Metro.

You ran outside and of all things, you missed a step from the entrance and down you went. Trying to gather yourself betwixt the snow and items all over the place you felt two strong hands grip your shoulders hard and yank you from the ground, leaving your camera pieces to the cold snow.

The hands rotated you forcefully and you tried attacking your assailant but those hands again had ceased your flailing. However, you pushed him away successfully and glanced into those bright blue eyes. He raised his hands to show he was trying not to hurt you and gestured to your camera. He picked it up as you watched him carefully until you both looked toward the object only to focus on 3 distinguishable furry shapes of wolves.

He picked up the camera slowly and backed up toward you slowly, but you noticed he had not picked up the lens. Sure you had another in your bag, but just that one lens was almost the most valuable item you owned apart from the actual camera. Nonetheless, he kept backing up and wanted you to do the same while smoothly and calmly saying “<just keep slowly backing up>”.

But you couldn’t leave the lens and you hated youself for it so you had to grab it. “The lens!” you heard him give a little questioned noise and started again pointing abruptly to the item 2 feet in front. “The lens…uh, linzy” which caused the wolves to sheer and lower their large heads. You flinched a bit and watched this soldier, but your eyes kept returning to the lens.

He stayed still for a couple of seconds and lunged for the lens, gaining balance again, before you could even register in your head, he gripped your hand tight and pretty much dragged you inside. Twisting and turning you could feel the wolves’ hot breath on your feet and the wind from their snapping jaws.

He released you hand and pushed you inside a doorway and slammed it shut, making the wolves slame hard into the wooden panel. It was quiet except for the creatures sniffing around the door. Then true silence. A moment had passed and you wondered if it was safe, but before you could confirm, you glanced out the window and the wolves had amanaged to keep the chase on. Again it was a sudden sprint to the safest place, but as you turned to see if the soldier was behind you, you saw him pull out some sort of large knife and readied himself.

The large wolf attacked with crazed aggression. You screamed for his safety, despite the weight of the wold on top of him, he managed to wound it, resulting for the wolf to bounce off and regroup.

As the soldier raised to his feet, he readied himself again, only to look back to you. Seeming to forget he had to take care of, he spun from his battle and grabbed hold of your hand. Only at the last moment you saw the camera lying on the floor and lurched forward. “<LEAVE IT!>” he had snapped but you couldn’t, so you ripped your hand from him and ran towards the wolves. First you had managed to kick one in the face as it leaped toward you, and in turn, the adrenaline started pumping.

Unfortunately, the kick had thrown you off balance when you landed you foot, and tumbling you went toward the camera. It was lucky it was in front of you, otherwise you would have made all this effort just to get mauled. You snatched it and struggled to your feet only for your calf to be in atrocious pain from a set of jaws around your lower leg and teeth embedded in the flesh.

You wanted to scream but you only turned and smacked the wolf in its eye with the camera and it had freed you from its vice. The wounded wolf, you saw was just about ready to make its second approach only to be scattered from a canister with smoke fuming out either side. Next moment, you turned to the soldier without thinking and followed him in as much of a sprint as possible into what seemed to be a broom closet.

You both stood there for some long moments before the adrenaline had worn off and the pain had hit you like a freight train. The soldier must have known it was coming as just you were about to scream and collapse, he clasped a hand over your mouth and wrapped an arm around the small of your back and held you up.

“hey, hey, don’t pass out on me… It’s alright, I got you” His English wasn’t horrible, and it had comforted you a little, but the pain was far too sharp to stay on your feet. It felt like he had read your mind twice as he lifted your legs from the ground and you were in his arms. You weren’t exactly comfortable, since you didn’t know him, but in a physical way, your body was.

He set you down easy and began to remove your boots, getting his knife out again, he began cutting around the wound and tried to make light of the situation. “I bet this will put you off having a dog for a while, eh? By the way my name is Pavel Morozov. I’d take you out to dinner before I start ripping your clothes off but… you know. Dire time and dire need.” He gave you a cheeky smile and when you really did look at his face, you noticed he was pretty cute… handsome. You returned the smile, but hissed when he poured some form of liquid over the gash.

Pavel then proceeded to drink from the container which in fact was a flask and you grimaced. He shook the bottle a little and smiled a gain “Vodka”. He handed you the flask, and you reached for it desperately, upon grasping it, you skimmed each other’s fingers ever so slightly, feeling how warm be was despite the freezing temperature.

You took a large gulp and cringed at the after burn and taste. He chuckled and returned the canister from you and took a swig. “Homemade… have a couple of bottles at home in exchange for a favour for a” he paused to find a word to replace client in any chance of suspicion “friend.”

Pavel wasn’t exactly ecstatic to tell people what his other occupation was, but at least he had some ‘antibiotics’ from it and a pick up line. Speaking of, he had wondered what she was up to with her camera and all. “Couple of bottles at my place and that bite will be fine” Pavel winked and struggled some spare bandages from one of his many uniform pockets.

You laughed shyly and ‘regretfully’ said “I’m not a drinker” he lifted your leg carefully and sighed. “Aah well… Wouldn’t expect a girl like you to drink.” Again no matter how bad the situation, he managed to give another cheeky smile.

“Now, let’s see… tkt-tkt-tkt-tkt-tkt… <doesn’t look too bad… I think I can…>” he began carefully. He leaned in close at one point and you couldn’t help but stare at his cold eyes, how they almost looked dead.

He shifted his position from beside your legs to moving one over, making you basically wrap your legs around him. You blushed a bit when he placed his hand and gripped your upper thigh enough to hold it steady as he finished dressing your lower leg.

By this point, your head began spinning harshly from blood loss. Again you were about to pass out but he caught you as you began to fall forward. You put your hands on his arms for support as he raised you to a seated position. Without thinking, you removed your hand from his arm and placed it neatly over his jawline.

You didn’t know if it was the adventure or the blood loss, but you started leaning in closer and closer, until you were centimetres away, enough so you could feel his cool breath on your lips. Just as you were about to thank him, he closed the distance and met skin to skin.

The contact was short, but it felt longer than it was as you felt your hand pull at his jaw softly, and his hands smooth over your hips. Just when his radio had gone off, you panicked and broke contact immediately. What were you thinking? Truth of the fact you weren’t. Pavel could sense that you felt it was a mistake.

He distanced himself with a pained moan knowing full well who was trying to contact him. He replied to the transmission, leaning in to the radio on his jacket “<This is Captain Morozov on the channel, what is it>” Pavel gazed out the small window in the closet which had allowed the only, bright, white light to flood inside. His eyes were a snatching pale with the light and glistened when he kept still enough. A small moment had gone by before a buzzed noise came through.

“<Captain Morozov, this is General Miller, how is the check-up going?>” Pavel sighed, annoyed and supposedly thinking of a way not to bring you up, he gave you a glance, smiled and winked “<just ran into some wild dogs, but they scattered, nothing to worry about>”

You weren’t too good at Russian but you didn’t hear anything about a camera or a girl, so you guessed he kept you safe, not only from the wolves but from who called. Which you guessed was his boss, telling from the demeanour he changed whilst talking.

Again radio static began and more Russian “<copy that. Don’t do anything stupid while you’re off duty, Can’t afford losing another one of you shitheads>” despite the General’s harsh words, Pavel knew they were heartfelt, considering what happened to a squadron last year around the same time. Holding the button, the Captain let a moment of silence of by and finally responded “<yes Major General Miller. Until spring.>” another buzz and that stern voice again “<until spring>”.

Pavel returned the walkie back to his shoulder and turned to you with that same smile again. You waited for him to give you the results and his smile grew. You raised an eyebrow. “Is that a good or bad sign?” He gathered you up and started back toward the front, checking corners for any sign of trouble.

Once you were outside heading toward his vehicle, he set you down gently and rummaged through the jeep. You took in the view of all white and dark green. Again there was that pure silence when you first arrived. When you noticed the complete silence, you returned your attention to Pavel who had found what he was looking for.

Approaching you with a hard face, he revealed a med kit and hoisted your leg onto his knee. It hurt but you managed to hold a whimper in. Again he made that noise, you guessed he did whenever he was thinking “aah, tkt-tkt-tkt-tkt-tkt…” and finished patching you up.

He lifted you and gently placed you in the seat next to the empty drivers and soon filled the spot next to you. He brought the car to life and made off. He assured you that you didn’t need a hospital and that his training was pretty full on when it comes to wounds.

A long moment of driving in silence before you decided to thank him “You know, back there, it’s not how I usually show my gratitude” He slapped the steering wheel and laughed. “I’d hope not, otherwise a girl like you I would want to be doing things for you left, right and centre.” Again he began his loud chuckles and you joined along.

Once you both had your fill, you could sense him preparing to ask a question, starting with one of those awkward coughs. “Speaking of, you wouldn’t happen to already have a man indulging in that gratitude?” you gave him a confused look but he kept his eyes on the road, cheeks going red out of embarrassment or maybe shyness.

“What? Like a boyfriend?” you asked in a playful accusing manner. After this, it seemed he didn’t want to respond, mostly because he didn’t want to raise his hope too high but he managed to swallow that fear and muster a smug smile with his tongue snug in between his teeth. “Yeah, Like a boyfriend.”

His smile had made you wish you didn’t have a boyfriend and so you badly wanted to say no, to have this one fling, but you knew better than to be unfaithful so you gave him an apologetic smile in response. He nodded with an approved smile. “Why wouldn’t you? You’re beauty—pretty.” He didn’t want to seem like a weird pushover but he continued on jokingly “Adventurous, courageous.” You smiled bashfully and just laughed at his jokes. “Stupid?” you added in. he chuckled again.

You didn’t want to seem like this amazing person straight off the bat, especially considering that you wanted to commit adultery a minute ago.

But there just seemed to be something about him, you felt incredibly comfortable in his presence, even more than your own partner. It could have been the fact that maybe he had just saved your life, but you wouldn’t have let anyone else kiss you the way he had.