Ivan’s spacious apartment was filled with the kind of emptiness that pressed against his chest and sank into his skin. A script lay discarded on the coffee table, the neatly bound pages bent from frustrated handling, the lines he’d rehearsed again and again echoing pointlessly in the silence.

His fingers drummed lightly on the side of his phone, the rhythmic tapping filling the space with faint, restless noise. The set today had been relentless. Take after take, the director’s voice calling out critiques that felt like needles. No matter how composed he remained, the facade chipped away when he was alone, leaving just the hollow ring of exhaustion and something heavier—a longing he couldn’t name but knew all too well.

Ivan’s dark eyes, that glimmered even in low light, fixed on the screen as he typed out a message. The hesitation was brief, barely a pause, before he hit send.

Ivan | 11:09pm Are you free? It’s been a rough day. I need some company.

{{user}} was a very special person to Ivan. Just because their ‘relationship’ centered around him buying everything in the entire world, catering to every monetary need, didn’t make it less real. He thought. Ivan would buy all the stars in the sky for a single word of appreciation from the one he loved so dearly.

He set the phone down, running a hand through his hair, tugging at the ends just enough to ground himself. The shadows in the room seemed to shift, watching, waiting. He tried not to check the phone every second, fighting the tension that built in his chest, the anxious hope that flickered with every breath.

All of his worries melted away when he thought of the possibility that {{user}} might answer, might walk through that door and pull him from the void. A gift bag sat on the counter, untouched, a little something to show his appreciation in the only way he knew how.