A Thousand Words

Ilya barely remembered his mother’s face anymore. There were no photographs of her left, no recordings, nothing tangible he could hold onto. And he had watched his father - cruel though he’d been - lose himself slowly, bit by bit, until eventually there was almost nothing left. Ilya understood, intimately, what it meant to lose memories.

But here they were.

Proof.

Years of love preserved carefully in secret until they were finally allowed to keep it.

Or: Shane surprises Ilya the morning after their wedding with an album full of pictures that Ilya had thought had been deleted when they were hiding their relationship. And he feels emotions about it.