"The Underground Fighter and His Kitten"
❦
Sasha "Kayo" Sokolov is a Russian fighter who was sent to America at a young age. One day, he met a young girl by the name of Everleigh Wilson, who taught him how to speak English, and helped him with his s...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I slammed my fist into the punching bag over and over again. Taking out every bit of frustration, I punched the bag even as sweat threatened to spill into my eyes.
"You know, you could always take a break," the voice of my younger brother stated. I grabbed ahold of the punching bag to turn in the direction of the sound only for my eyes to meet Nikolai.
His arms were crossed over his chest as he leaned against the gym's enterance. The light in the gym was very dim, but I could still make out the smirk on my brother's face. He looked more mature than the last time I saw him. He had a buzzed out beard on his face and a lot more muscle on his arms.
"Nikolai," I said. A warmth spread in his chest as he began to walk over to me with his arms outstretched. I pulled him into my chest and wrapped my arms around my little brother.
He chuckled as we pulled away. There was a big smile on his face.
"I haven't seen you in a long time," he said. "Look at you, Sasha!" he laughed.
"I've been busy working out," I lied. To prove a point, I pointed over to the punching bag. He nodded his head in understanding.
"How's Mikhail, Dimitri, Adrien, and, uh, Ivan?" I asked him, referring to my other brothers that I hadn't seen in forever. I hoped they didn't think I abandoned them, especially little Ivan.
"How about you come see for yourself?" Nikolai asked.
I sighed. There was nothing more that I wanted than to see my brothers, but I couldn't look them in the eye and lie anymore. It was killing me inside. I'd rather go years without seeing them than hours lying to them.
I shook my head.
"Cut the crap, Sasha," Nikolai said. "You don't think we know what's going on with you and Hastings?"
I had a feeling Nikolai always knew. It was like he had some sixth sense. He probably knew from the time we were young children only because he would eye my bruises harder than anyone. He would leave a first-aid kit on my bed after my every fight-night. I felt like he knew, but he didn't want to believe it so he ignored it. So, it wasn't news to me that Nikolai was aware, but what was news to me was when he said 'we'.
I raised a brow. "What are you talking about?"
"Dimitri got involved with the wrong crowd. He was there at your fight the other night ago. He knows," he explained. It was like someone reached into my chest and physically squished my heart like a bug.
"Leave," I demanded.
"What?" he questioned. "I'm not leaving. You can't ignore us for the rest of our lives just because you're ashamed. We need you, especially now since..." his voice cracked. "...we won't have anyone soon. All we'll have is Hastings. Ivan has been freaking out, and Dimitri is gonna end up in jail if we don't figure something out. You can't just leave us like this!"
