chasingashadow



Recent works

Recent bookmarks

  1. Public Bookmark *

    Tags
    Summary

    “You’ll text when you land, right?” Shane asks as he takes an exit ramp labeled Airport Departures.

    “Yes. Promise.”

    “And you’ll call tonight?” Shane’s throat works over the words, like he still doesn’t trust this new thing between them. Ilya thinks he understands. He also doesn’t know how to trust this love. How can he when it has been trapped in his own heart so long. Neither of them know what the next year will bring. There is so much time before Ilya can have his agent, or his future agent, he will need a new one with no connections to Russia, reach out to Ottawa and hope that they’ll be interested in a future Hall of Fame center. The one thing Ilya is certain of is that he will do everything in his power to make their plan work. He spent his entire adult life lusting after, and then pining for Shane with his whole heart.

    “I will call.” Ilya reaches for the hand Shane has left on the gearshift and threads his fingers through his. He wants to say so much, but he has always been better with touch than words, especially when the only shared language was English. “We will talk every day.”

    Or, There is a year before Ilya can sign with Ottawa, Shane counts down the days until their forever.

    Series
    Language:
    English
    Words:
    83,538
    Chapters:
    12/12
    Comments:
    707
    Kudos:
    4,174
    Bookmarks:
    1,840
    Hits:
    150,027

    28 Jun 2026

  2. Public Bookmark *

    Tags
    Summary

    Yuna and Ilya might not be close yet, but she certainly isn’t going to abandon him in some random Ottawa hotel room when he’s sick. And Ilya's powerless against these Hollanders — their earnest kindness, and their insistence on caring about him as though he deserves it.

    Or: Yuna + Ilya's mortifying ordeal of being known.

    Language:
    English
    Words:
    21,367
    Chapters:
    14/14
    Comments:
    385
    Kudos:
    2,389
    Bookmarks:
    488
    Hits:
    37,960

    21 Jun 2026

  3. Public Bookmark *

    Tags
    Summary

    "No m'not," Shane said, somehow pressing his face even more into Ilya's body. "All I ever did was play hockey. Now, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I hope we have a baby soon."

    The car went quiet at that. When Shane looked up, Ilya was looking out the window, jaw set.

    "S' something wrong?" Shane asked. He ran his fingertips along the warm skin of Ilya's forearm.

    Ilya turned back to face him, expression softened. Whatever pensiveness had taken hold of him was gone.

    "No. Everything is perfect."

    After sixteen seasons of professional hockey, Shane Hollander retires from the NHL in the interest of starting a family with his loving husband. It's maybe a little earlier than he would've liked, but with his thirty-five year old knees beginning to protest, it makes sense.

    He's happy. He and Ilya have been working towards this for nearly a decade.

    He's also terrified, wondering if this is the biggest mistake of his life, and thinking that maybe he should take it all back. But mostly, he's happy.

    Series
    Language:
    English
    Words:
    15,110
    Chapters:
    1/1
    Collections:
    1
    Comments:
    116
    Kudos:
    3,634
    Bookmarks:
    524
    Hits:
    41,020

    20 Jun 2026

  4. Public Bookmark *

    Tags
    Summary

    Shane Hollander is a man who thrives on structure, routine, the solid ground of a ten-year plan. Ilya likes that about him, likes the embracing squeeze of having a life organized in tandem with Shane.

    No one would call Ilya a man who thrives on structure. But it’s there, if not in his DNA then in the patterns of his brain. A call-and-response of: they do this, I do that.

    When Ilya’s life is flayed open for the world to dissect, how will they push-and-pull their way back towards what was once a well-organized life?


    “I thought we could go through the schedules and figure out what days we’ll be in the same cities this season, or when either of us have a couple of days off in a row. Maybe make a shared calendar, so we c—”

    “A sex calendar? Your parents are arriving in thirty minutes, and you are proposing making a sex calendar?” Oh, this was delicious. He’d be able to eat out on this for years, if Shane was willing to give him that long.

    “It’s not a sex calendar! It’s just … when we might be able to see each other,” he finished, already sounding defeated.

    “And what are you planning on doing when we are seeing each other? Not fucking?”

    Language:
    English
    Words:
    47,947
    Chapters:
    7/7
    Collections:
    14
    Comments:
    4,224
    Kudos:
    13,250
    Bookmarks:
    5,338
    Hits:
    239,980

    13 Jun 2026

  5. Public Bookmark 19

    Tags
    Summary

    Sveta was worried.
    It had been a week since Ilya had last texted, and now he’d left her on read for two days.
    And so she stood in front of the giant glass shoebox he lived in twenty minutes outside of Boston. Willing herself to walk inside.

    Or, a depressive episode after the 2014 Olympics.

    Language:
    English
    Words:
    2,018
    Chapters:
    1/1
    Comments:
    7
    Kudos:
    179
    Bookmarks:
    19
    Hits:
    1,526

    13 Jun 2026

Navigation