Chapter Text
The first time Mitya died, Valeriy thought he had failed as the scientist’s bodyguard.
It had been a pretty ordinary afternoon.
Mitya had been sitting at his desk, his head laying on his arms, taking a ‘what he said would be only 5 minutes’ nap. But about half an hour has passed since then, and Valeriy felt the need to wake him up, or he would be behind in his research again.
“Mitya.” Valeriy spoke once, gently tapping Mitya on the shoulder. “You need to wake up, it’s been half an hour.”
Mitya didn’t respond, which Valeriy found strange, since normally the energetic scientist will spring up at even the quietest sounds, let alone Valeriy directly speaking beside him.
He tapped him again, Mitya’s scarf also rose and patted Mitya’s fluffy white hair, but of course, no response this time also.
So he grabbed onto both of Mitya’s shoulders from behind and shook him, this time not as gentle. Mitya still didn’t wake up.
Valeriy sighed. “Stop pretending, Mitya. I know you just want to slack off.”
No response. Valeriy can feel the panic rise within him, his breathing getting more erratic as seconds passed and still no response from the scientist in front of him.
“If you don’t wake up right now, I’m going to have to stop you from going to Miss Odette’s performance this Friday night.” Valeriy threatened, louder this time, hoping that somehow Mitya will hear this and jump up to argue with the tall bodyguard.
He bent down and ghost his finger over the skin under Mitya’s nostrils, and surprisingly, he couldn’t feel a thing coming out of them.
“Mitya?” Valeriy called out again, his voice beginning to shake a little.
“You’re not faking death, aren’t you?” He tried to let out a small laugh, trying to calm himself down, but the lack of response from the pale haired man only made his worry grow bigger. “Mitya!” Valeriy shook him again.
Finally, Mitya stirred.
He slowly opened his eyes, blinking as his eyes grew accustomed to the bright lights of his office. Then he sat up and looked around, almost jumping out of his seat as he found a concerned Valeriy staring down at him.
“Ah! Why are you so close?” He exclaimed, pushing Valeriy up by the chest. “You scared me, Sarge.”
Valeriy let out a breath of relief at the sight of the scientist returning to his normal self.
“Do you feel anything weird or out of place?” Valeriy asked, his eyes narrowing while scanning the scientist from head to toe.
“Hm? Why should I?” Mitya tilted his head at Valeriy.
“You stopped breathing. I couldn’t wake you.” Valeriy glared down at him. “I really thought I had failed at my job back then.”
Mitya’s smile faltered.
“Oh…”
For the first time since waking, he looked genuinely concerned. Then the expression vanished. “Is that so? But I’m fine now.”
“Has it ever happened before?”
“Hm, it’s the first time.” Mitya said thoughtfully, “I’ll definitely look more into it.”
But Valeriy felt like Mitya’s answer still wasn't enough. “You need to get to the bottom of this. We can’t have you dying randomly at random times.”
“Are you perhaps worried about me, Sarge?” Mitya shot a smirk at the bodyguard that was almost about to burst into fury standing above him. Mitya can see one of Valeriy’s eye twitching at his comment. He shrank into his seat as he can physically feel the fire coming out of the taller man’s eyes. His scarf also slapped him across the face, leaving Mitya covering the left side of his face with one hand.
“Quit that nonsense. I just need to know what happened to you, so that it won’t cause any inconvenience, since you are already an inconvenience even if you are alive.” Valeriy sighed and glanced at the doorway. “Go back to work, I’ll stand guard back at the door.”
Mitya paid no attention to the retracting footsteps of the other man as he returned his focus onto the pen and paper in front of him.
“Hey Sarge?” Mitya called out to his bodyguard standing by the door.
Valeriy looked up at Mitya’s direction, his gaze following the scientist’s movement. “What?”
“What was I writing? You know, before I was asleep?” Mitya asked him, his purple eyes clouded with confusion.
“Your report.” Valeriy glanced at the paper.
“Yes, I gathered that.” Mitya frowned down at the half written sentence on the start of the page. “I mean, what was I writing about?”
“You don’t remember?” Valeriy lifted an eyebrow. Mitya never forgets anything about his research.
“No.” Mitya leaned back in his chair, apparently more amused than concerned about the problem. “Must’ve been a side effect of my sudden death and resurrection back there.”
Valeriy said nothing.
Mitya tapped the end of his pen against the desk, giving Valeriy a reassuring smile. “Don’t look so worried, Sarge. It’s probably nothing.”
Valeriy was still glaring at the pale-haired scientist from across the room.
“Oh c’mon, I’ll be fine.” Mitya smirked at him. “Besides, you should know better than to question the memory of a genius.”
Valeriy sighed. “Don’t look so smug, you haven’t even got to the bottom of this.”
Mitya shrugged. “Well, I appear to be fine, you can see it with your own eyes.” He stood up and spun around. “See? Nothing is broken.”
Valeriy glanced at the clock ticking away on one side of the wall and sighed. “Mitya, it’s almost dinner time. You haven’t done anything this afternoon.”
“Oh? Time flies by fast, huh?” Mitya’s eyes shone at the mention of dinner. “Give me five more minutes, I’ll look through my previous reports and see if I can find anything useful.”
“Fine, five minutes, and we’re going. I can’t let you skip meals again.” Valeriy said as he watched Mitya flip through his notebook furiously in an attempt to find clues from his other experiments, his scarf helping him organize the papers that had fallen out into a neat pile on the table.
“Even if I skip meals I’ll be fi-.” Mitya replied, and instantly, the blue scarf wrapped it’s palm around Mitya’s mouth, stopping the rest of the words that were about to come out of his mouth.
“Tch, even your scarf agree with me.” Valeriy snorted. Mitya ripped the scarf off his face and threw it behind him, muttering something to it. The scarf nodded and put a book back to Mitya’s bookshelf.
“I think I’m done for today, Sarge.” Mitya said as he stepped towards Valeriy. “Where do you want to eat tonight?”
“Wherever you want, Mitya.” Valeriy answered, his face expressionless.
“I knew I shouldn’t have asked you.” Mitya grumbled. “Okay, then let’s go for a bowl of borscht!” He said as he clapped his hands. “How does that sound?”
“Are you sure you’re not going to run away again this time?” Valeriy stared at Mitya skeptically.
“Nope! Never done that since we started dating, have I?” Mitya said cheerfully.
“Actually-” Valeriy started to say, but Mitya already dashed out the door behind him.
“I’ll see you at the restaurant!” He shouted towards Valeriy, his scarf waving behind him.
“You’re not getting away with it this time, Mr Energy Scientist.” He muttered under his breath, and then he proceeded to run after Mitya.