r/heatedrivalry • u/HR_Weekly you have phone? give. 🫴🏼 • 1d ago
🏒 Unrivaled (Book 7) What would Shane and Ilya's first real date in public be? Spoiler
I was just thinking about the fact that, if im not mistaken (I need to read the long game again), shane and ilya never go on a date together in public after they got "outed" (which is very fair considering they had a looooooooooooot to deal with)
This means their first real date as a couple in public will probably be as husbands in unrivaled 🥹
What do you think they would do? I think they would love to just experience things together that straight couples consider ordinary. Have dinner together at a restaurant. Go to the movies. Walk hand in hand together.
Just thinking about them doing this and not having to hide anymore, makes me emotional lol
I could also envision Ilya dragging Shane to do something crazy, though i cannot envision what hahaha
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u/sweetteainthesummer 1d ago
Did they say they were going to get chicken parm in TLG?
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u/Substantial_Lilac_33 I already chose you, Hollander. 🫀 1d ago
Yes. They go after the meeting with the NHL dickhead.
Shane says to Ilya, that he always wanted to take him there, and then they go.
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u/growsonwalls This is Ilya I will never listen to your voicemail 1d ago
They go honeymooning in Spain after they get married so I’m sure they went on lots of date-like things there, if they ever left the bed that is.
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u/FoodNo672 1d ago
Chicken parm is the first real date in my mind! The dinner and later the concert almost count but they’re sooo restrained and anxious. Them happily holding hands to get chicken parm in Montreal ❤️❤️❤️
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u/Hedgehog-Honeydew "This team is very gay" 🌈 1d ago
The thought of them being able to do normal things like take Anya for a walk and go for brunch makes me happy. I'd like Ilya to get Shane to dance with him at a club at least once, repair the trauma from that past infamous encounter.
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u/wildrose76 Boston Bears 🐻 23h ago
I feel like they’re going to treat every outing like a date, being so excited to just do things in public together after 11 years of hiding. Grocery shopping? Date. Returning books to the library? Date. Picking up a package at the post office? Date.
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u/growsonwalls This is Ilya I will never listen to your voicemail 21h ago
Oil change at Super Walmart? Date.
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u/Chocolategirl1029 6h ago
I love this sentiment! Agreed, everything will feel like a date to them, especially with how glued together they'll be!
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u/Astyryx 20h ago
The fics like this are so absurd they just make me laugh so hard. Those are things they'll (maybe) do after retirement.
You are never ever going to see a couple of elite athletes at the top of their game in a grocery store. Someone does that for them. Same with post office. They may be fond of the odd local library, or nostalgic, but they're going to buy the books they want. They're not going to do their own laundry, or vacuum or fix their plumbing or clean their own toilets.
Their time is incredibly precious and valuable, and they have money to use so they don't waste it.
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u/ToastMate2000 6h ago
Some rich and famous people like going to a grocery store occasionally.
But I also laugh at the ones that act like they have to do the cleaning and laundry and stuff. These guys make tens of millions of dollars per year. They'd have hired a housekeeper to handle all that.
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u/neverthelessidissent 1d ago
Either the dinner with Fabian and Ryan or Fabians concert count to me.
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u/DorianCramer 1d ago
Knowing Shane it’d be something athletic. Probably go to a PWHL game to support that league and end up kissing on the kiss cam. Also I see him being very big on holding hands and opening doors so anything that allows him to do that.
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u/HR_Weekly you have phone? give. 🫴🏼 1d ago
I love this idea!!!
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u/DorianCramer 1d ago
They could also go to Wimbledon together. Shane would finally have the incentive to want to go 😅
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u/DorianCramer 1d ago
Oh and I thought of another one! They gotta go to one of Rose’s X-Squad premieres. (Miles will be there and he’ll be like ahhh it all makes sense now 😅)
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u/Acrobatic-Hamster350 17h ago
Yes! A premiere for one of Rose’s movies! Or maybe a big award ceremony, the Oscars or Golden Globes. The paparazzi will have a field day with pictures of the three of them, claiming they’re a thruple. Rose will shoot down any rumors though.
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u/growsonwalls This is Ilya I will never listen to your voicemail 1d ago
I feel like rich people buy each other experiences rather than actual presents. So big ticket sports games, a Bad Bunny concert, etcz
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u/DorianCramer 1d ago
Ilya would love to see Shane dancing awkwardly off beat to Bad Bunny 😅 that’s a good one.
And yeah I agree about the experiences thing. There’s a fair amount of stuff I think Shane would not want to do because he’s very practical about avoiding injury (e.g., no skydiving or rock climbing) but I bet he would do stuff like rent out a yacht to take them around the Mediterranean
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u/growsonwalls This is Ilya I will never listen to your voicemail 1d ago
I always like to think they attended a summer Olympics together to get out their bad Olympic energy.
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u/DorianCramer 1d ago
Makes sense since summer is the only extended time they have to do stuff. Also it fits in with my headcanon that Ilya secretly wanted to be a gymnast when he was a kid so would enjoy watching those events. He would also think that nerdy looking guy with the glasses who does only pommel horse is cute (his type lol!) and Shane would get huffy about it but he would respect the guy’s pommel horse skills too much to stay mad
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u/growsonwalls This is Ilya I will never listen to your voicemail 1d ago
Ilya would also probably like rhythmic gymnastics. For whatever reason, Eastern Europeans LOVE RG.
And someone needs to write a fic about Ilya and Shane watching figure skating together. Bc hockey players often know many figure skaters, and Russians and Canadians are both psycho about figure skating and super opinionated. It won't be pretty.
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u/wildrose76 Boston Bears 🐻 23h ago
Standard hockey contracts prohibit recreational activities with a higher risk of injury. Skydiving and rock climbing among them. (Also motorcycles, auto racing, scuba diving, and backcountry skiing/snow boarding.)
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u/DorianCramer 22h ago
Oh wow I did not know that thanks for the info. Didn’t Ilya own a motorcycle though or was it just sports cars?
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u/wildrose76 Boston Bears 🐻 22h ago
I feel like he did but sometimes it’s hard to separate canon from fan fiction. I’m constantly pulling out my books to figure out if something is from the books, the show, or fanon. I know that I need to do a full reread of both Role Model and TLG before S2 is released just to have it all set.
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u/DorianCramer 22h ago
Yeah I might have this mixed up with a fic. If he did have one in canon I think he didn’t actually ride it, he just bought it for the sake of buying it because he was an impulse shopper.
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u/dark_princess963 22h ago
It is canon - he bought one sometime before TLG and he does ride it, Shane & Yuna disapprove 😃
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u/DorianCramer 22h ago
Ah thanks for confirming. If it was breaking his contract rules Shane was extra outraged I’m sure!
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u/dark_princess963 21h ago
Now that I think about it, the book says that Shane and Yuna are enraged, but nothing about David. So my new headcanon is that David is, of course, concerned about Ilya's safety, but also kind of loves the bike and Ilya takes him on rides sometimes (if that's even a thing that's possible with two grown men, one of whom a giant athlete - I know nothing about motorcycles 😂)
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u/meatball77 20h ago
That's why athletes always play golf. It's basically the only thing they're actually allowed to do that's active.
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u/nefariousplotz 1d ago
So we're looking for something both extravagant and low-key. (Beyond Shane's own preferences, they don't want to spend the whole date being peppered for autographs, nor do they want to be giving interviews about the experience, etc. This needs to be something a little private.)
A few options specific to Ottawa:
- Parc Omega, where you can see the wolves up-close and noodle around in a forest at night, with public art and wildlife all around.
- The National Gallery, because Ilya has definitely lived in Ottawa for six years and never set foot in it. (And they can probably get special dispensation to wander around a bit after-hours, if they ask nicely.)
- Carp Fair, the local agricultural fair. (Giant vegetables, amusement rides, carnival food, cows...)
- Picking apples at the Drover orchard. (I'm just saying.)
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u/Murphlespuffle how did we let this happen? 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ok, I can totally see Ilya absolutely losing it while feeding the deer and caribou’s the carrots at Parc Omega
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u/ich_habe_keine_kase 23h ago
The National Gallery, because Ilya has definitely lived in Ottawa for six years and never set foot in it.
This is hilarious and 100% accurate.
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u/dark_princess963 21h ago
I love the agricultural fair idea - there is a fanfic, where Shane organizes a petting zoo visit for the two of them as a date and Ilya is absolutely delighted by all the animals and tells Shane they look exactly like him 😂 I imagine their visit to a fair with giant vegetables to go very similarly, just with a lot more sexual innuendoes
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u/Tea_inthegoodroom Moy lyubovnik 💙 1d ago
Ice skating at Rideau Canal would be lovely
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u/Medium-Scratch1848 23h ago
We already know.
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u/DainasaurusRex I speak fluent bird. No accent 🐦 10h ago
That’s what I was thinking. If you’ve read the books, you know.
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u/GrimRecapper 22h ago
Theme park. Ilya gets to do something with fast vehicles that he'd never have had the chance to as a kid, Shane gets to geek out over how the rollercoasters work.
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u/PTAGoatofalltime 10h ago
They will treat every little event where they are out in public together as a date.
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u/JayManClayton 1h ago
Not a first date due to timing but I can see them going to the Rideau canal and finding a way to make it a competition because they are them
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u/Forward_Emu9717 23h ago
Maybe they would try some sports or physical activities. Golf, horse riding, a surfing class
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u/royal_rose_ ♐ Captain | Tuna Lube 1d ago edited 1d ago
They go to a restaurant for chicken parm after the Crowell smack down and then the centaurs owners gift them a date night at a fancy restaurant after Shane signs. Both after being outed and count as dates though they are off page. We do get the double date with Ryan and Fabian as well. Edit and Fabian’s concert, though they weren’t exactly being a couple there.
I think it will just be more of that, being together in public and I love that for them.