Summary:

From across the rink, Shane watches Ilya get punched in the face. He keeps a distance from the mess playing out. He knows better than to go over and make it worse. He would be more worried about it if Ilya wasn’t laughing with blood running down his face as one of his teammates drags him away. He’s yelling at the player that punched him, and Shane is grateful he can’t hear what he’s saying because he knows it’s obscene. “Your boy is feral tonight,” Pike says to Shane. Shane groans. “He's not my boy.” When Shane is in junior high, Ilya's family moves to Canada. Instead of meeting as adults, they grow up together. Shane learns Russian and Ilya spends a majority of his time at the Hollander household. When they start their professional hockey careers, they have to learn how to be opponents instead of teammates, but also how to be apart for the first time in their lives. When Ilya suggests that they sleep together, Shane has to balance their friendship and their casual relationship.