Rating:

Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid

Relationship:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Ilya Rozanov, Wyatt Hayes, Luca Haas, Evan Dykstra, Zane Boodram

Additional Tags:

Post-Book 2: Heated Rivalry (Game Changers), Pre-Book 6: The Long Game (Game Changers), POV Outsider, POV Wyatt Hayes, Ottawa Centaurs (Game Changers), Shane Hollander's Stretch Marks, Ilya Rozanov Loves Shane Hollander's Stretch Marks, Ilya Rozanov Loves Shane Hollander

Language:

English

Series:

Part 3 of Hollanov from the Outside

Stats:

Published: 2026-09-10 Words: 2,288 Chapters: 1/1

Tiger Stripes Appreciation

Summary

Dykstra comes over and claps Luca on his other shoulder. “No need to feel weird. Tiger stripes, yeah?”

“Tiger stripes?” Roz repeats.

Dykstra nods. “Yeah, learned that from my wife when she was pregnant with Suzie. You know, because they show she survived the battle of being pregnant and all that.”

Or: The Centaurs have been debating for a while whether the great playboy Ilya Rozanov moved to Ottawa for love. After a locker room conversation about tiger stripes, Wyatt is pretty sure Roz has his own tiger stripes woman. Or, well, maybe rather a tiger stripes person.

Notes

This is an old Tumblr post that I reworked for AO3. I just love Shane's tiger stripes so much and we all know so does Ilya.
Many many thanks to my betas ilikaicalie and masja_17!

“You feeling okay, kid?”

Luca’s head snaps up, startled at Wyatt’s question.

It’s only a few weeks into the season, and their new rookie is still pretty quiet around the team. Wyatt’s good at reading people—part of his job as a goalie, really—but Luca has been one of the tougher nuts to crack. Wyatt’s been getting a handle on it though.

They’re in the locker room, hitting the showers after practice, most of the guys still in towels or half-dressed. Even though Luca never complains out loud about anything, his discomfort is always visible in the line of his shoulders or the flush on his cheeks. Wyatt’s pretty sure he’s getting good at figuring out the difference between Luca being uncomfortable because of physical issues or because he’s embarrassed. And right now, Wyatt basically has confirmation that it’s physical.

Luca looks at Wyatt, confusion obvious. “Yes, I’m okay, why?”

Wyatt gestures at Luca’s side, at what looks like fairly fresh stretch marks going by the light purple coloring. They’re not in a typical placement from bulking up, so a growth spurt is Wyatt’s best guess.

“Growth spurts can be a pain. Literally,” Wyatt says, who is six feet two and knows. He had days during puberty when he woke up and half his wardrobe didn’t fit anymore, when the growing pains settled deep into his bones, and when, worst of all, he stumbled uncoordinated over his newly grown feet. The only place his body had always behaved was on the ice, which was a good thing, because Wyatt was still growing after he got drafted. And with the growing came the pain. Luca is only twenty; he might just have hit his last growth spurt.

“Ah, yes.” Luca shifts a little uncomfortably. “I think I grew another two centimeters since I came here. I thought I was done, but…”

Wyatt claps his shoulder. “Sometimes you get a late one. You can ask for more massages, get some of the aches out.”

Luca gives him a grateful smile. “Thanks, but I don’t know—”

“Why does Haas need more physio?” Roz asks from across the room.

Wyatt has no idea how he heard them, but their captain just notices things. He would have made a good goalie, Wyatt sometimes thinks, before he remembers Roz’s explosive energy and killer drive to fight his way through the defense to score, and that Roz would go crazy hanging out in the crease. Even though he’d be very good at tracking the puck.

Roz comes over now, obviously concerned for his rookie. Like a good captain.

When Wyatt got traded to the Centaurs, he was worried about Rozanov, knowing him only by reputation and fearing another Dallas Kent situation. Thankfully, Roz turned out to be a good guy. Well, still a little bit of an asshole, but the fun kind, and a good teammate. Roz disappears a little too often and doesn’t spend a lot of time with the team, but he’s a good captain when he’s there. Like right now, looking after their new rookie’s health.

Luca is blushing now, this time uncomfortable because he’s clearly still in the throes of hero worship for Roz. Wyatt can’t blame him; Roz is an electric player to watch and one of his least favorite forwards to guard his goal against. There’s an unpredictability to the sharpness and speed of Roz’s game that makes goalies everywhere hate him. Wyatt’s really lucky that he’s finally getting his turn as a starting goalie on a team with Roz. It still means he’s facing the other sleep paralysis demon of the league that is Shane Hollander four times a year, but you can’t win them all.

“Just some growing pains,” Luca says, shoulders drawn up halfway to his ears.

“Growing pains,” Roz repeats, tilting his head.

“From a growth spurt,” Wyatt says and gestures at Haas’s new stretch marks. Most tall guys, or guys who bulk up in a short amount of time, have them someplace or other on their body. Wyatt’s are very faint, along the inside of his thighs, and his wife has them on the outside of her hips, wrapping around the curve like delicate silver bands Wyatt only gets to see when the light hits them right. He always thought they looked like otherworldly markings on her, like Lisa was from a fairy realm. He definitely thought she was from another world when he woke up in the hospital, still high on painkillers, and she was examining his shoulder.

Wyatt shakes himself out of daydreaming about his wife and continues getting dressed while Roz is hovering over Luca, who’s very red in the face at having his stretch marks examined. Well, having them examined by Roz. The hero worship might be more of a crush, actually, but Wyatt tries not to speculate about that.

Roz squints at Luca’s side in question. “Ah, yes. Massage will help a little with pain.”

Wyatt doesn’t know if Roz has stretchmarks too; it’s not something he usually checks. Haas was just right next to him, and the light hit his side just right, and Wyatt noticed. Because it’s his job to notice things.

Luca nods, still blushing a little. “Yes. Thanks.” He very quickly pulls his shirt over his head.

Dykstra comes over and claps Luca on his other shoulder. “No need to feel weird. Tiger stripes, yeah?”

“Tiger stripes?” Roz repeats.

Dykstra nods. “Yeah, learned that from my wife when she was pregnant with Suzie. You know, because they show she survived the battle of being pregnant and all that.”

Bood, who just told them that his wife is pregnant, turns around at the mention of pregnancy. He’s very excited about his first kid, and he’s been picking the brains of the other fathers on the team.

“Tiger stripes,” Bood repeats. “That’s badass.”

“But I’m not pregnant,” Luca mutters, horrified.

“Well, no,” Dykstra says, looking a little flummoxed.

There’s a moment of awkward silence, then Roz says, “But you’re winning battle with hockey, yes? Making your body into the best possible player, that is a battle too.”

Luca visibly perks up.

“Don’t tell my wife that.” Dykstra shakes his head in horror at the idea. “Or any pregnant woman.”

“Noted,” Bood says.

Roz grins, then walks back over to his own stall. “Besides,” he says over his shoulder, “Tiger stripes are beautiful.”

He drops his towel to get dressed, and Wyatt almost expects to see faint silver lines somewhere on his body, but there’s nothing. Huh. Maybe Roz is more of an appreciator than bragging about himself for once.

“So,” Bood says, the moment Roz has left the locker room. “Who’s tiger stripes was Roz talking about?”

“You are such a gossip,” Dykstra snorts.

“Also it’s a dumb question,” Dillon throws in, “because, like, Roz has probably seen hundreds of women naked.”

“Yeah, but that,” Bood hikes his thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the locker room door, “was not hundreds of women appreciation. That was very one-person-specific appreciation.”

“Still on your Roz moved for love train?” Dykstra asks. “Even though it’s been over two years and there’s no hint he’s dating?”

“Yes, there is,” Bood protests. Wyatt tends to agree. “He’s gone every free day, and I swear to god the one time I was at his house and got something from his fridge—”

“Jesus fuck, give it a rest with the fucking ginger ale,” Dykstra groans. “People drink ginger ale.”

The ginger ale is actually not a bad point, because Roz does not drink ginger ale.

“Not Roz, though.” Bood crosses his arms in front of his chest. “Also, no one who calls smoothies gross healthy baby food owns a thousand-dollar blender, just saying.”

Bood does make a good case. And Wyatt has clocked the way Roz sometimes looks at his phone. There’s a softness in his expression Wyatt had never thought he’d seen on noted playboy Ilya Rozanov’s face.

Dykstra shakes his head. “You need to stop snooping through other people’s kitchens, or you’re gonna go full red-string-guy with a serial killer wall. And before you drag me into your insanity, I need to go home and tell my wife how much I appreciate her tiger stripes.”

Wyatt claps Dykstra on the shoulder, Dillon whistles, and Luca flushes all over again.

Bood grumbles all the way through getting dressed, but then he checks in with Luca again about getting physio, so at least his conspiracy theories don’t interfere with his alternate captain duties.

On the way to his car, Wyatt catches up with Roz in the parking lot. Roz left way before him, but he’s on the phone now, which has apparently stalled his departure.

Wyatt gives him a half-wave, not trying to eavesdrop, but they’re parked only two cars apart.

“I learned a new English word today,” Roz says into his phone, sounding very proud, while raising his hand in Wyatt’s direction and playing with his car keys. “Tiger stripes!” His face scrunches up. “What do you mean, you know? Why didn’t you tell me?”

Wyatt unlocks his car. And if he’s fiddling with his keys a little, that’s no one’s business. But Roz is talking to a specific tiger stripes owner, and okay, it could just be a hook-up, but dammit, he’s curious too, and he’s been thinking on and off that there really must be someone, even though he has no idea why Roz would be so secretive for so long. And then Bood got to him with the stupid ginger ale.

“Because you have them! So if I want to talk about them, tell you how much I love them—”

Slowly, Wyatt puts his bag into the trunk of his Jeep. Rearranges it to make sure it’s sitting safely.

Roz’s voice, absolutely outraged, is carrying across the parking lot. “Of course I love your tiger stripes, but I didn’t have good word for it before and couldn’t tell you.”

Yeah. Roz is definitely an appreciator. Wyatt grins and closes the trunk. Maybe there’s really something to the Roz came to Ottawa for a woman theory, because that was the sound of a man not only deeply appreciative of tiger stripes, but of the entire person attached to it.

Wyatt walks around the truck to the driver’s door but freezes with his hand on the handle when he hears what Roz says next.

“Well, no. Not everyone likes tiger stripes. Some people are fucking stupid and think they’re ugly. So I didn’t know if you wanted me to mention them. You already get so defensive when I compliment your freckles—You do! You told me you don’t like them when they’re my favorite thing about you. First thing I fell in love with when we met.”

Holy shit, Roz really is in love. Roz is in love with his tiger stripes woman.

Wyatt blinks stupidly at his reflection in the door’s window. He looks as gobsmacked as he feels.

“Well, I love your freckles and your tiger stripes, and I think it makes you perfect, and I will show you exactly how much in three days.”

They have two days off in three days. Two days off where the team will hang out and Roz will make mysterious excuses for his absence. Because he’s in love with his tiger stripes woman and going to see her.

“Facetime?” Roz asks, and there’s the sound of a car door opening. “I will be ready in half an hour.”

A car door closes and a moment later, an engine roars to life. Roz doesn’t drive his sports cars to the rink usually, but he manages to get his SUV out of the parking lot at impressive speed.

And well, Roz is clearly trying to be private about this, so Wyatt’s not going to say anything about it, but he wonders why Roz is keeping someone who’s clearly making him so happy so secret, and what his freckled tiger stripes woman thinks of that.

Or man, his sister’s voice says in the back of his mind, don’t be a heteronormative dick, Wyatt.

Wyatt blinks again, staring unseeingly at his car. Well. That would explain the secrecy. Ilya Rozanov with a man. He’d have to be bi? Pan? No, Wyatt shouldn’t speculate, not unless Roz tells him. Which, in the almost two years they’ve been playing together, he hasn’t. But why wouldn’t he say anything? Wyatt talks about his sister and her wife all the time. The entire team loves Harris, who is very openly gay, so Roz should know there’d be no issue in their locker room. But then Wyatt thinks about Scott Hunter coming out, and no one else. Well, two guys in the West did, and one went home to Sweden and the other one retired, so despite Hunter’s fairy tale kiss, things are still difficult. There are still guys like Dallas Kent poisoning the league. And Roz is Russian too, which is a whole different issue.

But Canada is a good place for him. And he’s been here a few years, so he should be able to get permanent residency soon, and then he’ll be safe from Russia. In the meantime, it fucking sucks that he still needs to sneak around. It would be so much easier if he had someone he could trust, even if he doesn’t want to come out to the entire team.

Well. Now that Wyatt knows—is pretty sure he knows—he’ll just have to show Roz it’s safe to share. Wyatt has always been a good ally, but he’ll ally harder than he’s ever has before in his life. And then hopefully, one day, he’ll get to meet Roz’s freckled tiger stripes person.