Rating:

Mature

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandoms:

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

Relationship:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov

Characters:

Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander, Cliff Marlow, Scott Hunter (Game Changers), Connors (Heated Rivalry)

Additional Tags:

Coming Out, Shane Is Outed, Supportive Hockey Players, Some Not Supportive Hockey Players, Boston Raiders Are All Allies

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-01-31 Completed: 2026-02-14 Words: 5,542 Chapters: 2/2

locker room talk

Summary

The picture is leaked on a random fucking Tuesday in November, months after Ilya was last in Montreal.

Grainy and dark, enhanced digitally to shit but still just recognisable enough; Shane Hollander smiling dopily as a broad-shouldered man in a dark hoodie has him pushed up against a red brick wall, one knee lifted to hook around the back of a thigh, a large hand possessively holding it in place as the hooded figure has his face hidden in the crook of Hollander’s neck — presumably kissing him there, intimately.

Ilya knows his team is good, and they do the best they can.

Notes

This was a bit of a writing exercise for me after years of not finishing anything. Very much a test of keeping tenses!

I just loved the idea of Ilya showing very clear support for his boyfriend in the best way he could. And then the Raiders had to be good boys all around, because I can't imagine Ilya actually putting up with slurs in his locker room.

Please disregard any faulty ice hockey. That's not really why we're here anyway.

Chapter 1: locker room talk

Chapter Notes

The picture is leaked on a random fucking Tuesday in November, months after Ilya was last in Montreal.

Grainy and dark, enhanced digitally to shit but still just recognisable enough; Shane Hollander smiling dopily as a broad-shouldered man in a dark hoodie has him pushed up against a red brick wall, one knee lifted to hook around the back of a thigh, a large hand possessively holding it in place as the hooded figure has his face hidden in the crook of Hollander’s neck — presumably kissing him there, intimately. 

The fallout is instant and all-encompassing for the league in that strange way where it is everything that people talk about, but at the same time refuses to talk about openly. It’s discussed in hushed voices in offices behind closed doors and no one dares make any open statements about it before either the MHL, the Metros, or Hollander himself gives some kind of comment on it. The general public and fans more than make up for the silence with their posts and comments and it explodes like a wildfire after drought.

Hollander is scratched from the game the day after the leak, still with no comment from any official channels, which makes the online discourse even wilder. After the game, at the same time, the MHL and the Voyagers release statements about respecting player’s privacy, but does not in any way address the most monumental point to it all — the league’s second known gay player.

Some accounts are quick to theorise that the unknown man is Scott Hunter, who must have moved on from his boyfriend very quickly after risking his career for the man and declaring his love in the acceptance speech for the MVP award, or maybe he was having an affair with Hollander. The rumours are shot down by some very dedicated fans who compare the leaked photo, grainy as it is, with photos of Hunter and Hollander from events and a lot of detailed analysis of brick heights and relative size that shows that Hunter is noticeably taller than the unknown figure.

At least some rabid fans do good detective work. No one is otherwise able to identify Hollander’s secret lover.

The day after the official channels posts — two days after the leak — Shane Hollander makes a statement, also condemning those invading his privacy, but also confirming that yes, he is gay, but was not and still isn’t interested in sharing details about his private life. He is back on the ice two days later for their next game.

Ilya Rozanov started his run as captain for the Raiders cleaning up and setting firm boundaries from the get-go: none of that fucking homophobic shit-talk in his locker room or on his ice. Young as he was, it was fairly easy with Marlow’s hulking figure at his side, and the team had already limited it in respect to Marly’s lesbian sister. Ilya wasn’t out to the team at all and most would never question his supposed straightness with the amount of women he’d been seen pulling over the years, and no one had yet noticed that he’d stopped bringing any home some time during the early spring that year. 

He takes the chance at their game the same day as Hollander scratches to remind them. 

Ironically, they’re playing the Admirals, a fairly inconsequential game in the early season, all the boys ready in the locker room for his usual Captain’s speech.

“Okay, listen up,” He starts with a yell, just as always, “This is a strategy game, yes? Great to win. Go quick, go hard, but remember we have to last all season.”

He pauses, looking over the players. Even in the break of his voice, they’re silent and all clearly waiting for something, staring at the captain, except Marlow, who’s scanning the faces around him.

“I know you are waiting, so here it is,” Ilya continues, shifting his eyes over the faces of his team, “Same rules. No. Fucking. Slurs. On. My. Ice.” He enunciates each word slowly and clearly, marking each with a pointing finger to the team. A few heads bob in agreement as he continues. “Not at this game. Not at next. Got it?”

More nods moves through the locker room.

“Good boys. Have to be nice to old Hunter, yes? But if you hear anyone say shit, they are prey.”

This makes some of them share looks, but Marlow grins along with an enforcer and the mood starts to buzz again.

“Roll out!”

After the game, which the Raiders manages to pull to a slim win, Roz catches Hunter’s attention while they’re still on the ice. The tall man skates closer at the call of his name, face clearly apprehensive.

“Rozanov,” he greets Ilya, slowly sliding to a stop just a stick-length away.

“You talked to Hollander?” Ilya asks and Hunter swears.

“Right to the point as always. But no, I’ve sent a text, but no answer yet. I assume he’s busy,” Hunter says, eyes narrowing slightly at Ilya’s relaxed stance, head tipped back and helmet pushed up to almost give the impression that Ilya is looking down at the Admiral’s captain. 

“Yes, very busy,” Ilya drawls, then pauses and pushes himself a few feet closer, “He says thank you.”

Hunter’s eyebrows shoot up in surprise. “You’ve talked with Hollander?”

Ilya shrugs in his usual nonchalant way. “Lucky me, yes?”

More than a few heads are turned towards the two captains talking, both players and some of the audience that’s stuck around, although none can hear their voices.

“Why the fuck would he answer you now?” Hunter spits out, more incredulous than venomous. Ilya simply grins.

“On ice we are rivals. Off ice? Is whatever,” he admits, “He is boring, only dangerous with skates and a stick.”

Hunter scoffs out a short laugh. “You’ve both got all of us fooled with that, you never stop talking shit about him.”

“Is only hockey stuff, nothing else. Maybe once I said he is bad at women, but that is not so wrong, no?”

Hunter’s laugh this time is loud enough to be heard across the ice, and he is a bit surprised and embarrassed by it. “He did pull Rose Landry.”

Ilya’s head tips down and he scowls at Hunter at the name. “If he cannot grow one, he must find beard at the club.”

Scott isn’t proud of the snort he makes at the chirp, but he recognises Rozanov’s point with the jokes. He’s showing his support in the only way Roz really seems to know — casual chirping that’s borderline friendly. He’d done the same to Scott at the afterparty at the award show, which has been almost as surprising as the idea that he and Hollander are remotely friendly off the ice. Scott would have guessed Rozanov to be the stereotypical homophobe, Russian, womanizer, the whole spiel, but he’d been taken aback by Roz’ claim that he did not tolerate bigots in his locker room.

“Shut the fuck up, Roz,” Hunter answers goodnaturedly and meets his outstretched glove with a fist bump of his own before they both skate off towards their teams to get off the ice. They both know the message it sends, to see them talking and being friendly at this point. It’s just the beginning of the new season and the teams are trying to find out how to handle Hunter being out — and now, with bated breath, everyone is waiting to see how they will react to Hollander.

The media will know what they talked about. Ilya made a point to be seen talking friendly to Hunter at the Awards, and this is just as much of a point to make.

Ilya isn’t surprised to catch Hunter getting questioned about the whole situation in the media circus after the game, but he is a bit surprised to be asked himself. Maybe he shouldn’t have been surprised, since it is breaking news — to anyone but him, at least — about his supposedly sworn rival. They have no clue that the unknown man in the leaked photo is Ilya himself, or that he’d spent his summer in a cottage in Canada in Shane’s arms.

“Do you have any comments on how the news about your rival Hollander might influence your game when you meet the Metros next?” a reporter asks, her question as uninspiring as her mousy brown hair. Ilya raises his eyebrows.

“Influence? I am not sure I understand, is no different. He is no new person, he will play hockey, we will play hockey.”

The interviewer didn’t get his dismissive tone. “I mean, will you approach the game any different?”

Ilya scoffed. “No. We are playing the Metros, we know them well and we use our game plan. Just like we followed game plan tonight against the Admirals and Hunter.” He drags his hand through his sweaty hair and rights his necklace on the way down. “I don’t care who he fucks. I care how he plays hockey.”

That is a small lie, of course, he cares a lot about who Shane fucks, but the reporter gives him the shocked reaction he wants. She reels back a bit, but another steps in, sensing an opportunity for a scoop. “Do you think this shock will disrupt the Metros and make them easier to beat?”

Ilya shrugs, hoping Shane is watching the interview, since he was pulled from his own game today, which was both a blessing in terms of giving Shane time to collect himself, but also fuck the Metros administration for treating him like a liability. At least Shane would have an opportunity to watch his boyfriend shirtless and sweaty on TV. Ilya knows he likes that, although he probably won’t like what Ilya’s about to say.

“If they get messy, we take the win. That is their mistake, yes? Hollander won them two cups, maybe even three if he did not get hurt in the spring. Now Hunter won, so last three Cups had gay captains,” Ilya says, then lets a crooked grin form on his face, “so maybe sucking cock is secret to great hockey and winning the Cup now. Maybe more players should test it, yes? Great superstition.”

The reporter sputters as Ilya winks at the camera and walks back to the locker room, secretly wishing that he could say that actually, the last four Cups have had queer captains, since the year before Shane, Ilya himself had won it, and he is also quite the fan of sucking cock, but it is not his time. Not yet, anyway.

The most painful part is having to wait for their next game against each other before he gets to see Shane again, after the whole deal. With their schedules, they didn’t have the opportunity to fly in or see each other, although they called most nights. Shane had told that the Metros didn’t take it very well; Hayden and J.J., Shane’s closest friends, were mostly just hurt that he hadn’t told them. The rest was… mostly silent. Some were borderline hostile, and it showed in their games. The worst part was the administration, who did nothing at all and let the team slowly disintegrate.

So it is weeks later before Ilya gets to hug and kiss his newly outed boyfriend. Luckily, the news cycle is fast and moves quick, especially since he is not the first. It is not easy in any case, and Ilya has thrown punches in response to slurs thrown at him after his suggestion that more players should try sucking dick. He spends the night making sure he has the best foundation for another Cup win, according to his own theory.

“It is a bit of a relief, in some ways,” Shane says when they’re curled around each other in Ilya’s bed in Boston, “that people know. I wish I could have chosen it, but it feels better not to keep it secret.”

“Not that part, at least,” Ilya murmures into Shane’s neck, hands still running softly over Shane’s torso, slightly tacky from the shower. It makes goosebumps rise on some spots of the skin underneath his fingers. Shane scoffs and follows it with a sigh.

“I know. Being gay kind of seems like the smaller secret at this point.” His eyes are as soft as his lips when he pulls Ilya by the hair to meet in a kiss.

Ilya grumbles, but kisses back lazily, sated and loving. He would never get tired of tasting Shane.

“I cannot promise Comeau will be walking away from game,” Ilya admits when Shane tucks himself under Ilya’s arm, head resting on his chest. “My team has strict no-bigot policy.”

Shane’s sigh is deep. His teammate Comeau, who’d been at the Metros for Shane’s entire career at the team, seems to be the epicentre of the coldness, and they both know Comeau has the support of the administration. It lit a fire in Ilya’s muscles every time he watched a Metros game lately, to see how some of the players completely disregarded their captain.

“I know. Just don’t tell them.”

“Is too late, lyubimyy. They have already seen the tapes and they will notice during game.”

“When I get as grey as Hunter, know that you’re the cause of every single hair.”

“Ah, but that will take years and years, yes?”

They are getting ready for the warmup when Connors lightly checks Ilya’s shoulder.

“Should we do a show of support? You know?” he asks when Ilya looks down at him. Connors is small for a hockey player, but deadly fast and graceful as a figure skater with the puck.

“Of course. Comeau is free for all,” Ilya confirms. No one on the team has any doubt that it will be a rough game for that specific Metro player, both from watching tapes from their last few games, but also — though surprised — from Ilya’s vague insider knowledge of the Metro locker room.

“I was thinking more obvious to the League. Actual, visible support.”

Ilya narrows his eyes. “What are you thinking.”

Lily: Stay close to the center during warmups

Jane: What?

Ilya has the pleasure of knocking out two of Comeau’s teeth himself and skates to the penalty box with a wide grin, teeth bloody from his own split lip. 

They see the video posted the next day, on the Raider’s official instagram. 

Connors theory had been true, and it was simply too good of a show of sportsmanship that management couldn’t resist capitalising on. He’d tipped their social media intern who was at the game to make sure the whole thing got filmed.

Clipped together, the video shows a number of the Raiders, one by one, unorganised throughout warmup, pass by Hollander at the middle of the ice to offer a gloved fist bump, not crossing the line but just making an acknowledgement. Marlow even throws in a comment that makes Hollander smile hesitantly, and at the end of the video, a clip of Rozanov skating up at speed and stopping with a small spray of ice, cocky as ever. He’s the only one who really stops and talks with Hollander, although the video has no sound but some instrumental music. Rozanov nods and says something, the angle capturing Hollander’s response perfectly: A laugh, what looks like a shut the fuck up, Roz, and then they pull their right gloves off to shake hands. Rozanov uses the hold to pull Hollander forward and taps their helmets together just as Hayden Pike skates up. Rozanov skates off and uses his ungloved hand to throw a rude gesture at Pike as the Metro player throws an arm around his captain, showing a similar gesture to the Raider with a grin.

The video is captioned Hockey is a team sport. The comments are a riot.

Chapter End Notes

Thank you for reading! Leave a comment if you feel like it.

Chapter 2: change of plans

Chapter Notes

I really have no words for the reactions on this little piece of fun. Thank you all so much!!

I still had some ideas rattling around in the noggin', so here is a surprise chapter 2! This entire thing ended up being a love letter to the Raiders. I had to research way too much about trading in the NHL, but please don't assume I'm in any way correct on how this all works.

I really enjoy this form of writing, and it's been a fun break from my usual, way wordier style. I hope you'll enjoy this as much as the first!

For a while after the photo leaks and Shane is outed, it feels like the entire league holds their breath, waiting for some kind of explosion, but it takes a few weeks before most realise that nothing happens — life moves on and the puck still races across the ice.

Shane Hollander is gay. His team is in shambles, the plays not sticking. Everything is changed at the same time that nothing has really happened anyway. It’s the strangest limbo, the kind of tenseness that demands a release, but then you realise that it’s just how your muscles sit now. It’s entirely uncomfortable, but not necessarily painful.

Luckily, most of Shane’s high-profile sponsors are elated about the opportunities it gives them, to have arguably the best hockey player in the MHL marketable to an entirely new customer base. Capitalism rules, and currently, there is money in this kind of palatable queerness. Shane is just grateful that none of them drop him; Not that he really needs their sponsorships, but he knows a thing or two about being a public front figure for a marginalised group. It’s as important as it is exhausting. 

Most of his interviews post-outing have at least two or more questions about the case. Shane smoothly repeats the same lines again and again — yes, he’s uncomfortable knowing that his privacy has been breached, and no, he will not comment or give any sort of information about his private life. He starts to resent management for not vetting the reporters or the questions better.

It does come to a head in the locker room once, after Comeau has gotten his teeth fixed temporarily. Thierault berates them for not playing together, managing to shift the blame to their captain for not supporting the team spirit. It makes that new knot of tension in Shane’s body finally break and he yells at his team for the first time ever. They are all shocked as he points at them, for once visibly angry, face red and reminding them what he has done for the team. His are you fucking kidding me with this? makes a few of the younger players look down in shame. They all know he is the reason they won the cup twice in a row, both from his sheer talent, but also from his care for the team as captain. This has all been a team effort, he reminds them, lets them feel how disappointed he is, that such a small thing would make them lose trust in him. He is the same person, he is the same player. This is their problem, and they should fucking fix it.

Comeau reminds him that he lied to them and Shane spits back venomously at him, the first direct conversation he’s had with this player for weeks, Gee, I fucking wonder why, his finger circling the room. Hayden tells Comeau to shut the fuck up and play hockey for once.

They begin to play better again after that, even though Shane has a meeting with Thierault and management about being on thin fucking ice for yelling at his team about personal issues, but yeah, better. But something is still broken.

The Raiders are on a roll. Their show of support to Hollander both gave them great support from their fans and a greater sense of camaraderie on the team that elevated their play an extra notch. True to their words, they do not go easy on teams that chirped about Hollander’s sexuality, or any that hassle Ilya for his continued comments and support. 

Dallas Kent ends up in the hospital to fix his nose and shoulder. Fortunately for the Raiders, he’d been the one to start the fight, although Ilya spent most of the game riling him up.

They see other players from other teams do the same pre-game fist bump they did, both to Hollander and Hunter. Ilya is most surprised when most of the Ottawa team skates past him for the supportive gesture. Briefly, he’s wildly scared that someone finally figured out that the man in the photo outing Shane was him, but after their game, which had ended miserably for the Centaurs at 6-1 to the Raiders, their new goalie stops him outside the locker rooms. Wyatt Hayes, freshly traded from Toronto, shares that he knows how important allyship is and commends Ilya for keeping the focus on the ice. His eyes also glint with that special goalie perception when Ilya answers that yes, support and allyship is important to all of us.

Ilya lets his team notice that he’s not partying as much, not sleeping around. Marlow clocks how he’s still deep in this messages often and the chirping about his Montreal Girl, about fucking time, brother, spreads quickly in the locker room. Ilya doesn’t give any more information, but lets the chirps wash over him with a shrug and a smile; In a strange way, their pestering about his relationship makes it feel more real and not hidden away, even though they don’t know anything about Shane.

It only takes a month to admit that they have to revisit the plans they made in the summer. Montreal is no longer a sustainable place for Shane to stay long-term and it’s becoming clear to both themselves and the fans. The outing has ended up garnering too much negative feedback, either towards Shane for being who he is, or towards the Metros for handling the thing so badly. Rumours spread easily across locker rooms, old teammates talk, partners share and nothing stays behind closed doors like the Metros wanted. The locker room hostility and failure from management to control it become a well-known secret within a very short time.

Shane wishes he could just play hockey.

They are getting better at talking, Shane and Ilya. They discuss options, since the Raiders have shown they most likely would support and keep Ilya safe if anything leaked. In the end, they agree the best option is to move Shane to Ottawa, which has shown their support and could be angled by the Metros as some sort of homecoming for Shane instead of a boot to the ass. It means being further away from each other, and they hate it. Yuna Hollander is seething mad, but it’s the only option that makes at the moment, to protect her son.

So, they move their plans up. Yuna sends out feelers to the Centaurs who very quickly and very enthusiastically respond. Shane’s agent Farah sets up meetings with the Metros to discuss the option of a trade, and they are mostly grateful for the opportunity to spin some good PR out of the whole deal. No one tells them that they are way too late for anyone but already bigoted fans.

Carter Vaughn from the Admirals shares a picture from way back when in Sochi, when he was watching the figure skating with Hunter and Hollander, captioned Imagine me telling these guys about gay figure skaters being brave for competing in Sochi. Once again, the comments are a riot.

Since it became clear that the plan had to change, Ilya has been dropping continuous references to an off-ice friendship between him and Hollander, both to his team and to the media. The first mentions of Hollander make Connors’ eyes widen, but they accept it fairly quickly, especially considering they are familiar with Ilya’s stance on… everything. Marlow is quickest to adjust, but he always matches Ilya’s swings easily.

“Is that new tape?” Connors asks him one day as Ilya’s meticulously wrapping his stick. Ilya nods.

“Da. Hollander recommended it, so I wanted to try,” Ilya explains. It’s a lie — he’d managed to grab the wrong rolls after his last visits, because apparently, despite being long-distance partners and not living together, their gear still somehow got mixed up. Ilya secretly loves it.

Connors’ face twisted incredulously. “Hollander? You’re taking recommendations from him now?”

“Why not? He is best player after me, it might help. Better recommendations than most players here,” Ilya shrugged with a smirk and cut the tape to his regular way of finishing. Marlow barked out a laugh on the other side of him.

Ilya finds out that he hates using Shane’s brand of tape and notes to always leave some of his own at his cubby. Then he loudly plots how to make Hollander try out his. Connors finds it ridiculously funny.

Yuna Hollander and Shane’s agent work with the Metros and the Centaurs for weeks to reach a deal that both teams are satisfied with. While they know that the Metros are mostly interested in getting Shane off the team, they also cannot trade for nothing, because then it would be too obvious. The Centaurs don't have too many interesting players to even the trade out, but they can offer their first round draft pick, and they manage to find two players, a forward and a defenceman, that haven’t gelled well with the team. It’s still questionable, but after long negotiations and the heavy tension in the Metros’ locker room, they cave and accept the offer.

The rumour mill goes insane the second the news of Shane’s waived no-trade clause hits the press. Everyone knows why, but Shane just spews the media talk his agent has briefed him on.

“Hollander, can you tell more about what motivated you to waive the no-trade?” a reporter asks him after the next game, where the Metros management chose to throw him to the presser, knowing exactly what chaos it would be.

Yeah, Shane admits he is fucking tired of the bullshit.

“It’s been something I’ve had in mind for a while now. My run with the Metros have been really great and I’ll always be grateful for the two Cups we won together, but I’m also open to see what kind of challenges and experiences I can get somewhere else.”

“Are there any specific teams you have in mind? Something like New York?” another reporter asks, the emphasis on New York loaded in a way that Shane has heard more than once too many over the last months. He manages not to sigh audibly.

“New York is definitely a great team and I’d be lucky to go there if that’s what works out.”

Afterwards, in the locker room, he showers and dresses mostly in silence. Not many from the team talk to him — they haven’t for a while, some from bigotry, others from shame — but Hayden grumbles privately to Shane about the management being dicks for forcing Shane to do press right after the announcement.

This time, Shane does sigh. “It wouldn’t make much of a difference. They’d be feral no matter how long after the announcement they shoved me out there.”

“They could at least wait ‘till it’s announced where you’re going.” Hayden is one of the few he shared the news with, privately. 

“Yeah,” Shane says, lacing up his shoes, “That would at least help with the New York rumours. Do they think that we have to play on the same team just because we’re both gay?”

Shane hears a scoff from a leaving player. Hayden sends a scowl at the closing door.

Shane turns off his notifications the day the news of his trade is announced. Yuna and Farah handle the onslaught of emails, comments, calls, and requests for interviews with a calm collectedness that Shane would never be able to find. Ilya is on a longer road trip in the Western Conference, so they can only call about it.

The Raiders’s bus explodes when Carmichael is the first — chronically online as he is — sees the news mere seconds after it’s posted. Ilya suspects he has general notifications set on Hollander’s name these days. The noise level is deafening, his teammates yelling and speculating. Their coach seems frozen, stunned and caught in his own thoughts for almost 2 minutes before he joins the fray. 

Did you know, they ask Ilya, and the question makes his fingers prickle and a warmth curl into his chest. They have already so naturally accepted that maybe Ilya would have Hollander’s confidence on this, that maybe they are close enough to talk about secret and personal things like this. Shane and Ilya hadn’t spoken about this possibility, and it throws him for a second, but he is also so incandescently happy about it.

The Raiders know he is close to Hollander and they treat it so naturally. Carmichael mentions that he’s glad that Hollander is leaving the Metros, mostly so he can stop pretending he doesn’t admire Hollander — the Cents isn’t and hasn’t been a rival team for anyone in a long while, but Marlow mentions they might actually get to grow into something dangerous now. They all know that the Metros, much like the Raiders, weren’t worth that much before their prodigy draft pick back in 2009 pushed them all to be better. But unlike the Raiders, they haven’t focused much on the team behind the star that can do the work with other players, letting Hollander carry the responsibility.

In the end, Ilya says that he didn’t know specifically, but Hollander had mentioned wanting to go home, and they all know Hollander is from Ottawa. St. Simon asks Ilya to thank Hollander for leaving the Metros so they can start to reliably fuck them up again, which makes Ilya laugh.

The chaos breaks up a bit and the players start theorising, analysing the Cents and trying to figure out how the team can be set up around Hollander and Hayes, who’s shown to be a dangerous goalie now that he’s actually been allowed time on the ice, unlike in Toronto. They have a promising rookie, Luca Haas, a Swiss kid who’d been drafted and switched back and forth between the MLH and minor league teams until now. They did trade away a defenseman, but his stats aren’t anything crazy anyway, so the play might even work better without him. There are some more guys they can shift around and pull up, who have at least as good stats.

A while later, still on the bus, Shane calls Ilya. He barely lets it ring once before he is picking up the call, team be damned.

“I’m on the team bus,” he warns Shane instead of saying hello.

“I figured. I just needed to… hear your voice, I guess,” Shane says haltingly. Ilya can hear the stress and panic riding just along the edges of his tone and it makes him hate that he’s not there to hold his boyfriend.

“You okay?” he asks instead, voice soft in the din of the discussions in the bus. He tries to sink down a bit in his seat, automatically sheltering himself and Shane from the outside world in chaos.

“It’s okay. I’m keeping off the media like planned, but it’s really fucking difficult. Still kind of panicking a bit, but I know it’d be worse if I checked the reactions.”

“Good,” Ilya murmurs, “Let Yuna handle them, she knows how.”

Unfortunately, Marlow clocks him on the phone, maybe exactly because Ilya is trying to keep himself uncharacteristically unnoticed.

“Is that fucking Hollander?” he bellows, catching the attention of almost the entire team. Ilya’s eyes snap up in panic and he faintly hears Shane’s oh fuck as the rest of the team shifts their attention to their captain wedged in the back, phone cradled protectively to his ear.

“What the fu-” Ilya begins, but Connors manages to snatch the phone right out of his hand in the chaos of the team. At least Ilya had had the wherewithal to change the contact name to Shane instead of the in this case more damning Jane. Because they were friends now, so they would have each other’s numbers. Connors clearly notices the name before he stabs at the screen to switch to speakerphone.

“Everybody say thank you, Hollander!” he yells, holding up the phone in a straight arm, and the team instantly echoes Thank you, Hollander. 

There is a beat of silence, then a tinny, sputtering laugh is heard from the phone. “What the fuck?” Hollander exclaims, and the Raiders once again cheer.

The next day, Carmichael shares a short video clip on his own social media. 

The clip is from the team bus, panning over the team split in groups of intense discussion, hands gesticulating. The video uses the natural sound clip and the words Metros, Ottawa, and Hollander are easily caught among the noise. Near the back, their Captain is shown talking on the phone, half-hidden behind the seat in front of him. Marlow’s sudden yell and the commotion when Connors steals the phone away from Roz is what makes the clip go viral, along with the entire Raiders’ team apparently thanking Hollander for leaving the Metros, synchronised like a group of middle schoolers. Hollander’s answer isn’t picked up by the video, but the team cheers in response are, just before the clip ends. 

Roz re-shares the clip everywhere he can. His own comments are a mix of the Metros are dying and they are friendly enough to call, but it only really takes off when the Raiders’ official page shares the video too.

The Metros’ management team is in no way ready for the riot hitting the comments of their announcement post — thousands of nearly identical comments of Thank you, Hollander, many of them speckled with small rainbow symbols. 

Chapter End Notes

When the news break the year after, of Rozanov signing with Ottawa too, another campaign hits the Metros's social media, but this time it's all curses for fumbling Hollander and opening the possibility of the two best players being on the same team.