Work Text:
A loon. There was a loon on the box.
Not a real one of course, it was a painted one. A beautiful, watercolor loon on a pale green plastic box.
Ilya was smiling, remembering the damn stupid Canadian wolf bird that scared him so much, back in the cottage.
He had found the package a few minutes ago, placed in front of his seat at the dinner table. A picture perfect, Hollywoodesque present, with wrapping paper neatly folded and a perfectly tied ribbon. It was a present from Shane, of course. Such an exemplarily wrapped gift could only come from his boring fiance.
Fiance. He should be used to it but the words always made it want to giggle. Shane was his fiance ! And his fiance was trying to talk to him. Ilya forced himself to focus.
“ Do you like it ?” said Shane, nervously.
“ This is a box. It is from you so yes, I like the box, sweetheart. But, a box ? Why ? Is it weird canadian tradition again ? Is it box gifting day today ? Yuna did not tell me this at lunch, she would not have forgot.” Ilya answer to the kinda dumb question. His boyfriend was really strange but Ilya loved it. He resisted the urge to do a little happy dance. His boring boyfriend gave him a gift !
“ What ? No, Ilya it's not… no. I mean, yes, it’s a box, but it’s not just a box. It's a medication box. For your pills. I know you take yours diligently but I also know that you don’t like to look at pill bottles because of….. because of your mom so I thought this might be better. “
Ilya didn’t wanted to dance anymore. He wanted to cry so badly but also to kiss Shane so badly and maybe to kiss him will crying too. And also, he should look up what diligently means later.
“... I ordered it from a local artist but the box is medication-safe, I made sure of it so it's totally fine to store pills in it and…” Shane was rumbling, not realising that Ilya still hadn’t said a word.
Of course it was safe. Only his beautiful, adorable, artistic fiance would worry about a box being fucking safe. Wait, not artistic. Acoustic ? He was too emotional to remember the correct word. Damn english. Well, only his folding-his-clothes-before-having-sex darling could have thought of such a thing as a safe box.
A box. A damn box was making him cry, he realised when his vision started to blur. A beautiful, perfect box from his beautiful, perfect fiance. A loon. He would never tell him but he understood what Shane tried to do. Any pictures of Loon will forever be associated for him with the cottage, with laughter, with love and his bird fluent lover. Even if he wasn’t allowed to say lover. And now, every time he would have to take one of these pills he hated so much, because they were a proof of his sickness, and loved so much, because they gave him back the happiness he liked to feel, and feared so much, because they’re were what killed his mother, he wouldn't have to think about this terrible day.
He liked to remember his mother, of course. But he only wanted to think of happy memories. Of smiles. Of playing hockey will she was cheering on him. Of being a happy child, unaware of the misery that was his family. He wished he could erase that day in the bathroom from his memories, forever. Wipe it clean and only keep the good.
He suddenly realised that the room was dead silent. Except for the sound of his tears, crashing softly on the dinner table. Tinny tempests trapped in tinny bubbles.
“I love it. I love you.” He managed to say before his voice crumbled.
He suddenly felt warm on his body. Shane was hugging him, so tightly that he almost couldn’t breath.
“I love you so much, Ilya. Never forget it. I love you more than the entire world. I love you more than hockey.” said Shane, managing to somehow hug him even tighter than before.
“I don’t understand what you say. Why you speaking human ? Are you not supposed to be fluent ? “
Ilya was suddenly feeling like teasing him.
“What ?”
Ilya enjoyed the confusion on Shane's face and his scrunched nose. Really, why was his fiance still so fun to tease ? After more than 10 years, one should be tired of it but Ilya had a feeling he might never stop finding it funny. And adorable. And sexy.
“Bird. Are you not fluent in birds ?”
Shane blink silently for a few seconds and then erupted in laughter. Ilya kept on smiling. Alerted by the noise, Anya came to see them, wiggling her tail.
In this kitchen, surrounded by his fiance and his darling daughter, in the house they shared, with matching rings on their neck and assigned seating spot at the dinner table, Ilya was looking at the box. The loon box. The pills box. The loon pill box. His smile was only getting bigger.
Yes, he thought. It is going to be fine.
“But seriously, said Shane, box gifting day ?”
And Ilya started laughing too, holding the hand of his home.