Summary:

After Shane left in a hurry, Ilya had been stuck in a mood. Seeing him with Rose had done nothing to help. He gathers up all his courage and decides that the least they owe to each other is a real conversation. “Can we talk?” Ilya pries the door open enough to make Shane look at him, to see the somberness in his eyes. It’s hard to let his guard down; they’re load-bearing walls, but he’s prying the door to himself open as much as the door into Shane’s building. There’s no skirting around this anymore. Shane sneers and shakes his head. “Says the guy who ghosts me for months at a time.” It isn’t a hard no and he isn’t trying to push Ilya back out the door, so Ilya steps fully inside, letting the door close behind him and the click of the latch echoes through the stairwell. “I know. I’m sorry.”