let’s go centaurs!
Why was that so hot?
Heated Rivalry, S01E06
I am a fan of the dynamic where there's no leak and Shane moves to the Cens of his own accord and then Shane and Ilya never come out exactly but they just live openly and all these dumbass hockey players are just like
"Oh yeah they're just like that. They live together and room together and vacation together and get mad if they're separated on the bench. And they kiss in the locker room sometimes but it's you know. They're joking around. Good guys. Gay? Well---no I don't think so. I mean that's weird. Roz is a pussy hound. I mean I've never seen him with a woman but you know he is. Anyway Hollander had that whole thing with Rose Landry and he still talks about her, I think he's still hung up on her. Poor guy. I did walk in on Hollander sleeping on Roz's lap the other day but they were just getting in sync for power play you know? You reporters always want to make everything gay it's so weird. What do you mean 'why do they kiss so much' they're the top goal scoring duo in the league"
Shane does an interview after they're outed where he says, kind of off-handedly, that the one thing that still bothers him about having to keep their relationship secret for so long is that there are no pictures of them together as a couple from those years.
Someone clips it and it goes viral.
Over the next few days, Shane and Ilya's mentions start to get flooded with pictures. Mostly it's screenshots from various games they played against each other, meticulously picked through by dedicated fans to find every moment Shane and Ilya looked at each other on the ice.
Some screenshots get shared by hundreds of different people because they stand out so obviously: Shane and Ilya meeting each other's eyes during a face off; Ilya looking at Shane while his back is turned, naked longing visible on his face; Shane chasing after Ilya with a small but delighted grin.
There are also pictures from press events, award ceremonies, behind the scenes at All Stars. Seemingly any time Shane and Ilya got captured in the same frame gets dug up and shared.
Finally, a couple of weeks later, the director of Shane and Ilya's CCM commercial posts outtakes from their shoot. It's captioned 'Took a bit of digging but I knew I still had these somewhere! I had to make my contribution to the #HollanovArchives even though this must have been a while before they got together. These kids had crazy chemistry, right from the start!'
Shane hasn't responded to the onslaught yet, too overwhelmed by the (slightly terrifying) dedication of their fans as well as the fact that he now has dozens of pictures clearly displaying his and Ilya's love for each other during a time in their lives when it was so desperately hidden.
He does respond now, sharing the director's post with a sincere (and publicist-approved) caption thanking him and the fans.
Ilya also shares the post, tacking on 'yes if a while means a few hours 👅' like he didn't cry when Shane showed him the videos.
I like to think that after being outed and moving to the Ottawa Centaurs, Shane’s reputation doesn’t so much as take a hit as it does evolve, seemingly overnight, from Canadian Golden Boy that can do no wrong to Hockey Siren that charmed and seduced his competition. He goes from Boy Next Door to Dangerous Heartthrob. Everyone wants a piece of him. Teenaged girls start calling him daddy. Thirst edits are everywhere. All those photo shoots he’s done are popping back up again. The internet is feral.
Harris is very thankful the man is never online because he knows Shane would be embarrassed by all the attention.
Ilya is five seconds away from posting a sex tape to remind everyone his man IS TAKEN!
someone on twitter said "the way ilya nudges shane to burrow into his shoulder and shane just melts..."
seriously, people need to stop noticing these little details. i can't take it anymore, i feel like i'm going to explode.
heymacy
