Summary:

The first call comes early, when Ilya is still skating along the edge of a dream. Shane is tucked in warm at his side, and his hair scratches at the underside of Ilya’s jaw, and the tender patch that always tickles just beneath his ear. He can hear the vibration against the wooden bedside table, the soft buzz buzz buzz incessant as a mosquito but he ignores it to go back in the warmth of his sleepy haze.

Later, when the sun is fully up and Shane pulls from his warm and sweaty side, he checks his phone. It’s an unknown number, the region code is for Russia.

OR

Ilya's niece reaches out to him eight years after he's last seen her. It makes him think about the things he never let himself miss.