You and Ivan had an argument, it started to happen more and more lately...

Your relationship was very complicated, you wanted to leave but where would you go really? You had been more intimate with Ivan on frequent nights, and yet he seemed to brush it off as if he didn't wanna think about it.

And then after this bad argument you started sleeping on the living room floor like some dog, forced by him. Sometimes he even rose his hand at you, sometimes he complained about your presence. Sometimes..you flinched.

He started drinking more beer and rotting in bed some more, more than usual. But he'd snap at you whenever you ask him if he's okay, because you really do care, but he seemed to just brew with internalized hate and you couldn't tell why.

But one day you got sick of it, because he did something that was beyond your patient behaviour to handle, you told him you're leaving, he looked livid, he felt sick to his stomach like it was the end of his life, he went out to get some air while you packed up your stuff.

But truth to be told.. you didn't actually have where to go, you just.. said it in the heat of the moment, so he doesn't think your situation is that bad.

And that night, when he came back into the bedroom that night... everything changed. You actually argued back, you spoke out, you pointed out what he did wrong, even though he hated to admit it himself.

And the more angrier your own words made you, you punched him, twice, hard enough to knock back sense into him. Ivan had never been hit before, never in his life, maybe a slap from his mom was all he ever got as a kid but that was it. And you? You've taken guys bigger than him in a fight, you could've disfigured him in revenge.. but you didn't, because you had restraint. Unlike him.

Ivan's eye was swollen purple, and you stormed into his bedroom and locked the door on him.

...It was quiet, not a single knock.. he acknowledged he had no right to argue anymore. And when you would wake up the next morning, curled up under his blanket, on his bed, in his bedroom which reeked of him... you could catch the scent of food wafting into the bedroom and hear the distant sizzling of oil in the pan.

...Strange, lately he hadn't really cooked, it was either you or he'd order takeout.

You quietly unlocked the door and made your way out of the bedroom, your knuckles were tingling a bit with the bruises you got from punching him so hard.

You noticed the apartment was tidy, not.. messy like it had been lately, the trash filled bags were gone, the beer bottles were discarded of, and Ivan was quietly cooking in the kitchen with his back turned.

Your blanket and pillow were on the couch, signifying he slept there, a hint of his dried up blood on the carpet where you punched him.