Summary:

He’s just about ready to doze off—his ritualistic pre-dinner, thirty-minute nap—when, suddenly, Ilya says, “Huh. Interesting.”

Shane cracks one eye open. “Hmm?”

“Oh, nothing, малыш,” he replies, though his brows are furrowed when he says it. Shane’s even more curious now.

“No, really, what is it?”

Ilya must lose some internal debate; a deep sigh leaves his body before, wordlessly, he turns his phone to Shane.

The bright light makes him squint, still not used to Ilya and his affinity for both using the light-mode feature and turning the brightness in his phone to a maximum. He forgoes scolding him when, after his eyes have adjusted, he reads: Metros acquires Fil-Canadian Rivera; second Asian player in franchise history after Hollander.

At first he thinks, oh, that’s my name. Shane hasn’t seen his name mentioned remotely near the words ‘Montreal Metros’ ever since he transferred to Ottawa three years ago. Then, and this is when it finally dawns on him, Shane thinks: second?