Chapter Text
ESPN 
@ESPN
Breaking: Ilya Rozanov has been traded to the Ottawa Centaurs, sources told @louisemkellar
8.3K Retweets 424 Quote Tweets 23.1K Likes
Jack
@bostonraiders81
WHAT THE FUCK STREETS ARE SAYING ROZY IS GONE
83 Retweets 32 Quote Tweets 231 Likes
kane
@yorozy81
ROZ TRADED TO THE CENS? FOR $80M?
481 Retweets 32 Quote Tweets 2.3K Likes
sez 🏒
@hollanovtruther
who wants to bet Shane Hollander is to blame?
ESPN
@ESPN
Breaking: Ilya Rozanov has been traded to the Ottawa Centaurs, sources told @louisemkellar
13 Retweets 1 Quote Tweets 91 Likes
elle ✨ @rozanovbby · July 10
Replying to @hollanovtruther
can i not have ONE DAY to mourn without this shit on the tl
sez 🏒
@hollanovtruther
you're going to look at this and say it's platonic? be fucking fr
48 Retweets 4 Quote Tweets 333 Likes
elle ✨
@rozanovbby
i can't with these *****nov freaks these are REAL PEOPLE! STOP MAKING SHIT UP!
8:30 AM · July 10, 2018
3 Retweets 2 Quote Tweets 21 Likes
mya ❤️🔥
@rozy4life
can we focus on the trade pls? what did my bby do to deserve this?
24 Retweets 3 Quote Tweets 210 Likes
elle ✨ @rozanovbby · Sept 5
Replying to @rozy4life
shane hollander allegedly 😭
💖 keeks
@hollzynation
people are we forgetting how excrutiating this was? these two can't stand each other
102 Retweets 32 Quote Tweets 1K Likes
sez 🏒
@hollanovtruther
it's called sexual tension u virgin
💖 keeks @hollzynation · July 10
people are we forgetting how excrutiating this was? these two can't stand each other
92 Retweets 46 Quote Tweets 635 Likes
Jack
@bostonraiders81
i refuse to believe until our lord and saviour confirms it himself@IlyaRozanov81
83 Retweets 32 Quote Tweets 231 Likes
Ilya Rozanov 
@IlyaRozanov81
To Boston, I am so proud of the past 8 years. Playing for the Raiders was a dream. Thank you. I'll never forget it.
12.2K Retweets 3.4K Quote Tweets 50.4K Likes
Ottawa Centaurs
@Centaurs
Welcome to Ottawa, Captain @IlyaRozanov81
10.2K Retweets 1.2K Quote Tweets 29.4K Likes
“Are you nervous?”
“Nervous?” Ilya laughs down the phone. “What is this word? I’ve never heard it—”
“Oh, fuck off,” Shane snaps, his frustration delightful to Ilya’s ears. He can imagine his face flushing, a rosiness spreading across his cheeks and tickling his freckles. Ilya has never wanted anything more. “I’m trying to be supportive.”
“Oh, supportive boyfriend?” Ilya asks. “Maybe you should come to my first game—”
“You’re delusional.”
“You could wear my jersey—”
“Stop it.”
“—suck my dick before face off—”
“Ilya,” Shane hisses.
“—number 81 would look good on you.”
“Can you be serious for one second?”
Ilya has to stop himself from grinning.
“You want serious? Ah, okay, I’ll be serious.” Ilya leans back into the car seat, looking at the empty parking lot. Ottawa is a quiet hell, where people come to die, but Ilya has chosen it as his home. He’s chosen a team so plagued by problems just so their secret could be easier to bear.
So he comes early to practice, a thrum of energy settling in his veins and threatening to spill blood all over the ice. It’s the kind of hunger that he’s used to; a hunger for trophies, a hunger to win. But Ilya doesn’t know this team. He only knows their stats, which are fucking catastrophic.
Ilya has spent weeks studying. The Centaurs are the lowest ranked team in the league. Their defence is nonexistent. Their first line painfully clumsy. They have pinned their hopes—and all their money—on him.
Ilya had grinned at the contract when it was signed and boasted about records to Shane, but now, it sets his teeth on edge. He wants to be on the ice. He wants to be done with introductions. He wants to be storming into the playoffs and lifting a Stanley Cup above his head again.
He wants a man in Montreal to claim as his own and so in the parking lot in Ottawa, he is serious when he says, “I miss you.”
Shane’s breath hitches and Ilya wants to drown in the sound. “I miss you, too. So much.”
The desperation for him is overwhelming. It claws at his chest, climbing up his throat and choking him. Ilya tries to swallow it down, but it comes back every time, no matter what he does.
“Don’t be nervous,” Shane tells him. “They’ll love you.”
Ilya shakes his head, his laughter empty. Shane is two hours away and can still see through him. “They’ll have many… thoughts. Ideas.”
“Expectations?”
“Da. Yes. Expectations.”
“Well, they signed you for 80 million dollars.”
“I’m the best player in the league—”
Shane scoffs. “Second best.”
“So supportive,” Ilya croons into the phone. “You are meant to be nice on my first day, yes?”
“I’ll be nice, but I’m not a liar.”
“You’re not a very good WAG,” Ilya declares, before he spots another car pulling into the parking lot. “Ah, I have to go, moy lyubimyy.”
“Okay. Good luck. I love you.”
“Ya lyublyu tebya.”
There is buzz beneath his skin for the rest of the day as he’s introduced to player after player. They look at him with suspicion, with judgement, with a weight of what he’ll bring. He feels eighteen again and lost for words in a language he didn’t know.
By the time it’s over and he’s back in the large house that doesn’t yet feel like home, there’s an exhaustion settling deep in his bones. He lounges on his new couch and opens his phone, studying the team list and trying to connect names to faces.
If he wanted their trust, he needed to know the Centaurs better than anyone.
It takes time, but Ottawa begins to feel like home.
Ilya remembers names. Orders are easier to give. The Hollanders have him round every Sunday.
The Centaurs lose game after game. It’s a relentless slog, one that attracts vitriol from commentators and delight from other teams. Ilya can score hat tricks and smash the biggest stars into the boards, but it doesn’t matter when his team is a mess. He knows what it’s like to lose, but he’s a stranger to constant loss.
“It’ll get better,” Shane tells him, when they’ve managed to steal a morning away from hockey and planes and the lies they tell the world. It doesn’t matter much when Shane is in his bed, wrapped in his sheets, saying his name. Ilya thinks it’s worth it then. “You’re a great captain. You’ll turn them around.”
Everyone says the same thing.
Ilya wants to believe them. He does. It’s just—
“They’re sloppy,” he murmurs into Shane’s skin. “Our defence isn’t strong enough. I push and push and push but—”
“It’ll get better,” Shane says again, hands running through Ilya’s curls. “They’re building the team around you, right? They’ll make some trades.”
“If they have any money left.”
“You were worth it,” Shane whispers and Ilya closes his eyes, feeling his chest shutter. He wants to bury himself in this moment, stitching himself to the man beside him and never letting go. “Every cent.”
“Best in the league.”
“Second best if you’re lucky.” Ilya peels open an eye in annoyance, only to find Shane with a cocky grin on his lips. “Scott Hunter’s rising through the ranks again.”
Ilya scoffs. “That dinosaur.”
“He’s thirty, Ilya.”
“He should be in one of those villages. With bedpans.”
“You’re ageist.”
“I do not know what that means.”
“Convenient.”
“Ah,” Ilya grazes his lips over Shane’s jaw. “I’m not convenient at all, moya lyubov.”
He’s still thinking of freckles when he enters the locker room hours later.
“Hey Rozy,” Hayes calls from the corner, throwing him a gatorade. Ilya smiles in thanks. “Have you heard the rumours yet?”
Zane Boodram groans. “Are you seriously going to bring it up?”
“It’s all over my feed!” Hayes comes to stand beside Ilya, thrusting his phone into his hands. “See?”
Ilya blinks, staring at a photo of his own face. “You like my face, Hazy?”
Wyatt looks down and curses beneath his breath, scrolling up further and clicking on a post. “Look at this.”
“What the fuck,” Ilya mutters, scrolling down further. There are hundreds of posts, all with the same word. Ilya doesn’t know if his English is failing or if he’s just having a mental breakdown. “What is this?”
“Hollanov,” Wyatt declares, "hockey's biggest secret!”
sez 🏒
@hollanovtruther
ok its time for a hollanov thread to shut you losers up 🧵
321 Retweets 23 Quote Tweets 1K Likes
sez 🏒
@hollanovtruther
Replying to @hollanovtruther
2009. Beginning of our love story. Hollander looks like he’s going nonverbal here.
sez 🏒
@hollanovtruther
Replying to @hollanovtruther
i didn't become suspicious until last year. rozanov posts this photo in an undisclosed location. it's not russia and it's definitely not BOSTON
sez 🏒
@hollanovtruther
Replying to @hollanovtruther
so why does it look exactly the same as shane hollanders canadian cottage? riddle me that!
392 Retweets 21 Quote Tweets 1.2K Likes
elle ✨
@rozanovbby
Replying to @hollanovtruther
nurse grandma escaped her bed again
8:34 PM · Oct 2, 2018