Chapter Text
“Did you hear about Rozanov?”
Until a minute ago, Shane Hollander did not know that such an innocuous question could fill him with this unbearable level of dread.
Well, at the ripe old age of exactly one minute older, now he knows.
“What exactly am I looking at, JJ?” he asks as he clutches Boiziau’s phone, though it’s quite clear from context clues.
“Rozanov’s phone was hacked and pictures were leaked, so now everyone knows he’s gay!” JJ replies gleefully, clearly delighting in Rozanov’s misery.
Shane clenches his jaw to avoid snapping at his teammate, keeping his eyes glued to the screen which is currently filled with a POV shot of a muscular, broad-shouldered man with a spectacular ass, getting dicked down doggy style. Although neither participants' features appear in the picture, and barely an inch of the top’s penis is visible at the edge of the frame, Shane would recognize that very same dick anywhere. In fact, he knows exactly how long and how girthy it is, what it weighs on his tongue, how it tastes, and how it feels inside his hole.
Fuck.
“There is another picture too,” JJ says as he helpfully swipes for Shane, whose fingers are clamped so tightly around the device that it’s a wonder it hasn’t warped.
Shane’s stomach drops. It’s the same two participants fucking, but the bottom is laid out on his back, knees held up as high as possible, cock hard and flushed and curving up to his navel, in which a few drops of precum have pooled. The picture is cropped right under the bottom’s chin, and the top’s – Rozanov’s – dick is once again barely in the shot.
“I didn’t know gays with big dicks took it up the ass too,” Hayden comments in an almost clinically disinterested tone. Shane does not understand how anyone can be so calm at the moment.
Well, that might also be because Shane knows exactly who the bottom is, and exactly when and where these pictures were taken. Given that it’s him. And that those are his navy-blue sheets. On his bed. At the sex condo.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Shane feels the beginnings of a panic attack creeping up his spine, but he knows now is neither the time nor the place to have a mental breakdown. Thankfully, his phone starts buzzing and Shane gratefully snatches it from his cubby, shoving JJ’s back into its owner’s hands.
“It’s my mom, I gotta take this, guys,” Shane says, stepping out of the locker room for a moment of privacy. Although practice finished a while ago and some of his teammates are already gone, there are still too many potential witnesses to Shane’s imminent freakout.
Shane declines the call and texts his mom that he’ll reach out later. He keeps walking down the hallway, trying to put as much space as possible between himself and the locker room so he can breathe in peace.
Shane wanders until he finds a dimly lit recess. He presses his back to the wall, dropping his head against the cool brick and taking in a quick and shallow inhale. He forces himself through box-breathing exercises in the hopes of quelling the currents of anxiety coursing through his body, before they overrun and flood his entire nervous system.
Once his breathing is back under control, Shane forces himself to run through the facts.
Pictures of his naked body and of his hard cock are floating around the internet, probably going viral at this very moment. Okay. That’s probably bad. Definitely violating. But.
His face isn’t in the pictures. He doesn’t have tattoos. Although he strongly considered it over the summer, he hasn’t had any form of gay sex with anybody but Rozanov. And none of the women he’s dated or hooked up with have ever seen him in these positions. In fact, nobody but Rozanov has ever witnessed Shane’s body from these particular angles.
Well, until now that is.
Still, this means it’s highly unlikely that anyone would clock him from seeing these two pictures. So. This isn’t actually that big of a problem right now.
The real problem is that these pictures came from Rozanov’s phone.
Rozanov, who is citizen of a country that enacted an anti-gay-propaganda law just last year. A law that’s vague enough that anything and everything could be considered propaganda. Shane stumbled through reading a translated version of the law and a handful of analyses after he got home from Sochi, and he’s not quite clear on the potential repercussions of transgressions while living abroad, but he’s sure of one thing: these leaked photos place Ilya Rozanov at risk. He may even be in danger, if not legally then physically. Especially if the League kicks him out and he loses his work visa, which would force him to return to Russia.
Fuck. Fuckity fuckity fuck fuck fuck.
Despite himself, Shane feels a protective instinct surge within.
He knows that he and Rozanov aren’t really anything to each other. Rozanov has been quite clear about that, on more than one occasion. And yet, they always seem to circle back to each other.
Sure, Rozanov may have ghosted him for months, but then they hooked up at the NHL awards in Vegas. Things were left kind of weird, but they’ve since exchanged a message or two, and Shane confirmed that he wasn’t mad about Vegas.
They haven’t seen each other in person since then, as the season has just started and their teams have yet to play against each other. They sure as shit haven’t had an actual conversation about where they stand, or how they feel about each other. Shit, Shane didn’t even bring up the lack of kissing during or after their hookup. So they’re still in an ambiguous sort of place. But.
Shane does like Rozanov. (He would rather die than admit it but that doesn’t make it any less true.) And he’s fairly sure the feeling is mutual, despite Rozanov’s overall dickishness since their hookup last December.
So Shane likes Rozanov, who is currently experiencing a horrible and probably terrifying situation.
And Shane knows that Rozanov wears bravado as a shield and sports a nearly impenetrable mask of indifference to most things. The operative word being nearly. Shane has seen Rozanov warm, and gentle, and caring; he’s seen the man cold and distant, but also angry and lashing out. Shane has experienced the intensity and breadth of Rozanov’s emotions, therefore he’s quite certain that the other man is panicking right now. Or experiencing other forms of distress.
And Rozanov has been there for Shane during his own panic attacks. It’s only fair to return the favor, right?
Shane can’t help but pull up their text thread.
Shane: Are you okay?
Shane feels a strange sense of déjà vu, then remembers he’d texted the same phrase to ‘Lily’ after Team Russia lost to Latvia at the Olympics.
Shane stares at his phone for a moment, willing Rozanov to reply.
Of course, Rozanov does no such thing.
Rozanov’s phone is probably blowing up right now, though, so Shane resists the urge to text back something entitled like “don’t you dare ignore me”. Again, they don’t do that.
Shane puts his phone back in his pocket, walks out of the practice facility, gets in his car, and begins hatching a plan.
Shane pulls up into the parking garage and turns off the ignition. He walks into the building, gets on the elevator, and gets off at the penthouse level. He reaches the apartment door and punches in the code: 1410.
The keypad squawks a discordant note. Wrong code.
Shane frowns, then punches in 1221. The door unlocks.
Shane gets inside the apartment, shuts the door quietly, then takes his shoes off, placing them neatly on the designated rack. He makes his way deeper into the apartment, not bothering to turn the lights on.
When he reaches the living room, he finds what he was looking for.
“Hollander? What the fuck are you doing in my house?”
“I’m sorry this happened to you. I know this puts you in danger. I have a plan. Do you trust me?”
1 hour later
@i_resent_rozanov
Of course @theilyarozanov always needs to be first at everything. First draft pick. Youngest captain to lead his team to a Stanley Cup. Youngest player to win both league MVP and playoff MVP. And now, first out queer player in the NHL. Ugh 🙄
@shanehollander
No *I* am the first out player in the NHL since I’m #ActuallyGay (1/4)
@i_resent_rozanov Of course @theilyarozanov always needs to be first at everything. First draft pick. Youngest captain to lead his team to a Stanley Cup. Youngest player to win both league MVP and playoff MVP. And now, first out queer player in the NHL. Ugh 🙄
We don't know who is in those pictures or how they ended up on Rozanov's phone. We don't know that he's queer. Tbh it's way more likely that a teammate pranked the guy by sending gay porn, hockey players are a bunch of homophobic idiots. (2/4)
Also did you guys peep that Russian law that came out last year??? He might be a homophobic idiot too, for all we know. So let's stop acting like he's Gay Hockey Jesus, yeah? That's my title now 🏆 (3/4)
Alsooo if Rozanov was queer, believe me I would know 😉 (4/4)