Chapter 434: Grasping At Shattered Glass Uncomfortably Wrapped

[FROLO]

The second hour away from Katya was hard.

But Sergei was distracted by the man he had brought with him for Aleksandr’s Bratva. Alek had brought the family, and Sergei had made sure he was not going to have to deal with any troubles again.

If anything, he made sure Rahim had sorted that man and his family out well.

And with them gone, Sergei Moskowsky was left a man without his omega.

A man walking around the city with his pelmeni hotpot at hand under the city sky.

He’d walked these roads before with Katya, when Katya insisted they live like normal people.

His Solnyshka would make them walk to the river on the other side of the city, saying that the city was beautiful and they didn’t always have to experience the city by just driving around.

Sergei had loved it the first time.

The way it was so mundane and had nothing to worry about.

It was the kind of life that Sergei had never envisioned, yet that seemed worthy of fighting for. The way people were normal in Frolo. How life went on like nothing was happening around them.

Sergei loved that.

He got to see the other side of Frolo through Katya’s eyes.

The side that didn’t have to stay paranoid and wonder whether someone was watching. The side that complained about Frolo traffic without having to get traffic cleared because he was Sergei Moskowsky.

Katya even introduced Sergei to street food, the kind of shit the big bad Devil of Frolo had strangely loved.

Or maybe it was because Katya enjoyed the street food so much that Sergei wanted to buy and invest in all street vendors.

But he also had to remind himself a few hundred times that normal didn’t involve buying up vendors and investing in them.

That normal just meant that under the city sky they were just Sergei and Katya. Two people who didn’t have to worry about anything.

Two people who could join discussions and complain about the way life was in Frolo.

Sergei remembered how they once walked into a bar.

He’d been so genuinely terrified the people there would recognize him.

"They won’t care that you are here right now. Everyone has their own problems, and as long as you don’t start a fight, you won’t have a problem," Katya told Sergei when they got to the entrance.

The alpha was still skeptical, but then they walked in, and the butcher pretended like he didn’t even know who Sergei and Katya were.

It was easily the first time that Sergei had felt so free other than the times he had spent with Vitya.

It was also Sergei’s first time in thirty years sitting down to watch three consecutive football matches.

And boy was it an experience.

"What the fuck is that idiot doing!" someone shouted at the screen.

"We bought you for the millions, you stupid fuck!"

"Oh, for heaven’s sake, it’s a football; use your fucking feet and run!"

"You’re costing me a bet because of your stupid quicken skills!

"Yes! Pass the ball like that, you old fart!"

"I swear my toddler plays better than these men."

Sergei had listened, and somewhere along the way, even though he didn’t understand what the fuck was happening, in the first game, he learned really fast.

By the time the second game began, Sergei was experienced in talking football shit like the men there.

Katya watched in awe, and Sergei felt like he was in heaven. When the third game ended, Sergei’s voice was hoarse from all the shouting that he’d been doing.

When the screens went black, Sergei had expected that people would leave and go home because it was pretty much past midnight, but no. They had stayed and discussed the good and the bad about the games, while drinking, smoking, and laughing.

It was a normal interaction, especially when the person who had won the most bets bought everyone a drink. It was new for Sergei, and he wanted to pay because he was used to paying for everything, but Katya stopped him.

"He volunteered. He is going to pay, and we are going to drink while he complains the whole time about wasting his money; you’ll see," Katya said to Sergei, who had somehow ended up shirtless like the other men and some of the women there.

It was quite the experience, and Sergei had never been that happy to be a part of something.

Katya had made it a routine to take Sergei to every football match in different parts of the city after that.

"You need to experience more spots. Where football is, people will always just be ordinary. Not CEOs, not alphas, not betas. Just humans. Even if they fight and look like they wanna break each other," Katya had said sometimes over the period.

Thankfully, Sergei didn’t experience any violence in there. Not that he was the one starting it, but he hadn’t seen violent people.

Until he saw someone break a bottle on the other’s head over a missed penalty.

"Solnyshka... we need to go before they get to you and I do something that will ruin the night," Sergei had said.

Katya just held his hand calmly and squeezed.

"They won’t fight those who don’t want to fight. This is normal," Katya had said before adding:

"I used to be terrified the first time Svet and Andre introduced me to football and the other side of it all, but I got to learn that it was never really that serious. Everyone was friends whether they were on different sides.

"Maybe you could make friends here too, instead of hanging out with me all the time... I’m not pushing you away or feeling insecure, Vladimir...

"I just want you to... Interact with people when we are out and away from the world we both live in," Katya had reassured Sergei, scared to disappoint, and had just nodded.

He didn’t make a move until three matchdays later where he met a friend who introduced him to another friend.

Today was a match day.

And Sergei...

He found himself inside the first place Katya had brought him to learn the other side of humanity.

The bouncer was still stiff, like he was with everything else, and Sergei actually found some of the people he knew in there.

But Katya...

His Solnyshka wasn’t here to watch the match.

But he would represent them both.

He ordered beer for two; bought their usual snacks for two.

"Is your boyfriend coming today?" one of his acquired friends asked, and Sergei smiled sadly at him before looking at the hotpot in his hand.

"He was arrested," the alpha said in earnest, his heart shattering even more when he looked up at the wall clock and saw that it was just the third hour. He still had two more hours.

Gods, he was going to die of heartache and longing at this rate.

"The police never really do their jobs well most of the time. Too lazy. And even if they are better, without evidence there is nothing. Plus you can post bail when morning comes," the man said.

Sergei just nodded, like he wasn’t dying on the inside.

"The game is about to begin, come along, man."

Of course everyone knew who and what Sergei Moskowsky was. But inside here, Sergei was just another man.

And so the game began, and the chaos too.

Thankfully, when the game ended, there were only thirty minutes left.

"Thank you for involving me in your night," Sergei said to his friend, waving goodbye and saying his see-you-soons.

Thirty minutes.

Sergei didn’t go home still.