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The soulmate goose had nothing to do with Ilya meeting Shane.
That was the most well known romantic soulmate bird, even if it was not the only one. Ilya would love to have a bird tell him from the moment they met that they were meant to be romantically involved. Though people said the goose was for couples who met by chance and there was nothing of luck in their first meeting. Rozanov and Hollander were inevitable. Meant to orbit each other in ways the universe felt no need to enforce. The natural state of things.
It was foolish to hope to have gotten the soulmate goose, even if those freckles made him wish otherwise from the very first time he looked at them.
The first time he sent a dickpic wasn’t only because he was horny. It wasn’t only because he wanted to know how Shane would react. Ilya had seen a Tweet linking to an article on the birds of the modern age. Sexting was on the list with a ridiculous looking black bird with a blue line at the bottom.
He ticked off acts on that list as best he could. Looked for other lists when he got all the ones that could believably be applied, then realized they often listed the same trigger with a different bird.
Hammersmith boasted in the locker room that he had been visited by an annoyingly tiny bird with his one-night stand the previous night. The girl had taken a video as it chirped and they had contacted an psyornithologist to figure out what bird was, but had yet to hear back. He played the best hockey he had ever played that day and Ilya couldn't help but want.
He did not call an psyornithologist, but he did buy a book- or five. In Russian, for faster reading, and in English, as practice. The advice they all gave for trying to summon birds was to try new things- though one warned of experiments gone too far. A specific bird tended to appear for psyornithologists that were in a pseudo relationship in an attempt to find other birds and it never looked happy to appear.
Ilya went on trying new things. Nothing seemed to help.
At the very least, the Go-Away bird had never shown up. He had seen it once, appearing for Connors one very drunk night at a club. For having one of the dumbest calls Ilya had ever heard, the thought of hearing it again sent shivers down his spine. When Marlow got the most memed situationship-should-be-more bird without even seeing a girl more than twice, Ilya kind of lost it.
*
Svetlana let herself into his place one week after he had gone without contacting her and found him face-down on his couch with books strewn around him. “Birds hate me,” he complained without looking up.
She picked one up, the one which was closer to his head. He heard her breath stutter into a gasp when she opened it. “You annotated these.”
Ilya annotated strategy booklets pulled together by the team's analysts, too. Mostly notes to shorten what they actually wanted to say, his ideas on how to deal with a set-up. It was only natural to take notes where Shane Hollander was concerned. In a tiny, stupid part of his head he imagined showing the books to him, if anyone could appreciate the effort, it would probably be him.
“Jane would not like this. Definitely did not happen when I met Jane.” She paused in her reading and he knew exactly which hypothetical she had found. There had been an article speculating about rivalry birds during his first NHL game against Montreal, and only one book had a section on those. “Did you really kiss each freckle?”
Ilya pictured the way Shane had blushed when he had tried, freckles looking just as striking in the reddened skin. “Jane has an entire constellation,” he sighed. “I did my best, but the freckles are uncountable.” Svetlana would realize that it was not a denial, and she had the mark of failure in her hands.
“So… Jane is definitely a guy,” she concluded, closing the book with a thunk.
There was no way to deny that, either. It did not matter what Russia’s stance on regular people being gay was, no one could say that things were unnatural if they were also designed by fate. On top of that international law protected soulmates, it was right there in the Declaration of Human Rights. The NHL could do nothing to say that sexuality did not belong on the ice when a brightly colored bird flew between two players in the middle of a face-off and all expert opinion declared it romantic.
Even if he did somehow loose his job over being with his rival, he wouldn’t immediately be deported away from Shane without a work-given visa. There were provisions for soulmates that were not from the same countries.
“Does Jane know you’re doing this?” Sveta asked.
“Jane is…” he trailed off, trying to think of the right word to describe him. There wasn’t one that quite fit, in Russian or English. Boring, of course, but not on this. “Jane needs things to be slow,” he settled on. He looked up to gauge her reaction, but Sveta simply smiled.
“Did any of the books mention if there’s people birds don’t show up for?” she asked softly.
“No. But I haven’t ever gotten any birds,” he pouted, exaggerated to make her laugh, exaggerated so that she didn’t look closely enough at him. “The books do say that’s unusual.”
“Take me on a date,” she demanded. Ilya was not sure how that was what she said in response, so he waited for elaboration. “Fancy restaurant. Ask for a private room. Actually-” she pulled out her phone and made a call, switching to fast English that he tuned out, she was just getting them a table somewhere.
“I take you out all the time,” Ilya complained once she hung up and pulled him to stand.
Svetlana gave him a deadpan look. “This is romantic. The most romantic thing you’re ever going to take me to. I even asked for candles and there might be a violin playing somewhere. Now, go change. I look amazing and ready for anything, you’re wearing your workout shorts.”
Ilya decided to listen, hoping for an explanation as he changed to something appropriate for a candle lit, violin accompanied dinner. Increasingly baffled as Sveta drove them to her restaurant of choice and they were lead to a movie-perfect table. While they waited for their food he opened his mouth to ask what they were doing, but she reached out her hand over the table invitingly.
Date, she had said. Romantic. You held hands on dates, not in the same hungry way you touched when building up to fuck, but in the soft way he wanted to grab Shane whenever he was close. He obligingly reached for her hand- and flinched back when a bird flew onto the table.
Svetlana flinched back, too, both cursing with the same Russian curse and locking eyes as they did. They laughed at the absurdity of the bird actually appearing.
“Do you know what kind of bird it is?” she asked, a little breathless.
Ilya looked at the familiar bird, overall tan, with sticking blue and white patches on its wings. He had seen it before, but he had seen so many birds while searching for ways to make one appear.
“If it’s romantic I’m roasting it over all these candles,” Sveta promised.
Eating a soulmate bird wasn’t exactly unheard of. Some said it brought luck and prosperity, others claimed the opposite. Most people let them disappear to wherever birds went when they werent showing up as messages from the universe.
“I’m not a bird expert,” Ilya rolled his eyes. The bird seemed to choose that moment to produce its call, a sharp weeeerrah sound that rattled one of his oldest memories. This was a Eurasian Jay, their non-soulmate version lived in Russia, a few had lived in a park near his home. “It’s a friendship bird,” he said.
Sveta’s grin was bright like the sun.
His best friend.
Marlow was going to be jealous.
His mother would have been happy for him, she had hoped he would get one.
*
The thing was, confirming that birds did not hate him didn’t actually make it easier to make a bird appear for him and Shane. He couldn’t exactly take him on a date. So many tips were date spots with the most potential for birds, but none of them were going to work. He decided to try being soft. Next time in Boston, with Shane in his home, he would make him stay just a little longer, not enough to spook him, but maybe, hopefully, enough to change things.
*
Someone in the loker room wondered if a bird had led Shane Hollander to Rose Landry, because “he never dates, so he must be sure, right?” Ilya did not watch as the team crumbled beneath his punishment. He skated far past the time any of his team had left. Marlow asked if he was alright when he entered the locker room at last. Ilya couldn't make himself answer.
*
In a crowded club in Montreal, looking for someone to drown into- with freckles and muscles and boring- Ilya was suddenly startled by the howl of a wolf. He turned towards the sound, already knowing that Shane was in that direction, mind spinning. Shane was a big and strong hockey player, but what was he against a wolf, would Ilya have to fight a wolf for the man the world refused to mark as his soulmate?
Could it be that wolves were somehow birds and technically the sign he had been waiting for?
He did not get close enough to see it before a familiar weight collided into him, sending him stumbling backwards, but not enough to tip over. He wrapped his arms around Shane, steadying the two of them, shifting to press Shane back and look at-
Was that a duck?
It hooted, apparently satisfied with what it had accomplished.
Everyone was giving the bird a wide breath. Rose Landry was being helped up by someone Ilya did not know and the bird turned its beak menacingly towards her.
“We got a loon?” Shane sounded surprised. He was twisting to look at the bird without completely untangling himself from Ilya.
“Sounded like wolf,” Ilya said, because if he said anything else he would just be saying finally and Shane and maybe I love you.
Shane laughed, then, like magic, planted a quick kiss on his cheek. “I get them near the cottage,” he explained. “My dad said it’s a bird for idiots who try to burry their feelings.”
“It took so long,” Ilya grumbled. “It is not for Landry, then?” He knew it wasn’t. The birds didn’t usually stop moving until people were, at the very least, physically where they wanted them.
Shane shook his head, then his lips widened into a grin. “Are you jealous?”
“You are mine. Stupid Canadian wolf bird just said so,” Ilya was deflecting, obviously, but Shane softened at the words.
“You are mine,” he said back. Ilya grinned.
They stayed like that for what felt like a second, before someone approached from behind. “Do you mind sorting the bird?”
“Do you know how?” Shane asked cautuously. “I’ve never gotten one.”
Ilya’s jay with Sveta had been too tiny to cause a scene like this, and it had simply flown away when they continued to talk. He had never really read the chapters on dealing with the more violent birds, though the one time he had seen a goose it had simply left once its charges were touching. Shane had said this bird was for those who buried their feelings, so maybe…
“I love you,” he said, in Russian, blurting it without thought, and then repeating it in English. He said it another time, “I love you, Shane.” Shane flushed. Ilya loved how his freckles looked when he flushed. “I love your freckles, too.”
“I love you,” Shane said. “So much. Ilya. I don’t know what I was thinking, I’m so sorry.”
Ilya didn’t really notice the bird leaving, but by the time he looked away from Shane the crowd was no longer huddled against the walls in an attempt to avoid the bird. On a table nearby were their teammates and Rose Landry and probably some of her actor friends. They should maybe talk to them a little, even if all he wanted was to take Shane home.
Marley noticed him looking at them. “I got the video for you,” he grinned. “I’ll send it over. Congrats!” Then like a good friend, he shoved the rest of the team back as they chorused their own congratulations.
“Sorry,” Shane started to say to Rose and Ilya wanted to pull him away even though Shane would hate it. “I don’t- I’m…” Ilya wished he could find the words for him, but he didn’t really know what their relationship had been.
“So many things make sense now,” Rose interrupted, and she was either actually cheerful or a fantastic actress. Ilya could hear no resentment in her tone. “We should stay friends! We can talk later, I’m sure you two would rather be alone now.”
Ilya nodded.
“I’ll, uh, call you?” Shane promised. Rose beamed, and this time she ushered her friends to follow Marlow and the rest of Ilya’s team, leaving behind only Shane’s team.
“Dude,” Pike’s face was that of someone who was torn between horrified and proud. “Don’t loons only appear after years?”
Shane nodded robotically. “I don’t know the specifics.”
“I’ve got so many questions. Jackie’s never going to believe me. See you later.”
Finally, Ilya was able to pull Shane out of the club. They could go home now, undeniably together.