Summary:

Ilya wishes this could be easy for them, like back when they were kids, camping under the stars in Shane’s parent’s backyard. Things didn’t seem so big then, so terrifying. Ilya fell in love with Shane when he was 16 too, he found him boring and naïve and innocent, but he was also beautiful and endearing and he gave Ilya everything he didn’t know he needed. A friend, a companion, a partner, a family. He’d been with him through all the big moments in Ilya’s life, and no matter how hard he tried to fight it, he knew. Falling for Shane Hollander would always be inevitable for him. — Or Shane and Ilya meet a year before Heated Rivalry and Ilya spends two summers with the Hollanders before their rookie year. AU