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The Bodyguard
“Greetings, Mister Mitya. Major Valeriy, head of the Special Assignments Battalion, Armory Palace Royal Grenadier Guards, First Regiment. I am your new bodyguard starting today.”
“Yikes! You scared me!”
Mitya almost fell from his chair so sudden was Valeriy’s appearance next to his desk. He’d been immersed into his research for the whole night and barely realized all his colleagues had gone home several hours ago.
With the timid rays of sunshine now filtering through the windows of his lab, Mitya was half-asleep when his new companion had arrived. In full military regalia, his salute had been as sudden as heart-thumping.
“Apologies,” Valeriy said with a subtle bow, “I did not mean to disturb you. I will stand at a more respectable distance in the corner of this room.”
“Wait!” Mitya stood up suddenly, so fast his head felt lightweight for a second, yet not fast enough to grab Valeriy’s large arm, “How about some um…”
His eyes darted towards the break area, looking for a kettle or a bottle of whatever.
“… Lukewarm fire-water?” he said after spying a half-finished glass left on the counter.
“Sorry, I never drink on the job.”
“Oh come on, let’s break the ice now! Since you’re my bodyguard, you’ll want to know a bit about me, right? My habits, my hobbies, what I like to wear, my love life – I’m single by the way –, what I research – although I’ll have to refrain to talk about the top secret stuff! –, and then maybe you can tell me about you?”
“I refuse. My duties do no extend to personal interactions. Have a good day, Mister Mitya.”
The first contact between the Energy Research genius Mitya and his dedicated bodyguard Valeriy had been frosty to say the least. Sadly Valeriy never truly opened up to his mission target.
A whole year passed, and conversations between them rarely went beyond greetings and a couple of dry sentences. Mitya was distraught by the lack of response from the tall, handsome bodyguard that spent so much time near him. Valeriy was always neatly shaved and combed, his eyes piercing like the snow trains through blizzards, and he effortlessly walked around like a bear, overprotective yet never giving Mitya’s inquisitive and curious gazes any attention.
Like a wall, a fortress, solid, impregnable, heartless.
But the wall Mitya had come to admire in secret one day crumbled.
“Valeriy, you’re injured!”
“Shut up and make sure to hold tight. You’ll bite your tongue.”
This was supposed to be a day of inspection like any other. A surge of Shadow Realm portals had appeared high up in the mountains, and Mitya had been asked to investigate. They were at this point still looking for reliable sources of energy, and even though the Shadow Realm had been deemed officially out of consideration, in secret the Tsaritsa had allowed research to continue.
Project Stuzha asked for obscene amounts of energy, and any new opportunity could count.
But that day wasn’t one such opportunity.
Despite Valeriy’s best efforts to keep him from walking around too close to the hazardous portals, Mitya had escaped his vigilance just long enough.
Long enough to fall into a trap.
Chimeric bears were already tough opponents to keep at bay. But a hoard of them spurting out of every portals at once, dead, shadow versions of them, immune to elemental energy. That was new.
And deadly.
The group of scientists Mitya was leading and the small garrison of soldiers that accompanied them did not stand a chance.
Had he been by himself, Valeriy would have no doubt been able to escape with maybe a bruise or a scratch. But his duties came before his self-preservation, and he paid the price dearly.
As the two survivors fled, plowing through the heavy snow, Valeriy was huffing, his breath like a train’s smoke, his healthy arm tightly wrapped around Mitya.
The young man was crying, his hands shaking, his eyes escaping to not look at the grave injury Valeriy had sustained.
Because of him.
“I’m sorry…” he sobbed into Valeriy’s neck after the two of them found shelter under a glacier’s icy cave. “Your arm…”
“It’s just a scratch,” Valeriy replied. But his pale face and the winces of his mouth betrayed the gravity of his injury.
It took a while for Mitya to regain a modicum of lucidity.
They were stranded. His Valeriy was gravely injured.
He had to act lest his bodyguard would end up dying.
“I’ll apply a tourniquet over your elbow. My tie will have to do. Hold on, it’s going to hurt real bad.”
“I’m used to it, don’t worr– AGH!” Valeriy screamed while Mitya tightened the cloth, but thankfully his bleeding stopped quickly.
“Sorry Valeriy…” Mitya said again with a weak voice.
As per protocol, rescue arrived after an hour of Valeriy not reporting in from the site of the investigation. The army fought harshly to crush the bear chimeras from the Shadow Realm, and it didn’t take long for them to track the surviving duo.
Losing an entire arm made for a great bloody marker on the white snow, after all.
The Bear’s Arm
Mitya thought Valeriy might not make it. All because he had been so carefree, Valeriy was about to die.
The day Valeriy came back to, Mitya was in his arms – well, his remaining arm – the moment he opened his eyes.
It was only afterwards that the embarrassment of hugging the tall, muscular, and quite scruffy man in the middle of a hospital room had dawned on him. Mitya had tried to play it off as another of his quirky behavioral traits, but deep down he could not escape the truth of his feelings.
And, admittedly, Valeriy’s bare, fluffy torso felt very good to the touch.
But as soon as Mitya saw the still bloody, bandaged lump from his bodyguard’s left shoulder, he quivered in shame.
Mitya came to visit Valeriy every day, bringing a fruit basket, a portable grammophone, books, flowers, snacks. Everything he could think of would please the injured man that was now occupying his thoughts and regrets.
Valeriy didn’t really seem too interested in all the stuff he brought. And yet, he never pushed Mitya away, even when he went for another hug.
Maybe he was still unsure how to behave in his current state. Injured, so in principle off duty, yet his mission target was still coming to see him.
Somehow, slowly, naturally, his icy heart began to melt. Just a little bit.
“I’m sorry for my unkempt appearance, Mister Mitya.”
“Mitya. I told you, you are not on duty right now, yes?”
“… Fine. Mitya.”
“Thanks Valeriy! But don’t worry, I think that short beard suits you very well!”
Valeriy shrugged. Once again Mitya was here, by his side, despite the mountain of work he no doubt had to do.
“Say Mist– Mitya, where’s your bodyguard?”
Mitya swallowed the fruit bite he just put in his mouth, “Hmph? Viktor? Don’t worry, he’s not as good at you at finding where I’ve come to, uh, work.”
“Work? Here? In this busy hospital ward?” Valeriy raised an eyebrow.
“Yep! Look!” Mitya proudly took out his notebook and pen. Suddenly his face lit up, and he put the pen to the paper, “Now that I think about it, this formula should work…”
Without missing a beat the young scientist delved into his work, leaving Valeriy to chuckle at the funny way his attention so easily switched back and forth. Another enticing trait of his.
“Greetings, Mister Mitya. I am back to full health, so once again I will be your bodyguard, starting today.”
“Valeriy!”
Mitya almost fell from his chair so sudden was Valeriy’s appearance next to his desk. But he quickly stood up and dove into his bodyguard’s arms, who returned the hug awkwardly.
“Mister Mitya, I’m on duty.”
“Oh, um, sorry!”
Mitya fumbled back, his face slight tinted red.
“By the way, please show me your arm!” Mitya changed the subject.
Valeriy nodded and reached out to him with his new mechanical arm. He moved it effortlessly, and the subtile whirring of its mechanism betrayed its artificial nature, if its metallic appearance left any doubt.
Mitya nodded frantically, “Impressive, we do have talented engineers among the Fatui!”
Valeriy leaned over and whispered, “I know you were the lead technician on my arm. So, thank you, Mitya.”
A shiver ran down Mitya’s spine, so close Valeriy was to his ear.
It took a few seconds for him to get back on his feet.
“Um, but of course! It was my responsibility after all!” Mitya’s voice trailed down, and his face took a pained expression.
Valeriy coughed and stood back up straight, “I shall resume my duties by your side, Mitya. Do not worry, I won’t let you get in any more danger.”
The two of them fell silent for a moment.
Their eyes locked, an unspoken message exchanged.
Some kind of new trust appeared between them.
A connection.
Something more.
The Bear’s Hug
Mitya’s work was progressing by leaps and bounds. Project Stuzha was bleeding Snezhnaya of her resources, but the results were accumulating at an impressive pace.
Things were looking up for him, and he showed great enthusiasm at work. Always carefree, yet matured somehow, calmer even. His colleagues began to look at him with greater respect. Some of them even began to have romantic interest for him.
But he was not open to them at all.
Despite his best facade, Mitya was still badly shaken by what had happened to his bodyguard.
To his Valeriy. Strong, reliable, handsome Valeriy.
Yet because of him he lost his arm, and almost his life.
The terror of that single day kept him awake at night.
One day his quiet sobs attracted some unwarranted attention.
Knock, knock
Someone at the door, at this time, in the middle of the night?
Ah, of course.
“What is it, Valeriy?”
“Can I come in? I need to check the safety of your lodging.”
Mitya scoffed, “Really? Now?”
“That’s right.”
It was incomprehensible. They were in the middle of a Fatui building, in the heart of Snezhnograd. What danger could there be?
Nevertheless, Mitya’s heart yearned to see Valeriy. He was tired from his sleepless activity after all.
“Come on in.”
Mitya came back to his bed, still in his pajamas. Valeriy on the other hand was still wearing his uniform, perfectly combed, with a short beard.
“… Wait, since when do you have a beard on duty?” Mitya asked, suddenly confused.
“I am sorry, I have been out of commission for a while. I haven’t fully gotten back to my routine,” Valeriy lied.
If awkwardness was a person, they would have been shaking in cringiness in the middle of the room. Neither of the two men dared make a move.
After a while though Mitya’s exhaustion got the better of him and he fell back down onto his bed, yawning and stretching.
“Sorry I’m too tired for this. Good night, Valeriy.”
“Good night.”
Yet sleep would not come to him. Not with the tall, handsome bear of a man standing right next to his bed, his eyes no doubt stuck on him. He could hear Valeriy’s constant, comforting breath close to him.
Mitya shifted around uncomfortably under his cover, trying to check, and hide, in case his body had any awkward reaction to the strangely intimate situation.
It did. And the feedback loop made his face redder and his nether region tenser still.
Not now! he urged his body, who replied with another blush on his cheeks and more blood pressure in strategical places.
“Are you alright, Mitya?”
Oh Cryo Archon!
Valeriy was leaning over his bed, worry written all over his beautiful, scruffy face.
How could Mitya be alright in this situation?
His brain battled valiantly. But the mind of a genius used to wrestle complex scientific problems was ill equipped to impede the might of romantic and sexual attraction.
“...Can you give me a hug?” Mitya murmured, almost inaudibly. He felt surprised by his own temerity given his current state, and almost hoped Valeriy hadn’t heard his request.
“A hug,” Valeriy repeated.
Mitya held his breath, his back turned towards Valeriy. He dared not look in the eyes the man that made him feel so strange.
Silence fell into the room, like pure snowflakes on the tundra.
And then a coat fell on the floor, then a pair of gloves, then a pair of boots.
A rustling of clothes, a couple of hitched breaths.
A mechanical clack, a clatter of metal on the ground.
A weight on the bed.
A warmth on his back.
“I am here,” Valeriy whispered.
Mitya gasped, and wriggled, and sighed, when Valeriy settled down behind him, and pulled him into the comfort of his arm as they laid on the bed together.
Neither man said a thing, but their sighs and hurried breaths said it all.
Mitya could feel against his back the warm, rough, safe nest of his bodyguard’s body. His light musk, from the sweat of standing guard for so long, for him. Valeriy’s arm was now wrapped around his belly, his fingers gently resting on Mitya’s side.
He could feel the air of Valeriy’s breath coming from his mouth on his neck, and Valeriy’s beard tickling his shoulder.
It was incredibly awkward, yet deliciously intimate.
With but simple words, “here,” they shifted slightly, “no, there,” to put a hand on warm skin, “your hand,” on a leg, “please,” slowly budging and moving to a more comfortable and pleasant embrace.
Mitya’s eyelids began to feel heavy. Every time he almost thought back to that horrible day, the next second Valeriy’s arm would tighten around him, possessively maybe, like a shield, a true bodyguard.
As if to say, do not worry. I am here to protect you.
As time passed by, Mitya’s breathing slowed down into a peaceful, regular rhythm.
Valeriy felt a surge of relief then. Because he too did not know what to make of the burning sensation on his cheeks or the tight tension in his breeches.
This was all very new to him after all. But above all else, he was glad his Mitya had finally begun to rest. The rest they would surely be able to work out later. Together.