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David Hollander loves Instagram.
Ilya showed it to him one night while he was having dinner with them, specifically posts from the Foundation and the camps, and it somehow led to David setting up his own account. For the most part, it’s dinner and Yuna and sometimes Shane, but there are also pieces of Ilya there: a completed puzzle, chicken parmesan, ice cream. David can’t post Ilya, obviously, but he wants Ilya to look at his account and know that he’s there, too.
When the video comes out, and the boys are thrown into a chaos they don’t deserve, some selfish part of David is relieved because now the entire world can know how much David–how much all the Hollanders–love Ilya Rozanov.
one.
The first photo goes up not five minutes after Shane and Ilya’s posts, one he’s been waiting to share for the longest time. He’d taken it one summer evening at the cottage, the boys out at the dock to watch the sunset after he and Yuna had offered to clean up after the Ilya had made them beef stroganoff (and given them a precious gift: a mention of his mother, of his memories of her making it for him after a rough run-in with his father, only weeks before her passing).
They were watching the lake (or searching for loons), their legs swinging over the edge, hands entangled between them on the planks. Ilya said something that had Shane turning to him grinning, and Ilya lifted their hands to press a kiss against the back of Shane’s, and David knew–he knew he needed to capture this moment.
That they’d want it later.
It’s one of the first photos they’d hung in their house after they’d (finally!) moved in together, right after the photo Ilya had given Shane, and it’s the photo David posts, captioning it simply my boys.
two.
Shane’s incredibly nervous for his first game with the Centaurs. David’s not entirely sure why; Shane is a great hockey player, a star, a three-time Stanley cup champ and winner of too many individual awards to count. Any team would be grateful to have him, and he’s going to be a menace on the ice with Ilya. But he’s nervous, and so he’s a little…particular.
David takes it in stride, like he always does, because Shane’s so much like Yuna and he knows that both of them need that control and that it’s best to work within their boundaries. So they have lunch together because Shane’s decided that is going to be a pregame routine going forward, and David gets to watch as Ilya and Shane prepare together.
He just knows it’s going to be the favorite part of the routine going forward.
He and Yuna had debated about how they were going to show up for both their sons before deciding one would wear Ilya’s jersey, the other would wear Shane’s, and then they’d alternate each game they attended.
David got the 81 today.
In the end, he’s not at all sure why Shane was worried; they trounced Detroit in the opener, and Shane and Ilya had both scored (and Troy Barrett. And Lucas Haas. Like David said, they trounced Detroit), including one beauty by Shane on a perfect pass by Ilya.
After the game, David lets loose a string of posts, starting with twelve-year-old Shane in a Centaurs jersey, hands and face pressed against the glass. He captions it one day, buddy, you’ll be the guy they’re all watching.
And then, two photos, of him and Yuna arm-in-arm, taken by a nice couple beside them in the stands. First from the front, the 24 and 81 front and center, and then from the back, Hollander and Rozanov on prominent display. He doesn’t add a caption, but the Centaurs repost it and add their own: Mama and Papa Hollanov are in the house!
And then a photo of Ilya, a little pixelated from the distance it was taken, but his hands are raised and his smile is wide. It’s his husband’s first goal and I think Ilya may be more excited than Shane himself.
And finally, a photo of Ilya, waving up at them before the start of the game, grinning from ear-to-ear. I’m so glad we finally get to be here in person for you, son.
three.
The Centaurs are going to win the Cup.
The Centaurs are going to win the Cup.
THE CENTAURS ARE GOING TO WIN THE CUP!
There’s thirty seconds left in game five, but it’s going to be a shut-out for Wyatt Hayes, it’s going to be a hat trick for Ilya, and it’s going to be the first mother-fucking Stanley Cup in Ottawa’s history.
And it’s David’s boys that are going to bring it home.
He and Yuna are waiting with the other families, talking to Lisa Hayes and making funny faces at Milo Boodram as they watch the last thirty seconds tick down, until the horn is blaring and it’s official.
Stanley Cup Champs.
Shane and Ilya are kissing, their faces on the jumbotron to the cheers of all Ottawa fans, and David has to take a video of it; they’ll want to see it later. And then the rest of their team is rushing them, and David takes a photo of that, too, of Ilya and Wyatt and Bood hugging tightly, the group of veterans that started the team on this path, of Luca Haas hugging Shane, and then, again, of Ilya and Shane, standing together, Ilya’s hands running through Shane’s sweaty hair. Ilya’s saying something, and Shane is nodding, and they both just look so proud, and happy, and in love.
This photo will join their wall, but it’s just one of many David posts on Instagram.
His favorite, though, was taken by Lisa Hayes and sent to him later, and it’s of David hugging Ilya tightly, tears streaming down his face, Ilya’s hands clutched into the fabric of David’s 81 jersey. It’s a photo that also goes on the gallery wall.
He captions it I’m so proud of you, son.
four.
Ilya tells them they don’t have to come to his citizenship ceremony, if he passes the citizenship test, in the soft and unsure voice David’s come to realize is Ilya protecting himself. He hears it sometimes when Ilya’s accent gets thicker, or when the conversation is flowing too fast for his brain to translate and he feels stupid, or when the vestiges of his father’s abuse play on his doubts.
David never wants to hear Ilya get that way with him.
“Yuna and I are so excited to be there, Ilya. There’s nowhere else we’d rather be,” he assures him, a momentary pause until Ilya smiles at him and nods, turning back to the testing book they’ve been working through. Shane’s been helping Ilya study, of course, but so has David, and tonight, while Yuna and Shane are watching a game, David and Ilya are working on Canadian history. It’s Ilya’s roughest subject, the one he’s most worried about, but David’s not sure why; Ilya’s been diligent in his studies, undertaken them like he did learning English.
And in the end, David’s right: there’s no reason to worry. Ilya passes his citizenship test easily, and all that’s left is the ceremony.
David and Yuna sit with Shane, and all the Hollanders have the same proud smile as they watch the newest member of their family officially become Canadian.
Afterwards, after the photos with the judge and the rest of the citizenship class, David and Yuna treat Ilya to dinner at his favorite restaurant, a little hole-in-the-wall run by an older Russian woman and her family that just love Ilya, and then there’s a cake at David and Yuna’s house. It’s from there that David gets his photo for his next Instagram post. Shane is smiling at his husband from the edge of the photo, pride clear in his eyes, and Ilya’s smiling down at the cake that says Congrats on being Canadian!, tears threatening to fall. He posts it with the caption now the proud father of two Canadian sons.
five.
It’s the one thing Ilya makes universally known after becoming a Canadian citizen: he wants to win a gold medal for Canada in the Olympics.
It’s all that much sweeter that the team does win, and it’s against Russia.
And Ilya scores.
And kisses his husband, in full view of the Russian team and the Russian leadership delegation.
It makes David so damn proud.
He doesn’t post any photos of Ilya, though, but of his and Shane’s medals, side-by-side in his and Shane’s trophy room, tagging Team Canada, and the Ottawa Centaurs, and Ilya and Shane themselves.
It’s captioned all they do is win.
plus one.
It goes up just after noon on Father’s Day, two photos in black and white. The first is of David and Ilya at the wedding, both of them side-eyeing something either Hayden or Bood had been doing, drinks in their hands as they judge together. The second is of David and Ilya standing at their puzzling table, both of them reaching for pieces to separate as they work on a half-completed 5000 piece puzzle.
Ilya writes simply thanks for being you.