Rating:

Mature

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Heated Rivalry (TV)

Relationship:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Yuna Hollander, David Hollander

Additional Tags:

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hockey Coach Shane Hollander, Coming Out, One Shot

Language:

English

Series:

Part 3 of "second chances" universe

Stats:

Published: 2026-02-10 Words: 1,973 Chapters: 1/1

i should probably tell them

Summary

"The thought of coming out was terrifying, but the thought of lying to his parents forever was even worse.
He would tell them. He would have to."

Shane has been meaning to come out to his parents, and he decides to finally do it.

Notes

tldr the series: Shane got a bad concussion that ended his hockey career, so he's an assistant coach for Boston- and Ilya still plays for Boston. And they still fell in love. Yay! Oh and they're playing up a classic "bromance" for the public eye so they can hang out together outside.

just a fun little scene from this universe that combines domesticity with the stress of coming out to one's parents. but also it's not that stressful in the end.

Shane was finally out of excuses. 

He’d gone from deciding that his sexuality was his own business, to lying to his parents by omission, to straight up lying to to them in a way that made him feel guilty. The other night, he and Ilya had had a date night in, opting to cook some linguini and clams and eat it while they shared creepy ghost stories they’d heard as kids. They had just finished an exhilarating post-dinner game of Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes when Shane’s phone buzzed. He ignored it, opting instead to lean into Ilya on the couch, pretending he wasn’t sweating from trying to keep the fictional bomb from exploding. Ilya, however, nudged him. 

“It’s your mom, Shane, you should answer it.” 

Shane pushed his forehead into Ilya’s shoulder. “I’ll call her tomorrow.” 

“You will be too sore and tired from tonight to talk to her tomorrow.” Ilya winked. “Talk to her now.” 

Shane swallowed and answered the phone. “Hi, Mom.” 

“Hi honey, how are you?” His mom was her usual combination of interested in hearing about Shane’s life, while also too bored with whatever task she was doing at the moment to complete it without talking to someone. Shane was always glad she thought he was interesting enough to distract her from walking around town or folding laundry. 

“I’m great, Mom, I’m just-” he looked at Ilya, who was taking the opportunity to put the Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes manual back on the shelf. “Just hanging out.” 

“Sounds relaxing! Any friends over tonight?” He knew she was just asking because she cared, but sometimes it sounded like she was surprised he even had friends. 

“Um-” Was this the moment? She knew he and Ilya were friends. Should he tell her Ilya was over for dinner? Would she read into it? “It’s actually just me tonight.” He turned away from Ilya as he lied, not wanting to see his reaction. “I might go do something touristy around Boston tomorrow, though.” 

“Nice!” He could hear his mom’s excitement through the phone. “Is Rozanov still around or did he go back to Russia? You should see if he’ll go with you.” 

“Mom.” Why was she trying to set him up on playdates? “He is around. He’s already coming with me, it was his idea.” He heard Ilya stifle a laugh in the background. He had to bite back a laugh of his own, at the thought of going back to before his injury and telling his mom that one day she would be encouraging him to hang out with Ilya Rozanov to ensure her son got out of the house. 

“Have you been to the Old North Church yet?” 

“Of course I have. It’s in my neighborhood.” 

“Oh, right!” 

Hands snuck around Shane’s waist. He let Ilya pull him in, feeling Ilya’s body press against his. He felt stupid for having told his mom he was alone, now that she’d gone and encouraged him to call Ilya and hang out. What was he so afraid of?

Lips pressed against the back of his neck, making Shane lean farther into Ilya. 

This was why. If he was going to tell his mom some of the truth, he might as well tell her everything. It would be even more difficult to tell her how much time he and Ilya actually spent together without revealing their relationship. The thought of coming out was terrifying, but the thought of lying to his parents forever was even worse. 

He would tell them. He would have to. But, not tonight.

“You know what, Mom, can I call you tomorrow? I really want to finish these dishes and- and there’s something I have to do.”

“Oh!” His mom didn’t even try to keep him on the phone. She must’ve heard the new edge in his voice. “Of course, hun. Give me a call tomorrow. Have a good night!” 

“You too, Mom.” He hung up and exhaled as Ilya kissed behind his ear. He turned around in Ilya’s arms. 

“Hey. I was thinking.” 

“You want to tell your parents?” 

Shane tipped his head back in exasperation. “Why are you so good at reading my mind?”

 
“Why are you so obvious?” 

“Shut up.” Ilya kissed his collarbone. 

Shane stepped back, slipping his phone into his pocket and sliding his hands to Ilya’s shoulders. “Is that, I don’t know. Are you okay with that?” 

Ilya frowned. “They can keep a secret, yes?” 

“Of course.” Shane paused. “Ilya, are you sure? Because I can-” 

“Yes. They are your parents. When am I meeting them?” 

Shane nearly choked. “I kind of wanted to ease them into it. I’ll just tell them I’m gay first, and then tell them about you. Later. Then you can meet them. They’ll come to a game at some point- you can come over when they visit.” 

Ilya hummed in disagreement. “But then you will be up all night worried about it for weeks. Better to rip the bandaid, no?” 

Shane sighed. Ilya was probably right, but he couldn’t imagine dropping all that information on his parents at once. 

“I’ll think about it.” 

Ilya pulled Shane in close to him again. “Think about it later. Maybe in an hour.” He kissed Shane on the mouth then, tilting Shane’s chin with his thumb to deepen the kiss. “Or two.” 

 

Less than an hour later, Shane had an idea. He was kissing his way up Ilya’s leg, softly biting at the sensitive parts of Ilya’s thigh, when he stopped and looked up. 

“Ilya. Would you want to visit my parents with me? Rather than waiting for the next time they’re here?”

Ilya looked at him in disbelief, clearly trying to piece Shane’s words together through the fog of sex he’d been content to stay in. “Are you fucking kidding me?” 

“I’ll tell them I’m gay tomorrow. And then I can tell them I have a boyfriend, and then we can fly to Ottawa- separately, just to be safe- and then we can-” 

Ilya groaned. “Shane. Please.” 

“I can tell you which brand of wine they’ll like if you bring-”

“Hollander if you do not suck my dick right now.” 

“Okay, okay. Geez.” 

The sex was always better when Shane had just thought of a game plan. And he was excellent at coming up with game plans. Was this plan one of the more anxiety-inducing ones he’d ever come up with? Maybe just a little. 

 

They’d been together for only a few months, yet Shane was already beginning to worry that Ilya knew him too well. He had in fact been up all night worrying about coming out to his parents. He’d even opened the notes app on his phone to write an actual script for the phone call before deciding against it. He’d probably panic either way. 

He did, however, call his mom at exactly eight in the morning. 

“Shane?” She sounded uncaffeinated. 

“Hey, Mom, just calling you back. Is Dad there?” He heard shuffling in the background.

“He’s here, we’re just getting up.” She sounded like she had another question, but she didn’t ask it. “You’re on speaker.” 

“Hey, Dad!” 

“Hey, Shane. Why the early morning call?” 

Shane took a deep breath. “I actually have to tell you something.” 

There was a pause on the other end of the line. Finally, Yuna spoke. “Okay, what is it?” 

He should’ve written a script. He had all kinds of things he thought he should say, that people in books and movies said when they came out to their parents. Things like I’m still the same person, or I’ve been struggling with this for a while. 

Instead, all he said was, “I’m gay.” 

He expected some silence, maybe even a gasp. He was ready to talk through everything to make sure his parents still-

“That’s great, son.” His dad had barely hesitated. “Thank you for telling us.” 

“We love you, sweetie,” his mom added. Neither parent sounded particularly shocked. 

“Um, wow.” For all the scripting Shane had been thinking about, he hadn’t come up with anything for this part. “Uh, great!” Should he thank them for not being mad at him? Would they be offended? “Okay. That was, um, easier than I thought.” He hesitated. “Did you guys already know?” 

“…No,” his mom began, also a little hesitant. “We just... considered it.” 

Shane heard movement coming from his bedroom, and prayed that if Ilya was waking up earlier than he anticipated that he’d decide to just go back to sleep. “Oh. Okay. Well, um, cool.” 

“Was there… anything else?” He could almost see his dad’s raised eyebrow through the phone. 

“What do you mean?” 

“Did you just want to- to just let us know?” His mom sounded like she was treading carefully. “Or was there a reason? Maybe a-” she coughed lightly. “A boyfriend?” 

There went his multi-step coming out plan. Why did he even bother? 

“Um.” He decided there was no point in lying to them now. “Kind of. Yes.” 

“That’s wonderful!” Did she sound surprised? Shane wasn’t going to think about it. “Can we meet him?” 

“Of course. He’s, um, we’re not exactly out. Obviously I want to be a coach for a long time, so-”

“They can’t fire you for being gay.” Leave it to his dad to know the policies. 

“No, I know. But it’s a little more complicated than that. It’s not just me, he’s not out either.” And I would never be interested in the media circus that would come with being an openly gay NHL coach. Not for a zillion dollars, he didn’t add.

“But he wants to meet you.” He thought of how ready Ilya had been to see his parents. “I was thinking we could come visit? If you let me know when you’re free?”

“Shane.” His dad sounded like he was laughing. “We are always free. Just tell us when you want to visit.”

“We’ll even make up the guest room for your boyfriend.” Yuna paused. “Or- we won’t. I don’t know. Are we supposed to let you share a bed in our house? What do parents usually do?” 

“Mom.” 

“Okay. Not important. Come see us soon! Oh, what’s his name?” 

Shane had not planned to tell her about Ilya, and he was going to stick to that plan. It was already too much for one phone call, and he was looking forward to crawling back into bed next to Ilya to forget the stress of the past few minutes. 

“You’ll know his name when we get to Ottawa.” 

There was whispering on the other end of the line. “Shane?” It was his dad. “Do we already know who he is?” 

Shane really didn’t want to lie. “You might. I’m hanging up now.”

“Can we guess who it-”

“Bye, Mom, bye, Dad. I’ll send you the timing for our visit.” He hung up before his parents could start guessing. 

Ilya emerged from the bedroom, wearing only sweatpants and a bleary expression. “Shane? Who are you-” 

“Nope.” Shane steered Ilya back into the bedroom with both hands. “We are not leaving the bed yet.” 

“Really?” The corners of Ilya’s mouth lifted the kind of infinitesimal amount that Shane knew to mean mischief. “After last night? You want more?” 

“To sleep. I need to go back to sleep. With you.” Although… he let himself take in his boyfriend’s body. “Well, to sleep eventually.” 

He was only human, after all.

 

“Oh my god, I knew it!” 

Shane turned to Ilya, who was still clutching the bottle of wine Shane had told him to buy and lurking just behind Shane on the Hollanders’ front doorstep. “You’re not allowed to say I told you so.” 

“But-”

“No.”

Ilya just gave Shane a smug smile and turned to hug the Hollanders, who were delighted to finally meet him.