Title: Stargazing
Fandom: Heated Rivalry (TV)
Length: 200 words
Summary: Shane will always be Ilya's brightest star


Ilya's gazed at a million stars from a million different hotel balconies, or so it feels at times. If he was alone, he used to imagine it as a map. The brighter stars were the constants in his life, or at least, the closest he had, scattered around the world.

Svetlana was one of them, and might be his only real friend, but she wasn't his only regular lover. The dimmer ones he pictured as the beautiful people who he would please for a night, getting the contact and release he needed in return, getting him out of his own head.

He was grateful for them.

He still has fond memories from those days, but he doesn't feel the same when he looks at the stars now. Especially not here at the cottage. Not here with Shane.

"You're not even looking at them, are you?" Shane murmurs next to him.

Ilya watches Shane's lips curve into a small smile, because Shane knows what Ilya is looking at, even if he doesn't completely believe yet that he will always, always be the brightest star for Ilya.

"I'm looking at the only one that matters," Ilya says, and reaches for Shane's hand.