Summary:

She took Ilya’s hand back then and he took hers and they never let go. Not in the graveyard while he stared stone faced into a place she couldn’t see, not in the alley after a loss when his breath beat against her neck in a panic he wouldn’t let himself show any other way, not when he came to school with bruises that weren’t from a game, not when he folded into a pile in a corner for a moment to shudder himself back into the person everyone else wanted him to be.Svetlana, who loves with her entire heart but maybe not the way others do. A combination of character study on Svetlana and Ilya's friendship over the years and on my headcanon that she's aromantic.