In the Rented Apartment,
Morning had long descended on Moscow. The birds were chirping, and the air still held the last chill of the night's rain. Raindrops fell slowly from the leaves of trees, plants, and flowers, the cold riding on the wind, making people leaving for work wrap themselves in warmer clothes.
Eric was still sleeping in his bedroom. He normally kept nocturnal hours by habit, but last night's walk had run long, and he hadn't gotten back until 3:30 a.m.
His sleep was cut short by Ruby, who had long since woken, made breakfast, and finished cleaning the living room.
It wasn't like him to sleep this late — not even with no job to wake up for. He and Max had only recently left the army, and he and Ruby had only recently married; all three of them were still learning each other's rhythms.
Ruby stepped into the bedroom and pushed him back and forth until he stirred. He'd been sleeping on his left side. Soon his eyes opened, and he turned to look at her — droopy, still half-asleep — before pushing himself upright, looking down at her (she was much shorter than him), and finally speaking.
"Good morning."
His voice was hoarse and deep in the morning.
He got out of bed without another word and headed to the bathroom, where he took a hot shower.
Afterward, he pulled his bangs back into a ponytail, his whole face bared for the first time that morning — sharp, composed, his left eye cherry blossom pink and his right a deeper rose, the mismatch giving him a striking, faintly unreal look that most people only ever saw once before they started staring.
He returned to the bedroom, pulled out a black vest, a white shirt, and black trousers, and dressed. From the second drawer, he took a silver watch and fastened it to his left wrist. Once dressed, he glanced at the dressing table mirror out of habit more than expectation.
Still nothing looked back, but he didn't linger on it.
Eric turned to the door and was about to push it open when Ruby walked in. Her brows were furrowed, her lips pressed into a thin, unimpressed line. She looked him over for a few seconds, then crossed to the stool in front of the dressing table and sat, reaching for her moisturizer, her eyes finding his reflection in the mirror instead of him directly.
"You bought so many sweets again! You spoil him too much! And when did you even buy them?"
Eric crossed the room, took the comb from the dressing table, and lifted her Kelly-green hair aside. He drew a silver necklace from his pocket and fastened it around her neck, bending his face close to hers as he did.
In the mirror, her reflection looked back at both of them — Ruby, and the space where he should have been. He didn't glance twice at it.
Some mornings in his life simply started this way.
Immediately, all of Ruby's anger vanished. She smiled and thanked him for the gift.
"It's okay, you don't have to buy something for me every time you buy sweets. I'm not a materialistic person."
Eric kissed her cheek. "But you sure are happy to get it. It was very expensive," he said, closing his eyes with a mock-pained expression.
Eric straightened, and Ruby stood with him. The heavy air around her had lifted as quickly as it came; she touched the necklace at her throat, looked at him, and said,
"Let's have breakfast."
They headed out of the bedroom together. Eric sat at the dining table while Ruby went to the kitchen, returned with his plate, and set it in front of him.
"Thank you," Eric said lightly with a small smile as she sat on the seat across from him.
Eric started to eat the omelet first, then the toast, butter melting into each slice — quietly enjoying the meal, until a thud! came from room 002, the room next to theirs.
Muffled screaming followed, audible even through the thick brick-and-cement wall, then the sound of things dropping — something heavy, then something smaller, then a pause too long to be accidental.
Ruby's head turned toward the sound, fork frozen halfway to her mouth. "Was that... a scream?"
Eric didn't look up. He kept eating.
"Eric." She lowered her fork entirely now, eyes still fixed on the wall as if she could see through it. "Should we check on them?"
"No."
"No?" She turned to look at him properly, brows lifting. "One of them could be hurt."
"They are fine. It is a daily thing for them." He reached for another slice of toast, unhurried. "Give it a minute."
Ruby opened her mouth to argue, but before she could get another word out, the sounds stopped completely. A few seconds of silence stretched between them. Ruby was still watching the wall, waiting for the next crash that didn't come.
Then, from beyond it: a door creaking open, followed by heavy, uneven footsteps.
Ruby glanced back at Eric, something caught between suspicion and reluctant trust. "Seems like the best friend knows a lot of things."
Eric only shrugged, chewing.
The door opened slowly, and a tall man stood on their doorstep.
He was as tall as Eric, though built differently — muscular, but lean with it, the kind of frame that suggested strength without demanding attention for it. His face was handsome in a sharp, refined way: thin lips, narrow eyes framed by thick lashes that gave him an almost hypnotic quality when he looked directly at someone. His chin was more chiseled than Eric's, his jaw a harder line.
His hair was dark purple, save for a streak of pure white on the right side, and his eyes matched the purple of his hair exactly.
He waved both hands with a big, sheepish grin. "Hello, good morning, Eric! Ruby, uh... haha, c-can I join you both?"
Eric kicked a chair on the right side of the dining table, pushing it backward to indicate that Max could sit.
Max understood immediately, ran to the chair, and sat down. Ruby sighed and got up to bring him five full servings — a routine so familiar by now she didn't even comment on it.
After five minutes of silent chewing, Eric finished his breakfast. He watched Max, a fully grown man eating nothing more exciting than bread and omelets, with the unmistakable joy of a child finally allowed his favorite sweets after a long wait.
Then a pained groan came from the main door. Max froze mid-chew, back snapping ramrod straight, as if someone had reached inside him and pulled every string tight at once. A second later he choked on his bread.
A woman slowly stepped through the door.
She had long orange hair, eyes a vivid, almost electric orange, and a face striking enough to hold its own in any room. Whatever beauty she had, though, was currently buried under a scowl sharp enough to cut. Her brows were drawn tight, her mouth a thin line of pure annoyance.
She walked in hunched, one hand pressed to her lower back, groaning with every step. At the table, she arched backward with both hands braced against her spine, let out a final pained hiss, and straightened — though the tightness in her face said the pain hadn't actually gone anywhere.
Ruby looked out from the kitchen, her tone warm and familiar. "Zoe, what happened?" She had a knowing smile on her face as her gaze fell on Max for a few seconds before meeting her eyes again.
Zoe shot Ruby an annoyed glare, then rounded on Max, who sat frozen in place, as if stillness alone might render him invisible.
"This bastard used me as a body pillow the whole night!" She jabbed a finger at him. "I'm in pain because he hugged me so hard in his sleep."
She hissed, back twinging, and pressed a hand to it as she bent forward.
Max offered an apologetic smile, a bead of sweat sliding down his cheek. "You're just really soft, okay? And squishy! I couldn't help it!"
Zoe said nothing. She braced herself against the dining table, shuffled around to the other side, and sat down without another word.
The empty plates in front of Eric and Max were taken by Ruby; she put them in the sink to wash later.
Eric looked at each of them in turn, then spoke — slow, calm, his voice cold on the surface but carrying an unmistakable current of warmth and familiarity underneath.
"We're leaving Moscow the day after tomorrow."
The table went quiet for half a second.
"I got an email last night. It was offering a job as a police officer in Paris. I already discussed it with them." He glanced at Max. "They said you could join too. A recently hired officer vanished without explanation, so they need the position filled." Back to the table at large. "We've been here long enough. No work's come through, and what we saved from the last job is nearly gone. If either of you has people to say goodbye to, or things to pick up, do it soon. We don't have long."
Ruby set her fork down slowly. "Paris. As in actually Paris, France?" She glanced at Zoe, then back at Eric. "That's... a lot sooner than I thought we'd move again."
"It usually is," Eric said, unbothered.
"Is that the place where the Eiffel Tower is?" Zoe asked, lifting her head slightly.
"It indeed is." Max propped his feet up on the dining table and nodded, looking inordinately proud of himself.
"Says the one who failed every geography class he ever took." Zoe clicked her tongue.
"Hey! The teacher made me fail. It wasn't my fault."
They kept bickering, and Ruby waited them out before turning back to Eric.
"And you're sure about the job? Vetted, legitimate, not—" She hesitated, choosing her next word carefully. "Not one of those jobs?"
"It's legitimate." Eric didn't elaborate further, and something in the way he said it told her not to push.
Zoe, still hunched slightly from her aching back, narrowed her eyes at him. "Two days. That's barely enough time to pack, let alone say goodbye to anyone properly."
"It's enough," Eric said simply. "It always has been."
Zoe opened her mouth to argue further, then seemed to think better of it, exhaling instead. She'd had this conversation with him, in one form or another, enough times before to know how it usually ended.
Max, meanwhile, hadn't asked a single question. Moving countries every few months or years was simply how life worked when Eric was the one deciding it, and Max had long since stopped needing a reason beyond Eric said so.
He raised both arms, stood, and crossed to Zoe, hoisting her clean out of her chair before she could react. Her eyes went wide with alarm — she tried to twist free, but she was still too sore and too slow to stop him. Max spun her in a full circle, whooping with delight about their new destination, utterly deaf to her muffled protests.
Zoe felt her spine creak in silent betrayal as her consciousness began, slowly, to check out.
She was only saved after Eric told Max there were sweets for him in the fridge. Max gently threw Zoe onto the sofa in front of the 42-inch TV and ran to the kitchen to get the sweets from the fridge.
Eric sipped his tea that Ruby had brewed for him while Max ate the sweets, pastries, and bread happily. Zoe lay on the sofa with her back aching and her eyes half-closed as she fainted in a daze.