Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories:

Gen, M/M

Fandom:

Heated Rivalry (TV)

Relationships:

David Hollander & Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, David Hollander/Yuna Hollander

Characters:

David Hollander, Ilya Rozanov

Additional Tags:

Family, Good Parent David Hollander, POV David Hollander, David Hollander & Ilya Rozanov Bonding, Protective David Hollander, Basically David had one (1) conversation with Ilya and decided to get those adoption papers, Ilya Rozanov Loves Shane Hollander, Soft Ilya Rozanov, Ilya Rozanov wants to get a good grade in son in law, which is both possible and something normal to want, Episode: s01e06 The Cottage (Heated Rivalry), Introspection

Language:

English

Series:

Part 3 of Heated Rivalry Oneshots

Stats:

Published: 2026-03-11 Words: 1,552 Chapters: 1/1

Rules and Pasta

Summary

David Hollander tries to reassure his son's boyfriend and ends up being the one comforted instead.

Or,
My take on that David and Ilya conversation.

Notes

This was written as a companion piece to my Yuna and Ilya conversation but can be read as a stand alone.

When Shane stands up and mutters something about bringing a jacket to his mother, David can’t help but feel relieved. He knows Yuna is taking this hard, not that he blames her, and much as he’d like to fix this for her, the only thing that will truly help her right now is a conversation with their son.

They are so similar sometimes. His Shane and Yuna.

So determined and set in their ways, so sure that there are some invisible rules that tidy the world and make it make sense. So good at following those rules and so baffled when they see how others bend them.

And David loves them. He loves them both so much. There’s really nothing he would change about either of them. But it is true that they are not the most adaptable. And Shane has, inadvertently, just shifted Yuna’s whole paradigm 180 degrees.

David lets out a sigh and realizes that he’s not alone.

Of course he’s not.

Ilya’s playing with the glass in his hands and honestly looks a bit nervous.

It’s humbling. Seeing this man (this boy, actually, he’s the same age as Shane, isn’t he?) who routinely jumps into the ice to face giants and legends, crowning himself one of the greats amongst them, look at him like his opinion matters. 

Like his opinion could break something precious.

David wants to reassure him that he won’t.

Of course he won’t.

Not when Shane was looking at him in the same way not five minutes ago.

“It will be fine,” David tells him, more to break the silence than anything else. “They just need a moment alone.”

Ilya nods. “It is a shock. I know.”

David can’t help but chuckle a bit at that. “Yeah, that it is. But there’s nothing to worry about, sometimes Yuna needs a minute when things change too quickly.”

That makes Ilya smile softly for some reason. 

“Shane too,” he says quietly, like he’s sharing a secret. “But once he’s wrapped his head around it, he’s very good at charging ahead.”

There’s something akin to awe in his voice and that, more than any of his previous declarations, puts David at ease. 

This boy knows his son, and that means more to him than love confessions and bold promises of a future together. 

“Yuna’s the same,” he admits, and lets his own adoration slip into his tone. “She’ll come back with an itemized ten year plan and start reorganizing your future so prepare yourself.”

“That may be a problem,” Ilya says but his tone is more teasing than anything else. “Shane already has our ten year plan done, woke me up at three am to tell me.”

David snorts, and finds himself sharing a companionable smile with the Captain of the Boston’s Raiders. 

Today’s been a weird day.

“So it’s not that she disapproves?” Ilya blurts out, and then he looks like he really wishes he could take those words back.

“No, of course not,” David quickly tells him. “Like I said, we already thought that maybe Shane was gay.”

“But you didn’t suspect that he was so friendly with me,” Ilya reminds him. “You thought maybe, nice man in Montreal, yeah?”

David winces and wishes he could take back that joke.

But it had not been a joke, had it?

It had been a true question, masquerading as teasing.

Christ he cannot believe he told his son if he was sure about his boyfriend in front of said boyfriend.

Suddenly he’s remembering when Yuna had introduced him to her parents. Remembers how they smiled at him and then exchanged words in Japanese, speaking too quickly for him to understand back then. Remembers Yuna, also speaking in Japanese and her smile turning into an angry frown.

He’d known they had been talking about him.

He’d known that he hadn’t been what they had been expecting from their daughter’s partner.

And it had hurt.

Their relationship is good now, it has been for years, but the memory still visits him during those nights when he cannot fall asleep.

He really hopes that his question won’t haunt Ilya in the same way.

“I don’t think a nice man from Montreal could keep up with our Shane,” he offers instead and is rewarded with a small smile from Ilya. “He likes being challenged and has never settled for second best.”

“Oh, I know,” and David is not going to annalize the heat in Ilya’s gaze when he says that.

“Anyway, it’s not who the boyfriend is that's bothering us,” David says and at this point the shock has worn off enough that it’s probably mostly the truth. “It’s that our son’s been involved with someone for a decade and he didn’t feel comfortable enough to tell us.”

“It’s not his fault. He said he would have,” Ilya tells him immediately, sounding almost defensive. “If it weren’t me.”

The last part is accompanied with a grimace and an almost mocking sweep of his hand to signify all of himself. David has a sudden urge to hug him.

“Whatever the reason,” he says because he doesn’t know the situation well enough to reassure him that of course it hadn’t been him, not in the way he means it at least. “We made him hide something important to him and didn’t even realize he was doing it.”

There’s a minute of silence in which David can see that Ilya is debating with himself. He keeps playing with the now empty glass and David is so enthralled by it that he almost jumps when he suddenly fixes him with a glare.

“When Shane won rookie of the season, you were there, yeah?”

David nods.

“I wasn’t,” Ilya says, then he frowns. “I was at the ceremony but I left, went to the rooftop, when the results were announced. I didn’t stay for the speech.”

David nods again, he’d noticed that. Or well, Yuna had noticed and had proceeded to gloat about it for a good while, which back then had seemed like good fun but now is making him cringe a bit (especially because he knows that Yuna is going to spend a week going through each memory in which he mentioned Ilya in front of Shane and will punish herself for any unkind word she’s ever uttered about the kid).

“Can’t say I blame you,” David says lightly. “Those speeches get boring fast.”

“I like boring,” Ily says matter of factly. “I was just not looking forward to what people would tell me, back in Russia. Losing was not something that was allowed. And I was young, I did not know how to deal with that.” He shrugs, talking with a lightness that David does not believe. “Hollander, Shane, found me. He was hurt, I think, that I wasn’t there. Thought I was a sore loser.” Ilya chuckles. “I guess he was right, a bit. But I wanted him to know. I wanted him to understand that it wasn’t… that it was more. So I told him ‘I go home in three days’.”

The urge to hug the kid is back and even stronger this time but David barely knows him and Ilya doesn’t look like someone that would appreciate pity so he wordlessly refills his glass with vodka.

“Thank you,” Ilya says, nodding at the glass. “Anyway, it didn’t work. Shane didn’t understand. He said ‘that’s nice’ or something like that.” He chuckles at the memory. “I was a bit frustrated back then, but it’s good, yes? That to Shane going home is nice. That he didn’t get it. Because his parents, they are in his corner. Always.”

And oh, but David feels his eyes burn a bit at that.

Ilya’s apparently braver than him because he reaches across the table and squeezes his hand.

“It’s not only time. Shane’s always sure you have his back. He did not hide because he didn’t trust you. He hid because the rules,” Ilya makes a sweeping gesture to encapsulate them. “The rules he follows, like be polite and nice and always fucking perfect. Rules say he cannot be gay, that he cannot love me. So he says to himself that he’s not and he doesn’t. Until one day when he cannot say that anymore. And then he invites me to the cottage and starts making plans to come out to his parents.”

“So it’s new,” David summarizes. “Not the relationship but the acknowledging of it?”

“Yes,” Ilya nods. “So it’s not your fault. He knows he’s safe here but there’s nothing to share if he convinces himself that there’s nothing going on, yes?”

And yet, isn’t it their fault that ‘don’t be gay’ is one of their son’s rules?

David’s not naive, he played hokey for long enough that he knows where that rule mainly comes from.

Still, isn’t it their job to make sure Shane knows that rule is bullshit?

Where did they go wrong to cause Shane to deny something so vital about himself for a whole decade?

But he’s not going to get into this with this boy. 

This sweet, earnest young man that is doing his best to confront him on what's probably a very stressful day for him.

So David sighs, he smiles and he asks Ilya, “Do you like pasta?”