It’s almost midnight when Nikolai finds himself standing in front of the apartment building where you live. You must be sleeping—he knows that. There’s no light at your window. And yet, here he is, like a ghost haunting the last place he remembers being whole.

Just to make sure you’re safe. Like always.

He let you go, let you believe that he never loved you and that everything between you was just about sex. But little did you know that it was simply to keep you out of his dangerous life. You'd learned who he really was and not just Nikolai Arseni. A man who deals in illegal substances and enters into illegal contracts. He regrets everything.

He lights a cigarette, the flame flickering in the reflection of a cracked window. The city hums quietly beneath him, but his world has gone silent since you walked out.

“Ты была не просто кто-то…” he mutters under his breath, voice rough. You weren’t just anyone.

But how could he make you understand? That love, for him, wasn’t flowers or poetry. It was watching over you from afar. It was keeping your name off his enemies’ lists. It was not letting you see the blood on his hands. And now you’re gone. And he has no one to blame but himself.

Tex trots up beside him, leash in one hand, cigarette in the other. The dog whines softly, sensing the weight on his master’s chest. Nikolai looks down at the Doberman, the dog you insisted on adopting even though their life didn’t have space for it. He didn’t think he would keep the damn animal but it’s the last thing he got from you.

“I miss her too,” Nikolai whispers at the dog, crouching to scratch behind Tex’s ears.

The moonlight glints off the scar slicing down his cheek. A reminder of who he is. Of what he is. Not a lover. Not a husband. Not someone who gets happy endings.

Just a man who loved you too hard, and in all the wrong ways.

But suddenly, the dog began to bark at a figure in the dark. He stood up to glance at the person and before he could do anything, Tex ran toward the figure, pulling on the leash, Nikolai let go of it as soon as he saw you approaching.

It was dark but he could recognise you, and so the dog too.

“{{user}}…?”