Chapter 221: Break Me Down, Build Us Off

[FROLO]

Katya parked a little further from his gates, careful not to spook Yaroslav into running. He knew the beta was not in the right state of mind, and frankly, he could have been too if he hadn’t chosen to forget about everything.

But a man like Yaroslav wouldn’t just forget such things.

And Katya knew it, because he knew the man he had fallen in love with once upon a time. The man who always took care of him through his sorrows. The man who never left him, no matter what happened.

He knew the man who loved him.

Sure, Yaroslav had cheated, and Katya still despised him for that, but it didn’t make him forget the man who still showed up for him.

Maybe that was why he stepped out of his car and walked to the familiar SUV parked a few meters from his gate. Whatever it was he had come for had to be that important.

And Katya...

He had come to clear things up and tell Yaro to go home.

But the fog on the windows got his attention. The way the car that held so many memories for them now had a different feel than it had before.

Katya walked closer.

Yaroslav was in the passenger seat, sleeping.

He looked so tired, so devastated. He had dried tears down his cheeks, his eyes were swollen, and he had cold medicine in the passenger seat. There was no food in there, just a man who looked like he was experiencing all the hells.

Katya wondered why Yaroslav didn’t call him if he wanted to talk.

Granted, there was a really high chance that Katya could have ignored the call after what Yaroslav had put him through in the last two years with Milan, but to be here like this didn’t help.

So, he knocked on the window.

Once.

Twice.

Thrice. There was no response.

He tried to open the passenger door. It was something that had been a habit for him, and he knew he was changing this a little too much. Especially with the fingerprint sensor on it. But he had to try.

When he pulled...

The door beeped open.

Katya contemplated getting in there. It was not something he was assured of because, honestly, Yaroslav had always been insistent on Katya being his and whatnot. If he got in there and the man drove away, it would be a whole thing altogether.

But Katya had to try.

This man may have been a cheating bastard, but on his face was grief.

Katya knew that kind of grief.

So, he stepped to the side and called the guard.

"Tell Nina to bring us food. Two servings," Katya said before he sighed and got into the car with Yaroslav.

Still, the beta didn’t wake up.

Only when Katya nudged his shoulder did he wake up, gun in his hand and pointed toward the omega.

"Great, I’ve reached the peak of hallucination," Yaroslav grumbled before he put his gun on his lap and shifted his face to the window, and went back to sleeping.

For the first time in so long, Katya felt his heart break for Yaroslav. He didn’t love the man anymore, but it didn’t mean they didn’t have a history of caring for each other.

"Yaro..." Katya tried, but Yaroslav didn’t turn to him.

So, he tried the one thing that he knew would never work. But desperate times did need desperate measures, no?

"Y... I’m cold, Yaro... Everything hurts," Katya let out in the weakest of voices possible. He sounded like he was a few blinks away from his tears falling freely.

And immediately, Yaroslav turned.

He pulled his sweater off of him, and began putting it on Katya.

"I’ll make them pay, I promise... Just... don’t cry anymore. I’m really sorry, honey," Yaroslav said before he snapped out of his trance, his hands freezing midair.

He was not dreaming.

"Hon— Katya?" the beta breathed like this was the most unexpected of things.

"You... Here? Is... Is this real?" Yaroslav asked hoarsely. His voice was rough from not being used for a while.

Then he pulled his hands back, and the sweater half-fitted onto Katya’s right arm.

"What are you doing here?" Yaroslav asked as he opened the windows, fixing himself up like he was slowly realizing that this wasn’t a dream.

It was too real.

Too awkward for it to be false.

Gently, Katya got the sweater off of him and put it to the side.

"I should be asking you the same," Katya said quietly as he looked at the man he’d been married to for seven years. He looked shabby and unshaven. He looked like a disaster that had fallen one too many times.

"My car broke down... I was going to call the mechanic, and fell asleep," the beta lied, and Katya stared at him like this was new to him, too.

He had never seen Yaroslav this weak, save for the days when the beta walked with him from the appointments after they were told that nothing was going to work, that they needed to give up hope, and Yaroslav never gave up on him.

"Three days, Yaro. You’ve been here for three days," Katya said, his voice soft.

He wasn’t judging the man.

He was just trying to understand.

"I wasn’t stalking you, I swear," the beta defended.

"Why didn’t you call me or anyone?" Katya asked, and Yaroslav looked at him defeatedly.

How was he supposed to call the man whose heart he had shattered? How was he supposed to even start that conversation?

"I lost my phone. You were working. I couldn’t call. I’m not your husb— it didn’t feel appropriate. But I didn’t stalk you. My car just stopped," Yaroslav said.

Katya pulled Yaroslav’s phone from a coffee cup that still had full coffee in it. It was sitting on the dashboard.

"Oh, so that’s where it was," the beta chuckled awkwardly.

"You’re not taking this well, aren’t you?" Katya asked softly, and Yaroslav, for all his defenses, just shook his head. He didn’t trust himself to say a word without showing how enraged he was at the entire situation.

"It wasn’t your fault, you know that, right?" Katya added quietly.

Yaroslav blinked.

"I should have known better. I should have protected you better. I just... if I wasn’t so determined to get Milan pregnant and bring a baby home for you, maybe I would’ve seen the signs," Yaroslav said frustratedly as he ran a hand through his hair.

Katya still stared at the sudden confession.

"What did you just say?" Katya asked, the disbelief obvious in his tone. Of all the things he would have come up with for Yaroslav’s irrationality or even how the situation had ended like this, what he had heard was not it. It just wasn’t.

"I... I should have done more homework... Should have paid better attention. But I just couldn’t see you cry yourself to sleep again. I thought the idea was genius at the time," Yaroslav said, laughing at his stupidity as he told Katya of what he had done and why he had cheated.

"You really were going to kill her?" Katya asked in defeat, like he didn’t know what to say.