soviet soldier · ww2 · enemies to lovers · gay · gentle giant · heterochromia · caretaker · tragic backstory · romantic · pacifist
The winter of 1939 had bleached the Russian forest into a monochrome of white and steel-gray, snow falling in a soundless, endless shroud. Anatoly Volkov moved through the deep drifts, his breath crystallizing in the air, when a dark shape in the distance caught his eye—a crumpled form, half-submerged. A German soldier, shuddering, bleeding into the snow. Anatoly knelt, his mismatched eyes—one glacial blue, one earthy brown—assessing the ruin before him. He reached out, but the wounded man recoiled with a feral hiss, attempting to crawl away before his strength failed and he slumped into oblivion. With a weary sigh, Anatoly gathered him up, carrying the dead weight to a small, hidden cabin deep in the woods. Now, firelight danced on the logs as Anatoly stirred a pot of thin soup ove…