Anatoly strode quickly into the office, startled at the sight of Vladimir lying face down on the couch. "Volodya!" he cried sharply, moving to shake his brother.

Vladimir sat up right away, trying to appear nonchalant and asking in his native tongue, "What took you so long, asshole?"

Anatoly narrowed his eyes. "What is the problem here?"

Vladimir inhaled and rubbed his upper arm awkwardly. His brother stared at him, further thrown off by this uncharacteristic sign of apprehension. He sat down next to him, clamping a scarred hand onto the blond's muscled shoulder. "Whatever it is, we face together, yes?"

Vladimir snorted and ran a hand through his hair. "Not this time. This is my problem to handle. I just … I need advice."

Anatoly looked at his younger brother curiously. It was so unlike Vladimir to ask for help on anything, let alone to feel so genuinely troubled that he would willingly reach out. Anatoly nodded. "OK. What's up?"

Vladimir leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and his chin on his clasped hands. "It's Y/N," he muttered through his fingers.

"What?" Tolya asked, unable to decipher his brother's mumbled statement.

"Y/N," Vladimir yelled out in frustration, standing up and starting to pace around the room. Anatoly tilted his head slightly as he watched Vladimir and snickered.

Vladimir glared at him. "The fuck are you laughing at?"

Anatoly gave him an infuriatingly knowing look. "Nothing," he said with a small smile. "Please, continue. What exactly about her is the problem?"

Vladimir made a noise of frustration. Anatoly's smile only widened and he chuckled, narrowly dodging the shot class his brother threw at him. "Relax, Volodya. Everyone here knows how much you like Y/N. I approve. She is good for you. She will not take your bullshit."

Vladimir sputtered. "What do you mean everyone knows –– I never said-"
Anatoly cut him off with a raised hand. "You didn't have to. I know you are not the best with your emotions, baby brother, but any fool can see how much happier you are when she's around. I mean, the way you smile at her," Anatoly laughed. "I am glad that you finally found a woman that you like this much."

Vladimir didn't respond immediately, walking slowly back to the couch and leaning his head against the headrest with his eyes closed. He felt Anatoly sink in next to him. Vladimir breathed out heavily and opened his eyes, his gaze fixed on the ceiling. "So … say you are right. What do I do about it? I just … Tolya, I've never felt like this before."

"Like what?" Anatoly pressed.

Vladimir could feel his brother observing him intently, but he refused to make eye contact. He paused. "Like …" the fingers on his tattooed, rough hand tapped at the couch nervously as he struggled for the words. "She's more than just a girl to fuck. Not that we have, but, I mean, I want to but, shit," he exhaled, covering his face with his hands for a second. Anatoly looked at him patiently. "I want more than that. She makes me laugh, Tolya. I have fun with her. She's smart and caring but she can kill a man in about four seconds. She is not –– not scared to be who she is. And she's not scared of me." The corner of Vladimir's mouth pulled up. "I want to be with her. Only her." He swallowed. "And I want her to feel the same about me."

Silence. Vladimir shifted his head slightly to finally look at his brother. "So?"

Anatoly gave him a sad smile. "Well, that explains those fucking hookers. You were running from how you felt about Y/N, no?"

Vladimir's fingers kept tapping as he nodded. "I thought I could make it stop," he said slowly. "That I could control how I felt. But I don't think I can. The other day when you were at shipments, I was screaming at her but she didn't leave. She stayed. And she made me feel better. She cares, Tolya. I don't know why, but she does. And I like it. I like her. I almost told her that I –" he stopped suddenly, biting on his lip.

Anatoly looked at his younger brother understandingly. "You love her, don't you?" Vladimir didn't say anything, but the look of helplessness on his face was enough confirmation for Anatoly. Vladimir had never really wanted any serious relationship with a woman, always feeling that they would tie him down––for him to talk about only wanting you and how strongly he felt, Anatoly knew his brother was sincere and genuinely overwhelmed with this new territory.
"I don't know what to do, Tolya," he said miserably.
Anatoly laughed. "Brother, no man ever does when he falls this hard. It is normal for us to try to run from that shit." He smiled wrly. "Problem is that it doesn't work."

Vladimir stared at his brother confusedly. Anatoly grimaced and continued. "You remember Katarzyna, no?" Vladimir's mind flashed back to Moscow when he and Anatoly were in their late teens––Anatoly had been friends with a pretty blonde girl, Katarzyna, for a while. Vladimir never questioned it when he stopped seeing them together; assuming that his brother had simply gotten bored or she had moved away.

He nodded at Anatoly. "What about her?"

Anatoly rubbed his neck, this time the one avoiding eye contact with his brother. "She was it. The way you talk about Y/N––that's how I felt about her. Except, I don't think she would or could ever kill a man." He smiled, lost in his reverie. "I knew how I felt about her, but I was too much of a pussy to tell her. And then she met a guy and went off with him to St. Petersburg. We texted a bit but lost touch. I saw her a few years later at that red coffee place near Anton's––I couldn't believe it, that she was there. She was even more beautiful than I remembered. And she saw me and almost tackled me with her hug and everything I had ever wanted to say just came out. But she was already married. And you know what the worst part was? She said that if she knew how I felt, things might have been different between us."

He paused, finally looking at Vladimir, who looked back at his older brother with a pained expression. Anatoly gave him a sad smile and patted his face with a chuckle. "No, none of that. You want to make me feel better, Volodya? Go tell Y/N how you feel about her. Fuck, kiss her already! Just don't make the same fucking mistake I did. I've done a lot of stupid shit––you know this––" he paused as both of them laughed. "But not telling Kat that I wanted to be with her was probably the stupidest. When you find a woman who makes you feel like that, you man the fuck up and tell her. Otherwise, you'll spend the rest of your life wondering what could've been."

Vladimir nodded slowly. "I am seeing Y/N tonight, so maybe–"

Anatoly grabbed his brother's shoulders in exasperation and laughed as he shook him comically. "SO YOU WILL TELL HER HOW YOU WANT TO BE WITH HER, THERE IS NO MAYBE, VOLODYA!"

"OK, OK!" Vladimir said hurriedly. "But keep texting me to make sure I do it." He breathed out loudly. "Fuck. This is actually happening." He laughed and let out a strangled yell into his hands.

Anatoly pulled his younger brother into a headlock, beaming at him as he ruffled his fluffy blond strands. "You can do this, Volodya. You will be happy you did. I know this for sure," he said with a grin. "Y/N says you give the nicest hugs that she's ever had and that, ah, what was it, "too good-looking to be real."

Vladimir felt his heartbeat quicken involuntarily and he tried to suppress the smile he felt across his scarred visage. "She didn't say that, fucker."

Anatoly shoved his brother. "The fuck would I lie about that?! We stayed late that one night after she crushed Sergei in that pull up contest. We were both trashed and she started saying how much she wished you had stayed with us."

Vladimir couldn't help himself, a full-fledged smile appeared this time.

"Awww," Anatoly said teasingly as Vladimir flipped him off.

"Shut up, Tolya!"

The brothers stood up and in a rare moment of affection, Vladimir hugged his brother quickly. "Thank you, Tolya."

Anatoly clapped his brother's back. "We are always there for each other, you know this." They broke apart and Anatoly smiled widely. "Now go and get ready, you've got a girl to catch tonight and you need to look better than that."

Vladimir rolled his eyes but grinned back, grabbing his jacket and walk-running out the door, filled with a newfound sense of assurance, his heart racing as he thought of how he was going to finally show you how he felt.