Summary:

Shane watches as Ilya laughs brightly, shaking his head despite the person on the other end of the phone being unable to hear him. He responds with the same jovial tone that is being sent in his direction, the words still a chirp as is usual between hockey players, but spoken with a lighthearted teasing laced throughout it. There’s no hunched shoulders, tense jaw, dropped gaze. Ilya is the opposite, sprawled across the couch, phone held in a loose grip, the speaker phone creating a bit of echo but not interacting with the quality of the call. One would think that Ilya is talking to someone he adores, like Svetlana, or maybe even Shane when they’re playing the latest NHL video game, battling against each other. It definitely doesn’t sound like any conversation Shane has ever had with one of his own teammates.