Archive of Our Own

Notes:

• Inspired by home economics by Anonymous

Author's Notes:

this fic surprised me lol but i listened to our house by crosby, stills, nash & young and then the scientist by coldplay and then dream song by shallow alcove and when i came to, i had this written and edited

i don't think there's much you need to know for this fic. the premise of MLH lockout meaning no hockey is a thing that's happened a couple of times in the NHL, where negotiations between the NHL Players' Association (basically their union) and the NHL couldn't agree on contract terms/changes to be made, and so strikes happened/no hockey was played until the two sides came to an agreement. the most recent one was in 2012/2013 and lasted from september through to the beginning of january. during that lockout, a handful of north american players went to play in europe like shane and ilya do in this fic. then when the lockout ended, they came back to the NHL for a compressed season (like ilya and shane do in this fic - but probably with less drama about it idk)

the fic is split into two POVs, shane's and ilya's. shane's starts from when he gets back to montreal after the lockout is over, january 2016, and goes forward from there. ilya's also starts from january 2016, but it goes backwards in time instead of forwards. so basically everything that happens in switzerland is in ilya's pov and everything that happens afterwards is in shane's pov <3

i promise this fic isn't that angsty!! it will have such a sweet and beautiful happy ending as soon as they communicate with each other!! i just wanted to write a fic that provides an answer to the no-doubt burning question on everyone's minds rn: how would hollanov handle it if they were forced into emotional intimacy via domestic proximity before they were ready for it and For Reasons Beyond Their Control (hockey) while already sorta in love, and THEN were forced OUT of that same domestic habitual intimacy and separated For Reasons Beyond Their Control (still hockey)?

the short answer is: not well. the long answer is, like, 20k

Podficcer's Notes:

Thank you so much to the Anonymous writer who has put out So. Much. good food for the HR fandom, and who so graciously gives blanket permissions for podfics. I cannot express how discombobulated I was by this fic upon first read, and even more so upon second-read. The writing, of course, is gorgeous, both to read and to read aloud. What's even better is how deeply this fic delves into the internal worlds of both Shane and Ilya and how true it feels to their characters. Definitely a work I know I'll keep coming back to over and over again, and I am very much savoring the process of recording this.

(See the end of the work for more notes.)