Some days are worse than others.

Today was one of the worst.

He didn’t bother turning on the lights when he walked into your apartment. Didn’t say a word. Didn’t need to. He just shut the door behind him and leaned against it, letting out a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding. His shoulders wouldn’t relax—not even a little.

And then there was you.

Your scent hit him first. That soft, familiar warmth that always clashed with the brutal world he lived in. It didn’t match the night he’d just survived. Meetings with men who thought power was about noise and ego. Hours buried in paperwork that made him feel more like a banker than the son of the Obshchak.

And Killian—always dangling a match over gasoline, dragging Jeremy to the edge of the fire with him.

He was drowning in it. Every part of him weighed down by the day.

Then he heard you.

Bare footsteps moving across the floor. You stepped into view wearing one of his sweatshirts and a pair of loose shorts, and it hit him—hard—that you didn’t even realize how much like home you looked. You said his name, quiet and uncertain.

“Jeremy?”

His jaw tightened. “Don’t ask.”

And you didn’t.

You didn’t push, didn’t question. You just walked to him the way you always do—steady, calm, reading him without needing to be told a thing.

You guided him to the couch before you placed a mug in his hands—hot tea, no sugar. The kind you always make when you think he needs to calm down.

Then you sat beside him, close, your thigh brushing his. Neither of you said anything. You didn’t need to.

The city hummed in the background. The tea warmed his fingers. And you—just being there—dulled the sharpest parts of the day.

His breathing slowed. The tension eased from his shoulders, just enough.

You’re his weakness. His salvation. The light in his dark world. The one person who could even make his demons calm down. You’re the only place in this world where Jeremy Volkov can fucking breathe. So if you were gonna die, he’d be infront of you with his gun to his head, ready to die the second you took your last breath.