Rating:

Explicit

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

Heated Rivalry (TV), Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid, Game Changers | Heated Rivalry - All Media Types

Relationship:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander, Brandon Wiebe, Hayden Pike, Jackie Pike, Cliff Marlow | Cliff Marleau, Troy Barrett, Dallas Kent, Svetlana Vetrova, Roger Crowell

Additional Tags:

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Office, Alternate Universe, Ilya Rozanov Has ADHD, Autistic Shane Hollander, First Dates, Ilya Rozanov is a Menace, Ilya Rozanov is a Little Shit, Inappropriate Use of Microsoft Teams, Pining, Oral Sex, Blow Jobs, Consent King Ilya Rozanov, Anal Fingering, Rimming, Anal Sex, I wrote this on corporate time, Rivals to Lovers, But like Rivals is a loose term, Fluff, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Top Ilya Rozanov, Bottom Shane Hollander, Crack Treated Seriously, Idiots in Love, Ilya Rozanov Has A Cat, Coming Untouched, Homophobia, References to Depression, Depression, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Reference to Ilya's Mother, Happy Ending, Dry Humping, Top/Bottom Versatile | Switch Ilya Rozanov, (Ilya gets fingered)

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-03-23 Completed: 2026-04-14 Words: 32,110 Chapters: 2/2

Cinnamon Burn

Summary

Shane and Ilya work at Crowell and Associates Marketing Firm. They have never worked together because their work styles are completely incompatible. A project forces them to spend more time together and explore whether or not they can actually get along.

OR

Ilya is a little shit just because he wants Shane's attention, what happens when he finally gets it?

Notes

Hi Everyone! This is my first attempt at an AU so I really hope you like it. I've spent the last week working on this and I'm really proud of how it turned out.

Chapter 1

Chapter Notes

Shane 

Shane Hollander was working on one of his current client’s digital marketing plans when his supervisor, Brandon Wiebe tapped on the side of his cubicle to announce his presence. 

“Good morning Shane, can I see you in my office in about 10 minutes?” Brandon asked. Shane liked Brandon, he was always very supportive of Shane's ideas even when some people thought they were a little more conservative than most modern advertisers. Brandon always made sure that brands were paired with associates that matched their needs, so Shane tended to get paired with legacy brands they were looking for a modern refresh. 

“Yea sure thing, do I need to bring anything with me?”

“Just yourself, maybe a notepad. See ya in a few!” Brandon said while he was already walking away. 

Before Shane even had a second to start to stew about what he could have done wrong to warrant a formal meeting with his boss so early in the morning he heard him tapping on the cubicle directly behind him, the one belonging to Ilya. “Hey Ilya! Can you meet me in my office in 10?” 

Ilya replied with a quick “Okey” in his Russian accent, he didn't even ask a single follow up question, typical. Ilya would probably just show up with his phone and no materials. 

Shane was wracking his brain about why he and Ilya would both be needed at the same time. They weren't working with any of the same brands, so it seemed odd that he'd need them both.

Shane Hollander had risen through the ranks at Crowell & Associates Marketing Firm over the last 5 years. He was now a Sr. Marketing Associate, a job title he shared with exactly one other person at the company. His rival, Ilya Rozanov. Okay, rival was too dramatic of a word, this was an office not a hockey rink. 

Shane worked hard to get where he was; he was on time every day, meticulously organized, and extremely reliable. His advertisements garnered international attention and he had helped launch branding for several multinational companies. He poured everything he had into his work, without exception. 

Ilya on the other hand, had it easy. Shane just knew that Ilya coasted on his charm and wit to schmooze with the bosses and leaders to earn his way to the top. Where Shane replied to every email with meticulous details to try to answer questions before they were asked so he didn't waste anyone's time, Ilya got away with a simple “Okay” response, he didn't even have a formal signature in his emails! When he was out of the office his message simply pinged back “I am out of the office, I will not read your boring emails.” It made Shane’s skin crawl to think of having something so informal and uninformative. Shane always ensured people knew the exact dates he would be out, how they could contact him, and when he would reply upon his return.

His thoughts were interrupted by his office neighbor and friend Hayden wheeling his desk chair across the walkway between their cubicles, he jammed his chair into the limited space of the cubicle with Shane. 

“Any clue why the boss wants to see you both? Oh do you think HR finally figured out that it was him who keeps stealing your lunch out of the fridge?” Hayden said in a hushed tone so Ilya couldn't overhear them. 

Shane sighed and leaned his elbows on his desk. “I don't know, you heard what I did, he just asked both of us to be there in 10 minutes. Shane checked his watch, he wanted to get to Brandon's office at least 5 minutes early, maybe he could get some information from him before Ilya got there. 

After a few minutes of Hayden talking at Shane while he spiraled, Hayden wheeled his desk chair back across the walkway to his own cubicle. Shane was gathering his notebook and two of his favorite pens when Ilya popped his head over the divider, “You want to go over to the boss’s office now?”

“You're capable of showing up early for a meeting? Shane snarked at Ilya's grinning face. 

“You wound me Mr. Hollander, I'm perfectly on time for all meetings!”

Shane just laughed at Ilya's delusion and walked out of his cubicle towards Brandon's office, when he looked back he knew he was right about Ilya only bringing a phone with him and nothing else. 

Ilya

Ilya followed behind Shane as they walked toward Brandon's office. He couldn't keep his eyes off how amazing Shane's ass looked in the black dress slacks he was wearing. He had his typical white button down tucked in neatly with near military precision, and a boring blue tie. Ilya was distracted because what did an office worker do with all that ass and a tiny waist?

He ran right into Shane who had stopped in front of their boss's office, holy shit the recoil on that ass. “Dude, what the fuck?” Shane yelped.

“Sorry, I got distracted, in my own head.” 

“Well, get it together will you, aren't you nervous about why he wants to see us…together?” Shane was clearly quite nervous about what this meeting was about, it hadn't even occurred to Ilya to be concerned about this conversation.

“No? Why would I be nervous? Wiebe loves me, everyone loves me!”

Shane stared directly into Ilya's soul like he could vaporize him with his glare alone. All Ilya could think was that Shane's eyes were such a gorgeous shade of chestnut brown. Like a glass of expensive whiskey, they seemed inviting and warm even though Shane was trying to melt a hole in Ilya's face. 

Then, as if a switch flipped, Shane turned without a word and knocked on the door to the office. 

Once they were settled in, Brandon began, “So” there was a long pause, Ilya could see Shane squirming in his seat and fidgeting with his pen and notepad, “I know that you two don't see eye to eye…”

Ilya interjected, “Is not true, we are like, the exact same height!” That earned him a groan from Shane and a weary chuckle from Brandon. Ilya just hoped it broke some of the tension. 

“I'll just cut to the chase guys, I'm going to need you to put your differences aside because we just booked a huge client and Crowell decided that you're both going to work on this project…together.”

Ilya could feel a wide smile spreading across his face as he slowly turned to Shane who looked like he was going to break his favorite pen in half. How cute was it that he has a favorite pen. 

“Finally!” Ilya shouted. “I've wanted to work with Shane for ages! His work is all very pretty, very dignified.”

Shane snapped a grim glare in Ilya's direction and turned to address Brandon. “Are you sure that you want us both working on this project? Won't that mean other things have to be put on the back burner, the deadlines, I've got a digital campaign I'm finishing this week, then there's the piece that I picked up for Luca while he's recovering from surgery, and the-”

“Shane, it's okay. We will sort out the details.” Brandon interjected to stop Shane from spiraling, “Look, I know this isn't ideal because you two might not have the same work style, but they specifically requested that they want something elegant yet modern, a total rebrand. They reviewed portfolios containing work from both of you and they couldn't choose. Since it is such a big client, Crowell offered you both up to work together.”

Shane was getting pale, Ilya wondered if he was sick or if the prospect of having to work with Ilya was really that displeasing to him. Ilya admired Shane and his hard work, he wasn't completely sure why Shane hated him so much in the first place. It was never something that Ilya directly addressed because it was far more fun to needle at him just to get his grumpy little responses.

Brandon started going into details about the project so Ilya pulled out his phone, noticing Shane, who was usually a very studious note taker was not writing full sentences. Ilya wrote down everything Brandon told them and sent it to himself in Teams.

Once the meeting was done Shane and Ilya both stood from their chairs to file back to their cubicles. Well, Ilya went back to his cubicle, Shane disappeared into the single bathroom in the hallway. 

Shane

Fuck, fuck, FUCK! This was Shane's worst nightmare. He locked himself in the bathroom, flipping the deadbolt and leaning over the sink. He tried to take deep breaths to steady himself and it just wasn't working. He was going to have to work with Ilya, for months, on the biggest project of his life. He knew what this meant, it was going to be months of Ilya fucking around and Shane doing all the work. There was no way he was going to get Ilya to stick to timelines and project plans the way that Shane needed it organized. 

Once he'd fought off the panic that was clawing its way into his brain, Shane opened his notebook to see what he managed to write down from their meeting. It really wasn't much, not nearly enough details. A new wave of dread washed over him as he realized he'd have to go rehash the conversation with his boss again. 

Shane's phone buzzed in his pocket. The Teams notification noise played, and then played again, and again, and again. Shane grabbed it out of his pocket and set it on the counter to open it.

Shane muted his phone, he couldn't handle the dinging noise. He pulled himself together and opened the door to the bathroom and went back to his desk. Thank God Ilya wasn't sitting at his desk when Shane returned. He settled into researching the brand.

After a few hours of research and jotting down ideas, Shane checked the clock and figured he should go grab his lunch. He opened the door to the shared office refrigerator and didn't see the sandwich he tossed in there this morning. He should have known to expect it with the way today was going. 

When Shane brought his lunch he usually just ate in his cubicle so he could keep working and not have to interact with anyone. It wasn't that he disliked the people he worked with, he just really appreciated his quiet alone time while everyone else filed down to the cafeteria to eat. 

For the last 4 months, on a random day every other week, Shane's lunch would go missing. At first he thought someone was just grabbing his food by mistake, but then he started labeling it and it still went missing. Shane had asked everyone in the office if they had experienced the same issues, but no, it was only Shane's that was going missing. With a deep sigh, Shane closed the refrigerator door and headed to the elevator to go to the cafeteria. 

Ilya

Ilya smiled when he saw Shane's familiar head of black hair moving through the cafeteria line. Did Ilya feel bad for stealing Shane's lunch? Some days yes, some days no. There was no other way to get Shane out of his office, so really who could blame him? Ilya kicked Cliff who was currently sitting in the seat across from him, “Get lost Cliff, I need that seat.”

“What the fuck dude? I'm not done eating… oh have you lured out your boyfriend again today?” Cliff replied, swiveling his head around to try to spot Shane in line. 

“Shut the fuck up Cliff, hurry up. Shane and I have a very important project to discuss. We get to work together for the next few months.”

Cliff laughed boisterously as he gathered his food and phone, “Oh my god, that is going to go over like a ton of bricks, he's going to kill you Roz. Mark my words, he might actually do it this time.”

Ilya waved his hand at his friend’s teasing. Cliff had only worked with Shane once before, and it resulted in him acting like he was scarred for life by Shane's meticulous ways. Cliff just didn't know how to handle Shane, Ilya would figure it out. 

Cliff disappeared just as Shane finished paying for his lunch. Ilya yelled across the cafeteria while waving his hand, “Shane, SHANE! Over here!” Shane blushed up to the tips of his ears, what a cute shade of red, Ilya thought to himself. Shane's head tipped back in exasperation as he moved toward Ilya's table dragging his feet. 

Shane sat down in the seat across from Ilya with a tray that had a salad loaded with veggies and chicken breast. Ilya looked down at his tray of pizza and fries. He thought of the turkey sandwich that was definitely not sitting in the cooler under his desk right now. He wasn't going to let Shane’s original lunch go to waste, he always found it a good home. 

Shane was ignoring him so he decided to get things rolling “Hello.” Shane just continued adding dressing to his salad and ignoring Ilya. So Ilya just carried on the conversation on his own, “Hello Ilya! Ah, hello Shane, thank you for joining me for lunch, that was very kind of you. I was thinking we could discuss this very important task we have been giv-”

“Stop.” Shane interrupted. “You can't even give me like five seconds to adjust can you?” Shane took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Ilya was staring at the precious smattering of freckles that dotted his cheeks. He liked it even more in the summer because they got darker and more numerous. 

“Sorry.” Ilya supplied quietly.

“No you're not.” Shane tossed back while situating his glasses back where they belong. 

Ilya shrugged “I suppose not, I am excited to work with you. We've each worked with everyone else here, but never together, could be fun, yes?”

Shane looked like fun was the furthest thing from his mind right now, the perfect mousey little scrunch of his face almost had Ilya getting distracted again.

“Okay, so, while you were having a panic attack about having to work with me, I took notes about what Brandon said. Would you like to discuss or are you going to scowl at me like an angry kitten for the whole lunch?”

Shane's face turned bright pink at the tease and he quickly looked down at his salad. Oh, well, that was just too precious.

Begrudgingly, Shane asked Ilya to fill him in; they carried on a mostly civilized discussion about the most basic pieces of what needs to be done. They finished their lunches and went back upstairs to work. 

Neither of them had time to iron out more details of their upcoming work today, so they blocked off some time in a meeting room for the next day so they could plan without annoying everyone around them. Ilya was ecstatic as he left the office for the day he grabbed the cooler stashed under his desk and went to get his evening workout in before he went home. 

Shane

Shane was absolutely dreading today, he knew he was going to have to spend hours in a meeting room today with Ilya, and only Ilya. The thought made him want to squirm in his chair. He could never figure out why Ilya always made him feel so on edge, he could never predict what ludicrous thing was going to come out of his mouth at any moment. 

Shane liked predictable, he liked routine, and he really liked being the best. Ilya made that difficult because somehow he dazzled everyone by simply existing and being the fun charismatic guy that everyone wanted to talk to. Shane had just a handful of close friends, and he liked it that way, it was manageable and not overwhelming. If people stopped to talk at Shane's desk as often as they did at Ilya's he'd never get any work done. As it was, the constant interruptions had led to Shane having to wear headphones while he worked so he didn't get pulled off task.

The unfortunate downside of those headphones was that he couldn't always hear someone coming up to his cubicle to get his attention. Normal people would wave in his periphery or gently tap him on the shoulder, but not Ilya. No, today Ilya decided to scare the absolute shit out of Shane while he was taking a drink of water by sneaking up behind his desk and looming over his shoulder. Ilya reached out a hand over Shane's shoulder and declared “I don't like that one, is too green.”

“What the fuck!” Shane screamed as he spilled half of his water bottle down his chest. He rolled the desk chair back away from the desk so it wouldn't get on his keyboard, in the process he rolled right into Ilya who was lurking behind him. The motion caused Ilya to double over so he was looking down over Shane's shoulder now, right at Shane's now completely see-through shirt.

“Are you serious Ilya?” Shane said, standing out of his chair and looking down at the mess of his shirt. It was clinging to his chest and stomach in the worst way. Ilya was just staring, how typical. “Look what you did.” Shane said as he started to stomp toward the bathroom.

He swore he heard Ilya under his breath say something like “Oh I'm looking,” which of course he was, Shane was sure that Ilya just loved that Shane made a fool of himself. 

Ilya

Well that really wasn't how Ilya had intended I start his day with Shane. He didn't realize that Shane had headphones in, he assumed that he'd heard Ilya slip into his cubicle and greet him. He also assumed that Shane was just ignoring him like usual so he thought he could give him a hand and let him know to stop wasting his time on the green motif. It was way too eco-aware of a green for the brand he was working on, it wouldn't make it past the first stage of approval. 

Of course Ilya had gone and fucked it all up though, he was given a small undeserved reward through. A terribly short glance at the body Shane hid under his untailored white shirts and boring ties. He'd seen how the fabric clung to his torso in such an artful way. He'd gotten a glimpse at those little brown nipples that were peaked from the cold water.

Ilya slapped himself gently in the face and muttered “get it together” as Hayden stepped into his own cubicle across the way.

“It's a little early to be beating yourself up isn't it buddy?” Hayden said as cheerfully as always. “Also why are you at Shane's desk? He'll hunt you down if you're stealing his pens again.”

“I am just borrowing! I'll bring it back. Promise. Do not tell him.” Ilya quickly swiped a pen from Shane's stash and while Hayden stepped out to put his food in the fridge Ilya grabbed a napkin from Shane's stash and cleaned up the water that had made its way onto Shane's desk and chair.

About 15 minutes later Shane came back to his desk, his shirt looking a little more wrinkled than usual, but mostly dry. Ilya wanted to go apologize for startling him, he really hadn't meant to scare Shane, but he got interrupted when Cliff asked him to review something. 

He got pulled in a bunch of different directions all morning and never made it back to his desk. His phone dinged with a 5 minute reminder that his meeting was about to start with Shane. He cut off JJ and ran past the meeting room where he saw Shane was already settled in, because he was always early, he grabbed his laptop and ran back to the meeting room with a minute to spare. 

Shane looked at his watch as Ilya shut the door behind himself and settled across the table from Shane. He leaned over the table to grab the HDMI cable so they could use the projector and Shane's arm shot out. It caught Ilya off guard for a second, his brain immediately supplied him with an image of Shane grabbing his tie and pulling him across the table but that wasn't what happened. Instead Shane was plucking the pen out of Ilya's shirt pocket. Ilya's jaw hung open for a moment before he could make himself move.

“Stop stealing my shit Ilya” he said with a stern glare and pointing the stolen pen at Ilya, “You have your own pens, you don't need mine.”

“Yes but yours write so much better!” Ilya tried with what he knew was his most charming smile. 

“Speaking of stealing, I know you take my lunch. I can't figure out why, but you do it but I really don't appreciate it. It's a shitty thing to do, Ilya.”

Ilya kicked back in his chair now that he had his laptop plugged in. “Wow! You get behind closed doors and get very accusatory Mr. Hollander. Tell me, is this the real you Shane? You only ever give me little glares and jabs, I should know who I'm going to be working closely with over the next few months.”

Shane seemed at a loss for words, yes Ilya had deflected on the lunch stealing but he was sure it would come back around eventually. Ilya could see the gears turning in Shane's brain trying to figure out how to talk his way out of seeming like the bad guy here.

“Can we just try to get along? For these few months and then we can go back to working on our separate brands? We can't fuck this up Ilya. It would be a disaster. I need this.” 

“I don't have a problem with you, you are the one who cannot stand me, I don't even know what I've done. Everyone likes me but you.” Ilya pointed at Shane dramatically. 

Shane swallowed quickly and opened up his laptop, his login screen reflected in his glasses in the room’s dim lights. Ilya caught Shane's eyes flitting up to meet his for just a second before he logged in to his computer. 

They worked studiously trying to outline a common understanding of what direction they wanted to go. The materials from the company told them that they wanted to head for a more cozy direction than their current performance active wear branding. They currently employed a sleek bright red logo with black as a secondary color. They were willing to rework the palette within reason, pending board approval of course. 

Shane

The planning session was going pretty well. Shane knew he was about to ruin the calm bubble they'd been working in. This was where it went wrong with every person who had the unfortunate fate of being paired with Shane. 

He couldn't help it, he needed a plan. Everyone in the office worked with a simple go live date deadline, Shane needed to map out every single step of the way. Everything needed a due date and an action plan, there was a reason why Shane had never been late delivering a project, it was this method. 

Taking a deep breath to steel himself for this conversation, Shane started, “I need us to map out all of our pieces and decide what dates each piece is due.”

“Due to who?” Ilya replied, seemingly confused about what Shane was trying to do. 

“Due to us, I need to know that we are on track” Shane was getting tense, he hated having to justify his work methods. This is why working alone was so much easier. “Look if you would rather I just come up with this on my own and just tell you the plan, I can do that, but you have to meet our deadlines.”

“No no.” Ilya replied “I will help you come up with dates, I just need you to explain to me what is involved in each step, I don't outline my work like this. I sort of just, go.”

Ilya unplugged his laptop and brought it over to Shane's side of the table. He sat down next to him and opened his calendar. Ilya was sitting so close to Shane that he could smell the cinnamon gum Ilya was always chewing. Something about being this close to Ilya set Shane on edge, they were never alone together, and they were certainly never this close to each other. 

He looked over at Ilya, broad shoulders filling out the fitted dress shirt, the green patterned tie made his eyes look green in the low light of the room. Shane shook himself out of whatever weird evaluation was just happening in his brain. 

Shane walked Ilya through each step of his process, Ilya participated without complaint. Each date that Shane put in his planner, Ilya added his Outlook calendar.

Overall the planning session had been a success and much less painful than Shane assumed it would be. When Shane and Ilya gathered their items and opened the door to the meeting room Shane noticed several of their coworkers scuttling away or trying to look relaxed in the hall outside the door. 

Hayden fell into step beside him as he headed toward his desk. “Hay, why were all of you standing around the meeting room door when we came out?”

“Well buddy, do you want me to lie to you or do you want the truth?” Hayden said, slapping Shane's back as they moved toward their cubicles. 

“The truth, why would I want you to lie to me?” Shane asked, perplexed. 

“Ok sooooo, everyone kind of had a betting pool going on whether you two would either get in a fist fight or get caught fucking on the table.” Hayden rushed out. 

Shane stopped dead in his tracks right outside his cubicle. “I'm sorry, I thought I just heard you say that at least some amount of the staff thought you'd catch us fucking in the middle of the office.” Hayden's wide blue eyes stared back at Shane as he nodded slowly. “So I'm gonna need you to explain that one to me bud because I'm clearly missing something.”

“Uhhhh yeah man, look, let me grab Jackie and we can all get lunch and we'll try to make it make sense.” 

Fifteen minutes later, Hayden, Jackie, and Shane all sat down at a table in the cafeteria, Hayden's eyes darting between Jackie and Shane. “Ok, Jackie is going to start this off because honestly, I don't think I am qualified to.”

Jackie began, “Shane, my sweet, darling best friend. I'm gonna be blunt with you because I know that works okay?”

“Okayyyy.” Shane replied. 

“Babe, that man is in love with you, like cartoon heart eyes popping out of his head every single time he gets to see you, kind of in love.” Jackie had dropped the bomb and was giving Shane a moment to process. 

“No… I mean, no, right? He hates me, doesn't he?” Shane kept trying his best to fit the pieces together in his head but it felt like trying to jam a square peg into a round hole.

Jackie reached across the table to pat Shane's hand “Okay so you know how in elementary school little boys do mean things to the girls they like? Like how they pull their hair or break their toys because they don't know what to do with all the big feelings they have?”

Shane stared blankly at her because he had no idea what she was talking about so she continued, “Look, long story short is that Ilya is low-key obsessed with you but I think he has no idea how to get your attention without annoying the shit out of you.”

Shane spent most of his lunch trying to process what Jackie had told him, then he caught Ilya walking in with Cliff. Ilya picked a seat where he was in Shane's sight line, occasionally Shane would chance a glance in that direction and find Ilya giving him a lopsided little smirk that made his stomach do a flip.

If Shane thought that trying to view Ilya's actions through the lens Jackie had offered would help him understand him better, he was wrong.

Shane was on the verge of losing whatever chill he had left. He stared at his Teams window as the messages just kept rolling in, and just kept dinging. 

Shane couldn't focus on what he was trying to do with the notification going off every 30 seconds with Ilya's stream of consciousness messaging. He set himself to Do Not Disturb so he could get some work done. He couldn't help it though, his eye was drawn to the Teams logo at the bottom of his screen. He'd pop it open between tasks to see what new things Ilya dropped in the chat. 

Ilya

Things were going so well for Ilya and Shane. Shane was opening up little by little to Ilya as they spent hours working together. Ilya had only managed to piss him off a handful of times by being overly eager. He didn't even have to steal Shane's lunch to get him to go to lunch with him… most of the time.

About a month into the project a new person joined their team, Troy Barrett. Troy got paired with Shane as his mentor and something about it bothered Ilya. He didn't like losing time with Shane just so he could orient Troy to the office, policies, and workflows.

Ilya was used to losing time with Shane to people like Hayden and Jackie, that was fine, he was glad Shane had friends who understood him. Shane might have been oblivious to Troy’s flirting, but Ilya wasn't. Something ugly was creeping under Ilya's skin and he was trying his hardest to contain it. 

Ilya kept trying to send meetings to block time off on Shane's calendar.

Title: Project Catch-up w/ ILYA & SHANE

Required: Hollander, Shane

Start Time: Wed 4/8/2026 11:00AM

End Time: Wed 4/8/2026 11:45AM

Location: Meeting Room #2

 

Shane, let's meet to discuss. 

-Ilya

Just a few moments later Ilya received a reply to his meeting request.

Organizer: Rozanov, Ilya

Time: Wed 4/8/2026 11:00AM

Location: Meeting Room #2

Response: Declined

 

Mr. Rozanov,

 

This meeting does not fit into my availability. I am currently onboarding Mr. Barrett. My availability will be limited until his training process is complete. 

 

Please consult the calendar to ensure that we remain on track with our delivery dates for this project. 

 

Please reach out if you have urgent questions regarding the progress of this project. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Shane Hollander

Sr. Marketing Associate

Crowell & Associates Marketing Firm

Ilya ground his teeth and swung around in his chair aggressively. “Who pissed in your cereal this morning?” called Cliff's voice from the entryway of Ilya's cubicle. Ilya glared up disdainfully and nodded his head toward Shane's cubicle. 

Cliff leaned back out of Ilya's cubicle and glanced into Shane's where he undoubtedly found Troy sitting just a bit too close to Shane for a friendly new coworker. When Cliff returned, Ilya was flopped back in his chair, arms hung over the chair arms spinning slowly in a circle. 

In a hushed tone that couldn't be overheard Cliff said, “Get it together Roz, this isn't you, he's literally just training the new kid.”

“Yes, but that does not stop the new kid from making moon eyes at him all day long.” Ilya said pathetically. He knew Shane would be just as oblivious to Troy's advances as he was to Ilya's, but what if Troy cracked him first? Troy didn't have the baggage of annoying the shit out of Shane for the last few years.

The week drug by so slowly, Ilya felt like every second took an eternity. He didn't even have many meetings to pass the time, now he had to sit there and listen to Shane training Troy in the next cubicle over. Ilya couldn't focus. None of his usual focus tricks worked. He procrastinated his non-Shane related work until the very last minute so on Friday afternoon he was working hard on a campaign for a small brand which was due by 5pm when he overheard Troy talking to Shane. 

“Can I buy you dinner tonight? You've given me all of your time this week and I know it probably set you behind on your usual work, so I'd like to thank you. There's a great Mexican restaurant not too far from here that a friend told me about.”

A pit formed in Ilya's stomach. 

“Oh, uh, sure. I could do that, I don't have any plans tonight, thanks Troy.”

Ilya seethed, he had an hour before Shane would leave for the day, he needed a plan. He pulled up his calendar to see what was due next for their project. He saw that Shane had the “Iconography” section due on Monday. Ilya had already finished it, it was sitting in his folder staring at him. He debated what he would do. 

Shane

Ilya came whipping around the corner of Shane's cubicle “Shit shit shit, Shane are you still here? Oh thank goodness, oh hello Trey.”

“It's Troy.” Troy interjected.

“Yes, yes, sorry. Shane, we have a big problem. I was working on the iconography write up and it is gone, all of a sudden. I know it is due Monday, but all of my work is gone.” Ilya seemed genuinely distraught. “I'm so sorry, I know it is Friday and you probably have plans for your weekend, but would you be able to stay a little late to help me?”

Shane glanced over at Troy who he'd just agreed to grab dinner with. Troy was throwing Ilya a look from under his heavy brows that Shane didn't exactly understand. Shane knew he and Ilya couldn't afford to fall behind on their project.

“I'm sorry Troy, Ilya and I really need this project to stay on track, can we maybe grab dinner next week?” Shane offered. 

“Sure thing man, no worries.” Troy said as he grabbed his things to head out for the weekend. He stopped for a second to look Ilya up and down as he scooted past him to leave the cubicle. Shane distantly wondered if Troy was interested in Ilya. That would make sense, they were both very attractive men, but Shane didn't want to assume anything about Troy’s preferences. 

“How late can we stay here before the cleaning crew kicks us out?” Ilya asked. 

Shane looked at his watch, “We probably have about 40 minutes. Shit, that isn't going to be enough is it?”

Ilya grimaced, “We can try to get it done. Worst case maybe you could come over to my apartment, it's only a few blocks away. You're not allergic to cats right?”

“Uh no? I'm not allergic to cats. Let's just see what we can get done.” Shane replied shakily, he didn't know why the idea of being in Ilya's personal space made him so jittery. It was like a nervous energy that he couldn't quite place. 

Shane and Ilya only got about 20 minutes into their work before the cleaning crew showed up and asked them to leave. That was how Shane found himself walking down the street with Ilya who was desperately trying to make small talk with Shane. To be honest, Shane was shocked that Ilya was showing this level of dedication to staying on time with their project. He hadn't expected that from him. 

“So did this ruin any big Friday night plans for you?” Shane found himself asking.

Ilya scrubbed his hand across the back of his neck, “Uh no, and I'm sorry if I ruined plans you had with Troy tonight.” Ilya sounded uncharacteristically sheepish in that response.

“It's fine, he was just being nice, he wanted to take me out to thank me for my time this week, not a big deal. Not like you can control your computer going rogue on a Friday.” 

Ilya turned to a high rise and led Shane through the opulent entry area. They took the elevator to the 24th floor. “You know, I think I looked in this building when I first moved to the city, it is really nice but it was a little out of my price range when I was just starting out.”

“Is a good building, the neighbors are all very nice and there is a really good group of restaurants two blocks over that delivers very fast.” Ilya replied. As if on cue Shane's stomach growled at the thought of food “I can order dinner if you want, it is the least I can do for ruining your Friday.”

“Uh, sure that sounds good.” Shane followed Ilya into his apartment, he didn't know what to expect from Ilya’s home. He assumed it would all be very bachelor pad with sleek modern furnishings, but it wasn't, it was actually kind of quaint? Lots of browns, reds, and oranges filled the space. Shane was just standing in the entryway like an idiot as Ilya was rummaging around in a drawer in the kitchen.

He was greeted by a gray cat with little white booted feet. “Ah that is Stanley, he has to greet all newcomers to the house, he thinks he is guard dog.” Shane squatted down and gave the happy little cat a scratch behind the ears as he purred loudly, looped around Shane's feet rubbing against him, and then trotted back to the cat tree in the corner.

“Ah! There it is!” He proclaimed producing a pile of restaurant takeout menus “here, take a look through these and decide what you'd like, I'm easy, I'll eat from any of those.” Ilya tossed a flirty wink in Shane's direction while loosening his tie and sliding it out of the knot.

Shane's mouth was dry for some unknown reason and he had to work hard to swallow. Ilya kept going, “get comfortable, I'm going to go change. I've been in these clothes for much too long today.” Ilya was slipping the top two buttons of his shirt through their holes before he turned to walk away leaving Shane holding his laptop bag in the kitchen like an idiot. 

Shane set his bag down and decided on an Italian restaurant that looked good. He set his laptop on the kitchen table and booted it up. He was logging in when Ilya came back out of what he assumed was the bedroom in a cutoff black T-shirt and gray sweatpants, he also had a gold chain with a cross hanging over the collar of his shirt. Holy shit. Shane had to look away as Ilya made his way back to the kitchen because the sweatpants he was wearing were borderline indecent, actually no, they were indecent, there was nothing borderline about it. He could feel his face heating. 

“Are you okay?” Ilya asked while Shane was trying desperately to look anywhere but at the sweatpants. “You're very red, if it's too hot in here I can turn down the temperature, you can take your tie off. Did you pick something for dinner?”

Shane showed him what he wanted and then excused himself to the restroom to try to get it together. He couldn't be lusting after his co-worker, it wasn't professional or appropriate. Ilya probably didn't even realize how the sweatpants looked. The man was in his own home, he could wear whatever he wanted. 

Then, Shane thought about what Jackie and Hayden had told him, the misguided notion that Ilya was in love with Shane, what a joke. Ilya wasn't interested in Shane like that, and sleeping with coworkers was always a recipe for disaster, even if that coworker looked like he was chiseled from marble.

Shane did feel ridiculously overdressed with Ilya in more relaxed clothes. He slipped off his tie and his dress shirt. He neatly folded them and straightened the tank top undershirt he had on, fixed his hair in the mirror and walked back out.

Ilya

Ilya choked on the glass of water he poured when Shane came back to the kitchen in just his slacks and an undershirt. “Holy shit, is that what you're hiding under boring work clothes?” Shane blushed “good for you” Ilya said emphatically, slapping Shane's deceitfully muscular shoulder as he passed him to sit in the chair next to him with his own laptop. 

Shane and Ilya worked diligently for about 20 minutes until the food showed up. Ilya plated it up for them and brought it over to the table. “Can I interest you in a glass of wine, I have a Merlot and a Pinot Grigio I think? Tony, the owner of this place told me that if I ever serve his chicken parm without wine I'm committing some kind of Italian crime, and I don't want to get in trouble with the Mafia. Although, now that I think about it, I think it was just an excuse to sell me wine.”

Shane laughed and that made Ilya's chest warm with pride. He accepted and Ilya poured two generous glasses and brought them back to the table so they could both eat. 

They worked for a while, Shane asked Ilya for another glass of wine so of course, like any good host he poured and poured until the bottle was gone and they started work on a second. 

It was clear that Shane was feeling the effects a bit more than Ilya was because Shane was being more open. It felt less like he was picking each specific word before he spoke and more like he was just letting every thought flow from his brain to his mouth. 

“Okay Ilya, tell me, because it has been killing me. Why do you take my lunches?”

“I would never do such a thing! That would be mean! I would never be mean to you.” Ilya replied, his accent a little thicker with the alcohol in his system. 

“I think you're a liar, and I want to know why.” Shane reiterated, tipping his half full glass in Ilya's direction.

“Okay, you want the truth?” 

“Why does everyone always ask that? Of course I want the truth or I wouldn't ask for it.” Shane said petulantly. 

Ilya took a deep breath, knowing this was probably a point of no return but not finding it in himself to care, “It is the only way you leave your office for lunch.” 

“You throw away my lunch because you want to see me in the cafeteria?” Shane squinted like he was trying to make it make sense. 

“Oh no, I never throw it away, usually I eat it or give it to John, he sometimes sleeps in the alley on my way home from the gym. If he is there I give it to him.”

Shane tilted his head studying Ilya leaning in a bit closer “I have one last question.”

“Anything” Ilya said, mirroring Shane and leaning in.

“Do you like me, Ilya?”

Ilya was a little floored by the sincerity in Shane's voice, “Of course I like you Shane, what is there to not like? You are kind, hardworking, unbelievably smart, and incredibly good looking.” Ilya paused, “I've been trying to get your attention for years, I think maybe I've been doing it all wrong.”

Shane pressed a large warm hand to Ilya's cheek and drew him in, their lips hovered centimeters apart, Ilya was unbelievably still, letting Shane make his decision even though everything inside him was begging him to just close that last little gap and kiss him.

He waited patiently and after an agonizing few seconds, Shane pressed his lips to Ilya's in a chaste kiss. Ilya was terrified that Shane was going to stop, that he would pull away, because this was the best moment of Ilya's life. 

Chills swept over Ilya's arms as Shane ran his right hand over Ilya's left where it rested on the table. Ilya took a chance and tried to deepen the kiss, pressing his tongue in and parted Shane's lips. Shane opened immediately. He was pliant under Ilya's lips and it was beautiful.

They continued for a few moments until Shane pulled back. His cheeks were flushed that lovely shade of pink Ilya had grown to admire. Shane's lips tipped up in a lazy smile and then cleared into a blank slate as he said “I really should go, it's pretty late, I don't want to keep you up.”

Ilya leaned back and observed Shane, trying to discern if he was freaking out. He couldn't see through the mask that Shane had slammed back into place. “Would you like me to call you a cab?”

“Yes please” Shane said, pressing a quick kiss to Ilya's lips again. “I'm going to run to the restroom before I go.” 

Shane

Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit. The phrase was running laps around Shane's brain as he stared at himself in Ilya's bathroom mirror. He tried to sort through the thoughts swirling around his head. He couldn't keep hiding in Ilya's bathroom, he needed to go, he needed to get home, he needed to decompress. He could feel his body tightening and tensing. The kiss had been good, so good, too good. The minute their lips parted though, Shane's brain began to spiral about the implications. They had to work together every day for the foreseeable future, he couldn't risk his job for what was probably just a passing crush for Ilya. 

Shane exited the bathroom and found Ilya standing awkwardly cleaning up the leftovers in the kitchen. The silence was crawling over his skin as he packed up his laptop. “Uh, so thank you” Shane's voice came out awkward and a bit formal “I'm glad we could get this work done, glad we could stay on track! That's what's important.” Ilya stared at Shane like he was trying to see inside his head.

Shane couldn't stop talking to fill the silence that clearly didn't bother Ilya who was studying him like a bug under a magnifying glass. “Oh and thank you for dinner, it was actually so good, you'll have to text me the name of the restaurant. The wine was great too. So, yea thank you.” 

Shane stuck his hand out to Ilya who studied it for a moment before taking it and shaking. Ilya was so quiet, Shane was worried he fucked everything up. What if Ilya told their boss that Shane got drunk and kissed him, oh god, what if Shane had completely misread everything and he'd made Ilya uncomfortable and he'd only kissed him back out of pity.

“My uh, my cab is probably here by now isn't it?” Shane said quietly while making his way to the door. “Okay, I'm gonna go.”

“Goodnight Shane.” Ilya said with a softness in his tone that soothed something that was bound tight in Shane's chest. 

Shane was sitting in the back of the cab trying not to spiral when his phone buzzed several times back to back.

The picture was of Ilya's cat, Stanley dragging Shane's tie across the floor towards his cat tree. The whole exchange brought a smile to Shane's face despite the previous tension that had consumed his mind. 

Shane got home and quickly hopped in the shower to wash off what ended up being a very long day. If he stroked himself in the shower to the memory of Ilya's lips on his, that was between him and the walls of his bathroom. No one had to know. 

Monday morning came around too quickly. Shane had been trying to come to terms with how he should act around Ilya and he was determined not to let it change anything. He would put on his usual office face and just resume work. Ilya hadn't texted him anymore over the weekend and probably just wanted to put the whole thing behind them. They were adults, they had kissed, it was fine. Everything would be fine. 

Ilya

Everything was not fine, Ilya was crawling out of his skin, he wanted to text Shane all weekend, he wanted to call him back to his apartment so they could pick up where they left off. He knew he couldn't though, he'd scare Shane off. Ilya had finally gotten a taste of what he had been pining after for YEARS and it was everything he wanted, and now he was just supposed to be chill about it. Ilya had no chill.

Ilya sent Shane 3 of the best pictures of Stanley playing with Shane's forgotten tie. He had about 20 of them on his phone. Shane ❤️ reacted to each of the pictures Ilya sent. He was grinning like an idiot as each reaction came through. 

“That's a lot of smiling and way too much teeth for this early in the morning Roz, can you bring it down a few notches?” Cliff said as he stepped into Ilya's cubicle. “Ooo, what do we have here?” Cliff leaned down to look at Ilya's screen before he could minimize his chat window with Shane. “Awww Stanley, I miss that little guy, how is he do-” Cliff paused as his eyes moved up to the top of the chat window and saw in big bold letters Hollander, Shane.

Cliff's eyes were the size of saucers as his head slowly turned to meet Ilya's face. “No. No fucking way Roz, how did you even…” Cliff just trailed off, never finishing his question. 

“Shut the fuck up Cliff. I swear if you don't shut your mouth right now I will tell Brandon about how you sneak out of here early every Wednesday to meet up with that girl from accounting.” Ilya whispered in a harsh tone. Cliff mimed zipping his lips.

“I want answers Roz, I have sooooo many questions. You can't leave me hanging like this.”

“Later, okay? We can go to lunch today, I'll answer your stupid questions.” Ilya's closest friend nodded and walked away. 

-

Cliff and Ilya slid into opposite sides of the booth at their go-to Mexican restaurant. The same Mexican restaurant Troy was going to try to bring Shane to on Friday. Cliff leaned in conspiratorially “Tell. Me. Everything.”

Ilya filled Cliff in on what had happened including the truth about deleting his work to spend time with Shane. 

“Man, this guy has you worked up something serious Roz.”

“Shut up, I can't help it.”

“No, no it's cute, you're straight up blushing.” Cliff said, gesturing to Ilya's face. 

“I am not blushing, Russians do not do this.” Ilya snapped back.

“Tell that to your face, man.” 

Ilya slumped over placing his head on the cool table, “He kissed me, and I think, I think I'm broken. I can't stop thinking about him.”

“Awwwwww, that's the cutest shit I've ever heard.” Cliff said while stuffing chips and salsa into his face. 

Shane

“Something is different with you.” Jackie said suspiciously as she leaned over the table to look harder at Shane. 

“Yes he's been jumpy all day.” Hayden supplied “Oh and his teams kept going off all morning. Wonder who that could have been. Maybe a certain Russian man that you spent Friday evening with, “working” at his apartment, all alone.” Hayden said while making dramatic air quotes around the word “working.”

“We were working, thank you” Shane said, placing his hand over his mouth while trying to finish his bite of salad.

“Working and what else Shane, something happened and I need to know if this is a yay moment or a take out a hit moment.” Jackie replied with not quite enough sarcasm on the take out a hit part.

“We had dinner, we had some wine, and I might maybe have kissed him.” Shane rushed through the end of my sentence while staring directly at his salad.

He chanced a look up at Jackie and Hayden who currently looked like they'd both been slapped. “Sorry, let me just pick my jaw up off the floor.” Jackie started, “did you just say that you kissed him? Like you made the first move?”

“Yes, we were being honest with each other, by the way he apparently steals my lunch to get me to leave my desk at lunch, which is a whole other conversation. But you two had put the idea that he liked me in my head so I just, asked him.” Shane took another bite. 

“AND!?” Hayden said way too loudly for the conversation they were having, other people turned their heads to see what was happening but quickly went back to their meals. 

“And he said yes, something about thinking I'm smart and good looking and that he's been trying to get my attention for years, which doesn't make sense because it really feels like he's just been going out of his way to be annoying all this time. Anyways, we kissed and then I left.”

Jackie massaged her temples with her fingertips, “oh my god men are so dumb, I'm surrounded by idiots. So you just kissed and left? Nothing happened between that?”

“Other than my panic attack about losing my job over this, no.” Shane answered. 

“Shane, you have eyes right?” Jackie questioned, “that man is grade A beef”

“Hey!” Hayden interjected. 

“Shut up you're not blind Hayden. So you just kissed that beautiful man who said he's liked you for years and then walked out his front door immediately afterwards you didn't like, talk or anything?”

“Basically yes, I mean I thanked him for dinner and then he sent me pictures of his cat playing with my tie?”

“You need to talk to him Shane, he basically admitted to you that he likes you and you ran away.” Jackie said. 

“So you don't think that this was just like a spur of the moment, hey I'm here, you're here, let's kiss kind of thing?”

Jackie and Hayden looked between each other and then back to Shane and simultaneously said “No.”

-

-

On Wednesday, Shane and Ilya had their first meeting since the Friday incident. Shane had mostly been able to keep it together but while he was waiting alone in the meeting room he was starting to panic a little bit. Ilya came through the door and shut it behind himself, he sat down on the same side of the table as Shane this time. 

Shane was so nervous he blurted out the first thing they popped into his brain, “Why cinnamon gum?”

“Huh?” Ilya responded while he was setting his laptop up and connecting it.

“You always smell like cinnamon gum, it's just a weird choice, most people pick mint or something.” Shane was rambling, but once it got going he didn't know how to stop it. 

“Oh, I stopped smoking like” Ilya paused to think “4 years ago I think. It is like a good habit to replace the bad?”

“A coping mechanism?”

“Yes! Exactly, anyway, the burn was nice replacement for the feeling of smoking. I just kept doing it because I got a taste. Do you like the taste of cinnamon Shane?”

Ilya had leaned in much too close to Shane's face, the cinnamon scent invading his senses with each exhale. Shane's head was spinning as Ilya started to pull away. Without thinking, Shane grabbed the dangling end of Ilya's tie and held him there.

Ilya's head tilted to the side, eyebrows raised as he waited for Shane to decide what to do, Ilya was consistently patient when Shane needed an extra moment to process. Shane pulled down on Ilya's tie and pressed their lips together. Ilya was gentle, Ilya slipped his hand onto the side of Shane's neck. It was warm and grounding as it slipped under Shane's chin, tilting his head up so Ilya could deepen the kiss. Shane felt lightheaded as their tongues slipped softly against each other. 

Shane was startled back to the present by the sound of people talking loudly as they walked past the closed door of the meeting room. He released Ilya's tie and knew he must have had a wide eyed look on his face. “Ah, we must be more careful” Ilya said brushing his knuckles under Shane's chin “or else we will become the office gossip instead of the Pikes. They do know they are not discreet right?”

“We really shouldn't be doing anything at work. It is a terrible idea. We have to keep working together on this project for at least a few more months.” 

Ilya sat down and slid one elbow onto the table as he leaned his head against his hand, looking directly into Shane's eyes. “Am I the bad idea? Or is it the work part making you so nervous?”

Shane averted his gaze, opting instead to look at Ilya's muscular forearm. Ilya had rolled his sleeves up today and it was very distracting. “We aren't supposed to be doing this? We didn't even get along until a few months ago.”

“I would say that you didn't know me before a few months ago. Only my bad attempts at getting your attention, which, to be honest, did work, except I made you think I am a bad person. I promise I'm not a bad person Shane. Let me prove that to you.”

Shane replied breathlessly, “How?”

“Let me take you out, properly, to a nice restaurant, let me get to know you, let yourself get to know me. Outside of this place” Ilya waved his hand in a circle indicating the office “outside of my apartment with my tie stealing cat.”

“I like your tie stealing cat, he might be the most interesting thing about you.” Shane quipped back. “Okay, we can go to dinner. But our work can't suffer Ilya, I mean it. You know how important this is.”

“Yes, yes very important decisions to be made. Most importantly, where do you want to eat? Can I see you in something other than this white button down?”

“Focus. Work first.” Shane directed Ilya back to their work and they actually managed to come out of their meeting ahead of schedule. 

Ilya

Ilya was on cloud nine after getting confirmation that he could take Shane out. They hadn't set any firm details like day or time yet but that was fine, the fact that he had confirmation that Shane wanted to see him again was enough. 

Ilya made his way over to Jackie's office in Legal, he dropped down into the spare chair in front of her desk. “Hi Ilya, how can I help you?” she said with a tinge of knowing sarcasm in her tone.

“Jackie, you look very nice, have you reminded Hayden that you are too good for him yet today?”

She raised her eyebrow “Get to the point Ilya, I'm busy, and you should be too.”

“May I close this door?” Jackie nodded so he gently closed the door to her small office. He sat back down and rested his arms on her desk, trying for his most pitiful look. “I need your help, Shane has agreed to let me take him out, but I am very bad at dates, you are one of his best friends. What should we do?”

“I've got to ask Ilya, are you serious about this? Shane…he's special to me, he's one of my best friends. He's doesn't really do casual and you're a bit of a flirt.” Jackie said seriously.

“I swear, my intentions are only good. You picked up on me trying to get his attention for a long time, yes?” Jackie nodded her agreement, “I just don't want to fuck it up. If Shane decides he is not interested, I will leave him alone. No more bothering him, I promise.” 

Shane

Shane stared at his phone, it was a mirror picture of a shirtless Ilya, holding both Stanley and his tie, which was now mostly shredded and unravelled. Precious cat aside Shane was more mesmerized by the shirtless Ilya. He'd gotten a peek the other night with his cutoff shirt but getting to see the whole package was a lot. 

That was how Shane found himself making his way to the supply closet at 10am on a Wednesday afternoon. This end of the building was mostly vacant so they didn't have to worry about someone wandering by. Shane slipped in, early as always and waited. He was just starting to stress when Ilya entered, just as cool, calm and collected as always. 

“I thought you might chicken out.” Ilya said, seeming proud of Shane for showing up. 

“I'm not a chicken.” Shane said confidently, he pressed Ilya's back against the door and dove in for a kiss while muttering “this is such a bad idea.” Shane pressed his hips into Ilya's and kissed him. It was dirty, the thrill of doing this at work buzzed through Shane's head. What if they were caught? Shane's cock was thickening as Ilya's hands roamed over his body. The hard line of Ilya's cock pressed right back against him. The quiet of their bubble was broken by Ilya's phone buzzing with back to back notifications.

“You should look at that, it could be important” Shane said a bit breathless.

“Nooooo I want to kiss you.” Ilya whined while reaching into his back pocket to grab his phone. “Shit, I have to go. Cliff fucked something up.” Ilya leaned in for one last searing kiss and turned to open the door. Shane grabbed his wrist to stop him. 

“Friday Ilya. You're going to take me out Friday, after work.” 

“Yes sir” Ilya said with a mock salute “it will be the best first date of your life, I promise to be on my best behavior.”

Shane smiled, “Somehow I doubt that.”

Ilya

Friday afternoon rolled around and Ilya couldn't focus on any of his work, he was too busy stuck in “I have plans at 6:30” mode. He spent part of the day annoying Shane as usual, but aside from that he didn't get much of anything done. 

When he finally decided to pack it in for the day he stopped by Shane's desk. “Goodbye Shane, I will miss you over this very long weekend. You should know though, I have a very hot date tonight, try not to be jealous. He is very handsome; tall, surprisingly muscular, cute freckles, kind of shy until you get to know him, oh and he has these slutty little glasses.” Shane blushed as Ilya lingered, “I'll pick you up at 6:30, text me your address.”

-

Ilya pulled up outside Shane's quaint little house at 6:15. He knew Shane would appreciate his punctuality. He checked his hair in the mirror to make sure his typically unruly curls were still where he styled them. He got out and smoothed his hands down the gray short sleeve button down as he made his way to the door.

Shane opened the door, he looked beautiful. He was wearing a dark green polo and khaki pants, the muscles in his arms stretched the material tight against them. Ilya couldn't help himself from leaning in and kissing Shane on the cheek. “You look very nice, you should wear more colors, I like the green.” 

Shane tipped his head down in embarrassment, “You look very nice too. So what is the plan?”

Ilya led Shane to the car after he locked his door, Ilya opened the car door for him to which Shane snarked “oh what a gentleman” with a chuckle. 

Ilya slid into the driver's seat and pulled away “I made dinner reservations at the steakhouse on Third Ave. Jackie said you guys had gone there before and that you really liked it. Then I was thinking we could go for a walk by the water, the weather is supposed to be nice, if you're up for it there is also a little dessert shop that stays open late.”

“You asked Jackie where to take me?” Shane questioned. 

“Well, I certainly wasn't going to ask Hayden. I still don't get how he landed someone as smart as Jackie. She knows she can do better right?”

“Yes I think she does, but he makes her happy, that's what matters right?”

“Of course.” Ilya said with a soft smile on his face as he slid his hand onto Shane's knee, rubbing small circles until they reached their destination. 

Dinner went exactly to plan, the vibe was laid back and relaxed. Ilya had checked with Jackie because he knew Shane could be particular about food. It was why Ilya only stole Shane's lunch on days he knew there would be something he liked available. 

Everything was cooked perfectly and Ilya finally got to ask Shane all the silly first date questions he couldn't ask at work. He learned his favorite color was lavender, which really wasn't that far off from his joke of pink, but he thought it suited him, soft and relaxing. He also got to learn more about how he got into marketing and what he liked to do in his free time. 

Ilya paid for dinner despite Shane's protests and led him out of the restaurant to the riverside. While they were walking Shane slipped his hand into Ilya's while he continued talking about a movie he'd watched recently. It was a perfect slice of domesticity, it filled a little corner of Ilya's soul he didn't even know was empty. 

While they were walking they found a little string quartet playing for tips. Ilya smiled at an older couple, probably in their late 60s, they were slowly dancing to the tune. Ilya fished some money out of his wallet and placed it in the open violin case in front of the band. Then he turned to Shane and offered his upturned palm. 

“I'm not a good dancer.” Shane said shyly. 

“That's okay, I am.” He said with a grin “Just follow my lead, yes?”

Shane silently slipped his hand into Ilya's and let himself be pulled along. They danced quietly for quite some time, Shane's body relaxed into Ilya's and he let himself be carried along to the rhythm.

As the next song ended Ilya pulled back to look down at Shane's who offered him up a dreamy smile. “Would you like to go grab some dessert or have you had enough of me for one night?”

“I haven't had enough of you, but why don't we head back to my place?”

Ilya smiled, “Sounds perfect.”

Shane

Shane had kind of thought Ilya was joking when he said he was going to take him on the “best date ever.” It really had been though, Shane was used to the typical dates that went along with being a gay man in a large city. Everyone just wanted a quick hookup, it was almost impossible to find someone online who would even agree to go to dinner first.

Shane wasn't necessarily averse to hookups, there was just always something missing for him when it was basically anonymous sex. It made him nervous that he wasn't doing something right or that the other person wasn't having a good time. He just wanted a partner he could communicate honestly with. 

Ilya pulled up to the curb of Shane's house, he took a deep breath to steady himself. “Park in the driveway.”

“Yea?” Ilya said hopefully. 

“Yea.”

Shane led Ilya into his house and they slipped their shoes off at the front doormat. Ilya was looking around taking in Shane's living space. He tried to imagine it through Ilya's eyes. He always worried it was a bit…sterile. Ilya's apartment felt so much more lived in than Shane's home. 

“Your house is very nice Shane. You don't need to stress out, your shoulders are getting all scrunchy like they do when you're nervous.” Ilya said while running his hand down Shane's arm. The simple gesture let him release the tension.

“Can I kiss you, please?” Ilya said quietly.

“Yes” the word was barely out of Shane’s mouth before Ilya's hands were on either side of his face, tipping his head slightly to the left so they could slot their lips against each other. 

It was perfect. Shane lost himself in the connection between the two of them. He didn't know how long they had just been standing in his kitchen kissing and it didn't matter. 

He did find that he was getting more needy though. Ilya pressed his hand against the outline of Shane's hard cock in his pants and Shane let out an embarrassing whine. Ilya applied pressure, rubbing up and down the length, Shane rocked his hips into the friction. 

Ilya had abandoned Shane's lips to kiss under his jaw where Shane was sensitive. The whine left him again and Ilya pulled back. “Can I, please?” Nodding down to Shane's searching hips. 

“Yes.” Shane replied, assuming Ilya just wanted to take Shane out of his pants. Instead Ilya slid gracefully down to his knees and immediately began to undo Shane's button and zipper. When Ilya had a hand circled around Shane's cock Shane finally found his voice again “Wait, you don't have to do that if you don't want to.”

Ilya immediately paused and lifted his gorgeous eyes to Shane's face “You have no idea how much I want to do to this. But if you're not comfortable, I'll stop. At any point, you can tell me to stop. But if you want this, I need you to know there is no place I'd rather be than on my knees for you right now. Do you want me to stop?”

“No, I don't want you to stop.” Shane replied, head light with the lust.

Ilya immediately began pumping his hand up and down Shane's cock, the pressure from that alone was divine. Then Ilya began to kiss his cock, slipping his lips over the head experimentally, giving Shane time to adjust to the sensations and not overwhelming him. He licked a broad stripe over the head causing Shane to shudder. 

Ilya popped off but continued stroking him “You are just full of surprises aren't you? It is so pretty Shane, just like you.” Ilya ran his free hand under Shane's shirt and over his abs. “You turn such a cute shade of pink when you're embarrassed. Do you want me to stop?”

“Please, god, no.” Shane replied and Ilya immediately obliged, sliding back onto Shane's dick. Ilya's free hand now grabbed Shane's which was bunched at his side trying to maintain some semblance of control. Ilya placed it on the back of his own head, indicating Shane should control him. “Fuck, Ilya.” Shane moaned as he opened his hand and slid his fingers into Ilya's curls.

When he tightened his grip Ilya moaned desperately and doubled his efforts. His tongue slid against the underside of Shane's cock just right, it caught on the head in a way that had Shane seeing stars.

Ilya was moaning as his free hand clung tightly to Shane's thigh, the vibrations his moaning were going to pull Shane over the edge. “Ilya, I'm going to cum” Shane tried to guide him off his cock but Ilya made it clear he was where he wanted to be. “Fuckkkkkkk, I'm comi-” was all Shane got out before a low moan escaped him and he was filling Ilya's mouth with his cum. The overwhelming pressure released and cascaded through his body. Shane couldn't do anything but feel the hot suction of Ilya's mouth, it was all consuming. 

At the same time, Ilya let out a deep groan muffled by Shane's cock in his mouth. He looked up at Shane who couldn't move yet, Ilya's eyes were glassy, his jaw slack and relaxed as Shane pulled out. He ran his tongue up the oversensitive head as it left his mouth. 

Shane spoke first, “Come here, I want to do it for you too.”

Ilya, who looked like he was finally coming back to his senses, blushed, Shane had never seen him blush before. “Well, uhhh, this is kind of embarrassing. Not really how I planned on this going, but you um, you don't need to worry about that.”

Shane tried to piece together what Ilya was telling him. Suddenly the light bulb went off in his brain. “Oh. Oh! That's fine, actually that's really fucking hot.” Shane helped Ilya back to his feet and let him lean against the kitchen island as he grabbed them each a water bottle from the fridge.

“Hot is really not how people describe a grown man coming in his pants on a first date.” Ilya said, sounding a little judgemental of himself.

Shane shrugged in response, “I mean, it means you had a good time right? I'll tell you it is certainly an ego boost for me.” Shane chuckled and it broke the tension when Ilya laughed too.

“Can you please point me in the direction of your bathroom, it is not a pleasant feeling now that all the sexiness is wearing off.” Ilya said, gesturing to his pants.

Shane dropped Ilya off at the bathroom and went to his room to grab him a clean pair of boxer briefs. He knocked on the bathroom door and Ilya opened it a fraction, “Here, I'm not sending you home in dirty underwear, it's a long drive back across town.”

Ilya clasped the underwear to his chest “A keepsake, for me? From our first date? How special.” Ilya said dramatically. Shane pulled the door closed and made his way back to the kitchen. 

Ilya joined him a moment later, his own underwear, damp from being rinsed in the sink, balled in his hand. “Here just toss those in the laundry, you can grab them another time.”

Ilya pressed against Shane's back, crowding him against the washer, “hmm, how do I know you don't just want to keep my panties to remember me by? A dirty little reminder to get off to after I leave.”

Shane laughed “It's awfully bold of you to assume you didn't just suck my soul out through my dick. I don't think it's going to be up for another round tonight, even if I wanted to.”

Ilya tossed his underwear in the washer and the two made their way to the living room where they collapsed for a little while, chatting about nothing in particular. Ilya checked the time and announced he needed to get home to “make sure Stanley hadn't burned the place down with his wild parties.” 

Shane walked him to the door, “Hey, this was a really nice date, thank you. It was perfect. I'd really like to do it again, if you want to.”

Ilya's smile could have lit up the entire neighborhood, “Yea, I really want to.” Ilya's face changed into something a little more serious, “Thank you as well, I think this was the best first date I've ever been on.” He leaned in and offered up a soft kiss. “Goodnight, Shane.”

Ilya

Shane and Ilya went out a few more times in the following weeks. Ilya really felt like they could be something. Shane opened up more each time they went out, like he was finally getting comfortable enough to be himself. They hadn't had sex again but that didn't even register to Ilya, they were having fun going out, dinners and cute little dates like going to the art museum. 

“See, I'm not going to be able to handle it if you're just going to be like this every Monday now. I'm just not built for it.” Cliff said, sounding despondent as he rested a shoulder against Ilya's cubicle. 

Ilya popped his head up to see if Shane was at his desk, he wasn't so he started in a normal talking voice. “But it is going so well Cliff! We have spent the last few weekends together. I'm terrified I'll find a way to fuck this up.”

Cliff considered Ilya's concerns “I mean, if what you're doing is working, just don't be a dick and it should keep going well right?”

“God, you're awful at advice.” 

Ilya saw Shane scoot past Cliff headed back to his own desk. Ilya grinned at Cliff. “Yeah yeah go on, I'm happy for you Roz.” Cliff said as Ilya moved around him headed for Shane's desk. 

Right as Shane sat down Ilya started “So, you know how I had that date a few weeks ago? I don't know if I told you but I'm still seeing him!” Ilya gestured dramatically with his hands. “You wouldn't believe the size of his co-”

Shane slapped his hand over Ilya's mouth. “No, Ilya, we're not going to talk about that at work.” 

Ilya pouted, “Fineeeeee. Brandon stopped by my desk earlier and asked me to bring you over when you got back.”

“Did he say why?”

“Nope.” Ilya said, unbothered. 

“And you didn't ask a single follow up question did you?” Shane sounded exasperated.

“Nope.” Ilya said, popping the “p”. “Why would I do that? He's going to tell us as soon as we get there, so let's get moving.” Ilya handed Shane his favorite pen and his meeting notebook.”

Ilya could tell from the moment they walked into Brandon's office that he had some kind of bad news to share with them. He couldn't figure out what it could be though, they'd been on time with all deliverables, the team they'd been working with at Lululemon had been thrilled with what they'd shared so what could it be. Ilya looked over at Shane who was already stressing in the weighty silence of the room.

“Okay, clearly this is a bad conversation, yes?” Ilya continued at Brandon's slightly panicked glare, “Just please spit it out. Don't sugar coat it, you're stressing him out.” Ilya pointed his thumb toward Shane. 

Brandon steadied himself, “So you know how go live was August 15? They had a bit of a PR situation and they want to bump it up. I know you are very strict with your planning Shane and it is going to be a tight window.”

“What's the date?” Shane blurted, Ilya could see Shane's eyes flitting around like he was already trying to rearrange everything in his mind. 

“The end of June.” Brandon stated. 

“JUNE!? It's May, Brandon!” Shane seemed like he was coming undone. 

Ilya cut in “We can't do that, we're only two people, there's no way to get the campaigns ready that fast.”

“I know, that's what I told them, but you know they don’t listen to me. You can pull in a few Junior Associates, you are allowed to accrue overtime, and you have the direct line to the company contact for expedited approvals. I can lend out Hayden, Cliff, and Troy. Troy doesn't have any of his own contracts yet so he'll be free the most.”

Ilya groaned internally at the thought of having to include Troy in his time with Shane. This couldn't be about Ilya's jealousy though. They were going to have to lock in.

They left Brandon's office and Ilya could tell Shane was still spiraling, when he took the turn toward the hall bathroom Ilya followed, it was like Shane didn't even notice. Ilya locked the door behind them and watched as Shane turned on the water and bent over the sink. 

Shane startled when Ilya spoke “It is okay Shane, we will make this work. You are the best at what we do.”

“It's a lot, there's so much to do Ilya, I can't even…” Shane was almost to the point of hyperventilating.

Ilya slid his hand underneath Shane's chin, holding his jaw and tilting his head up. Shane's watery eyes showed him a man who felt like he was losing grip on the control he needed on this part of his life. 

“Ok Shane, listen. We don't have a choice here, right? We're going to get this done, and we will get it done on time.” Shane's eyes drifted away from Ilya's, down to his lips, then darted around Ilya's face. “We're going to get your planner, we're going to figure out how to make this work. We will pick new due dates, we'll get this done, okay? I trust you Shane, and I trust that we can do this together.”

Shane nodded in Ilya's grasp, then he leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Ilya's waist pulling him into a tight embrace. Ilya could feel Shane’s stuttered breaths begin to even out. Shane murmured into Ilya's neck “I feel so stupid.”

Ilya pulled back to look at Shane's face again, “Why do you feel stupid?”

“It's just so dumb to get this worked up over work, it's not right, I just can't control it. It's why no one likes working with me, it's why I thought you'd hate working with me.” Shane tried to squirm out of Ilya's arms, but Ilya held him in place. 

“That does not make you dumb Shane. You need a plan. So we are going to go make a plan. We're going to boss around those 3 idiots, and we're going to get this finished.” Ilya ran his hands down Shane's slides trying to soothe him.

Shane tipped his face up to Ilya, finally making eye contact again. “Thank you.” Shane said before kissing Ilya quickly. He walked back to the mirror and wiped at his eyes before turning back to Ilya, “Let's go do this. It's going to be a long day.”

Ilya fired off a meeting invite to the three that would be working with him, but he left Shane off.

Title: You're Working With Us Now

Required: Pike, Hayden; Marlow, Cliff; Barrett, Troy

Start Time: Mon 5/4/2026 9:00AM

End Time: Mon 5/4/2026 10:15AM

Location: TBD

 

Brandon says you 3 will be helping us on this project now. You are going to show up and agree to Shane's plans. You are going to follow his deadlines and help us through this mess. I will come get you soon to bring you to whatever meeting room we can get. 

-Ilya

He hit send so everyone knew what was coming. 

Shane 

Shane was trying not to let this spiral, he and Ilya had a plan and now it was on Shane to execute it. Ilya had gone to gather everyone Brandon had offered up and they were all going to sit down and map out the new plan. 

Shane liked working with Hayden, he was always content to follow Shane's lead. Troy was too new for Shane to get a read on him. Cliff had good ideas but he had trouble sticking to the timeline which had really stressed him out last time. And then there had been Ilya, Shane was surprised at how painless it had been to work with him thus far. It was a pleasant surprise, he just hoped they could all work well as a team.

Ilya led them all into the meeting room like little ducklings and instructed them all to sit on one side of the table. Ilya took the chair next to Shane and sat a little closer than was strictly necessary. 

Ilya started “Ok, listen up. I've given each of you the rundown about the mess we have right now. Each of you have pieces you excel at, except Troy, I do not know what your work looks like yet, please send Shane and I some examples. Anyway, one thing Shane is good at right now is planning, and you're going to listen to him, and we are all going to follow his directions, okay?”

Everyone agreed and Shane started in on the planning. Coordinating five calendars was so much harder than just the two, but after about an hour they had most of a plan. Hayden, Cliff, and Troy had their orders and filed out of the room, Ilya shut the door behind them. He flopped down into the chair next to Shane. “What a fucking day.” he said tossing his head over to look at Shane. 

“That's an understatement.” Shane said, slouching down to rest his head on his arms on the table. 

Ilya ran his hand up and down Shane's back “Are you still spinning out?”

On a deep sigh Shane replied “No, not spinning anymore. Just worn out I guess. Like my body is finally catching up to my brain’s panic.”

Ilya just hummed and kept rubbing Shane's back softly. “Come over tonight, let me cook for you, help you relax, maybe you stay the night, only if you want. I promise that I won't let Stanley steal any more of your clothes.”

Shane peeked over his arm at Ilya's relaxed face. It seemed like a legitimate request. “You don't want me when I'm like this. I'm no fun, just quiet and meh.”

“So? I'm not asking you over to entertain me Shane. I just want to help.”

Shane considered it for a moment and Ilya waited patiently. “Okay, but I'd like to go home and get some clothes first.” 

“Perfect.” Ilya smiled. 

Ilya

Ilya was scrambling around his apartment trying to make sure it was presentable before Shane came over. He probably should have considered the state of things before inviting Shane over. His main living area was always pretty presentable, but the spare bedroom was where he usually put everything he didn't have the energy to deal with at the time  

Ilya didn't want to assume Shane would want to stay the night, but it was better to be prepared. He also didn't want to assume that Shane would want to sleep in his bed if he did stay over, so here he was, elbows deep in the boxes from all of Stanley’s cat toys he'd ordered online. He broke them down and took them to the garbage chute. He was making good time. 

He stepped back into the apartment and Stanley was at his feet. Ilya picked him up, holding him in front of him, and made very serious eye contact with him “I need you to be on your best behavior tonight. Don't fuck this up for me Stanley. He is a very nice man who had a very bad day. I promised you wouldn't steal his clothes this time. Don't make me a liar.” Stanley stared back with big green eyes and let out a tiny mrow. Ilya set him back down and grabbed him a treat from the cabinet. 

Ilya had dinner in the oven when a quiet knock came from the front door. When he opened it a tired looking Shane was on the other side, he pulled him in and instructed him to sit on the couch while he finished preparing everything. 

Ilya could see Stanley approach Shane who was sitting on the couch in Ilya's usual spot. Stanley tapped his head against Shane's shin and then hopped up into his lap. Shane tossed a sheepish smile in Ilya's direction and started to pet the happy cat. 

Once dinner was in bowls Ilya brought it to the couch and passed Shane his bowl. And settled in next to him, Stanley didn't even lift his head as he napped in Shane's lap. 

“Would you like to watch a movie? A show?”

“Is there anything you've been watching? I'm really not picky.” Shane replied after swallowing a mouth full of Ilya’s baked ziti.

Ilya navigated to the show he had most recently been watching and Shane laughed “Really? Schitt’s Creek?”

“Don't laugh at me, I am trying to better understand Canadian humor. I miss out on the wordplay sometimes, I think.” Ilya offered. 

“I can't imagine having to translate everything in your head, is that hard for you?” Shane asked. 

“Mmm, not as bad as it was when I first got here. It was hard, my accent was thick, my English was broken, and it took me a while to answer when people asked me things. Watching TV is actually a big part of how I learned English that is less…formal than what they teach on apps, classes, all that.”

Shane nodded thoughtfully, “So what made you decide to come here  in the first place?”

Ilya tensed, a lifetime of bad memories flooding his brain, “it is, um… it is not a good story.” Ilya said while instinctively rubbing his mother's cross between his fingers.

“Oh. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.”

“No, it is okay. The simple version is, my mother died when I was very young. My father, he was a very bad man, mean and unkind in every way. It was not safe for me to stay in Russia with all of the rules about people like me.” Ilya paused to check in with Shane to see if he should keep going, Shane nodded indicating he should. “I have a friend, Svetlana, we grew up together. Her family moved here when we were 17, they helped me do all the paperwork and the day I turned 18, the paperwork came through and I got on the first flight out of Russia.”

“I'm so sorry Ilya, that must have been so hard, and I'm sorry about your mother as well.” Shane slid his hand over to Ilya's on the couch. 

“Is okay, it was a long time ago. I am a proud Canadian citizen now” Ilya said with genuine accomplishment in his voice, “I don't give the people I left in Russia any thought anymore. They don't deserve my time. I like my life here, it means I get to meet people like you.” Ilya knocked his shoulder into Shane's and took his bowl and set it on the table. 

When he leaned back Ilya pulled Shane to rest against his chest. Stanley got up and headed over to his cat tree. “Is this okay?” Ilya asked as he ran his hand through Shane's hair. 

“Yea, it's okay” Shane said, sliding his hand down to rest on the inside of Ilya's thigh. They laid there like that for a while just relaxing in each other's company and watching a few episodes of the show. It was so domestic, Ilya felt like he was relaxing for the first time in his life. Something felt like it was clicking into place. 

“Are you ready for bed?” Ilya asked which caused Shane to look up at him sleepily. 

“Yes I think so.” Shane sat up and Ilya took the dishes to the kitchen. Shane was standing in the living room with the bag he brought with him looking nervous.

“Ok, so this decision is totally yours, my bedroom is over there and the spare bedroom is down that hall. You won't hurt my feelings wherever you choose to be. I know some people don't like sharing a bed.” Ilya was rambling a little. 

Shane grabbed Ilya's arm and pulled him along to Ilya's bedroom. Ilya's heart warmed even more. He shut the door behind himself and watched as Shane took in his space. Shane approached Ilya and pressed him against the dresser. “Thank you, for tonight Ilya, it was exactly what I needed.” Shane kissed him, slow and languid. Their tongues slipped together, Ilya chasing the taste of Shane's mouth. 

Ilya's hand was drawn like a magnet up to Shane's face, his hand wrapped around his jaw and pulling Shane’s mouth away from his. Ilya leaned in and kissed Shane’s neck, the tender skin was soft under Ilya's lips. He kissed his way up to Shane's ear, he kissed the lobe and pulled it into his mouth. Shane let out a low moan against Ilya's shoulder. 

Ilya continued kissing Shane's neck and the stubble along his chin as Shane's hand pressed against the front of Ilya's pants. “Didn't even get to see you last time” Shane mumbled as he tried to slip a hand down the front of Ilya's sweats. 

Ilya pulled back “If this is about last time, you don't have to do anything. We are good. You owe me nothing.”

“Shut up Ilya, like you said, I'm exactly where I want to be” with that, Shane dropped to his knees and pulled Ilya's pants down. “Take your shirt off Ilya, please let me see you” Shane said with a plea in his voice. Ilya was helpless to do anything but obey. 

Before Shane could get started Ilya reached down and pulled Shane's shirt over his head too. Ilya lifted Shane's chin “Fuck, you're so beautiful Shane.” Ilya removed Shane’s glasses and set them on the dresser behind him. Shane let out a quiet whimper and he leaned in to lick at the tip of Ilya's cock. 

Ilya grabbed the ledge of the dresser as Shane stretched his mouth around Ilya's girth. The sight of it was almost unbearable. Shane's hand ran over Ilya's abs and up to his pec, he squeezed harshly and then rubbed Ilya's nipple between his fingers. Shane bobbed eagerly on Ilya’s cock. Ilya groaned, lost in the pleasure, when Shane rolled his other nipple he stopped him and pulled him up. 

“What? Did I do something wrong?” Shane seemed confused.

“God no, I don't want to embarrass myself again. I should impress you at least once or twice.” Ilya winked at Shane and led him to his bed. Ilya gave him a gentle push and Shane fell back onto the bed. Ilya removed Shane’s pants and underwear. They both climbed in and Ilya pulled Shane against him, their bodies slotted together against each other, hard cocks bumping against each other. 

Shane started to hump against Ilya, whimpering softly. Ilya slid a finger into Shane's mouth where he sucked eagerly. Ilya could feel the precum from Shane's cock against his hip. “Fuck Shane, tell me what you want. I'll give you anything.” He pulled his finger out to hear Shane's response. 

“I need…” Shane trailed off.

“What do you need?”

Shane looked up and met Ilya's eyes through his lashes. “You.”

“Fuck.” Ilya rolled on top of Shane, pinning him beneath him. “Can I fuck you?”

“Yes, please Ilya.” 

“Roll over for me, I need to spend more time with your ass first.”

Shane rolled over and Ilya was struck speechless, there was no reason to have an ass that beautiful. The skin was supple under Ilya's hands. “If I do anything you don't like, say it, and I'll stop.” He parted Shane's cheeks and looked at Shane's hole, of course it was perfect, just like the rest of him. Ilya could not resist, he leaned down and drug his tongue over it with a firm stroke.

“Jesusfuckingchrist” Shane said, muffled by the pillow.

“No, just Ilya is fine, but I understand the confusion.” Ilya said while smirking against Shane's skin. He leaned back in and continued to lick around Shane's hole, then he experimentally slipped the tip of his tongue inside. Shane let out a moan as Ilya fucked his tongue in and out of him. Everything was wet with saliva, starting to drip down from Shane's hole to his balls and his thighs. 

“Ilya, please.” was the broken cry from Shane who was now grinding back shamelessly into Ilya's face. 

Ilya was in heaven, completely engulfed in Shane, his hand gently squeezing any part of him that he could reach. He knew he needed to stop, he needed to give Shane more, he wanted to feel him. Reluctantly he pulled away and flipped Shane over onto his back. He went without complaint, body relaxed and ready. 

He reached over to the nightstand to grab out the lube, he looked down at Shane beneath him, at his pupils blown wide just a sliver of that beautiful brown visible. Ilya coated his fingers and slid two in. Ilya stroked the pad of his finger over Shane's prostate causing his hips to thrust up searching for friction. “You're doing so well for me, let me make you feel good.” 

Shane whined “Please Ilya, I'm ready, I need you.”

“Fuck, ok, yes.” Ilya pulled Shane down the bed a bit so he could drape his legs over his hips. He positioned himself at Shane's hole, “is okay?” Ilya checked in one last time, with Shane's agreement he pushed in, sliding past the rim into the searing warmth. “Holyyyy shit” Ilya groaned.

Shane's neck arched back exposing his Adam's apple, fuck, Ilya wanted to bite at it. Both men let out a moan as Ilya's hips finally met Shane's ass. Ilya was stunned, frozen in time as he was in awe of the man laid out in front of him. He couldn't do anything except slide his hands over Shane's body. 

“Ilya” Shane said, voice wavering, “I need you to move, please fuck me.” Ilya began with gentle, testing thrusts “Ilya, I swear, you're not going to break me. Please, harder.”

“Since you asked so nicely.” Ilya started to press in deeper and harder. Each thrust caused Shane’s dick to bounce hard against his stomach. Ilya wished he could lean down and suck it as he fucked him, it was leaving a trail of precum he wanted to lick up. Ilya gripped Shane's thighs and fucked into him. 

Ilya's name fell from Shane's mouth like a chant, it was a heady thrill that went straight to Ilya's head. Shane's hands were fisted in the pillows over his head, his biceps covering his face. “Look at me Shane, please let me see you.” Ilya could hear the desperation in his own tone. 

Shane dropped his arms and brought them down to squeeze and his own pecs, rolling his nipples and moaning louder, the sight of it drove Ilya to go harder and deeper. “Fuck! ILYA! Right there, right there, don't stop.” Shane yelled.

Ilya obeyed, maintaining a steady rhythm, using every ounce of control to make sure Shane got what he needed. He was rewarded when Shane tensed beneath him, body going taut, his cock pulsed out heavy ribbons of cum that slid down his chest.

“So fucking hot Shane, so hot, fuck I'm going to come.” Ilya cried. 

“Come for me Ilya, fill me, wanna feel you.” Shane slurred out in his post orgasmic haze. Ilya watched his softening cock continue to drip down his stomach.

Ilya came with Shane's name on his tongue, he ground himself hard into Shane's ass to ride out the overwhelming sensations of relief and euphoria. He rutted into him with the last few moments of strength that he had.

Ilya moved Shane's legs and collapsed onto him. Shane giggled “Oh and I get my own weighted blanket?”

“Mmhmm I’ll move soon” Ilya said into Shane's neck. Shane rubbed his hands up and down Ilya's back while he floated back down to Earth. “That's a nice trick.”

“What?” Shane questioned.

“Coming hands free, just from anal, I've never been able to do that, is very impressive.” 

The two men finally got up and Ilya led them to the bathroom to get cleaned up. “Wait you? Do you enjoy bottoming?”

Ilya shrugged “If the mood is right, not usually though, it takes a lot of trust and time for me, and people don't usually want to stick around me long enough to earn that trust.” Shane's face dropped a little “Nope, no pouting face. Only smiling, only “Oh Ilya, you fucked me so good that I've forgotten how to do anything but smile” face.” That made Shane chuckle again, Ilya left him to shower off while he changed the sheets. 

They both climbed into bed once they were clean. Ilya's head rested on Shane's chest, his fingers stroking through Ilya's curls, both of them on the edge of sleep when Shane spoke softly, “Thank you Ilya, I don't know how I would have handled today without you. Thank you for being there for me.” Shane pressed a kiss to Ilya's head.

“Anytime Shane, anything for you.”

Chapter End Notes

Phew, I hope you enjoyed Cinnamon Burn. This could definitely continue on with some small peeks into their lives here and there, but I'm going to leave this as a completed work for now. Subscribe if you'd like to know if another part gets posted. 😁

In writing this I learned that I am verrrrry much a Shane in my office communications. That was a fun truth to discover about myself.

Here is the song that I listened to while I was writing this that inspired the title! Cinnamon Burn - Sick Joy

If you enjoyed, please leave a comment about what you enjoyed the most ORRRRR you can leave me a comment about your most annoying coworker.

Thank you, as always you can find me on Twitter at: Chavalala24

Thank you again for reading. It means so much 🥹

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Road Trip

Chapter Notes

Thank you so much for coming back to read the second part of Cinnamon Burn!

I love these sweet soft boys so much, I really hope you love them too.

Thank you to everyone who read this at varying stages of completion and encouraged me to keep going!

Shane

They did it, somehow against all odds, they had done it. Today they would wrap up the largest project of Shane's career with what ended up being the weirdest yet most functional team he'd ever been a part of. Shane, Ilya, Cliff, Hayden, and Troy all piled into the board room for one last time, each of them looking a little worse for the wear. They'd worked until 9pm last night to put the final touches on everything and now here they were at 730am setting up for what they hoped was their last client call.

Shane sat down in his seat as Ilya passed out the coffee he'd brought for everyone, Shane's black coffee was exactly what he needed this early in the morning, as Ilya sat down next to him, he took a sip of something that smelled like a bakery.

Ilya had been on a kick of trying something new almost every time he walked in the small coffee shop on the corner. He either ordered whatever the seasonal drink was available or asked the barista to make whatever their favorite was. Apparently he wasn't much of a coffee drinker if the coffee actually tasted like coffee.

“What did you get today?” Shane asked.

Ilya looked down at the printed label affixed to the side of the cup, “Apparently I have a vanilla caramel iced latte with extra caramel drizzle and cold foam. It was Casey's recommendation!” Ilya replied enthusiastically, and with way too much energy for this early in the morning.

“That sounds cloyingly sweet. How do you drink that so early in the morning?”

Ilya laughed “The better question is how do you drink bitter bean juice so early, you are the crazy person here, not me. Cliff over there is drinking something called a “Sammy’s Super Chocolate Smash” and you're judging me?”

“Hey! How did I even get brought into this? I'm not judging anyone's drink, this is delicious by the way, and I won't be shamed for it.” Cliff replied, sipping his sugary concoction.

Their coffee debate was interrupted by Roger Crowell, the eponymous leader of their company and several other leaders of the company, entering the room. They each took their seats at the head of the table as one of the admin assistants set up the call on the large screen taking up most of the wall at the end of the room.

The meeting began like they all do with all the glad handing among the people who had almost nothing to do with the actual work. Congratulatory nonsense that all felt so deeply pointless to Shane. Just get in, say what needs to be said and get out.

He listened intently though because he didn't want to miss anything. He looked over and Ilya was doodling in the corners of his notebook. It looked like two stick figures, kissing, he thought? One had curly hair and the other had hair he thought might look like his own if you squinted hard enough. Shane knocked his foot into Ilya's under the table and tried to mouth the words “stop it” to him. Ilya just grinned back at him with his big dopey smile.

Shane and Ilya hadn't really told people they were dating outright, but they weren't exactly trying to hide it either. Shane had, of course, run it past HR because the anxiety of not knowing if it was going to get him fired was eating away at him. They'd signed a few pieces of paper work and called it a day. Although, Harris the HR guy had a huge smile on his face when Ilya and Shane walked in together to discuss the matter with him. Shane heard him muttering something about winning the pot as they closed the door behind themselves.

Mainly, Shane wanted everything to stay the same at work, so Hayden, Jackie, and Cliff all knew but that was about it. Shane turned his full attention back to the conversation and he heard the words no associate ever wanted to hear, “On-site training.”

Ilya let out a slow quiet exhale and Shane watched the eyes of everyone across the table grow large. Of course Crowell was ever so happy to offer up “Whatever resources were necessary to really bring this project home.” Shane, he was going to offer up Shane, he already knew it.

Shane hated on-site training, not because he didn't think the local teams could handle it, they always could, it was their own brand. They understood how it all worked. Shane hated on-site training because it was new places and new people and he just was not sociable enough to make it feel like anything other than dragging himself over broken glass for several days.

Crowell wrapped up the meeting with the promise to the client's CEO to have their admins get together to coordinate calendars for the best time to send the team over to them. When everyone stood from the table Crowell approached Shane and Ilya “great work boys” boys, not men Shane noted, “I hope you two have a nice time in Vancouver, don't disappoint me.” He then turned and walked straight out of the room.

“Wait us two? We are both going?” Ilya asked, turning to Brandon.

Brandon who looked just as exhausted as the rest of them. “I'll try to get details out of him” he turned to follow after Crowell muttering under his breath “Since he just decided on a whim to send my employees places with no planning. Don't get paid enough for this.”

Shane turned to Ilya with trepidation and was met with a look of excitement on Ilya's face, “We are going on a trip together!”

Ilya

Ilya knew Shane was stressing over this bomb dropped at 8am, but Ilya was so excited. He loved Vancouver, it was where he lived when he first moved to Canada. It was where Sveta and her family still lived. He could introduce Shane to Sveta! His mind was spinning thinking about taking Shane to all of his favorite restaurants. He pulled out his phone to start planning.

Ilya tucked his phone back in his pocket as they made their way back to their cubicles. Shane followed Ilya into his and sat in the extra chair tucked into the corner. He grabbed one of the fidget toys off of Ilya's desk and fiddled with it nervously.

Ilya logged into his computer to give it time to start up for the first time today. He swung around in his chair to face Shane who was acting like the fidget cube was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen. Ilya scooted up to him and placed his hands on Shane's knees. His hands were immediately swatted away.

“You know better Ilya.” Shane chided.

Ilya rolled his eyes “Yes, but you look like you are thinking your way through something. I am just here for support. And maybe support is feeling those thick thighs on corporate time.”

That made Shane smile which warmed Ilya's heart. “Behave yourself, you're insatiable.”

“Me!?” Ilya said with his eyebrows practically in his hairline, “You don't get to call me that after you were the one who went” Ilya paused dramatically to slowly count to five on his fingers, “5 times on Saturday Shane, FIVE, I was dehydrated when you left me like a husk of a man. I'm still walking funny. I'm surprised no one noticed.”

“Oh my god, you are such an asshole.” Shane said, tossing his head back.

Ilya dropped his voice to a whisper, “I am the asshole? That is not what you said the other day, no that was all Oh Ilya you're so good, fuck, please don't st-”

Shane threw his hand over Ilya's mouth “You have to stop, now or else I won't be able to leave your cubicle. You promised to behave at work.” Ilya licked Shane's palm and smirked down at where his dick was starting to visibly press against his slacks.

Still in low tone, Ilya said “I think you like it when I do not behave, Mr. Hollander.”

Shane took a very very deep breath "We have things to worry about Ilya, we've got a trip to plan, training plans to develop."

"Okay, pause the planning mission. First, we will wait for Brandon to tell us when we are going before we get too deep into that. I would like to plan our time in Vancouver. My friend Svetlana lives there and I’d like to see her and take you to some of my favorite places. That is where I lived my first few years in Canada."

Ilya watched as Shane’s face dropped halfway through that sentence. “What is happening with your face right now? Do you not want to do things in Vancouver with me?”

“No, not that. You just don't need to feel like you have to bring me along. If you want to see your friend you don't need me as your third wheel.” Shane said, sounding a bit discouraged.

Ilya snuck a kiss onto Shane's cheek, definitely breaking the rules about behaving at work, “First, you are not a third wheel. If YOU do not want to go, you do not need to go. But I WANT to take you with me. Is what I'm saying making sense?”

Shane nodded and leaned back in the chair, still flipping the switch on the toy in his hand. “I'm just not always good at meeting new people and I feel like I really need to make a good impression with Svetlana, I know she means a lot to you.”

"Don't worry about that, Sveta and I talk more than enough for a whole group of people. Also if you want an in with her, just get her talking about hockey. She's obsessed, like I think she might actually need an intervention kind of obsessed."

“I think I can do that.” Shane smiled and handed Ilya back the toy from his desk. “Are we still going to dinner with everyone tonight?”

“Yes, 630 at the Mexican restaurant.” Ilya confirmed and watched as Shane left his cubicle. His chest warmed thinking of introducing some of his favorite people to each other but he knew it would probably be a stressful situation for Shane no matter what they did, so he hoped he could convince Shane it didn't need to be something to worry about.

“There it is!” Cliff interrupted Ilya's thoughts and took the seat Shane was just sitting in. He grabbed the same fidget toy from his desk too, which Ilya immediately pulled back from him.

“There what is?” Ilya asked, confused.

“The sappiest fucking smile I've ever seen on your face, and that is saying something because these last few months have really been a test in how soft you can look.”

“Why are you so mean to me Cliff? What did I do to deserve this.” Ilya mock whined.

“You know I'm just fucking with you. Are you going to take him to meet Svetlana?” Cliff asked.

Ilya pondered his response, “I think yes, but I don't know, I want it to not be stressful for him. It is basically like meeting my family.”

“So make it less stressful.” Cliff offered sincerely.

Ilya deadpanned back to him, “Really you should write a book of advice. It is always so helpful. Get the fuck out of my office Cliff.”

He just chuckled as he stood from Ilya's spare chair, "I love you too, I'll see you at dinner tonight Roz.”

Shane

Shane's first day free from their giant project didn't really feel like freedom. He didn't even get to exhale before Roger dropped the prospect of an on-site trip directly into his lap. He was thankful though, this time he didn't have to go alone, he'd get to take Ilya with him. That also meant he was going to meet the closest thing Ilya had to family, Svetlana.

Ilya spoke so highly of her, they had been best friends and her family took him in when he got to Canada, they'd helped him with all of the legal hoops and made sure he was set up for success. Shane couldn't imagine not having his parents in his corner, he leaned on them for everything, even when he was trying to navigate things as simple as college and job applications.

Despite Ilya's pep talk Shane still stewed over all the new tasks he had to navigate. He was thankful when 6pm came around so they could all go out to dinner and bid farewell to the busiest few months this job had ever thrown at them.

Shane and Ilya got to the restaurant before everyone else and grabbed seats on opposite sides of the table from each other. Cliff and the Pikes all knew Shane and Ilya were seeing each other, but Troy didn't. There wasn't any particular reason they didn't tell him, they just didn't know him well outside of work.

Cliff arrived next and slid in next to Ilya, Troy took the seat next to Shane which made Ilya grumble a little as he was stuffing chips in his mouth. Ilya had informed Shane that apparently Troy was trying to take Shane out to dinner after his first week because he was interested in Shane, not just to say thank you. Shane still didn't totally believe him because Troy had never outright asked Shane if he was single, or if he liked men.

Unsurprisingly, the Pikes showed up last to a bunch of wolf whistles and whoops. Jackie curtsied ridiculously and Hayden was as red as the bowl of salsa on the table. As soon as the server came around Jackie ordered everyone the largest margaritas on the menu. What came out was practically a fish bowl full of tequila.

The conversation was light and fun, everyone blowing off steam now that the cloud of this project wasn't looming over them anymore. They were all pleasantly buzzed when Troy apparently put some pieces together in his mind. Unfortunately he had enough alcohol in his system to eliminate all subtlety, “OH MY GOD, I'M AN IDIOT.” Troy said just a bit too loudly. Everyone turned to look at him. He gestured with the taco in one hand, the other hand to his chest like a scandalized debutante clutching her pearls.

“Give yourself some credit, I wouldn't call you an idiot.” Cliff joked “but please, enlighten us on what you figured out just now.” Jackie who had one more drink down than everyone else was trying her absolute hardest to keep her giggles contained.

“You two" he gestured with the taco between Ilya and Shane "you're fucking aren't you? Oh my God I'm a fucking idiot. WHY DIDN'T ANY OF YOU STOP ME FROM FLIRTING WITH SHANE?!” Troy seemed absolutely scandalized that no one had stopped him from flirting. Ilya however almost fell out of his chair laughing, Cliff had to grab his shirt to haul him upright.

Shane was a bit more polite about it, laughing lightly and quickly adding, “In my defense, I didn't actually know if you were flirting or just being nice.”

“I basically asked you out on a date Shane, to this very restaurant, but then someone had a late night work crisis and stole you from me.” Troy paused, connecting the dots “Oh my god, you made that up didn't you? There was no crisis.”

Ilya and Cliff were giggling like children, “No, no there was a crisis, it was just um…what is the right word, fabricated?”

“Ilya! No! You didn't lose your work that day?” Shane replied with tepid anger.

Ilya tilted his hand side to side, “I maybe, mayyyybe encouraged my computer to lose the work I had already done so I could spend alone time with you instead of him.”

Jackie lost the battle with holding back her laughter, “I tried to tell you he was obsessed with you Shane, but noooooooo Jackie doesn't know anything. Just like how Jackie doesn't know Cliff is sleeping with the girl in accounting on Wednesdays.”

“I think that's my cue to get her home.” Hayden stood helping Jackie toward the door. “Get home safe guys!”

As they all waved their goodbyes, Cliff apparently caught up to the conversation “Wait, does literally everyone know about Stella?”

Troy butted in “Dude, I've been here for 2 months and I know about it. You're not hiding shit. Brandon must be willfully ignoring it.”

“I'm going to go home and evaluate my life. Troy you're calling a ride share right?”

Troy replied “yep already called it, I'll walk out with you.” Looking back to the table, “I really am sorry Shane, I had no clue you were seeing someone.”

Shane smiled genuinely, “it's okay, we weren't trying to be obvious, we have more self control than that guy” he said pointing to Cliff.

“Goodnight friends who are way too mean to me. Come on Troy.” Cliff said waving as they left the restaurant leaving just Shane and Ilya at the table.

“I'm a little mad at you, you didn't have to lie to me to ask me out. And you did double the work and drug me into it!” Shane said grumbling at Ilya.

Ilya just smiled and leaned across the table “Shane. You're going to tell me that if the me from a few months ago asked you to dinner at my apartment with me and my cat that you'd have just said yes?”

“I would have said yes to Stanley, he's perfect, but I see what you mean. I like to think I would have said yes, but you're probably right.” It kind of sucked to think he might have missed out on the fun they've been having because he wouldn't have given Ilya a chance. “Was I too mean to you before?”

“Oh no he is a sad drunk! Come on, let's go. You will stay with me tonight?”

“Yea, I still have a change of clothes there right?” Shane asked.

“Yes, assuming Stanley didn't find his way into my closet again. He finds you as irresistible as I do.” Ilya pressed a kiss to Shane's cheek as they left the restaurant.

Ilya

Shane and Ilya were both still pretty drunk by the time they finished their walk back to Ilya's apartment. They were giggling about nothing as they walked in. Undeterred, Stanley made a straight shot for Shane, tangling around his feet and rubbing on his ankles. “STANLEYYY” Shane slurred. He almost fell over trying to bend down to pet him while taking his shoes off at the same time.

Ilya stooped down to pick up the cat so he wouldn't make Shane fall over. “You are always trying to steal him from me. He is mine tonight. You can get all your snuggles and pets next time.” Ilya placed him back in one of the new beds that Shane picked out and made his way back to Shane.

“Ok, glass of water and then we go to bed. I'm exhausted.” Ilya grabbed the filtered water pitcher from the fridge and 2 glasses. When he went to turn around Shane was right there slinging an arm around Ilya's waist. “Can I help you?”

“Maybe, see, I'm very lonely Mr. Rozanov. Nobody has touched me in” Shane paused to look at his watch, “like 36 hours. What am I supposed to do?” Shane pressed his hips into Ilya.

“You are supposed to drink your water so we can go to bed and not wake up hungover.” Ilya supplied.

“Ughhhh. Why are you being so responsible? That's supposed to be my thing.” Shane pouted.

“Water, Shane, now please. My willpower to resist you is fading.”

Shane took a small sip, “Fine, but I better get a reward for being good.”

“You get the reward of sleeping in bed with me, is not enough for you? I swear no one tells you about the greed of Canadians.” Ilya took Shane's now empty glass, filled it again and brought it with him to the bedroom.

They both undressed down to their underwear and crawled into bed. Shane was snoring softly before Ilya's head even hit his pillow. So he simply draped his arm over Shane’s waist and snuggled in for the night.

-

Ilya woke up to a sleepy mumbling Shane pressed against his back slowly rocking his hips into Ilya's ass. Shane's arm slipped over Ilya's chest and grabbed his pec, holding him closer.

“Shane, Shane are you awake?” Ilya asked quietly.

“Mmph” was the only response he got out of Shane.

Ilya reached back to gently stroke Shane's hair while he was being humped, trying to rouse him gently. Ilya pressed his hand to his own morning wood, trying to pull back from the arousal that was quickly developing. “Shane, we’re going to find ourselves in a sticky situation if you don't wake up.”

Something about that must have clicked in Shane's half-asleep brain, he froze, grip tight on Ilya, dick slotted perfectly between Ilya's ass cheeks through the layers of their underwear. “I…I'm so sorry Ilya I didn't mean to.”

Shane tried to pull away, but Ilya pressed his hand harder against his own chest. “Don't stop. I just wanted to make sure you were with me first. Please don't stop.” Ilya slid Shane's hand down to his own hard cock.

Shane kissed his neck “Oh shit, okay, I'm sorry, I hope I didn't wake you up. Fuck.” Shane groaned as he pressed against Ilya harder.

Ilya wiggled out of his underwear and wrapped his hand around his dick, stroking slowly. Shane had resumed playing with Ilya's nipple while sleepily humping him from behind.

Breath stuttering, Shane asked “Can I… ah, can I take mine off? I just want to feel your skin, you're so fucking soft Ilya.” Shane was rubbing his hands over any part of Ilya that he could reach.

“Fuck, yes.” Ilya replied, he felt Shane kick his underwear off his legs and felt the heat of Shane's cock against the crack of his ass.

Ilya was still in the hazy space of waking up, his brain wasn't completely online yet but everything felt so good. Shane's hard cock grinding against his ass was a sensation Ilya hadn't felt in so long. No fear, no stress, no pressure to take it further. Just the two of them seeking comfort in the slow grind of their bodies.

Ilya started stroking faster, he pushed his ass back into Shane's thrusts, “Shane, holy shit. Harder, grab me harder.” Shane listened, his hand gripped Ilya's flesh as hard as he could. When Shane bit down on the meat where his neck met his shoulder, Ilya lost control, pleasure raced through him as he came across the sheets.

As Ilya finished, Shane wrapped his leg over Ilya’s hip and wrapped his arm tightly around his waist. His thrusts were a grinding, deep pressure against Ilya's ass. Shane let out a deep groan as he came, Ilya felt the warmth bloom against his lower back as Shane finally stilled.

“Good morning to you too.” Ilya said with a chuckle.

Shane had clearly buried his head in the pillow as a muffled “I'm sorry” left him.

Ilya flipped over to face Shane, “What exactly are you sorry for?”

“Well firstly for, you know, humping you awake. Second, for having you make a mess of your sheets at…” Shane lifted his head to look at the clock, “6 am.”

“Shut up, I'll wash the sheets every fucking day if it means I get woken up with you grinding that big beautiful cock against me. Fuck you're so hot.” Ilya rolled on top of Shane tossing off the blanket.

Ilya leaned in for a kiss, “No, gross, I haven't even brushed my teeth yet.”

Ilya groaned dramatically, “Boooo, I ate your ass last week but kissing me in the morning is a bridge too far?”

“You're such an asshole, get up. Come on, we are sticky and need to shower. We need to get ready for work.” Shane said, smiling up at Ilya.

“Finnnne” Ilya said dramatically flopping off of Shane to his own side of the bed, directly into the cum on the sheets. “Okay, yes. You go warm up the shower, I'll throw the sheets and our dirty clothes in the wash.”

Shane

Shane settled in at his desk and opened his emails. He had one from Brandon that came in pretty late last night.

Approved Trip to Vancouver

From: Wiebe, Brandon

To: Hollander, Shane; Rozanov, Ilya

Good Morning Shane and Ilya,

Sorry this is incredibly last minute. You know how things are. You will be going to Vancouver next week, July 5-10. They would like you to be available from the 6th to the 9th, standard business hours.

I booked your flights already, ticket info is attached. I talked them out of a per diem because they just threw you to the wolves on this one so have a nice dinner or two on the company dime. You guys earned it.

Approved hotel options are attached. Shane has a corporate card, use that for your expenses and keep your receipts to turn in when you get back.

If you have any questions let me know.

Brandon Wiebe

Director of Marketing

Crowell & Associates Marketing Firm

Shane opened up a reply window to thank Brandon for organizing travel when Outlook dinged again.

Re: Approved Travel to Vancouver

From: Rozanov, Ilya

To: Wiebe, Brandon; Hollander, Shane

Thanks Brandon. You said any questions, will you watch my cat? He is very needy, requires lots of attention and treats.

Also! Why does Shane get a corporate card but not me? Am I not trustworthy? I'm offended, I'll be talking to HR about this. (Not really, Shane is the right choice)

Thanks Brandon!

-Ilya

Shane grabbed his coffee and walked out of his cubicle over to Ilya's where he was nursing his breakfast sandwich and whatever freaky coffee concoction the barista gave him today. “Who watches Stanley when you're not home?” he asked.

After he finished chewing Ilya replied “Well, usually Cliff does, he'll stay there a few nights when he can or he just checks on him on his way into and out of work each day. Stanley is actually pretty low maintenance, almost everything is automated now. Timed feeder, his water is the little fountain thing, and his litter box is a robot.”

“Doesn't he get, I don't know, lonely and stuff?” Shane asked looking down at the tie he was wearing, it was Ilya's and much brighter than any Shane owned, he kept getting distracted by it.

Ilya shrugged, “Yes, which is why Cliff goes to play with him too.” Ilya started speaking a little louder now, “I remember when Cliff first met Stanley he told me didn't like cats, he tried to be all macho, saying men don't like cats. Was a lie of course, he's in love with Stanley.”

“It is too early, and I am too hungover for you to be mean to me Roz” called Cliff who was setting his stuff down at his desk.

“How did you even know he was here?” Shane asked.

“Is easy, he clomps around like a baby elephant. I do not understand how someone so tall and so thin can have such heavy feet.” Ilya said before taking a sip of his coffee and wincing a little.

“What's wrong?”

“I think I finally found coffee I do not like” Ilya twisted the cup in his hand to see today's label. “Lavender. Why would you want your coffee to taste like flowers? It is like licking a candle."

“Here, give me that.” Shane swapped their drinks and walked over to his desk. He pulled open the drawer where he usually kept napkins and packets of utensils. He'd also started collecting some of the shelf stable creamer cups that he knew Ilya liked. He sat down the offending drink and brought back a handful of vanilla and caramel flavored cups.

Ilya looked up at Shane with his big hazel eyes as he sat them down on his desk. “What is this?”

“You hated your coffee. You shouldn't have to drink it. You like these flavors. Just pour them in mine and drink that.” Shane said plainly, he thought it was pretty obvious.

Hayden walked by at that moment “Gross, just get married or something already. Also I'm never going out with you lunatics on a Monday again. My head is killing me and Jackie gets hangry at like 6am when she's hungover.”

Shane and Ilya laughed and when Shane turned to leave, Ilya grabbed his wrist and pulled him down. “Thank you Shane.” He gave him a little peck on the cheek and let him go.

-

Shane and Ilya spent their week planning out how their training program would work once they got to Vancouver. They would need to train the marketing team on the entirely new identity, the hope was that the team had already been given the guide they worked on and this would simply be a matter of showing them the online ads that had been drafted, connecting the dots between the print ads and the companies that would run them, and then explaining the roll out.

It was wishful thinking, but it was the plan. Ilya had told Shane to let him handle all of the outside work plans while they were there. It made him itchy to not be involved in the process, how would Ilya know what time they'd be done with work? He hadn't lived there in years, what if the places he wanted to go weren't open anymore? Was he making reservations to the busier places? What had he told Svetlana? Shane didn't even know what to call what he and Ilya were doing, they were dating but were they boyfriends? What if he said “Hi, I'm Shane, Ilya's boyfriend” and Ilya freaked out and left him stranded on his own in Vancouver until they had to fly back home together?

A polite knock sounded on Shane's cubicle while he was staring into space having a freakout of his own making in his head. Troy was standing there with a nervous look on his face. “Hey I was wondering if I could get your opinion on something, but if you're busy that's totally fine, I can grab Hayden.”

“No, it's fine, I need to get up and move around anyways, tell me what you've got.” Shane said standing and stretching before following Troy. Troy filled him in on his issue and they worked through it deciding to present 2 options to a client who had been pretty picky so far. Troy would eventually learn to navigate these things on his own, but Shane was glad he could help for now.

Right before Shane turned to leave Troy's desk, Troy stopped him, “Look, I just wanted to first apologize for blurting out what I did last night at dinner, that was out of line. I shouldn't have put your business out there. Especially just because I was drunk and guessing.”

"It's totally fine" Shane assured him "Everyone else there knew about Ilya and I. We just didn't really know you well enough to figure out how to tell you. I didn't want to fuck up our work relationship by dropping that in there if you didn't take it well. So you can blame that move on me."

Troy nodded but was now staring at his keyboard, "I really am sorry for trying to drag you out to dinner with me probably a few too many times."

“It's literally fine Troy, I mean it. Water under the bridge. I'm pretty sure you will have no issues finding someone to take to dinner, you're a good looking guy.” Shane said with a gentle smile.

Troy blushed and Shane stepped out of Troy's cubicle right as Harris was walking up, “Hey Shane! Just gotta borrow Troy really quick. Hope I'm not interrupting. Just here to steal away my new favorite employee.” Harris turned to Troy, “Come on handsome, we gotta do your probationary review, spoiler alert, you passed!”

Shane returned to his desk to finish trying to work on his action plan and not continue spiraling about the trip to Vancouver.

Ilya

Shane was getting more and more tense as their trip approached, but Ilya couldn't drag out of him what he was concerned about. They were curled up on the couch at Shane's house. Ilya had his head resting in Shane's lap. Shane was lazily dragging his fingers through Ilya's curls, gently scratching his scalp.

“Shane?” Ilya asked quietly.

“Yea?”

“Can I ask you a question without you clamming up on me?” Ilya hoped that having this conversation without having to make eye contact would be easier for Shane.

Shane's fingers stilled in Ilya's hair, “I'll try my best.”

“That is all I can ask. I would like to know why you are so stressed about this trip. I know you're confident with the training plan, so I cannot help but think it has more to do with me?” Ilya said.

Ilya waited patiently for Shane's response. After a moment he replied “It's not you I'm worried about, I'd like to be very clear about that. I'm having an amazing time with you. I'm just scared. You said we'd be meeting Svetlana, and she's clearly so important to you and from what I gather, the closest thing you have to family now, right?”

Ilya nodded his head in Shane's lap and replied “Yes, she is probably my best friend and family in all the ways that matter.”

Shane's sharp inhale prompted Ilya to sit up, it felt like a conversation they should really be having face to face even though Ilya wanted to take the pressure off of Shane at first, this clearly wasn't working the way he intended. Ilya looked at him and took his hands.

Ilya began “Sveta is important to me, yes. But you are also important. She's not going to judge you, she is a psychologist. She is very aware of all the inner workings of brains and such. You could sit there silently through an entire dinner and she'd never judge.” Ilya leaned over and kissed Shane’s cheek. “She will like you, because I like you. You are a good person. All we have to worry about is her trying to steal you away from me because you are so handsome.”

Ilya tipped Shane over on the couch and climbed on top of him. “I'm gay Ilya, you don't have to worry about that.”

Ilya leaned in to kiss him properly, "You say that now. She is very persuasive." Ilya said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood. "But I mean it, there is nothing to stress about. She is very nice and very excited to meet my boyfriend."

“Boyfriend?” Shane questioned quietly.

“I mean, I think so, that is the right word for what we are doing right? Going on dates, spending all this time together, the kissing and the fucking and all of that?”

A beautiful smile spread across Shane's cheeks along with a cute blush. “Yea, that's what I would call it, I just didn't want to assume, and we hadn't explicitly said it.”

“Oh my god you are so cute.” Ilya attacked Shane's face and neck with kisses causing him to squirm underneath him. “I will be more clear then, yes? With all things.”

“It is helpful.” Shane replied.

“Ok. Let's try. Shane Hollander, will you be my boyfriend? Label and everything? And come to Vancouver with me and meet my best friend? And also all that work stuff or whatever.” Ilya mumbled his way through the work part of the sentence.

Excitement radiated from Shane who was grinning in a way that made him look so soft and precious, “Yes Ilya. I will be your boyfriend.”

Ilya pulled Shane off the couch and squatted low, he picked Shane up and had him tossed over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. “Ilya what are you doing? I'm heavy, you're going to hurt yourself!” Shane cried.

“Shush, this is why I go to the gym.” Ilya slapped Shane on the ass and carried him to the bedroom. “I'm going to fuck my boyfriend and no one can stop me!” He tossed Shane onto the bed and made quick work of both of their clothes.

Once they were both on the bed, just lazily touching each other Ilya said, “Do you know I've never had a boyfriend?”

“That doesn't seem right, you're so…” Shane gestured to Ilya in general. “You're so hot, and if I'm being honest, really good at all this boyfriendly stuff. You're telling me you've never dated anyone seriously?”

Ilya slipped a hand down Shane's body, he wrapped a hand around Shane's ass and pulled him in a little closer. He kept tracing his fingers up and down Shane's spine “Mmm I have dated a few women. Sometimes though, people feel weird about dating a bisexual man. They get ideas in their head from people around them that I need to be with a man as well to be happy. They assume I will be unfaithful with them because sometimes I'm a flirt. But I would never cheat on someone.” Ilya's voice was thick with some unnameable emotion as he recalled how almost all of his exes thought the worst of him just because of his sexuality and his personality.

Shane pulled back and looked Ilya in the eyes, a determined look settled on his face, "That's not fair. The fact that you are attracted to men and women doesn't make you less faithful. Why would they think that?”

Ilya couldn't keep eye contact with Shane so he buried his face in his neck, hoping Shane wouldn't question the emotion in his voice as he tried to explain why everyone he thought he could have loved had abandoned him. “Is very common I guess for bisexual men, I researched online to try to understand. Sometimes women think I will cheat because I need a man's parts or attention. Men think I will cheat because I need a woman's parts or attention. It has even been the same for people who are everywhere on the spectrum of gender, they all think I can't be satisfied with what they offer.” Ilya took a deep breath “But I just want what everyone wants, for someone to love me for who I am.

Shane wrapped Ilya tightly in a hug, their previous sexual touches forgotten. Shane squeezed Ilya so tightly it probably would have hurt if it didn't feel so nice, something holding him down from floating away into his own head.

“I promise you that I'm not going to put those judgments on you Ilya. Never. You're not some mindless animal driven by instinct. You're a man, you're responsible for your choices. I trust that we could talk about anything you're feeling. Okay? Like we said, be direct. Talk to me, I never want to make you feel like that.”

Ilya's vision blurred with tears as he tried to pull himself together. He just got a boyfriend and here he was, blubbering about how poorly every past relationship he'd been in had gone. He thought that it was probably bad relationship etiquette to cry five minutes into their relationship.

“Thank you Shane, that is all I want. A fair chance. You are already the best boyfriend I've ever had.” Ilya tried to smile through the emotion.

“You just told me I'm the first boyfriend you've ever had.” Shane chuckled while still holding Ilya tight.

“I know. You're doing great so far. Top marks.” Ilya pressed himself against Shane's body, reveling in how warm and solid he was. When he was finally feeling more composed and confident. He lifted his head and kissed Shane. It was so soft and passionate, the world dropped away for a while as they kissed. Their bodies moved on their own accord, untouched cocks growing hard between them.

Ilya finally looked up to Shane who smiled down at him. “Would um,” Ilya didn't even know if there was a more delicate way to phrase this, it's been so long since he asked someone, “Would finger me? You don't have to, if you don't want to. I just, um, I would really like some part of you inside, please.”

Shane kissed him, slipping his tongue into his mouth, Ilya eagerly sucked on it. He assumed Shane was trying to think of a polite way to turn him down and just needed time to think of how to do it. “Of course Ilya.” Shane replied, Ilya let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, so relieved and excited.

Shane

Ilya had mentioned in the past he had a hard time with this particular type of vulnerability. This was definitely the most vulnerable moment they'd had together. Shane wasn't going to fuck it up.

They spent a few more quiet moments in each other's arms languorously touching each other. Shane pulled back and leaned over to his nightstand to grab a bottle of lube. He silently checked in with Ilya who nodded and pulled his knees up, planting his feet flat on the bed. Shane crawled into the space between his spread legs. He leaned down and kissed along the insides of Ilya's thighs. Goosebumps spread over them as he kissed lower. Shane took the tip of Ilya's half hard cock into his mouth. He loved the feeling of it growing harder while he held it there, gently sucking. It was a distraction for Ilya who was breathing heavily at the sensation.

Shane slipped a dry finger behind Ilya's balls, rubbing at his perineum for a second before running it over his hole. Just acquainting him with his touch. He pulled off Ilya's cock, Ilya's head was thrown back on the pillow “Look at me Ilya.” The man immediately obeyed lifting his head. His beautiful eyes still seemed weighted down with emotion. “I'm only going to do what you ask for, okay? When you want me to press in, ask me and I will. When you want me to add another, ask me and I will. If you want everything to stop, tell me and it will.”

Ilya stared up at Shane “I understand. Please suck my dick while you start.” So Shane did exactly what he said he'd do. He went back to sucking Ilya's dick and covered his index finger in lube, he slid it back to Ilya's hole and circled around the outside, adding gentle pressure but not pressing in. He could feel Ilya relaxing to his touch.

After a few minutes of lazy stroking Ilya took a deep breath and told Shane “please put it in, put one in.”

Shane pressed forward and felt Ilya's body give around his fingertip, the warmth slowly engulfing his finger as he slid in meeting minimal resistance. Ilya let out a breathy moan. When Shane looked up he couldn't tell if it was in pleasure or pain so he pulled off his cock and asked “Is this okay?”

“Fu– yesss it's good, please move, something, anything.” Ilya said, trying to tilt his hips.

Shane started moving his finger in and out, carefully avoiding Ilya's prostate, just letting him feel the slick glide of Shane's finger.

“A-another please” Ilya asked, Shane pulled his finger out to add more lube to the two fingers. He ran a soothing dry hand over Ilya's thigh and he pressed the two fingers back to his hole which eagerly gave way and pulled him in.

Shane gave him a moment to adjust and waited for Ilya to tell him to move “Okay, I'm ready, please move.”

Shane started to move his fingers again, studying Ilya's reactions. His cock was laying heavy against him, leaking a steady stream of precum onto his abdomen. Every few pumps it would try to kick up, searching for friction as Ilya contracted around his fingers.

“You know I think I like how nicely you're asking for what you want?” Shane looked down at his own cock hard between his own legs despite being ignored for quite some time now. Something about the trust Ilya had in him along with the clear instructions of what Ilya wanted kept his dick deeply invested. How could it not be with Ilya spread out in front of him like this, a man like this laid out for him couldn't be taken for granted.

“Oh do you now?” Ilya replied with more of his characteristic snark in his tone. “Then maybe you could try to find my prostate sometime soon?”

“Is that what you want? You have to ask nicely.” Shane said, smiling at Ilya. Enjoying the levity.

Completely deadpan Ilya said “Shane Hollander, please find my prostate and jerk me off until I come all over myself. Then I want you to jerk off all over me using my cum as lube.” And then in a saccharine sweet tone added “please”

“Okay, yes, I can do that.” Shane said eagerly. He pulled his hand from Ilya and added lube to both hands. He slid his fingers back into Ilya, angling them to find his prostate and gently gave it a few glancing passes. Ilya's body strained, cock leaking more onto his body. Shane grabbed Ilya's dick with his other lubed hand and began sliding up and down in time with his fingers inside. He added a bit more pressure on the prostate with each pass.

“F–fuck Shane, it feels so good. Please don't stop.” Ilya choked out while he tried to blindly reach for Shane's arm like he was going to force Shane to continue.

“I won't, I'm not going to stop. I promise. Wanna see you come for me Ilya. Come for me. I need to see it.” Shane babbled out, he was so enamored with watching Ilya's body tense and loosen with every pass of his fist and stroke of his fingers.

Ilya's voice was growing more pinched with every moan and groan, his body clinching tighter around Shane fingers. His dick seemed impossibly hard, “I'm going to come, don't stop, don't stop, pleeeeeasse don't stop, SHANE” Ilya cried out as his back he started to cum, shooting up his own chest as Shane stroked him through it.

“So good Ilya, you're doing so good. Yes, come for me. You're doing so good, fuck you're beautiful.” Shane soothed as he wrung the never ending orgasm from Ilya's body.

Once Ilya's body was spent, Shane did exactly what he'd been asked to do. He took the hand that had been wrapped around Ilya's cock and scooped up the cum from Ilya's body and nestled in between Ilya's legs.

Ilya looked up with a hazy sheen to his eyes as Shane gripped his cock and coated it in Ilya's cum. “So fucking hot Shane, do it. Cover me, please.” The quiet plea falling from Ilya's lips pulled him close to the edge already.

It only took a minute for Shane's vision to start to darken around the edges, the familiar tightening low in his core. He locked eyes with Ilya who was now much more lucid than he was. “Come on me, Shane.”

With that request the string was cut and Shane was hurtling into his orgasm, the sensation washing over him as he watched his cock paint Ilya's body for what felt like forever. He knew he was moaning too loud, but he couldn't stop. He watched his cum mix with what was left from Ilya's orgasm; it was like a feedback loop that he couldn't stop. The image was feeding the heat inside him for too long. His dick was getting sensitive as he rode out every moment of pleasure possible.

Shane let go of himself and put his hands down over Ilya's body, holding himself over him while he caught his breath. “Thank you, thank you for trusting me Ilya. That might was, wow. I think I need to collapse now.”

“Then get down here.” Ilya chuckled.

“Everything is so sticky, absolutely not.” Shane shook his head and tried to move.

Ilya took advantage of Shane's weakened state and pulled him down against his chest which was completely covered in cum.

“We are going to shower anyway, come here.” Ilya kissed him and they stayed like that until Shane's skin started to crawl over the feeling of the cum between them and he dragged them both into the shower.

-

Shane and Ilya met at the airport two hours before their flight to Vancouver, Ilya had apparently intended to just show up one hour before the flight like a crazy person. Shane looked down at the small carry-on rolling suitcase Ilya had and compared it to his own much larger bag that he would have to check.

“How did you fit everything you need in that? We are going to be there for almost a week?” Shane asked, trying to do math in his head.

“The hotel has dry cleaning and it's not like there's a ton of variety in men's work wear” Ilya said with a chuckle.

“But what happens when you put on one of your shirts and it doesn't feel right, but you don't have anything extra and that tie only matches that shirt. And what about shoes? Dress shoes take up so much space.”

Ilya stopped in his tracks in the middle of the airport, “Oh my god you are such a dork, and I mean that in the nicest most endearing way possible.”

“That really doesn't answer my questions though.” Shane reiterated.

Shane handed his bag off to the employee and they made their way to security. “So if I don't like my shirt one day, I just swap it to another day. It is still the same number of days. As for shoes, I wore these” he gestured to his sneakers “and packed dress shoes, I only need one pair. See, if you only wear black pants, you only need black shoes. Easy.”

Shane couldn't argue with him, but he always over packed. What if he dropped something on his shirt he'd planned to wear out that night? He needed extras. Always better to be prepared rather than not.

Ilya

Ilya forgot how long the flight to Vancouver was. He and Shane had watched two movies together and that had passed most of the time, thankfully. He stretched out after the finally deplaned and they went to collect Shane's bag from baggage claim. They grabbed a cab and headed to the hotel.

Ilya was scrolling through his phone while Shane checked them in when he overheard the desk clerk saying “I understand, but this is the only room we have available, I'm very sorry, we could issue you a refund and you can try another hotel if they would be helpful.”

Ilya stepped up and asked Shane what was going on before he could answer the clerk. “What is the problem? There is no room?”

Shane sighed “Something went wrong with the hooking and the only room they have left is a single King bed.”

Ilya snagged the room key from the clerk “Thank you, we will make do.” Ilya grabbed Shane's bag and rolled toward the elevator bank. He looked back to Shane who seemed kind of frozen. “Come on Mr. Hollander, there is work to be done!” he yelled halfway across the lobby just to see the blush creep up Shane's face.

Apparently "the work" of sucking Shane's dick was not allowed to happen yet because of “plane germs” so instead of the intended sexy time, they both took showers. Ilya settled onto the large bed to scroll through the TV channels. There was never anything worth watching when stuck in a hotel room, but there were always 3 reliable options: Diners, Drive Ins and Dives, Ancient Aliens, and a baseball game that no one gave a shit about. It didn't make sense but no matter when, no matter where, those three things would always be on a hotel TV.

Ilya studied Shane who was sitting at the hotel room desk with his laptop, he was wearing his glasses and Ilya was being very well behaved by not immediately pouncing on him. He tried to figure out which of the options Shane would choose. He settled on Diners, Drive Ins and Dives. They were currently at a barbecue restaurant in Missouri, why was it ALWAYS a barbecue restaurant in Missouri?

“Shane, what do you want for dinner? I'm so hungry I could eat a cow.” that pulled Shane's immediate attention. He started laughing, hard. And he wasn't stopping. It was contagious and Ilya started to laugh too. “Wh-what is so funny?” Ilya got out between laughs.

Shane laughed while wiping his eyes, “I'm sorry I shouldn't laugh, it's just that is not the phrase, I think I'm delirious from staying up so late last night and then flying today.”

“What do you mean that is not the phrase? I swear it is.”

Shane finally collected himself “No it is, I'm so hungry I could eat a horse.”

Ilya made an absolutely disgusted face “Why would I eat a horse Shane? That is awful!”

Shane was laughing again “I think that's the point, you'd have to be pretty desperate to eat a horse. I don't know, I've never dissected it that far. I'm sorry though, I shouldn't have laughed at you like that, I'm sure it's just something that gets lost in translation.”

Ilya really didn't care, he didn't make a mental note to see what other misquoted phrases he could feign ignorance about to get Shane to laugh like that again. He liked the way the corners of his eyes crinkled when he was too lost in the laugh to remain composed.

The men went out and grabbed a quick dinner so they could get plenty of rest before their first day with the client. They both laid on their respective sides of the bed to fall asleep. Ilya may or may not have been delighted to wake up in the middle of the night with Shane snuggled into his bare chest.

Shane

The first day with the client went about as well as could be expected. A thousand handshakes and names that get forgotten immediately. Shane tried to keep track of the people he thought they'd probably be working with. It seemed like they'd met everyone they needed to except one of the social media specialists, a guy named Dallas who would be coming back from vacation tomorrow.

Unfortunately the short day meant Shane had more time to panic about dinner with Svetlana tonight, Ilya continually reassured him there was no pressure, and while in theory, that was probably true Shane's brain didn't believe it.

So he obsessed over which shirt to wear, how to style his hair, whether he should wear his glasses or contacts. Eventually he gave up and asked Ilya which shirt Svetlana would like more, to which he responded “She does not care Shane, but I think the blue looks very good on you.” So blue it was.

They arrived at a nice Italian restaurant a few minutes before their reservation and got seated immediately, the staff said they'd bring Svetlana over when she arrived. Ilya burst out with a loud “SVETA” that was entirely too loud for the quiet restaurant and jumped out of his seat to go hug her. Shane had a moment to observe her, she was without a doubt one of the most beautiful women Shane had ever seen. She was almost as tall as Ilya with reddish brown hair pulled back into a neat bun with a few curly strands framing her face. She was clearly also coming from work as she was in a flowy top and skirt with dressy flats. She had a kind face, it made sense that she would be a psychiatrist she was probably very easy to talk to.

Shane stood to introduce himself to her and put out his hand to shake which she did very politely while saying “It is so nice to meet someone who has Ilya’s attention, I just hope he has not told you any bad things about me.” Ilya acted offended and they all took their seats. Shane was still very nervous and scanned over the menu several times even though he already knew what he wanted while he let Ilya and Svetlana catch up.

Eventually food was ordered and the attention turned to Shane. Svetlana asked about how they met and about Shane’s life. They filled her in and shared the story about Stanley stealing his tie after Shane ran out. Apparently these two didn’t really keep anything secret, that was nice, Shane didn’t have to worry about slipping up and saying something he wasn’t supposed to. After the mention of Stanley, she demanded to see pictures, apparently Ilya kept a folder in his photos specifically for Stanley pictures. He handed his phone over and she scrolled.

The rest of dinner continued pretty peacefully. Small talk actually came much easier than Shane had anticipated. Svetlana didn't pressure Shane to contribute when he was just observing. He learned about what Ilya was like as a very young boy, boisterous and rambunctious, he didn't expect anything else. He also heard about their adventurous years at university. Apparently the two of them were a dangerous pair around campus. It didn't take much imagination to picture that. Shane found himself lost in laughter for so long that his cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

Dinner came to an end with Svetlana explaining she needed to be back in her office early tomorrow morning. Shane and Svetlana exchanged numbers so she could “tell Shane all of Ilya's dirty secrets.” They said their goodbyes and Shane watched as Ilya gripped Svetlana tightly, whispering quietly to her in emotional Russian for a moment before pulling himself together. Svetlana offered a hug to Shane as well which he took happily.

She whispered to him “You seem very nice Shane, please take care of him. He's special.” Shane found himself a little emotional at the request.

“I will, I like him a lot, he's wonderful.” Shane whispered back. Svetlana pressed a kiss to his cheek and stepped away.

“I love you both, take care. Call me if you need anything at all while you're in town. Or if you're just bored, I don't care.” Svetlana kissed Ilya one last time, ruffling his hair like a big sister and got into her ride share.

Once she pulled away, Ilya turned to Shane with a nervous look on his face, “Was that okay?”

“Why are you asking me? And why do you look so nervous? Aren't I supposed to be the stressed one?” Shane questioned.

Ilya laughed, “Okay, okay. I think it went really well, you two seemed to get along, yes?”

“She's wonderful, Ilya. I'm happy you have her. I'd like to get to know her better.” Shane's smile turned from sweet to devious “And hear all of the terrible things you two got up to over the years.”

Ilya laced their fingers together as they turned to walk back to the hotel, “Maybe one day, when you are older, these stories are not for such innocent ears.”

Ilya

Day two was off to a less fun start than the get to know you day yesterday. The barista at today's shop had boring taste in coffee so even that wasn't enough to get him motivated for the day.

Shane was connecting to the AV system and getting ready to start his presentation. Ilya settled in at the far end of the conference room table to watch Shane speak. He looked so good, hair styled neatly, a pretty green tie and pants that made his ass look practically bite-able.

Someone flopped down in the seat next to him, noisily shuffling through his bag while Shane was trying to get everyone's attention. Ilya threw him a glare as the man next to him pulled his laptop. The man leaned in and loudly said “Who the fuck is this guy?” gesturing to Shane. Ilya didn't know what to say because he didn't even know who this person talking to him was.

“That is Shane, he's from Crowell and Associates, I'm Ilya, his co-worker, we are here to tell you about your re-brand, if you don't mind, he's about to start.” Ilya said quickly to try to give Shane the stage.

“Oh! That's right, that's what this is about, I'm Dallas Kent, socials specialist.” The man wiped his palm against his pants leg before extending it to Ilya to shake. Reluctantly, he shook the damp hand in an attempt to get this interaction over with and let Shane begin.

He nodded to Shane to begin now that it seemed like everyone was present. About five minutes in, barely past introductions and background, Dallas leaned over to Ilya and whispered way too loudly “I don't even get why we needed this re-brand, this shit has worked since the 90s right?”

Ilya tried to harness every ounce of patience he had and responded with a quiet non-committal grunt just to hopefully get him to shut the fuck up.

When they began the new branding guide for colors Dallas started to complain quietly at Ilya again “These colors are kind of gay, they are all soft and shit.” Ilya knew he needed to keep it together so he didn't distract Shane. He simply turned and gave Dallas his most scathing glare, people had told him in the past that when he was angry, it was a little bit scary how mean his glare could be. He was hoping Dallas felt every single bit of annoyance continuing to simmer in him. This was going to be a long week.

After a while, it was time for the break they had built into the presentation. One of the team members was talking to Shane so Ilya stepped out into the hall for some fresh air and a bathroom break. He was immediately intercepted again by fucking Dallas. The guy just would not fuck off, but Ilya was here as a representative of his company so he was willing to behave for the sake of making his and Shane's time here easier.

Dallas started again, “So that guy is kind of a dud huh?” Ilya clinched his teeth. “Anyways, what kind of stuff did you come up with for this? The ads or the campaigns?”

“Actually, I came up with those, how did you put it? Gay soft colors? Yes, that was my work.” Ilya turned on his heel and walked to the bathroom just to get away. Hoping Dallas would learn to shut his mouth, for at least the rest of the day.

Ilya was mistaken because despite the repeated glares and shushing from his own team members, the guy didn't stop. It was relentless. He felt like he needed to have a snipe or jab about almost everything. Eventually Ilya turned to him and politely, “I really think it would benefit you to take notes on this section and stop talking through my partner’s presentation.”

Thankfully, that shut him up for a while. They made it through the rest of the day without any more outbursts from Dallas. Ilya had a headache and was ready to get back to the hotel for the night.

Shane wanted to debrief once they got back to the room, but Ilya really didn't have the energy for it. He had given himself a headache from clenching his teeth so hard and being tense for so long. Ilya took a quick shower while Shane went down to the gym for a little while. He'd just crawled under the covers and turned on the TV when Shane walked back in.

He could feel Shane studying him, probably figuring out how to approach Ilya with the weird mood he was in, Ilya rolled to face him. “Hop in the shower and come snuggle with me?”

Shane nodded and grabbed clean clothes from the dresser, because of course Shane completely unpacked as soon as they got to their room.

Once Shane was back in bed, Ilya laid his head on his chest and ran his fingers up and down Shane’s ribs while some terribly boring baseball game droned on in the background. Shane spoke first, “Do you want to talk about what is bothering you?”

Ilya heaved a sigh, “You know they don't usually send me on these trips, I'm starting to feel bad that they send you instead. I don't think I'm built for it. Too many niceties.”

“What do you mean? We were together almost all day, I didn't notice anything too weird. What happened?” Shane tried to pull back to look at Ilya but he kept his head nestled against him.

“I was just stuck sitting next to that Dallas guy, and I'm going to be honest, he's an asshole. Maybe he was just having a weird day but he was very nitpicky and judgy in a way I didn't like. He was very rude. I didn't like the way he talked about people either, but I have to be nice because of work or whatever.” Ilya squoze Shane tightly, there was no reason to burden him with the rude things he'd said about Shane. It would only stress him out and they still had a few days left. Ilya was determined to make it through, maybe they could speed through Ilya's part and their last day or two wouldn't be necessary.

-

Day three was much the same as the one before. Except it was Ilya's turn to present the more detailed action plans to the team. Ilya made sure he sat Shane’s stuff right next to where he was presenting so that he wouldn't accidentally get sat next to that asshole. Ilya usually didn't mind mingling among the teams so they could ask him questions without too much effort.

The first part of the morning went well, Ilya thought. Dallas was late to the meeting even though they'd seen him on the way into the building this morning, whatever, not Ilya's problem if the guy didn't give a shit about his job.

The second half of today's presentation didn't go as well, almost immediately after they returned for lunch Dallas was clearly talking through Ilya's information. “Mr. Kent, is there something I can clear up for you?” Dallas just looked at the person next to him, who also looked tired of his shit and giggled and waved Ilya on.

At their afternoon break Ilya was fed up with whatever Dallas kept repeatedly laughing about. Patience worn thin, he just wanted to finish this day. He couldn't go home, but he just wanted more alone time with Shane. Instead, he was now being cornered in the bathroom by none other than Dallas.

He looked like he wanted to say something as he stood blocking the way out while Ilya finished washing his hands. “Can I help you?” Ilya said, knowing he wasn't being polite but why the fuck was he being held hostage in a bathroom right now?

“Look I just thought you'd want to know, and I couldn't get you away from that other guy all morning. It's just, I saw you two this morning, and I'd want someone to tell me if it looked this way.”

“Oh my god, spit it out.” Ilya barked, annoyed.

“It's just, you might want to be careful, you guys have been like super close the whole time you've been here. Maybe he's got the hots for you or something, but uh people might get the wrong idea with how you guys behave around each other.” Dallas finally laid out.

Ilya was frozen, appalled, and disgusted. This couldn't be fucking happening right now.

Dallas continued unprompted, “I'd just want someone to tell me if they thought what I was doing looked gay. I felt like I should do you a solid and tell you too.”

Something ugly worked its way under Ilya's skin, he hadn't been in a fight in years. Not since someone tried to hurt Sveta, but he could feel that familiar rage in his veins as he clinched and unclenched his hands at his side.

He made his way across the small space and crowded Dallas against the door. Ilya’s voice came out cold and cruel as he stripped all the emotion from his face, “Is there something wrong with being queer Dallas? Does it scare you? That two men could be together?”

Dallas seemed to realize this wasn't going how he expected, “I mean, it isn't natural. All that queer shit. I'm just trying to give you a heads up man.”

“A heads up? Oh, in the way your head is so far up your own ass you haven't realized your own coworkers hate you yet? You think you are a funny little man, making jokes all fucking day, they all giggle and you feel very important yes?” Dallas tried to interject but Ilya kept going, “Let me guess, your mother or father got you this job? You've never worked for anything a day in your life, and your work shows it. It is terrible, it is half the reason we are here telling you how to do your job. Oh, and that man you've been trying to tear down the last two days has more talent in his pinky finger than you could ever hope to have. He also happens to be my boyfriend. Surprise, you've got not one, but two queers telling you how to do your job better than you could ever do it on your own. And I would sooner delete every bit of work we've done for your company and leave you high and dry before I let you speak a single word to him. So, we are going to walk out of this bathroom, you're going to sit down and shut the fuck up while we finish telling you how run this. Do you understand?”

Ilya had ended up so close to Dallas that their chests were almost brushing, at least he had the decency to look embarrassed. He nodded. “Good, get the fuck out of my way Dallas.” He scampered out to the side and Ilya walked out the door.

Ilya found Shane as soon as he walked out of the bathroom and pulled him into an open empty office.

“Are you okay?” Shane asked, trying to figure out what was going on with Ilya.

Ilya filled him in on the bathroom interaction and Dallas’ continued shitiness. “I am sorry I didn't tell you yesterday but I just, didn't think he'd be this fucking stupid. Did I fuck this all up for us? What if he tells someone.”

“Hey, hey, relax.” Shane soothed, taking Ilya's balled up fists in his hands. “Let me email Brandon and see what he thinks we should do. Okay? It's not really fair to us to work with someone like that. I'm sure there is something in our contract with them about discrimination. You give the rest of today's presentation, I'll talk with Brandon while you do.”

Ilya nodded, really hoping he hasn't fucked everything up. He hadn't directly threatened him or anything, but he knew he was definitely menacing and if Dallas really was related to someone important here, that could be a problem. He just had to hope that Dallas was too much of a bitch to admit to anyone what had just happened.

Shane

Shane was kind of shocked by what Ilya had told him, he had noticed the guy being kind of annoying all day but he didn't expect him to literally corner Ilya in the bathroom.

Shane opened up an email to Brandon and spent most of the rest of the day trying to figure out the right way to phrase it.

Concerns about Client Conduct

To: Wiebe, Brandon

Cc: Rozanov, Ilya

From: Hollander, Shane

Good Afternoon Mr. Wiebe,

I wanted to report an incident that happened today with a member of the client's team and make you aware of the ongoing harassment that has been occurring during our time onsite.

A member of the client's team, Dallas Kent, has repeatedly made inappropriate remarks regarding the sexual orientation of both members of our team. Today, he cornered one member of the team in the restroom and directly insinuated that they should be worried about being perceived as gay. This, combined with the fact that our team member was unable to remove themselves from this situation resulted in a verbal altercation.

No threats were made, but the team member made it clear that this type of behavior was unacceptable and would not be tolerated if it were to continue.

We have provided the team on the ground enough information to execute as necessary. If at all possible we would like to discontinue our time onsite to respect the personal safety of the team.

I understand that there will need to be discussions that happen. Please let us know at your earliest convenience how we should proceed.

Shane Hollander

Sr. Marketing Associate

Crowell & Associates Marketing Firm

Shane hit send on the email and watched as it lit up Ilya's phone while he was speaking. Shane was pissed, not really about what Dallas had said about him, but that he'd cornered Ilya. Who the fuck does that? Especially in their own workplace? It was a level of unprofessionalism Shane couldn't even try to conjure up in his own mind.

Ilya wrapped up for the day, packed up in record time, and they were out the door. Shane ordered dinner in the ride share back to the hotel, they rode back in relative silence. Ilya was still clearly pent up over what happened today, Shane couldn't blame him. He didn't know how he would have responded if he'd been in Ilya's shoes. Shane rested his palm on Ilya's thigh for the duration of the ride. After a beat, Ilya rested his hand over top of Shane’s.

After they ate dinner while leaning over the small hotel coffee table Ilya pulled Shane into the shower with him. It was a nice big shower with glass walls, bigger than anything the two of them had at home. Ilya was still kind of despondent and Shane didn't really know how to handle that.

Ilya always gave Shane time to quietly process his emotions, so he offered up the same. Quiet comfort and gentle touches, he washed Ilya's back and hugged him, wrapping his arms like a koala. Ilya wrapped his arms over Shane's pulling him in closer and tighter. Shane kissed the back of his neck as they stood quietly under the never ending warm spray of the hotel shower.

Eventually, Ilya released Shane's arms and they turned off the shower and dried off. Ilya slipped straight into bed, he put on some TV show where a loud man visited different restaurants and tried their signature dishes. Shane grabbed his phone to see if Brandon had responded back yet. He found an email waiting.

Re: Concerns about Client Conduct

To: Hollander, Shane

CC: Rozanov, Ilya

From: Wiebe, Brandon

Good Evening Guys,

Sorry for the late response. I spoke with upper management and HR. After speaking with the client's HR team it seems like this is not the first time Mr. Kent has had these types of issues. Seems like he's related to somebody very important at the company so disciplinary action doesn't go far.

I'm very sorry to have placed you all in that environment. If you feel you are at a good enough place to cut off the last few days of this training, I will believe you.

That being said, we will need at least one of you to be available on an on-call basis to sort out any issues that may arise early on. I can't guarantee Mr. Kent won't be involved on those, but something tells me he isn't the type to ask for help on anything.

Your flights home are transferrable so feel free to change it to whenever you would like to come back. Just let me know if you plan to come in to work at all this week, I would expect that you won't be here. If you run into any issues please call me.

Very sorry again,

Brandon Wiebe

Director of Marketing

Crowell & Associates Marketing Firm

Shane slid into the bed and snuggled up to Ilya, turning off the TV. "Brandon said we can go home whenever we want. We'll just take call if they have questions. I told him they knew enough for us to leave. I told him that we would like to leave for the safety of the team. You shouldn't have to deal with that bullshit Ilya, I'm sorry again."

Shane barely had the words out of his mouth before Ilya had flipped Shane onto his back, laying his full body weight on top of Shane. After a moment Ilya spoke, "I'm sorry, I know I am heavy, I'll move in just a second."

When Ilya made a move to roll off Shane, Shane held him tightly, "No, I like it. Do you want to talk about it? I feel like there is more than just the garden variety homophobia happening here, I'd like to understand."

Ilya took a deep breath "It has been a long time since someone has said such awful things directly to my face like this. First, it rubbed me the wrong way because he thought… it was like he thought he was helping me? That by telling me I was acting too gay I could correct my behavior or something?" There was another long pause, when Ilya spoke this time, his voice was small and fragile. "In Russia, it is very bad if someone suspects you are gay. It is very dangerous. There is no distinction for gay, bi, anything."

"Dangerous how?" Shane could admit he didn't have the most solid grasp on Russian politics. Before Ilya it wasn't something he thought he'd need to know a lot about.

"If someone suspects you are gay, especially if they think you are doing things with other men, you disappear. There are many terrible stories of what can happen, to you and your family. None that are worth repeating. So when he started to act like he'd found me out, it made me feel very trapped. I do not like it. It makes me feel very out of control, very nervous. I'm out here. I don't hide who I am, who I am with. But being cornered and told these things, like it should be a secret, it felt like I was hiding again." Ilya laid his feelings out for Shane.

Ilya had slid down Shane's body and was laying with his head on the crook of Shane's neck now, making it a little easier to breathe, "I'm so sorry Ilya, I didn't realize how that would make you feel."

"It is okay, I spent a lot of time with therapists talking about this, Sveta found every Russian speaking therapist when I moved here and had me seen them until we found a good fit. I think that's why I'm good about talking about it now. When I first arrived, I was not in a good place Shane. I was very scared. I was afraid I would end up like my mother, that I would always be sad like she was." Ilya sniffled against Shane's dampening skin. "I am like her, is genetic they say, but I have tools that she did not. I am in a safer place than she ever got to have. I will not meet the same end. I found my way out of my head."

Shane was putting together the pieces of information that Ilya had been giving him about his mother. His heart ached for the young scared boy who lost the only person who loved him unconditionally in a place where even being himself was dangerous. "You have me too, I know I'm not a therapist or anything, but you can talk to me, like we are now. Thank you for telling me that Ilya." Shane kissed the top of Ilya's head.

"I know Shane, thank you. Thank you for listening to me." Ilya murmured.

At some point they drifted off to sleep, all tangled limbs and tear stained pillow cases. When Shane woke he laid there under Ilya's weight, admiring the man who despite all the shit he had been through, was still so kind and happy. Shane was in awe of his resilience.

Ilya

Ilya opened his eyes to the bright morning light of the hotel room. He looked up at Shane's face who was looking intently at Ilya in a way that made him squirm. "No, nope. It is too early for that look. No studying me before ten am."

Ilya drug himself out of the bed, stiff from sleeping in such a weird position. Once they were all dressed and ordered some breakfast, Ilya sat down on the small couch. He looked at Shane and noticed he looked like he was about to vibrate out of his skin. "You have a whole plan for today don't you?"

Shane's smile overtook his face, Ilya was lost in it. Shane had this perfect wide Cupid's now that smoothed out when he smiled that wide. Ilya wished for a moment that he could draw. Shane was beautiful in a way that sometimes caught Ilya off guard.

Ilya focused in when Shane started laying out his plan. They would have breakfast here. Go to the art museum (that Ilya had mentioned exactly one time), have lunch at one of Ilya's favorite sandwich shops (that again, he'd mentioned in passing before they even knew they were going on this trip), and they'd have dinner with Svetlana and then catch the morning flight tomorrow.

Ilya knew he had a silly look on his face and Shane started to get nervous when Ilya didn't say anything. Instead he stood and wrapped Shane in a tight hug.

The feeling struck him like lightning, a moment of stark clarity. A puzzle piece locking into place like he'd never felt before. Ilya whispered quietly into Shane's neck "Ya tebya lyublyu."

"What?" Shane asked.

Ilya steeled himself, he wouldn't hide behind Russian, apparently this was a week where Ilya was just going to lay his entire heart on the line and see how it went. "I love you. No one has ever been so kind to me, thought of me the way you do. You are wonderful Shane, and I love you."

Shane stared at Ilya a beat too long. He finally spoke, "Holy shit," it hung in the air, Ilya waited.

The silence was too much to bear "I'm sorry, it's okay if you don't–"

"Shut up, I love you too. So much." Shane said right before he crashed their lips together.

Ilya was overwhelmed, his brain spinning out of control, he loved Shane it was obvious, but the fragile part of him was terrified he didn't feel the same. "You mean it? You're not just saying this to make me happy right?"

Shane laughed, "No Ilya, I didn't just tell you I love you to make you happy. I think I've felt it for a while but wasn't brave enough to say it. You're so special. I love you."

Ilya tackled Shane to the bed. "We have time, yes?"

"I mean there isn't technically a set schedule for today, so yes?" Shane said in a way they was not believable at all.

"No official schedule, but I know there is a Shane schedule."

"Asshole. Yes we have time." Shane breathed out as Ilya was already pulling the shirt over his head.

Ilya attacked his throat, kissing and biting, overwhelmed with emotions. He sucked greedily at his collarbones down to his nipples. Shane's back lifted from the sheets when Ilya bit down. Shane's hands were is his hair, Ilya couldn't tell if he was trying to pull him off or keep him where he was.

Ilya continued his slow and amorous descent down Shane's body, whispering words of adoration into his skin in Russian. He didn't have the brain power to translate himself right now. Shane didn't seem to mind though, soft moans slipped through his parted lips when Ilya spoke.

Ilya pulled Shane's pants off and slipped his lips over Shane's thick cock. His tongue twisted and pressed in all the places he'd learn Shane loved. He was like putty in Ilya's hands, soft and malleable. "Flip over for me, babe" Ilya said softly. It took Shane a few seconds to obey but he did, he always did. Ilya laid down between Shane's knees, he sucked two of his fingers into his mouth and reached around to press against Shane's hole. "Fuck my face while I open you up."

A drop of precum slid from the tip of Shane's dick right into Ilya's open mouth. Shane pressed in gently, filling Ilya's mouth with far too much finesse. Once he was most of the way in, Ilya slid a wet finger into Shane's hole causing him to thrust down Ilya's throat. That was what Ilya wanted, for every sense to be full of Shane. They continued like that until Ilya had 3 fingers deep in Shane's ass, Shane was fucking himself back on Ilya's fingers more than he was fucking Ilya's mouth now, dancing too close to the edge, Ilya knew.

Ilya tapped Shane's hip to pull back at the same time as he pulled his fingers free. Shane dazedly pulled out and leaned back resting on Ilya's stomach with Ilya's favorite look on his face. "Let me up, I want to fuck you so bad, I might die if I don't get inside you." When Shane moved Ilya grabbed his face with his clean hand and kissed him. It was frantic, much more chaotic than the usual rhythm they found.

"Fuck, I love you Ilya, make me feel good please." Shane crooned.

"I will." Ilya said into Shane's mouth, unwilling to part more than a few centimeters. "I promise, I will, always. All you have to do is ask. I'd give you anything."

"Fuck me, please." Shane said giving Ilya the most beautiful puppy eyes he'd ever seen. The light from the window cast a ray across his face that highlighted him like a sculpture, a beautiful piece of art for Ilya's viewing pleasure.

Ilya rearranged them so Shane was spread out on his back, arms raised shoved his head holding onto the pillow. Ilya grabbed the lube and lined himself up. Pressing in felt different this time, Shane's neck stretched back as he moaned out a loud "Ilyaaaaa." Ilya gasped out his own groan as Shane's body pulled him in.

Ilya lifted Shane's right leg and draped it over his shoulder tilting Shane's hips to the side a bit, allowing him to get deeper. They were so close when Ilya started to thrust deeply into Shane. Shane's head was tilted to the side giving Ilya a view of that stunning side profile, the perfect nose, cheeks tinged pink with a blush, lips plush and parted around moans in time with each punch of Ilya's hips. Fuck he was just so overwhelmingly hot, Ilya couldn't think of anything else. Shane's beauty, his kindness, his love.

Ilya wasn't going to last with Shane's ass clinching right around him. Ilya slid his hand around Shane's cock, tilting his hips up slightly for a better angle. Deep groans and pleas fell from Shane's lips spurring Ilya on even more. "Come for me love. Please."

By the time the word "love" slipped from Ilya's lips Shane was coming. His face had drawn tight with a pleasured look Ilya had grown so fond of. A slow flow of cum leaked from Shane's dick, slipping through Ilya's fingers as he continued to stroke in time with each thrust, dragging his cock over Shane's prostate, milking out every last bit of cum in Shane's body.

"Please come, Ilya, please." Shane plead with watery eyes.

Ilya pulled his hand off Shane's oversensitive dick and slid his cum coated fingers into his own mouth. The taste combined with Shane clinching at the sight sent him over the edge. Ilya's final thrusts were stuttered and frantic. The emotion of the last two days carrying him away, his whole body was flushed with heat and tingling as he came. He filled Shane, who kept moaning as he could feel it. Ilya had never met someone who loved being full of cum like Shane did, his ass kept squeezing Ilya through it. Ilya watched as Shane's soft cock twitched, leaking a good deal of clear cum as Ilya finished.

"Did you just come again?" Ilya asked out of breath.

Shane just nodded as his body relaxed enough for Ilya to pull out. "Fuck that is so hot. Is that because you like that I came in you?" Ilya reached down and scooped up the cum leaking from Shane's ass with his fingers and pressed it back in, gently sliding two fingers to keep it in. Shane's hole was loose and wet.

Shane moaned "Yes. I like being full, full of you. Means I did good. Made you feel good."

"Jesus, you make me feel so good Shane." Ilya rubbed over Shane's prostate. "So fucking good, I've never felt this way. So happy." Ilya told Shane every thought in his brain as he slowly fucked his own cum back into Shane's hole with his fingers.

Shane's dick had chubbed back up now. Ilya took it into his mouth as he continued fingering. After a few moments Shane tensed again, he shouted as Ilya's mouth was filled with a few spurts of thin cum which he swallowed down.

"Okay okay okay. Too much Ilya. I can't, no more, please." Shane wiggled off Ilya's fingers and rolled onto his side. Ilya spooned in behind him and just rested for a while. For this moment, frozen in time, he was completely content. It was everything that he never let himself hope for. He squeezed Shane against his chest for another moment before they got up to get get ready for their day again.

-

The rest of their day was like something from a dream, they spent a few hours looking at all the latest exhibits at the art museum. Ilya told Shane about how when he was seeing one of his first psychiatrists in Vancouver, they tasked him with coming here and picking a few pieces each week that each made him feel something different. He had to journal about what they made him feel and why he thought it made him feel that way. It helped him grow an appreciation for art, which was something he didn't have before. He learned what colors made him feel certain ways and he'd decorated his home using the colors that made him feel safe and warm. He even had prints of a few pieces that helped him dissect deeper feelings, items that led big breakthroughs hung on his walls now.

They had lunch at his favorite sandwich shop, it was everything he remembered. They wandered around town for a while then packed their bags for an early flight. Dinner with Svetlana was what he needed to round out this perfect day. The two people Ilya loved more than anything, getting along and sharing a meal together. Svetlana gave him a knowing look while he sat there with a big smitten smile on his face through the whole dinner. He was quieter this time, letting the two of them talk.

They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways, Sveta as always, whispered a piece of parting wisdom on her departure. This time she simply said "That man loves you so much, Ilya. I'm so happy for you."

Chapter End Notes

I hope you enjoyed! Again, I really think this could be a stopping point for this story, so I'll mark it as complete and if the inspiration strikes to come back and add some more I will! Things got a little more emotional in this one than I really anticipated, but sometimes that is just where the story takes you I suppose.

Please leave a comment, your comments mean the world to me!

As always you can find me on Twitter: Chavalala24