Rating:

General Audiences

Archive Warning:

No Archive Warnings Apply

Category:

M/M

Fandom:

Heated Rivalry (TV)

Relationships:

Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike & Jackie Pike, Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike

Characters:

Shane Hollander, Hayden Pike, Jackie Pike, Ilya Rozanov

Additional Tags:

Hayden Pike Finds Out About Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov, Good Friend Hayden Pike, references to other media, Shane Hollander & Hayden Pike Friendship, POV Hayden Pike, Wife Guy Hayden Pike, Shane Hollander Loves Ilya Rozanov, Shane Hollander is not as subtle as he thinks, Shane Hollander has a type, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, It diverges at the Scott Hunter coming out though and not by much, so it's mostly canon compliant, Relationship Reveal, author has not read the books, Relationship Study, Coming Out

Language:

English

Stats:

Published: 2026-02-06 Words: 6,564 Chapters: 1/1

Kind of an Asshole

Summary

Hayden Pike figures out Hollanov... by hosting movie nights.
A study of the kind of characters Shane might love to watch in media.

Notes

This came to me as a series of tiny snippets. I figured it was going to be roughly 1k.
Now we're here. Enjoy!

…

A year into being acquainted with Shane Hollander, and Hayden Pike still felt like he barely knew the guy. He had been trying to talk his way into a friendship, but the topics he would latch onto for conversation were pretty much just hockey. Hayden had tried food, drinks… girls. Nothing. Or, well, bland-as-hell bird food, ginger ale, and nothing. Which was basically nothing across the board, but he had at least known to get him ginger ale instead of beer if he wanted the man to relax a little.

Today, he was trying a different tactic- after having handed over some of the previously mentioned ginger ale. Shane wanted to talk hockey? Hayden would talk hockey. But he would talk about hockey that was related to Shane. Maybe he would get a personal anecdote or something!

“So, what was playing in the world Juniors like?”

Shane's face didn't change much. His eyes skittered away as usual, and he shrugged noncommittally.

“It was fine. The team didn't really gel until the last couple weeks, though.”

Hmm. As taciturn as ever. C’mon man, give him something!

“Did you spend any time just hanging out with them, or was it too busy for that?”

Shane gave him a deadpan look.

“I mean, they went out. I mostly stayed in and watched more hockey when I wasn't training. My mom was there, you know? She would have been so disappointed if I got caught partying.”

Sure. That was totally the only reason Shane Hollander wouldn't socialize. Hayden sighed, trying to think of another topic, like… who else was there!

“So, was that the first time you met Rozanov? Like, for real? Or did that come later?”

Shane shrugged again, sipping his ginger ale.

“I mean, we shook hands. Chirped at each other. Tried to score more goals. The usual.”

“Rivals from the very beginning, huh? Was he as dickish then as he is now?” he ribbed, expecting a positive answer. No way had Rozanov ever been polite.

“Oh, he's always been an asshole,” Shane said, eyes darting to Hayden's and then away again, but he was smiling a little so Hayden took it as a win.

“Yeah? What did he say?”

“It’s not that important.”

“Come on, buddy! This is hockey history!”

Shane sighed, relenting.

“Well I had just introduced myself, being polite, you know?” Oh, Hayden knew. Unlike with Rozanov, Polite should probably be Shane's middle name. He was absolutely going to be in contention for the Lady Byng every year he was on the ice. “Anyway he just told me I wouldn't be so polite when they beat us.”

“What a dick.” Though actually, that was pretty tame, for Rozanov. He had gotten a lot more foul-mouthed with age.

“Yeah.” Shane agreed, shrugging. “Of course, he was right about winning. Beat us next game.”

Hayden could picture what Rozanov had looked like after that, too. He always had a smug little smirk to send their way after a win; Hayden dreamed of punching it off his face one day. “Asshole,” he scoffed.

“Oh, absolutely.”

After that Shane let the conversation drop, and Hayden let him drop it. He didn't like to think about Rozanov winning either.

…

Over time, Shane let him drag him into his life a little more, and Hayden came to realize that while Shane would 100% choose to only do hockey related things if left to his own devices, he could be dragged into doing other things if you didn't tease and just sort of… put a movie on in their hotel, instead of a recording of a game, or asked him to watch one with you on a long plane ride, and coming over for a movie at Hayden's house was way more likely to get Shane out socializing than invites out to bars ever would.

That was how Hayden started to notice the pattern. 

Of course, he didn't know he had noticed any sort of pattern right away. He just talked with the guy about the movies they had watched, and when Shane seemed to like something about a character, Hayden tried to find him more of that.

In retrospect, though, there was absolutely a pattern.

On the screen, Danny Huston was trying to talk Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine into getting back into the superhero business.

“Your country needs you.”

“I'm Canadian,” he quipped, driving off. It was pretty badass, in Hayden's opinion. Also, he loved having some Canadian representation on the silver screen.

“What an asshole,” Shane said, shaking his head.

“I mean, it's pretty justified after what's been done to him,” Hayden argued. “I don't think he's that bad.”

Shane looked at him, surprised.

“No, I don't think so either. He's probably my favorite of the X-Squad. I mean, he's Canadian, and Hugh Jackman is a talented actor.”

Hayden tuned back into the movie after that, but looking back, if he had just pushed at Shane's logic of he's an asshole/he's my favorite character, then maybe he would have figured out a few things a little sooner.

And he really should have figured it out over the next few years.

…

“Oh my god, he's such a dick,” Shane said, grinning as Iron Man flew around in a bright red metal suit, accidentally taking out American fighter jets as he quipped at Rhodey on the phone.

“What an asshole,” he also said about Loki of Asgard, “Odin should have made him king anyway, Thor is a terrible team player, you don't make a guy like that captain.” 

“They made Rozanov captain,” Hayden pointed out, which he knew wasn't quite a fair comparison. The man did work with his team, unfortunately. It was why they kept winning. He just also was a glory-seeking fuckwad who took a lot of risky shots that could've been sure things if passed to a teammate. The fact that it worked for him was stupid icing on the annoying cake.

Shane just hummed and moved on.

…

“Who's your favourite Robin?” Hayden asked one time, getting a confused look from Shane.

“Like the bird?”

Hayden grinned. He knew what he’d be lending Shane next. Mentally he started figuring out when he could stop by his parents' house for his old Batman comics.

Months later, he did not expect the answer he got.

“Jason Todd?” Hayden asked, flabbergasted.

“Yes, Red Hood Jason Todd. I like his story, it's compelling.”

“He kills people!” Shane just gave him a flat look, so Hayden blustered on. “I expected like, Nightwing. Or maybe Tim Drake!”

Shane shrugged. “They're fine. I just like Jason more; and it's not like he kills real people, it's a story.”

…

Snowed in at a hotel in Calgary, Hayden turned on the TV. There weren't any good movies on, not with the limited channels of whatever cable package their hotel had, so he surfed channels aimlessly.

At least, until he sat on a rerun of House MD a little too long, and Shane asked him to leave it playing.

“If you're dying, then suddenly everyone loves you.” 

“You've got a cane, and nobody even likes you-”

“I’m not terminal, merely pathetic. And you wouldn't believe the crap people let me get away with.”

Shane leaned forward with a look of entranced wonder on his face.

“Oh, he's such an asshole.”

Hayden snorted.

“Yeah, he's kinda famous for that.”

They eventually made their way through the entire series while on away trips. Hayden had gotten Shane the boxed set for Christmas one year, so they didn't have to rely on rerun channels and could watch in order.

…

After that, Hayden started to pay more attention. 

As an experiment, one time when the kids wanted to watch Zootopia, he wrote the name of the character he thought Shane was going to like on a piece of paper, and handed it to Jackie. When the movie ended and the fox was the crowd favourite, she theatrically revealed his correct guess of ‘Nick Wilde’ to the group. After that it became a bit of a game in their household to guess who everyone's favorite characters would be; either before the movie started if you knew it already, or once a character had been on screen for 5 minutes or so if you didn't, you said if you thought someone was going to love them in particular.

Shane was terrible at it. So were the girls. But he and Jackie had pretty much locked down who Shane was going to enjoy watching in any given movie. Diego from Ice Age, Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates, Han Solo. Meg and Hades from Disney's Hercules had been a toss up, but knowing how awkward Shane was talking about girls at all, Hayden had guessed Hades and had won against Jackie.

The way he had blushed when Jackie asked about Meg's style of flirtatious insults, though, had Hayden wondering if Boston Lily was anything like that.

…

The only time he was completely stymied was when he put on Fight Club. Instead of picking a character, Shane invested in the theme. 

“It's about how toxic systems breed toxic behavior. This is why you shouldn't fight on the ice, Hayd. Embracing this violent image of masculinity is tearing apart his ability to connect with real people, instead centering his life around a poisonous ideal of himself. Maybe more hockey players should watch this.”

Hayden gaped at him.

“Most players probably have. It's a classic. Also ...I thought it was about how being violent in a place where it's accepted makes him feel better?”

Shane stared at him.

“It's making fun of the violence, Hayd. The whole thing is saying that Tyler Durden’s way of thinking sucks, it's self destructive. Norton frees himself and tears down a symbol of patriarchal power in the end. Hand in hand with a woman, when earlier in the movie he hated her as a symbol of the emasculation of men- but he has now realized that men were the problem all along.”

Huh.

“Yeah, I think that's going over most people's heads, Shane.”

Shane went silent. They moved on, Hayden thinking happily about just how smart his captain was.

…

It was during an impromptu late night Star Trek marathon (one of the girls was collicky, and Jackie deserved the rest) that Hayden started to clue in that Shane's taste in fictional characters wasn't actually that out of character.

Captain James Tiberius Kirk was a bit of an asshole on a good day, and Spock, logical and calm Spock with a head for statistics, needed him as a balancing force and to help him express himself.

Maybe Shane also liked the asshole characters because while he was too polite to say some things, he was still thinking them, and he liked that the assholes got to say them. Maybe.

He also wondered if that's why Shane and Rose Landry hadn't worked out- she was too nice, too much like Shane. Or maybe he had just told her his favourite X-Squad member was Wolverine and not Mystique.

He was also pretty sure Shane was texting Boston Lily again, he had seemed happier since he came back from the All Stars game, and he thought he had seen her name on Shane's phone screen. Hayden once again wondered if she was more Shane's ‘type’, and what could possibly have happened between them that had led to so much drama but still ended with them back together.

…

They were playing Boston, their line was on centre ice waiting for puck drop, and Shane and Rozanov were facing off, as usual. Rozanov said something chirpy, as usual. And Shane said “Fuck off, you're such an asshole,” as usual. 

And smiled. And then Rozanov smiled back.

And Hayden's brain screeched to a halt, all thoughts of hockey fleeing momentarily as the revelation hit him.

Shane thought Rozanov was an asshole.

This was because Rozanov was an asshole.

But as Hayden now knew, Shane liked assholes.

Which meant.

Shane might not actually hate Rozanov.

Shane might like Rozanov.

The puck dropped and Shane won the faceoff and the game snapped into gear while Hayden wrestled with himself, trying to stamp his thoughts down and focus on the game.

Then there was a loud crack as Shane went down after Cliff Marleau hit him from the side.

And in the periphery of him punching Marleau for injuring his best friend, Hayden noticed Rozanov desperately trying to get to Shane, asking if he was okay.

Hayden was forced to spend the rest of the match contemplating that if Shane didn't hate Rozanov, it was quite possible that the other man didn't hate Shane either, because the way Rozanov wasn't mentally present for the rest of the game was not the picture of a gloating rival. That was what a worried friend looked like. Hayden should know; he played like shit for the rest of the game too.

Thankfully, he found out by the that night that Shane would be okay- Mama Hollander had his number and passed the info along. Their playoff chances were pretty much shot with him out of commission, but Hayden could live with it, knowing they would just try again next year. Plus, if they weren't in the playoffs, he would have some more time to poke at Shane's possible friendship with Ilya Rozanov. He didn't have Rozanov’s number, couldn't pass along that Shane was going to be okay, but drew the line at hunting that down from one of their traded players. It was just a hunch anyway; he didn't have solid proof of anything.

He also felt bad that he didn't have a way to contact Boston Lily for Shane. He didn't dare reach out to Shane’s parents; he had a feeling they didn't know about her at all.

What a shitty situation all around.

…

The next movie night he had with his wife, he asked if there were any good movies about people with different personalities who hated each other realizing they actually liked one another and could be friends. Jackie laughed in his face.

“That's what most movies are about, dear. People love a good conflict, and that's one of the best there is. If people just agree on everything it's boring, but if people just hate each other they would either leave or kill each other and be done with it and that's boring in a different way. So when you get two people who are just alike enough to match but different enough for some friction, then have them work through their conflicting ideals, they realize they're not that different and love or friendship blooms. It's classic storytelling.”

Hayden's mind froze on that word.

“Love?” he asked disbelievingly, while internally screaming.

“Okay, what is this actually about?” Jackie asked, crossing her arms and staring at him. “Because clearly it's about something.”

“Uh.” Well, maybe Jackie could help him figure it out. “You know how Shane loves asshol- um, rude characters?”

“Swear jar. And yes, I'm aware.”

“Well, I recently put together that he and Rozanov might be… friends. But I'm not sure.”

“Ilya Rozanov. Captain of the Boston Raiders Ilya Rozanov. Shane's rival, the demon of Russia, playboy extraordinaire, that Ilya Rozanov?”

“Yeah, that’s him.”

“Huh.” Jackie paused, contemplative. Hayden was just happy that she hadn't immediately shut him down- he had worried she might. It was a pretty crazy idea. “What’s your evidence?” she asked instead.

Hayden sighed heavily.

“Okay, so, I'm still not sure, but. That last game, before Shane got hurt? They were at the faceoff, and Rozanov chirped him. Normal stuff. So Shane told him to fuck off and called him an asshole- I'm literally quoting this isn't swear jar material- and then he smiled. And Rozanov smiled back.”

Jackie stared at him.

“Your evidence is that they smiled at each other?”

“Well, kind of? But then later when Shane got hurt, Rozanov was worried.”

“Your evidence is that they smiled and that Rozanov cares if someone gets badly hurt.” Her tone was disbelieving, but Hayden was on to something, he just knew it.

“No, here, look-”

He brought up the footage of Shane's injury on YouTube, having watched it a couple times now to prove to himself that he wasn't imagining things. He showed it to Jackie now.

Together they went over every second, from Shane looking behind himself- possibly at Rozanov- to Hayden punching Marleau, to Rozanov, staring disbelievingly, then being held back as he reached for Shane, yelling questions of if he was okay before being forced back by the refs.

When the video was done, Jackie’s lips were pursed in thought.

“Well?” Hayden asked softly.

Jackie bit her lip, then looked at Hayden, then down at the video, then back at Hayden.

“Can you replay the last bit, where he's reaching for Shane?”

Hayden did, and watched as Jackie nodded to herself, having confirmed a theory.

“Let’s have Shane over to watch the finals, and then we'll have a movie night. But I'm picking the movies.”

“You think I'm right?”

“I think you're close. But I think I'm more right.”

“What do you mean?”

“You'll see. Does Shane still message Boston Lily?”

Hayden blinked at the sudden subject change.

“I mean, he stopped for a while there during the whole Rose Landry thing, but yeah, I've seen her name on his phone again, so I think so? Why? I doubt he's changed his mind about adding her to the WAG chat.”

After the first time he had mentioned her existence to Jackie, she had asked Shane if he'd like to pass her number along to be looped into WAG events or even just to give her some support, but Shane had awkwardly and hastily declined on her behalf and they hadn't asked again.

Jackie smiled secretively to herself.

“I think I've figured something out about Shane. You'll see- and I don't want to throw you off if I'm wrong. But I don't think I'm wrong.”

Hayden groaned. He hated secrets. And waiting.

“Come on Jacks, just a hint? It's nothing bad, right?”

“I think Shane is happy, that's all I'll say on the matter.”

He sighed, and pulled out his phone. If he wanted to find out, he supposed he would have to set up that movie night.

…

They almost missed the biggest on-ice spectacle of the decade because of their plans to watch a movie after the Cup finals. Jackie had gone into the kitchen to make some fresh popcorn before they put on the movie, and Hayden was about to head to the bathroom when he noticed Shane leaning in to watch what was happening on the screen.

What Scott Hunter was doing on the ice after winning the cup.

How he was summoning someone from the crowd.

A man.

Hayden looked over to ask Shane what he thought was happening, but his friend was texting someone- Lily, it had to be Boston Lily.

“Hey Jacks, something weird is happening. Might want to come see!” he called out, and his lovely wife headed into the room to join them.

Scott Hunter walked the man out onto the ice staring into his face like the rest of the world didn't matter. Hayden knew that look. He looked at his wife like that every day.

Hunter leaned forwards, and then he kissed a man on live television, right after winning the Cup. And that wasn't a peck, that was a full on romance movie spectacle. Sitting next to him, Hayden heard Shane gasp aloud. He looked over to his friend, and the raw unmasked hope he saw in Shane's eyes as he stared at that broadcast made the puzzle pieces he had been holding click together in a way he hadn't considered before. He looked over to Jackie, and saw kind understanding and hope in her eyes too, and he realized that this was what she had put together when he had talked to her. That Shane was gay.

Shane's phone started ringing. Hayden saw the name Lily on the screen before Shane quickly walked away to answer.

Hayden realized then that Lily probably wasn't a woman. And probably wasn't named Lily. Because that was the other half of the puzzle that Hayden had been staring at for years. 

Secret friendship? No. Lily was probably actually named Ilya Rozanov, because of course that's who Shane would end up falling for. Falling in love with. Hayden knew that Shane loved assholes, they were his favorite characters every time. Shane also wanted to be the best, and would never settle for anything less than the best for himself. Who was the biggest and best asshole in the whole league? Of course Shane would pick Rozanov to have the biggest, gayest crush on.

Shit, how long had this being going on? He knew Shane had known Rozanov since before they were rookies, and they had at least talked then, he had told Hayden as much all those years ago. And Shane had been texting Lily for years.

As he went through his series of revelations, Jackie popped back into the kitchen and came back with the fresh truffle oil popcorn and more ginger ale (for Shane) and beer (for Hayden). 

He tried to school his face towards something normal as Shane walked back into the room. He wasn't sure if he succeeded, but from the glowing smile on his friend's face, he wasn't sure if Shane was going to notice anything a little off for the rest of the day.

“Sorry, I had to take that, it was a… friend.”

“Good news?” Jackie prompted, and Shane turned his thousand kilowatt smile on her.

“Yeah, yeah it was. Uh, anyways. Um.”

Shane floundered, seemingly unsure of where to take the conversation, even though he clearly didn't want to keep it where it was.

And Hayden belatedly realized that he hadn't said anything supportive about Scott Hunter’s big reveal. Which could be bad, if Shane took it as him not being down with the gays. Which he was! Totally down!

“I'm just going to say it, but Scott Hunter has balls of steel,” he said, trying to sound as supportive as possible. “I respect the hell out of him for what he just did. Not many would be brave enough to come out like that- not that they have to! I know it's a big decision. But just. Wow.”

“He and his young man looked so handsome, too! It really was a beautiful moment,” Jackie added, smiling warmly. “I really hope it prompts more of a change in culture in the MLH. Some of that locker room talk can be downright cruel.”

Shane ducked his head, murmuring his assent, and Hayden felt his heart stutter.

Fuck. The locker room talk was… not good. And Shane had been listening to that kind of shit for years, feeling every word- Hayden knew his friend, and knew that the insults that hurt were the ones that hit close to home, and casual homophobia was thrown around their locker room like candy on Halloween. Hayden didn't like to use it himself, but he hadn't ever spoken up to stop it, either. He knew why Shane hadn't either, now; the first thing that any idiot told to stop would do is accuse the person who stopped them of being gay themselves- and Shane couldn't lie his way out of a paper bag.

Hayden met his wife's eyes, and nodded once. He would happily put up with some shit talk in the locker room to make it better for Shane- or for anyone else. He felt a little ashamed that it had taken something like this to convince him to do something about it when it had always made him uncomfortable.

Sensing that Shane was a little overwhelmed at the moment, Hayden changed the subject for him.

“Come on, let's watch that movie that Jackie wanted us to see.” He handed his wife the remote, and she smiled softly.

“I know you boys watch a lot of action movies together, but tonight we're watching Pride and Prejudice- the 2005 one with Kiera Knightley.”

Fuck yeah. Hayden loved his wife; they both agreed that Kiera Knightley was hot as all hell. Normally he watched Pirates for his fix of the actress, but if he had to watch some gooey in-your-feels romance, her presence was certainly a balm for any reservations he may have otherwise felt.

And he was sure there would be at least one hot guy that both Jackie and Shane could appreciate.

…

Hayden actually really enjoyed the movie. It was sweet. The part that really got him, though, was a scene at the end where Elizabeth's family stood around saying “But she doesn't like him- I thought she didn't like him!?” “Well so did I, so did we all. We must have been wrong!”

Hayden really felt that. He had spent a lot of the movie thinking about Rozanov and Shane.

He looked over at his friend and saw a smile on his face, and as Lizzie Bennett started telling her father on-screen just how much she loved the man she had been complaining about for ages, how he was so similar to her and so stubborn and completely misjudged, Hayden saw the same hopeful tears reflected in Shane's eyes that he had sported during Hunter’s game-changing kiss an hour or so before.

He looked over to Jackie, and saw that she was watching Shane too, but flicked her eyes to him when she saw him looking. He gave his good, sweet wife a subtle nod. She chose the right movie.

Because it had also pointed out to Hayden that the things he knew about Ilya Rozanov were the public things that everyone knew and gossiped about. He didn't know what was going on underneath the surface of that particular hunk of Russian iceberg. Shane did, and chose to keep him around.

Okay, yeah, Shane enjoyed watching the asshole characters, but he didn't like the reprehensible dicks. Wolverine, but not Mystique.

(He was never letting the Wolverine thing go. Hayden was absolutely making it a part of his best man speech, especially if Rose Landry was invited to the Hollander/Rozanov wedding he was already expecting to attend one day.)

But anyway, Shane liked snarky assholes with hearts of gold. So Hayden was going to, like Lizzie's family, have to trust that Rozanov had one of those somewhere.

He was going to have to get over a few things, but he was already halfway there anyway after planning for a potential friendship between the two, and that was a price he was happy to pay if it meant Shane could feel safe with him and in his home.

And he wanted his friend to know that.

As the movie drew to a close, Jackie lowered the volume, but left the credits to roll in the background. Okay. It was time for the hard part.

“Hey.” Hayden said, sliding closer to Shane and pressing their shoulders together. He didn’t force him to look at him face to face, that always made Shane more anxious, and he needed this to be as chill as possible. “I want to have a serious- but happy!- talk with you now. You think you can handle that?”

Shane glanced up at him, eyes doing a quick scan of his face before quickly glancing away again and nodding jerkily.

“Yeah, no, for sure. What’s up?”

Hayden mentally pulled together everything he knew about talking to Shane. Which wasn’t a lot- basically you did your best to get through the important part of the conversation and hoped he didn’t shut down. But this was important, and he really, really did not want to not fuck it up.

“So, you know how Lizzie and Mr. Darcy started off hating each other?” he decided to begin, because his beautiful and clever wife had given him a pretty good place to start from. “But then as they got to know each other, they found they actually made a pretty great pair? Even though one is a little taciturn and quiet and the other is chirping him constantly? So then they spend all this time liking each other in secret, but there's a bunch of distractions and no one else knows until the end?”

Shane went white as a sheet, so Hayden quickly grabbed his hand, partly to keep him grounded, partly so he could stop him if he tried to run.

“I love you man. You're like my fucking brother, alright? I need you to know that I support you. If you think Ilya Rozanov hung the stars in the sky, then I'm just going to trust that you know something about him that I don't, and I want you to know that you're not alone, and I'll help you with whatever you need.”

“We both will,” Jackie added. “Anything you need, just ask.”

Shane was still frozen in place, but he was gripping tightly to Hayden's hand, so Hayden knew he was still present, just processing. He kind of wished he had one of the kids around to toss in his friend's arms- one of his usual tactics when Shane got too in his head when they were hanging out- but the kids were all at their grandparents’ for the night.

“Shane, honey, are you-” Jackie started, but Hayden held up his free hand and gently shushed her.

“Shh. Let him process. Hey buddy? You can talk when you're ready, and until then, we can just sit here quietly.”

He reached down and gave Jackie's leg a squeeze, apologizing for interrupting her, and she grasped onto his arm with both hands, giving him a single squeeze of understanding.

Shane got like this, sometimes. Especially when something surprised him. Hayden had long since learned that pushing him during the shutdown was just a recipe for a longer episode.

On the TV, the credits had finished playing and it was sitting at the DVD menu, cycling through one section of music over and over as it showed Elizabeth Bennett staring into the distance over a cliff. The music was pretty, at least, so Hayden didn't mind, and the lowered volume meant it wasn't really obtrusive to the moment.

“You… you don't mind?” Shane's voice was small, and Hayden's heart broke a little bit. Hayden wasn't sure if he meant the gay thing or Ilya Rozanov in particular, but the answer was the same either way.

“No, dude. I don't mind. I'm just happy that you're happy. Because you are, aren't you? Like, really fucking happy.”

And Shane gave him a small little smile and nodded. It was adorable.

“Dude! That is awesome.”

He found that being direct with Shane worked the best in all endeavors.

“How, um. How did you figure it out?” Shane asked cautiously. Hayden snorted.

“Well, I didn't figure it out completely until I saw how you reacted to Scott Hunter's makeout session on the ice. But the way Rozanov was acting when you got hurt made me think you were maybe friends, or something. Oh! And I saw you smiling at each other during the faceoff.”

“Oh.”

“He showed me the footage,” Jackie chimed in. “I could see it, but no one else is going to catch on without the context that we've got, unless you've got another set of friends you watch movies with that compete over finding the best loveable asshole characters they can find for you to enjoy. Otherwise you're gonna need to pull a Scott Hunter for them to catch on.”

Shane smiled at that, and Hayden could feel his friend starting to relax slightly. Thank God for Jackie; Hayden hadn't even thought about anyone else figuring it out.

“Is that what you've been doing, with the movies?” Shane asked, and Hayden smiled wryly.

“Not right from the beginning, but when I noticed the pattern, yeah, I tried to find you more. For science, you understand.”

Shane laughed.

“You didn't have to do that; I'm good with watching whatever.”

Hayden stopped and looked at him seriously.

“Dude. I just got finished telling you I'm happy when you're happy. You're allowed to have a preference. Trying to figure out which movies had characters you would like has been fun!”

Shane looked down with a smile, giving his head a little shake that Hayden could have sworn was him silently going “aw shucks”.

Shane was quite possibly the most adorable man he had ever met. He was glad there was someone else who saw that, even if it was Rozanov.

“So, how long have you two been together?” Jackie asked, drawing a wide eyed look from Shane.

“Uh. Um. Define… together?”

Jackie's eyebrows went up.

“What came first, friendship or fucking?” she asked instead, making Hayden splutter and Shane blush beet red.

“Uh. Sex. Sex was first. For… a while.”

Jackie grinned like the Cheshire Cat, and Hayden noticed that while Shane was flustered, he wasn't shutting down like he had earlier. Which meant he wasn't entirely uncomfortable talking about this stuff. Which rearranged Hayden's world a little bit, because he had thought Shane was just shy about sex in general. Turned out he was just really gay and trying to hide it. Jesus.

“When? How? Why? Come on Hollander, I want details!” Jackie pestered, and Shane blushed even more, but he was smirking a little bit too.

“You sure you actually want those details? Because if I say something you don't want to hear, there is no taking that back,” he warned, and Hayden decided right then that he didn't care if the next thing he heard was a detailed description of Rozanov’s dick. Because Shane was smiling playfully and teasing them about his… boyfriend? Man? About his partner. Hayden was finally seeing the side of his best friend that had been kept hidden for years, and he never wanted Shane to have to hide around him again.

“Fucking go for it, dude. I'm sure we can handle anything you're willing to tell us,” he said, and Jackie loudly agreed.

Shane smirked.

“Well, you wanted to know how we started? First Ilya beat me at the draft, and then we had a like, moment or something when we were both working out at the hotel gym after. I think that's when we like, clocked each other. And then after that I beat him in the World Juniors. So then he had that CCM ad and apparently asked the producers to add me. After the shoot it was just the two of us in the showers-”

“Shane! You didn't!” Jackie laughed gleefully as Hayden quickly processed that this had been happening for-fucking-ever. 

“Not quite. He… uh, well, we were obviously mutually attracted-”

“Dude! You got a boner in the showers!” Hayden laughed.

“I was still a fucking teenager, Hay! And you've never seen his ass. Ilya's ass was sculpted by a god. As a gift for me, personally.”

Oh, Shane had it bad.

“Plus, he's the one who started jerking off while staring at me. So I think telling him which hotel room I was in and sucking him off the minute he stepped in the door was a completely rational decision.”

“Oh my god, this is the best day of my life,” Jackie squealed.

“Dude.” Hayden could barely believe the shameless things Shane was saying, except that he had seen hints of this man before. The occasional time when Shane actually let himself relax, it was something close to this. “So you've been hooking up ever since?”

“Pretty much. Except… well. You know.” Shane's expression shifted to one of dejected embarrassment.

“What did happen with Rose Landry?” Jackie asked gently.

“Well, Ilya started to get serious.” Shane looked at his hands, completely avoiding eye contact. Ilya, Hayden thought. Shane called him Ilya. “I freaked out. I had never… we were just fucking, before. But then he made me tuna melts and had ginger ale at his house and wanted me to stay the night. And then he called me Shane. We always used last names before then. And then I called him Ilya, and… fuck, I started thinking about how he would still talk about other girls he was sleeping with, and it sounded like he thought I was… and we were obviously something but we never talked about it, and I only wanted him, but he never just had me, and- well, I ran away. Told him I couldn't keep doing what we were doing. And then I met Rose, and if I was ever going to make it work with a woman… a kind, funny, beautiful movie star would be the one, right? And it was fine, for a while. Rose is really nice. And then we had sex. And then she told me that I was gay.”

Hayden almost wanted to laugh, but did have enough tact to know that was probably a bad idea. Oh, Shane. He leaned against his shoulder instead.

“Jesus fucking Christ, dude. Your life is crazy. How did I not realize that your life is fucking insane?”

Shane snorted.

“I have been making a pretty concerted effort to keep the crazy under wraps. But yeah, then Ilya and I talked at the All Stars game, and I apologized for running away from him. And now we're together again, and we're… something. He came to see me when I was in the hospital, and he's coming to my cottage in a few weeks. We're going to sort ourselves out a little more then, I think.”

“Wow. And I thought the WAGs chat had drama,”Jackie commented.

“No offence, but you never thought about finding a nice Montreal boy to settle down with?” Hayden had to ask.

Shane gave him a dry look.

“I thought you had figured out by now that I don't want a nice Montreal boy.”

“I know, I know. Assholes and dicks, in every sense of the word.”

Shane snorted.

“One specific ass in particular.”

“Yes, you've described it.”

“Like perfect globes, Hay.”

“Jesus, you're obsessed!” Hayden laughed, trying very hard not to picture Rozanov’s junked trunk.

“I warned you. I haven't talked about him to anyone yet. Rose knows I've got someone, but not who. I have been living with that ass for years, Hayden. I dream about that ass. And the rest of him, obviously. Sometimes I wish I could curl up in his ribcage and never leave.”

Hayden imagined not being able to tell anyone about even the existence of his relationship with his wife, let alone how much he loved her and how wonderful she was. Yeah, he could understand why Shane seemed to have lost any semblance of a filter once given the chance.

If he had ever doubted that Shane loved the guy, this would have been enough to convince him. Of course, Hayden had known for years that Shane was in love with “Lily”. The only difference now was that he knew the right name and pronouns.

“Come on. Tell us about your Ilya, the side we don't see on the ice.”

And Shane did.

…

Hayden absolutely told the story about Shane liking Wolverine and not Mystique at their wedding. Ilya laughed in Rose Landry's face. 

He was kind of an asshole, but Hayden knew that Shane loved that about him.

…