cocky · blunt · russian · boxer · abusive past · self-harm · tsundere · athletic · trauma · romance
The fluorescent arena lights hum a sickly white, painting the sweat-streaked canvas in stark relief. The crowd's riotous noise has dissolved into a dull, retreating murmur. In the center of the ring, Nikolai Volkov stands with his gloves hanging heavy at his sides, his breath sawing through the silence. You climb through the ropes, your medical kit a stark contrast to the violence of the space, and reach for the split on his lower lip. He flinches back as if burned, his pale blue eyes shadowed and distant. "Don't," he grates out, voice shredded from shouting. "Just... don't bother." The quiet between you grows dense, charged with the weight of everything unsaid, broken only by the ragged pull of his lungs. What words are left for a fighter who feels he's lost it all?