Chapter Text
Ilya wakes up on Friday morning feeling like his skin is buzzing. He heads immediately to his gym, and runs until his head is a little clearer.
There’s a part of him that can’t believe this is really happening, that the crazy idea he’d had while staring out his apartment window in Moscow is actually working. But that part is small. Mostly he’s excited.
He starts walking for a cool down and checks his phone. There’s a couple messages from Jane, and one from Scott Hunter. He checks Jane first.
Jane: Ran an extra 5k this morning, feel like my skin’s going to vibrate off.
Jane: Mom’s got a whole plan on 17 different sponsors that want to do Pride Month crap.
Jane: I don’t think I want to do any of it, but I don’t know.
Lily: The whole point of doing it as a group is so one of us doesn’t get held up as the poster boy
Lily: Harder to do if you go put yourself on a bunch of posters
Jane: No, I know.
Jane: She’s just excited I think?
Jane: Overcorrecting maybe.
Ilya thinks he understands what that word means, but checks it in his Russian dictionary just to be sure he’s not missing any context.
Lily: Correcting what?
Jane: She feels guilty that I couldn’t tell her sooner I think.
He’s not really sure what to say to that. The treadmill beeps that his cool down is completed, and he hops off. He checks Hunter’s message.
Hunter: Are you sending a new chat today?
Ilya: We can all just talk over text
Ilya: Won’t need to be secure much longer
Ilya: Just waiting for the west coast people to wake up
Hunter: OK
That settled, he goes back to Shane’s texts.
Lily: Seems stupid to overcorrect not being able to talk to her by not talking to her
Lily: about not wanting to do the ads
There’s no response, but the typing bubbles come up, then go away a few times. He puts his phone in his pocket and heads to the weight bench.
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It’s 11am, and he figures that has to be late enough for the west coast. Plus the east coast people keep texting and pestering him.
Why do people from America's east coast have such a disregard for time zones? The number of times he's gotten phone calls over the summer at 5am Moscow time from some dumb Boston teammate is incredible.
He creates a group chat with the eight people who agreed to participate. He hasn’t heard anything from the other two men he’d originally contacted, which had been Troy Barrett from Toronto and Steven Koval from Houston. He supposes it makes sense. He wouldn’t particularly want to come out if he was on a team with Dallas Kent, or if he lived in Texas.
Ilya: Good morning everyone! Hope everyone’s excited for the big day.
Riles: Fuck off cap
Riles: I might throw up
Ilya loves Riley. He’s been a great backup goalie for the Raiders the last two years. And he’s just a good guy in general. They’d gone to management together yesterday to inform them of today’s announcement and it had gone pretty well. Management had initially thought that they meant they were a couple, and Riles’s response had been hilarious.
Jane: Drink some ginger ale.
Jane: I’ve gone through half a case.
The sappily fond smile on Ilya’s face would be horrifically embarrassing if anyone could see him.
Hunter: Oh thank God. I really need to talk about what we’re saying
Bennett: He’s called me six times this morning
King: I would say it’s too early for this, but I don’t think I ever actually slept
Hunter: Is that King or Carter? I don’t have your numbers. I assume the person calling Roz cap is Riley.
Riles: yes, this is Riley
King: This is King
Price: This is Price
Bennett: This is Bennett
Carter: this is carter and I did manage to sleep and this is way too early
Jane: It’s almost ten?
Carter: Who’s number is that?
Jane: This is Hollander.
Carter: I didn’t say I slept well
Carter: I think I finally passed out like two hours ago
Ilya: you all need better sleep training
Ilya: I am told it is very important
Ilya: Beauty sleep
Ilya: You all need it. Very ugly
Carter: Fuck off Roz
King: Go fuck yourself
Ilya grins, delighted. Hunter has to ruin everything though, always. He immediately turns the conversation back to practicalities.
Hunter: Is anyone else revealing a relationship or partner in their post?
Hunter: Has everyone spoken with their teams?
Price: Buffalo didn’t really seem to care much
Carter: Yeah, the Blizz staff were cool
Carter: Already talking about pride night 🙄
Carter: And most of the team guys already knew, so just announced it for the rest at practice yesterday
Hollander: I told my agent, but haven’t told any management staff. I think I’ll just send an email to the PR department now.
King: Front office was surprised, but mostly cool I think
King: team was weirdly supportive?
King: Mostly excited I have a guy
Ilya: Riles and I spoke to management yesterday, they were fine
Riles: I mean, except for the part where they asked if we were fucking
Riles: I could have done without that
Ilya laughs to himself, remembering the horrified look on Riles’s face when management had carefully asked, “So are you two … together?”
Jane: What?
Hunter: Yeah, I got asked that too.
Hunter: Horrifying
King: You mean they asked about you and Bennett? Even though he’s married?
Hunter: I wish
Hunter: No I mean my coach asked me if I was fucking Roz
Hunter: And so did Huff when I told him I was gay
Jane: What
Ilya collapses into laughter against his kitchen counter. The idea of Scott Hunter being asked if they are fucking is even more hilarious than the thing with Riles. And Shane’s one word reactions are making it even funnier. His phone starts ringing and he knows without looking that it’s Shane. He swipes to answer, still laughing.
“Oh my God. You’re laughing!”
“Shane, this is the funniest shit I’ve ever heard. Of course I’m laughing!”
Shane makes a frustrated little growl noise, and Ilya’s smile is nearly painful.
“Oh my God, Carter is saying the same thing! How? Why?!”
Ilya pulls the phone away and puts Shane on speaker so he can see the chat again.
Carter: That’s so weird. My agent asked me that too.
King: If you were sleeping with Roz?
Jane: What the fuck? Why was this everyone’s first question?
Carter: Yes
Jane: No one asked me that!!
Hunter: Of course no one asked you.
Hunter: Why would they?
Shane makes another sound over the phone, but this one sounds offended. Ilya is dying, trying to hold back laughter, there are literal tears gathering in the corner of his eyes.
Jane: Why would they ask you?!
Hunter: I’m assuming I must have committed some horrible crime in a past life
Ilya: 🤣🤣🤣
Ilya: I hope you all told them that I am far too sexy for you
Ilya: That’s what Riles and I told Raiders
Riles: That’s what YOU told the raiders
Riles: I was too surprised to speak
Ilya: To get back to Hunter’s first question, I am not revealing a relationship
Ilya: My sex life is far too interesting and would immediately take all attention away from the rest of you
“Shut up” Shane says over the phone line, grumpily. Even though he has to know it’s true. If the two of them came out as in a relationship, they would immediately overshadow the rest of the group. Which would defeat the whole fucking point.
Carter: Oh my God, fuck all the way off
King: My boyfriend will be in my photos
Hunter: Ok good mine too
Jane: No relationship in mine
Price: I don’t have a boyfriend either
Price: Roz, I wanted to ask something
Jane: Oh my god, did someone think you were fucking him too?
Ilya snorts, “Shane,” and it's stupid how saying his first name still makes his chest all warm, but that doesn't mean he's going to stop “you’re going to out us to the chat if you keep being so jealous.”
“I’m not jealous!” Shane immediately protests.
Price: What? No
Price: I was going to ask, once we’ve posted there’s going to be a lot of interviews and questions. They’re probably going to try to figure out whose idea this all was and how this like happened
Price: Should we tell them it was you or will that make things harder for you? With the Russia shit I mean
It’s like getting a bucket of cold water dumped on his head. He must make some kind of noise, because then Shane’s saying his name in that soft, gentle tone he used while he was in Russia. “Ilya -”
“It’ll be fine.” He says, firmly. The meeting with the Raiders front office had gone well. They aren’t going to release him and his visa is secure. He’d love not to have a Russian passport, but that could take years. He doesn’t want to wait anymore.
Ilya: It was my idea originally but you all said yes
Ilya: This is all of us. And not because of stupid Russia
Ilya: Because we’re all doing it
He doesn’t think he’s making what he’s trying to say clear. He’s not sure how to describe it better.
Jane: This is a team sport
He laughs, but it’s thinner than the fun laughs of earlier. “Give 110%.” he says, mockingly. They’re both standard press answers that don’t mean anything. Except when they do.
“Exactly.” Shane says.
The rest of the chat joins in with their own meaningless hockey press quotes, clearly understanding what they mean.
Hunter: Play the whole 60 minutes
Carter: Keep your mind on the game
King: Take it one game at a time
Bennett: Keep your head up
He smiles fondly at the chat. “You know, sometimes this organization can suck, but the team stuff is pretty good.”
Shane laughs, “Yeah. Teams are good. I told Hayden and JJ by the way. They were really nice.”
“I’m glad Shane.”
Ilya wants to ask why Shane hasn’t talked to the Metros front office. But that’s Shane’s decision, he knows the culture there better than Ilya does.
Riles: My actual boyfriend who is definitely not Roz will be in my post
Ilya: Riles! Are you finally dating that doctor you were obsessed with?
Ilya: and you didn't tell your favorite captain!!?
Riles: what the fuck
Riles: how do you know everything!?
Ilya snorts, “They all keep doubting me, but I am literally always right.” He had noticed Riley's careful fascination with one of the doctors they had met at a charity visit last year. When they had visited again this year Riley had been basically vibrating until that same doctor came into the room. Then he'd been silent.
“You literally are not.” Shane says, but it's just automatic.
Ilya: I have eyes!
Carter: it's a little humbling that Roz was able to figure us all out with apparently one glance
Carter: but we can't even figure out which one of us he banged
“Jesus fuck.” Shane says and Ilya snorts.
Jane: We should all make sure to hashtag youcanplay right?
“Shane,” Ilya says, achingly fond and grinning, chest warm, “you are so bad at secrets.”
“Shut up. No I'm not.”
Hunter: Okay so to recap
Hunter: Some people are posting relationships and some aren’t that’s fine
Hunter: We will all tag youcanplay
Hunter: The posts will go live at 1pm est today
Hunter: And later we don’t reveal who reached out to who first or how
Ilya: You probably got little stars on school book reports
“How is that a chirp?” Shane asks, “How do you make getting good grades in school an insult?”
Ilya laughs again, “It’s my favorite kind. It’s funny!”
“You should teach a class on chirping.”
“I should! Thank you Shane!”
Hunter: fuck off
Jane: Should we tag anything else?
Jane: Like the league or our teams?
Price: I don’t want to do that
Carter: I like it better without
Bennett: I guess if you want to
Jane: I didn’t think so. Just wanted to see if anyone else was going to.
King: If there’s no other thoughts on the posts themselves we need to talk about what we do in the aftermath
Ilya: Step one - no one take calls from fucking Cowell alone
King: Good point
Price: That sounds terrifying
Carter: Wait do you mean like, have a lawyer there or conference each other in?
Ilya: Was thinking lawyer, but I guess each other if you want?
He’s distracted by the conversation so it takes him a second to realize Shane’s gone very quiet. “Shane?”
King: I also wanted to see what we want to do about press
“I’m here, I’m fine. Just freaking out a little bit.”
Hunter: We probably shouldn’t do too much. And we should try to keep it equal. The whole point of this is to be together, so if some of us are giving no interviews and some are giving 10 that’s a lot
“Do you want to put the phone down a second? I can keep telling you what the chat is saying.”
“Just a second.”
Ilya wishes they were together right now. He’ll see him Saturday.
Bennett: The season is still going
Bennett: And the media fucks my focus
Ilya rubs his fingers over his knuckles, thinking.
Ilya: What if we say each of us can give two interviews
Ilya: If you want
Ilya: Not counting tunnel/locker room crap.
Hunter: That makes sense
Carter: Sure, sounds good
Price: ok
“We're talking about limiting the number of interviews we do after.” He says to the silent open phone line.
Jane: fine
The absence of capital letters and periods in Shane's text is concerning, but his breathing sounds steady, so Ilya doesn't push.
King: I think no, but we wouldn't want to do a group interview right?
Ilya thinks about that. The eight of them on what, the View? Ellen? That sounds horrible.
Ilya: Definitely not now
Ilya: and I am not going on the view or some shit
Price: I feel like the support might be nice? But also more awkward?
Hunter: If we get offers for that we can discuss more in the off season. We can see how this goes first
King: Yeah, good call
Ilya checks the time.
Ilya: One hour to post
Ilya: anything else?
Riles: Fuck
Carter: Shit
King: Holy fuck
Jane: Fuck.
Hunter: Everyone is still in right?
Price: Yes
Carter: Yes
Jane: Yes
Riles: Yes
Ilya: Yes
King: Yes
Bennett: Yes
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@IlyaWins81
Posted Friday March 24th, 2017 1:00pm
Hello Instagram!
Just dropping in to say I'm bi! 🩷💜💙
Have good weekend!
#youcanplay