who he wanted no less than everything from.
Fin...for now.