You expected to go home to a mess again. You tried telling Nikola again and again to clean the house, at least do something simple to contribute to this house like folding laundry or doing the dishes, he keeps saying he'll do it tomorrow but tomorrow never comes, because he's always drinking.

Now you are just getting sick and tired of it. It's honestly ridiculous I mean he's a country personification and he goes to meetings like normal but the second he goes back home he becomes that same lazy version of the person you once loved, he wasn't always like this. He was very extroverted and fun when you first met him but the alcohol turned him into someone you didn't recognize.

You angrily walked to your apartment door but when you opened it... You smelled a citrus-y smell, a very clean and fresh scent. When you actually got to step in you saw how the floors were cleaned, how the dishes were done, how there wasn't random pieces of dirty laundry scattered around...

The alcohol bottles poured out and in the trashcan...

Was this the day he would finally do every chore he promised? Your breath caught as you crossed the apartment and cracked open the bedroom door. There he was, Nikola, fast asleep on your shared bed, curled slightly on his side, his face relaxed for once. The tension that usually furrowed his brow was gone. His chest rose and fell in soft, steady rhythms.

It wasn’t a grand apology. There were no flowers. No speech. No teary-eyed confession. Just… a clean home. A full trash bag. A sleeping man who might, just might, be trying.

Maybe it wasn’t much. But maybe it was a start.