Once Upon A December – Chapter One – Duochanfan

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13 Minutes

Chapter One

Shane was excited; Ilya was flying in to Montreal. It had been almost two weeks since Ilya had been able to help lead Boston to the Stanley Cup. Cinching a win in game 6. Ilya had won his second Cup; it had been hard-won, and Ilya had pushed himself a lot to make sure to get it. Shane had never been so proud of him, but he knew that the win was also bittersweet. Ilya had signed with Ottawa as soon as he could, and was now heading to Ottawa for the next season.

Shane’s only time with Montreal hadn’t been as good; things were getting worse in the locker room, and he was now beginning to second-guess the plans that he and Ilya had made about getting settled, making the charity, and then coming out a little while after that. When they were nearing the end of their career. He didn’t think he would be able to come out to the team at all. The things they had said and done since Scott Hunter had come out made him almost fearful of them. Should they find out that Shane was gay, something would happen; he just had no idea what it would be.

It was dark out; Ilya was getting in late on the flight to Montreal, where they would be for the next two days before heading toward the cottage. Shane had a photo shoot the next day for a brand deal that his mother had gotten for him at the end of the season.

Shane spotted Ilya heading towards the Jeep; he smiled as he noticed that there wasn’t anyone around. It meant he could at least kiss Ilya hello after three months of not being able to see each other. Montreal had been knocked out of the playoffs in the second round, much to Shane’s annoyance; he would have loved to have gone against Ilya in the Conference finals. He knew it would be a while before Ilya would be able to bring Ottawa up to that level, but he would do it. Ilya put his suitcase into the Jeep and jumped into the passenger seat.

“Hey,” Shane said as he leaned over and quickly kissed him, after making sure there would be no one to see them.

“Hey yourself,” Ilya smirked, pulling him in for a deeper kiss. “I have missed you.”

“Missed you too,” he murmured back. “We can head to the cottage in two days. Mom and Dad are going to do some shopping for us and stick the cottage before we get there.”

“That is good of them,” Ilya said; he’d only been able to meet the Hollander one more time after the summer at the cottage the year before. When Boston had played Montreal, in Montreal, they had dinner at Shane’s apartment.

“Yeah, they’re looking forward to spending a bit more time getting to know you this summer. They’ve already made plans to try and get us to theirs at least three times,” Shane snorted. “Oh, and if you don’t want, just tell Mom that she needs to back down if she starts getting pushy about things. At the moment, she’s compiled at least three different listings of properties around Ottawa that could be good for you to invest in, live in, and rent out.”

“I see where you get your real estate fetish from,” Ilya laughed lightly as he looked at Shane.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding slightly as he began to pull out of the airport parking lot.

Shane was thinking over the last year and how much things had changed for him. Not only was he out to his parents, but also to Hayden and JJ. Both men knew who he was seeing; they hadn’t been happy at first. Really hadn’t been happy, but they had given in after a few months, and seeing what Ilya was like when he thought it was just the two of them. Shane had been on a FaceTime call, and the two were just talking for once, when JJ and Hayden entered the hotel room that Shane was sharing with Hayden. They had seen Ilya, not Rozanov, this time. This had changed how the two saw the relationship between Shane and Ilya.

That wasn’t the only thing that he had changed about his life. He was no longer on the stupid diet. It was beginning to feel like he was being strangled each time he wanted to do something fun, something different. His mom still didn’t know, but Ilya and the Pikes did. He often went there for dinner with Hayden and Jackie and to spend some time with the kids. Enforcing some boundaries with his Mom had gone a long way in building his confidence in taking full charge of his life instead of always giving in to what she wanted him to do. He’s been able to cut down on the brand deals, so there were only a few, and his free time was no longer taken up by photo shoots, commercial shoots, and various meetings. Now, he could rest, relax, and occasionally sneak across the border without his team knowing to spend a bit of time with Ilya, or the other way around if Ilya found himself free for a day or two.

“Come back to me, mpya lyubov,” Ilya said gently, kissing a cheek, smirking at the little blush that made his freckles stand out.

“Sorry, Mon âme sœur,” Shane said lightly, a soft, loving smile on his face as he glanced over at Ilya. They were at a red light, thankfully, or he may have ended up in a crash.

“What does that all mean?” Ilya asked about the French.

“It means, my Soulmate,” he answered, smiling as the light turned green and he slowly began to pull out into the intersection. The sky was dark; the sun had dipped below the horizon almost an hour ago, as he carried on explaining what he meant. “You are, you know, my Soulmate. I knew you were going to be someone in my life, someone that would be there, from that very first meeting in Saskatchewan. I didn’t know what it would be exactly, but I’m happy that it’s in this way, because I love you so much,” he told him, admitting something he had kept close to his heart for so long.

“Your freckles,” Ilya said, as he looked like he wanted to reach out and brush his fingertips against them. “I was drawn in by your beautiful freckles; I forgot all the English I had learned; it all left my head because this pretty Canadian boy had said hello and blushed. His freckles stood out and made me want to count them. I went back to Russia and found every single video I could of you. I watched so many of your games, hoping that I would get the chance to meet you again. And then there you were, at the draft, and in the gym, I wanted to reach over. Pull you close and never let you go. But that… scared me too.”

“I did the same. I searched for old footage of you. Found so much, all of it in Russian, and I didn’t have the patience to learn it at the time; wish I had. I think my mom was beginning to suspect something with how much I watched them,” Shane snorted a little as he remembered the day his mom had asked in concern why he was watching Ilya so much. He’d said it was to make sure he would be able to beat him, but in reality, he was fascinated by the other player.

“So we were the same,” he said.

“They did have a translation, but I think some of the chirps you said didn’t really match what they said you said,” Shane snorted again as he took a right turn.

“You’ll have to show me the videos, and I will explain them to you,” he told him, smiling softly. “So, what is the plan before we head to the cottage?” he asked.

“I have the photo shoot tomorrow afternoon. As soon as that’s done, I want to go over what we should get in the fresh food way. I’ve got coolers and a mini fridge that can hook up to the car, that I can use to take it all down to the cottage,” he said, “So think what you would like to cook and that, so we can take it down. Some things we can freeze until we need them. Will save on heading into the town to get extras. It’s about an hour’s drive from the cottage.

“That is good, and I will make a list while you are at the shoot,” he said. “I am… sad to be leaving Boston,” he admited quietly.

“I know, I… I sometimes hate myself for telling you to leave,” he said. “That I did something really selfish,” he sighed as he glanced over at Ilya.

“I made the choice to do it, not you,” Ilya told him. “It is not selfish at all; we want to be closer together. And we can’t do that with what teams we’re on.”

“But I could have left Montreal, instead,” Shane said, before adding quietly, “Maybe I should have tried to go to Brooklyn.”

“No, it would have been too far,” Ilya said, shaking his head, “Ottawa and Montreal are closer, and we could easily get a place halfway between, if we wanted to.”

“You know, that’s a good idea; we should do that. I never thought of that. But, Ilya, I want to say, maybe I should have found a way to move teams as well. Maybe in a year or two, when they have the space, maybe I can come to Ottawa as well, if they want me.”

“You would leave Montreal? But you wanted to retire there,” Ilya frowned, “I know that is what you want.”

“I thought it was. Montreal drafted me, and I wanted to retire there, but… this last year, things haven’t been as great as I thought they were. I can manage the team to a point. But since Hunter came out, the team has been more homophobic than normal. I’m trying to curb it all, but they’re not listening to me at all,” Shane said. “I don’t know if I would feel safe coming out to them at all, if ever. Hayden and JJ are fine, but the rest of the team. I don;t know. I don’t think I could, not without things going really bad with them. I know I wouldn’t be on the team any longer than they could stand.”

“You think if you came out like Hunter, they would do that to you?” Ilya asked, sounding horrified at the thought.

Shane nodded once, as he stopped at another red light. “Montreal as a city is more accepting, but the team, they really aren’t. I don’t think coming out to them is going to be a good idea, so moving teams when you and Ottawa are ready to have me.”

“Of course they would want you, who wouldn’t. I wish you had told me sooner, so I could be there for you,” Ilya said, reaching over and squeezing a hand as the light went green. Shane pulled out slowly into the intersection, going straight across to get to the last turn toward his apartment. The headlights from the truck full of construction equipment, running a red light, weren’t on, giving no warning of what was coming.

“I wish I had too, but Hayden and JJ have been tryin-” he was cut off as the truck crashed into them at full speed. Several items from the truck shot off at speed, hitting the road and the Jeep. The truck hit the driver’s side as it carried on, and the Jeep started to roll. Their bodies slammed from side to side as it finally came to a rest. Two more cars were hit by the truck before it came to a stop, wedged against the traffic light post. An eerie silence descended on the area. Drivers stopped, and people got out as the only sounds that filled the air were the beeping from the jeep and truck.

“Fucking hell!” someone yelled as they began to react. “Someone call 911!” he called out, rushing toward the upturned jeep.

“Already on with the,” A woman called back, phone pressed against her ear, even though she was shaking after witnessing the crash. People were getting out of the cars and hurrying to one of the cars or the jeep. Some headed toward the truck as well.

“The Jeeps on fire!” someone called out as they got close. “Anyone have a fire extinguisher on them?”

“Got one,” another yelled as they hurried over, hoping to control the fire that was starting on the Jeep.

Ilya slowly started to come around. He groaned as his eyes flickered a little. “Sh-” he began, coughing a little as he finally got his eyes to stay open. He tried to focus on what was around him, eyes going wide as he realized that something bad had happened. “Shane!” he called out, his voice panicked as he swayed upside down in his seat. His chest hurt, his head too. So much pain, but it paled and vanished when he saw Shane beside him, blood dripping down his face.

“Shane, moya lyubov,” Ilya called out as he released his seatbelt. He didn’t care about the pain he felt when he dropped to the ground, or rather the roof of the upside-down jeep. He could feel the heat beginning to creep up around him. Shouts and calls were coming from outside, as sirens started to sound in the distance.

“I… Ya,” Shane gasped out, his voice breaking a little as he began to come around. “What… what happened?” he asked, moving and wincing and groaning in pain as a hand went up to his side, holding onto something.

“Shane,” he began, only to see something piercing through Shane’s side, pinning him upside down in his seat. There was no way he would be able to yank it out, as he checked behind Shane and saw that it went right through the seat and partially into the seats behind. It had gone through the door and into Shane. “Shane,” he said, hands shaking as he reached out to his boyfriend.

“You gotta get out of there!” Someone from outside the jeep screamed at them. “We can’t stop the fire, we can’t get closer!”

“You have to go, Ilya,” Shane said, his voice shaking. “You have to get out, I can’t… So don’t,” he carried on, eyes filling with tears as he looked at Ilya, as though he was trying to memorize how he looked.

“I’m not leaving you,” Ilya said subornly. His own voice shaking as he reached over to cup Shane’s face. “I would not be able to survive without you. I can’t lose someone so close to my heart again. So no, I won’t be leaving, not unless we leave this jeep together.”

“Ilya,” Shane said, crying as he felt Ilya kiss his forehead. “I wanted to spend an entire lifetime with you. Forever. I’m sorry we never got the chance to let the world know we love each other. To let everyone know about us, and to just be free to be ourselves. But please, Ilya, please, I need you to go, please, don’t… not like this.”

“I am not going anywhere,” he replied, shaking his head and kissing him once more, this time on his lips. “I know, I know, moya lyubov. I wished for all that too. To be beside you all the time. To live together, to play together, to just be us every single day. To love you without having to hide it,” he murmured against his lips, “Ya tebya lyublyu,” he whispered, kissing him softly. “I love you, dorogoy.”

“Mon chéri,” Shane murmured, “Je t’aime chéri,” he continued, tears still falling from his face and into his hair. “So much, so fucking much, I love you. I don’t want you to be here, so please, Ilya, baby, please, you shoul-”

“Not going to happen, stop trying,” Ilya replied firmly, tapping Shane’s cheek and shaking his head. “I’m not going to leave you. Never. I’m never going to leave. When we go to the afterlife, I will be right there with you, always.

Shane gave a wet laugh. “Yeah, we’ll be together, always, forever and beyond. I wish… I wanted more time. I would choose you in each life we are ever granted, Ilyusha. Every single time.”

“It was always you, dorogoy,” Ilya smiled at him even though his eyes were full of tears.

Both of them were crying, holding each other as best as they could. The heat in the car was getting unbearable. Both of them knew that their death wasn’t going to be quick or painless. It was going to hurt, and Shane hated that Ilya was choosing to stay there with him. Sirens blared even closer now. But they knew that it was too late, too late for them to be saved. The smoke was stinging their eyes, and flames licked around them as the two of them pressed closer together. Shane was still stuck upside down, feeling lightheaded. Ilya was starting to struggle to breathe as he pressed kiss after kiss against Shane’s lips.

“I would… choose you even if we had to live this life again. It was always going to be you,” Shane told him, as he moved his head back so he could look at Ilya one last time. To see his hazel eyes and the love they held for him.

Ilya looked into the warm brown of Shane’s eyes, so full of love and promises and dreams that couldn’t be kept. “Always you, moya lyubov,” he murmured, kissing him one last time as the heat suddenly increased and the flames were now roaring around them

“I love you,” they whispered one last time as the world turned white as the gas tank exploded.