Chapter Text
Shane Hollander POV
Shane should be excited. Shane should be fucking overjoyed. He’s at the Olympics. The fucking Olympics, and all he can do is worry about Ilya fucking Rozanov. Rozanov had never taken this long to reply to him, especially not when they're in the same place. After Vaughn's statement about gay people in Russia, Shane's worried about him. He knows this is Rozanov's home country and that he can take care of himself, but Shane can't help it. He needs to know if Rozanov's okay.
Then he sees Rozanov in the stands during men's figure skating and breathes a sigh of relief. He makes some excuse he can’t remember to Hunter and Vaughn and goes up to where Rozanov is watching from.
"Hey" he says.
"Go away, Hollander." Rozanov looks tired, exhausted even.
"You haven't responded to my texts."
There's a beat of science.
"Why would I respond to your boring texts? We are not friends." He says this fast, like he has to push it all out of his mouth.
"And we cannot.., not here." Shane can imagine where that sentence would end.
"No, no, I just.. wanted to see how you were doing?" He doesn't mean for it to sound like a question.
Rozanov looks at him, incredulous.
"Oh so you want to gloat about Russia's loss. And they call me asshole."
"No! You.. I just.. I don't know." Rozanov sighs.
"Go away Hollander" He repeats.
Shane doesn't know what to say. What he wants is for Rozanov to tell him he's okay. He wants Rozanov to reply to his texts. He wants it to be okay for him to be this worried about this man he still barely knows. But he doesn't think he can ask for any of those things. So, he leaves.
"Take care Rozanov"
Shane watches his phone for all of the rest of his time in Russia; waiting for a response he knows isn't coming
Lily
Why do you care so much?
The text comes in at 1:26am on Shane's last night in Russia.
Jane
???
Lily
If I get stuck here forever, you would miss me, yes?
And suddenly Shane is wide awake. All of the worst case scenarios he had thought up in the last week rush to the front of his mind.
Jane
Are you okay?
Why would you be stuck here?
Is something happening?
Lily
You would miss me?
Hollander v. Rozanov is nothing without Rozanov.
Jane
Yes I would miss you
Tell me what's happening
Lily
So demanding.
My dad is trying to keep me in Russia because I lost for Russia. He said it will teach me discipline.
Jane
That's stupid.
You can't get better here.
You're not the reason Russia lost
There is no response to that
Jane
Can he force you to stay?
Lily
I don't know, probably.
I think maybe Sasha told someone something. Then they can definitely keep me.
Jane
Sasha?
The captain's son?
Lily
Yes.
Jane
Fuck. We have to get you out of here.
Do you have your passport?
When's your flight
Are you staying in the Olympic village?
Lily
I'm staying nearby with my dad and his political leader friend.
I go to Moscow to stay till the end of the week tomorrow.
I have passport, da.
Jane
Okay I'm booking you a flight for tmrw morning. The earliest I can get is 11am from AER to Boston. Do you have a way to get to the airport?
Lily
Da, I think so
I will never be able to come back.
Shane can't imagine never being able to return to Ottawa.
Jane
I'm sorry.
This is awful
Lily
Is okay I think
I don't want to come back
I will pack
Jane
Text me when you're packed
Text me if something happens
Adrenaline is coursing through Shane's body. He wishes he could be there. He wishes he could help. No way he's going to be able to sleep now. Maybe he should go to the gym.
Jane
Wait, text me the address of where you're staying
Just in case
Lily
You being here will not help
Jane
Just do it
Ilya sends it. Shane plots it, 17 min drive. If Ilya doesn't text that he's safely packed in the next 30 minutes, he's going.
Shane paces. checks his phone. Its been 4 minutes. He googles Russian laws about gay people. He does not like what he finds. 11 minutes. He goes to the hotel gym. His phone is open to Lily's texts as he runs.
At 26 minutes, Shane texts.
Jane
Are you okay
Packed?
No response
By 30 minutes, Shane is already in an uber. He tells the uber driver to speed with google translate. It's still the longest 12 minutes of his life. When they arrive, Shane throws all the money he has on him at the uber driver and rushes out of the car.
Jane
I'm here
He sees three dots
Then an older man opens the door. He's holding Ilya's phone. Shane assumes this is Ilya's dad. The man starts yelling at him in Russian. Shane sees Ilya behind him. He rushes forward and pushes past this man, who tries and fails to block him. Ilya looks terrified. There are two other men here.
The younger one says something in Russian to Ilya.
Shane looks at Ilya.
Ilya looks at his dad.
Ilya's dad looks at the phone.
"You are Jane! Faggots" he says in a thick Russian accent and he lunges at them.
Shane blocks the man's body with his own, pushing Ilya's father(?) to the ground. The prompts the other two men to come for them too but once Shane steps forward to punch the younger one in the face, breaking his nose, the other seems to think better of attacking two professional athletes
Shane looks back at Ilya. He does not know what to do in this situation.
Ilya looks at him. Then he schools his face.
Ilya Rozanov POV
Ilya does not know how he ended up in this situation. Before, during and after sending that first text to Hollander, he had known it was a mistake. But, he had done it anyway. And now Shane was here. Standing in front of him like a human shield, guarding against his father, brother, and some Russian politician whose house they were staying at him. Shane looks at him like he’s unsure of what to do. Which is rich after Shane has shown up at this random house, pushed his father to the ground and punched his brother in the face with no input from him. Not that Ilya is complaining. It was very hot.
Ilya takes a breath.
He looks at his brother, who is holding his very bloody broken nose.
“I’m going back to Boston.”
“No, now you’re definitely not” responds his father, as he gets up from the floor.
“You cannot stop me, I have a contract.”
“That means nothing. We will void it, you need to come home.”
“No.”
“You are still a Russian, you cannot abandon your country. We will not let you”
It hits Ilya like a truck. His only way out. He looks at Shane, who is looking at Ilya’s father like he’s ready to break his nose too.
“I’m getting my Canadian citizenship.” Ilya says. “I’m getting married.” His brother laughs, but his father catches on.
“To who?” Alexei says.
Ilya steps forward and wraps one arm around Shane’s waist. Shane does not seem at all surprised, despite not being able to understand any of the conversation. He quickly adjusts his stance to still be ready to hurt Ilya’s family while accounting for Ilya's hand around his waist. Ilya didn’t know what he expected Shane to act like in this situation, but it wasn’t this.
“We’re getting married. And if you don’t let us leave, Shane Hollander is going to kill you.” He’s honestly not sure how empty the threat is. Shane does seem about ready to murder his family. Before this catastrophe, Ilya would have said Shane wouldn’t have touched his father under any circumstances much less physically pushed him to the ground, but clearly he was mistaken.
None of the three men say anything, which is as much allowance as Ilya is going to get.
“Time to go” Ilya tells Shane, switching back into English.
“Where’s your stuff?” Shane asks, looking around and spotting his duffel behind Alexai.
“Is fine, I will buy new stuff.” Shane glares at Alexei.
“Give me his stuff.”
Alexei does. Shane takes the bag and Ilya's hand and they walk out of the house. As soon as they get outside. Shane calls an uber.
“The next flight out of Russia is the 4:30am to Toronto, I’m getting us on it.”
Despite the fact that they arrive at the airport 40 minutes before their international flight and the fact that flight is full, Shane gets them at 4:30am to Toronto and finds a connection to Ottawa.
Ilya doesn’t take a full breath until the plane takes off.